Rogue?

Doing Stuff Your Way, Until Your Fired or Promoted

Practicing over-zealous pro-activity — the opposite of not doing anything until you are told — doing whatever you think is right and cutting the decision maker entirely out of the loop — can be dangerous to your career depending on your situation. Techs who do this are often labelled cowboys, a more pejorative term compared to another similar one we saw a lot of some years back when political mavericks McCain and Palin ran for office.

Usually such people are branded as “non-team players” and eventually removed unless somehow they are actually better than everyone else and can safely convince the higher-ups that their ideas are superior in which case they often get promoted making a bunch of new enemies in the process. Maybe you don’t care. But it’s a risky gamble that’s not for everyone. Usually making yourself and your team look good is the safer strategy — especially if you are just starting out. People who get stepped on tend to have long memories.