In my earlier post, I had written about NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Presupposition – ‘The map is not the territory’
This article is about one of my favorite presuppositions that ‘People have all the resources within them’. The word ‘resources’ refers to capabilities, behavior, thoughts, and ability to acquire a new skill. This presupposition opens possibilities. Often people are unaware of the resources. Maybe you know someone who has good teaching skills and the ability to manage teenagers at school but can’t manage his or her teenage child.
The Hindi movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ showcases this presupposition beautifully (about the movie – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taare_Zameen_Par)
In my career as a senior HR professional and a Coach, I have come across several cases where people make the mistake of not recognizing an employee’s capability beyond his/her current role. These are not quite as dramatic as what Ishaan(Protagonist) faces in the movie above, but significant enough for the individual. Let me describe it in a short case (the name has been changed for anonymity).
Divya is a successful Head of HR of one of the fastest growing start-ups for last one year. The Founder and CEO respect Divya for her knowledge and skill of managing stakeholder across the organization.
But, the situation was a bit different an year ago. Divya used to work with a mid-size company as an employee engagement manager. She was good at her role and was also the ‘go to’ person for all the employees.
Divya wanted to learn and grow,thus was keen on moving to another function within HR. Her Manager had a different view. He believed in ‘tagging’ people based on their current role (e.g. an employee engagement manager can never take up strategic role or a HR operations manager is best at doing a desk job).
After several requests, Divya realized that the organization did not believe in her capabilities and was tagging her based on her current role. She decided to seek other opportunities.
Within two months she was interviewed for the role of Head of HR. The CEO and Co-founder were impressed with her depth of knowledge in all facets of HR, her analytical ability to solve problems, an emotional capacity to connect with people. They made an offer to Divya for the role of Head of HR as they realized that she had the ability (irrespective of her current experience) to acquire required skills and perform a bigger role (as compared to her manager who had tagged her).
If Divya’s manager was aware of the presupposition that ‘People have all the resources within them’, probably he would have been able to retain Divya.
Does this article trigger any thoughts? Please share in the comments section below.
