magic pill

Motivation, words of appreciation, words of encouragement …….are these simply words or magic pills to heal. Who heals from the magic pills ? the recipient or the provider?

These are magic pills to cheer up others and also a brilliant tool to uplift the spirits of provider. Someone said you get what you give. And I agree with that 100%. You want to uplift yourself cheer someone else; give them the magic pill.

I observed the power of magic pill during a training workshop one weekend. The trainer was replete with words of wisdom however the delivery was looking down on the participants. Towards the end of the workshop, energy level dropped. Participants were looking forward to a restful break and in no mood to accept the words of wisdom. And then sprang up one participant and snatched the opportunity to distribute certificates of participation. With every call for participants he handed the magic pill; he shared few words of encouragement, motivation and appreciation with the participants.

The faces lit up and energy level started rising. Before the training could end the energy level touched the ceiling and participants were willing to stay back for a still shoot and mingle.

The magic pills who did it heal ? The provider or the recipients ? Certainly the recipient since it reflected on their radiant faces and certainly the provider because it reflected on his face too.

sales or leadership

what is the difference between sales and leadership or how are they connected ? are they two faces of a coin to be used interchangeabaly or simply synonyms.

i am begining to believe they are identical but spelt differently. sales persuades so do the leader. sales sells so do the leader his beliefs. leader leads so do the sale if not in kind but certainly in his mind.

sales or leadership ?

outsource

in the business world, outsourcing has become the buzzword. if organisation must grow, they must outsource and become more competetive and bring focus on core activites.
this concept applies to your life as well however in your profession & personnal life this may be termed as delegation.
delegation is a process of trust relations between two individuals to bring focus and quality time to your core activities. I have personally found success when delgating. delgate functions that does not bring value to your life, so why do it yourself.
go ahead delegate; outosurce and bring quality time to your core activities.

how do you ?

how do you retain people; or rather why do people leave the organisation. many reasons have been sited, bad manager; career growth; emoluments; lack of challenging work... the list is endless. in the past long service was the norm now frequent jaunts has become the norm.

what is so significantly different has happended that has made the difference. some say the globalisation; some say internet. however I have observed the professional internet groups have accelerated the migratory trend. And why not, each one of us, including you have the prerogative to the best and life is about striving to get the best.

number game

waiting for an elevator and in the que was something I was not prepared for. However we had no other option but to que and wait for the elevator to reach the 26th floor. on calling up our contact he said come over to 35th floor. once again began the wait for the right elevator; climb down to 9th floor and then jump to another elevator for 35th floor climb. it reminded me of hopping from one bus to another to reach university. however on 35th floor the contact was no where neither the name of his company reflected on any of the offices. on further calling; contact said he is waiting in lobby but we did not find a soul in the lobby. and suddenly the entire conversation started from the begining. which floor you are on ? 35th floor. is it 3 and 5 = 35th. no it is 3 and 1, 31st...................... a quick mis-communication made the difference. however there is a lesson in it.

waiting for an elevator to climb upto 31st floor or correcting 35th cell in excel sheet, with the mult-culture demograhic and 150 + nationalities in UAE; it is imperative to breakdown the conversation into shorter; explicit and understandable sentences; specially the number game over the phone.

grow leaders faster than the competetion

Here’s an abstract of Ramalinga Raju’s interview published in The McKinsey Quarterly, September 2007:

In an interview with Prashant Gandhi and Joydeep Sengupta, published in The McKinsey Quarterly, Raju explains that he comes at business from a slightly different perspective than some of his competitors—his background is not in technology but in business. He believes that business value can be created through the proper balance of three critical tasks: Thinking (strategy and innovation), Doing (operational excellence) and Communicating (connecting intimately with stakeholders), which Satyam calls the TDC model.
In many companies, he says, most of the thinking and communicating is done at the top, with most of the doing being done by those at the bottom. But in knowledge industries, this hierarchical structure does not work. At Satyam, a different leadership model is followed, with leaders created throughout their organization. The advantage of a distributed leadership model is the ownership of results resides with the leaders closest to the stakeholders (who may be colleagues, investors or clients). And with everyone in the company educated in the same philosophy, the hope for result is a "One-Satyam" experience for all the stakeholders.
What is intriguing about this type of organizational model is it empowers people at all levels of the company to act in the best interests of clients, investors and their colleagues. It is not enough to just act in the interest of the client or the investors, if that focus has a negative impact on employee morale and motivation. Moreover, with roughly 2,000 groups at Satyam (dubbed "Full Life Cycle Businesses") operating from the same set of principles and taking full responsibility for creating value for their particular business, they have a workforce that can be disassembled and put together again—like LEGO blocks—to achieve consistent results on the next project they find themselves assigned to.
"We consider ourselves in the business of building leaders," says Raju. "The most effective way of realizing our goals and objectives is to grow leaders faster than the competition." With a shortage of experienced personnel expected to be a growing global problem, this fine-tuned focus on leadership will be key to long-term business success.

wise words

This evening I met a dear friend working for an IT company and our discussions focused on gross profit earnings by sales. And I said, your team earns a good gross profit, how do they achieve that? And he said focus on managed services.
Then the discussions centered around the key ingredients for success of managed services. The answer was a good team. And how do you build a good team? Other than the right professional skills and experience; what else do you look for in the team members and the answer came, the most important ingredient is respect for team members, empathy for the team member. The team members should understand not to be rude to the fellow member. And it is imperative that if you find a team aspirant to be rude take him out of the team even at the risk of loosing a good skill, because you don’t risk a team for an individual skill.
Another discussion point was how to retain a good skill other than through benefits and compensation. The answer came as; engage the skill with the right skilled team members so he feels part of a family, a knowledgeable family.
Thank you friend, for the wise words.