Money and Career Decisions

I have seen many societies in the world that talk of money not being important in many of the decisions they make in life.  Yet, most of the decisions taken revolve around money in most societies.  Till the turn of the 20th Century, money was seen as a need but values such as honesty, integrity, generosity, etc. took precedence.  Not that we do not have these values now but we need to recognize that society has changed. What were luxuries are now necessities.  And to ensure that these necessities can be afforded, one needs money.

I see many people struggling when they talk of making job changes where compensation is their driver for a change in career.  This is more in the Baby Boomers Generation and to a large extent in Gen X.  Gen Y and the latest Web 2.0 generation also struggle but to a much lesser extent. 

I see leaders struggle because they have been talking of making career decisions based on role and not on money.  To me, it is a combination of factors.  Career decisions get taken mainly on the circumstances of one's personal life and many factors go in to this decision.  Factors could include a poor role, lack of clarity in the role, poor manager or leader, family circumstances not conducive, need for more money, etc.  Usually, these career decisions are not taken because of only one factor. There will be many and if you draw a common thread, money will figure in almost all of them.

I have seen staff working with me struggle to explain to me the money factor.  To make things easy, I normally get the money factor in to the conversation and tell them how important compensation is while making a decision and that people should not feel ashamed if that is the driving reason.  Once I make this premise clear, I have seen many people change their discussion and tell me how much their personal circumstances have changed and how the extra money is essential given their new and changed circumstances.  They are more willing to share as to how this new role in another company is able to meet their role aspirations and the increased monetary needs.

Why do I do this?  The mental stress that one goes through while planning to leave a job is enormous.  It is  not understood well at all.  This stress causes health issues, results in loss of focus at work, causes break down in communication and brings with it irritability and anger.  You always get the best out of a person when he/she is relaxed.  I bring in the money factor early in to the conversation so that the person does not have to struggle while talking to me. 

I would like to share an example of a very senior person who decided to move out of my team.  He had an excellent offer and had been making few trips out of town to finalise the offer.  He had been lying to me for weeks as to why he was applying for leave few times in short succession.  He hated himself for lying to me.  He was under stress. When I met him one day, I saw that his face was drawn, he was not looking me in the eye and he seemed very pre-occupied.  I walked up to him and asked him what happened. He told me how his personal circumstances at home were not great and he was under stress.  After few days he walked up to me and said that he wanted to resign. That he had a nice job.  He even pulled out his offer letter and showed it to me.  He explained at length as to how the role was just amazing and that he could not hope to get such a role if he stayed with me.  I quickly interjected and told him that the compensation was also great and that I could never match that.  When he started telling me it was not the driver, I told him that it is very important in the course of decision making. That there is nothing to feel ashamed about it.  Immediately, things changed. The pressure on his face just disappeared.  He talked at length and was much more relaxed.  We decided that it was best to part ways and happily so.

To me money is a commodity that is necessary to live today.  All questions such as "Does money buy happiness?", etc. while being relevant, need to be weighed carefully in the world that we live in today.  Money is a necessity and it is good to ensure that we earn enough of it so that we can meet our daily needs as well as save something for the rainy days and retirement.  Let us not treat it with disrespect or feel ashamed to talk of the need for money in our lives.  Again, our forefathers were smart in this. They created Goddess Lakshmi - The Goddess of Wealth. I believe that Goddess Lakshmi was created so that people respect wealth.  Let us treat money with respect.  If we can do this Goddess Lakshmi will visit us and stay with us at home. 

Leadership - Making a Positive Difference

There are many leaders who think they are different and indeed they are. Many of them do things differently.  Some of them do different things.  A true leader tries his best to make a positive difference in the lives of people who are around him/her and to those in his/her teams. There will be success sometimes and at times things will not work out exactly the way he/she wanted.  But, definitely, he/she would have tried his/her best.

I remember a story of a farmer who had bought a large corn field measuring hundreds of acres.  He had a problem. His field was filled with insects and so the yield was low.  He was rich and so he got in an aircraft to spray the field.  He quickly realised that while he could get rid of insects in his field, more insects were coming in from the neighbouring fields.  His neighbours were poor and could not afford this aerial spraying. So, they were struggling.  He quickly assessed the situation and decided to spray their fields too.  He did this for 3 years and during the 4th year, his neighbours came up to him and said that they he did not have to spray their fields as they could afford to do it themselves.  The farmer had made a huge difference to his neighbours. By helping them out of poverty, he had improved the yield in his fields significantly.

Every time we make a difference to some one in our lives, we end up enriching ourselves through the experience.  These experiences make us a true leader and these are the experiences that I call as "life experiences".

The recent uprising against corruption in India is an excellent example.  A leader, Anna Hazare, was supported by millions of people across India and because of that he forced the Government of the day to accept his demand to pass an Anti-Corruption Bill in the Parliament this year.  He started a fast unto death and little would he have realised that the support would be so overwhelming.  When it came, it consumed the country, the media and everything around it.  People realised that Anna Hazare was trying to make a positive difference for them and their future generations.  The support was immediate and immense.

The positive difference that a leader tries to bring about is something that the people he leads should not only see but also experience.  Unless they feel the difference, they will not accept the person as a leader.  I remember a very old Tamil Song in which the great leader MG Ramachandran sings (and I am translating this in to English), "The path that you visioned will vapourise as dreams, the words that you said will be forgotten.  Only the truth that people see and experience about you will live forever...."  So true.

Can you and I be an Anna Hazare and make a difference to millions?  It is necessary to make a true difference to just one more person in your lives.  If each of us can do that, we are leaders.  Try it, experience it and you will definitely understand what it is to make that difference to someone in their lives.  You will also see that Leadership has as much, if not more, of the heart than of the brain.

As I watched the two bees happily buzz by in my garden from one flower to another, I smiled and thought, "I am making a difference to these bees by having a lovely garden at home with so many flowers.  Does this too count in making that difference?"  The only answer that came to me was a resounding YES!!! 

Lessons from the Cricket World Cup Finals

It was great to see India win the Cricket World Cup 2011...after 28 years!!!  I really liked the match as it was very keenly competed and the game was played in its spirit.  Sri Lanka lost the match but the Sri Lankans won the hearts of millions because of their never say die attitude.

Personally, after watching the match and also hearing the comments from the young players, I culled out few lessons that will suit the Corporate World.  The comments I heard from Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, "We played this match for Sachin and the Country", was an amazing learning.  Once there was an objective to win this game for the country and for someone who has played for this country for 21 years and was playing what could probably be his last World Cup Tournament, the whole team rallied around this objective.  So, a clear objective and one that is well articulated and understood can get a team to focus and go beyond the calling.  However, an objective alone is not enough. There must be a reason for each player to rally around that objective. There was pride here.  There was love for a team mate and the country.  All these made a huge difference.

The Captain, MS Dhoni, led from the front.  He played an innings that will be remembered in history as one of the best because it was under the most trying of circumstances.  With the top two batsmen gone when the score was 31, he watched two young players stabilise the innings. When one of them got out, he promoted himself in the batting order to come to the field. This would have been one of the most complex calls to take as the stakes were very high.  There were at least 2 other better batsmen but he decided that it was best that he walk out to steady the innings further and score at a brisk pace.  He spoke to the coach and to the team and walked out.  Clearly shows that he was leading from the front. He was not afraid to push for a change in the plan when the situation on the ground had changed.  He showed he was constantly reading the situation, looking for best alternatives and discussing with his team and the coach on the alternatives before changing course.  A leader needs to do this continuously.  Change, as everyone says, is the only constant.  A leader will not be able to anticipate all changes. He/she must continuously monitor changes and be fearless in taking suitable actions and decisions.  In this he must be collaborative enough to involve others in the decision but take accountability for the decisions.

Dhoni said something else during his interview which I thought was really interesting.  He said that since the team had won this match, many things get overlooked.  There were questions relating to why he played few players in the side and rested some.  All these would have been points for discussion, post mortem and criticism if India had lost the game.  As in this game, a leader takes decisions in the best interest of the company. He/she may not have all the data when he/she takes this decision.  Many of these will work and some will fail.  The leader must be willing to stand up and face the consequences of his wrong decisions.  He must have the courage to accept that some of his decisions went wrong.  Most importantly, those reviewing these decisions should look at the circumstance under which these decisions were taken before making their call/statements about the leader.  It must be understood by all that it is human to err and the leader is also only a human.  Only the person occupying the seat really understands the "heat" in that seat.

I saw something else that was pleasantly surprising. Usually, we see players wilting under pressure, losing their cool, not playing to the game plan and playing the game in their normal style without considering the situation they have walked in to.  This Indian side did not do that.  I saw youngsters keep their cool, not losing heart when two veterans fell cheaply in the game, change their game plan effectively when circumstances changed, played to the situation on the ground and won the game.  I also saw some phenomenal flexibility in the coach to help the captain take decisions based on the reading of the situation.  This team work was amazing to see and the team got the results that it sought.

Lastly, I must mention how graceful the losing Sri Lankan captain Sangakarra was.  He was proud of his teams' efforts and praised them for an amazing match. He said how well fought the match was.  He said he was disappointed with the result because his team lost but he praised India as the better team that day.  He was honest, open, showed his vulnerability and did not let his team down.  The mark of a true sportsman, captain and Leader!!!