As it happens in the world of work, as the way we seek and give recognition in families and friends and as the way we mark our milestones in our career – such is the skewed way we mark the measures of ‘Leadership Career Success’.

Navigating the leadership career journey with pseudo and cosmetic milestones decorates only the appearance of the career rather than long term endurance of the career. This treading on an unreal hollow path, puts a lot of pressure on one’s aspiration and the person ultimately reaches nowhere or grows up to be a Bonsai. Bonsai is the art of being ornamental, artificially decorated varieties of big trees in smaller pots. Bonsais are characterized by ‘Dwarfness In Being Big’. Learn more about this from Dr. R. Gopalakrishnan’s book “The Bonsai Manager” in which he speaks to leaders on leadership development.

Career can be defined as the progress by learning and practice of an occupation that a person undertakes for a long period of his life and continuously improve upon it, to offer it at a reciprocal value. Indeed, there can’t be a career where there has not been any ‘progress by learning’. However, and sadly so, the modern societal practice of career measurement ignores the ‘substance’ of career and celebrates the ‘artificial’ beauty tags. Thus, in most cases what we celebrate is our dwarfism in being a Bonsai. Bonsai’s rarely fruit, are mostly appreciated for beauty but a Bonsai Banyan can never give true shade and shelter. Imagine a leader in the place of a bonsai.

Of all the things that make us a true Bonsai Leader, the three most disguised and dangerous are the traps of Power, Title, and Money (PTM). When Power, Title, and Money happen to a professional on a career journey at wrong times, Bonsaism is guaranteed. The ‘look and feel’ is there but the substance is missing in the inner layers. Nonetheless, how many managers/leaders on the other side of the table truly has the courage and conviction to call a spade a spade. How many managers/leaders would like to bear the perils of making a fast tracker on a societal race, realize that untimely stops at the PTM stations underscore no real achievement. This isn’t to say that aspirations and ambitions are bad traits to have. In practice, however, very few can back them with sensibility and logic.

It’s time to review how to measure the success of your leadership career beyond Power, Title, and Money, to have a real career growth and not a bonsai.

 Dr. Marla Gottschalk offers interesting perspectives on leadership aligned to our topic:

• If, in your organization, you are in a role by which you are ‘Developing a voice’ in the organization that impacts the organization as well as your professional practice positively… that’s priceless, go for it. Leadership development programs in India and the world, help leaders to develop the voice.
  
• Learning and mastering something new – Whether your organization is small, medium, or big – look for and get into roles that helps you to learn and master new things in your own professional domain or any other allied domain… you are making meaningful investments towards a long and endurable career. These days, several courses, whether they are online leadership development training courses or offline provide great inputs towards building domain expertise.

• Find the challenge – In organizations, leaders exist in stages of “plates are full” and “can double hat” … periodically, depending upon a range of factors. Whatever they may be and wherever you are, look for challenges. It’s simple to find them. Whatever interferes with your ‘sense of comfort’ is a challenge and you would never regret welcoming a challenge now, to build a strong career base for future. Challenges on the first appearance seems to break us but they do give a tremendous high… a great feeling of satisfaction. Leadership coaching has been found to be a great tool in making leaders find that challenge.
  
• Create something. In every organization either small or big there do exist numerous chances of creating something new. Often invisible. Look for them. Try and give the organization a practice, a process, a benchmark, a system, new product, a new line of business, a new way of operating. Even if you are offering something as mundane as a regular sales training, how differently can you do it and leave your mark. This sounds impossible to many, yet it’s both interesting and elementary. This is an experience which becomes so unique in our career that no traditional matrix can measure them.

As Indian badminton player, Kidambi Srikanth said after he clinched his fourth Super Series Badminton Title with an incredible straight-game triumph over reigning Olympic and World Champion Chen Long – “It’s just that I’m not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton and wanted to enjoy the match. It’s like it happened because I missed that period of competitive badminton. It’s like I wanted to hand in and play as many matches as possible.”

Career success isn’t something you chase. It’s something you put forth with effort constantly and then it comes when you least expect it. Most people don’t understand that and only later realizes that they have become a Bonsai.

This blog has been written by Satyakki Bhattacharjee, Managing Partner @ Growthsqapes Consulting.