The Expression Hub

Author: Chandramouli Venkatasan

Genre: Self help/career management

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

E.E. Cummings

Sincerest apologies for not posting last week. I just got down with a cold that was actually preventable but I still ended up having. Now, that I am feeling better and have almost made a recovery, I decided to pen my thoughts on time. Wish I can be more disciplined in delivering my posts on time. Maybe you guys can suggest me with ways to become more disciplined in my life. Discipline is important in every job of our lives whether it be as small as cleaning something or having your work done on time. The reason is simple when you get your work done on time, you kinda feel relieved. For me, it is a huge relief whenever I finish a blog post. Not because it is exhausting, but it kind of makes me feel at ease. Until my blog post does not go up, I just feel a knot in my stomach as if I am missing something big in my life. Maybe the accountability I feel I have for my readers just keeps me on the toes. Another reason might be that I just feel if the blog post does not go up is that maybe I am not being honest towards my baby project which hopefully will grow up into something big in the upcoming years. Fingers crossed for that dream to fruit. Though I just know one thing-that I can only control what I have in my hands. The rest will eventually follow. So, I need to keep doing the work and give my best shot each and every time I try to express myself.

Now that I am done giving my reasons, I need to focus on the task undertaken and that is to reveal the pick of this week. This week’s pick revolves around the theme of career management. We all feel career is an integral part of our lives. After all, it is one of the defining aspects of our personality apart from our education . Isn’t it? We all feel we should be good at what we do and should just slay whatever is to achieve our goals. But are we doing the same? Should we just focus on our personal growth in our careers or should our careers be something more than our personal growth?The pick of the week tries to answer this question and much more. Lets find out-

About the book: Catalyst:The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life is a book written by the late Chandramouli Venkatesan who donned several roles in his 27 year long corporate experience in several sectors. Until recently he was the CEO(special projects) at the Pidilite Industries while also mentoring several businesses and functions. He explains that career growth is a direct function of one’s individual growth. But what are the factors that constitute an individual’s growth? According to him, an individual’s growth constitutes of three parts namely- experience and productivity,career management and life and values. In the experience and productivity part, he explains that it is a myth that the number of years an individual spends is experience. But in reality, experience refers to the thought process that one builds within oneself which is developed by continuous learning . If one has to continuous learn, he advocates the TMRR process.What is this TMRR process and how to apply it in your respective lives that I won’t reveal but instead ask you to find it out yourself.

Other interesting aspects include how you should be dividing your career into two parts and work harder in the second part than the first part as the second part or phase of your career is more tougher than the first half. He says that you should focus on strengthening your foundation in the first half of your career. How do you do that and how do you then traverse smoothly in the second phase of your career smoothly again a homework for you guys :p And the last part is about how you should have a hobby and a value system in place to move ahead in life. A hobby should be such that it should help you improve your career graph. While on the other hand, a robust value system helps to be a better leader. Depending upon the personality traits of a person, a value system can be put into place. This is what he discusses in the third part.

Analysis: The book is a good attempt as well as a guide as to how one should advance in his or her career. It also attempts to bust a few myths which we tend to have in our minds like for instance we equal experience as the number of years one puts into work. While on the contrary, experience is supposed to be the skills you have acquired over the number of years while building a strong foundation. He also suggests to avoid the rat race in the first half which we all unknowingly or knowingly get into to accelerate our growth. Instead, he asks us to be a tortoise. This might be true because the faster we run, the more we have the tendency to burnout and not enjoy the work. Instead he asks us to treat career as a sprint of a marathon because we spend an extensive amount of our lives in work.

Another good thing about the book is that he cites various examples to prove his points extensively and that you do find them relatable. Third point is that it is not a long read so you can finish it quickly if you want to.But there are times when you do find the book boring because of its pace. This is what I felt. This might not be true for other people maybe but I did find the book a laggard at some places.

Verdict: If you are one of those who loves to read self help books then this one might be one of the choices which you can choose from. Also, if you are looking for some serious career advice , maybe this book can help after all it has been written by a corporate veteran. I enjoyed the book a bit but felt it could have been written in a more better manner and with a much nice pace. But experiences of a senior person always helps after all it contains a lot of wisdom which is collected over years .

Cite Bite: “Values are a huge driver of career success.”

Que: What does productivity not include?

a. Time management

b. Discipline

c. Art of delegation

d. Organization