10 Things 10 Years in IT Taught me

This is an abridged version of my original article posted at https://mysathkarma.blogspot.com/2024/09/a-decade-old-blazer-yogi.html tailored to save your reading time. I own the content and took the liberty of posting it here in a way that will make you go through my others works in this platform and look forward to my next !

Embracing Failure

Normalize getting things wrong. Years and years of educational complex and common ignorance in parents is that it is a sin to fail.?This?destroys a child's capacity to impartially, treat a failure just as a round 2 and not an exit. As the child grows , this evolves into a cancerous trait that halts their basic risk taking ability. Sometimes, when we get it wrong? owning it and learning from it is the only right thing to do.

Don'ts :

• Point fingers
• Give Excuses

Do's

• Accept you misfired
• Try to not repeat the same mistake

Take risks, shoot and see where it lands .??It is important to also take the risk and afford to make mistakes with the right people around.

Taking Nothing Personal??

Well, it is a pyramid /ladder model. There is always someone above us and someone following us - each one tries to make a living by ensuring those below don't pull the rug under them with a mistake and those above don't let you take the hit directly. If someone talks to you in a certain way :

Do's

• Discern people and their words and pivot them towards your self growth
• Understand the intent of the conversation sans the drama

Dont's

• Go tone deaf because from whom it is coming.?

If indeed your ethics radar detects a personal vendetta - read further.

Handling Tricky people?

No one is cut of the same cloth. Our journeys are incredibly unique but similar. How we personally deal with a situation and the people involved in it really is what brings that difference among us.? Burning bridges is not always a complete no-no - you can?do that but only when you clearly see that as a last resort. If you feel, there is still some potential in a situation to handle it by putting the foot down on your emotions and ego, do it .

Do's

• Swallow that lump and learn to manage the person, instead of give in or attack
• Be a class act. Communicate and let it run its course.?

You will become level headed and impossible to break even by the most vicious people or situations.? Slowly press the gas on how you respond. It's called a professional environment for a reason.

Understanding What matters to you?

We are all in this circus for a basic reason - use our brains to make a living.

Do's

• A rain check to see how wholesome your growth is
• Find what 'satisfies' you as a human being
• Use this job's unique experiences to sculpt your emotional quotient
• Work on your personal Maturity

Dont's

• Limit your goals to salary or skills.

You may be successful on the job, people might value you, you might get a fat check but if you still feel a void - you are having blind spots that you need to immediately attend to.? People might give feedback on your work and make comments on how much you earn - but remember PEOPLE ALWAYS TALK ABOUT THE OBVIOUS - It's on you to uncover the unseen within you.

Invest on your personality as much as you do on your actual work.

Estimating your Weaknesses?

This is something that comes with age and after repeat struggles between your persisting self and zen self.

Do's

• See which battles to take and which ones to accept as they are
• Make a clear rundown on how far you KNOW you can handle a situation and how best you can communicate to people .

Dont's

• Stroke your ego with a never-say-never attitude just to be "relevant".
• Put yourself in a spot where people will just assume you will deliver but you end up limping in the middle
• Put unnecessary pressure on yourself trying to hype your reputation.?

It is ok to not be a jack of all trades. Just try to be decent in?the aspects that matter

Dealing with those "Special People"

Some people enter the industry with basic bad behavior. They have a proclivity to trade gossips, demotivate, ill educate people to throw others under the bus, find every opportunity to pull down someone, not extend a clap when something good happens to someone . There are always going to be people like that , with varying magnitudes of such unpleasant features.

Do's

• Find a way to work with them
• Let others know the good things you have been doing. Be your own Advocate.

Don'ts

• Avoiding them. You may not control them, or those gullible tongues that repeat whatever filth these people feed to them, but you can certainly manage by being true to yourself and hope the narrative catches up on the truth.
• Retaliate fire with fire . The moment you start mirroring bad behavior , just to look out for yourself , people only assume the stories about you are true.
• Don't wrestle with pigs even if they tempt you. Albeit, sometimes you indeed have to enter the race , find out what their weapons are, what their intent is , who are they in bed with - just to understand the situation.? Once you have had a grip , turn down every single opportunity that makes you lose it and deal it with educated poise.

Appreciating Personal Health

Most of us lose shape, develop sedentary coping mechanisms, life style induced problems and such , as we continue to meet the demands of our work. Some of us are wise to be pig headed to not give in to our weaknesses, but most of us, lose a certain aspect of personal health and then fight hard to restore it . Obesity, Stress, Depression , Vanity Struggles ( inflated lifestyle choices to "be" with people) etc . It's ok if you realize at some point that you have slipped - you can always maneuver towards the ideal trajectory , if you work on yourself.?

Communication

The basic survival skill required to simply be in the game. If you don't make efforts to communicate properly , understand when others communicate and foresee a communication about to happen after a few years on the job, you have another thing coming at you.?

Anyone can speak like a loose cannon. It takes intelligence, grace and deep situational awareness to communicate the right things at the right place , at right time and around the right people. Fancy jargons or not, if people can see the sincerity in your work and ethics, plain simple talk does the trick.?

We sometimes find leaders who amazingly communicate , without actual saying it??and you still get the message when you work with them. Emulate that.?

Never go on record?if you are not 100% sure about it 10 steps from the present and 10 minutes later .

Guide people to the intent cogently.?

Empathy?

You learn to cultivate empathy and not take people for their face value or the role they play at work. A boss biting your head off is a human reaction to them being at the recieving end from their own super.

People are people.? Understand the humanness in your colleagues,? see how best you can help them or be helped by them by effectively making an astute study of their personality. Be kind . Don't let your emotions determine your manners. Learn to appreciate when someone is having their 'Moment'. Yours will come. Wish well for those around you and it all comes back. You have no idea how many times somebody might have had your back but they never tell you.

Your manager or junior is not just who they are at work. That is one alive human being with as much flesh, blood ,bones and emotions as much as you are and never let your humanity desert you.?

You Matter ! - You?can always correct a situation

There is always a solution. Unfortunately, some moments push us to the extent of taking our own life, when we can't meet a deadline, or we let down someone because of our mistake , or we simply realize the chinks in our armor. A well-wisher once told me "Sometimes being too close to a problem can also play against us" and it made a lot of sense to me. Remember, to ask "What's the worst that can happen?"?. Answer that question, try to clean up your act but never give up and surrender to a dangerous pattern of thinking that, "it's gone, i am done, this is the end of me'. Nothing is worth it. Nobody is worth it. You are what's worth. You are not just the money you make to your family or the results you deliver to your client. You have a family with you and they need you as much as you need them, never ever lose that thought.

Be thankful, if you have something worthwhile to do with your time and for the very aspect of being alive. The IT Industry does have many dimensions and you trying to be true to yourself is all that matters. Do what you have got to do.? Help each other, pray you don't become the prey and don't forget the whole intent of all this experience - It's just a day at work. Life goes on !?