Skip to main content

Seeking Approval

A former big tech VP's ruminations often end up on my LinkedIn feed thanks to his followers. There is an odd nugget of wisdom here and there but for the most part his writing seeks validation from his readers. He needs reassurance that he was and continues to be something special. As such he needs to deny that he got where he got through a lot of performative work and access to the speed lane on account of privilege. None of it happened because he was special - this is a hard pill to swallow once a person stops getting their ego fed every minute of the day on account of their title in the company. The truth is far more deserving and capable peers were left far behind because they did not choreograph their work theatrically enough and lacked all the social advantages this individual had. If he accepted reality he would find that the accomplishments that define his self-worth and identity mean very little if anything at all. 

It might a therapeutic experience for people like him to try solving real problems in highly constrained situations to see if they were ever worth the title they once held or the money they made. The real heroes in most large companies are unsung and unrecognized. They love what they do and are exceptionally good at it. The combination makes them oblivious to the fact their work needs to be showcased and displayed nonstop to powers that be in ways that makes sense to them. The packaging and presentation of the work done by these folks is lacking or entirely absent. Along comes someone like the author who "sees the bigger picture", "thinks outside the box" and "moves the needle". They are able to ride the wave of real work and further their own career. Needless to say, it creates the need to rationalize and justify why they deserved to get ahead and so they serve up all this advisory for lesser mortals -  many of whom are destined to toil away in anonymity and serve as catalyst for growth of others' careers. 

Thanks to the career coaching and mentoring this individual and others like him provide, the same pattern of bad and failed leadership continues to plague companies that employ the beneficiaries of their guidance. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Part Liberated Woman

An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no matter how flawed and imperfect. We have both spent over a decade outside India and have kids who were born abroad and have spent very little time back home. Returning "home" is something a lot of new immigrants like L and myself think about. We want very much for that to be an option because a full assimilation into our country of domicile is likely never going to happen. L has visited India more often than I have and has a much better pulse on what's going on there. For me the strongest drag force working against my desire to return home is my experience of life as a woman in India. I neither want to live that suffocatingly sheltered existence myself nor subject J to it. The freedom, independence and safety I have had in here in suburban America was not even something I knew I could expect to have in India. I never knew what it felt t...

Under Advisement

Recently a desi dude who is more acquaintance less friend called to check in on me. Those who have read this blog before might know that such calls tend to make me anxious. Depending on how far back we go, there are sets of FAQs that I brace myself to answer. The trick is to be sufficiently evasive without being downright offensive - a fine balancing act given the provocative nature of questions involved. I look at these calls as opportunities for building patience and tolerance both of which I seriously lack. Basically, they are very desirous of finding out how I am doing in my personal and professional life to be sure that they have me correctly categorized and filed for future reference. The major buckets appear to be loser, struggling, average, arrived, superstar and uncategorizable. My goal needless to say, is to be in the last bucket - the unknown, unquantifiable and therefore uninteresting entity. Their aim is to pull me into something more tangible. So anyways, the dude in ques...

Changing Pace

This blog has been a big part of my life for the last five years. Besides giving me the opportunity to connect with a number of interesting people and share my thoughts and ideas with them, it has been a form of daily meditation for me. No matter what the day threw my way, I made a very deliberate effort to find a little quiet time to write.The process of thinking about what to write and then the act of writing itself worked as an antidote to aggravations big and small. Five and half years ago, when I started Heartcrossings both my personal and professional lives left a lot to be desired for. The only real happiness I had was in being J's mother. While that was often enough to make me forget what I did not have, I sorely needed a third place to call my own and shape in the likeness of my dreams. This blog has been where there were no limits or constraints and that was absolutely exhilarating - it is the reason I have been able to nurture it for as long and as much as I have. A lot ...