Sing not a requiem for our fellow professionals..Corporates, Business Schools and Parents..Are you listening?
Seventeen long years ago, I launched into this profession which was a conscious decision. Being the son of trade union leader, there was enough and more induction into the labour scenario. Aptly started off in a textile mill dealing with the bureaucrats, politicians, union leaders and mafia. Today it has come a long way and I now attempt to imprint a signature of class and caliber of a true HR professional.Through all this there was purity of profession, in terms of commitment, understanding of the work environment and reasonable long term commitment. We wanted to be leave behind a legacy in the place where we worked. Till date when I walk down Tadivala road in Pune, bowed elderly heads acknowledge their friend more than the Personnel Officer that I was.Life has taken me through a variety of jobs, challenges and never have I ever felt tired. We were competing with very competent and genuine fellow professionals. We found our way through insults, politics and threats..sometimes life threats.I have spent countless hours trying to fathom the depth of the problem. I have also tried to debate this with my friends. Some evince concern, some acknowledge and some exude apathy!I decided to address the fundamentals. One is to question the arena which hone the skills of these professionals and the other is to question the system that breeds the potential managers and the third dimension --the upbringing.A day in the campus when a campus hiring is going on...Being a part of several of those campus drives, I am quite used to be hearing salaries being discussed. When many of our genre graduated, we did not talk of salaries much, but talked about how we could fit into the organization and harness the practical experience in an attempt to become a better professional. To us , then the word professional was long term. It almost seemed like a journey to perfection which no one has achieved, but never gave up with a firm understanding that it was a long journey. A young graduate today, talks more of salary and less of skills. In the name of harnessing potential, we pitchfork this stock into the thick of things hoping that they would learn. They do learn, but the fundamentals are weak and whatever the experience be, when built on weak foundation, will crumble in the slightest of turmoil. Their primary focus in not on acquiring skills, but on salary. Invariably , I find the younger lot unable to show the willingness and patience to learn and reaffirm the fundamentals. They look at everything with a short sighted wisdom. They have lost the ability to respect the experienced for they believe that they are themselves the epitome of wisdom and the zenith of knowledge. They look at the experienced as through they were encountering relic pieces. Some of us conform to the word "Relic" . They listen to the experienced as thought it was a narration of fiction. I would never blame these youngsters. They are completely untapped potential, with wrong fundamentals of life and profession.Having said, this the system has also brought out some outstanding individuals with some fantastic commitment. They are the ones who dared to think beyond and one who clearly understood that success is not short term. It comes on a long term with considerable investment of time and effort. The numbers of quality professionals are diminishing. The current professionals need an awakening. I scan around worried. I realize that the culprits to such a predicament are three:
The industry itself:
In the name of speed and cost saving , the industry hires young professionals promising them the moon through the famous PPT. I dread both the connotations--Powerpoint presentation--I have died many a death with a power point ! And of course the more relevant Pre Placement Talks. The students are offered unrealistic salaries and if one were to evaluate the job worth, we would realize that they are being overpaid for what they are being asked to do..mundane clerical stuff. Some are able to deliver only at that level. Some organizations are an exception to this ritual. They are organizations who would have become a legend already. Sadly the young individual is oblivious to the fact that he has to begin the task of acquiring skills to last a life time of his /her profession. He or she is so engrossed in his /her tasks, that they have become mechanical and short term driven . Free time propels them to their addiction--cell phones and internet--orkut, emails, chats etc. In review meetings we ask fundamental questions on the tasks completed and there is a gap. A few more questions and we find that we are well and truly exploring the ignorance and not knowledge. I beg of you, youngster..please give us a chance to explore your knowledge and allow us to learn from you!Organizations need to focus on the learning for the individuals and really expect the managers to create professionals. How many organizations have managers who have this as their Key Performance Indicator?
Education:
I would quote an example from HR as I am more familiar with HR and spend a lot of time with these youngsters in HR. A vast majority of the folks I came across in HR have been ones who have not succeeded in other fields and came as a last resort to HR with a well rehearsed statement," I love working with and dealing with people" as though all other management fields deal with other species :). The problem is even deeper. The inability of individuals to acknowledge failure. I will address this in details when I write about parents. Fair enough. How many of them really understand the theory behind each of the topics that are taught? Like my fellow professional from a similar school of thought and my erstwhile colleague, Santhosh says: "There can be no practice without theory. The only practice that exists is malpractice in the absence of a theory". Are the faculty members of many of those mushrooming business schools capable of delivering what the industry needs? The problem is even larger, there is a dearth of good teaching professionals. This is coupled along with a lot of amateurs in the teaching profession doing a shoddy job and silently jeopardizing the lives of many an aspiring professional. They do not own the students anymore. There is no holistic relationship anymore. An example. At this point of time as stated in my first blog, I am undergoing treatment for a lumbar disc protrusion. Yesterday, as I finished and walked out from the clinic, the attender told me that there was someone waiting to see me. I was perplexed. Not many people knew that I was undergoing my treatment in this small clinic tucked away in a corner of the city. I went ahead and I was amazed! My psychology professor! Dr. Mahendran! In my college days, he was teaching us Social Psychology while I was majoring in Sociology. He taught me to handle many a failure in studies and personal life and today, I owe my success to him. His subtle yet strong lessons made me stronger. He was special. He came riding about 20 kilometers on this hot and humid day to see me. He took the trouble of scouting the locality and spotting the clinic. What a relationship! How many of us carry relationship like this? He even today guides me and mentors me. He takes pride in my growth and I feel small before him because, I know I have grown because of his lessons in personal and professional life.Teachers and the content being taught needs to improve drastically. It needs a revolution. The threshold is here! Let us trigger the revolution. Education is not all about jargons and blazers and presentations and case study. It is about getting ready to face life and profession is one part of it or rather a fraction of it!
Parents :
Do parents invest enough time in teaching and equipping children to face the realities of life? Sometimes, we build such a cocoon, that children when exposed to realities, shun realities and failure is one. How many of us, as parents, have taught our children to face failures. Low marks, rebuked --by parents, by teachers. How many do a counseling? Especially when children reach flash points in their careers in their high school final and there on they go through a lot of pressure. Very rarely do parents understand the peer pressure and the pressure they themselves exert. Children fear failure. They look at short cuts to success. It becomes even more difficult when parent live their dreams through their children. What the parents could not accomplish due to their circumstances, inability and lack of exposure are expected from the children. In this rat race to succeed, the emphasis of bringing up children with focused attention on values and principles disappear. This has a very serious repercussion on the way they are prepared to face life. Most often we realize that by the time these youngsters have learnt to cope with the inadequacies inherited through parents, time has gone by and others have moved ahead using the right or the wrong way. Parents, look beyond your lifetime. Your children need to last their lifetime. Myopic views of success and excessive emphasis on materialism will retard the human society. Rest not till the mission is accomplished. Parents do not throw your children into the mirage in an attempt to force them pursue your dreams. Let them fly and create a mark for themselves in their lives. Guide them and counsel them. It is a thin line between guiding them and forcing them in the parlance of a parent. Beware!
This piece is neither written to lament the condition of today and sing praises for the yesteryears, nor is it written to condescend any aspiring professionals. It is written with a genuine urge to ignite the professionals , current and aspiring and urge them to reinvent themselves and do the profession justice and provide their profession and youngsters of today a realistic picture of life and profession. Urge them not to be mercenaries. Enable them to be a legend and let them leave their signature of class and caliber on which ever shores they anchor, if they ever anchor.
The industry itself:
In the name of speed and cost saving , the industry hires young professionals promising them the moon through the famous PPT. I dread both the connotations--Powerpoint presentation--I have died many a death with a power point ! And of course the more relevant Pre Placement Talks. The students are offered unrealistic salaries and if one were to evaluate the job worth, we would realize that they are being overpaid for what they are being asked to do..mundane clerical stuff. Some are able to deliver only at that level. Some organizations are an exception to this ritual. They are organizations who would have become a legend already. Sadly the young individual is oblivious to the fact that he has to begin the task of acquiring skills to last a life time of his /her profession. He or she is so engrossed in his /her tasks, that they have become mechanical and short term driven . Free time propels them to their addiction--cell phones and internet--orkut, emails, chats etc. In review meetings we ask fundamental questions on the tasks completed and there is a gap. A few more questions and we find that we are well and truly exploring the ignorance and not knowledge. I beg of you, youngster..please give us a chance to explore your knowledge and allow us to learn from you!Organizations need to focus on the learning for the individuals and really expect the managers to create professionals. How many organizations have managers who have this as their Key Performance Indicator?
Education:
I would quote an example from HR as I am more familiar with HR and spend a lot of time with these youngsters in HR. A vast majority of the folks I came across in HR have been ones who have not succeeded in other fields and came as a last resort to HR with a well rehearsed statement," I love working with and dealing with people" as though all other management fields deal with other species :). The problem is even deeper. The inability of individuals to acknowledge failure. I will address this in details when I write about parents. Fair enough. How many of them really understand the theory behind each of the topics that are taught? Like my fellow professional from a similar school of thought and my erstwhile colleague, Santhosh says: "There can be no practice without theory. The only practice that exists is malpractice in the absence of a theory". Are the faculty members of many of those mushrooming business schools capable of delivering what the industry needs? The problem is even larger, there is a dearth of good teaching professionals. This is coupled along with a lot of amateurs in the teaching profession doing a shoddy job and silently jeopardizing the lives of many an aspiring professional. They do not own the students anymore. There is no holistic relationship anymore. An example. At this point of time as stated in my first blog, I am undergoing treatment for a lumbar disc protrusion. Yesterday, as I finished and walked out from the clinic, the attender told me that there was someone waiting to see me. I was perplexed. Not many people knew that I was undergoing my treatment in this small clinic tucked away in a corner of the city. I went ahead and I was amazed! My psychology professor! Dr. Mahendran! In my college days, he was teaching us Social Psychology while I was majoring in Sociology. He taught me to handle many a failure in studies and personal life and today, I owe my success to him. His subtle yet strong lessons made me stronger. He was special. He came riding about 20 kilometers on this hot and humid day to see me. He took the trouble of scouting the locality and spotting the clinic. What a relationship! How many of us carry relationship like this? He even today guides me and mentors me. He takes pride in my growth and I feel small before him because, I know I have grown because of his lessons in personal and professional life.Teachers and the content being taught needs to improve drastically. It needs a revolution. The threshold is here! Let us trigger the revolution. Education is not all about jargons and blazers and presentations and case study. It is about getting ready to face life and profession is one part of it or rather a fraction of it!
Parents :
Do parents invest enough time in teaching and equipping children to face the realities of life? Sometimes, we build such a cocoon, that children when exposed to realities, shun realities and failure is one. How many of us, as parents, have taught our children to face failures. Low marks, rebuked --by parents, by teachers. How many do a counseling? Especially when children reach flash points in their careers in their high school final and there on they go through a lot of pressure. Very rarely do parents understand the peer pressure and the pressure they themselves exert. Children fear failure. They look at short cuts to success. It becomes even more difficult when parent live their dreams through their children. What the parents could not accomplish due to their circumstances, inability and lack of exposure are expected from the children. In this rat race to succeed, the emphasis of bringing up children with focused attention on values and principles disappear. This has a very serious repercussion on the way they are prepared to face life. Most often we realize that by the time these youngsters have learnt to cope with the inadequacies inherited through parents, time has gone by and others have moved ahead using the right or the wrong way. Parents, look beyond your lifetime. Your children need to last their lifetime. Myopic views of success and excessive emphasis on materialism will retard the human society. Rest not till the mission is accomplished. Parents do not throw your children into the mirage in an attempt to force them pursue your dreams. Let them fly and create a mark for themselves in their lives. Guide them and counsel them. It is a thin line between guiding them and forcing them in the parlance of a parent. Beware!
This piece is neither written to lament the condition of today and sing praises for the yesteryears, nor is it written to condescend any aspiring professionals. It is written with a genuine urge to ignite the professionals , current and aspiring and urge them to reinvent themselves and do the profession justice and provide their profession and youngsters of today a realistic picture of life and profession. Urge them not to be mercenaries. Enable them to be a legend and let them leave their signature of class and caliber on which ever shores they anchor, if they ever anchor.
Comments
" Remember, you have to make your deposit before you can make a withdrawal".
Knowing you, adds more happiness and inspiration to my existing thoughts and feelings.
Hope the essence is not lost in the world of blogs and goes beyond deep into the development and thinking of all classes and masses aiming to make a mark for themselves.
Kudos and very well conceptulized thought process.
Regards
Vijesh Sivadasan, Pune