“`Detachment from the Self” in the Workplace

About ten years ago I read a Hindu text, the Bagavad Gita, and recently decided to read it again. It tells a story of a young prince, Arjuna, readying to engage in a battle against his relatives and former associates. With the battle soon to begin,, he has reservations about fighting and killing his kith and kin. As he hesitates, his charioteer reveals himself to be the Lord Krishna who lecture him and goes on to argue that he should fight. Krishna tells Arjuna that he is incapable of taking any lives and that only he, Krishna, can create or destroy life. Krishna then goes on to advise that going into this battle, Arjuna should set aside the effect of the outcome, good or bad, on him personally. He further points out that not only in battle but in any enterprise one should be totally committed and focused and not be distracted by the self, concentrating all the energy on the outcome Reading this I thought back to my working days and my experience supported Krishna’s advice. I was fortunate in that the majority of my associates intuitively practiced the personal detachment from results. A few however, were primarily motivated by personal gain. Some were driven by greed or success while others by the need to prove their worth to themselves or others. They made decisions, not for benefit of the outcome, the team or the organization but to further their own agendas and careers. In general, with a few exceptions, I found people who were driven primarily by a quest for personal success, be it career or ego, to be less wise and less successful in the long run (I guess one could debate what constitutes success) than those who naively put the endeavor first. The problem is that whenever one undertakes a task, plays a game or goes into battle and is focused on themselves, they are not giving their full attention on the enterprise and the results will be sub-optimal. I remember playing football as a kid, and whenever instead of charging ahead, totally involved in the play, I worried about myself, invariably I would not make the play and worse, get injured. Having said that, the degree to which one benefits from putting personal ambitions aside, in the workplace it depends on the nature of the organization and the integrity and experience of the leadership. There needs to exist a sense that one will be evaluated fairly and on the results of the actions and not on other factors. Also there needs to be enough skill within the organization to recognize the quality of the outcome. I remember years ago, I along with a half dozen of my colleagues were interviewing a young scientist. He had recently earned his PHD and was working for a small company. He lamented that within the organization there was no one who could recognize his achievements. I assured him that here there would be at least a dozen people who, not only, would recognize his accomplishments but also any blunders. He took the job.