How to be the Golden One
Author offers advice on getting to the head of the bonus line
"I am less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould
"It's one of those dirty little secrets of business," says David Lorenzo, former hospitality-industry executive and now executive coach. The secret Lorenzo was referring to is unequal pay -- not the stuff of discrimination lawsuits, but the good kind of unequal pay, where bosses find ways to sneak extra rewards to star performers. As he puts it, "In every work environment, there are people who get special deals, who get moved to the head of the line, who get extra bonuses."
The big secret is how to be the Golden One, the one escorted to the head of the line. Lorenzo's answer was to author his book, "Career Intensity," with a goal of being described by management as possessing "the intangibles." He argues that there are very tangible ways to attach the intangibles to your name.
One is to "be the person who helps others reach their potential." For instance, if your boss has a big presentation coming up, you undertake some background research that will help, without being asked.
Another is to "fix what's broken." This, Lorenzo quickly adds, does not mean being the one who can unjam the copier. Rather, he gave the example of the IT department that had a problem with its paychecks. The group's workday started at 3 p.m. and they didn't get a break till after 6 p.m., so when the Friday checks were passed out, it was too late to get to the bank. One young man took the initiative and talked to the company's bank. The solution was simple -- direct deposit at midnight Thursday. The employee didn't just offer a complaint, or even a suggestion, but a solution.
OK, I can sense your eyes glazing over, thinking of all the extra work involved. Lorenzo's response is, "Work the regular hours, do the regular work, get the regular raise and promotion." Good point. I can offer some hope to the overburdened, however, based on personal experience from my corporate days as a market researcher. I quickly figured out that I could do a report in half the time allotted for it. I wasn't a superhero -- anyone on the staff could do them in half the time; they just didn't bother. After all, there was no incentive -- you couldn't leave; you'd merely get more reports to do and the animosity of co-workers. (Talk about dirty little secrets.) But I was so bored that I quickly disposed of the required work so that I could do my own, interesting projects. I soon got promoted to manager of special projects, which meant I got to spend my days doing cool research, mostly of my own choosing.
Lorenzo, however, has a warning for those looking to be star performers: "Remember that your goal is to add value, and value is in the eyes of those around you. A lot of 'mavericks' assess their own value much higher than does management." He told me of the instance where a salesperson for a food company heard at 4 p.m. on New Year's Eve that a big restaurant was about to run out of the company's dessert product. Everyone had gone home. So he rented a U-Haul, drove to the warehouse, loaded up cases of product, and took them to the grateful customers. A hero, right?
Well, he forgot to bill for the extra cases, which them turned up as missing product. Plus, he violated a number of work rules, and turned in a U-Haul rental on his expenses. So, while the customer loved him, the bureaucracy snarled, "Trouble!"
"So," I asked Lorenzo, "should this sales guy not have helped out? Should Superman check with the FAA before intercepting the comet?" Lorenzo laughed and replied: "What I would have done is help the customer, but I would have called a couple of people in management and asked for advice. They wouldn't have been there, of course, but you called. You were covered."
Lorenzo added one other piece of advice to conclude the example of the salesman and the U-Haul: If you find yourself at odds with management over helping customers, become an entrepreneur. And when the salesman does so, I bet he won't forget to bill for those extra cases of dessert.
Dale Dauten is a syndicated columnist. He can be reached at dale@dauten.com. 