Aspiration and
achievement are the two ends of a journey which need to be bridged consistently
for one to feel fulfilled. Aspiration, which is a natural human tendency, has
become an organizational characteristic too given that organizations are mere
conglomerations of human beings. Aspiration itself varies significantly across
human beings as much as it does between organizations too. Broadly however,
positive facets such as knowledge, experience, growth, income, sustainability,
and responsible citizenship mark the aspiration mix, whether of an individual
or an organization. Each of the facets, of course, gets defined by one or more
metrics such as educational degrees, career span, professional status, pay,
income and savings, social recognition and goodwill in respect of an
individual. Corporations also get judged on these facets by intellectual
property, longevity, business rank, revenue, profitability and net worth, brand
image and corporate citizenship. This simplistic array of metrics should not
lull us into thinking that aspiration is a concept that can be easily managed.
At the other
end, one has achievement which is reflected only when the set aspiration is
achieved. The journey from aspiration to achievement can be casual or confident
and fulfilling or disappointing depending on how insightful the goals are set
and how surely one traverses the path from aspiration to achievement. The path
from aspiration to achievement is rarely linear; external opportunities and
challenges as well as internal competencies and deficiencies determine the
relative ease and arduousness of the journey. Striking a right balance between
staying laser focused on originally set goals and adapting them on a real time
basis is the key aspect of achieving one’s full potential without undue stress
or inappropriate laxity. There are four fundamental aspects that drive this
process, namely, aspiration, balance, competence and diligence. These are
factors that are individually relevant but become even more powerful when
paired. This blog post develops a paradigm of aspirational balance and
competent diligence as a guidepost to sustainable success.
Aspiration, balance, competence, and diligence
Aspiration is a
strong desire to achieve something. Aspiration usually has a strong emotive
driver, sometimes accompanied by inherent biases. Without aspiration,
exceptional progress becomes impossible for individuals, organizations and
nations. Rags to riches, Man on Moon, Rover on Mars, India in space club, Polio
free world, Vaccine for cancer and Regenerative medicine are some of the
aspirations that may have looked impossible at the time of their formulation
but eventually became or are becoming realizable. Aspiration needs competence
to enable performance. Studious and intellectual individuals as well as
knowledge corporations and economies have deliberately focused on competence
building as the foundational means to enable performance and fulfill aspirations. Aspiration and competence form a virtuous cycle, with each
prompting the other to higher levels. However, the virtuous cycle is reinforced
or eroded by the embedded behavioural balance and diligence, respectively.
Balance is the
intrinsic quality of an individual or entity to appreciate the own strengths
and weaknesses, or own highs and lows, and set himself or herself for success.
It is an internal compass that gets fine-tuned continuously with learning and
development. Balance arises from a high level of
sensitivity to facts and figures as well as insights and feelings, without any
biases. Balance helps one overcome one’s weaknesses and reinforce one’s
strengths. Diligence reflects an approach to work that is marked by focus, care
and effort. Diligence involves a strong application of knowledge and experience
to new problems. Awareness helps one look at possibilities and impossibilities
while balance helps one choose the right aspirational goals. Competence
provides the capabilities achieve goals but diligence is what makes the
seemingly impossible eventually possible. Aspirational balance and committed
diligence make the winning pairs for success. At various levels, from
micro-local to mega-global, one can cite innumerable examples of aspirational
balance and competent diligence leading to exceptional achievements.
Tightrope walker
The interplay
of the four factors is best illustrated by tightrope walking. Aspiration and balance are interlinked and
interrelated as goal and moderator but the subtlety of their constitution and
the complexity of their interaction are not well understood. Aspiration is imitable while balance is
inimitable. To amplify a little more, the human brain is naturally wired to seek
satiation (through aspiration that comes out of social existence) but needs enormous
rewiring to exert to achieve it (through balance that is enabled by individual
effort). Aspiration is a social influence while balance is individual
discrimination. Balance can be misunderstood as a limit to development; on the
other hand, in reality it is an enabler to move to higher trajectories. The
case of the tightrope walker is a perfect example of balance being an integral
part of aspiration, serving as an internal compass and perfecting itself
through learning and development.
Tightrope
walking is not everyone’s cup of tea; while everyone is a natural walker only
very few are natural tightrope walkers. Competence to be a tightrope walker
comes with training but stays only with diligence. The tightrope walker cannot
afford to miss even a second in applying his or her competence; that is where
diligence counts. Competence through education is knowledge while that through
practice is skill. Diligence through motivation is a practical phenomenon while
that through inspiration is wisdom. Competence is visible and quantifiable
while diligence is invisible and embedded. Human faculties respond differently
to the tasks of aspiration (tempting to overestimate), balance (risk-averse to
be safe), competence (resting on oars too soon) and diligence (failing to
nurture oneself). The perfection with which an individual or an entity creates
aspirational balance and committed diligence defines sustainable success.
AB, CD grids
Conceptually,
depending on individuals and corporations having low or high aspirations,
balance, competence and diligence, we can categorize individuals and
organizations into four quadrants on the two factor pairs considered earlier.
The four quadrants of the Aspiration-Balance (AB) grid are: low aspiration-low balance
(LALB), high aspiration-low balance (HALB), low aspiration-high balance (LAHB)
and high aspiration-high balance (HAHB). It is self-evident that LALB
individuals and entities would be Losers, baulking at all opportunities while
HAHD individuals and entities would be Achievers, setting high competitive barriers
for others. HALB individuals and entities would be Daydreamers, failing to walk
the talk while LAHB individuals and entities would be Umpires, bringing their
judgement to others. These classifications need not necessarily stay constant
and consistent throughout lifespans of individuals or entities. Awareness (or
lack of it) determines the entry and mobility drivers across the four quadrants.
Given that careers and corporate longevity are like marathon races, a high
level of awareness on aspiration-balance interplay is required for optimizing
the Aspiration-Balance grid. In reality, AB grid is only an external reflection
of another grid that may be termed Competence-Diligence (CD) grid.
Conceptually,
depending on individuals and corporations having low or high competences and
displaying low or high diligence in deploying their competencies, we can
categorize individuals and organizations into four quadrants which are quite
self-explanatory. The four quadrants of the CD grid are: low competence-low diligence
(LCLD), high competence-low diligence (HCLD), low competence-high diligence (LCHD)
and high competence-high diligence (HCHD). It is self-evident that individuals
and entities who are LCLD would be Laggards unless they make conscious efforts
to build competencies and inspire themselves to be diligent. On the other hand,
HCHD individuals and entities would be Masters, winning all-round appreciation
for their perfect synergy of capability and application. HCLB individuals and
entities would be Mavericks, unpredictable in their performance and compliance.
LAHD individuals and entities would be Followers, eager and willing to follow a
leader.
World is a circus
We have seen
tightrope walking as an example of how aspiration, balance, competence and
diligence are required to perform and deliver beyond what a human body and mind
is biologically and naturally accustomed to. On a broader canvas, the world is
so competitive and volatile that one needs to be all what a consummate circus
artist needs to be, whether a tightrope walker, trapeze artist, gymnast,
acrobat, juggler or even joker. In a circus show the performers are few and
applauders are many. In the real world, which is a circus of high performance
of multiple talents, everyone is expected to be a performer. Consummate
artistry in the chosen dimension of talent is inescapable to stay successful.
As with a circus artist, maintaining the equilibrium while defying gravity is
an essential requirement for a contemporary individual or entity.
Given that
career progression and corporate longevity are like marathon races, a high
level of awareness and a high level of focus on the four determinants of success,
namely aspiration, balance, competence and diligence constitute the essential
foundations of consummate artistry. Whether one would be a loser and laggard or
an achiever and master (or any of the other categories of daydreamers and
mavericks or umpires and followers) would entirely depend on how one sets about
developing one’s own gravity-defying equilibristic capabilities. Successful
artistes are those who learnt the ABCD of artistry from the very young age, and
sustained it throughout the lifespan. For very fortunate few, world may be a ready-made
canvas on which they can paint a picture of choice. For most, however, world is
a circus of competitive performing artists where nothing less than consummate
artistry gets the applause.
Posted by Dr CB
Rao on October 26, 2014
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