The Obvious: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed. James Dale
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but results.
There are no shortcuts. It just seems like there are if you’re looking in from the outside. If your job description is “respond to and resolve customer care issues,” if you actually do it effectively every day, pretty soon you’ll be in charge of hiring and training, then setting up an out-sourced customer care unit in Bhopal, India, then overseeing global Customer Relations, then Sales and Marketing, then …
Work is a challenge. Or it should be.
Push yourself. When you master something, take on a tougher task. Not more of what you already do, not another job at another company that’s just a clone of the one you have. Sure, you can coast and do fine. But over time, you’ll get stale and tired and probably lose your edge. It’s like only playing par-three golf courses.
You perform at your best when you’re tested. So, if you’re good at what you do, if you can almost do it blind-folded, stop. Walk away. Raise the stakes. Do something you want to do even if you’re not sure you can do it.
Do what Andrea Jung did. After earning her degree from Princeton, Jung’s high-achiever family was likely less than thrilled that she passed up law school to go into the crass world of retailing. But she rose through the ranks of Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus to become a star in luxury merchandising. About the time her family might have acknowledged her success, she walked away from what had become relatively easy, to see if she had what it took to re-energize venerable, but aging, make-up marketer, Avon.
It wasn’t like her last job, repeating what she knew; it was taking on a challenge. Jung invested in research to develop new lines of skin cream, opened up overseas markets, and found celebrity endorsers to attract younger buyers. Sales climbed 45%. Avon stock rose 160+%. So did Andrea Jung’s stock. After doing the non-glitzy job of remaking a traditional company, she’s been chased for lots of bigger, glitzier jobs.
Take on a challenge. Even if you fail, you failed at something hard, not easy. And you learn something you didn’t already know.
Don’t expect applause, a raise, the admiration of your peers, or even your boss, when you accomplish something at work. No one else is excited that you made your monthly quotas. Wow! Look at me! Your peers are worried about making their quotas. No one is going to slap you on the back because your orders shipped early, your clients paid their invoices, or you were wooed by a competitor. Wow! Look at me some more! Those things are nice, but they’re expected to happen.
And by the way, no one really cares that you were late because your toddler threw up on your suit on the way to daycare. Or that you need a new transmission. Or that your paycheck doesn’t go as far as it used to.
Because it’s not about your quotas, your orders, your suit, your transmission, or your paycheck. It’s just not about you. It’s about the bottom line – market share, profit and loss, earnings, the stock price. That’s why it’s called business … not Wow! Look at me! Help the company do better and you’ll do better. It’s an old cliché, but clichés get to be clichés by being true.
So, if it’s not about you, then how do you get ahead? Concentrate on what does matter: Results. After you’ve made your quotas, help somebody else make theirs. Find new customers, even for other divisions. Read up on industry trends. Study your competitors. Help young hires find their way. Stay late and re-write presentations. Don’t try to be a hero. Be a problem-solver.
Take the Apollo 13 approach. When we all heard the words, “Houston, we have a problem,” and the mission seemed doomed, who was the hero that saved the day? Was it the commander, Jim Lovell? Or the flight director, Gene Kranz? One of the other astronauts, Fred Haise or John Swigert, or member of the ground team like Ken Mattingly? No, it was not any one of them. It was all of them. They all collaborated to solve the problem, to save the day, and the mission. One of the great rescues of all time, and not one hero … or all heroes.
The best way to lead is to feed. When you’re not just a team member but the one in charge, whether it’s of a meeting, a project, a division, or a company, put everyone else ahead of yourself. Retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch said, “The day you become a leader, it becomes about them. Your job is, walk around with a can of water in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other hand … and build a garden.”
Cut the “I” out of your thought process and your vocabulary. Also “me” and “my” and “mine.” Starting tomorrow, try to consciously remove the first person from all communications. Literally. Imagine a buzzer goes off every time you invoke yourself or your self-interest. No sentences with “I thinks …” or “the way I see it …” or “I said …” iNo memos or messages with “get back to me” or “that job is mine” or “my department.”
Imagine you don’t exist alone, only as part of something larger. Replace “I” and “me” with “we” and “us” and “ours” instead. “What can we do?” “It’s up to us.” “The challenge is ours.”
It’s not that you don’t count. It’s that the best way to look out for you is to look out for everybody else – the “we” – the sales force, the audit group, the engineers, the designers, R&D, your supervisor, her supervisor, the CEO, the guy in the next office, the whole team, even your arch-rival. If they, we, us survive, you survive. If they, we, us thrive, you thrive.
On the other hand, if you beat your chest, you just get a sore chest.
If you consistently accomplish things that help the department, division, company, or team, you won’t have to worry about the credit. Success doesn’t hide. Want to be a real star? Don’t shine the spotlight on yourself. Let the results do it for you.
That’s what Phil Jackson taught the Chicago Bulls to take them from playoff bridesmaids to league champions. He invoked poetry, the Grateful Dead, and Zen Buddhism (hey, whatever works) to convince a collection of NBA-sized egos they’d garner more glitz, glamour, money, fame – a.k.a. credit – if they did their jobs together, than if they pursued the credit on their own. He even had to persuade a guy named Michael Jordan he’d be a bigger star if he passed the ball than if he shot it. In the 1991 playoffs, with the entire L.A. Laker team keyed on Jordan, a last-second pass from Jordan to John Paxson resulted in the winning basket … and the first of three back-to-back-to-back championships. Passing the ball isn’t glamorous, just effective.
Think of yourself as a movie producer. You didn’t write the script; you aren’t the lead actor, or the director, or even the special effects expert. You just quietly keep the whole production going. No one asks for your autograph. But if it’s a hit, you make the most money. You’re the one they come to when they want the next hit. That’s more than enough credit. That’s a real star, not a shooting star.
The world has enough jerks. They’re everywhere, especially in business. People who think being tough makes you a better boss. Or who refuse to give a good deal because it might show weakness. Or who can’t compromise. People who yell, demand, intimidate.
Let’s say being a jerk and being nice were equally