Sachin Jain: How did people get to be this way?

Sachin Jain, President and CEO of Scan Group and Health Plan, shared on LinkedIn:

”My early career corporate experiences were alarming.

What I found:

Corporations and large organizations are often overpopulated by people who say the right things but rarely do it—and, worse, fail to struggle with the tension that should be associated with this inauthenticity.

How did people get to be this way?

I have come to believe that we extinguish idealism early. We normalize abnormal behavior.

When individuals early in their careers observe and struggle with these issues, they are often counseled with some truncated version of the iconic Reinhold Neihbur quote:

‘Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.’

Years later, I’m left wondering—what do we gain with such acceptance? More importantly, what do we lose?

What would you tell your younger self (or an early career mentee) to advise them on preserving their authenticity and idealism?

• I believe we have an opportunity to change the script in the American workplace.
• To make it a place of deep meaning.
• To replace cynicism with hope.
• To demand and honor integrity, not accept it.

But it all starts with how we show up and how we lead.

– Whether we are vulnerable and allow others to be so.
– Whether we normalize fundamentally abnormal behaviors or reject them.
– Whether we honor and value the right things and how we demonstrate that value.
– Whether we engage the struggle of being our best selves—or regress to a place of cynical acceptance.”

Source: Sachin Jain/LinkedIn