So it’s quite common to wallow in self-pity, bemoaning the fact that once again, you failed. You’ve worked your tail off for weeks or months at something important at work. A project. A program. Some initiative. But the outcome was dismal. And now begin the lies. “I was sabotaged”. “My boss doesn’t like me”. “The team failed me”. “I wasn’t able to control the situation”. But is the problem within yourself? Do you have the right job skills?
Introspection and self-honesty are some of the hardest skills to master in life(https://corpcandour.com/look-inside-a-spotlight-on-you-see-if-the-problem-is-within/ ). We are rationalising animals, not rational animals. What that means is, it’s easier to blame “something else” and rationalise the reasons for failure, rather than being brutally honest and looking at ourselves.
Ok, ok, so yes, there are times that you can do everything “perfect”, and still fail. But the truth is that we are more often than not, the real problem. And we love to salve our egos by laying the blame elsewhere, rather than our own poor job skills. Hard work is not enough. I mean c’mon, honestly. Lots and lots of people work very hard. But success is based on hard work AND ABILITIES. But there are no “magic formulas” here to figure out what abilities you need. Just a brutal look inside yourself, and acknowledging where your shortcomings exist, and improving these Abilities.
Shall we play a game of Truth and Honesty?
Not convinced? Ok, so let’s take the scenario of “Joe”. Now read VERY carefully as its a test of your job skills.
SCENARIO: Joe was given this nice little project to setup a new cloud infrastructure site by “Rogust 35th, 2020”. He has a little experience here from a prior project months ago. But he does have a full 12 weeks to set this up. He has been provided a small virtual team of 5 experts. He has never met these people. Budget is available but not committed yet. His boss has given him full autonomy and ownership.
“Joe” puts together this splendid complex plan, circulates it to his boss to get approval. Mistake #1 (and then some!).
He then wings the plan out to his team expecting them to read, interpret his wisdom and get on with things. Mistake #2.
“Joe” trusts his team and lets them get on with things for a few weeks but presumes all ok. Mistake #3.
He presumes the money is ready to go. Mistake #4.
“Joe” arranges his first project call with the team 3 weeks in, for tomorrow. But everyone is busy so he “crashes everyone’s” calendar. No one from the team shows up. Mistake #5
People from his team try to contact Joe later in the week, but he is too busy so pushes them off to later in the day with excuses of “I’m busy, I’ll call you”. Other commitments prevent him though from calling them. Mistake #6.
By week 6, the plan is definitely at serious risk. Joe escalates to his boss, sets up an urgent call with the team for late in the day, crashes calendars, mandatory attendance from all the team. Mistake #7.
I could go on and on but you get the gist. So yes, a rather inane example, but now put yourself in Joe’s shoes. What did YOU do wrong?
Mistake #1: You didn’t bother to check where the teams work (U.S.? Europe? Asia?). And never made personal contact with anyone to introduce yourself. You assumed they were all briefed. But you didn’t check their current workloads, and made commitments on their time without agreement. You asked your boss to approve it. And finally, you didn’t research current processes of setting up cloud sites.
Ability Deficiencies: Arrogance thinking you are an expert. Inattention to detail. Lack of ability to communicate at a personal level. Disregard of other people’s priorities. Deficiency in self-confidence. Overall poor job skills. (NB: Remember! You were already given ownership. You didn’t need your boss’s approval to “get on with things”.).
Mistake #2: You didn’t bother to check each person’s existing workload, verify ability to meet dates, confirm if the dates were achievable. You didn’t validate if the plan was realistic, easily understood, comprehensive, used terminology other understood.
Ability Deficiencies: Dismissive of other’s people priorities. Inattention to detail. Egocentric (NB: The plan was “perfect”, in your eyes. No one else had a clue what the terms and dates meant.). And again, you never called anyone, context, understanding! Lack of ability to communicate at a personal level.
Mistake #3: No awareness of the team’s level of engagement, have they even met each other? Presumptive. No awareness of the team’s movements, workload, personal circumstances. Inherently trusted a team you never met, naive.
Ability Deficiencies: Egocentric, presuming they respect your authority. Dismissive of other’s people priorities. Inattention to follow-up at a personal level with each person (poor communication skills). Too trusting, naive.
Mistake #4: No awareness how to confirm funds are ready for use. No awareness of capital purchase process. Plan was overly ambitious, not validated against company processes, available resources, timescales.
Ability Deficiencies: Lazy, too trusting, and not willing to read and learn. Didn’t validate timings, process, and understandings. Inattention to detail.
Mistake #5: Disregard of team workload, disrespect of team.
Mistake #6: Presumptive. Dismissive of team. Failure to take responsibility for his own bad planning. Poor communication skills. Unwilling to hear the truth, not facing facts. Demotivating personality. Egocentric.
Mistake #7: Arrogant, dismissive of team and their workload. Finally discovers 2 members IST time zone so very late at night! Failure to take responsibility for your own bad planning. Poor communications skills. Poor self-confidence, jumping straight to “escalation mode”.
Look inside yourself
We are, in truth, our own worst enemies. Poor Joe’s problem is that he could have grown his abilities, but instead rationalised all the problems as deficiencies in others. He was arrogant, weak, lacked self-confidence, had an utter disregard for anyone but himself (selfish!), presumptive, careless and most important of all, totally lacking in self honesty. A web of lies that he uses to placate his ego when he is once again overlooked for promotion, trying to assign blame elsewhere.
Joe’s problem may/may not be yours. Only you know the truth. We are all born with the ability to learn and if we want to succeed in a company, learning new job skills is essential! Learning is a lifelong process, not limited just to school. Next time something “goes wrong”, ask yourself a few simple questions. And be BRUTALLY honest with yourself.
Did I communicate effectively? Did others understand me?
Do I need to build my personal skills with others? Do I build relationships? Am I able to relate well with others in a team?
Am I careless? Inattentive? Gloss over details? Read details without understanding?
Do I care what others think of me? Am I arrogant? Egocentric?
Am I dismissive of other people and their commitments? Care what challenges they are facing? Am I selfish?
Do I take responsibility for my mistakes? Do I deflect? Can I make a decision on my own?
Am I being rational in evaluating the situation? Or rationalising fake reasons here for failure? Do I focus on fixing the problem, or blaming others?
You may be surprised at the results, both at work and in real life situations!
