Bill Clinton I Am
I am smiling as I write this because I am listening to the backing music track to the normal battle in Final Fantasy X. In its days, I hear this song in my sleep. The battles never seemed that long so I was surprised when I saw that the track was more than 3-minutes long. Seemed awfully long when put into context.
I have passed the 3-month mark at the new job. I was informed a few weeks ago that I have been confirmed in my probation (the period is 6 months for my grade) and that I would be getting a nice little raise to go with that. Seems like a good excuse to go out, put on my red Renoma shoes and get drunk.
I attended a training for the past 2 days. Yesterday we had several breakout sessions that forced us to review the company’s operations and behaviour as well as assessing the customer-obsessed attitude in our respective organisations. Much to my amusement, our solution was identical to the one suggested by a professor from Harvard Business School. That forced me to re-assess the situation. If the people in my organisation know how to correctly identify and solve a problem, then why is there so many problems unsolved?
I asked the team to have teh tarik with me at the nearby mamak shop after the training was over. The subsequent discussion confirmed what I already suspected. That (i) They feel their contributions are not appreciated and (ii) In the cases where they put their foot down and agreed to embark on a course of action, they have to constantly defend that decision. These and a combination of other factors led to defeated morale as well as curbing the desire to be proactive.
I came from an organisation where, while my suggestions were not always necessarily adopted, the desire to do a job well-done surpassed the anxiety or apprehension that we may collectively feel. That was despite the fact that I was responsible for the bottomline and could have easily put profit ahead of quality.
For me, I’d like to know that I can do my job capably as well as contribute to the organisational development, not just my personal need to be in a challenging situation. They smiled and said wait till you have been here for 5 years. That was my point exactly. In 5 years, you are supposed to be just as passionate, if not more, about your work as you are today. Are you going to be excited about your marriage only in the early phase and tire of it when you reach the 5-year mark? I don’t think so. It is important to love your job (why would you want to spend 16 hours a day doing something you hate?) and, more importantly, to constantly learn and adapt new techniques or ideas in order to grow the business. Ultimately you work for yourself, and to say "I’m sick and tired of all this there is no point to try anymore" would simply mean you are letting yourself down.
As I get older, I am beginning to sound more and more like a scary old hag.
Why can’t I write a funny, amusing blog like everyone else?
I took a leadership personality test today. I am … Bill Clinton. That made me chuckle. The thought of having interns fawning all over me offering BJ’s on demand sounds awfully… naughty.
