Leader in the Making:
Evolution of any leader in the most
simplistic terms is by enabling people who you work with to take on greater and
bigger responsibilities. This in a way will pave a way for you as a leader to
keep moving forward. The biggest contribution any corporate leaders can make is to create
more leaders and build a pipeline of ready talent and this has been the way for
my moves, growth and evolution over these years. It took me a long time to
understand this and remove the fear of failure if I had smart or smarter
employees constantly challenging me for the job I do, however, once the clarity
set in, offcourse with the help of mentors and coaches in my life, it became
relatively easy and simple.
There is no right or wrong in terms
of a career built around the roles in same/similar domain or a career in
different domains as long as the career has been fulfilling to the person who
has built it. Though, ability to spot and go for an opportunity definitely
makes a difference. Personally, I have been blessed with most of my punts in
terms of choice of roles turning out to be fulfilling and helping me grow &
evolve and a big credit to that has been my willingness to step into the
unknown and figure it out on the go.
Failures and Learning Lessons:
My answer is in your question i.e.,
every failure or setback has to be treated as a learning experience and a
stepping stone towards the next big thing. Every time you fail, you gain
experiences which could not have been gained otherwise and hence, when you
start the next time, you start with those experiences already with you and in a
way, a step ahead.
The key to getting up after a failure is the mental strength and the belief in one’s abilities. Both of these can come from within or from the people who you trust- in the form of friends & family or mentors.
Sometimes you trust the process and your own abilities and
despite the failure, you remain confident and the self-doubt does not happen. However,
it is those moments where you lack clarity and are not able to understand the
reason for failure is when support plays an important role. When you discuss
your failure and, in a way, seek guidance from others, this adds a dimension
which you may be missing and hence, make your understanding clearer. Do remember, you fail only when you stop
trying!
Evolution of Customer Relationship:
There has been a long-standing
debate on customer first or employees first. Famous quote by Richard Branson
wherein he says "take care of your employees and they will take care of the
customers" has further accentuated the balance.
However, as an HR practitioner, it
has been simple as employees have always been our customers too and hence, it
helps us to have a single point agenda of serving the customers be it internal
or external. My mantra is to serve the customer and not manage the customer. ‘Manage’
is the most overrated word in the corporate parlance and the mistake that we
make is to keep reinforcing customer management rather than teaching them customer
centricity or servicing mindset.
The most important need is to
establish a relationship with the customer on the basis of unwavering trust,
transparency, and single minded focus on aligning to the customer goals. Most
of the overly used corporate jargons whether sleeping with customer’s problem,
stepping into customers shoes etc. all
mean the same i.e.
>> respect the customer – they
pay for our salaries by buying the products/services
>> trust the customer before
you challenge – avoid the false start with the mindset of customer always being
unreasonable.
>> align the goals – your goals
can never be different from customer’s goals.
>> trusted partner relationship
– it is not necessary to be friends with all your customers however, critical
to have a trusted relationship in place
Retaining Individuality amidst new
Environment:
By trying to be myself most of the
times. Cultural alignment is a sign of respect and gratitude towards the people
who we meet and like to be associated with however, what is important to
remember is that those people also like you for being you, the way they know of
you and not necessarily for you being like them.
For the last few years and more so in
the last couple of years, my day to day requires working/dealing with more than
10 nationalities and it is impossible for me to be like each one of them. As
long as there are common themes such as language, value system, and professional
commitments, people are respectful towards you regardless. In the absence of
such common themes, people get into trouble of which losing your own identity
is just the beginning.
The HR Transformation Story:
No matter where the industry was and
where it will be, the core of what we do as HR professionals is making our
people (employees) and customers successful. The methods to achieve this
outcome have evolved and will keep evolving, whether technology-led, process
led or any other approach.
The core to any approach will always
remain to be the ability to solve problems, build empathy and remove biases. As
much advancement technology has made, there are areas, especially related to
greater empathy and human sensitivities, which will continue to be supported by
human interventions even at the cost of few subjectivities.
Powerful lessons from my mentors:
It is impossible to have answers to
all the questions or challenges we face, that is why we continue to evolve
regardless of our age, experience, role, etc. What may help in finding
appropriate answers to more such situations is to have a trusted circle of
people around us. Amongst such a group of people is someone who we identify as
a Mentor or ‘the most trusted one’.
It is a huge effort to establish
someone as a Mentor in the true spirit as it requires us to expose our
vulnerabilities which is the most difficult thing for us as humans. And this is
the reason, a lot of people including myself, either hesitate to identify a
Mentor or take a very long time to find one.
In a way, I answered your question in
the reverse order by sharing the lessons I have learned by having a Mentor.
Opening yourself up and identifying the need to have a Mentor is a lesson in itself.
Once you get past this stage, trust your instincts to follow the advice of the
Mentor and build an honest and transparent relationship.
Ask for help and the universe will show you the way!
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