A mature manager I coached, in his mid-thirties, invested in an expensive Executive MBA from a top school and joined a start-up in the burgeoning space sector in India. Two months later, he quit. He felt the people around him were reluctant to share, working in a ‘silo’ culture. So, do the ‘vibe’ check on intent. Trust your intuition if something does not feel right. SEEKING JOY AND SATISFACTION Fifth, Seek the Joy, or at least the satisfaction of doing things you enjoy, are proficient in and at which you wish to excel. Should not the purpose of immersing oneself in work be to enjoy the process and yet achieve the outcomes? This is opposed to burning oneself out for the sake of a boss’s promotion or an organisation’s profits. Sixth, Lifestyle. A pioneer of the Indian IT sector, Sumit Bhattacharya, told me three decades ago, “pursue excellence, and the material rewards will come automatically”. So do not overdo the YOLO (you only live once) code, i.e. great job title, overseas assignments, a great car and a house or maybe two, all of them very soon. These aspirations make you a tool of those you work for. Your own dreams are held hostage. Seventh, Invest in Yourself. Growth springs from multiple sources, frequent pauses to reflect and introspect, conversations with provocative minds. Sign up for formal learning, even if it means paying from your own pocket. You will treasure it more and extract the most from it. Speaking of investments, you need to be savvy on financial planning. Most important and immediate, as you read this, ask yourself, do I have savings to maintain my lifestyle for six months if I have no job today? If the answer is no, start saving. My benchmark would be 12 months, but begin with six. It is easy to face adversity or walk out of a job following your convictions if there is money in the bank. BE RELEVANT And now, if you persist in some of the above consistently, you will start climbing the ladder of the ultimate currency – relevance. To be continually relevant is to be more than competitive, it is to be ahead of the curve. You notice early signs of potential in opportunities. Longer term pay-offs will shape your career decisions rather than attractive short-term gains in the guise of promotions and salary hikes. As assurance grows, so will your risktaking ability and desire for autonomy. Who knows, the doors to freelance work and entrepreneurship may beckon? It is only those of us who play the long game of being relevant who have the highest probability of thriving in an uncertain world and future proofing ourselves from the threat of becoming redundant. We view the world of work not from the narrow lens of worker bees, but as captains of our own ships, ready to set sail on voyages of endless possibility. Sanjay Rishi, the founder of @intersections, is a leadership coach and an organisation design and change specialist with experience around the world. His focus is transitions. He is also a Lancaster University graduate and an Entrepreneur in Residence and Honorary Teaching Fellow in Lancaster University Management School. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 37 trAnsfoRming toMorrow Listen to Sanjay talking about his work with leaders around the world on the Transforming Tomorrow podcast https://pod.fo/e/394f25
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=