FREE online courses on Building a Winning Team - Managerial Inputs in
Development - Develop Yourself
There was a college professor
who fallen into a gentle rut, and had remained oblivious to the passage
of time and how much things had changed. Each year,
he would
carefully lecture from his yellowing old notes and create another batch of
students whose favorite hangout was the Coffee House. Then his son joined the
Foreign Service, and he spent the summer in the south of France. He came back a
changed man; the clothes were Paris (left bank), there was a little goatee on
his chin and the faded notes were gone. Now he spoke of Art, Culture and Music
and its impact on his subject. His whole outlook on life had changed…he had been rudely awakened
to the need for his development, and was making up for lost time. His popularity
sky-rocketed with his youthful charges, and that year, his class got more 1st Divisions than all other University
colleges combined!
Even experienced managers may need
some stimulus
to pull them out of the rut… though they don't necessarily have to go to France
for it! It can provide the much
needed ‘stretch' to keep them alert, and motivated. And undergoing some developmental ‘stretch' can invoke similar reactions in
their staff… who else will they like
to share it with!
Plan on how you are going to go about it, a
personal
development plan:
-
Get honest feedback from your own SELF about weaker areas
-
Get it from others close to you, then fix aims/ objectives
-
Make a date/ time bound schedule on implementing it
Ask the right
questions like:
The important goals of my life are:
·
How am I doing my present job now?
·
Where should I be 5 years hence?
·
What developmental gaps remain?
·
Where is the required knowledge?
·
What external sources can I tap?
Introspection, and ensuing self-realization, will throw up the answers to the
road ahead. Keep a time log, marking priorities against deadlines to achieving
your objectives by planning.
QUESTIONS:
1.
What do you understand by ‘falling into a rut'? How would you react if
someone suggested this had happened to you?
2.
Bring out, through a case study, the phenomenon of managerial
stagnation, and suggest, through your presentation, how the subject was able to
overcome the problem.
