Play your Infinite Game
When is it time to play the game?
I chatted to a young professional who hates his boss and the ideas he has. He hates that he has no input, and it is his plan or the highway.
This professional said to me, “Tramayne, you would definitely not let this slide. I want to be a beast and fight back.
I literally laughed out loud. This guy was getting aggressive. And his testosterone was pumping. And I slowly asked him if he wanted to hear the long list of pride swallowing I have done? I asked him would he like to listen to the list of jokes I have laughed at that are incredulously stupid. I have spent hours considering narratives to tell to build relationships.
To win, you have to eat humble pie. You have to build confidence with your boss. You will never win if you are not in the game!
Suppose you consider how many times you have to act disinterested or antagonistic before the relationship is dead. In that case, it will be a shorter number than you anticipate.
But, balance is everything. I am not suggesting you need to take everything that is said. You cannot accept it all. You will lose the respect of your peers and the boss. You need to build clout by doing things you don’t agree with. Can you get to a stage where you respectfully disagree and still execute to the best of your ability? Can the project fail, and you resist the urge to tell you “I told you so!”
Being overly soft and agreeable is not the same as playing the game. You need to identify the path to building the thing you want to.
I actually disagree with 60 percent of what I hear daily! But the game is there. It is not always finite. Manoeuvring is greater than crushing all in your path on the way up. Playing the game is a strategy to make a movement forward for you.
Being a beast means you play your own God damn game.
Cross published on Tramayne
