Wellness & Fitness

Not everyone can survive and thrive in a big company

man

Q: I was recently hired as a manager in a big firm, coming from a medium-sized firm of about 200 people. I wield significant authority here.

While I stood out in my previous employment and enjoyed a fair degree of independence and autonomy, I had thought that this would continue in my new job.

But I have been surprised that this is not the case and I feel frightened that I might have made a wrong career move. Sometimes, I feel I was not ready to become a “boss” in a big organisation and feel like a hostage rather than a boss.

Is this a common feeling and should I just wait for everything to settle. This is my third month in the company.

I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy of Malcom Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, for the definitive answer to your question. Another worthwhile read is Joe Wanjui’s book, The Native Son.

On page 169, Mr Wanjui tells the story of Unilever and its leadership: “Any executive who joins a Unilever company and thinks he can run a closed shop is headed for the sack. There is a layer of senior executives whose work is … to act as the link to the head office” (paraphrased).

In essence, you have been a big fish in a small pond, but have now moved to be a small fish in a big pond. You now feel lost in the big deep sea of a big company.

Let’s start with a synopsis of one of the examples that are to be found in David and Goliath. Gladwell argues that if you are a bright student who finds his way to a top university to study a subject like math, engineering or medicine, your chances of completing the course are lower than if you went to a second tier university.

He gives statistical examples of those who graduate from Ivy league institutions in these subjects and demonstrates that prestigious as the universities (and the subjects) are, the long term outcome for some of the students is worse than if they went to a less prestigious school.

When you enter medical school in Harvard for example, chances are that almost all your classmates are multiple A students and almost all are super intelligent.

What then happens at exam time? Somebody (not you perhaps) has to be first, perhaps with 97 per cent of the marks, while another person has to be last with say 80 per cent.

Last is last even if you have 80 per cent score. For you to get to this class, you have never been anything but the top three in all your life. Last is a new experience. What then happens to your self esteem? It goes crushing down and you start to self doubt.

In this state your get nervous, confused, lose focus and your performance gets worse. From 80 per cent, it goes to 75 per cent, and later 70 per cent.

For this class, this is total failure and in desperation you must leave medicine in this university. A brilliant student has to leave because 80 per cent is not enough in this university.

What if you went with the same marks to a good but less prestigious medical school? Chances are that with 80 per cent marks, you would be the top student.

This would increase your self esteem and confidence, and might urge you to work even better and smarter. Chances of graduating are thus high. Coming top of any class in any school is good for your ego.

When parents struggle to get their children to the best high school they can bribe their way into, I am left in shock. About ten years ago in my office, we saw a girl who had run away from a top national school and for several weeks was living with strangers in the city.

She had told the Christian couple that her parents died in a road accident, and her abusive aunt had wasted all that her parents had left for her.

When a relative saw her in town one day, she followed the girl to her new home and later informed the parents, who together with the police, picked her up. She created the story that the couple had kidnapped her and that she was kept in solitary confinement for most of the time.

It was the police who suggested that we examine the girl. In time, and in tears, she explained that her parents, (both high achievers) had used their influence to get her to the national school.

Though an above average student all her life, she was always almost last in her class in the new school.

She did not like the school, teachers or the other girls, mostly because they in turn disliked her for her origins in the higher echelons of society.

Her self esteem had been crushed. She was the subject of bullying, contempt and harassment by other girls, teachers and at home, her parents.

She had contemplated suicide many times but for her Christian beliefs. She ran away from school in fear, shame and hopelessness.

In the end, her parents accepted our advice and she went to a respectable provincial school. She was top student in her school for the three years.

When we saw her recently, she had graduated and had set up her own business. She had been cured by going to a “lower” ranked school.
To what extent do these stories apply to you and your job as boss in a big company?

Does this mean that all national schools and big companies are bad for all people? Certainly not. For some, the competition is the fuel for their success.