How to Get Ahead at the White House (or Any Other Workplace). Or...Not.

It’s too bad that junior aide hadn’t read our Oct. 13, 2009 post before speaking with the New York Times earlier this week about the so-called sports culture at the White House.

If she had, she just may have scored a much more flattering – and professional— quote.

Instead, she said that ‘…the “sports-fan thing at the White House” could become “annoying” and that her relative indifference to athletics could be mildly alienating.’

Wow. It’s a good thing she had spoken on the condition of anonymity. Would she really want the world to know she has actually chosen to forgo connecting with her boss and colleagues simply because she doesn’t like the favored topic of friendly banter at the office?

Getting ahead takes doing good work and getting along socially. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again:

The truth is, lots of people (both men AND women) like talking about sports, even if you don’t. And, it’s really not about you, is it? Of course it isn’t.

Then again, in the end, it IS all about you because you are effectively building valuable relationships, which is the key to success. Thinking about sports talk this way, as the means to an end rather than the end itself, is often the turning point … the ‘Aha moment’ when sports talk ceases to be something to dread, and becomes a fabulous opportunity.