HAVING IT and DOING IT - Getting on in the corporate world

A friend of mine, lets call him Nigel recently went for an
interview for a higher position within the large organisation where he has worked since graduating from university. He had done the same job well for several years and been promoted quickly after joining the company but things had begun to feel stagnant.

Having watched a few other graduates rise through the ranks and over take him he started to wonder why he was being left behind. It seemed that the people he regarded as loud incompetent prats were the ones who furthered their careers more quickly and with less effort than those like him who did all the 'real work' and really knew what was what. Why was this? wondered Nigel and instead of just continuing to work his butt off running the department unnoticed and unrewarded he decided to apply for a higher position. If nothing else it would at least clarify what his bosses really thought about him.

The day after the interview I met up with Nigel to discuss how he got on. The conversation went something like this>

"Hi Nigel...well..how did it go?"

(Sigh)"Oh you know, I did a lot of work researching the role and so on and I know I can do this job probably with one hand tied behind my back but I just don't know if I have it."

"Have what? you mean the job...when do you find out?"

"No..I don't know if I have IT, you know IT. I can do it but I'm not sure if I have it and if I don't then I don't know how to get it."

"Oh...you mean IT, I don't have it either." I said with a sigh. "Life is harder when you don't have it. The 'have its' don't realise what it's like."

"Do you think you have to be born with it? or can you maybe learn it..or fake it or something."

"Some people are definitely born with it but I reckon you can learn it but it would be hard."

"The thing is I pride myself on being able to do it and if I was to put loads of effort into trying to be a 'have it' then I might not have the energy to do it and then I'd be letting myself and other people down."

"Yes but that's the thing Nigel people who have it don't ever worry about letting people down. If you have it then most of the time you don't need to be doing it, you just get other people to do it for you. That's the whole point of being a 'have it'."

"I think you're right you know. But I know the other guy who's going for the job. He's younger than me and he's definitely a 'have it' he had the watch, the loud voice, he's athletic, plays golf you know..the body language..everything."

"But Nigel, can he do it?"

"No..oh no he's crap but during the interview having it holds all the weight. They know I can do it but they don't think I have it otherwise I would have been promoted years ago. They nearly all have it, although there's a few who have it and can do it aswell they're a rare species, but most of them promote and recruit little clones of themselves i.e.'have its'.

"That's because if they promote all the 'do its' then there'd be no-one to do it and nothing would get done because all the 'have its' would be arguing, competing and bragging and the 'do its' would be sitting in meetings feeling frustrated because most meetings are inefficient wastes of time and nothing was getting done."

"I just can't help thinking that if there were more 'do its' in management the whole company would be so much more efficient. There'll always be room for a few 'have its' at the top but when there's too many all that happens is they
spend all their time and energy competing."

"I think you're right to achieve efficiency you need a nice balance of mostly 'do its' because when 'do its' are among other 'do its' do you know what they stop feeling intimidated and they often find that they actually have IT
In a catastrophic global disaster who survives?"

Both of us "THE DO ITS."