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You are here: Home / 2 - Professional Skills / c Career Navigation Skills / Career Success / "My Boss Won't Let Me"

"My Boss Won't Let Me"

March 29, 2011 by Matt Perman

Seth Godin, from Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?:

The single biggest objection to changing the way you approach your job is the certainty that your boss won’t let you do anything but be a cog.

Nine times out of ten, this isn’t true. One time out of ten, you should get a new job.

Let’s take the rare case first.

If you actually work for an organization that insists you be mediocre, that enforces conformity in all its employees, why stay? What are you building?

The work can’t possibly be enjoyable or challenging, your skills aren’t increasing, and your value in the marketplace decreases each day you stay there. And if history is any guide, your job there isn’t as stable as you think, because average companies making average products for average people are under huge strain.

Sure, it might be comfortable, and yes, you’ve been brainwashed into believing that this is what you’re supposed to do, but no, it’s not what you deserve.

The other case, though, is the common one. You think your boss won’t let you, at the very same moment that your boss can’t understand why you won’t contribute more insight or enthusiasm. In most non-cog jobs, the boss’s biggest lament is that her people won’t step up and bring their authentic selves to work.

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Filed Under: Career Success

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What’s Best Next exists to help you achieve greater impact with your time and energy — and in a gospel-centered way.

We help you do work that changes the world. We believe this is possible when you reflect the gospel in your work. So here you’ll find resources and training to help you lead, create, and get things done. To do work that matters, and do it better — for the glory of God and flourishing of society.

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About Matt Perman

Matt Perman started What’s Best Next in 2008 as a blog on God-centered productivity. It has now become an organization dedicated to helping you do work that matters.

Matt is the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and a frequent speaker on leadership and productivity from a gospel-driven perspective. He has led the website teams at Desiring God and Made to Flourish, and is now director of career development at The King’s College NYC. He lives in Manhattan.

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