Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Twenty-five thoughts for 2025: Essentials for excellence

by damith
January 5, 2025 1:08 am 0 comment 145 views

A refreshing 31,557,600 seconds in 2025 are with us. The sparkling spirit of a new year invites us not only to have brand new thoughts but also to convert them into grand actions.

As usual, people make New Year resolutions. My suggestion is to go beyond scant resolutions, to have specific reinforcements. As an appetiser for a productive new year, I would like to share twenty-five thoughts for 2025 as essentials for excellence, especially with Sri Lankan managers in mind.

Efficient

We all complain about lack of time. Even though there are seminars, workshops, training, and lectures on ‘time management’, we really cannot manage time. It is finite and fixed. Instead, what we can do is to manage ourselves in getting the best out of the given limited time. The only way to do that is to be efficient in our tasks. It involves minimising waste, reducing defects and curtailing deviations. Let us be efficient in 2025.

Effective

Being efficient is not enough. We can efficiently climb a ladder placed against the wrong wall. Effectiveness is results-related. It deals with output and outcomes. That is where we need to begin with the end in mind. The mistake we make sometimes is trying to be super-duper efficient, losing track of the larger goal. Let us be effective in 2025.

Empathic

As we know, empathy is getting into another’s shoes and walking in a similar stride. In other words, it means having the ability to look at a problem or an issue from another’s viewpoint. Sri Lankan managers and administrators can improve vastly regarding this. Rather than jumping to conclusions merely looking at one side of the story, a mature broad approach of being empathic is required. Let us be empathic in 2025.

Energetic

We need to be ‘corporate athletes’ in maintaining a healthy mind-body balance. Energy flows out not by consuming more energy drinks but exercising regularly. Unfortunately, we see the contrary in the corporate world, where most things are remote-controlled. Finding quality time for physical exercise on a regular basis will be a sure cure for physical inactivity. Having a healthy dietary pattern in opting to be fit than fat, is another vital need. Let us be energetic in 2025.

Enthusiastic

Happy employees are productive employees. That is what research has found. Interestingly, that is why some enthusiastic enterprises have resorted to measuring ‘laughs per hour’. There are ground realities one cannot ignore. Either one has to find the work he/she loves to do or love the work he/she has to do. Having a positive approach to work is an absolute must. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are.”Let us be enthusiastic in 2025.

Envision

“Dare to dream, dare to act, dare to fail, dare to succeed”, so goes an old saying. Everything begins with envisioning. As Walt Disney said, if you can dream it, you can deliver it. Unfortunately, we see more day dreams in Sri Lankan workplaces, especially after lunch. The need of the hour is to be more growth-oriented to work towards long-term goals. Let us envision more in 2025.

Enhance

We need to enhance our knowledge and skills. With the internet as a vast ocean of knowledge offering a variety of informal learning approaches, learning has become a part and parcel of our lives. Unfortunately, we visit the internet to find ‘figures’ instead of ‘facts and figures’. Sharpening ourselves with cutting-edge knowledge is an absolute must in facing competition. As Socrates said a long time ago, we learn from “the womb to the tomb.”Let us enhance ourselves in 2025.

Engage

Employee engagement has already become a buzz word in business circles. It captures the essence of the employees’ head, hands and heart’s involvement in work. In brief, it captures affection (feeling), cognitive (thinking) and behavioural (acting) dimensions of an employee. We need to engage more to excel. Let us engage more in 2025.

Explore

This is essentially about being creative, in thinking out of the box. It reminds me of what our veteran writer Kumaratunga Munidasa said a long time ago. “A nation without innovation will not prosper but will lie lamenting, being unable to beg.” Innovation has paved the way for countries to succeed in becoming globally competitive. Where are we with regard to innovation? How many new patents do Sri Lankans register annually? Nanotechnology and Biotechnology can be sited as promising areas where innovation has begun to yield dividends.Let us explore in 2025.

Empower

As Lao Tsu said a long time ago, great leaders are ‘leader breeders’. Such a transformation can only be possible through empowerment. It involves, on the one hand – delegation, assigning tasks to others to handle, whilst being accountable. On the other hand, it involves development. The fundamental mistake we make is to simply delegate tasks without developing the team. Let us empower in 2025.

Endure

This is all about continuation. We start things with a big bang and discontinue half-way through. Sustainability has become a critical factor in the midst of business failure. Chaotic weather patterns across the globe are a grim reminder that eco-friendly practices of work need a lot more attention. What matters is not only profit and people, but the planet as well with an overarching purpose. Let us endure in 2025.

Embrace

In a rapidly changing well-connected world, we need to embrace best practices, and perhaps the ‘next’ practices. Take recruitment for example. Rather than having a panel of senior members interviewing and who have no idea about what real interviewing is all about, the time has come to move towards professionalism. There are new techniques to conduct behavioural interviews. Required competencies to a job against actual competencies of a candidate can be accessed through a well-designed assessment centre. The starting point is to acknowledge the need to change in appropriately adapting the new practices. Let us embrace more in 2025.

Enrich

It is a broad term capturing the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual facets of life. We need enrichment in a balanced manner on all the above fronts. Sadly, but surely, what we see in the world is quite the contrary. There is an imbalance with the mad rush for material acquisition. As I saw in a poster somewhere, “we gain wealth by sacrificing our health and we regain health by spending our wealth.” Let us enrich ourselves more in 2025.

Engross

It refers to getting involved totally with complete participation. It differs from engagement to the extent where you need to be holistic and be willing to capture the fullness of a situation. Half-hearted, half-baked approaches with shabbily completing tasks are quite opposites. The eastern term, mindfulness aptly captures what you need to do fully in living in the moment. Let us engross more in meaningful activities in 2025.

Erase

When Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years of rigorous imprisonment, the first thing he did was to forgive his enemies. Then he said, ‘Reconciliation begins now’. It invites us to forgive and forget. In brief, it refers to the erasing of negative memories. The sooner we erase the negative memories, yet retaining the lessons learnt, the better it is for us to experience inner freedom. Let us erase past negativities in 2025.

Elevate

We need to continuously elevate our standards to stay competitive. It is voluntarily raising the bar. ‘Kaisen’ invites us to continuously improve in challenging our past performance and raising the targets for future performance. As the famous quote goes, ‘Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling; Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor’. Let us elevate ourselves in 2025.

Emancipate

This is comparatively a subtle aspect. It deals with practicing values. The numerous stories we heard ranging from the global credit crunch to the Golden Key chaos, all calls for the need to be ethical. It is not achieving short-term gains by hook or by crook but something much deeper, grounded on solid principles. Ethics is difficult to define in a precise way. In a general sense, ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviour of a person or a group with respect to what is right or what is wrong. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” says the golden rule of ethics.Let us emancipate in 2025.

Enthrall

This is the logical extension of emancipation. You radiate positive energy to energise and engage others. Leaders should enthrall their team members towards a clear purpose so that they become committed collaborators. It is the capacity to persuade others for a worthy cause. Let us immensely enthrall in 2025.

Engulf

There is growing optimism about a better political culture with higher accountability at all levels, in moving beyond conventional power boundaries. Engulfing involves complete covering of something or someone. Integrity should engulf Sri Lankan institutions where corruption has been rampant with a clean slate of transparency through professionalism. Let us positively engulf ourselves in 2025.

Exclaim

I thought this is something we need especially in battling with multiple crises. Having positive vibrations of resilience is required on all fronts. It is to show a positive and constructive response with confidence to a challenging economic reality. It is also responding to VUCA 1.0 reality (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) with VUCA 2.0 (Vision, Understanding, Confidence and Agility).Let us exclaim our resilience, recovery and revival in 2025.

Endeavour

The world has shifted from VUCA to BANI as Jamais Cascio, an American anthropologist presented. Living in a world with BANI 1.0 illusions, (Brittle, Anxious, No-linear and Incomprehensible) we need BANI 2.0 ignitions (Bold, Assertive, Neutral, and Innovative) by individuals and institutions alike. Let us have such an endeavour in 2025.

Exalt

We need to exalt Mother Lanka. As an island of ingenuity, it is abundant with natural beauty and nurtured brains. With bright leadership, it can be brilliantly positioned. Let us exalt our beloved Sri Lanka through our words and deeds in 2025.

Enjoy

“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time”, said James Taylor. It may be a blissful road or a bumpy ride. The mindset of accepting reality as it is in facing life’s challenges with confidence will enable us to enjoy life more. It is a choice in front of us to live one-day-at- a- time. We need to dream as if we will live for a 100 years but need to live as if today is our last day. Let us enjoy the ‘roller coaster ride’ ahead of us in 2025.

Exemplify

This is where ‘practising what you preach’ and ‘walking the talk’ matter most. The whole nation awaits a new political culture where the leaders set themselves as an example of simplicity, transparency and integrity. When it happens, the standards become high for leaders at all levels. Rather than cursing the darkness of the absence of it, we need to light a candle in practicing our values in producing value. Let us exemplify ourselves in 2025.

Excel

This is the culmination of all of the above Es. Excellence is all about being exceptionally good. When applied to enterprises, it involves exceptional achievements in a consistent manner. “We are what we repeatedly do; Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” So said Aristotle a long time ago, which has much relevance for today and tomorrow.

The dawn of 2025 offers us another opportunity to have a fresh look at our lives. Embracing the 25 thoughts for a terrific 2025 will ensure the exceeding of expectations with excellence as the essence. May 2025 be a year of excellence for you, as an individual, as an interactive team member, as an institutional employee and all of the above as an integral player in an island of ingenuity. Let us excel in 2025.

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