Would You Fire Your Best Performer?

Sanjay is a great team leader aspiring to be a manager. He has shown good results in the projects he has handled. He has shown willingness to go the extra mile in the tasks assigned. He has been constantly told he is a great performer and the company would not like to lose a great team leader. Regular feedback and company awards have made him proud and self confident. However he has had some issues in his ability to handle larger projects and teams. His view of the industry is…

Read More

Changing Context

During a recent organizational development workshop that I attended, the facilitator talked about changing context. It was an interesting discussion that got me thinking about my changed context. I could recognize a few that I have experienced in the last couple of years.About two years ago my context as a manager and leader changed about the way I was managing my teams. I moved from "I have to do everything and I have get everything done” to “I have to enable people to do their jobs"This significantly changed my approach to…

Read More

Top 10 Qualities of a Good Manager

Loved this post by Taruna Goel where she asks if you are a manager by choice or by chance. Taruna nails it when she shares her view of top 10 qualities of a good manager. These are:It is about people.It is about management.It is about mutual respect.It is about work ethics.It is about being responsible and accountable.It is about letting go. Good managers never micro-manage.It is about communication.It is about thinking out-of-the-box.It is about developing yourself.It is about still being friendly.Head over to her blog to read the whole post.

Read More

Recognition Beyond Awards

A few years ago my boss said to me in a review meeting that we weren’t doing enough recognition. I defended we were probably doing too much. We had Star of the Month, spot awards, recognition mails etc. I also felt exceptional work should be recognized not just great work. And then a little while ago, an Aha moment for me happened. Recognition is not just about awards, it is also about acknowledging the work being done that is just supposed to be done. A simple Thank You can go…

Read More

Dealing with Office Bully

I recently received an email seeking my advice on how to deal with an office bully. Hi Manish, It has been a long time since I interacted with you. The project that I am on is beginning to gain momentum and it seems it's going to be a rugged and enjoyable ride throughout the year. Today I write seeking your guidance. A guy in the office who has been in the company for not more than 5 or 6 months has developed a tendency somehow for irritating me. He does…

Read More

10 Tips for Better Meetings

A question was asked on Twitter for some tips on running better meetings. I sent out a series of tweets and then added a few more to make this blog post.Here are my tips for better meetings: Question the need: Ask yourself, do you even need the meeting? Do what you can over email to avoid meetings.Have an agenda: Not points to discuss but decisions to be made. If the meeting is to review progress, make sure you have status against goals.Keep'em short: Schedule shorter meetings. Force participants to take…

Read More

Do we Learn More from Successes or Failures?

Amit Garg asks whether we learn more from successes than failure. He mentions an article on Science Daily that suggests brain cells learn more from successes than failures. Well, at least that’s how monkeys learn based on a research by scientists at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory according to the article. Do read the interesting conversation ongoing on his blog post. Do organizations learn from successes? Do they even attempt at learning from successes? I don’t think organizations and managers do a good job at learning from successes.…

Read More

Control vs. Influence

This is a guest post by S Ranganathan. I got a chance to interact with Ranganathan during a leadership development program that I attended at ISB. Ranga, as he would like to be called, is a regular Executive Coach at ISB where he partners with different trainers in their Global Leadership Program. Ranga holds a Post Graduate degree in Management from IIM Bangalore preceded by a Post Graduate degree in Mathematics from IIT Chennai. Ranga is the Founder-Director of SymIndia Training and Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.—an organization based in Bangalore that…

Read More

I Don’t Want to Measure!

Now don’t get me wrong. I love measurement. Heck, I measure everything, Everything! I am the epitome of measurement. Okay, perhaps that’s stretching it too far but you get the picture. I believe measurement is a critical step to bring about any change and improvement. Yet, I have been shying away from measurement lately. Well, I am still measuring but am generally becoming resistant to pushing the envelope too far on measurement. Which got me thinking. When does measurement become a pain in the wrong part of our anatomy? When…

Read More

Great Work is not Recognized

I recently read this in one of the blogs that I follow (which unfortunately I can’t remember, apologies). Great work is not recognized by managers, exceptional work is. Great work is expected from you anyway. This is so true. I have heard many people complain that they got no recognition for the work they did. In some cases they said they got no recognition for the great work they did. So how can we do exceptional work that will be noticed and recognized? Well, to start with stop focusing on…

Read More