The Two Ways To Get Promoted Or: The Questions To Ask Yourself Before Working For A New Boss.

Jake Ingle

Where do people spend their time at work?  On frivolous things. On worrying what other people, who are no better than them, think.

Everyone has their own shit to deal with.  Just because someone is higher than you on an org chart does not mean they have sorted everything out.  Probably just the opposite.

Ask yourself why are they working here?  If they were that good, why have they not started, or tried to start, their own company?  Do they actually know how to market if they were spending their own money? Do they know how to sell with the pressure of not getting any income if they do not convert? Do they know about stock holding and cash flow when that same cash needs to pay the mortgage on their own house?

Are all the people above you on the org chart the critics that Theodore Roosevelt was talking about? Have they actually done anything?

Well, some have.  Some have battled their way through.  Some have taken hard stances.  Some have tried lots of jobs to expand their knowledge and see first-hand that it is easier to criticise another function rather than do the doing that they do, day in day out.

At the same time, there are also the blow-hards.  The ones that talk a good game.  That set things up like a house of cards and get promoted before leaving the inevitable winds of change to knock the cards down for some other sucker to sort out. The ones that do not seem to actually know anything.  That ask what they think are profound questions in the style of a leader, when in fact they are just obvious simple questions that do not require any thought.

Being mistaken for a blow-hard when you are a doer is gut-wrenching.  Being mistaken for a doer when you are a blow-hard is surely the ultimate aim of the blow-hard.

The quicker you can work out which one of these you are working for, the better.  Preferably in the interview before you accept the job.  No need to leave your job if you find out too late - just know.

Blow-hards are always looking for doers.  Just try to get directly to the people they speak to as they are likely to steal your work for their own gain.  If you are working for a doer, they will give you the credit - like a brotherhood.

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