Career Tips - Issue # 3 (Oct. 2004)

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Childish Idea

Have kids at home? If yes, you would already know that children are great copycats. They copy everything from how you brush your teeth to how you switch on the TV to how you talk on phone. From the very early days, they know how to learn by observing and copying others. 
 

Now we might not pay too much attention to this phenomenon, but there in lies a great clue to learning: You can learn a lot by simply paying attention to what others are doing and copying them.  In fact, many girls learn cooking by simply observing their mothers in the kitchen.
 

Indeed, the word "copying" sounds rather repelling. How can we copy others? But think about it. How did you learn so many things when you were a kid? You did it just like any kid does: observing and copying others.
 

We are born to learn by copying.

>>CAREER TIP: Look around in your organisation and beyond. Who impresses you? Who are your role models? Who are the greats in your field whom you would like to emulate? Latch on to these people. Spend more and more time with them, if possible. Or read about them. Observe how they perform and try to copy them. If you really unleash your hidden copying talent, you would soon find yourself transforming for the better in many ways.
 
By the way, I have copied this copying idea (but not the actual content) from Tony Buzan's book "Brain Child." So the idea itself is not that childish after all - it comes from the man regarded as the world's leading authority on the brain and learning.

Let Your Eggs Not Break

Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler and one of the world's most respected businessmen, would never be able to forget the one presentation he made in 1956. He was then working with Ford as an assistant manager.

t was a year when Ford had decided to promote auto safety as its USP and had introduced a new safety feature: a new type of crash padding on the dashboard of cars. The company
claimed that in the event a passenger hit the dash board, the new padding would provide necessary safety. In fact, the ad film from the company claimed that the new padding was so
thick that even if an egg was dropped on it from a two story building, it would not break.

Iacocca, who was making the presentation to Ford dealers, decided to give a live demonstration of the new safety feature. He arranged for a ladder and a few eggs. He put the padding on the stage. He then climbed the ladder and started to drop the eggs. Guess, what happened?

The first egg missed the padding itself and splattered on the wooden floor. The audience found it funny.

Second one hit his assistant who was holding the ladder and then hit the floor, missing the padding again.

Third and fourth landed on the padding, but broke on impact.

Luckily for him and Ford, the fifth egg landed on the padding and it didn't break!

Writes Iacocca in his autobiography "Iacocca: An Autobiography":

"I learned two lessons that day. First, never use eggs at a sales rally. And second, never go before your customers without rehearsing what you want to say-as well as what you're going to do-to help sell your product."

>>CAREER TIP: Do you walk into meetings/presentations, either internal or external, without adequate preparation? Many people do. In fact, some take pride in their ability to "handle" meetings without prior preparation. Well, it may work at certain levels with certain people. But when the stakes are high, it can be too risky as Iacocca learned.

Encourage yourself and those around you to make it a habit to prepare before any meeting/presentation.  Why let your eggs break when a little preparation can make all the difference? 

See you again after two weeks.
 

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2004 Atul Mathur***

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