Have You Done Anything Over and Above the Call of Your Duty

I had a decent spell of 5 years with one of the leading Public Sector undertakings in India - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. HPCL, even in early 1990's, had a superb Appraisal system in place. At the beginning of the year, the employee has to fill in HP-HRD-I. This is an exercise in setting your own goals and targets in quantitative terms. The goals were divided on a quarterly basis, discussed with the immediate Supervisor resulting in an amicable (at times stormy discussion) agreement between the two and a signing off.

At the end of each quarter, the employee has to provide his performance against each target and suggest action plans to overcome any shortfalls. Again this is reviewed by the Supervisor. Finally at the end of the year, employee does a self assessment. The Supervisor, based on the employees Self Appraisal and his own assessment prepares a document called HP-HRD II, which is comprehensive covering all the aspects of the subordinates job, both hard skills and soft skills. He, then, gives a rating on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 the lowest. These two documents are then sent to the Supervisors Manager for review and approval to ensure that no employee is victimised by his Supervisor.

As a Sales Officer, handling Retail, LPG and Industrial Products in Coimbatore Sales Area, I was selling more than 100 odd products and had targets for each and every one of them. Add to this inspection targets, new outlet commissioning, budgetary compliance, tankage augmentation, up gradation of Retail Outlets, Subsidies given to dealers etc etc.........the list of specific quantifiable targets was endless.

At the end of the year, even if I have met all my targets (which is a near impossibility), I will still be not given an outstanding rating of 1. The reason - in HPCL meeting targets are what you are supposed to do and that which is a part of your job. You are entitled to get an Outstanding Rating of 1 only if YOU HAVE DONE SOMETHING OVER AND ABOVE THE CALL OF DUTY.

This is a superb concept that fosters innovative and out of the box thinking. One year, me and a colleague of mine, adopted a tribal village in Attappadi under an obscure scheme of HPCL and did lot of developmental work. Another year, I was instrumental in identifying, negotiating with 45 land dwellers and the district administration to acquire land for our proposed new storage point and replicated the same next year with respect to an LPG plant in the neighbouring State. At the end of the year, I felt a sense of accomplishment, was happy that I showed leadership and initiative. This went a long way in making me a leader. Looking back, I am thankful for HPCL in more ways than one as my stint with them gave me tremendous self confidence needed to become an enterpreneur and a top notch professional.

This is the time in Kuwait and elsewhere when appraisals are prepared. When you step in for the appraisal discussion, think back and identify the times when you had done something over and above the call of duty. If you have not done anything, tough luck friend. You are not going to go ahead. All you can do is to plan ahead for 2008, take up a challenge outside your normal responsibilities and invest in it to make it a success.

Do Something / Anything over and above the Call of your Duty