I have met a few of Miracle Workers in my life. No, not the long white flowing beard sporting messiahs who conjure cheap watches out of thin air. I mean those super smart, eccentric, usually under-rated employees of organizations who are responsible for a majority of the ingenious (read jugaad) stuff and execution, where none seems possible.
In an organization’s army of thinkers, planners, bosses, no-do-gooders, diplomats, bystanders, wimps, bean-counters, strategists, internal consultants, foot soldiers and wanderers (I am sure you will be able to identify your colleagues as one of the above) it’s the ‘Miracle Workers’ who usually get the job done without worrying about too many written orders, strategies, presentations, reports and SOPs.
A lot of today’s tinkering, which gets passed off as ‘innovation’ in organizations is just Miracle Workers doing their thing.
Those of us who have worked, are working or been part of a team which was/is supposed to achieve something difficult, would have met this type of person. Those Miracle Workers who are reading this should just sit back… and chill (try please).
Almost every good to great organization has one and most startups desperately need one.
For startups, hiring a Miracle Worker or having one as part of the founding team is usually the difference between a great startup and a non-existent one. These Miracle Workers are the soul behind a startup’s ability to bootstrap and to pull of execution which seems like a …er…miracle in hindsight.
They are probably most responsible for the Mojo of an organization and usually get the least credit for it.
This post is about identifying that miracle worker for your organization.
So what ‘makes’ a Miracle Worker?
1. Education. Sorry but you just won’t find them from academically oriented backgrounds. Don’t be surprised if they decided to drop out just because they were ‘bored’. They won’t give much credence to theory, simply because they were busy playing football and smoking up when the rest had their heads in the books. However, you will find that they have had average to above average marks.
2. Background. A background which involves a lot of travelling, changes in environment, sudden domestic issues which would break the status quo of a ‘normal life’, usually leads to a break down. But these guys just seem to cope up. ‘Miracle Workers’ become as such simply because they had to deal with fast changing environments and now it has become natural for them to deal with the unknown.
3. Eccentric. They usually are an eccentric lot who won’t necessarily try to explain away their flaws. They are the lucky enough to be comfortable with their oddities. Like the guy who decides to go to the movies regularly in the afternoon just to take a nap. Or the guy who will come to office and brush his teeth only after 10 a.m., because he believes he must have fresh breath for the first customer who walks in.
4. Boundless Energy. That guy dancing alone in the end after a wild drunken office party, because he still has some mileage in him. He is the first one to agree for a 5 am morning meeting, to work on a project even when leaving at 1 am in the night. Why? Because it’s important. (Warning! He will probably sleep off on the office couch).
5. Talker. This is the finest weapon in their arsenal. Their complete self-belief in what they are saying will get them through to potential customers and colleagues. Unlike great salesman, their talk isn’t accompanied by great style or panache, it’s just hokey homely stuff that comes from deep within.
6. Out-Of-The-Box (Black belt) – No professor or class can ever hope to synthesize the kind of non-linear thinking they achieve. They have an amazing ability to quickly take stock of all their resources and use them, to get the job done. I call them black belt, because I trained under such a guy. When he stepped on the floor of the restaurant (where I worked), it was like Bruce Lee decided to stroll through a school karate class. Just mute awe. He could spot issues, offer solutions and execute them 20 minutes into his shift.
7. Ambition. Yes they are ambitious, but not in the way most of us are. He isn’t really gunning to become the CEO of the company. Senior manager is just fine, as long as people in the organization know who the ‘Man’ is when they need to get something done.
8. Loophole Aware. They may not know how to calculate their tax but they will know which loopholes exist in the Tax system. They may not know HR policies by heart, but they do know which HR manager to cajole to get their payroll issues sorted. They may not know how to send an attachment with an email but they do know the power of CC and BCC when it comes to getting work done.
9. Meetings. Hate them.
10. Flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Renowned Psychologist – Father of “Flow Theory” former Chair of University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology, Bestselling Author and Nobel prize winner talks about the ultimate state of happiness and satisfaction as the state of ‘Flow’. He states that those people who do something, just because they love doing it and not because of any extrinsic reason (like hot girls screaming your name, adulation by bosses, big fat bonus etc) but because of intrinsic factors (makes me happy, satisfied, find meaning in life, make me complete etc) are just working at their maximum potential. And are loving it.
So if you ever find a guy/girl like this. Hang on to them. Hire them. Kiss them…do whatever you need to. Just don’t let them go.
Startup Yapper 