Long Distance Swimmer or Deep Water Diver - Part II

Continuing the discussion,

3) Be General - When you move from managing your performance to managing performance of others, one important aspect is to build a wider view of the world around you. More often than not the team looks up at their leader to not only help them decipher their immediate challenges, but other factors impacting their goals in the long run. Some steps for you to help and grow in this area - Build your network with leaders in the organization, understand industry trends, learn about finance and HR, understand implications of talent and finance on your organization. I am not talking anything about your domain or results in that area, that to me is a given. One source of great insights of being general or demonstrating common sense is Bud Bilianich - The Common Sense Guy do spend some time reading him.

4) Play on your strengths - Lastly, by this time you would have anchored your career. Whether it is industry (Retail, Telecom, Aerospace) , skill (Java, Pay and Benefits) or function (HR, Finance, IT) is not the point but be sure you have the anchor in place. This is the time to go swim and swim real long distances. This is where you leadership comes to play and not so much the domain. Your strengths should be what you must play on, if you are the leader who can be a change leader, go jump into roles that give you an opportunity to play on that. Don't bother if you have been the Finance expert and the next role for you is the CIO, rather ask for such challenges.

However, like I always tell people - success is relative, so there is never a right or wrong. Both the options can be followed to be successful. At the end of the day it is important to smile.
Create Happiness.

Long Distance Swimmer or Deep Water Diver - Part I

"Should I move into a new role laterally and start over again or wait in this role to get promoted?" sounds familiar? I heard this question for the third time in the last 2 months. How many times have you asked that question to your manager. Every time I came across a situation like that I asked myself, 'What do you want to do with your life (or career)? Do you want to be a deep sea diver or a long distance swimmer?" While the decision is different for each individual, here are some points to think about -

1. Build depth in one area - Whatever career you chose, make sure that you have one bedrock skill/competency or area of expertise that you will be a master at.This could be a life saver in the long run. If it is Talent Acquisition, then ensure that you have understood every aspect of it, right from manpower planning, financial budgeting to system solutions. For this you may have to do couple of rotations in TA functions itself.  
2. Look  In or Look Out -  Once you are confident of developing confidence in that One area of expertise. Look around and see what makes sense as the next step. Start with upstream and downstream processes, look for areas where you can leverage your expertise within your own function.  I am not suggesting looking out of your organization, I mean looking outside your core area of expertise. Because whichever path you choose there will be learning and challenges.
   

Building Successful Careers is like finding Water on Moon!

Yes, now water from moon is possible.

The newspaper on 25th September was a collectors edition. We find water on moon! Yes, I read the small print that there are no lakes and oceans yet but, " Very fine films of water on dust particles on lunar surface". Also, “The real significance of this mission is that it surveyed the entire Moon. Nasa’s Apollo manned missions between 1969 and 1972 did not find any water at all because they surveyed only a bare 25% of the lunar surface.’’
40 years to discover water on moon and many more to reach a stage where we can use this discovery for the benefit of humankind.What a nice way to think of careers and success:)



Success is all about discovery and more importantly self discovery.

• Taking an inventory is not enough - Look deep and wide, check with friends, peers, directs and your manager. Validate what you listen, look for examples and patterns.
• Do not jump into a long list of actions - Take a deep breath, prioritize what works for your current role and business needs, do not lose sight of the rest, start making small action items and measure the results
• Find a coach/mentor - Very important step to build a successful career. Find someone who you are comfortable sharing your challenges, listen and ask a lot of questions. This will help you and the coach understand the real areas of opportunity. A nice article here gives you some good tips on coaching.
  
• You will need to persevere - 'Each to his Own', what works for someone else may not work for you. Success may mean trial and error, the lower your errors higher will be your self confidence and closer will you be from your target.

And, it has taken 40 years for us to find water on moon. I am sure you will take much less in finding and building your career.

A Flyover, A speed breaker and HR

It was an interesting observation when I was traveling to office today, 10 miles from my house. The drive to office has many speed breakers and 2 fly overs, every time I come to a speed breaker I curse the person who came up with the idea and bless the genius who thought of a flyover ( I am sure my car would be doing the same). So how is this connected to HR? Here is how I look at the need to build more flyovers and remove the speed breakers by the HR team. And to understand this better we need to look at some basics,

• A speed breaker is put on the road to stop people who do not drive safely, it is a means to drive compliance to the rules/guidelines. However, if you look deeper there would be approximately 10% of drivers who actually drive rash and 90% drive carefully, but they have to put up with these bumpy roadblocks to drive compliance. The big question is, does it really? The 10% will still continue to drive rash and maybe for sometime be compliant, but they will never be 'Committed' to drive safely!
• I relate this to a many HR policies in organizations that are focused on driving compliance but not commitment. Policies that are put in place to stop the 10% of issues from happening but 90% of others getting inconvenienced and demotivated.

On the other side, I love the idea of a flyover.

• It considers all constraints around it and finds a way to rise above the constraints and allows smooth flow. However, it takes time, effort and and some initial pain to build a flyover. But at the end of the efforts you get a smooth flow of 100% of the traffic, and this drives the need of sane driving.

Beat It!

This is a picture that I clicked with my HTC Viva on a busy Bangalore road. What you see in the picture is when this rider just about avoided falling down and hitting another car on the road. This was right after a crossing and there was a policeman standing 100 meters to the left of this picture (for the uninitiated Viva is a cell phone hence I could not zoom in or out to the desired level) and was least bothered by the hazard this foolhardy motorcyclist posed to people on the road. This was a great example of the 'Its OK' attitude that you see around all the time. Can you beat it!

This also reminded me of some good talent discussions that I have had in my experience. Leaders make heroes of their people who in their minds carry the load of the team, a lot of times without realizing how these heroes are causing all kinds of accidents (poor decisions) in their teams because they want to carry the entire load with just one of their trusted lieutenants. (see the brave heart sitting on the pillion on this motorcycle)

In my mind it is your responsibility to avoid such situations in the organization,

- make sure that you do not have team members who are driving a personal agenda, all decisions need to be taken with the bigger picture in mind
- You will never be able to grow your talent unless you are ready to give them an opportunity to make mistakes
- You need to worry about the how part of the results and not only the end result
- You must make sure that the results have not caused any 'damage' to the team on the way

I hope the man reached safely to his destination and also allowed others to reach theirs! Please do not try this on the road or in your teams.

Amazing Truth!

An amazing story of what one person can do to change the world. We all get entangled in making a BIG change to the world one fine day and a lot of time that day arrives in our life when we ourselves do not have energy or enthusiasm (post retirement). This is a great story of one person who is making efforts make things right in his own small world!

Suvendu Roy of Titan Industries shares his inspirational encounter with a rickshaw driver in Mumbai:

Last Sunday, my wife, kid, and I had to travel to Andheri from Bandra. When I waved at a passing auto rickshaw, little did I expect that this ride would be any different. As we set off, my eyes fell on a few magazines (kept in an aircraft style pouch) behind the driver's back rest. I looked in front and there was a small TV. The driver had put on the Doordarshan channel.

My wife and I looked at each other with disbelief and amusement. In front of me was a small first-aid box with cotton, dettol and some medicines. This was enough for me to realise that I was in a special vehicle. Then I looked round again, and discovered more - there was a radio, fire extinguisher, wall clock, calendar, and pictures and symbols of all faiths - from Islam and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. There were also pictures of the heroes of 26/11- Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare and Unnikrishnan. I realised that not only my vehicle, but also my driver was special.

I started chatting with him and the initial sense of ridicule and disbelief gradually diminished. I gathered that he had been driving an auto rickshaw for the past 8-9 years; he had lost his job when his employer's plastic company was shut down. He had two school-going children, and he drove from 8 in the morning till 10 at night. No break unless he was unwell.

We realised that we had come across a man who represents Mumbai – the spirit of work, the spirit of travel and the spirit of excelling in life. I asked him whether he does anything else as I figured that he did not have too much spare time. He said that he goes to an old age home for women in Andheri once a week or whenever he has some extra income, where he donates tooth brushes, toothpastes, soap, hair oil, and other items of daily use. He pointed out to a painted message below the meter that read: "25 per cent discount on metered fare for the handicapped. Free rides for blind passengers up to Rs. 50.”

My wife and I were struck with awe. The man was a HERO! A hero who deserves all our respect. Our journey came to an end; 45 minutes of a lesson in humility, selflessness, and of a hero-worshipping Mumbai, my temporary home. We disembarked, and all I could do was to pay him a tip that would hardly cover a free ride for a blind man.

I hope, one day, you too have a chance to meet Mr Sandeep Bachhe in his auto rickshaw: MH-02-Z-8508.

"I think it's a real education," says Mr. Welch

'Real education' and that is what we need to make a big difference to our growing economy in India. As a nation we are churning out hundreds and thousands of engineers and graduates but how many of them are employable? There is a wide divide between getting education and real education and efforts like the Jack Welch MBA The Jack Welch MBA Coming to Web - WSJ.com will help attract a lot of attention to making education relevant and affordable.

The newly formed government in India seems to be brimming with confidence to bring about a change on several fronts,

- The proposed changes in the education system
- Promise to add more Nandan Nilekani's to the Govt. machinery
- The infrastructure projects and the other welfare schemes announced

What remains to be seen is, how does the govt. plan to plug the huge deficit? Fingers crossed!