Advice for professionals

A friend who recently took up the MD's role in a large company requested me to give a motivational talk to his senior management & sales organization. The company is based in a smaller town, has grown dramatically over the last several years & is now embarking on the next phase of it's evolution.

This article is a synopsis of the points covered in that session & focuses on key factors which helped me grow in my own professional life. The actual session was very interactive as many of the participants shared their own experiences. In this article the content is reworked to apply generically to all kinds of organizations & actual examples have been excluded.

1. Knowing your customers – This means that one needs to have a thorough understanding of the motivations & primary drivers of your customers. Besides actual consumers or end-buyers the term ‘customer’ encompasses the market dynamics, competition as well as the channel partners. This perspective cannot be gained by working on business plans in the office & neither is carried forward from a sales stint in the distant past. It needs to be maintained by ensuring a regular touch with your customers on a recurring basis. Having a basic understanding about the changing needs of the customers is a key requirement for long term success in every role - no matter how senior or even if one is a part of production or finance,  This will ensure that the organization is able to evolve products & services in response to changes in customer needs & aspirations. Therefore the requisite investment of time & effort meeting ‘customers’ should be mandatory for every role. 

      2. Win-Win approach – The final outcome of any process is always superior in the longer run when both participants benefit. On many occasions a Win-Lose proposition is accepted by either party to the transaction due to paucity of options or desperation, but as soon as the situation changes they would exit such a transaction with alacrity or compromise on deliverable's at their end. Therefore whether it is a transaction involving sales/channel or procurement/vendor, ensure that a Win-Win approach is driving the final outcome. It might come out of several iterations as this takes more effort but will pay-off better in the longer run by ensuring more longevity. Ultimately it costs more to replace than to retain and the organisation should not lose a good customer, vendor, distributor or employee.

      3. Ethical approach – Sales is one activity which unfortunately gets associated with many wrong practices & sometimes with unethical ones. But these situations can also arise in almost all other functions & departments. As a professional it is very important to draw the line on this front & ensure strong work ethics. An individual who indulges in unethical practices or has a conflict of interest soon loses the respect of his subordinates, peers and external entities who deal with him. If a ‘Nelson’s eye’ is turned to such practices within the company, it will result in a situation where everyone assumes tacit approval and rapidly degenerates into a standard practice. A professional who demonstrates strong ethical practices will always retain the respect of everyone & this will transcend the organization and period they work together. Ultimately it is a very small world & an ethical approach will come back to help you in ways that one does not envisage. The same can be said for unethical practices which will come back to haunt you.

      4. Add value beyond your role – Most people are happy to be aligned to the job definition which is provided to them or understood by them. Obviously this is a hygiene factor and needs to be fulfilled to the fullest extent. But a lot of people forget that one should always be looking at ways to add value beyond one’s role. This might be in smaller ways like process improvements, cost savings & efficiency enhancements or could be much bigger like insights which help develop new products, services, markets or revenue streams. Obviously no one expects such contributions on an ongoing basis, but this should be a something which is definitely expected at least more than once a year. In your own direct reports you will choose to appreciate the team members who add value beyond the job, but conveniently choose to ignore the fact that the same is applicable in your own role too.

      5. Keep Learning – This is a point which I have emphasized earlier within other articles in my blog & I personally feel that this is very critical for personal growth. The rate at which we learn drops exponentially after we finish our formal education & start a professional career. After a couple of years one assumes that ‘domain expert’ status is achieved & learning becomes practically nil. There are some random training programs which an individual is nominated into, but that is normally tolerated with disdain. Many professionals do not even choose to keep abreast with what is changing in their domain except for stuff which is mandated legally or directly impacting their operations. It makes sense to subscribe to industry journals or magazines, join industry discussion forums at conferences or offline / online forums. I would also recommend that one should pursue some other interests outside work & identify opportunities to meet new people who will stimulate fresh thinking. Innovation or ‘out of the box’ thinking can only come when you have inputs outside the sphere of your normal activities.

          6. Develop your team – One constant advice provided by me to professionals is to ‘look at ways to make yourself redundant’. The best way to do this is to develop the team under you in such a way that they can take over your role in the foreseeable future. This is again a tough requirement as it takes far more effort than normal. Many folks will manage key tasks themselves rather than take the risk of allocating the responsibility to their subordinates.  Some times this could be due to the fact that the team members might take twice or thrice the amount of time it might for the leader to complete the task. In all such situations providing guidelines, monitoring progress, rectifying mistakes & providing feedback is a worthwhile investment which will help make you redundant as your team member’s ramp up their own skills & ability to manage various situations. If you look back at your own career, you will have memories of great leaders you have worked with & helped shape what you are today. It is now your turn to do the same for folks under you.

      7. Work in an preemptive manner – Another favorite analogy often quoted by me is as follows. When a fire breaks out, the person who battles the fire & helps save lives is the ‘hero’ who is recognized for his bravery. I will obviously not take away their credit – unless they were the ones who started the fire. But no-one recognizes the person who works in a preemptive manner to ensure that a fire does not break out in the first place. Now look at this in the context of recurring crisis situations encountered within the organization – critical customer escalations,  production stoppages at the plant, supply chain impact due to vendor delays etc. The common theme in most organizations is the fact recognition goes to the person who handles the crisis, but recognition is not forthcoming for the person who ensures that such situations do not develop in the first place. But if you work in a preemptive manner, you will have the satisfaction of doing a better job & in the process leading a more stress-free life.

      8.  Develop BIG picture thinking – This merely means that one needs to build a perspective and understanding about the working of an organization in the larger context. Sometimes the workings of some departments are often at odds with one another, but each department serves a critical purpose and therefore this understanding ensures better operations. A salesperson needs to understand that the finance or audit team is not working against him, but is serving a critical purpose of ensuring that contracts are complete or processes adhere to the requirements of the law. In the same way those departments need to ensure that if there are some fundamental issues which continue to recur which are causing such situations, examine if the policies are outdated or processes flawed. Ultimately a car can run due to the presence both - an accelerator and a brake (besides many other components). A car driven only by stepping on the gas will only seriously harm other folks & the driver. In the same way if the brake is used excessively one is not going to reach anywhere & one might as well walk to make faster progress.

      To conclude, one can add in many more points to this list and would invite you to share the factors which have helped on the path to your own 'success'.