Let’s assume for a moment that the work you do is good. So what? I’ll bet that if I look around the place I’ll find a number of people who do good work, too. I hate to be the one who tells you this but doing a good job is only one small part of getting noticed and promoted. Doing a good job is what is expected of you in exchange for your paycheck. If you want to get noticed for the work that you do – or the potential you have - the first thing you must understand and accept is that good work alone will only get you so far.
Come on -- look around! You know as well as I do that in most organizations it is not those people who are the best and brightest at what they do who get promoted. Sure, they typically have some minimum level of competence, but the important thing to recognize is that they are perceived as having other skills, abilities and attributes that the culture values. These are their true talents.
Too many people muddle through their careers not quite understanding why all the great jobs go to someone else. They can see that something is going on that puts people in the limelight but unless they are lucky enough to have someone help them understand the process, or unless they are one of those gifted observers who can understand what is happening there is only a slim chance they will meet with the success they’ve dared to imagine. What do you dare to imagine?
There are only so many dollars, projects, and promotions available out there. If you can’t figure out how to get your share of them, others who know how to play the game better than you do will have their fill at your expense. Many people who never figure this out will, what I like to call, retire on the job. They lose all hope for themselves and for their future. Frustrated and resigned, they settle into a routine where the do the least they have to do to keep their jobs, make a few friends around the place and hope they can make it through until the next recruiter calls or if they’ve been there long enough, until retirement.
Many more workers will languish in a place that can only be described as a living hell; they dread getting up in the morning and going to work; they live for two days a week – Saturday and Sunday. Still others will spend day after day after day of their precious lives in a state of catatonic boredom while the true gifts they have to share with the world are dying inside of them as they watch the light in their soul slowly burn out. If you are one of these people, it doesn’t have to be this way.
So, what does this have to do with Brown-Nosing? Everything. Brown-Nosers inherently know and use a set of success skills better than the rest of us. They use these skills -visibility, positioning, networking and connecting - to find themselves jobs that they enjoy or in some other way have meaning to them. The fact that they ‘brown-nose’ is often used as a measure of their competence (or incompetence) by those of us who resent them in some small (or large) way. You will rarely find a bored brown-noser or one who believes he or she is not using his or her God given talents.
There is no denying that brown-nosers seem to be in control of their own destinies. The thing is - you can be in control of your destiny, too. If you are to navigate your career through the ofttimes murky waters of corporate America you will need every advantage. You don't have to bury your talents. In fact, you are obligated to use them. When you cultivate these skills their power increases and magnifes the results of the good work you already do. That's true talent.
Think about it ---
Later, Linda
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