Are you too busy? Very serious?

In India and probably in other parts of the world too, we have a cultural issue. Look closely, the society conditions us to become “serious” as we grow in life and career. So is being serious equal to being more hardworking and sincere?

There comes a feeling that certain things are not important. Like laughing at simple things, having some fun between work, taking part in a game or a cultural event at office. Generally the lesser experienced folks; the “freshers” participate in these. So what happens to people beyond an age and career level?

Do people become too old to have fun, play a game or ponder upon an idea different from work? Or these things cannot be done with the deliverables, beyond a certain “level”? Or do they feel that it does not suit them anymore? “Arre yeh to bachhe karte hain?”  J

Let us consider a couple examples in India. Prasoon Joshi, national award winning lyricist and screenwriter is also the Chairman of a company. Palash Sen, lead singer of the band “Euphoria” is a qualified and practicing doctor. Are they not serious about their work or do they have more than 24 hours a day?

Why do the top MBA colleges across the world want well rounded profiles for admissions? The reason is that it has been observed that such people more often than not, end up as better professionals in the long run. The idea is that someone who shows enthusiasm and competence across other fields apart from academics and work, would have a more matured sense of people and life, have more diverse forms of experiences and would hence have better raw materials to become successful business leaders.

There would be situations at work when we would not have the time for anything else. But generally we need to be able to find the time to unwind, smile, have some fun, nurture our passions and keep the fizz and excitement of life intact. As we struggle with the tough and mundane things of life, let us not kill the child within.

Time for each one of us is limited, so let us be enthusiastic about things and never grow so old, that we become incapable of enjoying the happy moments of life, that come for free!

What is the best way to get work done?

It is necessary to be serious, tough and create invisible barriers around us, as we grow up the corporate ladder? Some of it would happen naturally, and there has to be a respect for authority; however we need to guard against trying to be too menacing and hence get completely disconnected from people. It is people at the end of the day, that would deliver work for a team and a company.

The workforce would keep becoming younger as we grow. As a leader, to have teams performing at their peaks, it is critical to be able to connect with even the lowest level of the workforce or at least have an understanding of their thought processes. People should know that there is “fire” in a leader; that he/she is not a pushover, but using the fire too often could backfire! J

How many of us have seen the classic “Do Aankhen Barah Haath” or similar movies later, like “Karma”, where one of the sub themes if to bring the “outlaws” to the right path. How did the protagonists achieve this? Was it through severe reprimand and punishment or was it through empathy, honest counselling, leading by example and a carrot and stick policy if required?

Human psychology works similar everywhere. Research and statistics prove that old school management techniques of micro management or a “no tolerance” policy to mistakes, may get work done quicker in the short term, but is not a good culture to nurture for the long term in terms of company values, employee morale, attrition and retention. Most people just want to do things the love to do, have some clear goals they can work to attain, want their abilities to be recognized and have respect.

A leader should try to build an atmosphere, where people feel respected and happy to work, even under a heavy workload. The leader should focus on building the team, so that everyone is approachable, people love to work with each other, enjoy each other’s success and are inspired to get up every day and come to office to get the work done together. The team should know that they just need to be serious about getting the work done, not become boring, serious and scary themselves, so let there be some regular doses of humour breaks!

Just try and create this atmosphere and you would rarely have to be tough, work would get done efficiently without much supervision and your team members would be ready to give their up lives for you, if required. Pun intended. J

I May Not Agree With What You Say…

...but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it."

- Voltaire, French writer, philosopher and historian.

The above statement is often quoted in the context of democratic rights and civil liberties. However I think this also has a huge importance in the corporate scenario in areas like team work, negotiation and decision making.

Very often at work and in life (and we do not realize this), we fall into the trap of looking at things from a highly one dimensional point of view. This may happen because we are very confident of our understanding and knowledge of a particular topic or area of work.

Sometimes we may underestimate the capability of a junior colleague or person and may not take seriously, what he or she says.

However in the long run this acts against us, because it closes our minds to other opinions and ideas that maybe potentially as good as ours, if not better. This also harms the team and the project in the long run.

More importantly, we stop learning and growing by understanding and taking the good points of other viewpoints. To be a thorough and well-rounded professional, apart from gaining knowledge and competencies, we also need to pick up other skills that would help us understand others and arrive at conclusions, that would enable us take those decisions, that would be beneficial for all stakeholders involved.

We have to remember, that at work nothing is personal. All efforts, discussions and debates are for a better team and for the better outcome of projects. To do this we need to be good speakers as well as good active listeners.

I say "active" because often just to show that we are listening; we pretend to do so, while we are actually not listening. This is as good as not listening at all. 

Different stakeholders have different concerns and if we push for maximalist solutions, we would never arrive at a consensus. So unless it is absolutely impossible, a discussion or a negotiation has to be an act of give and take where all parties feel that they have gained something.

We also need to remember that speaking up is good, but we need to gradually make sure that we are right and make sense most of the times. Saying things just for the heck of it without proper application of knowledge and experience may lead to lack of credibility for us. 

On print this sounds so simple, but I have seen grown up, extremely knowledgeable and experienced people, folks doing MBA and stuff, spouting organizational jargons left and right, but completely ignorant of the basic rules of negotiation and showing respect to individuals and points of view.

The bottom line is we need to be vocal about our thoughts and ideas and also give respect to those of others. While we may completely disagree with another point of view, we still need to be able to show respect in disagreement and learn to “agree to disagree”.

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Who is a Leader?

 “Your title gives you claim to the throne of our country, but men don't follow titles, they follow courage. If you would just lead them to freedom, they'd follow you. And so would I.”
                                   

-          William Wallace to Robert Bruce in the movie “Brave heart”.

Does a leader need a position or a title?  Does one become a leader only when he/she becomes a Manager, Senior Manager or a Board Member?

Conversely are all people in such positions really leaders?

Leadership does not lie in a position; it is derived from thoughts and actions in any situation. People can be leaders without having titles and others would automatically follow them and then there would be many who would have huge titles and people would wonder how they got there!

A positive change agent, one who understands people and collaborates, creates win-win situations for everyone, challenges conventional wisdom and the status quo, not for the heck of it but to make things better, one who is always willing to help and solve problems, one who builds other leaders and is still amazingly grounded, is a leader.

So think big, think different, be honest and speak the truth, take stands and say the right things to the right people at the right time. Always keep your spine upright and at the same time have empathy and sensitivity towards others.

Things are not always ideal, so one may fall behind sometimes. However such a person would always walk with a head held high, never be scared, earn and not demand the respect of others and have grudging admiration from adversaries as well. And, in the long run, will succeed.

If you are in a managerial or leadership role, just try to do a simple test on yourself, I saw in a video sometime back. I have done this on myself and this has helped me improve.

So ask yourself this question and answer honestly. “If tomorrow, my role, my position and power is taken away from me, would my subordinates still gladly follow me as a leader?”

What answer did you get?