It has been observed in the day to day lives of maximum professionals working in corporate or independently that they seem to be dissatisfied with the level and the nature of their work. Ofcourse the urge of achieving something bigger at each and every point of time can never be overlooked but then why do we forget the old saying “Slow and Steady wins the race” or is it so that this fast pacing world and the growing competition in the corporate world does not allow us to recall our lessons? Why is it that while thinking about something better in future we forget the best we have today with us and we even forget to cherish the beauty of today’s rewards?
We need to stop here and start keeping an eye on our own way of thinking and the way we take our profession:
Let’s start from the beginning when we started with or when we took the decision of becoming professional and attaining skills to interpret the statutes and going deeper into Non-ending Ocean of law rather than attaining a graduate or masters’ degree and getting stuck into the employee –employer relationship and earning some set numbers (no doubt exceptions are always there). On the head of that the fact cannot be overshadowed that the desire of having an independent and professional outlook leads us to take a decision and step forward to become professionals rather than becoming just employees in an organization (As we all know the difference between a professional and an employee, all thanks to the business studies course book we all must have studied at the senior secondary stage).
Taking the above discussed factors into consideration, now, after becoming professionals are we really acting like the same or we are still preoccupied with the “just an employee” mindset? Do we really pick a set target as our own target or are just driven towards accomplishing a target for the organization? If our case is the latter one then there is an utmost need to change our mindsets as soon as possible because if we consider our work as just the organization’s work we would never be able to achieve that desired level of proficiency which we aimed to attain while starting up with this course targeted towards becoming professionals. As professionals we need to have an independent and broad outlook of a given situation so that the organization could be benefitted with our proficiency after giving due consideration over the Dos and Don’ts under the law. This could only be achieved if we start loving what we do and take the same as an opportunity to grow as a better professional.
On the contrary the roadmap we generally adopt is totally different from the roadmap we ought to adopt. We should start with our independent and unbiased professional attitude which would lead towards organization’s benefit legally and would save the organization from future defaults and litigations but generally we first see how could an organization be benefited in a given situation and then we choose our paths of achieving the set target. I wonder how an additional fee or penalty of certain numbers at present matter if it would save your organization from future litigations and lessen the burden of legal liabilities. My dear professional the need of the hour is to attain integrity in our profession and be prudent enough while taking a decision and decide between benefit of a single organization or benefit of the nation as whole because from decades we have been blamed for increasing the corruption in the society and at the national level. The same could be achieved if we start following the general rules and concepts which we have always learned during the course and that is following the procedure in its true letter and spirit and not dodging the laws.
Here we need recall the lessons we have learnt in our KG standards and during the moral studies periods in our school days. Recalling that period now those moral studies lessons seems to be buried somewhere below the urge of growing and earning in numbers. No doubt we all are driven and motivated towards the “earning name, fame and money” goal in our lives but would that goal really pay-off morally and as a good citizen of the country? I would say “no” but ofcourse at the end of the day the views and perceptions differ from person to person.
“Satisfaction in what you do leads to enhanced productivity and excellence and hence gives birth to innovation at large”
Now the question arises what is satisfaction and how it can be attained. The answer lies in the simple statement “live in present and love your present”. But overshadowing integrity can never be an excuse as it is always said negligence of law is not an excuse and the basic law of our lives must include the term integrity and modesty. Further we all must have read sometime and somewhere that start managing small things and the bigger ones will fall in place themselves. So let’s start managing our present and enjoying what we do today as today would decide our journey for tomorrow.
“Sometimes the little opportunities that fly at us each day can have the biggest impact.” - Danny Wallace, Yes Man
We never know which opportunity lies for us tomorrow while learning from small things in the present.
For example, when Alcoa introduced Paul O’Neill as its Chief Executive Officer in 1987, investors thought he was joking. O’Neill’s sole focus from his first day was how to make a habit of worker safety. His primary concern was time lost to employee injuries. Although Alcoa was already outperforming most American manufacturers in terms of safety, O’Neill trusted in his belief that to be a globally successful company, Alcoa had to first become the safest. And indeed, through streamlining processes and attuning employees to proper procedures, costs decreased, quality improved, productivity increased, and with union and worker satisfaction too, the company’s success soared. Changing habits within the culture of an organization can be as effective as changing personal habits to increase productivity and success.
Here are some examples of small changes that deliver a big impact:
1. Identify a key bad habit that you have, address it – and resolve it.
2. Stop doing something that takes up a lot of your time and isn’t delivering a lot of value rather focus on one such thing you are good at and start excelling the same the step forward and identify another key area you think you could turn into excellence.
3. Thus after a particular point of time you would have bunch of some key areas you are good at and have excelled into. No one can excel in all the fields. You must decide prudently and choose your area of interest thinking about how much time could you give to a particular field/work and enjoy doing the same.
4. Spend one day a week outside the office, learning or interacting with the wider world and looking for new ideas.
5. Finish work early one night a week, in time to read a bedtime story to your children or spend some good time with your family. This would help you realize the beauty of relation and the importance of support of family at work.
(Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140401232644-16911014-change-management-the-easy-way-start-with-the-small-things-that-make-a-big-impact)
Thus small things of present can have a huge impact in future. All you have to do is enjoy your work in the present and be ready to reap the fruits of hard work in future but it is important to have a look over the opportunities we might get in the near future and grab the same. Let’s just stop thinking about the shortcuts for success as we all know that there are no shortcuts to success. Only hard work, focus and dedication could lead us to the desired level of success. Hard work has no substitute and nothing is a greatest quality than having patience.
Nisha Sharma
(Company Secretary)
CAclubindia
