The Middle Place
I was passing by a new boutique hotel in the heart of Shanghai the other day and the name of the hotel caught my eyes. It's called 'The Middle House'. 'Simple is the new luxury' type of hotel and I've been thinking about the name - why Middle House(?) - since then.
Before long I think God sent someone to me to solve this puzzle.
The candidate didn't impress me in the first place. If I am to write a candidate report on her, I'd probably put 'very quiet demeanor and doesn't come across as someone who is skillful in presentation.' However after she talked for about half an hour, I was totally struck by the solid content and the in-depth thought behind every business decision she made. She was not selling her depth to me - but rather - it was an objective and very sharp analysis of the strategies and actions she took in Asia Pac region between 2012 to 2017, and her reflections of the year-on-year global strategy of her employer, a very well-respected US conglomerate.
During the entire interview, the word she used the most is 'middle ground.'
The middle ground between fluffy strategies and solid action plans.
The middle ground between totally neglect and overly emphasize - usually a disaster happened to cause this change.
The middle ground between backward systems and fancy helpdesk lounges, or better put as the middle ground between superficial outlook and unknown solid infrastructure.
The middle ground between creating stuff in the region that looks good and creating stuff in the region that's genuinely good, especially when it's hard for top management who are not expert in your function to tell what is genuinely good and what is just looking good.
The middle ground between outsourcing and insourcing.
The middle ground in designing a global org - between vertical driven and horizontal driven, between high touch in the region and global leverage and efficiency.
No middle ground on persistent investment in innovation, even sometimes such investment may not result in any short-term gain.
No middle ground on not delivering promises - a strategy is useless if it's not executed in time.
Interviews are intellectual combat. Every time your opponent is different. Some opponents are really good at playing these unspoken game rules in interviews to look good - they may say all the right things but sometime you just do not feel right. However it was the first time that I felt I was interviewing in a middle house, with someone who was not overplaying the rules or understating herself. She got me into thinking - is it that in every decision we make, or every strategy we make, we need to find a middle ground, to minimize conflicts and internal frictions, and aim for the greater good?
Coaching and Mindfulness to help you Live well and Lead well.
5 年Not sure how I missed this till now, but as usual, love your thought provoking questions. It seems to me that the key is your very last words - the greater good. I find that what is most effective and beneficial is ultimately the ‘best’ way forward... the goal isn’t the middle ground, but I often find yourself there... in the grey between the absolute right and wrong, them and us, here and there. How else do you progress unless you take one step in between? There will be situations where the ‘middle ground’ is not acceptable, but far more often, it is the meeting place where our present reality and future possibility finally meet.
Bhartiya | Son | Husband | Father | HR Leader | Passionate about: Talent Management | Business Partnering | Organisational Effectiveness | Yatra | Byjus | Lava | Reliance | Vodafone | Bharti Airtel
5 年Aptly captured , would like to add No middle ground while establishing and driving performance. No middle ground while engraining discipline in to the system. I take interview from an interviewer’s perspective, as an enabling process , interviewer should try to get the best out of an interviewee. The message from the interviewer should be loud and clear - “We want you to succeed”