One of the first things we all need to do is take stock of any ways that we ourselves may be helping to propagate a virtualized or dissociative mode of operation. We have to make a continuing commitment to keep the need to look good from overwhelming the need to actually be good.

Granted, in today’s virtualized workplace, this may not always be the slickest gambit for getting ahead.   But we need to ask whether getting ahead is always the most important thing to us. If we look honestly at the reasons we seek advancement, we’re likely to find high among them an expectation that holding a prestigious organizational position will be beneficial to our self-esteem.

If this is the case, we would do well to remember that, in the end, true dignity comes from being useful. If we can assure ourselves that our efforts are useful, then whatever slights we may experience as we watch the speedier rise of more image-oriented “players” can roll surprisingly easily off our backs.

It may also help us to realize that those who are not genuinely useful are likely to carry around a nagging sense of their own non-worth, no matter what big incomes or big perks or big toys they may enjoy. As just one example, maybe the outwardly successful bobo who takes his expensive vacation in the form of a dramatically grueling ordeal to the top of some remote mountain peak is actually dealing with an unsatisfied craving for the satisfaction of real struggle in the attainment of a real goal.