DO MORE THAN WHAT YOU ARE BEING PAID FOR

 

The whole paradigm of HRD revolves around one concept : How to improve the productivity of an employee ?

The company delegates this responsibility to Human Resources Department (HRD) whose job is to strive to improve the work atmosphere and mindset of employees through a host of measures to increase their productivity. Before anything worthwhile is injected into their veins, the first thing they have to do is, change their value system.

Employees have to be motivated in such a way that their performance matters not only to their professional lives but bring a perceptible change in their personal lives as well. They have to be convinced that beyond money, there are some invaluable things which the money can't buy. So it is a soul-stirring exercise for which a firm ground work needs to be laid.

Normally the employee thinks that he or she should work to the extent of being paid for. Whenever, anything requires beyond his/ her normal competence and effort, he/ she simply throws the ball in the court of their seniors. Due to this, the poor soul lags behind in terms of promotions and other incentives/ avenues.

Here comes the world of difference. He is wise who plunges into action before anybody pushes him. The person who is in cocoon never realizes the credence of this lesson.

America's acclaimed author Napoleon Hill in his famous book " How to sell your way through life" says that one should have the habit of doing more than one is paid for his job. In a chapter exclusively devoted for this concept, Hill dwelt at length on how Henry Ford though is a poor and less educated, but by following this unorthodox principle, became a giant automobile maker of America.

So you can ignore this advice at your own peril.

CHANGE THE JOB TO SATISFY THE INNER 'YOU'

It is a virtual hell to continue in a job when your heart is craving for some other dream profession.

Doing a job is of course for those needy bucks. But, settling with less than what you ought to be should not be accepted as a fate.

Most people think that they should have high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to score high in life. But, what is needed more than IQ is, RQ i.e. Risk Quotient. It is the ability to endure the risk and explore the uncharted territories. You can otherwise call it the amount of guts required to take a bold decision to tread a path for success.

But in the most of Indians, this RQ is abysmally low, because they are the poor souls to satisfy with what they have in their hand, than a desire to climb up in life. In this respect, our Western counterparts are on a much better footing.

A study reveals that any American adults changes his or her job on an average 7 times in their life time. By doing so, they make a wise choice and settle with the best they deserve.

There are countless people who leave their glittering careers only to settle in their dream professions. Chetan Bhagat, India’s legend novelist left his plum job as an investment banker to transmute his passion into a writing career.

So the home point is, drive your passion into a viable venture and monetize your abilities and the first pre-requisite is to increase the risk appetite or R.Q !

EDUCATION - ARE WE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ?

Man is on the top of evolutionary ladder. The ability to think put us on the highest pedestal amongst animal kingdom.

In the process of educating ourselves, we evolved a system with an institutional mechanism to tap our mental potential and update the information on the Nature's basket. We formally call it as education.

But I am skeptical of  current educational system where there is a fundamental lacuna on the priority of things to be taught first. Tony Buzan, the father of Mind Maps concept, in his much acclaimed book ‘Use Your Head’ felt that ‘ in our worldwide educational systems we have spent so little time learning about how to learn is that we as a race have not known the fundamental principles of the operation of that bio-computer – BRAIN’ In computer metaphor, we have not known the software for the hardware of our brains.

Myself being a product of this current educational system felt low when I was restricted to read the subject of my interest citing that it is not in my stream of subjects in school/college. At that time, I cherished a system where education is based on individual’s inherent  inclinations and capabilities so that he or she can march forward on the desired path unhindered. But this radical approach pitiably has no takers in the market place where your testimonials matter a lot more than your self worth.

After my graduation, I started my hunt for real knowledge and got an opportunity to read some of the world's greatest books. After somehow grasping the ideas of so many renowned people in the field of education, my perception on education dramatically changed. The education which is now centered on rote learning has not inspired me much.

To strengthen my concept of ideal education, I started culling the ideas of great souls. Swami Vivekananda who is my role model  said that education is the manifestation of  the perfection already in man.

According to Jiddu Krishnamurti  Education is not only learning from books, memorizing some facts, but also learning how to look, how to listen to what the books are saying. Education is also listening to the birds, to see the sky, to see extra-ordinary beauty of tree, shape of hills to feel them directly in touch with them.

I feel that the pinnacle of education is to know the Source of Life or what we call as God , Almighty or Creator. I have great a opportunity to read the book ‘Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik  who is one of the pioneers in laser technology, acknowledged the fact that the deeper mysteries of life remain unresolved.

When you look into the latest research in science, you would find that still we are intrigued with the questions of how an electron gets it's energy to revolve around the nucleus. What you call as solid is not at all a solid but only a light or  wave at sub-atomic level. The latest breakthroughs in science re-affirms the fact that there is a mysterious power beyond the realm of human comprehension that is dictating our destinies.

One notable point is we can’t have direct control of even our bodily processes like heart beat, functioning of brain etc. You could find answers to these nagging questions only at spiritual level.

So, my aim in life is not to accumulate material possessions and go into oblivion, but raise my awareness to get a glimpse of that Supreme Intelligence !

DREAMER TO ACHIEVER

Rural India is not dearth of talent. A strong drive to achieve puts you on higher pedestal and treads a path to success. It is immaterial where you are born with a social and economic condition you have inherited. What matters is the quantum of fire in your belly.

Some people perish in the course of their struggle and only few will rise to dictate their destiny.

Dodde Anjaneyulu belongs to the second lot. This pride of Andhra achieved his father's dream of becoming IAS in  2010 Civil Service Examination (CSE)  and got 278th rank. His father who was a watchman in a sleepy village: Jammikunta in backward Telangana region  inspired his son to become Collector and the son took his father's dream to heart, despite abject poverty.

Anjaneyulu through arduous efforts shined in academics and thereafter completed his engineering graduation in 2005. He settled as a software professional for 2 years to accumulate the needy bucks  for the Civil Services Exam preparation. Though the sudden death of his father in 2007 somewhat crippled him, but it solidified his resolve to embark his goal.

Getting selected to IAS is no mean achievement. Every year, around 4 lac aspirants compete the CSE out of which only ten thousand aspirants clear their preliminaries and very creamy few i.e. 1000 finally gets selected for IAS, IFS, IPS and other allied Group A & B Services. So it is all merit and hard work that matters. Anjaneyulu through this covetous achievement, once again proved to the world that a fire in the belly do wonders.

After reading his story in a local Telugu paper Saakshi dated 19 Nov 2011,  I was totally moved. The way his mother broke down after seeing her son’s achievement would strike a chord with any reader. It is palpable to understand the emotions of a mother who wept out of ecstasy, but felt sorry because her husband was no more to see their son's grand achievement. It is a soul-stirring story I ever read in my life.

After reading about Anjaneyulu, I could not resist without congratulating him. But how? That question haunted me for a while. Had it been 20 years earlier, I might have crushed my desire. But the Information Age prompted me to find ways. So I jumped into action and searched for his email ID in the Google. Being an internet buff, it was not a difficult task and I managed to get his Facebook link through which I got his e-mail ID. Immediately, I sent an email congratulating him for his achievement. It was so exhilarating that he not only acknowledged my mail quickly but spoke to me over phone with a full of gratitude and humility.

I read somewhere that the great tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us (talent) while we still  live. Anjaneyulu deeply engraved his father's dream to become IAS by which he not only proved a darling child to his parents, but a shining star to the millions of aspirants.