My parents have always drilled the fact that hard work pays. Well, they held me in good stead till my first job and my formative years.
After a certain threshold, they do not hold the same weight. More than work, making the work visible, is what pays and rewarded for a long time. Rather, work is to complete the projects/tasks and hard work is to make it visible !! (is it dad/mom?)A casual chat with my sister also revealed a similar story. Her work is fine, confident, doesn't make mistakes with numbers, the work is strong support and aids well to superiors, but she feels lack of appreciative comments that she needs more often. What our parents said to us, if were true, this couldn't be the exception.
A similar tone was set in today's meeting when our head addressed my team."Make it Visible" was again the "parrot line" here.
A common crib was that we are not looking out for international work true to our abilities. If our hard work was to pay for us, then we ought to have scaled up dramatically with just good references created in each of our engagements.What was lacking is the ability to ask for audience and speak of ourselves to them and give them their benefit. The audience would not come on their own. It took so much time for me to understand this point. You need to seek out your own audience one person, one company, a time to make your own mark.
How ? I am yet to start on this journey. How have you made your work visible to world and what have been your benefits?
Yes Shrini, you are right! The post is deja vu for me. I was brought up to work hard, very very hard, with earnestness and sincerity and never show off or boast.
ReplyDeleteI remember telling my parents, I have scored well in English. Their first response would be, "Don't go around telling people."
Now, everything I ever learned seems to be falling flat on its face and the process of unlearning is huge. When in a meeting about three months back, you told the team to be our own brand ambassadors, this struck me.
Today, your post drove this point home. Made me pause and think. All media gurus are saying it. Social networking sites are about creating brands, not only about sharing knowledge. Which one is the by-product, I am not too certain. But I understand that we have to be out there for all to see, judge, maybe scorn or appreciate. I don't know.
It's a scary thought to try to be what I am not.
As a follow up to the implied call to action in this post, I have put my LinkedIn id and blog link in my gtalk handle. Then, very hypocritically went invisible lest anyone clicks the links and seeks to chat with me...
Hey Ji, whatever you have told and more so the parrot line would be very appropriate to those who have blessed managers who really recognise the potential that his team has. There are managers who are more interested to make their mark rather than try to deligate the tasks to the people under them. Todays managers lack the art of delegating the work. May be they can t be balmmed as todays recession secenario forces them to do so as they are under stress to keep their jobs intact. This happens more because 1. They are paid more and they are stressed to know that they will not be paid so much when they leave this job. 2. Delegacy - Fear of their Juniors getting elevated and sharing of work Knowledge. The hype is that some managers are not ready to share the work knowledge for fear of their juniors taking over them. Is it the fault of the Junior because he made his "WORK VISIBLE" - "THE PARROT LINE" or what should be rightly balmmed the reason ??
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