Brandon Sanderson Taught Me More About My Career Than Any Manager Ever Has

Brandon Sanderson is a master of his craft. He’s been writing extensively for a long time now. He’s released a whole podcast “On writing with Brandon Sanderson” which I’ve been devouring recently. Really good!

There is one episode on “Creating Characters” and how to make great characters. He proposes there are three attributes that contribute to whether a character will be liked by your readers or not.

I would argue that these same attributes apply in your workplace. You can use them to help you shine and standout amongst your colleagues. In this article I will explain all.

The Three Attributes

Let’s dive in to what these three attributes are. Brandon Sanderson says if your character scores high in being proactive, relatable and capable then they will be liked by your reader.

If they score low in one of these attributes, then that will affect their likability. For example, if someone’s very proactive and relatable, but they’re not capable at all in what they’re doing, then as a reader, you won’t like that character as much.

The same as if a character is highly capable but then not very proactive and not very relatable; then also they won’t be as likeable.

A classic example of this is Jack Reacher from the Reacher series by Lee Child. Jack is highly proactive (always righting wrongs wherever he turns up), highly capable (he was a Military Policeman and he can always find his way out of trouble) and he is relatable (he always acts on the side of good which most people believe in) — the only wearing new clothes bit is not quite so relatable but everyone has their quirks I guess.

These Three Attributes In The Workplace

Now try applying these attributes to individuals that you work with. Is Bob, who works in accountancy, proactive, relatable and capable? What about your boss, Jane? Is she proactive, relatable, and capable?

When you start analysing your colleagues behaviour with these three attributes, it suddenly becomes clear why you really like working with some people and not with others.

You suddenly realise that Bob is highly capable, but he’s also super lazy. He’s not proactive at all. Your boss — Jane — she’s really proactive and really relatable, but she just isn’t very good at her job. She just doesn’t know how to manage people. Her capability score is way down.

Using these attributes is a clear and simple way in which to understand how you view those around you.

Analysing Yourself

What about yourself? How do you score with these three attributes? It’s time to be honest with yourself here.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Are you proactive at work?
• Are you seeking out and solving problems before they turn into something bigger?
• Are you seeking out where you can provide value before you’re being asked by you boss?
• Are you capable in your role?
• Do you know how to do your job well?
• Do you know all aspects of your job and not just a subset?
• Do colleagues come to you to ask how to do things?
• Could you improve in any areas?
• If you’re being really honest with yourself, is there anywhere you can improve, and if so, are you doing something about it?
• Are you relatable? This one’s a little bit harder to clarify because relatability will differ between different people. I like to think of this one as: Are you able to get on with all different types of colleagues?
• Are you able to adapt to be able to work with different types of people in order to complete whatever tasks need to be done?
• Are people happy to see you at work?

If you answer “Yes” to all these questions then you are doing really well and that promotion should be coming any day now. But I suspect most people will definitely not be scoring “Yes” on all and if you are then are you really being honest with yourself?

It can be really hard to put your finger on the specific problem sometimes, but using this approach can help simplifies things.

When I did this self analysis I definitely found some gaps. I realised I could be more proactive in seeking out solutions to existing hard problems. I can also be a bit stand-offish around some people which really doesn’t help with my relatability.

Conclusion

Performing well at work is hard. Getting that next promotion or applying for that new job is hard and sometimes you just don’t understand why it isn’t happening.

Using these three attributes of Proactivity, Capability and Relatability can be a really simple way to help you know where to focus your efforts. It requires honest self reflection to see your current state as clearly as possible. However, from this self reflection can come real opportunities to make actual improvements.

I’ve been using this method now for a little while and I have found it really helpful. I often struggle to put into words the feelings I have and this method has helped me overcome this in certain areas.

It’s not going to instantly make your life a thousand times better but more of adding a better lens onto the glasses on which you view the world.

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