Listen, Learn, Speak, Lead to Succeed
“Learning is a lifelong activity to maintain a success story Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success”. --Swami Sivananda
The corporate ladder can be steep or
gradual, depending upon the #organization size and structure. To climb this
ladder, you are to take one step at a time but maintain # momentum to reach the
top. It requires proper coordination of #energies, # resources and #knowledge/ # skills. It is true that “God
helps those who help themselves” but if you are diligent and work regularly.
Learning new technologies, management techniques and business practices is
useful at all stages of a carrier. People need to get registered as members of
various professional bodies and actively participate in their #seminars, #webinars
and #conferences. In addition, professionals are encouraged to join #technology/management
online courses for skill enhancement. This will bring respect from senior
management, peers and your team.
When you speak to others, you only
share your already known information but when you listen to others, you gain more
knowledge and that is the right path for career growth. While you must think before you speak as where,
to whom, why and what contents are you speaking. Indeed, the art of speaking is very important to
make an impact on the audience. However, for listening you are to pay full
attention to listen to the speaker who may be using both audio, as well as
visual aids. Remember, hearing may be a
casual way of but listening is to set aside all other distractions and lock on the
speech being made by the leader/ subject expert. Some basic points related to success through good listening habits are given in the
following sections:
·
Listening. Listing needs attention and patience,
while speaking is easier if you come prepared with your speech. One who is speaking is
conveying as much as one knows but while a good listener is gaining new
knowledge and that helps in the furtherance of his/her career. During any
meeting/discussion, you should listen carefully to what others say. They will
feel happy and assured of your involvement. Don’t cut someone talking and
interrupt him/her to make your point. You will get your turn, just wait. As a
manager or team leader, you will notice that by giving a patient hearing to the
complainant, he/she gets partly relieved of the pain.
·
Learning. It is not a one-time effort but a
lifelong process of de-learning
some past skills, relearning and fresh learning emerging skills. To
be a successful manager or team leader, you must be technically as well as
administratively sound to manage the knowledge workforce of today. You should
actively participate in seminars, conferences, workshops and professional
forums. In a fast-moving economy and fast 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.
·
Logic for Decision-making. After
listening to the participants/team members, you should apply logic to analyse
various inputs and arrive at the conclusion for taking quick and right decisions.
Follow the basic logic while analysing any situation and you will make the right
decision. While dealing with any complex situation, stay focussed, determined
and enthusiastic to take it to the logical conclusion,
·
Simple & Smart Plan. A simple plan is sure to succeed
while a complex plan will often cause time and cost overruns. Be simple in
writing and speaking as it adds to the clarity and understanding of the recipients.
Keep your plan simple and success is sure. While planning and executing a job or
project you should, follow a SMART strategy – Specific, Measurable. Attainable,
Realistic and Timely.
·
Speak clearly and firmly.. Be straightforward and give
clear instructions. Sometimes hard
decisions are to be taken in the interest of your organisation. Be frank and no
mincing of words. It is important what
you speak but more important is how you speak to convey your objective. Your
body language and articulation of words
have a great impact on your team/audience, Speak what you mean and mean what
you speak
·
Leading by Example. A leader is more than
a manager or administrator. He/she always leads the team from the front with
personal demonstrated performance.. Indeed leadership is practised not in words
but in attitude and actions. The team
gets inspired to follow the leader who displays confidence and leads them all
the way to finish.
·
Sacrifice. Whether you are in a job or self-employed or as
an entrepreneur, you got to sacrifice few things to excel and grow in your career.
This requires a change in personal habits for accommodating the requirements of
others.
·
Success through Passion. We all want
great success and that too quickly. Be passionate in whatever you do and you will always
succeed. It is your passion that will drive you through many hurdles and keep
you on track to achieve your ultimate goal. Learn to share your success with
others including family members. They will be happy and support you more.
In conclusion - Always remember the gear
words of Chris Hadfield --- “Leadership is not about achieving you
goal on time and in a cost-effective manner. It is about keeping your team
focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when
the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the
groundwork for others’ success, and then standing back and letting them shine.”
To read more, you may refer to my book/e
book “A2Z 26 steps for assured Success” available on www. amazon.in
Brig(Retd) Dr Sarbjit Singh, Former
Exec Director, Apeejay College of Engineering, & Hony Adviser School of
Engineering and Technology Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon,
Haryana, India, 122103
Dr Sarbjit Singh
Comments