![]() ![]() Demand the best from yourself, then demand the best from othersĭemanding the best from yourself results from the good kind of paranoia. It also propels you to demand the best from yourself and others. Working like this prepares you for a robust role in which you are capable of tackling complex challenges. Your superior will entrust you with challenging assignments that expand your horizon of concern. Owning up your work end-to-end also helps instill confidence in you. This not only ensures that I have done a fool-proof job of designing the banner, but it also demonstrates my ability to look at the big picture, and the fact that I truly own this task. I have dimensionalized the task of designing a banner into a multitude of subtasks (x1, x2, x3…). How will it look when an event attendee photographs it Where will it be placed during the event? But if you truly believe in owning up to what you do, you will probe and question your task along these lines: Sounds like a straightforward task - design the banner, and you might perform it satisfactorily and get away with it. ![]() Let us for example say that you are tasked with designing a print banner for an event. You are free to venture into “ y” as well, but as long as it does not hamper “x”. Now it is your absolute responsibility to completely own x and everything that it entails. If you are in charge of “ x”, your superior is in charge of “ x+y”, and then it accumulates upwards ( x+y+z+…). In typical organization ownership, decision-making and risk accumulate upwards. Mastering these single-dimension skills proves useful when you, later on, start taking on challenges that have more depth and complexity. But we often underestimate simple, repetitive tasks and their effectiveness in building our skillset. Most of our tasks in this phase will be mundane and repetitive in nature. And if you happen to be in this situation, you need to demand more work. Not having enough work in this stage can lead to distraction, boredom, or even worse - disinterest. You are truly lucky if your superior stuff you with a lot of work. ![]() The phrase keep your head down might sound regressive, but what it really means is to zone into the nitty-gritty of your work. This is the time when you learn the building blocks of your line of work. Everyone else around you will know what you are supposed to do, better than yourself. I think one might follow this advice for all her life, but it is vital during your apprenticeship phase. Professionals should always yearn for and thrive in the paranoia of the second kind.Īs dull as this sounds, it was the most beautiful phase of my professional life. ![]() As a professional, you have a choice (of course the degree of freedom in the organization will trickle down to the employee level) to either jump on the bandwagon and do what your peers (within the organization and within the industry of your line of work) are doing, or push yourself and team to be creative. This meta-commentary of paranoia in organizations luckily also applies to individuals and working professionals. The one that feeds into the ensuing confusion and the one that forces organizations to constantly innovate and differentiate themselves from the rest. Paranoia always presents an impulse two act in two opposite ways. The same degrees of freedom that impose constraints on the organization also helps them to narrow their focus, differentiate their service, and build expertise.Įxample of good paranoia: A media company realizes that high-quality, differentiated content earns them loyal readers, and sticks to that model despite limited readership. People, money, markets, and policies are just some of these factors that define the level of constraints on an organization.Įxample of bad paranoia: A media company realizes that click-bait articles are good for business, and pushes more such articles, feeding the paranoia of its readers.īut there is also a good kind of paranoia, an invisible force that compels organizations to act in a way that makes the world better. Fewer degrees of freedom, more the paranoia. The autonomy of an institution is defined by the degree of its freedom. Politicians, news channels, the stock market, Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and any academic, religious, and Government institution function in some sort of paranoia. I am really a “bad news first” kind of person. ![]()
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