Clients often say to me that they prefer to just “stay out of the politics” – (that is at work, I mean).
All well and good but, they also need to realise that they have just put a cap on their career.
How is that?
Well, there are two domains that we as, CAs(SA), can play in the corporate space:
- You can either be a manager or
- You can be an
Because of our unique skill-set we can comfortably fit into both.
In fact, because of our lateral thinking abilities, we add more value in the executive space (which is a lot more fun and much more lucrative!),
The thing is that there is a yawning gap between the two and there are 2 reasons for this:
- There is a certain type of personality that naturally bubbles up into the executive space. I call them I-I-Me-Me personality. Others call them narcissists whilst some are refereed to as corporate psychopaths.
- The ethos at the executive level goes like this: “I come first, the company comes second (to the degree that it suites my bonus’ or share options) and everything else is a commodity to use of and dispose of as I wish.” The manager space is very different: “The people come first, the company second and I fit in somewhere behind that, not because I think any less of myself, but because I believe in principled-based leadership.”
Entre the world of corporate politics!
Because of the authenticity and openness in the manager space, political positioning is unnecessary.
But in the executive space, playing politics is the order of the day.
When you say that you are not interested in company politics, you are basically saying that you don’t want to be an executive.
It’s that simple!