A webinar titled “Take Charge of Your Career” was delivered by Dr raj, CEO of HR Footprints recently. We had excellent participation during the webinar chat and many points were deliberated. Webinar Questions – Answered From the discussion, a few key questions are picked up for more elaboration in this blog. If you further require clarity, please do write to info@hrfootprints.com and we will be happy to share our perspectives.
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Firstly, upfront let us state that leadership is not a position; it is action! You can be a leader if you choose to be one! What does it mean to lead? Leadership is the ability to understand the bigger picture, collaborate, influence, share and bring the best of self & others to achieve the goal. To perform the above action, one need not have a position as a prerequisite. Therefore, we say that anyone who can perform this action can be a leader. Of course, if one is offered a position, it may facilitate the leadership action better. However, leadership is not contingent upon a title or position. Anyone can become; but a few become While anyone can be a leader, only a few will actually end up demonstrating leadership. Why? While I have the opportunity to lead, I may not have the desire to lead. Unless I choose to lead, you cannot expect leadership from me! What drives such a choice to lead? It is rather a complex question. You may expect some returns and therefore you lead. Or you lead because you are driven by the purpose. Either ways, you need to have a reason to choose leadership. If it is intrinsic influence, then your energy to lead is likely to last longer despite hardships. Article By: Dr. Raj, CEO, HR Footprints Management Services Pvt. Ltd. Follow Dr. Raj on twitter @drraj29
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These are times of flexi-working. All of us wish to have abundant freedom to walk in to work whenever we want. We want to leave whenever we want. In such a scenario, why do we need to have office timings? Freedom comes with responsibility: Before questioning about the sanctity of office timings, ask yourself some questions: Am I holding myself accountable for results? Am I driving myself towards achieving what I set out to? Am I utilizing my potential fully? If the answer to these questions is all YES, then you are the right candidate for flexi-timings. However, if you are the one whose performance is purely based on the hours that you are on the seat or you are the one who is performing just at the minimum to survive in the organization, then flexi-timing is not for you. You will need specified office timings. To simply put, if you are a clock-watcher, then you need office timings; if you are a performance-watcher, then flexi-working is ok! Your presence is not only for your work! Remember that your presence is not to simply finish your work alone. There are others who draw energy and inspiration from you. You need to be there for them. Flexibility cannot be at the cost of depriving others of that opportunity to collaborate. Time sense is important to make yourself available for others as well. Self Discipline: Flexibility calls for tremendous self-discipline. If you are like many others, you must have over estimated your self-discipline. In the sense, you may not know when to be on time and when to exercise flexibility. Such sense of discretion is missing in you, then your focus is surely somewhere else and not on performance. Office timings at least enforce discipline, since you are lacking it! Finally, if you are more disciplined about departure timings and not arrival, then surely flexibility is not your cup of tea! By: Dr. Rajkumar, CEO, HR Footprints Follow us on twitter @hrfootprints Follow Dr. Raj on twitter @drraj29
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“To learn how to enjoy work, we must ask ourselves a deeper question why do we work.” Follow Dr.Raj on twitter @drraj29 Do we want to spend one-third of our life in sadness, despair, misery and frustration? If the answer is an obvious no, then we need to find ways of making our work a joy, for one-third of our life is spent at work or preparing for it. It is not only one-third of life we must realize the impact of the one-third on the remaining two-third of life. If work has to be joyful, then we must do what we enjoy doing. As the old saying goes if you enjoy your work, you do not have to work. To learn how to enjoy work, we must ask ourselves a deeper question why do we work. Why do we work? Whenever I asked this question, people think that it is a redundant one. But let us realize that work is much more than making money. In this context, we tend to think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The question then is whether we work because we need money, name, fame, status or do we work to satisfy our inner calling, or to contribute towards humanity? Interestingly, whatever might be our drive or need, work is our means to achieve the same. Work is our way to make money, to learn, to express our talents, to have a social interaction, to attain status, to earn respect and so on. When work can give us so much, then our outlook towards work must be that of joy! Work and Joy of Living! If we define what gives us joy, then we can recognize that we tend to use work as a means to joyful living. Also, if we understand what drives us to work, we will automatically be able to identify the factors that do not drive us to work. Such understanding will help analyse the reasons for dissatisfaction with work. Imagine the internal dilemma that one faces after a few years of working what am I doing this for? Is this all for money? Fame? Status? Is it really worth my lifetime? Then dawns the `proper selfishness’ in the words of Charles Handy.They discover themselves, realign their work and move towards joyful living. They have succeeded in making a mid course correction to their life strategy. On the contrary, imagine the plight of those who put this question to themselves a little late in their life. They hardly have an opportunity to redefine the meaning of their work. They end up cursing work, hating their boss and organisation, waiting for weekend and so on. It simply means that they have decided to spend one – third of life only to make money and foregoing the opportunity to derive joy of living! What should one do? Gaining deeper understanding of oneself, articulating personal vision, and remaining goal focused are necessary to embark on a purposeful and joyful living. Individuals may seek professional advice on these aspects to lay a solid foundation to their work. Individuals should also be conscious of other factors that may induce oscillation of thoughts. Seeing success through others’ lens or redefining success from time to time will surely dither the pursuit of joyful working. It does not mean that one needs to be rigid in one’s own definition of goals or means, but any redefinition has to be triggered out of greater self awareness rather than getting generated out of comparison or jealousy! A deep conviction in the vision and strong will power to realize the vision are necessary to overcome any hurdles in the process. Individuals who are able to align work with joyful living are the ones who experience a sense of fulfillment. They are most likely to skip the feeling of emptiness towards the fag end of their lives. The earlier one excavates one’s own drive to work, the better vision towards life. Cases of running after wrong targets will be minimized. We will have individuals who are lot more contented; yet achieving what they wanted. After all, joyful living is what one defines for oneself. Work is a vehicle to pursue the journey of joyful living! It is a sure way of tuning right attitude towards work! This article was published in: HR Mirror Hans India Follow us on Twitter @hrfootprints
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