Prince: Changes can affect your choice..

Do you or do you not influenced by the pressure from your surrounding? Sometimes when you have set your goal, and clear about your direction, but at the end, you have to change it because you are oppressed by your surrounding, or simply, you are affected by unnecessary changes in your surrounding. Changes may be good sometimes, but it doesn’t mean it helps. Every decision is not made on one party, but it creates a causal effect in the network, so do changes, which takes effect in the network itself.

For example, if you are now at the age of 23, and you have set your goal to become at least an assistant manager at the age of 27, but somehow, at the age of 24, you are affected by the changes in your social environment, let’s say your friends who at your age is already getting their dream job, getting a car, or a house, or perhaps, you parent is retiring and the situation urges you to become the breadwinner of the family. These all will change you, from inside out (from character and personality and reflecting it to your environment).

These types of changes are always initiated and originated from the psychological perspective of oneself. This is because ones feel committed, responsible and they feel that this is what they should be doing now in order to be responsible for the situation, and eventually they are pressuring themselves to take control of the environment. They may start to lose-sight of themselves, blindly pursuing their dream in a hurry (more like pyramid scheme!), a short cut toward achieving their dream. Though, it may not necessary mean failure, but most likely, you will lose track of yourself, and deviates from your own path (principles, moral and ethical perspective).

Once the situation happens, it does not necessary make your life worsen but it also does not mean better. When the pressure in yourself start to overwhelm, you will tend to find way to release you pressure, at any channel which you think may help to achieve your dream. For example, you burst out to your superior that you need a promotion, or you may start to search for a better pay job. The ‘burst out’ is most likely an irrational one in this said situation, because you have lost-sight of yourself, you start to pay less attention to areas such as; your capability, your weaknesses, your situation analysis, your direction and your goals. You may have been too sticky to your changed mind, and in turn put your current situation at stake.

Once the old one told me, your experience (more toward making money) in the normal pathway, is like baking a cake in 30 minutes, anytime less than the number will make the cake half-cook, and anytime more than that number will burnt the cake. If you want to make it faster, then you will have to look deep into the recipe, and make innovation possible. Similarly, if you want to achieve your dream fast enough, then you must look into what you have; in term of your capability, strength, weakness, and most importantly to take into account your situation, direction and goals. All of these must appear advantage to you. You must not think in a simply way, as if to take your current responsibility as a ransom / for granted, this, means that you are falling into your own egoism, where you start to treat your ‘responsibility as your strength’ (strength is what you always have in you, responsibility is what you hold at the current moment).

Here are some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you make your jump:-

(1) Company, is your company a reputable one?

(a)Reputable ----- 1
(b)Medium ------- 2
(c)Not so ----------3

(2) Salary, is it above market rate or below?

(a)Above Market Rate---------- 1
(b)Medium Rate ----------------- 2
(c)Below Market Rate-----------3

(3) Employee Benefit, is it good?

(a)Above Market ----------------1
(b)Medium -----------------------2
(c)Below Market ----------------3

Explanation: If the company is at a better position to look for new candidate, obviously you will be at the losing side. For company like Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Genting and any other reputable company, are far easier to recruit qualified employees compare to those non-reputable companies. Of course, Junior or normal executive is even easier to recruit due to the brand name, and there is a large pool of normal executive in the market.

(4) Position, is your current position a managerial position, a junior executive, or technical executive?

(a)Managerial -------------------1
(b)Technical Executive --------2
(c)Junior Executive ------------3

(5) Responsibility in Company, is it on long term (daily basis) or short term basis (project basis)?

(a) (Mostly) Long-Term -------1
(b) Medium / not sure ----------2
(c) (Mostly) Short-Term -------3

(6) Strength & Experience, what are your practical strength / experience that contribute to company, and is it important for your company?

(a)Company can not live without --------1
(b)Not sure ----------------------------------2
(c)Company can live without -------------3

Explanation: Usually managerial position is even more difficult for company to find replacement, such as Manager or Director. It will be tougher if the manager has certain strength and experience which company can not live without, meanwhile, the responsibility must be a long term one, because the end of short term responsibility give company a choice to find replacement without halting the company operation.

Conclusion:

If all above show that you are at a better position to hold the company in ransom, then by all means ask for a promotion but do not over demanding. Not that you may not fail, but the possibility of getting it right is higher.