I did a double take when I saw this.
Sure, it’s good advice. People DO respond to speed. And if you want to get ahead in your career, follow this advice. It’ll work.
So I didn’t
double take because the advice is bad.
I did a double take because I was surprised this advice was being shared so openly.
And here’s
why:
To my mind, the post is an admission.
An admission that availability and responsiveness is increasingly the recipe for employees
who want to climb the career ladder.
It’s there in the LinkedIn post in black and white:
Fast is better than slow.
Which means if you’re not the fastest horse in the race, you’ll be overtaken by the colleagues who are faster.
Conclusion?
If you want to get ahead in your career, living this “fast is better than slow” ethos is the way to do it.
So you’ll need to keep your work phone by
your bed. You’ll probably need to skip your evening gym session. And there’s a good chance you’ll need to do some work over the weekend.
All so you can turn your work around more quickly.
And to my mind, this is a problem. Because it becomes a race to the bottom.
Your prize if you win the race? A
promotion. And then more of the same. Just one level up.
Instead of missing your evening gym session to respond to emails, you miss it to wine and dine your clients. Instead of doing some work over the weekend, all you do
over the weekend is work.
And on it goes.
I
ran this race myself. I gave it a bloody good shot.
But in the end I realised I didn’t want to win the race. I didn’t even want to run it.
And I do worry that thousands of people starting out in their careers will read a LinkedIn post like this and pursue their own “fast is better than slow” strategy.
They’ll start to put work first. Ahead of their life.
Until they look back one day and realise just how much they've sacrificed for their job. Or they burn out - and think that
they're somehow to blame, rather than the people sharing advice like "fast is better than slow".
Of course, it’s up to them.
But there is another way.
Taking stock of what’s most important to you (not just at work, but in life) can shine a light on how you'd like your work and life to fit together. And then you can run the race at a pace that works for you, instead of your
employer.
If you’d like some help with this, hit the link below to set up a free call with me.
That’s all for today.
- Tom
p.s. Whenever you're ready, here are the ways you can connect with me