Career steroids. Way of the Samurai

The career path method “Samurai Way” somehow doesn’t turn a language called a steroid, because it ... I don’t know if it’s correct or something. Honest, real, kind and fluffy.

Therefore, in life is not very common. I was able to recall only four examples, and not all of them are from my personal practice, but I saw these stories with my own eyes. Of course, the people in question have never read Hagakure (the samurai code), but their stories, behavior, principles and approaches are very close to the philosophy of ancient Japanese warriors.


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First, talk a little about the samurai and their philosophy.

Samurai Pillar

The samurai code is based on several basic principles. The most probably famous is the acceptance of the inevitability of death (“live as if you were already dead”). He doesn’t really care about his career, he helps more in self-development. But there is another principle to which, as a rule, they do not particularly pay attention, considering it to be some kind of bzik, ministry .

The meaning of the whole existence of a samurai is serving the lord. It seems that even the word "samurai" comes from the word "serve." In modern interpretations and transpositions, the master is an abstract concept in general. It can be a person, an idea, an organization, a project - it does not matter. But the samurai master was quite specific - daimyo, representatives of the highest class of feudal warriors, or, more simply, the samurai elite.

So, the service for a samurai is a complete, undivided, absolute and disinterested immersion in the problems and tasks of his master. A samurai serves not for the sake of money, fame, career, or honor, but only for the sake of the lord. The problems of the master are the problems of the samurai, the tasks of the master are the tasks of the samurai, the death of the master is the death of the samurai.

If purely according to the code, after the demise of the daimyo, the samurai was supposed either to commit seppuku (suicide, better known by the people as hara-kiri), or to avenge his master and then make seppuku. Remember, perhaps, the story or the movie "47 Ronin"? There, the guys violated the code when their master died, went to avenge him, but in the end, they still committed suicide by doing their duty. Death for the master, or with him, is the highest, final point of service.

What is interesting - whether the samurai, or if we have a cart in front of the horse. We work for money, position, prospects, idea, development. We work to get something for it. But do not always get what we want. And the samurai is the opposite - he just works, or serves, but in the end he gets what he didn’t ask for - fame, money, land, and if everything goes well, he becomes a daimyo.

You will probably be interested in reading the book "Samurai without a sword" - she talks about a real man named Hideyoshi, who was born into a poor peasant family, and eventually became the ruler of Japan. In the book, of course, everything is beautiful and elegant, and you can safely divide in two, but the basis of this guy's success is service, although Hideyoshi wielded not with a sword, but brains.

Immediately it is worth making a reservation: the service of a samurai is not a stupid obedience, liso-obedience, or looking into the mouth of a master. Keyword - acceptance , or consent. Just as a samurai accepts the inevitability of death, he accepts the ministry. He simply agrees with all his heart that he has no tasks other than the tasks of the lord.

Please note that this is important - not the tasks that the lord has set . Daimyo, after all, does not keep in mind the whole context of his own specific princedom. A samurai must perform all the tasks that are there. Even if the master does not know about them.

In this case, do not think that the samurai - a stupid performer without a brain. The code separately spelled out recommendations on how to act if you see that the master is mistaken. A samurai will not, like the hero of the book "Corporate La Manch", chop off his shoulder and declare to his master that he is wrong. He must find the right words, choose the right moment, start from afar, but convey a thought to the lord.

There is nothing easier than to tell a person that he is wrong. But the purpose of such a statement is the statement itself, underlining its own significance, and not at all the good of the lord. No person in his right mind would agree with such a statement, would argue, be offended, and if he is your boss, then in the ultimatum form will require obedience - you will have to do what he said.

The line between true lord service and self-admiration is very thin. The goal of the samurai is the good of the lord. If it is necessary to obey silently for this good, he will do so. If you want to spend a couple of years on conveying your thoughts, the samurai, with a blink of an eye, will do just that. If in order to show the erroneousness of the master's judgments, you need to die - the samurai will not hesitate, so will he. Because the main thing for him is the benefit of the daimyo.

In our life and work, it seems to me, such a form, or degree of service, is practically not achievable. Try, for the sake of interest, to take some article on the Internet, with which you do not agree, and convince its author that he is wrong. Do not achieve a formal agreement, but in order to be straight for real. For example, so that he voluntarily wrote another article titled "Damn, I was wrong, we must do it differently."

The samurai ministry is very similar to “The Message to Garcia” - a simplified and well-known concept. The “Message”, of course, is stupid, compared to “Hagakure”, there is no depth or philosophy in it, but to dive into the subject it will completely come down.

Why does the Samurai Path work in a career?

Everything is infinitely simple, but at the same time difficult. Best understood by those who worked as a leader.

From the side it may seem that employees are subordinate to the head. Perform tasks, follow directions, follow deadlines and rules. But, in fact, the leader constantly has to contend with resistance.

Tasks perform, but, sorry, through the ass. You have to control everything, check and re-check.

All constantly need to motivate. No one works stably well . Today tries, tomorrow - sits and tupit. We must go, talk, convince, shout, force, beg. And so - every day.

The rules invented by the manager are observed, but they are constantly looking for loopholes to wriggle out and somehow get around these rules. Therefore, the effectiveness of the rules and changes can not be verified.

All the time you have to take into account risks, like a sudden dismissal.

Often they are satisfied with the Italian strike - they formally fulfill all the rules, solve the set tasks, but they will not lift a finger if they find out that the task is not correct or the rule is working incorrectly. They will giggle and do things that harm the boss, the company or themselves.

They do not want to share responsibility with the head. He is paid more, let him worry. A person will only perform tasks - moreover, only those that have been assigned to him.
In general, the life of a manager in such conditions is one continuous struggle. And with the tops, and with the bottoms, and with the sides.

Immediately make a reservation - I do not claim that people are wrong when they behave this way. This is just a reality to work with. I just want to show the contrast.

And here comes our samurai. It does not require a formal statement of tasks. It is much easier and more correct to give him a purpose or responsibility for the whole site.

For example, a samurai is a system administrator. They say to him: your responsibility is servers. He silently goes to a noisy closet, where he stinks dead rats, closes there and does not crawl out until the equipment meets his own requirements, which exceed the requirements of the company. It will establish stability, stability, integrity, all the attributes of power, performance, etc. And most importantly, when finished - will come out of the server and will do ... There is always something to do. But he will not wait for the task “so, now figure it out with the office equipment” - he will come out and do it.

Such a samurai need not be motivated at all. He motivates you, if necessary. Motivation is sitting inside of him, because he took responsibility. He did not sign in the act of acceptance and transfer, but in his heart he agreed with this responsibility.

A samurai will follow all your rules because he understands their true meaning. Rules are not needed to spoil everyone's mood. Their goal is improvements and changes. The head came up with holding the morning meeting while standing - it’s clear that it’s not just that, but to test the hypothesis “will the effectiveness of the meeting be improved if it is held standing?”. Samurai honestly fulfill the requirement and help the boss in the experiment.

If a samurai sees that you, as a boss, are mistaken, he will find an opportunity to tell you about it. Or not to report, but to show. For example, the boss decides that the application server should move from one physical machine to another, and the samurai knows what will be worse. An ordinary performer will simply do as they said, and then he will poke, like "look, dumbass, I was right." The samurai will prepare himself - he will make it so that the error of the task is shown, and rolled back as quickly as possible, so that there are no losses - both data and time, and the reputation of the boss.

I will not list further, you already understood the meaning. In simple terms, a samurai relieves a headache . You can rely on him, because he will do what needs to be done. He is the very “my right hand” that every leader dreams of.

Actually, therefore the Way of the Samurai also works in career. Samurai - support, outlet, the continuation of the head. Who will refuse from this?

The main danger of the Samurai Path

Refuse, how else. But under certain conditions.

The first option is if a real career steroid comes and gives a samurai. In the examples that follow, there is one such story.

Unfortunately, the lord is also a man. In ancient Japan, there were more samurai than steroids and roars, so nobody, roughly speaking, sat the daimyo in the ear with rush, hedging, or dogs. All just served and did not require anything.

In our modern world, the balance is reverse. There are almost no samurais, but people who want to make a career quickly - more than enough. And these people will bypass the samurai, especially if he is at the beginning of the journey and the daimyo still did not fully understand what kind of diamond he got.

The second option is if the daimyo leaves. In this case, the career samurai, by analogy with the present, goes next - only not to non-existence, but to another company. A decent daimyo always drags samurai with him.

How to avoid the main danger?

Actually, from the main danger follows the cure for it. You just need to take into account the difference between ancient Japan and the modern world. A samurai must understand, learn and use other career steroids.

The explanation of such a necessity fits perfectly with the principle of service, so that it remains in place. A samurai must understand and accept that protecting the master from steroids is also his task. Because a career jumper does not care about the welfare of the leader, he is driven only by selfish interests.

Yes, to solve this problem, it is necessary to master intrigues, gossip, and court manners. If in antiquity it was possible to simply slaughter an asshole, then now it is necessary to bring to the clear water its true goals by more decent methods. That’s all.

Actually, it is enough to understand the types of steroids and methods that they use. And then - vigilantly observe others, especially beginners, who still strive to make a rush.

Examples

The first example is a classic samurai, only it was a woman.

She came to work in the company as a sales manager. The tasks - the real tasks of the company in the field of sales - it plunged completely and without thinking. She was constantly in the fields, knew all the customers and their needs, understood products, and did everything she needed. Here it was noticed by the owner, who became the lord.

The rest of the sellers worked from fence to lunch, and she - as much as you need, and in the way you need. The owner became more often with her, and he saw the unity of goals - she, like him, wanted to increase sales, expand the product line, scale presence.
Of course, the owner soon appointed her head of the sales department, and a little later - the commercial director. In this position, she became deeper and wider to delve into the challenges of business.

Climbed in production, procurement, marketing, automation, etc. Not for the purpose of leaving your mark there, but in order to do better, for the benefit of the company and the master. Parallel leaders from adjacent areas, of course, hung from her, made intrigues, sat down in the owner’s ear and tried to get rid of her. But it did not work out - her voice sounded much louder, and most importantly - in unison with the voice of the owner.

From the commercial director she became almost a director. I do not remember exactly how the position was called, but production, supply, engineering, warehouse, most sales, etc., were subordinate to it. Almost everything that makes up the company's assets and core business processes.

Finance, accounting, sales, automation were on the sidelines. But not for long, because the samurai woman saw the problems of these divisions and processes, and continued to “go for it” in them. Somewhere in a year she became a real director, managing the entire company.
All this time she did only what the company and the owner needed. And what he said to do, and what he did not say, and even what he did not suspect. As director, she continued to act in the same way.

Expanding business, improving it, as she could. Many were mistaken, especially at first. She completed training - firstly management courses, then an MBA, then an EMBA, and as a result, almost everything in the world began to know about management.

But then came the steroid. It turned out unsuccessfully - he did not come to the company, but into the sphere of personal communications of the owner, i.e. was beyond its influence. The samurai woman about the steroid didn’t know anything for a long time.

And when she found out, it was too late. The steroid was taken immediately to the position of general director, and it was slightly pushed down. She, of course, was upset, but decided to continue her line - she served the master. Although most people would probably leave.

Her samurai work this time too. Steroid, not having the experience of real management, did not last long. And she stayed.

But the finale of the story is not very funny. The steroid had been handled by another steroid who had come to the company as a consultant, but had quickly gotten hooked in the ear of the owner. The first was kicked out, the second was put on the post of general director.

The second turned out to be more bulky and, more importantly, more cunning. He saw, saw a samurai in a woman, and realized the danger. Therefore, he made special efforts to get rid of her - and he succeeded. It all happened very sad and unpleasant, but now this is life.

The nastiest thing is that the steroid itself flew out soon. And the owner remained at the broken trough - neither the “effective manager” nor the devoted samurai servant remained with him. Business went down sharply, from the former greatness and plans are not even a trace.

And the female samurai, as far as I know, has become a daimyo woman.

The second example is related to the first. A samurai woman, when she was a director, found and took control of a samurai man.

At first, this guy was taken by someone like the head of production, or even the head of the site — I don’t remember exactly. The meaning of the position was to raise from his knees a separate production site, which was located in another city and lay on its side.

Samurai quickly agreed on the spirit. Our guy did not ask for tasks, permission, help - just drove every day to this city and raised production. He killed his car at the end, but did not worry about it.

Production he raised quickly, and immediately received a new area of ​​responsibility - supply. He also had to raise. Yes, but the production is also with him left.

Somewhere I was wasted in the supply. I won't say that he built everything right there right there - everything was kept on him personally, but the efficiency has grown. And the guy went on.

So, gradually, under it passed all the production, design development, service, etc. He became a chief engineer, with wide powers. Fully held responsibility for the entire entrusted area, and served his master.

When the first steroid came, this guy just continued to serve. The steroid did not like him, but for a short period of time at the highest post it was not possible to pick out our samurai.

And when the second steroid got rid of the samurai woman, our boy had to leave - he was left without a daimyo. Unfortunately, he could not follow his master - everything was just beginning there, and there was no money, no tasks for the samurai. So he just went to work as a chief engineer at another plant.

The third example is very similar to the first, so I will tell you briefly.

Also a woman, just came into the company from the other side - not through sales, but through finance and accounting. Either the chief accountant got settled in, or his deputy — I don’t remember exactly.

The director was an energetic and enterprising man. He developed the business hard and very quickly. Delved into all the details, processes, did not tolerate negligence and chewing snot. Few people could withstand his approach and pace, so the staff turnover was terrible.

But our samurai woman was filled with service and worked on the same principles. As a chief accountant, has built a strict subordination and discipline for performing tasks. She quickly and successfully began to delve first into the related areas - finance and economics, and then into distant areas, such as production, sales, supply and marketing.

The first promotion was the position of financial director. This position had a very high weight - financiers, economists, the IT department and lawyers submitted to it. Just like the samurai woman from the first example, she studied a lot - and on courses, and received a second or third degree in management.

But the main thing - continued to serve the lord. She supported and dragged all of his projects and initiatives, lived at all times at work, did everything she needed to do.

Then the director went higher, to the level of a holding, and the samurai woman was appointed director, instead of himself.

The fourth example is myself. Not for long, just eight months, but I, too, was a samurai.

The woman from the previous example, as I said, was under the IT department. There was a boss - a typical steroid. They took him to work so that he introduced the 1C UPP, and he swore for a few months, put everything off, and eventually admitted that he didn’t understand a damn thing in 1C.

He did not serve the samurai woman - he chose another lord, director. But that didn't really matter to the IT department, so the guy was safely fired.

At the first interview we did not work out with her. The head of the IT department managed both programmers and system administrators. The previous guy spoiled the director very much - he personally ran a computer and a smartphone to set up, was friends with the secretaries to very quickly find out about the problems of the gentleman.

His samurai woman's projection tried to hang on me. Implement, says, 1C UPP, but do not forget to run to the director and help. I honestly told her - sorry, of course, but I'm not interested. I say, I can quickly and easily implement 1PC UPP for you, in this I have no equal (I said something like that, it was young, stupid). So, I say, I'm sorry, look for someone else, I'm not an errand boy for you.

She did not argue and we said goodbye. A few weeks later they called me back and called me again. He says - ok, you will not run anywhere, we will appoint one admin senior, he will be responsible for the work of the director’s equipment. And you introduce 1C UPP, just called gruzdem.

Well, I took it with all my heart. It was October in the courtyard, it was necessary to switch from 1C 7.7 to 1C UPP from January, moreover, right away, without parallel accounting and on all circuits. And there are only two of us - I and a local programmer, who knew 7.7 well, but had not really worked with 8 yet.

Actually, it was the ambitiousness of the task that made me a forced samurai. I felt deeply about the problems of the lady, and sincerely wanted to help her. The company is tough, and in case of failure of the transition would have suffered, first of all, she, not me.

Well, then, like in a fairy tale. Until December, I had a chance - I bought a box and licenses, deployed, tested the transfer of balances and reference books, modified something. Was not yet a real samurai.

In January, I just turned on the turbo mode, and within a month we and the assistant completely transferred the company to 1C UPP. A couple of goodies, not particularly urgent, left for February - there, too, had to tinker, but everything seemed to work out. Including the delivery of accounting, tax and industry-specific reporting, payroll for 6 thousand people, the closing of the month and other goodies full implementations.

The samurai woman, naturally, was very pleased. Well, I, too - did not let down because mrs. Straight proud of himself.

According to all canons, I had to move further and higher. Mrs. helped me as she could. True, there was no place to move within the company, so at first they simply increased the staff and expanded the circle of tasks. I tried to push me higher into the holding.

But, as I already told in one of the previous parts, I was let down by the devil-may-care attitude to the director. The senior admin could not cope with his whims, and discontent spilled over me - the director took the CIO from outside. I freaked out and quit. And in vain, by the way - he was also a steroid, and did not last long. Although, in vain, then ... Nothing happens in vain.

Summary

The path of the samurai is service to the lord.
A master is a person, a company, an idea, and a project.
Service is not a stupid submission, but the acceptance of the tasks of a master as his own.
Samurai careerists are rare, so highly valued.
The main danger for the samurai - steroids.
In order not to fall victim to steroids, you need to understand their methods.