Personal Success Mantras:
Get your hands dirty. There
is no other success mantra than to do it yourself and learn. As you grow in
your career and lead teams, your teams look up to you to address big and small
problems. You can only provide correct guidance if you have done it yourself.
I
started my career as a programmer and was programming for the first 10 years of
my career, even when I was the delivery head. I made a career choice a decade
ago to switch to strategic roles in recruitment outsourcing services. I always
thought I knew recruitment well until I sat down myself to deliver recruitment
services to clients. Having done it myself gives immense confidence in defining
vision, strategy, and making realistic plans.
Remember, there is no shortcut to success without getting your hands dirty. So roll up your sleeves, and do not hesitate to play with the clay if you are a potter!
Roadblocks Encountered:
Like many, I have been
through phases where the temptation to quit or avoid a definite failure was
strong. However, unlike many, I continued and failed in those tough situations.
The reason for my choice was my strong desire to fail, reflect, replan,
execute, succeed, and never fail in the same situation again.
I must mention that at a
young age I wanted to be a scientist, as I had read that scientists never fail,
they collect data points! I did not become a scientist eventually, but I am
still a big fan of data points.
Perspective On The Future Of Talent Acquisitions:
The future of TA in my
vision is the right blend of human and technology touch points. The technology
to make the process efficient and humans to act as an advisor to the potential
candidates. TA professionals need to move away from filling in the seats to be
advisors to the potential candidates and help them make the right choices in
their careers. The future of TA is a data led high touch consultancy service.
Mentors That Have Guided You:
I would like to take the
opportunity to offer my gratitude to the two leaders, who have helped me make
the right decisions in my career. Steve Weston and Hazel Lancashire. I am lucky
that I happened to have their guidance at the time when I most needed advice
and mentorship.
In addition to many
learnings, I have from them, the two that stand out for me are the ability to
make on the spot decisions and to stand by my team when they make mistakes.
Addressing The Need For Diversity And Inclusion In Companies:
There is a no better time
than NOW to build further upon your company D&I strategy or to define one
now if you have not started the journey yet. As a Leader, I believe we have to
fine-tune our leadership styles to adapt to the current remote working
environment. We need to make a conscious effort to promote an inclusive
culture.
The D&I has taken the
top spot in my list of priorities in the past few months, as I believe
companies now have more power to create diverse job opportunities than they had
before. For example, the companies who were unable to employ people with
disabilities due to lack of infrastructure in office premises can now employ
them with WFH assignments.
I also observe that while D&I is a buzz word in the leadership circle, there is a lot more work required to create awareness amongst the employees. We can use the current times to review our D&I practices and include it as a standard agenda item in all our internal meetings to promote the culture.