GEAR UP
What ensures success
(ahem) at the
workplace?
Steve Correa
This question has been foremost on the mind of every person who has
embarked or is about to step out onto a career path. Each individual craves
success and the trappings that are co-related with it.
What are the pre-requisites for success? What does it take to become successful?
We search for answers and look to those who have either been successful or have
researched on this subject, hoping to get hold of the ‘magic mantra’ that will
facilitate us in our endeavors to success.
Sadly, the answer we derive is that which has made someone else a
success, but would it guarantee ours? Often it may even seem opposed to what
would or could contribute to OUR personal
success.
Definition of Success
varies…
Interestingly, when I joined
the institute, I thought I would like to be a manager. A manager seemed better
than a ‘non-manager’, but by the time I was close to passing out I had very
definitive ideas about my functional field, my areas of specialization, my
choice of companies, and a very giddy assuredness that I would be a General
Manager soon! J . Now several years later, having spent 25 years in
the corporate sector, I am enthusiastically planning the ‘second half’ of my
career as a Corporate Coach. What mattered yesterday no longer inspires today.
In other words, our goals change our definitions of what success means change
too.
The same is true for money,
power, recognition etc. The goal posts have changed continuously. It almost seems
that each time you have scaled one peak, another one looms ahead. Almost like a
concentric circle that widens even further. It seems as if we crave and desire
more each time, insatiable, always – ‘Dil Mange More”. Each time a desire is
quenched and fulfilled, instead of it abating, it comes back again, after a
brief hiatus, often with an increased intensity. That which you pay attention to, grows; that
which you avoid, haunts! Notice this. It has happened to you before and it will
happen to you again. The more you achieve, the more you will set new goals! The
more you will re-define success.
Note this, that which you
define failure is also ‘defined’ by you.
It has been and will continue
to be so. Our definition of success will always be transient, to be best
defined only by our self. It seems to me that the human instinct and impulse
that drives all thought and action is motivated by the desire to be happy and
happiness is relative to each individual.
As an executive coach today,
I have come to learn that different people define success differently. When one
is younger, one benchmarks with peers. As a young working adult, being noticed
as a performer is important. Later, as a parent and spouse, being responsible
and having stability in career and peer positioning is desired. As you grow in
your function, success is measured by the reputation you command in your field
of expertise in the industry. Like Maslow’s hierarchy, it moves to self-
actualization. This is where making a difference matters, you give back to
others and to Society. I have seen many move rapidly through these stages,
sometimes back and forth. So at one level, what we define as success is also a
matter of time and at what stage we are in our journey.
Our meanings define us…
As the meanings we give to
life change, so too does our definition of success. There is no question about
which is better or worse. That is not
the point. It just so happens that at each stage something is more pressing,
immediate and thus becomes a priority We should not be tempted to ‘quick jump’ to
the next stage: each stage is to be lived through, savored and transcended. It
is only when you have dealt with each stage that you can go to the next.
Escaping from one to another and running to the other extreme is far worse. That
which you run away from will always haunt. In every YES, lies a NO, and vice
versa. So I urge that you enjoy each stage.
Enjoy it fully! And be aware of your self at all times.
Our meanings come from our thoughts...
We propel through life
powered by the fuel of our own thoughts and beliefs. Our thoughts are the un-manifest.
They create the basis for our emotions and actions. They assure us our future.
We create what we envision. Nature bends to accommodate and lends to us that
which we need. It accommodates and provides all that we need, as and when we
request it. This should be understood. It is the power of our vision and our
beliefs that drive success. We choose our success. Failure happens all the
time, every moment. It is how we view failure, how we react to it, how we turn
it as a ‘coach’ that truly helps us to grow and achieve what we wish. Our
thoughts create our purpose, a deep purpose that we give to our lives, and it
is this purpose that guides our emotions and actions.
It is when we keep our
thoughts alive, when we keep our dreams alive, that we truly create the
emotional furnace within, and fuel action. Humans differ from other species in
that man has an innate capacity to envision the future as well as to reflect on
the past. He has a deep desire to relate and express. It is this that makes
human beings so responsive to environment. In fact human beings change the
environment they live in.
As we journey through life,
we blossom and realize our full potential. We grow to develop our strengths,
accept and work on our weaknesses and strive to discover our personal
excellence. It is only when we strive towards the unfolding of our own beings,
that we truly feel engaged, energized and happy. It is this search for personal
excellence that I define as ‘true success’. This success is self affirmed and
does not seek external validation or confirmation.
So far, we have talked about
a few things: that the desire to be happy creates all actions, that thoughts
are the basis for our emotions and actions and as we sow, so shall we reap. We
talked about what defines success and that at each stage success means
different things to each of us.
Finally, that as we replace
our meanings, our definitions of success change.
Now let’s go a little deeper and talk about
organisations.
Having spent 25 plus years in
the corporate sector and all of it mostly in the Human Resource(s) function, I
would like to steer away from the unresolvable question of reconciling What matters in a workplace? What are the essentials to success?
The context and answers are
always different depending on whom you ask the question. To me what matters is
that if an individual is engaged in his work and that leads to organizational
success, then that amounts to his being successful.
I was present in the student
hall, when Russi Mody, ex Chairman of Tata Steel was asked by a student, “What
makes a manager successful?” He replied, “I call it the three C’s – Competence,
Credibility, & Compassion.” To me at that time, it seemed like a catch
phrase, strung together on capital C. There were so many ‘success formulas’
shoveled out to new debutants, promising the magic to managerial effectiveness.
It seemed like one literally had to be ‘Superman’ to be successful. Newer
mantras replaced older ones rapidly – ‘another one bites the dust, another one
gone, another one bites the dust’, I can still recall them like the music
strain of the Beatles’ famous song. So what is the secret – the Da Vinci code,
the secret elixir to executive success?
So what is meant by Competence?
Clearly you have to demonstrate that you have the capability and the capacity
for performance. Do you have the requisite skills and competencies at each
threshold in your career? Each of us pass from ‘doing the doing’ (here functional knowledge is critical) to
‘managing the doing’ (behavioral and cross functional skills are most important
here) and at senior levels, ‘managing the undoing’ (leadership skill) to be
relevant to new challenges. As one moves up the organization, one moves away
from being a specialist to being a generalist, unless one prefers to be highly
specialized and serve as a single contributor.
Paradoxically, while
organizations hire you on the basis of IQ and Experience and Knowledge, you get
fired for EQ, or the lack of it. EQ, is the intelligent use of one’s emotion
for self and others.
Let me talk about Credibility.
At the core, this means trust. Do people trust you? Unintelligent folks have
unshaking faith in others. The intelligent can only trust. Do you come across
as being open – do you share of your self openly and listen openly to others.
Are you open to other people’s viewpoints? Can you be trusted when given
responsibilities? Do you trust yourself? When you set an alarm for 6 am, do you
give yourself ten minutes snooze time or do you create a discipline to wake up
at 6 as planned. Trusting oneself is core to being trusted by others. When
trust exists, awareness exists, courage and conviction exist. When people trust you (given that you trust
yourself) they are willing to go along with you, to listen to you, to follow
you, to be inspired by you. It is then that you create credibility. My ex boss,
Asim Ghosh, would often refer to this as ‘Gravitas’. Do YOU have gravitas?
Finally to Compassion.
Compassion is not sympathy or having deep emotions. Compassion is that quality
of being with somebody, in somebody else’s context. I do not say that it is
about being in someone’s shoes (that would be to lose perspective completely);
it is also not about being in one’s shoes and feeling sorry for the other (that
is actually hypocrisy, we feel good at someone else’s misery, and thankful we
do not suffer likewise). To me, compassion is being in one’s shoes while also being
in the other’s. Holding the ‘balance’ – the ‘santulan’. It is this ability to
be simultaneously in both ‘shoes’, this wholesomeness of view, that offers us
clear awareness. It is this compassion that allows us to celebrate with the
happy, hand- hold those in misery, deal with the wicked, and manage those who
are envious. Above all, compassion helps us resolve all that we are attracted
to or repelled by. This quality of compassion offers us the joys of awareness
and facilitates responses to situations, enabling one to respond rather than
react to them.
I would like to thank Russi
Mody for coining the 3C’s – Credibility, Competence and Compassion. I heard it
way back in 1985 as a student at XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Over 25 years, I have tested
these, both in organizational and personal settings and believe that these
three qualities are true. I re-state the insight, old wine, is old wine, and
grows richer and more potent with the years.
Old insight, but youthful
vitality
In a recent study I did on
Voice of Youth of India (refer stevecorrea7@blogspot.com) I was inspired to note that young folks are so
confident about the future. I am certain as a country we are at the threshold
of a resurgent India, an India that is strong, bold and leads. An India that
rises to its potential to be a global voice, a voice for all nations, for all
mankind.
A final word of advice: these
three words worked for me. It may or may not work for you, something else
might. Start with anything. Use any device (or words). But always, test each
concept on the anvil of experience, Personal Experience. Only then discard or
adopt. Till then trust no words, no man, no mantras.
Let your journey begin. Good
luck!
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