If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers I picked up this quote from Charles Dickens when I was trying ponder on why bad people exist and how do they survive, (I know this is the appraisal time of the year but this blog is purely coincidental on the timing.) Everyone at certain point in their long career would have come across some toxic or cunning managers. They would put their own interest before the company and unfortunately do not come with a warning label or an expiry date. What is interesting is that it doesn't take long for one to realize that feeling inside of you (or your gut feeling) that there is something hiding behind that warm and friendly smile that they give us. Very often you figure it out very late that what you initially believed to be straight forward and true turns out to be a blatant lie, or coming to know this from someone else The problem with political bosses isn't that they are poisonous to the system but actually are very shrewd strategist. This makes them look like bullies with whom our high school strategies do not work. When I was in my high school things were different. I learnt ways to get out of the bullies. I had parents and teachers save me some times or running away fast was another approach and finally I found the way that I needed to be more agile and swift than them. I needed to overthink them. It worked at school level but here in corporate world it is very difficult. The bullies are sitting one level above you and hence have more power than you. Those managers who do not like to play a fair game, they will try and do many things which are outside our reach. They may sometime lie, they will try and manipulate the data to suit their theory or hide behind the process, construct backdoor campaigning, make up rules that block us, play the blocking game or many such tactics. To get things done in such as system is huge, overwhelming and tough. It will drain all your energy out. The thing is exhausting and it comes with the cost of personal life and comfort. After running around for a while, you will feel that you are back to square one. It;s like running faster to stay stable in the same place as you may have read in Alice through the looking glass. You would have expended a lot of genuine effort with no movement forward. These people who play politics get to leadership roles because they are good at strategy and self marketing. And I found that I often underestimated just how far they were willing to go to get what they wanted.
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AuthorVasudevan is a Leadership Mentor and an Executive coach. I run an online website geared towards helping creative entrepreneurs and future managers to build their dreams. Archives
June 2023
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