Need to reach Professional Heights? Escape Your Comfort Zone

The first time I heard about “Escaping your Comfort Zone”, was four years back while I was in my first job and listening to our newly selected CIO. Someone in the crowd had just asked him about one success mantra which got him to this role.

Sitting there in the auditorium, I couldn’t understand why someone would give up something which he or she aces in to go after a goal that does not play to their strengths. At that point in my career, it was too early for me to make sense of those words of wisdom. I was used to seeing people around me hold onto their comfort zone with all their might.


The aggression with which many defended their projects and teams draw similarities the ferocity of hunting animals marking their territory. In organizations which thrive on IT Operations & Maintenance, knowing the levers & gears of the system is like a pirate possessing a map to the treasure chest.

Now four years later, I can finally understand the importance of letting go of your comfort zone. Five months back, I had been handed over the reins of a project with a 300+ workforce and a negligible Return on Investment (ROI). After months of long work hours, fire-fighting mode of operations, shuttling between cities & hotel rooms, we had brought the project to stability. Not just that we brought it to stability, but we drastically improved the ROI by 50%.

But once we had reached a state of stability, sluggishness set it. From a state of adrenaline pumping rush, we had slid down to a state of predictability & repeatability. Without even answering the phone we knew what had gone wrong where & even knew the solution to it. There was no challenge left, we could do our work with our eyes closed & still ace at it. But more than anything, we stopped learning.

While holding onto our precious comfort zone and playing to our strengths which we perfected over time, we often lose an opportunity to learn or experience something new. In spite of all the framed motivational posters up on the wall, way too often, we fail to see the learning opportunity each new challenge carries. We have been accustomed to think that the comfort zone we have reached is a reward for all the effort we have put in to gain the knowledge & strengths.

Slowly, but surely, our comfort zone becomes our brain’s retirement home. Remember during school days how we forgot all what we learnt by the time we returned from vacation. Our job’s comfort zone is a vacation where our brain goes into retirement, but unlike in school here one cannot have a long learning curve. To stay ahead of the curve it is important to keep oneself challenged always & learn something new.
Everybody have different ways to keep a check on their career. Mine is to keep checking what am I learning new in the job I am performing. It needn’t be always something quantifiable or good enough on your resume. It could be a social skill or a communication style, but as long as it enriches your career, you are headed in the right direction.

Get out of your comfort zone and get learning – That’s probably the biggest aspect that may take you to professional heights!

Source:Internet

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What to Expect From a Career in Hospitality

Thinking about a career in the hospitality field? If you enjoy social interaction, making new connections and taking care of people, you're in the right place. If you enjoy making money, expanding your areas of influence and learning skills that can help you succeed in a wide range of other fields, you're also in the right place!
If you're just starting out in the world of hotel management, here are a few things that you can expect to encounter on the long and exciting career path that lies ahead.

You're going to meet people. Lots of them. And they'll change your life.

Hospitality is a great field for extroverts, because every day brings new opportunities for conversation and connection. Expect to interact with people from every walk of life and every part of the world, since lodging is all about travel, and travel is about adventure and contrast.

You're going to learn how to solve problems and overcome obstacles to help people get what they need.

Vacations come with high expectations, and travelers come with demands. Whether they come to your destination for business or pleasure, the clients you welcome will need services and access to things and information they can't find on their own. From dry cleaning to restaurants to local attractions to problems with a leaking faucet, your guests will need your help, and you'll have to learn how to step up and tackle these issues successfully.

You're going to deal with angry, dissatisfied people sometimes.

As hard as you try, you still won't be able to please all of your clients all of the time. But every unhappy guest will offer a free lesson in customer service and customer relationship management. Take careful notes.

You're going to learn how the hospitality market works.

As you move forward with your hospitality career, keep an eye on the kinds of moves and decisions that lead to success in this business, for an entire company and also for an individual employee. How does this market sector function? How does money circulate in this industry? What makes some establishments thrive and others fail? Be prepared to find out.

You're going to learn how to impress employers in this field, and eventually you may become one of them.

You won't just need to please customers during the course of your hospitality career; you're also going to need to please your bosses and employers. If you expect to advance to your desired level, it's a good idea to closely watch those who are a few steps ahead of you. Find out how they prepare for promotions and gain the attention of those who can give them a leg up. Learn what it takes to shine in this field and step ahead of your competition, and eventually you'll be in a position to help those who are entering on the ground floor. You may even be ready to open your own hotel or establishment someday, if that's one of your long-term goals. Pay attention and learn from your mistakes, and that day will come sooner rather than later.

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10 THE RULES FOR BEING HUMAN

1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.

2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."

4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. 'There' is no better than 'here...'-
When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you.
The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

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10 Worst Career Disasters & Lessons Learnt

1.Getting chewed out. -In one of the meetings, Ramesh got a dressing down because of somebody’s else mistake from his boss, whom he used to admire and respect. He was totally dejected and shocked and his defense looked like whining and complaining. Fortunately, the Boss found out a little later about the person actually responsible for the mistake and apologized to Ramesh in front of other people .

Lessons learnt- Be on your toes and not only cover yourself, but also from implications because of others mistakes. Also have the humility to apologise if you are wrong regardless of position, power, designation. 

2.Mediocre review. When Rohit received his first average rating in the performance appraisal , he was shocked as he had done a decent job and had been praised by his boss. In the feedback session he had been communicated that the activities and projects he was working on weren ’t that important and critical for the organization so nobody was excited and pushed for him when his name came up for performance appraisal.

Lessons learnt- :That’s when he learned to take risks and initiatives on high-visibility projects. That changed the entire trajectory of his career.

3.Write rubbish : After Ravi’s attempt to write a business proposal, his manager termed it rubbish and questioned his educational qualification.Ravi realized it is one matter to get a college degree with theatrical knowledge and another to write a business proposal in the real world.

Lessons learnt- Comunication is the heart of business and corporate life and needs to be learned by observation and practice.

4.Micromanage boss -Rajesh used to pride himself in managing and influencing people. In the the job he tried the same with his boss; that didn’t help. He then tried talking to the senior management; that too didn’t help . Ultimately he had to leave the company.
Lessons learnt-He learned an important lesson that the boss is always more important to the company than self. One cannot choose a boss so one has to learn to work with him .

5.Customer disaster. Rakesh was relatively new to sales when a manufacturing delay caused a business loss to his biggest customer . The customer was furious and threatened to break the relationship. Rakesh saved the situation by internally becoming the customer’s spokesperson and fought to retrieve the situation, while with the customer, he became the company’s spokesperson explaining the problem and the developments.
Lesson learnt- Do not believe in lip service to customers, demonstrate by your actions 

6.Getting laid off. -It can happen to anyone . Suresh' first instinct was to feel rejected and a pressing desire to lash out in anger. But he fought it down and took a break and did some reflection about his interests and passions. He applied to the jobs which were in sync with his interests and passions. It turned out to be the right move and a blessing in disguise and his career grew fast in the new job.
Lessons learnt -That’s when he learned that everything happens for a reason and, when one door closes, another opens. Instead of rolling in self pity .. it is time to pick up the thread and move on. 

7.High-visibility crisis. Sunil as the head of marketing released a product advertisement which caused public uproar and adverse publicity. Instead of panicking and pointing fingures and blaming. He quickly organized the team to handle the crisis and keep the top management posted of the developments.
Lessons learnt -That was trail by fire and taught him how not to panic and maintain his cool. 

8.Abusive boss - Raghav's  boss was a sadist and used to revel in ripping him and his others colleagues apart . He thought of quitting but he loved the organization and his job, so he hung in there while some of his colleagues quit.
Lessons learnt-Ultimately the word got around and the boss was eventually fired for bad people management skills. It proved an old Japanese proverb: “If you wait by the river long enough, you’ll see the body of your enemy float by.”

 

9.Lost credibility -Sharad took a complex assignment with a killing deadline basis his vendors assurance that they would deliver. The vendor went back on his commitment and Sharad had to really work by 24 X 7 to meet the deadline . Lessons Learnt - Stay on top of your vendors. Regardless of the relationship, they may not have the same skin in the game that you do.    
 

10.Publicy making a fool of self - Rajan in order to impress in a company annual conference made a fool of himself by shouting/screaming at his colleagues, pulling them down and boasting loudly about his achievements. The CEO of the company took him aside and ticked him off. This grounded Rajan and made him sober and showed him the correct way to guide others.
Lessons learnt-Never humiliate anybody publicly and have the humility to guide the inexperienced while maintaining one's dignity.
  Source:Internet


 

 

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