In a Fortune magazine column, titled “5 Tips for Keeping Your Job” (p. 14 of the December 8 issue), tip #2 is “Don’t be a maverick…This is not the time to throw yourself in an unauthorized direction.”
Seriously? When firms are cutting back, Fortune suggest that now is the time to hide and hope you don’t get noticed?
How about the opposite? How about making now the time you go the extra mile, do something surprising and wonderful, and stand out from the crowd?
Wouldn’t you rather be the person that your company HAS to keep because you’re so exceptional than the person they forgot to fire?
(More amazing still, some blogs are quoting this mumbo-jumbo verbatim as if it were good advice.)
You are referring to Tip 1: “Be visible” and Tip “3. Manage yourself” (…find work for yourself: Take on a new project or make another visible contribution.)
Perhaps a better way of putting it is “in the current environment, companies are less forgiving of mistakes.’
I think you made a good point, it is those with ideas and innovation who can help companies to survive the world at the moment. I know at work at the moment I’ve upped my game and fortunately am working in an environment where I can express ideas and hopefully make a difference.
Greg, I suppose that’s true (“companies less forgiving of mistakes”) but I still have trouble thinking that “doing less” is good career advice, no matter what the climate.
I liked Seth Godin’s post today on “The making chasm”, which in a way is talking about the same
thing.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/the-making-chas.html