essay on changing mindsets in employees

2. Take the competition as an opportunity

3. Look ahead

4. Welcome the changes

5. Be prepared and equipped

6. Love what you doYou can win<br />To some of us, dreaming big may sound a bit over ambitious. This is the result of mental conditioning brought about by two centuries of foreign rule) in which everything Indian was thought to be sub-standard) and four decades of command economy which placed a low valued on initiative and excellence. We are led to believe ourselves to be incapable of anything better than mediocre. We can however cite examples of Infosys, Wipro and Reliance to convince ourselves that we can compete with the best in the world, on home turf or on foreign ground.<br />Since the early nineties, when the shackles on business were lifted, companies that have come out on top have increasingly been those that have set new benchmarks on global competitiveness and aggressive growth.<br />And we will win, no doubt. But winning should not be seen as a fortuitous event. It is a product of motivation, discipline, rigorous training and killer instinct. We must ingrain the winner-takes-all mindset and recognize that the new world is unforgiving to losers.<br />Today, countries like Singapore, south Korea and Hongkong have clearly and definitively proved that the only raw materials required for economics progress are: leadership, aspiration, imagination, meritocracy, openness to learn from others, focus on benchmarking on a global scale, had work and discipline.<br />The main fuel they should use to ignite these minds is aspiration. It will made them courageous to dream the impossible, and work hard to convert the dream into reality<br />In short if we want progress, we need a mindset that understands the value of that progress and adapts itself to making all the commitments needed for the required change to happen.<br />Take the competition as an opportunity<br />Competitiveness as a notion is barely a decade old in India. For more than 40 years post independence, our central planning system ensured that Indian business had a captive market. A cost-plus pricing system encouraged companies to build assets and overheads, without worrying about efficiencies. Small wonder, then, that the sins of those 40 years are proving so hard to wash in a bare 10. <br />As long as the banking sector was content to play tiddlywinks at home, inefficiencies did not matter too much. RBI regulations kept foreign banks tethered. It is changing very fast now. The new policy aims to give the foreign banks more leeway in expanding operations and in future, they will be checked not by policies but by competition.<br />We have to battle foreign banks on their own turf. If we don’t we will be marginalized at home too. As Indian companies are looking to spread globally, they will need a variety of banking services there. If Indian banks are not available to provide them, they will have to turn to foreign banks. Sooner or later, these banks will try to capture their accounts in India and later Indian banks will be squeezed out totally.<br />In today’s market, where monopolies do not exist, and a customer has a choice of getting what he wants from more than one supplier of goods and services, competitiveness helps keep you ahead. <br />Today, being good is not good enough. The key question is: Are you better than the others?<br />Look ahead<br />Every future is a fable narrated by the dreamers of the present. Hope is its grammar and aspiration is its syntax.<br />If we want to be truly world class in the 21st century then we can’t look through twentieth-century glasses. At the very least, we need comprehensive solutions and the only way to find them is to get outside of our environment.<br />We make a distinction between “The future of the Bank” and “Bank of future” When we speak of “the future of the Bank” we presuppose the existence of the existing Bank. But when we say “The Bank of the future”, it emphasizes the change rather than the continuation of the process<br />Welcome the changes<br />We require a commitment to change in direction, change in attitude and, most importantly, a change which is continuous for its realization. Changes bring uncertainties that a large section of average people is afraid to face. On the other hand leaders see the context as an opportunity for change.<br />We will have to streamline our systems and procedures. There is bound to be resistance at all level to any such move from persons who have, throughout their careers, unquestionable tried to follow and enforce bank’s procedures without giving a thought to the impact it is having on customer satisfaction. There would be no place for the “No changers” in this institution, if we want to realize our dream.<br />Be prepared and equipped<br />It has been a general experience of people working in bank that even when they have the attitude to meet the expectations of customers, the absence or lack of required information/knowledge prevents them from behaving in a responsible way. In majority of the cases, the employees’ egos are hurt and they feel vulnerable whenever they are required to confess their ignorance directly or indirectly thereby creating a dispiriting sight of employees not displaying customer oriented attitude. Needless to say, all these adversely affect intangibles like brand image, creditability and reliability<br />In an age where knowledge is the fundamental source of wealth, power and progress, success will come to those who have the capacity to conceptualize, the competence to implement and the competitiveness to stay ahead.<br />Love what you do<br />The attitude “I will do what I love” should be changed to “Love what I do”. Why? Because the former is proactive while the latter is not. You can’t always choose to do things you naturally like. There will be times when you must do something you don’t like. If the mantra is “do what you love”, then your performance will be dependent on the kind of tasks you have. You will perform well when you do the tasks you like and you will perform badly otherwise. This, however, isn’t true productivity. To be truly productive, your performance must be consistently good. No matter what kinds of tasks you have, you must perform well. That’s why the key is to “love what you do” and not “do what you love”. You should learn to love whatever tasks you come across, whether or not you naturally like it.<br />CONCLUSION<br />If you want progress, you need a mindset that understands the value of that progress and adapts itself to making all the commitments needed for the required change to happen<br />Give them a vision of future, which will be an essential ingredient to our success. It will help us in staying on course and will give us a shared view of what we want to become- a bank of choice, worldwide. Give them a vision to win. And winning requires intense desire, relentless focus and flawless execution. This is true for individual as well as for the organizations. In fact we are not wanting in good ideas- we are weak in execution.<br />For every member of this institution, delivering at par is not enough. For this highly motivated lot, over –delivery should be the buzz word. Expectations have to be exceeded. That will separate State Bank from the rest of the pack<br />This calls for excellence in all areas and making excellence, as Aristotle has said, not an act, but a habit.<br />D Bhatti <br />