“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
% of 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 skillsets and plan to fill the
gaps in your CV. In the 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 adopt 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 a 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 a 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 a 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 the 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 the required
impact.
·
Efficient. One
must be efficient while using his/her skills and get the best result for
optimum effort. If you are efficient in your job, you will be able to complete
the job within the scheduled time and with no cost/time overruns. Similarly, the
product you deliver must perform to its efficiency and easy to operate.
·
Emotional Stability. As a team member, you must deal with 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, Nowadays, the employer gives
more importance to Emotional Quotient (EQ) than Intelligence Quotient
(IQ). They have an expert to evaluate your EQ during the selection process.
·
Endurance and sustainability. You are to develop a 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. Your knowledge and
determination should help you hold your head high and move on. Believe in your
potential and concentrate your energies on the job at hand. A popular saying is
ever true - “If you think you can, you can”.
·
Evidence of Actions. Whatever you do at 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, be showing evidence of your competence.
This is most inspiring for the team.
·
Demonstrated performance. Action and result speak louder than a 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 a
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 a 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"
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