Good Carrier

Successful lives

How to Stay Afloat in a New Work Place…

THE big change has happened. And you are happy that you made the decision to switch to a more interesting, challenging and senior position in a new company. That’s the simpler part. A few days into it, and what looked glamorous and exciting from the outside, is suddenly starting to appear a wee bit trickier than before. You’re the rank outsider nobody seems to want around, and you don’t have time for this nonsense. After all, there’s work to be done, and you need to prove that you’re every bit worth the fat package your new employer paid to acquire you.

Welcome to reality. It’s a whole new game that you need to learn and adapt. Time is certainly not on your side, so it’s critical to get your act together from Day One. Here are a few points that can help you manage the transition into a new company.

Focus on relationships from Day One

No matter how long you may have worked in organizations, the truth is that managing people and interpersonal relationships remains the most difficult part of any leadership role. Each instance can be different from the other and no amount of theoretical frameworks and even experience can prepare you for some situations. Building relationships is your single most important task. Visit people outside your team and spend time listening to how they work, and what difficulties they encounter in dealing with your team or department. Offer to help with solutions, if any.

Clarify, clarify, and clarify

Nothing is more dangerous than ambiguity. Before you start, clarify up front what your role definition would be. What the expectations of the organization are from you, the timelines for those deliverables and what resources would be made available to you to help achieve them.

Easier said than done? Most likely, this wouldn’t be handed to you on a platter, so demand clarity. It’s also in your own best interests to have measurement parameters in place. As you begin benchmarking your team’s and your own performance against these parameters, work will start to become more challenging and enjoyable.

Don’t be in a hurry to make a big impression

When you are in an alien environment, the easiest way to get everyone to notice you is to make a big splash with a new project, propose to change processes that you think are old and redundant or redesign structures that come in the way of efficiency. Don’t even think about it, because it’s sure to ruffle a lot of feathers and, of course, get you nowhere. Be realistic about the scope of your new role. Give yourself some time to learn the processes and systems and how people work. Patience can be your best virtue here. Allow yourself a few small victories, though. That will boost your own morale and that of your team, who would be looking up to you.

Understand the Power Networks and Who Matters

Formal organisational positions hardly indicate who’s really in charge. It’s often a core group that gets things done around the place. So carefully observe and figure out the powers that pull the strings and influence key decisions. These could take the form of unofficial ‘shadow boards’ that could consist of members of the formal board of directors, influential shareholders or even outside parties. Understanding this can determine how much and how fast you can execute on your plan, and make all the difference to your success as a senior executive.

Exude Positivity

And finally, take a positive approach to your work. Be clear that you have come to work and deliver on the agreed upon work targets. Do not allow yourself to be bogged down by the politics and the negative people around you. Rest assured there will be plenty of naysayer and trouble makers trying to pull you down. It’s, therefore, important that you stay moored to your goals and objectives, and cut out the noise. Enthusiasm is rare these days, so keep the cheerfulness going.

Stay True to Yourself

Even as you are doing all of the above, make sure that your actions are above board. Resist the temptation to take shortcuts or measures that could put you or your team in an ethical bind. When everything else fails, it is your own sense of values that will stand you in good stead.

Things for your good

Spend some time each day quietly reflecting on how we would like to relate to ourselves and others.

Remember that all human beings have the same needs.

Check our intention to see if we are as interested in others getting their needs met as our own.

When asking someone to do something, check first to see if we are making a request or a demand.

Instead of saying what we DON'T want someone to do, say what we DO want the person to do.

Instead of saying what we want someone to BE, say what action we'd like the person to take that we hope will help the person be that way.

Before agreeing or disagreeing with anyone's opinions, try to tune in to what the person is feeling and needing.

Instead of saying “No,” say what need of ours prevents us from saying “Yes.”
If we are feeling upset, think about what need of ours is not being met, and what we could do to meet it, instead of thinking about what's wrong with others or ourselves.

Instead of praising someone who did something we like, express our gratitude by telling the person what need of ours that action met.


The secret of a successful life is to live each moment to the fullest—draining your cup to the lees—moving a step ahead each time towards spiritual success

Perhaps one of the most important tasks before all of us is how to succeed in this great enterprise called life. How would God have liked us to live so that, when in the end we return to God, he (she, it—choose your pronoun—my Judeo-Christian background will out) may tell us: "Well-lived."

Today, I believe that the successful life is one that takes as much as possible from each moment and gives as much to it; a life lived at the fullest pitch of one's powers; a life that uses every moment to move a step ahead into growth.

One wakes up of a morn and takes a deep breath. And in that breath one greets the day. That breath is also a bow to God, an acknowledgment of the gift of life and recognition of one's body. As the long current of air goes deep within, it awakens and vitalizes us and puts us in touch with the present moment.

Taking the first step of the day is likewise an experience to savor, as our feet touch the ground and our body begins to move. As to drinking that first cup of coffee or tea—what a deep, sensuous experience it can be when we put all of ourselves into it and draw as much as possible out of it. Lived at such a pitch, no moment in life is ever ordinary, ever trivial. Each is charged with its own rasa, its own flavor, which we draw within ourselves and assimilate. Even moments of physical and emotional pain have their beauty and poignancy when we give ourselves fully to it, experiencing the discomfort fully, watching its play within our system, and containing it within ourselves. An encounter with anyone or anything, even a bird or animal, is a celebration when we pour ourselves fully into it, directing our fullest attention and respect to the other and recognizing and appreciating their uniqueness completely. In that space, the other has complete freedom to be who they are and like a flower before the sun, they release their essence. Communication then becomes joyful, almost a dance as it were, fully satisfying and replenishing each. Imagine living that way. Imagine our most mundane exchanges in the local train and at work being charged with that intensity of life. Only then can we realize the potential of relationships. Far from being a source of conflict and tension, relationships will then be what they are meant to be—one of the greatest sources of joy and enrichment in our lives, a way to savor the other's uniqueness and to grow from it.