Management lessons from Driving-4

Here goes one last write-up on the same topic, Management lessons from Driving. Hope you would enjoy reading it.

# Changing gears and learning – both are step by step process

You are in a hurry and to drive fast, can you start with 5^th gear?

No. It’s not possible.

You need to start with 1^st gear and then change the gear up. It’s a step-by-step process.

Similarly, to give an example, you cannot become an effective communicator or leader overnight.

Any skill that you need to develop is also a step-by-step process and it goes though the competency development cycle. There is no shortcut to it and you need to be prepared to pull up your sleeves and work hard. That’s how you can reach the 5^th gear, your peak performance.

# Maintain a safe distance with other vehicles and your colleagues too.

A reasonable distance is better to maintain for a safety and any breach will not always result in accident. But when an accident take places, it could be due to breach of this distance.

At workplace, you need to work as a team players and you need to do everything possible and required as a team member. But, what you need to understand is your office colleagues are colleagues not your friends. There is a world of difference between these two and you need to know what you can share and what you shall not share with your colleague on the personal front.

When you do this, you don’t turn a good colleague into a bad friend and a good colleague continues to be a good colleague. It’s good for you, for your team and the Organization.

# Indicators and our work-style – both needs to be Proactive

Indicators need to be used proactively, not at the time of taking a turn, so you give sufficient notice to the others driving along on the road. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose.

Similarly, even at workplace, you need to be proactive and anticipate bottlenecks to finishing your project, find solutions and finish the project on time.  Reactive approach will not serve the purpose and it will show you as a poor executive or Manager. Let us be proactive.

# Vehicle maintenance and skill improvement – both are continuous process and not a one-time affair

You will always be in for a surprise, a bad surprise if you don’t maintain your car on a periodic basis. You would not know when your car will stop or it can stop when you need it the most.

Similarly, you need to keep building your competencies required to succeed in your career. It’s said that you need to keep running to stay where you are. Competency building is a continuous process and not a one-time affair.

# You need to fill gas however busy you are

Let us say you have a pressing priority that cannot wait but you realize that fuel is less in your car.

Guess what, you would have stop the car in the nearby fuel bunk and if you don’t fill gap, the vehicle will stop, even if it were to be Lamborghini.

So this takes a first priority over your pressing priority that you thought cannot wait. 

Similarly, however busy you are on the professional front, there are certain things that you need to necessary take care of on the personal front like Your Health, your family, work-life balance and things that are closer to your heart – hobby that you are passionate about. These are things that fuel our motivation and morale. This help us charge our batteries to perform much more effectively at workplace and both are equally important. One cannot be at the cost the other. It’s all about prioritizing.

So let us charge out Batteries on an on-going basis.

Hope you enjoyed reading this series of postings.  Do share your feedback and comments. 

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