Even the Office Boy has talent

Quite often during my meetings and discussion with Entrepreneurs, I am often a witness to effusive praise for the "Office boy" in the Company(not all but a few remarkable individuals), the entrepreneur will take immense pride and credit in highlighting how he has grown and from where to where he has progressed. Nested with this comment is a statement that-"look our organization gives opportunities and career growth to the lowest staff and make them great employees.."

For quite some time I couldn't understand why entrepreneurs were making such a great deal about an “Office Boy”..After all he is an office boy meant to do the mundane work until I myself went through the experience of truly understanding the power of this resource.

In quite a few entrepreneurial companies some of these individuals are extremely "Powerful" or wield greater influence on the owner and this too was one thing, I could not understand  the reasons . In quite a few companies that I worked before founding Bluesky, the owner seemed to give more importance to the office boy than even some qualified executives. Of course this has abated in the recent past but the moot point is what makes the office boy so powerful….

On deeper reflection and only after I experienced an exceptional office boy in my own company that I actually realized, there was some merit in this acclaim. I tried to reflect and distill out what makes them get the timeshare and confidence of the owner which most other respected and distinguished executives seldom get…

While this is not to generalize all office boys, I observe that some have intense ambitions and a determined desire to grow. What powers these individuals especially where everyone looks down on them and most of them generally are devoid on any qualifications/degrees. But despite this many owners see something that other cannot, most owners are willing to fund their education, provide them a better life and even decide their increments before others in the company. Is it sheer philanthropy and compassion or something beyond...

On closer examination, I firmly believe its beyond just well intended thinking. To understand what makes owners go beyond, lies in the fact that this section of people are extremely simple(less of theories, jargons and more execution oriented), stable, loyal and street smart.

The special office boy, (the one who shows ambition and eagerness) I am talking of is extremely resourceful and highly dependable; he knows how to get his work done. One element of his success could probably be that he has been brought up by "Not depending on Google for any help" (even though many of them have smart phones). He is crafted with a mentality that I can’t sink any further from where I am and the only way forward is upwards. Hence the special office boy can have ambitions and dreams and has no social pressures and fears of failure. He derives his appreciation out of loyalty. He does not need to be bothered of peer pressure and most importantly he is not in the dog race but is extremely passionate. He is trying to give definition to his career unlike most of us professionals who feel that we have already got defined on post graduating from our colleges and now are compelled to be ahead in the race and have social peer groups that decide our trajectory.

BTW, any new employee that truly wants to be successful  must actually befriend the office boy. You win his confidence and you will quickly succeed.They are like moving archives that will tell you everything that happened in the past and that is why owners also like the special office Boy. He is the ears and eyes of the owner!!

Remember most traditional owners know everything that happens in the company and its because of this live Information system that makes it happen. Its natural that the owner will take special care and provide special support to the special office boy-sponsoring for higher studies, higher responsibilities, loans, family privileges etc

 If only professionals could borrow some attributes from the office boy which include flexibility, simplicity, resourcefulness, perseverance, passion and street smartness of the Office Boy.

In fact look around in most companies and you will see the office boy reaching greater heights in the structure and I must also state that grooming an office boy for greater heights is not such a bad idea after all. But the strange part is that the HR does not create any career plans for the "Potentially Powerful Office Boy"....