By V. Shankar
Chartered Accountant
I covered some
perspectives on Business Excellence in my previous article1.
In this one, I will share the flavour of Personal Excellence. Often, we
hear people say, ‘follow your heart, pursue your passion, and you will excel’.
How true! That is indeed the way to go. Not only will this lead us seamlessly
on the path of excellence but we will also be happy and derive great
satisfaction. Volumes have been written on how to turn your passion into your
vocation. There are distinguished role models, too, such as Walt Disney, Warren
Buffett and Steve Jobs. If you have cracked this code, great! And perhaps I may
not have anything meaningful to add here.
However, life
is not always so simple. Let’s take two viewpoints:
a) Firstly, do
I know what I am passionate about? If yes, how do I make this my true calling?
b) And if this
does not seem doable at least in the foreseeable future, what do I do to excel
in my chosen path and be happy?
The
growing up years
A child growing
up gets fascinated about multiple things she gets to see, experience or be
impacted by. These come from various quarters – parents, siblings, relatives,
friends, the larger eco-system, television, movies, media, books, success,
appreciation and, of course, now, the internet. Resulting from these,
impressions get formed in the mind of what she would love to do. It is common
for relatives and well-wishers to ask a child ‘Beta, what do you want to
become when you grow up?’ Innocently, children give impromptu answers
which vary across professions – a teacher, a pilot, a judge, a scientist, a
doctor, an environmentalist, an actor, a hotelier, a police officer, an
astronaut and so on. These turn out to be casual conversations and are not
followed through in establishing the real passion or any planning for it. If it
is not a clichéd vocation, some other questions prop up, e.g., will it provide
economic stability? And what about social acceptance? These and more come in
the way of a child moving in the desired direction.
Traditionally,
we have grown up looking at set patterns. The preference is for the science
stream in the senior school curriculum; perhaps this gives the option to switch
later, whereas vice versa is not done. Conventionally, children pursuing
education find themselves propelled towards a closed ABCDE option, that is,
choose between becoming a (chartered) Accountant, (lawyer) Barrister,
Civil services, Doctor or Engineer. Peer pressure has an
influence and in some cultures youngsters are expected to follow the
family tradition, business or profession. It is not uncommon to find a family
of lawyers, Chartered Accountants, doctors or business people to encourage their
kith and kin to follow the family vocation. But the times have changed now. One
could start up in any field from A to Z and be successful. The critical success
factor is personal excellence.
At work
Fast forward
now to life where one has chosen to follow a selected path. By this time, there
could be a growing realisation that our interests lie elsewhere. Sometimes we
may not even feel deeply about this, as daily life gets demanding and time
whizzes by. A simple exercise can be tried out for identifying areas of keen
interest, by connecting the desires with skills as illustrated below (Figure
1).
In the above
matrix, we aim to position the areas which bring us little or immense enjoyment
vis-à-vis the qualities intrinsic / developed in the person. Every
individual has unique qualities or areas where s/he is strong or most confident
about. Not only is it important to recognise these, but also necessary to play
to these strong qualities as we go about life. It is also quite possible to
convert areas which need to improve into strengths in the spheres that one
enjoys doing. This, however, is an arduous task or a journey which needs to be
pondered about.
Leveraging
one’s strengths can lead to multiple options and the sweet spot lies in
utilising these in the work area/s which give the most gratification. Such
item/s, which depict confluence of desires and skills indicated in the green
shaded quadrant, will be areas that the person is passionate about and would
derive greatest satisfaction and joy. This ensures that there is a connect
between the enjoyable areas and the required qualities which are necessary to
excel. For example, a person with a feeble voice is unlikely to excel as a
professional singer and his love for music is best kept listening or singing as
a hobby for private enjoyment.
Consider cases where people are keen to
undertake this journey but quite some distance away in getting to convert their
passion into their life purpose. In the foreseeable future, one will therefore
want to excel in the selected sphere of work. In this journey towards personal
excellence in the chosen engagement, here are some specific tips on actions
or paths that one could find helpful.
GET THE BIG PICTURE
It is important
to comprehend the larger purpose of the activity / function / enterprise that
one is working with. While the day job would be focusing on the nitty-gritty,
the true enjoyment will come from the understanding and the joy of relating to
the higher-level goal. The classic example is of the mason building a mansion,
feeling the pride of building a marvel, while his daily routine may comprise
mundane activities such as laying bricks with cement for a wall.
I have found
great power in communicating this across the organisation so as to touch every
person down the line on the firm’s purpose and facilitate individual connect
and alignment. An impactful way of achieving this is depicted in Figure 2.
While every employee may be clear on their
individual Goals or Key Result Areas (KRAs), this process enables an individual to connect these to the overall organisation purpose.
This whole process executed well is a co-created one involving every person in
the organisation as well as with inputs from key stakeholders. Very briefly
explained, it begins with the organisation’s purpose, the Vision, Mission and Values which are translated
to a Strategic Vision and articulated in a clear, concise manner. Every year,
the Enterprise Balanced Scorecard2 is made which defines the
Strategic Themes and the key Strategic Interventions across four perspectives –
Financial, Customer, Internal Processes and Learning and Growth. These are
cascaded into departmental or functional Strategy Deployment matrices which are
then detailed out into key projects which will deliver the objectives. Every
employee then who is linked to projects is able to derive individual goals for
setting the year’s priorities. At every level there is a linkage to the
relevant processes with the KRAs most aligned to the Level-3 processes. This
way there is a structured alignment amongst individual, departmental, business
and enterprise goals and finely integrated so that the entire organisation
pulls in one direction. At every stage and interval there is a two-way
communication which is the bedrock of a robust cohesive enterprise.
If this process
is not practised in a mature manner, I would suggest that every individual
takes the lead to ascertain this linkage. Like the mason who takes pride in
laying every brick knowing that he is an integral part of creating a wonder,
every individual would then discover a different meaning to their daily routine
which otherwise may seem dreary.
CRAFT A PERSONAL &
PROFESSIONAL GOAL
Equally
important will be to set one’s personal goals. These can be broadly set into
short-term and long-term goals. Like the Balanced Scorecard done in businesses
as referred to above, it may be worthwhile to also cast a personal scorecard.
The perspectives, however, could be different:
(i) Work: What do I wish to achieve on the work
front? Where do I wish to see myself in five to ten years’ time?
(ii) Self: How do I look at improving self over
time? One could consider different aspects such as Health, Finance, Hobby,
Skill-Building, Me-Time and so on.
(iii)
Family: What are the
various aspects around my immediate and extended family I want to focus on?
Again, it could range from Health to Property to Relationships to Marriage to
Friends.
(iv)
Community: How can I
contribute to and engage myself for the larger good? With companies engaging in
meaningful CSR activities, it is quite easy to volunteer; as also in this
well-connected world there are many options available for one to venture out
for a greater purpose.
A rounded and
clearer work-life covering the above enhances one’s life’s journey. In all of
the above, the word Balanced may imply that there is equal weightage
given for all the perspectives. While this could be ideal, typically, depending
on one’s needs and stage in life, the weightages can vary. But what must be
borne in mind is that there must be some focus given to each of the four
perspectives.
SHARPEN ONE AREA – BE KNOWN FOR EXPERTISE IN YOUR AREA OF
STRENGTH
Choose one area
and let it be the one which is of interest to you and you enjoy digging deeper
into it. Of course, it should be important to your role and business, e.g.,
GST. Make a conscious effort to develop expertise in that area, so much so that
you begin to be known as the domain expert in that within your team and
enterprise. Furthermore, keep re-skilling yourself in this area so that you
move ahead with the times. By itself, this will open several doors for your
life’s journey.
PICK ONE AREA WHICH IS BOSS’S KEY BUT DESERVES ATTENTION
While it is
imperative that one understands one’s own role thoroughly and does a good job,
it is important to have a broader appreciation of seniors’ roles, in particular
that of the supervisor. It is the desire of every superior to have a deputy
whom he can trust with some critical areas of work; if you can identify one
aspect where you can do a decent job which your supervisor does not have much
inclination for, it is a winner. Not only would you be executing some critical
component of the supervisor’s role, but also be acknowledged for doing it
better. Boss will begin to recognise your potential for taking up higher
responsibilities. Work will take an interesting turn and you will equip
yourself steadily to launch yourself up the ladder.
REINVENT YOURSELF
To make your
job interesting, it is not always necessary to switch. Make a conscious effort
to bring newness into your job. There needs to be a mindful endeavour to
evaluate and improve in a consistent way. If that becomes your way of life, you
will not only see that your job is not really monotonous but also feel it
differently over time. Every period in the role will be different albeit
in the same job. For this process I have found Benchmarking with peers
or the best-in-class a good way to go. This opens up the mind on how others are
progressing and going about things which can be emulated. In today’s times, the
not invented here mindset has no place, and in fact people
copy with pride. Obviously, this is not about infringing patents but
getting inspired from best practices in the public domain as well as learning
from others’ mistakes. The trend today is at the next level of open
innovation whereby you could put your issues out there for any expert to
opine and help you with innovative ideas.
PREPARE YOUR EXIT
An important
element in making progress is paving the way for moving forward while excelling
in the current role at the same time. Here, both the elements of making oneself
ready for the next superior role as well as grooming the successor are important.
Without this approach, one may find oneself getting stuck in one role or area,
thereby bringing in drudgery and stagnation over time.
Personal
excellence, a perspective
Let me conclude
with a stirring narrative. There are several inspiring examples on personal
excellence from the Silicon Valley, Fortune 500 Companies, Global Leaders,
Startups or Nobel Laureates, but I chose one from Bollywood – Kishore
Kumar! (Disclaimer: I am a die-hard Kishoreda fan).
Writer Javed
Akhtar3 opines that personal excellence is driven by striving
for next-level performance for one’s own fulfilment and not just for proving it
to others. He recalls an incident. R.D. Burman (Panchamda) hummed a
song, Mere naina saawan bhaadhon (film Mehbooba) which he had
composed based on Raag Sivaranjini. Listening to the tune, Kishoreda
reacted, saying this was meant for Manna Dey. But after some convincing he
agreed to sing; however, he told Panchamda: ‘Isn’t Latabai also
singing this? Do that, I will sing later’. His recording was deferred and Lata
Mangeshkar rendered it first.
Kishoreda
heard this version and practised continuously for seven days! He added his
touch, to make it one of his finest renditions that is cherished to this day.
What is noteworthy is that Kishoreda was at his career peak at that time
and need not have put in such a punitive effort. It would have been a hit
number anyway. But the humility, self-confidence, commitment and the
determination to excel stand out and perhaps this personal excellence
attribute of Kishoreda makes him stand tall amongst the few shining
stars widely remembered in Bollywood even today after so many decades.
ENDNOTE
There is no
perfect occupation, no right time. Just waiting for this to happen may end up
being quite expensive.
The specific
steps enunciated above consciously nurtured will rekindle interest in your
selected path and result in better appreciation and recognition. Who knows, as
you make progress the current engagement itself could become the area you excel
in and turn into your passion.
Is it one way
or the other? Certainly not. While progressing on the selected path, you can
and should also pursue your passion. How do you do this? People often say ‘my
work is so demanding; I have other pressures… I must get some key priorities
in order, and then I will switch to what I love doing’. Unfortunately, this is
a never-ending process and waiting for the perfect time can mean that you are
endlessly in a restive mode. So, do allocate some time outside of work to
follow your passion, whatever it may be. This may challenge your work-life
balance, and could mean doing it in personal space over weekends and holidays.
But in due time satisfaction is bound to come and could even create the
platform for a switch.
So, dream your
passion and… realise your dream!
References:
1. Governance
& Internal Controls: The Touchstone of Sustainable Business – Part II;
Pp 11-15 BCAJ, June, 2020;
2. The
Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action by David P. Norton and
Robert S. Kaplan;
3. https://youtu.be/U6L8hnsNMak (16:10 – 20:05): Javed Akhtar
remembers Magical Pancham – Part 02.
