let your performance speak for you.

A few weeks ago, I had breakfast with a good friend of mine in Dubai.

My friend is a COO of a Bahraini construction company, and he personally oversees 750 employees in 3 offices in the middle east.

I know my friend is/has been very successful in his company.

For the past 9 months, we meet almost every Sunday for breakfast/coffee; our Sunday breakfast has become sort of a ritual for us where we meet and discuss things.

A few weeks ago, over one of our Sunday breakfasts my friend (nervously) told me his billionaire Chairman was in town, and the CFO was meeting his Chairman that morning.

My friend said (nervously)  “I asked my CFO to put in a good word for me to the Chairman…”

… incredulously, I said “What!!!!????”

I pointed out to my friend, “you don’t need the CFO to put in a good word for you to the Chairman… Your chairman knows exactly who you are, your results, your figures, how much you have improved his company since you joined and took over from your predecessor…and you don’t need to ask the CFO to promote you.”

And it all sort of clicked and I got passionate on this subject ….and I expanded the discussion.

“You don’t need anyone to pitch or promote you … because your results speak so much louder than any manager above you will … I pointed out that the CFO is surely only going to push whatever financial negatives there are in the company onto someone else…because that’s the world we live in today.

I pointed out to my friend all the power he gave to this CFO by showing he was insecure with his performance.

Most readers of my blog are not CEOs or Chairman’s … and surely you have a manager you report to.

Irrespective of whether your manager is good or not …don’t ever waste your time, and or lower yourself to ask your manager to  “put in a good word for you”  to anyone.

Let your work ethic, performance and results speak for you.