Your beliefs determine the actions you take in achieving your career goals

Some like to believe that they should spend their effort on developing their abilities or talent, while some believe in producing results. Let us pause for a minute and understand how these two beliefs can lead us in taking divergent actions. 

Input view of career ( what should I be?)

Input view of career lists down the key abilities/traits that will help one develop his/her talent.It helps a professional to understand the key abilities that he should built. This inside-out view is very popular among positive thinkers and self-help writers.

Every self-proclaimed self-help writer keeps on coming with his own list of input abilities and traits: Become self-aware, Be confident, Set priorities right, Be motivated, Learn to communicate, Follow your passion, Become Emotionally intelligent and so on. Some call the list as Seven Habits of success, others call it 3 Laws of success, while few name it as The secret of success. Everyone claims that his list of abilities/traits is more accurate than anyone else's list. You will find huge followers of every author supported by clever and robust marketing. Trainers join the bandwagon teaching these abilities to aspiring youngsters.

Input view of career has two big shortcomings:

One, this list of abilities/traits required to bring out your unique talent keeps on changing based on whose book you are reading. This view naively assumes that if you develop these 'abilities/traits', you can achieve anything in your career. And there is no criteria on which one can ever prove that one list is more 'right' than other list.

Two, these authors assume that this list of abilities/traits can be developed by anyone, at any age. It has been discovered now that this is no more valid. Some abilities like confidence are contextual and therefore cannot be 'developed artificially'. Some, like communication, look easier to develop but require too much of preparation. Some, like self regulation, can be developed at young age like learning a bike. Some , like self awareness, require age to develop. Some, like emotional inteliigence, can be 'naturally' developed by parents but very difficult to develop on your own.

Because anyone can 'list the best combination of abilities/traits', there are millions of books that have printed a big list of 'abilities and traits' that will carry us to our destiny. All these suggestions are well-meaning, but do not help. When it produces desired output, it is more by chance. 

Output view of career ( what can i do) or Result oriented view

Result-oriented view is outside-in view of career. It helps a professional to produce the results/outputs to achieve the desired goals. To produce these outputs, one may require a set of abilities which can be 'mobilised' either by oneself or through others. This view is more practical, because it makes us function at our best with our limited abilities.

As you can guess, sports professionals and music professionals use this result-oriented view to produce outstanding work-outputs in their work of sports and music respectively. In these single-dimensional professions where outputs have clear boundaries, this view of result works like magic.

Result-view is more useful for professionals, because it is far more practical to use one's given abilities and achieve what one desires with it. Isn't it more practical to achieve with what we have instead of trying to becoming a 'perfect' person?  If you see any successful person, you will always be surprised. You will notice that, despite his imperfections, weaknesses and shortcomings, he has managed to achieve something extraordinary. We know that only ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. 

Your actions in career are determined by these beliefs 

If you believe in Input-view of career, you will always keep on growing your abilities and virtues. For every problem in your life, you will find a solution inside you. If you cannot get a job raise, something is wrong with you. If your relationship is not working, you need to change something in you. If you feel stressful, you cannot manage your stress. If you cannot achieve your goals, your intentions are not honest. In other words, you will try to become a perfect human being who has huge willpower, extraordinary persistence and other virtues.

If however, you believe in result-view of career success, you will focus on the results. You will mobilise the requisite abilities from outside or from within. Instead of striving to become 'perfect human beings, you will focus on developing just 'enough abilities' so that time is better used to produce the desired results. For you, the key to succeeding in career is mobilising your abilities innovatively to achieve the desired results. You will believe that extraordinary results can be achieved without building extraordinary abilities.

Enlight framework is result-oriented view of career. Enlight framework assumes that our abilities unfold if we engage with the work. Unfolding is partly in our influence, but mostly out of our control. And more importantly, it is the synergy of our abilities that matters, not individual abilities. Otherwise, even our virtue like self-awareness can become a liability.

Do you believe that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results ? What are your beliefs?  

Enlight framework of career success

Every professional wants to succeed in a career, but they do not have a framework ( a structured and coherent approach based on scientific evidence) to take the right actions today to produce results tomorrow. 

In an earlier blog, we saw why a professional must have a framework to succeed in a career. Without a framework, succeeding in career is a hit-and-miss game for a professional. Everything is left to chance. Professionals only can curse their luck when they fail. 

Over a century and half, Doctors have managed to craft a 'generic health framework' that an individual can used to monitor his own unique health. This Enlight framework is perhaps the first step in creating such a 'career success framework' that every individual can use to monitor his career progress even though every career is unique. Until now succeeding in career was more of chance. But with a Career success framework, as it becomes more and more tested and proven, we will reach a time when the art of career building becomes a science, much like a health framework  

To achieve your desired end goals in your career, Enlight framework proposes four sub-frameworks, because each framework helps you negotiate different components of your career. Each of this framework also uses specific beliefs which have been made explicit.

You need Result framework to produce the Results to achieve your end goals. That is not enough. You also need Input framework to bring together the inputs required to produce the results. Your inputs are your abilities. Combining these abilities and mixing them together makes results possible.

You will use these two frameworks regularly in your life. You need Action framework for mixing inputs to produce outputs based on your end goals. Results are not guaranteed. Therefore, when you fail, you also need Diagnostic framework to help you diagnose the root cause and not get sidetracked with the symptoms of your problems.  

1. Result framework to succeed in career: Every professional has a career goal at a point of time, be it performing in a job, altering the work-path, or producing satisfaction in relationships. Each goal is different. That is why professionals think that their challenges are different and therefore they cannot learn from each other. Surprisingly, I have discovered that, like health, even though the end goals of career have huge variety, every individual surprisingly has to produce 2 kind of results: Produce results in work, Produce results in Relationships. This similarity helps every professional to learn from others.

On the contrary, Enlight presumes that Results are produced by 'Systems'. As individuals, we can only influence the 'results'. It is important for a professional to understand when he can produce results and when he has to wait to produce results.

2. Input framework to produce the outputs consistently: Inputs are thinking, physical and senses based abilities. Abilities have to be converted into skills to produce results. Most of the literature on career success, based on positive psychology, is based on the misplaced premise that if you can develop best abilities, you can achieve anything.

Enlight framework however posits that our skills grow only by engaging with the process of creating results. One cannot grow one's skills in the laboratory.

Most of the professionals are ability-blind like Nishikant. They are not even aware that abilities are highly context-dependent.This ability-ignorance makes them commit big mistakes. Enlight framework proposes three different cognitive skills to produce work-related results.

Sometimes, in order to produce desired result, one has to change one's skills. But changing one's skills or traits ( like self control or patience) is not easy. You will find professionals consuming huge effort to acquire new traits which go down the drain. Or take long time to develop a simple trait like communication ability without any success.

Out of all the inputs, Mind is a unique input that man possesses. But our inability to utilise the Mind properly often results in our failure to produce the desired Results. If we understand the limitations of our mind, we can use it as Strength. Or else it can become a huge liability. Mind is used differently in producing work-results and people-results. We use Machine-mind ( more analytical oriented) to produce work-results, and Farm-Mind ( more system oriented) to produce Results in Relationships.

3.Action framework to produce the desired results: To produce the desired results in work, you must bring in the requisite inputs to produce the desired outputs. This framework is used by every professional, while the above two frameworks are used by coaches.

Enlight framework proposes Map and Compass to produce the results in Work-life, while uses Farm and Compass to produce results in Relationships. Whether you are a school student, graduate student, or a working professional you are using your maps to produce the desired results.

4. Diagnostic framework to correct, when necessary: When we cannot achieve results, we need to correct ourselves. In all such situations, it is important to untangle the threads and find the root cause, because in real life, everything is mixed.

An inaccurate diagnostic framework can lead a professional on the wrong path, such as that of Adi. Or like Rohit Sharma ( the cricketer), they focus on the wrong output and take completely wrong actions to correct the output. This diagnostic framework uses Systems thinking as a tool to diagnose.

More importantly, diagnostic framework will help a professional to know when to seek help from experts, much like we know when to seek help from doctors when we are unhealthy. In a real life, a professional can take help from coaches, mentors and friends. Professionals will therefore understand 'whom to ask for help', 'what help to ask for' and 'when to ask for help'.  Many times, prevention is better than cure. If the help is therefore asked 'latter', then the 'help' becomes more costly to take.

Summary

By using Enlight framework, the professionals can now hope to achieve what they desire in their career with more certainty and confidence. Not only can they take preventive actions to prevent damage to their career progress, but they can also take appropriate corrective actions to contain the consequences, if they have sufficient time at their disposal. 

Now, the professionals can use their limited resources in a productive manner. Now, they can adapt the strategies of others, instead of copying them mindlessly. 

How to use Enlight framework to diagnose in career?

I met Niraj last week.

Niraj is a Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer from Nasik, a town 200 kms from Mumbai in India. Loves Robotics. So he went to Mumbai to work in a Robotics company for 2 years. Then went to Germany to do Masters in Robotics. He plans to finish his Masters by next year in 2014. When i asked him about his plans after finishing Masters , he said ' I plan to return to Nashik. I will either work on developing robots for the factories in Nashik. Or work with colleges to develop a robot like they do in Germany'. Is Niraj taking the right step? 

How can you help Niraj by using Enlight diagnostic framework?

How is learning created by a student

Students use cognitive inputs of different subject (facts and procedures) to solve a specific problem. Projects like robot-making, radio making, and bridge-building help students to produce 'visible outputs' and test the efficacy of their inputs. In other words, the student needs a 'system' to engage. Please read this description of system. 

System produces an output which gives feedback to the students to find if the knowledge they are creating is indeed correct. Exam 'output' on the other hand gives a poor feedback because it only tests the student's ability to reproduce what is taught, not what is learnt. When the 'project output' resembles a problem in real life, this creates learning for a student. 

Understand Niraj's confidence using the lens of Enlight Result framework

Instead of project, Niraj has worked in a company to do real work in robots and solve their real problems. While during Masters in Germany, Niraj was working on real project that was funded by a company, supervised by his Professors.The project had a budget and time target, the real world constraints. All this real work done by Niraj has produced deep learning in him and has produced 'deep cognitive skills'. This has also produced confidence in Niraj. 

Remember that confidence is an emergent characteristics resulting after working in the result system. Confidence is not inherent in a person, it is created when he interacts with 'other' elements in a system to produce visible results. Now Niraj plans to use this confidence in developing robots for factories in Nashik ?

What should Niraj do? Should Niraj work in another product-development company which designs robots or Should Niraj set up his own company?

Alternative 1: Should Niraj join another product-development company 

Companies not only develop products, but also manufacture and sell products. Development of products is quite prevalent in software industry in India, but rare in manufacturing and other industries. Indian manufacturing companies, instead of investing money and resources in developing new products, prefer to invest in manufacturing and selling products. Indian manufacturing companies also do not prefer to work with Colleges and universities on new product development like they do in Western countries in US and Europe.

Therefore when Niraj explored the possibility of working in a company for designing robots, he could not find one.

When I told Niraj about the lack of robust product development system in India, he said " I am good enough to get projects myself from the factories around Nashik. I know their problems very well".Is Niraj mis-applying his confidence in setting up his own company to develop robots for Indian companies ? Let us therefore analyse further.

Alternative 2: Should Niraj set up his own company to create the result 

Many of us downplay the role of system in creating an output, and believe that we can 'create' results by using our willpower, knowledge and passion. But it is far more prudent to 'use' the existing system to generate the requisite output in a company by joining the existing team. That is why, it is prudent for students to align with the system by joining an existing well-set company after graduation.

Over a period of years, the well-set company has found suppliers who can supply the necessary services, developed skilled employees to support them, found customers who can pay for their services and earn enough profits so that many competitors have joined the 'system' to make it even more robust. Because the students join a well-set company, they not only learn fast because they face real problems but they also get paid well for their untested knowledge base.

Niraj can form a new company by finding investors who can back him to set a company to set up a product development facility in Nashik, India. However, as the product development system is not matured in Nashik, he has to find trained employees who are willing to work in Nasik, locate the right suppliers and then convince the customers to get a good price. In other words, he has to initiate all the efforts himself.

Will Niraj succeed? Technically anything is possible, but even a most confident person is likely to fail in this scenario.(By the way, it took more than 10 years to set up a new system of cinema making in India)

What are his chances of succeeding in setting up a new product-development system ? 

Let us imagine what Niraj will achieve if he decides to set up his own company in Nashik to develop robots for Nashik Factories. Let us also include luck elements, because in real life they also play significant role.

For instance, Niraj may find a well wisher in a Nashik factory who can give him the 'order' of developing a robot ( a lucky break!) . Even if he gets the right price for his order ( the second lucky break!) , he may not be able to deliver the robot in the requisite cost, because he will find it extremely difficult to mobilise the resources to deliver the order, because people, material and suppliers are not in place. ( Luck does not keep on repeating!) 

Unable to earn reasonable money from robotics, Niraj may start teaching in college. That will give him money, but will also divert his attention and time. This will further reduce his chances of succeeding. So, after five years, he may be losing on both the fronts: he neither has the requisite experience of building challenging robots, nor does he have enough money. What will that lead to?

Unable to understand the 'power' of invisible output system, Niraj will start blaming the customers for not giving him orders at the right price. Or he may start cursing his employees who leave for higher salary because they get well trained with him. Or he may blame the colleges who are not willing to invest in research in India because it is not cost-beneficial for them. This is called 'victim' mentality in the language of psychology.

What should Niraj do? What will you recommend Niraj?

Develop your basket of abilities

Cross roads image copyrighted by Martin Lieberman.See the source (C) by www.martin-liebermann.de 

In career intelligence, it is important to know your basket of abilities. Here is a brief summary of how to develop this basket

1. Make a plan to develop your primary ability

See the list of 8 abilities here. While graduating, an engineer, doctor and commerce graduate are nurturing one key ability - logical reasoning ability - in learning their subjects. It is an ability to think logically, solve problems, find new solutions, and think both inductively and deductively. Your development path must chart out the ways by which you will grow this ability.

One of the simplest way to sharpen this ability is by solving real-world problems ( this is like selecting a domain to use your abilities), not book problems. For instance, a medical student works in a hospital to solve his patient's problems. For a medical student, this is part of his course. For a commerce student, this is not automatic. He must develop a plan to sharpen his reasoning ability by, say, understanding the functioning of stock market, or the functioning of tax system. An engineer may have to work in a small factory or work on a project of say, making a gear system.

A graduate can also nurture her verbal-linguistic ability. Many students have natural ability to express their thoughts. They should utilise the opportunities offered by the college, such as by participating in debates and seminars. If the college is not offering an opportunity, they should attend a course on dramatics to use the finer distinctions of communication. Please use some of these ideas that have been mentioned here.

2. Make a plan to develop your 3 basic character traits 

Your character trait of self-regulation is the key trait that will help you in excelling in your future life. If you have limited 'abilities', this trait enables you to fully utilise those abilities. And if you have above-average abilities, self regulation will enable you to maximise its benefits. It requires understanding of the dual processes of mind, the games the mind plays by using beliefs and mindsets, and therefore helps you identify the bottlenecks in achieving your personal goals.

Although this knowledge of the working of mind is important, one cannot learn this trait directly. One has to learn it indirectly, say by engaging with some activity, like a project. Even if you are engaged in playing a sport, actively playing that sport helps you develop self-regulation. See one example of developing this trait by learning a musical instrument, Tabla. 

Emotional stability, the second important character trait, is also the right trait to develop during this age ( 16-22). In this age, every graduate is growing through the moody swings of adolescence caused by hormones. If you do not use emotions, emotions will use you.

Third important trait, creativity, can be fully developed in creative situations like setting a drama, or working on a project. Another indirect way to develop these character traits is to work for a NGO.

3. Make a plan to develop Conative traits 

Conative traits sustain your motivation and help you generate initiatives and positive attitude towards life. When a student comes from a poor family, that itself is a motivation enough to study and work hard. But this same student, when his money problems are resolved in his later life ( say at the age of 35), cannot find any motivation because he has not developed his conative traits. One cannot start developing this trait at a later age of 35. It is like learning to swim at the later age. Technically it is possible to learn, but the time and willpower required is so high, that very few learn this trait at a later age. Professionals have to take drastic decisions to develop this trait, such as taking a one-year sabbatical from their work life and going to Himalayas.

At this age, it is therefore necessary to indulge in simple mechanisms that help you explore your conative traits: the field of drama making, the reading of literature, the discussion of novels and so on.  For some of the ideas read this.

When a student comes from a well-to-do family, he/she finds it difficult to get motivated even in college. For such a student, development of conative traits is urgent.

Why graduates find it tough to produce results in the first job

Some graduate students take short time ( 1-2 years) to convert their academic and non-academic abilities into work-related skills after they start working.

This transition is smoother either because they get the right jobs to work, or because the companies support them in this transition through training, or because they find the right boss who guides them through this transition.

However, about 70% of the unlucky students ( these are my guess estimates based on my experience of coaching) find this transition very tough. Either they go through a long period of adjustment lasting as long as 3 to 5 years. Why do these graduate/Post graduate students take such a long time for converting their academic abilities into work-skills after they start working? 

This graduate faces the challenge because he is not fully in control of his task output. Instead, he has to influence others in helping him. How can he do this?

For example, let us understand what a graduate has to do to produce results in a Sales job ( because sales is a very result-oriented job) in a company selling industrial products. This involves three stages.

Stage 1 is of understanding the tasks components of producing results in one's function, understand the inter-connections between the upstream and downstream functions that tie the work-process to produce the whole output. The second stage is of Doing the given task.Third stage is of diagnosing and re-directing the efforts to deliver the results.

Stage 1: Understanding the work involved 

a. Understand the task components of producing results in sales function 

Selling primarily is the task of converting a 'suspect' client into an end customer. To understand more about selling, see this blog. To do this task, the graduate has to take four steps.

• First step is desk oriented. The graduate has to use reasoning ability to understand the technical nature of his product using his learnt knowledge during graduation. He also has to understand buyer's use of the product and what benefits he gets from using the product. He also has to understand the competitor's products and how they fare in comparison to his product. This step requires cognitive skills. 

• Second step is call-preparation. He has to find the possible companies who will buy his product, find the right person in that company, and call them to take prior appointment. This stage is sometimes prolonged. 

• Third step is interacting with the customer to convince him about the product's benefits. This requires interpersonal ability. This step may further require getting background information so that the talk is more pointed. This task is 'on-line'. 

• Fourth step is closing the call and taking the order from the customer. 

b. Describe the entire value-chain and understand the rules of value chain  

A value chain starts from the understanding what the outside customer requires and ends with fulfilling that customer requirements. For instance, Entire value chain includes Marketing, Sales, Production and delivery, Commercial transaction, and After sales services.

Understand the rules of value chain.

Rule 1: Upstream function impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the downstream function.  For instance, if the tele-marketer in Marketing is better in shortlisting the customers, in Sales you will get more 'ready' customer which will increase your efficiency. 

Rule 2: Allocation of resources within the functions also impacts the output of your work. If more money is being spent on 'marketing', you may get better 'customers' to call in Sales. But re-distribution of resources is a strategic decision. You must understand your company's allocation of resources. If your company decides to spend more money on 'selling', and less on marketing, it will increase your effort. 

Rule 3: Power structure of the different functions within the company impact your work. If 'sales' function is the 'blue-eyed' function in the company, you will get all the benefits of being in the function. On the other hand, if after-sales service is the key function, you will have to struggle to get your ideas heard. 

Stage II: Do the 'given' task to produce the results in sales function 

This stage is in your control. 

Once you start doing the four tasks of selling every day, you will start producing the 'sales' results. Your efficiency of doing these tasks is determined by your effort: by the way you plan your day, by the way you call the customers, by the way you prepare for the call,  and so on.

As you keep on improving your 'planning of time', you will be able to meet more customers and close more customer orders. Your results will keep on improving with better planning, better calling and better coordination. 

But sooner or later, you will meet a dead end of improvement. Because one cannot improve one's function without 'impacting' other functions. 

Stage III: Re-direct the efforts when the desired results are not produced 

Results are not produced automatically.

When, for instance, you fail to meet your sales targets one month, you will diagnose. You may find that the tele-marketing staff in "Marketing function' has changed. And that resulted in your calling 'unprepared customers'. Your call efficiency dropped because you have been calling unprepared customers. But what can you do next month? How can you influence telemarketing function with no power? If you want to influence that function's work, what options you have?

Or you may get many complaints from the after-sales function team. You will discover that the problem has happened because you took orders with 'different specifications'. You also knew that you took that order because your 'boss' pressed you to take it to meet 'total monthly target of sales'. But you are left alone in fending the complaint. What will you do? What can you do? 

Conclusion 

When a graduate starts working in a company, he is rarely trained in using all the three stages of work: Understanding, Doing the work and Re-direction of efforts based on results. He is only told about Stage II and urged to do his own task better, faster and easier. No help is provided to him to perform Stage III of Diagnosis to improve his output or to influence other functions. He is left on his own.

Graduate is clueless because he does not know he is working in a socio-technical system. Work in an organisation is done through end-to-end processes which include compartmentalized functions that are highly inter-dependent. Each function has its own agenda for which the function is responsible. That function's agenda may sometimes hamper the output of 'whole'. Further, the functional work is done by people who are rational and emotional, calculative and unpredictable, the blame is easily passed to the least 'powerful'. So it is not just about 'technical work'.

Some graduates learn to negotiate this system from their bosses. Some graduates have an option of lots of time because they are protected by good teams. Some learn it because of long induction training. Some learn it from their senior colleagues.

But many graduates feel helpless and clueless because they do not know what can they do. They feel like victims in the 'corporate jungle' ready to be devoured by any predator. Unable to understand the 'systemic' jungle, they cannot negotiate it.

But until they learn to negotiate the systems, they cannot use their cognitive skills learnt during graduation to produce the desired result in a job. Graduates require three skills ( primary cognitive skills, secondary cognitive skills, and ancillary skills) to produce these results. And until they produce the desired results in their work, they cannot get the benefits of higher salary, promotion, recognition and achievement.  

Five lessons from observing the development path of prodigies

Michael Kearney started talking at age four months and reading at eight months. He soaked up the elementary curriculum by the age of four, entered college at the age of six, and graduated at 10. His father, Kevin Kearney, observed that it was as though his son had a "rage to learn". 

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) was an Indian mathematician who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, learned college-level mathematics by age 11, and generated his own theorems in number theory and Bernoulli numbers by age 13 .

Prodigies dazzle us with their virtuoso musical performances, quick and efficient chess moves, imaginative paintings, or brilliant mathematics. We presume that these prodigies have to just develop their one single skill, be it mathematics, piano, or chess. We also wrongly presume that they can develop these skills without any support from the outside environment. 

If we therefore understand the output paths of these prodigies, it will help us learn about how we can develop our own skills and excel in them. Let us learn five key lessons that are useful for all of us. 

Lesson 1: Only Innate talents do not determine the performance of prodigies, their practice is important

We tend to assume that prodigies are born with their 'full blown talent' because of their genetics and God-given gift. But this is not true. 

These early bloomers become attracted to a domain - an output like chess or maths - early due to their 'genetic inclinations', but they also need to engage in the domain to accelerate their learning. When engaged in their domain of interest, prodigies tend to focus like a laser beam, entering a state of "flow", in which the task is effortless and enjoyable, and time recedes in the background. This deep engagement makes them excel, not just their innate talent. Dr Anders Ericsson calls it a 10,000 hour rule of practice. 

Lesson 2: Prodigies use their genetic inclinations to make a difficult choice of domain

In the case of prodigies, they are lucky. They automatically chose their output, be it mathematics, music or chess due to their genetic inclinations. 

For many of the talented students, they face a difficult task of choosing from too many outputs or domains. It is the problem of prosperity. For instance, i met a student last month who had an excellent logical ability. But, he was faced with a difficult choice of deepening his logical ability either in accounts, engineering or medicine.  
This highlights the importance of conative traits for excelling. Conative traits are traits that enable us to identify the purpose of life, or the passion that we bring to the work, or the significance that we attach to our job or people. Conative traits, if available, help us make this choice easily. But when they are absent, they make our life very difficult. As we have seen earlier, one has to consciously attempt to find meaning in life. Without this meaning, i have observed that many executives, despite their monetary success, falter in life. 

Lesson 3. Prodigy's talent is not just developing one 'skill'. 

Although a violinist can achieve brilliance on the violin by practicing for hours every day, they also need other personal traits like emotions, for instance, to make their violin meaningful. As the violinist Yehudi Menuhin once said, “Maturity, in music and in life, has to be earned by living".  Without the development of these traits, talent cannot be sustained. See this longer list of prodigies. How many of you knew them for their excellent sustained work? .

This is important to remember. None of the talent today is just one skill. As we have seen in earlier blog, our talent gift consists of character traits that have to be nurtured and developed. Traits of concentration, internal motivation, creativity, extraversion version intraversion are as important in excelling in life than the skill. Without these traits, you cannot sustain the excellence of your narrow skill , be it selling, teaching, programming, cooking, playing or even managing. 

Lesson 4: Prodigies require both active and passive support from the external system

A musical prodigy, for instance, requires both active and passive support from his parents. Without active support, the child will never gain access to an instrument, or the technical training is required to develop the talent. But inactive support from parents is equally necessary. They also require emotional nurturance that enables a musician to achieve mature expression.

For instance, we think that talents like computing can grow only if the students has access a computer. But this is partly true. He also must have strong links to a community of developers who can give him problems, who can share their difficulties with him, who can offer the window of other technologies. Without this community of developers, which can now be done without any physical proximity, this support is required for another skill. That is why a good college is very important to develop your skill. 

Lesson 5: Prodigies develop their talent due to many lucky factors acting together in synch

Based on detailed interviews with a number of prodigies and their family members, David Henry Feldman and Lynn Goldsmith concluded that the prodigy phenomenon is the result of a lucky coincidence of many factors. 

This includes many factors such as :  availability of the domain in the prodigy's geographical location ( if Bill Gates was not born in US, his programming skill would not been known to us), healthy social/emotional development of the child in the family, the gender and birth order ( is the person the first child or second child) that help the prodigy to develop his interest, availability of education in the place of location, cultural support and public recognition for developing the talent ( imagine a musical child born to a family in Africa where physical survival is the first battle), material support from family members, at least one parent completely committed to the prodigy's development, family traditions that favour the prodigy's development (imagine the development of mathematical talent in the family of lawyers) and historical forces, events, and trends in the society during the development phase of the child. 

Conclusion

All the factors of their talent development work in synch for a prodigy. In a normal individual, they are rarely in synch.

Some factors work late ( you find a good teacher in drawing only when you are in 10th class), some factors are absent ( you lay hands on computer only when you reach college), or some factors do not seem to be available as and when required ( like you go into a college where you find a group who works with you all the time!).

Or conative trait like passion develops late in a life, or development of a significant trait like extraversion develops late ( for instance, you become outspoken only when you go in college), or an important personal trait like "We cannot impact outcomes in life" requires a failure to emerge ( for instance, failing to get into army or some important incident of failure). 

In other words, the difference between a prodigy's development and our development is very little. The difference is in the timing - the timing of having the right trait at the right time. 

What can we learn from Dhoni's cricketing sense?

On Thursday 11 July 2013, Dhoni almost single-handedly won the final match in the Tri Nation series against Sri Lanka. Critics and Commentators have been heaping praise and adulation on his amazing 'ice-cool' ability under stress. Some call him lucky. Some call it 'instinctual' ability to take quick decisions. And like Dhoni said in his interview after the final that he is blessed with 'cricketing sense'.

How can these kind of traits develop? They cannot be developed by gaining more knowledge, getting some degrees, or by attending any training programs. These are mindsets that get formed due to our mixture of Beliefs, Assumptions and Conclusions ( also called as BAC effect) that we hold unconsciously. So too it is in the case of Dhoni. Why is BAC effect powerful? Because, we constantly make 'sense' of a situation based on BAC, and unconsciously use them to take small or large decisions. These small decisions either take us on a irreversible path forcing us to justify the path we took ( like the action a player takes to unknowingly help a match fixer), or it also helps us take big decisions that significantly impacts result ( like in Sports)

Let us try to 'uncover' Dhoni's BAC and how it enables him to make sense to take his 'actions and decisions'.

How can we  uncover Dhoni's BAC without asking him? We unconsciously do this with our friends by inferring their actions, comments and statements. For instance, Dhoni keeps on giving his comments in his interviews. Some of his assumptions can be inferred from his actions on the field. And some of his 'derived conclusions' can be guessed from the way he selects team, takes quick calls and his reaction or non reaction in the heat of the situation.

Why are we doing this? Because it will help us understand the mystery of his 'ice-cool' ability and how did he develop his 'cricketing sense'. If we do not understand this, we credit it to 'God', unable to learn anything. But if we understand this, we also can identify our 'invisible' BAC, and understand how it is preventing us from achieving desired goals.

Core Belief 1: Your efforts can produce only output, not outcome

I have written earlier how efforts cannot produce outcome in a tennis match. Even when both player manages to win the same points ( same output), it can still result in different outcomes ( one wins and other loses). This rule is visible all the times, but we just refuse to see it. It happens in studies. We know one subject well but we score less in it than the subject we like less.

Infact this is an old belief in Hindu Philosophy ( Bhagawad Gita), depicted in the battle of Mahabharata, where Krishna advises Arjuna that कर्मणयेवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि. “You have a right to perform your prescribed action, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action..”

Dhoni has accepted this belief very well. He has not just understood it, he has assimilated this belief in his psyche. He knows that he can only put his best efforts, victory or defeat is not in his hands. Assimilation of this belief enables Dhoni to have an ice-cool ability. More importantly, this belief enables Dhoni in focusing on his field efforts without thinking of ifs and buts, without having other doubts. This is a huge plus in a game situation !

But the interesting question is why Dhoni could assimilate this belief better than most of us? You will observe that many sportsman absorb this belief. If you hear any top players interviews - Roger Federer, Djokovic and now Murray - you will hear their acceptance of this belief. So what makes sportsman accept this belief so easily? The answer is 'quick feedback'. In sport tasks, actions and outputs are closely related with each other in 'time'. Therefore it is easy to view and appreciate that 'one's effort may not result into desired outcome'.  In knowledge tasks, there is huge time lag between 'effort and output'. Because of this simple difference, professionals in knowledge tasks ( engineers, doctors, consultants, accountants and researchers) find it very difficult to accept this core belief of life. This paradoxically makes it difficult for us to achieve anything 'big' in our life !

Core Assumption in cricket : Initiator determines the course of point in the game, not the responder

In sports, initiator determines the course of the 'action'. Please read this assumption carefully. Like in Chess, the player with white piece determines the course of the entire game. In tennis, the server is the initiator. In cricket, the bowler is the initiator. In these games, the initiator controls the point, not the game.

If the ball is good, the batsman can just 'play' it defensively. If he still tries to score, he has to hit 'low percentage' shots. Low percentage shots may get the batsman out ! Batsman like Virendra Sehwag are considered as match winners, because they can play high percentage shots even on a 'good ball'. But , as we know, with age, even Sehwag has lost this ability !

Dhoni once again understands this assumption of cricketing game very well and uses this actively while batting as a finisher. ( If i can interview him, I would love to ask him how he discovered this assumption !) He therefore keeps on playing high percentage shots until the bowler falters. If this strategy gets him closer to the goal, he does not take the risk. But if it does not get him closer to the goal, he waits till the last moment (like he waited till the last over in the final match) and plays low percentage shots only at the last moment. Even while doing this, he increases his chances of succeeding, by adopting other safe techniques like using high weight bat, or playing his shots in the V angle from mid off to mid on, and so on. More often, he wins, because he uses the 'right strategy', not because he is lucky.

Dhoni also uses this assumption while making bowling changes According to this assumption, an untested good bowler is more likely to 'surprise' the batsman and make him play low percentage shot, than an established well known bowler. Or a spinner may turn out to be a better bowler on a pitch than a fast bowler ( which he assumed in the last final match due to which he relied on part time spinner !)

Dhoni's sensemaking apparatus in action 

With this belief and assumption, he always takes the right calls on the field, because he is always 'on the field' with less or no 'biases' from the past. Now see his different actions and try to relate them to his beliefs and assumptions.

He finds 'Joginder' to bowl the last over in 20-20 final in 2007, because he knows 'surprise' is a big winner in a game. ( Effect of Assumption 1)  He never asks the opinions of other team members while making the 'difficult choices', like the choice of bowling part time spinners - Raina - in the last game. Because, he knows, that opinions of others will 'confuse' his sense-making instead of helping him. ( Sensemaking is based on beliefs, and individuals always have different beliefs !) That has indirectly helped him to establish his leadership position and has made his 'leadership aura' grow.

Also observe his actions when he is losing. When he lost in a big way to England in England, he did not give any reasons. Neither did he give any reasons of losing when he lost the series of England in India. Neither did he look worried that he may lose his captaincy. Only commentators and critics were arguing about 'what went wrong'. He knows post mortems only hurt the team members in producing their best in the next match. He prefers to remain quiet. For the same reason, he does not discuss his differences with senior players like Gambhir, Laxman or Sehwag, in open, which seem to be far from the best !

More importantly, once a team member comes in the team, he gives him adequate chances. Even though he seems to rely on some favourites, he gives equal opportunities to his players. For instance, he never flinches from including a new bowler or new batsman in a crucial match, if someone is injured. His grooming of Bhuvaneshwar and Umesh Yadav is a classic example. His preference to Dinesh Kartik over other established batsman is also surprising, because Dinesh Kartik can replace him as a wicket-keeper batsman !

If you closely watch his onfield and offfield behaviour and actions, you will realise that his behaviour and actions are tied to his Core belief and Assumption. When he was asked, if he ever dreamt to become a most successful captain of India, he replied ' I have come from a small town. For me, playing for Indian team itself was a big dream'. His foot is planted on the ground, because he really believes that  his actions alone were never enough to produce any big outcomes ! ( Principle of Bhagwad Gita)

Now are you surprised with Dhoni's cricketing sense?