Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Happy Tuesday morning to you. I’m getting a bunch of questions coming my way ever since I announced the Career Success webinar. It’s happening tonight. Actually, as I’m recording this, it’s happening tonight, was supposed to have it on the weekend, but then we moved it to today, Tuesday this evening. Okay, so if you haven’t yet registered for this webinar, do me a favor, just email me back, or just text me at 888180404. And I will onboard you, or you can go to the website Srini saripalli.com. At the very top, you can see all the details about the webinar tonight Pacific at 9 pm. So that is depending upon wherever you’re listening to. So this is going to be on April 5, that is today. 2022 at 9 pm Pacific. Hopefully, this fits your timezone wherever you are.
Okay, so here’s what I’m going to do something that I may not be talking about on the webinar, but I’m going to share it with you. Because everybody, whoever is coming to the webinar is talking about how do I change my job? How do I get a promotion? And how do I make more money? These are the three dominant thoughts in people’s minds based on what I’ve heard so far, and the kind of questions that are coming in. So here is what I wanted to share. And I may not be able to share it on the webinar, so I’m sharing it with you. This is also a question, which is, what does it take to go higher on the corporate ladder? Most people shoot for the next step on the corporate ladder, which is okay, nothing wrong with it. But their meter is I’m in this role, I want to go to the next role. And once I’m in that next role for some time, then I go to the next role. So it’s usually a ladder mindset. So get to the first step, second step, the third step, the truth of the matter is, we all run out of time. So there isn’t the next step, this is the step. So the question becomes, is it possible once you kind of subscribe to the idea that from this step, I need to go three steps ahead? Or three steps up? What do I need to do?
So here are some things that you need to start focusing on first and foremost, is that you need to somehow get control of the management skills. It doesn’t matter, you want to take the engineering side, you are an individual contributor, you want to excel, let’s say, I hear that I’m an engineer, why should I need to focus on management? It’s okay to ask the question. But there is something within you that has to manage you, your emotions, and the way you happen to work. And it has nothing to do with managing others. You need to understand finance, even though you’re an engineer. Even though you’re running a home, your homemaker, you still need to understand finance, finance, like understanding, budgeting, understanding class cash flow, reading balance sheets, looking at a profit loss statement, and understanding what’s happening there. That is a requirement you’ve been in the industry for 1015 20 years, regardless of which industry you are in, you got to understand that I would start there. Then comes understanding operations. Operations depend on what operation is to your business or in the line of work that you are in. But operations, basically means that you need to understand how to organize the daily workload that so many different groups, so many different people, all have to interact to produce a daily outcome for the company. And you can’t do that unless you understand how to organize your daily workload. There are multiple projects, and multiple programs, all have to come together on a daily basis before you see a cumulative outcome. So, every time you see a huge project going live, a huge release happens. There are incremental days that contributed to the cumulative outcome, you don’t understand that.
Then comes understanding marketing and sales. marketing sales, we call the front-end functions of any business, you could have been engineering could have been researching, you could be a scientist, but you need to understand or at least get an idea of how these two functions are happening in your business. In every role that you play, you are responsible for delivering value and these two functions usually sell the value. So whatever you do, and whatever they do collectively manage customers and increase sales. So what you do, they take, they convey, they generate sales, so it’s better to understand how they do this. Now, once we get an understanding of finance, operations, marketing, and sales, now comes an understanding of technology, and how to integrate everything with technology, because technology is the truth. And we can’t walk away from it. This is the truth, it’s going to stay, it’s going to grow, it’s going to happen. So why shy away from the truth? That technology is integrating everything. So the quicker we leverage technology, the better we integrate, and the more we could be profitable. Once I do this, I will start understanding the business’s overall business performance. How do I set metrics? Before I set metrics? What analysis can I make on the existing data that I’m getting from the business? I will understand that and then set some metrics.
And then once I set the metrics, now I could create more strategic goals on top of those metrics. So I set standards, and I start collecting data, I start measuring, so once I start measuring, then I make sure that whatever I’m measuring is, Is it meeting the standards or not? If it’s not, then what do I tweak? What do I change? That kind of mindset comes in. So these are some areas that I would like to.
Now let’s take the discussion a little bit lower than this, this is these are the overarching discussions. But then let’s go back a little bit down to the 50,000 views, foot view. But then let me go to a 10,000-foot view and should go down, but this is where soft skills, managerial skills, all that come in. At my personal level, where do I stand in the company, am I communicating? Well, what can I do to enhance my communication? Communication is nothing to do with writing emails, but speaking to people, writing emails, writing reports, or documenting what you are doing. It’s all of that, but it is not all of that. There is more to it communication is, what are you saying? Without saying anything? And what are you saying, which means something, because you could have a different meaning in your mind? And you could be using the right words. But somebody, whoever the listener is, might be listening to it differently. And I have gone on to say this multiple times on this podcast, that people cannot listen to anything that is outside of their understanding. And our job is to make sure that we raise people’s understanding of your children, your kids, they don’t understand when you say things. The reason why we educate we give values and we strengthen beliefs is because eventually at some point, they will understand that’s what we call growing up. enhancing communication, working on it.
Then comes building teams. I’ll focus on finding top talent, I will encourage the existing talent, and I will proactively resolve conflicts. I’ll build more understanding in myself to be respectful to people around me. The whole idea is to keep inspiring the teams. Then comes delegating I see this I consult with companies today, and I see managers doing this incorrectly, they don’t know how to ask. When they ask their ego steps in when they ask, the desperation kicks in when they ask. It seems like they don’t know where they are. So it’s amazing when you use words to convey your feelings. There is an art to asking. And if you master that art, then you can delegate with ease. People will do things without you asking them to do things. And one of the core elements of delegating is trust. You build trust with people, then it’s easy for you to ask for something. But then the trust-building process with others happens only when you build trust with your own self. When you yourself do not have confidence when you yourself do not understand who you are and you don’t know what you stand for. You can’t assess your own value. You can’t formulate value in your own mind your own value. You cannot position your value to others. Then the whole thing is off. The Ask has to be very powerful. The asks should not rattle people Then comes focusing on giving presentations, better presentations, taking ideas, and articulating them. Listen, I’m doing this podcast, I’m not speaking from a teleprompter. I’m just speaking from my mind. And there could be some issues around how I’m articulating my thoughts. English is not my first language, I struggle to speak English by trying, not perfect. But I’m improving. effectively saying, This is a presentation, this podcast episode as I’m recording is a presentation. And I’m so many ideas, so many thoughts, so many things in my mind, all I’m doing is I’m synthesizing all of them. And I’m presenting it as best as I can. But I understand the loopholes in this presentation. I understand my deficiencies. And as I’m speaking, and tomorrow, I will do, I’m going to improve and listen to this podcast. So focus on better communication, okay, then the pursuit is to commit to excellence. Excellence means that there are some things that haven’t remained, I don’t take a job, or a paycheck, or a role, or my boss or my company, anything permanent.
When I was young, I used to, I used to think that’s it. This is it, this is going to be this way. And every time there was a change, I used to get rattled, worried, stressed, I was young. Now, I don’t. So I’m committed to excellence. But I understand the variables, I understand the dependencies, and I need to make sure that I stand out in whatever I’m doing. So I am becoming comfortable with the constant changes that are happening around me. And I understand that the changes are happening, because everything is going to enhance the company, and I just happened to be a variable in the company, and I’m not indispensable, I could be replaced. Now, once that part is done, then come some other elements related to mindset and all. I’m always thinking of taking initiative. I’m always volunteering to services within the group within the department. That’s the kind of mindset. And if there is something that somebody is not taking up, most people are assigned to do things. But sometimes there are things that nobody wants to do. I would like to sign up for those. And then I also want to continue to educate myself on two fronts, one at whatever I’m doing, and one at the company level, whatever company level, things are happening. And the company-level education part goes back to my initial part of this podcast where I started talking about understanding finance, operations, sales, marketing, technology, and overall business performance. What did you get me on at that point?
Now, these are the thoughts in my mind as I’m recording this podcast. And I hope this podcast is helpful. These are some things that I’m done with, I won’t be covering at the webinar. But if you’re coming to the webinar, I highly suggest that you join, you know, just go to my website, Srini saripalli.com, and sign up for the webinar. Let’s say you’re listening to this podcast episode three or five months from now. Or maybe this is the year 2025 You’re listening to this podcast. Even then, if you just text me, at 888-818-0404 or email me Srini at Srini saripalli.com. Then I will send you the recording of the webinar. Okay, that’s all wherever you are, be safe. And I’ll be talking to you tomorrow. And if you are a listener of this podcast, I subscribed listener of this podcast and if you do come to the webinar, then let me know how or what were some of your takeaways from the webinar. Okay, that’s all for now. Take care. Bye now.