I’m early in my career and make sure to meet as many senior industry professionals as I can for coffee, lunch, or in the office chatting. I have come across a lot of people who end up where they are via salesmanship and not moving the needle. Is that common / something I should expect in my career?
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This whole world is sales- If you’re a cool guy and can talk the talk you can work your way up, you’ll never be the top guy without actually producing but I’ve seen some guys make it really high up without actually doing a whole lot.
Yes, I’m at a bank that everyone in your family has heard of, and some of the higher up people are just facey / incredibly likable. They don’t add much to the deal process or AM side and probably aren’t great at their jobs, but everyone likes them and they are able to articulate what the do / impact they make wonderfully. Even if they actually do nothing and spend all their time to do everything to get FaceTime or CYA.
I do not fit in that category and know when I’m on a deal with them that they won’t do much, but I get it. They are good at getting people to like them which is part of working at a huge company.
This is accurate.
You can get away with doing nothing other than the following things:
- Being incredibly likeable/outgoing
- Being great at selling yourself and your accomplishments (or tying yourself to others' accomplishments)
- Going out of your way to CYA often
- Having a lot of face time presence
- Rubbing elbows with the higher-ups; kissing ass
- Being conniving and disparaging/discrediting anyone who challenges you and your authority
- Lying
Doing these things can take you very far at a company and life in general without needing to produce. But even that is not quite true though, because being likeable, being able to sell yourself and your company, getting in face time, etc. are all valuable to your company. For example, when interacting with other parties, you're able to instantly demonstrate competency and rapport, which leads to business. And that's without providing any intial value.
I'm not one of these people but my boss is. There are a few cons I see with this "strategy" of moving up. For one, it's probably a stressful way to operate. My boss is constantly worrying about what other people are doing and saying and how he is being perceived. It certainly doesn't take more work or effort, but it does take a higher stress tolerance that's probably unsustainable for most. Another con is that your position is unstable. People like this aren't trusted or kept close by the colleagues and people who know them best. Their authority/power carries them and if that's ever called into question, they can find themselves ousted pretty quickly. That's in contrast to the person who isn't immediately well-liked, but always does good work, is collaborative and dependable, authentic with others, and does what's good for the group. This person will typically be seen as more and more valuable in the long-run because they produce consistent results just as a part of who they are, whereas the well-liked guy's act is likely to crumble at some point given enough time getting to know him. (Not sure how true this is for larger companies with more distance between colleagues, but it's very true for smaller companies where people work closely together)
First, second, and fourth bullet point I’ll be adding to my tool belt
The third and seventh are actually the most powerful. It sucks, but this is the case. Being in the right place with a solid CYA in place when your boss or the boss of your boss fucks up is a pretty damn good way to get a promotion.
Edit: For those of you who do not agree see all politicians as a proof point.
Not only can you, it's probably the only way (besides being a founder). At a certain point in any job the work itself is just not that hard or irreplaceable.
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