Who are the ‘We’, ‘You’ and ‘I’ in corporate?

The word ‘You’ or ‘I’ or ‘We’ really win in corporate world? We may think it is better to use the word ‘we’ as it is an all inclusive term, so one can script success very easily by using the above buzz word - we. Naturally people believe that use of the phrase ‘we’ will be very wise and such reference would always send the signal of equality and equal importance.

The question is can everyone use the word ‘we’ in the organization? The phrase ‘we’ is patent protected and trade mark registered only to the top bosses in the corporate. If they use the word - we, it will have the right meaning and they alone are entitled to use such term in corporate.

When a boss use the term –we-, he/she largely and exclusively refers to everyone except him/her. When the boss makes a statement that we must make it happens means; you all must do (except me) the above necessarily for me.

According the dictionary of the top management in most corporate, the synonym for the word ‘WE’ is ‘YOU’. Every employee when listen to such references in the corporate, all they need to do is to search for a ‘you’ to engage the task. If they could not find a ‘you’ to assign the task means, the job is for them and they should whether console or curse but realize the truth that….. ‘I have to do the job’.

The success of the bosses in any corporate lies on how emphatically and how loudly he/she can bind all the people onto the task by using the most powerful, the all inclusive and the so levelheaded word ‘we’. If he/she fails to achieve the task by the above usage and he/she is ending up in doing the job by them means he/she is only a title king or title boss in the chessboard, both the king and the pawn are stored in the same box when the game is on or over.

The ‘you’ leadership is the birth right of middle managers (GM’s and up to Managers). Such people in most corporate are there only to do general management jobs and do not hold any specific responsibilities. They always speak in general and as global as possible without any depth of knowledge, utility or direction. Any job assigned to them, they simply pass onto their subordinates and say ‘you’ have to do it. Except in receiving the salary and all credits, these people reserve everything to ‘you’ people. Their only job in the corporate except receiving the salary is to promise many projects and results to the ‘We’ leader and make it happen through you people.

In many meetings and forums, they use the language that my people only have done it. They convert what ‘you people’ have done as they have done. They work like DC (Direct Current) adaptors as most top management can work only on direct current (only projects and results are important to them, no process details).

You people are the real ‘generators’ and transformers of the electricity (result) but the ‘you’ leaders convert the above results and supply to the top management through them by making an aura of ‘they are the real cause for such result. When there is any problem, the ‘you’ leaders know how to bind you people for the above disaster.

The ‘you’ leaders also know what voltage supply of current to be provided to the top management at any given point of time and they act accordingly.

Finally, the ‘I’ people are always blessed to live with their ‘eyes fully open’ just to see what is happening around them in the corporate. The ‘I’ people otherwise the ‘real doer’ of all the work and are the real ‘cause’ for the result and also they become the consequence of their own result as all they know is to do the job like a donkey or camel. The ‘I’ people also have to live as ‘mute, blind and deaf’ ‘witness’ everything.

Learn to be a part of ‘you’ or ‘we’ if you want to succeed in corporate. After all, I have to be successful whether you or we succeed or not.

In animal world, only ‘you’ and ‘I’ exists and there is no ‘we’. In truth ‘we’ only makes the relevance of ‘you’ and ‘I’.

Dr S Ranganathan