I was discussing with
one of my friend in sales function and he was explaining me his secret sauce of
his success in winning a deal. Since he was a close friend of mine, we were discussing
various aspects and during discussions he mentioned that offlate, when he was
trying for little bigger deals for improving his play and he was not able to
win the deals using the same formula; he did everything that needs to be done
which used to win him deals but he was not getting results, he was working like
crazy but results were alluding him.
Many a time we also get in to
such situation, where in we plan to do big things, make significant efforts in
the manner we know and still do not achieve results. We came across same types
of hurdles, we came across similar types of team members whom we need to teach
the process from scratch and get them to speed, we get similar types of
disagreements within the team, we get in to same type of last minute frenzy at
every toll gate and many a times result does not show any co-relation with the
efforts that we put in or the team size that we employ.
I have seen many people who move
from one organization to another and miraculously they face same type of people
everywhere and same type of interactions (+ve as well as –ve) and same types of
reasons to make a decision to find another job. This cycle goes on, they really
do not move upwards in the career through the jobs they undertake one after other.
All these people are on HAMSTER
WHEEL of their own creation. The Secret Sauce for selling deals for my friend
in sales function was his hamster wheel. It will allow him to win the deals
only in that segment and whatever efforts he puts using the same sauce, they
remain only as efforts and quantum of efforts does not have any relation with
the results so even if he runs fast or for long duration, he remains at the
same place. Same is the case with the project manager who gets in to same types
of troubles in every project; the “Project Management Method” ingrained in to
his mind is his hamster wheel and he is running on the same to get a
predictable result with no improvements.
So if we are on our hamster
wheel, we behave in the same manner every time; we do the things in exactly the
same way again and again; and we typically get the same kind of results. We do
not improve ourselves nor we deteriorate. We remain stationary. It does not
allow us to improve our excellence levels. It actually deteriorates over a
period of time and we realize it when the deterioration is significant. Result
is we change job and try our luck at next. We really do not pay attention to
our Hamster wheel; we actually are oblivious of the same so the cycle repeats.
So how do we check if we are on
any sort of hamster wheel?
We can start asking some
questions to oneself like Am I connecting with customer in the same manner as I
used to connect a few years ago? Am I planning my projects in the same manner
for a while? Do I conceptualize & build the presentations to customers or
management in the same manner for some time? Do I delegate work to my team in
the same manner for all my life? Do I review work of my subordinates in the
same manner as I used to do two years ago? If the answer is yes, then you are
on your hamster wheel and will need to dig deeper in to things like, have you
been getting similar results or have you been observing a cyclical pattern in
any of the areas to get a better clarity on your hamster wheel. Another easy
way to put it across is IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR JOB, YOU ARE ON YOUR HAMSTER
WHEEL. Your comfort levels will not allow you to change or do things
differently, thus you do not improve.
Once we get an understanding
about our hamster wheel, the things become easier for us. We just need to jump
from the hamster wheel, get in to doing things differently, experimenting with
new things, take up new challenges beyond your comfort zone, learn new things
and deploy the learning in to your work even though it might contradict your
earlier beliefs. There are several ways to improve your excellence levels as
explained in my earlier blogs on “Simplify for Excellence”, “Just Do it for
Excellence”, “Questioning”, “Excellence through Say-Do ratio”. First step out
from hamster wheel is the most difficult and most important step; once you take
it, rest is simple.
