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Cricket dies when Sachin retires.....it was quiet a bewildering statement for me. And that had prompted not only me but even many who were a naive to the game to look back on some of the terrific performances of Sachin. Even now we feel the adrenalin rush the moment we think of how the ‘Winning Knock’ was all possible for a man under such tremendous pressure! Ruminating one such instance - Chasing a huge target in the final qualifying match at Sharjah. Was it a simple task? Will there be any pressure? India had two targets; 285 to win the match, 254 to qualify on the run-rate. After a hitch of storm which accounted for about 4 overs, the targets were revised to be 276 and 237. The success was all made possible by the glorious 143 runs from Sachin out of 131 balls. It still remains in our minds how he had left the crease after making sure that India will play the final! Was that a pressured situation? Yes. The team and a whole nation needed him and he was there anchored to the ground to deliver.

The underlying fact during all of Sachin`s well played matches is the answer to the question...Do we enjoy what we do? Do we really like every piece of what we do in our work? Do we feel it to be a pleasure to push ourselves an inch forward in our career each day? If the answer to all the 3 is a bold YES , then you will most assuredly have your ‘Winning Knock’ sooner or later in your career. As for Sachin, his ‘Winning Knock’ comes by his absolute preference to play under pressure and more so making it his pleasure! And that`s what anchored him to the grounds during any highly pressurized situation.

“Your ‘Winning Knock’ in your career is when you understand what inspires you in your career. Being happy in your job leads you to a better life” The objective of this write is to make you understand and identify your career anchor/s and then to make your preferences and choices in your career. Whereby you end up not just being employed or work or slog or however you may like to define what you currently do in your life; rather you really enjoy and cherish what you do each day at work. And that’s when you “Make your Winning Knock”

You dream of a career, then a life time employment or an employability till you retire. In whatever the case maybe, the strong anchor for your lifetime employability is when you enjoy what you do at work. Firstly, understand why you like to do it? You need to clearly outlay what are the underlying characteristics of the work that makes the task enjoyable, interesting and stimulating for you! When you find what you do in your job is exactly in synch with your answer for the above question, then you can be assured of your ‘Winning Knock’ as you feel it to be a pleasure to work than a pressure to work. This write is a guide for those who start your career fresh and for those who wish to understand your interest and pay respect to what you really like doing and to heed your inner call. Quoting the line “If you love what you do, you`ll never work a single day in y our life”. In your career, make your preferences based on your likes. After all, at the end of the day you need to answer to yourself ‘am I contented and happy about what I did at work today?’ Your answer to this must honestly be making you feel proud and happy and not prick.

To help you answer the question, I have detailed ‘The Career Anchors’ by Edger Schein, a specialist in organizational psychology and career dynamics. He identified eight career anchors. Each of us will have a dominant career anchor and that by identifying your particular career anchor, you can determine the careers and choose the roles that will give the utmost satisfaction in every piece of your work.

“Your ‘Winning Knock’ in your career is when you understand what inspires you in your career. Being happy in your job leads you to a better life”

Let me illustrate a real-time example: Ashwin was an IIT passed out who got employed in a reputed firm for a ransom pay. The six fig salary and a job in the IT sector was not Ashwin`s call but his parents. Everyone around him were celebrating and all seemed complete for them. Still, Ashwin could never get the kind of contentment that he yearned for, until the day came which was his realization of his inner calling of “Service” as his career anchor. The realization of his preference made him quit the job and choose from a wide range of options that allowed Ashwin to fulfill his career anchor of ‘Service’ above all other. It was Service to others that mattered for him and that’s when he felt the complete satisfaction in what he did at work each day..is what he liked to...That was his ‘Winning Knock’ as he is now recognized for his philanthropy and revered most.

Knowing and understanding your career anchor/s will help you to focus on your skill sets and the competencies that you will require to build on in order to satiate your likes. Highlighting the eight career anchors here for you to make your preferences and choose your career anchor to plan your career.

Your career anchors could be: Technical/ Functional Knowledge - You cannot give up a single opportunity to apply the knowledge / skills and will strive hard to gain expertise to a very high level in the field., General Management - You would not give up the opportunity to climb to a level high enough in an organization to enable you to integrate the efforts of others across functions and to be responsible for the output of a particular unit of the organization., Autonomy/Independence -you would not give up the opportunity to define your own work in your own way. If you are in an organization, you want to remain in jobs that allow you flexibility regarding when and how to work. If you cannot stand organizational rules and restrictions to any degree, you seek occupations in which you will have the freedom you seek, such as teaching or consulting. , Security/Stability – You would not give up employment security or tenure in a job or organization, concern for financial security (such as pension and retirement plans) or employment security, You are less concerned with the content of your work and the rank you achieve in the organization. Entrepreneurial creativity – You would not give up the opportunity to create an organization or enterprise of your own, built on your own abilities and your willingness to take risks and to overcome obstacles. You want to prove the world that you can create an enterprise that is the result of your own effort. You may be working for others in an organization while you are learning and assessing future opportunities, but you will go out on your own as soon as you feel you can manage it. Service/Dedicated to a cause – you would not give up the opportunity to pursue work that achieves something of value, such as making the world a better place to live, solving environmental problems, improving harmony among people,

helping others, improving people’s safety, curing diseases. Pure Challenge – you would not give up the opportunity to work on solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, to succeed over tough opponents, or to overcome difficult obstacles. For you, the only meaningful reason for pursuing a job or career is that it permits you to succeed in the fact of the impossible. Novelty, variety and difficulty become ends in themselves, and if something is easy, it becomes immediately boring. Life style – you would not give up a situation that permits you to balance and integrate your personal needs, your family needs, and the requirements of your career. You want to make all of the major sectors of your life work together toward an integrated whole, and you therefore need a career situation that provides enough flexibility to achieve such integration. You may have to sacrifice some aspects of the career (for example, a geographical move that would be a promotion but would upset your total life situation)

Remember, Your identity is built by the ‘Career Anchor’ you choose. Strongly place your career choices/ preferences on the dominant career anchor, you will find what you do to be more fulfilling only if you seek to do what is aligned more to your career anchors. To make your ‘Winning Knock’ you need to anchor to give it your all!!! Get Anchored.

BUDDING MANAGERS
OCTOBER 2014 ISSUE