Today, we talk about the young, upwardly mobile professionals - specifically, the top ten mistakes that a young upwardly mobile professional is likely to make, and how not to fall into these traps.

1) Not realizing you are one
May be it is the instinctive desire not to admit that you are one of the most lucrative groups that greedy marketeers are after, but many of the young upwardly mobile professionals don’t even realise that they are part of this social phenomenon - in waiting to arrive, they sometimes forget that they are well onto their paths. This is not a article to find out where you fit in so you can buy the right clothes or socialize with the right people - but if you are a young mid career professional, who has made their mark in a field, but is raring to go a lot more - then it is important that you realize, perhaps not that you are a yuppie, but that you are a valued professional - who is young (which means you have plenty of time to scale many heights) and upwardly mobile (your trajectory is firmly pointing upwards, and you could keep it that way for a long time to come).

Realize your value, don’t underestimate your potential and make conscious choices to maximize what you can achieve.

2) Not investing / understanding your image
Image - something people don’t think about until it is too late. Do you have to be a CEO and hire an image consultant to have a good image? Laura Morgan Roberts of HBS writes:

People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace,” she says. “It is only wise to add your voice in framing others’ theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.

It is generally accepted that people judge you first by what they see, then by what they hear and eventually, by what we do. And most of us spend most of our working life doing things and a very small portion on presenting ourselves in the right light. There are many tips you can find for managing your image, there is one that I feel is most critical. Be proactive. Understand what your desired image, understand what your real image is and decide what you want to do about it. This is not rocket science, all it takes is a bit of time and creativity.

3) Inflexibility in goals
A lot of us have goals we have always wanted to achieve. Professionally and personally, we have dreams. And it is true that those who stick with the dreams are the most likely to achieve them. Yet, we live in changing times. And a mistake that several people make is refusing to let go of what they have always wanted to do, just because it is what they always wanted to do. It is ok to choose a new path, it is ok to redefine your priorities. When you are dead fixed on specific goals, you also run the risk that you may not see the other golden opportunities that pass you by.

Reevaluate your goals, and do not be afraid to change directions.

4) Relying on brand strength instead of quality
We talked about image. And now I am going to say that people often focus on brand strength instead of quality. Contradictory, you might say. But let me explain. Many a time, I have come across people who walk into a room and introduce themselves through a volley of impressive names - be it schools or previous employers. Yes, true, I am impressed, but I also like to see it backed up eventually by real quality of work. And I realize this is gross generalization, but people with the big brand names often forget that they need to work just as hard as everyone else to get the quality. So just don’t fall into the trap that just because you have a big name to support you and win you the great first impressions, you don’t work to deliver good quality products. Eventually, quality trumps brand. Always.

5) Not strategizing the career
Strategy - how often do we think about it. How many of us think where do you want to do forty years down the line and work backwards and come up with a plan ( I still say the plan has to be flexible). To succeed, you need an overall strategy, distilled to a plan. Fail to plan and you plan to fail.

Can you imagine a company growing without a vision and a mission? Would you like to work for a firm that has no real strategy? Why would you think you will achieve success if you are like a boat floating aimlessly on the water? Let’s get out that map, compass, and charter our course.

6) Forgetting about life, friends and family and most importantly, yourself
You are so busy making your big career that you forget all about the other aspects of your life - sounds familiar? In this day and age where broken families and burnouts are common casualties of a world that priorities career over everything, it falls to every individual’s responsibility to define his or her own boundaries. The best thing that has happened to me ever since I moved to Europe, even more than the many beautiful countries I get to visit - is that I have learned to work in order to live, and not live in order to work. Here is another thing I have learned - set your boundaries and respect them, and others will too.

A colleague once told me - imagine a stone being thrown into a the water. It forms ripples. The inner most ripple is strong and clear, and the farther the ripples are from the center they fade away. But the outer ripples always take the shape of the inner ripple. Now, imagine that the inner most ripple is yourself. The next one may be your spouse. The next one may be your family and friends. And the next your career. The order maybe whatever you choose. But let the innermost one be yourself. Because if you don’t get that one right, you are not going to the get the rest right either.

Take time out for yourself. To enjoy and to relax. And to be with your loved ones. And you will find that a fast paced career is much more sustainable.

Deny it all you like, but most of us lead multiple lives. Not in the schizophrenic way, but in the “One person - Many interests” kind of way. Gone are the days in which one person could be slotted into one career - the days when you were a doctor or an engineer or a lawyer or a musician or a writer or a janitor.

A lot of people straddle multiple professions - often vastly different from each other - sometimes sequentially, but increasingly simultaneously. The corporate lawyer who composes music during his free time. The railway clerk who writes furiously at night hoping to publish his first novel. The engineer who is a closet activist. The doctor who volunteers to build homes for the poor on weekends. Or the musician who runs his online outsourcing company and buys a Porsche. While some of these characters are figments of my imagination, there are many like them who are very real. To cite just one example, Shashi Tharoor is someone who never ceases to amaze me. How does he churn out so much writing - books, columns, the whole enchilada - even when he is holding a full-time job at the UN? Well, why go that far - if you hold a job and you run a successful blog - there you go, you are one of the subjects of this post.

The Rational Reasons

The truth is, we are moving into a world where people can’t just do one thing. Be it in the course of one’s life time or in the span of five minutes, we are seeking to do multiple things. Multi tasking is the norm - it is no more just a necessity, it is also a choice.

The reasons for this are many - Firstly, it is a safety net. With decreasing job security, people don’t want to have all their eggs in the same basket. Say, you work in the semiconductor industry and it is going to hit a downturn, aren’t you better off if you could run a dance troupe while you out of your job? Secondly, it is because we can. With the proliferation of internet and several other technologies, we can do much more in a shorter time frame. We could run an internet company while we keep a day job. You can be an online trader. You can find out people who would buy the second-hand goods that you like to sell on Sundays.

Thirdly, societal expectations are pushing us towards it. I know, I know, I said it is a choice. But thin is the line that separates peer pressure from choice. Did you really want to smoke the hash the first time you did it or did your friends subtly prod you towards it, by expecting you to. If everyone around us has a “second life”, who wants to be the loser who doesn’t? Fourthly, the additional income. If you have money, the world is exploding with things you can buy and do. Why wouldn’t you take up another vocation if it can bring in some extra dough? And finally, what about the excitement of variety? I used to eat bee hoon for lunch every day through the winter and spring of 1996. Even a cheese sandwich would have seemed gourmet to me then.

Be as common as it is, this phenomena is not well understood or well managed - by those who engage in it and by those who need to support it.

Lets start with the employers - the ones who need to let us earn our daily bread, lest we starve and can’t spend time on our side careers. And the ones who could, if they like, benefit from it.

The Evil Employer

One of the great debates of our times is how to attract and retain talent. Now, one new innovation in the area - from none other than the mighty Google - seems to be to keep the employees glued to their job all day long and all night long. Ok, I am exaggerating. But behind the carwash-on-campus and the hair salons and the gourmet kitchens and the dry cleaners, the real intention is to free up enough time so that employees can spend every waking minute thinking about their jobs. Not a bad strategy, really. But here’s the skinny on it. We are living in a world where ADD is becoming more and more prevalent - hell, you won’t even be labeled as having ADD if you can keep your attention on one topic for more than 5 minutes - the very definition is being changed by innovations such as Twitter. And soon, it will be humanly impossible to dream, eat, sleep and live your job as Google seems to expect its employees to do.

Now, I am not saying Google is evil, just that its strategy may be flawed. The way to attract and retain people is to let them be themselves - allow them to explore their multiple dimensions, spend time out of their jobs, so that when they are really at their jobs, they are productive and at their best. The diversion will only do them good. Employers who give long term sabbatical to their employees are the ones who are getting it right. So are those who allow flexible hours, and part-time work - they not only have a larger pool of potential employees to choose from, they also have a more re-energized workforce who is at their best in the smaller amount of time that the company pays them to sit at their desks.

What else could employers do? They could actually promote employee’s external interests. Encourage inter-company SIGs - it need not all be of the money-making kind. If there is a bunch of wine enthusiasts who would like to start a wine tasting club, then provide them the ability to find each other within in the company networks. Someone wants to start a fitness academy (which incidentally one of my colleagues just did) - let them use their corporate contacts to get clientèle. That entrenches them deeper within the company than the best gourmet kitchens can. Now, I understand the conflicts if what you do for your job and what you do in the side are too similar. But chances are, the interests are divergent enough. If not, clear boundaries, rather than a complete No-No would be better. There are many more things that employers can do, details of which would make for an entirely new article, but the bottom line is, Encourage the employees’ external interests and provide them the flexibility to pursue them, rather than demanding they are at their job every waking minute - chances are they will choose you over your competitor. And continue to stay with you.

The Zealous Selves

And how about us - you and me - who are passionate about our “second lives”?

Be it your passion, be it your choice, be it your solace from daily drudgery - truth is, it is not easy to maintain a secondary line of career. Even a post on a blog requires you to spend precious time and brain space. So, what do we need to do,in order to have our cake and eat it too?

First, recognize and acknowledge. There are several of us who don’t even realize the multiple “jobs” we handle. The career woman who after spending eight hours on the job, comes home and starts her next shift as the family’s chef. The blogger who doesn’t account for the amount of time he is spending on posting something new for his readers every day. The wanna-be musician who spends two hours a day practising after a long day spent at his tiny cubicle. True, they are all labors of love. But even labors of love can have a toll on your life. You must admit to yourself the time you are spending on them, so one fine day you don’t wonder whether there is an abyss where your time is disappearing into. Also, it would be a pity to discover too late that there was some place else you would rather have been. Let the decision to spend time on anything be a conscious decision. If you are consistently spending a substantial amount of time of your life on anything, be sure to acknowledge it.

Prioritize and choose. This sort of stems from the first one. If you sit down and think about all the “side things”, sometimes, and for some people, we are not talking about two. But several. Recently, I met a management consultant who spends about 60-80 hours a week, advising corporations on their strategy. He also volunteers on the board of a non-profit organization. He is a member of the choir of his local church. Not to mention that he is considering writing a book on the latest thinking in strategy - a job that will no doubt require not just typing words, but hard-arse research. I talked to him, who seemed to manage everything with a smile. And even seemed to have enough time to spare to talk to the likes of me. Well, talk to his wife and a completely different picture emerges. We all get overworked sometimes, even when we don’t realize it. Especially when it is spent on multiple things. Carefully consider everything you want to do - and choose one. This is already a side. If you have sides for your sides, some things are going to spill off your plate sooner or later.

Carve out a time and a schedule. If you are serious about something, do something serious about it. There is no point trying to carve out a career as a musician if you are going to go through your day pining about your music, but when you get home your hands are too tired to lift up your viola. And you are never going to make it as online trader, if you don’t spend enough time understanding the market. Even though it is a side, it requires time and effort. The extent of time spent, and the seriousness of the targets set may depend a bit on what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Nevertheless, if you want to have to have a side career, you should at least give it a decent shot to make it successful.

Let all those around you - from family to friends to most importantly, your current and future employers - recognize it and give you credit for it. Let no one call you a loafer just because you come home to spend time behind a computer screen, trading virtual goods on Ultima Online. Or if you spend a good part of your weekend practising with your local jazz band. That makes you a musician, no less than the one who doesn’t do anything else in his time free from playing music. When you write your CV for your next job, build in your alternative career into your skill set. I will wager you might have learned as much or more from those efforts. As important as recognition, is support. If your wife adamantly opposes you freelancing as a web designer in the weekends, it is best to engage her and convince her, just as you would have done, had she disagreed with your day-time job.

And last but not least, remember to give yourself the occasional pat on the back or the kick on the butt, depending on what you deserve.

The Digressive Detail

I just realized that I have probably mixed up several degrees of involvement in a secondary career path in the definition of the side dish that I wanted to talk about. Even though the specific issues you would face were you pursuing your passion as a hobby or trying to meet your ends meet by putting extra hours into the dreaded second job may vary, I believe the issues discussed here remain relevant across the whole spectrum. I couldn’t think of a more apt word - when our plates are full, don’t we just call the dish on the side, the side dish?

The Quixotic Question

So, now, its your turn - pray, tell me, have you had/ do you have/will you have a side dish to the main course of your life? Are you relishing it or not just yet? What worked for you and what didn’t?

Any executive running a publicly traded business would have either formal training that equips him for the job or years of apprenticeship working at various levels in the company or long experience in the industry or in many cases, all the three above. But what about our dear politicians who make million dollar decisions affecting the lives of billions? Even though India likes to claim that she has highly educated politicians based on two data points, arguably the most important two (P and PM), you and I both know that they are more the exception than the norm. There is nothing in our political system that makes sure that people who make the decisions know what they are deciding about, or even that they are competent enough to understand the options before them.

In the interest of ensuring every citizen of the country has an equal chance at governing us, let us introduce no pre-screening (though, I am very tempted to argue in favour of this). Imagine the elections are over, and the reality of what they promised their voters have just hit the candidates. When it comes to election campaigns, the feasibility and economic soundness of a policy ranks way below their probability of increasing a politician’s popularity. This probably means that in many cases, they have no clue what lies ahead. Or they have a skewed one-track mind. What could be a solution to the issue at hand?

Indian Institute of Politics: There is an undeniable need to establish a Indian Institute of Politicians (IIP) - an educational institution aimed at India’s politicians, run by academics and experienced practitioners, accredited by a university, with a curriculum transparent to the public and media. The mission of the institute would be to ensure that our politicians have the necessary skills to do their job.

Skills assessment: Before any politician is allowed to make a decision that changes the course of our future forever, they should pass a basic skills asssesment test. The test would assess them on the fundamentals of public policy, their understanding of the processes and their awareness of the impact of their decisions. Everyone needs to pass this test before they can be sworn in / appointed to top posts.

In-depth knowledge assessment: For areas they are directly responsible for, every politician should be able to demonstrate a sufficient degree of understanding of the issues, concerns, options and challenges as well as the history of all policies made so far, along with their outcomes. Now, this may be tough for someone just elected to power, though I see no reason why someone would take up a job they are ill-equipped to do. In the spirit of generosity, we could let them attend classes for three hours a day, five days a week for one whole month, where the academics at the Indian Institute of Politics would teach them, methodically, all they need to know. Till then, they can do their usual chores of smiling for photographers, attending ceremonies, kissing babies and whatever else they do, while spending a fair portion of their day studiously attending classes and reading books, so they can start their real job - the first salary slip depends on their receiving satisfactory grades (anyone has any ideas on controlling access to bribes till they pass their test?)

Continuing education: Throughout the course of their tenure, politicians will be aided through regular training. Every decision maker needs to attend two relevant training sessions of one week each, every year. Politicians will have regular access to the university where academicians can help them to identify what courses would best suit their needs, and tailor programs for specific departments.

Communication skills: In addition, every politician should be taught basic communication skills, chief among them being the virtue of brevity and the use of facts to make arguments. Too many of us have been tormented by rhetorical speeches which contain no substance and seem to go on forever. We would even be open to the use of power points to accompany speeches, as long as packs are kept to less than 20 slides per session.

If you think all this is far-fetched, I urge you to take a look at the professional development department of any major company. And then compare the impact of a decision made by, say, a brand manager against that of a nation’s policy maker. I have no doubt that you would agree with me that the investments would be well worth it. Even from the politician’s perspective, they deserve on-the-job training, just like the rest of us, so that they can develop professionally and be better at what they do.

For our better lives and better future, IIP is not an option, but a necessity.

How very true, when it comes to threats and negotiations. Sure, you could go to all extents to make a resounding, credible threat. But just don’t forget to actually threaten your adversary. As implausible as it may sound, its not all that unlikely a situation. A recent article from HBS attempts to drive home the same point:

“In the classic game of Chicken, two drivers on a crash course speed toward each other. The rules are simple: Whoever swerves first and avoids collision loses, and whoever is brave enough to stay the course wins. Of course, when both drivers stay the course, they collide and die.

Clearly, this is not a game for the faint-hearted. But bravado alone doesn’t guarantee a win. Your opponent has to believe that you’re gutsy enough to stay the course, or he may do the same until the very end.
..

How do you win at Chicken? Once the cars are headed directly toward each other, you unscrew your steering wheel and throw it out the window, making sure that your opponent sees you do it. Foolish? So it would seem, but your threat is now entirely credible. You can’t change course even if you wanted to. It’s up to your opponent to decide whether to lose the game or die. The odds are in your favor.”

The important part is, of course, “making sure that your opponent sees you do it“.

The same article goes on to point to six ways to make your threats more credible in negotiation: Increase your costs of not following through on your threat, visibly restrict your options, visibly incur sunk costs, delegate authority to someone who will follow through on the threat, create and leverage a reputation for making credible threats and leverage the shadow of the future.

While I personally think some of the methods are a bit too risky and unpredictable for everyday use, the article is a great read for anyone who ever needs to negotiate - even if you don’t employ these tactics, you will know if and when your adversary is.

“Average managers play checkers, while great managers play chess.”
- Marcus Buckingham.
(”What Great Managers Do“, Harvard Business Review, Apr05)

Buckingham goes on to explain that in checkers the pieces are uniform and interchangeable. While in chess, each piece is unique (more or less) and the player who wins is the one who can tap onto the strengths of each.

Without going into details, let me narrate a situation I faced long time ago - I had to lead a team (to clarify any possible misunderstandings - this was not a part of my professional life, but was outside of work) of 50 people, of whom 8 reported directly to me. My direct team of 8 had almost an equal split of people of Indian and Chinese origin . Now, I know racial generalisations are inaccurate, wrong, unethical and what not, but blame it on my youth, the pressure I was under or just plain lack of experience - but I learnt early on that these two groups of people worked very differently - Group C liked to have things planned - they liked deadlines and targets, and the assurance that came with it that I wont be frantically calling their mobile at odd hours. While with Group I, they really liked to play it by the ear - Getting them to sit though a monthly planning meeting often used to be an achievement in itself. But if I had an emergency at midnight, I knew I could knock at their doors and they would pitch in without complaints and sometimes, even with relish. Now, I continued with this strategy for one full year - I had my share of regular chores, which my group C accomplished immaculately. I also had my share of midnight crises - for which I had my “emergency swat” team. Everyone was happy and alls well that ends well, or so I like to think.

As I got older and wiser - I began to wonder if I was really fair and is this something I would do again? While it is rather heady to have HBS recommend what I had crudely chanced upon, that is no reason for me not to critically evaluate what I did. In effect, I gave equal credit to people who had the same job scopes, but essentially did very different things, in very different ways. To me, the excitement of unexpected jobs was important - but I had a set of people who were never given the opportunity to do these (mind you, nobody asked to change their responsibilities - because thats one thing I believe in - if someone really WANTS to do something, they should get to do it - the desire to do something outweighs talent or even knowledge - in its correlation to success). Anyways, back to point - and I had a group of people who never knew what they were gonna do next, which may have been unsettling to some.

Things never get to this exaggerated state in a real world corporation - there are structures to prevent that from happening - appraisals, feedbacks, developmental plans yada yada. But despite all these, pigeon holing people happens in most organisations to some extent or the other. In my first job as a lowly intern, there was a super duper coder in the company. He had been in the job for several years and knew the systems inside out - he was the “helpdesk” - everyone went to him with problems and he solved them. The catch was that he was the only one who had never moved. People came in, and left - either laterally or vertically. He was so good at his job he had become indispensable and was doomed to do just what he did best.

Now, back to Marcus Buckingham - as a manager, one should understand one’s chess pieces. So, if you decide you are going to play each one to its strengths - you could be accomplishing exemplary results - but is that what is best for your employees? Is it fair never to let them take the risk of doing something that they may fail at? Can a team of specialists work as cohesively as a team of generalists who squabble over the same jobs? A strategy of building on individual strengths where people get better and better at what they are good at and more and more alienated from what they are not good at - Is it sustainable in the long run?

..The never ending search for answers.

These were the opening lines of the music CD i was playing at work today. My neighbour at work keeps me well supplied with good music, but I hardly look at the titles, coz they are usually Polish. Yes, I can actually recognise some of the Grzegorz Ciechowski songs now. I was undecidedly fumbling through my music CDs when a hand suddenly thrust a CD at me. ok, decision made!)

anyways, enough digression. I was shaken out of my working trance by this unexpected ENGLISH words - I used to have a poster at my old office with these exact words and had subconsciously read them every day. I had always thought they were really beautiful, but I couldn’t have been reminded of them at a better time.

One of the “great expectations” when you have been imported into a new country as a “foreign talent” (yeah, I never really found out whether that is meant to be derogatory or complementary) is that you are expected to bring change - Your senior management wants you to add value, based on your experience in other countries. But the reality on the ground is different - human beings,in general, resist change. Especially when they are being initiated by a new kid on the block. So, one is forced to walk a very thin line - and the wisdom definitely comes in handy.

I know this is not the last time I will be moving, so I am just penning these lessons down as I learn them, just in case I forget:

If you are new to a place:

- Never say, “Where I come from, we did it that way..”. Know it,think it, note it, but say it not. Find a better way to put that point across.

- Understand underlying facts before you question the way things are done. Things may be done in obviously stupid ways, but there could be historic, cultural, legal, circumstantial explanations to it. Be understanding. Don’t rush in to effect change even when the situation obviously warrants it. You are new - take the extra time to check all sides, one more time.

- For every little situation, don’t tell people how it was done somewhere else. Tell them only if it is relevant. They may not be interested in knowing it. And they can get tired of it.

- Choose the battles you want to fight (I borrowed that line from my ex-boss! boy, he was wise.) There will be a million things you are itching to change and probably, rightfully so. But choose carefully. If its your first initiative, choose one which is slightly easier to execute, one that is easy for you to convince people and brings observable business gains - Get people to believe in you first and accept your credibility. You can be more adventurous and ambitious once you have established yourself.

- After you have done your necessary “homework”, and you have decided to do something, have confidence in yourself. You will face resistance - change always will. No matter how good your proposal is, you can’t get everyone to agree. Make sure you have the agreement from the relevant people, but don’t back off in face of resistance. Face them, be nice to them, manage them, convince them. (Ok, just once I have had to resort to the “If you can’t convince them, confuse them!” method. Yeah, its not that difficult in my line of work - it is surprising how people get thrown off by information overload. But that’s not something I am particularly proud of - lets reserve that for desperate moments). But point is, if you are right - stick to your decision - that will win you respect in the long run!

Thankfully for me, I had made a short note of these when I learnt them through the mistakes of others. As obvious as these may seem, I have seen people come in new, try to create a whirlwind, just annoy everyone else and eventually end up as misfits. I have tried to watch and learn - they have immensely helped me. Of course I am also only learning - and as much as I have tried to not repeat mistakes I have seen before, someone else might actually be learning from the mistakes I am making - but I will keep adding to my diary - and let each change be better managed than the one before.

All these can be so succinctly summed up in :

“God, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the ones I should,
and the wisdom to know the difference”