A Parable of Pizzas and Promotions
The “Alaskan” Pizza, courtesy of Adobe Firefly.
I had an interesting exchange with some colleagues the other day, about what happens when one’s goals for their own personal growth aren’t aligned with what’s needed for career progression and for the overall success of a project, product or company.
In an ideal scenario these three vectors would line up: the kind of work you want to do will be recognized and rewarded by your employer, and will ultimately benefit the company you’re working for in some important way. Unfortunately, though, things don’t always line up so cleanly.
It’s a valuable thought exercise to consider the implications of various configurations of these factors. As I mentioned, I like to make pizza. So this thought exercise will be heavily pizza-based 😜 Let’s consider the following scenario.
You Don’t Make Pizzas, You Compose Them
You work in a regional pizza chain (we’ll call it “Slice of Life”). You’re good at what you do, making tasty dough and cranking out hundreds of pies a night But you want more out of your job. You’re a composer of fine pizzas - not a run-of-the-mill dough slinger - and you want to expand your repertoire.
You want to create new pizza experiences, and introduce some more creative flavor profiles into the mix with the classics. You do a little at-home R&D and after some trial-and-error, pitch a few innovative new pies to your boss: The Indian-inspired “Makhani,” the classic American “Cowboy,” and the other non-contiguous state-inspired “Alaskan.” (More on these at the bottom of the page).
Your boss, ever supportive of your ambitions as an employee, and with a good sense for the business side of things, is impressed and she agrees to pitch your ideas to the higher-ups, in the hopes of scoring approval for a limited time run of these pies. You were both successful! During the limited time offer, your local Slice of Life branch sees a small but maybe-attributable bump in sales, and some exciting social media buzz about The “Alaskan.” The boss recognizes your contributions by promoting you to a Senior Pizzaiolo position, with some more creative control over the menu.
Bravo! This is a great example of how these goals of personal growth, career growth and company success can all line up nicely.
(Since we’re already in the business of making up silly pizza names, and naming things is fun, let’s refer to this scenario as The “Perfect Storm.”)
The “Perfect Storm”
In The “Perfect Storm” scenario you’re doing work that
you find personally meaningful, because you find it challenging, you’re learning a lot, or you enjoy it
you’re being recognized for, either through informal or formal means such as career progression
is helping your project, product or company succeed in some significant way.
Congrats, this is an ideal place to be, so you should consider yourself lucky! Unfortunately these three vectors aren’t always so nicely aligned with one another. The following scenarios will take a look at what happens when this alignment breaks down.
The “Existential Angst”
What happens when you feel like you’re not growing?
You have a burning passion to stop churning out Basic pies (Pepperoni? Mushrooms? 🙄) and explore new dimensions of flavor … but that’s just not what Slice of Life needs right now. Maybe they’re trying to expand to different locations, or are more concerned about volume or quality than creating novel pizza experiences.
So you take up the cause, focus on cranking out more and more pizzas, and even get rewarded for your dedication to improving efficiency. But with every broccoli pie you crank out, you’re thinking “Oh man, these look like tiny trees. What would a Woodland-inspired pizza look like?” You feel utterly unfulfilled.
In this scenario, the kind of work you’re interested in doing , the kind that will help you flourish, is just not what your company needs at that moment. Your personal growth stalls and your morale is decimated. You’ll only be able to keep up the charade for so long before you realize you’re stagnating..
The “Unsung Hero”
What happens when you’re not recognized for your work?
You’re creating the most innovative pies of your life (The “Marathon” ?!? Wow!) , and you’ve overheard how this is actually helping Slice of Life’s perception and revenue. But that success somehow doesn’t seem to filter back to you - it’s not reflected in your job title, your reputation, or your paycheck.
This might have happened for a number of reasons. Maybe you just weren’t vocal enough about communicating your accomplishments. Maybe Slice of Life measures their success in other terms, not in how unique their pies are. Maybe the company culture is just really bad at recognizing and rewarding contributions of their employees. Or maybe you have a shitty boss (or boss’ boss) who didn’t give you the credit due for your contributions.
In this scenario, despite being able to do the kind of work you enjoy and having impact, you don’t feel like you’re recognized or rewarded for it. If things continue this way, you’re sure to become frustrated, and ultimately demotivated. Is it worth sticking around at a place where your contributions aren’t recognized, even if you’re doing work you enjoy? Maybe? For a while?
While not great, this is still better than The “Martyr,” a scenario in which you‘re neither doing work that interests you, nor being recognized for your work. You feel like you exist solely to benefit the company, and need to get out of there ASAFP.
The “So What“
What happens when your work doesn’t actually help the company?
You’re tearing up the career ladder, and for good reason! As a newly-promoted branch manager, you’re able to exert full creative control over your branch’s menu, and you’re widely recognized for your contributions. Your boss, and her boss, know your name and they know your work (The “Recursive” 😵💫 was a big hit at the corporate office!). There’s just … one … small problem. Save a small but loyal following of devoted customers, none of your pies seem to sell all that well, despite their novelty. Your creations don’t obviously result in more customers walking in the door, or more pies being sold.
How did this happen? Maybe you misjudged the local clientele (Are they more pizza-conservative? Did you have their tastes in mind, or just your own?), or there’s just not enough marketing for your new ideas, or you the cost of ingredients is too high for the scale. Maybe the incentives weren’t right to begin with: instead of being rewarded for coming up with so many new pies, and it would have better to really refine one new pie and land it?
In this scenario, you come out great (right?)! You’re doing cool work and getting recognized for it. And though it’s not as beneficial for the company, you did have their best interest in mind (right)? It might be worth sticking around to continue doing work that’s exciting, and maybe the success will come eventually? As long as you can progress in your career, how important is it for you personally to see this branch of Slice of Life succeed? Or to see lots of people eating and talking about your pies?
A cousin of The “So What” is The “Opportunist.” In that scenario, you’re intentionally choosing things that will benefit your own career progression, even if the benefit to the company is ambiguous. That time you got a raise for dropping everything and taking on your boss’ pet project of expanding into Crazy Grilled Cheeses? Smells like someone just slid An “Opportunist” in the oven! Sometimes, it’s important to double down on career growth.
Conclusion
In case this isn’t already really obvious, I’ve never worked in a pizza restaurant. But at various points throughout my career in the tech industry, I have been in the range of predicaments outlined above.
My general sense is that the bigger a company is, or the more complex the organization in which a project or product exists, the easier it is for these three factors to get out of whack.
It’s worth taking a step back every once in a while and evaluating, for your own personal scenario, the alignment of personal growth, career progression and project / product / company success. If these are not perfectly in harmony - and chances are they’re not - are you conscious of the trade offs you’re making? Are you doing this with intention? And how long are you willing to accept those concessions before you seek a more optimal situation, or at least one that would enable you to optimize for something different?
Which factor to optimize for is a personal decision, but for my money, I’d take personal growth as the highest order bit. You are the person in the world that should care most about your career, and you need to own that. As long as you feel like you’re learning and growing in the ways you want to, you’re in a good place, and a good position to optimize everything else.
The Complete List of Specialty Pies
Thanks for reading through this deepy flawed and at times thinly veiled parable!
Even though you didn’t ask for it, as a reward for your tenacity, here is the complete list of specialty pies mentioned here, with their ingredients. Feel free to take these ideas and run with them. I wish you a lot of success in your pizzaiolo/a career. Just promise that I can be a beta taster 🤞
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Bacon, Onions, Garlic, Spicy Calabrian Peppers
My personal favorite. Cured meat, alliums and spice is an unbeatable combo.
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Smoked Brisket, Bacon, Fried Onions, Barbecue Sauce
How the rest of the world sees American food
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Chicken, Spiced Tomato Butter Sauce, Naan Crust
It’s like Butter Chicken in a convenient portable format.
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Salmon Jerky, Fresh King Crab Legs, Reindeer Sausage
If you thought that Hawaiian Pizza was polarizing …
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Fried Chicken, Scrambled Eggs
Whichever came first, they taste great together.
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Cauliflower, Beets and Kidney Beans
They might be Superfoods, but no one appreciates them (on pizza).
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Shaved Truffles, Sliced Serrano Ham, Foie Gras
Incredible ingredients, that unfortunately are no more than the sum of their parts.
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Crust.
No sauce, no cheese, no toppings.
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Bacon, Guanciale, Pork Belly
Sounds delicious right now, but how will it work out in the long run?
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Smaller Pizzas, topped with Smaller Pizzas, topped with …
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Spicy Berbere Tomato Sauce, Chicken, Hard-Boiled Eggs
An Eritrean-Italian interpretation of Doro Wat
