Sadhguru on handling powerful bosses

SOMEBODY has become your boss because he is in some way more qualified than you.

You may believe that you are better than him, but he has gotten to that position because of some qualification, some capability, some influence – something has delivered him there.

Even if he has gotten there by corruption, he is more capable at using corruption. One way or the other, as the social situations maybe, he is more capable, which is why he has landed up there.

Just because he has landed up there and he is more capable does not mean he will do everything right. You do not do everything right either.

Nobody in the world does everything right. Generally, he has landed there because he is supposed to do more things right than you do and he is supposed to have a better grasp of the situation than you.

A stenographer in the office can type very well, but if the boss sits to type he may be a bad typist; but, still he is the boss. So, the stenographer may think ‘that guy cannot even type properly, why is he my boss?’ He is not your boss because he types better than you; he may not know a damn thing about typing. He is your boss because he knows many other things which you do not even know about.

So the question of him being a boss has come with certain capability and an overall view; most of the time a boss need not be talented for anything in particular, but he has an overview of everything.

He has a way of keeping people together and making things happen. You may be individually good, but you may not be capable of holding things together. So if you are really good at organising and doing things together, you will naturally rise in your life either in this organisation or somewhere else; nobody can stop you.

If you are in some position, instead of having a grouse about your boss, do your job so well that without you, your boss and your company cannot exist. Make yourself indispensable.

With this indispensability, power will come. If you keep yourself busy complaining, you will not do your work because you think, ‘this man is a fool, why should I work fully for him?’ Now you are dispensable and the company

can drop you or your boss can kick you out at any time. Work in such a way that without you he cannot exist.

Become so useful that without you he cannot function; that is the way to grow. By complaining about somebody you will not grow. People who have reached the top did not grow by having a grouse against somebody.

They grew because they just did their best. We do our best, but my best and your best may not be on the same levels. We will grow according to our capabilities. If you are constantly looking at somebody and comparing yourself, there will be somebody above you wherever you go. It does not matter how big you become, there will still be somebody above you. So you will always have a grouse and will think ‘That man is not as good as I am, why is he up there’.

So you will always make yourself unhappy. If you do 100 per cent of what you can, then you will become indispensable to the company, the boss and the whole situation. In this you grow. If you have more capability than him, naturally the company will make you the boss anyway.

Ranked among the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the “Padma Vibhushan”, the Indian government’s highest annual civilian award, in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.