Continued from here.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how the book “Behave” gave me insights on the ‘why’ behind the mindsets I have in life. Since mindset isn’t something you can leave at home, there is some impact on the professional front too.
Work
As I had mentioned, my OS has a few known features (uncharitably, bugs) – the scarcity mindset, a low regard for familial bonds and (until recently) friendships, and a belief that in a crunch the only person one can depend on is self. This has led to some obvious implications and some not-so-obvious ones at work.
Let me unpack that. The scarcity mindset led to me being very careful on budgeting and cost control. In fact, a decade ago, in my first startup job, I was frequently pushed on blitz scaling, and had to rewire my mindset to the context! Now I can toggle, which I realised is an excellent skillset to have. The scarcity thinking in mid-career also led me to see many games as finite when they were infinite. i.e. if someone I knew in a related role (inside or outside the company) wins, I thought I was losing, whereas, there were ample opportunities for everyone to be successful. In the salary context, scarcity should have made me a mercenary, but ironically, for the longest time, I was missionary. What am I now? I’ll get there.
The scarcity thinking around money, when paired with the low regard for friendships also meant that early in my career, I avoided a lot of social hanging out, which in a city like Bangalore, would have automatically brought on expenses on eating/drinking out. The bond that forms when people mingle outside of work is important, I realise now. It was only courtesy a sense of humour that my relationships at work went beyond transactions. But overall, my friendships at work have been durable but few in number. Thankfully, two things have helped me not to feel any paucity – most people I have worked with are happy to refer me, and I have been fortunate to have many meaningful relationships from blogging, Twitter, and increasingly, real life (non-work). But in the last few years, especially after having to manage larger teams, I have understood the importance of the social contract, and my work buddies have (relatively) exponentially increased. On a related note, when I came across Bill Belichick’s “Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling“, I equated it only to integrity, honesty and work ethic. Maybe it has a social dimension too. One that becomes important as we move towards a more collaborative world, where we’re looking around for people who are not just great at their work, but are also ones we’d like to hang around with.
So if I am no longer a missionary and not a mercenary, what am I? I became a professional, and have documented that here. Godin captures the flavour very well in this video, which also highlights a key trait – ‘a professional makes a promise and keeps the promise regardless of what they feel like.‘ But it didn’t stop there. This is where the dependability on self came into play. I systematically added skills and experience to become a full stack marketer. The purpose – the ability to just roll up my sleeves and do the task myself. I have had three important lessons in this as I moved to leadership roles – the first is learning not to do it when managing teams, the second is not to judge with a “how would I have done it” mindset, and the third (related to the second) is to communicate, set expectations across the board, and provide candid feedback that makes another person want to do better. Evaluate yes, judge, no.
In an objective sense, this self-sufficiency should have increased my self-belief, one of the important traits for success. It didn’t, and I think that had a lot to do with the other two factors – scarcity mindset and not having a network that would give me perspectives.
Why is all this important in the professional context? James Clear provides a good direction.
I think mindset adaptability is important. But before one can adapt, one needs to know the current wiring, and why it came to be so.
Bonus read: 21 slices to wrap up 2021