You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.
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Every Friday, I'm answering one real question from a real leader. No theory. No fluff. Just the stuff you're actually dealing with.
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This week’s question comes from Camille:
I've always tried to let my work speak for itself. But I'm watching people who are half as talented get promoted because they play the political game better. I don't want to become that person. Is there a way to build influence without feeling like a sellout?
Camille, you're asking the right question.
I used to feel exactly the way you do.
The reputation that stayed behind
When I left corporate 3 years ago, I found out something uncomfortable.
I had spent 23 years in leadership roles. 16 of them at the last company.
Inside those walls, I was well known and had built a strong reputation.
But I had never invested in building one beyond those walls.
No industry presence or personal brand.
I walked out the door and almost nobody knew who I was.
So I started posting on LinkedIn.
I’d been on the platform for 15 years doing networking and job searches. But I’d never posted before.
I watched creators talk about things I had lived for decades.
I had just as much experience as they did.
But my early posts went nowhere.
The people I knew from my corporate years weren't the type to engage on LinkedIn.
That's when it landed. Building influence inside a company is one skill. Building it in public is another.
I had a marketing degree. I had grown businesses. I knew how to lead and communicate.
I did not know how to build my own brand.
So I studied people who excelled at it. Then I did the reps. Hundreds of them.
Once I figured out how the platform worked, traction came fast.
The substance was already there. It just needed a channel.
So good they can't ignore you
Steve Martin gets asked constantly how to make it in show business.
In a 2007 interview with Charlie Rose, he said nobody likes his answer. They want to know how to get an agent. How to sell a script.
His answer: "Be so good they can't ignore you." I love that line.
We usually focus on the first part about being good.
But the second part is equally important.
He didn't say "be so good they'll find you."
Martin spent 18 years in stand-up before he broke through. Every one of those nights was in front of an audience.
His reps were public.
That's the whole formula, Camille. 2 parts.
Be excellent. Then put the excellence where people can see it.
Attention is earned. Your work won't go out and get it for you.
The same thing is happening inside your company right now.
Why the second part feels gross
There's research on why that feels so uncomfortable.
Tiziana Casciaro and her colleagues at Toronto's Rotman School, Harvard, and Kellogg studied networking for personal gain.
People who simply remembered doing it rated soap and toothpaste as more desirable afterward.
Their brains wanted a shower. The researchers' word was "dirty."
Then they studied 165 lawyers at a large law firm.
The lawyers who felt dirtiest networked least. Their billable hours suffered for it.
The ick is real, and listening to it can cost you.
One more finding. The most senior lawyers barely felt dirty at all.
When you have plenty to offer, connecting stops feeling like taking. You feel like you’re giving value.
How to be seen without selling out
You don't have to master politics. You don't have to brag.
Humble beats arrogant. But humble and invisible is a losing combination.
1. Stay great at the work.
Non-negotiable. Visibility without substance is noise. People figure it out fast.
2. Share ideas, not just accomplishments.
Once a week, put a point of view in front of people.
A note to your boss on where a project should go. A comment in a leadership meeting. A 3-line write-up after a win: what changed, for whom, by how much.
Ideas travel further than trophies.
3. Build relationships before you need them.
1 coffee a month with someone outside your reporting line. No pitch. Just curiosity about what they're wrestling with.
People who know you defend you in rooms you'll never see.
4. Give first, on a schedule.
Once a week, send 1 message that only benefits someone else.
An intro. A heads-up. A note to a peer's boss about what their team pulled off.
Generosity is the fastest cure for the ick.
5. Write down the lines you won't cross.
Taking credit that belongs to someone else. Talking a rival down. Pretending to agree when you don't.
The game corrodes people who never defined their edges. Your question tells me you already know where yours are.
Try this today
Think of 1 idea you've been sitting on.
Write it in 3 sentences. Send it to your boss with 1 line: "Been thinking about this. Curious what you'd add."
That's it. That's putting yourself out there.
So good they can't ignore you… starts with letting them see you.
Until next time, keep being brilliant,
Justin
P.S. What's the one song you play to get fired up when you’re feeling unmotivated? I’m building a playlist.
