The Success Stoppers

Have you ever run a relay race? A relay race is a team sport where the entire team has to work together one after the other to each the finishing line. Each time you pass the baton to the next runner you place an implicit faith in your team member that he or she will give their best to reach the finishing line first. However, imagine running a relay with some members who did not have the motivation to come first in the race. Imagine what would happen if one member of your team suddenly fell down during the race and could not continue running. What if someone did not have the right shoes and ran slower than the rest since they were afraid to fall down. And worse than everything, what if one of your team members did not realize than they were falling behind in the race and had to run faster to keep up with others?

It is a terrible feeling to lose a relay race when one or the other team member does not perform their best and as a result the entire team fails. Similarly in an organization, it is team work that gets us success. Organization success is not a one man job. Neither is it the responsibility of one person. Hence, when the organization goal is clear yet, we all look to a single leader to give us direction every time, we are bound to fail.

At Adani Power, our rate of growth has been phenomenal and we only have to go further. We have already created several benchmarks in the industry but we cannot stop there. To do so however, each one of us needs to be a leader in our own jobs. If we don’t own up to our responsibilities then we are thee roadblocks to our organization's success. In this article, I will give you a few examples of how someone can be an organizational roadblock and how to avoid becoming one.

The Credit Seekers (Vindictive by Nature)

One of the worst kinds of attitudes that some employees in an organization have is the quality of vindictiveness. Vindictive employees are those who deliberately stall decisions or work without thinking of the consequences of delay for the organization. They are aware and empowered to do what needs to be done. Yet, they deliberately postpone certain activities in order to cause harm to someone or defame someone. They are not indecisive by nature. Instead, they are calculative and manipulative and take pleasure in making others feel uncomfortable. Vindictive people also have a credit seeking mentality. They claim credit for success and blame others for failure. As team members they do not gel well with others. Most employees reporting to vindictive leaders feel stressed or frustrated since the leader is never transparent in his speech or behaviour.

   

The Free Riders (Happily Indecisive)

These are the second worst kind of roadblocks for an organization. These people are fully aware of what needs to be done and have all the necessary resources available to them. Yet, when it comes to taking the decision, they hesitate or procrastinate for fear of ownership. These people love to delegate upwards or play the blame game when work does not move ahead. Such employees never show ownership and display a responsibility avoidance attitude in everything they do. Success or failure does not matter as long as they do not have to decide. Such lethargy in willingly not letting work move forward is a matter of grave concern for an organization. As employees, you must make sure that work does not stop at your table. Take quick decisions. If you are unable to decide yourself, ask your team or your supervisor, do your due diligence and let the work conclude or pass to the next person.

The Energy Suckers (The Perpetually Negative)

Failure is the stepping stone to success. We have all heard this but when it comes to our daily life, we often forget the saying. If you don’t take the risk, you have failed by default. Hence, before you say no to a challenge, stop and think what it would feel like to try and succeed instead of failing by giving up. To continue our forward motion to success at Adani Power, saying no without trying is not an option.

Being conservative is not wrong. It means you have calculated the risks and are taking a logical decision. But negative people start talking without facts. They quote stories of failure and hypothetical situations instead of trying to think of ways to counter the risks that may befall. Negative people tend to spread negativity around too. Even if you have reservations, as a team, you must give your best efforts instead of pulling down the team’s morale by being negative or non-supportive. Speaking ill of your own team is also a big no-no. It shows that you are a bad team player let alone a leader. Stick with your team and support their activities even if you think you might all fail.

The Blissfully Ignorant (Unaware or Uninformed)

The least you can do as an employee in an organization is to stay informed of what the business goals are and the timelines. You don’t need a supervisor to tell you what needs to be done. Build networks with your peer groups across the organization to understand what everyone is doing and if you or your team need help or can help others in any way. So pick up the phone and start talking to peers.

Being unaware or uninformed of what is happening around you and what needs to be done by your team is unacceptable. It cannot be an acceptable excuse at any level. Buying time by saying, “I did not know it had to be done”, is professionally unacceptable behaviour.

The Hoarder (Afraid to Delegate)

As normal human beings, none of us can be an expert in everything. Neither are we infallible or indomitable. However, when an employee is good at a particular job or has shown consistent performance, it is natural that people look to them when new work has to be done. It is quite normal for such employees to sometimes feel overburdened. However, most of these people are perfectionists by nature and do not like the way others work. Hence, they hoard all the work and keep it to themselves. They refuse to mentor or coach their team members for fear of devaluing themselves. Therefore, they cannot delegate. In the event such employees fall sick or forget to finish a pending task, the entire work stops completely since no one else knows or is aware of what needs to be done.

As leaders or as employees too, you must learn to coach others in your team to do a job as efficiently as you do. Reverse mentoring is a new concept but it is true that even junior employees can coach senior employees. Remember, you can move up to the next level only if you have helped your supervisor move up. So help your supervisor trust you and delegate work to you so that the work never stops entire organization benefits.