Brown-Nosing is Not a Dirty Word

Most people who don't know how to Brownnose equate the skills involved with negative behavior. They resist learning the skills out of fear of being called a "Brown-Noser" and having what they perceive as that negative label attached to them.

To calm your fears about being called a Brown noser, you need to understand why Brownnosing skills are good for you--- and good for your company or business. Understanding why helps us see that when executed from a position of competence and knowledge, Brown-Nosing skills aren't negative. In fact, they make good sense for your career (and your company).

You can use these skills with confidence to help you share your ideas with people in such a way that they immediately see the value of both the idea and what YOU bring to a particular situation and the organization.

First, and probably most important, you need to realize that work is not like school. There is no teacher constantly evaluating your work and automatically promoting you to the next level once you meet a certain set of requirements. Unlike school, where the purpose of the effort is to develop you and help you learn, the purpose of an organization is to achieve its mission, whatever that may be.

I’m not going to debate the point that developing you is also good for business. But the fact of the matter is that  your development is ancillary to the primary objective. (Face it, it may be cheaper in the long run for the company to hire someone with the skills it needs rather than to allocate the resources to train you).

Still, an organization’s success is dependent on its employees' abilities – on YOUR ability.  How will managers, who need your help, know that you have an answer to a problem if you don’t or can’t get their attention? The four Brown-nosing skills I’ve been talking about (visibility, positioning, networking, connecting) help you get the attention you need to share your ideas with others.

Now consider it from the other point of view. If you are a manager and need to tap the full potential of all of your employees, seeing employees use these skills gives you a way to get to know the depth and richness of knowledge, experience, insights and ideas that is sitting right under your nose!

What do you think that kind of knowledge will do for YOUR career Mr. or Ms. Manager? If you run a company, what do you think employing Brown Nosing skills will do for your company? Not only might you  appreciate those skills in others, as a the company leader, you probably eagerly cultivate them yourself.

Evaluating the skill without labeling the behavior is what all of us need to keep in mind.  And to do that, a change in attitude is required.

Think about it -

Later, Linda