How environment affects achievement orientation?

 How environment affects achievement orientation?

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we discussed the first two factors on achievement orientation viz Values and Purpose, the third factor which impacts achievement orientation is the Environment.

The environment is where and with whom we spend most of our time, that could be our internal family members, colleagues, friends, and externally to some extent, the society.

How the internal environment impacts us towards achievement orientation?

Since we spend more time with family, friends, and professional networks, they influence our thought process towards achievement orientation. That thought process triggers our ability to take risks, confidence, and courage to manage the challenges during the execution of any tasks.
 
For example,
Imagine that you are proposing a new venture to your internal environmental members. The next step in your venture is predominately determined by the kind of response or reactions you receive from your close circles. That could be an encouraging response or show stopper kind of response.

The environment is primarily influencing your thought process in the following aspects.

Should i focus more on " to be successful " or " not to be failed"?

Even though both focus approaches seem to be the same, there is a subtle difference in how we deal with the achievement task.

When we have a "success" orientation, most of the time, we look for LEARNING  in each step and always look at the experience (either pass or fail) as a learning opportunity. That approach would put us at a high energy level.

When we orient towards “not to fail,” our inclination would be more rigid, always try to be smarter than others, and that approach leads us to a high anxiety level.
 
The environment predominately determines our approach.

Practically, as an individual, we have limited choice on selecting the environment circle, however, we can be conscious about our responses and our thought process towards achievement orientation.

How can a leader in the organization build a conducive environment for achievement orientations among people?

Let us discuss it next week!

How can a leader inculcate the purpose?

 How can a leader inculcate the purpose?

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we have discussed the importance and method of creating PURPOSE at an individual level, let us discuss how effective leaders are inculcating the PURPOSE to the organization's employees.

As an individual, the benefit of knowing the purpose is to elevate our energy and focus on a higher cause, which will also help us navigate the challenges easily. Similarly, when the team in the organization also knows and aligns themselves on the higher purpose of the organization, the focus and interaction would be on a higher cause than isolated or distracted working.

Since people come from different values and personal needs to the organization, bringing the people together is very significant for organizational growth and internal harmony. Getting that alignment is one of the responsibilities of an effective leader.

As I observed, some of the below practices by effective leaders.
 
1.Sharing the value of the organization to the team frequently
2.Keep the team engaged with new possibilities or targets
 
Sharing the value of the organization to the team frequently:

This is one of the practices some effective leaders adopt to keep the people on an elevated level. They use to share the organizational values frequently with the team whenever they interact or through forums.
 
For example, in one of my previous organizations, the Managing director of the company frequently mentions “Trust building with the customer through service.” Eventually, when the people are exposed to the repeated value's expectation, their actions and interactions with others are also in line with their organizational values. As long as the person is working in the organization, he is bound to work with building trust with others.

Keep the team engaged with new possibilities or targets.

This is another method I had observed with some of the leaders. They engage the team by showing new possibilities or business targets. This will make the team to work on an elevated emotional level as the future possibilities eventually tap out their potential. As human beings, we are always excited to look forward to new things that we have not seen earlier.

For example, a few years back, Ratan Tata conceived the idea of the low-cost car, which no one ever thought of before. That new possibility might have created a positiveness and drive for Tata motors' internal team to work together to see it in reality.
 
The key point when you are aligned with higher-level purpose, your energy, emotions, managing the challenges, and achievement orientation would be to a higher degree. That is applicable for the individual and the organization as well.!

Some leaders are good at inculcating those purposes in the team through their consistent effort, which i think is one of the leader's primary responsibilities!
 

Identify your Strength

 Identify your Strength 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

As we discussed some of the methods to lead a purposeful life, one of the methodologies is to know your current strength.
 
The strength could be your soft skills like communication, interpersonal talent, or management skills like problem-solving, looking at issues comprehensively, connecting the dots, or your domain knowledge and application skills like designing, marketing, engineering, etc.

The more we are aware of our strength, the better we can leverage it to lead a purposeful life. But most of us are concerning too much about the weakness and trying to fix it forever than being aware of our inherent strengths and leverage them for maximum benefits.

How can you find your strength?
 
1.First and robust process is through self-analysis, which is a lifelong exercise.
2.You can ask for feedback from others about your strength
3. Listen to what others appreciate you frequently, which you might have perceived as natural strength by you, and you might have taken it for granted.
4. Another approach is that you get an objective assessment of your strength by taking an online/ web-based assessment as conducted by Gallup. You can buy the strength finder book in which you have an access code to do the test. That will give a fair idea about your professional strength, which you can use as a base to start. (I have done this 15 year back, which gave me a reasonable level of  awareness) .

Given below the book front-page image.


 
To sum up,
you suppose to know your passion and strength to lead a purposeful life. When you are driven by purposeful activities, your emotional level, and achievement orientation would be on a higher level irrespective of any challenges during the journey.
 
Having discussed the purpose-driven by self, let us discuss how leaders can inculcate purpose to the organization's team next week.
 

How to identify your life purpose?

 How to identify your life purpose?

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

Having discussed the importance of knowing the purpose for being in a high energy state and achievement orientation, let us learn to identify the purpose by ourselves.
 
Through self-introspection, one can find his TRUE NORTH, and some people are fortunate enough to be aware of the purpose at a young age. Accordingly, they design their professions and life.

For others, it may take time to get clarity on the life purpose, and those need to explore it continuously if they want to make meaning out of life. That is a continuous evolution process.

Based on my experience, i have listed below some of the methods to find a purpose. 

1. Identify what you love most to do
2. Leverage your strength
3. Experimenting and exploring

Identify what you love most to do:
 
Not all people have the privilege of choosing a path that they like. Practically, we take what is given. Even in that living environment, we naturally love to do some of the activities most of the time.We will not feel losing energy even when we are doing those activities for a longer duration. That is called passionate tasks.

We need to find those passionate activities and design the significant part of life around it.

When we are doing passionate activities, our energy level would be towards achievement orientation than procrastination or excuses. 

For example,

If you find yourself enjoying more when solving technical issues through your observation, analytical, creative skills, that may be likely your passion. Ensure that most of your profession or in general life activities around that passion of solving technical challenges.

If you find yourself enjoying more when helping others solve their leadership-related problems, then teaching may be your passion and ensure the most of your life activities around teaching on life skills.

You can relate to some of the celebrities who found their passion (sports, music, journalism, entertainment) early and made a career out of it. 

The key point is when you find your real passion and design your life around the passion, you will find meaning in what you are doing. That will make you work towards achievement orientation.One of the methods is finding what you love most to do 

let us discuss other methodologies next week!