The King's Speech - Know your shortcomings and fearlessly work on it

What do you do when you cannot communicate something that you want to? What do you do when the issue is not just about your ability? What do you do when the inner self stops you from doing things that can help you achieve great things? What do you do when you loose a war to your fears when you are fighting battles of life? And what if all of this is happening to you when you drive lives of others? Well King's speech is a fascinating tale of a leader who is affected by a vocal disability and his fight to be effective out of it.. while it is just not about how to overcome a problem, its about the temperament and values in times of distress...

So what makes me write about King's speech on this blog... Well I think the same reason that makes us loose every day, the defining thought their in your mind that keeps on telling you... "You cant do it" is the only thing that actually stops you from doing it... The inspiring tale of King's speech through a marvelous story and screen play, some great acting and a very subtle way of emotions says "You can". As leaders we are always possessed or surrounded by our inner instincts and thoughts [either of oneself or influenced by others] that do not let us move further and achieve great things... be it Fear of loosing or be just the "I am not a Risk baby feeling"

As human beings and more precisely as leaders we are too embarrassed or afraid of accepting our short comings. When someone ask you in an interview about your weakness.. you say you dont have one.. or a diplomatic answer like "I am too work-alcoholic" or "I keep work too much on my mind" blah blah... when asked what is your team's weakness.. as a manager you minimize the turbulence your words can cause and shower praises so you dont loose a customer...Leadership is about knowing and accepting your short comings first and then working towards them. In process there will be tyrants who would demotivate you, take you back and would want to block your way.. Leaders flourish when they know what they lack and make attempt to work towards it.

Another important thing this movie teach the leaders is that with constant support and patience you can make impossible possible and people can always be worked out with.. instead of blaming or showering sympathy.. they need to be handled with support and patience. Geoffrey Rush in his role as the speech therapist marvelously reveals these qualities...

Over and over though not a full-on drama, melo-dramatic events.. The King's speech is a treat to watch...

Read More

Independence - A way to empower

Leadership or Management, its all about vision, goals and success. Leadership take a long term destination to achieve broader goals, Management helps achieve it. One of the key elements of this piece which we call achieving Success is "Team". Its the Team that really decides the fate of a successful leader. A quote from the famous movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis tells Truman...

" I am the best, because I work with the Best"

So if this Team is so important, how does one ensure they become best? I found a way all through the past few years... the word Empower. A theoretical meaning says "to equip, to supply with necessary things to achieve a goal, to enable , to permit" a practical meaning much more than that...A Team that is empowered can make decisions, can do things right and can build a powerful ground to achieve organizational goals.

In a team lunch we recently had for the new members of the Team, I asked "How does it feel like to be with us?" he replied "Amazing!, I have never seen such level of Independence, in all the companies I have worked with" another colleague replied "I begin my career where my Boss let me do a lot of things on my own, demos , meetings, development and so many other things, I feel that I got those days back". I am thrilled that the Team that is merely 3 weeks old, realize the culture we imbibe in people "Independence" in narrow lanes, Empowerment on a highway.

I realized the importance of Independence when I took up my first job... Teaching I was supposed to teach a class of 10 people on computer topics "Microsoft Excel" to be precise. It was my first day and first ever experience of taking a lecture, my Guide and Sr. tutor chose to sit along with the class to see how I do. The class lasted for 40 mins, I shivered the whole time, fumbled. She walked to me and said, next time she would not need to be in the class as I was doing good, she also let me design my own breakups of the lectures. Believe me this inspired me so much and helped me to a level that it wasnt difficult for me to train corporates in a very short span of time.

A small piece of Independence can help empower the Team members to take complex things to ease. Interesting isnt it?

• Independence to work in their own ways , but within the boundaries



• Independence to make decisions, to make those decisions better



• Independence to execute , and yield good results



• Independence to build strong self, while helping others to be strong

Independence makes a lot of things better. Helps in empowering the Teams to be more strong, more powerful, more effective....

So how does one give more Independence to the Team?

1. Assign tasks that will allow your subordinates to grow and take on additional responsibilities. let them decide the execution paths. This will build a lot of confidence in them.

2. Explain them the task and the goal of the task and what is it that they can achieve out of it, let them decide what is best in it for themselves.

3. Challenge and get Challenged. Ask questions that will help them realise and be more effective if they are falling apart. Let them ask questions so they know what is it.

4. Trust their decisions, stand by it.

5. Be a part of criticism and appreciation wherever needed.

6. Help them when they fail, but help let them succeed after they fail.

After all an empowered Team member is what can make life easier for a bigger piece of your Team.

Read More

Successful Leadership is not only when you win!!!

Yesterday Indian cricket saw a Gala of cricket with the end of the DLF IPL T20, A spectacular performance from the Bollywood stars, followed by a nail biting T20 cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings which went to the last over of the game and decide Rajasthan Royals lead by Shane Warne to be the winner of the first ever game. For India and part of the world that is keeping a close watch on this tournament it was just the finals and One Team win and One Team loosing concept... but eventually the game also displayed some great leadership values and skills from the captain of the team who lost the match... Yes Mahendra Singh Dhoni...

As a new trend in the cricket world the Teams do a scrum before and during the match to decide on quick strategies and some quick words of motivation... this is pretty common nowadays to see this been followed in almost every match you see... however after the last ball loss by Mahi's Team Dhoni ensured that he organises a quick scrum to tell the guys that "It was not your fault , It was just a bad day for us. We played better but luck was on other side... we did not loose this match... we got inspiration to win the next few from this"

Wow... Is this something called leadership? Yes of course it is... where the world tries to find sources to blame the moment you loose it was a different scene where Dhoni gathered everyone just to make them realise that Winning and Loosing is a part of the game and what they did would not have been better....

Great to see this!!!

Read More

What keeps you Motivated?

A few posts from me on Motivations and Rewards and Rewards and some humor affecting motivations and then nothing after? Well yes the truth is that I am not motivated enough to write on motivations these days... the simple fact been that there has been lack of Intrinsic Motivation off lately...

Well that also made me think on what keeps me motivated? I feel everyone we work with is bonded by the fact that intrinsic motivations work... somewhere and somehow and such factors really affect the growth and downfall of talents... In reality the downfall is seasonal and the growth is continous, specially due to the fact that anyone who is not motivated (Or on a downfall) tends to switch to either another job or a role or open the disaster doors... and this leads them to the begining of the growth... isnt it?

Yes. I thought I would share with you on what I feel keeps me motivated.. and maybe it applies to you as well...

1. Challenged and Challenging Job: I think this is the biggest motivation to anyone... If you are not been challenged in a job you take it easy and when you take it easy it is no more helping you. I have seen highly productive engineers performing bad just becuase the challenges were not thrown at them... Now wonder why Deepesh , Amit , YN, Savio and Rhushi always need to be kept on their toes?

2. I need to be listened? Yes.. If you are not implementing what I say is still OK but at least listen to what I want to say? The de-motivation of anyone begins when we dont listen... Recently I went through a phase analaysis where one persons Ideas were rejected in and out analysed the reaction and it appeared that the moment this happened the person started to look for a change.. He was off for a few days attending interviews?

3. Where is my share? Everyone wants to be recognised, human nature. Its Managers duty to ensure that everyone doing better is recognised in an appropriate way. This recognition should also be linked to the Business results for instance: The 4 Quarter delivery we achieved is yielding us to a another bigger contract with the customer, This is due to the hard work from Rama, Yogesh , Deepesh, Savio , Rhushi , Nikita , Ani , Saket , Natwar and many more...

"Congratulations guys, Your efforts are getting us through a bigger more contract and this will definitely help us in achieving broader and bigger goals for the next few quarters"

4. Pay me peanuts?
This is a sensitive and a bigger part of Motivations, Top talent always wants to be paid appropriate. You pay to what they do and contribute. Usually top talent is over looked and this really causes frustration. The compensation is also linked by the talent to the goals they achieve... for example when Nikita last time told me that "My average appraisal mean that I will get a average compensation change" it showed that a person contributing value to the growth expects an at par growth for what they are making in terms of money.

5. Where do I go?
Uff... The Roadmap.. I need to advance... I want to grow.. I want to change the direction of myself and my organisation. I want to fire missiles from the bullets that my organisations has given me. All of this means that I need to see how I can grow with the people I work with and the organisation I am into. It is important that a timely and frequent review of growth options is discussed with top talent or to that matter every mammal that can be motivated.

6. Too much in the office - Too less in socials
Some balance should be maintained. Lot of hard work also means lot of frustrations and lot of road blocks. People who work hard , smart and effective also needs time to have a good social life... I have seen several people who leave the organisations when they are growing or are on a better growth path, just becuase after a few years they are frustrated becuase all of a suddent they realise that they did not have any social life for the time they were with the organisation. I feel that people who work long hours in office and on weekends will have a average 1-2 year relation with their organisation as opposed to people who balance their lives well who may stay for 4-5 yrs.

Now do you think its important to ask people not to work on weekends and also leave office early everyday?

7. Love each other
A healthy environment is required where team likes to work with each other. The fact that it is very important not only to have better Team compositions but to also have better understanding and chmistries between the Teams to deliver at peak. Team members that value and love each other.


Now can you tell me if there is anything more that keeps you motivated?

I am sure everyone of us wants to grow.. and

Read More

In Search of Authenticity

So finally the quest for Authenticity begins....I had a call and an invitation to the Lead India Group discussion for their initiative effort to find a better leader from the mass. Ofcourse I am excited to be there and see how the process is going to take place and how the leader would be found simply becuase my definition of leadership in the past few days had been shattered completely.

To me leadership had always been a strong character who had a drive and passion to achieve something with the help of the vision that was shared and action that involves making the hands dirty and all of this without expecting that the fame and money will come to you. While I still believe that all of the above with several other things can make a Strong leader I am still in a dilemma over the authenticity of those leaders who are away from these things in reality however pretend to be great leaders...

So how will we authenticate the best and not consider the toxic leaders ... who just want to go high with a COMPLETE SELFISH ATTITUDE and are no where close to the fact that leadership is generating success and not acquiring it?

There are ways to do this specially... and in the past I have done this and I for sure have removed several people from my "Ideal Leaders" list..

1. Do they have a vision that has meaning?
Many leaders specially the hybrid leaders talk about the vision that is more of theory and stolen ideas... These type of leaders always create a vision that is not showing enough visibility to anyone including the visionary himself. The easiest way to track is see if the vision is ready to be shared...

2. Do they build Trust or enforce it?
A Variety of commodity leaders try to enforce trust by faulty promises , mis use of authorities and by touching the soft corners at personal levels to build trust... well these things are good as far as sales are considered but not leadership... A leader builds trust based on what he lets his Team do by letting them do what and how they want to do it.... trust is built in the formal case it is enforced belief.... for instance XXX is the best person in this office doesnt build trust but a fear.... leaders believe in trust yet dont like people to be afraid of them...

3. Do they empower?
Well empowering is been mis-understood by many, several occasions I have seen leaders under the name of empwoering really want to keep control and direct what one should do and in what way... empowering needs trust not only from the leader but also from the person who is getting empowered..... The least of the belief I ahve seen is empowering is misunderstood to be an opportunity... a leader who sells empowering with opportunity is a salesman and not a leader.... empowerment requires compassion, sensitivity psychological insight, trustworthiness, consideration, and the ability to teach, evaluate and coach.

I wont talk more of the important tasks of Authentic leader here like Management, Vision, Trust, Action, Politics and feedback.... I will leave you to define on each front how would you like to find the authenticity making use of the expected characteristics of the Ideal leader....

several other factors and characteristics of the leaders can be used to trace the authenticity... but before you look for authenticity of a leader be sure that you are looking at the right guy...

In search of authenticity you would really like to evolve yourself whether you need to be a leader yourself or follow the right leader.... and If I am not mistaking the worlds greatest sinners were also leaders.... its upto us to decide whether they are commodity leaders or reality leaders...

Read More

Rewards : Do they Motivate? - II

In my earlier post regarding Do rewards Motivate? and to my promise in the same post to tell you what would be an Ideal Reward like..... I felt the need to explain the differentiation between rewardful and rewardless motivations... To what I feel and I can easily describe why rewards were ever introduced is to create a passion in the people to do things better to have optimum or more than optimum results and to think beyond the boundaries that they work under.... I am not sure if I can call it extrinsic Motivation..... but the reason I feel I can call them extrinsic motivation is the fact that the motivation is in form of some or the other sort of rewards... this somehow clearly mean to me that the moment rewards are off the motivation can go for a toss... surprising no? The other fact about the extrinsic motivations is that it comes with a cost which obviously not so very easy to be managed by startups and smaller organisations who have to work over limited costs until they grow bigger. One of the blog post I read from a startup CEO was "How to Cut down Costs" and if of course talked about costs related to non business activities.

So lets leave what we don't have to opt for... I am sure all of you would be wanting to know the other side of motivation that does not ask for tangible rewards. But like any other product sale this type of motivation needs COMPLETE support from the individuals... Yes we are talking about the intrinsic motivations... the same that lead the leaders of countries , CEO's, Business Managers and many others to create a path to success by way of fantabolous innovations and aspirations... Yes creating a passion and intrinsic motivation can be the Ideal Reward.... The reward that can help someone achieve goals not only in line to organisation goals but beyond that.

So Whats the tangibility of this Ideal Reward?
Who Gives this Award?
How can it motivate those who look money as rewards?
What type of Employers can reward them?
Is it only verbal and nothing tangible?
and of course hell lot of questions that I see driving 90 miles an hour in your heads...

So to begin with the promotion to be intrinsic motivated is not at all tangible... you wont get any motivation in a handy form... however intrinsic motivation will lead you work towards something that you have always wanted to do...

When we started TechShepherds Software that was the Idea... and the way the motivation went to the associates was through a share in the profits of the organisations directly... how fun it was when I really saw everyone working as if it was their own company... of course challenges came for every hard or strategic decisions we made or the approach we took... and that's how the empowering for most worked.... to that matter 5 out of the 13 run their own setups big or small and I am sure they follow the same approach towards success now... Yes create a motivation that makes everyone feel been a part of it and just not closer.

Who can reward here or who creates this passion within?
Yes its the leadership that works in front or behind the scene here.. remember The Commodity Leaders have no role to play here, specially because the commodity leaders want to Empower Themselves to achieve success...

How can it motivate those who look for Tangible gifts?
So the answer here goes for 2 layers of people... this cannot be implanted in them who:

1. Think that the Employees/ Resources are a liability.
2. Think that money and designation is the only way to grow.

Is it only Verbal?
Yes it comes in different forms and different stages... Which I would really like to share....

What are the Stages of this reward or how this motivation works and helps?
1. Create a feel of responsibility and intrinsic interests in the goals the organisation is working for... (remember this is not easy and needs lot of understanding of the resources you work with). A typical phscycological study of human behaviours might be required. Also remember that the leaders have to show a vision of the organisation and not self....

2. Understand the Objectives and Goals from the Team and individuals, its very important to do that... for instance if someone has core interests in making movies he might not be a good developer but he definitely can be a good Product Analyst or a Web Designer. It might not be easy to understand this too... You wont find many people who can tell you what they want to do in their life.... but all will conclude to earn money and retire ;)

3. Identify the rockers and the boulders.... both of these types cannot be motivated so do not waste your time creating intrinsic strategies on them...

4. Throw responsibilities but do not control. Passion at work is affected badly when responsibilities handled by the associates are been directly and minutely controlled by someone. The effect it has is the Member who has intrinsic interests have a feel of failure and thus been controlled. This can also make the intrinsic motivated run on a different side.

5. Let the motivation be transferred.... and let the authorities , visibility and responsibilities rotated... this helps the teams and the players to be very effective to work towards a goal.

6. Let them have their shares....
Its very important that the players with intrinsic motivations get their share of success in whatever form it comes... this also means that the leaders have to let these players accelerate well and at times well enough to overtake the leaders themselves... Solidatory success needs to be lonely settled with them... one of the good qualities of players that are intrinsically motivated is that they thrive for the next thing and want to move fast... the speed of the organisation and individual goals should be able to match this... else its too late.


7. Praise and Curse
Doesnt go in the same words though... make sure that the innovations from every player is praised and whenever required failures are cursed so that the feel of failure lead them to success... its very important to de-motivate the players so that they understand what , when , how , where and which is important for their lives. Make use of talented hunour to give the message out. Use quality humour to praise and show whats wrong, Be direct and clear when required, Be hard and firm when necessary and be Soft and calm when must. All of these help the person to identify himself and find a way to move in the direction of desires and aspiritions.

Well there are many more thingsz that you can definitely do.... unfortunately I think its enough at this moment if this post works as a motivation for you to motivate others to do miracles...

Remember Our Teachers and Mentors have made us, and we have to take their seat to be equally effecient and effective for others...


Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://pm-better-than-sex.blogspot.com

Read More

The Learning attitude

What a Waste it was!!!
Damm if it was done like this we would have not wasted blah blah blah
I wasted X years of my life in school

and what not.... I am sure you may have encountered these lines few or many times a day or week or month or whenever.... but something that can change these lines is the attitude within you that somehow we ignore... Yes I am talking about the learning attitude... Well you might end up saying I am a curious A** so I want to learn everything... but just go back a few years and count how many times you have used a word *waste*... A recent incidence and something that happened a few weeks ago just got me to write more about this... I would like your opinion on a few words said by different people here and then we can talk about the Learning attitude...

I think everything that is coming to me is a new learning for me... so whichever Technology or Project I work on is going to be the Best for Me -- Seetha

I think I wasted all this time on been this project... I have learnt No new thing -- Some One I dont want to disclose

Recently Ahh... I got a complete different requirement but anyways I dont think my work is a waste cause I learnt how to mount a NFS on a windows box for a linux machine -- Phil

Before I could waste more of my time doing this I think I should walk off -- Someone recently

Well so all of this teaches me that their is a breed in the world who knows and thinks that everything that they do is going to add something to their knowledge and is going to be a valuable earning for them and there is another breed that thinks that something that is not known is only learning... be it Technology or any other thing.... Which one do you think you gonna get on? For me obviously it should be the former .... and why not... Project Management teaches me new thing everyday.. one way or the other... been a father teaches me a new thing every day, playing a husband teaches me to make different excuses to keep awake late and work or watch TV ;) new learnings everyday.... So for those whom who think that ONLY that thing is a learning which they did not knew then their age is not enough to identify what they have to learn....

So here a few tips to those who really want to be on the side of learn from everything that comes to you...

1. Be Curious
2. Be Inquisitive
3. Listen and think to what others say
4. Question them not for the sake but to know why they say what they say
5. Confusion is a mother-in-law of failure.... either is bad without the other

Hope you learn something from this post ;)

Read More

How to Find the right Guy?

Hmmm... How to judge the right resource? when Rama on his blog asked this question I really wanted to blog the same day... unfortunately it took more than 2 months for me to find back the notepad scribble I wrote and bring it back as this Post. The other reason to bring this in is also a comment that appeared from Kari on the earlier blogpost Are your best guys in Action . So how to find the right guy for you is surely a question that Bill Gates or Steve Jobs must have asked themselves.. I am sure they must be having the closest answer and so can we. While I look to the interview process that is been followed manywhere to be the most vulnerable process where in maximum 5 meetings of around 20 hrs duration an organisation puts billions of bucks and pride at stake... Yeah by simply hiring the person who they have been interviewing for that period and role and looking at the Jargons and Jig saws he has used with his toungue and resume. Way Way Way Way... thats not all.... he/she is also been made responsible of parenting the Team and nurture or grow the organisational culture. So here are things that I feel should be done / taken into consideration while trying to find the right guy... believe me You will still not find the perfect match ;)


1. Never ever take an instant decission
Even if you like him/her as you would have liked Angeline Jolie in the wildest of your dream, just go back and think:
1. How many Guys did you interview for this position
2. What was the Best thing someone else had that he/she doesnt... Yes..dont find what Best he/she has because he/she really has it.. try to find what he/she doesnt have and someone had the best of it...
3. Do you know why you are present to interview him/her?
4. Do you or the panel has all skills required to judge the person's abilities?

I remember last when Atul (name changed) was hired to play a role as a System Administrator only within a week to realise that he was not the right choice first to play that role and second that he did not fit in the organisational culture. So what bought him into the organisation in first place? It was later realised that the guys who interviewed him were impressed by his Technical skills and effectiveness and made a quick offer.

2. Do they want to change?
Be it a Junior or a Senior see if they look for changing the ways thing work... meaning do they like bringing in a change? and if they adopt to changes easily... Someone who is not easily accepting change can be harmful in the short run and a demolisher in the long. Another thing to look for is Change doesnt mean Re-write... I remember asking a candidate about what he will do if he comes to know that the code/Architecture he is going to work on is blunderously written (Thanks to the Diminishing Quality) and answer was I will change everything , re-write the whole architecture again... well well well My friend if someone wants to change everything he is going to screw you, your budget and your vision.. someone who wants to move step by step with a slow and steady pace and bring the change is something you should look for.

3. Never find something that you miss in the Team
Till sometime back I was a tradional follower of
1. Retrospectives Find it
2. Action fix it
3. Retrospectives Find it
4. Action fix it

Till I realised that I am screwing my efforts in finding to fix them... Find a person that is similar to what your Team members are .... this can be used to improve more.

4. Decissive
How quick he reacts and makes decissions... if he is a very quick decission maker then he definately suits..... Not your Team but been a Customer Support Executive who can handle Customer Grievences very fast.... throw 5 problems at him and see how he answers or reacts....
Once I asked a guy what he will do if his Girl friend leaves him today.. just to stress his decissive skills ... and he responded he will find a New one.... Wow what a power of decission making it is... but it doesnt suit everywhere.... Someone who takes time to understand the question and then respond taking time to come up with an honest and down to earth answer is something that you should look for.... If you dont understand what it means .. throw this problem at Savio and see how he responds...

5. Is he inquisitive enough
All through my career I have met only few people who I can count on fingers really are inquisitive enough in the interviews itself... people who are not inquisitive do not really have passion towards things that come to them... if they are inquisitive they will find out.... make sure they are practically inquisitive not behavorioul inquisitive.... practical ones will think about tangible growths... behavirioul can route your Team to a Emotional Turbulence.

6. Agreements
Throw disagreements towards their answers and see if they make their point of view... One thing you would not want I am sure in your Team is a Palace full of praising demoens.... one who Nod as you do.... and have a "Boss is always right" attitude. If you have read Times Of India on Tuesday 14th August you would understand why...

7. Do they ignite anything in you?
2 Years ago in an interview I met a gentlemen who ignited a thought that helps me until now... How he said it was funny and a bit controversial too... When Asked by the panel on what you would do to achieve success in any form.... His answer was :
Every thing that President Bush would do to achieve it and everything that "The Most Wanted" Man could not to make it happen... I took the positive combination of both parts of his answer leaving the aggression behind. Its very necessary that a person ignites something in you... if he cant then he is just one more in the row..

8. Do they wait for Authorities to take Responsibilities?
Lot of guys during the interviews talk about what they could not do with the reasons always associated with them.... which means that though they wanted to do things they did not do it due to lack of Authorities.... but remember though Reponsibilities come with authority necessarily doesnt mean authorities always.... Your responsibility towards society will not mean that you will get as many authorities as a Police Man do....try to find out someone who know how to take and follow on responsibilities without caring about authorities.

9. Can they Do what You Could?
Never find out a better replacement... just find out if he can do what you can...

10. Are they Role players or Rule Players?
Lot of guys are Rule players... meaning work as said ONLY.... see if they go beyond something... or have gone beyond...

Lastly.... try to Identify what they have in their mind in terms of 1 yr , 2 yr or a 5 yr plan.... If they are ambitious its good... if they are over ambitious it could be very crude....

While I really wnat to write more on this ... I think I will stop here to make you re-visit here to find out how else and what else you can do to judge the people.... remember most of the things you do here are what you should do.. rather than what you should expect from the person you are interviewing or judging....


Regards

Sameer Shaikh

http://pm-better-than-sex.blogspot.com

Read More

YUCK:- Me Know Everything????

While I was listing down some qualities of the Leader's and Managers I realised I forgot to talk about the Commodity Managers when Listing down the Commodity Leaders. One of the problems with the commodity leaders or both commodity leaders or Managers is that they pretend to know everything...

I remember while playing Card Poker games with my friends "BLUFFING" was the only way to get out and win... meaning You either pretend that you know what your contender has in his hands or you pretend that you ahve the best cards in hands... both of which at times are not true... while this technique is commonly used in games you will find the commodity players (Leaders, Managers and Mentors) posses this quality often in the professional life to pretend they are the Best.

How to Identify A YIKIT animal (Ouch I forgot to explain YIKIT is Yes I Know It )?

1. Try to quarrell on items / decissions to see how defensive they get..
2. Tell them about a thing that you know and see if they talk about it ... YIKIT's never go the way anyone has already gone...
3. YIKIT's Always begin with "YES.. I Know" , "Yes I have done it" blah blah...
4. Watch the Next Action after your talks/ emails... The next action YIKIT's will do is go and find out the answers... though they leave it half way
5. YIKIT's are always under complex... so they prefer pretending... the moment someone wants to show superiority .... he/she is the YIKIT.
6. YIKIT;s drive the topics away when they see someone knowing more... this is how it is done... "But I think...." , "Well I Guess..." , "May be I am wrong ....." and lot more...


Why to Identify a YIKIT ?
Its important to know the YIKIT's animals in a Team so that the knowledge can be shared in the right way... Lot of reasons why any type of Projects fail is they are run by YIKIT Leaders or Management. YIKIT can deny the sharing and training required for someone.. just becuase they pretend they know it...

Why Not to be a YIKIT?
Just think of myself smiling at you within my mind just because you are pretending you know something that you really dont know.... Lot of experienced guys are YIKIT Hunters... they dont need more than a stare in your eye to know if you are a YIKIT or Not... and honestly YOU DONT GET ANY BUSINESS FROM THEM IF YOU PROVE YOURSELF TO BE A YIKIT.. AND YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHY.

Remove the YIKIT Attitude if you have any and see what difference it makes for you....

Read More

Commodity Leadership

While I dont intend to discuss the Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows secrets by any chance on this blog I am forced to write about something that is a part and parcel of todays fast moving business world. One of the reason why Professor Dumbledore could not succeed to be a Master Of Death or rather be the most powerful Harry Potter character is that he was a Commodity Leader, This was revealed and discussed in the last few chapters of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

So for the readers and the feeders of this post who will definately ask what exactly does it mean by Commodity Leader.. here is the answer for you:

1. A Leader who wants to achieve some goals or keep on achieving goals for himself is a commodity leader

2. A commodity Leader only thinks about saving ways to own success, this is revealed by the insecurity and subsequent defensive acts done.. Guess why Lord Voldermort is a commodity Leader?

3. The difference between the leader and the commodity leader is Secrets... Harry Potter never kept secrets , Dumbledore and Voldermort did, like I said its revealed by the insecurity the fear of failing or the fear of getting overtaken by another strong competitor creates this issue.

4. A commodity Leader reacts, A leader goes for it with the Team ofcourse, So when Voldermort knew about the passage of Harry from Dudseley's to the Order safe zone or to that matter the whole of the journey of Harry to the Godric's hallows all through Voldermort did was reacted, when it came to the end Harry was not afraid to go for Voldermort in the abandonned forests to fetch Voldermort. Similarly an attack on a commodity leader turns into reaction very soon some way or the other.

5. A commodity leader prefers favourisms, No wonder Dumbledore or Voldermort or to that matter Thicknesse? everyone had there own sets of reservations as far as favoursisms are considered. Dumbledore to Harry, Voldermort to Luious Malfouy Or Snape to Draco and so on... the favoured may or may not be capable.

6. A commodity leader understands critisims as complains and empowerment as delegation

7. A commodity leader is selfish and the play is for glory..

8. Praises and curses matter to the commodity leaders, they cant sustain curses and they can't stay without praises which makes a world difficult for them for long since praises comes with curses.

9. Commodity leaders find wrong in anything that is not them, While The Elder Wand was a key to success did Voldermort really trust Snape? Or Did Dumbledore trust anyone else for the Magical limits ever?

While the commodity leader continues to be a leader and tries to enchant the growth of the organisations one of the cause of failures of early startups is commodity leadership. The ways to get out of commodity leadership is essential but while we think about the ways to thin about practical leadership lets decide on what House of leadership we would like to go? Choose the house than letting others choose whether you want to be a leader or not... let the magical wand choose what type of leader you are...

Read More

Of Objective , Goals and Value

This Project will change your career path
This opportunity cannot be missed out
This will change your life
This will be remembered by You as a revolution in your life...

Well Well well many more buzzwords and Jargon's. Honestly I feel that this is how the current Manager Trend has been selling its products and I am left no away from it.... though I am rarely frequent in making such promises or Hives I feel that this is something that has been always been used as a lethal Weapon to motivate the performers(Under Or Over).

While I am still in process to think how We should be presenting the Objectives and Goals for the Project, release or Team... I got a setback when I think is it really Selling or Marketing your Offerings to the Software Development Team?

So I am sure you have a question whats the setback.... So here it is...

1. Value:- I personally think that things are not cared about if they don't have a Value... for example I remember we talking about motivation in my previous posts, We talking about Empowering in the earlier posts, We talking about creating a High performance Team.. all of this is possible only if there is a Value attached to what we do... To Motivate it needs to be Knowledge , Monetary Benefits or lot of other things, To Empower we need to enhance and train, To create a High performance Team the Team needs to know what, How , When and where and so many other things.... All of these things happen only if a Value is associated with what you want to do.... So the question arises Why a Value needs to be associated?

I remember I been a part of the cricket Team that used to play cricket tournaments on tennis ball... while been a part of it I realised that we as a Team were not much interested in winning when there was no prize money or bet on the game... Of course it was a Value attached.
I remember a Team Member calling on me to say that I don't want to be a part of a particular project Team since he/she thinks that he/she cannot learn things or evolve in the given project... of course there is a value associated with what anyone wants to do.... So many other examples and reasons of how Important a value is for anything you do....

So the question arises why is this a setback to me and my thinking now?
Well I realise that sometimes we don't create a value but we just try to market and hype it or sell what we don't really have or want someone to buy something that we cannot sell.... something that shouldn't be done or that doesn't last for long... No wonder faulty promises and organisational exit times appraisals and counter offers don't last long...

A product doesn't sell if the customer doesn't see the value
A Developer doesn't want to be a part of the product that doesn't adds value to him
A Leader finds a pathway if he thinks there are roadblocks ahead.. and so many other things....

It is at most important to Create a Value for something you want to do....

2. Share It? : Its not enough to create a value to sell it, You need a Team to create it.. A Team that is going to be a part of it altogether... for example.... I am sure if the prize money we used to win/loose on the cricket games was not shared the interest would have lowered down... disappointments would have been caused easily and failure was the next door. Creating a value is as must as creating it with the Team that will be a part of achieving it... the Objectives and Goals of a project can only be achieved by a Project Team if the Team creates the Objectives and Values for it... and are not defined by someone else...

So the question arises why is this a setback to me and my thinking now?
Well I feel the needs, Goals and Objectives should be defined by a Team who will be part of the runners to achieve it.... When Talking to the SWAT Team today I realised that their are several Objectives that are not even thought about and Yes this is the time to get them in and work towards them... what a Team it will be where everyone knows what they have to work on and for. So the setback is the vision has to be shared, the goals have to be worked upon and priorities need to be re-defined....


3. Celebrate : In my earlier posts about celebrate the smallest success I mentioned that inventing something , developing something or finishing some tasks is just not the whole thing... It is important that we celebrate each of those... A Value can be predominant only if it is celebrated and appreciated everytime... Every effort towards the value acquisition should be appreciated and celebrated only then the goals are achieved...


Do we celebrate what we achieve?
Do we know what we achieve?

More on and over... let me rethink How to best sell myself and how best to Empower the Team to let do the above 3 key elements....

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

Read More

A Better Leader needs a Big Heart and Mind

Recently I was so very obsessed by the thought that One part of Our team is over producing while the other is under producing... the obsession took me to the ground building where I really wanted to list out everything that was going wrong with this other part of my mind and soul.... The scrum took a shape of a coroner's autopsy and though the outcome of the meeting was pleasing the proceedings were so very not. It takes a Big Heart to Go back and Action on the Autopsy specially if it is done for your own Team. The way this was handled and actioned later tells me that a Leader need to have a Great Heart to listen and a Great Mind to Action...

It was not the only incident in the same day that took the thought to reach in my mind as a Value. I was watching the new series on Zee Televisions for the Talent Hunt named SaReGaMa 2007 and while the Judges were posting huge comments in the most Idiotic way and at times to such an extent where Humiliation of the contestants were left miles back.... The utter Leadership Act came in front when Asha Bhosale the living legends motivated the contestants inspite of being critised. This very fact comes in the same row when she was not well treated by one of the existing panel members...

Leadership is about Showing a Big Heart to accept as it is and still Motivating the Team

Leadership is actioning the proceedings when drench is covering you


And ofcourse Leadership is about preserving and preaching the Values that are practised...

Regards
Sameer Shaikh

Read More

Leaders are honest

With Regards to my earlier Post on Leader's or Manager's I thought I would also introduce you to something called as true values for the Ultimate Leaders...

Yesterday's Interview with Pranab was one such experience where you identify how true leaders think.... when asked about why he does not want to be a People Manager his answer was "I can't show the Path to my collegues which does not exists" which means that "I can't lie them about their growth prospects when I dont know much about it".... This is where you see leadership quality... I felt nice when I heard this honest statement...

True Leaders dont want to show Mirage to the Team or rather give false or faulty assurances... this is the last thing they would want to do... I have seen Managers who make false promises just to get the work done or to manage the time... they just cant be Leaders.... they can satisfy one or some but cannot be an Ideal role model...

Leaders need to Honest... they need to show the way that can be achieved and they need to know what it will be like ahead.... You Dont know You shut your mouth and look for answers is the right attitude...

Hope we generate more leaders and leaders with right attitude in this industry...

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

Read More

Leaders or Managers?

A few months ago we had a huge long discussion between Kari and Me on the roles and qualities of the Managers or Leaders.... honestly here we were talking about the combinations we always wanted to have in the Sr. members of our Team or empower them to achieve those combinations...

Though Kari had a broad vision about Who , How and When? I estimeed it to be a task to identify the right skill with the right quality that can Grow the Team... I am sure you will agree with me that "Team Building" is no more a task now(specially after 1 1/2 yrs)...

Here are the Best ways to differentiate the Leaders and the Managers in your Team...

Managers
1. They Manage (themselves, others, expectations and results ) ;)
2. They provide the vision
3. They Monitor they need to be have a control
4. They facilitate
5. They Mock the process
6. They show the way

Leaders
1. They Drive (themselves and others to success)
2. They create or share the vision
3. They do things and let others do the same
4. They act and react
5. They practice the process
6. They create a way

Not that I am saying that the Managers or the Leaders are good or bad .. you definately need certain combinations to get out of the way towards sucess...

Read More

Guru - The Leader's runway

Recently I watched one of the bollywood blockbusters “Guru” Yes the same Aish-Jr. B starrer… though not many movies these days give out a message as strong as to affect people this one surely does… It gives a message to those hard working smart people out there and invites them to set new trends….

While I see Guru to be the best form of Leadership book which contains the appendix of Management hugely to impress me…I also derive a few of lessons that could be of potential help for the next set of leaders and managers coming this way…. To be successful you don’t need to just lead, you will need to go beyond that and Yes that is what I can derive from the whole movie…

One of the few reasons I quite liked the movie is the way leadership is mentored across the movie…the tailorment of the attitude that says leadership in the way it is supposed to be all I can derive from the movie is:

1. “Learning from mistakes is experience, but Mistaking while learning from Mistakes is a Sin” If you have to be a great leader you need to understand learning from the mistakes, this doesn’t mean that mistakes should be a part of your nature. It is also at most important that you learn the right thing from your mistakes…
Recently I heard a friend of mine talking about lack of communication resulting in failure of the project and the next project failing because communication was considered to be the only vital element of the project.

2.“2 things in life can never be explored Women’s heart and enemy’s soul, rest are just viewable in the browser”
Success is a vital element in the leader’s life which needs the leader to search and explore for things… If you found a key to a lock which you don’t know the perfect leader will for sure go for a hunt for the lock. Similarly it is very important that you explore of the possibilities before you start any assignments.
Last week in Bigg Boss (The Indian version of Big Brother)… before the nomination for the eviction process Rakhi Sawant was found calculating all the possible people who could nominate her and what 2 votes from her can affect whom.

3. “Out of need springs Desire and out of Desire springs the energy and the will to win”
If you don’t have energy to do it, don’t talk about it. You need the energy of a 1yr old child to achieve the goals of the 50yr old Man. Don’t understand why? You are invited to spend a day with my 3 yr old son to understand this part of the story. Your energetic behavior provokes others to achieve there goals …. And after all it’s a Team effort isn’t it?

4. “Courage is not just about saying NO and accepting mistakes; it’s about doing the same work with no mistakes”
It’s not so very courageous to admit the mistake the real guts are when you do the same work under pressure and do it right this time. It’s about giving a damn to the obstacles instead of cribbing about them. It’s about showing the back to the problems.. not because you ran away from them but you overtook them and they are waiting behind to attack you again. This quality in a leader makes him fearless, and you gotta be fearless if you have to reach the top.

5. “Pleasure is when you take it to the end”
The real pleasure of orgasms can be felt only when you last till then. In my whole career I have seen people kicking off things with all possible enthusiasm and energy and loosing it soon before really taking it to the end. The fun is taking the task to an end. The great leader shows that he is not the one to start it right but surely one to end it perfect.

6. “You can’t blame gravity for falling in love”
Years of me being in this industry have seen that failed projects usually have no owners, if it’s a successful one the credit list is never ending. The best expected quality of the leader will be to own it no matter where it goes. Usually it is found that failures are discussed more than success, the only reason being everyone tries to find someone not himself to be blamed… A leader is the one who has to make sure that it’s him not others. I read a phrase a while ago in the daily planner “I Praise loudly, I blame softly”, I guess that’s the nicest way to do it.

While I see Guru sending louder and clear message about effective leadership I see that leadership is much beyond that… So before you guys really jump into one of the thousands of available resources on leadership…. I suggest you to go watch the movie.

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com
mailto:sameera.cmc@gmail.com

Read More