The first thing I have learnt is that we have to be able to identify our core competencies and our weaknesses. identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suityour core competency., if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you. If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will notonly get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement. but always remember “ ability without dependability is a liability.”
The second lesson I have learnt is that nothing in this life is permanent but change. There is only one person who likes a change: the wet baby. Change is an ongoing fact of life. It changes us as we have to move away from our “ zone of comfort” and makes our life difficult for a while. Change brings with it a lot of stress as our paradigms are constantly being challenged. To bring about a change one has to change the “BAT”. BEHAVIOUR ATTITUDE THINKING. ATTITIUDE: are changes that happen from within oneself. One has to take responsibility for What one is What one does What one has The only thing that is truly yours -- that no one can control or take from you- is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier. THINKING: comes from “logically” observing every situation in life. One has to manage “self talk”. You think you can or cannot you are right. Positive thinking with" effort” increases the probability of success. Negative thinking with “effort” decreases the probability of success. Positive thinking backed with positive actions comes with positive believing. If u believe u cannot do it then you do justify that you cant do it & vice versa. You have two choices –either you think you can do it or you think you cannot do it.
The third lesson I have learnt is whatever goes up has to come down and this is cyclic in nature. Life has many challenging situations . You win some and lose some. You enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don’t beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem and learn from it .The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson or the moral of the story.
The fourth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for perfection. In our quest for perfection we end up in achieving excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those individuals much better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently, why they do it and why is it ,what they do?. Emulate it and bring into every day situations these different effective methods. The fifth lesson I have learnt is to have a” never say die approach in times of adversities It comes on you suddenly without warning and surely without an announcement. .we must remember that “tough times don’t last but tough men do”. it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. My 5 year old daughter taught me an important thing . I was playing Captain Claw on the computer and despite my very best effort ,could not beat La Roca so I shut down the game. I did this at least 3 times in half an hour. I told myself in a loud and irritating tone of voice "Look, why don’t you just give up? I don’t think you will beat him tonight. Look at it another day." The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But, dad, why should you give up? All the weapons are available you have just got to use them effectively " If we try hard & long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective. Sometimes we have to work very hard ,sometimes we need to change the strategy and some times we need a combination of both. But it is our attitude which will sail us through these adversities.
The sixth lesson I have learnt is leadership is not a popularity contest. As a matter of fact parenting teaching and leadership are not popularity contests. It is hard enough for leaders to take out what is left in individuals. A true leader will gauge the individual before he tries to put in anything because beyond a certain point it is worthless trying to put in and mould an individual. And this goes on
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
reflections....
life is not always a cake walk.not always easynot always comfortableand sometimes real hard.things dont always happen as we like.people dont always treat us as we would have liked(not that we treat people the way we would expected to be treated).stuff does not happen as we wish.we slog in and slog out and work real hard but get very few results.grass seems greener on the other side.it is at these times that we ought to pull ourselves togeather and put on our otherwise dormant thinking cap and get down to some serious reflecting time.we need to succeed and for this we must try...........&try and try again.we must believe in what we do and must not give up our conviction.we must keep pushing, we must be patient.problems ,difficulties ,catch 22 situations give us a chance to be stronger,better and tougher.when we overcome our obstacles we we learn new things.we acquire new knowledge ,skills and new abilities .we grow in experience.we make the world around us a better place to live in.so join me in making this world a better place to llive in.work hard -party hard and leave a bit to luck and the rest to the supreme being.
Friday, September 4, 2009
TO delegate....or not to.......
Can we delegate effectively to others? Do we like to delegate? Should we delegate?
Can we delegate when we are at the receiving end or when we consider our function a thankless job yet a glamorous way to be in limelight?
The strategy behind being able to delegate or being an able delegator is that there is an increased chance of moving up in an organization.
What really is delegation?
Where does the buck stop?
Many executives really confuse delegation with abdication of responsibility. It makes sense to be clear about certain fundamentals of delegation. I firmly believe any executive in the middle management (with reportees) having “fire in the belly” about climbing the corporate ladder must allocate time to correspond to relative importance of issues facing them. He must set a value added time/importance of the activity, function, job ratio and do justice to it. He must possess the ability to manage his time, so as to focus & channalise his energy on high value activity, job or tasks. This will finally determine his level of achievements.
This can be done only by delegating functions down the line. To relinquish your power to a reportee is not delegation. It is evasion of responsibility. Delegation in the true sense is entrusting another person a job together with authority to do it. Thus the delegate now acts on behalf of you like the emissaries of the days of yore or the diplomats of today.
If you happen to be the delegate then the function, task or job entrusted to you by someone in authority comes with the necessary power to complete it successfully.
Delegation saves your time and develops people while failure to delegate eats your time.
Delegation is necessary in organizations. What matters in organizations is doing such things well, but of course in organizations it is difficult to do simple things well. Delegation is one such glaring example. It either does not happen too well or it does not just enough. That is very regrettable as both sins of omission & commission consume rather than save a valuable commodity called “time”. Where you could reap double the crop per acre you end up with a bad crop and then blame it on…………………………… .
Some comments made to me over a period of the last twenty years in various functions I have worked like: manufacturing, ancillary development, projects, planning, exports, costing, customer support, marketing and materials management are as illustrated.
“I strongly believe that information is power. I would rather keep really important information secret. If I hand that over then perhaps one will be able to displace me.”
“When I was away with influenza for a week the entire place came to a halt, so you see I am indispensable to the firm”
“I really and strongly believe in delegation but just seethe monkeys & clowns I have working for me”
“Unless they are trained I will have to continue to carry two bulging briefcases”
“Most of them have psychologically retired even though they are not drawing their pensions”
“Even though I delegate they will not perform as I would have done so myself”
“My boss will not keep coming to me and will he bypass me to my reportees if I delegate.”
Research has revealed 9 top reasons why delegation does not take place irrespective of tier of the management.
Delegating is a high risk activity which need risk assessment.
We enjoying doing these things so why do we delegate?
It is a very slow process
we don’t want to sit and think
we would like to be “on top of everything”
Will our subordinate displace us from our positions?
No one can do it better than or as good as I can?
No one will come to me for solutions in that area
Why do I bring him into limelight for no rhyme or reason? After all I’m the mentor.
We can delegate authority to do the job and hold the person accountable for the performance. If the activity is done in the right way and spirit it will generate a sense of responsibility in the delegate. As you are ultimately responsible for what happens or does not happen as an outcome. A corollary to the above is that sufficient control must be maintained in order to protect your ultimate accountability.
Leadership is the second responsibility that cannot be delegated.
In reality any great leader will not delegate his leadership to others as in doing so all he will be left is an empty title while the ethos of his job lies elsewhere.
Another important thing to remember is that as a delegator you cannot divest yourself of the accountability and leadership. Last but not the least you should never allow any one to decide what you should delegate and what you should not.
There are certain key factors that a delegator may consider and constantly review for delegating or not doing so.
Complexity: the complexity or delicacy of function, activity or job determines whether to delegate or not. A&M, policy decisions on pricing or budgets are examples of areas where you may feel that you need to handle yourself. The more the challenge in uncharted waters the more you should attack yourself. Similarly where there is a chance of major repurcations for good or bad on profitability, do not delegate to any other person.
Confidence: one is more comfortable to delegate if he can trust his subordinate. The trust encompasses the professional competence and personal qualities. One must make sure that he is not either optimistic or pessimistic in varying degrees about his subordinate in order to delegate. We need to work with them, talk to them, advice them, guide them, spend time with them, observe them support them and then reflect about them before forming our judgments. Some will need hand holding and walking through initially in the introductory phase, some would do an appropriate job with a little risk of any negative impact. The best are capable to understand the business model, company’s philosophy and work towards execution of the function without consequences or mistakes. Be forewarned that many leaders believe in intuition, but rest assured intuition could be misleading and decisions taken based on a haunch could be disastrous in the real sense of the word.’
Availability of time: crisis situation where time is short must not be delegated. The time taken to explain, cross check if the matter is understood as required by you, and action initiated by the delegate may not be there to give.
Future development: delegation is centered on the routine and administrative chunks of a function. One must be however careful not to delegate all administrative work and work only on leadership. As for me I make it point to delegate everything that can be defined. This gives me the time to keep the scores on the delegated jobs and freedom to spend time in exploring new avenues or chase opportunities that lie ahead. My work style encourages me to select jobs I know best and could supervise them and delegate these once first. As a practice I work on my present activities and keep reviewing those to see if the time is ripe enough to delegate them .If the time is just ripe them I go ahead and delegate the job and am in a position to take decisions and follow up.
The correct approach is to assign tasks & functions to others though you remain ultimately accountable. One needs to keep in mind to strike a balance between needs of the company and development needs of an individual. We often come across organizations where there are senior managers who do not want to delegate because they want to do it with out delegation. These people have risen from the ranks through sheer hard work. The problem commences when these people are promoted beyond their level of competence. Such organizations or departments loose their momentum as even a minor decision has to be taken at the helm.
Skills of a delegator
SKILL
REMARKS
1) Select the right people.
If the people are incompetent or unwilling to do the job even with training you should get rid of them. Having the right people to do the job is the basic need of delegation. Remember there never are bad soldiers but only bad officers.
2)training
How ever high profile performers you have in your rank and file all the delegates need to be trained.
Demonstrate the job
Get feedback
Get delegate to do it
Delegate does it on his/her own
Delegate reports back on completion.
3)Knowledge and reason
Training and delegation is 2- way traffic. The function, activity or job must be clearly communicated and authority specifically defined. The delegate needs to know policies and goal so that he knows what he is doing and why he is doing it.
4)Support service
Resist the temptation to plunge in.
When the delegate approaches you for a solution never give him the answer but lead him to it. The aim is to develop the delegate so that he can cope up and do well as you have in the past.
5)control
Check the progress in your own defined way. It is important to know that it is not abdication but control that is the name of the game.
To sum up
Delegation begins with a sense of value. From there stems a strong desire to focus on priorities and delegate the rest as it will leave free time to think plan and act very effectively.
Delegation is not abdication.
Delegators often complain that they have two bulging briefcases to work with when their subordinates are running out of worthwhile work.
To be giving people power to make decisions and act in your place requires courage, judgement and faith in others because at the end “the buck stops with you”.
Delegation is a great motivator as it enriches the job and raises morale.
Delegation does not save the organization’s time but it saves yours.
Can we delegate when we are at the receiving end or when we consider our function a thankless job yet a glamorous way to be in limelight?
The strategy behind being able to delegate or being an able delegator is that there is an increased chance of moving up in an organization.
What really is delegation?
Where does the buck stop?
Many executives really confuse delegation with abdication of responsibility. It makes sense to be clear about certain fundamentals of delegation. I firmly believe any executive in the middle management (with reportees) having “fire in the belly” about climbing the corporate ladder must allocate time to correspond to relative importance of issues facing them. He must set a value added time/importance of the activity, function, job ratio and do justice to it. He must possess the ability to manage his time, so as to focus & channalise his energy on high value activity, job or tasks. This will finally determine his level of achievements.
This can be done only by delegating functions down the line. To relinquish your power to a reportee is not delegation. It is evasion of responsibility. Delegation in the true sense is entrusting another person a job together with authority to do it. Thus the delegate now acts on behalf of you like the emissaries of the days of yore or the diplomats of today.
If you happen to be the delegate then the function, task or job entrusted to you by someone in authority comes with the necessary power to complete it successfully.
Delegation saves your time and develops people while failure to delegate eats your time.
Delegation is necessary in organizations. What matters in organizations is doing such things well, but of course in organizations it is difficult to do simple things well. Delegation is one such glaring example. It either does not happen too well or it does not just enough. That is very regrettable as both sins of omission & commission consume rather than save a valuable commodity called “time”. Where you could reap double the crop per acre you end up with a bad crop and then blame it on…………………………… .
Some comments made to me over a period of the last twenty years in various functions I have worked like: manufacturing, ancillary development, projects, planning, exports, costing, customer support, marketing and materials management are as illustrated.
“I strongly believe that information is power. I would rather keep really important information secret. If I hand that over then perhaps one will be able to displace me.”
“When I was away with influenza for a week the entire place came to a halt, so you see I am indispensable to the firm”
“I really and strongly believe in delegation but just seethe monkeys & clowns I have working for me”
“Unless they are trained I will have to continue to carry two bulging briefcases”
“Most of them have psychologically retired even though they are not drawing their pensions”
“Even though I delegate they will not perform as I would have done so myself”
“My boss will not keep coming to me and will he bypass me to my reportees if I delegate.”
Research has revealed 9 top reasons why delegation does not take place irrespective of tier of the management.
Delegating is a high risk activity which need risk assessment.
We enjoying doing these things so why do we delegate?
It is a very slow process
we don’t want to sit and think
we would like to be “on top of everything”
Will our subordinate displace us from our positions?
No one can do it better than or as good as I can?
No one will come to me for solutions in that area
Why do I bring him into limelight for no rhyme or reason? After all I’m the mentor.
We can delegate authority to do the job and hold the person accountable for the performance. If the activity is done in the right way and spirit it will generate a sense of responsibility in the delegate. As you are ultimately responsible for what happens or does not happen as an outcome. A corollary to the above is that sufficient control must be maintained in order to protect your ultimate accountability.
Leadership is the second responsibility that cannot be delegated.
In reality any great leader will not delegate his leadership to others as in doing so all he will be left is an empty title while the ethos of his job lies elsewhere.
Another important thing to remember is that as a delegator you cannot divest yourself of the accountability and leadership. Last but not the least you should never allow any one to decide what you should delegate and what you should not.
There are certain key factors that a delegator may consider and constantly review for delegating or not doing so.
Complexity: the complexity or delicacy of function, activity or job determines whether to delegate or not. A&M, policy decisions on pricing or budgets are examples of areas where you may feel that you need to handle yourself. The more the challenge in uncharted waters the more you should attack yourself. Similarly where there is a chance of major repurcations for good or bad on profitability, do not delegate to any other person.
Confidence: one is more comfortable to delegate if he can trust his subordinate. The trust encompasses the professional competence and personal qualities. One must make sure that he is not either optimistic or pessimistic in varying degrees about his subordinate in order to delegate. We need to work with them, talk to them, advice them, guide them, spend time with them, observe them support them and then reflect about them before forming our judgments. Some will need hand holding and walking through initially in the introductory phase, some would do an appropriate job with a little risk of any negative impact. The best are capable to understand the business model, company’s philosophy and work towards execution of the function without consequences or mistakes. Be forewarned that many leaders believe in intuition, but rest assured intuition could be misleading and decisions taken based on a haunch could be disastrous in the real sense of the word.’
Availability of time: crisis situation where time is short must not be delegated. The time taken to explain, cross check if the matter is understood as required by you, and action initiated by the delegate may not be there to give.
Future development: delegation is centered on the routine and administrative chunks of a function. One must be however careful not to delegate all administrative work and work only on leadership. As for me I make it point to delegate everything that can be defined. This gives me the time to keep the scores on the delegated jobs and freedom to spend time in exploring new avenues or chase opportunities that lie ahead. My work style encourages me to select jobs I know best and could supervise them and delegate these once first. As a practice I work on my present activities and keep reviewing those to see if the time is ripe enough to delegate them .If the time is just ripe them I go ahead and delegate the job and am in a position to take decisions and follow up.
The correct approach is to assign tasks & functions to others though you remain ultimately accountable. One needs to keep in mind to strike a balance between needs of the company and development needs of an individual. We often come across organizations where there are senior managers who do not want to delegate because they want to do it with out delegation. These people have risen from the ranks through sheer hard work. The problem commences when these people are promoted beyond their level of competence. Such organizations or departments loose their momentum as even a minor decision has to be taken at the helm.
Skills of a delegator
SKILL
REMARKS
1) Select the right people.
If the people are incompetent or unwilling to do the job even with training you should get rid of them. Having the right people to do the job is the basic need of delegation. Remember there never are bad soldiers but only bad officers.
2)training
How ever high profile performers you have in your rank and file all the delegates need to be trained.
Demonstrate the job
Get feedback
Get delegate to do it
Delegate does it on his/her own
Delegate reports back on completion.
3)Knowledge and reason
Training and delegation is 2- way traffic. The function, activity or job must be clearly communicated and authority specifically defined. The delegate needs to know policies and goal so that he knows what he is doing and why he is doing it.
4)Support service
Resist the temptation to plunge in.
When the delegate approaches you for a solution never give him the answer but lead him to it. The aim is to develop the delegate so that he can cope up and do well as you have in the past.
5)control
Check the progress in your own defined way. It is important to know that it is not abdication but control that is the name of the game.
To sum up
Delegation begins with a sense of value. From there stems a strong desire to focus on priorities and delegate the rest as it will leave free time to think plan and act very effectively.
Delegation is not abdication.
Delegators often complain that they have two bulging briefcases to work with when their subordinates are running out of worthwhile work.
To be giving people power to make decisions and act in your place requires courage, judgement and faith in others because at the end “the buck stops with you”.
Delegation is a great motivator as it enriches the job and raises morale.
Delegation does not save the organization’s time but it saves yours.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
success
Success breeds success. Nothing is as sweet as success. It is the journey through pain, agony, hard work, planning, strategy and bits of luck that cultivates what is known as success.
The difference between success and failure is wafer thin.
The greatest success principle I have come across is “learn from the experts”. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you want to succeed find out what other successful people are doing and do the same things until you commence to reap similar results. Most successful people have on comman trait i.e. they are “very well organized” and in order to be so they use their time very well. They are highly productive and get more work done than average people for a similar period of time. These successful people are high performers with qualities to be both capable and efficient. They do things right in the right way at the right time with the right approach having the right attitude and aptitude. As a result their contributions in the spheres of work are far more than an average individuals .
The difference between success and failure is wafer thin.
The greatest success principle I have come across is “learn from the experts”. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you want to succeed find out what other successful people are doing and do the same things until you commence to reap similar results. Most successful people have on comman trait i.e. they are “very well organized” and in order to be so they use their time very well. They are highly productive and get more work done than average people for a similar period of time. These successful people are high performers with qualities to be both capable and efficient. They do things right in the right way at the right time with the right approach having the right attitude and aptitude. As a result their contributions in the spheres of work are far more than an average individuals .
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