Your Saviour Lies Within
Honest self-introspection and correction can pave your way to success
Nobody knows you better than yourself. You are, therefore, best equipped to dive deep into your being and ferret out your faults and weaknesses. You can mend yourself best and fastest. In the process, you can emerge stronger to overcome challenges and court success.
Ever since we gained our senses, we have tasted failures and successes, big or small. So we are familiar with both. But we are more used to rejoicing over our achievements and brushing off our setbacks.
The most experienced analyst may not be able to detect the behavioural and mental shortcomings that caused setbacks in different stages of your life and career. You are the first to identify them. Let us start from our school days. Some of us all know to avoid arithmetic, numbers and sums like the plague. Most relied mostly on rote learning – the hitherto cornerstone of our educational system. Neither was it hidden from us that many of us were no great fans of analytical thinking and out-of-the-box solutions. If we loved languages, stories, poems, music, dance, arts or sports, then that too was known to us. We were the first to identify our pluses and minuses while others, including parents and teachers, might not have had a clear view of our likes, dislikes, abilities and proficiencies.
Many of our young business executives and managers might not have fully understood the full relevance and value of concepts like intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ), spiritual quotient (SQ), curiosity quotient (CQ), adaptability quotient (AQ), multiple intelligences (MI), or VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment during their school and college days. But now with some years of professional experience under their belt, they do realise the connectivity these concepts have on their day-to-day managerial functioning. The imagined picture in the mind takes shape. Bright budding managers realise the presence, absence, abundance or paucity of these quotients most intricately and vividly. It is up to them to fortify their professional arsenal themselves, or get external help. But the first step involves acceptance of the weaknesses within yourself. The ego may prompt you to go astray. But self-betrayal can lead to utter ruination of your corporate dream.
“One who is used to candid conversations and confrontations with his frailties does not get shaken by the vicissitudes of corporate life”
Upcoming managers are often bombarded with the clichéd saying: failures form the stepping stone to success. Yes, it is true to some extent. But are we implicating that managers should smilingly invite failures and gloat over them once floored? That would be far from the truth.
By encouraging honest self-introspection by children and students from their earliest days, we can prepare them against debacles and setbacks. The fire of failures scars and scorches grievously. The pain and agony linger for long. Would it not be better to prepare our children and youth to keep failures at bay as early as we can? I know we cannot rule out fiery setbacks in business but we can certainly minimise their occurrence and fight them better with a proactive attitude and approach.
This calls for what I describe as quotient deficit management for and by young managers with active and sustained help from the HR department and if need be, external coaches. Regularly available mentors can be a great help in filling gaps in the abovementioned quotients and allied skills for successful execution of respective roles of upcoming managers. In view of increase in job rotation the focus needs to be on promoting an amalgamation of quotients.
Top management must drive out the belief held by many young executives that failure is the end of the road. There are multiple reasons behind the collapse of a company or a project. No junior manager has ever pulled an enterprise singlehandedly. But failure, individual or corporate, pulverises perception. Such enthusiastic but wet-behind-the-ears managers need to be convinced that uncalled for guilt, victimhood and persecution complex are not going to take them anywhere.
Instead, a deep-rooted reason for the need of success can alleviate the pain of failure. It will also not let the initially shocked manager lose his wits and procrastinate. Instead, it can galvanise the young manager back into action. He will come up with plans and tactics to actuate a rebound without losing time. Already equipped with multi-intelligence and the ability to identify his personal shortcomings, he will appear in a rejuvenated avatar. Success will not be an option but an imperative for him. One who is used to candid conversations and confrontations with his frailties does not get shaken by the vicissitudes of corporate life.
The author is a poet and writer and also Chairman of BLC and Basant Chaudhary Foundation. Views are personal
