Continuing from the earlier article , I have kept the most important and crucial mindset shift for the last. This is about realigning your expectations and learning to build the same based on a completely different set of criteria.
You are being paid to handle and resolve issues, not for the degree.
A person’s life as a student is relatively carefree; students tend to have very few direct responsibilities. Apart from the focus on getting good grades, the deliverables from a student are not much. This tends to create a mindset of expectations and a sense of entitlement. This means that a person feels that they are entitled to whatever they wish and aspire for.
This is all the more obvious in the past decade or so, when parents have started to earn well and strive to fulfil the wishes of their children. This orientation becomes a major constraint in a person’s career because of one key aspect. This is that the correlation between entitlements and being deserving of the same is usually absent.
Entitlements
In simple terms, a person starts to expect and demand things without being aware of or acknowledging whether they deserve what they ask for. This has multiple implications and ramifications, the least of which is a sense of perpetual disappointment with whatever one gets.
In the life of a student, this manifests itself in various ways and the good thing is that there are no major negative implications from such a mindset. However, this changes dramatically in any work place. One common mindset issue that has been observed among many a management graduate is that they expect far more than they deserve. This expectation is driven by the thought that they have an MBA or equivalent degree and therefore deserve a variety of things.
Nothing can be further from reality.
For instance, if a cab driver demanded money as soon as you entered the cab, and his logic was that he had a license and a vehicle, how would you react? Would you hand over the money based on the cab driver’s potential to perform and take you somewhere, or would you demand that he drives you to your destination before getting paid? The chances are that you would not pay money for the qualification and the potential of the cab driver to take you where you want to go.
Fresh graduates
The case with fresh management graduates who enter the work space is somewhat similar. They have the potential to perform and the relevant qualifications. In spite of no upfront performance, organisations pay fresh recruits big salaries in the hope that they will perform and deliver results.
Those who perform and start delivering results get recognised and end up getting ahead in their careers. However, many recruits get caught in the entitlement trap. They expect to be given work in line with their expectations as compared to doing what is required by the organisation and what their capability is. These expectations stem more from the degree they possess rather than the work they have done and the results they have delivered.
This is one of the main reasons why many organisations and business leaders have started to speak very poorly about MBAs. They recruit management graduates to handle and resolve issues but often end up having to manage unrealistic expectations from such recruits.
Even if it is not very flattering, always keep the cab driver analogy in mind. Your expectations should be in line with what you deliver and not your degree, where you studied, your peers, or any other such factors.