Self-sabotage

Posted by rhodz on January 31, 2008 · Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by Pradeep Mahesh (Maheshwari) from New Delhi, India.

We start a business or take up a job with the full intention of succeeding in our endeavor. Yet we manage to fail in many of our undertakings. Is it possible that we are ourselves to blame and the fault is in the self-sabotage that we may be practicing? It sounds ludicrous but we may be doing exactly that â€“ albeit unknowingly.

In case you are the boss; in whichever capacity that maybe, begin with the question â€œAm I stifling my junior? Am I always there, looking over his shoulder and catching his each and very mistake before he makes them?â€. It does not require a very great intelligence to see that if the answer to these questions comes in a â€œyesâ€, the sabotage situation would be obvious. Why? The employee would become a nervous wreck to begin with and be constantly afraid. He would rather wait for the boss to take over and stop using his initiative. Human nature being what it is, in this over-bossy scenario it has been observed that the boss goes beyond the call of duty to correct and guide the junior, letting his vanity ride. He may even go to the extent of becoming abusive and forever critical and be seen as an ogre to be placated; in which case the junior would certainly stoop to lying and hiding unpleasant truths as much as he can to avoid censor. Soon the companyâ€™s working will go off-track. This is tantamount to self-sabotage. Juniors in their zeal to show off their capabilities can do the same.