Spoiler alert: Never work harder than your clients
The best advice I’ve ever received and a lesson I’ve had to learn over and over the hard way.
So what does it really mean?
We’re conditioned to think that the greater our efforts and delivery are in our area of expertise – we should receive an equal or greater-than reaction to that work. That’s just not the reality.
Depending on your area of expertise, you have likely encountered a job or a time where you built something great, solved a problem, or discovered an idea or issue that you felt needed attention. We believed that shining a light on these, leaning in, and participating in the solution or build would give us some kind of accolades. It should be impressive right?
Unfortunately, not always.
Frankly, this is why so many corporate workers start their careers with so much rigor and motivation and ultimately end up feeling disengaged with a healthy dose of learned helplessness in their job (a bit of “woe is me” if you will). Because you realize that the extra efforts and insight you have are not always recognized – and sometimes even punished.
So how do you re-position yourself from a potential victim to still being a rock star?
1: Make sure you’re leaning into things that the business (or your client) has an appetite for. Not simply something that is important to you or your department or your intrinsic value.
2: Solicit and discuss the client pain points, needs, aspirations and the depth of their motivation for solving or solutioning these. Listen more than speak.
3: Highlight observations and educate when you can, but do not extend your time and resources into building until you’ve got the backing and sponsorship. Unfortunately, it’s VERY tough to impress with something that wasn’t asked for. Which leads me to my last point.
4: Lose any ego you might have. Make it their idea. After enough discussion and education on issues or ideas – often you’ll find you’ve built the appetite. Let it be their idea that you can then execute on and show results from. Even though you might not get the “credit” for the idea – you’ll get the accolades for the impact – and you’ll have the W from your client.
Lastly – don’t forget that your “client” isn’t always your boss – it might be your peers, or a broader audience. Make sure you’re applying this technique across any matrixed environment that you’re operating in.
You got this. š
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