Strengths and Weaknesses: Yin and Yan

I had a subject during my Master's on Personality Development. Needless to say the course began with the definition of Personality, Various forms of communication, How to write Official / Business emails etc., Later when I joined my first job and during my interactions with my friends who are now managers, it dawned unto me that precious six months were wasted studying just theory! We had a wonderful opportunity to experiment and to learn various things. Alas! no wonder Industry always complains about the Curriculum and Karam (work) Gap.

What have Tongue, Feet and Fingers got in common? They all have set of ridges. They are located at various positions. They all serve a Body. The best part is, all these ridges are unique, they do not match with anyone in this world. If you draw parallels, all of us who join an Organisation and share its vision to excel, are very different, in a special way. Our journeys, philosophies, experiences could be different and shape us in to an 'individual' that we are. We have our own Strengths and weaknesses. Having said that, When we join a company, we are joining a team. We are joining a company with a Mission and Vision. Which means a target is already set. You achieve it by playing to your strengths or minimizing your weaknesses and most importantly by being part of your team.

How do we know which strengths to use? To make your job easy, companies usually assign a set of competencies for each job. If you were to succeed in that job, you'll have to tune your strengths accordingly. Now, Managers have to think three fold with the given understanding that, they are done without emotional and personal bias towards self or any particular team member: 

1. About their own competencies
2. About guiding their team members to align to team's targets whenever required
3. About team members' areas of improvement and how it may effect team's performance

There are various tools available to assess one's Strengths or Personality - MBTI, DISC, Strengths Finder 2.0, Enneagram, Gabriel Institute Role Based Assessment etc.,

                    

When you've identified strengths see if a common theme emerges and how you can nurture those strengths. Now, the tricky part of working on Areas of improvement. Unfortunately, there is one resource which is infinite in nature but never so particularly in Business context. While it is relatively easy to focus on your strengths, it takes conscious effort and hard work to overcome weaknesses. For working on Areas of improvement, Manager needs to have a high level view of the Business road map and team's weaknesses.

                                                                                                                                       

The nature of Business is extremely volatile and one should be agile enough to align with changing Business needs. So, according to me, it is a time consuming process to work on each team member's individual Areas of Improvement. Instead work on their strengths. Provide, timely, constructive, Formal / Informal feedback for weaknesses and provide all the support required by them to overcome them. Employees tend to get motivated to receive prompt feedback. It is like someone challenging you and then providing a chance to improve and work on it. Let each individual overcome their weaknesses through your guidance. All of us have weaknesses, so a Manager should focus on identifying team's common weak links and work on improving them.

For example, you get a new Project or identified an area to improve a process. Ask each of your team members, what do you think is a weakness of the team? Identify and freeze solutions. Ask your second in command to lead the project and you could be the Mentor for the team. If the Lead makes a mistake correct them. Ensure your work reflects the vision of the company and fits the bill.

In the end, Strengths and Weaknesses are like Yin and Yan. A Manager needs to work on Team members' individual strengths and Teams' collective weakness and vice versa.

Image credits: stocksnap.io

How Young India should be taught?

Ever wondered why some of us, coming from 'Good' schools seem vibrant, they beam with self confidence, have an attitude which is pleasing and inspiring. Of course, there could be exceptions.

Ever thought, why some of us, coming from 'Not so Good' schools are confused in life? Hardly smile? Criticize others easily. Have a herd mentality? Of course, there are exceptions.

Is schooling so important? Can't a personality be molded later? Possible. But Old habits die hard. It is easy to tame a baby Elephant (calf) than a fully grown Elephant. Is our Schooling system missing something? Well, most of them. When I say Schooling, Parents should realise I am talking about a kid's formative years, till they reach the age of Eighteen. What after Eighteen? Those students should be treated as adults. Their learning curve doesn't stop there though. According to a Philosophy, a man should focus on learning with continuous improvement in the areas of Physical, Spiritual, Worldly, Scientific aspects till he attains the age of Twenty - Eight. After which he has to disperse the knowledge.

So, its not just the responsibility of a Teacher to mold a student but parents have an equal responsibility.How and what Young India should be taught is something which is based on my personal experiences.

1. As a Parent never quarrel in front of your children. It leaves a significant impact on your kid. Either the 'Mother' or the 'Father' could potentially be viewed in a negative sense. Kids may also develop a tendency to hate that particular 'gender' or may get averse to marriage / relationships. If not properly treated, they may turn into complete introverts. (image source: https://stocksnap.io)
   
   
   
                      
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In case you need to quarrel, do it in a room in private, preferably, not when your kid is around. This may not be possible all the time. Treat your kids as matured adults, let them know that you're all part of the team. Conflicts in life are inevitable and that you guys are sorting the problem and there is no reason to worry.
3. Never critcise or undermine a female child in front of a male child and vice versa. Never criticise other children too.
   
   
                     
4. Teach them the value of food and water, the right way and more importantly not to waste food and water and whenever possible to share their food and water even with animals
5. Ask your kids, one positive thing what they had learnt everyday day, ask them to maintain a journal
6. In the below format collect from your students a positive nick name and a positive trait for all other students. (How this could be used in Personality Development also in an organisational context, I shall present in my next post). During parents meet, or along with monthly letters, let Parents know what positive traits, their children have.
   
   
   
   
   
    Year on Year, if you have this data, imagine how easily you could track a child's progress and a class progress. You could generate a beautiful word cloud by using www.wordle.net. A sample picture is given below:
   
   
                                        
   
7. As you must have realised, one can never ever finish learning in their life time and one can never ever be a master in any particular subject. Sometimes this academics could get frustrating very frustrating. Hence from childhood encourage your Kid to take up an art, pickup a hobby, take up a sport - This will help them to play fair, understand that success and failures are part of life and they can take off their mind to relax by practicing the art.
8. Talk to them about various professions like - Farming, Embroidery, Weaving, Pottery, Blacksmith, Mining etc.,
9. Teach them very important etiquette - To stand in a queue, To say 'Thank you', To apologize, Not to spit on Roads, Not to litter Roads, Not to write on walls, Respect - elderly, Teachers, Farmers and Soldiers, To love - animals, Nature, younger ones, To vote and Not to Bribe
10. Teach them the importance of saving money and also that earning money should not be the only focus in life
11. Encourage them to participate in Debates, Public Speaking competitions, Story telling exercises
12. If you have a male child - Let them know, its ok to Cry. If you have a female child - Let them know, its ok to Laugh out Loud.