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 21st 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
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
