‘You need to work on the stronger branch’… I heard this phrase a few days back… I am not sure if I read it or I heard it… Either way I loved it… The context in which I heard it was on career and work… it was talking about identifying the stronger branch among our superiors and ensure that we work on that…. At least that is what I remember…

I think the phrase can go beyond just a tactic to work on superiors… How do we look at a Branch….? Let us take the tree as a whole… Let us make it the tree of knowledge… with so many branches.. some are weak and some are strong.

Now today I want us to do a small thought experiment with me. And try to imagine it as I say…

First version is that it is a Tree where a branch is stronger for a particular reason. If the tree is a company.. all the departments, products and people are the branches… And as we know they all might not be equally strong. There are some branches that receive more funds… show more prospects for the company in the long run.. provide more visibility to those hanging in there… These strong branches are the future of the company as we see them in the preset… So if we need to work in the company long term and thrive these are the branches we need to work on… But there is a catch…

There is an ongoing change that will happen in the tree. The tree is subject to factors external to it… and even problems with the entire ecosystem within it…. This can result in some branches becoming weaker and some others becoming stronger with time… Meaning the stronger today can be weaker tomorrow and vice versa. So it is not enough that you have worked on and are sitting on the strongest branch…. Be aware of how the tree is doing as a whole and what forces are at play… Do not belittle the weak branches.. Who knows… they might be the ones that will save you from falling on the ground…

The second version is where you are yourself the tree… And the branches are your skills… we have something that is strong and some that are not so strong… Let us assume that the value of a branch is defined by the fruits on it.

Now the interesting catch here is that it is not necessary that the strong branches are the ones that bear the most number of fruits. This is quite fascinating because we are not often paid or recognized for the real skills we have.. but the skills that are found useful for those who pay for it…. What do we do…?

Here we have to work internally on our weaker branches in order to survive and externally we have to work on projecting our stronger branches so they can also become more valuable… The ideal position is where our true strong skills are what we create value with.. but that is not always how it happens….

Think about it… !!!

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Categories: Career & Work

Tags: Career, improve, skills