Organizational Guardrails Offer Employee Security

As a proud resident of Buffalo, NY, one of my favorite places to visit is Niagara Falls, Canada. For those who have never been there, I highly recommend it. To get from Buffalo, NY to Niagara Falls you have to cross over “The Rainbow Bridge”. It offers you a wonderful view of the falls, but is also intimidating at the same time. The Rainbow Bridge is almost 300 feet above the water, and nearly a mile long. The bridge is quite narrow, and below, nearly 6 billions pounds of water flow under the bridge every minute, creating an incredible current. Thousands of people cross over that bridge every day without much thought in the world; you probably would as well if you were visiting.

Now let me offer you this. What if I added the famous Buffalo weather to the equation, where it is not unusual to receive 2 feet of snow overnight, heavy sleet, and ice. It makes your trip over the Rainbow Bridge a little bit more interesting. What if I said to you, I am taking away all of the guardrails on this bridge, leaving nothing between you and the 300 foot fall into the Niagara Falls below. Then you would probably say “no thank you.” Why is that? Easy – those guardrails are what give you security. They protect us. They make our trip to the other side easier. We have more confidence riding across the bridge or path to reach our destination when we have security or guardrails beside us. In business organizations, it is no different. Organizations create guardrails to help protect us from falling over the edge. They give us tools to succeed. They lay in places like mentoring programs, training programs, communication, leadership, guidance, performance reviews, etc. Us as employees rely on these “Business Guardrails” to help guide us and protect us, all while building our confidence to reach our goals.

When you are new to an organization, you are unsure of where you fit, what your responsibilities include, what your limits are, who in the organization can help guide you along the path of development. It is somewhat intimidating at first to take a drive onto that bridge. So you reach out to the leadership to assist you in the transition. They explain your position, their expectations of you, and put people in places to help guide you along the path or bridge. You begin to reach out and find mentors inside and outside of your company to help steer you along the way. Your organization places you into a training program to help give you the tools so you can better succeed in reaching your goals. Your managers give you some level of authority, responsibility, and accountability, but not too much at first, and when you start getting too close to the edge, they are there to stop you and keep you on the right track. All of these things are security items that help you from falling over the boundary, or keep you on the road, giving you more confidence to cross the bridges you have in front of you in order for you to succeed and reach your goal of reaching the other side.

It is not only about what the organization gives you as forms of security, or guardrails. You also have to create your own protection. They are your values, your beliefs, your character. These items play an important part in keeping you straight on that bridge. Not every single road out there has guardrails; it is then up to you to reach inside yourself and pull out these tools to help you maintain the right direction. This is when you have to remember to walk the talk, and do what it is right, not what is always easiest.

These guardrails are available to you in your organization, and people should not feel they have to cross such a bridge without them. Why would you want to? Why would you want to turn your back on such valuable things like mentoring programs, training programs? Why would you want to turn your back on your team, your leadership? Why would you want to cross the Rainbow Bridge without guardrails? Reach out and count on your organization to assist you in reaching the other side. Reach out to your leadership who give you a path to success and allow you to drive along that path, but will also put up a guardrail for you when you get to close to the edge. Dig down deep and find the beliefs, the values, the character that is inside of you. That is what keeps you focused when times are tough – when it is snowing and you have to cross that bridge. Be confident. Know that your goal is on the other side of the bridge. Know that when you reach the other side, there will be more bridges to cross. Know that your inner you and your organization are there to ensure you do not fall over that edge. You just have to realize they are there for you, and count on them.