You have a stable job. Your actions lead to satisfying results. Your boss is telling you how much they appreciate that you are on their team. And still, after all this, you somehow feel unaccomplished, need more, and know you can give more to others and the company. But when you ask for something different to change your everyday agenda and challenge yourself to achieve what was your intention for better results, everything turns against you.
Your boss says much work has not been completed in your contribution stage. “New exciting and challenging projects” arise around the corner just to show how much needs to be accomplished. You start lacking some “essential skills” for a new role. Your boss starts behaving like you are a junior and doesn’t want to let you go and do something different because “you are a vibrant part of the team,” “you cannot understand what you are missing as skills because of your blind spots,” “your path forward needs to be lowered a little bit for an untaped period, until you build what you were missing, but was not told until now that is missing in your skills list.”
Did you hear and see that in your life? Was there any disappointment, showing that you feel ready, but the reality hits you strongly to stay in the current role, with no intention to support your growth or no honest feedback on what you are missing to get on the next milestone of your development as an individual and team contributor?
According to research published by Inc.com in 2023, you are not alone. Thirty-six percent of people aspiring to advance in a different role are hindered by unexpected excuses and delays.
Does this sound familiar to you?
The casino is a metaphor, but it represents the games people play at the workplace to get what they want in their lives. These games could be like a slot machine, where you keep pulling the lever hoping for a promotion, or a game of poker, where you bluff your way through a project. Many opportunities have been missed in my life just because of such casino games. Of course, “missed opportunities” brought me to something better in time, but for some of them, I regretted for a long time not building a different strategy to achieve what was in my mind. My casino game has taught me valuable lessons, and I also teach some of them to colleagues and people who come to me even today.
The casino represents the uncertainty we have in our lives. You never know what to expect. You hope for the best, then bet what you have (your knowledge, expertise, and skills), and at the end, you see the results – sometimes surprisingly positive, and other times unfortunate and serving only as lessons learned for the future. There are too many unknown elements in the workplace, and learning to predict a more significant part of them can help you stay on the wave and navigate flexibly through the changes and challenges that come your way to personal and professional success. Here, I have included several everyday situations in the workplace and some tips on how to overcome them to stay on track and move forward to what you see as a final objective in your plan.
The promising environment
The promising environment is a tool that many larger companies use to attract talent. You may have heard of it during the initial interview before joining the company. People during this time want to attract you by offering opportunities for growth and development. But here is where both sides – the candidate and the company make the first mistake. Often, during the interviews, to sound more dedicated and committed, the candidate shares how this opportunity is excellent for them. On the other side, a person uplifts that by adding how many different opportunities the candidate can get their hands on after joining. Growth, development, and future roles are all on the table. Why that doesn’t work? It is simple: neither the candidate nor the hiring person in the company knows what the future will bring. For example, in 2020, Microsoft got back into the smartphone market. People were hired, the future looked bright, and Microsoft focused on creating an entirely new category of devices. All that ended in 2023, when the plans for further development of the device they so loudly introduced in 2020 were scraped. What happened to people working on that project – well, their bright future started looking doomed. Even the Head of devices left the company. It is the same with many other companies. They offer dreams and then put people on Earth with harsh truths in the form of numbers and redesigning original plans. So, the question here is what to do. The simple answer is:
Stay curious but also be discerning about what is offered. Evaluate for yourself not just what the company can provide as an opportunity for growth but what it can offer to develop your competencies in the field you are most interested in. The more you focus on competencies, the more precise your development path will be. This approach can lead to a long-term future with a particular company or add that opportunity as a step toward your larger objective in your personal and professional life.
The carrying boss
We all have seen them. They come from day one to protect us. They own our mistakes. Our paths of growth and development are going through them with care, coaching, and all the other elements in the process. But what is missing is that these people are not always around us. They may eventually quit, be promoted, and turn in a different direction. The work environment is full of them. On the surface, these bosses look nice and attract people, but after digging down, a person can see how harmful that behavior is. Imagine a utopia where you don’t suffer your mistakes, and things happen quickly. In reality, things are much different. Daydreaming of the perfect development, learning path, and environment can end with a shocking wake-up like a splash of a cold water wave. If your boss is way too caring for you, that may hurt your results in the future. So, to manage the carrying boss, you must move carefully through the relationship with them and establish norms for personal failure. That is correct; you didn’t read it wrong. You need to find the level that allows you to make and suffer from mistakes. It is called “Learning from experience”. No matter what someone is doing for you, if you don’t find a way to openly face the environment and do something to learn how to moderate it for your success, the shock after the “carrying boss” turns away can be entirely too big for you.
The ”you need a little bit more effort.”
Everyone who wants to climb a professional or social leader has heard this phrase. It is often used as a starting point to help the person change. But what happens if only this phrase stays present? According to an HBR article from 2024, thirty percent of people hearing that phrase at work are forced to quit their job and find another place less than two years after it was given as feedback. The uncomfortable consequence here is that this phrase is created to extend the time and give organizations the flexibility to manage people’s wills and desires. Some organizations are managing this phrase quite well by offering side projects, activities that make people feel engaged with them, and even small jumps along the path to the more significant final objective. Unfortunately, based on Stanford science research, only twenty-one percent of organizations are skilled in managing such situations. That means postponing decisions like this one on managing expectations makes the casino game a lose-lose situation for both – the employee and the organization. Playing the game of delaying the desired outcome for employees is a complex action agenda that makes people feel uncomfortable mainly because they are unaware of what can be the endpoint for them – promotion, development, or exit. The unskilled a leader or organization is in playing the postpone it game, the more they lose the attitude they adopt. So, to win that game as an employee and to stay balanced as an organization, both sides need winning cards in their hands – or, in other words, clear and concise communication on what the expectations are and a concrete plan on how or if they can be made a reality.
The poker table of “supporting environment and colleagues.”
We all join organizations because we see something similar in their values, systems, vision, and mission, aligning with our understanding. At first, everyone looked engaged with us, helpful and supportive, and even lovely. But this is until the honeymoon at work ends. After that, the harsh reality starts hitting the person with all it has. People’s values have changed over the years, and now, more than ever, we don’t build alliances based on values but on interests. People support others until they see a value for them and start doing it when that value is downgraded or disappears. The organization looks like a battlefield or a poker table. It looks at the surface that everyone works for themselves, but when digging deeper, the person can find strange alliances that seem unbelievable to them. And in the most critical and complex moments, those you think you can trust most are just walking away, leaving you alone and unprotected. While it has been the norm for centuries in the Political environment, organizations have “mastered this skill” in the last two or three decades. But there is still hope. The ones who want to play the poker game and win the different tours and rounds should learn how to build short- and mid-term alliances. With that in mind, the person has to focus on creating a winning plan, including allies at every step, and be ready to let every ally know when their value is no longer for them.
The ”know when to throw and know when to run” behavior
We all have them in our life. People who come and do something and then unexpectedly turn back and not show up to our request and ask. These people create unique uncertainty in the environment and play a crucial role in what is happening to us and the organization. They seem very organized, with many tasks and meetings on their calendars and being engaged in many activities. You can barely take some of their time. And now, when you need them, they are here for a short time, and then, when the pressure increases and their involvement is required, they run away and hide behind some of the other things they have in their agendas. It is hard to engage with and reach them, and the struggle ends with an “imaginary reward,” often called “I found some time for you.” They present things, their presence, and expertise as a reward and something you may beg for. But with this action, what the back thought often is that they want you to feel dependent, and they feel like winners. It is not a win-win but a win-lose situation for you, and you have to learn to live with it. To deal with such people, you need a strategy. Some practical agenda may be to engage them in short-term activities to benefit from their knowledge and expertise but also build and communicate a clear plan B if they fail to support you. Knowing that they are replaceable makes these people more engaged because they can lose the opportunity to “shine” because of their other options.
IN CONCLUSION:
The CASINO may look like a metaphor in many situations, but it is valuable and helpful when someone wants to play the game at the workplace and win it. The more people collect information and get insights into working within a complex environment, the better the output from the efforts involved becomes. People often join companies because of what is officially written and leave because of what is happening in everyday life. The CASINO mindset and way of thinking help build a sustainable in-time strategy that creates wins for both – the person and the organization – and helps work toward objectives for growth instead of building walls and defense systems to survive. Where is your organization, your team, and you in that picture?
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 