INSIGHT - OUR MOST UNDERRATED TALENT by Joan Marques
If there is anything that only comes with the passing of the years, it is
insight. Especially when it pertains to life matters. There is, after all, a
thin line between insight and experience. And experience is definitely not
something you gain from one day to another. It does not have anything to do
with education either. In the good old days workers were mainly promoted on
the basis of their experience in the corporate world. Today, it is the level
of the papers you can show that counts.
However, there is still much to say about the value of experience. And
through that, also about the value of insight. How often haven't you faced
a situation that reminded you of an old decision you made, but toward which
you perspective has changed drastically ever since? How often haven't you
wondered how, for heaven's sake, you could have made certain choices in your
younger days? How often haven't you felt mesmerized - or even awed - by the
way you survived some pretty risky maneuvers you made in your life?
When I look back upon my, still reasonably young life, I realize that there
are many things I would have done differently if only I had the knowledge,
experience, and insight I have now. The pity of this entire fact is, though,
that I might have never reached this level of insight if I had not made the
mistakes I learned from in the first place! For, funny or not, your elders
can give you as many wise advises as they want, but you still want to have
your own experiences, and, thus, earn your own insights. And that is all
right.as long as you survive.
Yet, that is another thin line to consider. To what degree should you follow
others' advises, and to what degree do you ignore them in order to build
your own insights? There have been so many people who never had the chance
to share their insights in retrospect, because they just went one step too
far in wanting to obtain their own experiences.
But, to return to the main point, the value of insight is dreadfully
underestimated in today's world. An employee who has 25 years of experience
in a certain department, and who can make rational and responsible decisions
regarding job-processes like no other in his unit, is easily surpassed these
days by a rookie who just came floating in with a college degree. On one
hand it is understandable that learning is stimulated. But learning does not
only happen in educational institutions. There is much to say about street
learning and see-do-let-do learning as well.
Honesty requires me to admit that educational institutions are usually the
primary places where new developments in a certain area of specialty are
introduced: issues that the old worker of 25 years may have never heard
about! So, no matter how paradoxical this may sound: I will be the last to
discourage people from obtaining formal education.
My only point is, that we should never look down upon those who have had
less formal education, but who underwent many years of practical learning,
and - hence - earned deep insight, in their work area.
And then we have our private life stages: fortunately, most of us get some
new chances to apply the insights we gained from past mistakes: if a
marriage has ended, we usually base our next choice on the insights we
earned from the previous one. If we want to buy a new car, we base our
choice for the next one on the insights we earned from the ones we drove in
past years.
There may be only one area in which insight turns out to be insufficient,
and that is the area of your children. First of all: no matter how many
children you raise, their characters will always differ, and with that, too,
the way you will need to raise them. In raising children there is no such
thing as a one-size-fits-all model. And even if you think you revealed the
secret to a successful way of raising one particular child, you may still
find that your strategy becomes obsolete as soon as this child starts
changing through the influence of friends, through education, or though
general life experiences. That's when you find that you can start all over
again with the process of gaining new insights
The best advise to the more mature ones among the readers of this article
may be: give advises when and where you can, but present them in a way that
is understandable and empathetic. A lecturing attitude is the fastest way to
turn younger generations against you. But if you lay your heart and your
soul in it, you may find that you sort some impact, which will elevate the
sacrifices you made long ago when you were obtaining your insights, to a set
of skills that are not just useful to you, but to the ones you care about as
well!
Joan Marques, Burbank, September 27, 2003
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Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational
Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in
Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com
Joan's manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a six part series to get you over
the bumps in life and onto success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
http://www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html
More articles on BUSINESS-MANAGEMENT
Odds and Ends
If you believe...
The Definition of Success
How to contribute your two cents toward a happier workplace.
What a shame
Million Dollar Considerations - Part 1
What You Should Know: International Marketer or Not!
Insight - our most underrated talent
The Power of Planning
Some Comments on Leadership
Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough.
From All Sides Now.
What You Should Know: International Marketer or Not! - Part 9
Growing Older.
Useful One-liners.
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