```table-of-contents ``` --- ![[blog-kegans-two-jobs.png]] **Image**: Kegan's two jobs to be done # Everyone's doing two jobs It _was_ Robert Kegan (with Lisa Lahey) in **An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization (2016)** who articulated that idea. They argue that in most organisations, people are essentially doing **two jobs**: 1. **The job they’re paid to do** – their formal tasks, responsibilities, and objectives. 2. **The “second job”** – the constant, hidden work of **managing impressions**, **hiding weaknesses**, **covering mistakes**, and **projecting competence** to protect themselves in the organisational culture. Kegan and Lahey describe this second job as a massive drain on both **individual energy** and **organisational potential** — a “psychic tax” that diverts cognitive and emotional resources away from real work. Their central argument is that most organisations _accept_ this as normal, but **Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDOs)** aim to _eliminate_ that second job by creating environments where people can show their weaknesses, learn openly, and grow as part of their work. Here’s one of the key lines from the book that captures it well: > “Most people are spending a staggering amount of energy on a second job they were never hired for — preserving their reputations, hiding their inadequacies, and managing others’ impressions of them.” --- ### 👇 I’d love to hear from you - What legacy do you hope to leave—in your family, your work, your world? - What tools or ideas have served you well that others might benefit from? And if you’d like support exploring these questions more deeply, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you. Because legacy isn’t just what we leave. It’s what we live. --- # Credits - # Published - 2025-00-00: - Medium - Facebook - Personal - Facebook - Daring Futures - LinkedIn - Coach Kidd - LinkedIn - Daring Futures. # Questions? ![[includes-calltoaction-plain]] %% Secret Stuff Goes Here - this won't be seen in my published wiki site. - [SDi Audible transcript on Otter - Ch 5](https://otter.ai/u/BeIB2F1DTDIiN8YQ5q_XG94GdOg?utm_source=copy_url) - [pinterest.co.uk/DaringFutures/base-board/](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/DaringFutures/base-board/) %%