Fiction of Recognition

I see people every day posting pictures on social media with their success stories and holding a piece of rock, a.k.a. award. A rock that gives them a sense of achievement elevates their status in society, fuels their fame, and makes them prominent among rest of the corporate honchos. A rock that empowers their authority and gives a sense of accomplishment – and a picture-perfect business portrait without a pout. Almost every corporate honcho loves this self-indulgence hobby of collecting rocks, followed by publishing the picture through their corporate media channels in a vanity magazine. A magazine, where every other page is filled with images of corporate honchos, either giving a leadership lesson or holding a similar piece of rock. It starts with an awards night — an industry tradition, and a night where rocks are handed over and achievements are celebrated without cheerleaders. It is an event sponsored by a commercial event organizer at the expense of the organization where corporate honchos work. The night is made glittery with the participation of C-levels. It is packaged well and spiced up with ingredients of a glamor and vanity to make it a memorable night. The package includes: The Place, which has to be a posh venue; the Product must be a rock; the Price, must be paid as sponsorship; the Promotion, must be narcism; and the People, are the corporate honchos. This is indeed a special night that transcends a corporate honcho into a leader; at least till the dawn for that night. It is a moment of epiphany that gets intense as the night progresses, and the newly transformed leader chugs endlessly for the rest of the night. The recipients of rock shares their feelings about how oblivious they were about being nominated and how anxious they felt when called to the center of the stage and placed under the limelight. A night is just a sheer display of power and eloquence in society by a few individuals who self-proclaim themselves leaders, at least for that night. The recipient of such rock enjoys every tactile sensation of holding the award and yet has the audacity to ignore recognition of their own team blatantly. The obscurity of that night doesn’t reveal until they find themselves trapped in seclusion that there is no charm in being a leader without followers; there is now cheer without cheerleaders, and the real cheerleader for the leader is its people. Not the third party who arranged the piece of rock in the glitter dark night. <a href="https://medium.com/asifdurrani/fiction-of-award-e3abc09e73c9">Website</a>