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how broad their engagement is on major learning cycles.
understand that project leadership is different from thought leadership.
Successful people seem to instinctively realize that these represent an opportunity to contribute and learn beyond the usual.
contribute at the thought leadership level to the project.
The learning cycle is the ‘what’, the stage, the initiative from which you learn, and the TMRR is the process by which you extract the learning, the ‘how’.
Improve Personal Productivity
success is a partnership of the experience algorithm and productivity.
If you want the highest level of success in your career, you have to aim for that high bar of both, a fantastic algorithm representing the summary of your capabilities and excellent productivity to convert that algorithm into output.
The reason for this lack of effort in growing one’s productivity is two-pronged. The first is the lack of self-awareness—
The second reason is the mistaken assumption that productivity grows by itself—
first, to make you aware that you need to improve your productivity, and second, to show you some techniques by which you can catalyse the growth of your productivity.
Superior capabilities and algorithm helps you deal with the higher complexity of the problem, but it is only higher productivity that will help you deal with the quantity/breadth of issues.
Productivity is a complex subject comprising many facets including time management, prioritization, discipline, learning to differentiate the important/urgent from the less important/less urgent, the art of delegation, the skill of multitasking and so on and so forth.
I have found two methods that helped catalyse the growth of my productivity. One is derived from Stephen Covey’s concept of the ‘circle of influence’ and the other is my own method of allocating time to my priorities, something I call the ‘rocks first’ method.
everything that has an effect on you, impacts you and is of consequence to you can be divided into two broad circles. One is called the circle of influence, which comprises all those things that you have an influence on, and the other is the circle of concern, which comprises things that impact you directly or indirectly, but which you can’t influence.
Avoid spending time on areas where you don’t have any influence or impact.
‘highly productive people are those who spend all their time on things to which they can make a difference, where they have an influence’.
productivity is not just about productivity of time but also about productivity of energy.
To increase your productivity, focus relentlessly on whatever is in your circle of influence.
Avoid the circle of concern like the plague.
‘rocks first’ method.
so in a way, we retrospectively derive what would have been important.
most people do not actually spend their time/energy/resources on what they think is important to them.
my two methods to higher productivity—the circle of influence approach and the ‘rocks first’ approach.
the symptom to look out for is the feeling of frustration.
Frustration happens when you feel you are doing your best and yet things are not moving ahead.
growth, just developing your experience algorithm is not enough.
productivity is the means by which you convert your experience algorithm into value and results for yourself and your organization.
your productivity does not increase by itself; it has to be catalysed to grow.
Relentless focus on the circle of influence and avoiding like a plague what is in the circle of concern.
Having a disciplined ‘rocks first’ time-allocation system, where I ensure that I provide my time/energy for the rocks and not the sand.
Converting time into experience is the very bedrock of real individual growth. An effective TMRR model is the key to converting the time you are spending at work into an experience algorithm
Applying the TMRR algorithm on major learning cycles
You have to parallelly grow your productivity.
the principle remains the same—focus on the deeds and the results will come.
Focus on real individual growth, which is the driver of career success, and that career success will be yours.
win where it matters.
it is important that you win in the second half of your career.
win where it matters—in the second half of your career.
The more significant career achievements are often in the second half of the career. Most people succeed in the first halves of their careers, very few in the second.
why do most people find it easy to succeed in the first halves of their careers and difficult to succeed in the second?
three factors that explain this: The nature of the organizational pyramid. The impact of the boss and supervisors. The preparation required to succeed at each level.
where you need to succeed is where it is more difficult to succeed.
And hence you need a catalyst, the catalyst of foundation-building in the first half, to ensure success in the second half.
must have a very sharp focus on building the foundation for succeeding when it matters.
if it is so obvious that there is tremendous ROI in focusing on foundation-building in the first half rather than chasing short-term career success, then why is it not practised?
three reasons for this: inability to delay gratification, being in the rat race of comparing self with others and, lastly, lack of knowledge and guidance in building the foundation.
These three principles that I strongly advocate are: focus on depth over width, complete major learning cycles and get out there when you can.
depth in a few things in the first half of your career is much better for building the foundation than width in many things.
depth builds skills, while width primarily builds knowledge and information.
