I have always wondered ,if loyalty is earned. Another thought, which comes to my mind is – is loyalty relative with time and people around us. Similar thoughts come to my mind on gratitude. Are we grateful based on time and space.

The thoughts are very abstract. Let me try to explain with a few examples, which I have seen or witnessed in my life ,so far. Are we loyal to our parents ,till they take care of us. Are we loyal to organisations ,till we work in them. Are we grateful to people ,till they support us financially or otherwise ?

Another way of looking at the same thing is – Is loyalty absolute or relative ? Is gratitude time bound or timeless ? Each of us may have experienced life ,in many different ways. I am sure ,we have our own world view ,of both loyalty and gratitude.

I would like to share my views ,based on my experiences. In my book on life, loyalty is absolute and never relative. Similarly, gratitude is timeless and can never have ,an expiry date. It is not like a medicine or a food product, to have an expiry date.

While many of you may agree with my views, some may also disagree, based on your own life experiences. Life today is getting very complex and hence we need to question, some of our fundamental beliefs and values.

Recently I was reading a news report ,where a business tycoon was thrown out of his own house ,after the son took over the business empire . The father had built the business and handed it over to the son. Is this fathomable ? In this case, has loyalty changed with time?

Another conflict ,which many people go through in their lives, is – if they have to be loyal and grateful to their parents ,after they get married and settle down well in life? Does loyalty shift from parents to spouses ,as things change with time and space?

We may change organisations but our loyalty to the people, who made us successful in our career ,has to be life long. It cannot end with our tenure ,in the organisation. Both loyalty and gratitude are not saleable or buyable products. This is essence of my life learning.

In my book, both loyalty and gratitude are life long and timeless. Loyalty is absolute and one has to be grateful to your parents and all other well wishers – relatives or friends, who made you what you are today in life. You may get married and have children and one needs to take care of spouse and kids ,but this does not mean ,you do this ,at the cost of not being loyal to people, who made you what you are today.

One can love and respect parents and others, who made you successful in life and still take care and love ,your spouse and kids. One need not be ,at the expense of the other. So, I say ,loyalty is not relative. It is absolute ,with time and space.

I have a similar view on gratitude. We have to be grateful to people, who made us what we are today ,in this life and may be in the next many births, if we have. There is no time or space limit ,for being grateful. The people who helped us to be what we are today, did not do that ,expecting anything in return. But, if we fail to be grateful to them unconditionally ,for the rest of our lives, karma will hit us ,in some way, some day ,for sure.

Let loyalty and gratitude be absolute ,unless we believe it is relative and can change with time and space. The choice is ours ,to make.

S Ramesh Shankar

25th Jan 2025

I was born in the so called baby boomers era. We then have had Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, millennials and so on. Each generation brings some unique characteristics along with them. In every phase of life, we live with multiple generations and hence we need to learn to live and thrive, in a multi-generational society.

A lot of talk is there at present ,as to how do we deal with millennials and so on. However, the reality is that many generations co-existed from time immemorial. So, it is not something new ,we are discovering today.

Every generation thought the next generation was not as good as they were. They felt the values had degenerated and the seniors were not respected, as much as in the past. Each generation tries to live in the past rather than foresee the future, which is evolving in front of them.

It is true that each generation will be different and their behaviour, norms and social ethos ,will be different. We can neither live in the past nor discard the developments in the present and the likely scenario in the future.

In my view, the behaviour and ethos of every generation is possibly determined by the environment around them. For eg. the baby boomers may have lived through multiple challenges, lived and worked for their survival ,on a day to day basis. The Gen X comparatively had a comfortable place to stay and got educated ,as per their needs.

Gen Y had more comforts from a physical sense ,as the Gen X could afford more material luxuries than the previous generation. Gen Y had more risk taking ability and hence ventured outside their comfort zones and moved across the country. Gen Z have become truly global and live more in the present than all the previous generations.

Each generation has the opportunity to learn from the other generations and build on their strengths. For eg, Gen X could learn from the sacrifices of the baby boomers. Gen Y could appreciate the comforts provided by Gen X to them. Gen Z can appreciate the risk taking abilities of Gen Y ,so as to enable them move across the globe and find their passions.

It is fashionable in organisations today to talk of multi generational workforce and how they have challenges in managing them. It is a reality that multiple generations, have been part of history in organisations ,always. May be the challenges were different and our ability to manage them ,were different.

Having said all that, it may be helpful to understand the strengths of each generation in the organisation and build on them so that the subsequent generations ,benefit from their deeds.

Yes, each generation will face a set of challenges and it is upto us to adapt to this shift and learn from the changes happening around us. We need to learn from both the generations, senior and junior to us.

Let us learn the generational shift and thrive in this change.

S Ramesh Shankar

10th Jan 2025

One of the questions many employees generally ask is to understand the difference between career and succession planning in organisations. Career planning is for individuals whereas succession planning is for key positions in the organisation.

Let us look at career planning first. Every individual, who joins an organisation wants to climb the corporate ladder. Everyone aspires to reach the highest level possible in the organisation in the shortest possible time.

How do we do career planning ? Career planning is to be done by individuals, managers for their team members and HR for key people in the organisation. Who is ultimately responsible for career planning ? In my view, the individual employee has to take the ultimate responsibility of planning their own careers.

It is like an aspiring sportsperson. We recently saw the world chess champion emerge from India. This young boy at the age of 7 dreamt of becoming the world champion and worked towards it by dedication, commitment and a lot of hard work. He was ably supported by mentors and coaches to realise his dream goal.

Similarly, in the organisational context, every individual needs to have a dream. An aspirational goal to achieve in their own careers. This could be long term, medium term and short term. Once the goal emerges, the individual needs to plan their steps to achieve that goal. The individual’s manager and HR partner could support them in identifying the steps and developing the capabilities to achieve that goal.

The manager has the responsibility to enable career planning of her team members. While the individual should be made ultimately responsible to steer their careers, the manager can be an invaluable mentor or guide in this process.

Human Resources partner can be the facilitator of the process. HR can help the individual and the manager to identify the steps to the goal and also the capabilities required at different stages of the individual’s career.

On the other hand, Succession planning is for key positions in the organisation. This is primarily the role of HR and senior leadership in the organisation. HR needs to identify what could be the key positions in the organisation which are critical. A simple method is to start with the top two levels in the organisational hierarchy and then look at other key positions.

Once positions are identified, HR along with leadership needs to define what are the key capabilities to effectively play those roles. Then identify whether we have suitable people within the organisation, who can be groomed to play those roles. If not, identify people outside the organisation, who could be inducted so that they can be developed as successors for key positions.

To summarise, career planning is for individuals and every employee has to take responsibility for their own careers. They need to be supported by their managers and HR to evolve the steps, develop the capabilities and move towards their career goals.

On the other hand, succession planning is for key positions. HR & leadership have to identify the key positions, the capabilities required for those positions and also the people who can be groomed to take over those positions in the future. This could be from within or outside the organisation. Further their development to make them ready to take over these roles in the future needs to be planned and executed.

Career planning is for individuals and succession planning is for key positions.

S Ramesh Shankar

23rd Dec 2024