Building Teams - Part 1 - Assuming Leadership

I've been fascinated with 'teams' for a long long time. I've also been a student of the subject for the past nine years. Building corporate teams is bit different although there are more similarities with other teams such as sports teams etc.

The Key difference comes in the form of voluntary vs paid team members! Just that cause is bigger than the paid incentive! (This is more true in the case of Generation Y ers)

There are plenty of times where we've read that story about the legendary CEO coming to the rescue of a company, streamlined staff, got rid of 'excess baggage' through voluntary retirement etc. and then turned around the company from red to green. While these stories are motivational and moral boosting, most of us who fall into the category of 'rest of the leadership team' as department heads, rarely will have that sort of luxury or free way.

In big corporate structures, many of the critical elements of remunerating employees are beyond the individual discretion of a department head. For instance, salary structures and other perks cannot to be offered to an individual just the way you want. Various other factors such as equality, fairness etc relevant across the organization do play a significant role in determining those. Especially during difficult times such as these adjustments to salaries could be even more difficult.

So how do we go about building that great team with all the typical issues, any department head has to counter.

There are multiple methods of developing teams and it very much bottle downs to the individual style of the team leader.

If you are a leader who assumes a new role as a department head then, you very much inherit an existing culture among your team members. You need to be mindful of the repercussions and complications of the existing culture before you go about trying to align the rest to your way. One needs to identify and understand aspects of the existing culture which can compliment the new culture you intend to inculcate in your team. One should go about speaking to as many employees as possible taking a stock of their point of view on the existing modus operandi. However these discussions must serve as feedback sessions and not to indicate any form of opinion. Also many 'politically inclined' employees might attempt to win you over and as a new boss you need to be extremely mindful on this fact.

Depending on the size of the team and the magnitude of the change from the existing statusquo you need to go about announcing such changes. However prior to that one does need to identify several key alleys' among the existing staff. This is not to politicize the process but to ensure you do have ground level assistance and feedback. Key to any change is the credibility you develop along the way. Changes may be tough for all involved but as long as you are consistent to your vision and align all your actions including reward and punishment, I think people will live with that.

Remember your superiors play a pivotal role in this whole processes, prior to engaging any activity one needs to 'sell' your new vision to them. It is paramount that you do have 'C-Suite' sponsorship and endorsement for your action. Failure to do so will lead to detrimental results.

One needs to give every employee every chance possible to change for the better. One needs to set expectations right from the beginning and give candid feedback along the way. One word of caution though, you don't have to be democratic in every endeavor, but do listen to people all the time and then make YOUR decision.

Something that has worked for me all the time with all sorts of people is the genuine one to one dialogue. You tell them your expectation and check with them whether it is possible.

One of the greatest reward capacities that you have in your disposal as a departmental head is your ability to give them opportunities to perform tasks. Do not undermine this. It is a major tool you have, provided you use it right. Check for their aspirations and also try to identify personal gaps, meaning personal developmental needs of your team members. Some companies have a policy of only developing 'requisite' technical skills. This is not a smart move at all. Now as much as possible develop them for their full potential. It pays for the company and adds value for the team as well. Speak to them regularly about their gaps and more importantly about the progress they are making if any. Give them assignments and projects, allow them to make certain mistakes. Seek their feedback regarding important tasks and acknowledge good suggestions and reward such initiatives through pubic praise. People do respond to this and it creates a want to be part of a team.

Well these strategies have worked for me. I'm sure there are plenty of other methods some of you would have tried. Feel free to share!

To be continued..........

Internships - Best way to get your ideal job

For the past couple of years I had the opportunity to work with many interns. For common understanding, an intern is essentially a person who is just out of college, university or who formally wants to spend sometime in between academic years in an commercial environment to acclimatise themselves with the corporate world. I've worked with 16 year olds who come for a week to 24 year olds who come for several months.

There are multiple ways of landing with a good internship job. Some companies advertise for certain limited positions, but more often than not it is your personal contact which gets you the job. All those who have come to work with me belongs to the latter. So make sure your have your contacts worked out!

While I never had the good fortune, I firmly believe this is the best way for someone to find their first job in the corporate world. Let me explain how.

As an apprentice if you are very clear and specific about the type of job you want to take up as a career then you would request for an internship in that particular department(Finance, Marketing, Sales, Procurement, HR, IT, Operations etc). If not you would try your hand at couple of departments before deciding on the ideal. Just a word of caution, to make the internship more meaningful, make it at least 4 weeks and if not a lot more.

Here's what you get a during an internship. Be ready to go through the worse the job can offer. Pretty much like the hospitality industry where a hotelier starts his career from the kitchen, peeling bags full of vegetables. Request you to be given the lowest level of work. If it is a sales job, make sure you get on the field!

Remember during internship you will understand and begin to appreciate a lot about the industry itself. Make sure your internship goes beyond the usual work hours. Spend extra time understanding the business further. Request extra work within the department. Whereever you have the opportunity, engage in inquisitive discussions about the business with the respective department head. Apart from learning a lot, with your 'non brainwashed mind' you might be able to add real value to the organization in the form of useful observations. As much as possible ask for specific projects with surefire deliverable.

While at work try to identify and study successful people in that company. Watch them carefully and try to model their successful traits. It's not about changing who you are, but rather it is about identifying and applying those traits.

Remember as an apprentice you might "not find the most accommodating boss all the time. But be sure to learn whatever possible under various circumstances. Checkout my July 09th blog posting on http://www.dassaonline.com/2009/07/story-of-x-apprentice-career-is-about.html

As much as possible try to receive feedback from your superiors (the person who is assigned as your mentor or even the department head himself). Ask them to be blunt with their feedback. Tell them you prefer the truth about how you are fairing and make sure that they treat you like an equal and not as a 'kid'.

Pay special attention to the soft skill gaps of yours. You are bound to come across those whom you would rate as excellent be it in dress sense, public speaking, mingling with people, negotiations, leading etc. Identify their levels and more importantly identify your gaps. You will not be successful in bridging the gap, but it is worth a million to know the gap so that slowly but surely you could work towards bridging that. Ask your colleagues to give candid feedback in this regard.

Most young adults tend to look for the best paying internship or the comfortable internship when considering one. This is dead wrong. Money should not be a consideration point ever.Greediness for couple of thousand bucks could make you miss out on an opportunity which is priceless. Ideally you should do it FOC!

I always make it point to stretch interns to their maximum limits. I've given them projects with total financial responsibilities and to date none of them have failed me. In fact their projects have been up to the mark, novel and more importantly successful. I've also come across people who are excellent in their technical skills but lacks very important traits such as credibility. For example the playful types sometime bring on board with them their bad school habits! Staying back home without informing for several days and not keeping up to their words etc.I'm glad they are on internships and not on a paid job because if they had been in a proper job, they are destined loose big time.

Now why should someone go through all this trouble?

Well to start off with having couple of projects under your belt will give you an edge over other competitors in your ideal job interview. Your limited grooming would project you as a 'mature' person compared to the others. Once landed with the job it will make your acclimatisation much faster which enables you to perform quickly. And, may be, just may be, that your internship organization would be happy with your work that they may just decide to hire you immediately or subsequent to your studies!

What criecketing partnerships teach us about corporate meetings and negotiations

When following Sri Lanka's 1st test with India in Ahamedabad it brought me home to one universal truth, sports has a lot to teach us.

At the end of the day it was one of those dull draws. However the lesson that I'm about to share is one that could make or break careers for some people.

Great cricketing innings are built on parnerships. If you take a partnership, be it 50 overs or test match cricket their is a universal pattern. When one batsmen is going at great guns the other just compliments and does not try to out do the one who takes the initiative and vice versa. In cricket there are 'passages of play' when one batsman takes over the lead role in scoring runs. Best partners then just rotate the strike! They do not try to match their partner with every storke.

When a partner finds it difficult to face a difficult bowler or to score runs, great partners take it upon themselves to face that bowler. They take over the dominance or they start negotiating the bolwers, minimizing the burden on the other batsman.

Now this sort of approach will both help us in making meetings more productive and negotiations more successful. Lets see how.

Haven't you come across countless situations at meetings where people go round and round the same thing without making any progress.What a waste of time! The point is that you can simply acknowledge the fact that you agree with whats been said AND add ONLY something new to the whole conversation. Next time around when you sit for a meeting, just observe of this fact. Besides when you absorb whats being said and then when you make your constribution to the conversation there is defenetely more value in it.

Group negotiations are ideal situations where this tactic could be practiced with good success. Say you are representing your company in a negotiation with another party. Your colleague is making an obvious point across to the other party which they vehemently arugue against. Rather than trying to join the band wagon you could stay quite analyze their reaction and then work your argument accordingly and present. Given it is a 'silent'voice waking up, they are bound to listen to your point of view.

My enemy's enemy is my friend

I was watching Robin Hood season three and above was the title of the eleventh episode. This is a line said by Guy of Gisborne to the fellow Robin Hood men when they question his motive of joining them. This made me wonder how this becomes true in a Corporate platform as well.

There are many instances in corporate politics where those who play politcs become friends with people whom they feel are undermined by their 'political' foes. Again this happens at a peer and subordinate level.

Let me explain the first scenario,

At a peer a level say at department head level, lets assume that Head of Department A has some professional issues with Head of Department B. Let us assume that A is a guy who plays corporate politics and B does not.

To confront B, A might start getting extra friendly with C,D, E & F who are fellow depatment heads. He might increasingly start spending more time with them building relationships both during and after office hours. With all on his side A might launch his attack on B which could have a severe impact on B.

Scenario two is where A uses a close subordinate of B to get at him. Lets assume X was a close confidante of B and since of late due to few mistakes on X's part or various other circumstances B has been critical of X. It is one of those passages in employement where X will have negative impressions about B. A siezes opportunity and becomes friendly with X and uses him to build a case against B.

I'm sure many of the readers must be familiar with these scenarios. Sometimes you would have used such tactics to your own advatge while some others would have been victims of such tactics or would have been pray and drawn to such political game play.

Those who are part of the corporate world and specially those who have just started out in their corporate lives need to be very concious of this fact. One needs to be minful of the motives of others.

While this does not mean that you refuse any type of friendship offered to you by a colleague of yours just be mindful when your new found friend(s) attempt to undemine a third party. Remember this does not happen bluntly. Be on the look out for patterns of discussions which slowly but surely targets individuals.

You might be draged on to Corporate Politics by those who cherish on such game play. More often than not until you are deeply in it, you just don't know it.

Building a Knowledge Economy - Lessons from the Silicon Valley

This was the topic at the 9th PIMA Public lecture held at PIM on 14th October 2009.

Speaker of the day, Prof. Hilton Roots (a academic from the Stanford University) shared his experience on the evolution of Silicon Valley. According to him Stanford University was the main reason for the valley.

Interestingly there appears to be two main systems within which technology revolution in the USA.

1. Technology development based on Massachusetts area. This is in the East Coast in America (Boston)

2. Technology based on Silicon Valley located in the West coast of the USA.

Interestingly both these localities house some of the best known educational institutions in the world. Boston (Massachusetts) house MIT, Harvard. Silicon valley revolved around Stanford University. In fact the most of the land where the initial valley developed was lease land of the university which was given to high tech companies. (in the form of an industrial park)

One of the key cultural aspects which fueled Silicon valley innovations was the weak social ties prevailed in the society. This lead to many facets including regular job swapping by employees which lead to exponential growth in knowledge sharing. It wasn't uncommon for a person to work in 10 or so companies by the age of 30 in Silicon Valley. The social institutions were the very fabric which fashioned the valley culture.

Probably what determined commercial success of most of these companies were the unique breed of venture capitalists who developed themselves in the valley it self. Apparently by the year 2000, lead up to the dot com burst they were pumping the valley with funds worth 103 billion USD for a year. More than the money these VC firms brought about unique performance driven culture in t Valley organizations where the start ups had very little option other than 'some how make it happen'.

Prof. Roots also cited multitude of examples from his experience in countries such as China and India where prolonged attempts to developed such places with billions of dollars worth of funding. However he was quick to point out such initiatives have failed purely because they tinkered the winning formula. Such tinkering came in the form of government intervention, control and excessive controls over profit taking.

So the question was asked whether developing countries such as Sri Lanka should create their own 'valley' model. Prof. Roots strongly felt that the incubation should happen in the valley and he went on to categorically mention an attempt to create a home grown solution will lead to failure. He also suggested that those countries such as Taiwan which replicated the winning formula, based their model and more importantly gained extensive experience in the valley before replicating the successes in their own country (Taiwanese spent considerable time in the Valley before coming home and setting up operations in their own country).

Madu Rathnayake from Virtusa fame who was a panelist echoed this sentiments by saying that they launched their big operation in the US in Boston which helped them to find Venture Capitalists and other 'necessary' skills and resources which fueled their expansion which enabled them to grow up to the level of being listed on NASDAQ.

Be blunt with feedback

Inherent nature of the Asian culture avoids blunt and candid feedback. By nature asians would avoid any form of confrontation which is deemed inappropriate. How does this impact professionals and especially those in their early and mid careers.

Time and again I've seen plenty of mid career professionals (and some big bosses for that matter) making scores of grammatical and spelling mistakes in their writing. I think e-mail has a lot to do with it. That's not all they make obvious language mistakes when they talk. People talk about these mistakes behind the person's back on most occasions.

Unfortunately many of the bosses refuse to confront these mistakes promptly. They feel it's best to let it go. On most occasions they feel the recipient might feel intimidated.

This doesn't help the individual at all. In fact at a later stage in their careers it will become a hindrance for career progression.

Fundamentally, younger generations who study in their mother tongue and learn English as a secondary language believe mastery of the language is way beyond them. However with concentrated effort one can master the language over a period of 3- 5 years (up to a respectable level in the corporate world).

Trust me, the typical class room learning can do very little to bring a person up to speed with the language usage. (Those of you who believe sending some one for a English course would solve the problem, you are dead wrong!) Its all about application and application in real life situations where you need to rectify yourself.

So what stops people from learning the language properly during their adulthood?

From a receipient's point of view they need to do two things.

a) They need to accept the fact that they can make mistakes when it comes to the language and more importantly it is ok to make mistakes as long as you don't repeat it.

b) They (the recipient) need to proactively indicate to the boss that they seek feedback and they appreciate the same. (You need to have the urgency to up your game!)

From the boss's point of view they need to commit the necessary time and energy on constant basis to give feedback. And when they do they should focus on the issue and not on the person while ensuring it is one to one.

So next time around when one of your subordinates make a mistake, ensure you give prompt feedback. If you haven't done it before, talk to them prior to giving feedback and tell them why you are doing it.

Driving - What it can teach you about focus and attaining goals

Yesterday I had to attend an event which was 116Km away from my home with a colleague of mine. Throughout the journey I took the liberty to drive. I do enjoy driving. It was a pretty good driving machine as well (a 2008, Toyota Allion).

Prior to our eventual destination we had few planned stoppages to visit some of our outlets. As for the goal, yes I knew it exactly. It was about eventually reaching the destination on time. usually with typical traffic and road conditions it is a 3 hour drive up the hill. However as a driver you aim at attaining short goals. My goals were two pronged. I was keeping the main towns at the back of my mind. Knowing that with each town that I reach I was that close to my end destination.

There was another more important aspect to my driving. I was focusing on the vehicle immediately in front of me. One vehicle at a time, I started overtaking. This to me was more important than the feeling you get when you cross one of the pass by towns.

On my way back it was purely the vehicle in front. Driving in the night and when you've travelled down the same road on plenty of occasions before it makes it easy for you to focus only on the vehicle in front. I must confess during my return journey I made it a point not to look at the time. Well guess what, there was less traffic comparatively on the road and I made it home within 2 1/2 hours.

So the lesson is for those of you who find it difficult to focus on things, take the wheel and drive a little bit!

Service Excellence - Beyond the Script and FAQ Culture - The Story of Singapore

First impression you get when you visit Singapore is one of excellence right from the time you land at the Changi airport. There are excellent systems and facilities in place at the airport. On almost all the occasions it is a race against the time to pick up the baggage from the belt. The country has achieved such excellent levels of service delivery quality through their systems.

Staff at the airport are excellent and "friendly" and there is an aura of pleasantness about them. This small country of some 700 odd square kilometers have come a long way for the past several decades. Many attribute such levels of advancement to the culture of discipline instilled upon people by the visionaries such as Lee Kuan Yew. Discipline has been an integral factor in the Singaporean lifestyle. I suppose no other nation in Asia can boast of such disciplined behaviour as a nation that we see in Singapore.

Beyond that facade however is a story which is worth exploring in detail.

If one comes across a situation or makes a conscious effort to test their (Singaporean) responses under different scenarios only one would realize how scripted these people are!

Naturally Singaporeans are not the most friendliest people in the world. A walk down Orchard Road or at a mall and definitely in the MRT you will find people whom you think cannot get those jaw muscles to move in such a way to construct a smile. (Coming from a country where smiling is so natural, I find this difficult to stomach!). The good part about it is that they certainly do mind their own business in public places!

On the road if you ask them for directions etc, some do their best to tell you where things are. However higher percentage simply snap back at you and say 'Nuh'.

Let me explain using few other examples.

In one of the beaches at Senthosa island we wanted to find out as to where are the changing rooms were. There was this man selling ice creams in a permanent sales hut and since he was the only local around we went and asked him where the changing rooms were. He just shook his head and in an arrogant way said 'nuh'. Thinking language might be the problem I started using multiple gestures and pretty vividly explained our requirement. He wasn't bothered about it and after sometime with some angry reaction said "nuh' "nuh' with gestures towards us to the effect go away. When everything was said and done and we were waiting for the 'beach tramp' to pick us at the tramp station we saw the changing rooms. It was right behind the ice cream stall on the other side of the road!!!!!

Say you go to a restaurant and make some queries about the dishes from the Steward serving you. He would be perfectly prepared to answer 6 -7 questions that he has been trained for. However say that you have a genuine problem such as wanting to find out whether a particular dish might be too spicy for a person who finds normal Singapore dishes alright to digest. Trust me you are in for big time trouble. Let me explain.

We went in to this restaurant at the Toa-Payoh hub for dinner with our hosts. Ushering to settle us down was prompt and very good. They said all the 'typical' words you are expected to communicate to your guests at a restaurant. In trying to decide what to order I wanted to find out whether a particular dish would be too spicy for small children(We had two 4+ kids with us). I asked the waiter showing the two kids whether it will be too spicy for them because usually they do not like it when it is spicy. The stewrd responded with a big smile. When I repeated the question again, he simply showed and said the particular item number of the menu item. After reading it again I simply couldn't figure out whether it was spicy, so I asked again by saying I'm from another country and I have not tasted it before, so which is why I wanted to know whether this is spicy. He gave me an embarrassed smile! I asked for his boss who simply snapped back and said 'yeah'. But I must confess, their salads were one of the best I've had.

From visits to public attractions to shopping trips to most places or dining experiences at other fast food restaurants the experience was no different. The country also welcomes some 23 million odd tourists on an annual basis. There're splendid products are targeted at these tourists whilst the country as a whole seems to be geared to service the tourists. Just as the famous Mc Donald's system, they seems to produce service encounters of identical response's. It is a perfect script that they play into.

However beyond the script, it is a different world altogether.

There were signs of the Singaporean govenrment taking certain steps towards addressing this problem. For example there were campaigns on the streets encouraging parents to allow their children to be creative. Probably the government has understood that people need to play beyond the script. May be, just may be, it is a matter of time!

Story of "X" - The Apprentice - Career is about choices and actions

These days we have performance feedback sessions in most companies. Last year (2008/09)was one of those years which was difficult by most standards. Sri Lanka's economic situation was not only difficult because of the global financial crisis and its ripple effects, the country also had its version of financial crisis and the year also saw the war coming to an end with expenses costing the country a colossal amount of money. (How ever it was a wise investment given the unprecedented growth we are bound to experience)

Given these macro conditions, most companies had a rather difficult year. Performance evaluations of both companies and individuals reflected the same. In times like these, ratings below expectation does not mean those individuals are considered a burden to the company.

Story of "X" is open to debate. The views expressed are spontaneous and in the hindsight these thoughts may be proved wrong.

"X" was a bright young boy in the final year of his Bachelors studies. He recently completed his professional studies in marketing as well. He was a smart, hardworking and a quick learning individual. An ambitious individual he put in lot of effort. In his own words he put his heart and sole to his work. He was loved by all around him.

His primary job role was to increase sales partners under the stewardship of his immediate superior. During the year under review given the prevailing economic conditions the company which he was working for did not meet its annual targets including requisite sales partners. Being an university graduate, in his first job he was exposed to probably one of the least appreciated jobs which teach people possibly the best life skills. Sales! For many sales is not an easy job. However it also provides a person to gain speed on so many aspects in life. Sales gives you the all important confidence, ability improve multiple softer aspects of your life including presentation, negotiation, people handling etc.

"X" was getting himself groomed very fast and his refinement in all aspects mentioned above was clearly visible.

The company evaluated the performance of "X" in the same manner as the rest of the team and he received a below expectation rating. However as opposed to any other year, the company made it a point to reiterate that the below expectation was more based on macro circumstances than anything else. The Company also made a policy decision not to give increments right across the board irrespective of individual performances given the uncertainty surrounding future business prospects. However the company did offer performance bonuses for the past year.

"X" handed over his resignation immediately after the announcement of no increments and the issuing of bonuses. In his own words, he was bitterly disappointed with the fact that he received a meager bonus let alone the company policy regarding increments.

The readers are encouraged to comment on the decision made by "X" in the context of his own career and future.If one were to analyse the situation objectively following would have been the options available to "X".

While monetary benefits play a pivotal role in our lives, one needs to be very very careful about exposure he or she gains. First couple of years in your job determines your corporate value system, your approach to professional life and quintessentially who you become for the rest of your life.

Like Napolean Hill says in his famous book, "Think and Grow Rich", one needs to acquire requisite skills through necessary apprenticeship, even at cost. That serves well in the longer term.While only the time will tell whether the decision taken by "X" is the right one in terms of his career, we will continue to observe the the progression "X" makes throughout his future endeavors.

The story is based on a real life situation.

Dress sense - Is it worth being concious

Many people do not give proper emphasis to their regular clothing. Should one pay special attention to this subject at all?

They say clothes maketh the man, this could be equally true for women as well. However in general, women seems to be more apt towards what they wear compared to men. So the question is, is it worth the trouble?

Well, in many instances the answer will be, that it depends.

There are those who believe it has an impact both in their personal and professional life. However, people do form opinions about others on regular basis based on what they see. If one considers his or her daily encounters, it is clear that we meet or comes across variety of new people. Thus it makes sense for one to focus on dress code.

Males should focus on their wardrobe more carefully. For example one should not purchase garment items on adhoc basis, because they come across a sale etc. You should personally configure your wardrobe. One should not allow a spouse or a friend to "purchase" their garment items. Some feel that they do not have the knack or the taste required. This is simply not true. With conscious effort anyone can develop this "taste". So my advice is work on it.

It's always good to get independent advice. Sometimes we could falter with particular sizes etc of the garment. For example a big made person who wears a size 17 would find customizing shirt with 16 1/2 body and 16 3/4 collar size would give him a completely different appearance. (Someone who is slightly fatter, would find himself marginally slimmer)For most people customizing shirts could be essential. Lets accept the fact. It's just a handful who can boast of a an ideal physique. Most of us are part of the norm rather than the exception. SO it makes perfect sense to customize both shirts and trousers.

Most men do not give due emphasis to foot ware. Remember, it is not something one can take for granted. You may think that they are not noticeable. But most people do notice them and they do make form opinions about you with your foot ware more often than not. One needs to plan this out with formal and casual foot ware which COMPLIMENTS their garment items.

Its all too strange sometimes you find enough and more people wearing some contrasting colour combinations to work and other social situations. Black pants and creamy brown shoes is definite no no (Last week I saw one person wearing this combination). Colour mismatching in belts and foot ware is all too common still. (Black shoes and brown belts or vice versa).

Those who are innovative and like bright colours always need to be mindful when wearing the maroons, the bright yellows of this world. Unlike the conventional sober colours such as white, grey, blue etc they do not match every skin colour.

Be - Do - Have

This is a great principle to follow in life and everyone must put serious effort to follow this path.

It's a paradigm shift alright, but it's fully worth the trouble. Trust me it allows you to reach success. There are many who assume that by having a thing (such as more money and time) will allow them to "do" things (such as taking up a hobby, starting a study program, reading a book) which gives them the opportunity to 'be' what they ultimately wanted be. For most people "having" something, an achievement or 'being' comes as the last result in their efforts. However just try to live the life or the person you want to be after achieving the result and see how it actually helps you to achieve your goal. This is something I have constantly tried to drill in to my colleagues and certainly myself as well.

This is a universal truth which is relevant for everything in life be it money, career achievement or relationships.

The core issue is that we as members of the society was brought up in an environment which strongly encouraged a Have - Do - Be culture.

Examples include,

- If you Do study hard at school, you can Have a good job, and you'll Be successful.

- If you Do eat the right food and exercise, you'll Have a healthy body, and you'll Be happy.

This mentality grooms us to take life path down DO -Have - Be. However the problem with this approach is that it is very difficult to motivate one's self do it and only a few who have the courage to see it through.

With the new approach of "Be-Do- Have" gives any person greater chance succeeding in their goals in their lives.

Lets take my favourite example from the corporate world. Every person who gets in to the corporate world expects to be successful. However very few people realize (or very few are made to realise by their superiors) that they need to start "being" at the level they aspire to be and the road to glory will be successful. This means they need to identify the qualities and attributes of those who are already in those positions and see how best one should adapt while keeping one's identity intact. Learning curve becomes shorter, more effective and you tend to practice what you learn. Idea here is not to copy some one or be someone else's replica. But instead it is about identifying qualities which made them successful. And then Adapt!

There is a way successful people approach problems, how they carry themselves, how they talk, how they behave in different situations, their dress sense and so much more. One needs to carefully study these good attributes and see how best s(he) should adapt the same in to their lives.

After all this is neither new nor it is rocket science. For thousands of years people have done this. When one step in to adulthood he or she is shaped and moulded by the first few years of his or her experience. At offices, trainees and 'just out of schools' behave and dress in a very amateurish way compared to most of the experienced colleagues. (how they put the tie knot, how they tuck they shirts, types of trousers and colours they wear etc). However with time you clearly see the transformation of most of them. The corporate value systems have 'deep impact' on how they go about thereafter. They learn from their bosses and peers etc.

This is just one example and this approach is both practical and relevant for any aspect of life.

So BE- DO - HAVE approach certainly helps one to succeed in their own endeavours.

True life lessons work and they can be translated to many different areas in life!