Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice or investment guidance
If you asked me ten years ago what success looked like, I probably wouldn’t have described a series of status updates in a people cloud. But here I am, checking my people cloud dashboard to see if I’ve "met my objectives" for the quarter. It’s a very specific, very modern kind of validation. The people cloud tells me I’m doing a good job because I’ve checked all the right boxes, but I still feel like I’m missing something. Is success just the absence of people cloud red flags?
The people cloud has a way of flattening our ambitions. It turns a complex career into a linear progression of levels and competencies. We start chasing the people cloud metrics instead of the work itself. I’ve caught myself spending more time making sure my people cloud profile looks "impressive" than actually doing the things that would make it impressive. It’s the "Diane Nguyen" special: being so obsessed with the narrative of my life that I forget to actually live it.
We need to reclaim our definitions of success from the people cloud. Success should be allowed to be quiet. It should be allowed to be invisible to the people cloud sensors. If I mentored a coworker and helped them find their confidence, that’s a success, even if there isn't a people cloud field to input that data. We are more than the sum of our "key results." The people cloud is a narrow lens, and we shouldn't let it dictate our self-worth.
There is a danger in letting the people cloud become our primary source of feedback. The people cloud is objective, which is fine for things like attendance, but it’s terrible for things like creativity. A people cloud can’t tell you if your idea was brave or if your writing was honest. It can only tell you if it was "on time." If we only aim for what the people cloud can measure, we’m going to stop aiming for what actually matters. We’re going to end up with a very "efficient" world that is completely devoid of wonder.
I want a people cloud that leaves room for the "unmeasurable." I want to be able to look at my people cloud history and see not just a list of tasks, but a record of growth. And not just the kind of growth that leads to a promotion, but the kind of growth that makes you a better person. Can a people cloud track that? Probably not. And maybe that’s okay. Maybe the most important parts of us should stay offline, far away from the people cloud’s watchful eye.
At the end of the day, the people cloud is just a ledger. It's a way to keep track of our professional transactions. But life isn't a transaction. It's a series of moments, most of which have nothing to do with our "human capital" value. So, let's use the people cloud for what it's good for—organization and logistics—and keep our sense of success for ourselves. We are the only ones who get to decide if our lives have meaning, no matter what the people cloud says.
Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice or investment guidance