Who Brought You Here, Can’t Take You There
While giving title to my blog, I recalled Marshall Goldsmith’s book titled “what got you here won’t get you there”. In business and profession most of the time it so happens that one person is so efficient and effective at one point of time that he takes the organization to new height. But at some point he reaches to a “level of incompetence” as doctrine by management guru Peter Drucker and organization gets stuck with that person. The problem is more severe when that person is either owner or so senior in hierarchy that removing him just becomes impossible. But most of the time it has been seen that it is bad for that person as well as for the organization. I have worked in an organization where the top executive was seen as most indispensable and most of the outsiders misunderstood him to be owner rather than executive. When shareholders finally decided to part away, that organization grew multifold as well that person became successful Entrepreneur.
One needs to understand that parents can handhold a kid but he/she needs school teachers to pass away primary education and a professor to get the university degree. It’s the rule of nature that you need different people and circumstances at different level. The person who brought you to the base camp can’t take you the peak of Everest. It does not mean that importance of that person is vanished. It only means that now you need a different person to take you to the next level. If my primary school teacher would not have taught me ABCD then how I would have written this blog. The importance and respect for that teacher will always remain but to get further knowledge and wisdom I needed different people in my life.
5 Tips to deal with people who are becoming bottleneck in your progress.
1) If your organization is not growing with fast speed or it has got stagnant or slow down, identify whether it is due to complacency of the people or some outside forces.
2) If it is due to person then either gracefully retire that person or sideline with specific responsibilities and authorities.
3) Hire a consultant and take un-biased view for reason of stagnancy or sliding down.
4) Try to invest in raising the competency of that person. Sometimes proper training and exposure can raise his bar and may be useful for organization.
5) Do not mix the emotions and profession, time has come to move forward with different people and disruptive strategy. Or you will lose both in future, business as well as person. Mind it well that the person or circumstances that brought you here, cannot take you there!