Your first boss probably hated you.
You did everything that was asked from you.Ticked all the to-do's. Replied to all the mails. Signed approval on all the documents. Yet the boss still hated you.
Why?
Because you did not realize the different between WANT and NEED.
Want is the dress we put on a need. Want could be "water", where the need is "quench thirst". Want is "a drill machine" where the need is actually a hole in the wall (as Theodore Levitt would put it), or the screw in the wall, or the painting hung there or just the feeling of ease at your home when you see that favorite photo there.
A good enough employee gets the drill but does not follow up if the client or boss has got the painting hung, or now feels at ease at home. This is a good enough employee. He got the job done. But he only did what was explicitly asked from him. This is the employee the boss hates. Boss cannot fire this employee because the KPIs (key performance indicators) were met, but he doesn't like the employee because something feels amiss.
When Tobi Lutke was raising funds for his business shopify from venture capitalists, he did not confine himself to knowing only about his own business. He spent months studying the venture capitalists. He tried to understand the people who were deciding on whether Tobi is getting the money for his business. He studied their compensation mechanism, what gets them bonuses and what is the most attractive aspect they would want to hear. He designed his pitch that way and in his future fundraisers he always got more money than he was looking for.
Did you spend time to think about what your boss needs? What would look good in the boss's annual appraisal? What can you do to make his work easier? How can you bring more comfort in his work?
Do that and you will be indispensable.
If you are not thinking about that, your boss probably still hates you.
Radi
25 March 2019
Dhaka
You did everything that was asked from you.Ticked all the to-do's. Replied to all the mails. Signed approval on all the documents. Yet the boss still hated you.
Why?
Because you did not realize the different between WANT and NEED.
Want is the dress we put on a need. Want could be "water", where the need is "quench thirst". Want is "a drill machine" where the need is actually a hole in the wall (as Theodore Levitt would put it), or the screw in the wall, or the painting hung there or just the feeling of ease at your home when you see that favorite photo there.
A good enough employee gets the drill but does not follow up if the client or boss has got the painting hung, or now feels at ease at home. This is a good enough employee. He got the job done. But he only did what was explicitly asked from him. This is the employee the boss hates. Boss cannot fire this employee because the KPIs (key performance indicators) were met, but he doesn't like the employee because something feels amiss.
When Tobi Lutke was raising funds for his business shopify from venture capitalists, he did not confine himself to knowing only about his own business. He spent months studying the venture capitalists. He tried to understand the people who were deciding on whether Tobi is getting the money for his business. He studied their compensation mechanism, what gets them bonuses and what is the most attractive aspect they would want to hear. He designed his pitch that way and in his future fundraisers he always got more money than he was looking for.
Did you spend time to think about what your boss needs? What would look good in the boss's annual appraisal? What can you do to make his work easier? How can you bring more comfort in his work?
Do that and you will be indispensable.
If you are not thinking about that, your boss probably still hates you.
Radi
25 March 2019
Dhaka