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08 June 2012 By Abdul-Warees Solanke
My understanding is that
opportunities exist, even in a vacuum, after all
nature abhors vacuum and it is our responsibility to
make something happen when there is nothing. We owe
ourselves the duty to succeed in the face of all odds.
For, all our faculties, when properly deployed are
meant to solve our problems. So why do many of us
lament of being cheated when we lay out barriers of
failure and erect pillars of disempowerment on our own
paths?
The first of such pillars
is in the application of wrong ethics in our private
and public lives. No one labelled as having a deficit
of integrity is ever called to serious assignment or
responsibility. We just allow him to float on the job
caring less whether he reaches a destination or not.
And when it's time to right-size in a corporate
setting, he becomes the best candidate from the bottom
to be shaved off. He may never cross the bridge of
salvation in difficult moments of decision. He is the
first victim of corporate restructuring or
re-engineering, public sector reform and other reform
jargons that spell the reality of reducing the
workforce.
This first pillar,
application of wrong ethics in dealing with people and
situations finds expression, strength and support in
the other pillars. The corollary to taking up an
appointment or assuming a responsibility is the
attitude of commitment or self-application.
Unfortunately, no sooner than some are called to serve
do they forget the pledge of hard work and loyalty to
the organization they made while swearing to oaths of
secrecy or allegiance before God and man. Easily, they
are crushed by what I call the pillar of abandonment
of responsibility in their attitude to work as they
moonlight, gallivant or gossip around their offices,
leaving their work to suffer. No boss in his right
sense would give a recommendation of top five per cent
or distinction to a subordinate who always disappoint
or does not deliver on his assignment as expected. He
cannot be trusted, so he cannot be given opportunity
to grow to reach his full potential. A careless and
irresponsible worker will not always be lucky when his
godfather is out of relevance. He is a candidate of
job insecurity in the moment of rationalisation.
If such an irresponsible
worker bootlicks or pays in kind to get to the top, he
will soon be buried in the rubbles of another pillar
that will crash on him in his abdication of authority,
because while rising to the top, he did not gain the
mastery of his vocation nor did he understand the
depth and dynamics of his job. He will always (and
usually this is the cheap way to cover up his
inadequacy), claim to be delegating power and
authority to his subordinates. For him, anything goes
since he never really learnt the rope in his rise to
power. Indirectly, his subordinates are his grace and
masters. He possesses no moral right to lay claim to
being a boss.
However, if a worker knows
his onions very well, but in his application of wrong
ethics on the job, he abuses opportunities and
privileges, his growth will also be limited. This is
the case of those guilty of opportunism. How can a man
who exploits the system or others to achieve his own
end benefit the system or those working with him? When
his tricks are discovered, he will ever be blacklisted
in the minds of others and those that hold the sword
to determine the workers' fate. This pillar of abuse
of opportunities is the one that sounds the death
knell of many workers, with promising career
prospects, very brilliant or intelligent, yet lack
discretion on their beats. Labelled as smart guys,
they are usually the worst victims in the chess board
corporate politics. They are consumed in the inferno
of difficult choices, decisions and changes.
Another heavy pillar
capable of crushing a high flier on the job is that
arrogation of knowledge and rejection of team value.
The victims are usually the best guys on the job. Such
smart but unfortunate guys find comfort in being
called Prof or derisively labelled effico. King
Solomon among their peers and subordinates, they can
be found in all work settings. They trust only their
own judgement, listening to no one else but
themselves, and using their personal lenses, whether
wide or myopic, to view what others around them do
have to offer.
You never can satisfy them
as they raise their bars of expectation to the clouds.
They are usually not at their best when working in a
team, or they almost always hijack the team to take
all the glory in a joint effort, eroding the
confidence of their mates, bad mouthing others efforts
as below standard.
The job is therefore left
for them as they lack the cooperative, collaborative
or consultative spirit that gives every other
contributor a sense of fulfilment, achievement or
pride. Their trademark is I, I, I, revelling in
self-glorification. They may be intelligent, but are
certainly unpopular because of their tendency or their
sin of arrogation. They are very poor in team spirit.
In the intense heat of boardroom politics, they become
the victims of gang-up and when other contenders want
to deal with them, they do not hesitate to taking
their names to marabouts and satanic herbalists. Don't
be surprised such managers are confined to dark
corners of their offices when the repercussion of
their overbearing or supercilious attitude and style
begins to bear fruit.
Pity not those who fail in
life for their indiscretions on the job and in their
relationship with superiors and subordinates, because
they are the carvers of their self-destruct pillars
which collapsed on them and buried them in the rubbles
of corporate politics.
Abdul-Warees is the Head of Training, Voice of
Nigeria, Ikoyi, Lagos,
(korewarith@yahoo.com
korewarith@voiceofnigeria.org ,
abdulwarees01@gmail.com ) 08090585723 |
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