Balance ‘expertise’ and ‘experience’

One of the many tales in I Need Growth by S.Ramakrishnan (www.nhm.in) is about varun, someone who excels in finance operations through efficient processes and man-management. “As the organisation grew, he too rose to higher levels in a short span of time. His ability to bring clarity to an ambiguous situation was so good that he was able to put operations on track in no time,” the author narrates.

Endless expansion of role:

Logically, therefore, whenever varun successfully implemented all the systems and processes in one division, he was given a similar role with greater responsibility in another division. “As he had mastered the role so well, he put that division also on track in less than six months.”

But the flip side to the story is that varun got bored with his work, as his boss was unable to expand his role endlessly!

Observing that all successful professionals go through this phase, the author instructs that you have to find that balance in any role which will enable you to continuously expand your expertise and gain experience. For, the more you learn, the more you will love your work, he reasons.

Keep the learning curve goings:

The simple message is that the more successful you become in any role, the earlier you must look for newer roles to keep the learning curve going. “At no time must you feel your capability to be greater than what the role demands. Instead, always think the role demands a lot more than you are capable of. This little bit of inadequacy in the job will keep you going.” In the current economic scenario where constant innovation is the mantra, people with only core expertise or pure experience will find it difficult to grow and help organisations flourish, cautions Ramakrishnan.  The need of the hour, he says, is a professional all-rounder who has the expertise to manage the process and the experience to motivate people.

D.Murali,
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