The chances are good that, at the end of a hard day, you'll head to the pub with your mates from work and talk about work. You probably won't be talking about whether your code compiled or not - it's likely that you'll talk about people. That new analyst on the 3rd floor that wondered whether the people you can see in Google Maps will start walking around. The pointy-haired boss that's annoying you with pointless requests. And if you do pick on negative things, you might do it surreptitiously.

Everyone else is doing the same thing with theirmates, and they're talking aboutyou.

Say It To My Face

It's been said that people communicate a lot more through their body language than actual speech - I'm sure there's some BS statistic somewhere about that. The fact is that you do the same thing yourself. The old example is that if you're talking to someone who scratches their nose, they're nervous, and it may indicate lying. Subconsciously, we pick up on these signals all the time - and even worse - we're sending them out.

So what?

So - those people you were talking about in the pub - they know how you feel about them. The next time you're in a meeting with them and they do something annoying, you'll probably exchange a quick glance with your mate, as if to say "See? Annoying!" But the annoying team member will notice - even though they might not be conscious of it - driving a wedge between you and them.

The moral of this story is that there are no secrets in an organisation when it comes to emotions. Sure, poker players are better at it than others - but masking everything, at every point during the day, is incredibly tough.

Be nice to people

I think there's a tendency for us to think that what's happening in front of us all the time is everything that's actually happening. But think about it logically - you know several thousand people, and they know several thousand other people. That's a lot of interactions. Now multiply that by the average percentage of time that you spend talking about someone you know. This is the amount of time people spend talking about you. It's a fair amount.

Now, consider this. When you get to a decent level in business, you'll be working in a team or a company. In that environment, everyone knows who the go-to people are, and who the muppets are. (Again, there are no secrets.) Consider this. If you need an answer you know who to avoid and who to ask. It's not just you and your pals who know - your managers know, your minions know, your pals in other companies know, your recruiters know - and so on.

So you need to have a good rep.

• The circles that badass managers move in are actually pretty small, especially within an industry.
• Never be too busy to help people. Those small actions that you think aren't important are actually more important than your day to day. That gets you talked about. I mean, get your stuff done, but anything that you do above and beyond will get you noticed. That builds your rep.