In today’s era of talent I find it important for people to gain mastery not just in one skill but in more than one, at least in two. Well, this may even be a necessity.

During the course of creating our website/portal ready I was looking for people who could create our website. Our technology partner are adept at creating the applications but creation of the front end / UI / design is not there forte. I went about looking for people who could create the UI or do the designing for us. I faced many challenges in the process. There were people who were adept at the tools and technology – html, photoshop, coreldraw, CSS and so on. But the problem with almost all these people were that their aesthetic senses were very poor. The designs they created were very poor in quality, they were not appealing, the human element in the designs were missing. So here was a set of people who were technically good but poor in creativity. Then I found the other set of people who could do the creative part very well. They were able to absorb the concept create visuals, the colours, contrasts and layouts were very appealing but they would not know how to turn them into web pages.

The ideal person would have been those who had the aesthetic or creative abilities with the technical skills.  This is what I call by being skilled in multiple faculties. Is it about yin and yang in skills? Is it about the well developed right and left brain? Maybe.

We can find parallels of this case of combination of creative plus technical talent for web in other areas too. A functional specialist in a software industry has to be able to appreciate the software engineering to contribute to creation of appropriate solutions. A civil architect like our web creatives, need a combination of capabilities in civil engineering plus the aesthetics involved in architecture. A surgeon needs to be adept at the surgical practices and also the technicalities of the medical equipments. A combination of functional expertise and business skills in required for successfully running an enterprise or business unit. A good music composer also is one who is adept at sound technology.

Such combinations are rare to find. I realised this in my search for web creative person. I also believe that the same situation prevails in organizations where such combinations are required. There is a premium one would place for such multiple skills. HR, managers and leaders in companies could look for people within the organization who have the aptitude for such dual specialization and nurture them. But such spotting of talent would require out of the box thinking, a classical performance appraisal system may not be able to bring out such talent. Lets say we want to nurture the creative talent in engineers and that we would like to sport such talent. Maybe the organization could organise a competition which involves modeling, drawing, sketching, painting, etc. for engineers. On the part of the individuals when they believe that their field may require dual talent, maybe such talent can be nurture if the basics (aptitude and inclination) are there in the individual.

Realising the importance and the value of the duality of skills is the first step.

What is the single most important concern in the minds of young MBAs when they take up their first job? My discovery is that there are actually two concerns and not one, both of equal importance to them: 1. Striking good work-relationship with boss and, 2. Ability to handle Office Politics.

If we delve a little deep we understand that these fears come out of some their summer training experiences which are often their first experience of an industrial organisation. A young guide [usually a Manager of the organization] is often too deeply involved in his own work to provide any ‘quality’ time and guidance to the summer trainee.

Recently I addressed a group of second year MBA students on making successful career. Many students tell me that it was not a very pleasant experience for them. ‘How to handle ‘exclusion’?’ a student asked me. Another student asked me how to handle a boss who was difficult and how to influence people? Somehow students are led to believe that an office is a highly political place with a lot of ego wars.

Building positive relationships ‘proactively’ is a skill that is not taught at management institutes, although it is one of the skills that determine one’s success. The trouble is that management institutes do not impart any skills at all.  From a student’s perspective, the word ‘proactive’ is often understood only at cerebral level; they are victims of education system that places scant value on taking initiative.

Personally I have always tried to help the new joinees to succeed in their initial assignments. Nothing improves one’s confidence like winning praise for the first assignment. There is no way one can remove the fear of bosses or politics in his or her mind. Only the experience will make a difference. So that’s the solution: Give positive experience to a newcomer.

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By Vivek S Patwardhan

VSP as we call him, is an Executive coach and HR consultant. He is also a visiting faculty for the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.During his 33 years career with Asian Paints where he was its HR head at the time of retirement, he played a vital part in shaping the careers of many while shaping the organisation itself.

Please visit his website: http://www.vivekvsp.com

New ebook on career planning for the Era of Talent

Reflections on Career Planning, written by G Ramu, is an insightful exploration of various dynamics on career planning to help the individual make the right choices in this era of talent – era of immense opportunities. A free download of the abridged version of the ebook is available in Training Orbit website.

Chennai, India – Feb 15, 2010 – Where am I? Where do I go from here? How do I prioritise? How do I develop? How do I decide? All these questions and more are explored in this book – Reflections on Career Planning written by G Ramu. The beauty of the book is its simplicity in presentation and yet powerful and insightful in thoughts. Meant for any adult at any age in any geography the book will engage the reader in a dialogue in a structured manner on his or her career.

The author has carefully analysed the key aspects which trouble individuals with regard to their careers and how people make decisions. From another perspective, it connects these internal dynamics within the individual to the dynamics of the world today. He likes to call today’s era an era of talent, which with the power of the Internet has opened up immense opportunities like never before, the magnitude of which is only beginning to unfold. With opportunities and choices, also come confusion and the book helps the individual overcome and leverage the opportunities with clarity. The author has created models and themes which clearly articulate the choices for the individuals, yet presented them with real life examples and in a manner anyone anywhere can appreciate.

Please visit http://trainingorbit.com/Books/Register to download free abridged version of the ebook.

About Author

G Ramu, is a management graduate with specialization in HR from XLRI, India’s premiere B School. He has had rich corporate experience in diverse industries including Heavy Engineering, FMCG, and Software. In 2005 he turned into an entrepreneur heading a placement services company – Yoganishta. He has founded 3D talent Services to create online HR services which has launched Training Orbit, a global portal exclusively on training for trainers, training companies and training seekers.