Sometimes it’s easy to just sit back and ‘go with the flow’, or just accept what’s going on in your company or for that matter with your life. Go to college, get that job and try to climb that ladder. You may decide to work late hours thinking that that will help you but then you start to realize that things aren’t going as well as they could at your company.
Do you then try to make a difference or do you just sit back and accept that ‘it is what it is’? The answer to that question may be heavily influenced on the atmosphere you work within because a lot of work environments say they are open to ideas and have an open door policy but yet the actions of senior management are just the opposite. As it turns out your new idea may be immediately shot down, or worse yet ridiculed by those who say ‘We want ideas’. What it really comes down to is if the idea isn’t ‘their idea’ they really don’t want to hear it. It’s amazing how many companies operate in this fashion but it all comes down to control, power, and hubris of those above you.
Regardless of the environment you in, are you OK with proposing new ideas? If your not maybe it’s time for you to look for a new job because isn’t life too short to work in an environment that drains you versus challenges you?
As Seth Godin points out “If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.”: http://bit.ly/AEFmp.
