Your latest promotion and other things that don’t matter

So, you just got promoted, huh? That’s great! Of course, no one cares, and you need to get back to work now, but hey, you get new business cards, and that’s cool.

I recently heard a story about a young man who worked his tail off and found himself quickly promoted into a position of management, who, after finding himself with additional responsibility “over” others, promptly started referring to himself as the Big Kahuna… aka:

1. Big Cheese.

1. Big Man on Campus.

1. Big Mac Attack.

Big Deal. If someone else is there to promote you, then someone else is there to demote you, too; as long as your fate is decided by others’ interpretations of your work, you are not the Big Kahuna or Big Anything Else. If you have people below you and people above you, too, then you are, quite literally, middle management.

And for the record, Big Kahunas don’t generally go around referring to themselves as Big Kahunas. No. They simply get their work done and occasionally steal a day or two between business trips to meet up with their friends at places like Kohler, Aspen, and Mandalay Bay.

What about Mr. Big Kahuna? He was let go shortly after his promotion. Something about his ego swelling out of control and becoming a disruptive force.

What a shame.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.