I recently had a conversation with my older brother over dinner over the topic of whether luck plays a part in determining one’s destiny and career. The topic rose about as I started to observe and correlate my dad and my brother’s career path and their outlook on life. This is also in part based on the recent MBA exam I took (yes I am an MBA student!) in which during my organizational behaviour course we learnt about locus of control and how internalisers (those with an internal locus of control – people who believe that there is no such thing as luck and it’s all pure hard work and effort and making use of the opportunity given to achieve your goals) think differently from externalisers (those with external locus of control – people who believe no matter how hard they try things won’t work out because luck does not favour them or there are other external pressures which affect the outcome of their effort).
This essay is not to analyze my dad or my brother’s life but rather to take a retrospective look at my own life. Do I owe all my success to sheer luck or purely God’s blessings? Have all that I have achieved in the last couple of years been down to “being in the right place at the right time” or is there something more at hand?
The reason why I am asking these questions is to in effect rule out such things as luck or good fortune – while there are things in life which you can amount to luck (gambling, buying stock, friendship and romance) more often than not it’s always a combination of things that actually makes the difference. Consider this example:
2 people are given the same level of opportunity at a firm – lets assume both start out as part of graduate program (ceteris paribus) – both individuals are exposed to same learning environments, the same kind of mentors and so on. Both are given equal access to just about everything. One takes every chance he has to learn about the company and about the people – He gets involved in discussions, he presents his thoughts and ideas (although they appear naivette). The other doesn’t do that much – not to say he doesn’t work hard, but from his point of view, he believes he has time later to learn up more about the company and besides he’s still new to the company – he doesn’t want to appear to act “arrogant” or become a proud peacock.
Both give their best and both want to do well. What both don’t really know is that management is watching both of these 2 candidates – faculty teams observe their attitudes, their thinking pattern, their interaction with peers, and most importantly how they cope and deal with difficulties and failures during the whole program. When it comes to the culmination of the program, the graduates are all assessed and ranked with the top ranking graduates going to more demanding and challenging work environments which require resilience, creativity and adaptability to cope with pressure. For the latter, he gets assigned to a less challenging work environment – an environment which is more stable. Management does this to adapt and tailor individual strengths to the best fit working environment.
On the onset both employees are happy – both enjoy and relish with their respective work environment. Both are comfortable in short. But over time as things change both become disgruntled and experience the “valley of despair” – coping with the challenges of the working environment – the work itself, peers and colleagues, clients and bosses/supervisors. This is a crucial period in both careers – how both responds to these challenges and whether they can rise above these challenges will have some factor in determining how they rise and grow in the company. For the former, the internaliser will seek opportunities rather instinctively to maneuver his way around his challenges. Perhaps he would find a mentor, or he would talk to his boss to extend the deadline, or he would draft up a proposed solution and get it peer reviewed to see if anything is lacking in the solution. It may solve the challenge or at least address some of the challenges. The former is then praised and becomes recognized for his ability to be resourceful. His boss, happy with his contribution recommends him for further challenges which would allow the internaliser to user his resourcefulness to work on the problems. Of course with that comes recognition and rewards to help motivate the internaliser which further reinforces the behaviours exhibited.
Lets now look at the latter. He too faces challenges in his office. Perhaps the department, because of the “stable environment” it is known for, has a number of dead weight employees who are just loafing around. The boss, over the years of running such an environment favours conformity and resists new changes or any kind of pressures. He loves the status quo and hates to rock the boat. Then the challenges come, perhaps the boss’s supervisor now is pressuring all department heads to improve and streamline operations – this would mean a shakedown, reorganization and reshuffling of roles. The latter who is now in the midst of all things ponders what to do. He’s new to the department, perhaps he would be the 1st the go? Compared to the others who have been in the department for years, what chance does he have? And who would listen to a small fry like him anyway – he just joined the department 2 months ago! And the boss doesn’t like change, so what’s the point of even proposing any change when you know he’s going to shoot down the idea (which makes the latter wonder what kind of a shitty boss he has – he begins to think there is nothing he can do and it’s just bad luck). Eventually the latter begins to resent his job – hostility is all over the place, everyone is fearing for their job and the hushed whispers taking place around the office cubicles do not help either, let alone the presence of a pressured boss pacing around the office frantically trying to figure out how to achieve the goals He begins to become demotivated. Eventually the demoralizing feeling becomes too much to bear and the latter leaves the company.
The above scenario is one that happens one too often in the workplace. [TO BE CONTINUED]
