Posted in Graduate Experience on Mar 1st, 2009
Resistance
Resistance to you will come about largely as a result of the perceived threat that you present. However, envy is also a major source of resentment that manifests itself in resistance towards you. At a fundamental level, this also relates to the perception of you threatening one’s prospects.
Some members of the organisation will resent missing out on opportunities and exposure that you will get in your graduate program. They see you being given high profile assignments while they are…..
Support
For the most part, senior managers and executives are highly supportive of graduates. It is this group whose support will be critical for your progress in the organisation, but don’t make the incorrect assumption that the game of influence begins and ends with them…..
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Posted in Graduate Experience on Feb 26th, 2009
Your colleagues will be thinking about whether you threaten their prospects, social status and whether you are of any use to them.
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Posted in Graduate Experience on Feb 15th, 2009
We all like to be acknowledged for our efforts and even better still, that they have resulted in something quite exceptional. To be acknowledged for exceptional work a a graduate, you need to make time to work on “exceptions”. That is, work which is not operational. A project or a piece of analysis. Something that is exceptional by definition should be very different from the expected.
The results of operational work, that is work related to the core function of a department, are measured often and tallied at the end of a quarter, half-year or annually. Operational work is what you are expected to do.
Operational performance is usually measured relative to your peers and various benchmarks, so differentiation is challenging and highly competitive. If you beat your targets by 10% and everybody else has exceeded them by 10% too, then you are not going to standout. The spotlight will shine on the person who topped the group with 30%.
So why not be that person? It’s too much work and besides, you can work the hardest and smartest yet still be trumped by someone due to circumstance. Why risk it?
For example, if you are in sales and your colleague picks up a “windfall” client who proves to be exceptionally lucrative, you will be blown out of the water. Such clients are not available to target in every portfolio and can be down to luck more than effort.
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Posted in Graduate Experience on Feb 10th, 2009
The Best Assignment Doesn’t Win
You don’t get it! You have worked longer hours, produced better work but that other moron still got the promotion over you!
Being the smartest cookie in the cookie jar may have been enough to ace the exam or assignment, but in the office there is more to the equation than who is the smartest or who produces the best work.
Your talent is the starting point, not the selling point, because everybody else in your graduate intake is also talented, all in different ways. Talent is what got them through the selection process, just like you. Like all competitive environments, promotions (i.e. power) must contested.
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