Fall is here, so it’s time to kick off a new Blog series.
I know this has become a cliché for government workers, but I want to address something that is not always apparent in the corporate world, yet omnipresent nonetheless. Being too good at your job. This is episode 1.
Out of respect to those working for federal or state entities, we are no better. Dare I say that it’s easy to throw stones over the wall at “the others” when we are no better? One word. Human.
I recently came across another metaphor as I was thinking about why creating too many boundaries around my job were suffocating. And, after much self reflection and self doubt, I realized that I was simply feeding into a piece of a greater political equation at work. I have been a super-performer and doing too much too well, blurring lines and crossing lines and jumping right into sand boxes. Being entrepreneurial because I thought it was embraced. And it dawned on me that it was really inconceivable that this would be punishable behaviour when, wasn’t I doing everything I could to better the company?
Wrong answer. After about a week of processing all of the emotional junk, I came to this conclusion. What guys (men) know well at work, is how to play the game. They can shine while under-performing, and take a seat in the audience watching women duke it out (sorry, men and women. It’s a gross assumption, but an equation in corporate America which I’ve personally experienced, and would like to address). Women tend to over-perform because they are still proving themselves. And still making 72 cents for every dollar paid to the other gender. So of course women are not convinced that it’s simply over gender in 2012. It MUST be due to lack of results and achievement as compared to their counterparts. Even if the media tells us that it’s inequality at work.
My 72 cent advice?
If you are in the throes of learning new territory and setting off land mines, slow down. Observe and listen to your peers. Open the door to release your own tension so you are not reflecting it back to your peers. Focus on building trust. This, I’ve done. And it’s worked. And as I learn something new each day, I realize that my behavior was initially welcome until it became over bearing. So it was a combination of me, my peers and my manager fueling the frenzy until fireworks went off.
If not, you could be setting yourself up for failure and creating more waves as an over-performer in a structured, or even unstructured environment. Don’t you remember the kid who used to get all the answers right in school? And didn’t they just annoy you? If you didn’t see it in yourself before, maybe it’s time to grab that mirror in your drawer. She’s aged a bit since then!
Episode 2 will be addressing what happens when women have taken a step back in title for a new job, and are overly ambitious to earn it back.
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