Theoden
11-29-2007, 09:21 PM
I've been reading a few threads where people routinely mention that job 'X' is sort of neat, but 99% is BS due to politics and other low-level nonsense you shouldn't have to deal with. This is true.
I've learned a trick which has actually helped me enormously: Learn to be political, but in a smart, targeted way. It requires investment of emotional capital and other sorts of effort which INTJs would normally shun as inefficient, but I've really seen this work very effectively a few times over.
- Your ultimate goal should be to freely associate with the TOP people in your company/business/industry. Why? Because THAT's what's going to give you the ultimate freedom to think/advise/recommend/design/create/make-a-difference. Being an assistant analyst to a low-level manager who reports to a regional director who occasionally chats with an executive is going to make you want to wring your own neck. And that low-level manager is going to think you're nuts for bringing up brilliant suggestions on how to totally re-design the company to prepare for the next decade. The execs, on the other hand, routinely pay other people large sums of money for this kind of pointed advice.
- The way to accomplish this is by overcoming some of the really crappy built-in barriers we as INTJs have. If you work hard enough at it, you can rationalize your way through it. "I need to get myself invited to party X because persons Y will be attending and I can get further facetime with them". This also includes initiatives like actually doing a fair amount of background research on people who you might meet an an event. Think about it this way: if you already know their interests, you'll find it far easier to chat with them. Contrary to what you might expect, non-INTJ's do NOT, as a rule, find it creepy that you know plenty of details about their lives. They consider this mildly flattering. We find it a gross invasion of privacy. To each their own.
- Knowing some background on people serves a few other purposes. You'll have less trouble remembering their names. If you found a photo of them on the web, you might even be able to address them by name - again, they'll find this flattering, not creepy. And here's the biggest bonus: if you really, really get to know their background, you'll begin to have some sense of who their friends are. You can then carry your end of the conversation by discussing THEIR friends. "So.. I hear Joe is off to Thailand for a month?" They'll think you're an ultra well-connected person who ought to be on the shortlist for Positions of Importance in the firm/industry.
- You'll find that all of the above begins to snowball. You go to a couple events where Interesting people attend, and soon enough you can use anecdotes from these events to get yourself invited to further events, and/or inspire other conversations. Soon enough higher-ups will be wondering why the hell they've stuck you down in a tiny analyst role. If you can behave with Important company, and you have fascinating ideas (of which INTJs have no shortage), then you ought to be doing something Interesting.
If this doesn't happen to work at your firm, those in change have no idea what's good for them. Don't expect everyone at the top to be totally INTJ compatible.. but if your ideas are even remotely interesting, any competent leader will spot someone who should be dragged a few levels higher!
I've learned a trick which has actually helped me enormously: Learn to be political, but in a smart, targeted way. It requires investment of emotional capital and other sorts of effort which INTJs would normally shun as inefficient, but I've really seen this work very effectively a few times over.
- Your ultimate goal should be to freely associate with the TOP people in your company/business/industry. Why? Because THAT's what's going to give you the ultimate freedom to think/advise/recommend/design/create/make-a-difference. Being an assistant analyst to a low-level manager who reports to a regional director who occasionally chats with an executive is going to make you want to wring your own neck. And that low-level manager is going to think you're nuts for bringing up brilliant suggestions on how to totally re-design the company to prepare for the next decade. The execs, on the other hand, routinely pay other people large sums of money for this kind of pointed advice.
- The way to accomplish this is by overcoming some of the really crappy built-in barriers we as INTJs have. If you work hard enough at it, you can rationalize your way through it. "I need to get myself invited to party X because persons Y will be attending and I can get further facetime with them". This also includes initiatives like actually doing a fair amount of background research on people who you might meet an an event. Think about it this way: if you already know their interests, you'll find it far easier to chat with them. Contrary to what you might expect, non-INTJ's do NOT, as a rule, find it creepy that you know plenty of details about their lives. They consider this mildly flattering. We find it a gross invasion of privacy. To each their own.
- Knowing some background on people serves a few other purposes. You'll have less trouble remembering their names. If you found a photo of them on the web, you might even be able to address them by name - again, they'll find this flattering, not creepy. And here's the biggest bonus: if you really, really get to know their background, you'll begin to have some sense of who their friends are. You can then carry your end of the conversation by discussing THEIR friends. "So.. I hear Joe is off to Thailand for a month?" They'll think you're an ultra well-connected person who ought to be on the shortlist for Positions of Importance in the firm/industry.
- You'll find that all of the above begins to snowball. You go to a couple events where Interesting people attend, and soon enough you can use anecdotes from these events to get yourself invited to further events, and/or inspire other conversations. Soon enough higher-ups will be wondering why the hell they've stuck you down in a tiny analyst role. If you can behave with Important company, and you have fascinating ideas (of which INTJs have no shortage), then you ought to be doing something Interesting.
If this doesn't happen to work at your firm, those in change have no idea what's good for them. Don't expect everyone at the top to be totally INTJ compatible.. but if your ideas are even remotely interesting, any competent leader will spot someone who should be dragged a few levels higher!