亲爱的安妮：我的一位朋友给我发来一篇您的专栏文章，说的是如何从单打独斗的“明星”员工成功转型为管理者，但我早在几年前就已经完成了这一步，不过是在另外一家公司。实际上，我现在已经开始后悔离开那家公司。因为自从进入现在这家公司，我的职业发展似乎就遭遇了瓶颈。我的绩效评估一直很优秀，我领导的部门也获得过几次大的成功，我认为自己已经具备获得晋升的条件。可我的老板并不这么想。他对我最主要的意见是我“太过注重细节”。

    所以，我有两个问题。首先，真的有“太过关注细节”这回事吗？或者，这只是他故意释放的烟雾弹，只是因为有些原因他不想告诉我？第二，我在生活中也特别注意细节，而这一直被我看成是自己的优势。为了得到提拔，我应该改变自己的个性吗？（我有可能做到吗？）——SIN

    亲爱的SIN：对这个问题感到疑惑的人不止你一个。与从前相比，升职变得更加困难，主要是由于几个原因。首先，明尼阿波利斯市领导力开发与培训公司PDI Ninth House的高级副总裁斯图•克兰德尔解释道：“全球经济衰退是原因之一。公司大幅裁员，许多职位被合并，结果就造成了管理职位‘僧多粥少’的局面。”

    他补充道，即便在此之前，公司也已经开始大幅精简，砍掉了大量的管理职位。克兰德尔说：“所以，我们经常发现许多人并没有向上晋升，而是另辟蹊径，选择到其他公司任职，来获得更丰富的经验，提高自身知名度。有时候甚至会自降身份，目的都是为了未来在职场道路上更进一步。所以，如今中层升职的道路变成了一条曲线，而不再是直线。对于‘学校里的好学生们’来说，对这一点可能很难接受。”

    另外一个众所周知的原因则是，人们被提升到更高职位后超高的失败比例。研究显示，这一比例甚至高达40%。克兰德尔指出：“在将员工提高一个级别，承担更大职责时，公司会非常谨慎。许多管理者得到晋升后却只是昙花一现，这样的可怕故事我们已经听说过很多。许多高管也曾告诉我们，要适应更高的工作岗位，远比想象中困难得多。”所以，公司谨慎一些也就不足为奇了。

    了解到这些之后，PDI Ninth House的研究人员开始分析，成功得到升职的因素到底有哪些。研究人员深入研究了公司数据库中37,000份个人能力测评，最终出炉了两份报告——其中一份是关于五个级别的管理职位（从中层团队领导人到CEO）一步步提升所需要具备的经验，另一份报告则调查了在每个级别帮助或妨碍绩效的个性品质。

    当然，克兰德尔承认：“每个公司的文化都存在差别。但有些品质是所有公司打算对员工委以重任时都会考虑的因素，比如充沛的精力和战略思考能力等。这些都属于常量。”

    而对你而言，过度关注细节可能确实扯了你的后腿。正如一项名为“个性与领导补给线”的研究所说：“把细节问题交给下属，领导者应该关注更多整体性的、全面性的问题。”换句话说，你可能需要学会放权，将更多注意力转移到大局上来。

    克兰德尔说：“如果一名高级经理人过于专注日常工作中的鸡毛蒜皮，表明你会对下属采取微观管理方式。而这会让他们与你更加疏远，也就意味着，你并没有充分进行战略思考。”

    他补充道，幸运的是，“你不需要改变自己的个性。只要改变自己的行为方式即可。只要不在工作场合，你还是可以注重细节，做回你自己。但只要在办公室里，你就要学会下意识的把细节分配给其他人，追踪他们的进度，而不必事必亲躬。”

    Dear Annie:A friend of mine sent me your column about getting promoted from the individual "star" level into management, but I already made that jump a few years ago at a different company. In fact, I'm starting to regret having left there because, ever since I signed on with my current employer, my career seems to have stalled out. My performance reviews have been great, my department has had several big successes, and I think I'm ready for the next level. My boss, however, disagrees. His main criticism is that I'm "too detail-oriented."

    So I have two questions. First, is there really such a thing as being too detail-oriented, or could that be a smokescreen for something else he doesn't want to tell me? And second, I've been extremely attentive to detail all my life -- which usually has been an advantage -- so do I have to change my personality to get promoted? (Is that even possible?) --Stuck in Neutral

    Dear Stuck:No doubt you aren't the only one wondering. Getting promoted is tougher than it used to be, for a couple of reasons. First, "the global recession has been a factor," notes Stu Crandell, a senior vice president at Minneapolis-based leadership development and coaching firm PDI Ninth House. "Organizations let so many people go that lots of positions got consolidated, so there are fewer management jobs to move into."

    Even before that, he adds, companies had been running leaner and cutting out layers of management jobs. "So often, instead of an upward move, we're seeing people move sideways in companies, to get broader experience and visibility, or sometimes even taking a step down in rank in order to prepare to move up later," Crandell says. "It's become more of a zigzag path, rather than straight up. This is hard for 'A students' to accept."

    Then there's the notoriously lofty failure rate of people promoted into bigger jobs, which according to some studies runs as high as 40%. "Companies are being extremely cautious about moving people from one level to the next higher one," Crandell observes, and no wonder: "We've heard plenty of horror stories about managers who got promoted and then flamed out -- and executives themselves often tell us how much harder it is to adjust to a bigger job than they thought it would be."

    With all that in mind, a team of researchers at PDI Ninth House set out to analyze exactly what leads to a successful upward move. Mining information from the firm's database of 37,000 individual executive assessments, the researchers wrote two reports -- one about the specific kinds of experience that prepare people to rise through five levels of management (from midlevel team leader to CEO), and the other examining the personality traits that help or hinder performance at each level.

    "Of course, there are some variations from one corporate culture to another," Crandell acknowledges. "But some traits, like high levels of energy and the ability to think strategically, are common to every company as people take on more responsibility. They're constants."

    In your case, it seems that extreme attention to detail may indeed be holding you back. As the study, which was titled "Personality and the Leadership Pipeline," puts it, "Leaving the details to direct reports, leaders focus on more integrative and holistic issues." In other words, you may need to learn to let go of the small stuff and focus more on the big picture.

    Says Crandell, "If you're too deep in the weeds with the day-to-day minutiae as a senior manager, you'll micromanage the people below you. That's likely to alienate them, and it probably means you're not thinking strategically enough."

    Luckily, he adds, "You don't have to change your personality. You just have to alter your behavior at work. Once you leave the office, you can be as controlling and detail-oriented as you want -- but while you're there, you can learn to consciously delegate the details to others, and keep track of their activities without doing everything yourself."