5pm and I’m walking through the market in Lewisham on my way home from a meeting in the City.  It’s always a good time to pick up a bargain and cucumbers are especially cheap right now – five for a pound.  Our continental cousins have been saying no to salad since a number of deaths from e-coli have been attributed to poor hygiene in the vegetable department (follow this link if you’re curious to read more).  It seems it doesn’t matter that the underlying reasons for the outbreak have not been determined – the rumour was enough to make the difference to sales, and with devastating impact on agriculture in Germany.

As it happens, I have had several conversations today about marketing for small businesses.  Here, too, it’s the rumour that makes the difference.  Many people who start their own businesses are unprepared for the reality that it’s not enough to do a great job for your clients to be successful – you have to attract clients in the first place (and, yes, retain them) in order to do a great job for them.  How many small-time entrepreneurs have fallen on the sword of their own pride when it comes to sharing with others what they do, believing that “the cream always rises to the top” and “if I do a good job, the business will come”.  Maybe it will, but if it doesn’t:  what then?

This is often an extension of the beliefs they held when they were working in the organisations they left behind (and in which my clients mainly work – so, yes, there’s a thought here for you, too).  Somehow we tell ourselves that it’s in the interests of our employers to spot and nurture talent and, yes, I agree.  But if you’re looking for new opportunities – to broaden your skills or gain your next promotion – it’s good to remember that it’s not always enough to have what it takes.  Other people have to know that you have what it takes and that you want that opportunity.  As long as you’re sitting there thinking someone else ought to be doing something to further your career, you’re giving away your power to make things happen.

One place where this fundamental difference – between being “good” and being seen to be “good” shows up is in the 360 degree questionnaire.  (I use the Hay Group’s Emotional Competence Inventory from time to time, for example).  Such questionnaires do not give an objective insight into the competencies you display at work and still, they do give an objective insight into the competencies you are seen to display at work.  Like the German cucumbers you saw if you followed the link above, it doesn’t matter that you have all the skills and attributes needed to progress if nobody knows you do.

I wonder, how willing are you to openly share what you want at work?  And if you’re not, what stops you?  (And here’s a clue:  if you’re looking outside yourself for answers to that second question, try again.  The answer sits with you).