How To Get Ahead Without Sucking Up To Idiots

How do you get ahead in your career without doing things that go against your values? That is a central issue all of us need to ponder, because almost any job in any organization will at some point put you in a situation where you have to tell the truth or bite your lip.

There are upright, honest and ethical leaders in most organizations and there are fearful weenies everywhere, too. In some companies you can't succeed without sucking up to fearful bosses.

You might go along with that for awhile. You might create compartments in your mind and tell yourself it's okay to be one person at work and a completely different, more honest person everywhere else but eventually your gut will rebel.

Your body will resist. You'll get sick or injure yourself when the conflict between what you know to be right and what your job requires of you becomes too great.

You can succeed in your career without violating your ethical principles and without sucking up to idiots and posers, but it's not easy. If you want to do it, you have to find your voice and use it. You have to find your backbone.

People write to me every day and ask me "How can I solve my evil-boss problem -- without changing jobs?" You can do it, but it's just as much of a challenge to solve your evil-boss problem without changing jobs as it would be to get a new job.

Launching a stealth job search is a pain. If your boss is really a tyrant, it could even be scary, because you might wonder what will happen to you if your boss finds out you're job-hunting. In the worst case, your boss might learn about your job search and let you go.

Then you'd be without an income for the rest of your job hunt, but you'd also have your working hours free to job hunt without hiding in the closet. Good and bad things come together, more often than we realize!

If you want to keep your job but also solve your evil-boss problem, you have to speak up. You have to set boundaries with your boss. Most of us are afraid to try. To set those boundaries, you have to be willing to get fired if your boss can't handle your new truth-telling ways.

If you work in the USA and you don't have an employment contract, you're used to working under this type of pressure anyway. Any one of us could be fired at any moment. In the USA we follow a doctrine called Employment at Will. It means that anyone could be sacked at any moment for no reason at all.

We are so used to this goofy doctrine in the USA that we forget about it for the most part -- until it becomes necessary to deliver more truth than your manager may be comfortable with.

Then the realization comes flooding back in -- "If my boss doesn't like what I have to say, I could get fired!"

There is only one way to grow your muscles, and that is by using them.

The same way your evil boss taught you over many incidents and interactions to fear him, you will teach your boss to give you more latitude, just by using the latitude you've already got. When you speak up about things you care passionately about, your words will have force. Very few bosses -- even cranky, opinionated ones -- will fire you for that.

If you do get fired, you'll need to get a new job -- but you'll have grown your muscles, too! Good and bad things come together in the same package, as we said before.

It is only scary to speak up at work the first few times you do it. After that it gets easier. When your muscles get stronger, you'll say what you feel and you won't care if you get fired as a result, because you will know that if you lose one job, a better job will show up. When you know who you are and know your value, the prospect of getting fired becomes much less threatening.

I met a young man at a concert not long ago. He is 20, the same age as my older kids. I asked him "What kind of work do you do?" He said "I work in an art gallery."

"Do you like it?" I asked him.

"It's the best job I've ever had," he said. "I had three bad jobs in a row and finally I realized that I was shooting too low. I got my jobs from Craigslist or because some store had a sign in the door saying there were hiring. I didn't expend any effort to get those jobs and all three jobs sucked really bad.

"I went into the art gallery the first time because my friend's mom had a piece of artwork on display there. I looked around. I thought about what I would want if I were an art gallery manager or owner and I was looking to hire someone.

"I went back into the gallery a week later wearing a white shirt and a tie and the one jacket I own. I asked to speak to the manager and luckily she was there. I told her that I'm an art enthusiast and I would be very interested in learning more about the artists whose work is hanging in the gallery, and would be interested in helping her promote the gallery's events. We talked and emailed for about a month and then she hired me for a few hours a week. Now I work at the gallery full-time."

The kid understands that the old-millennium ideas of Transferable Skills and keywords and automated recruiting processes don't cut it now. People get jobs that deserve them by spotting other people's pain and addressing it directly.

The new millennium workplace requires more of us than the old-millennium workplace did -- but it offers more, too! Here's the catch. To get the good things the new-millennium workplace offers us, we have to step out of our comfort zone.

We have to bring ourselves to work.

When one job is not a good fit anymore, we have to change jobs. We have to actively manage our own careers!

We have to use our voices and set boundaries. We can't make an evil boss or the economy or any other bogeyman the villain in our movie. There are no villains in your movie -- only you, the director, star and cinematographer, calling the shots!

Questions and Answers

How can I get a job that deserves me?

Take a look at Liz Ryan's new book Reinvention Roadmap!

What will I learn by reading Reinvention Roadmap?

You won't just read Reinvention Roadmap. You'll step into total-immersion instruction in finding a great job and running your own career!

You'll learn to write your Human-Voiced Resume and Pain Letters, and reach out to hiring managers directly instead of completing online job applications. You'll learn to choose the career path that suits you as a person -- because you are not just a bundle of skills! You deserve a job that celebrates your talents.

Now is the perfect time to take charge of your job search -- and your career!