Better Versions

08/06/2023

"THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 18—DEALING WITH CAREER TRANSITIONS"--Becoming a Giver

“ The road ahead is shorter than the road you have travelled”

For most of us, on the other side of 50, these words will resonate deeply. And these words came from the wise and wonderful old friend @ Andrew Pickup who came visiting from UK last week. He was craving some roti prata and curry and as we tucked into lip-smacking egg pratas and murtabak, I sought some advice on how to best plan for the years ahead.

Andy simplified it to 3 stages in a typical corporate life .

Stage 1--Learning—the first 15 odd years of one’s corporate life where we need to be sponges and soak everything up. This is where we are building the foundation and learning the ropes for the future.

Stage 2--Earning – This is typically between 35 and 50 when we encash most of the learning and build some savings and invest for the future. These are the golden years of one’s’ life and we should maximize these as best as we can.

Stage 3--Giving—This is post 50 when our classic corporate lives lend to slow down and we start to find other ways to fulfil ourselves. This is when we start to mentor and advise others and assume a more senior citizen role.

As I reflected on this, I realised that intuitively this makes sense. At the same time, I also realised one thing—this Giving stage is a lot longer than the first two stages. Thanks to advances in medical science, most of us should have longer lives and that means we need to think harder about what we are going to do for the next 25-30 years.

So what will this stage of being Giver entail? One thing is certain, its unlikely to be ONE thing that you will do, unlike the corporate jobs where the whole focus was on the job itself.

Here are some things that you can start to think about on Giving

1. Give back to the community—Find some cause that you feel strongly about and connect with it. Volunteer your time and skills. Teach and coach others
2. Give to future generations-- Connect with startups, academia, youth….help create some legacy of sorts for yourself
3. Give some time to yourself—Commit to lifelong learning and invest in yourself. And give attention to your health and well being.
4. Give emotional support—Your accumulated wisdom can be priceless to someone going through challenges at work. In recent times we have seen so many people being laid off. . They need someone like you as a mentor or guide.

As you Give in myriad ways, you will hopefully find that elusive thing we call Purpose which is so hard to define most of the time. Rediscovering your Purpose could be the best fall out of this exercise of Giving.

Thank You, Andy for the amazing perspective on Giving. And here is hoping your Singapore trip was full of great reunions, feasting with friends and making lasting memories. Safe travels back to London!

22/10/2021

Precise and Powerful. A great start to a Friday. Highly recommended!

In this video, learn how to create a call to action for hipos and those coaching them.

15/05/2020

I recently attended a wonderful webinar thanks to Manisha Koirala and Santhosh Babu. Some amazing advice and wisdom for these times which I've reflected upon and summarized for you.

It’s raining webinars these days. As I routinely scroll around LinkedIn, I am inundated with many leaders, academics, consultants among others offering free webinars on the subject of Covid and how to deal with it.

08/05/2020

The new normal. Unprecedented times. Managing uncertainty...we hear these phrases all the time. Yet, our responses to these can vary. Sharing some ideas to help deal with days when we are not at our best.
It was a call with Santosh Desai, that triggered this piece. Thank you Santosh, for providing the much needed clarity and support.

The world has become a strange place. All the people you know who have jobs are busier than before.

01/05/2020

These are unprecedented times, to use a cliche! But at the same time, we will never get this time again. So, here are some ideas on how we could cope and make better use of this time. A wonderful opportunity to make a fresh start in life!

So here we are, already in May, in the middle of a pandemic with no sign of it ending any time soon. This extended time working from home has had an unintended, but positive, spillover effect – I now have more time to reconnect with old friends and family.

24/04/2020

Wishing everyone fasting a healthy and safe month ahead. And wishing everyone else celebrating a better world to come.

06/03/2020

I saw this poster today on another social media platform and resonated deeply. In fact it strikes at the very heart of my.new venture. Happy Women's Day to all the wonderful women in my network. And a happy and reflective weekend to everyone!!

02/03/2020

Last week, I had the privilege to run a branding and org building workshop for World Toilet Organization(WTO). Led by the legendary Jack Sim, WTO has been at the forefront of the sanitation agenda for nearly 2 decades. I used a combination of traditional frameworks and Lego Serious Play to unpack insights to build the future trajectory of the brand. It was highly stimulating and an awesome learning experience. This was the kick starter session. More to come, of course. Huge thanks to Jack Sim and Sarika Saluja for giving me this opportunity.

27/01/2020

RIP Prof Christensen. This is one video that has made me really search for meaning in my life. Hope it affects you in a positive way as well. Go ahead, be the change you want to see in the world.

"It's actually really important that you succeed at what you're succeeding at, but that isn't going to be the measure of your life." Too often, we measure su...

17/01/2020

Its in January when most companies do detailed performance AND promotion reviews to move some to the next level. The problem occurs when performance and promotion are seen as one and a promotion is seen as a reward for great performance as an individual contributor. This needs deeper thought as they are not always cause and effect. Becoming a good manager requires some talents to be evident, else it will create bigger problems along the way. Organizations need to prepare alternate paths for success so that even Individual Contributors can shine without having to be managers to be successful.
The attached checklist is a very good start for leaders to use. Alongside this, two more things for leaders to think about. One, engage in a coaching dialogue to understand the deeper motivations of their high performers. And two, work with the HR business partners to create career mobility for individual contributors.

28/12/2019

Serendipity. The Oxford dictionary describes this as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I can only use that word to describe my encounter with Jack Sim who is also known as Mr Toilet. I was familiar and inspired by his work and a chance post on LinkedIn got me reconnected to him. We met yesterday in what I would describe as a life changing meeting.

Ever since, I launched Better Versions in Nov, I was looking to find a cause I could devote some of my time to as a way of giving back. Sanitation or the lack of it is something that has always affected me and I guess I was destined to meet Jack to find out how I can serve this cause.
Jack shared how this movement began in the late 90s and how it has only grown since. He shared the amazing work he has done in India and now in China. The roots of the World Toilet Organization are just in a small office in an industrial area of Singapore. But it has made incredible global impact on a critical subject. In addition to the history of this movement, I also learnt some life lessons that I wanted to share

Lets call them Jack Sim's isms!!

1. When you are in your last years on this planet and you reflect on what you achieved, let it not just be about bringing up your children. That is impact in single digits. Think of making impact in millions and billions

2. Find a problem that is large and neglected. And then try and solve it. The very idea of solving it will give you energy

3. You can do more than you think you can. Don't think time. Think energy

4. When you pick a big enough cause, people will join you in ways you cannot imagine. Just go with the flow

5. Be fearless. Believe in yourself and the good you can do for humanity

I am so excited to see what we can do together. This allows me a chance to interpret Better Versions in a more expansive way....how we can make nations better versions of themselves.

2020, bring it on!!

21/12/2019

I was watching a reality music show on the telly last week.It happened to feature an aging Bollywood star in his 80s who was regaling the audience with his stories and experiences.
One thing he said really resonated. At one point in the program he shared what life is and he said..." Life is a beautiful struggle". I found this particularly insightful in the juxtaposition of the two words-- beautiful and struggle. Life is a struggle and we are all battling problems every day of our life. And winning over these problems makes us victors and helps us celebrate these moments every day. And life is also beautiful and we should show abundant gratitude for all that we have.
Putting them together is where it becomes more awesome. It allows us to put the struggle in perspective and reminds us that we should enjoy the process as much as the outcome.
The attached article is a great read. Resilience is a muscle that we can all build to tackle what life has to offer and approach every problem with gusto and a can-do spirit. Happy weekend, everyone! ]