The Power of Being “Right” (part 1)
Most of us, if we are honest about it, are of the opinion that if we had
the chance, we’d be able to do a better job than our immediate supervisor
at work. Having endured the bad decisions of mediocre leadership, we often
see a better way, but generally not much opportunity to really change things.
In some cases, we are correct… our supervisor may actually have less
skills and expertise than we do. When organizations occasionally get around
to seeing the obvious, that is when promotions occur and we are rewarded
for being “better”.
For twenty years of working in the corporate world, this mechanism worked wonderfully for me. Most of my unwritten job description consisted of doing my best for my company, solving problems better than those around me, and being very creative in getting the best solutions implemented. The results were impressive. At 32 years of age, I had worldwide responsibilities within a fortune 100 company. The objective may not have been not to climb the ladder, but the result of being “right” or being able to work through complex situations to come up with a “right” solution was just that; significant rewards and promotions.
To a large extent, if you were “right” you could do anything you wanted. Think about it. This is true in most organizations and certainly true of American society. If you are “right”, you often are given the power that goes with it. In effect, you can break the rules, defy your boss, run against the grain, swim upstream, stand alone, and…if you are right, will be exonerated and honored in the end for your perseverance and vision. In America we call this justice…and, after all truth (being right) ultimately prevails… right (no pun intended)?
If you are in the vast majority, you can re-read the last paragraph and might even call it the American Way to achieving the American Dream. Most of us would find ourselves easily agreeing with the sentiment that being right might be the ultimate standard to achieve. Unfortunately, the belief (and resultant behaviors) that “being right trumps everything else” is one of the most destructive forces in organizations, marriages, and many other relational situations.
In 2001, one of my mentors gave me a book entitled Undercover, by John Bevere. What normally would have taken me several hours to read took several months. This book fundamentally wrestled with what THE overriding value was to be in our lives. It was a life changing process for me to discover the dark side of the doctrine of “right”, repent of it, and start down a different path.
Next month we will delve into the not-so-obvious dark side of something that appears to be so fundamentally “right”!
Mike Hoppe is one of the Associate Pastors at Casas Church, is a graduate business school instructor, and still actively works with companies to develop their organizations after 15 years in management with a Fortune 100 company. Mike can be reached at mikeh@casaschurch.org or www.casastv.com
© 2008 Good News Tucson™
