Overheard:
“I don’t understand it. My team consistently delivers. For the last project, we did the work of several teams and hit the deadline, yet I’m not getting credit for it.”
“I quietly deliver great results, and while my boss seems to appreciate and count on me, she just selected someone I believe is less qualified for the new lead role.”
“My boss went to bat for me but indicated the talent planning group felt I wasn’t ready.”
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Truth: your good results aren’t good enough to help you get ahead. And yes, I know, this seems unfair, but it is a workplace fact of life.
If you’re one of the many individuals who feel undervalued at work, despite your great results, it’s time to pause and reassess your influence fitness strategy.
Getting ahead in the workplace is a blend of several essential factors, including your abilities, results, alignment with your boss, culture fit, and others. Yet, there’s an X-factor that too many good people overlook: influence born of relationships in the right places.
Quietly effective isn’t enough.
Consider:
In a recent situation, two individuals started at the same time at the same level. Both were solid, generating good results, with person A, arguably, the stronger one here. Person B earned the next promotion. What happened illustrates the myth of letting your work speak for itself.
In discussing the situation with A, it was clear they were focused on letting their results speak for themselves. A worked quietly with a small group and delivered on their commitments, always ahead of time and with high quality.
B, on the other hand, worked hard to build relationships across boundaries, engage regularly with stakeholders, and volunteered to help organize the upcoming holiday event and the new year company town hall meeting. When the project they were leading was delayed, they were quick to inform key stakeholders and were given latitude to reduce the project scope and deliver late.
As the organization was restructured heading into the new year, both individuals applied for new, more senior roles. Person B was promoted.
Build relationships through shared activities
While a simple example, Person B’s actions mapped nicely to deliberate efforts to strengthen their influence fitness.
B focused on building relationships at all levels and across boundaries. And importantly, B leveraged the shared activities principle, which suggests that the most valuable network building takes place not in requests for coffee but in working on something meaningful, such as the holiday party or company town hall meetings with others.
Person B had ample opportunities to engage with and become visible to other senior leaders and contributors across the organization in these settings.
While Person B’s promotion isn’t directly linked to volunteering for the company holiday party — that was just a vehicle to build relationships — the reality is that the more people know, like, and trust you, the stronger your reputation is when it comes to those talent discussions and decisions.
Bottom Line for Now:
Generating good results never goes out of fashion. However, it’s time to reframe your thinking about how to get ahead. Good results alone aren’t enough. It’s time to deliberately build your influence.
