When Fighting is a choice and when its Mandatory

 Broadly classifying there can be two sets of people,  one who strongly believes in themselves and fights what they stand for and others who just are not able to fight for themselves, they surely do have a point but fail to make it!

Please be clear that fighting for yourself doesn’t always mean offending people; it basically means putting your point on the table and defending it till the very last moment. Now, most of the people can easily do the former but fail to do the latter as it includes preparation and sheer will. Will to win, will to prove your point, will to prove that your way can actually be the real way, will to convince people to believe in your point, will to show the confidence that you know it all which can mean sometimes you may have to fake it, will for the hard work to come up with every possible situation and then thinking a way out of it. 

Considering that much of an effort you can easily understand not everyone can do the fighting part and even if they do there are even fewer percentages of winning that fight. Is it a bad thing? Is it really needed? The answer is yes or no! Meaning you have a “choice” to fight for yourself as it only connects you but if you are responsible for someone else you have no choice but to fight!

This is the most classic and common problem that people encounter when they move from IC as in Individual Contribution roles to leadership roles because now this choice of theirs will start impacting their people. When you are responsible for yourself; you can settle in for a low increment or a decline in promotions or missing an opportunity, I am not saying it's good and you don’t get hurt but your not doing anything about it or not raising your voice is something that you settle upon. But when you are a leader and any of the above situations comes to your people you can’t just settle in! At Least not without scouring every possible option and giving a tough fight because this time it's more responsible than ever, you are batting for someone else and you have no choice but to give your best. 

You cannot say “Even I  didn’t get it for myself so you can’t stand a chance” because if you didn’t get it that was your work or your manager not pushing it hard enough that not necessarily your people have done or deserve. So be a different person for your people, be a different boss than your boss to your people, they deserve better!