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Have you ever been penalized for being good at your job? sounds ridiculous, right? Except it happens to almost all high performers. In this episode, I'm going to tell you why that is. Welcome to Episode Two of the career design podcast the pains of being a high performer. I'm your host, Lindsay Mustain. So let's get started today, because one of the things that I have heard time and time and time again, from my clients, is how they have been penalized for being high performers. And so here's kind of a little quick quiz to know if you've been penalised for being good at your job. Okay, one, you have a boss that you oversee. It seems like they're supposed to be your boss, but you've been overseeing them for a period of time, too. You are the most experienced or knowledgeable person on the team, regardless of your tenure, regardless of how long you've actually been there. And then the third thing is, is that you come in and you challenge the status quo, you're not comfortable accepting what everyone has accepted as reality and truth. You say, Nope, I see something different. If you have answered yes to any of those, you are probably feeling the constraints of being a high performer. So let me define what that means. What that means. high performers are people who are hyper performer, meaning that they when they come in to work, they don't take this as like, Oh, it's my job, I'm going to clock in, I'm going to clock out, they come in and they say, What do I need to do to make a difference? How do I make things better? How can I make whoever in user is have a better or more incredible experience? They come in, and they challenge the people that are in whether or not they've changed jobs or different teams, but they've put some other people on guard because they are new blood, but they're brave enough, and have the audacity to suggest that there might be a better way. If you've ever found yourself in that position, you're a high performer, okay. And I'm going to tell you that this world has not been created for high performance. In fact, it's been beaten out of you. When you think about your life, you probably went to elementary school or grade school, you went to high school or the equivalency, and then you graduated, right? That was the normal requirements. And then after that, you probably took some sort of loan. And then you went into debt, maybe 10s of 1000s, or hundreds of 1000s of dollars, and got a job and hope that you would pay that back by working every day until you died. I hate to give it so abruptly. But that's actually what everybody does, when you think about it, and how we conditioned our children, how we conditioned people who are going to start graduating from high school, like yeah, go to school go to do these other things. And I'm not saying that school is a bad investment, I'm saying you need to understand what that investment truly is, we'll get into the education side of why it doesn't really matter too much about your qualifications in another episode. But whatever you want to look at, we've created this almost like production environment. And we I call it like a series of programming to treat you and to becoming a cog in a machine. And I talked a little bit about in my last episode about what it means to be a cog in a machine. And that means you're part of a bigger puzzle. But you don't actually contribute to anything that you can see at the very end, you can't say this was really mine. Instead, it's been commercialized and distilled into something that was never even the true intention of what you created. Do you hear me? This has been my life in corporate America. And I tend to come from some sort of entitled background, I worked my way up from the bottom to the top, like every step of the way. And it's why I know this because I've seen it every single level from people who come in at and they're just hungry, they're out of school, and they're ready to go. Or to the point where we're bringing in these seasoned executives to come in and bring all this authority and leadership and then nothing happens. Because everyone resists it. They say, yeah, we need innovation, and then they squash it in their face. Okay. So if you've ever struggled, coming into a corporation and organization of business, where you are trying to figure out how to fit in, okay, this is most of me, I'm like, okay, I kind of I don't feel like I'm like everyone here, but I'm gonna do my very best to assimilate. Does anybody recognize that? And then they're like, Okay, this is different. Like this might be a good old boys club, or this company is so lacking in innovation, they are at the point of decline in their business, and what have I got myself into?
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I remember one time I came on board, and I was Asking one of the leaders of a team. And I
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said,
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I'd like to know a little bit more about this position, and it had a lead in it. So it was lead. And so I said, Tell me about this lead position. And they were like, wait, this is not a lead position. This is a leader. And I was like, I'm just going what's based on the job title here, but you get into these little things. Were just like, Oh, my gosh, I'm not trying to set you off. But you actually do that you became this catalyst for change around you, whether it's intentional or not, because you see a future that no one else does, like you see something, you're like, wow, if you do this, do you understand what's going to happen here, five layers deep. And they're like, you know, it's all hunky dory. And then the by the next quarter, you had an earnings call with your stockholders, and everything's crashed, because you didn't listen to the person who is the outsider. So this is the pain of being a high performer, you can see things in advance of when they're going to happen. And you tell people, and they still don't listen to you. And this last part is when you know, you are exactly either in the wrong job or the wrong company, and maybe both. But how many of you have actually been a super high performer at a job, and then suddenly, your boss changes, and you drop to the bottom, I have been there. And there was nothing wrong, except that my boss was an incompetent leader who had been be fired. But guess what, you know, who suffered on the ratings me, the top performer on the team. It made zero sense. And so if you've ever had this, this is the curse of being a high performer, because what really comes down to it is that we are tribal, we are tribal, which means human beings. We've survived for millennia, just being together, you know, like being close together as how we have grown, we knew that our protection lied in our tribe, not in us being individuals. And so those who said outside of what actually is what the real core Common Core is this thing, and you're standing outside take, we're just thinking that makes zero sense. They're like, No, you need to back away slowly, because you're not like us. And that is deadly thinking. And, and it's why we struggle. So if you have somebody who is talking to you as a leader, and is talking about someone who's coming in as being disruptive, and they're not fitting in, well,
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I want you to question
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that. And I want you to say, Is it because they're not jiving with you? Or is it really true fit and fit is very nebulous. So I hate that as a term, but are they shaking things up? Because they need to be shaken up? And are you threatened, okay. And that's what we invoke in these people is that they are threatened by us because we are different. We are unlike others, we stand above the crowd, we see things differently, we are square pegs and trying to blend in as round holes. And we cannot because it is within us, we do not know how to not seek better. That is the definition of death for us. stagnation is death. If you are that person, I want you to know nothing is wrong with you, okay. And in fact, you are what's absolutely necessary to succeed in business. And if you think about all of the crazy entrepreneurs out there that are billionaires now, they came up with this wildly crazy concept that everybody thought they were insane. They thought they were insane, for sure. And then they went on to create this massive impact. But then those same entrepreneurs, now they've stepped away from their business, their business has become this complacency cycle. They are in maturity claiming to be startups, you know, or they're in decline. And claiming to have market leadership when they're falling behind, always second place to who is actually the market leader or category King. Why? Because when you try to cookie cutter, every single person, there's one thing of standardization, there's a whole other thing when you try to make everybody the same. And you know what happens when you have everybody the same, it's modernized, it means nothing. There's a reason why orange juice tastes the same from cup to cup to cup. It's because they mix it all together. And then they make all of these batches. And that's what we do. We just basically make you just this giant homogenized cup of juice. And it's nothing that's going to make anybody go oh my god, this is life changes just like okay, we were here again, we're doing the same thing over and over and over again. And you wonder what meaning there is in it. And you realize that every single day that you continue to go into this environment. You feel like you're selling off your soul just a little by little little bit by little bit piece by piece for your paycheck. And it's one of these bright Shining people come in. And then their light grows dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, and they suffer from disloyalty or loyalty. Just like what I want to say is, loyalty is not actually something that helps most people here in the case of business will get rid of you as soon as it doesn't help them. But as people and individuals, we don't think a lot, logically, we feel emotionally like we belong here, or that we owe them something, because they paid us to be here, which is the exchange here, you put in your effort, they give you money, there's nothing else, okay? Everything else is like a constraint inside of your mind, not not anybody else's. And in fact, if you want to learn how to move ahead in your life, you need to be willing to let go of what is status quo and reach for more just like you do when you go into a business. Okay? So if you've questioned like, why do we do this? And why do I feel so empty, you're in the wrong job, okay, that's the first thing, you're in the wrong job. And it's not your fault. Like we only talk about the dream jobs on the right job at the right company at the right salary. Somebody was like, I have like a job I like. And I'm like, Okay, well, one, we need to get you a little higher up. Because you cannot just have a job you like your job, you love the lines to your purpose of what your true calling is that you make a mark in this world. So that your legacy when you leave behind, you've left it a little bit better, you've left it a little bit better, and you've done everything you possibly could and you never ever were average. Average is the antithesis of a high performer. We hate a whore being average. And we see all these archetypes like the people who are the boss's best friend, right? Or maybe the questionable, mean gal in the corner office to paint with a white archetype. Or maybe you think you can force your way through everything, like many of my male bosses, or perhaps you're incredibly soft spoken. And so no one ever speaks to you. And your ideas aren't heard. These are certain archetypes that are happening. And a lot of the times the people who have the loudest voices and the most control are bullies. And they are and they are because they're threatened by what they perceive as other strengths. And other strengths, or differences. They might see them as they put people on defense, they make them say, Whoa, something isn't right here. And it doesn't feel good because it's not normal. Okay, so guess what? In the edge
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of comfort and comfort? Like that's when we're sitting on the couch watching the Superbowl. Okay, that's comfort. When we want to be on the bleeding edge of innovation. We're figuring out how to colonize Mars. Okay, so which ship Do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the one that's on the couch? Or do you want to be on the on the actual rocket? I don't know about you, but I will be way more interested in going into space then to the other one. But you understand what I'm saying? Right? You need to challenge yourself and be different. If you want to have a life that's different. Okay. So there's, this is the other and Dave Ramsey says this a lot. So I love this quote. He says if you want to live like no one else, then live like no one else. Okay? He's talking about money. I'm talking about in your career, stop settling, stop looking at what is out there black and white and say, what's the space in between? strategically what advantages do I bring because you do that? And those things that's going to be your ultimate truth. So not the stories that your boss who thinks you're an underperformer. I mean, I have stories of people who made a millions and they were pushed out because they didn't jive well with some one person that's in leadership. And that is a really not a reflection on the person, although that they tend to take those scars and internalize them. It's a really poor vote of leadership. So if you find yourself doing that, I want you to go further. That's my alert. I'm doing something that a bad leader and like this is what a bad leader would do. And encompassing that same and then say, Okay, now how do I change that? How do I go against exactly what my gut says? And question the bias, okay, this is a big part of understanding corporate, the corporate world is I want you to question the bias. So whether you think something is good or bad, whatever your gut reaction is, I want you to go the opposite how this manifests for me and mine is that when I see somebody comes in, and they look the part they have prepared, they have the most perfect qualifications, I give them the harder interview than the guy who showed up in jeans. Because I the appearance is not always what's going to be the case. And that's why I want you to see that strategic advantage that you bring of being able to look deeper into something and see a real truth that nobody else sees around you. That is your superpower. That's a trait of a high performer. That's a trait of somebody who is a purple squirrel, even if they don't know how they do it, or their secret sauce. That is what this podcast is for is how do we distill that how do we get to that place? Where we have your essence of who you are as a human, as somebody who's gone through all of the life experiences and the traumas and the pain and the scars. And even though those things hurt, like how they made me a lot better, I know they made you better. How do we use that to our advantage, and that's what this podcast seeks to do for you. So that's it for this episode, episode number two. So here's what I want you to do here, if you will do me a favor. If you like this episode, I'd like you to go subscribe, whatever platform you're listening on, go subscribe to me. And then write a review. If you write a review, give me some stars and go and sign up for my mailing list at career design. podcast.com I'm gonna send you something special, and it's going to help us continue this relationship together so that I can help you on the path to really finding true and pure joy in what you do. Instead of settling for living a life like everyone else, I want you to question that and say, I want a life like no one else because I am like no one else. If that's you, please again, go ahead subscribe, review rate, and then go sign up at career design podcast.com and I'll be sending you a very special gift. Thanks so much for joining me and I'll see you on the next episode.