Today there are more opportunities available in Hyderabad than ever before. Now it is really up to you to take control of your professional future and ensure career success. In order to reach your full potential, you need to know the basic requirement for your career growth. You cannot go blindfolded in some direction and expect significant success in your career. Though your educational qualifications, present job or organization, experience etc. may have some influence, your ‘performance at work’ is the most important factor that determines your future career growth potential.
Though some students of certain colleges may appear to get a break easily, getting into such colleges and meeting the performance criteria of the college is difficult. As such the criteria of performance over an extended period are met in such situation also. Since the persons from such colleges have demonstrated track record of performing consistently for years. It is assumed they will do the same in future.
Performance is not negotiable for good career
Performance is not negotiable for good career because every year nearly 2.4 lakh engineering students and 2.6 lakh PG students come out from our state alone. There are only 40 to 50 thousand jobs for around 5 lakh job applicants. In this fierce competition, only good performers will get jobs. You need to perform well to survive and sustain. It is an open secret that in any organization, only 30% of the people do 70% of total output. Organizations seek this kind of performers and nobody loses such performers in recession/layoff. Remaining people’s work is not very result oriented and their job security is also weak.
As GE (General Electronics) was reinventing itself to the world’s most admired company from a dull, low performance company in 1980’s and 90’s, it used to remove bottom 10% of its workforce (non-performers) every year. On the other hand, it appreciated the top performers with 2 to 4 times the incentives of an average performer.
Banks and Pharma industries hire employees and keep their job position off-roll for 2 years. Employees will get into on rolls only if they perform well. Performance of a person is evaluated over a long period.
In Army, you will be promoted to next level only if you perform well, otherwise you will remain at lower position. The retirement age depends on your promotability. The lower your position the earlier you retire. The situation is same in reputed consulting companies – it is ‘Up or Out’. You should perform and go to next level; otherwise, you will be out. Typically only 1 in 5 gets promoted, the rest leave the organization.
Performance is the key factor
When you buy something with your hard earned money, will you buy something that offers lower value and costs more? Especially, when you have an alternative that offers value and at lower cost. Business environment is extremely competitive and there is a place only for performers in the long run. If you perform well, you will definitely see a lot of career growth.
Career growth means climbing up the ladder in the organizational hierarchy. It includes acquiring higher level skills & competencies (that are difficult), handling more difficult challenges, ability to get better results for the company. In order to get these, you need to perform well at your role. You need to do more economic value addition.
If you are a performer then you will have access to more senior people in the organization, you will get more privileged information and you will have a chance to involve in planning and higher level of execution. You will also get opportunities for performance. All these help your career to progress well and come with better compensation. However this career growth is not easy. For a certain number of people in junior role, there are far fewer senior level people. So only a small number of people go to next level. Achievement, i.e., performance on your job responsibilities is one key parameter to go to next level. Career growth rewards/recognitions are given to those who clear the performance goals/targets by wide margin.
Performers will be recognized
Good organizations are performing organizations. Some imbalances may exist for a year or two. As Warren Buffet says, good organizations perform 8 out of 10 years. Average companies perform 2 out of 10 years.
Performers never lose their value like teak tree. If you see, teak generally grows steadily but slowly. For the first seven years, it will have no or less value. As the years pass on, it grows stronger and stronger increasing its value. Whereas fruitwood (packing wood) will be strong initially but will lose its strength and value after few years. It may appear for a short time that performance does not pay. But in long run only performers will stay.
So remember, you will be recognized by others only when you perform. For example, Ashoka was a great performer, and his performance differentiated him from his other siblings. We will never forget his name, at the same time we will never remember his brothers’ names. Chanakya was also a great performer. Though there is a gap of 23 centuries between these people and us, we still remember them and respect them.
Experience is not a substitute for performance
A person with lesser experience but better track record of performance is more likely to be hired, promoted or rewarded in a good organization.
Some good performers in different fields
All great performers are not historical figures. We have many living good performers. We have listed out some of the present day performers below for your benefit.
E. Sreedharan
E. Sreedharan joined the Indian Railways in its service of engineers. In 1963, a tsunami washed away parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameshwaram to mainland Tamilnadu. Railways set a target of 6 months for repairing it. Sreedharan’s boss reduces the target time to 3 months. He completed the project in just 46 days. Recognizing this achievement, the Railway minister’s Award was given to him. He is considered as the Metro Man of India as he took up difficult railway works and successfully executed them in time and within budget including the Konkan Railway and Delhi metro rail.
A.P.J Abdul Kalam
APJ Abdul Kalam, born in a small hamlet in Tamilnadu achieved his dream of making India a world power in space rockets and ballistic missiles. Once a newspaper boy, who went around the town to sell newspapers; he became the ‘Missile Man of India’ through his continuous performance in development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology in India. As a project director for SLV-3 (India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle), he successfully led the operation to put Rohini satellite in the low earth orbit. As a director of DRDO, he was part of developing many missiles in India to protect the country. He was also the President of India and earned a lot of respect for his handling of the presidential responsibility.
A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman is India’s great music director. He lets his work speak for itself. With his performance he won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four National Film Awards, fourteen Filmfare Awards, eleven South Filmfare Awards in addition to numerous other awards and nominations. Rahman has a claimed sale of more than 30 crore records of his film scores and soundtracks as of 2009 for over 100 film scores worldwide, making him one of the world’s all-time top selling recording artists. He not only performed at regional and national level and won appreciations; he performed well on international stage also to get Oscar.
Vishwanathan Anand
Another consistent performer, Viswanathan Anand, is Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. He became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988, first Indian to win the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, won the Chess Oscar many times and World Chess Champion in 2007 and 2008. Apart from these. Anand won many national and international championships.
Kapil Dev
Before 1983, Indian cricket team was not considered a champion team. Kapil brought a good name to Indian cricket with his commitment and performance. He played a key role in winning the cricket world cup in 1983. In a crucial match against Zimbabwe, when India was 17/5, he scored 175 (not out) in just 138 balls and helped win the match. He took 3 wickets in semi-finals against England and restricted them to a small total, which Indians chased easily and entered the finals. In the final he took a great catch of Richards who was scoring quickly and created the turning point of the match. Not only in world cup, he often helped India in difficult situations through his performance. When he retired, he was India’s most successful fast bowler and also all-rounder (at that time).
Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal is an Indian “Khel Ratna” badminton player currently ranked number 3 in the world by Badminton World Federation. She is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics. She is the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament by winning the Indonesia Open. Saina is the top ranked badminton player (women) in Indian history. She is only 21 years old. The last 2 years have been good. But will she be a consistent performer is to be seen because it takes a lot of commitment to maintain physical and mental fitness to be a consistent performer.
Performers will not talk much, because talk is cheap. The above mentioned people just performed their job well and success, fame and respect followed them. If you are a performer, you will be definitely recognized by others. Your performance will show your strengths and capabilities. Performance is the key factor which helps you excel and reach great heights in your career.
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