The Key to Success is to Bake Your Own Pie!

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The Key to Success is to Bake Your Own Pie!

Editorial Committee

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The Key to Success is to Bake Your Own Pie!

February 10, 201511 min read

Raju (R) and PIEush (P) went to the same college, both graduated from one of the Top IIMs in the country in the same year and both worked equally hard in the formative years of their careers. Yet after 10 years when they met at a local CCD outlet for a New Batch welcoming party, PIEush arrived in a chauffeur driven Audi Q7 and Raju had to struggle to find parking for his Sedan and hence arrived late. Raju was amazed to see PIEush dressed in a dapper Tuxedo smiling ear to ear to welcoming the participants of the meet. Raju walked up to PIEush and requested if PIEush could share the secret of his success with him.

Here is the conversation that followed:

R- We both went to the same college. If you remember, I always scored more grades than you, on campus, The professors loved me as the most promising student of our batch and I got placed on Day O whereas you had to contend with a job on Day 2, yet today our worlds seem to be very different. You are a National Sales Manager with the best International FMCG brand in our Country and I continue to be a Regional Sales Manager for an Indian Pharmaceutical Company, I have always worked hard and put in more than 12 hours a day, yet I feel that I have not done something right (with a worried look on the face)?

P- (Intervening R’s talk)- You have not done anything wrong. However you could, may be, do something better. Let me let you in onto a secret. It’s all about The PIE Model!

R- Has this got something to do with the winning spirit/ fight for survival from the movie Life of Pi?

P- No. PIE stands for Performance, Image, and Exposure. Typically this is represented by a pyramid diagram or a pie chart and the 3 segments represent the following:

Performance: The actual work you do-the results you deliver. The outcomes and the impact that you have been able to contribute. This is the baseline and should absolutely be the primary focus of all Karma yogis. Without performance you can never ever succeed. Some pointers about Performance:

It is your Entry ticket in the corporate world and acts as the Reputation builder
Starts the legacy…”Your” legacy
Common denominator in the Organizational growth process
Confirms your ability to take on more responsibility
Must grow to stay above the bar as it is continuously being raised

Image: The impression that others have formed about you and your capabilities (what each person perceives “you are” could be different as well). Some pointers about Image:

It’s the message you send before you speak, whether intentional or not
Includes attire, confidence and demeanour that you exhibit (Some Gurus say Dress for the next role that you aspire for)
Develops early in your career
Says “I’m Ready”
Every interaction counts. Make sure all are positive

Exposure: The people or groups of people who get to know about you or are connected with you and have an opinion or view of your performance and your image. Some pointers about Exposure:

High career impact
How others know of your performance
Makes you visible to those who can influence your career
Can be enhanced by network of mentors, bosses and champions

The definition of success in today’s world is therefore, S=P×I×E . i.e. Success = Performance * Image * Exposure. At first, it was a concept that really didn’t go well with me. It didn’t seem Right or Fair. Surely one’s career should just depend on the results that one delivers? If one is good at his/her job, one should do well, right? If I’m honest, that feeling stayed for quite a long while with me. I resisted the concept that I needed to care about my image, about my exposure. I believed that I could just do my job and that the results I delivered would be what mattered. I wouldn’t need to care about image or about getting known by the decision-makers. All that changed because I was asked to write some feedback for someone. The person in question was someone I actually hadn’t worked with as directly as others for whom I had written performance evaluations in the past. I realised that since I hadn’t been working directly with them, I didn’t really KNOW about their real work and their real results. Strangely, though, I still had definite opinions, both of what they were doing well and what they could improve on. This is what made me realise that image and exposure are both important and factors that you should ignore at your peril.

R- So do you mean to say that I should project something that I am actually not? Would that not be fake or non-authentic?

P- Authenticity is the Key. Never compromise on who you truly are. What I am saying is whether you like it or not, only a limited number of people will get to work with you directly. Even those who do will get a fairly narrow view of the real results that you deliver. On the other hand, many more people will form an image in their minds of what you’re like perhaps that you’re a GO-TO person or an expert on something, maybe that you’re very smart or very ambitious. Some may form a very negative image that you’re a paper pusher or unreliable or untrustworthy. The combination of that image that people have of you (Image) and the groups of people that share that view of you (Exposure) can make or break your career. Hence it is important that you work on taking care of these 2 aspects as well in a planned and authentic manner.

The big light bulb moment for me was when I accepted that Image and Exposure were going to matter whether I cared about them or not. Of course Performance is also important and always will be – It is the starting point of the equation and remember the equation is connected by Multipliers if your performance is zero then the whole equation becomes zero. I firmly believe that folks who try to make it all about the image and the exposure are playing a dangerous game of selling Khayali Pulao (Building castles in the air) and will eventually be caught out. Remember you can fool everybody one time, you can fool one person every time but you cannot fool everyone every time. You need to be authentic and true to yourself. There is no two ways about it. But the difference between two colleagues with similar performance, one of whom cultivates the type of image they want and makes an effort to get the right exposure and the other who ignores these facets completely, the overall outcome may eventually swing in favour of the former.

R- So have I missed the bus, is it too late (with a sorry face), will I never be able to (Is interjected by PIEush)

P- It’s never too late to start the right thing. Here is some material that you may want to glance through to understand more about PIE: Book: Empowering Yourself, The Organizational Game Revealed. By Harvey J. Coleman Web PPT: http://goo.gl/vm2pGZ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9S6yfIJAlc HBR Article on Authenticity: https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-authenticity-paradox

You may now want to bake you own PIE very soon, but do remember there is no shortcut to success and Solid Performance still is the foundation to build your PIE on and Authenticity is the key while doing so. Without Performance & Authenticity there will be no other thing in the world that can help you be a success. On that note, wish you & family all success in the New Year 2015.

R- Thank you very much PIEush. Will browse through the materials that you have shared with me and create a plan of action to bake my own PIE and yes, will continue to work hard and contribute meaningful value to my workplace in order to be more successful in days to come.