We started this Blog series with a challenge for you: how to differentiate yourself among a crowd of good performers. http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/blog/2011/11/the-five-essentials-for-business-and-personal-advancement-differentiating-yourself-among-the-crowd-of-good-performers/.
We identified the importance of strong performance, the need to be accountable for the results you generate, building your reputation, and why visibility is critically important in this process.
So if you do these things, what happens? Well what happens is that people begin to notice you – and more importantly – they begin to listen to you and seek you out. Your opinion matters. Now that’s powerful. Interestingly, you don’t have to have a formal position or title in the organization to be powerful. This is called influence. And through influence you can begin to make things happen in your organization.
Have you heard: I’ve got great ideas but nobody listens to me; It’s like I’m invisible around here yet if it wasn’t for me this place would collapse. Have you ever said something like that yourself?
We don’t live in a Harry Potter world; you can’t wave a wand and conjure up personal importance. That’s the realm of magical fiction.
We live in a world where good work can and often does, get overlooked because no one knows about it or our your role in it. We live in a world where people take credit for things they don’t do (sometimes at your expense) because they’ve become good at the visibility part.
In our experience, the rare, and powerful, individual has “the package”.
Does it take work to develop “the package”? Of course it does. Can it be uncomfortable at times? Yes it can be for some people. But don’t be one of those people who lead a life of quiet desperation as described by Thoreau in his classic book Walden.
Take action, get noticed, and, make the contributions you are capable of making and know that it’s okay that others know it.
We have written extensively on influence, and below we have included a link to two of our articles.
Articles on Influence
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