Corporate image: how tough are you, really?

I was prompted to write this post, because as a  company man, which I have been for the last 10 something years. I have been able to observe the modalities of behavior on the company floor, in the office space and all around it. Being located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan gives me a great chance to look and observe what people are made of, what they think they are made of, and various attributes of their personalities that come to define the ultimate goal of the workplace - total success symbolized by a promotion, a movement upwards.


These are indeed the goals to be achieved, and I can't claim success in that respect, as I have pretty much stayed put in my job. But I have watched others on their way up, and I have noticed that people moving up inevitably develop a new ego - they start dressing differently, have a different look in their eyes, they find new friends and generally start to associate with other people. Their tone of the voice - changes. Indeed, it seems like you are talking to a whole new persona.


Of course, if you are the one promoted, these changes seem all the more natural as you are immersed in your victory, you are a star of the show, at least for that day. You are not thinking for the challenges to come and it is all just one big party, just as when you were a child.




However, the challenge presented is this: if an upward movement breeds greedier employees, more ignorant personalities, and greater negligence of all things that came to be associated with humanity, how good is that for the individuals? Furthermore, how good is that for the company?


I mean even from a bit of history that we have learned in school we know that the greater the station, the greater is the responsibility of a true ruler to be in touch with what is going on his realm. During the younger years the blue bloods had to be treated "as everyone else" - sleep and eat with the soldiers, acquire all the necessary skills for survival, taste the bitterness of an outdoor life on a campaign, etc. etc. When that was accomplished, a newly trained ruler would acquire the necessary bent of character to be real, i.e. to be human, to understand others, thus having capacity to make proper decisions, on which the lives of many will be relying. This is how elite was really nurtured from the immemorial time on.


Looking at many company employees, I sense that they haven't read any history, or if they did - probably haven't extracted any lessons. It seems like they are doing just the opposite: they are surging up with no moral underpinning at all - the only point is self-recognition as a part of a newly found elite. So the higher they climb, the less contact there is even for the most talented with the foundation within the company. Along side, the one surging up is struggling to completely forget what has happened to him during his years as "a commoner", and indeed the vacant look on their faces is a proof that they have reached the Elysian Fields, they are not human no more, but gods, separated from the ground by the clouds; hidden from the human eyes at their managerial Olympus.


While the tone is someone sardonic, I do urge people to get down and look around themselves, get real with where you really are! A higher position can serve as an instrument of greater humility, and greater benevolence. Not required, but very useful to look at things through a humbler prism.


Just moving up and feeling like you are a ruler of the world may not last for very long, and may cause a long term suffering from the glorious inebriation. Stumbling even a half step down may feel like a tragedy, since you already have a conviction of your separation from the ground upon which you stand.


There are many tough facades in the corporate work place, but no matter what position you occupy, you can still fulfill your managerial functions without being overly proud, unreachably snobbish, or simply dumbly narcisstic.


I think the change is going to come when self assertion is going to be separated from the pride. When the intelligence is going to join hands with vision, and when people simply realize how great it is to grow and feel like a flower in the morning sun, thus sharing their radiance with all around, enriching the company space, and the others, indeed being a true "co-worker".