Dealing with Uncertainty

In today's world of chaotic chase between options and varied goals, the factors of uncertainty have become quite certain in every one's life.  Be it professional or personal aspects, today we live in a kind of confusion, anxiety, caution, nervousness and expectations.  In fact,  this uncertainty is the New Normal, it is not a negative aspect of life any more.  Uncertainty means multiple Options.   Certainty limits our scope and actions whereas uncertainty gives us a larger room for choosing anything that would make our lives better, challenging and progressive. 

The first principle of dealing with Uncertainty is understanding the fact that uncertainty gives us multiple directions and enriches our thought process.   Instead of avoiding this fairly certain aspect, it is good to deal with it and excel in managing the varied directions that lay in our front.  This is called as turning adversities into opportunities

Unknown unknowns are not easy and often scary as there is no choice of safety and security in the way we want to deal with things in the most peaceful and consistent way.    This uneasiness will actually limit our potential and finding new opportunities and possibilities.   Instead of worrying where our relationships would take us,  where our careers would lead us and what our friends and neighbours think about us, we need to focus on the things in hand.  This would let us make informed decisions considering all the factors within and outside our line of control.

Windy afternoon at Venice Beach watching the tides and boats

We always end up paying a huge cost for the uncertainty when we don't take calculated risks.  Understanding that taking risks is very much a success factor and also noting that the chances of failure only makes our options of success more stronger and worth the effort will make things easy for us.   Taking risks and failing is always better than not taking any.  This would eventually end all possible successes as well if we don't dare to take new steps in life.

This overwhelming situation has become the norm of life, with the vulnerable global economy, job losses,  corruption,  political unrest, emotional entanglements, and the urge to succeed in everything and anything we do.   A parent worries about a 2 year old getting admission in a school today in India, and a grown up child worries about getting a good college, educated graduate worries about a high paid job,   a professional worries about marriage,  a relationship that would sustain in these days of high tech no time life styles,  a married couple worries about having children, bringing them up in right way being both working professionals,  old people are uncertain which child would support them when they need,  employees are worried about promotions, managers are worried about pie-sharing, companies are worried about competitions, countries are worried about economy and war, and world is worried about global warming, depleting natural resources and oil, unexplored mineral wealth, and fight for the borders.   More the quest for being organized, civilized, and perfect, the world is actually heading towards a bigger chaos and Uncertainty.   So calm down, this is just the phenomenon of the present day life.

Personally, every one of us have various goals and ambitions in life.  These ambitions can be towards being something or achieving everything in life.   We always want to be the one which we are not.  An actor tells that he wanted to be a doctor...a teacher tell that's she wanted to be a lawyer.... a house wife dreams about a career,  a working woman dreams about spending more time with children.... Too many goals and the too many lives that we wish to lead.  Ultimately we have to make choices.  Make one decision at a time that will take us in the direction in which we want to go no matter what is the  end result.   A person who don't expect the end result and travels the road less travelled with courage, wisdom and wishful thinking is the person who succeeds more times than the one who keeps a life time goals and struggles to run all sides.   A step by step move actually eliminates the amount of uncertainty in life to a great extent.

The future is always uncertain and unclear and difficult to see through.   That doesn't mean that we don't need to dream, dare to think, decide to aim and struggle to cross the bridges of fate with poise and will.   It means that we need to take every step with courage and eliminate the fear of uncertainty by taking every move with viewing options on all sides, and keeping the ground felt at every level of decision making to avoid a highly nervous uncertainty.   Taking informed decisions with  level of intelligence will make us walk through the foggy unknowns in life and still be content with the end result with the fact that we have done deliberate decision making taking all factors into consideration.

To fail and to raise every time,  taking new routes towards human development and progress,  and not slowing down when we are pulled back hundred times, but to leap ahead with courage and realign our decisions based on the outcomes as we cross each step in the only way to deal with the uncertainty.  History has taught us that the greatest achievers of mankind are the one's that dealt with the uncertainty and nothing else.    Man would not have landed in space any day had he not taken the risk of going far above the skies where he was not sure if he can ever land somewhere!   So uncertainty is actually not a negative aspect of life any longer, it is a pristine way of telling us to  take right decisions and move in the right direction and go by what our intuition, circumstances and hearts tell us!

Happy Dealing with Uncertainty folks!  I am dealing with one now with the same spirit!



Coping with Performance Review Anxiety

This is again the time of the year for Annual Performance reviews that usually act as the career-building exercise in Organizations. This is one of the times of the year, when there is lot of activity on both sides- for managers and employees.

During this time frame, employees try to be pleasing the managers keeping their ‘I’ factor aside so that what is fresh do not stay in the Manager’s mind during the D-Day that they wait all year long. Managers having the burden and anxiety to complete the process, hear to end less emotional outburst and keeping in pace with the facts/ details struggling to do justice to both their employees and other factors including Organizational Performance, account related budgetary constraints, identifying right talents and skills sets, giving due recognition amidst their own anxiety of this process with their managers. This struggle and anxiety is like in the food chain. Being in the top of food chain like said in the “Lion King’ movie gives managers an advantage of having the end word and keeps employees either motivated or otherwise depending on how they handle this whole process. Ultimately this is the time the either strengthen or damage the ‘Manager-Employee’ relationship in the organization and caution have to be adhered to for the benefit of the Organization.

Good preparation is the key for Performance Review discussions and they help the team performance taking it to the next level of growth for the projects and improve the relationship within the team members and those between the employee and the managers as well.

This whole exercise is highly stressful especially for the managers who have multiple reports and every member of the team have to be reviewed separately. Not carefully planned process can result in burnout for managers and displeasing results for employees. One year when I had close to 10+ direct reports to review, I ended up with weeks of planning, paper work, thinking and rethinking and in an ardent quest to strike a right balance. So can imagine the stress for managers having a bigger number.

Advice for Managers

What manages should remember is that though the process is stressful, with each of the employee, the process is critical and sensitive for them and it is one time exercise in a year that we all have to go through. Having multiple reviews to do, and having back to back sessions do not only result in a burn out for the manager, but also would lose the required energy and attention that is required to be given. Careful planning and giving time to think between meetings on the person on focus is very important not to give biased opinions that may ruin the whole process. The awareness that this is a nervous time for the employee who slog all through the year for some betterment in life and in career have to be heard genuinely.

It is very easy to keep a set of perceptions, organizational objectives, corporate strategy and self- advancement career path and go by those perceptions in your discussion. It is required to keep a caution on these factors and focus on the goals that have been set for the employee and review based on those goals and not just towards the events that happened at the end of the year. Any statistical data like the number of tasks completed, managed and efficiently done, appreciation or escalations received by the employee, financial impact of the performance in the organizational/project/program objectives become very key and important yardstick to measure performance.

There can be non-subjective factors like team work, attitude, client relationship etc. which can be considered. Non-objective yardsticks like how close you are to the employee outside office, how many times we had coffee together, family friendships, will the employee listen to whatever I say, and other actual factors that today hinder genuine discussions in the organizations have to be curtailed and purely controlled for the benefit of all. Evaluation employees based on the needs as a manager in the process of sharing the pie share that you have is a very common process in the corporates today. At the same time evaluation based on full year’s performance and based on their strengths, weaknesses and improvement areas will benefit the organizations in the long run.

Discussions often circle around the most recent past and it makes the key factor in decision making which is actually tough to stop but that should be made only one area of discussion and this should be the time to show appreciation on the good things done in the past and also provide guidance on the areas of improvement.

The important last word would be, Performance review is to be based only on employee performance and as one time measurement of what is achieved and what is not. Also important to plan the next year, discussion compensation and growth of the employee without any false promises or fake discussions that would surely motivate employees and would let them appreciate the management for their sensibility, professionalism and sensitivity in dealing with People…..After all, what you are working with are human beings…and not machines! Proudly called ‘Human Potential’!

Advice for Employees

The very important thing for the employees is to focus on the purpose of the review that includes goals review and performance objectives. Having details is important but getting too much into it would be a draining situation for both you and your manager, especially when you don’t arrive in consensus and end up in arguments. Having facts and entering into a healthy discussion is important for it is only between YOU and YOUR Manager. There should be no third party in this relationship. It is all about how you performed, where you failed and where you need to contribute and what you need to do to grow in the organization. It is like talking to a priest for god’s blessings???? Is it not??? Ending up in courter and useless arguments and debating with manager really will lead nowhere.

It is important to do your homework and be prepared to back up your proposal for your growth and good performance rating. Instead of giving a general note, it is important to have track of the specific details. And above all having clarity in your career goals is important and having achieved them gives you confidence to this whole process. To understand what was expected, what was performed and what is not achieved gives you a clear conscience of what you could be rated as. Anything away from your own assessment, is a probable result of other factors not within your line of control, probably within or without your Manager’s line of control of things as well. This means, fretting about the results that happened for what you are not responsible is being foolish. You would have given 100% but the project could have failed for so many other reasons.

Self-confidence, integrity and honest approach, on either side give a true meaning to this whole process. Any deliberate flaws will only result in employee attrition and dissatisfied managers resulting in draining away Organization’s best talents and causing unwanted financial impact and growth. So coping up with this anxious period with due caution is very important for the benefit of all concerned.

The Rain of Wisdom

Sitting in the office window, amidst the pile of work

I stare outside for a second, and see the storming rainfall

Thoughts flowed like a streaming brook, with eyes wide open

Into the cataclysmic of the nature all around

The mountains in the far looked like the shining canyons

Whispering to the weighed mules that carry people around

I know I need to take this few minutes to scribble down

Or else these thoughts are going to be prolonged

Looking for the sun on a windy rainy day from ground

Is like always wanting things that you don’t have around

The showers that flow on the glass window pane

Remind me that how much ever the tears of pain

They would just disappear along the wind and disdain

Calmness engulfed all around, there cannot be inner calmness

To the tensed thoughts’ of a heart that knows not to rejoice

It is the lack of faith that creates limitations

And it is the lack of thoughts’ that creates the boundaries

Once you are free from the limits and learn to go by nature

Life can be nothing but all yours and truly better

The rain is still pouring down the mountains,

And whispering into the leaves that sway in happiness

The roads are all wet and walkers are careful to step around

The cars are buzzing off the freeway in the far round

And see…now the rains of wisdom, started to fade from my thoughts

And it’s just done in 2 minutes of my time, and time to go back

To my pile of work that’s actually not using my wisdom of rain!