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Ain’t what you do but the way you do it

The people I work with in my coaching practice average 20 years work experience, some more, some less. Most know their business reasonably well and are proficiently good or excellent in their jobs (let’s skip over those that hate what they do; that’s another blog..).

What these people have in common is their functional, industry-specific knowledge, having ’tilled the soil’ for a while. What separates them each are their actions, their words, their behavior, and interactions within the company as they maneuver the corporate maze.

If your actions are hesitant, unsure, jesting, difficult, condescending, impatient, and so on, that’s your internal corporate brand. It is how you’ll be perceived, REGARDLESS of how well you know your job and your industry. And yes, it is as simple as that.

Let me repeat: The way you act and behave on a daily, monthly and annual basis with others at work, REGARDLESS of your professional and educational pedigree, REGARDLESS of your appearance or ethnicity, will move you ahead or move you to the side. It is true everywhere, big company or small, East or West.

Let me quote the ever-ubiquitous Marshall Goldsmith:

Let’s consider a hypothetical choice: Would you rather have a CFO who is a pretty good accountant and a very skilled manager or a brilliant bean counter who alienates almost everyone under him?

It’s not a tough choice, really–the candidate with superb people skills will win out every time, mostly because of the fact that he’ll be able to hire people who are smarter with money than he is, and he’ll be able to lead them. The odds of the virtuoso accountant being able to do that aren’t very good.

Think about the successful people you know. When you consider how they got to be that way, do you attribute it to their sheer technical expertise? Probably not.

Oh sure, you likely can attest to their knowledge of what they do. Again, they would have to be smart to succeed at that level, but that’s almost certainly not the only factor. It’s probably more precise to say they’re smart and something else.

And that “something else” is what really sets them apart because, at some point, we give them the benefit of the doubt on skill issues and look at other characteristics.

For instance, we assume our doctors know medicine, so we judge them on bedside manner–how they tolerate questions, deliver bad news and apologize for keeping us in the waiting room too long. This stuff isn’t taught in medical school.

Thanks, Marshall..

This is not to say that everyone who’s a blunt talker and difficult needs anger-management help or will implode; everyone has a different dance and rhythm, and some work environments have an in-your-face and direct culture (although seldom in Asia..).

But the higher up one goes, the more your interpersonal smarts will steady you 9 times out of 10. Remember that. Being hard charging, humorous, ethical, verbally deft, cross cultural, and possessing other business attributes are all extremely important, and cannot be overlooked.

But if you are viewed as difficult–or diffident–change it now. You are who you are, and I can’t change your character–no one can. But behaviour can always be modified, as long as you’re willing.