In an interaction with Higher Education Review, Mukesh Sud, Associate Professor at IIM Ahmedabad and Priyank Narayan, Founding Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Ashoka University share their views on the strategies for career advancement. During the conversation, they talked about the importance of having a mentor, building a professional network, and more. The duo have recently authored a book titled “Leapfrog: Six Practices to Thrive at Work”.

One of the major career advancement strategies suggested by experts is to find a mentor.  More than 70 percent executives believe that mentoring has played a critical role in their career development. How do you see the importance of mentoring?

Priyank: One of the chapters in Leapfrog is titled - Developing Grit- where we write about the importance of having a mentor. We have discussed the need for constant improvement and the influence that the right mentor can have. This is described with an example of Shizuka Arakawa, a Japanese figure skater who worked with different coaches to perfect her style that finally helped her win an Olympic Gold.  There is enough evidence and research to show that a mentor plays a very important role.

Building a professional network helps in finding a new job or moving up in the existing organization. You have touched upon it in one of the chapters in the book. Could you please elaborate on this factor?

Mukesh:  We have touched upon the topic of building a professional network and stressed on the importance of engaging with social groups. Today, a significant research highlights the impact that other  people have on our lives. Studies show that simple things like exercising regularly, giving up certain habits, and more can be influenced by people who may not be in our direct network, but in the networks of our friends.    

Another significant aspect is creating a vision and having a foresight of what success means in the career, and what it looks like?  How important is it to have a vision?

Priyank: In the chapter - Curating the Chaos - we have discussed making choices. We write about the need to have a focus and how it helps in making better choices. We have explored the notion that having too many choices does not necessarily put us in a better position. A classic study involves purchase of jams, wherein two counters were set up with the first one having six flavors of jam and other 36 flavors of jams. In such a scenario, one would intuitively say that 36 flavors offer more choice to a customer, but research proved that people who were offered one amongst six flavors were more likely to buy and were happier with the choice they made.

With a plethora of options, data, and bits of information at our disposal, making judicious choices is often difficult. To zero down on the best choice, it is crucial to be involved in the act of curation that plays a significant role in clearing the clutter.

Being intellectually humble and listening to contrary ideas is crucial for innovation. How do you see its relevance as one of the six practices?

Mukesh: In Leapfrog, we have elaborated on topics like having a T-shaped profile, a small ego and big ego; to stress the importance of being intellectually humble. The book also engages with the concept of having strong ideas that are loosely held. To elaborate, we all have strong ideas, but it is crucial to hold them loosely and listen to contrary ideas and absorb what is good in them. Leapfrog also cites the example of Google and explains why the company wants people who have failed and understand what they have learned from their failures.  

Priyank: Today’s young students are full of confidence that helps them survive. However, through this book, we are aiming to build their capability to listen to contradictory ideas, and respect other’s perspectives without seeing it as a conflict. It is also a prerequisite to be a continuous learner in an ever evolving environment.

Speaking of learning, what is your take on the apparent shift in skilling industry?  How would you compare online learning with full time on-campus education?

Priyank: No doubt, the online learning model delivers the opportunity of continuous learning for students, enabling them to upgrade themselves. However, the concentration and effort put in by learners will decide the outcome they achieve. I believe that if a classroom environment along with attention and dedication are encouraged, online education can do wonders. However, that is not an easy task to accomplish, as in the virtual world, the temptation of multi-tasking remains.

Having said that, online education is great and is here to stay, giving the students access to some of the best teachers across the globe. Certain hard skills can be learned through online courses, if students pursue them with dedication. These courses can also supplement classroom courses, helping to achieve hybrid blended learning, thereby reinforcing their education.

How exactly can a T-shaped profile be built in students and business professionals?

Mukesh: Today, students need to collaborate and communicate new ideas. They must draw and absorb knowledge from different domains and bring ideas that can be assimilated within their own field. In Leapfrog, we have cited an example of a San-Francisco based company named IDEO that has helped companies like  Apple come up with new products and services. This company encourages its employees to work in teams that are cross disciplinary, with people from different domains. Having multiple perspectives is now an accepted in industry.

Look at the pandemic. It is not only a medical problem but also a psychological problem, an economic problem, it's also an issue of children being denied education. Hence, with multiple moving parts, one cannot deal with one part and solve the problem. In contrast to people from similar fields who tend to complete each other’s sentences, when collaborating in a cross-disciplinary manner, the probability of new idea emerging shoots up.

Last but not least is the need to build the capability of thinking like an entrepreneur. How can it be inculcated?

Mukesh: Teaching entrepreneurship is like teaching music. As educators say we cannot give you a voice but no matter what kind of voice you bring to the classroom, we can teach you to sing better. So, entrepreneurship is not something that a person is born with. For example, in the chapter titled Audacity of Asking we have explained how entrepreneurs are constantly asking for help, asking questions, and asking for resources. So, to think like an entrepreneur, one should treat failure as a badge of honor and be never afraid of failing.

Priyank: There are some people who will always think like an entrepreneur, and have a problem-solving mindset. And, there will be people who have to work towards it. For instance, when doing mathematics, for some students it may come intuitively and effortlessly, while for others it can be a struggle, requiring extra effort.

Entrepreneurship or an entrepreneurial mindset is like any other discipline in the world, and it can be taught, imbibed and inculcated. No doubt, there will be people who will be naturally good at entrepreneurship and the effort will be less for them. But, then there are others who can use all the tools and techniques to move forward and thrive as an entrepreneur.

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily mean having a startup or a venture. One can have an entrepreneurial mindset in every aspect of life. I often tell my students that the world needs more entrepreneurs, not necessarily more startups, as startups are just one outcome of being an entrepreneur. One can be an entrepreneur in everything you do and that is the power of thinking like an entrepreneur.