The Impact Of Teamwork On Self-Reliance: Career Coaching

The Impact Of Teamwork On Self-Reliance: Career Coaching

Viewpoint by Andrew Scharf, Head of the WCW Group

“Football” is on its way to achieving status in the USA, the land of the NFL and New York Yankees baseball. By winning yesterday in South Africa 1-0 against Algeria, the Americans showed to the world what they can do best: play as a team and still be self-reliant. If the coverage on ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel are anything to go by, if the Americans can continue to win, they will be serving this sport admirably in their home country. Landon Donovan stands out for his team leadership but this takes nothing away from the team’s outstanding pugnacious group effort. Their mutual play is a great case study on career building and a good lesson for any wishing to embark on doing an MBA degree at a top business school.

In today's world any professional must learn to walk with his or her head held high free of any egotism if they are truly to find respect as well as success. Building and navigating relationships is fraught with pitfalls and challenges. Ask anyone who has been involved in MBA Prep or better still, someone involved in management education.

SMS and email can put us in contact with hundreds of thousands of people we will never meet. Think linkedin, facebook, twitter, and the whole gamut of social networks. This does not mean that you cannot build meaning relationships and social network. You can, and MBA Coaching shows you how.

Couple this “MBA Prep” ritual with people we do come in contact with and reflect. Which relationships are real and tangible?

With all our contacts, when was the last time you said "hello" to your neighbours or thrown a local block party?

More than ever, relationship building and our daily contact with human beings are crucial to our very existence.

In this confused and complicated social environment, how should we really treat other people?

The Rules Of Behaviour: Start With A Smile

Start simply with a smile. Reach inside your self with the stillness of a mountain. Feel the solidity of the ground under your feet. Bear witness to the integrity of your own being.

Real MBA Coaching teaches potential “MBA Samurai” how to treat others fairly as we ourselves would like to be treated. All executives and business professionals rely on relationships no matter what their business practice. In today's global economy, no man or woman is an island.

No matter what your cultural or social background, each community has "Rules of Behaviour", which can help guide us.

All of us want to be decent people. Sometimes, however, we are unsure. The newspapers are full of articles of people who are successful by being greedy and callous. Avarice rules the roost, and we feel pangs of conscience.

Although the nature of rules introduces the concept of rigidity, the rules are in essence quite pragmatic and flexible. The rules, which should govern our actions, should be simple. Intuitively, we know which actions are positive vehicles for endeavour and social intercourse.

You wouldn't scream "fire" in a crowded theatre, would you?

Of course, you wouldn’t.

Then why will you allow unscrupulous or shady actions taint your business relationships?

The old excuse that others are not on the "up 'n up" is no longer viable.

The Tale Of the Gold Sovereign

This reminds me of an old story about the respected elders of a local temple. As was their custom, the elders would each put a gold sovereign into the poor box after mass in order to execute their good works in the community each week.

One Sunday, one elder had an innovative idea.

"Why don't I just put in a copper penny, just this once. Nobody will ever know or find out".

So when the time came, he did just that. At the end of the service when the elders got together to count the donations of the week, they were flabbergasted.

All the coins were copper pennies.

Now you can see the power of thought and ideas.

If we can influence others through mere thought, think of the power we can exercise when we speak or act. When we act from the heart in good faith with a clear sense of purpose, we have the virtual power to change lives.

Similarly, during an MBA coaching session we learn how the ideas we can express best share our expertise and post-MBA career goals.

MBA essays give us the power to put into the box the gold sovereigns we really have in our possession and not counterfeits. “Counterfeits” are not merely sentences of calibrated overstatement. They act as indicators of how we will behave in classroom and group case contexts.

All top MBA programmes emphasise teamwork. Do you want to participate on teams where everyone is duplicitous, self centred, and arrogant?

Of course you don't!

The Nature Of Benevolence

Although benevolence and charity begin at home as the dictum states, we should not accept acts indiscriminately. Weigh people’s actions, not just their honeyed words. Strain what you hear judiciously like straining your tea into a cup.

Pardon people's flaws; repay inappropriate actions with straightforwardness.

This is not callousness. It is a way to invoke the spirit of human dignity. Dignity cannot be preached. It can only be taught by example. MBA coaching can help you navigate the rapids of swirling relationships. The rhythm of contemporary life demands rapid decision-making. Sometimes there is not the necessary time for reflection. The “right” reflex actions must kick in and act as guides.

How many of us have experienced that when we really need a friend or colleague nobody is every available?

The Art of Self-Reliance

Learn true self-reliance and you will navigate social relationships and networking with the grace of a swan sipping pure water from a mud swamped pool of lotus blossoms.

Remember, a person who schemes might seem to get closer to their objective, but all they ever taste is the dross of the mud they have stirred from the bottom of the pond.

Act like the swan and glide to your destination, unruffled with dignity and authority. From this position, your actions will help you sail forward and be marked by the achievements your merit deserves.

For Further Information

Andrew Scharf is a regular contributor to WCW inSIGHT on leadership and Business Education Trends. He is also the head of the MBA Coaching & Career Development division of Whitefield Consulting Worldwide, whose unique coaching methodologies have helped countless professionals harmonise their professional aspirations with their developmental needs.

Visit: http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com

Post to Social Links