Friday, December 30, 2011

Go to Lots of Meetings in 2012 (to Learn the Rules of the Game)

I wish I had understood at the beginning of my career that in order to have a shot at being successful I needed to invest some time and energy into really understanding the rules of the game. Only when you understand the rules of the game will you be able to set appropriate and attainable goals.  Only when you understand the game can you know whether you want to 1) play in this game by these rules, 2) play in this game and break a few rules, 3) play in this game and make up new rules, or 4) whether to find another game altogether.
 

How do you figure out the rules of the game? First of all there are rules, and there are rules. I am not talking about the rules that are written down. If you meet with your Human Resources (HR) representative she will share rules that are documented, but don't really matter, like “your lunch hour is x minutes long”.  We should all know by reading Penelope Trunk's advice that if you are doing something more important for the business some of these rules are completely breakable. They are also unlikely to have much of an effect on how successful you will be. No matter how many times you camp out in HR they will not tell you how to be successful. The primary job of HR is to protect the executives from law suits. Despite their name, is not their primary job to be an advocate for employees. You should know this now.

A great way to learn the rules of the game is to watch others.  According to Alexis Grant and Jaclyn Schiff in the blog post Twenty Young Brazen Professional to Watch in 2012

One of the best ways to make strides in your career is by watching others succeed, by making note of how they do it.
But watch who?  You might learn the rules from your boss, but if your boss hasn't shared them with you by now either your boss doesn't know the rules, or doesn't want to share them with you. At this point you have a choice.  You can find a new boss who knows the rules, or you can stick with your boss and continue to learn from others. There are pros and cons to each approach. You can learn more, and learn more quickly, by working with folks who understand the rules of the game. On the other hand, it can be easy to stand out in an organization where you understand the rules better than anyone else.

To understand the rules you have to study the "decision makers". Decision makers can be executives, but are not necessarily executives. Make this a priority. Make it part of your job. The decision makers will differ from organization to organization, even within the same company, and in many organizations can be counted on 1 hand. The best and most straightforward way to learn the rules is to go to meetings that decision makers attend. Everyone complains about going to meetings; they claim they can't do their work because they are always in meetings. The truth is that attending meetings is a very efficient way to learn the unwritten rules of the game. Listen carefully to the discussion. See who in the room influences the decisions that are made. See who ends up with the action items. See who gets dirty looks or just ignored when they speak. See who can interrupt without getting dirty looks. Listen to the kinds of questions that are asked and arguments that are made. Be prepared to answer those types of questions and make similar arguments if you have the chance to participate in the meetings or make a presentation. Decision makers tend to ask the similar questions from meeting to meeting.

Get to know the decision makers, even casually if you have the chance. Volunteer to serve on committees with them. No one wants to serve on committees so that can be an easy way to get the opportunity to learn from decision makers. Stop and chat with them at lunch. Talk to them in the break room if you can. Be ready with a few ideas you'd like to discuss. I can't tell you how many opportunities I've wasted by not having anything business related to bring up on the elevator or in the break room when I ran into an executive. Also you may mitigate the chance that you'll say something stupid :(

Most of the people I know, who want to get ahead but whose careers have stalled or plateaued, understand the rules on some level, but think the rules are stupid and don't want to follow them. These people have a strong, almost moral sense about how things should work. This is not a very practical way of approaching your career. If you really think the rules are stupid, it may be time to find a different game to play.

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