On 11th of October, I completed six months at FocusU. If anything, it has been a constantly rising learning curve for me. I cannot reiterate enough how much FocusU has helped me learn and grow. I really want to share this experience with the team, especially the newbies. I want to give them an insight into my journey with FocusU so far. They might find this relatable, if not useful. But again, with all humility, I still have so much more to learn from everyone, and I don’t plan to let my rising learning curve drop anytime soon. Here are six things I learned in six months at FocusU:
FocusU Provides Roles, Not Jobs:
Yes, you read that right! And before you come for me, just hear me out! The great philosopher Socrates once said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Back then, he hardly had any idea that this would be the truth about today’s world. We have fought the old, and now we are on a quest to build the new—new architecture, new technology, new transport. Among all these, there is a new workplace too, called the agile workplace. I don’t know if we, as an organization, are 100% there yet, but I can vouch for the fact that in these past six months at FocusU, I have experienced flexibility, autonomy, and agility.
As I said earlier, the world is changing, and so is the workplace. But the fact is, it is not possible for an organization to just become agile and face these changing times. It takes a huge amount of time, patience, re-thinking, re-implementing, and overcoming several challenges to become truly agile. The fact that FocusU has faced and overcome these challenges to build this agile culture is commendable.
Now, why do I say FocusU provides roles and not jobs?
You see, jobs are fixed, stern, and rigid, whereas roles are flexible and adaptable (flexible work timings, amazing benefits, feedforward culture). Jobs focus on what a person needs to do, whereas roles focus on the process by which a task needs to be done (workflows). Jobs are task-oriented, whereas roles are goal-oriented (OKRs). Jobs tend to come from a hierarchy of control, whereas roles come from a hierarchy of task execution (flatter organizational structure, where people work as teams to execute tasks). Jobs are mainly for task execution by an individual, whereas roles are more focused on the overall betterment of the organization (again, OKRs).
I believe this will eventually lead to more growth and success for the organization because people, when assigned roles, will be more inclined to fulfill their assigned tasks simply because they love doing them—not because they are stuck in a job just to keep their position. People have become experimental, and nobody prefers to continue doing just one particular job. Another evidence of FocusU being pro-roles is the opportunity to work on inter-departmental projects. By giving people this opportunity, they will definitely start adding more value to the organization’s growth.
Being Confident in My Own Skin:
I was having a conversation with a colleague, where he asked me about my experience so far. I remember telling him one thing: “If I look back six months from now, I was this shy, less confident girl.” And that's true. I have always struggled in school, college, and even during my MBA because I am an introvert. Much of my social anxiety stems from not being accepted as an introvert. My friends, family, and even professors have told me at some point that I wouldn’t achieve success if I didn’t become like a ‘certain someone’ who is extroverted and a social butterfly. Over time, this conditioned my mind to believe I needed to be like someone else; otherwise, I wouldn’t find my sliver of confidence. This made me curl up into my shell more and more!
But now I don’t look for that sliver of confidence anymore because FocusU has helped me be confident by being me. I feel accepted the way I am. I learned that you can be confident and develop your skills even if you are an introvert by being passionate about your work. Not only am I passionate about what I do, but I am also constantly inspired by everyone’s passion for their work here.
Being Resilient:
Honestly, I was not very good at dealing with adverse situations in my personal life. Well, rather, I wasn’t before. It took me time to face such situations, and I always ended up being too hard on myself. I used to shut myself down and always felt the need to give up rather than fight back.
Since I joined FocusU, where I was made to feel important from the very beginning, I gained the strength to finally look within and realize my own worth. Now it's like a newfound strength. I am better at fighting my battles now. I still struggle a bit, but then again, who doesn’t? Overall, I have learned to be resilient.
Self-Reflection:
Working with and gaining numerous learning experiences and perspectives from so many amazing people has indeed helped me look within. I reflect on things I used to believe, reflect on ways I used to work, and reflect on values I held. By doing this, I was truly able to identify and reform things that needed to be changed or rethought. It has helped me grow as a person. I tend to listen more now and understand better.
Living Values:
I have said this many times, but I want to say it again. With CHOPS (Our core values are Care, Humility, Ownership, Passion, and Safety) coming into my life, I have truly started living the values in my daily life as well. I try to instill them every day, and that is the whole point of CHOPS. Even when I am at a crossroads about something and need to think it through with my values, I find CHOPS always guiding me!
Lastly, Being More:
We never stop learning. And as I said in the beginning, I have no plans to let my learning curve drop. I want to learn more! I aspire to be a go-to person filled with empathy and care, yet firm on the company’s and my own values!
I came across a major realization after I joined FocusU. I have read, made notes on, and gained a fair bit of knowledge about behavioral theories and frameworks during my MBA. Honestly, most of them don't fit when it comes to actually working with people. Yes, they help shape your perspective, but how people work in the real world is quite different. To gain this perspective, we need to live those experiences. We need to deal with situations on our own and learn the hard way. In the past six months here, I have learned a lot about real situations, but I want to #BeMore.
Penned by Pragya Talukdar, Senior Associate-People Success