Sanjeev's Thoughts

How much Appreciation is right?

2011-11-06T10:30:00.000+05:30

This is a short write-up on another vast subject. A lot of you would be thinking this write up is about monetary appreciation and possibly involves stock market tips. However, the appreciation that I am talking about is something else. In the online dictionary, it means Recognition of the quality, value, significance, or magnitude of people and also, An Expression of Gratitude.

In every organization, Appreciation has a large role to play. It is one tool, which when used appropriately, can do wonders to the overall atmosphere and productivity of the workplace. Let’s take a look at this story:

Madhavan was blessed with two sons – Veer and Karan. It was Madhavan’s dream to become an army officer, a dream which he had to give up due to untimely death of his father, where he had to take over his Father’s business to make ends meet. It was therefore natural for Madhavan to pass on the same dream to his sons. Veer, the elder son, was into physically activities and was involved in lot of sports in his school. Karan, the younger lad, was more into academics and was specially good at painting. Given his dream, Madhavan kept on getting inclined towards Veer, thereby ignoring what Karan did. Any win in sports race, even if it was class level, would call for a party at the rich businessman’s place, and a state level win in painting competition by Karan would go unnoticed. Time passed on and Veer kept on getting more and more over confident. He believed he was the fittest and toughest guy around, and his father did confirm that to him time and again. Veer, finally cleared the entrance got through NDA. However, he was not prepared for the tough situations and rude behavior inside the campus. It was a shock of his life to see that he was one of the slow performers in the entire batch. Three months down the line, he gave up and quit. Madhavan, shocked that he was, decided to turn to Karan and appreciate what he was good at, only to discover that Karan had given up painting long back.

Appreciation works two ways – both absence of it and excessive presence of it, makes you give up. While the absence makes you doubt whether you are going in the right direction, excessive presence makes you over confident of yourself and therefore, makes you complacent. What we need in life, is clearly the right balance between the two.

Imagine what happens when you keep appreciating your team members for everything they have done. Well, they feel good for some time, but slowly it starts becoming regular. One, they lose the importance of what is being appreciated, and also it is natural for them to get overconfident in their work area. Slowly, they notice that there is no challenge in their life and start cribbing about the mundane situation that they have landed into. There is nothing to fight for, nothing to grow for. Everything is perfect, but boring. Also imagine a situation, where no matter what your team members do, you never appreciate. The first thing it does is that it confuses them and does not give them a clear picture as to if they are going in the right direction at all. This results in them getting de-motivated and therefore prevents them from taking any extra efforts. They slowly adapt a quitter attitude and give up what they thought they were doing well.

Who’s loss do you think happens in both the situations? Primarily – your team members, no doubt on that. But in the long run, it's your loss , it's the loss for people around your team for spreading negativity (either complacency or quitter attitude) and therefore, the entire organization.

A lot of times, appreciation is also related to your expectations. If you set your expectations too low, you will be abundant in appreciation and vice versa. Therefore, setting the right expectations is also equally important. Therefore, next time somebody comes to you expecting a feedback, think twice. A wrong balance, may just spoil it all.

This is a vast area of discussion and the thoughts over here are only some starters. As always, I would like to hear your take on this one.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

Three Meals are Better than One

2011-10-15T18:46:00.000+05:30

This thought is all about how healthy you eat and why we have three meals a day rather than only one. Surprised? I am not a nutritionist and that’s not the kind of topics I write about! Well, the thought is about all our health, but not necessarily through our Diet Plan. Then what?

More often than not, we are advised to eat at regular intervals than one large meal. This activity helps the body constantly burn calories and keep all the organs active throughout the day. It avoids overcrowding of food in the stomach and helps you keep fit and healthy! Just the same way, do you think even our professional goals should be to about consistency in delivery rather than work on “one” big bang? Does this consistency in delivery help us keep active and “one” big bang result in Overcrowding?

Ranveer was known as the God of ideas. Every time the management would get into a problem, he would pop up a new idea and then things would look good. People still remember how the team got saved once when team was under tremendous sales pressure and Ranveer came up with some ideas to boost institutional sales, which helped achieve targets for the quarter. At the end of the year, Ranveer was confident of getting one of the highest ratings in the company. During his appraisal discussion, he had a lot of new ideas to take credit for– improvement in institutional sales, review calendar formalization, proper allocation of media spends for festive and a lot many more. But his Boss, Amar, certainly didn’t seem to be very happy. Ranveer got upset and asked how can he not get happy with his performance. And then Amar asked a few questions:

è When was the last time company generated some institutional orders? – Did we forget about it when sales pressure got a little relieved?

è When did the last review happen as per your review calendar? – Was it simple and practical enough to be followed regularly?

è What happened to the Allocation of Media Spends for last quarter? - Did we use the learnings of Festive to make last quarter allocation better?

And suddenly Ranveer knew what Amar was saying. All these things were great initiatives, but happened only once!

The world is full of bright and brilliant ideas, and all of us tend to have some of them. But then, why are only few people successful. That’s because success is not a result of one Big Initiative, but of delivering consistently. Take a look around and see what are the things you really admire – your favorite restaurant serving your favorite soup with just the right amount of salt in it, your favorite apparel store which always stocks “your” size of garments or even your spouse, on whom you know you can depend in the worst of times – consistency wins hands down! Trying a new restaurant or a new shop never gives you the happiness and satisfaction that the power of consistency does. It helps us not worry about the regular things in life and focus on more innovative and new ways of working / living.

A lot of us have beautiful ideas and take amazing initiatives. The fact remains, that if we do not take the efforts to convert those ideas into processes, and achieve regularity in it, we will never be able to harness the complete benefit of the idea at all.

A lot of times, I have seen that people get into complex models and calculations to arrive at a conclusion and I can instantly tell them that this way of working is not going to work at all – simply because it is not “simple”. The more we try to complicate things around, more the chances of it not being repeated. So the basic law of achieving consistency in work, is to keep things simple. Maybe it’ll not get us to the best level of precision, but if we are able to repeat the activity at a regular frequency, it will give us much better results than the last decimal place of a number.

Another thing which is useful in helping you achieve consistency is measuring of results. If you don’t get convinced about the results of the effort, no matter how great the idea is, you will always feel like postponing the next occurrence of the activity. Measuring of results also helps in determining whether an idea is really workable or not. A lot of ideas do seem very bright on the paper, but in reality, they may not turn out to be as great. Therefore, it becomes really important for us to measure the outcome of an initiative and act upon it accordingly. An idea without action is as good as no idea.

In business, we constantly strive to achieve consistency in everything – be it sales, profits and performance. It is from each individual, that consistency will come. A lot of times, terms like “disproportionate growths” are confused as “one time” and therefore, constant efforts go missing. We need to completely believe that one time efforts may lead to short term success but to be the ultimate success story – the only thing which will work for us is consistency!

Hoping to hear your feedback on the topic!

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Time has wings

2011-10-07T19:16:00.000+05:30

I often wonder, what is one thing which, if controlled well, would help us resolve many of our issues in our life and the answer to that is “Time”! Time is one resource, which is equally distributed to all the living beings on the planet – some know how to make the most of it, and some crib about never having enough of it. But the most unique characteristic of time, is the fact that, it Flies!

Roshan was upset. Just few months back, his Boss was promoted as the country head of this retail chain and Roshan had replaced him as the Business Manager of Central Zone. But he certainly wasn’t very happy with the way things were turning out. He duly completed his day today activities and things were working out well, but he could not understand why everyone had to rush at the final hour to make things happen. When he wanted to advertise for the latest offers for Navratri next week, they got a Page 12 LHS Position. When he wanted Buying Team to buy “Dandiyas” for forthcoming Navratris, they couldn’t manage and his team had to fix an SIS in emergency. When he organized an Employee Engagement activity, the MCs of the event kept forgetting their lines. These things kept frustrating him. Everything would happen, but everything was a compromise. He wondered how to master these things and that’s when he turned to his Boss, Arun, for help. The first thing Arun asked him after listening to his problems was – “What are the plans for Christmas?” and Roshan exclaimed – “Christmas??? That’s way too far!”. Arun, smiled and said – “Time has Wings!”. He continued – “I understand that day today activities are important, and I appreciate the fact that you’ve been carrying them out well, but unless you have an eye on the future, you will never be able to command the present!”.

Time Flies, and believe me, it really does. Every time, you think that there’s enough time for a certain event, think again. Every activity in an event has a certain lead time, and if we do not plan in advance, it is certain that we will lose control on the same. Even if there actually is some time for the event to arrive, if we start planning for it NOW, most probably, the outcome will be as per our expectations. Whilst I agree on the importance of carrying out day to day activities as per requirements you do need to have an eye on the future and act upon it right now! So, to win you need to ensure that the balance of current and future is well maintained in our work and priorities.

Let me give you another example of how time flies.

Geet and Siddharth were room mates in a college hostel. They both worked really hard for the forthcoming midyear exams and were expecting good grades to show their parents in the festive break. When results were declared, Geet broke down. How could he get a “B” grade? He had worked so hard and his exams were fairly decent. He asked Siddharth about his results and Siddharth quietly replied “I got a B too”. Geet immediately concluded that the relative grading system is fake and no amount of hard work can result in good grades. Now he cant wait for another six months to prove his parents that he really worked hard. He gave up and then onwards, he only explained his parents that relative grading system was unfair and it was only meant for students who can butter teachers well. Siddharth was upset too. He met his parents and promised them that he would work harder for Annual exams. Within no time, annual exams came. Siddharth got an A, and Geet a B-.

Somebody wise has said “Days are long, but the years are short”. Short term results should not determine our priorities in life, because guess what? Time flies my friend. From one event to another, from one year to another and from one appraisal cycle to another, time does fly! If you have put in your best, the outcomes will be best. Priorities and direction should take precedence.

With these two stories, I have tried to explain how this unique feature of time, has to be captured and exploited by us. Kabir has said – “Kaal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab, pal mein parlay hoyegi, bahuri karega kab?” (Tomorrow's work do today, today's work now, if the moment is lost, the work be done how) . Therefore, we must leave procrastination behind us, and start acting on things “NOW” to have a better control on our future, which is almost here!

Do you have your future in your hands? Or do you let time fly with its powerful wings? Do write in.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Elephants can dance

2011-09-30T18:56:00.000+05:30

Elephants are the largest living animals on Earth today. The average weight of a male elephant is said to be around 4500 kgs! They are said to be very intelligent and social animals. We have seen snakes dance, monkeys dance, But do Elephants dance?

Whenever I ask my team as to what is the biggest obstruction on the way to achieving disproportionate growth, I am told that the “high base” of last year is the issue. And I often wonder – Is it True? Is it really not possible to disproportionately grow bases which are already high? And the single word answer that my mind undoubtedly gives is a blank “No”!

Well, it may sound too idealistic and to some extent, unrealistic, so let’s begin with an example. Let’s start with an iconic company – Apple. When iPhone was launched, did anyone think that something better than that can be possible? The innovative concept and sleek design captured the hearts of millions throughout the world. iPhone launch was a phenomenon and I do remember seeing so many times in newspapers, customers waiting in such long queues in countries where iPhone was about to get launched. Nobody could imagine something better could be possible within the life span of a mobile phone. The truth is that within a span of 4 years, iPhone has launched 4 versions, each one significantly better than the last one. And now, they are all set for the grand iPhone 5 launch – one device which will change the rules of the game forever. One look at the features, and you’ll again think that nothing better than this can ever be possible! Would you be surprised if they launched an even superior iPhone 6, hopefully not!

We are living in a society which is full of examples on how big companies keep surprising us with more and more positive results over a period of time. HP, IBM, Bank of Baroda are just some top of the mind examples which hits instantly the moment you think it is “impossible” to twist and turn huge bases. There are many many other examples. If you just take a look around you, you will realize that the world does not function on the basis of base at all. Everything keeps growing despite the current status of their being. Do you think you cannot learn more or get enlightened because you have already matured enough? You believe you can’t put on more weight because you are already obese? Will you ever think you don’t need more money because you already have enough?

Now let’s think of this. Why is it even easier to grow on large bases than small bases. The answer lies in large base itself. If you have a large sales base, you have a large customer base and therefore, so much more word of mouth marketing available to you free of cost! If you recently saw the list of India’s Most Trusted Brands in Brand Equity, you would realize that trust also comes from the scale of business. It is Virtuous Cycle – More Customers -> More Sales -> More Word of Mouth -> Even More Customers. Isn’t it fair to expect more from bigger bases? The only condition here remains is to make every customer of yours, a happy one, and they will ensure that whatever your bases are, you grow much more than that. If you stick to this golden rule, no base effect can ever hamper your growth path.

The market is large and the potential is incalculable. The bases should never be calculated according to the previous performance, but more in terms of Market Potential. I again do not mean, market share, but stressing on the word “potential” to highlight that there are still areas that nobody in the market would have ventured into, which are completely untapped. When we think of the bases in this light, they surely will look too small to not achieve disproportionate growths!

And yes, let me tell you, Elephants do Dance. Despite their weight, Despite their perception, they do dance. I have quoted above, the elephants who danced on the power of innovation, strategies and belief that they can do it! Do you think that there’s an elephant around you? Do you think it’ll dance?

Diwali aa rahi hai…..

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

What makes you stop?

2011-09-23T09:15:00.000+05:30

I often ask myself – Why is it that we are always afraid of committing beyond certain limits? Why don’t we announce that we will push ourselves beyond our limits? What is it, that despite our all honest intentions, we fail to believe in ourselves? What makes us Stop?

Jitesh was disappointed. The results of the “Budding Leader Program” interview was just out and he couldn’t believe that his name did not feature over there. And Rohan, his colleague had just got selected, despite similar target achievements that both of them had during the year. He tried to reflect back upon what happened last year, and what came to his mind was a board room scene before the year begun.

Jitesh had a serious debate with Mr. Sharma, their Boss, proving him how achieving a 20% growth would be impossible and therefore, would demotivate his entire team. He had a lot of points on his side – ranging from high base of last year, competition cropping up in the meanwhile, some key members of the team resigning and many more. Finally, Mr. Sharma gave up and reduced his targets to 10% growth only. Jitesh breathed a sigh of relief! Rohan, on the other hand, accepted 20% growth with much zeal and Jitesh thought that was only to butter the seniors.

After Q1, Jitesh got 110% achievement, while Rohan closed at 98% and was being questioned by seniors. Jitesh, was thanking God. He finally got a little more confident that it’s not as difficult to achieve targets. He looked at Rohan’s disappointed face and felt so much better about having negotiated his targets well enough. He was wondering what face would he have shown to his Boss if he didn’t achieve.

A lot of times, it’s not complacency or “ulterior motives” that make us stop from taking higher targets. The biggest thing, which makes us “stop”, is the “fear of failure”. We have grown in a society where we are driven to be successful – career, social lives, family and others – and where failures are unacceptable! When we fail, we are threatened to be punished. The world judges us by how much we have over delivered rather than delivering at par. We all believe in “exceeding expectations” rather than “meeting” it. A lot of us would believe that the story ends here. But there’s something more to it, let’s take a look.

For Jitesh, it was easy to achieve his targets. He would do little and his targets would get achieved. He and his entire team were now over confident of delivering numbers. He remembered how for Rohan, every single week used to be a struggle. Rohan kept on pushing for the sales by various means. Motivating his staff, setting the processes right to make people’s tasks simpler, focusing on SOPs, Rohan and his team were always on their toes. And when, for a few weeks, Rohan saw that the targets were getting missed, he encouraged his team to have innovative ideas for sales. Now, his entire team was only thinking “how to sell more”. All this, Jitesh thought was so much of efforts that he managed to save himself from and still face his seniors.

This is what most of us fail to look at. What new did we learn? Did we try hard enough? Are we happy with ourselves? And most importantly, what can go worse if we fail to deliver what we have committed? In quest to show the world how great we are, we forget to show it to ourselves, and this is what makes us “stop”! We always choose to become “an example to others” rather than “ a better individual”, not realizing that only and only the latter leads to the former.

At the end of the year, both of them closed at 100% ABP Achievement, though Rohan’s growth was 20% and his was 10% .Jitesh was satisfied with his performance. After all, not everyone manages to achieve 100%. But then, he remembered meeting Rohan outside the Interview room, how Rohan was beaming with confidence and in front of which, his own satisfaction with his performance was getting overshadowed.

One thing we all have to accept, is that all of us work towards a target. If the target gets achieved easily, we are bound to get complacent and not try harder when our targets get achieved. The easiest way out is to take lower targets. But is target achievement the only parameter that you would judge your professional life upon?

Atychiphobia – The irrational fear of failure, also known as performance anxiety. Atychiphobes generally gather a defeatist attitude out of fear of failing, making them avoid trying to achieve anything due to potentially failing at it. This strategy is known as avoidance behavior. Atychiphobes may also suffer from an inordinate sense of perfectionism, and may only try something that is guaranteed perfect. We all, do suffer from Atychiphobia in various degrees, and at various stages of our life. If you turn some of the pages of history, you will find that most of the leaders only became successful, after tasting multiple bites of failure. Do you suffer from Atychiphobia? Do you realize how it is hindering your own growth? Are you working towards coming over it?

Hope this note gives all of you a different perspective to look at your limits.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

(Who) Customer (What) Service

2011-09-15T20:59:00.000+05:30

India is a land of shopkeepers. This is quoted as the reason for holding off FDI in retail. Isn’t it? So, ever thought about the service levels the neighbourhood shopkeeper offers?

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us – we are dependent on him” - Unknown

Does the neighbourhood guy lives by this statement? Or, the marketers of products and services in the organised sector. This isn’t a trick question! I am sure most of you would agree that organised sector has better service standards. And incidentally, this is not an article to sell my thoughts on FDI.

Spare a thought for the affable retailer who is always willing to help Bhabhiji and has offer products hidden in the store room only for her. One who sends even one piece of your daily bread to your house only because he understands your LTV (life time value) without understanding technicality of the term. Contrast this with 4 examples that I have faced recently.

I have a less than a year old European car. One day, I discovered a problem of coolant leakage. I had to send the car to the dealership at least 3 times before they even acknowledged the problem. For the first two times the effort on their part was to convince me that I was hallucinating and there was no problem with the car.

In another instance relating to my DTH provider, I decided to upgrade one of the boxes from regular to HD. We wanted the regular box to be attached to another TV set. For some reason the first box got de-activated. We made 5 calls over 20 days for the activation and every time we were told that our request had not been registered and the issue will be resolved in 48 hours.

One more. My bank decided to change my wealth management team for reasons best known to them. One day a trainee lands up at my home to “help” me. He has no homework done as to who I was and details of my relationship. No briefing from the previous wealth manager or his boss. On speaking to his boss, he apologised and promised to meet me up. For over 2 months, no sign of his wanting to meet me.

And the final example, from a MNC sports shoe brand who invites you to act. My young son’s shoe passed away within 3 months of purchase. Luckily, this time we had a bill of the purchase. So, we landed up at one of the brand stores for complaint hoping for a quick exchange as our case was genuine. We were in for a surprise as we were told that the purchase was made from another franchisee and therefore he just can't do it.

All the above examples are from large / MNC brands. These guys are clearly not in sync with, “Ask your customers to be part of the solution, and don't view them as part of the problem”. They are thinking of the customers as the problem. So, will they succeed or even survive? They will, till the time demand supply gap exists. Unlike the neighbourhood guy who has high service standard and a niche for himself which will ensure that he weathers the storms and hands over a strong business to his future generations.

My service horrors didn’t end as horrors. I luckily know some senior people around and can press the right buttons. So, the car dealer, the DTH provider and the Bank manager all fell in line with one phone call and my issues resolved in a matter of hours. What took multiple calls, visits or wait for months was solved in hours. How is that possible? Because with those phone calls the attitude changed. The same people were wanting to solve the problems and did so. The difference was not in what was possible but the intent! Service is about the willingness to serve. It is easy to surprise (positively) the customer. (if you were wondering what happened to the sports shoe, answer is nothing. I don’t know the right people)

On the other hand, what do successful brands do? Focus on complaint resolution or go beyond. Shift focus from complaint resolution to customer service to customer delight. One brand which attempts it is the iconic brand Apple. My son got an iPad bought in Canada exchanged in India without producing a bill. And my wife’s iPhone got exchanged without any questions asked. Apple agreed that the products belonged to them, they have a problem and the customer is right. Sounds simplistic.

Have you noticed in McDonald’s they replace the coke or fries when a customer (esp a child) drops it whilst carrying it. Because a happy child will always remember it and keep coming back to them. In return enhancing the LTV (life time value) of the relationship.

You are not in business for a day. The customer is not a transaction. If you can learn from Apple and McDonald’s. Look after the customer and they will look after you to survive and grow your business. It’s that simple.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

Power of Observation

2011-08-19T08:53:00.000+05:30

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible to others” ~ Jonathan Swift

Here, I am addressing the often Overlooked and Underutilized Power of Human beings – “The Power of Observation”.

A lot of times I am told that I have strong observation powers. Recently it was re-iterated by some team members when one morning I called for a strategy meet for expanding the customer base for apparel for Fashion @ Big Bazaar. The trigger for this meeting was observation of the street shoppers in Mumbai suburbs. I noticed that the women who were shopping were “middle class”! The kind of women who I would like to have in our stores. The clothes that they were buying were not more fashionable and not cheaper. So, it sparked the question on their motivation to shop there.

It made me think how I started my journey of keen observation. Then, I remembered my baptism by fire. Here goes my first experience leading to learning on “power of observation”

My first job as a management trainee (over two decades back) was in a multinational which also sold Shampoos. Those days for the shampoo category the key task was to increase customer trial and penetration through the sachet route. So, the sales task was to ensure wide distribution of sachet in the kirana stores. During the training period I also worked as a sales officer and my “mentor”, the Area Sales manager was to visit me in the market place. “Dressing up” the market was a done thing. So, I with my distributor made sure that the sachet distribution was wide (on the understanding with the shop keepers that we will take them back after the ASM visit).

During the visit, ASM went through the stores without any adverse remark and I was feeling relieved. In the last shop he said that the sachet were placed only yesterday. I tried to say that was not correct. He proceeded to count the number of sachet hanging on the hangar and said that the shop had not sold any. I hastily added that the sachet offtake was really poor. He then said that the sachet placed there were feeling new. In an Indian shop if they were hanging for a long period then they would have been dirty. I was left speechless.

So, my mantra is that developing the “power of observation” is an easy thing to do – we just need to focus on it. It is more a question of training and habit. I am attempting to put some tips for the same over here.

1. “Point of view” based Observation : Reality is not very different from the way you would believe it. Having a “point of view” helps in defining the standard and any deviation is fairly easy to observe. E.g. If I believe that excess dust in a store is just not acceptable, I will work on finding reasons for the same. In a particular case, it was not about poor housekeeping but non-functional air curtain. Assuming things will be right is the biggest hindrance in your observation. Observation is done with an open mind and not just open eyes.

2. Observe Like a Customer: In retail and most other businesses customers are your biggest assets. Can you experience the joys and frustrations of the customers, first hand. I have personally shopped (and observed) in our stores like a customer and have been able to contribute to improvements significantly. For me this is a very special thought.

3. Observe Small Details : Nothing is too small to be noticed. I have noticed a sticker on a competitive store hoarding on the change of promo dates to finetune my tactics. Or the lights which are not functional in a store or at the fascade. And trust me, these are things that frustrate my team the most. But I am relentless on this.

4. Prepare yourself to observe : If you continue thinking that things have always been this way and won’t be very different today, you will never be able to observe. Tell yourself that if you don’t observe anything new today, the day was a waste. Even if you decide that you have to observe 5 new things every day, you will over achieve your targets. There are enough things around to tell you something new every day.

5. Act : Once you observed something wrong, take immediate steps to correct it, even if it’s a fairly small thing. This will further enhance your observation powers.

The "observation" is not just related to stores, but also to data. Think about applying all the above thoughts to data as well! You will find surprising answers. And suddenly, the data starts to speak to you? Have you ever experienced that? Trust me, the numbers talk to me.

Why does so much of what's in front of us seem invisible? Well, perhaps because people only see what they are prepared to see (Ralph Waldo Emerson), and because: what we see depends mainly on what we look for (John Lubbock).

What did Newton have special in him that others didn’t have? Everybody saw an apple falling, he observed. Jack Dorsey observed the people’s interest in social media and the need for updating it real time, what we have with us is Twitter!. Steve Job’s iPod, Bill Gates’ Microsoft, Page and Seargey’s Google – all are results of no extra ordinary powers, but just plain OBSERVATION.

Will you now “Observe” more? Looking forward to your views on the same.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

What makes you a winner?

2011-08-06T17:27:00.000+05:30

This blog is inspired by a story, which in very simple words, told me what makes you a Winner. Starting with the story:

The story is about a TT player who hired a new coach to improve his game. The coach was highly experienced and extremely good. However, the player's results did not improve. As the player got impatient with the results not being good over a year, he changed his coach again. After the coach changed, the player started doing extremely well and winning tournaments. When the media asked the player as to what the difference between the two coaches was, the player said that he had a poor backhand. “All my opponents used to exploit my backhand. So, my old coach worked on my weakness and tried to convert it into a strength. As I was working on my backhand, it improved and it was no longer a weak area. However, my natural flair was towards forehand and therefore backhand could not become my strength. Meanwhile, as I was not working on my forehand I started losing my touch on the same. So, I had no weakness and no strength either. My new coach worked on my forehand and it is even more stronger!”

A lot of us may start by thinking how wrong the earlier coach was. What you need to understand is the contribution made by both of them. I believe is that if the earlier coach wouldn’t have worked on the player’s weakness, the player wouldn’t have managed to win only with his strength. Similarly, working only on weakness wasn’t giving an edge to the player too.

In our professional lives, this story is as relevant. If I were to convert the story into a professional set up, it would come as something like this:

Sia was a budding management professional in the sales team of a software company. She was way too good at handling people and all her clients were appreciative of her. However, her weakness was numbers. As soon as the client started quoting some market numbers, she would get lost, start giving vague answers and finally end up losing the deal. She soon realized that she must do something with her number skills immediately. Then she started studying market figures, did an in depth analysis of costs and got a fair understanding of numbers. Now, whenever she met clients, she started by quoting numbers. However, something was still wrong and the client conversion rate was still the same as earlier. When she discussed her problem with a friend, she found out that the clients were missing the personal touch that they got earlier. That was when she realized that while she has worked on her weakness, it was her strength that had to be capitalized.

A lot of us, as soon as we realize our weakness, get nervous and start working towards it. And the most common mistake that we do is to try and convert our weakness into strength. What we must realize is that weakness is a weakness because we are not good at it. It is human not to be good in certain areas. What we need to do is “improve” ourselves in these areas. At the same time, we must also be grateful for the things that we are good at. These are the things that we like to do and give us a confidence boost. Therefore, it is also important to keep enhancing our strength and not lose touch of the same while we are working on eliminating our weaknesses. You have to combat one and make the other invincible and then you will emerge as the real ‘Winner’.

Winners are unbeatable in their strength areas and they don’t have obvious weaknesses!

Look forward to your comments.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Do you know your team members?

2011-08-01T09:16:00.000+05:30

This blog is inspired from the fact that we put in a lot of efforts in knowing our customers and possibly don't put the same efforts towards knowing our teams. We believe that we interact with them regularly (in person or otherwise), and therefore, with such frequent level of interaction, we know them already. But hold on a minute. Do we? Let’s take a look.

Mr. Sharma and Mr. Jadhav are two senior members of a company. They both handle similar portfolio for different products, and have similar team size and resources. We asked both of them some common questions and let’s see what they have to say:

Q. Do you think you know your team members well?

Both of them reply confidently that they do know their team members well

Q. Do you know about the immediate family members of your respective teams?

Mr. Sharma smiled and said he knew every single immediate family member of his team by name, and also have a record of birthdays and anniversaries of his team members and their spouses.

Mr. Jadhav didn’t sound as confident. He admitted that he has a fair idea of their immediate family members, which he has come to know through various casual chats with his team members.

Q. Do you know the growth path that each one of your team members want to take?

Mr. Sharma nodded and said that company has defined a very good career path for everyone. All his team members wants to get up the corporate ladder in the company and want to follow his or his Boss’ footsteps.

Mr. Jadhav had a different answer. He said that one of his team members Dinesh, always wanted to be a choreographer. He is already into part time classes and wants to take it up full time. Another team member of his, Priya, wanted to start a business of her own and would do that post sufficient experience. Ramesh and Jeet would like to grow professionally in this group only.

Q. Do you treat every team member differently?

Mr Sharma replied that all his team members are equal to him and therefore, he should not ideally treat them differently at all. Rules and Behavior are same for everyone. He does not like to be called “unfair” or “partial” to some people.

Mr. Jadhav answered that he definitely needs to treat his team members differently. Every individual is different and have different needs, also depending on the stage of life they are at. For e.g. , Dinesh, has a casual attitude and therefore he makes sure that he explains him the importance of every task assigned to him more than others, so that he does not take it casually. Similarly, Priya is dependable and does not need follow ups. Rather, she hates follow ups and thus, he ensures that he assigns tasks to Priya and forgets until the results show.

Q. How do you react when a Team Member of yours approaches you and says that he wants to learn something new (say a different language) and would need to leave early for a couple of days every week?

Mr Sharma says that no one in his team has approached him on something like that. If they do, he would suggest them to learn something related to work (say Excel), so that it helps in defining a better career path for them. If they still insist, maybe he’ll ask them to take out time from their personal schedule.

Mr. Jadhav said that he would encourage his team members to do the same, as it will give a boost to personal confidence of his team member. He said that he would be ready to accommodate the change, provided the individual is ready to take out some time from his personal schedule also.

Q. How do you tackle various emotional stages of a team member?

Mr Sharma replied that it is difficult to handle such situations. If one person in the team is newly married and is not able to focus completely on his / her work, it also spoils the momentum of the rest of the team. Therefore, he ensures that the person gets equal responsibility as the rest of his/her team members, so that the rest of the team doesn’t get bogged down. He also ensures some extra follow ups with that person.

Mr. Jadhav replied that everyone goes through various emotional stages in life. Every day is not a bright work day, and as a mentor it is my responsibility to accommodate such changes. I ensure that my team works as a “team” and is able to sail through each others’ emotional stresses. This way, I rest assured that I also get my team’s support, when I need it.

And now, comes the real question. If you had to choose a Boss out of the two gentlemen, whom would you choose? And all those, who choose Mr. Sharma, need to write me a mail separately. Jokes apart, as much as we would like to believe we are like Mr. Jadhav, if we introspect deeply, we would discover we are not.

What we really need to understand from the above is that there is a big difference between Technically Knowing your Team and Really Knowing them. If you believe that you know your team member because you know their birthdays and family members, you know Amitabh Bachchan also. Isn’t it? Ofcourse you know his birthday and his family members and also that his daughter in law is pregnant. But that’s not what knowing is. In one of my previous companies, the owner’s wife wished all the senior team members on our birthdays. While the gesture was good, it did look too automated and fake. Therefore, assuming that you know your team members and are taking care of them only because you follow a certain protocol is wrong.

Another mistake that all of us tend do to with our teams, is assuming that the team members are individuals like ourselves only and they emulate our working styles as well as aspirations. Such coincidences happen. You do get members in your team who see, act, behave just like you. But let’s not confuse these people as better. There are others, who work as diligently, just not in the manner you expected them to. Let’s respect the heterogeneity within the human race and adapt a different perspective towards different individuals.

I believe that you will not achieve work life balance by only taking out time for life. You can do that by merging life into work. And that will come only when your team “owns” and not “takes” the work. A responsible individual at work is also a confident and happy individual at home. Therefore, by making people responsible you make them better individuals. And that is the big difference that we need to bring in our teams.

After all, “Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”, oops, “Kyunki Boss bhi kabhi Team Member tha”, and so, because we have had the Best Bosses in the World, or Becaue we have not had the Best Bosses in the World, we need to ensure that our team members do have the Best Bosses in the World!

Do let me know what you think about it.

PS: You can also reach out to me at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

The intolerable "Chalta hai" attitude

2011-07-22T23:40:00.000+05:30

This is a piece I had written some time back, but did not feel like posting it as it did not seem powerful enough. It seemed a bit like a crib. And I dont like to put negative thoughts in my blogs. However, a recent trip to Germany changed my attitude about this article. The discipline and the level of planning in Germany made me introspect about the “chalta hai” syndrome that we suffer from in our Indian Society. So, dont see this article as a negative piece but as an introspection one. Here goes the article.

Let me first define what “Chalta Hai” attitude means. Literally translated, it means 'it walks', but the real meaning is 'it's ok'. basically this means "brushing off things like rules because people think they don't matter”. In other words, thinking that taking some action on something or following a rule is “not important enough”. Do you think you suffer from the “Chalta hai” syndrome? Let’s take a look at some daily life personal and work examples:

1. Do you jump a traffic signal because you are in a hurry? - Everyone does it. Why shouldn't I? Chalta hai.

2. Do you throw waste paper on the road? - Everyone does it. Why shouldn't I? Chalta hai.

3. Do you answer all the E Mails that are required by you to answer? – “There are about hundred Emails I receive daily. If I don’t answer some of them, Chalta Hai!”

4. Do you ensure accurate target setting at an SKU level for each zone? – “It’s a trouble working at brand level for the zones, If I pro rate at SKU level, “Chalta Hai”

5. Do you set the list of your priority work for the day / week? – “I remember things at the back of my mind, why should I write it down, “Chalta Hai”

6. Do you come on time every day? – “I stay back after office hours, coming late, “Chalta Hai”!

The funny part of the whole Chalta Hai syndrome is in the fact that you represent both the sides to crib. While at one end, you may not respond to the email where someone has asked for some info, on the other hand, you also crib when someone doesn’t answer your email of some urgent requirement. A lot of times, you don’t even realize that how this “Chalta hai” attitude is affecting others. Jumping the red light means accident for someone else, who braked hard to avoid colliding with you. You may not have done SKU level detailing of targets due to other “priority” works, but because of that there maybe wrong inventory stuck in some corner of the country. If this was done to you, would you accept someone’s “Chalta Hai” attitude? Even for yourself, sometimes you may feel that you are smart enough to take care of everything without necessarily “formalizing” it, by jotting it down on a piece of paper, but at the end of it, you mess up by forgetting something very important. When you don’t come on time, you start the day itself with firefighting, not allowing yourself to plan for the day. And that is when your entire schedule for the day goes haywire.

Above are just few of the examples on how “Chalta hai” attitude is so harmful to self, others and the whole organization. Man, by nature , is a lazy creature and needs to be pushed / motivated to work. When one of us display the “Chalta Hai” attitude, there are ten others who easily emulate it assuming its acceptable to be like that. Slowly, it becomes the culture and everybody starts adapting to this mode. This is how we promote “mediocrity” in ourselves and the organization. And then we get caught in the endless cycle of crib and unhappiness.

And this is the most significant difference between a developed economy and a developing economy. We dont even realise some of these issues as they have got ingrained in our behaviour and attitude. This is what has been disturbing me ever since I came back from my trip to Germany. That's why this article has been dug out from the archives.

Gandhiji once said – “Be the change you want to see”. A lot of times, “Chalta Hai” attitude has to be curbed at the senior level more seriously, to pass on the right message to everyone. And this is why, we need to STOP taking things lightly and say to ourselves – “NAHI CHALTA HAI, I will change it!”

Would like to hear your thoughts on the topic.

PS: You can also reach out to me at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Are you a juggler

2011-07-03T00:01:00.000+05:30

This management thought starts with a story borrowed from Devdutt.com (Devdutt is the chief belief officer at our group, Future Group).

In South Indian temple walls one often finds a character called Bhringi looking adoringly at Shiva dancing. What distinguishes Bhringi from the rest of the followers of Shiva is that he looks emaciated, just a skeleton in fact. And he has three legs, not two.

The story goes that Bhringi was a devotee of Shiva. One day, he came to Mount Kailas, the abode of Shiva, and expressed his desire to go around Shiva. As he was going around, Shiva’s consort, Shakti, said, “You cannot just go around him. You have to go around me too. We are two halves of the same truth.” Bhringi, however, was so focussed on Shiva that he had no desire to go around Shakti. Seeing this, Shakti sat on Shiva’s lap making it difficult for Bhringi to go around Shiva alone. Bhringi, determined to go around Shiva took the form of a snake and tried to slip in between the two. Amused by this, Shiva made Shakti one half of his body – the famous Ardhanareshwar form of Shiva. This was God whose one half is the Goddess. But Bhringi was adamant. He would go around Shiva alone. So he took the form of a rat, some say a bee, and tried to gnaw his way between the two.

This annoyed the Goddess so much that she said, “May Bhringi lose all parts of the body that come from the mother.” In Tantra, the Indian school of alchemy, it is believed that the tough and rigid parts of the body such as nerves and bones come from the father while the soft and fluid parts of the body such as flesh and blood come from the mother. Instantly, Bhringi lost all flesh and blood and he became a bag of bones. He collapsed on the floor, unable to get up.

Bhringi realized his folly. Shiva and Shakti make up the whole. They are not independent entities. One cannot exist without the other. Without either there is neither. He apologized.

The story, like all other mythological stories has a lot to tell. Bhringi was the true devotee of Shiva and did everything possible to please his Lord. What he forgot was that his focus on "one" was so much, that he forgot to look at the other.

Have I confused you all through this story? Some of you will be quick to tell me the story of Arjuna who is considered an ideal! The story goes like this:

Guru Dronacharya decided to test his students in their skill of archery. He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. He asked the first one to aim for the bird's eye but not shoot just yet. He then asked the student what the student could see. The student replied that he could see the garden, the tree, flowers, etc. Drona asked him to step aside and not shoot. He repeated the same process with a few other students. When it was Arjuna's turn, Arjuna told his Guru that the only thing he could see was the bird's eye. This satisfied the Guru and he allowed Arjuna to shoot the bird. The lesson here is the power of focus.

All along we have been told that focus is a good thing and now I am saying please don’t focus or you shall be punished like Bhringi.

Very often in our lives, especially at work, when we focus on something, we, tend to deprioritize everything else and focus on it single mindedly. Can you recall the instances where you have put in all your efforts in one project and ultimately found out that all other projects in your hands are way beyond their deadline? I am sure each one of us has gone through this in various phases of our careers. We make one particular thing so important, that we forget that there are other things too, which make our work and life complete. We forget the fact that success and happiness is a result of all round performance and is never dependent on one parameter only. It does happen in our personal lives too. We chase one dream so strongly, that we completely ignore some others. Imagine putting all your money and efforts into buying a new house, that you have no money for any personal emergency. We often please Shiva and ignore Shakti. And therefore, like Bhringi, we are left with the bones, but we lose the Flesh!

You will argue that by focusing we are being like Arjuna and still being faulted? In my opinion it is incorrect to fault Arjuna for the focus. What we need to do is focus on the project on hand but manage multiple projects. So, you need to be Arjuna for a particular project but remember that you have multiple projects at the same time. What corporate world requires in today’s day and age is a juggler, especially as you rise up the hierarchy. A juggler focuses on juggling multiple balls. Like when you have to deliver on targets, these are measured in relation to topline, margin, inventory and expenses. Do you have the liberty of delivering on only one of them and still ask for a large bonus?

At times, it is definitely tough for us not to pick one out of so many things. With so many options available in our hands, it is natural to pick the one which is most important and has the most visible results to be taken before others. What we don’t realize is that focusing on only one goal at a time, makes us lose on so many other accounts. We should understand that true leaders have 360 degrees approach to any problem we are facing and whilst a few things will continue to be our focus, we must learn not to deprioritize other aspects. Balance between the important and not so important tasks remains the key to achieve your long term goals.

So, you need to be a good juggler in corporate world. Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

Small Steps make a Big Leap!

2011-06-24T18:27:00.000+05:30

“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.” ~Proverb

This blog got initiated with a colleague of mine writing in as a feedback on one of my earlier posts. Also, I came across some tweets from Robin Sharma, which made me initiate this topic as a weekend thought. Robin Sharma says, “Think Big but Start Small” and also that “A lot of winning is about the beginning”. He also states that Great companies are made by a lot of nano wins than a giant win. That, did provoke me to think more about it!

Am starting with a simple, yet very effective quote – “It Takes years of hard work and perspiration to become an overnight success”. We all know that success doesn’t come easy, and yet, as soon as we are made aware of our target destination, we are in a hurry to get there and do anything possible to reach there in the minimum possible time. Often, these bigger steps result in setbacks as we are lesser experienced in the path and the base is not as strong. Through the two decades of my career, and quite a few ups and downs, I have realized that baby steps are the best way to achieve my goal.

Nisha had a busy schedule and found little time for herself. She was an ardent reader, and had a creative and expressive streak about her. So she still felt that she would do good for herself if she gets into writing. And then she decided to work on the big dream of writing a book of her own. After a lot of postponements, one fine day she decided to finally “start” writing her book. She had a couple of topics in mind, but decided to go ahead with “The Independent Woman of Today” as her topic. She started writing and after a few pages, she realized that maybe the topic didn’t have enough content. She then thought that women in India were underprivileged and it would be better if she wrote on that topic. After reading a couple of articles on this topic, she sat down to write again on the new topic after a week. Three pages later, she realized that she is repeating whatever has already been written on the topic so she should find another topic. Finally, in the long process of finding the right topic, she lost the enthusiasm and the Word Document on her comp never saw her again. She had undertaken a large task. However, she had not thought through the intricacies of this large task. As she kept getting into details she realised that the task is unviable.

One day, Manas, her friend asked her what happened to her idea of writing a book. She told him that she did not just have it in her to write a book. And then Manas suggested that why doesn’t she start by writing blogs. The idea made sense and Nisha made a blog id. She then started to write on her favorite topic – “Women of India”, which covered both aspects on women of India – the independent and the underprivileged. As she wrote various blogs, she got feedback from the readers on her writing style, what everyone liked in her writing and what they didn’t. She kept on improving and in the process, also made a number of fans and some good friends who were author of some renowned books. Today, not only has she written a couple of books on different topics, one of her books have also become Bestseller and has won her accolades.

We humans , are hopelessly positive in our subconscious minds. Whenever we move into a direction, we believe that this is the best way of getting this work done and will work out in no time. However, quite often, we stumble back, only wondering what had gone wrong. The worst part of it is, that the set back may result in you completely letting the task go undone as the motivation levels to still carry out the task go for a toss. And therefore, my belief in taking small steps gets strengthened.

Taking baby steps has its own advantages. The biggest one is the additional amount of learning that you get. Small steps are really helpful when you’re unsure whether the path you have taken is right or not. Just like Nisha in the story earlier. You get many small learnings attached to the task rather than only learning that this particular big strategy “worked” or not. Also, baby steps increase the frequency of feedback you receive, because you can bring prototypes to quick meetings. More the feedback, more is the learning.

Another big advantage of taking smaller steps at a time is Risk Aversion. Small steps allow you to explore multiple direction parallel and you don’t need to have “one” grand idea to reach your target. Therefore, the risk involved in smaller steps are much lesser compared to the big one. Often, Big Bets are also the “Expensive Bets” and small steps are cheaper to pull off, so you end up spending less money per unit of learning, and that learning comes sooner. And it's easier to kill off ideas when they're expressed as baby steps, because there's no huge sunk investment tempting you to spend more time and money in order to save the project or your career. It also helps in taking care of the dynamism in the external scenario, as external circumstances are not constant and also not controllable. These can make any big plan fail.

As they say, “Slow but steady wins the race”, by taking a lot of smaller steps, you make sure that you are making your way to the desired destination. Sometimes large steps sap up the energy that you then tend to take rest (just like the hare in the hare and tortoise story). This rest means that you lose continuity and momentum to achieve your goal. You need to decide whether you are playing a test match or a T20. The pace will be determined by the game you play. Small steps also give flexibility to change you plan of actions based on the results achieved which would not be possible otherwise.

Just to make sure that there is no communication chasm, I want to insist that I don’t mean that you have to think small for taking small steps. We do need to think and expect big. However, expecting to get there in no time, is, more often than not a myth. To reach a far out destination, the essential ingredient is “Small Steps” and not “Big Leaps”.

It’s easier to make a comeback from a little tumble than from a steep fall. It’s a shorter road back up. Taking Small Steps is rather a habit that needs to be inculcated than an effort. Once you get into this mode, you’ll realize how easy and simple it was to win.

Do let me know what you think of this.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Is Experience about adding years?

2011-06-17T19:30:00.000+05:30

Here the thought is about something that all of us think that we possess and continue to gain every day, but rarely do we realize what it actually means – “Experience”.

The thought has been with me, ever since I came across a simple saying – “Experience is not what happens to you, Experience is what you do to what happens to you”. I have put together three examples, let’s take a look:

The management team of a retail company is sitting and trying to find out a solution to a problem. The problem is the global concern of recession. The early trends have shown that recession is here but nobody has any clue as to what level will Recession impact the company. The team sitting in the meeting is a heterogeneous team with various levels of experience and there is a lot of debate and discussion on this topic.

Abha, an executive from a premier B school, says “We need to take a hard look at all our costs and save money on them as sales are bound to fall. One of the areas of high cost in our operation is the manpower cost and we need to cut the same to manage our profits. I can only see layoffs as the way to go”. She drew a proximate sales drop chart which is expected and thus, how much costs will we need to save to reach break even. People in the meeting are obviously way too uncomfortable for this solution.

Mr. Juneja, having spent 15 years in the company objected upfront. “I have seen many ups and downs in my career. Such drastic steps at this stage are not required. We need to cut cost by maybe, reducing salaries and if required, laying off a few unproductive people. Also, we will get benefit by negotiating on rent in some of our properties. If we lose 15% sales, that can be compensated by taking these steps. I am sure all these steps will help us sail through recession period”. Everyone seemed to nod in affirmative.

After a little pause, Ashwin, another old hand, though not as experienced as Mr. Juneja, spoke up. He said, “I think besides managing the current, we should also think about the long term impacts. Therefore, we do need to understand what will be the impact 3-5 years down the line as well. First of all, it is a great time to book new properties for our stores. We will not get these prices in the near future and we will be able to command on the builders. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to lay off people as right now, we can retain people at the same cost but during the boom period, when we will require these resources again, the same positions will at least come at a 30% higher cost. As far as the sales are concerned, as people in various teams will now have lesser work, we can try out some unconventional methods like maybe some of our staff can get involved in institutional sales and bulk enquiries, something which we have not tried until now”. People in the room had a ray of hope on their faces.

This is how experience differs. The first case, Abha, had little experience but she was backed up with education. She believed whatever she has studied in text books holds completely true in the real world and made projections similarly. But all of us know, Education is others’ experience, but what we need in the real world is our “own” experience and way of looking at things. If the world has done things in a certain way, not necessary that that is the right way only! She was not able to think of alternatives and did not consider implications of actions. The second case, Mr. Juneja, as much as it sounds like experience, is a case of “conditioning”. We go through certain events in our life where we have taken certain steps and we continue to do the same on every occurrence of it. This is much like the “Pavlovian Theory”, where we are conditioned to respond to a certain event in a defined manner. This case is a little better than education as the learnings are our own and the set up is more “real”. However, this “conditioning”, results in the same experience always and there’s no value addition ever. Repeating once again – “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!”

And then, comes Ashwin. Even though he has lesser years of going through the grind than Mr. Juneja in his career, he is “experienced” enough to react to a particular situation in his own way. He learnt that what went wrong in the last recession and is now smart enough to take the right kind of actions upon each one of them, and each action impacting a fairly long period of time. That is what is called, the real experience!

Now you need to figure out for yourself, whether you are educated, conditioned or experienced. In most of the cases, we are “Conditioned”, as we believe that what we have done once in the past and was right, will continue to be right forever and we don’t need to break our heads every time into it. Education cannot replace Experience. Therefore, there is a lot of value to the "grey hair". But if someone believes that "grey hair" alone is experience, that is where the mistake starts. This is when we deride education, get closed to new ideas because we have "experience". To repeat, most of us confuse experience with conditioning. Experience is about internalising the events that unfold and have an even better plan of action for future.

Next time you think you have the experience, think again. Is your experience only conditioning?

Do let me know what you think about the write up.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Communication - Gap or Chasm

2011-06-10T17:14:00.000+05:30

This management thought relates to a commonly talked about topic, Communication Gap!

“The Single Biggest Problem in Communication is the Illusion that it has taken place” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Every individual is different and unique and so are their abilities to express and perceive. Communication, as simple as it may sound is a challenge in terms of making the other person understand what you intend to say and also understanding what the other person has to say. This is what is communication gap. However. over the two decades of my career, I have realised that often what we refer to as communication gap is actually a chasm. In this post, I am narrating some instances of how I learnt about this chasm in my career. I am also attempting to put down the learning that I derived out of them. However, communication improvement is a vast topic and therefore, what you will read here is definitely not exhaustive. Here we go:

1. One of my Bosses went on a market visit. When he returned, I inquired about how his visit was and he said he was very unhappy with the Area Sales Manager (ASM), as even the basics were not followed. He also mentioned that he gave the person a piece of his mind. After some time, I called up that ASM and asked him how my Boss’s visit was. He said – “It was fine only that he gave feedback on a few improvement areas, which will be corrected!” The Area Manager clearly seemed to be satisfied with the current state of affairs. The clear learning that I derived out of this incident was that when dealing with people a couple of notches down the hierarchy¸ we must be simple and crisp in communicating! Assuming that the other person will understand jargon and complex sentences, is a mistake. Also, it may be a good idea to close the loop by asking them about their “take away” from the conversation post the download.

2. Another one of my Boss had serious concerns with our advertising agency. He decided to communicate his issues to their MD and met him over lunch to discuss the same. After two months, there was no improvement in the performance. He then, called them to our office in a slightly larger group and discussed those issues again. This time with harder questions. After two months, when there was again no improvement, we decided to move the account and that’s when the MD realized that he had not been listening to us. I learnt that clarity of communication does not depend on the IQ or designation of a person, because most often we hear what we want to hear. Communication gap can occur with anyone. I also believe that tough talks need to be done with eye to eye contact and in a formal setting. Very often the setting overtakes the communication objective.

3. Once, I was upset with a colleague of mine over the low growth rate that he had taken for next year’s budget. I was so upset with him that being at such a senior level, he’s not getting company’s vision of growing big next year and was convinced on taking low numbers. On top of that, he was also trying to justify the same to me. I sarcastically told him – “If I had taken this kind of growths, I’d be holidaying in Bahamas”. Obviously I meant that the targets were very easy to be achieved and required no hard work. However, he understood it as his ABP was good enough for him and he doesn’t need to work on it any more. Learning was that sarcasm is best avoided in a professional communication.

4. I was once told that another colleague of mine is not agreeing to the project timelines as he believes that there are certain bottlenecks in the project. But this information given to me was “off the record”. Till date, I fail to understand how can any communication which impacts our work and deliverables be “Off the record”. If I am officially not supposed to act upon it, why am I being provided with the information and if I am supposed to act upon it, how does the information become “off the record”? Official Information is never “Off the Record”. If it is, its not official information, its “gossip”.

5. One of the most crucial aspects of communication, as hackneyed as it may sound, is about it being clear about expectation. A lot of times, “I want it” is not perceived as “I want it now” and when your team member fails to understand the priority of work, frustration comes through. I once told my Marketing Head to get an ad released within next three days. He replied that it was really difficult. I replied back “I want the ad on the required date, DO OR DIE”. Without doubt the ad was released on the required date.

6. In one of the advertising agency meetings, I liked one of the ads, though I remarked casually that “maybe the ad would look a little better if the background was yellow instead of blue”. Genuinely, it was only a casual comment. Next day, I had the yellow background ad in my mailbox. I pitied the people who worked on it throughout the night just to give shape to my casual comment. At senior positions, it is likely that people tend to take your casual comments also as directives and act upon them without you necessarily wanting them to. Expression of purpose is the most important content of a communication.

Communication is a funny thing. How you come to know from the smile of a woman that she has fallen for you and how you don’t understand that when Boss said that the work needs to be completed “Now”, that “Now” didn’t mean a week. Like I mentioned, perception is different for different individuals! That is what creates the communication gap or shall I say chasm?

Communication gap is inevitable and will never be able to be completely got rid of. If my secretary confuses my intent of visiting Allahabad, my “Home Town”, as my intent to visit Home Town, the concept which is just downstairs, I will not blame her, but reflect on myself. What we can work towards, is making sure that the gap is reduced as much as possible and make conscious efforts towards it.

Would like to know your thoughts on how do you make sure that proper communication is in place in your surroundings.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Duplication - The Evil within the organisations

2011-06-07T09:08:00.000+05:30

This time, the thought is about an issue which is present across organizations and if addressed rightly will result in significant increase in the productivity. It’s about eliminating Duplication that exists in the nooks and corners of our work life.

What is the most important problem that persists in all our lives? After a lot of meetings with various colleagues and industry veterans, the answer is singled out as “Time”! There is always so much to do that we are just not able to find out time for ourselves to venture into newer projects and processes in our work. When we take a close look as to where the time is going, we find that everyone is doing everything and this is where all the time is going. Seems like a silly thing to hear, but actually it is not!

There are different departments / people in an organization to perform different roles. However, over a period of time, depending on various factors like lack of trust, ambiguity in role, interest area, impatience and ego issues, we start venturing into every other department. Sample some of these thoughts. “Last time there was an error in the Calculation by ABC team, let me do it myself this time and see if it is correct”, “Am I supposed to do this? Maybe I’ll get shouted at if I ask, Why not do it?”, “It’s exciting to do XYZ work, this time I’ll also get fully involved in the same”, “PQR Team takes a lot of time to update us on these issues, we’ll follow up ourselves” becomes the initial point of starting to get into the works of neighbor departments. Slowly, it becomes a habit and then your “unstated” KRA. What seemed to be a proactive behavior, actually resulted in so many people doing the same work twice. Worse, if three departments don’t trust each other for the same work!

It is much more important to understand how this problem would exist in a large organizations. As the number of layers increase, so do the chances of spreading “Duplication”. Between the different offices – Head Office, Branch Office and Area Offices, there’d be a number of activities that would be duplicated only for the simple reason of improper communication. Similarly, in the same office, the chances of duplication among various departments are quite high. It is also possible that Duplication exists within the same team where the junior person does some work and Boss cross verifies it. There is just so much of overlap all over! I have always fancied what all milestones can be achieved if all this time was spent in putting extra efforts in your work and working out on newer projects for your team.

A lot of times, we encourage Duplication to be the “check and balance’ in the system. To a certain extent, it could be right. But when it starts getting in excess of being only ”Checks and Balance”, that is where the issues arise. Also, when the “Checks and balances” start happening more often than not, that’s where bureaucracy steps in. Nobody trusts nobody else and everyone is busy pulling each other down to show how they are correct and the other person is a fool! Egos build up and all the time is spent in “proving” yourself rather than working your way up! A lot of times, this “Check and Balance” also results in people taking their work casually – knowing that the check exists and they’ll be corrected wherever they are wrong. This, inculcates, Duplication in the organization’s DNA. Sometimes, it also backfires. So,” if you have proved me wrong once, I will prove you wrong twice”, and the story continues…

Did you just realize the amount of imbalance that a seemingly simple thing like “Duplication” can cause?

To address this issue, Just a few points that I think will be helpful:

è At the onset we will have to believe that all people work for the benefit of organization. Nobody has any personal problems with anyone and human errors are inevitable. So, Trust! Do not make cross checking a habit in your work life.

è If there is any problem in sorting out who’s responsibility it is – Talk it out, There’ll be nobody who’ll want to do the work for the heck of it.

è If some of other department’s work is in your interest area – Assist, not Interfere. It’s always good to have an outsider’s point of view in any function.

è Last, but not the least, encourage “Samvaad”, rather than “Vivaad”. Blaming anyone will only result in backfire. Give suggestions, not directives. Click to read my blog on this topic!

Wonder if I am exaggerating on the evils of duplication. Ego, bureaucracy, insecurity and many others? For most of us, it is only about productivity. If you have been provoked, do ACT! ACT NOW!

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

It's Just a Meeting! Isn't it?

2011-05-28T13:45:00.000+05:30

In this piece of article, I am covering a subject which is most deprioritized in the corporate world – “What do you do for a Meeting”. Do you start by thinking that this is one of the weakest topics covered in my writing? That’s my point!

Let’s begin with this example. Marketing Team sends a meeting invite to everyone, including the CEO, which says “Discussion on Next Quarter Calendar” for tomorrow. What do you do? Accept the Invite. And then, be present for the meeting right on time. Do you think something is missing? No? Ok. Let’s begin the meeting. The CEO before the start of the meeting, does think that there’s something missing. He asks all the people present in the room – “How prepared are you for the meeting?”. What kind of answers do you expect from the group? Some examples as below:

· It’s a discussion , right? What Preparation for a discussion? Will speak up as the discussion unfolds

· I don’t think there was anything to be prepared for / The topic didn’t require any preparation

· My Boss is there, he will ensure the discussions happen in the right direction.

· It's about Way Forward – you have to speak and we have to listen, what preparation?

· I have the sales database for past few years readily available on my laptop. Can take out relevant data as soon as required.

· We will discuss today and will come prepared in the next meeting with the action points.

Whatever words you use or don't use, the underlying tone is that you think you will (actively or silently) go through the meeting without any preparations. It’s a Large forum and no hard questions are asked to “an” individual. But do you even realize what happens in the meetings – people with unprepared thoughts speak about unreal facts stating unclear numbers resulting in no next steps. The entire two or three hours of every person present in the meeting, is wasted! Something more criminal that wasting only your day unproductively. Did you even think why you are called for the meeting? If you believe that you will not contribute to the meeting, can you decline the invitation?

Over a period of time, it becomes a culture. Just see its evolution:

a. You have never felt the need to be prepared for any meeting.

b. As described above, the meetings become unproductive with no clear next steps.

c. So, there are more meetings, to follow up on what have to be the next steps (or whether the next steps discussed in the last meeting were relevant or not).

d. Because there are more meetings for you to attend, you have even lesser time to think of any preparation for these meetings.

e. The vicious cycle just started!

And then, there are things called “fake preparations”, which are just the preparations for the heck of it. Over the years I have often made fun of my advertising agencies coming unprepared for the meetings. Their big bosses will come for meetings with no clue of what the brand objective was for the latest campaign. Often I would joke that the presentation made by them was actually prepared in the car drive. The other one was that they would have prepared a presentation for a new MNC and recycled the same to a seasoned Indian company. All these would seem so fake and one thing was clear that in all of these meetings we would not achieve the required results. This was because the discussion was theoretical and revolved around only one thing, "to sell" what the agency had created. It took the cake recently when a partner brand came and presented their launch strategy in India. In that they showed a clip of the fashion show held in Hong Kong. I was left wondering as to what was the relevance of the same. Again the result was the same. We were not able to reach any agreement on stocking their brand. At this very thought, I realize that there’s something fundamentally not in place in the corporate world!

With regards to meetings, there are other evils too. Some people just forget that they had to come for a meeting! And when the meeting starts and you enquire about the whereabouts of the person, they tell you, “Oh I had this sudden plan of travelling to ABC city, I “forgot” to inform you”. No, I am serious, this is real! Also, something that cannot be measured but is equally important – attentiveness in the meetings. I have always said (or demonstrated) that the productivity of the meeting is directly proportional to the attentiveness of the Boss.

Like Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail!”. This holds true in each and every aspect of our lives and meetings are no exceptions, more because along with our own, it also involves the time and “opportunity” cost of all the attendees of the meeting, some of whom may be high cost resources. Chances are, that some of you may relate to some of the excuses mentioned above. Just think about it that you are being called to a meeting because your PoVs is important to be considered for the meeting.

So the final question is – Do you justify your presence in a meeting?

Now on, you should! Looking forward to what are you Points of View on this topic.

PS: you can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

I pray not for a lighter load, but for a stronger back

2011-05-21T17:37:00.000+05:30

This thought is based on a Jewish proverb – “I pray not for a lighter load, but for a stronger back”. I am trying a different approach this time. There are two stories – one which is pictorial and is the inspiration of the thought and the other one is a real life example.

Let’s see how the first story goes:

Do you think we all go through this in our lives? We want our burden to be lessened only to realize that we finally did not achieve our goal. Coming back to modern era and corporate life!

Neeta was furious. Her Boss, Anil, had given her yet another assignment, even though he knew that Neeta already had quite a few assignments in her hands which were nearing deadline. She tried her level best explaining Anil that she just could not take any more projects at this point in time, but Anil just wouldn’t agree. He kept on insisting that Neeta was the best resource available to complete the new project. Neeta was not left with any option but to take the new project in her hands. Upset still, she tried to approach HR to explain her dilemma expecting some help. The HR head, Riddhi, took Neeta out for coffee and asked her about what was making her so upset. Neeta explained that she had only 3 people in her team, out of which one was on marriage leave for a month. She was reaching home late everyday and the pressures were building from the home front too. At this stage, taking another project in hand would be suicidal. She looked up to Riddhi for solution. Riddhi started, “The first question is whether you believe in yourself? What in the World makes you think that you wont be able to take up this project and deliver it in time?”. Neeta was bewildered. Riddhi went on, “Do you think an upgraded version of the new software available will make your task easier?”, Neeta replied with a “Maybe”. Riddhi added, “Don’t you think that you will be granted a little more extension of deadlines in other projects to accommodate this one?”. Neeta continued to listen more intently as she was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. And then Riddhi asked the final question – “Do you think this project is important for your career?” and Neeta admitted that she would’ve lost an opportunity if she didn’t work on this project. Riddhi continued – “Now, weigh the issue rationally. What is more important – this new learning opportunity which would enhance the trust of your seniors further in her, or living in the current situation without pushing a little more? Also, in a month's time, your team member will be back”. Needless to say, after the conversation, Neeta felt much lighter and confident of handling the new project that she had been assigned.

Isn’t this what happens to many of us? As soon as we reach our threshold of our capacity, we start rejecting the newer avenues that come to us. We helplessly say “No” to things without even asking for additional resources that can help accommodate the new work in a much efficient manner. This way, we not only undermine our potential, but also reject the opportunities which come to us in various forms. At the end of it all, we are the losers ourselves. We crib about being helplessly burdened with so many tasks and responsibilities, while it is these tasks and responsibilities, which will take us to the next level!

The only person who can believe in you the most is no one else but yourself! The farther you set your boundaries, farther you will fare! The question is – Are you ready to carry the load? Are you ready of an extended target? Are you ready for more projects to come your way? If your head says “No”, ask your heart!

Looking forward to your views on the same.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

How do you go Where You want to Go?

2011-05-14T21:34:00.000+05:30

This is a post about the importance of planning and not just engaging in fire fighting. Often most of us are good at fire fighting. Is that enough? Read on......

Pritesh is a fresh MBA and is all set to take the new role of Sales In Charge of a Brand in an FMCG company. On his first day, his Boss told him that they were looking at a 20% growth from this brand in the current fiscal year, which was 50% higher than the growth delivered by the brand in last year. Confident that Pritesh was of himself, he happily accepted the targets and also told his Boss that he will be closing the year at more than the expected levels. Pritesh started enthusiastically and was focused on solving the problems. As soon as any problem cropped up, he immediately referred to his academic books and came up with a relevant solution. He was efficiently tackling all the problems that were coming up, but somehow, something was not right. He was still not achieving his targets. In the half yearly review with his boss, it was reflected that Pritesh’s brand was growing at the same pace as last year and the targets were being missed. When confronted, Pritesh, as he genuinely believed, told him that the targets given to him were too high to be achieved. And then his Boss asked him, “Ok, what are you plans for achieving the targets in the next six months?”. Pritesh was blank.

A lot of times this is what happens to us. We want to deliver results but we forget the first step that is required for success of any project or delivering any result – Plan. One statement that I have come to believe in, is – “If you can’t put a plan on a piece of paper, there are no chances of being able to achieve the end result”. Isn’t this true for everything that we do in our lives? Now, think of this:

Now for the next six months, Pritesh took 3 days, only to strategize what would he do to get to the sales. He listed down all the possible ways to increase the sales, referred to his academic books and chalked out a month by month plan of the milestones he would want to achieve. Along with top line increase, he also jotted down what were other problem areas like Team Motivation and Margin Management and drafted out a complete plan for next year. Now, every month, he keeps a track of whether he has achieved his target or not. He knows if the plan worked or not, and in case it doesn’t work he has a Plan B ready to be implemented. A little deviation from his plan cautions him to take corrective actions. And you can fully well understand what the end result was with this approach.

Anyone who has ever undertaken a complex task, has learned the importance of careful planning. This is relevant to every step in life which you need to “Win”. A “Game Plan” in any sports or “Preparations” for a party at home are all examples of how we need to “Plan” to ensure success. “Good planning conserves resources, prevents wasted effort, and saves time and money. Good planning prevents small problems from becoming big problems.” What happens when you start building a house and in the middle of it, you realize that you have run short of money to complete it? Planning, not only helps in determining the feasibility of delivery of targets, but also for knowing in advance whether any additional resource will be required in achieving what has been targeted. Planning also helps in giving teams (both internal and external) and the support functions about the next steps.

If your objective is bigger, you will plan accordingly. The bigger you plan, the farther you will go. We saw how easy it was for Pritesh to blame it on the high targets. He was not prepared for the big targets and the fact that achieving them was never going to be easy. If you don’t plan Big in life, there are lesser chances of you making it Big in life, isn’t it?

At the same time, it is important enough to know that some of your plans can fail too. In such circumstances, we can’t let things happen to us. Instead, it is equally important for us to have a Plan B ready, as an acknowledgement of the fact that plans can fail, but we are ready enough to face it!

The first step is to Decide where to go – near which is easy or far with challenges. If you have decided where you want to go, now is the time to decide How do you go? And then, you do need to know the alternate route too, just in case the first one has roadblocks. Have a Happy Journey!

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

I scratch your back and You scratch Mine

2011-04-29T23:31:00.000+05:30

This thought is about that part of an organization behavior, which is really a grey area – “I scratch your back and You scratch Mine” – Well, sounds like a good idea. Why Grey? Take a look.

Neeraj heads the Marketing of an FMCG organisation. The going has been good, but the latest soap introduction has not had great sales. On a deep dive, he found out that the issue was really with the Sales team which has not been able to achieve the required distribution level as per target. In the weekly review meeting, when Neeraj is questioned on the poor sales performance, he blames it on not so exciting fragrance of the new soap.

Confused? So, this is what the real story is. Ajay, the head of sales is an aggressive individual. Last time when Neeraj highlighted the inefficiency of Sales dept, Ajay made a report of how Neeraj and team had faltered on ensuring that TV advertising started on the committed date. The situation became fairly embarrassing for Neeraj when he was questioned on the poor performance in front of Ajay. Thereafter he chatted up with Ajay and started playing safe with Sales. He scratches Ajay’s back and Ajay scratches his!

Isn’t this what many of us do? Only because we are scared of the back fire, we tolerate the inefficiencies of various individuals in an organization. Have you ever tried to figure out what could be the impact of this silence? You are supporting the growth and settlement of inefficiencies within the system. Because some mistakes are not highlighted on time, the mistakes continue until they become a habit and major reason of discomfiture within all the related teams. You didn’t face any back fire and someone just got away with murder! Isn’t this how we promote mediocrity within the system? Things continue to be the way they are and so do the results. But we keep quiet!

“I Scratch your back and you scratch mine” is a positive statement. It denotes that both of us will be co operative with each other and help each other in the relevant areas. If I am absent for a week, you take care of my work and so will I, when you need leaves. Presence of this concept in any organization is fairly important and this is what makes employees love their colleagues and in turn the organisation. The problem begins when this “friendliness” starts making way for tolerance of sub standard performance. You want to complain about an issue which is obstructing the smooth flow of your work – but how can you “cheat” your friend by highlighting his mistake? This way, you are not only harming the organization, but also the growth of the individual involved. Also, being open to a back fire also helps you as an individual grow, isn’t it? Ability to admit your mistake and improving yourself and genuine concern for your work are two key ingredients that will help you grow. If you genuinely feel that something is coming in way of your work, you must learn to tackle it with all your dedication.

By this, I do not mean that you should go on a “fault finding” mission and complain about everything that you come across. Excess of anything is bad. The point being made here is that before tolerating any problem with an individual, do not hesitate to be vocal about stating it. Also, not necessary that all complains have to be escalated, but when there is no resolution, Escalation helps. Organizationally, it also means that all of us need to be better prepared to answer some tough questions that can be put to us. This in turn will result in lesser slippages and much better work efficiency.

This article may come across as if I am promoting a blame game culture. I am promoting honesty of thought and actions to help the organization grow out of “mediocrity” and towards better future!

Looking forward to your comments on this one.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Unleashing the power of feedback

2011-04-23T18:59:00.000+05:30

This article is about a concern that most of us go through in our careers as well as personal lives – Lack of Proper Feedback. Though all of us work in best possible way, sometimes, we do tend to get off the track – but how do we get back on track, unless someone tells us!

Sample this story. Alok and Richa worked for in the same company. Alok was heading the marketing department while Richa was sales in charge for a business unit. Both of them never got well along with each other. While Richa thought Alok was too laid back in his attitude, Alok thought Richa’s aggressiveness is just a way to impress her seniors. More often than not, these two would get into serious quarrels before every campaign break. Richa blamed Alok of informing her only at the last moment, while Alok said that Richa always tried to interfere in his domain, which he did not appreciate. Diwali campaign was about to break out and Tarun, the CEO of the company expected another spat between the two. So, he decided to resolve it himself this time. He called both of them individually and asked them what all problems they faced with each other. He jotted down everything that both of them had to say. Next he passed Richa’s feedback to Alok and vice versa saying it was a feedback from him of their work and he really thinks these are their improvement areas. Not to his surprise, the Diwali campaign had much lesser issues and working was smoother. He then called them together and told them the reality, ending with “…if only both of you started giving feedback to each other directly”.

Did you notice what can a simple feedback achieve? Feedback is a completely underrated part of work in most organizations. People continue to crib about their work areas and company, but hardly bother to give any feedback to anyone. The underlying assumption is always that “how will my feedback matter?”, but don’t we realize that every individual behaves in a certain way, because he thinks it is the right way. If its not, how will he know unless someone tell him? What we must understand and appreciate is that Everyone needs Feedback. A lot of us don’t see ourselves as others see us (reminded about Johari Window*), and so the feedback becomes really important to overcome the “Blind Spots” that we develop over a period of time. Have you realized how much impact does a smile from your spouse, a pat on the back from your Boss, delightful eyes of a customer or a look of appreciation from a colleague ;-) make? Don’t you feel irritated when your Boss doesn’t comment on the results of some work that you’ve put so much efforts in? Have you also tried telling your team members to improve in certain areas of work and seen some immediate results? It works! While a negative feedback results in improvement and performance enhancement, a positive feedback gives motivation to continue to perform even better. Also, not all feedback needs to be positive or negative. It can be just a simple indication saying the individual is on right track!

Giving / Receiving feedback isn’t easy. A lot of people don’t want to give feedback simply as they don’t want to confront each other, which could also be a probable start to the “Blame Game”. What we must understand is that we must be prepared to take the feedback in the right spirits! A lot of times we tend to believe that the person is giving negative feedback because “he doesn’t know enough”, or “she wants to me fail!”. That’s almost like moving towards the “Blind Spot” even further. We must also learn to give feedback effectively – making sure that the other person understands the right intent behind it. If you make it sound like a complain, defensive behavior is inevitable.

The concept of feedback doesn’t apply only within the important areas of work. It can be in smaller things also. The more you give feedback, the more improvement you will see in things around. What changes would you like in a report, appreciating the new HR initiative, telling the R&D team about how the new toothpaste flavour has turned out and what could have made it better, little feedbacks can make your life easy. It’s also about leaving a comment on this blog and saying if it is in the right direction.The same is applicable even in your personal life. It’s there in telling your driver how well he drives and saves so much of your time. It’s there in asking your spouse whether he / she would like to change something about you.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

* Johari window is a great psychological tool used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. This blog addresses only the top right hand corner of the box.

Do you spend time with yourself?

2011-04-18T16:46:00.000+05:30

This article is an attempt to address one of our usual work issues, TIME! However, here I am taking a different approach of looking at the issue and addressing the same.

Rohit comes to office every morning checks his mailbox and quickly makes notes of the work to be delegated. He then runs to the team and asks them who’s busy with what, selects the right candidates for handling today’s work and tells them how to do it. On enquiring the status on previous tasks, the team updates him and tells him the problems they faced with them. He then makes solves the problem himself and therefore helping them understand the way it should be done. He also double checks the work done by the team yesterday and shows them the correct method to do whatever was incorrect. In the meanwhile, his Boss calls him for an urgent work. He runs, takes it down and also updates Boss with the previous tasks’ status. Boss suggests some changes. Rohit, again, runs back to the team and tells them about the new task and updates them about changes in the old one. Its 2.00 pm and it’s time for a meeting and everyone rushes for that. Rohit is relatively unprepared as he was busy the whole morning. After the meeting, Boss calls him again and asks him – “Why are you always so unprepared?”

Rohit, undoubtedly, is a hard working person. The problem that he has is that he believes in doing everything himself. What would’ve happened if he delegated tasks to his team and asked them to turn up in case they had any doubt? Couldn’t he have sent the team back every time they came with a mistake in the file, instead of trying to solve everything himself? Could he have also allocated half an hour per day for his Boss to update him with the status and take fresh downloads, instead of running to him every time a new task emerged? That would’ve helped him spend so much time with himself! Spending time with himself would have helped him organize himself better, prepare himself for the meeting and plan for the times to come. Once this cycle started, everything would set itself in place.

Typically, this is what happens with all of us. Each working day involves Reviewing Mails, New Task Delegation and follow up of Old tasks with teams, Receiving and Updating Status of Tasks to Boss, Coordination with other Teams, Attending Regular and Ad Hoc Meetings. In the quest of doing everything ourselves, we tend to lose on the most important activity required for every working day – “Spending Time with ourselves”! Either we spend too much time with our Bosses or our teams. Spending time with oneself is hardly considered in the never ending agenda for the day. Many times, it is considered “unproductive” to spend time with oneself and this is easily deprioritized when it comes to “taking care” of the teams and “being obedient” to the Boss. One big demerit of such close supervision is the building “dependability” of the teams on you, which hampers growth – both of your team and yourself. The same thing is true in the reverse manner, if you are spending too much time with your boss. The team becomes too dependent on you to grow, and you become too engrossed in day today affairs to look forward.

Every day is an investment. Just like we invest money to build more money for us, we need to invest our time in such a manner that we get the profit of some extra time every day. For that, we first need to identify where is our time going currently? Making our teams responsible and trusting them enough with the routine tasks is one key way. If you think the problem is with your Boss calling you too often, talk your problem out. Like I’ve previously said, if you’ll really want to spend time with yourself, you will definitely find a way to do that. In that sense, it depends on you! But it’s you who needs to identify where you want to head to. Spending time with yourself could also mean reading up articles to improve your own learning and therefore the organisational learning.

One management tip I completely believe in, is spending at least first and last 20 minutes of your day with yourself. In the first 20 minutes, we need to plan our day, prioritize things, and set yourself ready for the day. The last 20 minutes should be spent in reviewing the progress of the day – Was it according to how you had planned? What did you do today that you will not do again?

Would be nice to know if this article impacted your way of working in any way?

PS: You can also reach out to me at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Expectations are good

2011-04-08T22:31:00.000+05:30

This note is about “Expectations”. Contrary to the belief of “Not Expecting Anything”, is good, I believe in the fact that what we are, or what we become is the result of what we expect. So, the premise that I am taking is against the deep rooted cultural backdrop. Our culture teaches us not to expect too much. Expectation is almost a sin!

A typical sales situation. Madhav is a sales person. He is a happy and content kind of a person and usually, when asked about “How happy are your customers”, he replies happily stating that they are satisfied with the service level and keep giving repeat orders. On the contrary, Hari, another sales person replies that things could’ve been better if he put in a little more efforts. On the face of it, it might look like that Madhav is a much better performer than Hari, but when you look inside, you’ll realize that Hari’s customers are happier compared to that of Madhav’s. Where’s the gap?

The gap is in expectations. When you expect less or expect nothing, you might be happy and content initially, but ultimately you realize that to be moving higher up, you need to raise “expectations”. Madhav is also amongst people who tend to take things on their heart too quickly and also are not very open to feedback. He thinks that his service levels are perfect and when you highlight the issues, they tend to retaliate. Hari, knows that there’s a scope of improvement, and thus, is more open to feedback and works his way up. Do you realize how deep rooted is this problem of “low expectations”?

Expecting nothing or less are surely no way to lead to happiness. Imagine if we were content with the way banks worked – the ATMs wouldn’t be invented at all. The discomfiture of not being able to keep in touch led to the evolution of Social networking Sites. Expectations make the world progress and better, by the day. Happiness is not when expectations meet the reality, it's when you have higher expectations and you work towards making it a reality. If you are satisfied with everything around, everything will continue to be the same. Expectations are about Moving Upwards and towards betterment.

At times I can feel a gap between what I am expecting and what others are expecting. When I express discontentment, they think of me as snob or even rude. I don't mind it because the next time I visit the place, all the things that I expected are well in place. Though I was tagged as rude, I helped some people in terms of betterment, and I clearly do not regret that.

For me, there’s a way of defining expectation - First time its awe, next time its appreciation and the third time (onwards) , its expectation! One of the most critical things for setting higher expectations is – Exposure. It is a reality check in terms of your current status and where the world is going. Also, Exposure and Observation go hand in hand when it comes to defining Expectations. Observing what’s going on and trying to adapt the best practices is one good way of setting Expectations. A raise in the standard of your expectations makes you a better individual and somebody to be looked up to. So meeting different people, visiting different places, observing different trends, not only raises your expectations, but also makes you a better personality.

Being content with what you have can give you momentary happiness, but when you raise the bar and strive for achieving it, you experience the ultimate joy! A “higher expectation” does result in much better execution. Can we also term this as dissatisfaction. How can this dissatisfaction be channelised to generate positive energy?

Looking forward to hear your take on this.

PS: Do give me your feedback. You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Demonstrating Leadership away from Limelight - the MS Dhoni Way!

2011-04-04T15:32:00.000+05:30

I read a tweet on Sunday that Hindustan Times lead picture did not have Dhoni in the frame. Then I noticed that it was difficult to spot him even in Times of India picture. On news channels also, the pictures of the players with the cup did not have Dhoni in them.

Where is Dhoni? And I was aghast. This set me thinking.

Dhoni has won the T20 world cup, got India to the No 1 in test ranking, won the IPL and CL, and finally, after 28 years THE world cup. But who is taken around the stadium on the players’ shoulders? Sachin. Who is the stadium rooting for? Sachin. What is the mystery?

You can turn around and say that Dhoni was lucky to have been the captain at the right time. He had great senior players and talented youngsters in the team. However, fact is that he has had very different teams in all the championships that he has won. T20, Tests, IPL/CL and ODIs. He has been the glue to put the teams together, not the other way around. The fact that leaders are often considered to be lucky when the times are going good, but does someone really take note of the invisible efforts being put in by the individual. Keeping the team together and excited in one of the most important, but undermined, jobs done by a successful leader – doesn’t Dhoni just demonstrate that?

Look at Dhoni’s statements over a period of time, which are honest to say the very least. “We are not a good fielding side”, “I took some wrong decisions”, “reading the pitch wrong and playing 3 seamers”. Taking on his team mates publicly. He backs team members and takes tough decisions at the same time. Backing Piyush Chawla to the hilt or dropping Yuvraj or Raina are tough decisions taken by him. I am yet to notice bias in his decision making. He has dropped Ashwin from ODIs, despite him being a worthy team mate in CSK. More often than not, leaders with a WYSIWYG (What you see is What you get) style of working are the most criticized lot, even if it helps keeping the team aware of their strengths and weaknesses promptly. When this leader takes the blame upon himself, he is criticized for not carrying out things properly, but when the same leader blames it on his team, it is seen as a “Blame Game”. Aren’t we a bit too critical for leaders, including Dhoni?

Since becoming captain in ODIs he transformed himself from a dasher to an accumulator. With enough dashers around, he changed his role in the team for the sake of the team. As a captain his average is 52.7 vs 44.2 as a non captain, though his strike rate drops from 96.3 to 82.4. His numbers of 6s per innings go down to 0.56 from 0.95. A number of times, a leader puts his individual performance at the back seat and adapts as the team requires him to.

I can go and on and on about Dhoni’s professional achievements as a captain. His humility as an individual (his pictures of sharing birthday cake with my colleague or pictures with my sons are some examples). Any comparisons with Ganguly and Afridi are misplaced. He definitely doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. He is the real man taking “criticism” and “Failures” on his face and letting go the entire credit of the Achievements to his individual Team Members. To me, all this, and more make Dhoni a True Leader!

Then suddenly the realisation dawns on me! This is about where the limelight lies, or where it is not? So, “Do leaders shy away when it comes to being in limelight?”

We should not pity him for missing from the frame of Hindustan Times lead picture on the day nation went crazy. We should give him due credit. It is about stepping back and letting your colleagues savour the moment! This is about having confidence and absence of insecurity – a situation in which you let your team steal the limelight while you smile at the back end, content with your and your team’s performance. It is this confidence, that makes him appreciate the past. Examples are of co sharing the trophy with Kumble, or letting Ganguly lead the last few overs of his test career. It is this confidence, that still makes him thank all his seniors for the victory of his team!

I can say that true leaders only create Limelight and not necessarily be in it – Just the MS Dhoni way!

PS: As usual, would be looking forward to your feedback and opinion on this blog! You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Who is a Fool?

2011-04-01T22:58:00.000+05:30

This blog is triggered by today's date and the significance of the same. “Fool’s Day”.

At the outset, let’s take a look at the reason this day came into being: The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.

Whilst this theory is seemingly simple (and stupid), what it does clearly tell us is “Who is a Fool?”. It is not about taking wrong decisions. It is not about not being able to understand some obvious things. It’s about being closed to learning. It’s about thinking that you know enough and you do not need to know any further. It’s about making assumptions rather than taking the pain of finding out the reality or change.

If you are closed to the learning, I would also interpret the same as “Not Asking the Right Questions at the Right Time”!

Moving on to a real life situation. It’s a large forum and a presentation by the Department Head is going on. In one of the slides, you cannot make out the point being made. But, it’s a large forum, you don’t know if the question you’ll ask makes sense. You are afraid that you’ll be laughed at. You are collecting strength to raise your voice and ask that question. Meanwhile, a colleague of yours raises his hand and asks the same question. You Thank God. The question is appreciated by the Head and everyone in the room applauds your colleague for the same. You think even you were smart enough to think of that question. Do you realize what you really were? You were a Fool.

Consciously or unconsciously, a lot of us go through these situations. Momentary fear of being laughed at or over confidence in ourselves are two extreme situations where we actually make a fool of ourselves. In the first situation, you keep fighting with yourself, feeling lesser confident and thereby, losing interest in the rest of the topic – missing one vital piece of information completely! In the second one, chances are, that you continue believing and working on the wrong information, a phenomenon commonly known as “living in Fool’s Paradise”.

Some thoughts to make yourself “Fool Proof”:

1. Act Like a Child : I am sure you will agree that a child has very high level of inquisitiveness. Can we behave like a child. Ask questions which will have obvious answers and a lot of times, not so obvious! We need to decide what is more important – our public image, or our wisdom!

2. No Age / Limit for learning – I genuinely believe that every day we learn something new, and its never ever too late to learn something. If you have doubts on some process, which you should have clarified long back, don’t hesitate, ask! Maybe this knowledge gives you a new idea to carry out your work in an efficient manner.

3. Never Assume – It is easy for me to assume a lot of things and move on without bothering any one of you. Asking questions only help is cross verifying that everything is in place.

4. Speak Up – “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions”. I completely believe in the thought. For the fear of one moment of embarrassment, you let go your lifetime of wisdom. Make the wise choice.

He, who knows, and knows that he knows, is Wise – Follow Him!

He, who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is Simple – Teach Him!

He, who knows, and knows not that he knows, is Asleep – Wake Him!

He, who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is Fool – Shun him!

Avoid being in the last category.

PS: As usual, would be looking forward to your feedback and opinion on this blog! You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Data Makes us a prisoner of the past

2011-03-25T21:13:00.000+05:30

I would like to start this blog with a story that is often talked about in management sessions!

This is a story about two executives of a Multi National Footwear Company – Peter and Sam. One day, they both were asked to visit Uganda (located in Africa) and estimate the Market Potential. Based on their feedback, the company was to decide whether to enter Uganda or not? Peter and Sam reluctantly agreed as they didn't like the idea of visiting Uganda. They were to visit different parts of Uganda and make separate presentations on their learning. On their return, Sam started the presentation on return suggesting strongly that the company should not enter this country as there is no potential. Management was disappointed, but then decided to take the final call after Peter’s presentation. Peter’s Point of View was completely different. He strongly suggested entering the country, at the earliest as there was huge potential and he expected to have a profitable business. Management was in a dilemma, and so decided to deep dive in to both their Point of Views. What was surprising was, that the reason both of them quoted was the same – “The country consists of mainly tribals, who do not use Footwear at all”. So, where Sam saw that usage in the country of Footwear was zero, he mentally calculated and based on previous trends, he forecasted the sales also to be zero. However, Peter saw a huge opportunity. He saw that the current usage was zero and the sales can be in multiples of the population of the entire country!

Whilst we can step back and laugh at Sam, isn’t this what we also tend to do, in our business. We, more often than not, mistake past performance as Potential and limit our thinking in terms of deliverables. As they say, “if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got”. So, it should not surprise us that results we are getting today, are not very different from the past, because that’s the limit we put on our imaginations.

We also tend to believe, that we will continue to sell what we have always sold. What we need to urgently realize that trends change with each passing day. Did you even notice that so many products from our households have vanished over a period of time? Now, a single device called mobile phone has replaced entire categories like alarm clock, transistors, even calculators! If Conventional TVs sold well at one point in time, it will now be difficult to sell one piece in a single month. Boot Cut was a thing of the past and now every single person on the roads wears fitting jeans. We need to mark the changing trends with every passing day, because “if we don’t move forward, we are not stagnant, we are actually moving backwards!”

I have also noticed that a lot of times, we see products with shortage as high potential products – which again is not necessarily true as we do not know and never bother to understand the actual sales lost at that point in time. Maybe that was the optimum number of units that product would have sold. Are we prisoners of the "yoy" syndrome? When "yoy" growth is expected, we try and put higher growth on the better selling product and lower growth on the low selling product. By this, I am not suggesting that past should be completely ignored and quantification should be done away with. Past, in that sense, will always help us have our reality checks. But we definitely need to delink the two and think of them independently.

Can we have some “past challenging” questions and even better answers?

PS: Look forward to your feedback. you can connect with me on twitter via @agrawalsanjeev