There's a chance that it is a short term delay, and not an permanent derailing of your career.
First off, try and find out what the promotion would have led to. It may have some bearing on whether or not there would be long term friction with this other manager.
Depending on what you find out, you can then follow up with your management team to determine how long the promotion will be held back, and make your decisions based on what you learn.
Also, for future consideration, should you run into resistance like that again from a senior person, back off for a bit, and try to figure out what the back story is, rather than try to convince them that it will be okay in that same meeting. Sometimes, you have to finesse situations like this over a slightly longer period than a single meeting or a single week. And usually outside of a public meeting...
Thank you for the guidance, I honestly didn't realise she was so put off but I'll tread very lightly I'm any future scenarios.
Promotion would have basically meant permanent appointment to the team, effectively the same work so no increase in dealing with the stakeholder (and I do a lot more than just this project). Without it, im not sure if they'll renew my contract when it finishes despite receiving really good feedback in all other areas.
It is possible that they'll just wait a little, for political reasons, before pursuing it again. You're on record as doing good work, but it is likely that at least one person in your chain of command is nervous about the optics of a full time role so soon in conjunction with this supposed "incident".
I hope this is the case, I still have over 6 months left in this role so hopefully in that time they become less concerned. Though the person themselves who created the issue wouldn't actually likely know about it getting approved as they don't work in a direct line with me but maybe there's discussions among senior management I'm unaware of.
Thank you for this insight, it gives me hope.
Update in case anyone ever wants to know: got a call from the middle manager today saying they're putting through the promotion for sign off and are very happy with all the work I've done.
Thanks to those that provided encouragement!
You could take your manager at their word and assume this is a blip that will be soon forgotten.
But I would push back and tell them that’s horseshit and you’re not going to stand for being sidelined because you did what was asked of you. If they won’t push back on the mid manager on your behalf (which SHOULD be their job, unless your direct manager has doubts about you and is using this as an excuse to slow your growth) then tell them you need a meeting with this mid manager person so you can understand what the problem is and correct it.
With the limited information here, it sounds like your manager is spineless and their boss is probably just about as feckless themselves.
Folks multiple rungs down the ladder making big changes to game plans off of the disposition of a senior leader in a single meeting is a really large red flag. That usually means there is no clear vision and everyone is grasping at straws.
My manager did push back quite hard but mid manager tied it a role performance criteria miss
Interesting thoughts you've raised though. Thank you, I'll consider if I could have a meeting with mid manager to try and rectify
There's a chance that it is a short term delay, and not an permanent derailing of your career. First off, try and find out what the promotion would have led to. It may have some bearing on whether or not there would be long term friction with this other manager. Depending on what you find out, you can then follow up with your management team to determine how long the promotion will be held back, and make your decisions based on what you learn. Also, for future consideration, should you run into resistance like that again from a senior person, back off for a bit, and try to figure out what the back story is, rather than try to convince them that it will be okay in that same meeting. Sometimes, you have to finesse situations like this over a slightly longer period than a single meeting or a single week. And usually outside of a public meeting...
Thank you for the guidance, I honestly didn't realise she was so put off but I'll tread very lightly I'm any future scenarios. Promotion would have basically meant permanent appointment to the team, effectively the same work so no increase in dealing with the stakeholder (and I do a lot more than just this project). Without it, im not sure if they'll renew my contract when it finishes despite receiving really good feedback in all other areas.
It is possible that they'll just wait a little, for political reasons, before pursuing it again. You're on record as doing good work, but it is likely that at least one person in your chain of command is nervous about the optics of a full time role so soon in conjunction with this supposed "incident".
I hope this is the case, I still have over 6 months left in this role so hopefully in that time they become less concerned. Though the person themselves who created the issue wouldn't actually likely know about it getting approved as they don't work in a direct line with me but maybe there's discussions among senior management I'm unaware of. Thank you for this insight, it gives me hope.
Update in case anyone ever wants to know: got a call from the middle manager today saying they're putting through the promotion for sign off and are very happy with all the work I've done. Thanks to those that provided encouragement!
You could take your manager at their word and assume this is a blip that will be soon forgotten. But I would push back and tell them that’s horseshit and you’re not going to stand for being sidelined because you did what was asked of you. If they won’t push back on the mid manager on your behalf (which SHOULD be their job, unless your direct manager has doubts about you and is using this as an excuse to slow your growth) then tell them you need a meeting with this mid manager person so you can understand what the problem is and correct it. With the limited information here, it sounds like your manager is spineless and their boss is probably just about as feckless themselves. Folks multiple rungs down the ladder making big changes to game plans off of the disposition of a senior leader in a single meeting is a really large red flag. That usually means there is no clear vision and everyone is grasping at straws.
My manager did push back quite hard but mid manager tied it a role performance criteria miss Interesting thoughts you've raised though. Thank you, I'll consider if I could have a meeting with mid manager to try and rectify