A topic which is more than real for myself, but i am sure also for a large number of young professionals is "where is the balance between patience and being proactive?"
I started a new job a few months back in a well-established but new to the country company and have been in a constant dilemma whether to be proactive or to be patient when it comes to giving ideas, demanding support or just communicating. From previous experiance I know that shooting ideas (good ones at least) from early on is not as great as it may sound - sure it will get you quick respect, open a few doors if not all doors, but whatever idea you may have it is based on very little observation and experiance and is almost completely guaranteed to create quite a few headaches on the way if not a complete failure.
On the other hand if you do not present what you can do and what you want to do, when will you be seen - probably never. As i said in one of my previous posts "If you don't ask questions, the answer will always be NO".
So here stands the real question - where is the ballance, or the moment in which you have enough, or know enough or can do enough to start being proactive, to put yourself on the map and to take a stand to your colleagues/bosses who you are and where you want to be?!
If i say that i know it will be a lie, if i say there is some sort of a calculation or excel formula - there is not, but I may be able to share a few thoughts on the matter.
First of all in my mind it is not an "either or" subject but as stated in the topic - "a bond of success". Why can you not be just pro-active or just patient - well quite simple - if you are always pro-active in the best case scenario everyone will stop working and expect you to generate ideas, work and projects turning your company into an individual dependent system, which if you have not seen it with your own eyes, trust me that it is catastrphic. In the worst case you will get a burnout at the age of 35 or a heart attack at the age of 45. Both of them are scenarios that i would not want for myself and as such would not recommend. The other option is for you to be patient that your boss will give you work, or good work, or interesting work, all of which is an illusion or if it actually happens, you are in a company that has too much free time, which is never good for a business in the 21st cetury.
So since both options individually do not seem to be great enough - let us look at the compbination - the bond of success. You may notice that i have called it "a bond of success", which is not because i want to have a catchy title or because i want to present you with a word riddle, but because while the goal is balance between being proactive and patient, the real bond is between two other things -
IQ and EQ. Since the abriviations may not be familliar to all of you, what i am talking about is
intelligence and emotional intelligence. Since both of them are unmesearuble i will give you a short description in a realtionship with the topic.
Intelligence - is the ability to find and use the logical connection between things. In the case of proactiveness and patience it is the ability to see patterns in the moments of pressure and less pressure for your bosses, colleagues, the business and so on. If you can trully master this, except being successful in pretty much anythng you will always be able to properly identify the right time, place and topic for everyting
Emotional Intelligence - is the ability to find and use the mood and tentions of your colleagues, bosses, the business and so on. If you can master this you will be able to prevent yourself from talking to people when they are angry, busy, under pressure and on the other hand to talk to your boss when he/she is in a good mood, which of course will increase you chance of success.
So here is the key -
look for the moment, time, place and mood for your ideas and remember - the moment to give a good idea is not when it comes up, but when it will be bought, becuase as i said in another post of mine - "It is not enough to have a good idea, but to be able to sell that idea". Sure you may be able to get an ok even in the busiest times, only to get wierd questions, negativity and even resistance later on.
As always i will provide you with a few useful questions for yourselves to ask:
1. Have I seen all the company (people, procesess, etc.)?;
2. Have I read the company history?;
3. Have I identified the busy and not so busy periods?;
4. In which period am I now?;
5. Is my boss (target group) busy now?;
6. Does he/they have problems at home/spouse/work? Has he eaten today?;
7. What do they need to like my ides?;
8. Who will be able to help me on the road to success?;
9. What will be the physical benefits?;
10. What will be the psychological benefits?;
Of course this is not an exact science and we can all be wrong from time to time. Of course you can misjudge a situation or a moment or once you have that moment to overdo it and do more harm than good. Of course you can lose yourself in thoughts of when is the right moment or if it has passed, for the heart of a young man (or woman) beats fast, but do not forget that a campaign is rarely won in a single "battle" or "showdown" it is continous patience and continous pro-activeness that will get you from where you are and where you want to be!
No comments:
Post a Comment