Photo Credit: kchbrown's Flickr photostream

When you were a child, your grandmother told you, “You’re special, you possess a unique charm; you’re like a hero!”

First, you laughed…then you consciously started liking it and eventually started believing that you’re a hero… someone very special.

Then, after years of education, you became a software professional and got a good job with one of the top IT organization, but still, in the back of your mind, you have treasured the old image, “I’m a hero!”

That’s where the problem rests for many software teams.

Since you consider yourself a hero, you inevitably strive to reinvent everything. Right from what other team members should have done to organizational processes or what the customer should have expected instead.

Your coarse argument would be, “No one in this organization can work like me. If I were not in that team, that big problem could have never been solved.” Or “People out here do not know even 10% of what I know and I don’t think they will be able to perform the task so effectively when I am not in the team.”

Instead of being open and learning from past mistakes of colleagues or everything else around, you insist on doing everything on your own; at the cost of the client or the organization.

You spend most of your time in beautifying your own code, debugging your less experienced colleague’s code or re-creating architecture of half-developed business application.

You need to understand that you’re not a hero. At least not at the workplace. If you become one, it is not going to give you benefits after a certain point. Reserve that narcism for your visit to your grandmother’s house.

Be less heroic. Be less special. Be more agile.  Focus more how your team can add value. Ship early; ship often rather than investing your time in less necessary artifacts in order to build a product or a service that works. Inspect and adapt. Remember, none of you is as powerful as all of you.

See Also:

1. Want To Get Promoted? Do You Know How To Navigate Without A Map?
2. 7 Acts of Poor Managers Who Gift Cancer To Their People, Their Clients and Their Businesses
3. Twenty Traits Of Software Project Sponsors Who Have The Power To Screw-up An Offshore Outsourcing Engagement
4. Software Professional, Are You Developing Yourself As An Aspiring Mediocre?

1. Want To Get Promoted? Do You Know How To Navigate Without A Map?
2. 7 Acts of Poor Managers Who Gift Cancer To Their People, Their Clients and Their Businesses
3. Twenty Traits Of Software Project Sponsors Who Have The Power To Screw-up An Offshore Outsourcing Engagement
4. Software Professional, Are You Developing Yourself As An Aspiring Mediocre?

To live a richer, more meaningful life, you need to become a source of thoughts and actions which provide meaning to your life. You cannot take control of your life just by following others. Instead, you need to play your own game.

Perhaps most of us know that, but in practice it’s not commonly seen.  You surrender to the customs of the family, workplace or society at the cost of your singularity and start doing things which nobody cares about. Or you feel like being caught in an Unconstructed Action Space.

(Photo Credit: Bill Ward’s Brickpile)

A common pattern of world’s most successful people is not to worry about what other people think of them.  M K Gandhi didn’t worry, Nelson Mandela didn’t worry, Bill Gates didn’t worry or Steve Jobs didn’t worry. Instead, they played their own game powered by their own instincts; took the road less traveled and created the history.

So today is a good time to pause and think about it. Reconsider how you operate. Are you doing some things just because everyone else is doing?

Observe your daily routine. Right from the time your day starts to the time your day ends.  Take a stock of all of your routine actions. Are all of your actions your conscious choices? Or there are some actions you take just because your family, friends, neighbors or colleagues take.

Consider what Caryl P. Haskins quoted,

“It is the gifted, unorthodox individual, in the laboratory, or the study, or the walk by the river at twilight, who has always brought to us, and must continue to bring to us, all the basic resources by which we live.”

And Robin Sharma looked at the same from different perspective,

“If you follow the crowd, the place you will most likely end up at is the exit.”

It is up to you to decide whether you want to follow the crowd and make sure you’ll end up at a known exit point or you want to construct something which has never before constructed and leave a trail.

See Also:

1. On Being Upbeat 20
2. Mini Saga – Executing The Dream
3. Mini Saga – Focus

1. On Being Upbeat 20
2. Mini Saga – Executing The Dream
3. Mini Saga – Focus

I’ve seen a number of unhappy-at-work individuals complaining about close-mindedness of their management who is not ready to listen to their thoughts.

“Why’s that, why would a reasonable management would not be interested in a good thought?” I’d ask.

“May be they don’t have enough intellect to understand ‘my’ thoughts, you know!” would be the answer.

“Then how do you present your thought?”

“Well, I would… I would… Ugh… I don’t know.”

(Photo Credit: Eneas’ Flickr Photostream)

So, here’re a few tips to ensure that your thoughts are listened to. Well, most of the times.

1. Gather as much detail as possible about your thought: Describe your thought in a way that brings out your exuberance and commitment out. Most people are not stirred up enough about their own thoughts and if you’re not, how anyone else would?
2. Get your thought validated: It’s generally good to have something to say but sometimes may be not so good. Key here is to get your thought validated. Validated by someone whom you can trust for unbiased views from different perspectives. You should be able to build the right context for the validation as well.
3. Build the right context: I almost always take the opportunity to express, “Context matters. Nothing is right or wrong!” For example, most of the times failure is considered as bad however for a specific project, if the only success criterion is to fail, failure is success!
4. Paint a vivid picture of your thought: People think in pictures. Whatever words you speak produce some kind of pictures. More vivid the picture, better the chances are of being reciprocated for it.
5. Map your management’s needs and/or personal preferences with your thought: Number one thing to focus on the management needs and number two is on mapping personal preferences of person(s) managing those needs. Make good use of human psychology and offer your management a map to navigate. And guess what, chances are more that your thoughts are listened and acted upon well.

Despite above all if your thoughts are not listened well, then you have two choices:

1. Get un-obsessed with your thought and leave it.
2. Evaluate why your thoughts were not listened well.

If I were you, I’d choose the latter one. Learn what you can do better in order to make your thoughts more listenable.

And, if you discover that your management is paid for NOT listening to such thoughts – due to whatever valid reasons, may be – you can always make a choice. Remember, you generally cannot go wrong when you are at the source of the things and not the effect.

See Also:

1. Five Better Communication Thoughts To Get The Success You Always Wanted
2. How To Caffeinate Your Leadership Repertoire?
3. More Thoughts On Tale Of Two Managers and Relationships of QAspire
4. Happiness – The Primary Trait Of Powerful Leaders
5. 9 Rock Solid Thoughts You May Love To Revisit From #3Idiot (’s) Perspective

1. Five Better Communication Thoughts To Get The Success You Always Wanted
2. How To Caffeinate Your Leadership Repertoire?
3. More Thoughts On Tale Of Two Managers and Relationships of QAspire
4. Happiness – The Primary Trait Of Powerful Leaders
5. 9 Rock Solid Thoughts You May Love To Revisit From #3Idiot (’s) Perspective

If you feel that your life is not fulfilled or you have got trapped into the series of circumstances, here’s a very important question you need to ask:

Given that the information you possess today, do any of your actions represent a commitment of vigor, time, spirit, or efforts that, you would not commit to again?

Photo Credit: coolmikeol’s photostream

Then consider few more questions like:

1. Are there any products that you wouldn’t offer knowing what you know today – about the market conditions, quality of products, competition – anything?
2. Are you working with an organization whose operating methodologies do not match with your principles?
3. Are you serving a position that’s not a proper fit for the knowledge and skills you have cultivated over time?
4. Is there anyone in your team, you would not hire today considering all the information you have about that person?

If you answer “yes” to any such question, the next set of questions would become most important:

1. Why are you offering that product today?
2. Why are you working with that organization?
3. Why are you serving that position?
4. Why is that member still in your team?

What has made sense in the past may not inevitably make sense today. Yet, we’re so busy doing whatever we’re doing and find ourselves trapped in the status-quo – which is an unconstructed action space.

There may be times when the answers are not crystal clear. In a failing relationship, for example, the judicious decision may not be to simply break it down but to find a common communication ground and think about the probable solutions and implant new life into the relationship.

May it be crystal clear or hazy,  construct the nothingness and restart. Your unconstructed action space is NOT something you wanted to be in…but has been imposed by the actions you did not control consciously.

Pause, erode  and create the empty space which you can fill with whatever you intend to.

See Also:

1. Are You Heading Towards Ending-up At A Known Exit Point?
2. Eight Action Items For Being A Frontrunner
3. More On Better Team Relationships 12
4. Nine Irrefutable Ways to Establish and Maintain Profound Relationship with Your Boss
5. How Team Relationships Are Affecting Your Ongoing Projects?

1. Are You Heading Towards Ending-up At A Known Exit Point?
2. Eight Action Items For Being A Frontrunner
3. More On Better Team Relationships 12
4. Nine Irrefutable Ways to Establish and Maintain Profound Relationship with Your Boss
5. How Team Relationships Are Affecting Your Ongoing Projects?

When the performance appraisal happens and one colleague is promoted,  many of his co-workers don’t feel good. They compare themselves with him and conclude that their boss favors only who flatters her. Always, that may not be the case. For example, read the below story called Navigate Without a Map.

Photo Credit: David Masters’ Flickr photostream

Navigate Without A Map

Background
Peter and Scott – both joined the company on the same day as Analyst Programmers. Both were coming from different background but have two qualities in common. Both were hard-working and committed to their work.

Promotion of Peter
After a couple of years Peter was promoted as a Lead Programmer while Scott did not get the promotion. Scott got very upset with this, drafted the resignation letter and went to Stella, his Department Manager. He complained that Stella does not value hardworking staff and promotes only who blandishes her.

The difference
Stella knew that Scott also worked hard for past two years but she had a point to address and make Scott realize the difference between him and Peter.

So, she discussed a scenario with Scott, “While working as a dedicated developer with an offshore client, if you reach a limbo stage when there is no work for couple of weeks. How’d you proceed?”

“I’d call the client and ask for the work”, was Scott’s reply.

Stella explained further, “The client responded that he needs to send you some task specifications but he would be able to send it only after two weeks when he’ll return back from the vacation. So the limbo stage continues. What should be the next step?”

Scott said, “Well, since I have no work, I’ll work on my pet project or do something else. May be I will also take some leaves. Given it is a Dedicated Developer Contract, client is going to pay for the two weeks anyways so he can’t blame it on me or the organization.”

“Well,” said Stella. “Let’s discuss the same scenario with Peter and ask what would he do.”

Peter responded, “Well, first of all I won’t come in the limbo stage because I keep communicating with the client very frequently and always make him aware about the work status. But still if that stage comes and I do not have anything on my platter, here’s what I’d do:”

1. Optimize the code for performance – I’ll utilize the knowledge I’ve gathered in Application Performance Improvement classes I attended in the last weekend of April.
2. Recheck the code comments and take it to the next level. I understand that there is no comparison between well-commented code and just the code.
3. I’ll do some research and learn more about my client’s business. I’ll also prepare a document which will outline the knowledge I’ve gathered by performing the research. I’ll share that with the client also.
4. I’ve some high level idea about what changes he wants to make in the software I’m working on. So I’ll make some draft user interface and modified architecture diagram with added application scalability.
5. I’ll record such additional activities and submit a report to the client such that he can know how I’ve utilized my time for which he is paying.
6. I will do…

“OK, Great! This information is sufficient for what I was looking for. You may go and continue your work, Peter.” interrupted Stella.

The realization
Scott soon realized the point which Stella wanted him to understand. He understood that Peter has an edge over him. He observed that:

1. Peter has absolute clarity about where to go and how to proceed even when no path is given.
2. Peter has invested his time to learn different technology verticals which are even indirectly related to his core strength by investing extra time over the weekends.
3. Peter is a true servant leader. He’s willing to learn his client’s language (business) so that he can serve his well.
4. Peter does not need a map to navigate. Instead he is willing to travel when there’s no map. He will try hard to improvise application’s architecture and would work on making it still better.
5. Peter utilizes the information in a way; it becomes meaningful to the client and the organization. Most important is that he keeps all the important information in the written form.

“I want to take back my resignation,” were Peter’s words. “I’ll learn from him and be an equal or better version of Peter.”

Only hard work and commitment are not sufficient. You need to develop an ability to navigate without a map (Yes, wordings are taken from Linchpin by Seth Godin – a great read, indeed.)

We’re in a different age where rulebooks are not matching pace with the changing demands of the workplace so start thinking beyond the rulebooks, take personal risks and excel at what you’re doing. Remember, observation power is a big differentiator. And, excellent use of observed information may take you a long way.

May be that’s the reason we are blessed with two ears and two eyes but only one mouth. So speak less, observe more. Maintain a mental database of observed information, index it often and use it to navigate when no map is available.

See Also:

1. Software Professional, Are You Developing Yourself As An Aspiring Mediocre?
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. Mini Saga – Focus
4. On Being Upbeat 20
5. Stop Being A Hero

1. Software Professional, Are You Developing Yourself As An Aspiring Mediocre?
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. Mini Saga – Focus
4. On Being Upbeat 20
5. Stop Being A Hero

No one would like to develop himself as an aspiring mediocre. Would anyone? Yes. May be. Unknowingly. Read the story below to learn how.

Background
There was a group of college friends – Anders, Peter, Brandon, Rob and Laura – running a music band.

Each friend had different skills. Peter was the music director. Anders was a keyboard player, Brandon was a drum master, Rob was a guitar player and Laura was good at playing flute.

They were outstanding in their skill area. That’s the reason their music was very popular. They happen to be the winner of the music competition held in the Summer Carnival for last 2 years.  They all were working very hard for the upcoming Summer Carnival which was due in about a month.

Change of circumstances
Peter’s family was shifting to another city so he had no choice but to leave the band. And the band was in a soup. Everyone knew that the band would not be able to perform at its best without Peter’s direction. They did not have any clue about what to do next.

The decision
Someone suggested them to form a committee and take an opinion. So they invited few wise individuals and formed a committee.

Committee members were good in their respective areas but no one had an actual experience about how a music band should function. After analyzing the situation, the committee decided that everyone should learn every other instrument as Peter, the director was no more available. The committee believed that if everyone knows all other instruments then they will be able to understand other’s part and they wouldn’t need much direction to perform well.

The practice
Anders was excellent in keyboard and getting A’s but when it came to playing drums he was getting C’s.  In guitar he wasn’t that bad as he was getting B’s. Playing flute was also not working for him because he was getting D’s there. So the committee advised him to work hard on playing drums and flute. He had to borrow some time from keyboard practice to invest it in learning drums and flute.

The committee observed his progress and appreciated him time to time to keep him motivated. Anders was also happy with his progress as now he started getting B’s in drums also. Happier as he was unaware that his handle on keyboard was no more a reality.

The same was the case with other members also. So everyone started practicing harder, getting appreciation from the committee and started learning every other music instruments. At the end of practice days,  they learned all the other instruments but could not practice well in their original skill area.

The performance
They did not even realize that their performance was mediocre until they heard people criticizing their performance badly in the Summer Carnival.

Here’s what happened:

1. They learnt some new things about playing different music instruments.
2. In achieving that, they lost their edge in their original skills and were no more competitive.

…and they were thrown out of the competition.

Photo Credit: deargdoom57′s Flickr photostream

The sad end
Six months later, Peter came back to meet his friends and let them know that he has established a new band in the new city.

But he found out that the band had been closed down and the friends are scattered and playing music is no more an exciting thing to them. They all parted ways and were busy doing something else (read “something mediocre” here) to live their lives.

Some small scale software companies also act like that committee. They instruct their people to work for many job profiles at once. For example, they expect their project managers to write code, create architectures, test the application or write SRS documents.

They expect them to be super-humans who can do everything just well.  They are genuine and pay such a person more pay than his market value.

Now think about this, before 3 years you were good at analyzing the systems and performing really well as a systems analyst but then you were pulled into application testing and project management.  You were asked if you need promotion and good pay hike, take up more responsibilities in diverse areas. So you started putting efforts in different areas including the one which you didn’t like much or you were not good at. Pity was that when you did little well in such areas, you were appraised and rewarded for your “hard” work.

Such companies are like the committee who appreciate you for your achievements in the areas which don’t matter in the end. May be they also don’t know how the music band should function!

At the time of the ‘Summer Carnival’ of your life, when you are expected to perform at your best, you will not be able to. Just because your focus is diversified in different areas and you haven’t realized it till now.

So you’re mediocre in all that you do. You do things which don’t matter, you don’t possess expertise in any single area and you have been turned into an aspiring mediocre.  You are just another technology profile who can be easily replaced with one or more people at any given time.

Choice is yours. For the sake of few bucks offered by such companies, do you want to lose focus from what you are good at? Shiv Khera said in his popular book You Can Win, “Winners don’t do different things; they do things differently.” You need to understand what exactly is doing things differently. It means doing things in so excellent way no one else can do. Identify what is one thing that you do which no one else can? Is it Project Management? System Analysis? Testing? Whatever it might be, stick to that; do not lose focus.

Then recognize whether your company’s business models are allowing you to reach your full potential. Does your company have the vision to take you where your full potential can be utilized? If yes, get aligned and build your fortune with your company. If no, find another company (or create your own) where you can get a vision to get aligned to reach your full potential.

Or forget about successful career in the software industry and do the same mediocre things  to become jack of all and master of none.

See Also:

1. Mini Saga – Focus
2. Want To Get Promoted? Do You Know How To Navigate Without A Map?
3. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
4. Play The Music, Don’t Let It Play With You!

1. Mini Saga – Focus
2. Want To Get Promoted? Do You Know How To Navigate Without A Map?
3. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
4. Play The Music, Don’t Let It Play With You!

A couple of months ago, few friends and I were out to a 3.5 days outing. Idea was to pause, disconnect with so called real world for a while and explore nature at its best.

We agreed not to bring anything which might distract us.  So we did not bring any digital instrument like iPhones, Blackberry, Laptops and Music Players etc.

Photo Credit: LaserGuided’s Flickr photostream

It was a pleasant morning of the third day. One of my journalist friends who is considered as one of the top journalists in local news industry told me that she was feeling down, restless and started feeling headache. She further opened up her heart saying she cannot live without music. And the reason of feeling down was its absence!

She has been listening music for 15-16 hours a day since her childhood. From the age of Walkman to iPod, one thing has not changed – lubricious relationship between her ears and earphones!

When she wakes up, first thing she seeks is her iPod. While driving to her office, she needs music. Even while she’s doing her day job her relationship with music is unchanged; it’s on and on and on.

She believed that if music is off, she would no more be able to perform at her best. Somehow her mind was conditioned to believe that.

It was the music that playing with her; not she playing the music!

It also happens with many of us. We negatively condition our minds in different ways. For example:

• I cannot perform well in my job if I am not offered an external training.
• Now that I own C-class Sedan Car, I cannot drive my old small car.
• I cannot lead well if I am not given a leadership position.
• I cannot…I cannot…I cannot.

Now there are two things about it; One bad and the other, good.

1. Bad thing: Negative conditioning is a Cancer.
2. Good thing: There’s a cure for the same.

So I spent about 30 minutes with her to discuss about the following. Intention of the discussion was to make her able to live life powerfully; beyond reasons; live life the way we dream of. Here’s what we discussed:

1. Be in the present moment: Most people suffer because they either live in their past (how cool were the days when we were in the school) or they live in their future (I’ll enjoy life when I’ll have this, this and that.)  What they forget is the current moment. What they forget is, “Past is something which doesn’t exist and even in future, future will remain future!”)
2. Unconditionally love yourself: Love yourself the way you are and the way you’re not. Each of us is gifted with at least one unique ability. Find that out. Remember, you are what you believe. And once you have abundance of love inside you, you’ll be able to give it to the world which eventually will come back to you with interest.
3. Eliminate reasoning from the self-talk: Be unreasonable. Reasoning is being in the past while being unreasonable means opening up the realm of imaginations. Remember what Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
4. Take divorce with your ‘Act’: Your act is your fixed way of being in a given situation. It is your biggest limitation. You cannot be anything but your act in those situations. Let it go. Start doing something else no matter how effete or small that might be.  Just start doing things differently.  Sometimes, divorce is a good thing!
5. Choose Your Response: Victor Frankl said in his famous book Man’s Search for Meaning, “Man’s last freedom is his freedom to choose how he will react in any given situation.” When you become unreasonable, when you start visualizing things out of your imagination and not only from your knowledge, you increase your ability to respond by leaps and bounds. You are at the source of the matter; not the effect.

At first, she argued, screamed, felt very uncomfortable listening to the above. Then she became quiet and agreed to affirm what I had to say. So I gave her a piece of paper with the following text written and asked her to read it daily. Once in the morning and once before going to bed.

My Daily Avouchment

“Regardless of what happens to me, I choose to be happy. I make the best out of available resources. I’m not what my possessions are. I’m free. I’m full of power. I radiate positive energy and the world of people around me is enlightened of that. I’m an excellent human being. I’m my own favorite. I inspire life in me and around.  I have come out of my fixed way of being. I choose to be the best version of myself; beyond the reasons. I don’t allow anything or any situation to control my mood. I choose to be responsible for my choice. I choose…I choose…I choose.”

After about a month, she came to me to express the power she got by practicing the daily avouchment. She also said that she chooses to play the music.   Now she’s choosing when she wants to listen to the music and she is happier than ever. She also showed me a draft of an article which is going to be published in the ‘Mental Fitness’ section of the news magazine she is working for. That article is based on her own story and its title is, “Play The Music, Don’t Let It Play With You!”

See Also:

1. On Being Upbeat 20
2. Are You Heading Towards Ending-up At A Known Exit Point?

1. On Being Upbeat 20
2. Are You Heading Towards Ending-up At A Known Exit Point?