Page 162 - Make Work Great

Leading Your Crystal

things done. Neither of these is what we mean. In fact, both confuse
the issue.
“Crystalline reputation” is not about formal organizational status,
popularity, or speed of results, although it does have a cause-and-
effect relationship to those issues. Often, as your crystalline reputa-
tion improves, your career will advance, your standing with peers will
improve, and the pace at which you produce results will quicken. But
what we’re discussing here is a specifi c form of organizational wis-
dom that lies behind those issues: the way in which your colleagues
regard the cultural patterns you demonstrate. It is the improvement
in your crystalline reputation that precedes and produces those other
improvements in your work life.
You began this book as a member of the culture surrounding
you, following roughly the same precedents and probably produc-
ing roughly the same output as others in your crystalline network.
As you fi rst began to role-model new cultural patterns, you became
a contributor to your workplace, bringing to it new ways of doing
things and probably a little more effectiveness. But as you can see
from Figure 7.1, your journey will not end there. With continued,
consistent, habitual demonstration of your patterns of overtness and
clarity, your crystalline reputation will improve. Over time, you will
naturally come to play the role of advisor, as others begin to suspect
that you have answers and try to seek them out. Finally, as your

influence grows even more, your role as advisor will expand further
to the role of defi ner of cultural trends. At that point, you will have
a growing network of trusting relationships with others in infl uential
positions, many of whom owe a small part of their success to your
role-modeling.

Types of Advice
For now, let’s start with your role as advisor. The better you get
at role-modeling your new cultural precedents—being overt about
your tasks and the tasks of others, and practicing clarity regarding
your relationships with others—the better informed you’ll be about

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