The Science Behind Getting Ahead At Work

Michelle P. King’s new book, How Work Works, is composed of ten years of her research examining corporate culture, which includes a review of more than three thousand academic journal articles, seventy-two original interviews with executives from two different organizations (in England and Australia), two surveys with over three thousand participants and much more.

In other words, King knows what it takes to advance at work, and more importantly, how we derive fulfillment from what we do and contribute beyond a job description.

How Work Works is a unique and revelatory guide to understanding and navigating the unwritten rules of the workplace—the key to achieving success, finding meaning, and staying true to your authentic self in today’s business world.

Through all King’s research she discovered to get ahead in the business world, the most successful individuals do not rely on the often generic and outdated written formal rules that for a century have defined the workplace. Instead, they have learned to gauge how they should behave and perform by becoming aware of informal (and unspoken) rules that exist just below the surface.

Furthermore, success comes from focusing on these additional four areas:

developing self-awareness and awareness of others.
learning the skills you need to be adaptive to changing conditions.
getting support for your next promotion.
finding meaning and fulfillment at work.

“The new world of work requires a new way of working. With more people vying for top positions, a volatile unpredictable global workplace, and an ever-evolving landscape, it is increasingly important for employees to understand how to negotiate the unspoken and intangible elements of workplace culture,” explains King.

King also recommends you develop and benefit from three information networks:

Informal Advice Network – the people you go to for advice regarding a challenge or problem you are experiencing at work.
Informal Social Network – the people you turn to for encouragement, support, or help with professional or personal challenges.
Informal Informational Network – Understanding the network of your co-workers as to who has what expertise, skills, preferences and weaknesses. Information networks enable teamwork and a sense of belonging at work.

A few additional key takeaways from the book include these from King:

It’s no longer about having power over others but rather power with others, which is about working with others to achieve results. In the new world of work, we must learn how to bridge our differences with others so we can collaborate, innovate, and solve complex problems at work.

Employees quietly quit when their leaders solely focus on assigning tasks and expecting results (the what of work). These leaders unfortunately don’t manage how the work gets done, which requires offering a supportive environment and demonstrating concern for their teammates.

To build your reputation as a leader, it is important to regularly reflect on how you can be more clear, transparent, and consistent. And if you don’t know how to do all that, ask your teammates for feedback and input on how you can improve. Sample questions to ask include:

How could I be more open about the decisions I make?
Do you find my behavior to be inconsistent?
What can I do to better manage how I work, so you know what to expect from me?

Michelle P. King

Today, King shares these additional insights with us:

Question: Why did you decide to write your book?

King: For the past twenty years, I have studied how workplaces work, which is something I believe we should all care deeply about. Over an average lifetime,[i] a person will spend around 90,000 hours at work, which equates to 13 years.

To put this in perspective, humans spend just over one year socializing over the average lifetime. Therefore, where and how we work has a huge role to play in our happiness and overall life satisfaction. For this reason, I wanted to write How Work Works to detail what it takes to advance at work but, more importantly, how we derive fulfilment from what we do and contribute beyond a job description.

Question: Is the book a good read for both employees and leaders, and if for both, why?

King: This book is for everyone, regardless of whether you manage people or not.

Workplaces will become more agile, so how we work will become less formal, organized, and clear-cut. This is something that both managers and individual contributors will need to grapple with. Furthermore, most of us will have to learn how to manage ourselves and collaborate across differences.

The 2018 study[ii] Exploring the future of work: results of the futures forum study, which examines expert opinions on the future of work, found that there will be less need for mid-level managers over the next ten years. Additionally, employees will have to manage[iii] themselves, make decisions through consensus, and navigate the how of work to succeed.

The new world of work is a ‘hyper-social workplace’ because it requires one crucial skill: The ability to read the people you work with. If the rules are co-created, we all have a role in shaping them. The challenge is that most of us don’t know how to do this or are unaware of it and that is why this book is for everyone.

Question: What is the primary takeaway you hope readers will learn from the book?

King: Managing the how of work (how we get things done, rather than simply what we achieve) is no longer a “nice to have.” It is a business imperative. For businesses to survive in the new world of work, they need a new definition of what it means to win. If they hope to survive this sea change, companies need to change their focus from what gets done to how it gets done.

The same is true for employees. We can no longer afford to believe that to survive the dog-eat-dog world of corporate bureaucracy, we need to coerce, control, and persuade others to get them to do what you want them to do—even if it isn’t in their own best interests. Learning to manage how work gets done includes knowing how to navigate ambiguity and informality and collaborate to achieve outcomes in a way that benefits everyone.

A 2012 research study[iv] published in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal found that helping behaviors, like offering to support a colleague with their development or workload directly or indirectly, increase individual and team performance.

One of the key findings of this study is that how much we feel like we belong determines our behaviors, the extent to which we help others, and, therefore, our overall performance. Learning to manage how work gets done won’t just advance your career; it will benefit of the people you work with.

You will discover how to connect with the people you work with, understand how they are wired, and utilize the information learned to help them advance in their careers. Importantly, you will understand why managing how work gets done benefits your peers as much as it does you.

The most influential person in any organization is the person who knows how their workplace works because, with this knowledge, a person can make their entire organization work to benefit themselves, their colleagues, their customers, and their community.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

[i] Over an average lifetime: Leigh Campbell, “We’ve Broken Down Your Entire Life Into Years Spent Doing Tasks,” Huffington Post, updated October 19, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/weve-broken-down-your-entire-life-into-years-spent-doing-tasks_n_61087617e4b0999d2084fec5.

[ii] The 2018 study: Evi de Bruyne and Doranne Gerritse, “Exploring the Future Workplace: Results of the Futures Forum Study,” Journal of Corporate Real Estate 20, no. 4 (October 2018): 196–213, https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-09-2017-0030.

[iii] Employees will have to manage: Evi de Bruyne, and Doranne Gerritse, “Exploring the Future Workplace: Results of the Futures Forum Study,” Journal of Corporate Real Estate 20, no. 3 (October 2018): 196–213, https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-09-2017-0030.

[iv] A 2012 research study: Ivy Kyei-Poku, “The Benefits of Belongingness and Interactional Fairness to Interpersonal Citizenship Behavior,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 35, no. 8 (2014): 691–709, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1108/LODJ-09-2012-0117.

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