June 2010 – a brilliant month as far as blogging is concerned. I wrote on a wide variety of topics and a lot of my writing was recognized by the blogosphere. That was satisfying. Recognitions raise the bar and help us to do better. June was also a month of anticipating some respite in heat […]
We live in a hyper-competitive world. Students are anxious about their annual results. Professionals are anxious about their next appraisal. Business owners are anxious about their bottom lines and so on. You get the point. This anxiousness does not allow us to enjoy the process. Sure, goals are important and attaining them is even more […]
As a leader, you can lead others with a belief that “people are good” – or with a fear that people will default. Your belief is reflected in the way you structure up your leadership team, set up governance processes and treat people. You can choose to provide space and freedom for people to perform […]
Leaders embrace difference because they know the power of differential thinking to build a great team. For smart professionals, one of the most important skills is to accept differences (and learn from them) without taking it personally. Enjoy the story: Mark joined this new company only a few months back, but he felt frustrated. He […]
Consider the following tale of two sales leaders who wanted to be successful: – – – In his quest to achieve his sales targets, Peter was overly focused on "closing the sale". When in front of a customer, he often focused on what the "next steps" would be. He sold from the mindset of "What […]
In pursuit of improvement, it is very important to get to the root-cause. If you don’t know “why” an improvement is needed – you won’t improve in the right areas. “Why” should come before “what”, “how” and “when” because “why” clarifies the direction. The hallmark of a learning organization is that they ask “why” more […]
In one of the conversations with a friend, we were discussing about leadership and various things a leader does. The job description of a leader is not easy to derive, just because of the breadth of areas a leader touches upon. We discussed more, and the following roles came out: Architect: Leader has a clear […]
Over last couple of weeks, I was reading and re-reading Seth Godin’s remarkable book “Linchpin”. I have been following Seth’s blog and books since last 4 years. This book has brilliant ideas that can change the way you work, how you work and most importantly, why you work. Linchpin urges us all to be artists […]
The rubber meets the road when you, as a business leader… deliver real business results to customers (not just deliver an excellent pitch with an impressive powerpoint) start executing relentlessly (not just define your strategy on paper at an off site planning retreat) implement improvements in your processes (not when you create that good looking […]