It is just the beginning , capitalise or perish...

Landing up a job could be a chance but doesn't mean goal is achieved. It is just the beginning. Perhaps, more difficult days is around the corner. The doom or glory is usually not far away, particularly when everyone is watching you closely and the boss's razor sharp eyes are in look out for something exceptional.  The scrutiny is on from the moment the inductions get over. This is even more critical for the youngsters who have just landed in a shiny job and have to build a platform for the years to come by..

The battlefield is ready , the bows and arrows are angled in, roads are muddy , goals are not clear, don't know where the enemy is hiding behind or who are your friends...the only one who is with you and whom you know very well is yourself . How to stand out dear friends? Some of the things you must do to get the grounding and footing for the long lasting battle are...

- Forget that , you have been selected and it's over . Begin everyday as the day you prepared for the interview. Your boss doesn't remember what you said in the interview, he has hired you to get work done and performance on the job counts . The memories are very short in the begining when there is no legacy to harp upon . Work smart, work harder and don't take anything for granted. You need to prove that you belong to the place.

- it's early, you don't know the job neither you know the people. Your past knowledge may or may not be very useful. The new dance form or new music style has to be mastered . This may take time and the experienced people around you  would acknowledge that as well but what they would be looking out for - triers . Hardworking people never go unnoticed. Are you making an attempt to learn and pick on your own ? The effort is important and eyes will easily notice these.

- your manger has hired you to lessen his burden , not to overburden himself in teaching you. Although, he will be telling you what to do but in the end he would expect you to know what to do and how to get things done. You need to outsmart him by putting those extra efforts and find a way out for the problems before it reaches to him. Help him accomplish his goals, it will be satisfying to you as well as fulfilling your need. Don't just obey, find innovative ways to help him.

- professionalism is normally a very loosely used word but in practice hard to accomplish. A true professional never goes unnoticed. The way you take up the task, minute details ,to which you work on, trustfully ,you meet the deadline , transparency , you carry in delivery.....are the qualities which earns the instant respect. Never be shallow , over committal and only communicative. Action speaks louder than words and remember your boss has more experience and that is why he is your boss.

- Pitch in and help out those who are around you. It's early days, so you need to get good friends. you are in a different world where everyone would look formal and abrasive. You need to unearth some intelligent and smarter colleagues who can  help in understanding the nuances of job and culture of the organisation. Be smart enough and find them as early as possible. The world is a very bad place and nothing comes at free. Still, smarter of the species manages to extract the honey from honey comb.

- the corporate world is like a game of chess where everyone is making his moves. Some can move only few steps and some can jump faster but eventually who wins is the one who thinks three steps before. Everything you do has numerous possibilities , so think , think and think before taking any action. You are building your image and every small step should be in right direction. Don't do something in haste which can ruin your visibility.

-  you have got the job means you definitely have some good qualities . Identify yourself and lookout for the low hanging fruits which you can easily pluck. If you don't get noticed now, it will be tough to establish later on. Doesn't mean you have to kill yourself, but what is needed is to get the quick wins and position yourself before the long run starts. Half the battle is won if you have win the initial confidence.

- you are expected to do what is given but to be successful and recognised , you have to create your own niche. It is not about grabbing but creating a space. If this requires taking some calculative risk, working late, trying differently....just do it. If you are in a meeting where someone else is being asked to take up a overwhelmingly difficult task, there is no harm in offering help without hurting his ego. There is a very thin line but opportunity to win him and win boss in one strike is obvious .leadership qualities are not so difficult to prove.

- Every organisation has its own culture and those coming from outside can have their own definition of right things. However, it is pertinent to learn the basic tenets of the organisation culture sooner than latter and adopt oneself quickly. Pitfall sometimes is we unconsciously learn the bad part easily and start behaving too much on that line. Be careful, culture is infectious.

And last but not the least, never talk about your pains and gains. You have accepted a salary and joined for what ever may be the circumstances . Next goal is to establish self . It is a long run and time will come when you demand but don't do it too early. 

कश्मकश..

गर्म हवा कानो को ऐसे छू रही हैं , मानो शरीर की बची पानी भी अभी वाष्प बना जाये | पैर भी कश्मकश के दलदल से निकल नहीं पा रहे |पर उनकी तो सफर बड़ी निराली है | गाड़ी भी भाग रही है और सड़क भी | मंजिल भी आगे आगे , कारवां की परवाह नहीं | कोई छूट तो नहीं गया ? कोई बातनहीं , नए मिल जायेंगे |मुझे भी तो एक हाथदे दो , निकल लो इस दलदल से , मैं भी साथ मैं दौडूंगा | सोचो , दौड़ पाओगे !!! बहुत कठिन है , गतिमान होने के बाद रुकना मुस्किल है , पीछे मुड़ना भी नहीं | कोई मित्र नहीं , हाँ साथी जरूर मिलेंगे | ट्रैन के दूसरे सीट के सहसवार की तरह,

ऊंचाइयां रिझाती हैं ,

गहराइयाँ डराती हैं ,

ठहरना तड़पाती है ,

क्या करूं, मुसाफिर हूँ -   

अनजानी सी राह पर चलते है जाना .....

Passion for cricket

 I have been following cricket since ....perhaps 1981 India -Pak series .... Gone through the moments of 83 World Cup...Ravi shastri's Audi ... 87 reliance World Cup ..courageous Srikanth, brilliant Kapil, Methodical Sunny,wristy Azhar ....and then our best Sachin who truly epitomised our generation ..along with him astute Saurabh, classy Dravid, unique Kumble , lanky Srinath , swashbuckling sehwag. Then come the era of Dhoni' helicopter shot, Yuvraj sixes, spin of turbanator ... And now the fighter kohli with some real quickies in his troop. Earlier we lost more , buckled to the pacy and swingers , hit a few outside the boundary but got hit more, lost more won some , saw the death in the dusty bowls of the Sharjah. Also witnessed the transformation under the shirt wavering Saurab and Mr. Cool with fielding improving leaps and bounds. Now, we win more and lose just a few. Formats changed, 5 days to 60 overs to 50 overs and now the T20s . During this entire period, I followed every single match that India played. Wake up 5 in the morning to say hello to MCG and didn't sleep while the fighters were bowling with broken jaws in port of Spain. The medium changed from a radio commentary to two camera broadcast to coloured cloths and floodlights and more recently cheerleaders.Work took away the time.The only option to follow now is through cricinfo, nevertheless, the love for this game continues.

Fight of the century or the portrayal of bad Guys..

A lot of hoopla on the channels about the fight of the century ....after not following these boxing fights in the recent time, this puzzled me and I tried to do some detailing about Mayweather and Pacquino . Having forgotten professional boxing after Mike Tyson and his famous uppercuts , the read didn't give me any different story . Two bad boys fighting out for millions. Amateur boxing has come in limelight a lot in recent times in India after the medals in Olympics and Mary com on screen portrayal , but these flimsy boxing fights have gone in the background. The promoters are trying hard to sell this Las Vegas fight and money involved is simply mind blowing. Tickets only going to be 72 million dollars...is it going to bring back this kind of boxing once again on the tV - only time will tell. But it's no different from the old fights. I was not born to witness the hype about Md Ali fights especially one with Joe Frazier but very clerly remember Tyson days , had a big poster of him in the room and never cared how bad a guy he was...in fact his bad image, made him even more popular. Suddenly, all these vanished in the new world.. A little difficult to understand why? These two are also bad guys - one is a convicted abuser of women and another one an infamous Philipino politician  with strong sexual views. A little old though , perhaps they should have fought six year ago ... But questions is will this masala is going to bring back the viewers and interest? Americans are known to spend on such hypes and so the rest of world...but not sure how much in today's context .... I will not watch , would you like to see to bad guys trying to kill each other for the money ?

Leverage the Work Styles to create best teams

While working with many teams across the organisations and analysing them, I strongly believe that each group has certain type of characters and if one of them is missing , the real diversity in the group is not possible. Each characters bring with himself certain traits which is must for the group to roll. They can be characterized and grouped as
- Solution Providers: They are the intelligent bunch , mostly from the best institutions. These people have strong mathematical sense , strong in analysis , self driven, determined and no matter how tough the problem statement is , they reach to the root cause. They enjoy data crunching and only wants to work on problems.
- Visionaries : Their right brain works. They are dreamers and always talk about the future. Even though, they would have studied natural sciences, they don't enjoy getting into the depth . They have strong political and social sense, understand what is critical to business and imagine what could be important in future. They create beautiful power points and speaks strategy in every next sentence. If not in organisations, these guys would have made a best career in acting, painting, writing, direction.
- Pillars :These are breeds who would be knowing everything about the organisation. Well organised, meticulous and trustworthy . A boss's favourite because he knows that these are his long lasting friends. They do all the routine activities, never skips the drill , goes to the bottom of the details and always ready with the accurate numbers. You can bet that these guys would have never got a poor result in their academics. Unfortunately, they don't go too far in career.
- Net-workers: The people with the best EQs. They might have been ordinary students in their education days but had the maximum number of friends. Every one starting from a security guard to MDs secretary to the CFO, he seems to have good connections and rapports. All the news in the company seems to reach them first and they know, "it's not the technical knowledge but relations which will get him resolve the situation". Boss puts him in front to the most difficult customers and invariably he obliges the boss and walks away with all the gratitude. People from other departments ask for their promotions. They know how to sell even the stupid items.
- Big brothers: they are the mentors, oldies with little expectations from life. They have all the wonderful stories to share and enjoys guiding the newcomers. They don't mind sharing their ideas and youngsters easily connect to them. Only issue is they don't want to dirt their hands and avoid getting into newer things.
Leveraging the capability determines the long term success for a leader. Absence of one them is detrimental to success and reason for the pitfall . If one type of character are too many , the system collapses. for e.g too many of the visionaries will only lead to over budget and behind schedule, having only solution providers means routines are overlooked and unhappy customer . Absence of net workers will always create rough edges and leader will be only busy in watering the fire. Too many pillars will make the organisation stagnate and at the same time lack of them will stop the organisation from moving. Big brother is the guide but you need only one. Too many of them derails the progress.

The first important aspect is to identify - not a easy task but monitoring the unconscious patterns of behavior can easily club the individual into these sub groups.  There are standardized psychological tools available but Observing in situations such - how does he or she write the mails? How does she or he explains the problem? How often he or she completes the work on time and error free? How often he is talked about outside the group ? How good are the ppts? Can give easy answers and more reliable and accurate. More often than not the groups lack on one aspect or other . If the group size is smaller , the problem compounds. The most unique aspect is that these qualities are so ingrained in individuals that developing people with different character is very difficult. If you find that one or two work styles are over represented, it’s probably time to add some fresh blood to your team. While recruiting, fitment to the gap should be based on the type of character but not on any other criteria.
Simultaneously, assigning work should also be based on what type of character the employee is. A problem solver should be in Engineering or Research and pillar should be in operations. A visionary should be in planning and innovation .Net worker should be in customer interfaces or front ending role. Big brothers should be in navigator mode. 
Each individual brings value to the table and hence the assignment should be such that it fits to the character. Leader is supposed to identify and groom these specific person according to their characters. what work well may not work for the another and motivational needs are also drastically opposite. If the fitment is correct, the ship sails and can face any storm . A leader who himself has more than one character or is one those rarest animal with some DNA of all these in genes , just seats in the behind and enjoy the nature's beauty if he has built the team with these considerations. His role is over the moment he identifies the characters correctly and fills the gap with the right ones. 
Play with the strengths and coach in a tailored way - the job is done.

समर का प्रश्न यही है ...

समर का प्रश्न यही है ,

राजा कौन ?

जो हाँथो में शस्त्र दे , 

या जो हाँथो को दे कटोरा ,

समानता  में  तो पूर्णता है ,

पर होते कहाँ सब समान,

न हाँथो की उँगलियाँ 

ना माता के दो पुत्र,

ये प्रकृति का नियम है ,

प्रतिस्पर्धा ही सच्चाई है ,

सामर्थ ही आगे जाता है,

साथ जग भी जी लेता है ,

कुछ को पहले उठना पड़ता ही है 

तभी पिछले जग पाते हैं,

सपने अच्छे होतें है ,

लेकिन सच्चे कितने होतें हैं ,

उठो रथ के साथ बढ़ो ,

समय अविरल है 

सूर्य क्षितिज कि ओर चला है,

फिर चाँद कटोरा लेकर, एक रात आगाज न करो ..... 

----- प्रकाश 

Appraisal cycle nearing - Who should be given promotion?

The appraisal cycles is getting closer . The appraiser as well as apprise have the common questions to answer - who will eventually get the promotion? Year on year , the appraiser ends up rating his group of people in the similar manner. It does not matter what kind of performance indicators are formed in the beginning of year, the potential leaders remain the same . Entire year the appraiser spends time motivating people towards doing specific tasks or goals but when he finally decides in entirety , the parameters becomes different . Even the apprise ponders , what should be done significantly to come under his radar - " I was part of key initiative, got involved into a highly visible project, put on those extra hours in solving problems , all task were done on time ...still it doesn't guarantee me the promotion."

More often than not, skills and efforts counts lesser and It's the overall attitude of person, which matter the most in final promotional decision . There could be different results with multi rater system but the person who supervises the individual focuses on the attitude and attitude only. Attitude drives behavior, action, accomplishment and eventually the success. Considering the many cases where some people have been consistently rated some individuals higher than the rest and hence taken the elevation decision, the criteria s are mostly revolving around six factors,

1. Forward Looker: Mostly the person with better rating is a forward thinker and has a typical attitude of ignoring the negatives and finding positive out of nothing. His ability to create opportunity all the time wins the heart of appraiser. This guy is bubbling with energy and always in hunt or look out for newer challenges and doesn't mind taking intelligent risk.

2. Inspiring: Their action is mostly driven by long term goals and in whatever capacity they work - be it small team lead or project lead or unit lead, they aspire and inspire the surrounding to look further. They also attract the others towards themselves automatically because of their magnetic personality. You can find them always surrounded with people and being the center of gravitation pull. Their acts are infectious.

3. Humble and flexible: Invariably, these guys are humble with a question mark hanging on their faces - doesn't mind asking questions, pleading help, accepting fault, always ready to listen and correct, take up any part of the job no matter how menial that is. Ultimately, a boss is impressed mostly not by the labour you have put in routine but how flexible you had been in trying new things and fixing the complex matter . The highly rated guys are willing, even eager to change, respond to new circumstances and new challenges with excitement, not hesitation.

4. Unselfish: Another important aspect is unselfishness . Most of the people believes that by showing of their muscles, the credibility will be easily proven. Whereas in reality, it doesn't matter to the appraiser. A appraiser always get psyched by those on whom he is overly dependent and carries a risk. He would love those unselfish people who spend their time in training others, creating a open culture , sharing others problems . They like the midfielders who take the ball from defenders and give it to the finishers. Most of the successful captains in the team games are the midfielders and offices are like the team games. Empathy, kindness, compassion are the hallmark of those who know how to get the work done. The super achievers don't hoard knowledge but spread it without a glitch.

5. Crisis Manager: One of key ability which comes to appraisers notice easily is the deftness to handle the difficult situations. The work horses may be sweating day and night but the champions flourishes when the going is tough. All of the fast movers have special ability in delivery and execution. The PDCA works in their mind all the time and they know what works in which situation and drives to clear of storms.Success starts with strategy but ultimately ends with execution.Employees who goes higher are certainly good at planning, but they are great at execution.

6. Pro-activeness: Finally, the best aspect in all those whom a appraiser finds as future leader is pro-activeness. They out think their bosses and are ready even before they are asked to. They naturally take the responsibility before it is delegated. The reason is they don't think about reward in first go - "just do it" - is the motto all the time.

That's how I have been making my promotional decisions and may be most of my bosses have done to me and my other colleagues.