Was there really a recession? Were you able to see it? Did you experience it?

I still remember a post that I had written about an year back on the job change confusion. The US economy was hit by one of the worst recessions and the Indian economy felt the ripples. Almost all the industries felt it and took some very harsh decisions including laying off a lot of employees and putting a freeze on hiring. There were not too many organizations that were interested in appraising salaries or, paying bonuses even. They wanted to remain conservative in spending and hence decided against doing any of these.

The Million Dollar Question

But the million dollar question was – Was it actually due to the ailing economy or, was it a deliberate attempt on the part of the organizations to save on the funds disguising recession?

Whatever the situation was, there was no or, very less job options available in the market and there was all-round firing happening. So the advice from any job counselor would be to stick to your current job and not look for a change.

For those of you who opted to stay with your current employer, even though pay-hikes were negligible, there is good news finally. The economy is opening up and organizations have started hiring.

The Situation Now!

The recession is finally over. Almost all economies have started recovering, including the US economy. Organizations that were in a strict cost-efficiency mode have finally decided to shed their inhibitions and re-open. Although the fact remains that recession is over and the economies are opening up, the recovery is yet not complete.

An ambiguous explanation to the entire situation. Right?

I would not want to question your thoughts because it is true. The explanation is indeed ambiguous. As a matter of fact, nobody can say it with conviction that the recession is finally over. Just as it went into a spiraling downward movement about an year back taking everybody by surprise, it could come up or, even go further down.

If that be the case how will you take a call, right now. What should be your plan of action?

The Plan of Action

Don’t take any hasty decision. Take a planned and calculated course of action. It is true that organizations like Infosys, TCS etc. have announced their ambitious hiring plans. Other organizations like American Express and Barclays are also hiring. So there is no doubt that there are a lot of opportunities. But it is advisable that your choose your career options very carefully.

If you think that your current organization is not doing too well or, that your appraisal is not satisfactory, you should look for a change. If you current status is not too good, then you can pick the next best opportunity that is coming your way. But if your current organization is stable and your role is kind of satisfying, then you should wait for a comparatively better opportunity. Till then you should stick to your current role and stay tight.

Economic situations like the one that is prevailing calls for a well-thought about career move. The volatility in the economy still remains. Think and decide.

What is the secret to a happy day?

The other day I was reading an article from Stephen Covey. In this article he had explained a principle called as the 90/10 principle. This is what he had to say about the principle -

10% of life is made up of what happens to you, ……90% of life is decided by how you react……

What exactly does this mean?

It simple means that you do not have control over 10% of what happens to you. The remaining 90% is different and this is very much in our control.

There is no rocket science to happiness. It is a simple decision on your part – to be happy or, not. We are always given 2 choices of reacting to a particular situation. Whether we will be happy or, not is decided by the choice that we pick. This principle was a beautiful explanation to this concept.

Did you ever have control over a cup of coffee spilling onto your shirt, a pedestrian jumping across you vehicle or, the printer cartridge printing unclear all of a sudden? Not really, isn’t it? But how you react to this situation is something that you have complete control over.

The key to getting this 90% right is to maintain your composure, be calm, smile and just move on. In doing that you give a pleasant approach to the others and they too tend to forget the frustration and dissatisfaction that they are surrounded with and in turn makes a happy day for them too.

The first thing to in all such situations where you would have shouted at or, yelled at, is to remain calm and composed. Stephen Covey explains this with a beautiful example -

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just what happened. What happens when the next will be determined by how you react.You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over.

She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work.

You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day?

1. Did the coffee cause it?
2. Did your daughter cause it?
3. Did the policeman cause it?
4. Did you cause it?

The answer is “4″.

You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, “It’s ok honey, you just need, to be more careful next time”. Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

The application of this 90/10 principle at work is also very effective. More often that not, the stress and tension that you feel at work is because of the choice of the wrong way of reacting to a situation. At such otherwise stressful situations like a loss of job, application of the 90/10 principle to put your energy into constructive things could help you handle the situation much better.

Photograph courtesy Crystal Leigh Shearin

The first step in perception management will be to ensure that the little time that you spend with the ones who you wish to influence is positive in all sense. Let me take the example of the regular employee. What is it that is influencing the superiors to form a negative perception about the good employee? It is the lack of interaction of this employee with his superiors, during the days that he is in office. The superiors don’t see much of him on such days and add to it the few days that he is on leave and a perception is made that the employee is never available.

How will you change the perception here? Just start interacting with your superiors a bit more on the days you are in office. Let them see a bit more of you. They will start to see a lot of you and would not miss you when you are on leave. Another thing you could do is to make people realize that you are never on leave. Before you go on a leave, make it a point to go to your bosses and engage in a chat during which you let them know that you will be on leave the next day after a long time – a much needed break.

To sum it up, the single most important and easiest way to perception management is to project a positive behavior to your superiors in the little time that you interact with them or, increase the interaction time, whichever is feasible to you.

There is nothing wrong in “Perception management”, though a few people profess that it is the wrong practice. You have been a very sincere employee but the sincerity needs to be appreciated by your superiors if you are to grow in your career. So a bit of dressing-up is not unethical.