Leadership & Culture
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Read more: The Hidden Realities of Corporate Decision-Making: Connections vs Qualifications
The Hidden Realities of Corporate Decision-Making: Connections vs Qualifications
Why Connections Often Matter More Than Qualifications in Business
The corporate world often prioritizes connections over qualifications, leaving many puzzled and frustrated. Here’s why it happens and what you can learn from it.
1. Networking in Hiring Decisions
Even when a candidate perfectly matches the job description, the position may go to someone less qualified but better connected. Relationships within the organization or external networks often outweigh credentials, as these connections strengthen long-term organizational ties.
2. Securing High-Value Contracts
Corporate events, like holiday parties, often go to vendors with deep personal connections to decision-makers, bypassing open bidding processes. Relationships play a key role in these high-stakes decisions, highlighting the importance of influence over mere competency.
3. The Corporate Trainer Dilemma
Sometimes, long-standing relationships lead to outdated service providers maintaining their foothold. A 70-plus-year-old corporate trainer, delivering outdated techniques, continued to secure contracts due to his ties to a senior executive. This example shows how connections can overshadow modern expertise and innovation.
How to Navigate This Reality
- Understand the System: Recognize that relationships are integral to decision-making.
- Build Your Network: Focus on forming genuine connections within your circle of influence.
- Balance Ethics and Relationships: Evaluate whether favouring connections over competency aligns with your values and long-term goals.
By learning from these scenarios, entrepreneurs and professionals can better navigate the dynamics of relationships and decision-making in the corporate world. If you’re dissatisfied with the system, strive to grow your influence and eventually challenge it effectively.
Read more -
Read more: Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business: The One Skill You’ll Truly Master
Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business: The One Skill You’ll Truly Master
Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business
For many corporate professionals, starting a side business isn’t about leaving a stable job but about building a valuable skill set that’s hard to learn within corporate structures. The real value lies in sharpening decision-making skills - the kind that directly impacts business outcomes.
In traditional corporate settings, decision-making is often filtered through hierarchical layers, where alignment with company norms frequently takes precedence over innovation. However, in a side business, every choice counts, and the consequences are immediate. This environment pushes you to make impactful, quick decisions with no corporate safety net to absorb mistakes. Each success or setback directly informs your approach, sharpening your ability to handle responsibility, evaluate risks, and adapt rapidly.
Starting a side business while working in a corporate role can transform your approach to both work and entrepreneurship. It equips you with the skills needed to take on bigger responsibilities, make high-impact choices, and move confidently in any business setting.
Read more -
Read more: The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
In today’s corporate world, we often hear senior managers preach about “influencing without hierarchy,” as if personal charm alone can drive change. But as an entrepreneur, I’m calling out this illusion. The most efficient way to create value is by leveraging the tools and resources at your disposal - not by taking the hard road to prove you can influence without authority. The corporate obsession with influence without using hierarchy is not only misguided but wasteful. True leadership is about using every advantage you have to drive results, not self-hypnosis.
Read more
Leadership & Culture
-
Read more: The Hidden Realities of Corporate Decision-Making: Connections vs Qualifications
The Hidden Realities of Corporate Decision-Making: Connections vs Qualifications
by Coffee Analytica Team
Why Connections Often Matter More Than Qualifications in Business
The corporate world often prioritizes connections over qualifications, leaving many puzzled and frustrated. Here’s why it happens and what you can learn from it.
1. Networking in Hiring Decisions
Even when a candidate perfectly matches the job description, the position may go to someone less qualified but better connected. Relationships within the organization or external networks often outweigh credentials, as these connections strengthen long-term organizational ties.
2. Securing High-Value Contracts
Corporate events, like holiday parties, often go to vendors with deep personal connections to decision-makers, bypassing open bidding processes. Relationships play a key role in these high-stakes decisions, highlighting the importance of influence over mere competency.
3. The Corporate Trainer Dilemma
Sometimes, long-standing relationships lead to outdated service providers maintaining their foothold. A 70-plus-year-old corporate trainer, delivering outdated techniques, continued to secure contracts due to his ties to a senior executive. This example shows how connections can overshadow modern expertise and innovation.
How to Navigate This Reality
- Understand the System: Recognize that relationships are integral to decision-making.
- Build Your Network: Focus on forming genuine connections within your circle of influence.
- Balance Ethics and Relationships: Evaluate whether favouring connections over competency aligns with your values and long-term goals.
By learning from these scenarios, entrepreneurs and professionals can better navigate the dynamics of relationships and decision-making in the corporate world. If you’re dissatisfied with the system, strive to grow your influence and eventually challenge it effectively.
Read more -
Read more: Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business: The One Skill You’ll Truly Master
Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business: The One Skill You’ll Truly Master
by Coffee Analytica Team
Why Every Corporate Professional Should Start a Side Business
For many corporate professionals, starting a side business isn’t about leaving a stable job but about building a valuable skill set that’s hard to learn within corporate structures. The real value lies in sharpening decision-making skills - the kind that directly impacts business outcomes.
In traditional corporate settings, decision-making is often filtered through hierarchical layers, where alignment with company norms frequently takes precedence over innovation. However, in a side business, every choice counts, and the consequences are immediate. This environment pushes you to make impactful, quick decisions with no corporate safety net to absorb mistakes. Each success or setback directly informs your approach, sharpening your ability to handle responsibility, evaluate risks, and adapt rapidly.
Starting a side business while working in a corporate role can transform your approach to both work and entrepreneurship. It equips you with the skills needed to take on bigger responsibilities, make high-impact choices, and move confidently in any business setting.
Read more -
Read more: The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
by Coffee Analytica Team
The Illusion of Influence Without Hierarchy: Why Efficiency Always Wins
In today’s corporate world, we often hear senior managers preach about “influencing without hierarchy,” as if personal charm alone can drive change. But as an entrepreneur, I’m calling out this illusion. The most efficient way to create value is by leveraging the tools and resources at your disposal - not by taking the hard road to prove you can influence without authority. The corporate obsession with influence without using hierarchy is not only misguided but wasteful. True leadership is about using every advantage you have to drive results, not self-hypnosis.
Read more