Jean on the Job
First red flag:
Anti-self promotion
If you are in that dinosaur category and you don’t, won’t, can’t promote yourself, move to another arena where your boss may be sitting at your elbow.
The alternative to leaving your job is to consider learning self-promotion, which is not bragging or tooting your horn.
Second red flag:
Anti-office politics
Of course, competency is rewarded – sometimes! This is how good employees are promoted, great managers are moved up, bonuses and fellowships are handed out- sometimes! There are a large percentage of employees, however, who feel left out. They are not rewarded for their competency. This is a loud cry from those who do not get noticed for work done. They usually fly two red flags which alert us to why they are not rewarded.
These conscientious types assume that if they do their jobs well, they should be noticed and appreciated. In our Old World ethic, where we could watch a worker and measure his input, this was possible. We were rewarded for specific tasks. It is much harder to measure individuals now in a complex collaborative world of work.
Workers today are supervised by matrix management, two in a box management, geographically undesirable bosses, home-based workers and a computerized management by objectives. The stoic and loyal plodder sometimes get lost in this maze. And they often refuse to bring their good works out on the table. They sabotage themselves with “If they can’t see it, I’m not going to tell them.”
The two red-flags for the discontented and hard worker are:
“I don’t toot my own horn.”
“I don’t do office politics.”
Those statements are boasted in our office every day in every week by employees of the 200 companies we serve. They are statements, which come from dinosaur brains that believe their good work will speak for them.
If you believe office politics have to be sleazy, go work by yourself. My definition of politics is simply that you “understand” the needs of those around you, and that you carefully assess who the decision-makers are in each situation. Then you, within your own principals and without sacrificing one single ethic of your own, decide how to demonstrate a win-win attitude. Political people simply know how to negotiate work. They believe in quid pro quo. It is actually political to say, “I’m not sure how to get your attention about this situation, but I’d like to.”
Jean Hollands, CEO, Growth & Leadership Center, author, Silicon Syndrome and Optimistic Organizations, is a management coach. Write to GLC, 1451 Grant Road, Mountain View 94040.
