The Recipe For Getting Ahead at Work

We're constantly taught the recipe for getting ahead is to put our heads down
and outwork everyone else. But that's not quite right.

Late this summer, UK author Kate Lister had a realisation that resonated.(rozbrzmiewać
echem) On Twitter, she wrote: “How old were you when you realised your original plan of
being really nice, working really hard, & taking on much more than you should in the hope you
would be automatically rewarded for this without asking, was totally shit?”
CYNICAL OR NOT, THE SENTIMENT RESONATED: MORE THAN 400,000 PEOPLE HAVE LIKED
OR RETWEETED IT.
Although people tell you from a young age that hard work will get you everywhere, it really won’t, says
Jeff Shannon, an executive coach, and author of Hard Work is Not Enough: The Surprising Truth
about Being Believable at Work. He believes “hard work is a good start”, and early in your career, it
can certainly help you establish yourself in a job.
But it’s not enough to take you all the way to the top. “At a certain point you look around and realise,
wow, everyone works hard at this level. Expertise and hard work just become the expectation, and will
not help you up the ladder.”
So, yes, it’s unfair the system doesn’t simply value hard work flat out – but it’s an important reality for
workers to grapple with (zmagać się), especially if they’re struggling to climb the ladder. To really
get ahead, you need to be doing more than just your job. Realisations like Lister’s often come on the
heels of watching colleagues with similar (or fewer) abilities soar, while your career stagnates. More
often than not, those who rise are the ones willing to make their way to the top, while you were too
busy just working hard.
Hard work, says Shannon, doesn’t much matter if no one recognises you’re doing it. To translate that
effort into promotions and advancement, especially in a changed world of work, you have to make
people notice it – and you.
THE ‘TIARA EFFECT’ TRAP
Hard work is still very important, says Carol Frohlinger, president of US-based consulting firm
Negotiating Women, Inc. But simply waiting for someone to pick up on it is detrimental (szkodliwy)
Frohlinger calls this tendency the “tiara effect” (a term Sheryl Sandberg also cited in Lean In). “People
work really hard and deliver fabulous results and hope that the right people notice and come along
(come, arrive) and place a tiara on their heads. But that usually doesn’t happen,” she says. “One of
the things that can happen to people who do good work and nothing else is that they’re under the
radar. So, when there’s an opportunity for promotion, nobody thinks of them. They’re just forgotten,
in some way.
This flies in the face of societal training that begins as early as primary school, when students are
taught that the quiet, hard workers are those most likely to prosper. Because teachers reward such
qualities in early years, we tend to expect our eventual bosses will, too. It’s frustrating, then, to enter
the working world only to discover this engrained (wpojony) lesson is often incorrect.
In fact, as Shannon notes, hard work alone typically goes unnoticed after a certain point, because
everyone around you is working at or about the same level. If you don’t draw attention to yourself in
other ways, it’s easy to fade into the background.
While both men and women are susceptible to supervisors overlooking their hard work, Frohlinger
says women are often more negatively impacted, because it’s generally seen as more acceptable for
men to talk about their accomplishments. “For women, it can be seen as bragging, and bragging
women can be punished,” she says.
To climb the ladder, it’s necessary to be not just a great worker, but a bit of
a politician
So, how do you get around the stereotype? The answer – for men as well as women – is to find a way
to draw attention to your endeavours without waiting for a yearly review or performance self-
assessment.
“What happens in a lot of companies and organisations is that you wait until the very end of
the year, when you do the ‘I love me’ [self-assessment] memo,” says Frohlinger. “But you just
can’t wait a year.”
She suggests giving the boss more frequent updates about your accomplishments. “It could be just a
quick email with some bullet points: here are my wins, and here’s what they did for us,” she says.
“Here’s why it was helpful for our team, or how it saved the company money.” Frequency and word
choice matter, adds Frohlinger. “Nobody wants to hear it every day. Using phrases like ‘my team and
I’ helps you make yourself look good while also sharing the kudos.” (Pochwała)
The value of politics
Yet in most offices and industries, proven ability alone isn’t enough to help you get ahead, because
you also need to be likeable and memorable. “If you want to have impact and influence, people need
to trust and believe in you,” says Shannon, the same way they do a candidate they support.
Basically, to climb the ladder, it’s necessary to be not just a great worker, but a bit of a politician.
“You need to be seen as a leader,” says Frohlinger. “You need to be liked: by people at your level, by
people above you and by people below you. When you evaluate work, the research is quite clear
– people who are liked get better ratings, even if their work is the same.” And there is some truth in it:
you and a colleague may have the exact same skills and work ethic, but if they’ve spent more time
making friends and influencing people, they’ll look better at their job. Bosses are human, too, and it’s
simply a basic instinct for them to favour people they like.
However, it is very possible to increase your political capital at work. There are basic tactics that can
make you a well-liked member of the office, simply by paying attention to your colleagues. “You need
to think about how to connect with people other than just on the work,” says Frohlinger. “Do we have a
shared hobby or interest? Let’s say I know you like gardening, and I see this gardening article and I
send it to you. That’s pretty simple, but you’re going to like me more.”
While it may seem a bit manipulative, that doesn’t actually hurt anyone, and it’s what may be
necessary to get ahead. It may require a reorganisation of priorities for those who’d rather focus on
their to-do list over socialising. But going against that instinct can be beneficial. It’s all part of career
maintenance, which Frohlinger says is every worker’s responsibility.
“If you don’t take care of your career,” she says, “nobody else is going to do it.”
source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210921-why-hard-work-alone-isnt-enough-to-get-
ahead
_______ ______________________________________________________
Vocabulary:
Take on (responsibilities, tasks)- brać na siebie

Reward – nagrodzić
At a certain point – w pewnym momencie
Expertise- wiedza specjalistyczna
Expectation – oczekiwanie
Value – cenić
Get ahead – iść naprzód, zrobić progres
Recognise - docenić
Come on the heels - to happen very soon after something:
Effort- wysiłek
Notice- zauważyć
Tend to – mieć tendencję
Note – zauważyć
Draw attention – zwrócić uwagę
Endeavours- wysiłek
Frequency – częstotliwość
Evaluate – ocenić
Favour – faworyzować
Pay attention – zwracać uwagę, uważnie słuchać
Beneficial - korzystny
Climb the career ladder – getting promoted to a higher rank at work

Stagnate – when your career stagnates, you cannot make a progress, you don’t get promoted
More often than not – usually
Opportunity for promotion – a chance to get promoted
susceptible– sensitive
overlook – not notice
to impact – to have an influence

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We're constantly taught the recipe for getting ahead is to put our heads down

and outwork everyone else. But that's not quite right.

The value of politics

Take on (responsibilities, tasks)- brać na siebie

Climb the career ladder – getting promoted to a higher rank at work

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