Nandini Vaidyanathan emphasises on how one can stay relevant by creating, communicating and delivering value
Mankind was born under the shadow of a gigantic question mark: who are we? Now the question mark has become
bigger as the seriousness of the question itself is becoming known to us: where are we going? In a post-Covid world, we seem to be going home, literally and figuratively. Home from the hospital, Home after being fired by the organization. LinkedIn is full of profiles of people who are searching for jobs. But before taking the next step, it may be a good idea to take stock of ourselves, ruthlessly map the areas where we are wanting and concertedly design a program to upskill ourselves for the changed world.
Firstly we need to move from ‘focus’ to ‘perspective’. It was drilled into Arjuna that unwavering focus on his target was what would make him a marksman par excellence. So much so, he did not even see the bird he was supposed to shoot at, he only saw the eye. In today’s context, this kind of focus will buy you a oneway ticket home. What Arjuna needs today is internalizing the whole ambient environment and cross-pollinating that into giving him 100 percent control over his target. He has to move from ‘dhyana’ (single-minded focus) to ‘darshana’ (perspective), the ability to
see, understand and use the context for a surer kill. And survival.
So how will you make this shift? First understand that your organization is in the throes of not just unpredictability but unmanageability. Check what the impact of Covid on your organization is. Is it overload? And are the symptoms as under?
• Loss of external momentum
• Crisis of relevance
• Under-utilized or mis-utilized assets
All of which has led to a serious internal dysfunction?
Or is your organization stalling? Has it become:
• Rudderless and lost its vision?
• Disoriented and all over the place?
• Orchestrated denial of all acts of omission. And it has become habituated to knee jerk responses to new
opportunities?
Or, has your organization gone into a free-fall nosedive, where it has absolutely no clue where it is likely to land?
Understand one thing. What your organization is, you are too. Stripped right down to your birthday suit in your locker-room, waiting to be handed the right gear. Except that in all likelihood, you are being called upon not to play in the team but to be guillotined. This is the right time for you to be sassy-on-the-fly and demonstrate to your team owner that you are the most indispensable and productive team member and not having you in the team will make the difference between winning and losing.
How will you do this? How will you start a conversation for intent with the decision-makers of your team and how
will you convince them that it should lead to conversation for action, action being
to retain/hire you on the team?
The answer is simple. First you will unlearn. You will unlearn that you are God’s gift to mankind. You will unlearn
that what worked in the past will no longer work. And you will unlearn that your past laurels don’t make a good
resting place. Then you will learn. You will learn to deep dive, not just skim the surface. You will learn not to expect the same scene each time you dive. You will learn that in today’s times and climes, competitive advantage does not lie in operating as a silo, but in collaborating with competitors and jointly owning the customer. You will learn that comfort zone went out with your track pants when you did WFH. Now it is all about creating, communicating and delivering value by gaining and demonstrating perspective. But the most important lesson that you will learn is how to develop local solutions for home-grown problems. Cut-paste was pre-Covid. Cross-pollinate is now. The more you
cross-pollinate, the better you will understand your ambient environment and gain mastery over it. That will help you stay relevant, employable and significantly productive
The Columnist has commenced her fourth professional avatar with her bakery and restaurant business in Jaipur (www.concoctions.fr) with her French Michelin-star chef life partner. Email: nandini@carmaconnect.in
