How would you react to being told you will be interviewing for your own job? Would the situation impact your self worth? 

A friend told me that he saw many interview for their jobs in bigger aerospace companies. Often these interrogation panels were often motivated by politics amongst the VIPs. So what would your reaction be. Perhaps you’re a twenty year old and would simply say, “Fuck this, I’ll just find a new job.” Maybe you’re a thirty year old and might say, “Fine, I need a change anyway.” Or, you’re a forty year old with a family and think, “Wow, how will this affect my family?” And, if you’re fifty, you might wonder, “How will this impact our retirement plans?”  Of course there are the slew of emotions that can arise based on the myriad fears and hopes we have. We may be angry, sad, confused, or disenchanted. We may even be happy. No matter what our reactions are the fact remains it is the organization that brought this to you.

There are political forces in every organization stemming from individual leaders focused on something other than the success of the business. Often politics arise from selfish pursuits even if it’s in the guise of “good for the company.” Leaders may be focused on getting more money, prestige, or fodder for their resume. They may be control freaks not able to let the organization evolve to meet the needs of their industry. They may be of the type to hold onto the past not accepting they sold the business they grew and developed. Or, they may not care for anyone other than themselves. When we as leaders put our selfish needs over the needs of the business, we become less effective. As leaders, our priority is to enable the teams we are responsible for and set the situations by which they may be successful. Success is nothing more than meeting a defined range of expectations. And thus, we as leaders set the expectations, provide resources, and planning to bring about the future state we intend to create. The success of a leader is measured by the performance of their team and how well it integrates with the larger team of the business, agency, or society at larger. 

Being asked to interviewed for your own job represents a gap between organizational leadership and our individual activities as a leader within the company. Certainly it may be driven from political intentions, but being interviewed is an opportunity to communicate directly with our interested parties. It’s also an opportunity to learn how we may need to manage the perception of our own leadership approach and team activities. And remember, interviews are bidirectional. This is an opportunity to clarify expectations of those involved in the interview. With clarity comes insight and insight is the progenitor of good decisions. Who knows what clarity will arise in our awareness as we are questioned and question in return.  We may find we don’t like where the organization is going. The organization may find it likes what we have been doing and just unaware of it.  A decision will be made no matter what happens. Our life will continue to unfold and our personal biz will prevail no matter what happens.

Herein lies a root of success in managing our personal biz. Our jobs will come and go. Even if we stay at a company for two decades, there will come a time we depart whether for retirement or for other reasons outside our control. Our biz is the value we bring to our life over the long term. No matter what may unfold in our lives and at work, our self worth is linked to our life in its entirety, not the short term events which are more often than not out of our control. So, if perchance you get asked to interview for your own job, embrace it as an opportunity to move on no matter if that movement is within the company or finding greener pastures to graze on. 

If you’d like to open a dialog on this or any topic on this blog, feel free to email jacob@bizofyou.com

I apologize for any typos, punctuation or grammar errors.
Feel free to comment and let me know of my errors so I may correct them and better my biz