Corporate Adolescence

Does 17 years in a corporate life takes you to a stage of adolescent age in corporate life.

My Best 17 years learning

- Team Effort is the best effort. If on an Individual play, then such occasions bring out your weakness [Understand it] and do master strokes according to your strengths.

- Life is not fair game, so don't expect a fair game in corporate life, but then hold your integrity [highest valued virtue] closer to you.

- Technology moves faster than light. [Vanishing theory of technologies]. No territory should not be an unknown field. [Jack of all trades & King of none]

- Don’t be on a fixed mind-set, have a floating mind-set. [Similar to variable one]

- For wound healing best proverb "Even this time shall pass on"

- Understand & learn from others mistake. Repeating mistakes is a costly affair.

- To err is human, to forgive is eternal.

- Understand you are not in a rat-race.

- What is given shall be returned back. {Unless there is a change in the organisation}. Karma is there or not, some people have elephantine memory.

- Don't be on a self-serving bias.

- Have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D ..Z [If possible]

- Believe your enemy but not your dearest colleague, [In the same department] anyone can turn any side.

- There is no right or wrong unless there is a process being under laid, all process will have a loop hole, find it & fix it if possible.

- Trust deficit is a very difficult loan to be paid back.

- Loyalty should be to the discipline and character so called "You". Check how you are improvised from yesterday's "You".

- Corporate life is subjected to market risk, please read the offer document before under signing it.

- Be grounded & Be ready for graceful exits.



Note :- Its a bit personal learning shared across. The viewers may differ in their take away, so I am eager to have discussion about it on a healthy scale. Kindly revert back to me at sreeramkr@gmail.com

Team vs Individual Performance

Any corporate appraisal system has been always aligned to CGPA [Cumulative Grade Point Average] system or bell curve system for the effort put by individual’s performance marking and alignment system.

With cross cultural [International] and cross functional team [technology wise], we may have to go forward looking for team performance monitoring system rather than individual performance system.

Disadvantages of Individual Performance Monitoring [High IQ team]

• Do or Die rule. [Competition beyond contemplation]
• Unless process not followed can make the system look ugly.
• Need Individual mentors for improvements. [Soft Skills]
• Cost of Individual dependency on a system is high. [Hard Skill dependency]

Disadvantages of Team Performance Monitoring [High EQ team]

• You work with averages you end up being an average. [Individual let down]
• Team training needs are focused. [Both Hard and Soft Skill training]
• Negative behaviors are contagious [Need group behavioral therapy]

Note :- The above system is not taking into consideration that the team has at par levels of IQ and EQ. [Perfect team]

Given the disadvantages of both individual and team performance system. Its better to to mix & match the above two systems to nullify their disadvantages and count on their advantages.

There are places where you need to highlight the team performances and reward system. At the same instance there are at times when you need to highlight individual performance system so that other team members can follow.

Only things it has become a bit complicated system when and what a lead has to do.

Best wishes.

Write your review comments at sreeramkr@gmail.com

Out of tricks Out of Job

Gone are the days when magicians used to do tricks with playing cards and gizmos. Thanks to high definition video capturing mobile devices that captures these minute tricks, which allows you to find the tricks in detail.


The question arises so has the magician lost job?

No.

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/profile/story/19920815-magic-of-p.c.-sorcar-junior-is-an-exuberant-mix-of-the-banal-and-the-bizarre-766730-2013-01-03


On November 6, 2000, PC Sorkar made the famous Taj Mahal vanish for a distinguished gathering of the country's elite.


So what is the similarity between Magicians and Corporate Jobs?

Same as magicians, In corporate jobs we do gimmicks, tricks to survive, dare devil acts, convert one resource into another resource.

Understand even in corporate this magic show is done for different customers, peer colleagues, superiors and team members.



In order to have a depth understanding, Let's look what makes a poor magic show [Guess the same applies for a corporate job as well]

Doing the same trick time & again. [None like repetitive work/process unless no innovative measures are done]
Doing the little variant of the tricks for the same audience [Same customer for long will not appreciate whatever minute changes made in the tricks]
Timing of the tricks [WOW factor only comes in when we respond to corporate job on time every time, whether it is delivery/quality/measures/resources]
Cheer leaders [Godfathers and cheer leaders who fantasize to take the trick to the next level or shall take it to the higher level management]
Incentives for the near death act, buffoons for distraction [Incentives for the best team performers, lashes for the poor performers, funny fellows for distractions]
Understanding what other magicians are doing [Know your competitors either internal peers or external market trends]


So the statement holds good

"Out of tricks, Out of job".

 Note: Author has written “Out of tricks” in the context that it does not mean to play tricks unethically to play/spoil others job. Author means to remind there are many innovative way of doing tricks.

If you differ or feel something similar is prevalent in the corporate corridors, do share your experiences.

Please share your thoughts and feedback as email to sreeramkr@gmail.com

Negotiation

Why negotiate?

Earlier days corporate life slogan used to be "work is worship" nowadays it has turned into "work is warship"

Negotiation are usually done in corporate life wide across from the start of joining the company/project [Joining date, Joining Compensations, Project startup/revenue model], in the middle [Project estimation, Resource mapping, Appraisals] and at the end as well. [Relieving dates, Project Closure].

Negotiate a brief 'His Story'

 Methods of Negotiations

Negotiation methods can be broadly classified as follows

• Distributive Value negotiation -Negotiated value are shared equally
• Integrative Value negotiation - Negotiated value can expand over time

Though the value holds an upper hand, we use different technique to negotiate the best for us. [Only the Means to the End has been discussed in this topic]

Before we negotiate, anyone can look onto the BATNA [Best alternative to a Negotiated Agreement] technique to make sure that the negotiation falls in line with the expectation.

Even though BATNA score may allow one to find the best alternative path, it cannot be applied in all the case scenarios, given that some of the factors [emotions] cannot be quantified or measured.

So let us look on to the different alternative tactics used in negotiation.

Tactics used in Negotiation

• Game Theory - Zero or Non Zero Game
• Foot in the Door method
• Door in the face method

Given these tactics, as a good negotiator we shall be always armed with a checklist of the best and worst requirements. Knowledge of the different tactics used by negotiators shall come handy as well.

During negotiation do make sure that your basic needs are mentioned and explained so it shall be taken into consideration.  [Difference between Want and Basic Need].

Its better to talk to negotiators from a feeling side rather than from a judging side.

Do follow post negotiation analysis, after the negotiation cycle as well.

Post Negotiations steps

Steps to be followed post negotiation are as follows

• Do a root cause analysis on the failure/success of negotiation
• Refine the negotiation checklist
• Refine the approach or the technique
• Learn from the mistakes done during negotiation
• Refine the communication

 Note :- Only professional life is taken into consideration as the writer feels that the Personal life cannot be negotiated.

Pitfalls in Career

Is career a smooth ride?

• Look at the rear view mirror or side view mirrors

• Try to take a decision either slow down or zoom past the pitfall

Usual career pitfalls

1. Too many job switches

1. Too many slag years in one company

1. Irrelevant career paths selected

1. Non committed and non focused Job on hand

Speed up or slow down Solutions

• Understand the pitfalls

• Look side ways [Peers] for the support

• Look the paths that you have crossed [All the difficulties and goals achieved]

• Try to take the decision to speed up or slow down

As any other roads that leads you to home or office has pitfalls, [A big pothole in the mid of the roads] the career inroads also has pitfalls.What people do when they see pitfalls on roads?They do the following stepsNote :- In both the above scenarios the driver of the vehicle need to accept the consequences of the bumpy ride.As we progress in our career, we are on a drive to destination. [Destination selected by passion or fashion like designations/popularity]. In this road to excellence, we can learn from our mistakes or others as well. This purely depends on the openness with which we explore this journey called career.Being in a connected world we can lookout for various solutions or alternative routes to the destination as well.Usually we do have our own career pitfalls like the followingAs the saying goes "Rolling stones gathers no mass" but understand that these rolling stones do gather momentum while rolling down. There is no speedup or slow down to be done for each career pitfalls.Understand that there is no "One size fits all" solution for all the career pitfalls, but in-such case scenarios its the passion that drives your vehicle towards the destination.If you have tried something similar or are already thinking about more details about career pitfalls, do share your experiences.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pitfalls-career-sreeram-k-r/