Career Speedrun - MAC109
Managing A Career
Welcome back to Managing A Career, the podcast that helps you put yourself on the fast track for promotion. I’m your host, Layne Robinson. Today’s episode is all about a concept I’m calling the Career Speedrun. If you’re into gaming, you probably know what a speedrun is: it’s when players try to beat an entire game as fast as possible, skipping unnecessary parts, using shortcuts, and optimizing every move. Now, when it comes to your career, you can’t literally warp-jump from your first job straight to the corner office—but you can learn to recognize what slows...
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Early Promotion to Career Success - MAC108
Managing A Career
Reframing the Premature Promotion Back in , I tackled the tricky terrain of getting promoted too soon—when the title lands before the readiness does. That episode unpacked the complications that can follow a premature promotion: skill gaps, team tension, imposter syndrome, and even layoff risk. This week, I’m flipping the script. Instead of focusing on the pitfalls, let’s talk about how to turn that early promotion into a strategic advantage. Because if you play it right, what starts as a stumble can become your fastest leap forward. The Risks Beneath the Ribbon-Cutting ...
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Career Stagnation - MAC107
Managing A Career
Has your career quietly veered off course—not with a dramatic crash, but with a slow, almost imperceptible drift? One missed opportunity. One unchallenging role. One “maybe next year” that turned into five. Then one day, you look up and realize you’re nowhere near where you thought you’d be. Here’s the good news: every detour has a reentry point. You won’t fix it overnight, but you can start with one small, intentional correction. And that shift—however minor—is how momentum begins. How Did We Get Here? Before we talk solutions, let’s rewind. Career drift...
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Non-Verbal Communication - MAC106
Managing A Career
In last week’s podcast episode of the podcast, Episode 105 – Communication Etiquette (), I talked about how seemingly small, everyday actions can shape how others perceive you at work. While these habits may not directly earn you a promotion, they quietly build your reputation with the very people who influence those decisions. This week, I want to take that conversation further by focusing on something even more subtle but just as powerful: non-verbal communication cues. Why Non-Verbal Communication Matters Whether you’re in a casual hallway conversation, presenting in a...
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Communication Etiquette - MAC105
Managing A Career
On other episodes of the Managing A Career podcast, I tend to focus on the big-picture strategies that can propel your career forward—things like building influence, earning visibility, and positioning yourself for future opportunities. But advancement isn’t just about the major moves. Sometimes, it’s the subtle, everyday actions that shape how others perceive you. This week, I want to zoom in on one of those seemingly small details that won’t directly earn you a promotion, but will absolutely impact the impression you leave on colleagues, managers, and executives: communication...
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A Seat At The Table - MAC104
Managing A Career
You Need to Be in the Room Where It Happens — But How? You’ve heard the phrase before: “You need to be in the room where decisions happen.” It sounds powerful—exclusive even—but no one ever hands you the playbook for getting in that room. Working hard isn’t enough. Being the best at your job isn’t enough. The truth is, opportunities to sit at the table where decisions are made don’t simply appear—they’re earned, often through deliberate actions, strategic visibility, and building the right kind of influence. So the real question becomes: how do you earn that seat at the...
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What Are You Prioritizing? - MAC103
Managing A Career
What You Prioritize Is What You Grow In your career—just like in life—whatever you prioritize is what takes root, grows, and ultimately defines your trajectory. Whether you’re intentional about it or not, your attention acts like sunlight and water: it nourishes certain parts of your professional life while leaving others to wither. Even worse is when you don’t make a conscious choice at all—when your career just “happens to you.” That passive approach can lead to years of drifting, missed opportunities, and invisible ceilings. So take a moment to reflect: what are you truly...
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Creating a Career Vision When You Don't Know What's Possible - MAC102
Managing A Career
We've recently gone through a reorganization at my job, and with that change, I now have several new team members reporting to me. In my one-on-one meetings, I like to focus on more than just status updates—I emphasize career development. One of the tools I’ve consistently found to be effective is the Individual Development Plan, or IDP. If you’ve been following this podcast, you may remember Episode 37 () where I broke down the Vision and Roadmap section of the IDP. It’s a framework I believe in deeply. But here’s the thing: many of my new team members are struggling with...
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Leadership Isn't Assigned -- It's Taken - MAC101
Managing A Career
“Being a leader isn't an assignment that is given to you, but an assignment that you TAKE.” Let that sink in. Leadership isn’t about waiting for permission. It’s about stepping up when others step back. In today's episode of the Managing A Career podcast, we’re diving deep into what it really means to TAKE leadership. Anyone can be a leader—because leadership is a quality you demonstrate, not a job title you hold. Sure, some roles come with authority baked in, but real leaders don’t wait for the title. They lead because they choose to. If you have ambitions to advance...
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Grow Your Team, Grow Your Self - MAC100
Managing A Career
There’s a common misconception the corporate world: to get ahead, someone else has to fall behind. It’s the old zero-sum thinking — that career advancement is a competitive, cutthroat race. But today, I want to challenge that notion. Whether you're managing a team or just stepping into a leadership role, the truth is that investing in the growth of others doesn’t slow you down — it accelerates your own career trajectory. Helping others succeed is one of the most powerful, and often underestimated, ways to grow yourself. This zero-sum outlook is rooted in fear and...
info_outlineIt consistently ranks as one of the worst attributes in a boss year after year…..and yet, there are still many bosses who are micromanagers. This week, I'm going to look at how you can break out of the micromanagement pattern.
It's the bane of everyone's existence. You may feel like your manager is always hovering asking for status constantly. Maybe everything you do is redone by your leader. Or maybe your manager gives you no freedom in what you do or how you do it.
Regardless of the form that it takes, micromanagement is frustrating and demoralizing. Managers who micromanage are doing so from a position of fear or anxiety. Whether they are doing it intentionally or not, they do it because they do not trust their team to get done what needs to be done when it needs to be done.
What's worse, is that if you find yourself the target of micromanagement, it can completely derail your career progress. If your leader feels the need to micromanage you, whether your fault or theirs, that display of lack of trust will lead to worse reviews and delayed promotions.
Managers who are new to the role may be more used to "doing" instead of "leading". Their micromanagement tends to be treating their team as an extension of themselves. They know what they would do and how they would react, so they are trying to make every member of their team follow that same game plan. They haven't learned how to properly delegate and to let go, but that can come by building trust.
In Episode 031 (https://managingacareer.com/31), I asked the question "Does Your Manager Trust You?" If you find that your leader micromanages due to a lack of trust, that episode can help you break out of the pattern. Work to understand how they think in order to make decisions that align with those that they would make. Learn how to communicate and escalate appropriately so that your manager does not regret assigning the task to you. And lastly, to build trust, deliver; when you are assigned a task, follow through. As you build trust, your manager can shift their focus to other activities and provide you with more freedom.
If managers aren't micromanaging because of lack of trust, it could be because of pressure to perform. Pressure can be driven many different factors. Are they responsible for a high visibility project with tight deadlines? Or maybe they or the team has had a recent failure and they have already been given a warning about their performance?
When your manager is facing addition pressure, no matter the source, they might resort to micromanagement in order to gain some level of control over a situation where they don't feel like they have any. When you encounter this form of micromanagement, the best course of action is to reassure your leader that they can relinquish control. You can do this by communicating often. Episode 044 (https://managingacareer.com/44) has additional guidelines for Reporting Status. In addition to clear communication, work to identify potential issues and proactively raise them to your leader. When he feels less like he will be blindsided, he will be more likely to loosen the reins and give you more freedom.
The final driver for micromanagement is fear of failure or dealing with imposter syndrome. This speaks more about the confidence of your manager than it does about you, but when your leader is struggling with their own responsibilities, they may look to inject themselves into tasks that align with areas that they already feel confident. Most leaders were previously experts in the "doing" role and will revert back to that mode in order to boost their self-confidence.
When your manager is lacking confidence in what they SHOULD be doing, look for ways to shift the dynamic by reframing their requests. When they try to dictate too much of the details of how you should work, instead, ask questions that bring the focus to broader topics that emphasize why over how and guidance over direct supervision. Focus on the outcomes and alignment with priorities over processes and specific activities.
Micromanagement is one of the most despised attributes in a leader. If you find yourself a target of it, reacting emotionally won't help. Work to provide clear, proactive communication and build trust with your leader. Change the conversation from the details to the big picture. And if necessary, use your network of allies to provide yourself a layer of protection.
My goal for this podcast is to help as many people as I can advance their careers. To reach this goal, I would appreciate it if you would share this episode with your friends and coworkers. Send them to ManagingACareer.com/follow (https://www.managingacareer.com/follow) which will give them links to everywhere that this podcast can be found.