Do we need a paradigm shift from “Go-Getters” to “Go-Givers”?
Hello Community!!
First things first, I would like to generously thank the SCN for recognizing me as SAP Mentor. It is difficult to fathom that I have had such a great start to this year – Having featured as Topic Leader across 4 forums during the SAP Tech Ed event @ Bangalore and then getting recognized as SAP Mentor.
Just attended the SAP Mentors call yesterday and it gave me goose bumps about what all things SAP Mentors do / can do. It made me realize how much more I have to learn and contribute
All this looks like a fairy tale to me, because I never came into SAP consulting with an intention to make it big or to have a great career in SAP. May be it would sound hard to believe, but I came for a funny reason – “I would get to travel & meet lot of people”. A similar funny reason exists for why I pursued the qualification I pursued. But yes, whatever I came for, I did the day-to-day chores of SAP with my heart fully into it and delivered every assignment with the best level of sincerity I could
I have been often labelled as a “Go-Getter” and to be honest, I liked it. Managers do frequently use the term “Go-Getter” for resources who deliver a task delegated, taking full ownership of it. But I feel the time is ripe to make a paradigm shift. Instead of calling them as such and encouraging resources to be a “Go-Getter” – it would help, for the sake of a better community to have around, if we encourage our teams to be “Go-Giver“.
What is the triggering point for me to think so is not important. But may be frequently calling someone as a “Go-Getter” would nurture them to be someone who will only be interested in “Getting”. Honestly, the world needs people who can give, rather than get. And tell me honestly, what makes you feel happy – Giving or Getting?. May be the answer would differ depending on the phase of life one is in, but eventually most of us gradually move towards the “Giving” phase of life
When you grow up as a team lead, you have to think of your team first. When you become a manager, you have to think of your leads who in turn take care of the team. I have many a times had discussion with my managers on how to keep the team members motivated with rewards, recognition, progressions, etc. But that discussion between us both is for someone else (The Team). And honestly, it is a very special feeling when the team with you feels happy to be with you. As a lead / manager, may be one has to find the happiness in “Giving”.
Today when I look back at my personal journey of SAP, I can say I gave more (knowledge) than what I got (from others) and in turn I got more (respect/recognition) than (the knowledge) I actually gave.
The first step towards making this paradigm shift is to have the right leaders / Team Leads who know to GIVE. That ideally makes you a LEAD in right perspective.
Best Regards
Ajay Maheshwari
P.S.
1. Dedicated to all the “Go-Getter” lovers.
2. Feel free to disagree with.
Excellent article.
We live in a world of tough competition. It is a dog-eat-dog world out there.
You have made a good point about giving rather than getting.
Regards,
J
Thanks Janan Mehmet for readind and sharing your feedback!
Very Inspiring !!!! Thanks
Regards,
Javed
Hi Ajay Maheshwari SAP Trainer
True words. A beautiful blog.
regards
Sanil
Short and precise, well done for this. Cheers!!!
Great One Ajay.
Best Regards
Varma
Ajay,
For me this blog doesnot state or narrate a clear message! Nor does it illustrate the cons of "Go getter" or the pros of "Go giver"!
One of natures laws is that you can not get if you do not give. Another is, in sum total, you get as much as you give. A mature person has to understand that "selfish get"...might be a gain temporarily but is not sustainable.Similarly never taking for what you have given...is also not sustainable.
Lets take an example, I have "given" to some SD forums but being anonymous, did I get anything? If I limit my calculation to these forums, then maybe I didnot get much but in life I got...got a lot, the quality of my day job is better because I think of solutions, to problems mentioned here.
You talk about leads and managers thinking about their team, but that "giving" is not selfless; unless your team trusts you, it will not give you its best. So there is nothing "noble" or out of the world to think about your team or your people, it is not giving nor is it getting, it is ones duty and it will give returns many fold.
My point is when a society matures, the people will realize that winning is when all (or majority) win! This realization will boost honesty, hard work, participation, giving and the other side as well i.e.getting or rightfully taking.
Typewriter
Well Said Typewriter!!
I did not touch upon pros n cons of either because I know people are going to choose what suits them best.
Your point of anonymous contribution is wonderful. When you give, it is you who got it first. 'What I got' need not be measured by what others I think I got. Ones conscience should tell him/her.
In India, we are taught about Law of Karma the most. What you give is what you get. So when one gives, the story ends there. The return is guaranteed
I know the pain of living in the company of hard core getters. Currently going through it. In my previous assignment I was in the company of hard core givers and I know what an amazing feeling it was.
I put the onus on managers because the team behaves the way their performance is measured.
But yes, as long as the intentions are not selfish, either of them is fine. Absolutely fine. But the concept of giving can never induce you to be selfish, is what I believe
Br. Ajay M
Personally I've never seen "selfish" people get burned inside a company if they provide results. The "con" is for the company, because many times this competitive nature hurts the overall goals, but it's harder to measure.
The KPI mantra of the last decade hardly rewards team work.
This. Yes. A number of well-known companies have tried over the past decade or two to 'motivate' their employees and teams by pitting them against each other in competition. Perhaps predictably, this has led in some instances to employees and whole teams occasionally sabotaging each other's efforts in order to improve their own odds of success. Doesn't seem conducive to the overall success of the organization, does it? And it's certainly not a healthy atmosphere for work. In other organizations, perhaps the competition is not as overt or fierce, but it's still quite common to compete for funding, and thus complicated charge-back schemes and other accounting tricks are implemented so that one department's budget may look better than another's, when in reality all are supposedly working for the same company, toward the same goal, and thus in the larger scheme of things should be thinking of the funding at a more macro level. In my own organization, we have complicated schemes of charge-backs for printing, such that printing is a complex affair and at an overall level we spend a lot of 'soft' dollars tracking who is paying for what printing, all so that the group overseeing the printers doesn't have their budget impacted by someone else's paper and ink usage.
Ajay,
You are born to do this.Everything you touch turns into gold. You are great, amazing and a wonderful human being. Good luck and have fun. Take care.
Regards,
Sam
Thanks Sam for the nice comments
great comments here. I am also fairly new here and I have noticed how much people help each other here compare to in other technologies. It Is also great to have a centralized point of knowledge such as scn where we can come back for Q&A and also to help us.
cheers to mentors like you
Thanks Sergio!!