Hard Work Pays but It Must Be Made Visible Too

As a student of MBA, this is my first blog though I write for our club’s monthly magazine-Focus.

MBA-Master in Business Administration. If Business is plucked out from MBA then also it is quite meaningful or I can say the remaining is the most important ingredient to be in any manager and a leader. You need to administer others.  Here in our college where to learn your MBA program you come across people, who all inspire like you to be a future manager and /or a leader. In their pursuit of their dream which is common to yours, everyone tries to lead others. These so called “Others” are themselves trying hard to lead you. Chaos can prevail if it’s done without using your left brain which works and thinks logically. Then what will be your tactics to tame them (not literally but to emerge as a leader in this jungle fight); if not to work under you then at least to work along with you in your ideas?

Here in IBS, college provides us with an environment consisting of CLUBS which gives you a platform to learn the skills needed to master the above mentioned problem. There can be many answers. If I would conduct a survey in my college where there are more or less 2000 students, I can come up with lots of solutions .These remedies can either be used singly or can be clubbed together to form as tactics to seek modus Vivendi.

Ok, I think for readers’ convenience I should once give you all a glimpse of Clubs in my college which I had witnessed. There are as many as 28 clubs in my college focused towards particular area like Economics& Business, Marketing, Advertising, Entrepreneurship, Sports, Art and culture and Nature etc. Basically these can be divided into formal and informal subject related clubs (Of course none of the clubs can be said as informal if its subject line is informal. But students do say  J ).Clubs in first category organizes formal events, business fights, Lecture guest, and discussions. Other organizes cultural events, Sports events, Cultural competition, Rock music shows, fashion shows and much more.

Every club has its core committee and an executive committee. When first year students join they work as working members after they pass through specific club’s recruitment and selection process. The timeframe of one as a working member till he/she becomes a core member, executive member or  remains left out in the race is very crucial for one’s success in this small blueprint of corporate world. This is the time when you have to showcase your talent in specific areas and more importantly to emerge as a leader among your peers. During this period of your education along with theoretical knowledge one gets acquainted with practicality of it.

In the first blog I’m sharing just one of my learning which is very important in today’s corporate scenario wherein flat hierarchy or companies with very few hierarchies are becoming common. It looks as though organizations with bureaucratic hierarchy too will soon follow the trend due to its advantages. But it has demerits too. A cure for it could be my learning. Therefore I thought to share with you all.

“HARD WORK PAYS BUT IT MUST BE MADE VISIBLE TOO”.

Trust me it’s very important. Person like me born and brought up in a lower middle class family with father as a government employee, values and morals imbibed in me had a tough time to showcase my talent in my endeavor. Your work will be tagged as someone else’s work and you will not know when this hell happened. This was not because I was weak but I couldn’t do Chaplusis (I think you know this. It’s called as Flattery), politics-here politics is not taken in its literal way but the way we Indians take it (in colloquial term) and more importantly to bespeak my views in front of everyone (here I mean seniors because they are the one judging you) and make everyone aware about your contribution if you were keeping track of it and were working on it. So who all believe in “Hard work” or at least in “Smart work” then you should make it visible and take credits for it. You have to judge the right time to take credit or else it may hamper your image as well as your team work which is not at all good. So beware!!

Of course all this is just a simple simulation of a real organization where we all have to land up one day. Only exception is to get self-employed and I think proportion of students is very minimal for such employment. So peers follow your heart to choose a work, a work you love because if you sow hard work in your love, you can reap its benefits. It’s been said correctly-“Work is love made visible”, a work what you love to do will be visible one day or the other. But time is the constraint. As in love you have to show your love or at least give cues like that initially you have to make your work visible voluntarily and then if you love to do that job, it will shine forever.


Contributed by Juhi Sheela ( Class of 2013, IBS Hyderabad)