Taking Opportunities

Opportunities in Disguise

Do opportunities come our way? Well I find that for me they frequently do. We have to be looking for them actively, and be able to recognize them for what they are.

This is not always easy as Opportunities come disguised as Threats or worse disguised as hard work! Agh!!!

I know lots of people who say that opportunities don’t come their way. But when we dig a bit deeper into their experiences – we invariably find that they have been turning most of them away because of so many reasons like not seeing the benefits, the illusion of not having enough time, not ready, no skills, etc, etc, etc.

Recognizing Opportunities disguised as Threats

One of the most important aspects of the above is to recognize and correctly label Opportunities and Threats. Let me tell you about an experience I had some years ago which completely changed my life. I was working at an IT services company at the time, and my boss walked up to me one day and said that he had got an opportunity to speak at a British Computer Society forum but was unable to … and so … could I take it on! Well at the time my public speaking experience was quite limited and I was also up to my ears with software project implementation work … most of which was delayed and had clients breathing down my neck. Not the happiest of situations as you can imagine!

Stretching yourself and taking the Opportunity with Gratefulness

Well, I had a careful think about what my boss was offering me and recognized it as a unique opportunity; to get some public speaking experience and also to make myself known to the BCS membership. So although it was a lot more additional work, I decided to take it on. And when I had actually delivered the talk, I found that

1) I had enjoyed myself speaking to the members, and more importantly,

2) it seemed that the members had enjoyed listening to me!

Opportunities could change our lives

Well that talk was the catalyst for me to eventually change my career into what it is now … where public speaking is an essential part of day to day activities. So recognizing the ‘Opportunity’ for what it was, an ‘Opportunity’ was vitally important … as it initially seemed to be a ‘Threat’, a Threat of ‘additional’ work for a very hazy, unclear reward. This frequently happens does it not?

Is additional work an Opportunity?

A question I sometimes ask executives that I coach or train is … ‘in an organization, who is allocated more work … the hard worker (Mr. Dependable) or the not so effective worker (Mr. Unsure)? ’ Well the answer is invariably Mr. Dependable. So he is loaded with more and more work. Is this Opportunity? Of course it is! Guess who comes into the bosses mind when there is an opportunity for promotion? Of course it is Mr. Dependable. So he gets ahead. Does he work harder? Yes he does and hard work has its reward. So in a way he is creating his own opportunities by the work and way in which he does the work.

You take your experience with you when you leave

The only thing you take away with you when you leave one workplace and join another – is your experience. Which is actually invaluable. So the more we try to do and accomplish – even if it is for the selfish reason of getting more experience and therefore increasing our brand value – still makes sense doesn’t it!

Can I ever say No!

Of course! If taking on the additional work is now a burden that cannot be managed; and if the additional work would compromise on quality of the output being provided; I think in this situation saying ‘no’ is perfectly acceptable.

Otherwise … take on the extra work … even if there is no overt reward … it is still much valued ‘experience’.

So take a careful look at possible ‘opportunities’ that come your way; try to see beyond the immediate; and look for the possible benefits that can be derived by taking it on. Things are rarely clear when purely looked at from face value alone.

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Do write and tell me your thoughts to sanjeev@revpe.com would be great to hear from you.