Practice,
Practice and Practice wins the race
Practice, Practice, and Practice Wins the Race
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence
is preparation.” – Arthur
Ashe
The secret of success of any leader is
preparation, preparation, and preparation. Preparation deals with the use of
skills, testing processes, and procedures. Those who practice building strength
and better techniques are the winner in any race. In a competitive market, you
are not running your own race but competing against equally great
professionals. All things being equal, it is the hard practice that gives an
extra bit of stamina to cross the finishing line and surprise the spectators.
Similarly, all great statesmen/ public speaking gurus rehearse their speech to
create the desired impact on the audience.
In
military terms it is said –“Those
who sweat during peace bleed less in war.”
If you see Olympians performing so
great, you all know how hard they would have worked in the last 4 years to
outperform their competitors. As a professional, you too should make a habit to
prepare well and participate in your various activities, presentation, and
discussions. Some salient points which can help you succeed in your career are
given in succeeding sections:
• Pacesetter. As a leader, you are responsible to decide the pace
of development of any project/product/service. The pace has to be sustainable
to deliver on time and within budget. It relates to the capacity of your team,
resources available, and time allotted by the customer.
•
Pain
for Gain. You and your team have to work hard,
overcome obstacles, and deliver on time, meeting the full requirements of the
customer. If you are to be ahead of others, you are to step out, put in extra
energy and be innovative. Maintaining a status-quo and remaining in your
comfort zone will leave you lagging behind and make it difficult to catch up
later. You should be willing to undergo some pain to make the required gain.
•
Panic
Demoralizes. As a manager/team leader do not panic
when an unforeseen situation arises. Infect, that is the time to test your
leadership as to how calmly you handle the situation and keep the team fully
inspired. The team will be demoralized if they notice their
leader in panic.
• Paralysis
by Analysis. There are people whose risk profile is
low. They hesitate to take decisions and hibernate. At times, they become
indecisive and lose the opportunity. This state is referred to as – “Paralysis
through analysis.” You must have courage and conviction to take appropriate
action and well in time.
• Paramount. Always review various activities and
keep in mind what is of paramount importance to the organization. This
aspect should override all other issues.
•
Parents. For our arrival on this earth, God does
not negotiate for our choice of parents, place, and even date of birth. We must
accept the will of God and respect our parents. All parents, rich or poor, do their best
to meet the needs of their children and wish them to excel in career.
•
Participate. You should actively participate and contribute
to the success of your team and the growth of your organization.
•
Passion. You must be passionate about your job as that will
be the driving factor to carry on irrespective of difficulties. Passion for a
job gives you inner happiness and you never feel uncomfortable or need for
anyone to supervise your work. Your passion will motivate team members.
•
Patent. Getting a patent for your
innovation/ research work is achieving a
great milestone. If you and your team have innovated some new product/ service, you should apply
for getting its parent registered. An institute or organization or university
which gets its patents registered for their research work regularly has a greater offer for luminance alliances. Your product will
be branded for your patent and will be in great demand.
•
Patience. It pays to be cool and patient when dealing with
teammates and other stakeholders. Stay calm and in due course, the right things
will happen. An impatient person is often in a hurry and may panic and take the
wrong decision.
•
Payback. As we grow in career and have a good pay package,
we should consider paying back to our alma mater. In addition to some funding,
you could offer free counseling
•
Peace
Maker. As a team leader, you should be a
peacemaker and no investigator. Help to create and maintain a healthy work
environment and must not be seen as a trouble creator. As a manager, you are to
do conflict management between teammates and pacify the aggrieved party
•
People.
People are
the most valuable asset. In
any business, people are the most important resource available to any
manager/leader. They need to be treated with care and looked after. To succeed
as a manager, you need to show full integrity towards them. This will bring in
their maximum contribution.
•
Perception. We should have a good
perception of the situation. This helps in clarity while issuing instructions.
This will dispel and misunderstanding there will be less chance of guessing by
team members and taking a different action.
•
Perfect. Do not delay delivery for achieving 100 %
perfection. Customers may accept even 95% complete work but should be on time
and within budget. Rest can be quickly made up. You must work for perfection but do not delay the product for fixing small issues. However, be upfront with
the customer and inform them of the factual position. They will appreciate your
transparency and cooperate with you.
•
Performer. Be a good performer and not an informer. Let your
performance speaks for you and soon you will be rewarded adequately. As a good
performer, you may promise less and deliver more, and likewise, you may
surprise the customer by delivering earlier than scheduled. A performer is
always respected by the team and seniors.
•
Perseverance. In any job, at any
stage, it is perseverance that will make you succeed. It is the ability to keep
going with full energy and reach the goal despite any obstruction.
• Personality. You must maintain good
health and dress up well to have an impressive personality. A good personality
will make your communication more effective and you will win more friends.
• Persuasive. Your professional competency and communication skills should be able to persuade others to follow your way. Persuasion should not be a forced action but a logical and convincing approach.
•
Prevention. It is rightly said, “Prevention is always
better than cure”. Always nip the evil in the bud.. Stay alert, anticipate, predict and be
proactive in dealing with any emerging situation.
•
Pessimistic. Always be positive, hopeful, and determined to make things happen.
Never ever be pessimistic and remain nonstarter and give up halfway.
•
Philanthropist. Do care for others and share your resources to
help the needy. The help could be in form of money, food, clothing, medical
aid, paying school fees, or even sparing time to give free coaching/guidance.
•
Physical. With the technology available at a very affordable
cost and response time being so good, many activities can carried out be
online and in virtual mode. However, there will still be certain actions that
are best performed by physical action.
•
Plan. A good plan is the heart of any project/mission. Well-planned activities
lead to success and unplanned activities often result in loss of time and an increase
in cost. It is rightly said” what cannot
be planned need not be undertaken and what is undertaken must be monitored and controlled..
•
Point
of View. You have a point of view and so do
others have. You can express your view politely and let others also do so. Do
not be overwhelmed by your view and sometimes it good to accommodate other’s
point of view end raise their morale.
•
Policy. Always follow policy
and instructions as laid down by the organization and government/ regulating
authorities.
•
Politics. Do not allow any type of politics in
your team as that will cause friction and unhealthy work environment.
•
Popular. It is good to be a popular team member to draw
their support when needed. A sincere and hardworking person, who also mixes
well, will be popular among teammates and others around. Good conduct and
professional competency will make you popular. You will be in demand by many
project managers.
• Portfolio. As you move up the ladder, keep upgrading your
portfolio by doing various courses/certifications, innovations, and research
work/ publications. In today’s highly competitive and uncertain world, you’re
learning process and adding new skills to your portfolio should be a regular
feature.
•
Possible. What initially appears hard and difficult task
may turn out to be most profitable. Remember the good old saying- “Nothing is Impossible”.
It is you the people which make it possible.
•
Practice. Three keys to success are Practice, Practice, and
Practice. Indeed, practice makes a person perfect.. With regular practice
improve your skills and raise the bar.
•
Praise
in Public. As a manager or a team leader, you
should praise your teammates publicly for every achievement. However,
counseling be done softly and in private
•
Precaution. Precaution is always
useful while taking any new venture. You may take the well-calculated risk so that
there is no financial loss to the company.
• Preparation Well-prepared speech is effective and draws
a lot of applause from the audience. Lack of preparation and overconfidence in
your memory can cause embarrassment
•
Presentation. You should prepare your business presentation and
rehearse it to check your Timings, Flow and Effect. Take the help of a colleague
to act as an audience and get feedback. Check the contents and layout of your
PPT slides to ensure a good impact on the target audience.
•
Pride. Always take pride in
your country, state, town, village, organization and talk well in the workplace, at
home or anywhere among others.
•
Principles. Be a person of strong principles. Say what you mean
and mean what you say. Do not give up your principles for small temptation. Be
firm on your decision and own up in case of a wrong decision. You must not
blame someone else. A good leader always gives credit to his/ her team and
blame if any, to himself/herself.
•
Price
to pay. Nothing comes free. It is wise to pay the
price for what you want since what is offered for free has a price tag of
hidden obligation and compromises. When a book or equipment is offered free, we
do not give due importance. Always pay the right price for what you get and get
the right price for your paid services.
•
Proposal. Your proposal for
and project .product or new service must be based on proper analysis of
customer requirement and market demand. Make a comprehensive plan before you
submit your proposal.
•
Proof. Your all actions
must be backed up with and evidence. Proof of action taken on time or delayed will
help in analyzing cause and effect.
• Priority. You must give priority to the work at hand and
judiciously deploy required resources. Maintain the principle of “First
Thing First” to avoid backlog or reporting “work-in-progress.”. Remember
how an Operating System (OS) of a multiprogramming computer keeps looking at
jobs in progress, adjusts its priorities, and ensures maximum throughput. As a
manager, you should be responsive to priorities given by the customer and
committed deadlines.
•
Proactive. As a manager/team leader, you are to think ahead
and plan, including contingency. Organize your monitoring and control system
and be proactive to mitigate or avoid any unexpected risk.
•
Procrastinate. Do not keep hesitating or vacillating and causing undue
delay. Instead, plan the event quickly and just do it. A quick beginning is a
sure way to succeed. Those who keep procrastinating remain to wait and lose
many good opportunities.
•
Productivity. As a manager, you must deploy your resources
judiciously to enhance team productivity. You will save in time and cost and
deliver on time
• Proficient. A proficient person will always come up
with cost-efficient solutions. A proficient person is always in demand and
rewarded for his/her productivity and efficiency.
•
Professional. To be a successful professional, you must acquire
UG/PG degree in related areas and from an academic institute of good
repute. You should keep your skills updated regularly to stay in
demand and progress faster in your career.
•
Prominent. Your performance must show you the most
valuable asset for the team. Praise from seniors will make you prominent in the
organization. You will be always in demand to meet any unexpected
event,
•
Promise
to keep. Stand by your promise as that is
commitment and must be fulfilled. One good mantra of the successful manager
is “Promise less and deliver more.” It does not mean to
deliberately hold back information and release it in stages to save your position.
• Problem
solver. One must not decry problems or issues
which you may have at the workplace, at home, or in a social circle. Rather take
it as a challenge and evolve an amicable solution. One needs to stop cribbing
and blaming others or the environment and instead enjoy the good part of your
achievements.
• Progressive. You must have a positive attitude to stay progressive and set a good example for the team.
•
Prototype.
While designing a new product, always make its prototype such
that it can be easily scaled up and quickly taken for production.. If you involve the participation of the customer during designing the prototype,
its acceptance by the customer will be easier
•
Provide. Always guide and support team members to
solve problems. You need not provide a full solution. When it comes to you,
be a solution provider and not a problem
solver. Similarly, while optimizing your design do not make
it critical. Rather provide some
redundancy for any contingency.
•
Prudence. While taking the decision, invite suggestions, and use your prudence so that your decision benefits
the team and your organization Being prudent is a sign of maturity and is appreciated by all.
•
Psychology. As a professional, you should understand the
psychology of customers, vendors, seniors, and teammates. As a parent, you should res psychology of your
children and treat them with patience and kindness.
Love begets Love.
•
Pulse. You should always
feel the pulse of your team members and be proactive to look after them. They
must be supported and encourage to take initiative and shine.
•
Punctual. Being punctual is to be on time and every time.
This will infuse discipline among team members and they would try to be
punctual in performing their duties. This will help you succeed in your
mission.
•
Purpose. We all must live with the purpose of living in harmony and helping the
needy. All actions should have a purpose so that available resources are
utilized gainfully.
•
Pursue. Once you set your
mission, you must pursue it vigorously and achieve your objective on time and
within the allocated budget.
To read more you may refer to my book/ebook “
A2Z 26 steps for assured Success”. Available on www.amazon.com or www. amazon.in
Brig
( Retd) Dr. Sarbjit Singh, Former Exec Director, Apeejay College of
Engineering and Hony Advisor School of Engineering and Technology,
Apeejay Stya University, Sohna, Gurgaon, Haryana, India 122103—
Contact: drsarbjit@gmail.com
Comments