When Your Hard Work is Not Being Recognized What Do YOU Do?
It’s difficult when your boss does not recognize your hard work or, worse yet, they purposely ignore your good work. Some bosses will actively try to bring you and your efforts down. But why? Do they think it will somehow help the organization? When this happens, the most important question you need to ask is “How do I respond to this behavior?”
Recently, I was at a leadership conference when the speaker mentioned an Australian term, the tall poppy syndrome used to describe the act of criticizing successful people. A few days later, I heard the term again while watching the Netflix documentary Untold: The Race of the Century. It was about the Australian yachting team beating the United States yachting team for the first time ever. The Australian skipper, John Bertrand, mentioned the same term.
In Australia intense scrutiny and criticism of such a successful or popular person is termed “cutting down the tall poppy.” It is an agricultural term used by poppy farmers who cut down the tall poppy so they will fit into the rest of the field. In our part of the world, we call it cutting someone down to size: to show someone that they are not as clever or important as they think. This happens. It is real, especially with frail and ego-driven leaders who are envious of a subordinate’s success.
When you are leading, performing, innovating, creating, developing at a high level, and having great success, be humble about it, but grow mentally tough. There will always be those who will be envious of your success and will work to ignore, even sabotage you. Sadly, this is true.
“I knew others would be envious of our success and not support us. Positive visualization was crucial. We had to see ourselves winning on the world stage.”
~John Bertrand
Skipper John Bertrand knew that others would attempt to cut his team down to size. He knew others would be envious and not support their success. He said the key to victory was mental toughness. His crew had to be able to weather the mental storms, so he taught them positive visualization, the act of seeing themselves winning on the world stage.
Most fragile leaders can’t process, much less celebrate, your success, so don’t expect it. Be mentally strong and tough. With your good work you deserve to be on that success stage. Don’t let the weak ones intimidate you. Just keep doing what you do well.
“Good work, done well for the right reasons and with an end in mind.”
~David Whyte
Be ready because a storm is coming. Fragile leaders want your results for themselves. They want your expertise, but they will not recognize you. That is their issue, not yours. Be mentally tough and ready for it. Push on. Be confident in what you are doing.
Always remain friendly, kind and approachable. Don’t be stand offish and prideful, this builds separation. Be humble and happy. It’s hard, but it’s about being mentally strong and building a stronger you. Kindness can often defuse wrong perceptions about your success.
Keep growing tall like the tall poppy flower.
Jeff
