Survive first, there after contribute positively!

I recently wrote a piece titled just-random-thoughts and in my first random thought of that piece, I was saying goodbye to colleagues and the organisation I had been with for 8 years. Although I published that farewell message on this blog, there is something else I wrote down but never posted on here on this blog. This was what I thought then, as being the five points that enable someone to survive in an organisation for as long as I had done and rise through the ranks.

Looking back in retrospect, this is needed even more when you go to a new organisation and you need to find your feet in it. The truth is that you need to survive first in a new environment then you contribute fully. It is what happens between this ‘survival first’ phase that determines how you will be in your new environment.

Over the weekend as I was looking for something on my Chromebook I stumbled upon the writings of the five points and they have been on my mind since. Well, here are the five points below, as I share my thoughts this week:

1. Never act like you know it all even when you do. Pay careful attention to everything other people say and do, you could be undergoing a learning process everyday even if it's in a process or field you are very familiar in. You never know when you learn something new.
2. Never be ashamed to learn from people lower than you. Clothe yourself with humility in any learning process and do not use looks to judge who you can learn from. Also avoid using people’s designations to create a list of people you think you can learn from, you will learn twice as much from subordinates than you will from the boss. Never be ashamed to learn from that guy who makes tea, he knows the ropes way better and in most cases has coincidentally been there long enough.
3. Never think you are too smart or too educated to do certain jobs or tasks. If the boss directs you to do some clerical work like going to pick printouts from the printer room on a different floor or taking documents for signing to other managers, do not feel offended but do it with all your heart. A lot of people get known in this way otherwise they’d just be that anonymous guy behind a desk. It is easy for those who do the ‘donkey’ work to get noticed than those who just work hard. The point is, take no offence in anything you are given to do.
4. Never put individual gratification first, but put the team’s needs ahead. A team is more than a group of people who work together. A high performing team is a group of people who share a common vision and goal by collaborating and challenging each other as well as holding each other accountable, to achieve outstanding results. But don’t forget to challenge yourself to contribute extra as an individual, for the benefit of the team as a whole. This makes guarantees your presence on the team, or the team may not need you if they can do without your input.
5. Never be naive, Always be smart. Organisations are made up of people and there are a lot of iniquitous human beings out there.