Climbing Mount Everest

She looked nervous and uncertain as she walked out of the interview room.  I turned around to talk to the Head of Human Resources (HR) when she suddenly re-entered the room and said, "Sir, I really need this job."  This was a lady who was trying to get a hold on her life. She had been abandoned by her husband a month after their wedding. She had waited for his return for 3 years, had been asked by her family not to come back to their home as she had chosen to marry against their wishes and was now going through divorce. The 3 years had shattered her confidence beyond belief.  She got up one day and decided that she needed to get back to "living". And for this, she needed a job.  She started searching for a job and that was when she came in for an interview.  This was someone trying to conquer a huge mountain in her mind. It was equivalent of climbing the tallest peak in the world - Mount Everest - probably, even higher.  The HR Head and I decided to give her a helping hand.

All of us have heard of or seen people who have faced significant odds in their lives to come through stronger.  We all may have even gone through such odds ourselves.  Every time we are faced with a difficult situation that seems impossible at that time, we need to remember that the impossibility or the huge mountain that we see in front of us is only in our mind's eye.  If we decide to remain positive and confident, the size of the mountain reduces gradually and we realize that there is flat land in front of us.

One of the biggest mountains that all of us faced as a child was deciding to walk. Each of us fell down so many times - we cried, we laughed...but, every time, we got up, dusted ourselves and tried walking again.  The same thing happened when we tried to learn talking. These were huge mountains for each of us, but we managed to climb them.  If we could do these when we were less than 3 years, why do we suddenly lose hope and confidence when we are much older and probably better equipped?

 

As we progress as a society and create more opportunities for ourselves, we need to focus on building mental resilience.  Mental resilience, as I see it, is nothing but the character that we build for ourselves. Character is again nothing but our personal values, our strengths, the skills that we have developed and the resources that we can pull out of our armoury apart from personal courage.  I bring up character because someone who nurtures this will have a strong sense of purpose, integrity, confidence and belief.  Taking accountability comes naturally to them. This also means that they will live down their mistakes and move on in lives - getting up quickly, dusting yourself and running after every fall.  This character building is essential for leaders.

 

Many studies have been done on societies that live under stress and what has helped them in coping with this stress.  A study done in Israel on how the society has coped with stress over the so many years of war and terrorism shows certain patterns - a feeling of personal security, social support and optimism reinforces resilience against symptoms of traumatic stress. Other research found that religious faith, ideology and strong social bonds also helped in building resilience.  So, while we focus and build on character, it is essential to live with strong social bonds.

 

As we have heard many say - It does not matter how many times you fall...what matters is how many times you stand up, shake it off and move forward. Also, what matters is how quickly are you willing to get up and run. When we do this, we realize that many a time we are faced with climbing Mount Everest, but always, it is our mind that decides whether we will conquer it or not.

Investing

Savings is one of the best habits. I have noticed that societies that save are more resilient to changes in the economic environment than societies that don't save or have lower savings rates. So, what do you do when you end up saving. We try and put it away as investments. These investments yield a return and that adds to wealth.

So, investments are essentially resources that we use today that will increase our future income.  It has been said time and again by economists that human potential is probably not something that we have invested in.  We invest extra money that we have in to deposits that yield us interest or in to gold or land that yield future returns. However, we think twice before investing in to human potential. So, what is investing in human potential? Can we increase the effectiveness of people around us by investing in them or can we get each one of us to invest in ourselves to improve our potential?

We need to start investing in ourselves first.  Our individual careers is a huge investment that we can make. Our career generates our future income flows. It satisfies our needs - be those mental, physical, spiritual, etc. Why then do we shy away from investing in to this career? We see this as an expenditure when it comes to ourselves but are willing to do that for our children.

I was reading the interview of an actor who talked of what he had done to set up a gym, a swimming pool, a dancing room, a studio where he could practice acting and managed his diet extremely well. He said that few years ago he would put down food and drinks without too much of thought. But, now, he realizes that unless he stays extremely fit and good looking, no one is going to hire him to do films. So, he has started investing in his career.  This is a powerful way of looking at life.  In India, the career span of an actor could range from 2 years to 30 years depending on various factors. Apart from capability to act, there are other factors like how does he/she emote, dance, etc. The physical aspect in terms of looks is absolutely important. So, this actor is really investing in his career by doing what he has done.

So, what should we do to invest in our careers?  Many of us look towards studying in our jobs. Many attend training programs. We also look towards other on-the job learning tools. One of the best ways to manage our careers, especially if we are working in corporates, is to rotate jobs. Job rotation is absolutely essential if we need to get a broader aspect of our job. People rotate across companies, across various jobs in the same company, across geographies, etc. Every rotation is a huge learning experience.  In my career, I have rotated across few companies and have done various roles ranging from audit, accounting, business finance support, sales and marketing, product development, account management, operations, business start up, business divestitures, consulting, training, risk management, etc.  I have done various roles across different geographies, managed multicultural teams, managed teams across geographies and also worked for managers from India, UK, Ireland, Australia, US, Germany, China, Bahrain and Oman. I was counting the number of managers that I have worked for - it came up to 31.  The industries that I have had exposure to include Manufacturing, Audit, Banking, NGOs, Trading, Brokerage, Pharmaceutical, Oil Refining, Granite Mining, Technology, Telecom, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Shared Services....and there are few more I am sure.  If I look back, it has been a long and arduous path and the exposure to all these is what has got me to where I am today.

One of the most important aspects of any career is being physically fit.  As they say, "A healthy body carries a healthy mind".  It is absolutely essential to be physically fit to be able to do a job well.  Many of us ignore this aspect till it hits back at us and we realize that health is wealth.  If we are not physically fit, it becomes difficult to do a job properly even if that job is sedentary in nature i.e. a desk bound job.  We are not sharp, we find it difficult to concentrate and we are unable to focus on the job or a problem at hand for an extended period of time.  So, while we invest in our careers, it is also important to invest in our health and physical well-being.  To a large extent, our careers will be tied in to physical fitness.

 

Let us begin 2013 by focussing and investing in our career and physical fitness. I wish all readers a wonderful 2013 that is filled with hope, faith, happiness, good health and prosperity.

 

Sparing the Rod...

It takes a lot to move the Government these days. As I write this post, there are huge protests taking place all over India on the Government to move to punish few who gang raped a young girl. The protest is disconcerting as it shows the state of lack of security for women in India's Capital City. The protesters are asking for death sentence for rapists.

 

Back in the 17th Century, Britain had 220 crimes for which the penalty was death. These included stealing of property like horse or for felling trees, etc. Later this was reduced to deportation and hard core criminals were deported to Australia. The crimes that some of these people who were deported committed were stealing a loaf of bread or stealing a horse.  By today's standards, these are hardly crimes but in the 18th and 19th Centuries, these were major crimes.  As a society, we have softened our stance on punishment. Some countries have done away with Capital Punishment.  Given the increase in economic disparities, crime is bound to increase. We will see more and more of it as the days go by.  So, we must be looking at punishment carefully.  If we are too lenient, we will not be able to control crime.

 

We have also brought in laws like child abuse, etc. that puts pressure on parents and school teachers. They don't know how to mete out punishment to unruly children. Parents who take their children to task are now punished by some countries' legal system as abusing their children. So, what can parents or school teachers do when their wards are misbehaving...just grin and bear them? This is what the old adage called - "Sparing the rod and spoiling the child".  These countries that put undue pressure on parents and school teachers do not mind spending millions of dollars protecting their citizens from these same children who were spared the punishment when young and turn out to be criminals later on in life.  I have seen very few parents who do not want the best for their children. If this is correct, they do have the right to take corrective action when their children are misbehaving.

 

Given all this and the progressive softening of stance on crime in terms of punishment, crime rates are on the increase. From petty theft to rape to terrorism, we keep hearing of crimes every day. Recently, there was a report that New York had not recorded a violent crime for a period of 36 hours and that was the first time in many years this had happened.  This is an absolute shame on all of us that a city goes through a day without a stabbing or a shooting or a murder and we call it a violent crime free day.  If we continue this path, I am not sure what we will leave behind as a society for our future generations.  I can foresee our future generation celebrating an hour or a minute without a crime sometime in the future.

So, what should we do as a society? I believe that every crime should have a consequence and that consequence should act as a significant deterrent.  Further, the justice system should be fair i.e. implementation of the laws of the land should be ruthlessly followed and punishment meted out in time.  Parents must be given leeway to handle children in a way that makes them (children) understand what it is to live in a society and so unruly children should be managed by them without the State interfering in these actions.  There will always be few exceptional cases...but, we cannot have our laws based on these exceptions.  Most importantly, governments of the day must focus on equitable growth or what we now call as Inclusive Growth so that economic disparities are reduced significantly. This will help reduce crime to a large extent.  I believe that it is better to earn slightly lower salaries due to a more equitable form of wealth distribution than to pay higher taxes so that Governments can manage crime and criminals better.

Crime will be reduced only if there are deterrents and these are implemented ruthlessly by the Governments of the land.  If we have laws, they need to be obeyed.  I watched few movies on this and I was really shocked at the messages coming out of these movies. These clearly are a reflection of the frustrations in the societies that we live in. 

We talk of how people behave like animals, the laws of the jungle where only might is right, etc.  I do believe that animals behave much better than us. Human beings are the most dangerous species in this world. We kill for pleasure, for storing food for the next few years, for wont, for greed, for any reason that you can think of in this world...animals kill only when they are hungry or if their existence is at risk.  Looks like we will be a better lot if we behaved like animals. 

Let us not jeopardize the lives of our future generations and leave behind a society that we would feel ashamed of.  Worse, if you believe in re-incarnation...because you will be part of the future generation :).

The Taxperson is the Mother of Invention...

Who would have thought that a theatre person will come up with a brilliant tax planning idea? In Spain, the taxes for watching a play in a theatre was increased 3 fold to 21%. This has put all those in the theatre industry at risk as no one will watch a play paying so much. While shopping for carrots, one theatre person realised that the tax on carrots was 4%.  So, what he has done is that anyone willing to pay Euro 13 for a carrot gets a theatre ticket free. 

 

This is not the first time I have heard of such stories. Back in the 1970s, India charged very high rates of customs duty for importing steel. One business house is said to have imported thousands of tonnes of chemicals that had very low margins. People were wondering why this was happening and it took them few years to realise that these chemicals were being imported in steel containers for which the customs duty was lower. So, the company was making a killing importing steel cheap and selling at very high domestic prices.

 

There are, of course, so many other stories of people, business-houses, audit firms, etc. coming up with different ways of circumventing tax provisions - or what we call as "tax planning".

 

All these show the human ingenuity when it means coming up with something new when it impacts us personally.  If only we could use this focus on innovation in our daily work lives?

 

I was wondering why this does not happen? Should every company come up with new rules everyday (similar to tax laws) so that we can get the creative juices to flow? Or is just that there is no "Whats in it for me (WIIFM)?" factor involved...or are we so conditioned by our thought processes (maybe due to the education system just taking away our curiosity) that we refuse to think through our jobs?  It could also be that we are doing the same job for so many years that we refuse to think out of the box.

Apart from the WIIFM factor, I also believe that when there is change in the environment, it gets us to think more.  It goes back to the "comfort zone" post that I did earlier.  Operating outside of our comfort zones help us to innovate and think through our jobs differently.  Though this can be frustrating at the beginning, it really gets the best out of us.

I remember that whenever I moved to a new role or had role expansions, the first few months would not be easy as I would take my time to learn the role and also settle in to the expectations of the new role. However, it was during these periods of time that made me think hard on what needs to be done, how these need to be done and how do I go about making things happen in the role. It also got me not only to do different things but do the same things differently.

We also stop innovating or thinking through our roles if we don't have good objectives to pursue.  Personally, I prefer to write up my own objectives and take on few things that are very challenging every year. This helps in stretching me, gets the best out of me and makes me think through the job/role better.  I notice that many wait for objectives to be set or just set objectives the same as previous years with some incremental improvements. Whilst this makes our roles easy to go through, it really does not set us up for success in the long run.

One of my managers used to say, "We are all rebels..if we scratch the surface, the rebel in us will come out." This is very true...any change that impacts us personally gets us all fired up (or worked up) and thinking.  The change brings out the best (or the worst) in us but definitely gets us thinking hard.  This change has caused a new paradigm or a necessity for each of us and, therefore, the need to invent.  Tax laws are similar. Any impact to us will get us thinking hard. So, while necessity brings out inventions, so do our tax laws!!!

Comfort Zones

Over the years of hiring and working with various leaders, I have noticed that people who have rotated across various roles and across industries have tended to perform consistently stronger than peers who have stuck to their role and/or industry unless these are specialist roles.

 

How many of us have actually gone through very long phases in our careers working in the same department, with very similar roles, same managers, etc? What this does to us is that we get used to our roles, the office we come to, the environment around us, the people we work with, the manager we work for and the technical aspects of the job. We get in to a comfort zone. And are extremely happy about it.  More so, if the organization continues to recognize us for the work we do without expecting us to move around a bit. After some time, we stop thinking in our jobs.

 

I am reminded of an experiment that was done with a mouse. Sensors were fixed to the mouse and it was released in to a maze. At the end of the maze was a piece of cheese. The mouse could smell the cheese and started finding its way to the cheese. It was progressing slowly as it got stuck in the maze, but the sensors showed that its brain activity was extremely high. This experiment was repeated over the next few weeks. By the end of the first week, the mouse got used to the maze and just ran straight to the cheese. Now, the mouse was faster in getting to the cheese, but the sensors showed absolutely very little to no brain activity.

 

This is what happens to us when we get in to our comfort zones.  We tend to stop thinking through the job and job gets a bit boring for us. We go through the motions of the role, but the job is really not adding value to us. Our learning stops and our ability to get value add for ourselves and to add value to the role, the people who work for us, etc. starts decreasing.  This is exactly why we need to get out of our comfort zones.

 

So, how do we get out of our comfort zones?  Working in different environments i.e. across various business units or departments in our organization, for different managers, in different geographies or even across different industries will really help.  When I look back at my career, I have worked across different geographies, worked for over 30 managers, worked across industries, worked in different departments, managed business unit profit centres, managed cost centres, etc.  All this has helped me to broad-base my knowledge, keep myself refreshed and also added significant value to me. I have also been able to add value to the organization and to the people who work with me.

 

We all talk of learning organizations.  It would be good to keep refreshing our knowledge too. Somehow, many of us tend to think that reading stops once we leave University.  It is absolutely essential to keep reading and learning. I have used this habit effectively over the years and this helps me keep refreshed. It also helps me understand trends in business and, therefore, make decisions that are of better quality.  Learning and refreshing ourselves is essential. This takes us out of the comfort zone and keeps us on our toes.  What happens to us when we stand up on our toes? I mean literally...we can reach things that are kept at a greater height. 

 

Someone once told me laughingly, "Always be on your toes to reach greater heights."  There is so much truth in this statement.  We reach greater heights, both personally and professionally, if we are willing to get out of our comfort zones at any time.

 

 

Living in the Here and Now

The former CEO of Coca-Cola Brian G. Dyson said, "Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work - Family - Health - Friends - Spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls -- family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same."

I thought I will focus on two things from what I have learnt from my own experiences of what Brian Dyson said - The power of living in the present i.e. living in the now rather than in the past or future and not taking for granted what we already have.

Who does not like to bask in the glory of the past?  All of us always carry fond memories of the past and at times we dwell on what did not go well also. Whilst it is good to reminisce so that we can learn from what went well and what did not, it is important to take the learnings and move on.  Some of us spend too much time pondering on the future...worrying about things that are yet to happen...may or may not happen...things that we sometimes control and many a time do not control. Personally, I prefer to worry about those things that I can control and leave out things that I don't. 

However, by living in the past and in the future, we forget to focus on the present...on the here and now.  It is absolutely essential to be happy, contended and thankful for the here and now...you are alive and kicking...better off than millions of people across the world...just imagine the plight of people in the Gaza Strip and in the Israeli border towns now..they are facing rockets, having sirens blare the whole day long, children are terrified, etc....and for those in the Gaza strip, life is better than those who are forced to live in brothels in Cambodia...and for those in these brothels in Cambodia, they are better off than those who do not know whether they will stay alive the next moment in Africa...and the list goes on....looks like whatever situation one is in, we are better off than many others living somewhere else in the world.

Given this uncertainty of life, let us take what we have now with us and live it to the best of our ability.  It is essential to enjoy the current moment that we have with us for we do not know whether we will be around for the next one.

Most of the time, we take things or people around us for granted. For me, many a time, it has been taking family for granted...and I have learnt that it is the biggest mistake to make. Sometimes, I wish I spent more time with my dad...he is not around now physically, but his words and deeds live deep within me...inexplicably woven in to my mental fabric...

This "taking things or people for granted" and "living in the here and now" are inter-twined. If we decide to live in the present, we will slowly stop taking things or people for granted.

The other part of living in the now is to learn to listen to our body, our mind and our emotions.  We need to look at aligning the body, the mind and the spirit and start listening to what they say. When we do that, we end up being synchronous with the world around us and are consciously reaching out to everyone and everything that is around us.  Though I must confess that I have not been successful in doing this, I have started trying.  I understand from literature that I have read and many who have experienced this, that the feeling is just great.  We end up giving our selves endless power by living in the now. Many people have learnt of living in the now after having experienced death of a loved one or going through what we call as a near death experience.  They believe that the power of living in the now is just amazing. If we put our mind to it, each one of us will be able to do this.

One of the most powerful ways to holding on to what we have around us and not taking people for granted is by using the power of appreciation.  Every one of us has a need - that is, to feel wanted and appreciated. This is the biggest emotional need of human beings. By taking those around us for granted, we stop catering to this emotional need. If we are able to handle this well, we would have gone a long way in not taking the best things and people around us for granted.

Our family and friends are the people that we need to cling to as though they are our lives...because, they are, and without them, life is meaningless.

A Shout Out to Execution Excellence

I was remembering a conversation that I had with one of my team members many years ago. He had walked in to my office and said, "Ravi, I need a job that is more strategic than what I am doing today." I told him that it was really nice that he was trying to tie in strategy with what he was doing and asked him why he thought his own role was not strategic in nature. He responded,"I am handling operations today. It is a delivery role. There is nothing strategic about this role."

Any definition of strategy shows how implementation is critical. This is because, as the poet TS Eliott wrote, "Between the idea and reality falls the shadow." Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." What he wanted to say was that genius was pretty much hard work rather than just a sudden flash of insight.  Similarly, in the organizations of today, a strategy is useless unless there are people who can make them a reality.  Today, there is a desperate need for people who can execute and execute well on time. The best of plans are of no use if they are not implemented.

When it comes to brass tacks, most of the leaders are those who have executed very well on their jobs and not necessarily strategic in their thinking. While strategic thinking has helped, it is not the only ingredient to be in those leadership roles. Please do not mistake me as someone who under estimates the importance of strategy. That is definitely not the case. It is critical to understand that the spark of strategy is essential.  Leaders need to have a strategic bent of mind but not necessarily be strategists.  This also means that leaders need to understand that if formulating strategy is not their forte, they need to hire people with those skill sets so that the spark is available for the organization.  Such skill sets are not easy to find and so leaders need to choose the right mix of people in his/her team to ensure they have these thinkers.

As these strategists are hard to find, we end up paying a premium to them. Hence the clamour for such roles.  In my professional life, I have put a lot of emphasis on getting a mix. To succeed, we need a mix of thinkers, doers and thinker-doers. As we go through turbulent times where everything around us is changing rapidly, there is a need for people who will put their heads down and execute to plan.  With 99% being perspiration, there is more need for great executors and organizations should start investing in to such people. Some of them will be great thinkers but not all...does not matter at all.

 

We pay so much of heed to disruptive technologies (and rightfully so) that, at times, we forget the wonderful beings who are executing phenomenally well whatever be the business condition. Let us invest in these people as much as we invest in technologies...organizations will reap the dividends.