As we strive daily for greater feats and antecedents, we tend to get carried away by our constant quest for relevance that we fail to actually sit back and applaud ourselves for everything we have achieved. We often fail to give ourselves a treat when we achieve something significant simply because we feel other people who have achieved more are better off forgetting that, we are in competition with no other person but ourselves and thus, our only goal should be to better our own record; nothing more, nothing less.
Now, in as much as we need to constantly celebrate ourselves, we also need to watch out for some factors before blowing our trumpet aloud so as not to end up soiling our scorecard. Sadly as professionals, we seem to know so much professional practices that we tend to underestimate the effect of the violation of one or more of these practices. In this piece today, I will identify some things we need to pay attention to as young professionals before applauding ourselves in our workplaces.
1. Leadership: We habitually believe our ability to pull stunning results in our short time in office is a Green Card to the clique of great leaders but sadly, this isn't true. Good leadership isn't just weighed on the scale of results but most importantly on the amount of impacts made meaning, if your stellar results as a leader never made your followers any better during the winning streak then, you didn't lead in the right sense.
2. Reputation: Proverbs says "...a good name is better than riches" and that says it all. As a leader, if your results rubbish your integrity, compromise your values and make your followers feel used and hapless then, you have failed the highest because results or riches cannot undo the harm you must have done to your reputation and personal brand.
3. Relationship: People are priceless treasures and relationships are triple bonds that shouldn't be burnt in a quest for a 'get-rich-quick-syndrome'. In maintaining a good relationship, I have always told everyone who cares to listen to be good to those they meet on their way up because they might meet again on their way down. Too often I have come in contact with leaders who burn friendships in a bid to achieve something piffle and illegal. I remember once upon a time as a leader of an organization when I lost a good friend due to my ruthless policies as the leader and later on in life, it took me a whole lot to win this friend back and make the friendship work again. Obviously, it’s important to make rules and stick to them as leaders however it is bad to trade healthy relationships for unhealthy reasons.
4. Recommendations: I hate it when people leave an organization and when they return or visit, they can't at least get an ovation simply because they left on a bad note. If you must know, the world is such a small place where Six Degrees of Separation is highly believed to be true (thanks to Chike Nwagwu for teaching me this) and so, it will only take probably months before your ex-boss catches up with you elsewhere and uncovers your lackadaisical attitude to your new boss who might even be his friend. Also, it’s not about the half baked recommendations you get from very nice people who get too scared to diagnose and appraise you appropriately that matters but the few constructive critics who shuns bias to tell you how much you suck so as to enable you grow.
Lastly, don't be carried away by how colorful your scorecard looks but in the ethical procedures you brought into play to achieve your every feat and the respect you can boast of even after work. I will love to read your comments and inputs as usual except for some very nice people who will be too nice again not to drop a line.
EE
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