Professional Divorce

 What is Professional Divorce?

Divorce happens when we go through a separation mode or disaasociate from anything underlying. Professional divorce considers the feelings that one goes through when he/she moves from one professional option to an entrepreneurship or any other professional life.

Everyone in this world has 24 hours per day, which can be effectively partitioned into three equal partitions of 8 hours, i.e. 8 hours of personal life, 8 hours of professional life & 8 hours of sleep.

Professional life do carry equal/more weightage when compared to the Personal life and a work-life balance is what makes anyone to be compassionate about a particular profession/career.

More weightage is carried for profession, because what we do with 1/3rd of our day's time slot decides the 2/3rd of our life style.

Professional Divorce can be triggered due to difference vision, mission, values, beliefs, strategy, tactics and culture (attributes of character) between self and the articulated superior/supervisor or even the underlying culture.

According to Gallup survey (https://q12.gallup.com/public/en-us/Features), people leave organisation because of their immediate superior (more than the organisation). Given that if you have worked with too many different managers, then the reason can be attributed to the company culture as well.

Professional divorce disrupts the comfort zone, where in the collective face value garnered over the years will be left to the dock. Any disruption always brings the best if the intentions are right. Maybe it allows everyone to find their own passion as a freelancer, entrepreneur or a deserving professional break/change.

Some of the few steps to be done as a good will before professional divorce are as follows :-

• Guide the team members working under you, so that they can plan their career aspirations in that organisation.
• Provide feedback to the team members who are looking towards you as a leader to guide them in their professional life.
• Handhold the new professional guy who will take over the baton from where we had left it in that organisation.
• Inform the customer and bring confidence in them so that they can be good customers to you as well in the future.
• Collect feedback for improvement.
• Leave a legacy or a foot print that will always allow you to come back to your Alma mater from where you have learned the professional lessons. (Don't burn the bridges).

Gone are days of sending last day thank you emails and other details, professional divorce are updated in social media sites as feedbacks/takeaways. (like LinkedIn, glassdoor etc)

"Change is permanent", we need to learn unlearn and learn, keep moving. A person's self evaluation and emotional maturity is what is tested during the professional divorce is my take.

It's a transition & it's for good as always.

Note :- The above article is just a capture of feelings, during my professional divorce. There are no intentions of bringing any discredit to any of my previous organisations or brands. All my work engagements have really helped me grow to my current level and has helped me to understand my shortfalls as well.

Professional life has been used widely in the article as a combination of Job plus Career (Long term)

Quality - Intrinsic

 Quality can be achieved through both intrinsic and extrinsic methods

Intrinsic methods are internal to the programmer or project member/team. Exterinsic methods are external reinforcements like quality control or quality assurance done to ensure quality in the deliverable provided by the team.

Intrinsic methods of quality can be achieved through the following methods

1. Defensive programming
2. Ego-less programming
3. Emergency response code (Self correcting codes)

For more details about intrinsic programming, check the book "Software Reliability - Principles and Practices" by Myers Glenford which talks about attitude through which ego less programming vis-a-vis quality can be achieved.

All the principles about intrinsic quality explained in the book is very much relevant even today's programming world.

One of the picture about "Programmer's attitude" from the book is added as the headline snapshot

All credits to the book - Copyright 1976 by John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Gratitude Journal

 There are 'n' number of Hat-tip lessons learnt but the best 20 gratitude lessons learnt are shared here for everyone to read and comment.

1. Gratitude to pen this article on the LinkedIn professional network to reflect & recognize towards all the steps which has made me as a professional.
2. Gratitude to be one of the 7.7 billion human inhabitants of this planet "Earth" to have learned & groomed to read/write articles & communicate the feelings to fellow colleagues/friends & relatives.
3. Gratitude to be born in 'INDIA' as my mother nation, full of morals & culture centered in giving & taking respect.
4. Gratitude to have family & friends from all walks of life, besides me as and when needed to boost my immune.
5. Gratitude to have finished post graduation & still pursuing a greater goal in education, to impart knowledge to the larger society.
6. Gratitude to have a understanding workplace to earn & garner career aspirations aligned with the personal goals.
7. Gratitude to have a world full of challenges and aspiring to rise to the level of challenges bestowed on me.
8. Gratitude to have a roof on top of the head & a plate of food before going to bed.
9. Gratitude to have realized that my very absence and presence is felt in my own circles of friends & relatives.
10. Gratitude to travel with freedom to meet & greet people of different walks of life, with different shades & sacrifices.
11. Gratitude to have garnered 'Trust' in self, so that the trust can lead to actions of happiness for others.
12. Gratitude to have understood the difference between Inspirations and Aspirations, to bring the best out of me.
13. Gratitude to have positioned myself grounded and flow with the principle of "Here and Now".
14. Gratitude in knowing not to judge anyone by their perspectives or appearance, and understand that circumstances is what makes a person.
15. Gratitude to understand & segregate the good from the bad, learn from both to be balanced.
16. Gratitude to have hale & healthy body structure with no laziness & full of enthusiasm & concentration to yearn respect & recognition.
17. Gratitude to select or follow my own religious/non-religious paths to reach my final goal (vocation).
18. Gratitude to have my lungs breathe in & out along with the systolic & diastolic pressures maintained by my lovely heart. (with lup-dup done by my heart)
19. Gratitude to have understood that by understanding & having gratitude for all the well beings bestowed in my own life is the path for me to pursue the next level of excellence.
20. Realized that Gratitude is closer in pronunciation to Attitude.

Author has written "Gratitude as a Mantra" from his singular point of view, any suggestions or improvements kindly post as comments.

My Name is Sreeram Kannimangalam Ramaswamy

 My Name is "Sreeram Kannimangalam Ramaswamy".

What does a name stand for?

In this crowded world, the full name (First + Middle + Sur Name) can stand for our identity?

An immediate question arises, does an identity hold any value?

Yes identity (the distinguishing character or personality of an individual : individuality)holds many values. We do have different identities depending on the environment like personal life (family or friends) and professional life (corporate or consulting roles).

Given that it is a multi currency with many values and denominations, are we governed in identifying our core identities?

"YES", there should be time judiciously spend for self introspection, self improvement and self efficacy.

If you feel its a "NO", kindly understand as per Greek scholar Mr Socrates "The unexamined life is not worth living".

As many say "Perceptions differs with distance", do we need to correct our identities for others?

No, (My take) as long as you are not in conflict (NIL Cognitive Dissonance) with your own identity and it does not bring difficulties for others (universe).

My Identity is "Sreeram Kannimangalam Ramaswamy".

45 days of self learning

 Day 1: Do something for someone else like friends, relatives.

Day 2: Stop striving to achieve.

Day 3: Put yourself in someone else's shoes.

Day 4: Discover your purpose and enjoy the journey.

Day 5: Stop getting the attention and focus it on other people.

Day 6: Give thanks to everyone and everything.

Day 7: Exercise more of the P word. (Patience)

Day 8: Be the first to reach out after an argument.

Day 9: Just try to Say No. Avoid steps with no value addition.

Day 10: React to good news with genuine enthusiasm.

Day 11: Try not to procrastinate. (Use pomodro technique)

Day 12: Soak up the wisdom of another person.

Day 13: Journal about three new things you are grateful for.

Day 14: Try not be perfect.

Day 15: Exercise for 15 minutes.

Day 16: Focus on your breathing.

Day 17. Express kindness through a text or email.

Day 18: Find something or someone that will make you laugh.

Day 19: Deal with a problem you've been neglecting.

Day 20: Build up your faith. Practice self empathy.

Day 21: Have lunch with someone, and listen to that person selflessly.

Day 22: Chillax you are mid way, flaunt yourself. Try to journal your experience.

Day 23: Say ,"Hello" at three strangers.

Day 24: Reframe (Assumptions, Fear, Negative to Positive talk)

Day 25: Readjust the strict rules you impose on yourself.

Day 26: Relax and be more spontaneous.

Day 27: Spend some quality time with an elderly person.

Day 28: Spend some quality time with family.

Day 29: Spend some quality time with friends.

Day 30: Learn a new skill/technique.

Day 31: Help a person who is needy 

Day 32: Learn Story telling to teach others about story telling

Day 33: What impact did I make on the lives of others?

Day 34: Who did I serve and make better?

Day 35: See reflections on Nature/Universe in you.

Day 36: Pursue an activity that brings you peace.

Day 37: Be on water or Juice diet

Day 38: Watch at an animal behavior.

Day 39: Breathe slowly.

Day 40: Look sharp at an object 3 meter far for 30 seconds .

Day 41: Look at your hands closer on the lines drawn inside your palm.

Day 42: Count 3 blessing before to bed.

Day 43: Count 3 blessing on sun rise.

Day 44: Try to count 16 hours of the day's wake up time. (Note the time like 1, 2 in the clock)

Day 45 : Write a summary journal on the 44 days activities. Let's start Day 1

Note :- This 45 days routine if followed 8 times, a year can be covered with 5 days to spare. 5 days extra activities are as listed below.

Day 361: Share your positive experiences with friends and family and watch your joy increase.

Day 362: Do something fun.

Day 362 : Be duty conscious. Look at Sun and Moon on their duty consciousness.

Day 363 : Take some quiet time alone to reflect.

Day 364 : Look at a situation (Yearly followed up activity) by taking in the whole picture.

Day 365 : Refine the 45 days activities and let us start a new year.

Looking for the loose brick

 Lessons Learnt Live (L3) - 11 - "Looking for a loose brick"

The Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stones. It was learning, innovation and technology that ended it. As part of L3, Let's try to learn from strategies used in corporates to improve our professional and personal life.

"Looking for a loose brick" - The concept has been far discussed and used in the "sales team" circle to meet the customer needs.

Concept goes that next time you hit a brick wall, don't attack head-on. Instead, look for the loose brick. The loose brick is always the one thing which the client needs most.

The concept can be taken to a larger level other than sales related to both personal/professional life.

To do that, we may need to invest time & patience to find the loose bricks in projects/audits/adherences by friends/relatives/team.

Finding the loose brick requires active listening and calm questioning. If you want your prospect to get down to the truth, you may need to expose a little of yourself first to establish a deeper trust. And if you take such an approach to your next difficult conversation, you'll successfully achieve two things.

• Discover the real problem.
• Avoid a complex step/measure.

Whenever we hit a brick wall or a resistance to change, there maybe a real problem which can ensure that the problem is mostly resolved. (Usage of Pareto's 80-20 principle)

Instead of putting a complex system/map to be adhere, it will be good to break down the bigger map to small understandable steps.

Even in personal life, "Looking for a loose brick", can be to help/look out for hobbies of friends and families. Ensure these hobbies are inclusive in each meeting, so that the relationship grows.

Many article is written about this topic, for more details kindly google or read https://findtheloosebrick.com/

Usage of lead and lag indicators

 Lessons Learnt Live (L3) - 12 

Leading indicators look forwards, through the windshield, at the road ahead. Lagging indicators look backwards, through the rear window, at the road you've already travelled.

Lead & Lag indicators are widely used in economics/business/commerce. Applying them in professional life includes steps in understanding these indicators and charting a plan to act on them.

Good example of lead indicators are related to family/self care, quality time spent with friends/family, digital detox hours/days per month, number of positive self talks per day, number of smiles done at strangers per day/month, number of strokes (transactions) given/taken per day.

Lag indicators are accomplishments of personal goals (long run), face value within family/friend circle, personal achievements/rewards/recognitions, number of people in the circle of influence.

By tracking the lead indicators, we can always improvise the lag indicators. Always lag indicators if not analysed further as learnings and reinforced back as lead improvements will reduce the sustainability of achievements in the long run.

Some Q&A regarding Lead & Lag indicators

Is the lead and lag indicators part of a vicious cycle?

Yes, unless a tracking mechanism with a positive thrust is given to ensure the lead and lag indicators improvise, we may spiral in the negative cycle as well.

Is it best to be "Here and Now" which shall lead to improvise?

Yes.

Notes:-

There may be many other methods or concepts from corporate world, which can be thought about applying in personal life.

Explore this concept in personal life, any other doubts/clarifications do drop comments for each of us to share & learn as well.