‍

You want to be powerful, don’t you? Of course you do, who doesn’t?
But power is a tricky thing. It can be easy to get caught up in the trappings of power. When you expose yourself with your desires and ambitions, you risk garnering unwanted attention, especially from the Master.
The key is to attain and maintain your power without sacrificing your principles and attracting negative attention.
Remain Silent. Pay Attention To Details. Never Outshine The Master.

‍

Make your Master appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power. When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all. Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.


‍

‍

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

‍

So what does this really mean - Never Outshine Your Master?


Hypothetically speaking, let's assume you accept a new role. 


Although you were sought out, at some point, if you demonstrate higher skills and capabilities,  you might cause you manager to get insecure. Especially, if your manager does not have the same level of experience and skills as you do. 


And if you start to get noticed by the team and senior management, this could make the relationship with the manager more strained. 


Additionally, if you identify more optimal ways of doing business, which means changing processes and systems your manager put in place, this could cause additional friction. Even if your changes are producing results.


So what can happen?


  • You might find your role being descoped.
  • You might find that you are being left out of meetings and emails.
  • You might find that your manager goes out of the way to belittle you in meetings.
  • You might find that your manager directly or indirectly causes, the team, a team which he/she put together, to go against you.
  • You might find your year-end performance evaluations being impacted.
  • You might find the senior leadership view of you being tainted because you are not included in meetings with them. Where you are not being represented correctly.
  • And so on......


So, if the Dilbert Principle or Peter's Principle are true. You need to be careful. You have to dumb yourself down so as to not Outshine Your Master.


For me, I could never do that. My success was always based on results I delivered. But as times change, we all have to re-evaluate our approaches.


Thoughts?

‍