At work and in life, are some people just 'lucky' while others are 'unlucky' in perpetuity?
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of the United States who also served as its 3rd president, famously said, "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it".
For the most part, I believe what Jefferson said is true. The more you work, learn, and get prepared, the more lady luck smiles at you. The trick is to learn lessons from the curve-balls life throws at you and to leverage on that learning.
The first and most important lesson to learn is that your attitude, by far, is the most important asset that you have at your disposal. If you do not align your attitude with purpose and passion, you are probably going to end up with a stagnant career with little upward mobility.
Establishing early on in your job that you are a positive member of the team, will get you noticed by your line-leaders. Naturally, all our career-paths will have some complications, irritations, and we will encounter a range of problems. Especially, when we have to work in tandem with others, there are bound to be tense and complex situations.
At these times, it is your attitude that will come to your rescue. Do not attempt to fake your attitude, as ultimately, the people around you will see through your fakeness. You have to be authentic.
The cornerstone of the right attitude at work is your willingness to be an energy giver.
Remind yourself to be helpful even if it does not profit you, immediately. Understand how to respect others, especially when they annoy you. Learn to be committed to your word. And, when you make mistakes, admit them and own up. Make sure your superiors know that you have learnt from your missteps and give them the confidence that you will do things differently in the future.
The next thing to realise, is that there is a very high likelihood that you will not always like or be liked by the people who lead you. Over the past 20 years of being a management consultant, nearly every time I ask a group of people to describe their relationships with their bosses, a lot of the feedback will be about how bad their leaders are.
Interestingly, Robert Hogan, an American psychologist best known for his innovations in personality testing, wrote in his book "Personality and the Fate of Organizations" that 60-75 percent of managers are incompetent, or poor leaders. This ranges from managers who are simply in over their heads to those who are truly awful and destructive.
The lesson for you to learn quickly, is that it is so much better to figure out ways to peacefully co-exist with people, especially superiors you do not enjoy. You cannot resolve a problematic boss by sulking or fighting. Instead, you need to figure out how to manage your own reactions.
The art of managing a difficult boss is predicated on your ability to keep all your interactions with them on the topic at hand, and to the point. Even when your leader does not do this, you need to continue to be civil, pleasant and polite.
The most counter-productive thing you can do is to form a gang of like-minded colleagues who collectively dislike the boss. It never solves your issues with your superior. Do not do this, and do not entertain others who do this.
When you accept that many people have problematic bosses, and if you are agile and adaptive enough to work around them, the more progress you will make in career.
The third thing to realise is that you have been hired to solve problems.
Many people surrender whenever they encounter problems. I often have to remind the participants in my leadership coaching sessions that without problems, they would be out of a job. Most people avoid and shun problems, or start looking for a new job as soon as things get tough, or actually become the 'problem' themselves, when they are faced with complications at work.
Condition your mind to accept that you will be inundated with problems at work, and this is, in fact, a good thing.
You can't really dwell too long on the pain of any issue or problem. Instead, you need to focus on working at sorting and solving them.
I have realised through my work that people fall broadly into two categories; they are either problem-oriented or solution-oriented. It is the solution-driven people who add the most value to any organisation, and who in turn become valuable.
Keep your attitude in check and have a learning approach to everything. Manage your emotions with your bosses, especially if you are led by a high functioning sociopath. And, focus on resolving problems, rather than contributing to them.
When you do this, you'll find that 'luck' is often on your side.
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller "So, You Want To Get Promoted?
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
