Matter of Merit

Merit is a very common notion yet at times it eludes common understanding.?On one extreme, there are a set of commentators who claim merit itself is some form of discrimination. Many developing countries, in particular have steadily traversed a path where inclusion precedes everything else. On the other hand, the countries that have embraced merit and operated as meritocracies have realized benefits and become a magnet to attract global talent.

Merit is quality of being particularly good to attract praise to deserve praise or reward. Meritorious attract attention and at times end up getting punished instead of being awarded. In most contexts, those who are mediocre may outlive those who are meritorious.

Merit is measured as abilities, competencies and skills.?In a context where everyone is good i.e. threshold competencies are relatively high, it is distinguishing competencies that make one shine. This distinction starts when one seeks an opportunity itself. So at times those who can give a compelling account of oneself may succeed in getting an opportunity compared to others. To give a compelling account of oneself, self-awareness is very critical. Then there are exceptional few who have those break-through competencies.

At times the competencies required to get a job are different than actually doing the job. ?Hence, if you know that a person can do a job well, give them that job, without engaging in any pretence of selection. On the flip side, in many cases whom you know and who all know you matters more than what you know to land good number of opportunities. Here again those who know you too well may focus more on your faults and lack a balanced perspective.

For different jobs, merit means very different things. For someone heading an organization or chooses to become the face of the organization, it is executive presence or some persona that matters and goodwill through contacts, than just operational skills. For someone leading a function/institution it is the ability to set the direction that is extremely critical. Then the question comes what personal objectives guide one. For some being bold, imaginative and leaving a legacy is important. For others it is about coasting from job to job or term to term in the same job.

A good organization has resource redundancy, resource variety and accommodates cognitive discretion. If one has to exercise no discretion in a job, that job is not worth doing.

One has to exercise power given in a role meaningfully. Calling oneself a servant is neither necessary nor useful. How one feels in a job is more important than everything else. Rather, to some extent, it determines everything else. Excessive humility can be deceptive and lacking sincerity. ?

Then as Steve Jobs said when good people are hired they are supposed to come with their own ideas than just follow instructions. At the same time it is equally important to realize somebody else’s vision with one’s own signature contribution.

Many say that one should hire people better than themselves. That is half-truth. A leader who takes on someone without a clear strategy to protect one’s interest will do a similar mistake while protecting institution’s or nation’s interest.

There are multiple ways to succeed. With a bit of self-awareness, one can focus on strategy or tactics and complementing through advisers and helping hands. One can stay at macro-level or dive deep into micros, but what really requires finesse is to remain at meso-level and lead an organization with elan.

In general no goal is so important that one should spoil relationships with people. The cheer-leaders who celebrate achievements disappear sooner than later, but the wounds one has created on others or oneself will persist much longer. Thus, balancing values and morals with success becomes extremely important. When you achieve a hard target another one appears on the horizon. For those who go by values and morals,?there is some harmony that can only be felt which makes any chase unnecessary and good things emerge just because of a conducive environment.

It is always hard to balance number of people and quantum of work for any institution. Thus, most challenging assignment for a meritorious person when there is nothing to do or nothing that he can do. Here one needs to transcend tasks and projects and relate to a mission. Then it will give a sense of purpose and direction.?Set of learning or improvement opportunities may materialize and over time or all of a sudden the vacuum may disappear.

A person needs to have a social context that complements his institutional constant, otherwise life becomes monotone. Some cross-pollination between personal, social and institutional spaces keeps one healthy.

Ultimately working in an organization is about managing relationships. Here two things are critical. Whenever there are early signs of things being amiss better not to ignore them. If there is a way to discuss or ruminate and reset expectations that can help. Secondly we should learn from collective experience of others. Ultimately human beings follow same kind of pattern. We are deluding ourselves if we think any particular person is very different than others. It is just that some characters take longer to manifest and others have missed out getting tested. We should seek and value robust relationships. Being good, bad and ugly are human peculiarities. It makes eminent sense to avoid the ugly.

While evaluating performance, many have their judgment clouded whether they are judging performance or performer. To decide a raise, performance may be key criteria but to decide on a promotion, the performer should be the focus.?Doing a new job may require new capabilities.

Any institution needs a balance of potential energy and kinetic energy. Those who are very active and productive are vital but those who are in the background may be the resources an institution can marshal at the time of crisis. Many a institution, let experienced people leave and end up in imbalanced configuration. To succeed over long term both experience and exuberance are needed. In Sanskrit, the word for an old person is Vraddha which means where there is lot of growth. Thus, the old naturally get respected.

Many institutions choose to hire eminent people or people with very good credentials. This is undoubtedly important. But eminence does not mean execution.?Whenever a hiring happens there should be learning opportunity for both individual and organization. If either thinks there is nothing to learn from the engagement then it will only lead to sterility. Nothing of value emerges despite all the eminence.

Many individuals, leaders and organizations become excessively metrics driven. Every metric should flow from a goal and an objective. ?This chase should happen by frequently revisiting the related goal and objective, otherwise one will end up in a blind alley.

Many institutional configurations are like a chessboard. One needs to evaluate if there is a need for one’s game or if one has room to manoeuvre, otherwise it is time to change.

Another dimension is about being grouped as belonging to a community, gender, nationality or whatever. Being aware is important. Being conscious can disrupt you. But being fixated on that can compromise one. That does not mean one should not fight for truth and righteousness. This is where a difference between bourgeois and samurai comes. Only a samurai can do justice to that inner fire.