In the workplace, a common complaint I’ve heard across industries and sectors is that it appears the seniors / superiors / bosses / managers don’t really do much. They also don’t know much. But by virtue of their legacy, having warmed their chairs for many years, they get to be where they are.
How to tackle this? Here are some ways to look at this:
- If we are junior to someone else, we cannot control the other person’s current position or future career trajectory.
- We can control what we do with our hours put in at work though.
- In many cases, a person’s authority in a particular position comes solely because of the title. If an incompetent person is made head of the team, it is still the head only who can take certain decisions, whether bad or good.
- If a superior doesn’t ‘deserve’ a role, s/he may hold the position for a very long time, but the impact they will create will be negligible.
- If we get a chance to go into that role in say 3 years or 5 years, what would our impact be then? What would we want it to be?
- If the impact has to be much better, then we need to start putting in substantial efforts – from today itself.
- We cannot control the outcome of tomorrow, but we can control what we learn today, what skills we develop today and what networks we build today. This is most important. And it has never been easier to learn new things and add to ones repertoire – whether via Udemy, or YouTube or Coursera or any other.
As Swami Vivekananda has said, “We find ourselves in the position for which we are fit, and if one has some capacity above another, the world will find that out too.”