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Sunday 21 April 2013

Luck

Jack Welsh writes in his book "Straight from the Gut" that one of the key reasons he got the top job at GE was because he was at the right place and at the right time and, therefore, got noticed.  He is being modest.  Louis Pasteur said, "Chance favours the prepared mind."  Seneca says, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
I was reflecting on my career and thought I will share some examples of the luck that I have had. Whilst working in the Business Finance function in an IT company, I wanted to be in Sales. I had this fascination for customer, for generating revenue, for being in the thick of action.  However, at that time, I was told that I cannot sell IT products because I did not have the right educational background. It was then that I started thinking and asked my self as to what I can sell given that I was a professionally qualified accountant. The answer that kept coming back to me was financial services and in those days, it was predominantly, banking. So, I told this to the Treasurer of the IT company that I was working for.  Few months later, a situation arose. The Treasurer had referred another person to a leading foreign bank in India for a job. His name was also Ravi. An interview had been arranged and that other Ravi did not turn up for the interview. So, the banker called the Treasurer and asked him as to why Ravi had not come for the interview. The Treasurer looks at me (read as right place - right time) while talking to the banker on the phone - and it struck him that I had similar interests and immediately to save face tells the banker that he had held up "Ravi" at office with some work and will send him immediately for the interview. He called me and asked me to attend the interview. I went ahead and did that and that's how I got a job in banking. Yes, I was at the right place at the right time...but, I was fully prepared because I had clarified in my mind that this is what I wanted to do. I had done research on the types of jobs. I had found out what these jobs entailed and when I attended the interview, I was fully prepared.
There have been other instances in my career but something that happened very recently was when the job of my erstwhile manager came up.  Initially, I was wondering if I was suitable for the role.  However, I realized that I was managing a large part of the organization, had done back office roles in the past, had run a profit centre (even though this job was to manage a cost centre) and knew what it was to handle tough customers. So, I agreed to attend the interview for the position.  Despite the fact that I had been doing a role at the next lower level for years, I refused to the take this opportunity for granted.  I knew I had prepare my self physically, mentally and also bring in the right energies within myself . It started from writing up my resume, to talking to many people who had done different roles at the higher level so that I could understand what could go wrong at that level and also to role-play various scenarios with my family and friends.  I also actively sought help with a retired person who had initially set up the role in the company and discussed various choice points he had when he managed the job and checked as to why he had made some choices.  I had spoken to over 20 people. This gave me much more clarity on the role and made me increasingly confident that I could do the role, though it would take time to get used to it.  The preparedness gave me the confidence.  Confidence also came because I started realizing that to do this complex job effectively, one needed the right attitude.  At no point in time I under-estimated the asks of the job.  That helped me build the right attitude towards the role and also understand the risks of taking on the role. I also understood the risks for the person giving me the job and so decided to articulate that with action plans on how to mitigate those risks (in terms of what I would do and by when).  I prepared myself physically and mentally for the role initially. Then, I started looking at the job from its asks of me with regard to attitude.  I had to harness a positive energy. So, I started aligning the body, the mind and the energies. Within 6 weeks, I could feel the difference in me.  When I walked out of the interview (it was a telephonic one and, therefore, much more difficult to understand the body language of the other person), I knew I had given it my best shot.  I got the role and I knew that lot of work had gone in to it despite being at the right time and at the right place.  What Seneca and Louis Pasteur said came to my mind.  It was preparedness meeting opportunity.
Yes, luck is about being at the right time and at the right place but there is something more to it. You have to be prepared and grab it with both your hands. You must have the right attitude for it...so, to me, luck is the prepared person at the right time at the right place with the right attitude.

Saturday 6 April 2013

Office Politics

I will try and build this blog on two quotes of Plato - the first one is “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”   The second one is - “good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”  
 
Winston Churchill said,  "If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions."  The same holds good in any office. Where you have more than one person, there will be multiple opinions. Given so many opinions, there is bound to be a push and pull for influencing the organization on the opinions. This will result in what we call office politics - who has a better say on matters in the organization and how do you influence the organization to think along the lines that you do.  I would call it, for want of a better term, healthy politics. There is also politics that we play to gain advantage within an organization that is at the cost of others. This, I will call unhealthy politics.
 
Whoever you speak to will tell you that they are bad at office politics and that they cannot play it. This is because we all have a bad connotation to the term office politics. I am also someone who has said that I am bad at politics. However, looking back at my career, I can say that I have worked hard to influence people on my opinions and what I believe have believed to be appropriate for the organization at that point in time. I have had my way many times and have not been successful many times.  So, anyone who says that he/she is not good at politics could be someone who is not able to influence the organization along the lines of his/her thoughts.
 
To me, office politics is a way of life in an organization. We will indulge in some form of politics daily. Given that situation, it would be good to involve ourselves in the healthy form. There is a very thin line between what we term as healthy and unhealthy. So, what is really needed is a method where we can govern ourselves.  What I mean by self-governance is where we debate and have difference of opinions based on issues and not on personalities, where we are not part of the rumour mill, where we work with a very high level of integrity, where we are a role model for our teams and where we always put the organization above the self.  Such a form of self governance helps in reducing the impact of unhealthy politics and actually converts all unhealthy politics in to healthy politics.
 
So, why is there a poor connotation attached to office politics? We have always used the term office politics to convey something unethical is being done when we have not had our way. Over time, politics has come to mean something that is not healthy to practice within organizations. And can you avoid it? The answer is no...so, it seems that everyone working in an office plays politics (and we believe that more often than not it is the unhealthy kind) but no one is willing to accept it. Each one of us thinks "Everyone else, except me is in to politics."
 
I have also fallen in to the trap of thinking so. However, on reflection, I believe that we can segregate politics and by using self-governance, can actually play healthy politics and in a proper fashion and actually be proud of it.
 
So, how do you play healthy politics? I would say that you need to understand influencers within an organization, build informal networks, collaborate across boundaries, make use of opportunities to showcase the good work that you have done, plan for what can go wrong, remain positive and spread positive thoughts, take a stance based on issues and not on personalities, voice your opinion in a way that does not hurt people but be fearless in voicing your opinion and be a role model for your team.  It would also be useful to make your boss successful. After all, that is what demonstrates your trust in him/her and also that you are aligned.
 
So, the next time there is a conversation on office politics, please do not hesitate to say that you do play office politics. It is only the "how" that matters. As Plato said, do participate in politics and also be that person who does not need laws to tell you to act responsibly. Such an approach will create a tremendous positive attitude and atmosphere in the teams that you manage.