One of the vital questions I have been asked multiple times in my career as a HR professional by employees at all levels is -“Who will plan my career ? As we get into life, we tend to believe that our parents determine what we want to do in life. They we depend on teachers to guide us through what we want to do in life.

As we get into the professional world, we again imagine that our managers or leaders ,are responsible for evolving our career. In the beginning of our career, we depend on our seniors and our manager to tell us what is best for us.

Even when I visited a campus, I used to be asked by freshers, as to what their career will look like, in the organisation they were joining. I would ask them in return, if they could tell me as to how long they would stay in the organisation, ..they would respond saying they were not sure. I would then state ,that the day they were sure of their longevity in the organisation they are going to work for, we could discuss about their career.

Life and career are no different. We can always imagine ,that there is someone else in our lives and organisations, who will enable us shape our careers. Imagine an entrepreneur thinking ,that someone else is going to build and grow their company. It is neither the financier nor other investors, who are responsible for the growth and sustainability of their enterprise.

Similarly, an individual’s career is the prime and sole responsibility of the individual employee and nobody else. While everyone else can help us clarify what could be best for us, it is for us to determine ,what we want to do in life and how we do it.

A sportsperson cannot depend on the coach ,to determine how they want to excel in their sports. If they want to be the best in the world, they have to set their own goals and evolve the path to achieve it ,with the help and support of parents, teachers, coaches and friends and not the other way around.

Similarly, in any organisation, if an employee aspires to become the CEO of the organisation, where she is working, she has to set that goal and work on the knowledge, skills and road map ,to realise that goal, in a defined time frame.

I have seen children ,defining their goals in life and achieving them through hard work, determination and purposeful actions. The same is true for employees. I remember ,once an interviewee ,when asked where he would see himself in his career in 5 years ,replied that I would like to replace you as the head of the function.

The day we understand ,that I determine my destiny ,by my own actions, we will achieve whatever we dream in life. We need to steer our own life and career, thinking we are the CEO of our life and everything ,is in our own hands.

It is time to realise that ,only we ,can build our career and life ,the way we want it.

S Ramesh Shankar

30th Sep 2024

 

We are all born with natural intelligence. We develop this in our childhood. I am told that the human brain grows only up to a certain age in childhood and then possibly ,we need to exercise our brain to sharpen our intelligence.

In our early childhood, we are asked to memorise poems and debates at school and also some religious texts at home. This way our brain gets to exercise and perhaps helps us to keep ourselves alert.

As we move to college, we still get opportunities to test our brain and intelligence ,through projects and assignments. This continues at our workplace in corporates and in our own businesses.

However, as technology has developed ,we have started depending more on it, than on human brain. In the past, we remembered the phone numbers of all our friends and relatives ,since the landline we had ,did not have memory and it possibly compelled us to do so. Today we may not even remember our own numbers ,since the mobile stores everything for us and retrieves in a jiffy.

Human intelligence is natural and is possibly given in equal measure ,to all of us ,by the Almighty. Some of us exercise our brain enough and hence become more intelligent than others. Some may let laziness overcome them and hence their brains possibly degenerates faster.

Today we hear and talk of Artificial intelligence . As the name suggests, artificial intelligence is developed by mankind. It is artificial by nature and responds the same way. It is like a database ,developed over a period of time and can at best do repetitive tasks better than human beings.

Let us take an example. We all are aware of self driving cars. I understand that the artificial intelligence for these cars are developed by human beings ,by studying and feeding data over a period of time in all possible situations, in which a human being drives a car. So ,this AI enabled self driving car ,is able to reach its destination through the route fed into it and responds as is needed ,in all possible situations ,it can encounter on the way.

However, imagine a child tries to play prank on the road or the power fails due to a major grid failure and the traffic signals do not operate the way it should. A human being driving a car ,may be in a better position to respond in such a situation and drive to her destination safely. A self driving car may struggle to do the same.

In my view, artificial intelligence can do repetitive tasks possibly better than human beings can. However when complex human emotions come into play, artificial intelligence may not be able to adapt to the same and respond.

Another example could be that an AI enabled bot could possibly diagnose a cancer patient based on all possible cancer cases recorded all around the world. However, if a new variant of cancer comes in, like the Covid pandemic hit us, only Human intelligence will be able to respond and manage it.

We need to strike the right balance between ,natural or human intelligence and artificial intelligence ,to be happier in life.

Lets start today.

S Ramesh Shankar

13th Sep 2023

Everyone says “Excellence” is a journey that never ends. I sometimes ask as to how to discover this journey in life. It looks like it is easier said than done.

I was watching a TV show recently and realised what this could mean to us in our everyday lives. I saw a flautist, who played the flute as if God was playing the flute through his fingers.

I have seen sportspersons win match after match and still never feel they have arrived. They always think ,that there is something better to play in the next match, than whatever they have done so far. This is true for individual players as well as teams.

I have met subject matter experts, who can speak endlessly on their subject and can answer all your questions ,as if the subject was discovered by them on earth. Their quest to learn is never ending and their thirst for knowledge is limitless.

One meets common men and women in everyday life who excel in whatever they do and we imagine they have peaked in their domain. However, when we meet them each time, they make you realise that their journey has just begun.

A sculptor is not happy with a masterpiece nor a musician with a Grammy winning song. An actor does not end his journey with an Oscar nor a sportsperson with an Olympic medal. What makes us pause our journey when we do not even excel at our city level, leave alone district, state or country level.

After observing people, who excel in different walks of life I realise that they have some discerning qualities, which may be worth emulating. The first amongst all of these qualities, is their unequalled passion for whatever they do.

A sculptor may spend years to create a masterpiece but is never satisfied with just one. Similarly a sportsperson may have won laurels around the world in Olympics or World championships , but still doesn’t stop trying to improve always.

The second quality of a person who excels , is their limitless learning in life. A sportsperson person recently said in a press conference – “There is no failure in sports”. There are good days and bad days. You win some and you lose some but you never give up to do better all over again.

The third quality which I would love to imbibe is that their quest to do better every day of their lives. You never see them resting on their past laurels. What they did yesterday is over and what they are doing today is for a better tomorrow.

Now, let us look as to how we could apply these basic principles in our every day lives. First we need to identify what we are passionate about. Sometimes, we may not be sure and that is fine. We may discover along the way and sometimes even by chance. Once you are passionate about something, your zeal to excel increases.

Secondly, we need to learn to learn, unlearn and re-learn everyday of our lives. What we learnt in our childhood may not be relevant today. What we know today may not be applicable tomorrow , with the changing technologies impacting our lives. So , we need to have limitless quest for learning always.

The third quality is to compete with the best and to begin, compete with oneself. We all can be a better version of what we were yesterday. It could be as simple as the speed of our walking or the way we play a game. As long as we have the passion to excel, our journey never ends.

Life is a journey to excel in whatever we do and then its fun all the way.

S Ramesh Shankar

1st May 2023