Your actions speak for you

One of the quotes, which guided me to develop as a leader was- “ People follow what you do and not what you say”. This I learnt ,way back in 1989, while attending a training session in a class room; but I believe it is valid even today.

I read another quote today morning, which said – “Most people know the walk, but do not walk that way”. We may be aware that people will follow what we do ,rather than what we say but still we continue to do things ,contrary to what we say.

Even as children, we always followed what our parents did more than what they said. As parents today, our children also follow what we do rather than what we say. Today’s children are smarter and if there is a gap between what we say and what we do, they observe and let us know easily.

The work place is no different. Leaders who walk the talk are more admired and followed. A leader, who always starts and end meetings on time, can see her team members on time, every time, for their meetings. It is conversely true too.

We sometimes imagine that the positions we hold in life like a father or mother in the family or a boss at the work place, can give us the leeway to behave differently ,from what we preach. This is not true and we get exposed ,before we even realise our mistakes in life.

Even on the sports field, a captain is followed as long as the captain behaves the way ,he wants his team to perform—Whether it is behaviour on or off the field or a particular skill or even the basics of maintaining a good physique.

Society also respects leaders who lead by example. Gandhiji has been revered across the world, over the last century ,primarily because, he practised before he preached. Even in areas, where he felt, he did not have the moral right to advise someone, he refrained from advising, till he could practise what he was about to preach.

There is a good example from Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Once, he was to advise a child to take less sugar but he refrained from giving this advise till the day he could himself control his urge to consume sugar in excess. Then, after getting over this weakness, he went ahead and advised the child.

So, in life, whether we are seniors in the family or at the work place or in the community, we need to learn to lead by example always. We need to practise before we preach. People will observe and follow ,what we do more than what we say always.

Our actions will always speak louder than our words. The best of leaders I have worked with ,never advised us ,in most situations. They showed through their actions and behaviour ,what is expected of us and we could observe and follow them.

Even parents at home do not advise us ,most of the times. They teach us through their actions ,what is good behaviour in every day life.

Let us learn to practise before we preach

S Ramesh Shankar

24th Dec 2024

When you want to make a home, you have to leave your home

I was watching a music reality show on TV and one of the judges mentioned in Hindi – “ Ghar banane ke liye, ghar chodna padta hai “. If translated, it literally means that “If you want make a home, you have to leave your home”. Although translations many a time do not convey the real meaning of the quote, it is very insightful.

If you want to make a mark in your career, you have to leave the comforts of your home. Many of us grow up in small towns, villages or even in cities but never like to leave them since we get attached to our family, friends and the ethos of that place.

I hail from Chennai in South India. We used to have a joke in my college days that if you have the courage to cross Basin bridge station ( the station next to Chennai Central station), your mind will broaden. I have experienced this and agree with this world view.

We may pursue any career in life. We could work in corporates, run our own business or become a professional sports person. It does not matter. We may be able to excel in whatever we do ,the day we venture out of our comfort zone.

Even as students, we tend to study in the same town or city, where we have grown up as a child. We resist moving out of that city or town, even to pursue higher studies. This makes us like a frog in a well. However, if we get over this inertia and move out of our city of up- bringing, to pursue higher education, our mind broadens and our learning multiplies.

This is equally true at the work place. Many employees want to learn and grow in the city or state ,of their origin. When faced with a transfer, even on promotion, they resist and give some excuse to stay back in the city of their birth or up -bringing.

In my view, this could become a limiting factor ,in their career. We learn not only from the role we play in the organisation but the environment around us ,too. The teams would be different, the culture and ethos of the new city or town ,could open our eyes and tickle our brains.

I can state with empirical evidence of my own experience of living and working, in ten different towns/cities ,that my world view has grown and evolved ,because of these multifaceted experiences. If I had lived and worked only in one city, I may have evolved as an uni-dimensional professional. However, these experiences made me learn and adapt to different environments and learn from one another.

I have seen this in my children too. They have also lived, studied and worked in different towns/cities and this has made them adapt to different cultures and professional environments. Today, they can thrive in any scenario because they are not limited ,to live and work ,in one environment.

Life is a never ending learning journey. The more we spread our experiences and environments, the more we learn. The pandemic has further necessitated the need to learn and adapt to different situations at a short notice or no notice at all.

Let us learn to re discover ourselves everyday.

S Ramesh Shankar

24th Dec 2024

Career planning versus Succession planning

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