“Not Knowing Your Values, Purpose And Inability To Learn Leads To Failure” Shares Dr J.m Sampath The Man Behind Leading Organisations To Achieve Sustainable Growth

Most individuals find themselves running around circles when it comes to dealing with challenges, unable to point to the root of the conflict. In a similar situation over three decades ago, an individual who did not get along with his boss was confused as to how some of his colleagues were fine with the leader, yet there were some others like himself who could not work with him. After some reflection, he realised that his values did not match with that of his boss. The individual was none other than renowned management thinker, author and entrepreneur Dr J M Sampath who embarked on a journey 35 years ago to understand the source of friction and emerged successful going on to help several others worldwide with his unique ideas.  Dr Sampath has dedicated his efforts, be it his interventions, books, self-help tools or ventures toward creating path-breaking work in the field of self-development and learning. Having helped several individuals and organisations, including Fortune 500 companies in discovering their true potential, Dr Sampath shares insights on his approach in this excerpt  

Q. Your focus on self-reflection and learning has emerged highly successful in your interventions the world over? Help us understand the idea behind how self-awareness can help an individual or organisation transform their lives for the better? 

Ans: A mismatch in values leads to conflicts. This can be between individuals or even between individuals and groups like organisations. It is interesting to note that often values do not align because the individuals or organisations themselves have no awareness of their own values. If there is no awareness, there is no understanding of what works and what does not work for yourself. The major challenge here is the ‘mob mentality’, i.e. following others blindly without understanding their own capabilities, and expecting similar outcomes. For example, an individual working 7 jobs seamlessly without impacting his performance in any of the jobs is rare, yet possible. The pandemic demonstrated this possibility, while individuals were working from home. However, if a person who cannot handle one job tries to copy this person, they will find themselves failing miserably. If you are aware of your values, capabilities, and performance capacity, you will choose the right fit for you which unlocks a limitless number of possibilities you can achieve.     

Q. Give us a brief understanding of how you help individuals overcome these challenges? 

Ans. The aim is to help individuals achieve different levels of self-awareness and not prescribe ‘one-size-fits’ all solutions. My approach does not include prescriptive training. It includes well-designed workshops to aid individuals in learning about themselves and realising who they have become and how they can grow to become who they are capable of being. The focus is also on helping individuals increase their potential to learn. If you stop learning, failure is evident. We teach people to imbibe learning as a way of life at every stage of their journey. Self-awareness in terms of: what to acheive? vision, how to go? values, why of what and how? clarity on vision and values, when and where to do what? context. Responses to these questions coupled with learning are the keys to adapting and winning. You will find them as a major component in every approach I take.   

Q. Your software Opptimise is a unique tool, different from the usual HR analytics tool available to analyze individual performance. How does it aid in the resolution of conflicts and identifying gaps in talent? 

Ans. Organisations struggle with getting the best out of their talent, even when the best of the best are hired. Keeping this in mind, we created Opptimise, a behavioural analytics tool to help organisations make informed decisions across levels. It has helped in creating performance enhancement plans, selecting the right leaders or managing teams in the best possible ways, to even more complex situations an organisation faces with talent. The software provides rich diagnostic insights and predictive capabilities for an individual or a group of individuals. It has been used across scales and stages, helped leadership make better decisions and boosted efficiency on an individual as well as organisational level. It is again in line with the thought that understanding the cause of a situation is the way to finding the best possible outcome of the situation. 

Q. What message would you like to give individuals who are facing challenges in the workplace or individual life? How should they aim to achieve their full potential? 

If you are looking to achieve your potential, a simple approach works wonders. We are living in a dynamic, fast-moving world and we need to be agile to adapt to this change. However, while adapting we need to ensure we do not lose our core. We should be centered while being adaptable. In other words, be open to learning, but hold on to your core values and purpose.