Become Irreplaceable for your Boss

Career strategies to success, use secret manipulation techniques & the power of rhetoric, learn communication skills & psychology for employees

Simone Janson, Simone Janson, Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9783965964617
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

In the 4th, completely revised edition of this groundbreaking guide, published by an award-winning publisher, renowned experts (overview in the book preview) combine their knowledge with interactive AI. This unique combination of decades of experience and state-of-the-art technology enables you to master challenges on a whole new level. Thanks to the innovative transfer of information, complemented by personal experiences of success, you can realize your goals and reach your full potential. Because not the great career is for many the decisive criterion in the job search but the question of how to get a secure job in the long term. The best way to do this is to make yourself irreplaceable in the company and to constantly convince superiors of your unbeatable qualities and skills. This does not necessarily have to be accompanied by constant high performance and stress; it means above all increasing your visibility in the company, drawing attention to your successes rhetorically and communicating your own career ambitions in the context of promotions. This book shows how to do it. Good luck and have fun reading. For its concept "Information as Desired, " the publisher won the Global Business Award as Publisher of the Year and received government funding. It is also a partner of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany. The goal to give you the best possible content on topics such as career, finance, management, recruiting, or psychology goes far beyond the static nature of traditional books: The interactive AI Extended Books not only provide AI-optimized content in several languages based on data analysis but also allow you to ask individual questions and receive advice tailored to your personal interests. Each book contains detailed information and examples for your successful use of AI. You can utilize AI software for free, download e-courses, collaborate with workbooks, or engage with an active community. So you gain valuable resources that enhance your knowledge, stimulate creativity, and make your personal and professional goals achievable and tangible. Expertise and technical innovation go hand in hand, as we take the responsibility to deliver well-researched and informed content seriously, honoring the trust you place in us. Due to the unique combination of human expertise and innovation, we can publish works that meet your requirements in every aspect. And furthermore, we want to offer you the opportunity to make your journey towards personal growth and success even more unforgettable. We understand that true change occurs not just in the mind but primarily through personal experiences and application. Therefore, we've conceptualized special success journey experiences tailored to each book for you. Be inspired to elevate your life to an entirely new level. By purchasing the books, you can also do good: The publisher dedicates about 5 percent of book sales revenue to socially relevant or sustainable projects. We provide scholarships, support innovative ideas, and contribute to climate protection initiatives. Publisher Simone Janson is also a bestselling author and one of the top 10 influential German bloggers according to the Blogger Relevance Index. Additionally, she has been a columnist and author for renowned media outlets such as WELT, Wirtschaftswoche, or ZEIT - more about her can be found, among other places, on Wikipedia.

Self-Marketing and Self-Presentation: The Beautiful Appearance in Business
// By Simone Janson

How much self-marketing is needed today to be successful - many people are asking that over-hyped advertising seems inappropriate. But how do you find the right measure?

More appearance than being?

No question: perfection rules in our society. All you have to do is turn on the television or open magazines, and apparently perfect-looking, healthy and, above all, always unspeakably cheerful, happy people jump towards us. There are tons of guidebooks that will show you how you can become, how you can live fully satisfied and happy, find the perfect dream job or have a career without any side effects and still get rich with the left.

But the problem of seeming more than being does not only affect our personal feelings. Perfection is omnipresent in our everyday work. Employees should fit perfectly into the company and do their work as flawlessly as possible. Above all, strength and competence count, which are suggested by the alleged flawlessness and the perfect appearance. Everyone plays their part as best as possible. The beautiful appearance often counts more than the actual content. The fact that true competence consists in being able to admit mistakes and ignorance in order to learn from it is often overlooked.

Achieve perfection?

Of course we want to emulate the perfect “role models”, because the perfection that is displayed intimidates us. Therefore, we set the bar for ourselves higher and higher, make an effort and give our best. In order to achieve supposed perfection, we often accept major disadvantages - even if we should actually know that the ideals can hardly be achieved in reality.

The fact that extremely high expectations are placed on us, especially in the job, and that we always strive to meet them, is primarily due to the high importance that work has in our society. Anyone who thinks about it will notice that there are jokes in Germany about all sorts of things - but not about the unemployed. Because joking about losing your job would be downright impious. According to surveys, many people find the loss of a job almost as big a stroke of fate as the death of a close relative.

Job, the means of self-expression

Many people define their personal identity and social affiliation through the job and therefore feel obliged to be successful. No wonder we always try to make it perfect!

The importance of work in our society cannot only be explained by the fact that it is financially necessary. Nowadays work offers more than “just” a monthly income: it is the entrance ticket to society. A proper job and the income associated with it raise self-esteem and create recognition, regular livelihoods stand for respect and stability, and a seamless career marks success. The workplace is seen as a place of self-realization. Anyone who does not fit into this thought pattern falls out of the ordinary. "And what are you doing?" - this question is to a certain extent symptomatic. This applies to new business contacts, but the job inevitably also penetrates into private life. No new acquaintance, no party without this mandatory question. You are measured and weighed on the job. An appreciative nod if the job is interesting or brings in a lot of money, while disapproving looks are given for badly paid, boring jobs.

Work as a paradox

For some, work is no longer just a duty or a means to earn money and achieve social status. No, work should also serve self-realization and be fun. This creed is represented by many small business owners who have ventured into self-employment based on this motto. The paradox, however, is that they deal with the financial pressure under which they find themselves now with dogged perfectionism and thus ruin the fun of their work. At the same time, the situation on the job market deprives others of the courage to do exactly this because they are perfectionistly busy securing their jobs.

A look at history shows that this connection between identity formation and gainful employment, which appears completely normal today, is by no means natural, but rather a fairly new phenomenon. Greco-Roman antiquity equates leisure with freedom and social participation, while work was carried out at best out of existential necessity. It was therefore attached to the stigma of obsession and bondage, and hard physical labor was the task of the slaves. It is hardly surprising that the meaning of the word work in almost all Western European languages ​​is negative and is equated with pain, torment, effort or suffering in its origin. In the Jewish and especially early Christian tradition, work was seen in a more differentiated manner. It was considered a godly duty to self-sufficiency and to support others. But no more than that - work was not a value in itself that people identified with; rather, people should reflect on their religious duties and the common good. For this purpose, based on the creation story, a day of rest was planned and it was not for nothing that Benedict of Nursia put prayer before work in his principle “Ora et labora”. The people of the Middle Ages probably had no choice but to plan anything other than rest days, because the rhythm of life in the pre-industrial era, which was characterized by agriculture, was entirely determined by the climate.

paradigm shift

Since the late Middle Ages, more and more destitute people have flocked from the countryside to the cities, which had become extremely important through trade. If they did not want to collapse economically under the influx, the cities had to force the masses to work and needed a new ideology. Martin Luther made the work, which had so far been neutral in value, a sacred duty imposed by God, a profession, and declared idleness to be a sin.

But Luther, too, completely stuck in medieval traditions, refused to work for his own benefit and for personal gain. It was only in the 17th and 18th centuries that it became a sacred duty for the Puritans to follow their vocation and to live to work, and material success through hard work was seen as a sign of God's mercy. Even though it was frowned upon by the ascetic Puritans to publicly display their prosperity, with this attitude they could now get rich without a guilty conscience. This paved the way for capitalism.

Tell me what you work and I'll tell you who you are

Work with the bourgeois revolution was really reassessed: Instead of legitimizing themselves through their birth, as the nobility did up to now, willingness to perform gave everyone the chance to improve their lives through work and performance. The aspiring bourgeoisie in particular set out to do this as perfectionistly as possible while always maintaining the appearance of activity and efficiency.

These changes were only made possible by the fundamental economic upheavals of that time: industrialization. The rapid increase in population led to an increased demand for goods that wanted to be served. In addition to technical progress, the optimal use of human labor by centralizing work in factories and the systematic division of routine work processes, the division of labor, became necessary. The strict organization required for this and the dependence on rigid working hours were only made possible by the invention of the clock and electric light, which made it possible to work without daylight. In general, work always served as a means of exerting pressure on those who needed it to secure a livelihood and was thus the disciplining instrument of the privileged against the workers. It was the same in communism, where the proletariat was sent into “production battles” and had to worship “heroes of work”. Capitalism today, on the other hand, lures with consumption and promises people the material fulfillment of their needs, for which they have to work, however.

The perfect manipulation

Willingness to perform thus serves both as a means of pressure to secure existence and reputation, and also for manipulation, because it is suggested that more performance means fulfilling one's own needs means more happiness.

So companies want to drive their employees to perform. Companies also expect perfection. But why actually? The answer is simple: what promises perfection appears more attractive and sells better - in all areas. Those who are “error-free” seem more competent than someone who admits they don't know something. And anyone who promises to solve a problem quickly and without major side effects will be applauded. It is no different in companies than in politics. Simple truths and clichés fit better into existing thought patterns and what is more catchy is processed more quickly by the brain; Companies that want to sell something to their customers also know this and make use of this mechanism.

The perfect employee

In “The Discovery of Laziness”, bestselling author Corinne Maier reveals how much companies are concerned with maintaining the appearance of infallibility and productivity: The language in companies is often bursting with empty empty phrases, nebulous abbreviations and meaningless foreign words, the give it a pseudoscientific aura. Simple things are expressed as complexly as possible in order to make even the most banal things seem meaningful. The applied business jargon mainly serves to impress at any price, while behind the facade there is often a climate hostile to innovation, in which often only those who behave inconspicuously survive. This is exactly the advice that Maier gives her readers: to adapt to the beautiful appearance as well as possible in order to act as a perfect employee at least externally.

Even if Maier's view is certainly exaggerated and cynical: Perfectionists often have problems with this adjustment. Because they tend to hold up a mirror to others with their high demands and therefore quickly make themselves unpopular. In addition, ambitious people stand out from the crowd because of their ambition. Because they are often extremely truth-loving, idealistic perfectionists like to put their fingers on burning wounds instead of selling well, even if it would sometimes be much more convenient to simply play along with the beautiful appearance. Even if this behavior may be praiseworthy from a moral point of view, it does not help you nor promote your career, because typical perfectionist traits are anything but career-enhancing.

Less perfectionism, more self-expression

Because even if it tends to be right to make as few mistakes as possible and even if bosses tend to appreciate high willingness to perform - as a rule, they transfer the good positions especially to those employees who they notice positively. Studies show that career leaps only depend on performance to ten percent. 30 percent depend on the image. And 60 percent make up how you are perceived in the company.

So it depends on how you are perceived in the company. However, perfectionists often only realize how important self-portrayal is when colleagues pass them on the career ladder and they fall behind professionally; because while others do not speak out when it comes to staging their good performances, many perfectionists remain silent because this form of self-expression seems inappropriate to them. Instead, they always work on the performance limit and hope that the others will notice their commitment and talent on their own. Secretly, however, they silently dream of accomplishing something really big that surprises and outshines everyone else. But it rarely happens that the increased commitment is also noticed, because the performance is a matter of course for most bosses. In addition, most superiors are too busy with themselves to appreciate the work of their perfectionist employees, who they take for granted.

Self-confidence instead of boasting

Perfectionists do not have to become jerks so that their work is finally recognized. Show and showing off are alien...