“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch
excellence.” - Vince Lombardi
To pick up a good
career of your choice, you should have required formal education at degree/diploma
level, from a recognized college or university. One needs to earn 3 to 4 years
diploma /degree level education with a good grade. All employers have a very
high standard of aptitude test and interview to select the best candidate.
Generally, 30% to 40 % professionals can get their choice and rest have to try
again with other recruiting agencies. They hope to gain some corporate exposure
and switch the job in 2-3 years. The fee for private college or university is
quite high and one cannot afford for regular full-time studies and moves for
distance learning or online courses. In India and most Asian counties distance
education is not at par with a regular degree. Therefore you should have
under-graduate (3 or 4 years) degree as a regular student. Likewise, if you do
any skill building or technical diploma/certificate level course, you must
study in any mode but must get certified without which it will not be given
required recognition. Always search for excellence and raise the bar. If
you believe in mediocrity, you will not reach the top. You must continuously
improve your knowledge, skills and creativity to stay relevant to the market.
As a leader, you must always do your best and deliver excellent results on time
and within budget, This will ensure customer’s delight and your organization
will become a benchmark for others to perform well. Some basic steps leading to
success are given below:
- Learning
is a lifelong process. To
be a successful manager or team leader, you must be technically as well as
administratively sound to manage knowledge workforce of today. You
should actively participate in seminars, conferences, workshops and
professional forums. In fast-moving economy and pace of technology,
you must remain updated to stay relevant. It is useful to get associated
with various institutions/organizations to gain knowledge about emerging
technologies, business practices and research work. This can provide you
platform to showcase your talent/expertise and speed up your career growth
- Continuous
skills building.
Fast changing technologies and business practices necessitate remaining
up-to-date. You need to search and identify market demand for popular
professional qualifications and skill sets and plan to fill the gaps in
your CV. In emerging global education scenario, there are many online
training courses offered by many universities, IITs and organizations like
PMI, Agile/Scrum, MOOC, Future-learn, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle. Google.
- Knowledge
is a force multiplier. Knowledge
is a force multiplier and it impacts your performance and even your
reaction. Lack of knowledge will make you hesitant to speak in public and
even during any meeting/discussion. You are to have a good aptitude for a
subject/skill and quick on the uptake to understand and absorb
instruction/process. Some are born with good aptitude/memory while others
may have to put extra effort to grasp the subject/instruction. A
famous quote is important “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest
“----. Benjamin Franklin
- Technology
Alignment.
Various technologies are developing so fast and getting integrated into
business solutions, that you need to adapt relevant technologies quickly
and be proficient. You need to add on popular skill set and earn those
certifications in your own time.
- Idea
Generation. Getting
new idea is part of creative thinking. The idea need not be yours and it
may be of any team member and it must be appreciated. Every idea may not
be successful and you must be determined to make it work. Keep a small
notebook in your pocket to note down ideas as these may occur to you. Do
weekly/monthly sorting of recorded ideas to find doable and something out
of the ordinary.
- Experimenting
idea. To
find something new/innovate, you must develop a habit of lateral thinking
and questing why not another way around, Once of you have
an actionable idea, you must do an experiment on it to
validate its suitability, Successful experiment will establish that
your idea is workable and its product will be usable, safe,
durable and cost-effective.
- Innovation. Innovation is not an
invention and it could be some modification, improvement in look-and-feel,
different material, ease of operation. Innovation provides you lead in the
market and sustainability of a business. Your employer/senior is
always looking for new ideas /innovation to progress their business and
that is the pathway to your success. Your market demand will grow and
career will get quantum jump
- Integration. As a manager, one of
your prime roles is to integrate effort and subsystems to evolve a
cost-efficient solution. It requires proper interfacing and readjusting
for any incompatibility. A fully integrated team makes use of everybody’s
talent/contribution and exceeds customer expectations.
- Evolution,
not Revolution: Evolve
sustainable solution through collective efforts. Revolution leads to
disruption and disturbance. Do not provide a solution to the team.
Instead, involve them to showcase their talent and evolve a collective
solution, built around their competency. This encourages team
participation and synergy.
- Earn
to grow. There
are great satisfaction and happiness in your working hard to earn it than
to inherit or get it as a gift from family/friends. When you roll up
your sleeves and sweat it out, your whole team gets inspired and follows
you.
- Effective. Your team must
take you seriously and assigned task is executed faithfully to meet all
requirements. The product or service when deployed must be effective to
fully satisfy customer requirement. Similarly, your communication with
peers, stakeholders or any audience must be clear and effective to create
required impact.
- Efficient. One must be
efficient while using his/her skills and get the best result with optimum
effort. If you are efficient in your job, you will be able to complete job
within scheduled time and with no cost/time overruns. Similarly, the
product you deliver must perform to its full efficiency and easy to
operate.
- Emotional
Stability.
As a team member you must deal on facts while making any decision and not
be moved by any emotion. There are people who are oversensitive and get
emotionally disturbed on a very small issue at their workplace or even at
home. You have to control your emotion and stay calm, Now a days, the
employer gives more importance to Emotional Quotient
(EQ) than Intelligence Quotient (IQ) .They have an expert to
evaluate your EQ during selection process.
- Endurance
and sustainability. You
are to develop capacity to work/travel for long hours which demand good
health and determination. You could be attending late conferences or
travelling to customers/vendors. Therefore you should develop a mental and
physical robustness to sustain work pressure.
- Self
Believe and professional esteem. Your self esteem should be always high and there
is no need to worry or feeling depressed. You knowledge and determination
should help you hold your head high and move on. Believe in your potential
and concentrate your energies on the job in hand. A popular saying is ever
true - “If you think you can, you can”.
- Evidence
of Actions. Whatever
you do in any stage of your career at any position, let the result speak
for itself. This requires evidence / proof of actions by you and the
result obtained. As a leader/ manager, you must lead the team from the
front with demonstrated performance, showing evidence of your competence.
This is most inspiring for the team.
- Demonstrated
performance.
Action and result speak louder than verbal announcement. A successful
leader or manager; leads the team by personal example. This is the best
evidence of your commitment to the job/project. Your conduct in the
workplace and home should be exemplary.
- Search
for Excellence.
In today’s highly competitive market, you need to be outstanding in any
field of work. It applies at the time of entry into career and during
entire service to climb the corporate ladder. Most of the employers have
performance-based review and promotions. Therefore your search for
excellence should continue, as you move from one level to the next.
- Eye
for details. You
should have a good eye for details and identify the essential and leave
the rest. Time is a premium and what are essential need priority and
your personal attention/participation. While walking through the hall or a
site where your team is working, you should be able to capture a lot of
information at a glance as to how are they focused on their job.
Similarly, while referring to a document/file you should be very quick to
go through without missing essential details. This saves lot of time and
you take right and fast decision related to that document.
“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to
always reach my destination”. Jimmy Dean
1.
“
A2Z - 26 steps for assured success”
2. “career challenges during global uncertainty”
Comments