Page 163 - Make Work Great

From Contributor to Advisor

FIGURE 7.1 Corresponding increases in output capability and
your perceived value to the group
Culture Builder (You)

Greater
Output Capability difference
• in cultural
patterns
• in output
capability

Default Precedent
Member Contributor Advisor Definer

Time

what is going on around you and the better informed others will be
about your purpose and activity. As a result, your behavior will seem
progressively more novel to those around you, and you will seem to
produce outputs more easily. Like our fi ctitious monkey heroine, you
probably won’t feel much different—and you certainly won’t be magi-
cally imbued with infi nite wisdom. But those around you will begin,
ever so slowly, to perceive you differently as they begin to glimpse the
fact that you are successfully making work great.
That is your crystalline reputation, and the frequency with which
others ask for your advice is an indicator of it. Of course, this is not
to say that you should go around offering unsolicited advice! To do
so would run counter to your goals. What you must do, however, is
become skilled at giving advice when it is requested.
Solicitations for your advice come in three forms. First (and sim-
plest) are information requests—such as “Where’s the bathroom?”
or “Who approves expense forms?” These requests can be handled
quickly, with little investigation or refl ection. They have little to do
with your crystalline reputation; you will probably get some of them

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