Real Individual Growth, learning model, Target Measure Review Reflect, Experience, Senior Position, First Half and Second Half of Career, Work Pyramid, Career Decision, success,good boss

1. Catalyst
The ultimate strategies on how to win
at work and in life
Chandramouli Venkatesan
Penguin Random House India, 2018
Prepared by
D r. N . A s o k a n

2. Many people have the
ingredients for success,
but they mistakenly assume that
the presence of those
will guarantee success.

3. Real Individual Growth
Your career will grow only as much as you are
able to grow as an individual and as a
professional.
Career Growth = Real Individual Growth
Manage to grow your skills
Your knowledge
Decision making ability
Your judgment
Your influence on others
Communication skills etc
Towards deserving more, experience greater career growth

4. Focus on Deeds, don’t Worry about the Results
The probability of
getting the result
you want increases
when you stop
thinking about the
results and
start focusing on
the deeds
(actions) for
getting that
results

5. Most people assume that if they work hard and
spend years at work, then they are growing
their skills, knowledge and capabilities
If we succeed in the first halves of our carriers,
we will automatically succeed in the second
halves as well

6. Experience is equal to time and can be
measured in years.
Time Spent at Work Equal Experience
Organizational process and review are equal to
individual process/review
Productivity grows by itself
The thought that if you work hard every day, if
you keep achieving results, your productivity
grow by itself

7. Many people get to senior level or even higher
levels and FAIL ,
not because of a
lack of capabilities,
but because their
productivity
has not grown by
itself over the years.

8. The impact of work on life is
than the impact of life on work
lower
Life is a force that defines your
personality and how you come
across as a person at work
The values, Beliefs, Integrity, and
other human characteristics you
daily bring at work
Impact of Life on work is fundamental to success at work
Focus on how we lead our lives Focus on how we lead our lives

9. Time Spent at Work Does Not Equal
Experience
• How many years of
experience do you have
walking?
• How many years of
experience do you have
sleeping?
• How many years of
experience do you have in
finance/sales/production/
teaching?
Walking, sleeping we perform in a highly mechanical/thoughtless way.
We do not have active learning model associated with walk/sleep

10. Experience: Learning Model
• The presence of a learning model determines
whether the activity becomes experience or
not.
• Time is not an accurate measure of experience
• Time does not become experience by itself

11. Purpose of experience
What responds to situations in the future?
Purpose of experience is N O T
to measure what we have done in the past,
but to use it to do better in the future

12. Success at work
Effectiveness with
which convert
time into
experience
Ability to
convert time
and activity
into
experience

13. Convert Time and Activity
into Experience
Having a TARGET for the activity, measuring the
actual performance (effectiveness), and then
reviewing the performance to understand why it
was the way it was,
Reflection: What could I have done better?
I: will strengthen the individual experience
Better: build the experience that will enable you to
respond to situation in the future
TMRR is the learning model, Convert Time and Activity into Experience

14. Learning Cycle
• Any project, imitative or transformation that happens
routinely in organization.
• E.g. A new product launch
• Learning cycle starts with the process of identifying the
need for a new product, building a business proposal,
going thro the product development cycle, including
prototyping, researching, and testing as required,
building the manufacturing or service capabilities
required and launching into the market.
• Corrective action required after launching, stabilizing
the market
• End to End one learning cycle

15. Ability to respond to a situation and
get to the right answer
• TMRR is the HOW of
building experience and
real individual growth
• TMRR is a process by
which you extract that
experience building
opportunity
• Learning cycle is WHAT
of it
• On what opportunity do
you apply the TMRR
• Represents the
potential of experience
building in a project
Ability to generate solutions to
complex problems
TMRR
+
Learning Cycle

16. Senior Position: possess the necessary
productivity to make a complex role work
• Handle the multitasking the complex role
required
• Decide which meeting to spend time on
• Which issue should not be allowed to take
more than five minutes
• Senior Position: Able to finally create value
and a favorable output

17. Senior Position
• Output
• Ability to get things
done
• Manage complexity
• To be productive in a
complex environment
• To organize oneself and
manage your energy
and time

18. Senior Position: Things Change
Complexity of the
problems/issues you deal with
• The number of people want
your time is far greater than
you have
• The number of things that
need your attention is far
greater than the number you
have handled earlier
• The number of simultaneous
things you have to mange is
far greater than what you have
ever done.
The number/quantity/breadth of
the issues
• 1000hrs : Long term
strategic plan meeting
• 1100 hrs; to deal with next
week issue
• 1145hrs: to solve customer
issue immediately
Exponential Changes /Fluctuations in day to day activities

19. The “ HOW” of productivity
Circle of Concern: comprises things that impact you
directly or indirectly, but you can’t influence
Circle of Influence :
All those things that you
have an influence on.
Stephen Covey’s The seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Spend
Max.time to
produce
Max.output /
productive
Don’t waste time HERE.
Productivity Killer Spending time:
Negative emotions
Drains energy
Like a poison, take
small amount to
have great
negative impact
Controlled
Variables
Uncontrolled
Variables

20. The “ HOW” of productivity
The ‘Rocks First’ Method
Rock : Very Important Things
Sand: Trivial Things
The tragedy is that despite
knowing that most people
do not spend their time,
energy, resources at work
on ROCK things, and hence
NEVER achieve the success
THEY ARE CAPABLE OF
Sand and Rock disease: you are doing your best and yet things are not moving ahead: Frustration

21. Win Where It Matters: Second Half
• You don’t have to win
all the time
• Most people succeed in
the first halves of their
careers, very few in the
second half
• The most significant
career achievements
are often in the second
half of the career
45-55 age group: Career Stagnate: Unable to Contribute Meaningfully
Where you need to succeed is, where it is more difficult to succeed

22. Career Success: Easy in First Half,
Difficult in the Second Half
The Nature of the Organizational Pyramid
The Impact of the Boss and Supervisors
The Preparation required to Succeed at Each
Level

23. The Nature of the Organizational Pyramid
First Half Second Half
Creates more opportunities
Good enough to do the job
of next level, opportunity is
not a constraint
People are at the bottom of the pyramid,
wider base
Career
Progress
is a fn. of
absolute,
not the relative
Narrow part of the pyramid
Fewer opportunities,
more claimants
Career progress
is a fn. of
how good you are
relative to others
Stay for 4-5 years, next
opportunity does not
come immediately

24. The Impact of the Boss and Supervisors
First Half
• Results is a fn. of
capabilities and also a
fn. of very active
supervision
• Organization make up
for individual weakness
Second Half
• Results only due to your
capabilities and
measured far more
accurately
• Limited supervision
• Nobody to compensate
weakness, exposed at
this stage, failed

25. The Preparation required to Succeed at Each Level
First Half
The next, higher role is
somewhat similar to the
current role, and so the
current role often
allows a degree of
preparation for the next
Second Half
The next job is often
fundamentally different
from previous one
Current job of the individual does not prepare them
adequately to succeed at the next level,
start learning after getting there, failed

26. Why it is not Practiced?
Are you managing your first
half to succeed in the first
half?
Are you managing your first
half to succeed in the
second half?
Are you managing your first
half to build foundation
to succeed in the second
half?
Greater Career
Achievements are often
in the Second Half
Tremendous ROI in focusing
on Foundation- Building
in the First Half rather
than Chasing Short-Term
Career Success.

27. Why it is not Practiced?
Mindset
I can live without recognition for
a few more years
The Pressure to Be the
Best ‘RAT’ in the Race
Review NOT defined by
How we are learning
What Experience we are
Building
Which Skill we are acquiring
How we setting ourselves up
for sustainable success thro’
Foundation building
Lack of
Knowledge and
Guidance
How does one
make the right
choices?
What does
Foundation –
Building mean?
Which Skills &
Knowledge are
Relevant?
What is Right
Balance
between Width
& Depth?

28. Three Career Management Principles in First Half
1. Depth Over Width
Get Long periods in roles,
you acquire significant dept in functional area
Depth Builds Skills
Width Builds Knowledge ,
No longer the driver of Long-term success
Too much knowledge can a barrier at times
Prisoner of Past knowledge:
unable to accept new knowledge
What skills gives you
the ability to analyse
any knowledge pool
you have to face?
2. Complete Major Learning Cycles
….Which are Career Defining
The greatest impact of a major learning
cycle is when it changes you as a
Human Being
Building business Understanding from
the trenches
Understand the nuts and bolts of how
business happens
Understand and Relate to the bowels of
the business
Understand how strategy actually
works
3. Get out there when you can

29. Striving Sports: Aiming at
Self-Improvement, NOT winning
• You don’t necessarily
play to win
• About competing with
yourself
• Continually improving
yourself
• Competing with your
own previous records
To keep working very hard and where you need a high degree of perseverance and
commitment to stay where you are and improve incrementally

30. Motivations at Work
A c h i e v e m e n t
Large portion of career is spent
M a s t e r y
Purpose
Our Need to achieve:
Wealth
Comfortable living standards
Respect
Recognition
Our Need for being the Master of our Trade:
Ability to say our personal stamp of quality
Sense of representing high std. of excellence in what we do
Being a ref.std for the world in our area of work
Sense of purpose at work
Beyond our achievements and mastery
“WHY” of work
Beyond our personal needs
Higher in the
pyramid you
operate,
the better it is.
Work Pyramid

31. Managers / Leaders at Work
A c h i e v e m e n t
More difficult to move on and operate at the next level
M a s t e r y
Purpose
Hungry Beast
Cannot be satisfied easily
More you feed it, more it grows
Leadership: Make or break
How you engage, motivate and lead others
Allow team to learn, build their skill
Allow team to achieve
If leaders NOT operate at this level,
become ineffective, dysfunctional Leaders operate
at this level
Work Pyramid
Managers operate
at this level
Team achievement is more important than Leader (as individual) achievement

32. Values
Poor values
• If you
• cheat
• Have conflict of
interest
• Indulge any of sexual
or other harassment
• Misrepresent fact for your
advantage
• Practice favoritism
• Demonstrated precedents for
breach of values
• Disciplinary actions more
Upside of good values
If you
Have excellent values
+ve exemplar of good values
Difficult to find Demonstrated precedents
for reward good values
No carrier advancement due to
practicing good values
Not spoken enough

33. Leader: Leadership
Followership
How large the number of their
followers
Influence
The extent of influence the leader
has on their followership
Leadership = (Position + Content) X Values
Great success requires you to drive great change,
great change requires you to have great leadership impact and
to have great leadership impact you need to have great values.
Exemplary / Loadstar Values = trust, pristine honesty, simplicity, impact created

34. No Set Standard for it
• Each one of us believe that we are honest
• We always set the standard lower than our
current personal hone sty level
Honest Person
No Set Standard
Dishonest Person

35. Majority
Honesty
Pristine
Honesty
Deviants
Majority
DisHonesty
O t h e r s
D o R i g h t D o W r o n gDoRightDoWrong
I
I do Wrong Even
Others do Right
We do Right when
Everybody else does Right
Majority Honesty/ Dishonesty: We do Wrong when Everybody else does Wrong,
we don’t think We are Dishonest, we think acceptable.
Signal, Street of Singapore, not
standing in a line, toilet dirty
Indian Biological
Constitution changes
Std. of honesty
set by others,
NOT our own
I do Right,
Even Everybody else does Wrong
Change the Ref.Std. of
What is honesty from
“what the majority does’ to
“What I think is Right”
T r u l y H o n e s t

36. Develop Loadstar Values
• Living Life every day does not improve values
• To improve Physical Fitness, we work on it
• To improve Technical Skill, we work on it
• To improve Values, we need to work on it
• It is easier to be a smart electrical engineer than
to practice Pristine Honesty
• It is easier to be a marketing genius than it is to
be Truly Humble
Values improvement to a loadstar level thro’ an Improvement Plan, NOT happen by itself

37. What could I have done
better on values?
Every day Question
Stage 1: Sensitivity: Creating
Self Awareness of how fare at
the loadstar value std. of that
value.
Stage 2: Practice: Forcing
yourself to disciplined
practice, help to build
consciousness of the loadstar
value
Stage 3: Habits: Embedding into
you, become who you are

38. To find Answers to the Questions:
• How long should one work in one company?:
Career Decision
• Who is a good boss?
• Why so many senior and successful people
were gravitating to Golf/Cycling/ Marathon?
• How do you develop loadstar values?
• Why do you want to succeed in your career?

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