Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Have you ever been thrown under a bus by a boss or colleague?

I recently answered a question posed on LinkedIn about whether you had ever been thrown under a bus by a boss or colleague, interesting question that I thought I would explore here.

In my career, I have been "thrown under a bus" by a number of bosses and colleagues, for various reasons. Some have been confident in my skills and experience and wanted to see how I would handle myself when challenged to leave my comfort zone, and sadly others have wanted to see me fail for no other reason than I was viewed as a threat.

In all instances (sometimes there was no choice) I have taken the challenge and viewed it as an opportunity to stretch myself and learn new skills. I have not always achieved to my own personal standards of success but have never "failed" as the experience has always given me something to take forward to the next opportunity.

For those colleagues who were inspired by what they saw as guaranteed failure I have had the satisfaction of being able to move forward in my career, developing a reputation as someone who is not afraid of adversity, someone who may not know everything but can work out how to find the answers, someone who achieves results.

I would actually recommend that occassionally we choose to throw ourselves under the bus for no other reason than to take away the safety net and force ourselves to think outside the box. Adversity builds character - when we have to stretch ourselves and search deep inside we can achieve amazing things, sending us forward with renewed confidence. Life, especially your career, should be about continual learning, and fear can be a brilliant motivator!

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