Why MANY smart people think they deserve a better position at work?

It starts with your Boss or someone who is in a better position than you.

You watch what they do and you just can’t believe it.

Some decisions your Boss takes are very obvious.

Some decisions your Boss takes are something any employee could easily do.

Some other times, when your Boss speaks, it seems like he does not have a full handle on things.

Sometimes you wonder how your Boss reached where he or she reached.How could that be possible? You seem more intelligent and more capablein so many different ways. It does not make any sense. There is no logichere. It must be “luck” and that may be the answer for why it is theway it is.

You notice and observe your Boss or anybody else (higher up) to findclues about what it is that they “do” differently that will make themstand apart. After a few months you don’t find anything that jumps out.Now things have changed. Not only do you think these people do notdeserve the place where they are but also YOU deserve to be in a muchbetter place. After all, you have more talent, more insights and you aremore competent than what those people have demonstrated. There isdefinitely an injustice and you are on the short-end of the stick here.Not fair.

At least that’s what you think.

Agreed. In some cases, there are Bosses who are jerks and not toforget, there are employees who are jerks too. The “employee jerks” maynot get the same attention as “Boss jerks” only because Boss jerks havemore power than “Employee jerks”.

In most cases though, the following explains the situation better

You watch your Boss in action and you make a quick assessment of thataction, it’s value, it’s purpose and the general design of that action.That is what you can see. However, underlying that action is theprocess of arriving at that action (which is mostly invisible)

Just before taking that action, a series of steps have to take place –sometimes these steps are taken quickly and sometimes a single step maytake weeks or months to conclude. You watching from outside may neverknow what really went inside before an external action occurs.

1. Network:

This will have a huge influence on the “background thinking” of theleader. The quality of the Network and the quality of conversations withthe network over the years will determine the “quality of theawareness” and that will influence the quality of the decisions made.

2. Input:

While the network can provide a big chunk of the input, the othersources include but not limited to – books, past history, experiencesand most important – the quality of the observation and listening ofwhat is available to observe and listen.

3. Elimination:

The ability to select the signal from the noise. The more unnecessarystuff (noise) one can remove, the more necessary stuff (signal) remainsto be processed.

4. Processing or Assembly:

This is like playing a game of Legos. You have a number of pieces andyou can build a number of things. Whoever can determine the widevariety of possibilities quickly will have a huge competitive advantage.

5. Synthesis:

This involves coming up with the right combination of available pieces and customizing it to fit the current situation.

6. Decision:

Completing the synthesis will result in the “lightbulb” moment which appears as a decision to the external world.

What you can see is the decision or the final output of everything.It seems like you can repeat the decision and you may very well becapable of doing that. However, it’s hard for you to replicate how thedecision was arrived without the kind of “experience” that is required.

To summarize it in one sentence: Rather than trying to copy decisions, try to “become” that person who can produce those high-quality decisions. Once you are ready, a better position will automatically come up sooner than later.