Complacency A Killing Attitude
Complacency creeps into everybody's life at least once or sometimes more than once. A secured job, adequate salary and a comfortable work place often puts people into such a situation where the learning curve stops. They start enjoying the other facets of life. While it’s very important to have a good personal life we need to ensure that our careers do not take a back seat in this process.
Often we find average people sticking to the job. This doesn't mean that company is happy with their performance or they couldn't find an alternative. It’s often because recruitment is a painful, time consuming and expensive process. In Gulf countries to get a visa, driving license and ready-to-market time itself is 6 months for every employee. Companies often ignore the lack of performance and give additional time for their employees to avoid another recruitment process. This may often send wrong signals to employees. They may assume that company is happy with their performance or they couldn't find an alternative. This assumption is wrong.
People working in HR department need to update themselves on organization behavior and various HR trends. People in sales need to learn about global economics and economic conditions of the countries where they do selling. Marketing people have to be updated about global trends and innovative ways they can reach the market effectively. Support engineers and consultants have to constantly update themselves with the latest technologies, products and vendors and earn latest certifications. Project management people should learn from the successful projects implemented globally; how much time and resources they were able to save, how efficiently the project was executed, etc.
Finance and accounting should learn from the corporate success stories and methodologies by which big companies maintain cash flow, execute projects with adequate funds, improve collections and do efficient budget forecasting.
Management also has to learn from the success of companies in the same industry. Proper planning and execution has been a key factor for growing companies.
So it’s constant learning for each and everybody in the organization. Complacency in any part will affect the individual concerned as well as the organization.
Can we leave the stove on with the food in it? It will spoil the food. Can we let a child to grow on his or her own without nurturing it with the knowledge and good habits?
You should deliver your top class performance as if your job is always under threat. We should learn as if there is a project tomorrow. We should prepare as if there is always a challenging assignment round the corner. We should sell as if every day is a year end. We should plan well in advance so that we don't suffer with surprises during the execution.
Many big organizations spend more time on planning and execution happens at the speed of a blink of an eye lid. So if you get time, plan for your individual career, for your role in the company and assist your department in planning.
Never let complacency creep in your life. This attitude will kill your growth and affect your future.
~Mohan Krishnamurthy
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