Your core belief decides what you are

“Do you know that we have different opinions about the same situation?”

“Because we have our own perspective?”

“True, but perspective is one thing, another is the lenses we wear.”

“Take an example of the current situation in Maharashtra, where the former commissioner of police has made allegations against the state Home Minister who asked to collect ransom of 100 crores by every month to one of the pawns who was a controversial Assistant Police Commissioner, accused of murder and putting the gelatin laden car in front of the house of business tycoon. Now few people are criticizing the home minister on this, others are trying to defend him.”

“Yes, maybe these are just allegations and there is no proof of such dealings.”

“You are right, but then all have their own perceptions about the situation.”  

“Exactly, and how the perceptions are made?”

“Based on the experiences.”

“And how are the experiences created?”

“May be based on the feelings.”

“Exactly, now how feelings are influenced?”

“Based on how we react, respond to the experience.”

“Perfect, and what is the basis of our reactions and responses?

“Our core belief.”

“How does it work?”

“Core beliefs are a person’s most dominant ideas about themselves, others, and the world.”

“You are right. Do you know how they act?”

“These beliefs act like a lens through which every situation and life experience is seen. Because of this, people with different core beliefs might be in the same situation, but think, feel, and behave very differently.”

“So, when your belief is not right, what do you do?”

“Even if a core belief is inaccurate or wrong, it still shapes how a person sees the world. Harmful core beliefs lead to negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, whereas rational core beliefs lead to balanced reactions.”

“Absolutely.”

“So, in this case people who are defending the Home Minister have the core belief that this is the conspiracy against a specific caste or party. In other case, the one of the Ministers was the accused of abatement of suicide and the religious leaders and his community was defending him citing the same reason.”

“Gosh, this is ridiculous. What are those examples about self, can you make it more relevant to the personal experience?”

“Yes, you asked the relevant question, you are smart.”

“Is it your core belief?” He laughed loudly.

“Of course, that’s why you are my mentee.” I smiled. “Take an example of two people with different core beliefs receiving a bad grade on a test. Person A’s thought, “I failed, I don’t know what the issue is.” And he gets depressed. The impact on his behaviour is, he does nothing.”

“And Person B?”

“Person B thinks that he did poorly because he did not prepare for the test. He feels disappointed and he plans to prepare before the next test.”

“Explain in detail”

“So, Poor marks in the grade is the situation, this Situation has triggered the thought based on their dominant belief like ‘oh I failed, what can I do (Person A) and Oh I did poorly because I was not prepared. (Person B). The feeling was depressed ( Person A) and disappointed (Person B) which resulted behavioural action like ‘what can I do- no change’ (Person A) and I will be prepared for next test- change (Person B)”

“Understood. So, to summarise, our core beliefs, positive or negative, decide our feelings and consequent thought process which results into our behaviours, right or wrong.”

“That’s correct. You summarise it very well.”   

“What precautions should we take while dealing with people who have negative core beliefs?”

“Let’s understand few facts about core or dominant beliefs, these are following,

• People are not born with core beliefs—they are learned.

• Core beliefs usually develop in childhood, or during stressful or traumatic periods in adulthood.  

• Information that contradicts core beliefs is often ignored.

• Negative core beliefs are not necessarily true, even if they feel true.  

• Core beliefs tend to be rigid and long-standing. However, they can be changed.

“This is useful, so people supporting the rapist and corrupt politicians have the problem with their core beliefs.”  

“I won’t answer that, you have to find yourself.” I laughed.

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Purpose 2: Do you align your purpose to the larger purpose?

We understood the personal dharma (purpose). At the individual level it is very easy to follow if values are strong. However, when you are dealing with different people in the society, colleagues in office, it is very difficult to live with values. Every human being has a different value system. Their foundation may not be that rock strong. There are compromises and adjustments, however questions remain to whom and with? And to what extent.

Now imagine the situation, where your purpose is not aligned with those you are dealing with in your day to day life; you will be in an ethical dilemma.  

There are people who personally are very strong on their values, like being vegetarian, or following non-violence and not hurting anybody. They follow all rituals and are very religious. According to them they follow the Dharma, but they are in the business which is the total opposite of their values. The same person may have the business of gutkha manufacturing or meat processing. We have seen businessmen who have spoiled the whole generation by selling gutkha in India. People justify this by arguing that personal values are different and business values are different. Some may say that I am clean in my personal life, but my business is not clean because that is for my survival. Now imagine you working with them, what impact you will have in your personal life. The question is not about the alignment here. I call this hypocrisy. There is no meaning to the individual values in such hypocrisy.    

Research says that when there is a positive correlation and intersection of purpose between our lives and our work, the results are beneficial for both and society at large. It means when we align our individual purpose with our job purpose, or work, then there is a positive impact on both & the society at large. Millennial or Z generations are looking more towards the purpose nowadays and they strongly believe that they care for the community and society at large, including the way profits are made, the impact on the people and planet.

I believe that the business should not be viewed simply as a medium of earning or generating wealth. If work is to make a life, as famed management guru Peter Drucker once suggested, the purpose of the organization needs to shift to include a greater degree of meaning. Thus, purpose ought to be felt and achieved at work as it is in the rest of our lives.

So, corporate leaders, political leaders need to work on creating such a purpose driven ecosystem. (I may sound dreamer when I include political leaders here, but when citizens, mainly youth, become more aware, they force political leaders to change.) If this occurs, individuals’ work roles can contribute to their ability to truly then make a life.

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(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Profit to Purpose - The CSR Approcah

What are your Values?

Values: They Make Sense…

 When I was child, one day, I found the coin of 50 paise on the street while coming home from the school. 50 paise was also reasonably good amount for me. I could buy 10 candies with 50 paise that time. When I reached at home, I showed  the coin to my mother happily…I thought my mother would allow me to take candies with that coin. But when she saw it, she started asking questions after questions. She ensured that I really found it on the street. Then she said..

“Have you tried to find the owner of this coin?” I said, “No, nobody was there that time…"

“Son, this is not our coin, somebody must have lost it and we don’t have the claim on this. Please go in the temple and put it in the donation box.” She ordered firmly.   

Above incident taught me a lot. The integrity and no claim on other’s money are the fundamental values, I learned and I still follow the same today…

Fundamentally values mean our belief on something, the way we work and the fundamental dos and don’ts while living our life. Values are beliefs about what is more important to any individual in life. These values are based on the purpose of our life.  Values represent basic convictions that a “specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.”

Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) which consists of two sets of values:

Terminal values: These  values are desirable & end-states of existence. For example a world of peace, a sense of accomplishment, a world of beauty, equality, freedom, and salvation.

Instrumental values: These are preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving the terminal values. For example, capable, cheerful, courageous, imaginative, logical, loving, and responsible.

However basically all values are for the purpose of life…may it be fulfilling our need, performing our obligations, achieving our aim or goals, discharging the duties as citizen- corporate or social, or satisfying our conscience etc..

Our values are developed from family background, our childhood perceptions,  surrounding, our teachers, reading, education, friends, inspiration from our role models… sometimes it keeps changing as per the situation, however there are some values which came from our parents and elders on which we would not like to compromise.

We should keep in mind that our value system govern our thinking, influence our attitude, motivate our actions. They decide the right or wrong of a choice and they determine our image as a person who is right or wrong, trustworthy or untrustworthy.

If your personal values are aligned with organizational
values, then only you would get sense of achievement.

What’s about the individual values and organizational values?

There are lot of changes in the way we operate.  Every company is focusing on “new way of working.” The value systems, also, have undergone a gradual shift over the past few years. This shift is driven by an increased focus on customers and on the individual contribution that employees can make to the business. This shift in values creates an interesting dilemma and potentially serious issues for managers wanting to introduce top-down changes or large change initiatives today. Now everyone in the organization is on Facebook, twitter and companies are recruiting social site experts to gain the competitive advantage. The value system is also changing the basic assumptions. For example, in past people were not open to speak about their pleasure & personal issues unlike today. Now everybody wants to drum his life open on the social media without thinking the consequences of the same.   

Does this means values are also changing? Earlier companies were managing the business and changes thereon under a strict chain of command. Managers had tight control over employees and they would expect compliance with any change. Elders and parents were playing the role of command at home… 

In the organizational context, the individual have different types of vales. These values are

Interpersonal: Values that refer to relations with others.

Extrinsic: Values that refer to motivating factors at work.

Intrinsic: Values that relate to personal beliefs and attitudes.

When somebody does the job in the organization, his values also reflect in his behaviour. However if values of the person contradict with organizational values, then dissatisfaction is common phenomenon. It also has the impact of the culture of organization. For example, if family first is employee’s value and his job in the organization has a tough issue for getting the time for family, there is a contradiction. After few days, employee either have to compromise on his value or he would have to find another job.

In life, you finally have to decide which value you would like to compromise over other. But keep in mind few values can’t be compromised… what are yours’ that you would not compromise?     

If you are an employee, check if your values are aligned with the organizational values. If you are a manager, check how you assess your employee for values and coach our employee so that he gets engaged.  

Are your goals align with your values?

Rajesh was our performing sales manager.  He was always ahead with setting ambitious targets and putting the number in place.  He had a target for volume of sales and acquired new business.  He was travelling a lot in a year and away from his family on week end and holidays.  

Although he was successfully implementing his plan and having positive results towards meeting his goals, he was not overjoyed. Why? It had nothing to do with his job, but had all to do with his family life. He missed time spent with his wife and sharing memorable experiences with his son. He was away from home too much.

One day, he was discussing with me his pains and reaction of his wife and son.

“It is hard time for me, on professional front I am successful, but on personal front, I am totally disturbed.” He told.  He was missing a lot his wife and son and even they also were missing him.

Personal Excellence

You must have read this story. But let me tell you it once again. A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction. In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God.  Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying. Surprised he asked the sculptor, do you need two statutes of the same idol.

“No” said the sculptor.  “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.”

The gentleman examined the statue. No apparent damage was visible.  “Where the damage is?” Gentleman asked. “There is a scratch on the nose of the idol. But where are you going to keep the idol?”

The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high. The gentleman asked, “When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose anyways?”
 
The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said, "The God knows it and I know it ".

The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from Inside not Outside.

An excellent life does not result from chance, fate, or good luck, but from a succession of excellent days lived in pursuit of a worthy purpose.

I went around an asked several dozen of my friends what they thought of when they thought of excellence – and here are some of the things they mentioned…  Great works of art, incredible feats of engineering, astounding accomplishments in science – like landing a human being on the moon – and of course the amazing levels of excellence attained by world-class cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and others.

Which then lead me to ask them WHO they thought of when they thought of people that they felt embodied the true meaning of excellence…?

The question is how they made this all. The only answer is through their personal excellence.

What is actually Excellence means?

Anything which you call excellence is

• Unusual / Unique
• Valuable
• Superior
• Outstanding
• The Best
• Surpassing all others

AS I looked at the definition of excellence – and at my own experience with people questing for excellence – it occurred to me that there is not really one set “position” or a single point that could be called “Excellence” – it is actually on a continuum…

I encourage you to be valuable – to work to be unusual and unique and to strive to become “Outstanding” but I caution you – that to cross that line to move toward superior – or to commit yourself and your life to becoming “The Best in the World” – that is a goal that may actually cost you your life – and everything in it!  To be the best – truly best in the world – is amazing – it can be done – but what it may cost you I don’t want to even imagine. 

My suggestions is absolutely strive for excellence – settle for nothing less – but aim for “Balanced Excellence” – a life of tremendous value – to yourself, your family, your career and community – a life of well-rounded excellence.

The Formula for Excellence

•          Decided what it is that you really want to achieve.

•          Determine exactly what it will take to achieve it.

•          Focus every bit of energy and effort to achieve it.

The foundation of this all is your core values.  The core of excellence – the thing that differentiates the regular man from the excellent man is – clear, specific and strong VALUES.  There are many, many things that you can value – family, god, career, success, charity, contribution, honor – but to achieve any level of success your life must be “Values-Based.”

So what I have found is that people who achieve on a massive scale…

A Personal Philosophy of Excellence

You must define – in your own words – what excellence means to you and how you will pursue it and measure it in your own life.

The foundation of excellence is built on Values, Integrity Discipline and Focus efforts.

• You must clearly define what excellence is to you.
• Your definition must be “values based.”
• You must have a specific and detailed plan to achieve you goals.
• You must be incredibly curious about what it will take to achieve your goals.
• You must FOCUS intently on achieving your goals.
• You must have the discipline to keep focused on your goals – regardless of setbacks and difficulties.
• You must have the discipline to say “NO”
• You must have the self-discipline to make excellence a habit.
• You must have the discipline to pursue excellence – even when those around you may not want you to…
• You can’t just talk about excellence – you must live it.
• If you want to achieve more than others – you have to work harder and longer – there is no reward without effort.
• The work of excellence is measured in years and decades – not days and weeks.

So? All the best for your journey towards your Personal Excellence.

Personal Character and An Organization…

“He has lot of affairs; he was sacked by his earlier employer and has a separate arrangement for enjoying his infra dig life which very few people know in this organization.” One employee was speaking about the senior manager. “He has everything bad in him.”

“He is arrogant; he gossips a lot; he goes at racecourse on every Thursday.”

“So what? It is his personal life, does it matter you?” I asked him.

“It does not matter me, but it matters the organization. Due to his behaviour, organization’s image can be spoiled.” He said.

I always wonder that there are certain people in organizations, typically in Indian companies, who have everything bad in them, but still they survive in the organization.

It is depend upon the values of the organization. The organization values and employees’ values should match. In fact while recruiting, the integrity, character, his behaviour, his past record should be scrutinized. This is more applicable in senior level positions. Junior employees have the valid reason to object the wrong behaviour of senior employees. They always observe the behaviour and character of senior employees. This gives the room for scuttlebutt which can affect the culture of the organization.

Sometimes, organizations don’t bother what the employees are doing in their personal life, but when it comes to the organizational values and conflicts happens, then management wakes up. Once I was discussing with Managing Director on one company on certain values. She was referring the wrong recruitment of one senior level manager. There are certain practices in the Industry which may be usual for them, but her organization does not encourage such practices. Here the MD is clear on the expectations from her employees.

Employees at senior level can not differentiate their personal life with professional life. As rightly said by Peter Drucker, the spirit of an organization is created from the top, I will say it is created by all managers. Evaluate the character of all employees when considering a job offer. Align yourself with people who have integrity.

Culture

I am always followed by culture. In fact culture is the part of my education. I did B. Sc. in microbiology. Bacteria are grown on different media and grown bacteria on the media are known as bacterial culture. Specific bacteria can’t grow on specific media. They need specilised media.

After taking admission for management, I studied organizational behaviour. Again culture came to bother me. The organizational culture, how the culture is developed etc etc.

Now for last 12 years, I am part of the culture, i.e organizational culture. As an employee, I am part of the culture and as a HR Professional; I am made responsible for creating, developing or changing culture.

Family culture, social culture, institutional culture and organizational culture have the major influence on our personalities. Mainly creating, establishing or influencing the culture is depend upon the parents, adults in family and society, Seniors in organizations. As a kid we are not responsible for the culture, however by learning, educating, we can be aware about the culture.

The customs, code of conduct and way of interaction, behaviour form the culture.

I along with my wife and son was seating in principal office during the admission procedure for my son. There was another couple seating there. The mother asked the principal, “What is the appropriate age for starting education? We want to admit our son in this school.”

If you are talking about admission, you are on time, but if you are talking about education, you are late. Education starts from the birth of child. It is not only the responsibility of school and teachers. You, parents are first teacher of child.” She replied.

The principal put the valid point which we always ignore. We actually force child to tuitions, classes thinking that our children will get good education and they will be successful citizens. What about culture and value education. In schools, teachers will teach value education, but in real sense family members, parents and adults are role models for their children. We have learnt everything but forgot our values.

In organizations it is the responsibility of seniors. Management recognizes the right culture and culture change, but they don‎’t know sometimes what they really want. They almost forget that they are the responsible for the culture change. Sometimes consultants are hired for some projects like BPR, Process mapping or restructuring. During the implementing phase management feels that with traditional thinking the projects will not be successful. They brand culture programmes. The way management treats its employees, the way of behaviour, the management style, the response employees give constitute culture.

Sometime new employee in traditional culture is not comfortable in transparent or open organization or vice versa because of habit. Almost every organization drives the culture change initiatives. These drives can be successful only when the top management is committed to and the said can be cascaded down the line in line managers.

Values, norms, climate and organization support are the basic elements of culture. This all give the choice of behavior. It is the management or top people who decide all above. In a wider sense, low level employee also can be role model in certain behaviour. However nobody cares his behaviour. Hence he comes in office, wears a mask and tries to adjust in the organizational culture. Most of the Indian auto-component companies have aggressive work culture where individual respect is always at stake. Employees either adapt to that or leave the organization.

Organizations can only grow when the culture exhibits values of organization and practiced by employees. It is same like bacteria which grow on specific cultures.

Vision and Mission - Do I need it?

Fresh graduates from good management institutes have good understanding about concepts. I had one management trainee in my team. She was good in concept and was vocal about the issues. Once she met one senior person of the management team and asked him the question, “What is our vision and mission?” He replied, “I don’t know the vision and mission of the company, but I am working with this company for last 20 years, and we are making good profit. Company is running for last 75 years and doing well without so called vision and mission. So making profit can be our mission. Your concepts are just jargons. Do we need it?” The person de-motivated my girl by such unprofessional answer.

She came to me and briefed me about the incident, “How the company can run for 75 years without any concrete vision and mission statement?” She asked me, “The Company is running, but then what’s about the growth? We should know our destination and the way to destination” She asked.

This is a unique example. There are lot many people in Industries who do not work on vision and mission statement. They say that this is a new fashion came from the consultants. I am not a consultant and still believe on Vision and Mission statement. Especially a leader has to be very careful while discussing the growth of an organization. Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. It shows where we want to be. Every organization and thereby the people working in the organization has the right to know what is the destination of the organization and their career. By giving the vision to the people you motivate them to be more energized. People don’t dislike work; help them to understand mutual objectives and they will drive themselves to unbelievable excellence. You will do this by giving the vision. You show them the larger picture.

Our parents expected from us to be a successful person by being doctor, engineer, or manager. Our expectations from our kids are same. They have shown us the vision. We show the vision to our kids. The same is applicable in the organization. Mission is the purpose. It is what you will be in the competition. If you clearly communicate the vision i.e. “destination” and mission i.e. “being what you will achieve the vision.”

Both are derived from values. In personal life we have values. Values shape and give significance to our lives. They are reflected in the priorities that we choose, the decisions we make and the actions we take. Values describe what the organization is about and give meaning to stake holders.

Just imagine this all in your personal life. You have your vision of becoming Vice President by 2012. You have your mission statement in place. And you have your values in place. Here you know you have to be Vice-President by 2010. Vision is log term goal and you will decide your short term goals. The same thing is applicable in the organizations. People who decided this all are successful.

One senior person in management team once told me, “Vinod, I never planned my career, still I am on this position.” I replied, “If you had planned your career, you would have different person.” He did not like my statement. But life is not simple. You can not be lucky always. If you are an employee, ask management what is their vision and mission. Asked them what are the values they would like to place before employees. Ask them, what they expect from the employees.

If you would like to make change in your life, make & work on your vision and mission. Work on your values for that. ‘Success is yours'’.