Jenni Russell commented in The Times (4/2/2016) that bosses don’t notice the strong and silent types. It pays to be one of the office jumper-uppers.

She comments that if you are one of those “sloggers” that “work hard, be competent and self-reliant, never panic in a crisis, willingly volunteer for late hours, and never draw attention to the occasional difficulties of the job.” then you will be looked over for promotion etc as there are plenty of people - ‘jumper-uppers’ - shouting “look at me!”, “look what I’ve done”, “aren’t I brilliant!”.

Jenni’s advice was to the ‘sloggers’ – stop being quietly efficient and effective. Start showing off.

But this is asking people to be something they are not. I spoke to my colleague who could easily own the ‘slogger’ t-Shirt and hat, and she commented “but I can’t do that – it would feel wrong! I don’t want to have the spotlight shone on me!”. Luckily, in the Belbin office, we know how vital our ‘slogger’ is. But is that always the case?

So what to do? Managers need to open their eyes and take responsibility. They should ask themselves whether they take the easy option of always delegating to the person they know will get the job done with minimum fuss, or to the person who has the strengths suited to the work.

To read the full article: The Times