Comments on: How to grow in an organization

By: Maqbool

Maqbool — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:21:48 +0000

In true sense when one works on replacing oneself he/she is not replacing himself/herself, but the job. Once you work towards replacing yourself, all you are doing is replacing/enhancing the job you are currently doing. This can be done at every level. Let’s say you are a Java developer. Currently you are doing job of pure development, ie, someone defines the project for you and architecture and you go ahead code it as per the spec. As you try to replace that coding job, you think what else can you do? In the process of coding, you have learnt a lot about the domain itself, how the work flow happens, how the messages are handled, etc. Why not make a jump and start your own design and start comparing your design with the design your manager/lead gave you and start the dialog and keep growing. Now the job of a pure developer has become not just developer, but of a mini-architect. You can also look around and see where are the pain points of the project/organization are, like communications, HL7, DICOM, EDI, XML etc. This you will know if you participate in project status meeting (many people think this is a waste full thing to do) and start developing those skills as they pertain to your job and start growing….

By: Nikhil

Nikhil — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:24:54 +0000

how can we identify the areas where we need to grow so that we can be replaceable? The knowledge about all the products, inventory etc that old man in the story had made him replaceable but all this knowledge came from his past experience. The best part is his expertise and interest in his work, things like how much quantity of that product was in the shop, etc… shows his interest in his work. The expertise which came through his interest and pride he has show towards his work made him replaceable.

If we can identify such key areas and expertise in such areas than we are ready to get replaced.

By: Sanchit Jain

Sanchit Jain — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:29:56 +0000

True, job hopping may result in a short term apparent growth but it would probably not give one a career. A survey of the CXO’s revealed that 90% of them were not job hoppers, they would have switched only a few jobs in their long careers…and most of them did not do it for money but more to align their work with their expertise.

Which is quite natural. There are two ways – if you don’t like your work you can go look for another job, and the process may be endless. Or you change what is not good at your present job, improve the present organization wherever needed, and carve your way to leadership.

By: Maqbool Patel

Maqbool Patel — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:30:39 +0000

how true… this happens always. As organizations grow they change, so the roles of everyone also change. If employees don’t change and grow as the organization grows, they become pretty soon dispensable. You can only be indispensable if you grow out of your job and move to more value added job. This is true of any organization. Growing your career by jumping ship is the most risky path, once you get stuck in this jumping game, there is no safety net, you fall very badly. Grow naturally by learning you will have a healthy growth and you will enjoy the growth.