Thursday, March 30, 2006

postheadericon Recovering from Corporation Demotivators

Corporations and large companies by their nature and organization institute policies that do not always fulfill the needs of all employees. Typically, policies are established to cover the lowest common denominator within a company.

This is a condescension, but the truth of the matter is that a company has to insure that policies cover everyone regardless of how well they execute their intended purpose. Policies for the masses by their nature will often have a detrimental impact on high performers within the organization.

Some employees bring a high level of integrity, personal motivation & effectiveness to a company. Over time company policies and initiatives can begin to erode or chip away at the facade of an effective person, resulting in symptoms of burn out.

Below is a paraphrased response provided to an associate experiencing several aspects of this dilemma:

1. You must make the call at the end of the day and determine what is best for your career.
2. It will be the right decision no matter what.
3. If you step back and look at our career choices that you have to make every day,
a. Stay in a job
b. Resign a job or transfer,
then you must look at it like a prudent a prudent stock market investor.

Every day a trader owns a share in the market is another day they made the decision to buy that share at the current price as opposed to selling the share, cashing in and moving on.

Careers are similar in comparison, every day that you choose to stay in a job under the current terms or environment, it is a day you have signed on to continue working.

Some people might complain, "If I had only known what I was getting into before I took this job."

They should realize that at this point in time they do know and they accept the condition each time they walk back into the office.

4. An important tenant of negotiation can be achieved if you face up to the reality that you will not get the best deal if you are not prepared to walk away from the offer on the table and mean it.

5. Many people will choose not to walk away, but if our bluff is called then itÂ’s a matter of integrity. To cave on this integrity issue results in a situation where you are making a destructive choice to opt for something that is less beneficial and possibly harmful to yourself.

6. If you must be prepared to walk from a deal, then you better be ready every single day. Being ready and confident in your own ability to walk, helps you navigate the career path of what is best for you and best for your company. If you can navigate this path for yourself, you can then begin to help the company you have chosen to associate with and navigate an even more complicated path for your company.

7. The best defense or preparation for a day when you have to walk is to start your preparations right now. Look at everything you do and ask yourself, would this be valuable to me in a different life, career, or business.

a. If yes, how so and how would I apply it.
b. Who is my customer, and how will they pay me?
c. Make note of it and file it away where you can find it in a hurry.

If its not truly important to you, there is a very good chance that its not important in reality to your company either. If it were important for your company, your company would make it important for you. This sounds like a line straight out of Office Space. There is a big company meeting and the drolling moron of a manager is telling everyone that they should think everyday what is good for the company. The truth is that unless your prepared to walk, you are not in a position to make that determination accurately.

When you start to approach your work this way, youÂ’ll start to move away from the inefficient wasteful exercises and get back on track for whatÂ’s important not just to your company but to yourself. You will be working for yourself and not answering to every whim of a corporate machine geared to run all over you and take advantage of you as a resource. Change yourself into a partner of the organization and make the relationship more organic and prosperous for all parties involved.

For more information on this topic please contact Softduit Partners.

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