People at Work & Play

A friend asked me today about my views on what it takes to move from being a senior corporate executive to a first generation entrepreneur.

Based largely on my own experience in going this route, I listed the following as being very crucial for success:

1. A lot of confidence in your abilities
2. Huge amount of commitment to your goals
3. A well thought through business plan built with a detailed SWOT analysis
4. Clear positioning in terms of products, services you offer and the market segments that you wish to address
5. Psychological strength to make changes and adapt to a new world

To first establish whether he was suited to the demands made on first time entrepreneurs, I suggested he see the interactive quizzes at The Wall Street Journal Centre for Entrepreneurs.

“Think through things carefully” I said “as the grass often looks greener on the other side”. I asked him to read a nice article by Dr.Paul Adams called “Don’t Succeed At Failure” which says that the success or failure of your business largely depends on you. Dr. Adams puts it bluntly:”Not understanding yourself can be fatal.”

A chance meeting with an old colleague today reminded me of Deepak Chopra’s description of the three ages of man in his book “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind” which I re-read to find new meaning.

All of us have 3 ages:
Chronological age : how old you are by the calendar
Biological age: how old your body is in terms of critical life signs and cellular processes
Psychological age: how old you feel you are

My former colleague is in his late 50’s but looks much younger and has a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. It seemed to me that his psychological age and his biological age were fully commensurate with his chronological age.

Unfortunately, I come across many these days whose biological age far exceeds their chronological age. I am surprised to see them age much faster than one ought to. Lethargy and complacency seemed to have overtaken an overweight executive I met recently. He looks and acts much older than his chronological age, which creates an adverse impact on others. In other cases, inability to deal with stress has made people behave more immaturely than their chronological age would suggest.

An 80 year old patient told Dr. Chopra: “People don’t grow old. When they stop growing they become old”. As Dr. Chopra says: New knowledge, new skills, new ways of looking at the world keep mind and body growing.

He goes on to say that biological age is know to be changeable,. Regular physical exercise can reverse 10 of the most typical effects of biological age such as high blood pressure, excess body fat and improper sugar balance.

Clearly adopting better life style habits improves life expectancy. “The arrow of time can move forward quickly or slowly, stop in its tracks or even turn around. Your body becomes younger or older biologically depending on how you treat it”.

Think twice before you answer when some one next asks “How old are you?”

A discussion was on in David Maister’s blog : Passion, People & Principles - on getting feedback.

I would like to share my post there.

How do you get good in getting feedback? My take on the 5 steps:

1. Ask! Don’t miss an opportunity to learn from some one who is better than you at something. It could be just about any one.
2. Be prepared to change. This is a toughie. As is often said, if you don’t want to do anything based on feedback, don’t ask.
3. Inform. Keep the giver of the feedback informed of the difficulties you are facing in bringing about change. Not only do they feel you are acting upon their suggestions, they could actually help you to overcome difficulties.
4. Thank. Keep the giver of the feedback informed of the improvements you have made. It makes them happy that you gained from their feedback.
5. Share. Tell others of your experiences with feedback. Like you, they too could gain from your failures/successes.
   Bit too simplistic? I like to think not.

It was in 1964, I must have been 13. At The Lawrence School at Lovedale where I studied it was customary for everyone to sign in “autograph books” of everyone else!! This morning, I suddenly remembered something that Pat Dedeyn wrote so many years ago (where are you, Pat?). It wasn’t his own, of course, but it made a great impact on me then…. as it does even now.

“I cried when I had no shoes
Until I saw a man who had no feet”

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that we should not be ambitious and want to “get ahead” in today’s highly competitive world. It just strikes me as being eminently sensible to look at not only what others have that we don’t but to balance this by looking at what we have which others don’t….more often than not, that’s a lot of things. I find this thought process reduces a stressor for most people.

As the Irish proverb goes: Count your joys instead of your woes; count your friends instead of your foes.

Today, I had my once-in-3-months check up with my doc. He said ” I hope you are walking at least 5 days a week”. Walking is perhaps the best of exercises. It tones the body and relieves tension. I try to walk every morning as this gives me a great start to the day. I am sure you will, like I do, find a walk in a quiet park or garden very relaxing.

Walking is good for all. No matter how old, overweight or unfit you are, a walk for 30 minutes each day reduces the risk of heart disease. It helps you reach and maintain a healthy weight and reduces blood pressure. It clears your mind.

Before this becomes a medical bulletin - here’s something a young man told me recently when we were walking. He said he didn’t like the idea of having Saturdays and Sundays as holidays. He feels a holiday on Sunday is more than enough. When I asked him why he felt so, he said since he was in a field job, he felt bored by the second day and besides his expenses shoot up on holidays!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Hindi hit movie “Lage Raho, Munna Bhai” in which the lovable rogue Munna Bhai preaches the principles set out by Mahatma Gandhi, colloquially called “Gandhigiri”.

Likewise, it was interesting to read an extract of a book called “The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness”. This is from Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval who have moved to the top of the advertising industry by following a simple but powerful philosophy: it pays to be nice. Have a look at the 6 principles of being nice through which by their own experiences and that of other people and businesses, they demonstrate why, contrary to conventional wisdom, nice people finish first.

Today, September 24, is World Heart Day. I thought it appropriate to share a few facts of the dangers of heart disease. Studies show that by 2010, which is not very far away, one out of every 4 Indians will be suffering from cardiac problems. India will have 60 % of the world’s cardiac patients. It is estimated that over 2 million people die of coronary diseases in India every year. Many believe that Indians have a genetic predisposition to developing cardio-vascular ailments. Every hour cardiac ailments rack up 91 fatalities across India.

What is saddening is that the age at which people are diagnosed with cardiac ailments is decreasing. Earlier people above 40 would be considered at risk. Now people at 30 are seen to be suffering from cardiac ailments.

It is increasingly becoming important to do preventive cardiology. Doctors advise that changes in life style can counter/reduce risk of future cardiac ailments.

Accroding to Dr Ajit Mehta, Cardiologist at Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital: the cost of a complete session of cardiac prevention over 2 months is about Rs 5,000. Against this, a bypass surgery would cost anywhere between Rs 90,000 and Rs 2.5 lakhs.

I need hardly emphasize : Prevention is better than cure. A lot of the potential danger can be reduced by regulating your life style or through appropriate life style management.

“Even thus last night, and two nights more I lay, And could not win thee, Sleep, by any stealth: So do not let me wear to-night away.Without thee what is all the morning’s wealth? Come, blessed barrier between day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!~William Wordsworth, “To Sleep”.

Did you, like me, think that sleeping was the easiest thing in the world to do? It might have been at one time. As today’s world makes more demands on us, sleep is at a premium for many, particularly those in the IT and ITEs industries. A recent article in the “Times of India” says that hospitals in Bangalore are setting up labs. to help people sleep. Apparently an increasing number of young professionals are suffering from loss of sleep due to a variety of factors. These include changing lifestyle patterns, poor diet, lack of exercise and high levels of stress.

Treatment for what most people do for free i.e. to sleep, is not cheap. A diagnosis in a sleep lab. is reported to cost between Rs. 3000-7000. Minor disorders are treated with medicines and lifestyle changes but others could require special equipment that can cost upto Rs 40,000 to be installed at home.

If you are habitually having problems in getting to sleep, look upon it as a wake up call !!. A lifestyle change may be called for…soon !

I was very interested to read that Asoke Laha, the President & CEO of Interra Information Technologies also wears the hat of the Chief Talent Officer. The company was recently ranked a very creditable 20 in the Dataquest-IDC’s Best Employers in IT Survey.

While many CEOs do take an active interest in Talent management in their organisations, this is a rare instance where the CEO himself leads the Talent management function. In India, the company has operations in Noida, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Some healthy work practices shared in the write up on Corporate Environment in their website.

Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) is famous for his Two Factor Theory of Human Motivation. He also wrote what became a HBR Classic: “One More Time. How Do You Motivate Employees?”

His Two Factor Theory of Motivation suggests that there are two sets of factors that influence work life. Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers. Dissatisfiers are those factors whose presence do not motivate but their absence causes dissatisfaction. Amongst them are Company policy, the quality of supervision, working conditions and interestingly, pay. The true motivators on the other hand are all intrinsic to the individual and include achievement, advancement, responsibility and work content.

Herzberg wrote about his Two Factor Theory of Motivation way back in 1959. Nearly 5 decades later they are , in my view, as relevant as always. Hence, I say: “One More Time. Frederick Herzberg.”