Motivation maintained

I received a mail from one friend:

I have gone through your recent article on "TASK ASSIGNED" . The article looks well formatted and covers most of the points that a person should follow to complete a task not only related to the work he does, but also tasks related to his day to day life. I do agree that this method works and is a tested one; by many but there is a different scenario to this one.

What to do when a couple of people are engaged in a common job and you have to wait for the other person to complete his part. How to keep yourself motivated and targeted to work under such situation. Some times it does happen that you are through with your part and there is a long wait in between.

How can we utilize that time and get something very fruitful for us that might benefit the team and might help to upgrade yourself to a new level.

I am looking forward to your views on the same.

(Image courtesy Amy )

I can see the situation that my task is complete and it is now waiting for some one else to complete their task so I can integrate them or then we can proceed to next task which depends on both these tasks. I can understand I am waiting for someone but does that mean I have no work? Let me figure out my motivation for doing tasks. I do these tasks for maintaining the job as a primary motivation but important motivation is also to keep myself satisfied with my job and yes also to rise up in the company to newer more responsible positions.

As soon as I start looking towards my goal of rising up the ladder of responsibility the answer to whether I have no work now becomes clear in front of my eyes.

(Image courtesy Johnnie Walker)

Actually when I am waiting for something to happen and I am apparantly not assigned to any task for some period I am getting paid for doing nothing for that period. I consider this time as a paid time to practise my jump to next level in the organization. All next levels demand you to take more responsibility and the time when I am unassigned explicitly to a task is the exact time to think about newer responsibilities I can take.

(Image courtesy Kool)

So now as I remember that in all my goals rising up the ladder of responsibility is also one goal, this makes all my unassigned time available to me for the next move. I must think about what to learn so I can take the next level responsibility. I must take initiative to grab that responsibility.

If I want to become a team leader from developer, will they make me the team leader overnight? How will the management know that I am capable of taking up the responsibility of the team leader. This tells me that I must show the qualities of a team leader while I am assigned to a developer role. So the management must see a potential team leader in me even while I am still a developer. This perspective will lead me to make tasks which are secretly assigned to me and which I can grab by taking initiative.


(Corporate ladder - CEO View)

There is a ladder of responsibility and person whom I report has more responsibilities than me. If I can figure out how to make the tasks of my superior easier, in this process I am actually learning how to become like them.

(Corporate Ladder - Worker's View, image courtesy KC)

We can think that the superiors are just for harassment, or the management is only putting pressure on me. There is always a viewpoint of the worker which says that the management grows by exploiting the subordinates.

There is a different perspective also, a positive perspective, a powerful perspective to see the same image from top side. Everybody is working according to the responsibilities assigned to them.

If I want to climb up I must start feeling the responsibility the pain the concerns of that level and make myself a potential candidate for that place. This concept will always guide me find ways , find tasks, find newer responsibilities to grab when I have no apparent work assigned to me.

Coming to the answer for the question asked in the mail I receive. When I am done with my task and I am waiting for somebody to complete their task what shall I do.
I can help them achieve their task faster
I can figure out and design the next step of the tasks and keep my design ready
I can refactor the design made till now
I can think about the overall project, do I know each and every part of the project? Is their any domain involved which I can explore and grab in this time?
I can think of the bottlenecks in the project and try to become a solution for those bottlenecks
I can start thinking about the concerns of the immediate superior person, can I make his task easier by keeping some report ready? Can I actually see beyond the task assigned to me and find hidden tasks those can be taken up by me.

And the opportunities are endless my friend, only the perspective needs to be changed. How to change the perspective? Easy, just check up with your goals, they will guide you to the next step in your action plan.

with regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur