Saumyen's Pages
Principle of C5+E
(January 2018)
Rethink
Since I met him in my college, Krish made a strong influence on me so much so that I adopted his 5C principle of life as mine: Cool, Casual, Calm, Composed and Confident. The principle was aptly adopted by Krish in his casual look (acid washed jeans, graffiti T-shirts and Bachchan-style hair cut), cool attitude (even towards the girls who apparently fell in love for him!), calm in his expression/ behavior, composed in his world of academics and confident in examinations (that reflected in his results). I tried my best to adapt to these principles in my college days – interpreted in my own way - cool in dressing, casual about studies, calm after results, composed in Indian sem-classical music and confident of finishing preparation for examination (that most often than not I could not do). Enough! I do not want to dissect my past any further!
I have tried the 5C traits from the initials days of my professional life. Frankly speaking, some of them worked – and worked well too. A casual appearance helped me mix with my team better and be approachable to them. I have practised to be calm and composed in my behavior and personal expression even during the troubled periods of the business routines. I am happy and confident of the work that I do and my outlook. In fact, I have always been confident of my every decision and I judged my every decision right at that point of time. I have changed my decision in some cases owning to changed circumstances.
Over the last two decades of my professional career, I am happy that most of these principles have worked well for me. However, my belief and interpretation about a couple of them - namely casual attitude, have undergone changes over time. This is primarily based on experiences in my personal and professional life. I also have learnt that demonstration of my principles in specific situations create perception about me to the surrounding world and in a social and/or professional setup, I cannot ignore them at the pretense of following my principles of life.
My wife and I went to buy sarees at a shop in Kolkata. My wife requested the salesman to show a few pieces of sarees for gifting. The sales person asked her, “what colour should I show”, “are you looking at cotton sarees or silk”, “please tell me the price range” etc. When my wife pointed to a saree in the showcase, the response came: “that is an expensive one in so and so range… are you planning such an expensive one for gifting?” We both felt that the sales person is not interested in selling and has a very casual attitude. We left the shop and went to another shop nearby. The attitude of this sales person is different. He started showing plethora of sarees across range, colour, texture, prints… and at some point we asked him to stop. He says, “if you do not like, its fine.. but have a look at our collection this time! May be you will buy later” - a stark difference in attitude of the sales person. The question was not about the ability of the sales person to impact a sale each time – but the difference in the way one demonstrates the professional (or may be personal) attitude. Both the sales persons tried to understand and judge the customer expectations for influencing the sale. One asked questions to know the preference and show the options accordingly. The other was trying to get the preference or influence our choice by showing the available options. But the first one created a perception as a casual and not serious sales person.
I happened to be in a hiring interview in my earlier organization. All the candidates came in formal dresses for the interview and one came in a green shirt and an orange trouser. The panel felt that he has not demonstrated his seriousness in appearance even when he would have answered well. Irrespective of his possible sincere intent, his casual attire (interpreted by the panel as his attitude) was a dampener! Creating a perception about one’s attitude is also dependent on specific environment. The candidate believed that the daily office dress code would work in an executive interview and possibly there was no attempt upfront to know the environment of the interview board.
Both the examples show that even after having serious intent, we may create a perception of a casual (and often unprofessional) attitude in specific environment. Casual (or more appropriately, informal) behavior may help in mixing with people, calm & composed behavior may help in personal way of overcoming mental disturbances but these may create a different and not-so-desired impression about us in some other situations. I leant this in a hard way while working for a large multinational conglomerate.
Alan, my toughest client was in India on his official visit. During a dinner session, I boasted of my 5C principle of life. The next day in the project review meeting, he told me that I should include “energy” as an additional principle. He explained that my attitude towards professional life is perceived as casual and not engaged. He does not see any excitement on my face/ expression when positives are discussed and I remain calm and composed when a concern is raised by the client. He feels that as a customer he likes to see that I reflect the expressions loud and clear. He feels that the same philosophy is percolating to my team – and the team apparently lacks energy - I mean, visible demonstration of energy.
The interpretation is deeper than what he said. First, the behavior is not reflecting a positive energy in the team and so is their motivation. Secondly, even when the team delivers with positive energy, the same is not visibly felt by others. It is equally important to adopt positive attitude, energy and also demonstrate the same to others. Demonstration of expression to reflect the situation rightly is a key quality… maybe I should learn more from politicians and celebrities!
I have tried over time to add E with my 5C principles of life and am waiting for a meeting with Alan to check his views now!
(The view expressed by the author is personal)