Power of Observation

“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?

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?

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.