Excellence, Enthusiasm, Eagerness and Ethics lead to Success
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
– Vince Lombardi
We all like to have a good career,
good pay package, good life and recognition.
To pick up a good career of your choice, you must have required formal
degree/ diploma from a recognized college or university. In addition, you
should have the required skills, matching the job requirement. To pick up fresh graduates, the employer engages
hiring agencies who conduct campus interviews, while for middle and senior
levels posts they invite applications and conduct a series of tests/interviews
to select the best. With availability of technologies, a lot of initial screening
and pretesting can be done online. Even initial screening of on-line CVs can be
through AI/ML algorithm. With a comprehensive online test for Intelligence
Quotient (IQ), Aptitude, Attitude, and Emotional Quotient (EQ) can help to
select the best and leave the rest.
During campus interviews, generally, 30% to 40 % can get their choice
and rest have to try again with other recruiting agencies. Most of the fresh
graduate want immediate foothold on some job to gain some corporate exposure
and switch the job in next 2–3 years.
The fee in private college or
university is quite high and one cannot afford for regular fulltime studies and
moves for distance learning or online courses. In India and most Asian
countries, distance education is not at par with a regular degree. Therefore, you
should have an undergraduate (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 set an example as a
leader to always do your best and deliver excellent results. 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 in alphabetic order in the following sections:
·
Eager to learn. You
need to be eager to quickly learn and shine. If you are not eager you can be
mediocre and soon declared redundant
·
Earn to Grow. There
is 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 they will follow you.
·
Education and Skills Building. It is rightly said that –
“Education is the
key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of
their students.” – Solomon Ortiz
Higher education and skills are must to grow in your chosen
career. Fast-changing technologies and business practices necessitate remaining
up-to-date. In the emerging global education scenario, there are a number of on-line
training courses offered
by many universities.
You must identify what is need for your future career, what competency
you have and what extra you need to fill the gaps. Once you have identified
missing skills, look for the right institute/organisation which offers the skill
set you need. The mode of course delivery and timing could be chosen as per
your convenience. Number of IITs in India, Stanford, MIT, Berkley and organizations like Coursera,
MOOC, Future-Learn, Amazon, and Microsoft, IBM.
·
Effective. Your team must take you seriously and the task assigned 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 with
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 which you deliver must perform to its full efficiency and easy to
operate.
·
Ego-A Cause of Conflict. This is the most problematic trait and you must control it. Most
of the conflict is due to ego problem/ misunderstanding where either party
feels he/she is right and another person is wrong. As a team leader/manager you
should not have the egoistic attitude and rather show flexibility and courtesy to
fellow team members. You must shed ego even when dealing with family members
and friends. This will create a good environment both at home and workplace.
·
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 over-sensitive 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
generally have an expert to evaluate your EQ during the selection process.
·
Employability and Productivity. There are often complaints from the corporate that fresh
graduates in the field of engineering and management are not industry-ready and
they have to spend resources to train their new appointees. You are to excel in
academic courses while at college/university and also acquire additional job-related skills. An employer is always looking for readily billable professionals.
·
Endurance and Sustainability. You are to develop the 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 developmental and physical robustness to sustain work pressure.
·
Energy Conservation. You need not run and win every race. Sometimes it is a good
idea to conserve your energy for really tough competition. Winston Churchill
has stated in his memoirs as to how he stayed fit during prolonged World War II.
He had said –
“Do not keep
standing when you can afford to sit down and do not keep sitting when you can
afford to lie-down.”
·
Enthusiastic You
must demonstrate sustained enthusiasm toward every assignment/project and the
team will follow you. Even when you are tired your enthusiasm must not drop.
·
Esteem Elevated. 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. Be confident of your potential and concentrate your energies on
the job in hand.
·
Ethics
and
Ethos. As a professional, you must follow
business/ professional ethics, in whichever field you may be working. Do not give
up ethics for sake of short-term gain/temptation. Do not indulge in any
unethical activity as you are being observed by people around you, including
vendors, customers and channel partners.
·
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 taken 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.
·
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 collective
solution built around their competency. This encourages team participation and
synergy.
·
Example to Follow. 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 at home should
be exemplary.
·
Excellence through Continuous Improvement. 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 a performance-based review for promotions. Therefore, your search for
excellence
should continue as you move from one level to the next.
· Experiment Idea to Validate. To find something new or innovate, you must develop a habit of lateral-thinking and questioning, why not another way around? Once you have an actionable idea, you must do an experiment on it to validate its suitability. The successful experiment will establish that your idea is workable and its product will be usable, safe, durable and cost-effective.
·
Eye for Details. You
should have a good eye for details and identify the essential and leave the rest. Time is at a premium and what are essential, needs a priority and your personal
attention/participation. While walking through a production facility or a work-site where your team is working, you
should be able to capture a lot of information at a glance as 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 can take right and fast decision, related to that document.
Dr.
Sarbjit Singh, Former Exec Director, Apeejay College of Engineering & Hony
Advisor School of Engineering and Technology, Apeejay Stya University, Sohna, Gurgaon, Haryana, India- 122103
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