Scolding as motivation

One fine morning, I was in my office and phone rang. I picked my desk phone and private secretary of the Secretary, the top boss of Ministry where I worked as a young officer, said “boss wants to speak to you”. A cold shiver ran through my spine. The top boss would hardly ever directly speak to an officer three steps down in the hierarchy in a bureaucratic government Ministry. On top, the Secretary had a reputation of being harsh and abrasive. The Secretary came on line and yelled on top of his voice “Wahaj! Did you send this file to me? Did you’ve time to read it before you sent this out?”. I was spinning my brain – oh my God, I must had done some stupid mistake. The Secretary continued his tirade “how may Grade-18 (he being in Grade-22) officers work in this Ministry?”. “Around fifteen Sir”, I was hardly able to reply. “I even don’t know their names. I had good opinion about you and with this chaotic work in front of me, I’m forced to change my opinion”, the fuming Secretary banged his phone. Holding the phone receiver, I trembled in exasperation and depression. How dare this person speaks to me like a worthless piece of dirt, I immediately thought. As my blood pressure normalised, I retrieved the file from Secretary’s office to see what silliness I had done. I was actually ashamed to see my own work on file as I skipped important points and had some typos in the report too. Then I said to myself, it’s time to say no to insults or barbs from bosses at job with my careless work. I needed to shape up and then made habit of at least reading twice any report that I sent upwards. Almost three decades have passed but I vividly remember this life changing incident.

A common scene of today’s workplace is reprimand and scolding by the bosses that all of us hate. Some popular water cooler and corridor gossips in the offices are, my boss is a jerk and never spares an opportunity to look me down; there can’t be a better monster than him/her anywhere on the earth; and so on. But in my career, I haven’t really seen a jerk boss who would admonish you for nothing. Mostly we get reprimanded as we can’t make up to boss’ expectations. One needs to remember that a good professional should always be trying to ‘exceed expectations’ of his/her bosses by taking initiatives, doing something new and being proactive. I’ve worked with easy going as well as very tough and demanding bosses.

Although I enjoyed lot of freedom while working with easy going bosses, my actual growth and learning with them was very limited. The demanding bosses kept me on my toes, they were hardly satisfied with mediocrity and status quo and hence pushed me to perform at stretched limits. I learned a lot and improved my skills under their leaderships.

The day I got worst ever reprimand of my work life, I made a commitment to myself. I’m not here to take insults because of my careless attitude and not giving attention to details. I would rather quit the job but to take boss’ abuses on my performance. And, I shouldn’t give him/her a chance of complaining. In order to deliver better results, I over a period of time, became meticulous and my reputation of willing to go extra mile increased many folds. That helped me most in my job and then in my entrepreneurial journey.

No boss would ridicule you for nothing. Some good bosses may coach and mentor you with constructive feedback. Some not so good would be curt and threatening if not humiliating.

You can’t change your boss, only you can change the job. But you can change your boss’ attitude by don’t giving him/her opportunity to explode on you. This happens only if you work for honour and dignity, rather solely for making money. As a result, you would improve your skills, performance and would make more money than ever.

As a good receiver of reprimands, I should turn that push into pull for improving myself. I can never be judge of myself and would always be judged by others, as the famous saying goes. Scolding is never easy to take as one feels threatened and degraded and immediately goes in defensive mode. If you’re determined to work for honour and dignity, no one can stop your growth. And when you become boss yourself, don’t repeat mistakes of your ex and become a great mentor and coach boss.