'Mindscaping' for career building 57

'Mindscaping'  for career building 57

'All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners....Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they are not learning, they're not growing....not moving toward excellence'

Dennis Waitley

Couple of days ago a  middle level executive came to me for personal counselling. He was looking very dull and upset. He said he is disappointed that he has not been promoted for the past three years and his salary is also stagnant. He was blaming his boss and his organisation.

I asked him what is his qualification, skill set, experience etc. He explained the same. Then I asked him as to how long he has been having the same skill set and knowledge. He said that it has not changed over the past nearly five years!

We were sitting in my office in the first floor and there is a second floor to my office. I gave him an exercise: he should go to the second floor, but he should use the same steps he used to come to the first floor! He was confused, laughed and asked me how is possible to go to the second floor by climbing the same steps he used to come to the first floor!

I explained to him that the analogy is relevant to his problem. He cannot go to the next level with the same education, skill set and experience which got him to the present position!

Do you agree?

NC Sridharan

 www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 37 - Develop Your Successor

Develop Your Successor.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

– Harvey S. Firestone

The higher up you go in your career, the more you need the help and support of people. You should graduate from doing to getting things done by others.  For this, you should know how to develop people. The difference between supervising and managing lies in the number of people, for whom you take the responsibility. That is why there are supervisors and managers in an organisation.

Today, take a person who could be your subordinate, your son or daughter, whom you want to develop. You should have a plan of action to develop them, taking them through the following stages:

1. Look into this problem and give me all the details and I will decide.
2. Think and discuss with me the alternatives for me to decide.
3. Think of alternatives and recommend the course of action.
4. Check with me and keep acting until I say ‘no’.
5. Keep me informed.
6. Tell me only when your actions do not produce results.

7.      Take over from me.

Take the ‘people development portfolio’ seriously! Your people will grow and ofcourse, you will also grow to the next higher level.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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'Mindscaping' for career building 26

'If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger

 to accomplish your dreams'.

Les Brown

Think for a few minutes: are you happy with your position in your organisation? Are you satisfied with the salary and the perks that you receive today? Are you happy with your power and authority?

If you are happy and satisfied, who is responsible for this? If you are not happy and satisfied, again, who is responsible for this?

Owning the responsibility is a very important factor for progress or corrective action. If we own the responsibility for our unhappiness, then, we will also take responsibility for the corrective action and the action plan that follows. This alone will give us the commitment and involvement.

If we do not own the responsibility for our position, and especially if we are not satisfied, we will resort to four responses: blaming, labeling, complaining, criticizing and avoiding.

For example, if we are not promoted, and if we are not satisfied, we will blame our superior, we will label him as unreasonable, we will complain to others that we did not receive the recognition we deserve, we will criticise our organisation and will avoid taking corrective action to improve the situation.

Over this weekend, spend some time on this very important question and check where do you stand.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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'Mindscaping' for career building 24

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” 
 Albert Einstein

One key indicator of life if flexibility. When there is life, the body is flexible. It applies to animals, trees and plants also. I twig, a branch or a tree is flexible as long as they are alive. Once a tree dies, you cannot bend the twig or the branch.

So is the case with the human body. If there is life, our body is flexible. Once the life departs and the rigor mortise sets in, the body becomes rigid. If one wants to donate an organ such as the eyes, this has to be done before rigor mortise sets in.

When it comes to personal development and career, one of the key factors which will decide the degree of success is the ease with which we can change. The ease with which we can form a new habit and the ease with which we can come out from an existing habit is very important for growth. Of course this cannot be done with a 'alt+ctrl+delete' key! Unfortunately we are a not a computer. In fact I should say that fortunately we are not like a computer to have this key!

Here's a test: if you are used to getting up at 6.30 am, try getting up at 5 am from tomorrow!

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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'Mindscaping' for career building 15

'You can't stop the future
You can't rewind the past
The only way to learn the secret
...is to press play.' 
Jay Asher

Do you remember the 'Sony Walkman' which was very popular in 1970s and 80s? People thought it was the ultimate in the mobile music system! The next 'in thing' in mobile music system was the iPod of Apple. The 5 GB iPod was launched in 2001 which could store around 1000 songs. The founder of Apple Steve Jobs called this as a 'breakthrough digital device. It was also called the 'entire music library of most people'!

But what happened to the Walkman and iPod? Who killed them? It is said that at one point of time nearly one third of  Apple's revenue came from the iPod and about 350 million iPods were sold since its launch.

iPod killed the Walkman. But then who killed the iPod? Obviously the smart phones which has as much storage as an iPod. A smart phone with a micro SD card makes it easy for a music lover to take music wherever he goes.

But the point I want to say is this: when the products become obsolete, so does the technology and hence also the technology-holder. There was a time when a product was build around a technology. But now technology builds the product.

Do you know which build the technology? Of course, its the human mind!

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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'Mindscaping' for career building 14

'The best way to predict the future is to create it.'

Abraham Lincoln

Career building and personality development are closely associated with each other. An educational degree gives us a job. But a job is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. The end is career growth. Job is merely an entry platform. It is up to the job holder to decide what should be the scope and size of the role he wants to play in that platform.

The basic qualification and skill set which got us the job will become obsolete and with that we will also become redundant. You are aware that there is an expiry date and MRP for every medicine. After the expiry date the MRP is meaningless even though people would have purchased the medicine at a premium price.

This is also true of our skill and qualification. Our Degrees and Diploma have a expiry date! When the product which was made with our Degree and Diploma disappears from the market, our education also becomes irrelevant and we become surplus!

It is like replacing a tree or a plant which has outlived our purpose! A good gardener should update his garden. You are the gardener and the garden!

Are you re-landscaping yourself? Is your education and skill relevant today?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com
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'Mindscaping' for career building 11

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Ken Blanchard

You are in a garden and there is a visitors' book for comments and suggestions. You give your comments. The landscaping expert takes the comments and suggestions seriously and implements what is good and acceptable. The result is a good garden.

Can you ignore your car's temperature gauge? An abnormal body temperature and head ache have a lot to say about your health. An angry customer shouting is a feedback. You cannot ignore these feedback.

This is the power of feedback and constructive action.

You may not be knowing everything about yourself. You should be open to feedback from others. Your career progress depends on how much feedback you receive from others and how you take the same. You need not accept all the feedback. But the most important question is: are people comfortable to offer you the feedback?

Successful people are very receptive to feedback. Successful organisation conduct customer satisfaction survey periodically. They also respond to such feedback constructively and promptly.

But you should have the intelligence and tact to process the feedback and use the same constructively for improvement.

List at least three feedback or criticisms you received during the last one week and write down your immediate response on the same.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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'Mindscaping' for career building 10

'There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'.

William Shakespeare

Successful people think differently. person is differently.

In one of my mentoring sessions, an young executive was upset that he has not been promoted and that his boss is unfair to him. He was harping on one point: 'have been working for more than ten years and work very hard ...I have not taken holidays for years together...in spite of all these I am not been promoted...'.

I told him that his reasoning is defective. I recalled one of the very old training films by Peter Drucker 'What Do I Contribute' in which he says that promotion is not a reward for working hard which you are already supposed to do. Promotion goes to a person who has expanded the scope of the job and make the job to contribute much more than when he took the job!

For example, when you join as an Assistant Manager and you start enriching your job and perform at a much higher level, the job contributes more to the objectives of the organisation and the job holder is promoted to the level of a manager.

Check if you have done this. Instead of feeling that your boss is not fair to you, ask yourself if you have been fair to the organisation!

NC Sridharan

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