A friend of mine who was working in a multinational bank at a very senior position for more than a decade is going through what seems like a mid-career crisis.
He had been doing very well for several years. His expertise was in great demand. He was regularly consulted as he went about setting up teams in different locations, establishing processes, managing a diverse portfolio and navigating his Division through turbulent times. He won awards and accolades. It seemed like he had a Midas touch. This went on for several years.
However, over the last two years, things became rough. It began when a new Vice President (VP) joined. The VP had been brought in to drive Change. He began changing everything – the identity of and the culture within the team, the protocols of transparency and the foundation of the business. The VP shuffled people without consulting my friend and made significant changes to reporting relationships. All the familiar structures around my friend were crumbling.
Meanwhile, my friend was caught like a deer in the headlights – completely paralyzed. He was fervently hoping that things would return to a semblance of ‘normalcy’. His meetings with the VP always ended up in bitter fights. My friend tried his best to adjust and adapt to the changes but it was not helping. It seemed like he was suddenly in a completely new organization with no semblance of the old. He was realizing that he was becoming irrelevant in the whole equation.
Finally, unable to take it any more, my friend quit the job with no idea of what he would do.
Sometimes, we get so accustomed to how things are going that we imagine perpetuation, almost a guarantee that things will continue like that for ever. We do not see the faint writing on the wall when it appears first. We do not examine our skill portfolios, do not keep in touch with the future, do not sense the shifting sands. We have no Plan B.
We keep milking the same cow.
Since we do not have a Plan B, we continue languishing in roles where our self-esteem gets eroded every day. We keep hoping that things will return to ‘normalcy’ but deep down, we know it will never happen. We then begin deriving solace from the fact that a lot of people are also going through a similar situation. This is like when you suffer severe toothache, you hang around with a lot of people suffering similar toothache and expect relief from pain. What a strategy!
It is important to keep oneself in a high state of preparedness to be able to move to other pastures – to find different cows. It could be a new position in the same organization, a different job or an entrepreneurial opportunity.
Move on!
As one of my quotes goes, ‘A long suffering in an unhappy situation is not loyalty. It is slavery.’
