When I worked in corporate America, I learned quickly that sometimes you have to “take one for the team” for the good of the organization. In my case, “the team” was a project team.
This project assignment isn’t ideal for what you want to do with your career, but we really need you to do it anyway.
If you take this project now, I’ll make sure to get you a better role on the next project.
Yes, it is grunt work, but you just have to do the work for now.
This project will give you an opportunity to improve your technical skills. After all, you need to be more well-rounded to move up in the organization.
The role might not be great, but you’ll be working with [insert name of executive]
I could continue to list the excuses I heard, but they don’t really matter anymore. Marcus Buckingham spoke yesterday about some of the biggest myths. One of the biggest myths he dissected was “Take one for the team”
The team needs you to use your strengths all the time.
When you volunteer to do what you do best, the team is better. Team performance is stronger. The team is more productive.
I don’t have to put myself aside for the team….