Latest / ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional Excellence / Mediocrity Epidemic | Swami | Ep02

Transcript

Mediocrity Epidemic | Swami | Ep02 · ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional Excellence

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Contra Minds.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is a podcast about people, minds, strategy, and culture.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, I am going to be talking about mediocrity and how this is an epidemic that needs to be stemmed.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: The dictionary describes mediocrity as a low degree of merit, an unresponsive attitude filled with a general apathy, a middle state of existence.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the Gallup 2019 employee engagement score, I read a piece of data that said just about 33% of employees are engaged.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: In India, I recently came across this data that employee engagement is a mere 12%.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: When people are highly engaged in whatever they do, it is directly related to positive outcomes, business outcomes.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: There is also a direct impact of higher engagement with retention, customer satisfaction, higher productivity, and higher profitability.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: In the US, as much as 16.5% of people are said to be actively disengaged.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are about approximately 8 million people working in the US.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's close to 1.32 million employees.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In India, the Indian workforce is estimated to be about 400 million, according to Indian census.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you take only in manufacturing, it is about 42 million, and in the services sector, it is about 31 million.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is quite a large number, 73 million people.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And imagine just about 12% being engaged.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you were to attribute just about 2 to 3 million as white-collar employees, that is still a huge number.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Indian IT sector employs close to 10 million people.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine only 12% of them being engaged.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about the quality of code written, the quality of design of databases, the quality of delivery, the quality of managing projects.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is mind-boggling.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Unproductive time, effort, and rework.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I saying all of this?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: If engagement rates are so low, I shudder to think the kind of mediocrity that would have sit in the people who think about their work, their productivity, delivering output or positive business outcomes.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I call it an epidemic?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at these statistics.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Over 195 million people suffer from malnutrition in India.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: India has the highest incidence of diabetes.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is estimated more than 40 million people suffer from diabetes.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to just add manufacturing and service sector employment in India, it is about 70 million.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if just 12% are engaged, there are 88% of them who are just going about doing their job mechanically.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is surely a huge epidemic facing companies, and of course, there are millions of people suffering from a mediocrity bug.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They may be just doing some tasks, moving from one job to another, physically attending work but mentally not there.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Coming back home to get ready for the next day, it never gets measured nor gets reported.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: In my view, mediocrity is the biggest epidemic of this century, and millions of people are suffering from it, and organizations too are fighting to stay away from it.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's very hard for people to stay away from mediocrity and strive for excellence.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it so and what do people need to do to stay away from being mediocre?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: If I were to ask you, where is the competition highest?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's among people who have mediocre goals or who want to achieve mediocre results.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: All around, people in the ecosystem are pulling them down or you down to be mediocre with comments like, that's not my job, that's too difficult to achieve, have a realistic set of outcomes or goals.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It cannot be done.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get over with it.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there is enough bandwidth left, so let's do whatever is possible.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Believe me, mediocrity is so easy to settle down into and many people do so.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's examine why is it so easy to stay mediocre.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, people don't want to fail, and therefore they do what is just appropriate or average, so that there are no criticisms or conflict.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Also, over time, people work to just survive.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: They have a home loan EMI, there's a personal loan EMI, therefore, they start living EMI to EMI.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: They get less focused on what they are doing and being good at it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Organizations too don't want people to take risks or fail.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hence, they encourage mediocrity.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Also, people don't want to handle rejection and hence do what others think is right.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: We always look at what others will think of us, hence do what others say and feel is right.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Most often, we do things even though we are not convinced about it.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is done just because we are asked to do it, therefore, mediocrity sets in very, very quickly.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: People then blame the company, the manager, the environment, and it is a convenient excuse to do average work and stay mediocre.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do you know you are suffering from a mediocrity bug?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The intensity of this bug, in my view, is different for different people.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just like diabetes and blood pressure, some of them have high or low diabetes or blood pressure numbers, the intensity of mediocrity may be high or low amongst people.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, when was the last time you did something that you truly believed in, or something you are uncomfortable with, or something you've not done before?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: People fail to understand that and hence try to live around an aura that are eternally successful in everything that they do and go about doing average things.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now look back and see for yourself how many times did you do anything of these things that I just said above?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a very little and a poor count, then you are just about striving to be mediocre.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the people remain mediocre because they are happy to have an easy time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people don't value learning and just cannot be focused on their job.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly, they don't look beyond the task.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: They really don't ask why I am doing this task and what is the larger goal or objective.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: They easily get bored with what they do every day as things are repetitive and boring for them.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: People who strive for excellence are creatures of boring and repetitive schedule.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please remember that.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: One of India's current generation greatest cricketer, Virat Kohli, works five days a week, four hours each during off season.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's really boring and repetitive.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: They do it again and again till they master the craft.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Distraction is another cause of being mediocre.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: The average daily use of social media is about 136 minutes a day.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's about two hours in a day.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: People check their smartphones about 52 times a day.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: People check their WhatsApp 32 times a day.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: All this in the midst of their work, their commitment to do what they are supposed to do and what they have taken up.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people move from one thing to another or one company to another, one manager to another without mastering the craft.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Companies do the same thing as they just want somebody to do the job, hire them in those roles and put them there.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So mediocrity sets in.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to live an extraordinary and exceptional life, you have to give up things that 99% of the mediocre people can't give up.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I read this very interesting fact from an ISRO, Indian Space Research Organization scientist who works with the structural design entity team.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: He pointed out that many of his colleagues work 24 by 7.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, no weekends for many of them.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: He points out that he sets up analysis that runs all night and he checks to debug them very often.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: They have ruthless design review meetings where they have to defend their design.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Little wonder they achieve the impossible mission to Mars and Moon.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So what are you willing to give up that millions of your friends or people do to strive for excellence and stay away from mediocrity?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it for a minute.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: People are also not able to differentiate what is valuable.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Most people go behind title and money only to realize most of the time that it is not making them happy or taking them where they want to reach.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people don't prioritize new learning and personal transformation over money and titles.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: People who strive for excellence create a pull for money and titles through personal expertise and self-respect.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Srida Vembu of Zoho, one of India's prolific product company that competes with Salesforce and Google, says formal education can only take you so far.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: But contextual knowledge comes from doing something.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: If one wants to learn something from scratch, it takes perseverance.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to beat mediocrity, start learning and building expertise.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people also spend more time thinking about others.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: People are constantly looking at others for approval.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You are rarely your true self in front of others.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are always playing a catch-up game with others only to realize you do things in a half-hearted manner, leading to mediocre output and value.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them, therefore, are not playing to their strengths and playing to others' strengths, or maybe doing it for the sake of doing it, leading to mediocre quality and mediocre results.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: In a lovely quote that I read from E.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sredan, one of India's greatest Metroman, he said, performance is the best publicity.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing I found, mediocre people don't take accountability.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: They display a very poor attitude of passing the buck.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: They look for lame reasons for not doing things.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: They blame the environment in the organization, they blame other people around, they blame the situation that they are in, etc.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: When they move to the next organization, they say the same things as the reasons.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: They therefore don't take charge during critical times, hide behind these reasons that are really not there or maybe valid, but are not willing to fight things out.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: This again leads to poor initiative from the end.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you know, you see mediocre thinking, mediocre output, and therefore everybody suffers.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amir Khan, one of India's most successful actors, mentions when I was at my worst, when my back was against the wall, I had the strength to hold on to my dreams and not compromise.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: My career then went somewhere else.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: You need to take accountability for your actions if you have to beat the mediocrity bug.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: People also who are mediocre believe talent is more important than effort.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, talent is important, but like we've always heard people say, hard work and effort most often beats talent that is without any effort.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people believe that they have great talent and that's good enough to do any work.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: However, great talent one may possess, effort is critical to be the best.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sachin Tendulkar, no doubt, was a great talent.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: But there are legendary stories of the hard work and effort that he put in to prepare playing Shane Wong, one of the greatest spinners in the game of cricket, and outplay him.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So talent takes you only to a certain level.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to beat mediocrity, count the effort that you have put in and be the best in what you do.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Will Smith, one of the greatest actors of our time, credits his major success in Hollywood to a sickening work ethic and mentality to die on a treadmill rather than get off before anyone does.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing I have found is mediocre people just don't have value systems to live by.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Value systems, I believe, are the cornerstone of building excellence in oneself.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: These are principles one lives by.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Value systems are not things like integrity, being on time to work, getting a work done on time, getting it done without errors, etc.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I believe these are hygiene.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is more about values like pre-preparation before a meeting, the importance of planning and execution, detailing and follow-through, commitment to your word, willingness to take responsibility in a crisis, etc.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Drop your value systems and live by it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people, I find, chug along, therefore they don't go any far.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Satya Nadela, the CEO of Microsoft, was still in the management team, the senior management team at Microsoft before he became a CEO of this organization.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he voted against Microsoft's bid of 7.2 billion to buy Nokia because he did not get why the world needs a third ecosystem for phones.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: He carried a value system of being honest to his own intuition, and he was able to stay with that during that meeting rather than agreeing with everybody in that decision.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, he could have lost the chance of being the CEO before he became one.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocre people often procrastinate.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: When things need to get done, they better get done.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: What I find with mediocre people is they just don't take a step to get things done till they are pushed to the corner or there's a need to get it done or else.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They keep postponing the action for days and weeks till it becomes a crisis.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: They also don't discuss the delays upfront and seek help to complete them.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: When it becomes an urgent crisis, then inordinate resources are put in to complete it on schedule.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: They really don't value time, effort, and cost of resources.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Organizations, therefore, are forced to employ more resources to be prepared for these situations.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: It eats away margins, profits, and huge overheads.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Look for these signs and you will find mediocre people within these teams who are responsible for these situations.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I've seen is that mediocre people are always defensive.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Most mediocre people can't accept reality and are unwilling to face them.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're always defensive and look for others to be blamed for their mistakes.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you confront mediocre people, they either move away from the scene or just find excuses that take away attention from their mistakes.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they also get aggressive just to ensure they keep people at bay and not handle conflict openly.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: According to Howard Business Review, do you know that the best CEOs of the world are introspective?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: They are working on improving their conflict management skills, listening skills, sharing and delegation skills, team building skills, to name a few, after having achieved so much.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're not defensive about their weakness and are trying to improve themselves day in and day out.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ayah Rehimal, widely acclaimed as the Muzahat of Madras, says you have to hold a mirror to yourself.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Look at yourself and see where you stand with all these people around.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you standing out?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is not defensive despite what he has achieved to refine and review his music skills.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does it take to stop this mediocre epidemic?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with the individual in you first.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It begins with being self-aware of the situation and isolating yourself or people who suffer from this.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: When there is an epidemic, how does it get handled?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Start with pre-control measures.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Competency often gets measured in people by organizations, but attitude is a tough qualitative aspect to measure.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Find ways and means of controlling mediocre people who influence you or get into your life or into an organization.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have the right quarantine measures to stop these people coming into your life or into the organization?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Always find ways to quarantine yourself from mediocre thoughts and action.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: The next point is identify the mediocrity islands.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Organizations have mediocrity islands and soon it starts to expand.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like an epidemic, mediocrity emerges in small islands, maybe in a small area first locally, in a specific set of people, in a department, in a function, in a branch, in a city.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with localized transmission.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It can be between two people, it can be with a couple of people across departments, and then it spreads.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, identify it, isolate it, and kill it locally.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: The next one is look for amplification of mediocrity bug.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Mediocrity bug I've seen quickly spreads across people or the organization just like an epidemic.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: The objective, therefore, must be to control and reduce this incidents by identifying people with this mediocrity bug.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It starts to show up in meetings, in a chatter in the corridor, in the execution, in the ambitions of people around.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It requires skilled and motivated people who never get influence, who strive for excellence to eradicate these mediocrity bugs.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Eradication and elimination, simply put, eradication and elimination of an epidemic is rarely achieved.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: What is most important is to put in place efficient diagnostic tools, interventions to interrupt this transmission and removal quickly on identification.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: The same needs to be done for mediocrity within people or the organization.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Continuously look for indicators in you or the people who display this.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Look for transmitters who spread this mediocrity bug.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: It can be seen in discussions or output, it can be seen in the kind of objectives or targets that people are willing to set for themselves, it can be seen in the cynicism that people or leaders carry.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important thing is to identify them early and quarantine them very, very quickly.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, like an epidemic, people must be informed about this so that they will look for these symptoms around them to protect themselves from the mediocrity bug.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, look out for the mediocrity bug first in you.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Find ways to get the right vaccines to get out of this mindset.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then look for transmitters to spread it and eliminate them from your life and from the environment where you live and work.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.