Employee Cycle

Employee Cycle

How do you define a Life Cycle?  Well before we answer this question, let us understand that almost all components that exist in this universe have a life cycle.  

A Life Cycle is a series of stages through which something (as an individual, culture or manufactured product) passes during a life time. In some cases the process is slow, and the changes are gradual. We all know, human beings have various steps during their lives, such as zygote, embryo, child and adult. The change from child to adult is slow and continuous.

What are the life cycles that you know about? While we all know that there is a life cycle for a product, even an employee in an organization passes through a life cycle.  Here is what I have learned so far.

​We all know that in business or product there is a cycle, i.e.,

1.     Introduction

2.     Growth

3.     Maturity

4.     Decline

We all know that each and every business or product is passing from this stage but we are never thinking what about the employees who are working to run business or product from bottom to top.

Employee is also passing from same stages:

1)    Introduction:

"An athlete cannot run with money in his pocket. He must run with hope in his heart and dream in his head".  – Emil Zatopek

When employee is in initial stage at that time he always enter with hope in his heart and dream. During this period, they try to give 100%. Some are doing mistakes and learn from it and some are repeating same thing again and again and after some years they have an excuse that we are giving our sweat and blood to this company since last X years but receiving nothing and others are receiving too much beyond their expectation.

Actually the fact is that, as a human being we are not able to understand the fact. Parents are never expecting that their children’s performance would be same for each and every year. Though they secure 80 or 85% but still parents are demanding more, because world is changing so fast and to sustain in fast changing environment, one has to secure more marks. Similarly how we can expect that company which is paying us on a monthly basis, will be accept same performance yoy.

Actually when employee is in initial stage, at that time he is like a rubber and can adapt to almost all situations. But the fact is that many of the employees are not realizing the fact to survive in this world he has to update his knowledge and taking some responsibility and complete it in proper way.

2)    Growth:

There are some employees who are constantly working on their weakness and understand what corporate demands. During this stage, there carrier were like a storm, their attitude towards works and company is like anything beyond compare!. Remember Sachin Tendulkar braving the sandstorm and opposition at Sharjah in 1998 or Anil Kumble bowling with broken jaw in Antigua in 2002. One can learn their attitude to fight till last breath, this type of attitude is required for getting success in corporate life. These employees create a positive aura around themselves, learn faster and give an inspiration to others. They use to win and try to maintain this habit because winning today is not enough. You need to win today and tomorrow.

For this type of employees they are looking for a right environment or create a right environment and become a leader. Leader knows that if they create right environment, talent will flourish. Organizations rarely have to tell talented, driven players to perform. Sourav Ganguli would never have had to go to Sachin Tendulkar and say,” Sachin we need a fifty from you. The team really needs it, Ganguly never leads his team in a such way, he will always guide his colleagues when it is required and try to make positive atmosphere in dressing room and hence he  was one of the most successful captain of Indian cricket team.

   

3)    Maturity:

During this stage, many of the employees  believe themselves to be a Tiger and try to act in the same way. In this stage they would be in a senior position. There was a nice thought that to survive in 21^st century, we should know the concept of, “Learn, unlearn and relearn”.  But none of us are following the same. After securing a higher position, they are not ready to update knowledge and remove the unwanted stuff.

Once Bill Gates said that he had taken  a leave of 15 days after 6 months. During that mini vacation time, he had booked a room in a hotel which no one knows from his employees and read all type of books/magazine related to technologies and after that he was ready to develop software as per industry demands. He always try to remove unwanted stuff and till date he is the leader in computer market.

But in today’s corporate world especially in India, if one is securing a higher position then we can see a drastically change in his attitude. No doubt, higher management gave him this opportunity as per his capabilities but to maintain the same is a very difficult task. It has been observed that people who are in higher position are not aware with ground realities, day to day changes in his field

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4) Decline:

Every living or non living thing has to undergo one stage i.e., “Decline”, so, same is applicable for Employee also. But as a company, they can avoid this stage by changing the responsibility. One can say that it’s better to become Master of one instead of Jack of all. For an employee talent and right attitude is required but as employee approaches/ comes into maturity stage, it might be possible that his/her attitude will be changed and they will not do any changes in their daily activities to sharpen their talent.

A talented individual without the right attitude can’t be a long term sustainable winner. A person without  great attitude but with limited talent could still be a great champion member of team. A combination of these two will make the person a real winner.

So, it’s better for an employee as well as company to take right decision as employee as they were in maturity stage. E.g., Adam Gilchrist, as he dropped a catch, and after some matches he suddenly announced for retirement. When reporter asked about his retirement then he replied that he felt that his decline stage is going to start, so, it’s better to take decision instead of waiting for someone who will force him to take a retirement. Same is applicable for a company as well as employee also, rather to wait for a time, it’s better to take a decision when we receive a signal of decline.

All 4 points, I just want to conclude with one nice thought of Mr. Aziz Premji,

"If you are succeeding all the time, you should ask yourself if you are taking enough risks. If you do not take enough risks, you may also be losing many opportunities".

                                                                                - Aziz Premji