Day 6 - No-one is indispensable

This is something I, as a worker, have often heard. Usually from higher steps in the hierarchical ladder. It has even bothered me, when I heard it. No-one is indispensable when the rest of us stay behind to clear up the mess. No-one is indispensable when all you need to do is re-learn the knowledge and the company doesn't care how much that costs. No-one is indispensable untill they are and then we shall see where he/she is.

But let's stop and think about this from another angle. Here I will be called an idealist, but what I am about to tell you is not only true but, when it's well planned out, it even works to our advantage.

Let me give you a couple of examples which will illustrate my explanation better than any explanation I could give.

Let is imagine a work situation in which a promotion is on the table and only two candidates are being considered (for simplicity's sake). Said candidates are exactly the same (again, for simplicity's sake), but one follows the philosophy of keeping all the knowledge encapsulated, ready to be passed on to another person in a fast and effetive process. The second candidate, however, follows the opposite tendency, making sure he has the only knowledge in order to remain at his job, to become indispensable. As managers, who would you give the promotion to?

But let's look at another example, this one, a more pessimist one. Same two candidates, qualifications and conditions as the previous two candidates, but you need to decide a dismissal. Well, here conditions diverge when confronted with equal knowledge and capabilities. There is something else to be taken into account: attitude at their post. The knowledge hoarder, the "king of his hill" (or queen) has a more selfish, egocentric attitude. He will not care for the well-being of his workplace, but rather he will be ensuring he cannot be removed.

The one who has made himself dispensable by packing his knowledge in a fast-transmittable form for the next john coming along is proving his trust in his own value for the company as a professional. He is someone we want to keep as an employee. His dedication and commitment is higher and so will be his performance and results. He's a much higher investment value on the long run.

From another point of view, in the worst case scenario (the previous example), when the company is forced to keep the worst profile, it will try to also keep the better profile maybe relocating, maybe re-negotiating conditions. Naturally when there is no choice and the dismissal is unavoidable, they might dismiss the better profile, but he will be leaving with the best references and all benefits intact. No, companies are not humanitarian nor do they have hearts, but what they are really good at is knowing a good investment.

Personally, in my growth phase, I will work towards a philosophy based on making myself dispensable in knowledge, and valuable in the quality of my work and as a professional.

Seen this way it seems a much better investment in the possibilities of my growth.

Day 5 - Act your role

It has been some days since my last entry (you will note 5 is not a real number...). I have been pretty busy both in and out of my workplace. Sorry.

Ok, yes, act your role.

It was some entries ago I mentioned my new post has taken me to the other side of the table. To be a client instead of the provider. To be the one who asks for or demands (depending on the circumstance) and not the one who offers (including excuses). This has been a much bigger change in mentality than I had originallty anticipated.

Having been on the other side of the table (the original side I was on), tactics used become obvious and identifiable. This is the plus side.

On the "minus" side, I have to constantly remind myself that I'm the client and what that implies. I am owed what was purchased (even though it was purchased before I arrived) and that implies a certain responsibility, but a very different kind to what I'm used to. It implies being aware when the ditraction tactics I know are used, to foresee delays and problems, to be prepared to rebate, with unelludable logic, the arguments presented.

In a nutshell, to switch sides in the way I think.

I have to admit that, even though I feel fully prepared for these changes, there are times when I forget my new position and I have to remind myself where I am and why.

Luckily, I can rely on a manager that not only appreciates my efforts but her is also aware of where I come from and acts accordingly to guide me in a coherent and useful manner, reminding me of how to act on my post.

Day 4 - Continuing

There are a couple of subjects from my previous post that I want to pick up again and go over them a little further. One is "leave as a gentleman (or a lady" and the other is "You are your company".

I will start on the former since it's the one that has brought me here today. Due to my new road in life, I've been taken to the other side of the table. These situations are the reason why leaving my previous post with professionalism, respect and manners has enabled me to make the most of the situation and bring positive values to both sides. All the pleasure we may extract from a situation like this is, as is the case with most cases with pleasure, something that must remain private and personal. It must never seep out nor be detectable by either side, since that would only go against you.

Of course, this does not mean we should dismiss the situational knowledge we may have acquired, nor dismiss any knowledge we may have. It would be stupid to waste the advantages that knowledge can give your business.

Which brings me to my second point: You are your company.

You work for money. The rest is secondary. Therefore, in the purest sense of the definition, you are a business. As a business, your relationship with your customers and providers is of the utmost importance. In them lays the secret of your success... and your failure.

Underneath, of course, we are people. That is inevitable (it should not be avoided either, but I'll go into that another time). This is where the highly fashionalbe concept of emotional intelligence comes in to play. In a nutshell, it implies the redirection of our emotions into a flow we can use to our benefit. When, how and why will depend very much on the situation and the emotion. There are plenty of books about it (and I have not read near enough about them).

But let's get back to the subject. The contract between you and your company, you and your boss, even you and your workmates, is a professional contract, and that is the only meaning it should be understood as. Working is a basic right, yes. But we must not forget (as we so easily do in other subjects) that your rights are given by the satisfaction of the duties that accompany that right. I will be the first to admit I have failed my duties in the past, and I have claimed my rights without attending my duties. I will probably make that mistake again sometime in the future. I am human and therefore, fallible. But I also learn from my mistajes and accepting we have made them (or we are making them)is the first and most important step to learning from them.

Therefore, and to sum up, try your best to take care of your business. Make full use of the knowledge you acquire and try to acquire even more every day, with the only goal of improving your business, forgetting or redirecting emotional implications that drive you away from this goal.

And, of course, enjoy your job! A happy worker is a better worker. It is basic that you enjoy what you do. Without motivation, your business will fail. If your job does not motivate you, find another one. If you don't have what you need for another job, work to get it. Promote yourself. Study. Broaden your contact network. Find who can help you (and help whoever comes to you, of course!). And observe what happens around you and always ask why.

Day 3 - proportions

I once heard someone say: "You have two ears, and one mouth and that's the ratio you should use them at". It is something I never forgot and, far from it seeming a hurtfull thing to say, it is one of the best pieces of advice someone can give you.

In our angst to demonstrate (to ourselves and our new boss and workmates) all we are capable of, in our enthusiasm for the new project, with our fresh point of view, untainted by the wounds of earlier battles, we can easily forget such an important equation. It is positive to stop and think about this and other related concepts.

In this phase we will be forgiven our ignorance, mind lapses and even accidentally trading on our fellow oarsmen's work. There will be a time in which we will have to take everything into account, including internal politics, territorial disputes, etc. But this is the time to listen, learn from those who know, to absorb all you possibly can, to get go know those around you, those who will be above, below and beside you. It is an exercise that can be easily dressed as integration and it's a moment that you must make full use of. It is not only expected of you but you will never have again the chance to be a blank sleight, a question mark, an unknown.

First impressions last forever. Be yourself. Anything else will soon be discovered and will only result in your frustration. Be nice and show around the treatment you wish for yourself. All these are concepts not only reasonable but obvious, but we can sometimes forget about them and become lost in thoughts such as "Why is he telling me this and why should I be interested?". EVERYTHING should interest you, because you don't yet know that that person you've casually been introduced to will determine what happens to your application.

In this very same philosophy breeds another idea, and that is that you should always leave a post as a gentleman (or a lady). You never know which way your path will lead you in the future. Remember: you really are the owner of your company: Your own. Your work life. That is the only company you are guaranteed to be in for life.

So listen, learn. People will always start being sotiable, kind, they will show you something you may be able to use directly or indirectly, something that will allow you to help them and earn their favour, their oppinion, their estime, in a word, the door to the next room, towards your future.

Day 2

The group's coherence is largely based on (and improved by) the divergence of it's components. Our differences are precisely what makes approach easier without prejudice. The power lies precisely on the diversity of viewpoints.

I am still suirveilling my surroundings, investigating what my post means, mi tasks, responsibilities and capacities.

Today I realised (though I had previously thought of this) that this diary should also look back as well as forward. This is based on the fact that I have some workmates that are currently going through situations of transition and change. I want to help them with what I have learned, even though (as I have been reminded) I am still processing and extracting the main patterns of what I have learned (and I am still learning).

In this very spirit, one of my two mentors has sinthesized it perfectly, reminding me a proberb I learned in my Project Management course: "If you're busy worrying you're not busy getting busy".

First day

This is a new project on a new project. A diary blog where "diary" will be the central term.

The intention is to write, in an educational, expressive, useful and informative manner, my personal growth which (really) begins today, as I start my new job. Today starts a new phase in my life.

I will write little or none at all on my actual job. No data, fact or information revealing anything about my job. This is so for several reasons, the main one being it is out of this blog's scope. I will write about daily experiences, what I learned from them and how to use them as a guide for my personal projection.

As with any idea, it will evolve and very possibly deviate from its original intention and, with a little luck, someone will find it helpful. Other than me, of course!

Without further ado, I begin.

Today was the first day. The main subject, of course, Information bombardment. All unanswered questions from the interview are starting to find answers. Of course this is still early days to do any reasonable evaluation, but I must say I am generally pleased.

The future anounces itself full of efforts, creativity, learning and projection. And personal satisfaction in the professional environment.

The past reveals itself well used, well invested and (with the help that must be properly thanked) well guided.

Today I start to feel that all I have done to get here starts to pay off. My new manager has seen through the mesh of data of my recently updated curriculum, an interview that is always too short no matter how long, and however "little" could be extracted from references (as with most, this is to be taken with a pinch of salt).

Also, aditionally to praising all the wonders of the company and the post (which were, of course, ratified by my new workmates, which by the way I found to be very pleasant as well as, from what little I saw in these few hours, good professionals), they also started ennumerating the responsibilities that will befall me once I'm really installed in.

I have also been introduced to the project, from the global to the very beginning of the detail (and I say beginning to stress the aforementioned idea of the data bombardment). The positive side is that they have succesfully transmitted the enthusiasm, optimism and the promise of an interesting project which will also be complex and laborious. Instead of feeling intimidated by its implied weight, I feel positive, strong and capable of confronting my duties. I feel valued and compensated.

From here, many readings can me made (some of which will only become aparent in the next few days). When confronting a long race, it is not the best tactic to sprint off at the beginning. Energies will be burned off quickly and the exhertion will kill us. It is best to start with a good solid rythm, without pause, that will allow is to maintain it when hills arrive.

When confronting an avalanche of datum, it is good to remember your times as a student: find key concepts, evaluate their importance contrasting them, find patterns that will help condensare the knowledge, link with previous knowledge, use the tools available to you and, specially important at the begining: "when in rome, do as Romans do".


PS: I will worry about the graphic look of this blog another time :-)