Eshwar
and Raj are two engineers working in the same team in a company. Although both
of them have similar qualification, the personalities are completely
different.Eshwar is a merry go loving friendly guy with an open mindset. He
works smart at his job , has his share of fun with his set of gang at work. Raj
is a conservative, shy person. Although he is good at work, he finds
opportunities to put down others and boost his self image with the higher
management.
During
recession, as projects were being cancelled and people were laid off in the
company, Eshwar and Raj look for opportunities outside their organization.
Raj
finds a prospective job, resigns the current organization and joins the new
one. Eshwar also eventually finds a promising offer and lands in a new company
after a short span of time. To their surprise , Eshwar and Raj ends up being in
the same team in their new organization. With background familiarity and being
strangers in new office, both exchange greetings and hangs up with one another
during breaks and share the work details often.
As
Raj joined the new organization quite ahead of Eshwar , He was bit more
familiar with the new set up and people. To his favor, the team leader
resigns due to personal reasons and as there were no one other candidate other
than him with similar experience Raj now gets the opportunity to lead a new
team. Raj was always waiting for such a moment and makes use of this
opportunity completely. He puts in more effort at work, projects
his work to his manager and establishes his control in the new setup.
Eshwar
ends up in a project activity that is quite stable with good learning and not
very high on visibility.He starts his work with his own style and delivers what
ever is required for the job.
Raj
feels accomplished as he is in a better position compared to Eshwar. He
gradually adapts to bossing instincts, works less and concentrate on monitoring
people and spying about his team to his manager. His attitude towards Eshwar
also changes and both of them turn hostile.
Though
initially new members of the team are unaware of his nature, they gradually
understand the kind of person he is and limit their talks with him. Over a
period of time, the project activity which Raj was responsible for is
delivered. Raj's team is split due to completion of activity and now Raj has no
team member to monitor for.
Because
of his untrustworthy nature, not many colleagues exchange friendly greetings
with him on a day today basis. Also, Feedback of unsupportive leader is
provided about him by one of his team member.
His
manager who had promised him a promotion and a rosy picture of the organization
now is unsupportive of him. He encourages another new member who has just
joined the team and openly criticizes Raj to contribute more for the team. Raj
now has all his hopes of being a manager doomed.
Meanwhile
Eshwar takes a up new activity and establishes himself as a go to person in his
team. He slowly builds the team, develops good rapport with his seniors and
brings more work to his manager both in terms of quality and quantity.
Being
good natured, he develops a cordial relationship with all team members and he
solves issues quickly when ever support was required. He also receives good
feedback as a trust worthy person among his team members. Now Eshwar is a
prospective candidate for the next promotion.
This
situation strongly send out a lesson
No
matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game,
you’ll always lose out to a team
Hence
Relationships
matter to your career no matter the organization or level of seniority because
every job boils down to interacting with people
