Let’s talk about Corporate Hierarchies!
Simple, yet most misunderstood concept in Corporate World!
When I started penning down this article, somehow I felt that this could be a bit controversial, but I decided to write it anyways. These are just my personal point of views.
Wrong Perception in Today’s World
Take a moment, close your eyes and Just think of your “Architect”, “Product Owner”, “People Manager”, Vice President”, “Senior Vice President”, “CEO” etc.?
Q: What are some thoughts that come to your mind?
A: “Boss”, “Powerful”, “Experts”, “Seniors”, “God-Like” ;)
Even If you decide to skip the rest of the article, just remember one fact:
End-of-the-day every single person is just another employee serving the company!
Many a time in this corporate world, people get carried away with their designations and let it affect their behavior. (In fact, Steve Jobs himself had this very same problem!! Hence, you can say it is a pretty ‘common’ problem!! 😜)
Hierarchies are NOT meant to make you bossy, but to help people who need some.
Thankfully, my first manager (Viswanath Ramamurthy) made me realize this on DAY 1 of my job!
I still remember his words — “Don’t call me ‘sir’, I am not your boss, I am just your ‘people manager’! You are here to ‘write code’, I am here to ‘help the team with their career aspirations’. This is it. Just a different role. No one is the boss here. 😜 ”
I am very glad that this culture is embedded very deeply within SAP Labs (my workplace). Every single manager with whom I have worked with so far have had a similar attitude.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in many other companies.
True Purpose of a Corporate Hierarchy
Hierarchies are meant to bring a structure in big corporations, with the goal to formalize roles and responsibilities, making sure that for ANY HELP needed there’s a dedicated person who can help you.
An Architect is here to help you in design aspects.
People Manager is here to help you in building your career.
Product Owner is here to help shape the product.
Vice President (VP), SVP, EVP, CEO,… is here to help lay the overarching vision for the Organization/Company.
Scrum Master, Delivery Manager, Program Manager, etc, every single role have different responsibilities.
THERE IS ONLY ONE BOSS, THE CUSTOMER…!
Thanks for reading!
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