Contrary
to much conventional wisdom, you are not solely responsible for your career. It
is your bosses—those higher up in the corporate hierarchy—who have the power to
promote you or not, and it is your job to ensure that they know you and have
some reason to want to advance you over your competitors. For instance, one job
candidate, when offered the job, asked for a commitment that he could lunch with
the President twice a year. Making a request that might threaten peers and shock
a future employer, can be a risk worth taking because the worst that could
happen is that he would be turned down—nothing ventured, nothing gained. But if
the company accepted his request, he knew that both the acquiescence and the
additional contact with senior leadership would provide him a visibility
advantage over many of his peers. With all the talk about teamwork that is so in
vogue today, it is nice to remember that colleagues aren't always on your side
and are, in fact, competing for promotions and raises.
People
are often reluctant to follow this example because they believe that upsetting
others, taking too many chances, and standing out can come back to bite you. But
although it is always possible that people may hold a grudge or try to bring
down a high flyer, the downsides to following this path are actually not that
big if your goal is advancing your career and getting into a position of power.
That's because a strategy of standing out and being willing to ask for things
and to take risks is well rooted in and supported by much social psychological
research.
The
first principle that this approach relies on is the idea of psychological
commitment—the notion that once you do something for someone, particularly under
little or no external pressure or inducement, the best way to make sense of that
choice is to positively revalue that individual and to be psychologically
invested in his or her success. This tactic was used by Jimmy Carter, among many
others. When Carter sought nomination for president as an outsider. he
approached every Democrat who had lost a primary election in 1974 with a
personal letter asking for their help. Carter realized that these people had
time, and he offered them an opportunity to get involved, thereby binding them,
through their efforts, to be interested in his success.
When
others do favors for you, when they comply with your requests for help, they
will be more psychologically bound to you and your success and be even more
willing to provide help in the future. Another example of this principle in
action is asking others for career advice. Once others have provided you that
advice and assistance, they are more committed to you and to your career
success.
The
second principle that helps make this approach effective is that success causes
others to want to join and associate with the successful person. This desire to
be aligned with successful individuals and organizations helps people "forget"
slights they may have suffered and their feelings of resentment.
People
do like to bask in reflected glory—for instance, one study found that students
at a university were more likely to wear clothing with the school name or
insignia on it on a Monday following a football victory on Saturday than they
were if the team had lost that weekend. Some people come to see even harsh and
arbitrary treatment at the hands of bosses—vivid examples are described in
The Mailroom, which chronicles early job experiences in Hollywood studios
and talent agencies—as a price to be paid for training, sponsorship, and getting
a foot on the ladder of success—almost as some necessary rite of passage.
Moreover, prestige and status are contagious, in that the status of any given
individual or company depends in part on the status of others in their social
network—you are known by the company you keep. Consequently, as long as you
keep doing well, the idea of people being harshly judgmental seems unlikely.
The
third principle that makes this strategy successful is that the passage of time
causes us to selectively remember events and people. To avoid being perpetually
unhappy, we tend to remember positive things more than negative ones and to put
a more positive gloss on events from the past. And, in addition, our memory is
to a considerable extent under the influence of our motives. If we have a reason
to want to like someone—that person is now successful and in a position to
provide help—our memory will help our liking by selectively recalling more
positive rather than negative aspects of past interactions.
And the
fourth principle reprises the above comment that those who matter most to your
career success are those higher up in organizations. When Henry Kissinger was a
student in the government department at Harvard, his arrogance alienated many of
his peers. But his ability to develop close mentorship relations with two
powerful senior faculty in the department, who themselves were feuding with each
other, provided the sponsorship to get a position in the department on his
graduation.
Similarly, biographies of President Lyndon Johnson describe him in his early
years on Capitol Hill—first as a congressional secretary and subsequently as a
representative and then a junior senator—as a "professional son," skilled at
building relationships with senior, powerful people such as Senator Richard
Russell and House Speaker Sam Rayburn, even as his behavior often distanced him
from his contemporaries.
Many
people achieve some degree of success by being a standout in, but remaining one
of, the crowd. Doing things to really stand out—to push your own career
and success, to build relationships with people in power—almost inevitably means
that some people will envy or even dislike you. But that may be a price at least
some are willing to pay for success. If people like you too much, it's probably
because they're beating you.'
