Flying Without a Net

CHAPTER FOUR

Isolation

Why Do I Keep Voting Myself Off the Island?

HIGH-NEED-FOR-ACHIEVEMENT PROFESSIONALS want to believe they’re in the inner circle, that they’re members of the club. Successful, smart professionals may seem sufficiently confident that they don’t need this sense of inclusion, but beneath that outer confidence is an inner doubter: Do I measure up? Am I as good as everyone thinks I am? Does management see me as an indispensable A player or as a disposable part? These questions plague even some of the most successful professionals. When they can’t answer them affirmatively, they become anxious. They fret that they’ve fallen from favor or off the fast track. They begin to see themselves on the outside looking in, and they become ...