Quick table overview:

Boss VS Employees

🔴 1. You want self-advancement, your boss wants you to work for the team

The better the team performs, the better it looks on your boss.

Unluckily, often:

1. The better the team performs, the harder to stand out
2. The more you do for the team, the less you can do for yourself

🟢 Solution: listen to “team you”

Remember that alongside the “team” there is “team you”, and both deserve your attention.

🔴 2. You want to move up, your boss wants to keep you

Principle:

⚖️ The better you are, the more your boss wants to keep you under him

If you move up, he loses your contribution.

🟢 Solution: move up without triggering the boss

1. Make him feel he’ll gain with your upward move
2. Ensure he can’t stop you

🔴 3. You want to take credit, your boss wants it for himself

A boss prefers a faceless team, so all credit goes to him —Unless there is blame to assign, then the opposite is true.

🟢 Solution: strategic self-promotion 🔜

🔴 4. You want to keep your best customers close & for yourself, your boss wants them shared with the team

🔎 Example:
At Bel’s old law firm, lawyers were told not to respond to customers’ ‘thank you’ emails—partners wanted to keep clients tied to the firm, not individual lawyers.

🟢 Solution: play it like you ‘simply click’

1. Make your close exclusive relationships a given, formally or informally
2. Frame it like you simply click, and not like you’re trying to build your power base

Owners VS Employees

“Owners” refers to anyone with a sizable stake in the company -and its revenues-.

But sometimes HR or lower-level team leads can also act like owners, even without direct stakes.

🔴 1. You want to put yourself first, owners want you to put the company first

Owners push a ‘family’ culture to get more from employees.

The family theme shows in many business titans’ biographies such as Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Phil Knight (Nike), Sam Walton (Walmart), Marcu & Blank (Home Depot) as well as CEOs and VCs (Ben Horowitz).

They all loved their employees and felt like a big family.
But only the top brass got rich. And only the bottom ones got fired when cost-cutting.

🔴 1.2. You gain more with personal success, the company wants you to prioritize company’s success

Company’s success is good for you -a rising tide lifts all boats-.

But you don’t advance much when everyone else is advancing.

🟢 Solution: align and frame WIIFY, with WIIFInc.

Speak with ‘we’ and ‘us’, ‘good for the company’, and show you care for that big ‘us’, but ensure your interests are always met.

🔴 2. You want cash compensation, owners want to pay with “inspiration”

The most successful entrepreneurs attract with lofty visions of solving big problems or ‘changing the world’.

🟢 Solution: money never lies, listen to it

Inspiration is great, but also look at the concrete exchange and compensation.
And ensure you’re not being sucked dry and short-changed.

🔴 3. You want alliances, but the company prefers you isolated

Teamwork of equal individuals under a single boss can have ‘divide and conquer’ effects

Owners hate unions because alliances make you stronger.

The same concept applies to internal alliances.
Internal alliances may be good for you, but it may cost the company.

🟢 Develop alliances with a win-win perspective

🔴 4. You want to advance, your company needs unambitious low-paid employees

Companies need a mix of ambitious workers and low-paid staff to handle basic tasks.

🟢 Solution: move up or move out

Make sure you’re categorized as the ambitious guy on the fast-track, not ‘basic-task/base-pay’ guy. Find out early if upward movement is possible, and get out if not.
And take all training and growth opportunities you can.

🔴 5. You want to cover your ass, the company wants you to trust them

Trusting employees are more loyal, don’t waste time covering their assess, and are defenseless if things go south.

🟢 Solution: collect evidence

Leave no traces of bad conduct, but recording all infractions from your employer.

🔴 6. You want to keep your talent mysterious; owners want to codify them

The principle is:

⚖️ While your unique knowledge empowers you only, codified SOPs empowers the company

Owners want to codify your skills so anyone can do your job for less pay.

See this example from The Wolf of Wall Street:

Owner: So, what do you say?
Everyone: (reads from a script)

🟢 Solution: 🐍 Machiavellian Hoarding of Wisdom

1. Give the least valuable information to gain a reputation for a teacher who shares
   • Keep the most life-transforming wisdom for yourself
2. Get paid for sharing.
   Ie.: Negotiate your compensation for systemazing that knowledge; get revenue share for added productivity

Individuals VS Team

🔴 1. You want to be promoted, and all your colleagues want to be promoted

… But you must pretend you’re still all friends and teammates.

1.2. You want to shine for yourself, the team wants you to share credit

The more you shine, the more you make them look average.
And the more you self-promote, the more they will resent you.

⚠️ Too nice guys feel bad to outshine and beat colleagues
And self-sabotage themselves.

🟢 Solution: friend-ly with competitors, never friends

If you struggle to do your best beating your colleagues, do this:

• 🎓 Think and treat them as if they were already your reports 🧠
• Be a professional, not a friend. Be friendly and warm enough so they don’t turn into frenemies, but distant enough so they won’t affect your drive to compete.

🔴 2. You want to guard your best talents, your colleagues want to ‘suck you dry’

The bigger the skill gap between you and others, the more power you hold.
🔁 But the more you teach and share, the smaller that gap becomes.

• ⛏️ Information sharing strategies: what to share, and when

🔴 3. You want to be close to your boss, the team prefers you far from him

The closer you are to your boss, the more others resent you as the boss’ favorite.

🟢 Solution: be friendly to all

Be talkative and warmer to all, so it doesn’t seem you’re exclusively hobnobbing with the boss.