Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The secret of invisibility! The "no one is thinking about you" phenomenon.

Today on my usual morning stroll (this time to the beach with the sun shining on the eve of Festivus) two things kept coming back to me.

Who among my supervisors are thinking about me at this minute and what would that have to do with my career(if I worried about it like I used to). The answer is no one is thinking about me or my job except me. So that means as long as nothing pops up about me, my job is secure.

I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that the same phenomenon affects most middle and upper level managers in most businesses and in the public sector. Out of sight is out of mind.

I gave some thought about who I would think about when I was running a significant profit center. I rarely thought about my employees. I most often thought (and worried) about what my boss was thinking about me or what I was doing. The truth is my boss was worrying only about what popped up on his desk that day and most of that was bad. If I could avoid being in the bad in-box I was invisible.

Invisibility in the work place is NOT a negative thing. Invisibility is a secret power thing (like superheroes have). You are invisible always and then when you can take credit for something good, you swivel the secret decoder ring and become visible. If you are only visible when good things happen and you are never in the bad in-box, your career would be assured.

I always made it a point to keep my mouth shut when I was screwing up and when things were going my way I would wear my silk CEO suit and an expensive tie so I would be noticed. I could never understand project managers who always wanted attention by causing problems.

I wanted project managers who were playing golf with their clients on Friday afternoon while their assistant managers gained valuable experience by being left unsupervised to manage for short periods. My best mangers knew the secret of invisibility and used it to their advantage. After a Friday afternoon of being invisible, they would show up Monday or Tuesday with some good news about their client relationship and future work, or enhanced revenue projections.

So try and learn the secret of invisibility, and remember your boss is not thinking or worrying about you. She is constantly trying to figure out what her boss is thinking regarding her, which is nothing. Your bosses boss is worried about their boss, on up the line. The CEO is worried about his/her spouse and their retirement portfolio not you.

So as tomorrow is Festuvus, you should be making your list of grievances and putting up the bare aluminum pole.

So my gift: Stop worryng about what others are thinking and try to learn the superhero secret of invisibility/visibility.

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