Once you get past the basic Pillars, there’s no easy answer. You must be competent, but need to figure out how to demonstrate that without Outshining the Master™*. One thing not much discuss is your patience - is this a stepping-stone to something better, a job you don’t care about, or a company you are committed to, if only you can clear a few “obstructions” out of your way and get to a role you really want? As you can imagine, your options for action in the situation you describe might be very different based on your answer.
Bottom line? Shut up - resist your first impulse at pretty much all costs (you’re human so you will blurt something out at some point, but do your best and avoid it). Allow yourself to act only after you’ve gotten to the point where you remember to ask “what are my long-term objectives here?” and you feel like you have really given it some thought. This counts for instant crap, like whether to speak up in meetings or when put on the spot (better to leave them questioning whether you are clueless when you don’t speak, than removing all doubt by opening your mouth) and for longer-term stuff. When you think you’ve figured out your long-term objectives, give yourself at least half a day to see if your rationale holds up. At first, this is really, really hard - it feels awkward and false and forced. And you can’t believe you really expect to insert this process into every. freaking. action. But, over the years, you get better at it and it starts to become automatic. At that point, good things happen.
There is no easy answer - just like Oprah learned when it comes to managing her weight: there is no substitute for discipline and consistency over a lifetime. It is hard work and you have to practice. Also, fwiw, I have found that by approaching it this way, I can do it and feel good about myself; I am not sucking up or selling out - I am practicing a skill I need to be good at and finding long-term ways to stay positioned successfully. That usually means I make better choices and avoid stupid pettiness or work betrayals that are tempting in the short term.
*There is a half-cheesy, half-insightful book called The 48 Rules (laws?) of Power - worth a skim. The first law is Never Outshine the Master…
That is because the game at every company and every job is different and its constantly changing. You really need to understand the politics and the culture of the company you work for. Initially, you want to just do whatever is asked of you and do it as well as possible. But eventually you should discover what activities are actually valued and what activities people just pay lip service to.
Those companies tend to be pretty shitty places to work with pretty shitty people working for them.
I’ve always worked for consulting firms which tend to look for “best and brightest” overachiever types. My current company doesn’t even consider campus hires unless they have above a 3.4 GPA. No one tells you what to do in my company. You are expected to seek out projects to work on and then figure out how to complete them successfully. The game, essentially, is to allign yourself with a group of managers who feed you work to do while the managers allign themselves with partners who sell projects for the managers to lead. In a sense it’s like fifty thousand entrepreneurs trying to run a network of businesses ranging in size from small one-person consulting gigs to a global industry practice area.
This environment is very different from my brief stint in “industry” (jobs that are not in consulting firms). That job was very rigid. You did not do anything outside of what your boss told you to do and that didn’t happen without a committees approval. Essentially the entire system was designed to make sure nothing got done.
I work in the real world.
I am highly successful in the real world.
An individual purposefully being less than the absolute best at their job is making a poor decision. This notion that competence threatens “the boss” already smacks of a loser demeanor. If it’s actually true in your workplace, then as I said in the last point I made, look for another job.
Part of the reason so many people are lost in their jobs, or feel defeated, or underperform, or find themselves out of a job, or find themselves in unsatisfying jobs is that they are looking for some sort of secret rules by which they can satisfy “the boss” in the hope that that is a route to success. It is not a route to personal satisfaction or success to deliberately underachieve and underperform. It’s a route to an unsatisfying and limited career.
One thing I might suggest is to look at very successful people who are content in their roles–sometimes so content they continue working long after they are financially able to retire. I submit that very few of those people decided to slack off so as not to show up “the boss.”
Make those people your role models for how to achieve success at the game of corporate success. Don’t copy the loser’s mentality of dumbing down your abilities. It’s true that one skillset is learning how to excel, make your boss look good, sharing the credit with her, and so on. In the long run that is the kind of strategy that will pay off, and if it doesn’t you need to look for a different corporation.
Overperforming threatening the boss *may *be true, but, I’ve never seen it. Back when I was in the boss role, I wanted overperformers, and my boss was tickled pink that I had overperformers. I was getting the job done at a minimal cost, and my boss had a pool of good talent from which to draw. He would think that I had a good eye for talent, part of managements job, and would not be hesitant to recommend me to fit into a job at his level, if I could keep producing overperformers within my sphere of influence. Overperforming never threatened me, and I was as lazy and incompetent as one could hope to be…then! It was, as you say, looking for the special rules that ended up doing me in.
Best wishes,
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I remember seeing your photo in the SDMB Gallery and thinking “whoa, Sterling Morrison from the Velvet Underground” - I’d be interested in hearing what you do now, but totally respect online privacy (I am always amazed what folks are willing to share on line, once they’ve gotten off my lawn!! ;))
I have to agree with everything you say - with two addenda:
The thing that is so true about finding a job you fit with is not just “love your job” Hallmark card-y aspirational crap. It is more of a test for yourself - if you are really drawn to it, it fits your stress profile, work style and mental focus capabilities - you do it better and are better off because of it. But - you have to learn to be honest with yourself - so you can confront choices about your career along the way. Wanting to be a law partner does not mean it fits with you and you have to be open to learning that. That’s hard - but what both **Chief Pedant ** (I think) and I are saying is that it is worth the work to find that type of path…
Sometimes you can know what you want to do and you simply have to pay your dues to get there. I “knew” I would be good at high-level strategic change work (i.e., external acquisitions; internal business unit reengineering, etc.) that actually changes company direction - not exactly the type of position anyone is going to flip you the keys to right out of college, you know? So I had to keep my eyes on the prize and master a bunch of lower-level positions that were not a good fit for me. I can do deep analytics, but get distracted easily; detail is not my friend. And, frankly, while I “knew” I could be good for that senior type of role, in reality I needed to get through those lower positions to polish my rough edges (oh my, did I - and still do - have rough edges; lordie…)…
Patience is a very good thing, as is being truly open to learning…
I will say this, too: you call it a “Game” but in asking about it you clearly acknowledge something - it isn’t a game; it’s Life. To me, that’s worth taking seriously and a bit of long-term view.
One conclusion I reached long ago: Life is Sales. I don’t care if you are an artist - you need folks to see your artwork and buy it if you want to live off of it. In some aspect of your life, you need individuals or groups to do something in your interest - call it art, work, getting by or whatever. Which means you need to: a) figure out how to engage those people; b) have a sense of what your needs are and how to work with, through and mostly in spite of those people to achieve those needs. So - Life is Sales and to master Sales you need to master The Game…but the Game is really Life.
Damn, I’m a deep guy. :D:cool::smack::smack:
Sorry for the Zen-fu - but I swear there is some decent insight in there…
Lots of good posts in this thread. I’ve enjoyed reading them.
Since making a career change at the age of 34 (22 years ago, geez!), I have managed to be continuously employed doing things I generally enjoy at ever-increasing salaries. I have worked among people who have played what I consider a game. They have been people whose aims have involved advancement where there are winners and losers in decisive ways. In other words, they have desired advancement along a management track. When a position on that track opens and is filled, someone is chosen, and others aren’t. Getting and keeping jobs along that track usually entails some political skills to go along with whatever functional skills are required. The game there, it appears to me, is living your work life in such a way that it says “pick me” to the folks who do the picking. I have seen instances where this involved some of the things others have mentioned, like taking undue credit.
When I became a software developer years ago, I decided pretty early that the people above me on the org chart were doing work I didn’t really want to do. So whatever ambition I had was directed toward increasing my security and compensation while remaining in the technical realm. In the environments I have operated in, that has not entailed winner/loser situations except when there have been layoffs, and I have survived every one of many rounds of layoffs.
There are a couple of things that I have consciously done that I believe have contributed to my success. I have done my best to be viewed as someone who is not a problem. If I bring a problem to my boss, I also bring a proposed detailed solution or two. I don’t whine. I get my projects done on time. When I do work for that in any way involves interaction with peers of my bosses, I do my best to do that work in such a way that my bosses hear positive things about me. Maybe that’s a game. I’m not conscious of neglecting the requests of non-influential folks, but I am very conscious of going the extra mile when it might result in a grateful email to my VP.
Of course you do; I said that poorly. What I should have said is, “In my world…” I usually work temp jobs, and I usually work with mostly women. Please believe me when I say competent temps are not always appreciated, and the female/female dynamic has a tendency to be…stressful. My ideal job is a competent supervisor who appreciates competency in his underlings, and doesn’t let the other co-workers sharpen their claws on the competent people under him. This doesn’t always happen, but since I’m a temp and I don’t want permanent work, I try to keep my competency level somewhere average.
Agent Foxtrot, I think the germane point about competency is to “not outshine the master,” unfortunately. I understand what you’re saying about dialing it down; I agree that if you do want to get ahead, that won’t help you in the long run. I think in that case you might need to keep an eye out for a better position, with a better manager.
Never come to a meeting with something that cannot be done - always have backup solutions (you wouldn’t believe the number of people who stumble on this one…gaining a reputation as a miracle worker/Scotty does wonders). Even if your backup solutions lack, it shows that you’ve thought about it and gives them information to go on.
Recognise the ‘thankless’ jobs and try to get someone else to do them. Thankless jobs are usually the ones that are typical/normal. Usually there are coworkers around that will thankfully take up these tasks. Grab the ones that are different/more challenging.
When you have these types of projects, over-deliver. Also, try to set up new processes for these types of projects in the future.
When doing typical/thankless/normal projects, look for ways to improve/cut down on the time to do them.
Make sure you get credit when you deserve it. Bring it up/save emails/make sure your boss knows about it.
Always be available for calls incoming from outside your division. Being known as easier to contact helps your rep. (It also helps if your boss is notoriously hard for them to get ahold of). In short - try to do your bosses job (note- some bosses will not allow this…see that as a sign to move on). Most bosses will love you for it.
Related to the last one, when someone new and/or in another division calls for help, leap on it like a starving rat on a meatball. There have been many times where the tiniest bit of effort on my part reaped big dividends…like spending 30 min helping someone who then turned out to be a bigwig and he made sure I received a $5000 bonus. While many of these will not be a benefit to you, the ones that do…
(note- some bosses will not allow this…see that as a sign to move on). Most bosses will love you for it.