I was reading this about Twitter CEO stepping down and assuming a different responsibility and how that is a sign of self-awareness. It is always possible to put an incredible morality spin on things which might be more banal and elevate the situation to some moral plateau which it may not deserve. But taking the whole article at face value, couple of observations –
– Organizations grow and lose its childish innocence and mature. Being mature means adapting to a whole lot of situations which did not really matter when you were a child and building stories to support the public face. Something that began with simple idea as “like ice cream, not essential, but fun” in Twitter’s case could be now portrayed as the new information super highway with endless possibilities. Organizations keeps growing and morphing, but still staying true to original values could be admirable.
– As with this story and the one about Facebook founder recently, there is hint of playing hardball at some point in time to get upper hand – the underlying theme seems to be that to be successful in business, you have to cut corners somewhere, maybe all friends will not remain so etc. But that’s what is disappointing – there may not be entrepreneurs with clean hands. Like the other day some friends were discussing about managers being good at lying, that it is one of the basic qualities – thing is it is managers themselves describing their ilk.
– Lastly – like the peter principle, people rise to the level of their incompetence. Realizing and changing paths before that needs a strong self awareness. Or a term I learned recently – becoming a “hamster” – reaching the comfortable niche, being happy where they are and not contributing significantly. I guess realizing your strengths and weaknesses and your passion earlier in career might help to avoid getting to a position of your incompetence or to get washed up into some groove where you get satisfied.
– Organizations grow and lose its childish innocence and mature. Being mature means adapting to a whole lot of situations which did not really matter when you were a child and building stories to support the public face. Something that began with simple idea as “like ice cream, not essential, but fun” in Twitter’s case could be now portrayed as the new information super highway with endless possibilities. Organizations keeps growing and morphing, but still staying true to original values could be admirable.
– As with this story and the one about Facebook founder recently, there is hint of playing hardball at some point in time to get upper hand – the underlying theme seems to be that to be successful in business, you have to cut corners somewhere, maybe all friends will not remain so etc. But that’s what is disappointing – there may not be entrepreneurs with clean hands. Like the other day some friends were discussing about managers being good at lying, that it is one of the basic qualities – thing is it is managers themselves describing their ilk.
– Lastly – like the peter principle, people rise to the level of their incompetence. Realizing and changing paths before that needs a strong self awareness. Or a term I learned recently – becoming a “hamster” – reaching the comfortable niche, being happy where they are and not contributing significantly. I guess realizing your strengths and weaknesses and your passion earlier in career might help to avoid getting to a position of your incompetence or to get washed up into some groove where you get satisfied.
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