I wanted to write this because of the conversations I keep reading. Almost all of them put the weight on the outside. Does my manager like me? What do the senior stakeholders make of my performance, has their trust in me gone up or down? How do I get this done faster, cheaper, better? The project is near its deadline, the resources aren’t lined up, some people won’t cooperate, what do I do, this is a lot of pressure.
None of that is wrong to think about. What I want to say is: don’t stop there. Push it one step further, to what’s in it for me.
I’ve thought about why so many of us stop just before that step, and my theory is that it’s the good-student habit.
When we were young, in school, the whole point was to get good marks, be praised, be liked. If what you wanted then was to impress your parents and your teachers, then wanting to impress your manager and the senior leaders now follows quite naturally. If what you wanted then was homework that was neat and correct and the highest mark available, then at work it becomes: whatever my manager hands me, I deliver it flawlessly, nothing drops on my watch.
But the two situations are not remotely the same.
When you were a child, doing well in the exam and your own interests pointed in the same direction. Do well, get into a good university, get a good job. So you never had to ask what studying hard and performing well actually bought you.
At work that line doesn’t hold by default. It is simply not true that killing yourself to impress your manager and delivering everything perfectly is what’s best for you.
Some examples. Your manager gives you a scope that’s heavy and invisible, and you execute it beautifully, year after year. Is that good for you? Or: you want to start something of your own, or change jobs, or get your life back, and yet again and again, almost against your will, you exceed what the company expected. Praise from every direction, and so what? Or: you want to look capable, so you don’t ask for budget or headcount, and you work nights doing the job of three people. Is that good for you?
Every one of those is a hole I’ve fallen into myself.
It was late in my corporate career before I worked it out. If I want to work efficiently, I have to find every way I can to line my own interests up with the company’s. And where they can’t be lined up, my own growth comes first. If that disappoints people, it disappoints people.
Ask yourself the question regularly. What’s in it for me?