Get Better at Getting Better

by Chandramouli Venkatesan

It is very useful to have, so get hold of a compass—like this book’—R. Gopalakrishnan, author and corporate adviser

This book delves into the complex subject of how and why some people succeed more than others despite putting in the same effort.

Effort is not the only means to your success but need to be supported by a Get-Better Model.

how HR helps the business succeed,

HR helps by making the people who work in the business succeed.

‘success is not about how good you are; it is about how powerful and effective a model you have to improve how good you are’. I call this model the Get-Better Model (GBM).

more than acquiring just the content and the knowledge to succeed, it is important to build the capability to succeed.

Success is a complex topic and the more often you think about it, the deeper you dive—the more it will help improve your understanding of your success model.

This is in contrast to cricket team analogy in 'Catalyst'. Shouldn't we be less concerned about success and instead focus on doing more runs?

Success is not about how good you are; it is about how powerful and effective a model you have to improve how good you are—that model is your Get-Better Model, or GBM.

Get-better summary The purpose of getting better is to be able to respond to the future better. If our response to a situation in the future is not significantly better than our response in the present, we will not be successful. The first question is being clear about ‘what’ to get better at. There are two aspects to it: Don’t stop at knowing the answer; get to the method of finding the answer. Build your core capabilities. ‘How’ to get better is by developing a strong GBM, the model to continuously get better. Your GBM has four key components, which you should practise in a deliberate way to get better rapidly: Get better by yourself. Get better by leveraging others. Make others better. Make and implement a get-better plan.

An alternate review question could have been ‘I know the answer, but what is the method of finding the answer’?

When we start our careers, the bulk of the results we produce is because of our bosses and others who give us the answers. If all you do is implement those answers, you will produce the results, but you are not getting better, you are not learning the method to find the answers yourself.

Get-better summary If you want to get better, you should not stop at knowing the answer, but get to the method of finding the answer. To get to the method, we need a very disciplined and effective self-review based on the question ‘What could I have done to get a better outcome?’ When we are juniors, we get many of the answers from others. Even when we get answers from others, it is important for us to build the habit of getting to the method of finding the answer. As seniors, the purpose of reviews is to continuously improve your method of finding the answers to different situations.

The important thing is to use that opportunity as a passenger to be able to develop the pilot’s view. There are a few things you can do for that: Firstly, listen carefully to what senior managers articulate as important for the company to move ahead. Then evaluate whether your agenda is aligned to those priorities or whether you are like a squirrel, burrowing away on an unimportant agenda. How can you link what you are doing to the company’s priorities? Second, when things relevant to your work are being discussed, listen to how the same is being spoken about, which words are used, how it is articulated. Then ask yourself, if you had spoken on the same issue, how would it have been different? The two different articulations would probably reveal the difference of the view from the bus and from the plane. It is about the same topic, but spoken by people who are looking at it from different planes. What would it take for you to articulate your work, your agenda and your issues in the same way your boss and other seniors do?

Play the boss The second technique to develop a pilot’s view is to use the opportunity to play the boss—when your boss is on leave and an important situation arises or if he or she deputes you to represent them in an important meeting. Such opportunities do come your way and it is important to use them to build the pilot’s view. Prepare for these situations well and while doing so, make a conscious effort to get out of the bus and sit in the plane. That will help you think from a different level and build the right habit.

It is about experimenting with your thoughts, thinking about yourself in different situations and starting to develop thoughts on that situation. There are three ways you can do this: Ask yourself, what are the most important drivers for your company? What makes the company succeed and what makes it fail? Put yourself in the shoes of the senior management and ask: What would you pursue as priorities if you were in their place? What would you stop doing if you were in their position? Ask yourself different ‘what if’ questions: What if your job were eliminated? What impact would it have on the business? What if you performed brilliantly—would the CEO/MD of the company be positively affected?

Developing the ability to see both views, through the microscope and the telescope, is one of the most important areas to get better in, if you have aspirations of getting to senior management.

There are four steps for leveraging your boss to get better—changing the intent, striking the contract, getting to the method to the answers and being very receptive to feedback.

A training programme or a book is like the practice session for us corporate players. In a practice session, a player has only a get-better objective, they do not have a results objective. The same thing applies to us when in a training programme or when reading a book. We can be single-minded about getting better using these interventions without worrying about producing results.

several people finish one book and start the next immediately—that is not going to help. If you don’t spend time internalizing the content from the first book, it is time wasted.

Not everything in a book is relevant to you at the time you read it. However, that does not mean that those parts won’t be relevant later, in another situation. Hence, even if it’s not all relevant right away, understanding everything in a book and having the discipline to come back to it later is a great way to exploit a book fully for self-improvement.

do make a special effort to master those few books and convert them from one-time reads to lifelong coaching experiences.

While past success is highly desirable in a candidate, it is more important to check for the capability for future success, and that is about checking how good the GBM of the candidate is, their model to keep getting better.

usually have two follow-up questions: What did you learn from those achievements? How will those learnings help in the job you have applied for? Sometimes, I ask people to do a live review in the interview. They state something they have done and I ask, ‘What could you have done to get a better outcome than what you achieved in that situation?’

Don’t stop at giving the answers; showcase your method of getting to the answers, the capabilities you developed and how those would benefit the hiring company.

the feedback I gave was always structured on the ‘what’ and ‘how’. The ‘what’ covered areas I think they handled well, and where they could have done better. This could be about results, specific activities, performance against goals, etc. However, I did not stop there. I always went to the ‘how’. The ‘how’ was about their method to the answer, their core capabilities which resulted in the performance they delivered. I would give my hypothesis on what enabled them to perform well in some areas and what capability issues prevented them from performing well in others. When you stop at saying that you did not do well in an area, that is judgement. That judgement does not help your team member deduce how to get better. To help them progress, it is important to also give your opinion on the reasons they did not do well in that area. The purpose of an appraisal conversation is not to pass judgement, but to give feedback to help them get better.

To make people better, sometimes, you have to be tough, you have to push, you have to set challenging standards. People will accept this from you only if they respect your intent and your values. A tough boss with a selfish intent and poor values is the most destructive of all bosses—they are certain to destroy their teams, and even the company, in the long term. Making the team better is the objective, the intent, and values are the licence to attempt that.

when we think about being effective, we think of only the internal, within the business; we don’t think of how to be effective in leveraging external partners. Getting better at leveraging the external partners is critical to long-term success,

In any role, map the external ecosystem you have and then ask yourself the first question—what would be the impact on you if that external ecosystem improved significantly? And when you conclude that there is a significant positive impact on your results if they get better, ask the second question—what are you doing to help them get better?

We can play a significant role in their enhancement, and therefore in their effectiveness for our business. There are three ways we can help make them better for our business: Move from vendor to partnership mindset. Enable them to upgrade their people and capabilities with the right remuneration. Leadership role modelling.

There are two kinds of external vendors—first, where what they sell is commoditized and can be measured against specifications, and second, where there is some amount of customization and value addition in each transaction.

seller then fulfils the agreed requirements. However, for the more customized and value-add vendors, something more collaborative and closer to a partnership creates better long-term value. We are not buying something from them, but often co-creating, and that requires a partnership orientation.

The successful companies and individuals in the future will be those who can leverage their ecosystems as force multipliers and not as vendors and suppliers. The most important change for this is the change in your mindset.

Externalizing this problem is not going to help you further your career. The real reason careers get stuck is because we stop getting better. That is the simple truth, and if you don’t accept it, you won’t find the key to pushing your career out of the quicksand it is in.

Ninety-five out of 100 people experience career growth in the time stage. Only about fifteen out of 100 experience career growth in the GBM stage.

Getting stuck in a role where you have been very comfortable for a long time is one of the clearest signals that you are heading for career stagnation.

Does it alsoo apply when soomeone chose to stick to one company for very long time?

The characteristics I see in people who have stagnated are: They have a lot of answers, but lack the method of finding the answers. Hence, they have very low domain independence. They lack the pilot’s view, the big-picture capability. They visualize and articulate issues only from their current level without connecting to the macro picture. They lack the ability to build and leverage a high-quality team. Often, their team comprises people like them, people who are successful because they are in the time stage. They are unable to attract and retain people who have a high-quality GBM. This furthers the vicious cycle of not producing breakthrough thinking and results.

the two steps to reinvigorating your stagnating career are: Prioritize getting better as opposed to only producing results. Start building your GBM afresh.

To build the GBM afresh you have to force yourself to get out of comfortable situations and into situations where you don’t have the answers and the capabilities required.

There are two ways of doing that: Take up a new role in a new domain where you don’t know the answers. You will be forced to get to the methods of finding the answers and to build new capabilities.

This is true. Because I have been brought up only with answers that evntually led me not find a method in my current role. Our minds woudnt let us go for new strategies in current role. So one hould certainly take up new roles too develop a GBM model.

If you can’t get a new role or don’t want to take the risk, find a way of dealing with new situations even in your current role. Try and solve the more complex issues that you have been skirting so far. Try and volunteer for special projects in a different field in your company even if there is no career benefit. And when you get nominated to such project teams, go out of your way to make a difference and contribute; don’t stay within your comfort level.

Get a mentor who will help you get better. Non-MBAs often end up with benefactors, not mentors. You don’t want somebody who will ‘take care’ of you; you want somebody who will make you better.

The final recommendation I have is to stay the course and not to give up easily. Also, try and have long stints in companies when you are performing well. You are trying to break a stereotype and get a breakthrough promotion, which is normally not available to non-MBAs. Companies and senior managers who know you well are more likely to take such a risk if they know you well. So try and invest a bit of time in the company if possible. Of course, do not be foolish in your loyalty.

There is a saying that when it comes to careers, ‘your attitude determines your altitude’. It is even truer in the two situations described above—reinvigor...

There are two stages to careers, the ‘time stage’ and the ‘GBM stage’. Most people who get stuck in their careers get stuck at the end of the time stage and do not manage to succeed in the GBM stage. Ninety-five out of 100 experience career growth in the time stage, but only fifteen out of 100 succeed in the GBM stage.

The two steps to reinvigorating a stagnating career are: Prioritize getting better as opposed to only producing results. Start building your GBM afresh. A good way to do this is to get to a new domain where you will be forced to find new answers.

As a non-MBA, there is nothing gained by thinking the world is unfair in rewarding MBAs. The answer lies in you developing the GBM of an MBA,...

focus on developing your GBM, for which the initiative has to come from you. Build a relationship with a mentor and try and stick around in companies where you do well to make it easier for people to take a risk and bet on you.

there are two change abilities: Ability to spot the opportunities to drive positive change, hereafter referred to as the ability to spot change. Ability to execute change, make the change happen and stick, hereafter referred to as the ability to execute change.

Get-better summary There are two distinct career life cycle stages—the early stage, when you are new in a role/company, and the mature stage, when you have spent enough time in a role/company. To be successful, you have to drive positive change; maintaining status quo does not create success. To drive positive change, you need: The ability to spot change. The ability to execute the change. At early stages, the ability to spot is high and the ability to execute is low, and vice versa for the mature stage. The key challenge is that both the change abilities are never high at the same time. To overcome that challenge, it is important that at each stage, you get better at leveraging the strength you have and get better at leveraging others to overcome the weakness you have. Early stage Leverage your strength in the ability to spot by writing down a ninety-day note on the next three-year plan or by doing a full strategy exercise early. Overcome weakness in execution by leveraging your boss or your team members to execute change. Mature stage Leverage your strength in the ability to execute by driving big change. It is important to go back to the change opportunities you spotted at your early stage for execution now rather than creating new ones which might lack the big picture quality. Overcome weakness in your ability to spot change by asking new people and being very open to what they are saying.