Leadership Paradox#3

Self Acceptance v/s Self Improvement

Ramesh is your typical Mid-level Manager in an IT company, Perfect Solutions Ltd. 

Ramesh has been working in Perfect Solutions for 15 years now. He joined the company as a trainee after completing his Engineering and has remained there while all of his fellow trainees have moved on to other pastures. Ramesh was this enthusiastic young man who would be the first to finish his tasks and get appreciated for it. He would be the first to raise his hand when for every Corporate initiative, be it in the capacity of a volunteer for their CSR initiatives or being a part of the Organizing team for their annual gathering. His career progression was steady if not spectacular, but his popularity within the company remained at its peak despite the passing years.

During the initial part of his journey with Perfect Solutions, Ramesh did attend a few interviews more due to a ‘follow the herd’ mentality but he did not clear any of them. With time and partially due to his longevity in the company, Ramesh got promoted to the grade of a Manager. Editing his email signature to include his new designation was a proud moment for Ramesh. The designation also came with a lot of perks which included a company sponsored Mobile phone, a laptop and travel allowances. That was the age when Managers in companies like Perfect Solutions were given preferential treatment and the juniors were considered as ‘resources’, which was a glorified term for ‘commodities’.

It was around the same time that Ramesh got married and within a couple of years, his father retired from service. It may be the pressure of added responsibilities or a sense of complacency creeping in, Ramesh slowly grew into this person who would rather spend a Friday evening flicking the TV remote with a glass of beer in hand than going out with friends for a drink or taking the family out for a movie and dinner. The thought of spending some part of his time in learning something new or even keeping his now eroding skills intact, never even crossed his mind.   

While Ramesh’s life was now moving at a snail’s pace, the world outside was infact, accelerating. The business landscape was changing and so were the business models of IT companies. IT companies which were Manager-centric during the early part of the century began transforming to being technology-centric. The people with a grasp of technology began to be valued more than the people who managed them. Infact, there was an increasing trend towards teams and the individuals within these teams becoming self-organized. Every IT company began to shift their focus from the Managers to the employees with 0-5 years of experience since they were the one’s who were the closest to the technology trends of the day. Infact, Managers started to become redundant.

Like most IT companies, Perfect solutions also has a bloated middle much like the middle of Ramesh’s anatomy. When the world economy dipped and Organizations started laying off people, Perfect Solutions like many other IT companies also decided to trim their middle. Very soon, Ramesh received the dreaded call from HR. His tenure in the company had come to an abrupt end.

What if, the call from HR had come sooner?

What if, the call had come to inform people like Ramesh that we care for your well-being as our employee

What if, the call was to tell Ramesh that he had to undergo an Assessment which would give HR some insights into his frame of mind. Even more importantly, it would have put a mirror in front of Ramesh and the bet is on Ramesh not recognizing himself.

 

In Ramesh’s head, the image of himself would have been that of a Ramesh who was 15 years younger. A young person of Healthy Self-Esteem, high on Self-Acceptance and who also gave importance to Self-Improvement. What he saw in the mirror however would have been something completely different. Here was a person looking older than his age, who had resigned himself to his fate, was letting the life currents take his boat in a random direction rather than he being at the helm of his own life and steering it in a desired direction. In the mirror, he would have probably seen a person who seemed ‘Internally Contradicted”, with poor self-esteem, low self-acceptance and with a low desire for self-improvement. That may have been a wake-up call for Ramesh and so may like him.

Its unfortunate that in most Organizations, there are a number of people like Ramesh, who have served the company well in the past but have stopped looking in the mirror. Managers and Leaders of today need to have a high degree of Self-Acceptance, which is all confidence in self but equally important is the paradoxical trait of continuously seeking Self-Improvement. If it possible to have both these paradoxical traits in the same individual? Yes, it is very much possible.

What if, Organizations who are embarking on the journey to become employee centric make this small investment in employees like Ramesh to give their careers a much-needed resurrection?

Well..Better late than never….

Coach-Ram