“With me, illusions are bound to be shattered. I am here to shatter all illusions. Yes, it will irritate you, it will annoy you – that’s my way of functioning and working. I will sabotage you from your very roots! Unless you are totally destroyed as a mind, there is no hope for you.” ― Osho
This post — short as it is — is deliberately tendentious.
As someone who’s had more jobs than I care to list (easily more than 20), not one of them offered a career. Instead, what they offered, mostly, was a banal, Dickensian relationship qua employee/employer.
You know the drill. As long as I was prepared to keep quiet in the face of inequity, cruelty and bullshit, I could rest assured that, at the very least, I’d have a job for the subsequent years with which to pay the bills. But, god forbid, I spoke my truth, or in my case spoke up for others who were too scared to risk their cosy little lot, I could kiss goodbye to any chance of climbing the ever-increasing-in-length greasy pole.
To my mind, a career isn’t something to be brutalised or used as a bribe. It’s there to garner the gifts in every employee. In other words, it’s deserving of something but not a fear-inducing slap in the face.
Just imagine it. A cohort of people who were encouraged and helped to be the best version of themselves. And no, I don’t mean a faux version where they’re brainwashed to believe that your company and its products/services are the best in the Universe, but to look at what they’re able to offer across all of their life.
I know I’m off piste in suggesting that job #1 as boss, leader or owner is to develop your people not just to help you or the business, but to enable them to live a better life, however I can’t think why else anyone would want to give all their effort to you or the company/firm at large.
Let’s face it, in the long run, it’s the only way you’ll build the best business in the world — i.e. serve the people brilliantly, and they’ll serve you and the company to the highest order.
If you’re not doing this, then my strongest advice is to abstract yourself from your boss/mentor role and allow someone better qualified to do the job. Of course, if you’re bereft of anyone in the business who fits the bill or the business isn’t set up that way, perhaps it’s time to fess up and explain to your staff that their career aspirations will never, and I mean never, be met.
Blessings
Julian
Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash