Team work

No other video can descripe the 'Team Work' better than this. Enjoy till the last drop!!!

Leadership!!!

An extract of an interesting article about 'Situation Leadership' I read today.

Leadership is in the ability to win in unexpected situations, to be creative when no solution seems apparent and to feel in control of situation.

Situation Leadership is to customize one's approach to the situation to get the best of what is available.

Leadership is a cruel game. You have to complete the puzzle, but not all the pieces are with you. So, your success is no more depends only on you and yet anyone's failure is your failure.

Oppurtunities!

There is an old story about the perceptions & opportunities. A barber saw no opportunity in a city where all the residents grew long hair and mustache. Whereas, the second barber saw the same city as a big business prospect.

If you have the hunger for success, you will see opportunities everywhere and everyday to grab them. Using the given opportunity to the best of your potential will show you the way to success. It is all up to you.

Otherwise, you will always be busy waiting for the opportunity to knock your doors. Don't blame others for lack of opportunity.

What counts most?

I've been watching the recently concluded Australia's tour of India. I see a surprise performer of the series.

After a weeks, no one is talking about the performance of Symonds & Hayden, neither the stunning comeback by Murali Kartik, nor the swing of Mitchell Johnson but about the aggression of Sreesanth.

May be this fame is attractive but has a shorter life time. The world still remember the titans like Kapils, Dennis, Holdings etc even after decades of their retirement not just for their aggression but for their performance on the field.

Theory is simple, 'You can't achieve success by not excelling in your assignments' and is a lesson not just to Sreesanth, but for all.

Appreciate - When Deserved!

Motivation drives me to live tomorrow. The Zest to do more will keep me busy learning. How to keep my motivation alive?

The factor of self-motivation could reach a low when the results of our hard work are not recognized. As part of management responsibility, it is important to recognize and appreciate the hard working employees.

The appreciation can be anything - a monitory benefit, a promotion, a certificate, or even a word of thanks. A small appreciation would do a lot to the individuals.

When to appreciate is also matter a lot. It won't do anything good to recognize an extraordinary effort after the results are forgotten.

The purpose of appreciate is to motivate individual and teams. In order to keep this in focus, we should also learn what to appreciate. There is no point in appreciating every results. It is important to identify few that are due to great thinking / dedication / high spirit / hard work / lot of sacrifices and recognize them. Apart from motivating people who got it, appreciation also motivates others to achieve next time.

Criticize in Private and Appreciate in Public.

Have a good start!

Life is of no challenge if you don't have a long term goals and hunger to achieve them. You will be remembered for the success you leave behind.

As the name suggests, you can't reach them overnight. It would be a slow progress and long process. You have to approach your goals day-by-day, step-by-step. Today's success Will take you a step closure but the failure will pull you down by couple of steps. So, the number of good days in your life decides your success.

To have a great day you should begin the day with positive energy/mind set. A good start means lots of challenges during the day. Otherwise, lots of problems. Please remember that your commited attempt to overcome a challenge itself define a success. If you are able to overcome the challenge its a bonus.

Two things to be remembered

1) Practice to start the day with positive energy/mind set.
2) Forget the failures, but not the lessons learnt.

Power of Argument!

Not all have the same ideas. Opinion differs with every individuals. In a collaborative work place, not all the ideas can be considered. One has to be smart enough to choose one without hurting anyone psychologically.

Everyone thinks that their's is the best among all available options to choose. You have to win the argument to make your idea count. By winning an argument, I mean convincing others to think the way you do, 'Yours is the best available option.'

If you are not smart enough, you would end up being rude. So, how to win the argument?

1) First & Foremost, you should know the what you are arguing for. With all obvious reasons, you can't lead the way without knowing the destination.

Example : 'This is a debate to choose a recruiting strategy.'

2) You should know what you are trying to achieve by arguing.

Example : 'I'm trying to convince the forum that the talent reference is the best strategy for recruiting.'

3) Learn to control your emotions. In an argument, everybody will raise their hands to prove your are wrong and they are right. Unfortunately, they will hurt to emotionally. You should keep your head cools to win. Otherwise, even the best ideas loose.

4) Let others speak. By doing so, you are making others feel that they have put their point forward and their point are considered during discussion.

5) Last but never the least, be ready to loose sometimes. Prepare yourself to loose when others have a good ideas. You have to approach the argument with open mind. Losing is also a way to win.

Maintain your Inbox.

eMail is very common across industries. It is one of the preferred mode of communication. If not properly used, it can also work against you.

Climbing up in the corporate ladder means tons of emails daily, but how many are of any use to you? To make email's working for you, it is a worth to read "Inbox Zero" by Merlin Mann.

Being the most used tool at office, no one trained me when I was a fresher. This article gave me an insight of eMailing.

1) How frequent should I refresh my inbox?
2) When and how to respond to an mail?
3) How to the features of an email client more effectively?
and many more...

Anger Management

With more stressed life style, anger becomes part and parcel of our life. One should learn how to manage this uninvited guest better to have a good personal and professional relationship with others.

Have you ever thought about how you get angry?

Angry is a process which is not just a feeling but also a complex experience. Anger is a progression of the following steps.

1) Event - Triggers anger.
2) Emotion - Your physical and mental expression to the anger.
3) Behaviour - Your reaction to your emotions.
4) Reaction - The reaction for your behaviour which will initiate another anger process.

You can be victim of anger, may be your own or other's. Let us see how to handle both.

Reducing Anger
Manage Your Stress :-
Stress is the root cause for all disease including anger. If you can manager your stress, you will healthier for life. There are four ways to reduce our stress.

1) Exercise 5 days a week at least 30 mins per day.
2) Proper rest. Minimum of 6 hours sleep at night.
3) Positive Thinking.
4) Healthy Diet.

Control Your Anger :-
I know it is a difficult task but by achieving this by meditation and by using anger for positive results one can live a peaceful life.

Changing Angry behaviour to Assertive Behaviour :-
To do this, you should learnt to identify when you are angry. Once you reach that level, you should learn to convert your anger to assertive. Example, when you are angry, take a break, go for a walk, listen to your favourite song, read books. This break will help you to analyse why you were angry, what could make you happy etc which in tern provide you solutions.

Handling Angry People
Help Angry People
In general, angry people make you angry but this is not a productive approach. You can help them by identifing the reason for their anger, to bring them out of anger and to provide solutions to their anger.

Responding to Angry People
1) Get away if you suspect anger.
2) Understand why you might become angry at an angry man.
3) Assert yourself when verbally attacked.
4) Listen & Clarify the cause of anger.

Argueing without Anger

1) Have the discussion in a appropriate place.
2) Act like professional.
3) Let the other person talk.
4) Remain positive.
5) Keep the persent issue.

Responsibility

Everyone in a team will expect something during every 'Promotion' cycle. Not all will get one. We have to do some basic ground work to make our self a favourite.

1) The obvious factor is our expertise in technical and business knowledge.

2) The roles and responsibilities of every level in an organisation should have been already defined. We should be aware of what is ours.

3) To prepare our self for the next level, we should also learn what is in store there and develop those skills.

4) To make our new skills visible to the management, we should take more responsibilities and shine.

5) With new responsibilities, we are bound to fail few times. Our success depends on how we overcome those failures.

6) Last but not the least. We may or may not get what we have worked for, the way how we express our displeasure to the management will also score marks.

All the above will put you in the good books of the decision makers. All the best.

Being A Boss

Being a boss might get you fat salary, but doesn't always keep you happy. Every boss is responsible for his/her employees performance. Also, he needs to impress his/her own boss. These two are very complicated jobs. You should possess great skills to achieve both.

Impressing our boss is very easy on papers. 'Do more than what your boss expects from you.' To do this, you should have a talented and effective workforce. You should impress your workforce to do more than what you expect. This is the tough part of being a boss.

As a boss, you have to win the respect of your employees before showing any authority. Employees will not work with their heart and brain if they don't respect their boss. They will be less productive.

After winning the respect, giving it back takes the importance. Treating them with respect will help you to retain the respect. They will be waiting for your command to execute. This make you a great leader.

If you want to successed as boss, you should forget the phrase 'I'm a boss.' If you are, it goes without saying. Bossy behaviour will do nothing good to you.

Quitter - Winner

It is obvious that a quitter will never make to the podium. Lack of self-belief and the killer instinct are the reasons for quitting.

If you can't believe in yourself, who else can.

The followers of Wimbledon '07 can relate this to the match between Serena William & Daniela Hantuchova. Serena virtually played with one leg after injuring her left calf (spasm-induced strain). Her instinct to stay on the game and the rain god have help her to win the match.

Whatever be the barriers, it you have the guts to jump over, you will definitely reach the destination of your choice.

Tomorrow will be better!

I have been part of many interviews and none of them were closed without hearing "I am very optimistic person." This show the importance of being 'Optimistic'. You might have had a bad day. Optimism is, going to bed believing 'Tomorrow will be better than Today'.

What is the importance of being optimistic at work?

1) If you think you can't, you will never make it. So, being optimistic will help you to achieve goals/objectives.

2) If you think you can, people around you think they also can. Not just you, your team also will be with you to achieve their goals/objectives.

3) If you are not optimistic, a small mistake will make you fall.

You can't be optimistic for an hour or a day. Your mind and soul has to thing same way. Focussed approach, Clear Vision, Defined Goals will help you being optimistic.

I'm a Professional.

Working with different group/team is a very common in any industry. Every group will have its own objectives that are derived from organisation objectives. A group alone can't achieve the goal, it has to be a team effort.

There might be a group exists in the organisation whose objective is to find fault in your groups activities (like testing and quality). Eventually, they might find fault on your work. There are two ways of handling this, professional and personal.

The Professional Approach
You have to be matured enough to accept that you might have done a mistake and work towards correcting them. Humans are bound to make mistake. Few mistakes at work will not brand you. In fact, the way you handle this will help you grow-up in corporate ladder. Also, this will add fun to work place and will definitely help you win hearts.

The Personal Approach
Things are taken personally though it is the work of the other group. The reactions would not just spoil your groups growth but also the organisation's. To avoid this approach you have to come of your ego at work place. You will be isolated.

I want to be a true professional at work. So, I'm choosing the first choice. You decide on what you want to be.

Motivation

Human race might not have been survived without being motivated. It actually started from when Eve motivated Adam to eat the 'Apple' and made us to get civilized and grow from age to age.

One of the characteristics of a great leader is to be a good motivator. To motivate others, one has to gain their respect. Being a boss, one can't be relaxed as their actions are directly linked to results. To be a good motivator, one has to

1) be good at Self-motivation.

2) forget that they are a Boss.

3) treat employees with respect.

4) control over the emotions & speak.

5) find a right approach while on crisis.

Basic Work Ethics

Couple of days ago, one of my team member brought a complaint to me. The complain was she can't sit in her current WKS as the male colleague siting next to her used to smoke a lot and the odour was irritating her. I asked her to present a mouth refresher. Obvious, this will embarrass anybody but have no choice.

As a grown-up adult and a responsible corporate citizen, one should possess at least the basic work ethics. Thinks like bad breath, ugly outfit, irresponsible languages & behaviours should be avoided in work places. No one will teach these. Also, not learning these is not good for them also people around them.

Why do one want to embarrass themselves by doing these silly things?

Wrong? or Right?

When I was at Avanashi during my vacation, I have got a chance to read an interesting tamil article written by 'Sathguru. Vasudev'. An extract from that...

What is Wrong? -> Any activity that is against the law is considered to be Wrong.

An activity that is wrong to one might be right to another. For ex. before independence, the freedom fight was right to the public and wrong to then ruling British government.

If the law is the scale to decide on right/wrong, the law itself is framed by an individual or a group of such individuals. The law is framed on the basis of things that they thing that are right.

If someone felt that what he did is correct, no one (even the punishment imposed by law) can force him to change in mind. The punishments should be towards making him realize that he has made a mistake and definitely not to make him struggle.

Watz up, dude?

Being good at Writing and Speaking doesn't make you a good communicator. You have to be equally good at Listening. Information is an intangible substance that must be sent by the speaker and received by an active listener.

Listening is an active process with three basic steps. Hear, Understand and Analyze.

The workforce is going global and with colleagues from different culture, it is important to understand what they speak, their accent. Since physical presence is not required to be part of a conversation, you have to listen well to be active. Obviously, you don't want to embarrass yourself in middle of a conversation.

The first skill that you might need to practice is to act like a good listener. Then use other bodily receptors like eye contact with the speaker. This might help you to catch the non-verbal signals that he/she might sent out. Then you should start reacting to the speaker like by showing emotions on face.

Your body position defines whether you are a good listener or a deflector. Lead with your face. If you feel you are drifting away, try changing your body posture.

eMail ethics.

On the books that I read on email ethics, I found only very abstract level of recommendations on how to address email ethics and suggest some rules which might encourage a socially responsible e-mail culture. Few recommendations will be like

1. Remember the Human
2. Respect other people's time and bandwidth
3. Know where you are in cyberspace
4. ...

I have started using emails without knowing what is ethical, but never got into any trouble. The corporate world taught me few lessons that text books forgot.

1. Know your People - Be aware of whom the email should be addressed. (ie To & CC).

2. Know your Language - The Subject & Body of the email should be brief, clear and more importantly, convey the same message.

3. Know your Action - Should I 'Reply' or 'Reply to All'?

4. Know your Priority - Should never raise a false alarm.

5. Know your Grammar - I think I don't need to explain.

6. Know your Limits - Learn when to respond and understand the hierarchy of escalation.

Email ethics with the above points will make one a more effectively communicator.

How can I react?

If you find nothing wrong in my question in the heading, you might need to have a re look.

The definition of 'React' is basically an action or an outburst either emotional or physical response to a given situation. 'Respond' is an action taken after analysis the situation. So, one can't plan/prepare to 'React'.

Instead of solving the problem, 'reacting' would intensify the problem density. Not just in professional life but also in personal life, one should know how to respond to crisis.

It is a fight between your mind and head. Your head has to win to 'Respond'. In reality, mind wins most of the time. It is easy to say, but hard to practice.

Whatever be the scenario, when an auto-driver drives in your way suddenly; when your project managers gives hard time to you; your team member not working on your assignments; when your wife reacting a way you are uncomfortable with...., you should master the art of responding.