On Leadership,Coaching & Lessons From Life

Walking on...

2008-12-28T03:55:00.001-08:00

I have walked on... to http://exploreamaze.wordpress.com/

Chrome!

2008-09-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

Before I go any further, let me remind the readers that what I put on this blog are opinions(informed ones ofcourse!)..They should not and are not to be associated with any official positions that my organisation or other affiliations may have.

Google has its own browser now!! Now, why doesn't that surprise me anymore ;-)

I have downloaded Chrome-Beta and must admit to generally liking it..more from the 'no non-sense' design perspective.. I like the concept of using the browser as a window to many other applications..not a window with too many buttons and options embedded..

Google never seems to respect volatile memory( As a system designer , I like that!).

Looking at the memory usage on my laptop, I can see that each tab is a seperate process and a fairly memory hungry one at that!

I find Google's product management approach very curious.. Amongst the current breed of technology product firms, Google and Apple have contrary but pointed approaches. Google's approach seems to center around creating an aggregating structure that overlays branding and functional product concepts on to a distributed set of products. Apple, on the other hand, seems to focus on creating an ecology based on intellectual property ,uniqueness focussed design and excellent time-to-market.

It will be interesting to see( or maybe build ;-) ) , a product focussed firm that merges best of these 2 approaches!

P.S . ..In view of my expanding and increasing interest in Product management,I'll try and include product strategy related blogs here!

Building competencies

2008-01-12T00:12:00.000-08:00

"After taking the initial experience of working in the HR Team of one of India's top IT cos, is it wise to switch to a smaller co in a different industry where one can get exposure to entire gamut of HR activities rather than being stuck at handling particular activity in the current organization? Would it help in the long run to look for such an opportunity ?"

Got this question from a friend of mine.

My answer to this one will be ' Depends'.

Depends on what kind of experience you gained at the big firm.
Depends on what kind of experience you expect to gain in the smaller firm
Depends on when or why you started feeling ' stuck'
Depends on where you eventually see yourself at the end of the small firm experience.

The HR role at a mega-corp varies considerably from that in a smaller firm...many of the smaller firm's HR strategies have to be tactical EXCEPT those that relate to building an organisational culture...A mega-corp can afford more strategic changes and sustained interventional techniques for cultural changes.

The challenges and gamut of HR activities dont really map well into the definitions of a ' Big ' or 'Small' firm..rather it maps into the lifecycle stage of the company and the product or service it provides. A small startup has different challenges when compared to a small family business. A big services business provides a different set of experiences and learnings compared to a big manufacturing unit.

The other side to culture in a smaller firm, especially one that has a founder member or an entreprenuer at the head, is that these leaders shape the culture for such organisations and often there may be little role for an external HR agent.

It may be a good idea to seek rotation within a mega corp into 3-4 different roles and then make the choice of shifting into a smaller org.

Would it help ? I am not sure that really matters at this stage in your career..

Would you learn a lot, what would you learn, and how or when will you be you prepared for such experience - These are the critical questions.

Regards
Deepak

The Talent Myth

2007-12-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Pradyot presents Prof.Moon's notes on decision making here

The Talent Myth is one of the reasons why corporations pursue star CEOs and performers at other levels in orther organisations.. " Deep Smarts " as referred to in the eponymous book by Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap...That's what is needed..the kind of smartness that is rooted in not just the mechanics of how to apply a skill but also in the social, cultural and time context of that skill and its application...

The problem with stars is that they often negate your organisations ability to build a team..Stars get results but often at the expense of sustainable long term growth....However, the strategy of constantly identifying stars to kick off an urgent or critical short term project and then moving in someone with Deep smarts may actually be effective!

Corporations, Organisations and Social Obligations

2007-09-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Spreading the risk.....A very common concept in life.

This common concept is often forgotten in the most man-made catastrophes...Malcom Gladwell's 'The New Yorker' magazine article from August 2006, has a very interesting view of the troubles that General Motors faces here

Protection from social risks associated with life , death , health and disasters are better covered when offset against the largest population available. Commercial entities and organizations can never claim to represent such breadth of population. They can very rarely spread their risks in complementary areas. Except a few multinational conglomerates like GE, most organizations have exposure to a certain type of business, or certain set of horizontally or vertically integrated opportunities. Hence, the notion that a business organization should support social liabilities related to life, death, health or disasters is unfair and unbalanced. I use the word 'support' in deference to the word ' contribute'. Yes, Business and in fact any social entity should contribute a proportionate share to social liabilities. But they should never be allowed or be asked to support complete structures of social liability.

Having said that..social responsibilities like education, environment and research are best supported through combined efforts of business and local governance. These are best managed in goal centered organisations and are forward looking opportunities for both businesses and communities.

How Will Millennials Manage? — HBS Working Knowledge

2007-08-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

How Will Millennials Manage? — HBS Working Knowledge

My comment on the issue <>

There are ' Millennials' who have ' Had it all' and then there are 'Millennials' who have ' Had not much'...The theories propounded here clearly apply ONLY to those who have had it all...

A miracle of what democracy & liberal education through schools, colleges and universities brings...The magic of the millenials is all thanks to the revolutionary 60s and 70s that brought green revolution, food security and scientific progress to the nations that had democracy and liberal education!

Some of the discussion here tends to forget that through centuries of human existence, the younger people in a society always have speed, agility , new found creativity and faith in the current ideal....The Millenials are no different from the Baby boomers in their 20s and 30s in that aspect. The Key difference is the global perspective spurred by the explosion in communication technology and the economics of cost and market availability..A perspective that spurs willingness to go where they believe their dreams will be fulfilled.

As for the Millenials who have not had much to begin with....globalisation of economies will either turn them to violent detractors or spur them to gain the skills needed to succeed in a global world . And that needs to be the focus of the 'Millenial Have it all's and the 'Baby Boomers' too...If the ones that have been left behind are not brought into this global world, the risk is that you will lose everything...

You cannot manage the 'Millennial's..they are too confident, learning with the barrage of information all over their life and still focussed on finding that balance...you can only lead them..This is the age of 'influence' & 'coopetition'..They are yet to get over the fascination for tags, titles and psycho babble descriptions of 'leadership' and ' management'...Sooner than the other generations, they will get over it...because the global system wont allow fluff to float around for too long... The story here is to manage the generation mix..any organisation looking for sustained long term success needs multiple levels of expertise , wisdom and energy!

How Should Pay Be Linked to Performance?

2007-06-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

A very interesting discussion on Prof.Heskett's HBSWK column - 'How Should Pay Be Linked to Performance?'...You can also find my comments on the site.

The Career Business Executive & The Social Worker

2007-05-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Career Business Executive ....Lives business...thinks of everything through the business perspective.....Falls in love with a girl he thinks of as 'The social worker".....Becomes worried that she will become encaged in his relentless pursuit of business...saddened that he may never be able to engage in a fruitful discussion of her social work interests.. This is ....in some parts my own story..My wife's a doctor( the kindest soul that I know) and I am a passionate business management guy(a results driven achievement oriented guy according those who know me )..

There are only two ways to go about this dilemma

Option 1 - >Both individuals accept that some of their interests do not match & allow for the time and space to pursue those independently.

Option 2 -> Each of you tries to develop an interest in the other person's passion for the sake of what you have committed to...Yes, it does take effort and it may not always work out...but atleast you will have the satisfaction of having tried and your partner will appreciate your efforts!

The one thing I have learnt in my relationships ( personal and professional ) - "Never extrapolate individual events into anything meaningful " . You cannot make a relationship work by suspending it on strings of idealogies and opinions.

My point - You dont marry anyone because you think you will be able to talk forever about topics and discuss idealogies...Marriage is not about what you like and dont like, what you can talk about and what you cant, what you eat and what you dont...

Agreed that you cannot ignore the practicalities of life...But who ever realised a dream by letting practicalities limit them....The dream of married life is to build a wonderful relationship by surmounting the practical challenges and walking together as a team!

Now..for the social worker part, Profit pursuit does not necessary have to be at the expense of social interests! Gandhi, Buddha or Martin Luther King , they were business leaders too....The work that they did is today studied by leading business schools as monumental leadership training....They did just the same thing that every business aspires to - " To take an idea, build a system around it and passionately encourage the world to believe in that idea "Marketing, Operations, Strategy, HRM.....these are just the tools to achieve that goal.

A business cannot operate in isolation from society, nor can it succeed as a passive element, nor can it succeed as an opportunistic scavenger!

Business Management is Social work...It is a mechanism of evolving, developing & increasing value, effectiveness and efficiency in the society..it is a mechanism to ensure that the society gets maximum benefit ..

Why do we want to belong?

2007-04-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Vijay raises a very interesting discussion on the need to belong

Unions and such other congregations are less about identity and more about collective bargain....The so called sense of 'Belong'ing to such groups is either a statistical clingpost against adversities or a make-believe structure of strength . In our modern world, where our work and role in organisation structure tends to play a major role in defining our identity, unions provide the solace of being part of such entity...

Your ambition and confidence probably makes you disinterested in such coterie..However, for a huge part of population that looks at the job as a part of its mental makeup( and fears the loss of that job),the union is an essential support structure!

Hyperconnectivity.....

2007-02-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

John Roese's Blog covers an interesting trend in communication networks..

Hyperconnectivity will lead to commoditisation of the network. Commoditisation leads to simplified component based architectures. Hyperconnectivity is a user orientation of technology. The user defines or draws the connections to the information web. The explosion of connecting nodes enhances the users ability to choose and often transparently connect to the multiple nodes.

The key challenges -

Security ->

What is a friendly node and what is not ?
What form of identity information should be embedded in the channel versus embedding information in the data ?

Bandwidth Management ->

How do we guarantee bandwidth in view of the context/node switches that happen ?
How do we reduce the signalling overheads incurred from such context/node switches?

This is the next generation of challenges for the communication system...I, ofcourse , refrain from using the word ' telecom' because this is not telecom...that structure is being lost as a finer, more simpler structure of interactive elements are becoming the new channels of communication!

The interesting aspect is that 'Simple' structure is based on a complex organic structure for each of the communicating nodes.....the evolution of a ' genetic algorithms meet economics of value' type of system.

Performance Review or Development Review?

2006-11-12T08:08:00.001-08:00

Prof.Heskett has initiated a very good discussion of Performance Reviews and Forced Ranking...You can find my opinion as well as those of many others at the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Website.

On talent & leadership....

2006-10-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

An article on talent and leadership, that I had written some time ago, has been published under the thought leadership category at www.top-consultant.com here

Dependency Ratios

2006-10-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

You can also find this at Prof.Jim Heskett's Column on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Website. This is my response to the question on Dependency Ratio.

A fundamental flaw in the calculation of Dependency ratios - they consider age and not productivity as the criteria.

Human survival is based on a simple ecosystem where the producers need to match consumption.

In Asian society, senior citizens remain productive until very late stages of life. They become caretakers for grandchildren, advisors on various issues & even the backbone support for commercially productive children. This enables the adult children to remain very productive at their roles in the organisation. I can vouch for the fact that more than 50 percent of working couples in India depend on their retiree family members for a lot of aspects!

The notion that retirees should become unproductive is largely fostered in the developed nation because of the large sums of assured retirement payments & health benefits. A long life need not be a medical insurance dependent life! But that is how it is because of the current unsustainable lifestyles of many citizens.

Retirement benefits should remain 'benefits' and not become 'assurances'! The retirees cannot be and should not assured of benefits that current economics cant support! Assured retirement benefits create complacency and disincentive for financial education.

The Plan of Action for Corporates:
1. Provide Health Awareness training for employees and encourage healthy lifestyles.
2. Do not retire employees - treat them as part of an extended family where their services may be required.
3. Respect employees' financial judgement -Educate them on financial tools and options. Make proportionate contributions to their investments

The Plan of Action for Governments
1. Invest in continual education for citizens - An educated citizenry is a productive citizenry.
2. Create social security as a protection mechanism only and not as an investment option - Excessive social security creates complacency that can harm a nation in the globalised world.
3. Encourage citizens and create mechanisms that provide large payoffs to those that develop more complex skills.

Dependency ratios need to converted to interdependency actions. A vibrant society & organisation learns from its past and invests in the future!

Will management education ...................

2006-10-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Will management education you take give you the means or show you the directions to be an entrepreneur and an innovator?
Or will you become a very successful educated labourer?

Thought provoking questions from Unmesh

Management education is just that - An education in management! Education and learning arent really the same....Education is the opening of a door...learning happens when you step through and beyond that door into the realm of possibilities.

The sun does shine at all times in space..but sunrise happens..and even when the sunrise happens at almost the same time for everyone in one place, some wake up..some dont!

In my experience of 9 months in EMBA, management education- from the right type of institution i must add - gives you the means to be an entrepreneur and innovator.

With Vision & Passion - both of which cannot to be taught - you can use a management education to be more than just a successful educated labourer of mind.

What does a good management education give you:
> A concise understanding of value - Economics + Accounting
> The ability to appreciate the creation and conversion of value - Operations + Marketing
> A view towards understanding how humans create and percieve value - HR & Marketing

Entreprenuership & Innovation come from converting the above abilities, understanding & perspective into an action item - The kind of action item that is held strong on the pillars of vision and passion!

Is The MBA Overrated?

2006-04-11T03:49:00.000-07:00

Ah! The good old MBA v/s Non MBA debate!
Let me add a few of my own thoughts here.

An MBA is just a course that INTENDS to give you some basic skills and perspective on how a business runs and what role different types of people can play! It can never make anyone successful in a career - that has a lot to do with the ability to plan, learn and simultaneously change plans to capitalise on existing opportunities! No one can ever teach that in a course!

An Executive MBA like the one I am doing, will only be fruitful if we have the attitude that we will try and implement everything we learn at our workplace - By 'everything' I mean the complete learning..not just going back to the boss and telling him/her that we will implement some theory we learnt at class! An MBA cannot teach us initiative and responsibility!

An MBA does not lead to an automatic ladder to the top of career path, but it does equip you with tools to start the trek upwards....How you face the winds and use your grips to get to the peak is your part of the story!

Deepak

A Classic Example Of How Social Cause Meets Business

2005-12-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

Happened to visit this site 'Your Point of View '.

This is a good example of how any business organisation can build a brand association with social values!

Kudos to HSBC bank!

Perform & Shape its Perception

2005-11-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

Great performance can kill your business!

Was reading this book review & realised how true the statements are!

The term 'Managing Expectations' is based on the impact of perception!

David Mosby & Michael Weissman may have a few interesting things to say in 'The Paradox of Excellence: How Great Performance Can Kill Your Business'

Excellent review of the book in The Hindu Business Line!

It's all the same..." Say what you will do & then tell them what you have done over and above what you had promised to do! "

Real Talent

2005-08-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

From Economic Times Big Bucks - By Puneet Jain - " The real talent is being able to apply your skills even in the most adverse situation -without fear,hesitation or doubt. "

Leaders..Organisations and Motivation

2005-08-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Leadership has been on my mind for a long time and so has the concept of organisations and their role in shaping individuals.

Nirmala shares an interesting insight on Motivation...Motivation as an expression of the desire to dedicate ourselves to a certain ideal.

Quite clearly expressed! However I am wary of individuals who put the institution's interests above everything else! Such a stance can blind an individual to change when it may be needed...When an individual talks about putting the institution's interests beyond everything else, he/she is often talking about bowing to a culture or a 'way of doing things' that the organisation has always adhered to!

An organisation's purpose is to bring collective strength of intellect and action towards a certain goal that further's the organisation's vision while enabling survival(atleast that!) through a changing environment!

To submerge personal motivation in the organisation's vision is not a very effective mechanism of doing justice to either the organisation or your own self!

Organisations are like ships that help you move further in your personal tryst with destiny..a playfield to evolve , learn and share our abilities...And we should find the right organisation to partner our personal journey...A journey of evolving through a sharing of goals and values..

Organisations and individuals evolve and sometimes we may realise that the changing values or goals do not contribute to our personal growth... that is the time to move on..with gratitude for what we have learnt and a promise to look back if needed!

Mr Paul's Comments On Innovation and India

2005-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1276.cfm.

Very Interesting and refreshingly Honest!

Wherever I roam..

2005-02-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

The Harvard Business Review and its website are places I wander about often...Here are some links to what I have left behind and Professor Jim Heskett found interesting enough to put on the website..
February 2005 : If You Blink, Will You Miss?
November 2004 : Should the Wisdom of Crowds Influence Our Thinking About Leadership?
June 2004 : How Important are Big Ideas?
May 2004 : How Much Is Enough?
February 2004 : Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

Any discussion on these..always welcome..drop me a line here and I will try and respond to it in my blogs!

The Rule That Carly Broke..

2005-02-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

As Prometheus Chose to Ask...Which was the rule that Carly Broke....

Contradictory as it may sound.. There is no rule that Carly broke!Because.. There are no real rules that apply to the Art & Science of Leadership!

Yes...Leadership is scientific in the fact that it involves understanding the How, Why , When & Where of What needs to be done!!

That means...Not letting the boundaries of rule based thinking affect your perspective...The Art is in understanding what connects most to your current perspective.. Science is in knowing all the connections possible!

Rules are used for repetitive activities..And I do not believe that leadership involves the idea of repetition...When Andy Groove talks about 'Only Paranoid' Surviving..He is talking about moving beyond and ahead of repetition...Organizations that have leaders who constantly look beyond what has succeeded now, will end up with excellence and exceed expectations! Rules seep into the subconscious mind and kill creativity... What we need is an open mind to derive maximum learning from events and the curiosity to keep connecting what we learn..then rules are not a necessary!

As someone who has not been an insider to HP and only uses media reports(and some friendly banter) to base his current opinion, I'd see Carly's failure as an expression of a Board that was never working with passion to support her. 'Carly's failure stems from the fact that she never seemed to have a plan that included the organization... The distance at which CEOs stay from the bottom of hierarchy is inversely proportional to the likelihood of them succeeding in a visionary change management plan...

For all her marketing experience, I never felt that she had a vision that was adequately broken down to the little parts that would inspire her team.. Yes, we all know where she wanted to take HP ...what no one could fit together was how was she planning to do that and with what steps..maybe someone who has worked with HP knows that... then again...Maybe not!!!

At the end of the day, being a CEO is all about a role within the organization..An organization whose purpose is to create and deliver value through collective human effort...that's the story of economics..It punishes those who ignore its dynamics with an intensity only surpassed by a heartbroken lover's farewell kiss!

The day, you, as the CEO, forget the focus on what delights the customer and the perspective that you are a part of the organisation and NOT 'THE ORGANISATION' , no rule of leadership can save you from a fall!

-Deepak Alse

Carly's Fall

2005-02-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

Commentary: Three Simple Rules Carly Ignored

Here's my little penny in the pool...

Outsider V/s Insider CEO

As I see this, it does not really matter whether the person is an insider or an outsider. I'd rather look at the individuals ability to take decisions as an outsider and then work with the team to implement them like any insider would.

I agree, that finding such a combination is difficult. The challenge usually is more tough because most CEOs are people who grow upwards on a linear path.People dont like butterflies unless they are in the garden!

Marketing- Regional Manager- VP-Marketing and then CEO or Ops Manager - VP - COO- CEO routes.....

Unless the CEO has friends who are working in other areas of the organization and is capable of a system level perspective of other functions, he or she begins with a disadvantage. If you are a CEO at such a dilemma stage, you need to build relations before you drive for results.

The TAO Of Leadership......

Being at the helm of any organization is the tricky job of balancing perspectives and action. While I do agree with Jim Collins' perspective on Level 5 Leaders as he calls them in his book, I would personally not hold charisma as a failing point against a CEO. If charisma comes with Humility, it is the best package deal as far as an outsider CEO is concerned! Nothing in particular that is wrong about having strong Egos, so long as the individual indulges in the occasional introspective bath through the baptismal rivers!

As a CEO, the biggest challenge will not only be the idea of letting others take credit for the good things that get achieved , but also ensuring that the right persons take credit..Or else you will have to live(& suffer) with cronies!

External V/s Internal Customers

The reason why Marketing Personnel make it to the top of the hierarchy is probably the fact that they are constantly customer facing. And it is often suggested that HR persons don't make it to the top for precisely the same reasons!

As for the HR persons not making it to the CEO, it is actually because they usually do not build relations. Most of the HR personnel get bundled in theoretical analyses and armchair ideas. Rare are those HR persons who actually go around meeting people at work to understand better ways of serving their internal customers, the employees!! Being in the HR domain is much less about organizing appraisals and HR events and employee gatherings as it is about being the organizations 'Ears to the ground'! That is sadly missing in the HR structure of many organizations!

Personally I am in favor of the CEO - COO dichotomy ; CEO as the external facing person while the COO manages the internal front.Having said that, I must add that neither should be completely one sided devotion, but the areas of focus remain critical.Such a dichotomy ends up balancing the leadership scales by preventing the organisation from living in the constant stare of media on one end and preventing the 'little boy working hard in the corner' syndrome on the other!

Hiring & Firing For Numbers

As for firing someone for not achieving numbers, I think that strategy has its uses.For all the humanitarian approach that we talk about, we need to acknowledge that numbers are the only real way we can measure performance. The important factor is to choose the right numbers to fire someone for...If I fire a person for not achieving sales target when obviously his/her area was facing calamity, I am just demotivating the whole team!

But If I don't fire an executive who fails to see reason or fails to lead his own tribe out of doldrums , I will simply end up dealing with mediocrity!

Hiring or firing for numbers works effectively when both sides clearly discuss and appreciate the numbers that need to be achieved AND understand how the 'numbers' relate directly to the organisation's success(or survival as the case maybe!)

As I always love saying.. There is no rule to leadership...The business of running a business is all about being focused on the customer..In that sense the CEO has to be outward focused..

It is like this.. I can have the most brilliantly structured healthy body...But if I choose to wear shabby clothes..No one can help me...Or if I try well designed clothes on a unhealthy and unfit body..That will not be beautiful too!

As a CEO, my job is simply to ensure that I do whatever it takes to keep the customer happy...Leading the internal bandwagon to delivering results is one critical part of the getting the customer happy.....I will and must do what it takes to keep my employees happy...Only so long as that 'keep the employee happy' does not block my ability to give the customer best value...Nothing inward focussed or outward focussed about that...The Customer is the sole reason why any organisation exists..And I mean ANY organisation---Commercial, Legal, Governmental, Charitable, Educational..Everything that services a need that is external to itself!

Being a CEO is just the same as driving on an expressway with the lights of your car out...All you can trust is the prayers of those who sit beside you( provided they are praying for you ;-) ) and the pointers on the way which tell you how well you are driving... Those pointers are sometimes given or explained by people inside the car, sometimes by those driving by, sometimes by people at the gas station, sometimes by the moon and skies...And sometimes by that little kick in the corner of the mind that's called Intuition!

Innovation!!

2004-12-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

Innovation is practiced & implemented creativity.

Every moment at an organisation spawns hundreds of interactions. These interactions are built on embedded knowledge.Inherent to this process is the generation of knowledge extensions and further knowledge growth! Knowledge Management is a roadmap to effectively & efficiently channelise the development & use of such knowledge.

Knowledge Management is not about tools, technology or even culture. It is about enthusiasm and attitude; it about open minds inspired to make a difference. Open minds cannot thrive in vacuum, they thrive on challenges, differences and collective effort of sharing!

Talent & Leading.............

2004-11-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

Given the constant focus that media provides the ‘people’ leaders, most people end up believe that there is only one form of leadership in the world – People Leadership!

However, I believe Leadership has many motifs –

People,
Thought,
Action.

If we can promote a culture that encourages all these streams of leadership on a parallel basis, we can fulfill aspirations without getting into the cycle of promoting people into roles they do not have capabilities for.

Success at the last mile in promoting the idea of parallel streams of leadership can only be attained, when frontline managers understand the importance of looking for talent at the lowest levels of the hierarchy and coach & mentor their employees towards such streams.

The cycle of flow of talent can only be built when employees at the bottom of the hierarchy can perceive and understand the fact that we are attempting to build on their strengths.If I am talented in a certain area, I will definitely be more capable of seeking talented people in that area! That is where the whole concept of Communities of Practice( as practiced in KM) comes from.

My experience with leading teams right from school days till today, only suggests that as organizations, we should focus on building on the strengths rather than focus on the weaknesses.

Organizations cannot have the intimate perspective to an individual’s life that is needed to help them overcome their weaknesses. We can only provide a support mechanism for the introspective cycle that helps people overcome their negative aspects. However, the organization can definitely build structures and a culture where every individual uses his talents as catalyst to the organization’s growth.
However, given the fact that our education only encourages the aspect of overcoming weaknesses, getting frontline managers to change their perspective is a mammoth task.

Talent is nothing but Intelligent Learning Ability in a certain area.

Leadership Thought...

2004-11-20T02:41:00.000-08:00

Its a beautiful life....

Some of the best and the most introspective articles on Leadership thought happen at the Harvard Business Review Site.

I personally love the " What do you Think ?" column by Prof.Heskett, Yes .. I do put in my opinions there too!! You can read them at ..

Should the Wisdom of Crowds Influence Our Thinking About Leadership?

How Important are Big Ideas?

Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

The weather in Bangalore is akin to a mad man's embrace... you never know when the mood will change!!!

People..People..People...

2004-11-19T03:11:00.000-08:00

People..People..People...If you can inspire,enthuse and develop people, they will become the best technologist or best managers or best plumbers....Whatever their own evolution takes them to be...It is unwise to believe that people can be moulded or shaped to any organisation's needs... Everyone is on his own journey.

I strongly dislike the word 'manager'...Organisations that want to build sustained excellence should not recruit managers... Leaders build brilliant organisations..Managers just earn good salaries!!Your organisation should stop bothering about Management & start thinking about Leadership.

Technical skills are just that...SKILLS... No difference between a plumber and an engineer or a Doctor on that.. Those who can think like Leaders.. You needs to look for them, build them and grow with them... Organisations evolve when leadership thinks of every individual as a potential leader,not as technologists or as people managers.

Individual areas of competence will always differ...some may be good at a whole basket of things... The organisation exists to provide a platform and build a team that effectively delivers results...And that responsibility lies with the middle layer of leadership.. The future leaders are always accessible to the middle leaders. All that the top level leaders can do is to ensure that they have the middle level leaders capable to building the future leaders for the organisations.. That is the story of organisational evolution & that explains why the top level role has to be sometimes outsourced!!