I'm a chef in a large operation kitchen I'm second-in-command overseeing a large
kitchen staff and part of a five-person management team overseeing the entire
account recently during my last review I was given some advice by my boss and his
boss I'm unsure about my last two annual reviews have gone very well and I'm on
the rise in the company however they said if it was important for me to get
or heat the Harvard they said it was important for me to give up some of my
kitchen dog mentality and work to showcase my artistic side and embrace
more of a star role in the spotlight get out of the kitchen a bit more gain more
exposure specifically with our high-profile clients while I appreciate
their sentiment and respect their big management skills their style isn't one
I strive to emulate or feel would work for me and the way I operate I've always
approached my work is more of a craft than an art and I've always liked being
a trench dog with my team my team responds to it and I get results for the
business and I feel the results should speak for themselves it has propelled my
career rapidly thus far so why would I want to change and be something I'm not
should I heed their advice or stick to what I do best and keep getting after it
on my terms just funny how how that last statement is framed right should I stick
to what I do best and keep getting after it as if to say if you say no you should
not stick to what you do best it's like you should not get after it right that's
that's the frame there and actually this guy answered the question real tersely I
think this came through Facebook messages I you know I said sounds like
you found a comfortable little zone for yourself
and you want to stay in there right cold blooded response and he's like I knew it
because as we know the comforts owners there's no growth in the conference so
it's interesting this guy is actually getting some some good solid and
straightforward advice from up the chain of command plus I think if they have him
as more of a personality than the restaurant will do better and they're
trying to build their reputation and your reputation at the same time and
that seems pretty reasonable to me right and I'm not real familiar with the
restaurant business but I'm familiar enough to know if you've got a good
reputation with the staff that works at the restaurant it brings in more people
like there's no doubt about it the the relationship just like any other
business the relationships that you build with the customers strengthens
them strengthens that relationship and makes them want to come back for more
yeah right that's the way it works and so for them to say to you hey man hey
you know you're a good cook we get that but we need a little bit more we want a
little bit more chef we need somebody that has yeah chef you're good you're
good yeah yeah sorry you're a good chef well actually what I I think I might
have actually purposely said that like hey you're doing a good job in the
kitchen as a cook we don't need someone that's just cooking the food we need a
chef with a reputation with a personality right yeah there's a
difference there right yes sir so it was called out for a reason gotcha
he's happy and you can see like kitchen dog yes proud of that right and I get
that man I get that I get that like you're one of the boys you're back in
the in the grind well let me let me ask you this or let me make this statement
guess what you have to do as a seal as a co-leader guess what you have to do you
have to build relationships you have to make your commanding officer
trust you you have to build relationships with the army after build
relationships through the Marine Corps you have to end in order to do that you
have to like raise your you have to call a little bit of attention to yourself
and raise your hand and say hey this is who I am you have to take you this is
Who I am you you have to actually have to step into the spotlight a little bit
so that you can let people know who you are because if people don't know who you
are how do you have relationship with it and if you don't have relationship with
people how can they trust you so so that's part of it right that's part of
what they're asking you to do now in all seriousness if if you really don't want
to do it well then you can keep being the guy that's in the back and guess
what you're gonna be mad in six months when some other chef gets hired for a
different shift and all of a sudden he's out making friends with everyone he gets
promoted and why does he get promoted well look what the guys doing but he's
not as good as he's not as good as it cook as I am guess what they don't
really care mmm being making the food is only part
of what they want you to do just like being a seal doing the doing missions is
only part of what they what you need to do to do the mission yeah you can't just
be tactically sound you've got to have the relationships built so you can work
in the battlespace that's owned by a conventional commander you got to have
the relationship that you can get your missions approved up the chain of
command on a special operations side how do you do that you build you go out you
talk to people you get out of your comfort zone it's a weird thing you know
I'm kind I'm kind of anti-social right like if you don't know me we're not
gonna have a conversation you know like we're not having a kind of like it's not
I'm not I'm not walking up and talking to you if I don't know you I'm not
walking up and saying hi to you it's not happening it's not my personality
if you say hi to me I'll say hi I'm not disrespectful I'm not rude but I'm not
looking to have a bunch of conversations with people and so that's known to me
but that's not okay for the business side of my
life which is hey I gotta talk to people gotta build relationships gotta had to
know my commanding officer had to know the Commodore had to know the the the
conventional battalion commander had to know the brigade commander had to build
relationships could I just talk about war with the brigade commander well I
could but what's more powerful that I talk about war and I talk about where
I'm from or where he's from or what you know no other things yes because I want
to build a relationship why because I'm trying to build trust wha
why because I wanted to allow me to go out there and do things in his battle
space so that's what they're asking me they're asking you to step out of your
comfort zone it doesn't need to become your primary
focus no should you try and step out of the comfort zone if you want to grow if
you want to have more opportunity I would give it a try I would give it a
try if not you know like I said if you hate it and you feel like you're not
being true to your true self that's ok maybe your true self is meant to be the
one that's back not getting promoted yeah they need somebody to do that if
it's not you it might be somebody else yeah there's another one of those tough
questions where people you know hit me with like should I just be should be
loyal to myself because the the obvious that can't answer that everyone wants to
hear is like yeah dude the most important thing he's got to be loyal to
yourself that's the most important thing okay if that's what your priority is
then that's the most important thing but guess what who does a who can take care
of the other kitchen dogs that respect you so much who can take a better care
of them than you can because if you get promoted if you don't get promoted and
and Johnny glamour boy gets promoted because he likes to go out and schmooze
the clients and now he gets promoted and yours and now who's gonna take care of
the kitchen dogs on his on his time right not him he doesn't care he's got
he got promoted not for taking care of his guys he got promoted cuz he schmooze
the clients play the game a little bit