Beware the Doppelganger -- Finale

So WHAT SHOULD an estrogen colleague or minion do when faced with Tom or Sam’s alter ego Sparky?

That answer is … it depends.  For the most part, it is safe to simply ignore the spotlight grabbing doppelganger.  A stealth estrogen eye-roll to other estrogen witnesses can alleviate some of the frustration. However, if you need this Tom or Sam as a corporate ally you may not only have to put up with his doppelganger but also maybe even occasionally have to feed his spotlight desires.  From time to time it may be in your best political interest to give the spotlight to that doppelganger … throw him a bone … ask him a question … look for his advice … turn the spotlight over to him … For the sake of staying in his good graces.  Understand that if you do this too often or too obviously for a Hi Test Tom, he’ll know that you are kissing his testosterone keister and it will only backfire on you.  Super Sales Sam will eat it up. So it does become important to assess which type of doppelganger you are dealing with. Another word of caution; Consider the trade off between throwing the spotlight too often in Sparky’s direction against the fallout you might face from your estrogen peers. They will know immediately when you are ‘brown nosing’ and will be even less happy if you over encourage Spotlight Sparky to perform.

There is one lesson, however, we should take from Sparky.  When he steps into the spotlight, he is usually prepared. He knows his material and has his message generally well crafted and practiced. And he believes in the soliloquy he is performing, which always goes a long way towards sounding confident and polished with your audience … even if they are rolling their eyes.  It is not bad practice to step into the spotlight. The bad practice is in continually trying to grab for it.  You will need to be in the spotlight as you continue to build a career and advance up that corporate ladder.  So take the lesson from Sparky worth taking … be prepared, know your material or message, believe in what you are saying, and practice if possible. You’ll want to sound genuine, comfortable and confident when the spotlight is yours.

According to the German folklore, when one sees their doppelganger it is usually an omen … a forewarning of their eminent death. Well,  for the record there has never been a death directly attributed to a Spotlight Sparky doppelganger but there sure have been a lot of estrogen eye-rolls!

And my next post will start a new topic ... ever wonder what it would be like to wear the white shirt?  

Beware the Doppelganger -- Part 2

So, were you able to figure out which of our testosterone types qualifies for their very own Spotlight Sparky ...  the one and only Sparky who feeds on glory and is always looking for that stage. He can’t resist the opportunity to be visible … likes bees to honey ... and if you guessed Hi Test Tom (probably the more obvious) and Super Sales Sam (the more pitiful) you would be right. 

I will say that Hi Test Tom’s doppelganger is a bit more subtle and discriminating with his spotlight. He seeks to command larger audiences and simply expects that the audience is enthralled with his oration and appreciative of his time spend with them. He’s not trying to win the audience over or secure their buy-in but rather expects it by virtue of his reputation or position.  His stage is found at Town Hall meetings, Executive Board Reviews, corporate priority setting boards, large project steering committee, City Hall Board meetings, Wall Street Analyst presentations and the like. These venues usually come with a spotlight akin to those three rotating spotlights that car dealer’s use and jettison beams high into the night. When he speaks, he seldom uses the ‘I’ pronoun unless someone asks specifically for his opinion. This is clearly in keeping with all the other characteristics of a Hi Test Tom.

Super Sales Sam’s doppelganger is a bit more pathetic.  His Sparky will use almost anywhere or anything for his stage.  And if he can’t find one, he’ll construct one.  He’ll use his boss’s staff meeting to showcase all the project work his team has completed and what he personally has brought to the organization.  He’ll hijack a project meeting to show off his knowledge of technology using unnecessary terms and concepts that clearly float way above everyone else’s head. He’ll take a training course that he is teaching and turn it into the Spotlight Sparky show. He’ll only share his ideas in a peer forum or large group so he can be sure that no one passes his idea off as theirs. Heaven forbid he not get the credit for his idea. His use of the pronoun ‘I’ would elevate it past pronoun and nounto a verb. He is generally pleading ‘look at me,’ ‘listen to me,’ ‘how good am I?’  He is always showing off those personal performance points that you’ll read about in a subsequent post. His spotlight could be a dimly lit bulb on the verge of burnout and he’ll take it. It is just sad but again in keeping with those other attributes of Super Sales Sam.  
There are areas of commonality that these doppelgangers do share. They all love to hear themselves talk. It could be quite amusing if it wasn’t so annoying to watch a testosterone peer sit back and glowingly admire his Spotlight Sparky doppelganger standing on the conference room table in a staff meeting, eloquently delivering his soliloquy of achievements and ideas. Too bad Silky Simon doesn’t have a Spotlight Sparky … at least then we’d have something good to look at. Another similarity is how they all love to have questions asked of them. They do not like, however, to have their answers, positions, and comments questioned. And finally, all Spotlight Sparkys particularly relish being ‘Sparky to the rescue’ and will bask forever … or so it seems … in the glory of a ‘Sparky saves the day!’           


So what should an estrogen colleague or minion do when faced with Tom or Sam’s alter ego Sparky?  The answer coming in my final post on this subject.

  

Beware the Doppelganger -- Part 1

Doppelganger … that’s a great word … interesting, unique, mysterious, unusual, and one that I stumbled upon when I was trying to capture the essence of a rather annoying and frustrating dimension of at least two of our established testosterone types.  Doppelganger, according to Wikipedia, comes from two German words: Doppel meaning ‘double’ and ganger meaning ‘goer.’  It means any double or look alike of a person.  It can describe ‘the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection.’  Another source credits German folklore where a doppelganger is ‘a wraith or apparition of a living person, as distinguished from a ghost … the existence of a spirit double, an exact replica of every man, bird, or beast … an ancient and widespread belief.’  In short, it can also mean one’s alter ego.  And so I'm going to ask you to guess which two of our testosterone types are proud owners of their own doppelganger.  Let me give you another clue ...

If you’ll recall:

 ‘the Wit and Wisdom for Business Women Dictionary defines testosterone as the desire to compete, specifically in corporate America but more generally in life. It means the drive for power, money and/or glory. It is one driven by ego and status.’

This doppelganger falls prey to one particular aspect of our testosterone definition … glory!  The noun glory has a large number of synonyms, any one of which either of these two testosterone types would drool over. Synonyms like praise, honor, distinction, renown, fame, triumph, success, admiration, stardom … to list just a few … there are actually many more.  In keeping with our theme of humor, I propose we boil glory down to something more useful and identifiable on the corporate stage … let’s call it something that our testosterone brethren will readily recognize … the spotlight.   And we’ll come to recognize the unabashed doppelgangers of both these two types as … Spotlight Sparky.

Figured it out yet?  Which two out of:

Hi-Test Tom
Regular Grade Greg
Super Sales Sam
Silky Simon
Testosterone Ted in over his head

fit the profile?  Keep thinking about it and I'll share the answer on my next post.