But what about my career ? Am I not jeopardising it by working in a place or an environment that provides nothing to me ?
Career ?? Well its a myth. Allow me to explain
Look at this scenario. You have started your work and you have understood the challenge ahead of you and you have ended the year with earth shattering performance. Now you are smacking your lips ready to take up a high role or get that socking bonus. What happens? that ass licker gets all that you hoped for and you are pissed on and passed over.
Yes you are distressed but you would want to unravel the truth so you trace the daisy chain and find out that it leads to your super boss. Your boss has occupied his position not with earth shattering performance. Well sorry for the breaking your performance bubble but those heros who have hit the big stage with sheer performance are in books not in real life. The real world is different.
So your career is decided by your boss and presided by an infrastructure. It loads more points on compliance and confirmity and less on earth shattering performance. Organisations are not designed to handle super man in their rank and file.
Now that you know the reality and if you still want to be a performer I am impressed with you but I pity you at the same time.
Lets keep aside the myth called career and get on with that craft now.
What is craft? I look at it from two levels
- Craft from the skill perspective. To learn a craft as in learning carpentry, guitar etc
- Craft from the Behaviour perspective. To be crafty as a wolf. Machiavellian craftiness etc
Lets deal with the first part. Both parts are intricately woven though.
If you think performance is what will drive you and you can’t but perform you have to commit yourself to learning the skills of the work your involved in. You have to keep aside the idea of being rewarded by promotions and monetary rewards. Your strength must come from learning a new skill, That must be your reward. So regardless of the rewards, the organisation provides, for the so called performers you need to keep chugging un rewarded. If this sounds stupid go seek a career.
Remember while your busy building your craft your so called performers are using your work and moving up the ladder so you to may end up reporting to them. You need to reconcile to that reality too. Do I make you look like a sheep in the company of wolves? Sorry thats not my game plan.
if you want to survive as a sheep, providing milk and wool, then you have to make sure that your not consumed by the wolves around you. Tough call, But its possible. Lets deal with that in the next blog perhaps.
Finally analysis goes thus.
Your boss determines your career and no one can take the craft away from you. If your current organization does not recognise your skills another person or organisation would.
Tilted Plus 