By | Adil Malia | www.adilmalia.com
Envy, the painful or resentful arousal of awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another person combined with a desire to possess that same advantage for oneself, is a killer corporate sin. It does not let you rest, takes away from your peace, stops you from appreciating, makes you frustrated and depending on how strong the feeling is and what one can do about it, it has the potential to make one do things that not necessarily are clean, positive, over-board, desirous or wise.
Imagine in a Corporate mileu, your Manager being envious of his Manager, is envious of your colleague, is envious of your subordinate and worst – of you. What kind of a disastrous climate would that create in your organisation- and also remember, though your Manager may be envious , you standing on the pathway as a pedestrian on such a vitiated road are bound to be caught in it in an unintended consequence!
Now think of various other permutations and its corporate behavioural impacts – of your colleague being envious of his Manager, of another common colleague worst of you et cetra.
Now think of the deadliest – You ( …you being part of the human species are not exempt) becoming envious of your young Manager or your colleagues who Boss admires or your sub-ordinates who get your Managers attention !
Deep down if you seriously analyze, most Corporate crisis and climate spoilers find their roots in some deep seated envy which pretentiously is window dressed, rationalised to present a cause seriously different. Rumors, gossips, siloed behaviours, Board disagreements, missing files when most needed, disappearing presentations,grandfatgers dying on a crucial day of presentation … you will see disguised envy at the roots.
Be a smart leader. Develop the wisdom to see through envy. Lift the veil. The real face is different than the veiled face. Envy often finds its mother in the bosom of ambition. Importantly therefore you don’t garb your envy & play deadly Corporate games.
Incidentally, there are 4 types of envy : EMULATIVE : you may have it or not have it in you, one puts in efforts to imitate the other who is envied. That is good.
INERT envy is the envy of a laid-back person. He envies but does not want to do anything about it. Remains dormant.
AGGRESSIVE envy makes the envious person aggressively fight, argue, scream, publicly disagree and indulges in power or knowledge play.
SPITEFUL envy goes beyond aggression and makes the person become vengeful and totally negative. The aggressor will sadly pretend ailment and not donate his blood for that person he envies if in a moment of crisis, he met with an accident and had severe blood loss.
You may win a few disguised corporate wars but never the battle if the source of it all is only envy. Don’t be gobsmacked if even with powerful cards, you may lose the game if it is built purely on negativity, politics, envy or jealousy.
Envy is natural but let responses be under your control
Republished with permission and originally published at www.adilmalia.com
