The opportunity of being the dumbest in the room
You probably have already seen the following graphic:
According to it, the most a challenge is near to be too much, the most you are going to evolve with it.
I`ve always liked this idea and, by transference, working with the best is the first priority of my career.
Joining Loft, however, made me reformulate my concept of being among an A-Team and out of my comfort zone.
More than ever, I could understand the good, the bad, and the ugly of the fiction writer Chuck Palahniuk quote:
“As the stupidest person in the room, I always had the most to gain.”
It won`t be pretty
Since my job interviews, I started to admire my colleagues. In my first days, this admiration was reinforced by the implied maturity of company rituals, routines, and initiatives.
Having that said, we live day-by-day with aggressive targets to meet, and if your colleagues are that talented, it generates bar-raising expectations.
For some time, I did not get the best from it. I have compared myself and I missed being the smartest guy as I was before.
Talking with some co-workers, I also realized that this challenge was an Impostor-Syndrome trigger for some of them.
So I would like to share some tips that helped me. And the ideal scenario would be you not only apply these tips in your current job but also could join us — and do not commit the mistakes I had.
1- Take the courage to share your feelings
We lofters are very busy and, eventually, we gonna fail to identify you are insecure.
Take the role of building this alignment as your responsibility too. Here you both might talk with your manager or with the HR Business Partner team, and, believe me, they will not use the information against you.
2- Imagine yourself back in a past professional experience
Brightening is certainly better than struggling.
But what helped me was imagining myself back in my last job. All the skills I was witnessing my colleagues applying would be in my repertoire now. On a basic level, of course. But I would have an eye in a blind country.
3- Redefine bragging in your mind
Being humble is not equal to ignore self-promotion needs. The market requires this ability from you — no matter if you don’t like it.
It is much easier to deal with the fact your colleagues are better than you in many senses if you, at least, know to show your value.
I’m not talking you should pretend to know thinks you don’t. But we tend to some mistakes:
A) We don’t value the skills we are better than most people (They are easy and ordinary abilities to us).
B) We wrongly believe we are never prepared to affirm our expertise in a topic. Let me tell you a secret: Before you be a master you gonna be better than average. Be proud of this step.
Final Considerations
If you are now in a too much easy or too much tough moment, something might be wrong.
Remember to be kind to yourself but also to explore the pain you can handle. Your professional muscles gonna thank you.
Maybe the following people management framework (explained by our CEO) might be useful.
Hope you take some advantage from this article. And if you want to challenge yourself in a high-level environment, visit our open job positions.
