Anatomy of a Leader

If a team is unproductive, uncreative, unconnected, what does this indicates?

Is the work uninspiring?

No, I think the work is never uninspiring. Leaders are. The leaders who fail to inform and involve their people. Who talk volumes but fail to communicate. Who do not empower their people, do not trust them and believe in strict supervision. They fail to realize that people are not just a piece of replaceable article.

These ordinary leaders keep experimenting with people to find the one who suits them. They believe that people are, by nature, unmotivated, work hater and need constant supervision (McGregor Theory-X). With these kinds of stereotypes and rigid mindset, these leaders become control freak since they are never able trust anyone. They fail to take into account the contrarian “Theory-Y”, according to which people are believed to be self-motivated, passionate and self-supervised.

So these sanctimonious leaders are routinely baffled when they see a dispassionate Mr. X being transformed into an enthusiastic Mr. Y as soon as they leave them for good.

Ironically, the reasons remain much beyond their cognitive limits to understand.

But thankfully it’s not difficult to be a good leader. In fact is a very simple process. How?

To begin with a good leader is worth following. He acts as a beacon of exemplary virtues, whose aspirations are closely entwined with the aspirations of his team. Trust and empowerment are the strong foundation on which these good leaders forge their team. People are always central part of their strategic planning. They build a culture of togetherness during all events of celebrations, and introspections. They encourage diversity and provide equal opportunity because they understand the vital values these factors bring to the group.

Good leaders inculcate a culture of innovation. They don't interrupt but provide conscious thrust whenever needed. For them, managing Change is a planned and routine task, and not something which is episodic or sudden. They also respect difference of opinions since they recognize the importance of minimum friction, without which then Wings will not be able to take-off in the air. With these abilities they are easily able to navigate thru all weathers along with their team.

Please remember, leadership is not an entitlement but a skill. We all are blessed with our effective signature styles and positive personality traits, and these must be leveraged to enhance our leadership abilities in our personal and professional sphere. And it doesn’t matter whether you have just begun your professional journey or about to complete it, or voyaging somewhere in between.

“Don’t Postpone Joy”

With this one tag line an automobile company has created a mass hysteria amongst the relaxed executives like me, who are stuck with their vintage vehicles due to change in priorities over the years. While on the face of it we may appear indifferent but deep down somewhere these temptations create ripples. Such are the times we live in. On one hand, we are being taught to avoid temptations, and on the other hand these campaigns keep tempting us with shiny objects of desire.

All through my life people wiser than me told me to avoid living beyond the means, as it is not good to enjoy short term pleasures to endure long term agonies, but it never entered into my hard skull. I wanted to test it myself -> Earn to Spend OR Spend to Earn

So I purchased a flashy expensive mobile on credit. I ensured that the EMI amount was no less than my disposable income to make full use of it. It was a marvelous piece of technology and I happily started consuming it. As the year went past, reality stuck me when my friend brought a latest phone and mine is rendered unimpressive in comparison. I became anxious and desperately wanted to change my phone. But since I had no savings, I sold my old flashy phone at extremely depreciated price and took another loan to fund my new desire. I was thrilled again but largely overshadowed by the monthly EMI outgo due to which I was yet again not able to save anything. I may have landed myself in a recurring state of debt, it seems.

Then there were few around me who could resist their impulses and were able to Postpone 'Joy'. They saved and earned Interest instead of paying Interest. They kept saving and then spending, and the Return on their investments kept feeding them dependably. They were neither worried about the debt to be settled, nor were they living in any overspending guilt. They were also comprehensively cushioned against any variations in their future income levels.

Isn’t it the kind of peace I always wanted? Isn't debt, no matter how big or small, causes stress, esp. when our future is so unpredictable. I realised that my purchase power is not equal to my ability to afford EMI, but my ability to afford the price upfront. And going EMI route to purchase depreciating liabilities is a double whammy which I must guard against. I may be surviving by chance so far but let me stop taking chances now.

So finally, I decided never to prepone ‘Joy’ till I can afford it.

Disclaimer: The protagonist above is purely fictitious. Any resemblance to real person is purely coincidental.

 

Do we exist?

Everything is conscious around us. Both, Visible and invisible. Those static Planets & Stars, rigid mountains…

Does this sound weird? You may argue that they should be exhibiting more visible patterns to be thought as conscious. Like, they should be seen growing, moving, reproducing, sensing like the other living organism. Well they may be exhibiting all this, and other physical characteristics of a living being, yet we can’t see it happening.

Many wiser people burst into giggles when Einstein gave the theory of relativity, around space and time. It essentially meant that the clock is in our mind. One hour spent with your beloved may seem like one Minute, but one minute spent resting on a hot chair may seem like an hour. As we grow old, one day seems to be shorter than what it use to be when we were kids. So, the distance between the time cordinates is not fixed. It’s different for you and me, though not substantially.

To understand relativity of Time, let’s imagine an insect whose life span could be few milliseconds. So, it’s conceived, born, mature, reproduce, age and die, all within few milliseconds. While the insect may claim to have seen it all happening, we humans may not experience it at all due to the bug’s ‘faster’ clock in comparison to our clock. For us, it could simply be a case of non-existence of the bug, because it just happened in a flash. Few generations of the insect would have passed with in the blink of our eye. And, much for the same reason, the bug may not have experienced us too. Because we may have appeared like a rigid mountain, or a planet, or some object which didn’t move while they were progressing thru generations after generations.

Ok, now let’s flip through the chart. Our universe is believed to be in existence since 15 billion years or so. And the humans appeared very recently (and the wiser breed is yet to arrive), some 10-15 thousand years ago, which is like few millisecond on the eternal clock. And while we may have seen our generations after generations passing thru this planet, we may not have experienced those superior organisms whose clock is much much ‘slower’ than ours. Who knows their one 1 second spans our 1 billon years, which means they are just 13 seconds old. So, do we exist as per them?

It’s just a thought. What we can’t see or experience may still exist. What appears static may be moving at its own pace.

Though it seems to me that lesser mortals have a faster clock and they are always in a hurry, while the superior mortals have all the time in the universe.
 

Binary 0 and 1

My dear 0 and 1. Longtime since I thought about you, the famous twins of beloved Binary. When I saw the heaps and heaps of Data being accumulated around me, it suddenly struck me that you must be still alive. Remember, those old days, when you guys were introduced to us for the first time by Mr. Lecturer in college, as the Proton’s and Electrons of the Virtual world, the amalgamation point of material and cyber space. I was truly mesmerized, and the poor lecturer thought I am awestruck with his teaching skills. But frankly, this ever mysterious concept kept teasing my only brain for a long long time, until it stopped working.

Today, during my morning cup of tea when I was apprising myself with some heavy concept of A.I, Digital 5 forces, Big Data, etc… where humans are still teaching the dump-box to recognize patterns, shapes and abstract inputs, you suddenly resurrected yourself in my brain, demanding a due consideration. As if, you were a living organism, elusive all this while, and then started tantalizing me just for the fun of it. Phew. “You Exist”. “You Think”. “You Feel”. And now “You desire to control”.

Oh My God, in our pursuit to advance ourselves into Digital forces, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence… we have actually created an alternative to humans. The tiny bits are the living organism.

Startled, I began to think if this was the answer to the oldest question of humanity, “Purpose of human life”. The purpose, to carry on human life, until it became enough intelligent to hand over the control to Binary.

And this time too, only God knows WHY. Perhaps the world will then be a much more civil place for him to wander here again. From now on it’s the beginning of the era for Binary to wonder “Purpose of Binary life” until it finds an answer.

And just when the humans were about to hand over the reign to the binary twins, my alarm bell saved the entire humanity from going into the oblivion. And I am back again on my study table, to make human life more intelligent.

Is your ‘Slip’ turning ‘Pink’

Is your ‘Slip’ turning ‘Pink’ – By Pankaj Tuteja

All of us wish to remain in the Star Quadrant, forever. We are experienced people and know what will work, and stick to our success formula, which we developed during initial carrier navigation. Our brain is our wonderful companion and to keep us happy, it regularly feeds us with the images of our glorious past. Until the day, the color of the horizon starts fading. The twilight starts turning darker and darker. Suddenly, the markets are changing, Job landscape is re-calibrating and the new passion and energy is challenging the established executive clan. And thanks to technological advancement, the speed of change is like never before. Rules of the game are changing, and our ever successful success-formula is rendered ineffective. And after much of initial cafeteria rants and complaining, our cognitive system wakes up to seek a solution.  

The world is transforming, and offering us new avenues of opportunities. Market games are changing. The field, the rules, the goal post, the Ball, everything is changing. Recently TCS CEO N.Chandra stated at W.E.F. @Davos that Digital is no longer an option, but a default. The InternetOfThings (IoT) would transform every industry and society. It’s the 3^rd wave of connected economy. The 1^st allowed sources of information to be connected, and the 2^nd connected the individuals.

So what do we do, to remain relevant, and ride on the crest forever? While the “environmental denominator” is rigidly volatile and beyond our control, can we do something to enhance the “performance numerator” to stay ahead of the curve. And shun beliefs such as ‘too late’ or ‘too senior’ to change.

Let’s get back to the drawing board and redraw our priorities within the fundamental framework of survival.

1)        Invest in Acquiring knowledge – There is no pinnacle to denote the peak of knowledge. It’s always a good practice to keep pace with the changing technologies and social practices. Like we all learned to play with Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, etc. , its incumbent upon us to learn latest market technologies, such as Digital re-imagination, Big Data Analytics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cloud…  . Over 50 billion devices are expected to be connected by 2020. Not far are the days when the pace-makers, home Appliances, Automobile, etc.. will be connected with each other, and humans and alike over the network. Our Prime Minister also laid out the “Digital India” vision where 250,000 Gram Panchayat’s are to be connected with the mainstream by mid-2017. These figures are quite startling, and generate immense opportunities around Designing, Developing, Distribution and management of Infrastructure and Services in the domain of Connectivity, Apps, Mobility, Services and Training.

And yes, your constraint is totally understood when you say there is no time to study all these things because you only have 24 hrs in a day. Well, that’s the denominator and is fixed. You need to find out how to spend your time and allocate your priorities, and increase the effectiveness of your numerator. Moreover, that WA group chat or Facebook masala might not contribute to our profession as much as acquiring new skills may.

Don’t let a day pass without you knowing something unknown to you. And one hour a day, to read your favorite topic is an easy task to begin with. And if you still don’t know how to file your IT Return, or that Six-Sigma project is yet to take off, then start now, and don’t wait for any divine intervention. Your astrologer is mostly good at telling you ‘what to do’ to fulfill your desires, and equally good at telling you the ‘blatant reasons’ when it doesn’t. And believe me; at least they know how to manage their career ambitions, better than most of us it seems.

2)        Enhance your entrepreneurial ability- Markets around the world have shown that being job dependent in long run is perilous to our endeavors. Our financial and social needs change with time and we can’t expect our organization to take care of our aspirations. It’s our responsibility, and it should not be difficult to understand. While organizations will extend all possible enablers to ensure our growth, we need to own this responsibility as early as possible. Exactly the same way we did, when we overtook the reigns of our life from the hands of our parents. The day, when we became responsible and stopped blaming others for our problems.

And the good news is that you have become an early entrepreneur, if you are able to see the complete value chain for the task you perform, if you know how the quality and quantity of your work is impacting the ecosystem as a whole, and if you know how to improve the efficacy of the complete spectrum. You may not be empowered to express your views yet, but that should not stop you from learning. You can learn good insights and practices by closely following a good boss. Even a not-so-good boss is a good source of learning in ‘what not to do’. Enhance your financial prudence, risk management skills, quality orientation and ability to see the bigger picture. Learn sincerely, and not just for the sake of it.

Also, never forget, Salaried person first Earn, then pay Taxes and then Spend the leftover. On the contrary, business person first Earn, then Spend and then pay taxes on the leftover. Choice is ours.

3)        Invest in People – People carry a certain image of our personality, even if we have not interacted with them before. The word of mouth is a powerful medium and can influence our image in a positive or negative way. Be good with your speech and intentions. Express yourself clearly. Genuinely help others whenever you can, without any considerations, or expectations of return. Empathy and compassion goes a long way in leading a meaningful and a fulfilling life.

There are numerous examples around us where people have committed themselves for others, yet remaining faceless. Name, Fame, Glory are short-lived achievements, and may deprive our soul of the actual fulfillment or progressing towards self-actualization goals. So never let others run out of good things to talk about you.

The world is changing, and always will. It’s time we take control of our profession, and navigate thru these treacherous waters. Let us Transform and not merely Translate this time. Few of us will sit ashore and keep complaining throughout the eternity, but few of us knows the art and science of remaining relevant. Good luck to them.