Image via Wikipedia

When someone in the office gets promoted, will colleagues offer support and sincere congratulations, or will they snipe and complain?

            The difference comes down to whether they think the promotion was deserved.

            To maintain the support of your co-workers as you advance, you have to let them see how hard you are working long before the promotion as well as after it. You have to let them see how capable and dedicated you are. You will maintain far more support from co-workers for appearing overly dedicated to your work than you would receiving a promotion they do not feel is justified.

            Sterling and Shannon Sharpe grew up playing football together on the farm in Glenville, Georgia.

            Sterling, the older brother, was recruited by a football powerhouse, the University of South Carolina, and went on to become a first-round draft pick in the National Football League. Shannon was not heavily recruited and wound up playing football in obscurity at Savannah State College, before fighting his way onto an NFL roster as the last man drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1990.

            Sterling was among the league’s best wide receivers, trying desperately to help his team to the Super Bowl, when a neck injury cut short his career. Shannon’s skills continued to develop, until he too became recognized as one of the premier pass catchers in the game.

            Shannon’s Denver Broncos made it to two consecutive Super Bowls, and then he won a third Super Bowl as a member of the Baltimore Ravens. When Sterling was asked whether he was jealous of his brother’s continued success and Super Bowl rings he said, “It’s very easy to pull for him because I know what this means for him and I know how hard he worked to get there. The same goals and dreams and work ethic and everything Shannon put into getting there, I experienced as a player trying to get there myself.”

Over eight in ten people will support their friends moving up beyond them, even support the advancement of peers who they are not friendly with, if they feel the promotion was based on achievements and ability.