Make More Money
Do you remember that kid, usually a girl [sorry ladies], when you were in school that always managed to be sitting next to the teacher’s desk? They were always performing little tasks and getting little perks. They were the acting class tattle when the teacher was out of the room.
That’s right, we called them the teacher’s pet.
Well, out here in the real world, that kind of activity isn’t called the teacher’s pet anymore. No. It’s called getting ahead. It’s how you make more money. It’s called doing what your boss asked you to do.
Now, there’s nothing worse than a stupid suck up. Don’t misunderstand. I mean a suck up who is stupid. They’re just sickening, both to their co-workers and to the people they try to suck up to. I’m a supervisor where I work. I know all too well how ridiculous a stupid suck up is. Don’t read any further if you’re just plain stupid. You’ll just be a stupid suck up.
What a concept. Do what the boss asks, and you get paid. Wow! The more you do what the boss asks, the more you get paid. Astonishing.
Yes, the teacher’s pet–now, the suck up–soon to be the supervisor, the manager, or, if any actual skills go along with the suck up, the new VP.
The information I am about to share with you can be quite dangerous. First of all, because it will help you get ahead. But, secondly, because getting ahead without skills is usually only temporary. This will force you to move from company to company and from city to city to stay ahead of the ultimate death spiral should you remain beyond your skills. This latter tactic of job surfing requires at least a rudimentary level of language and writing skills to develop good resume and job interview abilities. I’ll cover these later in another article.
So, as pertains to getting ahead where you are, here it is. Realize this. Use it.
Anytime you start working at a company, you start out with a certain amount of change. Let’s say we all start out with a buck fifty.
Now, that’s not much, but it doesn’t take much.
Anytime you do something noticeable, and good, you get a little change. Say, a nickel. But, anytime you do something noticeable, and bad, you lose a bunch of change. Say, fifty cents.
Further, if you continue to do noticeable, and bad things, you lose change at an increasing rate. Whereas, continuing to do noticeable, and good things, has a smaller increase, but does multiply a little just the same.
I’m sure you’ve heard or have been told of someone saying something like this: “I don’t understand it. I’ve been with that company for several years. Why would they fire me for such a small thing?”
Here’s where understanding the change allegory helps. This person simply ran out of change. A quarter here. A quarter there. Eighty cents over here. Boom. One little thing, only a dime, but, they were out of change.
OK, there’s quite a lot I could say about the dynamics of gaining and losing change. For this discussion, I only need you to understand one element of it.
Notice above, I kept writing noticeable good things and noticeable bad things. This is the one single difference between being a good suck up or a stupid suck up. Making your positive contributions noticeable to the people who matter is the absolute key to getting ahead. A person of only average ability can move up the ladder if they can practice this well.
Any time you make a mistake, you have to downplay it to keep it less noticeable. Do not attempt to hide mistakes. NO. The only way to redeem a noticeable mistake is to be as involved in finding it as possible. The full redemption is to be the one to solve or repair the mistake as well as is humanly possible and to make this as noticeable as possible.
I can’t iterate the word ‘noticeable’ too much here.
Now, here is the central concept of this whole discussion. Get this, and it will all fall into place for you. Bad things are almost always noticeable, even when they are small. But, good things are rarely noticeable unless they are huge. So, the all important strategy for success comes from recognizing and utilizing the best platform and the best approach to making good things get noticed by the right people without being a stupid suck up.
This will be different in every field and for each kind of position and work.
Here’s an example:
You receive a praise from a client in an email. Forward it to your boss, or bosses. Forward it to your HR for internal publication, if you do that, and if appropriate. Simply type something like: Thought you would appreciate this positive note from John Doe. Putting the right note in is the key to success.
Another finer related point to this is the concept of attachment and detachment. Simply put, find ways to keep yourself attached to positive things and detached or in the middle of fixing bad things–whereas a negative can become a huge positive. Most successful, active people aren’t perfect. They’re just really good at noticing and fixing mistakes quickly before they become destructive and making sure they get noticed on the sweet end of the deal.
So, make more money. Move up the ladder. Keep it positive and turn negatives into positives.
Do what your boss wants. What a concept.
Regards.