Who Decides Whether or Not You Did a Good Job?
A FOOT SOLDIER lets other people decide whether they’re doing a good job.
Their mentality is “I’m here to take orders and do what I'm told.”
And when someone comes to them with feedback or input or a complaint…
Especially if it’s someone with more experience or seniority…
They leap into action and start doing exactly what they’re told without questioning it.
For a foot soldier, success = keeping everyone happy and impressed with them.
If anyone is unhappy, it has to be resolved asap. If anyone disagrees with them, a foot soldier will defer.
For example:
Someone more senior than you asks you to add them to the weekly standing meeting for your project.
You immediately add them to the meeting and start designing the agendas to cater to the fact that there's a more senior person in the room now.
An EXPERT uses their own judgment to decide whether they’re doing a good job.
Their mentality is “I’m the expert in charge.”
And when someone comes to them with feedback or input or a complaint…
Even if it’s someone with more experience or seniority…
They ask:
What is the real need this person is expressing?
What solution are they proposing to get their need met?
Do I agree with that solution? Or do I think there’s a better, more effective way to meet their need?
If I think there's a better way, how can I best persuade them of my viewpoint?
For an expert, success = achieving the result they’re responsible for in the most effective way possible.
This may involve making some people temporarily unhappy or having disagreements! But it's all in service of finding the most effective path to the common goal.
For example:
Someone more senior than you asks you to add them to the weekly standing meeting for your project.
You dig in and realize the real need is that they want a better understanding of how your project impacts their team.
Them coming to all your meetings isn't the best solution – a senior presence is going to derail your working meetings.
So you propose that you meet with them one-on-one every week and that you add someone from their team to your standing meeting.
Experts get better results than foot soldiers.
The people coming to you with feedback or complaints don’t spend all day thinking about the problem like you do.
They’re just giving you off-the-cuff thoughts — the first solution that popped into their mind, based on their surface-level understanding of the problem.
It’s YOUR job to look past what they say they want and understand what they really need.
It is impossible to have an expert mentality when you’re caught up in imposter syndrome.
If you’re consumed and convinced by thoughts like:
I haven’t done this before.
I don’t have that much experience.
I don’t really know what I’m doing.
You won’t even pause to consult your own expertise. You’ll be too busy deferring to whoever feels like giving you their opinion.
Your brain will tell you: But I haven’t done this exact thing before, so I can’t feel like an expert.
And this is a LIE.
You don’t need experience doing this exact thing.
You just need trust and certainty in your PROCESS.
By which I mean: The way you gather information. The way you break down problems. The way you prioritize. The way you make decisions. The way you learn and adjust. The overall MO that you carry with you everywhere you go.
I don’t care if you’ve never done this exact thing before.
If you got to where you are, you have a process that’s already good AND always improving.
What’s holding you back is NOT your lack of experience.
It’s your unwillingness to lean into the expertise you already have.
And if you want to learn exactly HOW to do that…
So you can bring your clearest, sharpest self to work every day…
(Instead of battling through the fog of self-doubt while trying to get your job done…)
Then come talk to me, and let me show you how.
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