Pawns or Queens: Reflecting Upon Your Path in the Corporate Sphere

Uncategorized Jan 23, 2018

We graduated college together. So, when we met again about six years later, it was a loud and boisterous reunion. We were good friends in college but had simply lost contact after graduation. Interestingly, though, once we met again, it was as if we had never missed those years. Now, we connect on a regular basis, do business together, and even plan on playing golf together. During one of our lunches, Summer had said something so potent that I had to stop lunch and our discussion to appreciate the weight of it all:

"If people are not on your path, then they're in your way"

Subsequently, I typed them into my PDA and would not allow another word as I did so. Summer had basically diagnosed the cancer that is at the center of the human condition...one that blights our "crops" each year. With each project, I am more and more convinced that people aren't really what their companies claim them to be - "our best asset." Perhaps it's because you cannot "truly" put people on the balance sheet. Whatever the reason might be, it does sound good, though; almost makes the management team sound like they actually care. However, I question their veracity!

Too many people - good people - have been used as tools and pawns on the corporate chess board. Sucked dry, only to be booted to the curb. These individuals who were "our best asset" are now nothing more than a faded memory.

As we traverse the tumultuous post-economic collapse landscape, both management and "people" will have to recognize that every, single pawn is a potential queen... a queen that can move in multiple directions with unlimited distance. This means that "people" have to take ownership and personal interest in their own growth and development (and stop playing the victim or simply being indifferent); and management has to step up and put their money where their mouth is. If people are their best asset, then they will have to help them grow and develop and get them actively involved. Without this partnership, people remain "in the way" or just another pawn for another's agenda...

So, as you read this I encourage you to think for a moment and ask yourself…are you a pawn?

©2018 Dr. Kozhi Sidney Makai. No part of this blog post may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system without the written consent of the copyright holder.

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