Pursuit of excellence is now a necessity

Recently, I was asked this question during a webinar: What is safe and secure employment, as we go forward?

My response: “There’s nothing like safe and secure employment; not any more.”

The pandemic has necessitated a critical analysis of leadership of businesses. Business excellence is no longer a choice but a necessity.

Therefore, businesses must identify any failures at board levels and recast the boards to steer the companies in pursuit of excellence.

Some ways to go about this include:

Identifying the vulnerabilities of the business and revalidating and/or strengthening the business models.

Identifying execution failures at all levels, which is a common issue and taking corrective measures.

Conducting an HR audit to assess existing employee skills and reorganising human resources.

As businesses chase excellence in the post-pandemic era, there are key implications for employees. So how should one approach career planning and development?

Career development: Just as businesses relook at business models and strengthen them, an individual must self-evaluate their performance vis-à-vis their career plan and reevaluate if they are in the right industry and organisation.

Collective productivity: As organisations gear up to survive and grow, employees reliase collective productivity is paramount and they can only grow if the organisation they serve prospers. It is a good idea for an employee to consider themselves partners in a business and not just employees.

Individual productivity: Employees must ensure individual productivity by sharpening their skill sets as relevant to the job profile. With rapid technology adoption, a career-focused employee should develop multidisciplinary skills and take initiatives to voluntarily seek additional responsibilities.

Demonstrating a more positive attitude and discipline in the organisation will lead to recognition as a valued employee.

Adapt to new way of working: The new challenges at work to recover the losses and strengthen the business will see a shift in the leadership styles towards a task orientation. Employees must quickly adapt to this style.

Balance work and life: Work-from-home (WFH) culture did bring about a new level of comfort to families to stay together and care for each other. As a larger percentage of people get vaccinated, WFH will soon be over in most industries and even in the IT industry, a blended working style will emerge. As businesses struggle to recover, employer expectations will rise and working environments could get tougher.

Therefore, while focusing on individual productivity, employees should work towards a healthy work-life balance, despite various internal and external stress factors.

As organisations pursue excellence, employees should bring their passion to work and excel both individually and collectively.

It is time for employees to follow the adage, ‘give more than what you get and eventually, get more than what you give’.

(The author is a career and management consultant based out of Bengaluru)