Take The Bull by the Horns - Build Your Career

“I haven’t been to a training for such a long time! I am really getting tired of being here. Other organisations are a lot better to their staff. I’m thinking of moving” Bala overheard, as he sat in a cubicle working out a flowchart for the upcoming Culture Alignment meeting.

He was about to meet Sylvia who was heading up the team of consultants. His expertise lie in project implementation. Bala had come from an IT background where he worked at a very senior level for large corporates. After more than 20 years of acquiring knowledge and experience he felt he was bored. Leaving corporate, he started his own business. 

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Accepting smaller projects initially, he eventually started securing larger ones. He met Sylvia at a friend’s party and was intrigued by her field of NLP. His interest peaked when she said that IT people who had very structured minds took fast and well to NLP as it was a series of models for behavior change. 

On hearing this, Bala signed up immediately. He had been looking for more skills to add to his current repertoire and something that would elevate the consulting work he was doing. Fast forwarding back to what he had just overheard. 

He had never waited for any organization he worked for, to send him for training. If anything got the better of his curiosity, he signed up. Without realizing that this specific strategy got him ahead of the game more than his cohort, he observed how much he had climbed the corporate ladder.  His abilities were acknowledged by HR who then made him an Executive Coach too. 

Bala’s view was “take the bull by the horns and do what interests you”. He was fueled by passion. Seeing Sylvia walk down the corridor to the meeting room, he thought to himself how he would not have been here today if not for this satiating hunger to learn, the force behind him. 

In fact he noticed this amongst senior management he typically coached. They went for what they wanted. Time was of essence. That is how they fast tracked their career path. They took charge of it by up-skilling, re-inventing and asking for a change, if the situation called for it. 

This was the mindset that the new generations had and were criticized for. Termed as over-hungry and arrogant because they spoke their mind, older folks in the organization typically had no palate to stomach this. Little did they know the new world would exist in this way. If you didn’t you’d be left behind. 

Younger employees were more defined about what they wanted and had a deeper sense of identity. This probably stemmed from the fact that parents had larger disposable incomes and higher education status. This gave their children more exposure and afforded more conversations. 

It also became an easier task for HR as people expressed their choices. Career development and growth was a major part of the Culture Change initiative. The entire 18 month project was meant to open employee’s minds to self-expression rather than the typical ranting behind the scenes. Dissipating the silo effect as well, teams would cooperate rather than isolate. 

In the end it was about core values. What did you want for yourself? That would be the major driver. Bala recalled deep diving into values at the NLP Practitioner course. While he was always congruent, he also felt some values driving him were unconscious. Becoming aware of them made such a huge difference to his decision making. He could now understand why he made the decisions he did and strengthened his identity even more.  

He became a lot more flexible in his approach to life, changing behavior to adapt to the situation. These were skills he would impart to others in the organization, as the Culture Alignment project began. It was so important that the Project left employees empowered to trust, express, causing whatever they felt they wanted. 

Bala’s life had changed phenomenally. He knew the building blocks of behavior well as he was now seeing through clear lenses. He wanted the same for everyone. It was the best job in the world he thought to himself. 

It left him with immense satisfaction that he had done his part to contribute to others. That was a feeling money could not buy!

Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers established in Sydney in 2002. She is a corporate NLP trainer and consults in creating effective people in the Asia Pacific Region.

She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat – Turn Your Luck Around to Realise Opportunities – to be launched on the 23rd October 2014. Go to www.viafrontiers.com or email [email protected] for more information. 

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