Networking Forum

In the mid 60s, I started my career in a place (rural Wisconsin) where most my classmates, new college graduates in journalism, would not work.

As a person with cerebral palsy (sometimes called “severe” by not very knowledgeable people but more commonly termed “functional” by professionals), I started my job as an assistant newsletter editor for a small, local dairy cooperative. I was only the second person within the central office staff to have a college degree. My pay was $60 a week.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I had landed in a strategic job in a strategic company which would grow from $30 million a year in sales to $3 billion in sales in less than three decades to become part of the Fortune 500.

I was at the edge of a massive transformation within the Midwest dairy industry. Technology from the farm to the plant floor to the central office was putting a premium on size of scale. As a result, local cooperative were becoming regional and national organizations through consolidation and merger.

During that process, I transformed myself from a traditional journalist to a corporate communicator and positioned myself as an advisor to three different CEOs (a new one about every 10 years).

I managed my own professional development and deliberately sought training in management, strategic planning, marketing, human resources, organizational development etc. – skills I knew my colleagues in this production-oriented company were not widely acquiring.

I also developed my hands-on skills. I taught myself photography, using my camera’s tripod as one of my crutches.

As a result, I grew with the company – from an assistant for the marketing director to communication specialist to communication coordinator to communication director to vice president of communication to organizational development officer.

Those promotions came after much hard work and networking but mostly because I had very little competition from others for what I was contributing to the company.

For years, we had no HR department – in fact, I helped gain a consensus among the top staff to form one. So, my earlier promotions came with no “official” corporate announcement.

I sometimes got the feeling the CEOs I served hesitated to give me full-blown coverage of the promotions I received (comparable to what others in like situations were given) -- maybe because they wanted to avoid having to justify the promotion to other employees in the light of my disability. Looking back, I can understand that.

So, national awards and recognition for our department’s work were important to me because they served to justify my position in the company.

Instead of spending most of my time in the central office, I also developed contacts with production workers, truck drivers, sales people, field reps and the farmers who supplied the milk for the plants – a network which showed my colleagues at the vice presidential level as well as the CEO that I was receiving valuable feedback from all corners of the company. It was feedback I could use in counseling the senior staff and the CEO in making sound decisions which would be supported by the various stakeholders involved, especially during consolidations and mergers.

My network also worked because the employees knew I could help a deserving persoon get noticed by developing a well-placed story and picture about him or her in one of our corporate publications.

At one point, I was managing a staff of five full-time people plus a college student intern and an operating budget of $1 million. I required very few accommodations but made a point of delegating tasks (with extra measures of recognition) to individuals on my staff who could perform them better than I could.

In later years, I focused my energies on counseling senior management and coaching my staff – and delegating the hands-on work.

My staff people were involved in some highly visible projects and learning experiences due to that delegation. They had multiple opportunities to personally brand themselves within and outside the organization. It was a trade-off for doing some of the work I could not do because of my disability.

Finally, after 28 consolidations and mergers, I could see the writing on the wall. I had a star performer on my staff who, for her career development, needed to take my position as vice president, which I had held for 10 years. There was also a mega-merger on the horizon which involved at least two “misplaced” CEOs who needed jobs in the newly formed organization.

As the only employee with a disability in the organization, I decided to retire and start my own business because I needed a change and I recognized I couldn’t compete with the incoming people for those few, newly reorganized top jobs.

I learned a couple of things from this experience, which, I know, is highly unusual and probably couldn’t be repeated in today’s job market and in an urban setting. But, there may be some things here that can still work in positioning yourself for promotion when you have a disability:

- Select an industry, a company and a job sector
with growth potential.

- Get your foot in the door, even if it involves
volunteer work or grunt work.

- Assess what the organization needs and
purposely train yourself on a continuing basis
to meet those needs (preferably in areas where
there is a minimum of competition from others).

- Develop your hand-on skills within your
particular job sector but also seek training in
supervision and management so you're prepared to
go beyond entry-level, hands-on work.

- Establish mutually beneficial internal and
external networks wherever you work and use them
to help you as well as your immediate supervisor
to ease a pain or attain a gain.

- Make your mark (through intentional, personal
branding) within your job sector so you can move
up within one company or make a move to another
company which will allow you to grow.

- Know when to make a side move or quit
corporate life altogether (because competition
for the few, higher-level jobs is becoming too
intense for you).

- Consider, at some point, starting your own
business which makes use of the skills you've
learned and the networks you've formed in the
corporate world.

When I started with my current organization, I was in college and worked it only as a summer job. My major was in a completely different area, and I hadn't considered going into the blindness field or transition- I didn't even know they existed!
Well, three summers later, the coordinator of my program moved away and the position was open. I didn't have an applicable college education, or any certification in the field. What I did have was three summers of nose-to-the-grindstone hard work and dedication.
I now run the program where I used to be a go-fer. I am enjoying the challenge and learning every minute. It goes to show that you may never know just what is in store, and no job is too small, or "just for the summer." That everything worth doing is worth doing well, while sounding cliche, is also true, because you never know where it will lead you.

My career to date has been within state government. I began as a computer programmer, with unrelated college degrees, and a certificate in programming. My promotions to the journey level happened in part because I applied for and competed successfully on every available promotional examination. My success in the exams was due to the excellent training received in my certificate program, and the fact that my personal strengths and aptitudes fit well in the programming field.

When it seemed I had reached a plateau, I signed up for management training, which included several classroom and internship experiences over a two-year period. This, combined with the advocacy of a well-placed disabled Human Resources manager, made it possible for me to promote into a first-level management position, supervising seven staff.

With this step up came both advantages and disadvantages. It was helpful to be included in management-level information loops, as this allowed me to anticipate needs and priorities affecting my staff's workload. Also, having clerical staff assigned to my unit meant that someone was available to handle most of the necessary paperwork. Difficulties included appropriately handling confidential Personnel-related written material, monitoring work products on paper, and detecting nonverbal subtleties in interpersonal staff communication. To address these, I worked very hard to build solid, trusting communication patterns with each person, and trained or borrowed staff to handle sensitive paperwork.

Throughout, the elements that have made my career development most successful are: top-knotch training, dependable and mutually beneficial relationships, and continual alertness to how well my skills fit with current needs. at present, I am designing my next career change, this time into the private sector. I am hopeful that once again, people connections, high quality preparation/training, and attention to unmet needs will help me establish myself in a new variety of meaningful work.

Peter
In fairness, I have to say that have been self employed longer than I was ever employed by a single previous employer.
A couple of notes .
1 my employers were small consultancies. the largest being 9 people at its largest. However the second point is that I always managed to get promotion inthe context of small business.
I guess my secret was that I always created my own postions in the firms from the beginning. , as opposed to being employed in a actual vacated job.
I began as a telemarketer and after 6 years left as Marketing /sales manager.
My only advice or observation, I can make is that I was good at what I did. I was assertive, I was confident. and lastly I was seen as being competent despite my eyesight, or lack of it.
Even though I had to arrange for and bargain for my accommodations in the form of software, , myself, my employers were always fair, but at the same time not overly paternal .
All in al I have to say to distill this all;
I was lucky with great employers.
I was condfident and had good self esteem.
I was competent, and became if not indespensible, at least valued.

At the risk of hogging too much space I have to say that I have spent the last 6 years dedicating my eforts to Disability empowerment in South Africa. culminating in my current business Disability Solutions being established since 2003.
Amongst the variety of services we have. one might interest readers.
It is a survey we conduct amongs Emplyoyees with disabilities.(SEWD)
After over 120 EWD's interviewed. , the majority would agree with Peter.
loss of promotional opportunity, poor skills dedvelopment, and a disproportioned amount of people in lower loevel jobs.
I maintain, howerver that all is not simply the fault of ignorent and indifferent employers., although I would awwert that is is probably the lions share. But much of Disabilities problems stem ofrom lower self esteem, confidence and assertion..
I am not talkingabout only humna rights assetions, but assertions of competence, overt demonstrative evidence of interest in the job, competence i its execution, and keen desire to progress.
Eric Burnes drama Triangle, is a wonderful illustration of this game we are inevitably swept up in.

Hi:

Thanks to each of you who have responded, and I congratulate those who have successfully been promoted.

I suspect that I am just too independent and ornery to be fully trusted by an organization, even though I am almost always viewed as doing really good work.

I am exploring the possibility of starting my own business in the near future.