“A fellow of mediocre talent will
remain a mediocrity, whether he travels or not; but one of superior talent
(which without impiety I cannot deny that I possess) will go to seed if he
always remains in the same place.” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Recently I was invited by an
educational institution in India as a guest speaker. After delivering my speech,
I met the principal of the educational institution. During the conversation,
the principal told me, “The right talent doesn’t come to our college. Even if it
comes, it doesn’t stay. Even if it stays, people will not allow it to stay in
the college.” I found strength in his statement and hence, I decided to share
my thoughts on this topic. .
These are the days of knowledge
workers where a lot of respect is accorded to knowledge workers. You can buy
machines, not knowledge workers. These knowledge workers come if they wish to
come. They are choosy as they have abundant opportunities elsewhere. They shortlist their employers rather than the
employers short listing them. Hence, before joining any organization, they look
for various aspects including career prospects. If they are convinced that
their work is challenging, and the learning curve and career growth is steep,
they join the organization. After joining the organization, if they find any mismatch
between their expectations and the reality, they resign and join elsewhere. If
they find any job irritants, they immediately resign.
After joining the organization, if
they are convinced about career prospects, they continue to work. Here comes
another challenge as the people who are already available in the organization may
find the new talent a threat. They may feel insecure. Hence, they play petty
politics to remove the talent. This is the challenge where most of the
knowledge workers and high achievers encounter in organizations. At times, this
top talent is dragged into controversies by the existing talent leading to exit
of the top talent.
Here goes the story of Ron who worked in
an educational institution. Ron was a passionate educator who had passion to
share his knowledge and serve students. He had an international profile with
amazing employment offers with pay and perks. He sacrificed everything and
joined an educational institution to serve students with insignificant salary
as the institution had a huge number of students. It provided an opportunity
for Ron to reach out more students to serve them. The owners of the educational
institution immediately offered employment to him, and were happy that such a
high profile educator agreed to join their institution. After joining the
institution, problems started for Ron as most of the educators found insecure
with Ron’s international image. Ron conducted teaching and training programs to
students and inspired them. As a result, many students became his followers.
Students were very much impressed with Ron’s international image. The other
educators felt uncomfortable with Ron’s growing image and following among the
students. They started to find out Ron’s minor weaknesses and complained to the
owners of the educational institution. The owners were aware about the issue
but they were not willing to remove Ron. Ron sensed the problem and finally
resigned to avoid problems to the owners of the management and other mediocre
educators in the institution. The owners did not accept Ron’s resignation.
Finally, Ron persuaded the owners that he would visit their institution as a
guest speaker whenever required rather than to work as a fulltime faculty. It ended
up as a win-win for all stakeholders.
From this story, it is obvious that
the top talent doesn’t come to organizations. Even if they come, they don’t
stick to the organization for a longer time. Even if they stick to their
organizations, they are not allowed to remain within the organizations due to
petty politics. This challenge arises
for knowledge workers and especially for the employees with international image
when they join medium and low profile organizations.
To conclude, strong people mind their
own business while the weak people play petty office politics to ensure their
survival. It is for the organizations to hire the best talent and ensure that
they are protected from organizational politics to ensure organizational
excellence and effectiveness.
“Your talent determines what you can
do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude
determines how well you do it.” - Lou Holtz
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