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In a Tussle Between Your Heart and Mind, Let Your Gut Win!

Oct 23rd, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

In my coaching practice I often encounter clients who come to me for changing careers, jobs, or some aspect of their professional life. Often, I am successful in understanding their issues, helping them create options, and guiding them through their transition.

Often, the real problem comes when there are multiple options: a choice between two very different careers, choosing between two or more equally appealing companies to work for, selecting the right option between pursuing higher studies and landing a plum job.

In most of these cases my clients go through a detailed analysis of their options. In the case where a client has multiple job options they will analyze the salary package, promotional possibilities, a company’s competitive position, market trends, and so on. Once they have armed themselves with these analyses they come to me with their preference, which is often a result of picking something based on pure analysis.

But, when I ask them how do they feel about working at the company—or the boss—they have selected, sometimes the response I get from them is different from the one stemming from the pure analysis of the parameters they chose to dissect. As we get in a deeper discussion about their feelings, if there is a conflict between what the analysis (logic) indicates and what their feeling (heart) prompts they often feel paralyzed by their inability to choose between what their mind is telling them and what their heart is prompting them.

It is here when I intervene and ask them to listen to their gut (intuition). In my view your gut derives its signals from your intuitive powers. In most cases your intuitive powers have the ability to dig far deeper than any complex analysis, and any emotional sense you may have about a decision. Intuition is a gift that we all have, and it comes from synthesis of many factors that go beyond merely what your mind and heart can fathom. It often comes as a flash!

In most cases when they are confused between competing options, after listening to the logical (mind) and emotional (heart) components to choose from, the winning choice for the client comes from listening to their intuition (gut). So, when you are faced with a difficult choice between competing options, here is my guidance on how to come to the right decision:

  1. If you have many options from which to choose, discard those that are unworthy of any further consideration and narrow your choice to a select few.
  2. Do a thorough analysis of each remaining option through rigorous breakdown of elements that have impact in your life now, and in the future.
  3. Consult your loved ones and share your analysis, and why that is prompting you to choose the best option so far. Present your conclusion to those, who are going to be affected by your choice, and have an open discussion of the pros and cons.
  4. It is at this point that you need to bring in the feeling factor (your heart) in the decision-making process. Your family members will give their inputs based on their own needs and how they see you in your everyday relationships with them now and in the future (when you make the impending change).
  5. If there is conflict between what your analysis (mind) is prompting you to do, and what your feelings (heart signals) are suggesting as a result of your discussion with your family, it is time to rely on your intuition.
  6. Go away and reflect on the pros and cons of your decision based on your analysis and your feelings, and meditate on the possibilities in the privacy of your own thoughts.
  7. Consult an expert—in the matters of job and career, a career coach—and present your thoughts using the expert as an objective sounding board. Let the expert challenge you in your assessment of which choice would be best. Do not let the expert dictate you the final choice. If they do walk away from them.
  8. As you get involved in coming to the right decision you will often have a sudden flash of new insight (your intuition is now kicking in), which will give you a very different perspective of what the change means, and what the right change to make for you is.
  9. Loop back with your family and share your insight. Let them share their thoughts about your insights. At this point you must listen to all inputs with care. At this point you may be surprised to learn how your intuited decision suits everyone’s agenda.

10.  Once you have gone through these steps you are ready to make the final decision. Go ahead and take the plunge, and do not look back. In most cases a decision so made will be the best one for you.

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Perils of Mimicking Someone’s Success!

Oct 16th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe.” – Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor (1955-2011)

Some of my clients come to me asking for advice on how to be like someone they know, who has gone to become “successful.” Also, when I ask them what direction they want to take in their career, they often respond by saying, my father wants me to be a like Jim Smith, who is a successful architect, or like Sally Jones, who became a star attorney, etc. Yet, when I ask them what they want to do, I get a blank look. I find this very puzzling, because I do not know the circumstances under which their role model that they plan to mimic became successful. I also do not know if their parents or those asking them to follow a certain career path are goading them to carry out their own vicarious wish.

Secondly, even if I knew all that there was to know about that person they wish to mimic and their success, I would not advice my clients to exactly follow the path of their role model. Although there is nothing wrong with deriving inspiration from someone, who has gone on to epitomize what you aspire, to mimic someone’s success is a misguided notion.

Why?

Each one of us is unique, and each one of us embodies gifts that are our own. We are given these gifts to harness them, and to achieve something that is unique to our gifts. We are also destined to seek our own unique path. By succumbing to our temptation to mimic someone, just because they are successful in our eyes, we are resigning to leading a life that is not ours, and are surrendering to a life that is not as rich as it could be. So, what do we need to do to lead a life that is our own?

  1. If someone inspires you by their accomplishments, and you wish to pursue what they went on to accomplish, find out what they are doing (or did) to be rewarded with that success, rather than merely imitating how they did what they did.
  2. Instead of merely following their path with a desire to become someone you admire, chart out your own path and conquer your own quests. In the process you will discover who you are, and find new untapped inspiration to continue on your path.
  3. Connect with the person you admire and derive inspiration from them. If that person is no more, learn about them through their writings, works, and those whom they touched.
  4. Remember, even the person, who went on to accomplish their original quest cannot often beat or even repeat that success, because it is impossible to replicate an inspired creation. This is why second acts, even by the most celebrated achievers, often fail to make the impact of their original feats!
  5. Do not be afraid to fail, but do not focus on the failure. If you plan, apply your gifts to the cause at hand, and stay focused on your purpose, any “failure” you encounter will only advance your resolve.
  6. Discover your gifts as you pursue your own path and then use those gifts to further your quest. In this quest you will find your own gifts becoming even more valued as you advance your journey.
  7. As the late Steve Jobs said in his 2005 Stanford commencement address, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people drown out your inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Stay hungry, stay foolish!”

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring | 1 Comment »

Re-Discovering Joy in Your Job!

Oct 8th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

In my career coaching practice I am often a witness to the stress my clients feel at work. Although some stress (the positive kind) is inevitable and good for you to get going, excessive stress (the negative kind) is detrimental to your performance, health, and to your family life. Studies over the past 50 years have consistently shown that nearly 80% of those working are unhappy in what they do—and hence are stressed, and almost 60% are ready to quit their job, even without knowing what the next job would bring them. In majority of the cases that I encounter in my practice, it is their boss that causes them to suffer this fate. Next in line: their work environment, toxic colleagues, overall compensation, and promotional prospects.

Regardless of what is making you suffer this work malaise, I am convinced that there are ways of finding joy in what you do. Here are some of the tips I give my clients:

  1. Make a periodic audit of your job and write down what makes it great, and what makes it a threat (to your well being, career, and future).
  2. Now make a prioritized list from the “ threat” column and write down actions you can take to eliminate or neutralize those threats. For example, if you boss is causing you grief (majority of the complaints in my practice), then further analyze what aspect of your relationship with the boss is causing you grief, and identify remedies.
  3. If you are suffering from excessive and mounting workload, make a list of tasks that you are expected to complete and have a discussion with your boss about the right priorities, resources needed to complete those tasks, and what support you need to do your job. I find that many clients suffer this burden in silence to show how brave and loyal they are to their boss and to their company. Yes, certain amount of loyalty is good, but it is not worth the bad effects it creates, including to your health and well-being.
  4. If you are suffering from less than ideal relationships with your peers and colleagues, try to identify what you can do to improve those relationships. Do not expect to change them (you cannot change people, but merely changing your attitude in your relationship with others does wonders!). Meet with them and have a meaningful conversation that will allow you to change your role in that relationship, one peer at a time!
  5. If your work environment is toxic, see what you can do to change it, one item at a time. Take on some initiatives on your own and show that you care to change, rather than merely complaining about what is wrong. Once others see the positive change, they, too, will follow your lead!
  6. Try to expand your skill set by learning a new skill and taking on a new assignment. Volunteering for such assignments is the best way to show that you want to grow. Once you have a discussion about your excessive workload with your boss and get an agreement on how you are going to deliver on your commitments, you may find it easier to look for some assignments you can take on your own.
  7. Make yourself more visible to others, especially to senior management. Rather than working in your cubicle and toiling away, you can create much greater visibility for yourself by participating in activities that give you management visibility.
  8. Write notes of appreciation to those who have done great work, even though that work does not directly support your agenda. Send a copy of that note to their boss and to your boss. This simple (and free) act will make you visible. People will be anxiously waiting to get your notes of appreciation (regardless of you station!).
  9. If you think that you have reached a point where none of the above is doable, then make a plan to find yourself a new job. Bad economy or not, nothing is worth having a heart attack over a job that you do not care about!

10.  When it comes to seeking joy in what you do, I am often reminded of the words the late Steve Jobs spoke in his 2005 Stanford commencement address, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people drown out your inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Stay hungry, stay foolish!”

So, if none of the tips (#s 1-9) work for you, carefully read the last one and listen to yourself!

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Helping Others, leadership, Life & Living, Office Behaviour | 2 Comments »

Listening to Your Inner Voice!

Sep 26th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

Many of my entrepreneurial clients often come to me with their ideas in early stages of their venture. Although some of them bring ideas that appear good on paper, others come having done much work on their concepts, and even having built working models of their products or concepts. When they showcase their idea to me, they are all excited and are full of energy about what their idea is going to do to change the world. So, when I ask them where they need my help, they often relate to those who have told them that their idea is not going to work. In many cases these skeptics are investors or VCs, whose funding is critical to the next phase of the client’s venture.

Such an obstacle is not just limited to an investor’s skepticism. Throughout our lives we come up with ideas that we feel are worth pursuing—even something that will benefit your place of work. Often, new ideas need validation, or other ideas to make them work. Sometimes, we even need someone’s commitment to make our idea come to life, such as their money, support, or ongoing expertise.

In the early stages of many such ideas, skeptics will often shy away from getting involved, which is most notable when it comes to investing money or resources. They may even tell you that whatever it is that you are pursuing cannot be done, often supporting their argument with some specious reasoning or excuses that seem plausible. In most cases what it means is that they are trying to dissuade you from pursuing what you believe in, because they themselves see no way of doing what you are trying to do. That is it!

So, the next time you wish to pursue something to change the world in a small or a big way—something that may even change how your company is run—and someone says that it cannot be done, do not walk away discouraged. Walk away triumphant, instead, because you are now going to do something that they think that they cannot do!

Now, isn’t that empowering?

So, here are my suggestions for you to do, when others tell you that cannot be done:

  1. Once you develop your idea, vet it in its nascent state with some research, or validate with proxies that convince you that you are on the right track.
  2. Continue to refine your ideas by trying it on others, or on potential customers, and use their inputs to further refine your original idea. If your idea is radically different, do not believe in focus groups, but just on your instincts. Remember, if Henry Ford had held focus groups they would have come back to him with a request for a faster horse.
  3. Find Early Adopters, who are most inclined to make your idea work, and who enthusiastically embrace what you are trying to do. Use their feedback to further refine your idea to expand to the next enthusiastic group.
  4. Expand your reach, and evaluate if your idea stands the test of a broader audience, and further refine it.
  5. If you cannot find financial support, bootstrap your idea with whatever you can rustle, and show your commitment through sacrifice, dedication, and passion.

Remember, if you really believe in your idea, only you have the best chance of making it work!

Good luck!

Posted in Career Repositioning, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living | No Comments »

Avoiding Career Stagnation!

Sep 18th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn’t take his education too seriously. —Charles F. Kettering, Inventor, businessman (1876–1958)

Many of my clients, who come to me, complain about stagnation in their jobs, or even their careers. In many cases I find that they have stayed in one place or job and have not ventured out beyond what they acquired as their original educational discipline or skills.

Education plays a big role in one’s getting ready for their life’s challenges. It is, though, often a double-edged sword: on the one hand it molds your mind to deal with new challenges by equipping you with the academic discipline, knowledge, and tools—learning how to learn; but on the other, it limits your perspective with what you have learned and how you have learned it as you educate yourself in a particular discipline. To vivify your career cross-discipline engagements and activities are key to both, your personal development and your ongoing success.

So, what is the message for those who feel fettered by their education or being in one job too long to pursue new avenues to channel their creativity? Here are some avenues:

  1. If you are a student diversify your coursework with topics that are way outside your main pursuit or core coursework to get a different perspective and to learn how a very different academic discipline provides a new insight. This will open your mind to new possibilities, even as you graduate, and will prepare you to do this as an adult.
  2. If you are already in a career and headed towards stagnation take some courses that will not just advance your skill, but that will also open your mind to new possibilities.
  3. In your professional life, venture out and take on new challenges that require you to learn new skills and to attack problems outside your comfort zone. Taking on new challenges expands your mind and gives you the confidence to tackle even greater challenges. Most people grossly underestimate their potential.
  4. In one of my earlier blogs I emphasized that if you are in one job too long (without advancement for more than three years, or in one company for more than six), you must consider making a major change by taking some risk and by seeking some guidance. In today’s workplace there are so many business challenges that merely looking at job boards is not enough to consider another job. Prospectively explore how you can leverage your special and unique skills in an entirely new direction, both within your company and outside.
  5. Talk to your customers and find new ways to create exciting experiences for them. Bring that knowledge into your workplace and propose changes to how things are routinely done.
  6. Learn how your competitors are addressing new challenges in the market and find avenues to surpass your competitors.
  7. Network with others who typically do not belong in your professional circle. Go out of the way to tap people who made a name for themselves in an entirely different field and observe how they think and tackle their challenges.
  8. Find mentors in different areas of expertise and those who have accomplished something worthwhile. If you are taking on a new challenge in a venturesome direction their guidance and inspiration can help you achieve your goals.
  9. Do not be afraid to fail. It is the fear of failure that holds people back from trying new things. Also, each failure—more than a success—teaches a new lesson, which helps us grow. So, congratulate yourself every time you have a setback and learn how to overcome it.

10.  While you are pursuing new avenues to grow do not lose sight of your expected mission in your job and deliver excellence wherever you are.

Getting comfortable at one station in your life is the source of one’s stagnation. So, go and venture out to seek new paths and surprise yourself!

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Consulting, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Resume | No Comments »

Effective Communication-II: The Power of Storytelling!

Sep 11th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

In my August 14 blog I focused on effective inbound communication, where I wrote about how to improve your listening powers using the six tips presented in that blog. As a follow-up to that blog I am going to present another six ideas here for getting your point across through effective outbound communication.

  1. Before you communicate, either orally or in writing, know who your audience is. Each audience has its preferences in how it processes incoming information. So, knowing the context in which the audience has come to hear you, using the right language, and employing the right messaging are important to keep the audience engaged in what you have to say.
  2. Before communicating anything ask yourself what impact you want to create with your message, what do you want them remember, and why they should remember it. Once you have this figured out then design a message that does this well. People often know what they want to communicate, but the intent of their communication is often not met by their inability to ask these three simple questions. Even if they ask these questions execution can be done poorly, which has the same overall negative effect.
  3. One of the most powerful ways to get people’s attention is to appeal to their emotions and not just to their logic (engineers and scientists, take heed). Often, you need both. So, prepare what you want to say first with laying out the groundwork with logical statements and then complementing that with a powerful story that appeals to the audience’s emotions. People will often forget the underlying facts you tell them, but they will always remember a good story, especially if it is delivered well. So, when you go to a job interview learn how to tell some facts, followed by a story that is well presented, using these tips.
  4. When you are telling a story timing and effect are critical. Learn how to master these two elements by watching great stand-up comedians.
  5. Once again, make sure that the story you are narrating resonates with the audience. So, if you talking to students tell them a story about succeeding in college or choosing the right career. A story about corporate success or retirement may not resonate as well with this crowd.
  6. If you are talking in front of a group carefully watch their body language and adjust your material, delivery, and tone so that you are tuned in with their ability to take in your message. If you are not sure, pause, and ask some questions. Then, depending on the responses, adjust your message and how you deliver it to accommodate the audience’s preferences.

Great communication happens when both, good listening and good messaging are mastered. Using the material presented in these two blogs I hope that you can learn how to do both! If you want to improve your speaking skills joining Toastmasters International can be a boon to your learning how to speak more effectively.

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Helping Others, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Resume | No Comments »

Mentoring: A Path to Accelerate Your Own Growth!

Sep 4th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

If you want to learn something well, try teaching it—Aristotle

As a career coach my clients often ask me about how to find a mentor to help them in their growth. Most professionals in need of mentoring have a one-sided view of what mentoring is: finding someone, who can help them grow and who can help them through their challenges.

They often forget that regardless of where they are in their growth path they can seek someone out to mentor and grow in the process, as they are seeking to find a mentor for themselves. I have many examples of clients who wanted to get specific help in certain areas that they had targeted for their own growth, who ended up helping themselves by actively mentoring someone in that very area. Offering to help someone in the area in which one wants to grow and mentoring them through their challenges is the best growth tool that there is, as the quote at the top famously reminds you. Not only did they surprise themselves in how effective they were in mentoring someone in an area relatively new for them, but their own curiosity and their ability to openly learn in real time allowed them to grow in that very area.

So, here is my guidance to those who are actively seeking a mentor for their growth:

  1. Define your area of growth and development need and identify someone who can be your mentor.
  2. As you navigate through the process of engaging in a mentoring relationship for yourself, open yourself to mentoring others.
  3. Reach out to someone and engage with them in a dialog that will allow you to become their mentor in an area in which you also want to grow or learn. Do not wait to mentor someone if you are not able to find yourself one.
  4. Even if you are not able to find a suitable mentor for yourself do not stop the reverse mentoring process and actively and confidently engage in a mentoring relationship.
  5. As you continue your engagement with your mentee you will learn how mentoring really works and also about the area in which you are mentoring.

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Enterpreneurship, Helping Others, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring | No Comments »

Disabusing Micromanagement!

Aug 28th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

On the heels of Steve Jobs’ departure as Apple’s CEO many have written about his and Apple’s success. In many of these articles the word micromanager has appeared as his preferred management style—and the “secret” to Apple’s success. I think that in most cases that is an overreach!

Why?

As a career coach I work with many clients who come to me because how their managers manage them. Often, there are two extremes: Complete permissiveness, with little or no accountability on the one hand, and obsessiveness about minutia to point of suffocation, where people have no breathing room to create and enjoy what they do, on the other. In either case the manager has failed to provide the right environment for a person’s growth and has done a grave disservice to their place of work.

So, what is Micromanagement? Before I answer that let me explain what management is: A manager provides the right environment for their team to produce the greatest amount of value to their place of work. They do that by knowing and understanding the functions of a manager (the four functions I have often written about: Leading, Planning, Organizing, and providing Controls) in a way that allows those under them to provide the most value to each other and to their company, and an environment of growth through creativity, risk-taking, and learning new things. As a manager moves up the ladder they are expected to do progressively more management work, and less technical work.

With that understanding of what management is let us now look at some behaviors micromanagers exhibit:

A: Focus on the “How,” and not on the “What”

This characteristic of a micromanager has to do with how their team and each member of the team do what they do. Instead of focusing on providing a specific result of what needs to be accomplished as an end objective, micromanagers provide some vague guidance of what is expected from the team, and they keep checking on them as they shape their own view of what their boss really wants from them over time. Here, they focus more on how anyone on the team is going about doing what they are working on, than on what they are doing and why. They will obsess over the minutia such as when they come to work, how long they take their breaks, how they write their emails, and so on.

In the case of one client her manager expected her to respond to any email he sent to my client within two hours regardless of the time of the day or the week. Here, my client was a project manager in a development group, not a manager of a 24×7 operation. His boss was an obsessive compulsive individual with no family and no outside activities. In this case after guiding my client and coaching her on how to deal with this boss did not work, she had to move to another group.

B: Lack of consistency of expectations

Most people will respond to what is asked of them if it is communicated clearly and both parties agree that it is doable, or at least worth attempting. Micromanagers lack this basic discipline, but providing inputs as they make up the end objective over time and keep changing the requirements of the assignment. This makes it very difficult for their team members to function, as there is no clear vision that is driving the overall team. Many team members are frustrated by having to re-do what was previously done with no clear end in sight. This type of micromanaging is pernicious and causes much stress to all who are on the team.

C: My way or no way

Here, the manager has not grown out of his individual contributor mind-set and has not embraced bringing in the four functions of managing I have mentioned earlier, as a part of their growing into the new role. As an individual contributor the manager had achieved certain proficiency in their skill. So, now as a manager they expect all their team members to do what they did using the same methods and approaches. Instead of focusing on the right outcome they focus on the means and methods (once again, the How). This type of micromanagement stifles team members from learning new ways of doing things more efficiently or differently.

This is by no means a complete catalog of behaviors micromanagers exhibit, but merely a sampling and some underlying drivers. There are many other ways a manager can stifle a team’s creativity through various ways of micromanaging it.

Now that we have seen the behaviors of a micromanager, would it be fair to call Steve Jobs a micromanager? Absolutely not! Those who have clarity of purpose, a clear vision of the outcome, an ability to challenge the team to surpass its own limits, and a passion to deliver nothing but the best, a better descriptor would be “practical perfectionist,” not a “micromanager.” If Steve Jobs were a micromanager in the sense described in this article, then he would not have been able to attract the gifted team that surrounded him, and been able to achieve what he did for Apple!

Posted in career growth, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

Learning to Plan Your Career!

Aug 21st, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.

—Charles F. Kettering, Inventor, businessman (1876–1958)

Most professionals do not plan their careers as well as they should. They decisively choose a certain track during their early academic life with care, but once they graduate and land their first job, they often rely on resources at their company or on their company’s career advancement process, attending local conferences, and searching for various online resources, which they think may be helpful to propel them forward. This is not the most effective way from what I have learned over the years guiding thousands of professionals in their careers! As the quote at the head of this article suggests only your imagination can limit how far you can go in your career (corporate, academic, or entrepreneurial).

Here are 10 takeaways from my own experience to think about:

  1. One of the common myths about career plans is that such a plan requires you to anticipate how the future is going to bring changes to technology, economy, business, and the world. Change is constant, so learn how to see patterns of change and how they will affect your future growth opportunities.
  2. A career plan is based on your own growth and on creating increasing value to the business in which you are employed (this also applies to entrepreneurs, solo professionals, and business owners). So, making a growth plan is the foundation of a solid career plan. A growth plan requires a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset (Read Carol Dweck’s, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success)!
  3. If you lack clarity in your vision for yourself, look around and see after whom you can model your growth. Talk to people that you think are successful and seek their guidance—even mentorship—in creating your own vision for yourself. Do you have a role model who inspires you? Can you get them to mentor you? If not, can you follow their blogs and activities online?
  4. Once you nail down your vision, break that into a time-based action plan. Then look for career paths (on LinkedIn, for example) of those, who are already there.
  5. As we advance in our career we go through different points of inflection. Each point of inflection requires a specific mindset and an intervention. For example, going from an individual contributor to a manager requires not just doing great work as an individual contributor, but also an ability to fundamentally shift how you pivot around that success to become a people manager/leader and an ability to get work done through others. A similar point of inflection occurs when you are moving up from being a manager to a senior executive. Here, you need to learn how to shift from being an effective manager to running a great business.
  6. Find mentors, who can work with you to help you in your career and share your plan with them. Learn from their experience to accelerate your own growth. Be a mentor to someone else.
  7. Volunteer your time to some cause that is important to you. In many volunteer organizations it is easy to be working alongside with someone, who has already made a name for themselves in their field. Become visible by doing great work in your own area of expertise, or use that platform to professionally grow in a direction that is new to you. Volunteer organizations rarely ask to see your résumé, but that experience can be showcased in your résumé for your own growth!
  8. Learn and acquire some of the basic skills that are expected in your position of increasing responsibilities that come from your career-growth plan. For example, as an executive you are expected to have excellent communication skills and executive presence. These are learned skills and not nature-given!
  9. No matter where you are in your career and on your growth plan, never assume that the next promotion is automatically yours to have. Do great work by first stating what you are going to do, exceed the expectations, and then claim your prize. Do not assume that you are going to get it just because you did great work!

10.  Above all, be nice to others, respect them as you respect yourself, and have fun!

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring | No Comments »

Effective Communication: The Power of Listening!

Aug 14th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

Regardless of how brilliant our ideas are and regardless of how smart we think that we are, our ability to get those ideas across to others is at the heart of good communication. Just look around you: those, who are successful achieve their success more because of their ability to communicate better than those who are equally capable, but are not as effective in communicating what they have on their minds. Learning to communicate effectively is life’s work and one must constantly work at it to improve their overall communication effectiveness.

There are two parts to effective communication: Outbound—our ability to package our message that we intend to convey; and Inbound—our ability to listen to what others, including we ourselves, are saying to us. I plan to write a separate blog about our Outbound communication and how to improve it. But, for the purpose of this blog, when it comes to listening, the TED talk by Julian Treasure is a great way to understand an effective listening process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSohjlYQI2A

This video is worth watching to understand how one can improve our listening abilities.

I am summarizing below the prescription Julian provides in his excellent talk: The five ways to improve your listening. I am also providing one more element that is not in his list of five; an element that is perhaps the most important.

The reason I am adding this sixth element is because of what I have learned from coaching thousands of clients, one-on-one. In my career and life coaching practice the guidance I provide my clients rarely comes from something insightful that I provide my clients; it often comes from their own listening to themselves during our dialog. I merely provide them an enabling environment for them to listen to themselves. So, here is my list of six factors based on Julian’s original prescription of five:

  1. Silence: Learn how to be completely silent three minutes each day to understand the power of silence and the power of sounds!
  2. Mixer: Isolate sounds from the ambient noise and learn to focus on what is important to the exchange that is taking place between you and the source that matters to you.
  3. Savoring: Find meaning in mundane sounds and find ways to sharpen your overall listening.
  4. Listening positioning: This factor has to do with what filters you apply in your listening process: Active/Passive; Reductive/Expansive; and Critical/Empathic
  5. RASA: Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask. This is an effective way to engage with others and get the most out of a dialog. It benefits both parties equally.
  6. Listening to Self: Many people often forget that we have the innate ability to find answers to our own complex problems. Yes, we cannot always have the expertise we need to analyze some of our problems, for which we need to seek an expert, but we are accountable to ourselves for taking a course of action resulting from that discovery. So, my guidance to everyone reading this blog is to learn to listen to yourself, once you have figured out what the problem may be after what an expert has to say. Do not blindly follow the expert’s advice, just because they are the expert.

In today’s increasingly noisy and conflict-ridden environment we are losing our ability to listen to the right signals, including our own. So, to counter this wave we must learn how to sharpen our abilities to listen, to act decisively to move forward, and to succeed.

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Interview Skills, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring | 1 Comment »

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