Humility During Adversity

Humility During Adversity

Trying to remain humble and calm during times of adversity is a tough call. Especially when everyone around you is fighting mad, or suffering from some disappointment somewhere in their career or personal life.  A working office environment has emotion and life to it.  You are not immune to what goes on there.  You also are not immune to the politics inside and outside of your office. It would be nice if we could just shut out the political rhetoric – but often it seeps in when we least want it there.

Add a political campaign cycle to an already fragile office environment and the circumstances are ripe for vindictiveness and strife.  If you don’t believe me, just turn on your television set, and come to work the next morning. Many workers are feeling the politician pressures from within and outside.  A game of tug-of-war or tug-of-wills can and often takes place.

The tug of war within an office environment quite often only succeeds in oppressing those who are in the middle or lower level tiers.   Within this tier,  is generally the larger chunk of your workforce.  They are the ones that get hit with a wave of disenfranchising rhetoric, genuinely laced with arsenic threats and disallowances.   It is oppressing.

VOTE MY WAY – DO THIS OR ELSE!

What happens within these tug of war zones,  is you get hit with lower level workers or middle management dogma.

You deserve better, we all deserve better, but unfortunately, one side does not want to give the call – and the other side is too afraid you will call. It’s a tug of war, and you are the rope.

Letting go of the rope. 

As a society If we continue on the path we are headed on as a culture – pretty soon everyone will be opening up their own businesses because no one can get along.   The office environment has become way too toxic, oppressive, and controlling.  People want out, and they are leaving in droves.

When you talk about diversity and equal rights in the workplace, that is easier said than done.  People for whatever reason – for just being born into a certain family,  have a rooted belief system.    Thus their value systems are rooted in the very fabric of who and what they are.   It produces their attitudes and ultimately directs their behaviors.  It also tends to direct their political as well as religious viewpoints – those come out as behaviors.

To say you can desensitize a working population into adopting a value system that is foreign to their belief system is radical thinking in-and-of-itself.

Many workers do play the game of office politics  – just to survive.   They can walk-the-walk, and talk-the-talk, but they do not hold a common value system with those around them.  It is a game. 

A person’s personal belief system is not the same as a company’s core value system.   Beliefs can separate us from other people, whereas values can unite us for a cause, like a business.   A business’s core values are what supports its vision, and helps to shape the culture within,  and ultimately form its identity.  That is all good – that is the way it should happen.  It is what is hidden that often stirs the pot, so to speak.

What is Hiden?

Political and religious views, as well as lifestyle preferences, are only acceptable at face value to some – and at a very thin surface level.  They can only be accepted as far as one’s beliefs allow. Those beliefs can vary slightly acceptable to greatly acceptable, depending on the individual.  Ripping at someone’s long-held belief system will not get you far.

Underneath are the deeply held beliefs (roots) of the individual who may or may not adapt to your core values,  or see your point of view.  It then becomes a game of survival or tolerance.   At what level is enough – enough?

Adopting Core Values 

Posting an employee notice on the wall is only as good as the paper it is written on unless your core values are solid within your organization.    Some organizations have great success with their employees adopting their core values and visions. Those tend to have a higher moral and ethical workforce.   Others haven’t learned to adapt to a changing real-world environment, and the impact continues to be felt at the base. It takes time – don’t give up.

At some point, it may become a competitive disadvantage for employers not to seek to adjust its core values.    I acknowledge that there are some businesses that need not change.  For once they change they lose their purpose, or it adversely affects their core values, as well as disrupts their belief system.  Let’s talk about that for a moment.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

1. Do your core values remain the same when you go from job-to-job?

2. Do corporate values change? Have yours changed? Do they need too? What was the outcome of any change, or non-change?

3. Do you expect to be rewarded for your values? What about your co-worker?

4. Do your core values present a competitive disadvantage to your company?

5. What core values do you see others exhibiting? What about your workforce, what do they see you doing?

6. Does your company’s core values allow you to find a place where you feel “it works for me.”?

7. Do you ever feel your core values might not work for everyone? How do you deal with that? What if the majority or minority disagree?  Are you open to collaboration? When do you end the conversation and give an affirmative answer – yea or nea?

A lot of businesses are starting to understand that in a global economy you might need to adjust your core values.  The corporation itself may need to develop an attitude that is more accepting rather than directing in order to compete.

With many companies outsourcing and setting up offices in different states, as well as internationally, you need to speak the language of business.  But that language may be different than you first thought once you factor in cultural diversity. The first step is acknowledging that cultural diversity exists and that it can be a very good thing.

See the writing on the wall yet?

This political year I am seeing splits within many business circles that I have never seen before; that frankly frightens me.  Conservatism is no longer conservatism, and liberalism is no longer liberalism.  These radically changing mindsets are pouring into the working lives of many. Workers are becoming agitated and depressed. They feel they are becoming disenfranchised, as the splits become more prevalent and the American culture starts to erode.  It’s not a good thing.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of collaborative efforts in play to help bring a common understanding of the working class needs to the table.   The right sounds more like the left in their anger, and the left strikes out with equal annoyance.   Two waves of anger do not make a positive.   Politics is a great disruptor – but at what cost to American worker? People are afraid of losing their jobs, and others just want a job.

To the working class, the 2016 political environment has become a war zone, one created to emotionally and psychologically gain control or power over them; to disrupt and seize.   The workforce is concerned that it will become voiceless.    It shouldn’t be a battle to come to terms and find equitable solutions.  Yet, people are angry….. some in the violent sense.  We as a society need to stop fueling that type of anger.

I hear the voices coming from  working American’s stating, “Damn the establishment!”  But what will you have after you have damned your rights into the hole?  If you can’t find some level of humility during times of adversity, you will either be confused with the outcome you sought and/or disillusioned by the choices of others.

Trying to stay humble during times of adversity is a tough call

No one wants to lose their job due to politics or adversity.  Sometimes remaining humble during adversity is the only thing that gets some people by.  But, when you try to put square pegs in round holes,  understand this – at some point, the game is up.

 – checkmate