ARE YOU THE OFFICE SUPERMAN?
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all” – Peter Drucker
Whether you love him, hate him or have a general indifference toward him, there’s no denying that ‘Superman’ is one of the most influential fictional characters of all time. Superman has been an enduring presence in pop culture for over 70 years and has led headlines the world over as a global icon. What made him iconic? Superman married strength to character, defining his role as the ‘ultimate helper’, always compelled to make himself useful. If superman married character to strength, he also joined strength to intellect because even though he was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, he always looked before he leapt… There was a limit to what Superman could do, try as he did, he couldn’t bring about world peace or eradicate evil from the world.
Charles was a top management executive with a growing organisation. He worked assiduously, but never seemed to accomplish anything. To make matters worse he felt inadequate because neither his career nor personal life was meeting his expectations. He reacted by working harder, sleeping less, acquiring more degrees, spending lesser time with family and taking time away from his hobbies. This went on for years; each time Charles thought to take a break, another door of promotion to a more important job or position would open. Hence, he never really went on a break. But the break had to come one-way or the other!
It started with a severe and consistent lower backache, which he relatively managed with doses of self-prescribed analgesics. It was soon followed by a throbbing right-sided migraine that grew in intensity daily and became more and more difficult to ignore. Upon check-up, he was informed that he had hypothyroidism, which would require him to get off work immediately if he wanted to live for longer than a year. Despite all the doctor said, all Charles heard was ‘time off’. His mind began to calculate frantically how he would pull that off, wondering where in the world he would buy time to manage his current tasks as taking time off was a sacrilegious taboo…
Being the office superman is no guarantee of a Range Rover at the end of the year but it will guarantee the tools needed to build an exceptional career. It is quite necessary to point out that we all have lives outside the workplace and beyond career; Superman is super, but he’s just a comic book hero and if he did not joke with his ‘Fortress of Solitude’, shouldn’t we all enjoy the equivalent. Rest, holiday, leave, time-off, time-out, vacation are terms that many executives consider a very expensive luxury. To a lot of Office Supermen and women, career success requires an exclusive focus on work… to the exclusion of everything.
An Office Superhero should have deep ethical roots and inborn drive to excel. Yet should also recognise that different contexts call for different roles, each role energising the other. The role of the indispensable Office Superhero is modeled in part as also a wife, husband, father, mother, son, daughter, citizen, club member etc. and achieving excellence at work need not rob you of achieving excellence in these other spheres.
Any job that requires machine-like endurance, focus and efficiency is best done by a machine; however, the most important jobs are done not by accountants or salesmen, managers or bosses but by human beings who, at the appropriate time, take on the identity of accountants or salesmen, managers or bosses.
Dedicating yourself to your job or career should never require you to jettison what is precious to you. While you may well have to manage your time in innovative and flexible ways, your job should never force you to stint on your family, social life or health.
Slow down to Excel!
(Some parts of this article was culled from Alan Axelrod’s The Office Superman)