I recently read Tara Mohr’s Playing Big. Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the book, for me, was that most women excel at school but can get derailed easily when bringing “the good student” mentality when it comes to work. I look for clear parameters for what an A+ is and always work towards that goal. I rarely bother to let my boss know what I’ve accomplished, because, well, it will be obvious in the “grades”. Unfortunately, there are no mileposts like grades in the work world and success can seem nebulous. There is no clear line between the A+ (i.e. perfect) and an A, as an employee. In fact, at school we know the expectations every day versus work where it’s a wide-open landscape and an annual assessment of meets or exceeds.
Here is the difference between student and employee:
Adapting versus Challenging Authority. As a student, I have to adapt to the authority figure, my teacher. The locus of control is the teacher. They let you know how to turn in papers, what an A+ looks like in terms of grades and weighting. In college it was dictated but Strunk and White and the MLA Style Handbook. God forbid your font be too large, not Times New Roman or your line spacing be wrong. As a student I adapt to the parameters of each authority figure. As an employee, I need to be able to challenge and influence the authority figures. Is the status quo going to be enough to move this project forward? There are many authority figures throughout the organization and they all have different views and perspectives. There is also the end user and their perspective. How do we influence and challenge them? In a business, everyone is an authority whether it be customer, boss, co-worker or direct report. If I focus on my student mentality in the workplace, I end up trying to adapt to the boss and wonder why I don’t rise any farther in the organization.
Preparation versus Improvisation. In school, I had a syllabus, a text book, a road map to follow to be prepared for each exam, paper and project. Preparation was key for success. The map was clearly marked and rarely, if ever, was there a need for improvisation. In the work world, it is nothing but improvisation. Customer service is improvisation, problem solving, a dance of influence, appeasement and adjustment. Sure, there are procedures, guidelines and rules at work but the majority of the day is gliding through distraction, focus and competing demands. I remember when I initially learned how to facilitate a training. I went into a training with a script and note cards fully prepared to give the content. It was stiff and unforgiving. I learned overtime that improvisation and adapting to the audience is much more important than preparation. I try to embrace improvisation instead of over preparing.
Outside In versus Inside Out. As written by Mohr, “The dominant activity in school is absorbing information from the outside – whether from a book, a teacher’s lecture, or the Internet – and then internalizing it. The message is that the value we have to contribute on a topic comes from the information absorbed from an external source.” This is Outside In thinking; depending on getting the information from outside our own mind. But what we need is the opposite, which is “accessing what we already know, trusting its value and bringing it forth.” It’s not what information we know as much as our strengths like our charisma, emotional intelligence, problem solving and leadership that can be more critical to achieving success. This is the inside out thinking or relying on our strengths to be able to think on our feet or synthesize information from disparate sources and relying on our strengths to propel ourselves forward.
Heads Down Work versus Being Visible. This is similar to habit 1 and habit 2 from the book by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith called How Women Rise. Habit 1 is Reluctance to claim your achievements and Habit 2 is Expecting others to spontaneously notice and reward your contributions. I believe that women like myself learned this in school. I’ll get a grade at the end of the marking period that will show my work… my worth. I don’t need to tell the teacher because it’s there in the grade book. I don’t need to say I’m an A+, or B- student, or be self-promoting, because it’s there for me and the teacher to see. I can keep my head down and work with no need to claim my accomplishments. Once I got into the work world, there was no grade book, no marking period, no end of the semester. As Mohr posits, “Women often slowly realize their good work isn’t leading to promotions or raises because it isn’t sufficiently visible, on an ongoing basis, to those scouting talent within the organization or making decisions about career advancement.” I need to always look for ways to be visible which is uncomfortable but necessary in order to rise in my career.
It’s uncomfortable to leave the good student habits behind. There is control in having clear expectations and parameters to success. The work world takes being agile, influential, self-reliant and the ability to shine a light on your good work. What student habits do you struggle with?