Past Laurels

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been one of the best batsmen in the Indian team in the recent past. Their record speaks for itself. But their recent batting form has been below par and far from their best. They continued to hold a place in the team for some time even when they lost their form. Slowly, they have become a liability and have to go back to domestic cricket to prove their worth again and peg themselves higher than other contenders. Hope they find their form and make a comeback.

?Blackberry mobiles were the cynosure of all eyes in the Corporate world. The stock price rose to a level of $146/ share. But then Apple came with touch screen phones. Blackberry refused to change and today the stock price is $4.50/ share. Apple which is a clear market leader still continues to upgrade iOS and it’s hardware every year.

?Rafael Nadal cannot get the La Coupe des Mousquetaires just because he has held it 13 times. He still had to win against 6 world class opponents and defeat Ruud in the finals to hold the cup again.

?Like many other professionals, I keep sharing stories of my sales successes and awards when I was working as a professional and proudly display the global sales awards received in 2007 and 2008 in my office. I cannot earn my daily bread today, based on these awards that I got 15 years back.

?How long can we harp on our past laurels and expect the world to value us in the present and in the future based ‘just’ on that. Companies have a Performance Appraisal system in place for this purpose. A person who performs well in a year gets high increment and Bonus and the same person gets an average rating, increment and Bonus the next year. Professionals need to understand that for them every day is a new day, a new challenge not only for continued high returns (salaries) and growth but also for self-improvement and self-satisfaction. They can get away with average performance for a while but in the long run they need to upgrade themselves through new learnings and deploy them for returns to the company they work for. They must prove their worth every single day to remain relevant in the “company’s” scheme of things.

?There are two paths – one easy and the other difficult. It is easy to sulk and look for other opportunities when the chips are down and your performance poor. At the same time, it’s difficult to introspect one’s own short-comings, improve learnings, look at the gaps, make that extra effort and come back.

?Just think of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. They do not have any other company (country) to go to. They cannot afford to sulk and let it go. They have to improve and come back to form. They don’t have a choice. They can “work” only for one country – India.

?The only way to succeed and keep succeeding is a relentless pursuit to learn, improve and perform…. learn, improve and perform… learn, improve and perform……..