Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Aug 27, 2025

Why hard work alone isn't enough to get ahead

Why hard work alone isn't enough to get ahead

We're constantly taught the recipe for getting ahead is to put our heads down and outwork everyone else. But that's not quite right.

This article contains strong language some readers may find offensive

Late this summer, UK author Kate Lister had a realisation that resonated. On Twitter, she wrote: “How old were you when you realised your original plan of being really nice, working really hard, & taking on much more than you should in the hope you would be automatically rewarded for this without asking, was totally shit?”

Cynical or not, the sentiment resonated: more than 400,000 people have liked or retweeted it.

Despite adages and advice that tell people from a young age hard work will get you everywhere, it really won’t, says Jeff Shannon, an executive coach, and author of Hard Work is Not Enough: The Surprising Truth about Being Believable at Work. He believes “hard work is a good start”, and early in your career, it can certainly help you establish yourself in a job.

But it’s not enough to take you all the way to the top. “At a certain point you look around and realise, wow, everyone works hard at this level. Expertise and hard work just become the expectation, and will not help you up the ladder.”

So, yes, it’s unfair the system doesn’t simply value hard work flat out – but it’s an important reality for workers to grapple with, especially if they’re struggling to climb the ladder. To really get ahead, you need to be doing more than just your job. Realisations like Lister’s often come on the heels of watching colleagues with similar (or fewer) abilities soar, while your career stagnates. More often than not, those who rise are the ones willing to politick their way to the top, while you were too busy just working hard to notice you should be working the room.

Hard work, says Shannon, doesn’t much matter if no one recognises you’re doing it. To translate that effort into promotions and advancement, especially in a changed world of work, you have to make people notice it – and you.

Getting to your desk before anyone else isn't enough – you have to trumpet your accomplishments


The ‘tiara effect’ trap


Hard work is still very important, says Carol Frohlinger, president of US-based consulting firm Negotiating Women, Inc. But simply waiting for someone to pick up on it is detrimental.

Frohlinger calls this tendency the “tiara effect” (a term Sheryl Sandberg also cited in Lean In). “People work really hard and deliver fabulous results and hope that the right people notice and come along and place a tiara on their heads. But that usually doesn’t happen,” she says. “One of the things that can happen to people who do good work and nothing else is that they’re under the radar. So, when there’s an opportunity for promotion, nobody thinks of them. They’re just forgotten, in a benign sort of way.”

This flies in the face of societal training that begins as early as primary school, when students are taught that the quiet, hard workers are those most likely to prosper. Because teachers reward such qualities in early years, we tend to expect our eventual bosses will, too. It’s frustrating, then, to enter the working world only to discover this engrained lesson is often incorrect.

In fact, as Shannon notes, hard work alone typically goes unnoticed after a certain point, because everyone around you is working at or about the same level. If you don’t draw attention to yourself in other ways, it’s easy to fade into the background.

While both men and women are susceptible to supervisors overlooking their hard work, Frohlinger says women are often more negatively impacted, because it’s generally seen as more acceptable for men to talk about their accomplishments. “For women, it can be seen as bragging, and bragging women can be punished,” she says.

To climb the ladder, it’s necessary to be not just a great worker, but a bit of a politician


So, how do you get around the stereotype? The answer – for men as well as women – is to find a way to draw attention to your endeavours without waiting for something as infrequent as a yearly review or performance self-assessment.

“What happens in a lot of companies and organisations is that you wait until the very end of the year, when you do the ‘I love me’ [self-assessment] memo,” says Frohlinger. “But you just can’t wait a year.”

She suggests giving the boss more frequent, albeit succinct, updates, and being sure to put accomplishments in context. “It could be just a quick email with some bullet points: here are my wins, and here’s what they did for us,” she says. “Here’s why it was helpful for our team, or how it saved the company money.” Frequency and word choice matter, adds Frohlinger. “Nobody wants to hear it every day. Using phrases like ‘my team and I’ helps you make yourself look good while also sharing the kudos.”

Framing is important, too. A boss may find it odd to get an unsolicited update singing your own praises, but it’ll go over better cast as a check-in or a way to “keep them in the loop”, says Frohlinger.

The value of politics


Yet in most offices and industries, proven ability alone isn’t enough to help you get ahead, because you also need to be likeable and memorable. “If you want to have impact and influence, people need to trust and believe in you,” says Shannon, the same way they do a candidate they support.

Putting your head down to work and grinding it out doesn't mean your supervisors will notice and laud you


Basically, to climb the ladder, it’s necessary to be not just a great worker, but a bit of a politician.

“You need to be seen as a leader,” says Frohlinger. “You need to be liked: by people at your level, by people above you and by people below you. When you evaluate work, the research is quite clear – people who are liked get better ratings, even if their work is the same.” And therein lies the unfair truth: you and a colleague may have the exact same skills and work ethic, but if they’ve spent more time making friends and influencing people, they’ll look better at their job. Bosses are human, too, and it’s simply a basic instinct for them to favour people they like.

However, it is very possible to increase your political capital at work. There are basic tactics that can make you a well-liked member of the office, simply by paying attention to your colleagues. “You need to think about how to connect with people other than just on the work,” says Frohlinger. “Do we have a shared hobby or interest? Let’s say I know you like gardening, and I see this gardening article and I send it to you. That’s pretty simple, but you’re going to like me more.”

While it may seem a bit manipulative, that kind of glad-handing doesn’t actually hurt anyone, and it’s what may be necessary to get ahead. It may require a reorganisation of priorities for those who’d rather focus on their to-do list over socialising. But going against that instinct can be beneficial. It’s all part of career maintenance, which Frohlinger says is every worker’s responsibility.

“If you don’t take care of your career,” she says, “nobody else is going to do it.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
Nurse who raped woman continued working for a year despite police alert
Drought forces closures of England’s canal routes, canceling boat holidays
Sweet tooth scents: food-inspired perfumes surge as weight-loss drugs suppress appetites
Experts warn Britain dangerously reliant on imported food
Family of Notting Hill Carnival murder victim call event unmanageable
Bunkers, Billions and Apocalypse: The Secret Compounds of Zuckerberg and the Tech Giants
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
×