Three Factors to Consider in an Internal Transfer!

Clients often approach me when they realize that their momentum in the current role is tanking or that they see problem areas because of how the team is not providing the best environment for their ongoing success. Often, too, it is the new manager, who creates an environment that throttles team members growth through micromanagement and other vulgarities. Some are tempted to leave the company, but are often held back by its optics (short stints on the rsum), penalty they have to pay by leaving the unvested equity behind, or by having to deal with the daunting task of outside job hunting.

For career growth, if the company offers other positions internally, it is often a good idea to consider moving to a work group where there is the right action, good growth environment, and for getting experience in an area that may be of interest to you for your future. The great benefit of an internal transfer is that you can openly explore many details about the new role and the person who manages that work group, something that is much more difficult to assess when you are an outsider to your prospect company. For both sides, such a transfer affords ample opportunities to check each other out.

But, before making a move to a new work group there are few factors worth considering to making sure that the move benefits your career strategically and not just transactionally. By transactional benefit I mean, as an example, finding a clement manager, who lets their team members do what they want (within limits) without providing leadership guidance for their growth. If someone is leaving their current work group because their boss is a micromanager this may become a majorand temptingfactor in their decision, but in the long-term this is not a good career choice.

So, when clients come to me seeking internal transfer I ask them to consider the following three M factors as paramount in their transfer equation before they decide to move internally. They are not in any particular order:

Momentum: Momentum of a work group refers to the importance of their work to the companys future. If a work group is engaged in the core activity of your company or division then it is likely that it has the attention of top management, resources for growth, and exciting work challenges to keep that momentum going. Such work groups also offer diversity of opportunities that keep popping up, allowing you to shift from one priority to the next as things change. If you thrive is such a dynamic environment and are willing to take on new challenges to contribute to further the success of such a group then this is an important factor in your decision to move to this group.

Yet another important factor such work groups can offer is their risk tolerance. If you have felt stifled in your current work because you did not have the freedom to take on risky initiatives and were held back despite your confidence in their success, then such a work group can offer you the environment (intrapreneurship) for you to experience that dimension.

Manager: Finding a good boss as your next manager is a difficult task in todays corporate environment (not much different from it was yesterday!). Studies after studies during the past 50+ years have repeatedly shown that nearly 80% of the managers are dysfunctional in some ways. Of course, there is a continuum of dysfunctionality in this poofrom mildly aberrant to highly tyrannical managers. When making an internal transfer such exploration is easy to make by talking to the managers current and ex direct reports and peers.

Finding a good manager as your next boss is particularly important if the main reason youre looking for a change is because you cannot stand your current one. Because of this 80% rule, the probability that your next manager is even worse is high!

So, invest your time and do the due diligence even after interviewing with your new boss. If you find any reason to suspect that there many be problems due to their management style have a final round of discussion about their management style and ask some specific and pointed questions in a non-offensive way before making your final decision.

Marketability: Always look for how your next stint in the new group is going to translate in your ability to land yourself in the job market in the next few years. If the area of work that youll be engaged in is in great demand in the emerging job market then you have made the right career choice to keep your momentum in check. So, before you move to the new group do some market research and see if the jobs posted for the next level of your promotion are on the rise in your chosen area of pursuit. This way you will be easily marketable if you decide to leave in a few years and go to another company.

Now that you know what to look for in your next internal transfer you can look around and see if the opportunities available within your company are ripe ones for you to make a change.

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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