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Career Poker: You need to know when to fold and when to go all in ….
Unsurprisingly, the conversation this week centered on recognition and I found myself commiserating with an ex-army friend.
He had retired from the Forces three years ago and joined a public sector agency. By all accounts, he was doing well as he was getting the coveted Bs in his annual assessments. Until this year ….
This year, his boss had assigned him several impossible tasks — impossible because others had tried and failed. Being a good soldier, he accepted these “suicide missions.” No questions asked. If the boss wanted it and, it was good for the organization, he would do it. Needless to say, despite his best efforts, he failed to accomplish the assigned tasks. As these were known impossible tasks, my friend expected some understanding from the boss. But he got none. And he was held fully accountable for these failures and ranked down.
My friend felt betrayed. While he had accepted the suicide missions the boss had for him, the boss was equally culpable in the failures. The boss provided no guidance and, failed to provide the needed resources and support to accomplish the tasks. Failure was therefore pre-ordained.
