Insecurity

There are the telltale signs – aggression, defensive, snooping, favoritism and a low trust bank !

People at the workplace display their insecurity in many of the above mentioned ways. You may wonder why I said aggression as a behaviour trait for the insecure – it helps the person to mask the insecurity from him/herself.

How does insecurity affect the workplace ?

One of your team members comes up with a brilliant new tool and presents it in a forum where there are other team members – instantly the idea is pulled apart and shown in a poor light. If the manager does not take action immediately, the brilliant team member becomes demotivated and insecure of presenting in a forum with his peers !

When your manager is insecure, it makes or breaks your career ! It will make your career if you can make your manager feel safe, basically be a “yes” person, work towards making him/her look good, not outshine your manager, not show how intelligent you can be or are 🙂
It will break your career if you do the opposite of all or any of the above !

The corporate world is full of insecure people – the job defines who they are, the money is super critical, their position in the society is decided by the job, their designation makes them feel important and many people stop learning once they reach a certain position. Remember your first job, you said what came to your mind, you had 10000 ideas in an hour, you absorb everything like a sponge and you were ready to rule the world – brash and sassy. Then you get promoted, then again you get promoted and then again you get promoted – you lose all the spunk and become this meek, sweet, not-interested-to-learn, my-way-or-the-highway type manager. Some become great people managers, some become visionaries, some create new organizations and some create new management benchmarks, but most wallow in the mediocre pool and continue hiring into the same pool.

Stop. Ask yourself right now – what are you insecure about ? Your insecurity will not allow new ideas to sprout, it won’t allow you to develop another new sassy kid, it will make you work with a scarcity mentality. What are you insecure about ? Ability ? Every human being is good at something, not necessarily good at the “in” thing, but at something. Success? In whose eyes do you want to be successful and success is what you think it is. Are you insecure about earning money ? Money chases skill and expertise – luck has very little to do with money. What is your unique expertise ?

A child is always secure – nature created the womb, a home, nature created the umbilical chord to ensure food reaches and once a child is born, it believes it’s the centre of the universe and it is – everything is made available. Where did you lose the faith in nature or God growing up, that insecurity entered your world ?