C-level executives make the same elementary error as junior executives

I recently read a survey report of C-level executives. The report commented that nearly half of the top executives weren't effective at earning support for their new ideas when they moved into C-suite roles. I was not surprised at the 'system ignorance' of C-level executives, but i got shocked by the % of C-level executives who faced this problem.

If you have learnt systems thinking at a basic level, you will not make this elementary error. When i started coaching, i used to believe that this 'problem' of disregarding system state happens only when junior executives change their 'employers' ( not jobs). But later, i found even senior executives like Vikas suffer from this ignorance of systems state.

What is systems state of readiness ( also called as tipping point) ?

Imagine you are trying to learn swimming at the age of 30. You manage to fire yourself up, meet friends, and finally join a swimming class. Initial learning of swimming with inflatable tube is pleasant, say till Day 5. But as you move ahead, you start drowning.Water flows in your mouth and nose. You still continue to practice every day. And slowly you reach a level where you can 'float' on Day 30. You have reached a 'threshold level of skill', where you can be on your own. After this threshold, difficulties are easier to negotiate. Systems readiness has changed.

Why is it important to understand Systems Readiness state ( the tipping point)? Because it helps you understand what you must do when you are developing a skill like swimming.

• Before tipping point ( Day 30), you have to find motivation every day to come to the swimming pool, after Day 30 you do not need any motivation. 
• Before Day 30, mistakes demotivate you. After the system has reached tipping point, you use mistakes to find what is wrong and overcome it. 
• Before Day 30, every small distraction is an obstruction. For instance, if you do not like another swimmer, who tends to swim better than you, you avoid him. After threshold of tipping point is crossed, you find a way to 'learn' from him. 
• Before Day 30, if you discontinue swimming even for a day or two, it is difficult to re-start it. After Day-30, you can easily re-start from where you left. 
• Before Day 30, hard effort produces very little result. After Day 30, small effort produces big result. And on and on. 

Our actions, conclusions, and assumptions change completely as the Systems State (Threshold level) changes. It is therefore important to understand the system and the tipping point where the system state has changed.

How can C-level executives use this 'tipping point' when they transition to their C-level role? 

As C-level executive impacts the policies and methods in an organisation to a wider and deeper extent, he must wait until his reputation has changed in both the systems: One with his 'system owner' and second, with his functioning team.

Notice the tipping point in the alignment with the system owner ( boss and metasystem)

We have seen how important it is to align with the system owner. If a professional is joining another company at a C-level, he will take considerable time to align with the system owner, because he is new.

Only after his alignment has reached the 'threshold', he can take the initiative to make a major impact in the organisation. Even though he may be perceived as competent, he has still not earned the 'trust' and 'credibility' of his boss. If he has changed many jobs before the current job, he may find it even more difficult to earn this 'trust. MBAs, for instance, find it tough to align because of this. On the one hand, they are seen with 'biased lenses' by their colleagues and on the other, they also act as 'star performers' who need no help.

Notice the 'tipping point' in the reputation within his close team

As we have seen in the earlier blog, a C-level executive must earn 4 distinct type of reputations within his team , if he wants to make a difference in an organisation

- reputation of being a trustworthy member ( you can be relied without any doubt), 
- reputation of being credible (what you say is accurate and right ), 
- reputation of being competent ( please remember that being competent and having the reputation of being competent are two different propositions) and 
- reputation of being cooperative (you understand the team protocols and adhere to them).

If a professional is being promoted to C-level in the same company, his reputation with system owner (who is part of metasystem) may be 'high'. But he has to earn the reputation in his new ' working team' to see that his ideas and policies get executed. 

Generally, C-level executive feels that he has no need to earn the reputation of his working team, because he is the boss. But, being a boss, he can demand compliance, not commitment. Even though some 'changes' can be implemented with compliance, in today's knowledge-based organisations, such cases are few. I have observed many well-meaning changes being seriously compromised by the  employees which is uncovered much later after the damage is deep and wide. 

In short, the C-level executive has to notice the tipping point when his reputation has changed for better. 

Not all 4 reputations are required in the same measure. Importance of a reputation depends on the changes one is trying to make. If one is trying to make 'financial policy' changes, the reputation of 'competence' could be more important. If one is trying to 'shake the boat' by re-allocating responsibilities, the reputation of being credible and trustworthy is important.

Deal with problems of past 

Because the changes made by C-level executive have wider and deeper impact, his execution of decisions is impacted by what has happened in the tenure of earlier C-level incumbent. If the track record of his company has been poor in not delivering the 'promises', then he may have to spend lots of time to overcome the huge resistance that is already present in the system. Further, if earlier incumbent has garnered 'ill reputation', he has to make additional efforts.

Summary 

C-level executives face a tougher problem than junior executives when they are changing jobs. But at a system level, both face the same problem. Although he has the power to 'make policies' and take decisions that have wider impact, he is constrained by the system similar to that of a junior executive. He also has to take the same effort in satisfying system owner ( boss and metasystem) as well as earn the reputation within his team to help him implement his ideas and suggestions. Many C-level executives ignore this because they are 'system-blind'.

Image : Courtesy www.dfma.com

Negotiating corporate system is as difficult as negotiating Government Bureaucratic system

Recently I read an article about an IAS officer of Mr Narayanaswamy on the facebook , who had 'decided' to leave his job for UN posting, because he was not supported by his bosses - both political and bureaucrats. The author of the article asked a question " If honest bureaucrats cannot survive in a system, who will want to do IAS and work for Government?". One reader opined that 'Negotiating Government system is very difficult for normal people'.

However, after coaching for several years, I have met large ( very large) number of corporate professionals who are simply ignorant of the principles of negotiating 'corporate system'. Why? Because the system is invisible. Both corporate and government systems are equally invisible. I have met professionals of the age of 50 who still cannot yet see the invisible 'corporate system'.

We have already seen how the reputation of a person in a system affects his job performance in earlier blog. In this blog we shall see how his 'misalignment' of systems owner affects his job performance.

Align with the ' System owner' who is involved in taking crucial decisions about your future.

In any job of a company, a professional contributes a small 'part' of the total output of the group. Boss on the other hand contributes to the bigger company through the output of entire team. Therefore, it is often the boss who 'determines' how much a professional has contributed. And because this 'evaluation' is done by a person, it is often influenced by subjective elements. No 'objective' method can be designed to evaluate your contribution.That is intrinsic part of any system. Many professionals are very uncomfortable in 'satisfying' the boss. But Boss alone is not alone in the metasystem, Boss's boss also influences boss.

As most of the employees are system-blind, they often miss this task. Many brilliant individuals do their assigned work competently and believe that they have done their duty. When the output is not produced by the team, they blame their boss, claiming that 'he is covering incompetent members in the team'. Some professionals even refuse to do extra work by justifying that ' I am not paid for taking this responsibility'. While some blame boss's dictatorship because 'boss keeps on changing targets all the time'.

On the other hand, a professional who can see the invisible metasystem keeps his ears and eyes open to the system's changing priorities. It may be different than what is 'written' in the job description. If you are a programmer, metasystem may expect you, at some time, to supervise other junior programmers and guide them. Or if you are in sales job, the system owner may expect you to collect the money from existing customers, besides selling them other products, although it is not written in your role description.

Because of this task of negotiating the system owner, you will often observe an interesting paradox in a company. Some employees like Paras, to compensate for their lesser ability, tend to be sensitive to the changing priorities of their boss. Boss therefore perceives them as 'system-friendly' and rewards them liberally. On the other hand, high IQ employees like Mike over-focus on the task-related output ignoring the requirements of the business system, and get penalised by the boss who evaluates them as ' Selfish'. Have you noticed such cases in your company?

What is the difference of system owner in Government and corporate job?

Basically, there are various pros and cons of working in Government versus Corporate job. Job security is high in Government versus Corporate. Public scrutiny is also high in Government job which offers some negotiability to Government officers. On the other hand, there are some 'commonalities' within Government and Corporate jobs.

As the political boss in the Government job can 'demand' impossible things because he is an elected representative, the professional has to be 'smart' enough to 'negotiate' those demands using the framework of Government rules. I have seen many Government offices negotiating these demands smartly. One day I plan to convert these 'tips' into a workshop or seminar for aspiring government officers.

Summary

We must appreciate that Systems produce result, not individuals. Whether it is Government system, or corporate system, the nature of system does not change, although some of the rules can change.

Because systems produce result, boss ( system owner) will always remain a crucial cog that can help or hinder the employee. One cannot avoid this truth. One can only negotiate this reality.

Negotiating corporate system is one of the horse that a professional has to ride to succeed in work-life. A professional also has to ride the other three horses to succeed in work-life.

However, system owner is just part of a metasystem. There are other system owners in a company who can also be utilised. Here are six steps to manage a metasystem.

Why can't you succeed in your career easily?

In the last 20 years, I have met many successful and not-so-successful individuals while trying to solve the mystery of career success. When i asked them if they have succeeded in their career, they will often say that 'it is just a start', or 'they have to achieve a lot', or 'the next goal is this'. If you asked Sachin Tendulkar, when he was active in career, if he has succeeded, he used to often say ' Success in cricket lasts only for one match'.

Success is about sustaining achievements and interpreting those achievements

Success and achievement are different facets; we assume they are one. Many graduates come to me and want just a good job to succeed in their career. But, no sooner they get their desired job, their milestone changes. Now, they want to work in 'xyz' field. Once that has been achieved, the milestone changes again. It could be even 'promotion' or becoming 'VP'.

For some professionals, achievement-milestone changes to 'job satisfaction' because they interpret achievements differently. Then it changes to 'achieving something of significance'. For some others, it is wanting to do something to 'give back to the society'. And on and on. Their achievements milestone keeps on changing because they interpret achievement differently.

Work achievement comes before other achievements

For some professionals, marriage and children is a popular target to achieve after they have exhausted the possibilities of reaching other work-targets. But , although relationship results are important in life, they are secondary to work-targets. Feeling successful in life is possible only after achieving work-results. But feeling successful by achieving relationship-results is not possible. So these people move rudderless and wait for someone to 'lead' them till the end of their life.

Success 'emerges' only when Mind is adequately trained

Only when self-awareness catches up with the level of achievement, this chase stops. But until that happens, not knowing what he wants, he is chasing mirage. I have seen many successful individuals stuck in their career due to their too early achievement. I remember Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail, as one of the popular example, who achieved unexpected result at the age of 27 and was wondering what to do for a long long time. Isn't that pardoxical?

Instead of using self awareness to pick a achievement-milestone, when professionals chose achievement milestone, they pick popular targets, such as more money. They have achieved enough money to take care of their needs, but they keep on chasing 'money', because others are chasing it too. Instead of using money to achieve their ends, money uses them. Tail wags the dog.

Only known way to 'feel' success, is to align your level of self-awareness with work-life achievement. Aligning self-awareness with work-achievement is important, as we saw in these examples.In short, pursuing self awareness is no more an option today. If we want to feel that our careers are successful, we have to align self awareness with work-achievement. Pursuing self-awareness, which most of the professionals believe is a nice-to-have activity, is central to having 'successful career'.

But because we are unique individuals, not all can do this easily. Not without some help. For those who start too late, like Phatak in this example, career success remains an illusion, because they can never decide 'what achievement will help them succeed in their their career'. They remain confused and rudderless,despite their apparent money, reputation and other achievements. That is why Success is about sustaining achievements, and that too achievements defined by Your Self, not by someone else.

Are you ready to succeed in your career?

An open letter to Virat Kohli

Video link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=cric:549fe266e4b06f60a616db35

Dear Virat Kohli,

Your press conference has disturbed us a lot. Because we have learnt from our childhood that we should be humble even if we are winning. Even Ajit Agarkar said that your comments in the press conference were 'immature'. Sunil Gavaskar said that you must 'control your emotions and let the bat do the talking'. Commentators in the room were quoting how Rahul Dravid and V Laxman were so 'humble' after scoring so many runs.

It seems that we are are confused due to two reasons.

All of us want to win, so i guess that we cannot be afraid of winning. So are we afraid of  your wearing of your confidence on the sleeve, even before we won. Because wearing confidence can be so risky. If you lose the match you will be proven wrong. You will be laughed at. Our parents have taught us that 'one should not be so cocky, because destiny is waiting to prove us wrong'. So your cardinal sin probably was showing that you are so confident even before you won. Like you said in your press conference "You can say anything if you win. How would Australians behave if they were 1-1 instead of 2-0".

I also have another, much deeper, question. Like Sunil Gavaskar said " Virat Kohli's aggression can be counter productive for Indian team". But psychologist have a different view on this. They say, that if you want to win, you must first 'believe' that you will win. They call this Self belief. Before winning, Self belief of 'winning' has to exist. So, when you showed your confidence of giving back to Johnson, you were also helping Indian team to instill 'self belief' in themselves. You were telling them that , irrespective of outcome, you must first believe that you are good enough to 'give back' . So should we thank you for instilling Self belief in the Indian team, or should we worry about the 'losing of face' if we lose this match?  Should we thank you for instilling Self belief in Indian team that will help them win many more matches in the future, or should we curse you for forcing us to eat our pie if we lose this match?

We are outcome oriented people. If you win this third match, then we can understand your aggression. So, next time, when you show your aggression, please do it after winning. That is more easier to digest. For us, everything is acceptable only after we win. 

Meditation is just the first layer of Self awareness

Self awareness is preached as a Mantra by many professionals. It is supposed to be a door towards Enlightenment. The routes suggested to achieve self awareness are different. Some take a simple route of meditation. Some offer Vipassana, a 10 day retreat of silence. Some join movements that promise the path towards self awareness through Yoga. Some join non-religious associations that take you to villages for self-help work in a rural area or help you vitalise your 'kundalini'. Some gurus take you to Himalayas to deliver Enlightenment.

But all these movements of meditation are just the first, even if they are the most important, step towards self awareness. Journey of self-awareness involves moving from one layer to another until you are 'comfortable' with your Self, the way it is.

I have been able to discover these four overlapping layers in the journey of self-awareness:

Layer 1: Self-observation

This is the first layer where we start seeing our own actions, thoughts, opinions, evaluations as a third person. This is a tough step for many professionals because we often are so busy in 'running' that we rarely 'pause' to see ourselves. Some, like my friend, may initially run away from this 'meditation' silence.

Many professionals however remain at this layer , believing that meditating for an hour is the ultimate goal. Some even practice mindfulness, trying to be present in their daily activity. Many feel that 'emptying mind' is enough to achieve self awareness.

If you want to leave this 'practical world' and go and stay in Ashram for the rest of your life, this layer is the last layer to engage. But if you want to use self-awareness to find your happiness in the practical world, then you have to move to the second layer of self-awareness. Because the first and second layer overlap, the first layer is difficult to negotiate simply because it exposes the 'black part' of our Self, which is part of the second layer.

Layer 2: Self-criticism ( Knowing the black side of ours)
The moment we become self-aware, we start seeing the black side of ours. For instance, sometimes we have not helped our friend, when we could have. Or when we felt happiness when our friend was not promoted. Or when we were jealous of our friend's beautiful wife. Or when we could have spoken our 'mind' to our boss, but did not. Or when we acted very selfish with our parents. And on and on.

We all do so many things in our life of which we are not proud of. Sometimes, this list is so long, that facing these sins of omission and commission may lead to depression. Due to this awareness, most of the professionals get stuck in this layer itself. But sooner or later, one needs to move to the third layer.

Layer 3: Self Appreciation ( finding the white side of ours)
After knowing so many negative parts of life, it is so difficult to appreciate ourselves.

Many professionals take an easy route to negotiate this layer. For instance, they try to adopt new beliefs propelled by self-styled gurus.  For instance, they tell us believing that you are 'unique' helps you to balm the wounds. Or believing that 'you must forgive yourself' helps you appreciate yourself. But these change of beliefs is like a 'change of clothes'. It does not work for a long time.

But negotiating this layer is difficult because appreciating oneself involves peeling our own behaviour and understanding the dynamics from which it got invoked. For example, many of our wrong behaviours help us understand the power of 'situation' in which we committed the mistake. Like when we 'bribe' to save time. It also forces us to appreciate the fragile nature of our Type-1 spontaneous mind ( of emotions and biases) that often misdirect our desires and actions. And more importantly, our bad behaviour also uncovers our basket of beliefs (that we have unwittingly adopted from the society around us) that are ruling our daily lives. Such as the belief that 'You can win only if you are honest'. 

Layer 3 overlaps a lot with Layer 2. Only when we start appreciating our Self, the more we are willing to accept our mistakes. In a way, layer 2 cannot be negotiated independently of Layer 3.

Layer 4: Self-acceptance  

Only after we can accept our 'white and black' parts of our Self, we are in the position to accept our Self. Otherwise we either keep on changing Our Self and get attracted to many self-help books which promise you to change any of your faults. Or we live with a false 'sense of bravado' where we think we can do anything.

Only after we accept our self, we can be comfortable in our being alone without fearing the loneliness. When we accept our Self we can be 'happy' with the way we are, or else we constantly try to do something to prove ourself to others. When we accept our Self, we can find what we truly desire without the pressure of friends and well wishers. And only when we accept our Self, we can do what we want because we are neither overexcited by our strengths, nor overwhelmed by our limitations.

Summary

Although self-awareness is important to achieve better results in job, it cannot directly help you produce the other two outputs, work outputs and relationship outputs, that are critical for your success in career.

We should remember that self-awareness is not a magic potion of career success that many self-help books profess to be. Instead, if we understand that self awareness is an important milestone that links all the three outputs, we can find better ways to achieve self awareness. For instance, dense relationship with our partner has perhaps a  much better chance to achieve this 'self awareness' than meditation.

Develop your career framework (not your career plan)

Career framework is a framework that helps you take actions 'today' to achieve your 'goals' tomorrow. It is therefore a map you have created to take you from your current 'location' to desired location , leading finally to your final destination. It is a map based on the current understanding of terrain. 

Your career framework ( which i earlier called Career script in my blog of 4 years back. Looking at that blog, i was surprised to find that it has taken me 4 years to build a tool to develop a career script now.) therefore should include at least five elements: 

1. Choice of intermediate destination: Your desired achievement and the period that you would like to give yourself to achieve it. Also list your current destination and reasons for choosing this intermediate destination.  
2. Achievement Milestones to ensure that one will reach destination
3. Expected hurdles in reaching the destination ( achievement milestone)
4. Expected internal hurdles: We force internal hurdles such as emotional distractions, regular habits, stress and emotions that compel us from taking the actions that derail us from our goals. 
5. Unexpected hurdles:One cannot achieve one's career goals without preparing for the unexpected hurdles. We shall talk about unexpected hurdles later.

Point 1: Intermediate destination is based on work-path you have chosen. It includes choice of domain (Software, Banking or anything else), function (product innovation or technology), and Role ( Doer or Synthesiser). Work-paths exploit your inputs and by dense engagement convert them into 'strengths'. Work-path takes you from current destination to another intermediate destination ( desired achievement). Desired achievement also helps you write down the results that you would like to produce.

You should also write the reasons for choosing your current work-path. Why? While choosing a work-path, we often forget that we have used our then-current beliefs and limited information. Recording this information helps us re-visit the decision later and understand our method of choosing the work-paths. I have observed that professionals discover great insights through this documented record. For instance, while choosing work-paths, we plan to overcome serious limitations we see it in ourselves. But later, we forget this and fret over our decision.

Point 2: Achievement Milestones: Without setting intermediate achievement milestones, there is no way to find if we will reach the desired destination according to our schedule. Achievement Milestones should be set at least for six months, if we schedule is to reach our destination in 5 years.

Point 3: Anticipated hurdles: Personal transitions such as marriage or having a child distract us from the efforts we take in work-achievement. Relationships can often consume lot of our efforts, because it requires a different kind of mind - I call it farm-mind - to deal with it. And nor we can ignore our relationships because relationships are our biggest source of satisfaction.

Point 4: Having distractions is normal. But ignoring these distractions is a bigger problem for a professional. And more than often, these big distractions derail the professionals. The biggest distractions and most invisible ones are our habits.

Summary

Our Career framework ( our set of actions to achieve the desired achievement milestones) keeps on changing as you gain more information about your Self and outside environment.

If you want to take charge of our life, you must have a document that helps you compare your outcomes with the planned decision. If you do not do this, you will become victim of 'outcome-based thinking'. In outcome-based thinking, we evaluate our 'actions' based on the outcome. If we achieve the outcome, we evaluate our actions as right. If we do not, we evaluate our actions as wrong. Big achievements take lot of time to fructify. One cannot evaluate them every day.

When you are trapped in the outcome-based thinking, you only take the 'last relevant' action that produced the recent outcome, ignoring the combination of actions/variables that you invested earlier to produce the desired outcome. If you want to succeed in a long term, you need to focus on the 'process' of producing your achievement outcomes, not on producing 'miraculous breakthrough actions' once a while. 

Without a strategy of producing work-output, we leave our dreams to luck and chance

Every professional works, but very very few professionals can take a coordinated set of actions that are required to produce desired work-output. Everyone naively believes like Dan, that willpower, sheer muscle power, positive thinking and luck can somehow produce desired result. Everyone agrees that producing work-outputs is key to a successful career, but no one has a strategic framework to achieve this. This is like going to a war without a gun and hoping that one can somehow win the war.

Producing work-output consistently, whether it is Roger Federer or Nandan Nilekani, is a similar challenge, if not the same. It requires a robust ' strategic framework' to take the right actions in a coordinated manner. It should also enable the professional to take quick and purposeful corrective action when the output is not produced. A Strategic framework, in short, enables a professional to coordinate a set of actions consistently across a period of time to achieve desired work-output.

A strategic framework to produce work-outputs is a necessity, not a luxury, for a professional. To produce work-outputs, every professional has to go through these four steps. 

Four steps of Strategic framework ( ORIS) for producing work-output 

1. Output Zeroing : Zero on a work-output based on your work-path. (Do not confuse work-path with career-path). Work paths in knowledge work are distinctly of four types: Path of doer, Path of synthesiser (manager), Path of teacher (or trainer), Path of Researcher or new knowledge creator. Defining work-output is not straightforward as you think. Use this 3-step approach in deciding on the desired output. If your work-path is of a Manager, defining work-output is even more difficult.
2. Resource mobilisation for producing the requisite output: This step involves bringing the resources together to produce the requisite outputs on a given work-path. Many professionals however have very limited view of resources. They assume that their knowledge or degree is their only resource. A professional can use other resources - people, passion, values and traits - that are more powerful that just knowledge.It is the synergy of traits and knowledge that is important, not individual traits.

3. Innovative ideas to produce outputs: Innovatively using resources to produce the desired output or re-configuring outputs is both required to produce outputs over a long period of time on a given path. For example, producing the output on the work-path of Project manager has so many innovative possibilities that you may need a mentor to help you choose one of the option.

4. Sustaining Outputs on a given work-path: For instance, it is important to earn good reputation if the the long-term work-output is not sacrificed. Or a professional cannot sustain his outputs when he cannot monetise the work-outputs he is creating. For a sportsman, these sustaining strategies are very crucial, because he has to remain in the same sport for quite a long time. Even professionals like lawyer and doctors, who remain on a work-path for quite a long time, find these strategies useful.  

Summary

Enlight strategic framework of producing work-outputs is first of its kind. As you would observe, this simple framework helps you compare your work-output with others and understand what you can adapt from their career, instead of copying from their career. For instance, only if you are pursuing a vision, you can use the sustaining strategies of Roger Federer ( step 4). Or if your requirement of money is not being met, you can use the strategies of 'monetising' the work-output, not excelling in the work-output.

Professionals often lack Innovation (Creativity) in their career, not because they are less creative, but because they lack a 'framework' to apply their creativity. Without a framework like Enlight, they ask wrong questions.For instance, if you have defined wrong output like Rohit Sharma, any amount of creativity cannot help you produce the desired result.If you are unable to succeed in producing work-outputs in a current job, any ideas of modifying work-path are not helpful. Without a strategic framework, a professional cannot use his creativity to find his own solutions.  

To succeed in career, you have to ride two chariots

People-life chariot

Work-life chariot

Work-life chariot

This chariot helps you achieve work-life outcomes. The four horses of work-life chariot are Negotatiating corporate system, Using skill market to build skills, Understanding skill arithmetic to build skills and Self awareness to run the chariot in a chosen direction.

We need work-life chariot because we want a first-hand experience of our mind's competence to deal with reality. Even though our physical survival is not dependent any more on our mind's capability to deal with external dangers in the environment like our ancestors, our mind still needs the 'first hand assurance' that our mind is competent enough to understand the reality and use the available resources to survive 'mentally and physically'. 

We need to ride the horse of 'skill market' because we must monetise the skills we build. When we use skill market to make 'money', it offers us the freedom to live our life on our own terms. Independence is just a concept if we cannot live our life without depending on others. This is why, housewives who work at home ( and therefore do not produce any marketable work-output) do not have the required self-assurance to feel better in their career. Even Socially-useful outputs ( when we work in NGO's) are useful to give this feeling of self assurance.

Relationship chariot 

This chariot helps you achieve relationship results. The four horses in this chariot are Negotiating 3 relationship systems, Understanding the arithmetic of development relationship skill, Using the work-life chariot to develop relationship skill and Self awareness.

More importantly, we need to ride people chariot because our happiness index depends largely on dense relationships, one of the crucial relationship system. In the Grant Study that has been done to identify the formula of 'good life' over 75 years, George Valiant says that "only thing that matters in life is your relationships" with other people. Friendships are better predictor than any other variable ( even better than money) for determining our overall happiness (1). In other words, happiness in Career surprisingly ( although it is not surprising given that man has survived due to relationships) depends on our dense relationships, which includes family relationship and close friendships.

But there is a catch in achieving these results. We simultaneously engage in other 2 relationships - transactional relationships as well as collaborative relationships in work-life - to achieve our results. This confuses us, because these three relationships demand different adherence of rules to produce results. We are blind, because we cannot see the 3 relationship systems.

Self awareness - self understanding - is the common horse in both chariots

Last month, I met a very successful professional, Rajiv, age 45, who has got everything going in his life. He has all the required assets, is happily married and also has children of which he is proud of. But he approached me for coaching because he want to know 'what is the purpose of his life?'.  

As human beings, we give 'meaning' to our lives. We either ascribe personal meaning to our work-achievement or derive it from our work-achievement. We also change our work-outputs because it helps us in expressing our personal meaning that we have given to life. Initially, we may ascribe similar meaning to our life like that of our friends and neighbors. But  when we can fine 'personal' meaning of our life, it helps us even when we are young. But if we do not personal meaning for our life, we remain unhappy like Mr Phatak even at the age of 50. In a way, this is the most invisible output.

Summary

Both chariots - work and relationship - should be mastered to feel that we have succeeded in our careers. The mix between two chariots varies from person to person, and also from one age to another in the same person. That is why we always say that career success is determined  by every individual.

These two chariots help us understand many mysteries of career success: why career success is difficult for men and easier for women, why self-awareness learnt from people-life is useful for succeeding in work-life, why ignorance of arithmetic of skill development can derail career progress and so on.

1.Isaacowitz, D.M., et al. “Strengths and Satisfaction across the Adult Lifespan.” Int’l J. Aging & Hum Dev 57, no. 2 (2003): 181-201.

Problems, not opportunities, determine our progress on work-path

Work-life Problems are of two types

In work-life, professionals face two types of problems: Simple problems which can be tackled with minor adjustment and deeper problems which require 'deeper adjustment' to overcome. 

Simple problems can be corrected on the fly.They can be solved by the philosophy of "You learn to swim when you jump in the river". They require minor behavioural adjustment ( like listening before talking) or some deeper thinking adjustment ( for instance, how to write a resume that highlights your experience). For a cricketer, the problems of adjusting with a 'swing bowler' or a 'spinning track' can be the minor adjustments. These problems can be tackled using Corrective approach: Correct the problem when they appear. Do not think about them in advance.

Deeper problems ( some researchers call them messy problems) require deeper adjustment and therefore require longer time of preparation to resolve them. When a batsman, for instance, keeps on getting out to the swing bowling, he requires a major adjustment in his stance, grip, place of guard, or other areas. He needs 'time' to readjust to a new 'method'. Deeper problems can be tackled only by using Preventive approach: Anticipate the problem, prepare for it and tackle it. Why prepare for deeper problems?

Because, in sports and life, time is of essence. If, for instance, the batsman is unable to readjust well to counter the swing bowlers, he fails to score. When he fails 2/3 times, he is dropped from the team. When Vinod Kambli. ( the cricketer who played with Sachin Tendulkar in the same school and was supposed to be as talented as Sachin) failed, he was dropped. He could not ''readjust' in the available time-window. By the time he got ready, someone had taken his place in the team. He could not find the opportunity to come back in the team. Therefore, if deeper problems have to be tackled in time, they must be anticipated.

Therefore, a successful sportsman has to do both: he must tackle emerging simple problems quickly as well as get 'ready' to tackle deeper problems by anticipating them.The difference between great sportsman and good sportsman is the way they tackle deeper problems. Like any other great sportsman, Sachin Tendulkar managed to 'anticipate' the deeper problems, get ready in advance to face them, and tackle them in the available time window. 

Corporate professionals are not even aware of their deeper problems

Unable to distinguish between simple and deeper problems, many corporate professionals make a big mistake. They assume that all the problems are 'simple problems' which need corrective approach.

For instance, only when they face difficulties in getting support from their colleagues in other departments, they start attending the seminars of 'team building'. Only when they do not get the desired promotion, they start looking for the causes in their current job situation. Only when they are unhappy about their job, they start the search of 'job satisfaction' at the age of 45.

When they have longer 'time-window' to respond to these deeper problems in their work-life, they are lucky. They can still progress on their work-path. But, if they are unlucky, they may have to change their work-path: change employers, industries, locations. In extreme cases, the problem is even deeper. They are not aware of what they 'problem' they have. In such times, they go to psychologists to cure their depression, go to Himalayas to find their balance, or embrace Spiritual gurus to deal with their internal chattering voice. When they fail to respond appropriately to the problem, they keep on losing precious time of their career. In our life, only time cannot be recovered. 

Six tips ( plus one) to anticipate deeper problem

Because deeper problems do not come with a warning label "This is a deeper problem', a professional has to be smart enough to detect a deeper problem.  Here are six tips:

a. Work-life transitions generally present deeper problems, whether the transition is from one employer to another employer, or from a role in the lower hierarchy to higher hierarchy, or when one is shifting career paths drastically. Even personal transitions present deeper problems: bachelor to married, married to being a father and so on. Whenever transition is happening, be ready to face a deeper problem, even though the transition is a positive one.

b. People problem ( especially chronic problem) also indicates presence of a deeper problem. The problem could be with relationships upwards, downwards, or in lateral position. For instance, the problem could be managing a difficult boss, or managing the reporting team. Both problems, if not tackled well, can drain so much energy that the progress in career-path is hampered.

c. Do not get influenced by others in naming a simple problem: A 'simple' problem for one person can be 'deeper' problem for another person. One commonly found example of such problem is that of readjusting to the role of a manager when a person is promoted from the doer role. Typically, when a doer ( such as salesman, programmer, or an engineer) is promoted as a manager, he thinks he can adjust easily, because his friend has. Some make this 'role-shift' easily; because it is a simple problem for them. For some professionals like Madhukar, adjusting to the new role of manager is a deeper problem. They take years to 'readjust' to the new role of manager , because they have to make many changes. 

d. Check out your beliefs that mask a deeper problem. Beliefs govern lot of actions. Therefore wrong beliefs promote many incorrect actions. For instance, the belief that 'Find your strengths and exploit it' is double edged. Your strengths can also create problems when the situation changes. For instance, even self awareness can become a liability in many situations. 

e. Simple problems, if mishandled, generate deeper problems. Many professionals think that they are doing a wonderful job in the current role. But very few professionals are aware that they are supposed to produce deeper results. Due to this ignorance, they often create deeper problems for themselves. 

f. Do not misuse plug-and-play solutions to handle a problem. If you open a self-help book, you will find countless problems and corresponding strategies like 'Learn communication', 'Build network' or 'Use ten steps to become a leader'. But they may not be useful for you or your situation, because plug and play solutions of self help books are not generally helpful in most of the cases. 

If you do not want to go through these six tips of tackling a deeper problem, find a good coach for yourself. All successful sportsman do it. 

In the next blog, we shall understand why opportunities are difficult to exploit in career.

Second leg of Sustaining Job Results: Manage the reputation within team

                                    

I met Rajneesh six months back. This is his story.

Rajneesh has been working in one of the top 3 IT companies in Bangalore after he finished his Engineering 3 years back. He is a BITS graduate with a degree in computer science. He is technically very sound. He was doing well in terms of job growth, and money, he said. Because his parents were from Bangalore, he had less pressure of  earning money for buying a house. He met me six months back to decide on the job change. He had already decided to change. According to him, he had at least 3 options: Should he change to another IT company? Or should he move back to his core mechanical engineering? or should he do MBA? 

Many professionals assume that if they do something very well, they will automatically achieve in their work. For instance, Rajneesh believed that because he can write beautiful programs and that too in half the time of other team members, he will always achieve big results as a professional. So when he met me, he told me proudly that " I am way ahead of other team members. I have no problem in job".

Or, if someone can solve difficult income tax cases, say in a field of tax, she believes that she is bound to achieve good results in the job of Tax consultant. Of if one can play brilliant tennis, one can easily achieve big wins as a tennis player. This assumption is naive and simplistic. Ability to do a part of task is just one 'small' requirement to achieve any result in life.

Successful professionals produce at least three tasks in their current job to achieve consistently in a job: Produce direct results in the job, Earn the right reputation within their group to sustain the achievement and satisfy the Systems owner to use more options to produce results. In this blog we shall focus on one task: Earn the right reputation with the team.

Earn the right reputation within the team

Rajneesh is a good programmer who has learnt programming from a degree in computer science in one of the best colleges. He focuses on producing the right program given to him. But a company requires a team to deliver a quality program to satisfy a customer. 

An employee therefore is expected to earn reputation of four types: Being trustworthy or reliable, Gain credibility, be known as competent and be cooperative. In the corporate language, this is called becoming a good team member. Let us understand why. 

A programmer is not alone in delivering a good program to the client. His other team members have to be also good in producing results. His team members were Client coordinator, Business Analyst, other junior programmers in the team, Unit Testers who test individual modules and Final testing member. Rajneesh can deliver results when all the team members perform well enough. See these three examples of Rajneesh: 

• In the early stages of the project, Rajneesh did not cooperate with the team member to help him in his difficulty. As Rajneesh got branded as 'unreliable', he slowly lost 'trust' of other team members. They ensured that they did not support him when his programs bug were to be tested till midnight. Many times, they withheld key information from him. This, in turn, confirmed earlier impression of Rajneesh that other team members do not deserve to be helped. Vicious circle had got formed! That is why, even if one is brilliant, one cannot play too long in a football team, when one is labelled as untrustworthy or unreliable.   
• I also found that his 'style' of disagreeing was offensive. Every team follows a protocol of negotiating 'conflicts and disagreements'. When someone bypasses these protocol that person breaches the fundamental rule of team functioning. He gets labelled as 'difficult'.When I asked Rajneesh about the team protocols of disagreement, he was not even aware of this protocol. It is but natural that Rajneesh was facing this difficulty with every team !  
• In one of his earlier project, Rajneesh has used his boss's authority to get quality compliance from Quality team member in the program that he was doing. Rajneesh lost his credibility ! In the next project, Quality team forced him to do lot of documentation to comply with the quality norms and refused to accept his 'verbal compliance'. Rajneesh had one more reason to blame other team members !  

Why are these failures in earning right reputation critical in sustaining achievements in career? Your career success does not depend on achieving one result in your life, or delivering one project in time, or achieving sales target of one year. A football player knows this well. You need to consistently achieve in numerous assignments and projects before you are considered as successful.

When i asked Rajneesh about his reputation in the team, he was frank enough to say that he was labelled as a 'loner'. He also said openly that he did not tolerate sloppy work of others .and did not mince his words in berating his colleagues openly. He was good in programming, but he also used every opportunity to belittle other's contribution to the team achievement. Even after 3 years, he had no friends in his company. When i tried coaching Rajneesh in correcting some of the mistakes in the current project, i realised that he did not even possess the skills of correcting such mistakes.

In their careers, brilliant professionals often over-focus on their personal results like Rajneesh. They feel that their job is just 'technical'. However, in a job, you are working with 'people'. That is why job-system is socio-technical. And when any system has people, it includes multiple perspectives, views, priorities, and biases. And that is why, it is important to manage this 'social' system of corporate job. In my 7 years of coaching i have noticed that, absence of right reputation blocks a professional's career growth in a far more damaging manner than the absence of techncial inputs.

In order to achieve consistently, a professional must create at least earn four reputation : reputation of being a trustworthy member ( you can be relied without any doubt), of being credible (what you say is accurate and right ), of being competent ( please remember that being competent and having the reputation of being competent are two different propositions) and cooperative (you understand the team protocols and adhere to them).

Rajneesh was partly lucky, because in IT company after one finishes a project, one works in a new team. However, after 3 years in the company, his reputation perhaps was preceding him, and he was increasingly finding it difficult to get 'attractive' projects. I also discovered that his desire to leave the current  job was also caused by this factor. Many professionals like Rajneesh , who are blind to people-outputs, do not even notice that they are failing in a war, although they are winning battles. They are like a frog in a hot water, who does not know that he may die soon because the temperature of boiling water is rising very slowly. (boiling water syndrome)

Conclusion

As you would have realised from the above case data, Rajneesh was not changing his job to achieve his goals or fulfill his aspirations. He was changing job because he was running away from his current 'job' that was becoming increasingly difficult for him to perform due to his 'bad' reputation within the team.

With no idea of what wrong is he doing in the current job, he is more than likely to make the same mistake in the new job. After 10-15 years, Rajneesh may perhaps meet me to complain that despite hard work, brilliance and ambition, he did not achieve enough in his profession. Do you see the way professionals unknowingly shoot in their foot?  

Why willpower and skills are not enough to sustain achievement in Work?

I met Adi last month. This is his story.

Adi is working in a quite large private bank in India in a town closer to Mumbai. He did his Engineering and MBA from one of the Tier II MBA institutes in Pune. He passed both degrees with first class. He joined as Relationship Officer (RO) for small and medium business (SMB) accounts from his college. He has been working as a RO for last one year whose job is to find SMB accounts and give them loans. His bank had given him a target of disbursements to SMB accounts.

He is attached to one of the local branches of the bank in the town. He had worked hard. He used to make a dozen cold sales calls in his territory, he connected with all the current account opening officers in his territory although the bank did not encourage it. He followed various trails triggered by the database of accounts which ended in dead ends. He almost signed up three/four accounts which did not get sanctioned because of bank policy. 

When asked for more information, he shared that none of 8 ROs , who joined last year, achieved their targets. Only one managed to sign one new account, which got sanctioned, but not disbursed.  He was tense because he had not signed a single account in one year and wanted to 'leave' the bank before bank 'pushed' him out. 

What would you advise him?

Seeing through the lens of Enlight output framework 

A person uses his inputs cognitive abilities, character traits and conative traits to produce results. But what happens when a person cannot produce results, because the output-producing system of the organisation is defectively designed ?

When I checked with Adi, i realised that the 'team output' system of his bank was 'designed' to ensure that the result cannot be easily produced. ( Surprisingly, this is quite common in organisations !) For instance, branch had no targets of signing new SMB accounts so there was no interest for branch managers to cooperate with ROs. Officers opening Current accounts were not supposed to share data with ROs.  And more importantly, the 'type' of the service being sold was not compatible in producing the desired result

For instance, a bank can have the targets of  'opening of accounts'. But bank cannot have targets for opening new loan accounts to lend loans? It is like doctors trying to sell their 'advice' by meeting patients door to door. In other words, the service of  opening new 'loan accounts' cannot be sold by making cold calls. Such kind of service-selling requires 'indirect approach' ( like calling customers in seminars they may be interested) which consultants like Mckinsey use. Whatever new accounts the bank was getting, it was due to chance encounters triggered by lucky events ! In short, when a system is inadequate to produce the desired result, it is almost impossible to perform in your role, whatever your willpower, skills or motivation !

But what happens when Adi does not use a framework to guide his work-achievement?

Like we discussed in the earlier blog, one pays the the price if one is not using a framework to guide one's actions in career.  Without knowing the result framework, Adi's mind concluded that he is a poor performer. Even after knowing that 8 other ROs have not performed in their roles did not help him change his mind. And he felt so bad, that instead of convincing his bosses to change the 'badly designed system', he wanted to 'resign' In absence of a result framework, automatic sense-making apparatus of his Mind made him conclude that he is a poor performer. Instead of Mind directing him, it starts getting directed by this automatic sensemaking. 

Surprisingly this automatic sense-making of Mind further leads to another error ! When i asked Adi where does he want to go after leaving his current job, he said he is planning to join a Nationalised bank ( because he had already given exams for those!). But, unaware of the result-producing systems, he does not even know that many of the result-producing systems in Nationalised bank are designed to 'not perform'. In other words, Adi may join another similar bank with poorly designed output system, and realise later that he has moved from one 'ditch to another'. More importantly, this will further hurt his already weak 'internal confidence'. He may start questioning his own calibre. Even if he is lucky to find another job later, he will take long time to believe in his capability and revert back to normal use of his 'skills and knowledge base'.

Without a Result framework, even successful professionals suffer sooner or later 

Lack of Result-oriented framework like Enlight also affects those who achieve desired results. Without knowing how the output system benefited their individual performance, good performers believe that their performance was good because of their skills, hard work and willpower. Infact, i meet many such individuals who perform well due to the 'rightly designed output systems' for so long a time that their 'Minds' start believing they can do anything. They suffer from grandiosity and overconfidence !

They are inflicted with Virendra sehwag syndrome. Not bothering to know how systems help them achieve their results, they conclude that they are doing everything right. This does not expose their weaknesses and therefore does not give them a chance to correct their flaws. So when they fail, they are surprised and take long time even to acknowledge their own flaws. They get stuck.

On the other hand, if you understand the framework of producing results in your work, you become aware of the result-producing systems. You understand the way in which the system ( i.e through the colleagues present in the system ) is filling the skill-gaps. You discover the 'policies' which are motivating all the system elements to produce the desired result. In short, you understand your exact contribution in producing the result, as well as the system's contribution. This enables you to take both the approaches: either pick the right system that complements your skills, or appreciate the gap in your skills and strive to gain that skill. With a framework of work-achievement, your mind is in the driver seat, it is the director, not at the mercy of someone else. And only when your Mind is a director, you can achieve anything meaningful in life.

Do you still want to manage your work-achievements without a framework? 

Career success needs a framework like a doctor's health framework, not specific advice

End goals are similar

End goals are similar ! 

In career, the end goal is known and understood. The mountain to climb is quite similar for all the individuals. It is either earning money, finding job satisfaction, doing something of significance, leaving behind for legacy or the combination of the above four. A doctor's health framework also has clear established end goals of health which are similar across different individuals.

But the roads to reach the end goal are dissimilar ...

The challenge in career is therefore not having the right end goal, but to negotiate the roads smartly to reach the goal. In order to reach these end goals, an individual faces unique situations ( and therefore difficulties) which are caused by the combination of these four variable factors:

Every individual faces a different difficulty in his/her career path
for which he must be ready

1. Starting point dissimilarity: Depending on your starting point, your difficulty changes.If your family is rich, then your opportunities of learning ( and doing) increase, but your motivation engine  is down. On the other hand, your friend's ( who is from a poor family) motivation engine is working automatically but he faces the difficulty of finding the right school or college. You cannot follow the same strategies as your friend because your path is different than your friend. Or if your family is from law background, and your interest is in music, you have to find a different 'road' to negotiate with your family to pursue your interest. Or if your family is 'Marwari', and you want to do research, you have to surmount the 'beliefs' of your community to pursue a path of researcher.  Or if you are from a typical Maharashtrian background, and you want to become an entrepreneur, beliefs of your community will force you to take another path. Another path change !

2. Work-path dissimilarity:
Differences in work paths constitute the biggest differences of road changes ( and therefore the difficulties) in reaching the end goal. If your path is of a sportsman, you have to achieve everything before the age of 25. If your work path is of a knowledge professional - like engineer, consultant, researcher or even entrepreneur - you start your work-life only after the age of 25. Therefore, for the sportsman, choosing his ' workpath' happens automatically, while for a knowledge professional, choosing a path of education at the age of 16 is a major challenge for which he has to start getting ready at the age of 12.

Similarly, Artist faces a different challenge than, say, an engineer. An artist's work in design, fashion or drawing cannot be evaluated objectively like an engineer. Therefore, an artist has to negotiate a different road: he has to develop a huge stock of self-belief in his work unlike an engineer. Even within a professional work-path, the difference can be large. A gynecologist, for instance, seeing patients every day has to learn and practice being empathetic, while a pathologist may not be very adept in dealing with people. Every profession - be it research, banking or software - forces an individual on a specific road with its unique set of difficulties which an individual has to negotiate. The professional, to avoid derailment, should be ready for meeting these challenges, so that can exploit all the given opportunities.

3. Difference due to intermediate success or failures: Intermediate success also changes the expectation and therefore unknowingly changes the workpath of reaching the end goal. For instance, if you are successful in your first job, and earn lot of money in the first job itself, your expectation from next job changes. Instead of seeking money in the next job, you seek job satisfaction or meaning in job. Your workpath has changed unknowingly, but, if you do not equip your mind for this path-change, you struggle to find your next job. On the other hand, when one fails in the first job, the challenge is to find right kind of job, where one can find one's footing back. Every individual encounters success or failure in different part of his life, which in turn, creates a unique situation ( a road) for that individual that he/she has to deal with.

4.Problem-dissimilarities: Every individual faces a different problem in his life. Besides work oriented problem - like a wrong boss, an obsolete technology to work, or an inappropriate work-location - individual also faces problems in his family ( working spouse, too brilliant child, or father who needs your support) and health that may present a unique difficulty to that individual. Once again, the solution has to be unique for the individual. You cannot utilise someone else's solution, because your situation is different from others, even if the problem looks same on the surface.

Because the end goals are similar, but the roads are dissimilar, we need a framework that can guide an individual in negotiating the road smartly

Luckily our end goals are similar. So too is the functioning of our minds. Therefore, to reach our end goals, we need a framework - like a doctor's framework that enables us to monitor our health - that can help us achiever our unique career end goals. Such a framework to negotiate career challenges should have 5 robust features like a doctor's framework:

• Career Result framework should enable an individual to anticipate the road ahead in producing the desired results ( like a doctor anticipating health problems with high calorie diet) In other words, the individual should be clearly aware of the results that are required to achieve the end goals. 
• Career Input framework should help the individual to get equipped with the minimum inputs ( or abilities) to achieve the career end goals ( like food and exercise that helps individual to remain healthy). In other words, the individual should be aware of the minimum basic inputs that are required to produce the desired results. This should help individuals to 'change' and alter his input skills and traits that can be used by an individual to either fill the gaps or build new inputs that are required to achieve the desired end goals. 
• Action framework to produce the desired results should be simple enough to be understood and applied by every individual in one's life but also robust enough to respond to the complexity of the situation. ( Like doctors health framework that can be applied by every individual  )
• Diagnostic framework of correction to diagnose and correct a career-problem . This framework should be like a doctors health framework that will help him detect a problem and find a solution. This framework should help an individual separate root cause from multiple symptoms to enable normal individuals to seek timely help from different help-givers like teachers, mentors and role models ( like a doctor's framework that enables one to take help of health-providers like physiotherapists, nutritionists and plastic surgeon) 

What happens if you do not have this career framework to guide your career 

If you do not have a framework to deal with your unique career challenges, you will suffer like citizens of 18th century who suffered from health because they they never had a health framework. In 18th century, every prescription of a self-proclaimed doctor was right even though it cured one person by fluke. Every advice of a physician, be it a prescribed by a road side quack or by a renowned doctor, was considered right, because we did not know the criteria on which each health advice could be evaluated. In a way, any health advice was right, if the person said it more loudly or if he had large followers.

In the matters of career advice, we are still in 18th century. In the same way, we are at the mercy of quacks who claim to know what is right for us in succeeding in our career.Anyone prescribes a career advice and claim to be the best because there are no criteria to judge the validity of any advice. Without any framework, any person can claim his advice to be the best, if he can shout loud and show to have more followers.

But there is no free lunch if you make a mistake.If you listened to a wrong advice on health in 18th century, you suffered. Some people even died. So too, you suffer when you listen to a wrong career advice today in 20th century. Although the price of wrong health advice is paid immediately, the price of wrong career advice is paid by us sooner or later. 

When the sportsman, for instance, is advised to work on her game and not on his mind, she is unable to sustain her performance as soon as she starts playing serious game. However, when a student does not work on his mind and makes a wrong choice of education path, he pays for his mistake much later in his life. Every time, when we do not anticipate the difficulties in our work path, we lose time in recovering. And every time, when we cannot use our life situations ( such as rich family or poor family) to build the right skills, we waste opportunity to learn faster.

Are you ready to learn Enlight framework to achieve your end goals? We shall see what results are required to achieve the end goals in the later blogs.

Is too much of self-awareness a liability?

Please listen to this interview of Kangana Raut. Kangana Raut is very honest in her answers and seems to express herself without any hesitation. Her self awareness is refreshing and appealing. For instance, she is clear that she was very 'insecure' after her initial success with Gangster and picked up wrong movies. Or that her 'style-sense' emerges from her middle class background that keeps on reminding her that she does not belong to the industry. Or her candid acceptance about the state of her house, because 'women were treated as secondary citizens' even in her house when she compared with her brother.

Her self-awareness is striking and shocking because she is just 26. Being a developmental coach, who charts an output path of individuals to anticipate and prepare them for the challenges in their development, i am glad to see the emergence of self. Unfolding of Self is the first important milestone of development through which the individual takes charge of his/her life. It starts with self-awareness ( i know i am different than parents), which later grows into self-knowledge ( i am aware of my emotions, beliefs and key drivers). After this, the individual learns to mange his Self (instead of fighting my weaknesses, i start using them), and 'takes the steering wheel ' of his/her life.

But, in my practice of coaching professionals over last 6 years, i am also surprised to watch how this self-awareness, if it comes too early, can sometimes de-rail the development of an individual or raise more difficult challenges for the individual. Here are some situations that i have observed:

1. Too early self awareness compels a professional on spending time to find answer to the question "What is purpose of life?"

Ajit, a very bright student was graduating from IIT. His self-awareness was very high, and he used to ask me questions ( like why are some people born with so little money, or what is God, or is the universe moving ahead by some laws) that were way ahead of his age. Ajit gradually started taking interest in Hare Krishna movement, and before finishing his graduation, decided to spend a year of his studies in doing Yoga and meditation. 

Early self awareness raises lot of questions on the 'purpose of life', for which the individual is not matured enough to find answers. The answers, even when they are available, are not understandable. The individual loses track of his output path and over-focuses on this question, even when he is not ready. Luckily, Ajit remained in touch with me and family. He returned after a year. 

2. Too early onset of Self awareness forces one to 'find ones motivation engine' in the 'purpose category' ( following from above point 1)

Typically, in the output path, one finds motivation through external motivation engines like money, power and reputation. Although, self help authors and coaches belittle these motivations, they help the individual to focus on the development of their cognitive abilities and character traits ( the 2 Cs of talent). By the time they are ready to shift to internal motivation engine, these individuals have got the appropriate maturity to deal with the unexpected, and also gained the right level of confidence to weather the storm. In other words, they are ready.

But these highly self aware individuals start searching their internal motivation in only one path ' Purpose of life'. They ignore other equally relevant triggers of internal motivation such as passion, expertise, and significance. Because of this over-commitment on purpose, they spend their valuable time and energy looking 'inside'. In the professions ( output paths) like writing or consulting this could be  helpful. But in many other professions, this derails a person's output-path.

3. High degree of self awareness can create difficulty in relationship 

In our relationships, we switch from one role to another: father/mother, buyer, seller, friend, neighbour, employer or employee. Each role demands a certain protocol and behaviour to be effective. For instance, in the role of employer, you may have to take a very strict action against 'cheating' because of its influence on other employees. On the other hand, in the role of father you may take a more lenient view if your child has 'stolen' something, because he can learn from his mistakes.

Individuals with high self-awareness cannot switch from one role to another, because they worry about making their behaviour 'consistent' between the roles. If they are not consistent, they call themselves a hypocrite - a person who behaves differently than from what he says. Caught in this dilemma, they constantly catch themselves behaving 'inappropriately' to the role/situation. And they keep on paying the price of this mistake. When they cannot shift from the role of buyer to seller, they lose money on the table. When they cannot shift from the role of 'subordinate' to 'boss', they lose authority.

4. High degree of Self awareness makes it very difficult to get 'feedback' from others

Feedback from others is a big source of one's development and growth. However, for individuals whose self awareness is high, they find it very difficult to find 'mentors' and 'role models' because they have unknowingly raised the bar of evaluating people. Naturally, they find no 'helpful feedback' from friends, elders or mentors. They are on their own.

Either they keep second-guessing their own behaviour all the time, which others misinterpret as 'lack of confidence'. In certain professions, like in acting , this can directly hamper performance. Or these individuals become so introspective ( finding their own answers to difficult questions), that they lose the fire to get the most from life. They get satisfied with their inner quest.

Summary

Everyone of this challenge can be overcome by application of thought and practice. But, the person with high self awareness cannot use the solutions of others. They cannot find mentors like others. They cannot engage in relationships like others. They cannot be happy with external motivators like others. For them, every problem becomes a 'different problem'.  Their high degree of self awareness has made normal solutions inapplicable to them.

Isn't that a paradox? In my 6 years of coaching experience I have repeatedly observed this phenomenon: a strength becomes a weakness at some point of life and the same weakness can become a strength in a different situation.  I call this the law of relative strengths/weakness. It states "Traits and abilities are not positive or negative by themselves; they are positive or negative, based on the output system in which your traits and abilities are used". Self-awareness becomes a weakness for them, because they are forced to find their own solutions; they cannot use the solutions of others. 

Because any ability/trait can become a weakness or strength depending on the output, one cannot list down a comprehensive list of abilities/traits that are ideal for a professional. One can only list down a minimum list of abilities/traits that can prevent a professional in achieving anything in life, but no one can make a comprehensive list of abilties/traits that can guarantee successful output in life.