This one’s a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes it’s not them, it’s you. Sometimes, though we could point to a million things keeping us from doing something, trying something, being something, or creating something; the real deal is that we just don’t have the guts to go for it. This is true whether we’re talking about individuals or organizations.
I don’t mean that to be harsh or unkind; I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else is. And it’s very human to experience fear, point out obstacles, and succumb to external (and internal) pressures not to make waves. But if you want your work (individually or organizationally) to matter, and if you want to make your little corner of the universe better, sometimes you just have to have the courage to go do something.
Whether we’re talking about individuals or organizations, sometimes folks will rally around you. Other times they won’t. Sometimes people will “get it.” Other times they won’t. Sometimes you’ll give your idea and it’ll go over swimmingly. Other times it won’t. Sometimes people will love your creativity. Other times they’ll think it’s idiotic, far-fetched, or any other number of things.
But none of that matters. In fact, just accept it. Sometimes, as an individual or an organization, others just won’t get you. And that’s fine. Have the guts to not care. Have the guts to make something happen.
As a dean’s exec asst. at my last gig, I got a taste of “sometimes they just don’t get you.” after assisting a progressive dean and for 5 years receiving stellar reviews for ingenuity and initiative, my dean became a university president. The new, more traditional dean and his new assoc. dean just didn’t get me. After a few months, the assoc dean brought me in to his office to tell me that he and the dean decided to change my title- to what it was 10 years earlier. I think it shocked him when I looked him in the eyes and told him that was the most demotivating thing anyone had ever said to me.
That was just the motivation I needed to start a job search that led me to a great job at a local credit union with a great progressive leader. My only regret is that I didn’t do It sooner!
Thanks to those guys for causing me just enough discomfort to get me Moving!
Remember this… you are doing something right if you are pissing people off and not pleasing everyone. It’s ok to divide people into two camps, those that like you and those that don’t. Be true to what you believe and don’t walk a middle ground. Because like Mr. Miyagi said, “walk in middle… sooner or later… squish… just like grape. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3lQSxNdr3c
Once again, everything I know today I learned from pop culture 🙂
Matt,
In many cases changing an organization or chaning yourself comes down to one word: resolve. How resolved are you to implement change. Change is hard. It’s easy to start but hard to stay resolved. If you want to change your organziation and you have a long-term employee who doesn’t believe in your new direction, what do you do? How resolved (or how much guts) do you have?
Mark
Matt, as much as I affirm what your saying, sometimes change within an organization is your ticket out. This was my case in my previous position within an employer that hit a plateau in growth. I convinced the owner, whom I answered directly to as a result of an acquisition of my company. I had a healthy salary, comission and perks there, and enough wit about myself to realize we hit this growth plateau. I recommended leadership consulting to steer the company in a direction of process identification; implimentation and even reformation to achieve a greater team perspective; a company culture and an solemn identity. It worked! The following year we achieved awards from peer organizations; greater “bottom line” profitability, and established a company unification and identity driving sales to a whole new level! What went wrong? Economical conditions resulted in contract negotions, resulting in profit losses, and ultimately a need to “lean-up and trim overhead”… Where do you start? Business Development? (maybe) Safety? (yes, outsourse opportunity) Estimating? (no) Production? (not yet) Management (sure, if you can reassign responsibilities)… My position was cumulative at seating on seven (yes, 7) Leadership Committees, of which I chaired one and co-chaired another. Oversaw two (2) divisions of the company (developed profitably with heavy interaction by myself) with managers in place (both, designated by myself), this and I performed Business Development Functions, cross-selling three divisions of the company successfully, and I wrote; obtained necessarry training credentials, the employee safety program, for which the company received awards for in both 2009 & 2010 under my direction! … Just goes to show no one’s “SAFE”.
I agree: have guts. Very thin line between guts and faith; have guts and have faith. Keep moving forward.