Rockstars CAN'T Shine Everywhere
Hey guys!
So as you know, these days I am hard at work working on a digital course for all of you.
And so instead of producing the longer pieces that I usually post here, I am sharing Session Snippets, which are concepts, ideas, frameworks, things that I’m using with my clients, and that I’m going to share with you too.
So let me share another one with you.
There’s a common problem that I see for people who are rockstars.
They’re high achievers, they’re really good at what they do, and they expect themselves to be one of the best in the room everywhere they go.
And when you are used to being a rockstar, you can start thinking, “A rock star shines everywhere. I should make it work, do great work, deliver great results, and have everyone love me in all situations.”
And sometimes this is not true.
Because even if you are the best performer, the hardest worker, the smartest, the most insightful, all that stuff…
You can be structurally not set up for success.
Let me give you some examples of what this could be.
There could literally just be bias against you.
Because you are a parent, because of your skin color, because of your gender, because of your educational background, etc.
There could just be systemic bias where people just devalue you for something that’s out of your control and then filter all your work through that.
Or you could be in a situation where maybe the bias isn’t against YOU, for a personal quality, but you’re in a company that treats some people like second class citizens and some people like first class citizens.
This is a really common dynamic in a lot of companies.
You could be in an investing firm, where the investors are the first class citizens, and everyone else is seen as support staff.
Or in a tech company where the engineers are seen as the first class citizens, and everyone else is seen as support staff.
Or you could be in a situation where the stuff you’re working on isn’t high priority.
It’s not valued by leadership as being the main, needle-moving thing to work on.
Or you could be on a team whose leadership is running a bad process to get to the outcome.
It’s inefficient. It’s missing key elements. And you have limited ability to influence it.
These are all examples of what I mean when I say structural limitations.
And when high performers or rockstars find themselves in those situations…
A lot of times they just blame themselves for not being able to perform really well, deliver great results, and have everybody love them.
They’re like, “I must be doing something wrong. I must need to work harder, be smarter, be more impressive.”
And then they start trying to do all of those things…but the diagnosis is wrong!
A rock star can’t necessarily shine everywhere.
Sometimes there are just genuine structural limitations that you can’t outwork and outshine.
And if you can figure out what those are, then you can point your problem-solving at those instead.
And instead of spending all your energy trying to be better and work harder, you can look critically at how you’re not set up for success...
…And figure out how to solve that, OR how to just move to a different place where you’re not structurally at a disadvantage.
Just something for you to think about :)
PS—
I don’t know whether you should stay in your job or quit it.
But I do know HOW you can come to the right decision for you in a thoughtful, deliberate way.
No rage-quitting or doom-staying here :)
We’ll take the tangle of fears, concerns, and frustrations out of your brain and put them on paper.
Then we’ll work through them one by one until you’ve come to a decision you feel clear and confident about.
No more spinning. Get un-stuck today.
What my clients have to say…
“Pretty immediately, I was able to break through the decision of whether or not to leave my job.
I was able to see: Staying at my job is hard. Looking for a job is also hard. Which hard do I want to sign up for? Because being here in limbo is not productive.
I was also able to rewrite the story of what had happened at my current job in a way that gave me more confidence and started to untangle some of the emotional turmoil I had with that.
And then I recruited for and got my next job and got comfortable moving forward with that as my next step.”
—Client | Early-Stage Tech Startup Director turned Design Consultant
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