In a commodity-based society, everyone needs to actively promote oneself to get appropriately recognized, and adequately rewarded. There are many ways to promote oneself, which invariably fall into two categories: direct and indirect. While a direct approach works well in many cases, an indirect apporach can be particularly valuable in some others. Praising others to promote oneself represents one of the most effective, indirect ways for self-promotion, which I believe is a vital job-surviving skill indeed. The following episode illustrates the benefit of using this indirect approach to promote oneself.
When I was in the final year of my undergraduate course, our class went to some place to do the practical exercises. At the end of this period, we needed to evaluate among ourselves and decide on who would get Excellent, Fair, Pass and Fail grades. As I was one of those students who found the practical exercises boring and time-wasting, I did not do more than I was asked for on my own accord. Consequently, I did not expect myself to get a higher than Fair grade for the evaluation. On the evaluation day, one of my fellow students was assessed first. This student was kind of quietish guy, who would do his duties and more without making much noise. After summarizing the performance of this particular student, our gorup leader suggested that this student should have no problem at all to receive a Fair grade. Instantly, I realized that if this student was going to get a Fair grade, I would most likely have Pass grade based on our comparative performance. So, I raised my hand and fought valantly on behalf of that student. I stated that this student was like a living Lei Feng, always working hard without complaining. If this student was not going to receive an Excellent grade, no one else in this world would deserve one either. Obviously, there was much truth in what I had said, and that student received an Excellent grade for his practical exercises as a result. That student did not say much to me then or afterwards, but I could feel that he was grateful for my help when it was most needed. When it was time to evaluate me, I got a Fair grade in comparison with that student, which I was more than happy to have anyway.
Thus, praising others to promote oneself is another essential job-surviving skill we all should have.
