- he was male and had some of the general over confident characteristics that male dominated firms seem to admire. Who cares if he is chatting complete and utter tosh - he's one of the boys!
- he would say what people wanted to hear regardless of if it made sense
- he was so confident in his own abilities and talent as a sophisticated schemer that he underestimated all his fellow marketers around him and would do everything in his power to bad mouth them all.
When I saw his profile for what he did for my former company it really did bring home that me being a realist and honest is probably scuppering my career trajectory. He was blathering on about delivering significant results for a £100m business and managing a team etc. All lies, he achieved very little and made numerous mess ups but who can question his claims.
Employers can't give bad references or even truthful references as they could be sued. Individuals are now free to create their own persona online - all you do is consider the things that you want to emphasise and get writing. On Linked In and the like, you can select what you want people to know about you and build your own brand. So what if it's not entirely true - how can anyone prove it? And more to the point who can actually be bothered to disprove what others have said!
I've racked my brains, and I can't think of a single timid or self-effacing person who is successful. I know one or two whose talent speaks for itself, but even they tend to have underachieved. (I'd like to think you shouldn't get ahead of your talent, but that's because I'm a serial underachiever...)
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think its a gender issue. The successful women I know are all self promoters. Tediously so. Similarly, I know quiet men who have been overlooked; it's just that quiet men much rarer than quiet women. And its not about being dishonest, it's about being enthusiastic and continual reminding people of your strengths - as if you're in a perpetual job interview. (But even if you don't lie, it's still irritating to everybody else. Yeah, I've heard it before; shut up about yourself for once.) In an ideal world it wouldn't be necessary, but in an ideal world we could dress like tramps and look like the elephant man. There are managers who can see through the smoke, but they are rare and it takes time. And I've seen people who are not as good as they think, but are still better than the people around them.
Out of interest what do Google and Facebook say about your nemesis? The internet is notorious for remembering mistakes, so I'm sure he'll pick up a bad "smell" sooner or later.
My nemesis is presumably doing well in the Middle East, would like to say that I wish him luck but he will no doubt do very well on his own
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