If you need to get forward and gain respect at work, do not make “being nice” your precedence, says Stanford University organizational conduct professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.
You may assume being nice will you them stand out out of your friends, however you weren’t employed “to win a popularity contest, says Pfeffer, 76. “You’ve been employed to get issues achieved.” Focusing on results doesn’t mean you should be mean or rude, but “you should not optimize on being widespread and being nice. You ought to optimize on getting your job achieved,” he says.
Many young professionals, especially women, feel pressure to be liked at work, notes Pfeffer, who has taught at Stanford for nearly five decades and written or co-written 16 books on topics like leadership and career development. He’s the host of MasterClass’ “The Power Playbook” course, which published on August 21.
But you don’t actually need anyone except your boss — and, perhaps, your boss’ boss — to like you, he says. Start building those relationships with some old-fashioned flattery, he recommends: Compliment them on a new initiative they’re spearheading, for example, or show them you value their insight by asking them for career advice.
“The folks within the hierarchy are the people who find themselves accountable for your profession,” says Pfeffer, adding: “You want to fret quite a bit about what your boss thinks about you. You need not fear a lot about what everyone else thinks.”
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As for exhibiting your boss that you’re a succesful worker — and standing out out of your colleagues — you’ll gain a constructive status simply by being a person of your word, Walmart chief folks officer Donna Morris instructed CNBC Make It on August 25.
Good staff “ship what you expect at the time that you’re anticipating,” and the best ones deliver ahead of schedule, said Morris. “So what I’d say is you’re higher to ship early than to ship late, and you’re higher to ship greater than much less, if that is smart.”
High-achieving staff additionally find ways to “reduce stress, rather than create it,” billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban stated in October 2024. In specific, they know tips on how to “analyze a state of affairs, discover a resolution and never make a giant deal out of it,” he said.
“There’s lots of people which are only a whirlwind and all the things appears to be tough, inflicting loads of pointless stress,” said Cuban, adding: “The best worth you can provide a boss is to cut back their stress.”
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