This contribution and success appear really rosy from most angles, even if it means parents taking loans to ensure their kids study computer science and related degrees to make so much money in foreign jobs that they will be able to pay back in a short period of time. Mediocre educational institutions open their doors fairly frequently without much care for credibility on the global stage, as long as the fees keep coming, they will keep the printing press open to provide degrees without giving students the needed education. This mediocrity also means that gen Y is more at the malls and coffee shops than learning to succeed in the global market. India has been a key player in the game of globalization; if not by any other means, by providing IT solutions at a reasonable price for corporate America; by providing IT workforce at a price substantially lower than what America and others were used to paying.
Along this journey, Indian companies have picked up various issues leading to key mediocrity. Why does an employee in Ahmedabad and India engage at a sub-standard performance as compared to performing overseas at a level above what he/she has ever done within India? Many reasons lead people to not care, and employers to tolerate enough. There is an all pervading policy in the corporate world for a long time because of myopic vision of our beloved HR department. That policy is: pay your employees just enough for them to not look for another employment, and that leads employees to believe to perform their responsibilities just enough so that they will not be in trouble and will ride under the radar for a long time.
Mediocrity rises due to one of many reasons:
•We tolerate and condone mediocre employees because there are no better ones available
•Even at mediocre performance, the organizations make money, so why look for better results?
•She is my friends’ cousin’s niece, so how can I sack her for not performing or train her like I would other individuals?
•I could lose my job for losing anyone on my team
• Degrees impress us more than the education and the attitude with no care to raising the standards of education.
Who can actually help us overcome these reasons for mediocrity? The sad part is that it is not just limited to the work place; it transfers to our relationships and to our interactions. For instance, we must admit that we are not the most well-mannered bunch on this planet, but we are not rude either. We are rude only by our wants and desires to get the attention and service instantly, irrespective of whether there is another conversation going on or not, with the service provider.
In real life, not caring for others’ privacy and not being courteous to others is the most inappropriate behavior you display and this behavior shows the lack of mannered upbringing we ought to have gotten. By the way, these same people, when overseas, are so timid and in the last place in line, soft spoken, not demanding and more agreeable than most others.
Each one of us can rise above this mediocrity to become world class citizen by simply treating others the way they want to be treated. We can accomplish this by merely changing the way we ask for service. We can do this by changing our own view of the world that we are here to help and seek help, not the other way around. Ask, rather than tell; request, rather than dictate. Have the energy directed towards your own life, and you will see how this energy ends up helping you in the most miraculous way.
All this is easier than it appears, you just have to make up your mind that starting now, you are going to be different and not settle for mediocrity in any aspect of your life. That determination that clarity, that focus, that direction will lead you beyond what any of your imagination or dream might venture to take you! Word of caution for those that listening: you will have to do it yourself; nobody else will do it for you. You will do it, because you have opted for the freedom to choose to do it.
