In a keynote, Seth Godin, a well-known marketing and leadership consultant spoke (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgKAuz_wsgA) about how we should put art in any job that we do. By art he meant an ability to have freedom to contribute something inspired, stemming from the creativity that freedom allows in a job.
What a great idea!
On the backdrop of this admonition a client of mine, who is an executive at a US-based company, which is now known for its draconian Asian culture , came to see me the other day and started telling me how his company, despite its huge global presence and its competitors from the Fortune-100 roster, merely dictates to him what he must do in his job on a day-to-day basis, with no latitude for any discretion. They dictate to him whom he should see in the customers’ companies, what he must say to them, and how long he should spend.
They also tell him what outcomes he is expected to bring regardless of the competitive landscape that the customer sees. He was embarrassed to tell me that because of the company’s policy to have “handlers” with him wherever he goes, he has no latitude in doing anything creative in his job, because his handlers immediately report everything to the company’s HQ brass! By being at this company my client has now surrendered himself to become its obedient servant. To quote Godin, Obedience does not get us better productivity it gets us better dogs!
How sad!
The bottom line of Godin’s message is that if we are engaged in a job that is so precisely defined that it does not allow for our creativity, then we should not stay in that job, no matter how well compensated! Because, if we stay engaged in such jobs—and I have clients, who are in such jobs, in varying degrees—then we are wasting our energies in the wrong direction, staying there. So, what was my advice to this client?: Find another job that allows you the freedom to create so that you become alive in what you do!
Actually, this client had called me a month into his new job little more than a year back when he first realized this. Since he had just started there I was reluctant to tell him to quit and to look for yet another job. Instead, I advised him to stick it out for a while, learn new skills, with an eye on how his résumé will have to look to make him marketable when he has reached a “yield” point in his job—when staying beyond this point would be to his detriment. It was clear after last week’s meeting that he was now at this point.
So, what is the lesson from this nightmarish experience in light of Godin’s admonition? Here is my take:
- Before you get into a new job, especially at a company with deep foreign roots and culture, do some rigorous due diligence to understand how you are expected to perform in that culture. Talk to current and past employees to get their perspective, research on-line (e.g. glassdoor.com), and carefully evaluate the cultural compatibility with your value set.
- Do not be seduced by the salary and other benefits that are offered to you, especially if they are too good to support your open market price.
- If you are not able to fully uncover what you are in for, and get into a job that becomes a nightmare, evaluate to see if you can stick it out long enough to improve your marketability. In the case of this client he was able to focus in on two areas that were new and in high demand, despite his lack of experience in these areas. But, because he was able to bend, his company allowed him to play in this new area—as long as he was able to follow their orders. Thus, within the year that he has suffered there, he was able to use that time to his advantage to improve his marketability. He was, thus, able to offset his robotic existence with his ability to learn a new skill that he badly needed.
- In a less draconian environment, see if you can identify something that is being ignored by your company, and try to make a case for pursuing it. If that pursuit is in an area that improves your marketability, as it happened in the case of my client, then you can use this opportunity to continue your learning until the time comes when you are able to make a move.
- Do not look at your place of work as an obedience school! Try finding avenues to express your “art” and demonstrate your creativity through subterfuge if you have to. In more forgiving companies such behavior is rewarded if they are able to see the benefit of your “subterfuge.”
- Always keep your eye on how your résumé is going to look next year and three years from now, no matter where you are. Depending on the job-market drivers identify a few skills that you must have on page-one of your résumé and work diligently to get them under your belt.
- Learn from even harsh experiences and try to find new meaning in what is available to you. Despite my client’s surprise at the beginning of his new job and his deep disappointment, he was able to regroup and reinvent himself by applying his energies in a new direction. You, too, can do that!
Good luck!