Is Experience about adding years?

Here the thought is about something that all of us think that we possess and continue to gain every day, but rarely do we realize what it actually means – “Experience”.

The thought has been with me, ever since I came across a simple saying – “Experience is not what happens to you, Experience is what you do to what happens to you”. I have put together three examples, let’s take a look:

The management team of a retail company is sitting and trying to find out a solution to a problem. The problem is the global concern of recession. The early trends have shown that recession is here but nobody has any clue as to what level will Recession impact the company. The team sitting in the meeting is a heterogeneous team with various levels of experience and there is a lot of debate and discussion on this topic.

Abha, an executive from a premier B school, says “We need to take a hard look at all our costs and save money on them as sales are bound to fall. One of the areas of high cost in our operation is the manpower cost and we need to cut the same to manage our profits. I can only see layoffs as the way to go”. She drew a proximate sales drop chart which is expected and thus, how much costs will we need to save to reach break even. People in the meeting are obviously way too uncomfortable for this solution.

Mr. Juneja, having spent 15 years in the company objected upfront. “I have seen many ups and downs in my career. Such drastic steps at this stage are not required. We need to cut cost by maybe, reducing salaries and if required, laying off a few unproductive people. Also, we will get benefit by negotiating on rent in some of our properties. If we lose 15% sales, that can be compensated by taking these steps. I am sure all these steps will help us sail through recession period”. Everyone seemed to nod in affirmative.

After a little pause, Ashwin, another old hand, though not as experienced as Mr. Juneja, spoke up. He said, “I think besides managing the current, we should also think about the long term impacts. Therefore, we do need to understand what will be the impact 3-5 years down the line as well. First of all, it is a great time to book new properties for our stores. We will not get these prices in the near future and we will be able to command on the builders. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to lay off people as right now, we can retain people at the same cost but during the boom period, when we will require these resources again, the same positions will at least come at a 30% higher cost. As far as the sales are concerned, as people in various teams will now have lesser work, we can try out some unconventional methods like maybe some of our staff can get involved in institutional sales and bulk enquiries, something which we have not tried until now”. People in the room had a ray of hope on their faces.

This is how experience differs. The first case, Abha, had little experience but she was backed up with education. She believed whatever she has studied in text books holds completely true in the real world and made projections similarly. But all of us know, Education is others’ experience, but what we need in the real world is our “own” experience and way of looking at things. If the world has done things in a certain way, not necessary that that is the right way only!  She was not able to think of alternatives and did not consider implications of actions. The second case, Mr. Juneja, as much as it sounds like experience, is a case of “conditioning”. We go through certain events in our life where we have taken certain steps and we continue to do the same on every occurrence of it. This is much like the “Pavlovian Theory”, where we are conditioned to respond to a certain event in a defined manner. This case is a little better than education as the learnings are our own and the set up is more “real”. However, this “conditioning”, results in the same experience always and there’s no value addition ever. Repeating once again – “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!”

And then, comes Ashwin. Even though he has lesser years of going through the grind than Mr. Juneja in his career, he is “experienced” enough to react to a particular situation in his own way. He learnt that what went wrong in the last recession and is now smart enough to take the right kind of actions upon each one of them, and each action impacting a fairly long period of time. That is what is called, the real experience!

Now you need to figure out for yourself, whether you are educated, conditioned or experienced. In most of the cases, we are “Conditioned”, as we believe that what we have done once in the past and was right, will continue to be right forever and we don’t need to break our heads every time into it. Education cannot replace Experience. Therefore, there is a lot of value to the "grey hair". But if someone believes that "grey hair" alone is experience, that is where the mistake starts. This is when we deride education, get closed to new ideas because we have "experience". To repeat, most of us confuse experience with conditioning. Experience is about internalising the events that unfold and have an even better plan of action for future.

Next time you think you have the experience, think again. Is your experience only conditioning?

Do let me know what you think about the write up.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Communication - Gap or Chasm

This management thought relates to a commonly talked about topic, Communication Gap!

“The Single Biggest Problem in Communication is the Illusion that it has taken place” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Every individual is different and unique and so are their abilities to express and perceive. Communication, as simple as it may sound is a challenge in terms of making the other person understand what you intend to say and also understanding what the other person has to say. This is what is communication gap. However. over the two decades of my career, I have realised that often what we refer to as communication gap is actually a chasm.  In this post, I am narrating some instances of how I learnt about this chasm in my career.  I am also attempting to put down the learning that I derived out of them. However, communication improvement is a vast topic and therefore, what you will read here is definitely not exhaustive. Here we go:

1.       One of my Bosses went on a market visit. When he returned, I inquired about how his visit was and he said he was very unhappy with the Area Sales Manager (ASM), as even the basics were not followed. He also mentioned that he gave the person a piece of his mind. After some time, I called up that ASM and asked him how my Boss’s visit was. He said – “It was fine only that he gave feedback on a few improvement areas, which will be corrected!” The Area Manager clearly seemed to be satisfied with the current state of affairs. The clear learning that I derived out of this incident was that when dealing with people a couple of notches down the hierarchy¸ we must be simple and crisp in communicating! Assuming that the other person will understand jargon and complex sentences, is a mistake. Also, it may be a good idea to close the loop by asking them about their “take away” from the conversation post the download.

2.       Another one of my Boss had serious concerns with our advertising agency. He decided to communicate his issues to their MD and met him over lunch to discuss the same. After two months, there was no improvement in the performance. He then, called them to our office in a slightly larger group and discussed those issues again. This time with harder questions. After two months, when there was again no improvement, we decided to move the account and that’s when the MD realized that he had not been listening to us. I learnt that clarity of communication does not depend on the IQ or designation of a person, because most often we hear what we want to hear.  Communication gap can occur with anyone. I also believe that tough talks need to be done with eye to eye contact and in a formal setting. Very often the setting overtakes the communication objective.

3.       Once, I was upset with a colleague of mine over the low growth rate that he had taken for next year’s budget. I was so upset with him that being at such a senior level, he’s not getting company’s vision of growing big next year and was convinced on taking low numbers. On top of that, he was also trying to justify the same to me. I sarcastically told him – “If I had taken this kind of growths, I’d be holidaying in Bahamas”. Obviously I meant that the targets were very easy to be achieved and required no hard work. However, he understood it as his ABP was good enough for him and he doesn’t need to work on it any more. Learning was that sarcasm is best avoided in a professional communication.

4.       I was once told that another colleague of mine is not agreeing to the project timelines as he believes that there are certain bottlenecks in the project. But this information given to me was “off the record”. Till date, I fail to understand how can any communication which impacts our work and deliverables be “Off the record”. If I am officially not supposed to act upon it, why am I being provided with the information and if I am supposed to act upon it, how does the information become “off the record”? Official Information is never “Off the Record”. If it is, its not official information, its “gossip”.

5.       One of the most crucial aspects of communication, as hackneyed as it may sound, is about it being clear about expectation. A lot of times, “I want it” is not perceived as “I want it now” and when your team member fails to understand the priority of work, frustration comes through. I once told my Marketing Head to get an ad released within next three days. He replied that it was really difficult. I replied back “I want the ad on the required date, DO OR DIE”. Without doubt the ad was released on the required date.

6.       In one of the advertising agency meetings, I liked one of the ads, though I remarked casually that “maybe the ad would look a little better if the background was yellow instead of blue”. Genuinely, it was only a casual comment. Next day, I had the yellow background ad in my mailbox. I pitied the people who worked on it throughout the night just to give shape to my casual comment. At senior positions, it is likely that people tend to take your casual comments also as directives and act upon them without you necessarily wanting them to. Expression of purpose is the most important content of a communication.

Communication is a funny thing. How you come to know from the smile of a woman that she has fallen for you and how you don’t understand that when Boss said that the work needs to be completed “Now”, that “Now” didn’t mean a week.  Like I mentioned, perception is different for different individuals! That is what creates the communication gap or shall I say chasm?

Communication gap is inevitable and will never be able to be completely got rid of. If my secretary confuses my intent of visiting Allahabad, my  “Home Town”, as my intent to visit Home Town, the concept which is just downstairs, I will not blame her, but reflect on myself. What we can work towards, is making sure that the gap is reduced as much as possible and make conscious efforts towards it.

Would like to know your thoughts on how do you make sure that proper communication is in place in your surroundings.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Duplication - The Evil within the organisations

This time, the thought is about an issue which is present across organizations and if addressed rightly will result in significant increase in the productivity. It’s about eliminating Duplication that exists in the nooks and corners of our work life.

What is the most important problem that persists in all our lives? After a lot of meetings with various colleagues and industry veterans, the answer is singled out as “Time”! There is always so much to do that we are just not able to find out time for ourselves to venture into newer projects and processes in our work. When we take a close look as to where the time is going, we find that everyone is doing everything and this is where all the time is going. Seems like a silly thing to hear, but actually it is not!

There are different departments / people in an organization to perform different roles. However, over a period of time, depending on various factors like lack of trust, ambiguity in role, interest area, impatience and ego issues, we start venturing into every other department. Sample some of these thoughts. “Last time there was an error in  the Calculation by ABC team, let me do it myself this time and see if it is correct”, “Am I supposed to do this? Maybe I’ll get shouted at if I ask, Why not do it?”, “It’s exciting to do XYZ work, this time I’ll also get fully involved in the same”, “PQR Team takes a lot of time to update us on these issues, we’ll follow up ourselves”  becomes the initial point of starting to get into the works of neighbor departments. Slowly, it becomes a habit and then your “unstated” KRA. What seemed to be a proactive behavior, actually resulted in so many people doing the same work twice. Worse, if three departments don’t trust each other for the same work!

It is much  more important to understand how this problem would exist in a large organizations. As the number of layers increase, so do the chances of spreading “Duplication”. Between the different offices – Head Office, Branch Office and Area Offices, there’d be a number of activities that would be duplicated only for the simple reason of improper communication. Similarly, in the same office, the chances of duplication among various departments are quite high. It is also possible that Duplication exists within the same team where the junior person does some work and Boss cross verifies it. There is just so much of overlap all over! I have always fancied what all milestones can be achieved if all this time was spent in putting extra efforts in your work and working out on newer projects for your team.

A lot of times, we encourage Duplication to be the “check and balance’ in the system. To a certain extent, it could be right. But when it starts getting in excess of being only ”Checks and Balance”, that is where the issues arise. Also, when the “Checks and balances” start happening more often than not, that’s where bureaucracy steps in. Nobody trusts nobody else and everyone is busy pulling each other down to show how they are correct and the other person is a fool! Egos build up and all the time is spent in “proving” yourself rather than working your way up! A lot of times, this “Check and Balance” also results in people taking their work casually – knowing that the check exists and they’ll be corrected wherever they are wrong. This, inculcates, Duplication in the organization’s DNA. Sometimes, it also backfires. So,” if you have proved me wrong once, I will prove you wrong twice”, and the story continues…

Did you just realize the amount of imbalance that a seemingly simple thing like “Duplication” can cause?

To address this issue, Just a few points that I think will be helpful:

è At the onset we will have to believe that all people work for the benefit of organization. Nobody has any personal problems with anyone and human errors are inevitable. So, Trust! Do not make cross checking a habit in your work life.

è If there is any problem in sorting out who’s responsibility it is – Talk it out, There’ll be nobody who’ll want to do the work for the heck of it.

è If some of other department’s work is in your interest area – Assist, not Interfere. It’s always good to have an outsider’s point of view in any function.

è Last, but not the least, encourage “Samvaad”, rather than “Vivaad”. Blaming anyone will only result in backfire. Give suggestions, not directives. Click to read my blog on this topic!

Wonder if I am exaggerating on the evils of duplication. Ego, bureaucracy, insecurity and many others? For most of us, it is only about productivity. If you have been provoked, do ACT! ACT NOW!

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

It's Just a Meeting! Isn't it?

In this piece of article, I am covering a subject which is most deprioritized in the corporate world – “What do you do for a Meeting”. Do you start by thinking that this is one of the weakest topics covered in my writing? That’s my point!

Let’s begin with this example. Marketing Team sends a meeting invite to everyone, including the CEO, which says “Discussion on Next Quarter Calendar” for tomorrow. What do you do? Accept the Invite. And then, be present for the meeting right on time. Do you think something is missing? No? Ok. Let’s begin the meeting. The CEO before the start of the meeting, does think that there’s something missing. He asks all the people present in the room – “How prepared are you for the meeting?”. What kind of answers do you expect from the group? Some examples as below:

·          It’s a discussion , right? What Preparation for a discussion? Will speak up as the discussion unfolds

·         I don’t think there was anything to be prepared for / The topic didn’t require any preparation

·         My Boss is there, he will ensure the discussions happen in the right direction.

·         It's about Way Forward – you have to speak and we have to listen, what preparation?

·         I have the sales database for past few years readily available on my laptop. Can take out relevant data as soon as required.

·         We will discuss today and will come prepared in the next meeting with the action points.

Whatever words you use or don't use, the underlying tone is that you think you will (actively or silently) go through the meeting without any preparations. It’s a Large forum and no hard questions are asked to “an” individual. But do you even realize what happens in the meetings – people with unprepared thoughts speak about unreal facts stating unclear numbers resulting in no next steps. The entire two or three hours of every person present in the meeting, is wasted! Something more criminal that wasting only your day unproductively. Did you even think why you are called for the meeting? If you believe that you will not contribute to the meeting, can you decline the invitation?

Over a period of time, it becomes a culture. Just see its evolution:

a.      You have never felt the need to be prepared for any meeting.

b.      As described above, the meetings become unproductive with no clear next steps.

c.       So, there are more meetings, to follow up on what have to be the next steps (or whether the next steps discussed in the last meeting were relevant or not).

d.      Because there are more meetings for you to attend, you have even lesser time to think of any preparation for these meetings.

e.      The vicious cycle just started!

And then, there are things called “fake preparations”, which are just the preparations for the heck of it. Over the years I have often made fun of my advertising agencies coming unprepared for the meetings. Their big bosses will come for meetings with no clue of what the brand objective was for the latest campaign. Often I would joke that the presentation made by them was actually prepared in the car drive. The other one was that they would have prepared a presentation for a new MNC and recycled the same to a seasoned Indian company. All these would seem so fake and one thing was clear that in all of these meetings we would not achieve the required results. This was because the discussion was theoretical and revolved around only one thing, "to sell" what the agency had created. It took the cake recently when a partner brand came and presented their launch strategy in India. In that they showed a clip of the fashion show held in Hong Kong. I was left wondering as to what was the relevance of the same. Again the result was the same. We were not able to reach any agreement on stocking their brand. At this very thought, I realize that there’s something fundamentally not in place in the corporate world! 

With regards to meetings, there are other evils too. Some people just forget that they had to come for a meeting! And when the meeting starts and you enquire about the whereabouts of the person, they tell you, “Oh I had this sudden plan of travelling to ABC city, I “forgot” to inform you”. No, I am serious, this is real! Also, something that cannot be measured but is equally important – attentiveness in the meetings. I have always said (or demonstrated) that the productivity of the meeting is directly proportional to the attentiveness of the Boss.

Like Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail!”. This holds true in each and every aspect of our lives and meetings are no exceptions, more because along with our own, it also involves the time and “opportunity” cost of all the attendees of the meeting, some of whom may be high cost resources. Chances are, that some of you may relate to some of the excuses mentioned above. Just think about it that you are being called to a meeting because your PoVs is important to be considered for the meeting.

So the final question is  – Do you justify your presence in a meeting?

Now on, you should! Looking forward to what are you Points of View on this topic.

PS: you can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

I pray not for a lighter load, but for a stronger back

This thought is based on a Jewish proverb – “I pray not for a lighter load, but for a stronger back”. I am trying a different approach this time. There are two stories – one which is pictorial and is the inspiration of the thought and the other one is a real life example.

Let’s see how the first story goes:

Do you think we all go through this in our lives? We want our burden to be lessened only to realize that we finally did not achieve our goal. Coming back to modern era and corporate life!

Neeta was furious. Her Boss, Anil, had given her yet another assignment, even though he knew that Neeta already had quite a few assignments in her hands which were nearing deadline. She tried her level best explaining Anil that she just could not take any more projects at this point in time, but Anil just wouldn’t agree. He kept on insisting that Neeta was the best resource available to complete the new project. Neeta was not left with any option but to take the new project in her hands. Upset still, she tried to approach HR to explain her dilemma expecting some help. The HR head, Riddhi, took Neeta out for coffee and asked her about what was making her so upset. Neeta explained that she had only 3 people in her team, out of which one was on marriage leave for a month. She was reaching home late everyday and the pressures were building from the home front too. At this stage, taking another project in hand would be suicidal. She looked up to Riddhi for solution. Riddhi started, “The first question is whether you believe in yourself? What in the World makes you think that you wont be able to take up this project and deliver it in time?”. Neeta was bewildered. Riddhi went on, “Do you think an upgraded version of the new software available will make your task easier?”, Neeta  replied with a “Maybe”. Riddhi added, “Don’t you think that you will be granted a little more extension of deadlines in other projects to accommodate this one?”. Neeta continued to listen more intently as she was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. And then Riddhi asked the final question – “Do you think this project is important for your career?” and Neeta admitted that she would’ve lost an opportunity if she didn’t work on this project.  Riddhi continued – “Now, weigh the issue rationally. What is more important – this new learning opportunity which would enhance the trust of your seniors further in her, or living in the current situation without pushing a little more? Also, in a month's time, your team member will be back”. Needless to say, after the conversation, Neeta felt much lighter and confident of handling the new project that she had been assigned.

Isn’t this what happens to many of us? As soon as we reach our threshold of our capacity, we start rejecting the newer avenues that come to us. We helplessly say “No” to things without even asking for additional resources that can help accommodate the new work in a much efficient manner. This way, we not only undermine our potential, but also reject the opportunities which come to us in various forms. At the end of it all, we are the losers ourselves. We crib about being helplessly burdened with so many tasks and responsibilities, while it is these tasks and responsibilities, which will take us to the next level!

The only person who can believe in you the most is no one else but yourself! The farther you set your boundaries, farther you will fare! The question is – Are you ready to carry the load? Are you ready of an extended target? Are you ready for more projects to come your way? If your head says “No”, ask your heart!

Looking forward to your views on the same.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

How do you go Where You want to Go?

This is a post about the importance of planning and not just engaging in fire fighting. Often most of us are good at fire fighting. Is that enough? Read on......

Pritesh is a fresh MBA and is all set to take the new role of Sales In Charge of a Brand in an FMCG company. On his first day, his Boss told him that they were looking at a 20% growth from this brand in the current fiscal year, which was 50% higher than the growth delivered by the brand in last year. Confident that Pritesh was of himself, he happily accepted the targets and also told his Boss that he will be closing the year at more than the expected levels. Pritesh started enthusiastically  and was focused on solving the problems. As soon as any problem cropped up, he immediately referred to his academic books and came up with a relevant solution. He was efficiently tackling all the problems that were coming up, but somehow, something was not right. He was still not achieving his targets. In the half yearly review with his boss, it was reflected that Pritesh’s brand was growing at the same pace as last year and the targets were being missed. When confronted, Pritesh, as he genuinely believed, told him that the targets given to him were too high to be achieved. And then his Boss asked him, “Ok, what are you plans for achieving the targets in the next six months?”. Pritesh was blank.

A lot of times this is what happens to us. We want to deliver results but we forget the first step that is required for success of any project or delivering any result – Plan. One statement that I have come to believe in, is – “If you can’t put a plan on a piece of paper, there are no chances of being able to achieve the end result”. Isn’t this true for everything that we do in our lives? Now, think of this:

Now for the next six months, Pritesh took 3 days, only to strategize what would he do to get to the sales. He listed down all the possible ways to increase the sales, referred to his academic books and chalked out a month by month plan of the milestones he would want to achieve. Along with top line increase, he also jotted down what were other problem areas like Team Motivation and Margin Management and drafted out a complete plan for next year. Now, every month, he keeps a track of whether he has achieved his target or not.  He knows if the plan worked or not, and in case it doesn’t work he has a Plan B ready to be implemented.  A little deviation from his plan cautions him to take corrective actions. And you can fully well understand what the end result was with this approach.

Anyone who has ever undertaken a complex task, has learned the importance of careful planning. This is relevant to every step in life which you need to “Win”. A “Game Plan” in any sports or “Preparations” for a party at home are all examples of how we need to “Plan” to ensure success. “Good planning conserves resources, prevents wasted effort, and saves time and money. Good planning prevents small problems from becoming big problems.” What happens when you start building a house and in the middle of it, you realize that you have run short of money to complete it? Planning, not only helps in determining the feasibility of delivery of targets, but also for knowing in advance whether any additional resource will be required in achieving what has been targeted. Planning also helps in giving teams (both internal and external) and the support functions about the next steps.  

If your objective is bigger, you will plan accordingly. The bigger you plan, the farther you will go. We saw how easy it was for Pritesh to blame it on the high targets. He was not prepared for the big targets and the fact that achieving them was never going to be easy. If you don’t plan Big in life, there are lesser chances of you making it Big in life, isn’t it? 

At the same time, it is important enough to know that some of your plans can fail too. In such circumstances, we can’t let things happen to us. Instead, it is equally important for us to have a Plan B ready, as an acknowledgement of the fact that plans can fail, but we are ready enough to face it!

The first step is to Decide where to go – near which is easy or far with challenges. If you have decided where you want to go, now is the time to decide How do you go? And then, you do need to know the alternate route too, just in case the first one has roadblocks.  Have a Happy Journey!

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

I scratch your back and You scratch Mine

This thought is about that part of an organization behavior, which is really a grey area – “I scratch your back and You scratch Mine” – Well, sounds like a good idea. Why Grey? Take a look.

Neeraj heads the Marketing of an FMCG organisation. The going has been good, but the latest soap introduction has not had great sales. On a deep dive, he found out that the issue was really with the Sales team which has not been able to achieve the required distribution level as per target. In the weekly review meeting, when Neeraj is questioned on the poor sales performance, he blames it on not so exciting fragrance of the new soap.

Confused? So, this is what the real story is. Ajay, the head of sales is an aggressive individual. Last time when Neeraj highlighted the inefficiency of Sales dept, Ajay made a report of how Neeraj and team had faltered on ensuring that TV advertising started on the committed date. The situation became fairly embarrassing for Neeraj when he was questioned on the poor performance in front of Ajay. Thereafter he chatted up with Ajay and started playing safe with Sales. He scratches Ajay’s back and Ajay scratches his!

Isn’t this what many of us do? Only because we are scared of the back fire, we tolerate the inefficiencies of various individuals in an organization. Have you ever tried to figure out what could be the impact of this silence? You are supporting the growth and settlement of inefficiencies within the system. Because some mistakes are not highlighted on time, the mistakes continue until they become a habit and major reason of discomfiture within all the related teams. You didn’t face any back fire and someone just got away with murder! Isn’t this how we promote mediocrity within the system? Things continue to be the way they are and so do the results. But we keep quiet!

“I Scratch your back and you scratch mine” is a positive statement. It denotes that both of us will be co operative with each other and help each other in the relevant areas. If I am absent for a week, you take care of my work and so will I, when you need leaves. Presence of this concept in any organization is fairly important and this is what makes employees love their colleagues and in turn the organisation. The problem begins when this “friendliness” starts making way for tolerance of sub standard performance.  You want to complain about an issue which is obstructing the smooth flow of your work – but how can you “cheat” your friend by highlighting his mistake? This way, you are not only harming the organization, but also the growth of the individual involved. Also, being open to a back fire also helps you as an individual grow, isn’t it? Ability to admit your mistake and improving yourself and genuine concern for your work are two key ingredients that will help you grow. If you genuinely feel that something is coming in way of your work, you must learn to tackle it with all your dedication.

By this, I do not mean that you should go on a “fault finding” mission and complain about everything that you come across. Excess of anything is bad. The point being made here is that before tolerating any problem with an individual, do not hesitate to be vocal about stating it. Also, not necessary that all complains have to be escalated, but when there is no resolution, Escalation helps. Organizationally, it also means that all of us need to be better prepared to answer some tough questions that can be put to us. This in turn will result in lesser slippages and much better work efficiency.

This article may come across as if I am promoting a blame game culture. I am promoting honesty of thought and actions to help the organization grow out of “mediocrity” and towards better future!

Looking forward to your comments on this one.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Unleashing the power of feedback

This article is about a concern that most of us go through in our careers as well as personal lives – Lack of Proper Feedback. Though all of us work in best possible way, sometimes, we do tend to get off the track – but how do we get back on track, unless someone tells us!

Sample this story. Alok and Richa worked for in the same company. Alok was heading the marketing department while Richa was sales in charge for a business unit. Both of them never got well along with each other. While Richa thought Alok was too laid back in his attitude, Alok thought Richa’s aggressiveness is just a way to impress her seniors. More often than not, these two would get into serious quarrels before every campaign break. Richa blamed Alok of informing her only at the last moment, while Alok said that Richa always tried to interfere in his domain, which he did not appreciate. Diwali campaign was about to break out and Tarun, the CEO of the company expected another spat between the two. So, he decided to resolve it himself this time. He called both of them individually and asked them what all problems they faced with each other. He jotted down everything that both of them had to say. Next he passed Richa’s feedback to Alok and vice versa saying it was a feedback from him of their work and he really thinks these are their improvement areas. Not to his surprise, the Diwali campaign had much lesser issues and working was smoother. He then called them together and told them the reality, ending with “…if only both of you started giving feedback to each other directly”.

Did you notice what can a simple feedback achieve? Feedback is a completely underrated part of work in most organizations. People continue to crib about their work areas and company, but hardly bother to give any feedback to anyone. The underlying assumption is always that “how will my feedback matter?”, but don’t we realize that every individual behaves in a certain way, because he thinks it is the right way. If its not, how will he know unless someone tell him? What we must understand and appreciate is that Everyone needs Feedback. A lot of us don’t see ourselves as others see us (reminded about Johari Window*), and so the feedback becomes really important to overcome the “Blind Spots” that we develop over a period of time. Have you realized how much impact does a smile from your spouse, a pat on the back from your Boss, delightful eyes of a customer or a look of appreciation from a colleague ;-) make? Don’t you feel irritated when your Boss doesn’t comment on the results of some work that you’ve put so much efforts in? Have you also tried telling your team members to improve in certain areas of work and seen some immediate results? It works! While a negative feedback results in improvement and performance enhancement, a positive feedback gives motivation to continue to perform even better. Also, not all feedback needs to be positive or negative. It can be just a simple indication saying the individual is on right track!

Giving / Receiving feedback isn’t easy. A lot of people don’t want to give feedback simply as they don’t want to confront each other, which could also be a probable start to the “Blame Game”. What we must understand is that we must be prepared to take the feedback in the right spirits! A lot of times we tend to believe that the person is giving negative feedback because “he doesn’t know enough”, or “she wants to me fail!”. That’s almost like moving towards the “Blind Spot” even further.  We must also learn to give feedback effectively – making sure that the other person understands the right intent behind it. If you make it sound like a complain, defensive behavior is inevitable.

The concept of feedback doesn’t apply only within the important areas of work. It can be in smaller things also. The more you give feedback, the more improvement you will see in things around. What changes would you like in a report, appreciating the new HR initiative, telling the R&D team about how the new toothpaste flavour has turned out and what could have made it better, little feedbacks can make your life easy. It’s also about leaving a comment on this blog and saying if it is in the right direction.The same is applicable even in your personal life. It’s there in telling your driver how well he drives and saves so much of your time. It’s there in asking your spouse whether he / she would like to change something about you.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

* Johari window is a great psychological tool used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. This blog  addresses only the top right hand corner of the box.

Do you spend time with yourself?

This article is an attempt to address one of our usual work issues, TIME! However, here I am taking a different approach of looking at the issue and addressing the same.

Rohit comes to office every morning checks his mailbox and quickly makes notes of the work to be delegated. He then runs to the team and asks them who’s busy with what, selects the right candidates for handling today’s work and tells them how to do it. On enquiring the status on previous tasks, the team updates him and tells him the problems they faced with them. He then makes solves the problem himself and therefore helping them understand the way it should be done. He also double checks the work done by the team yesterday and shows them the correct method to do whatever was incorrect. In the meanwhile, his Boss calls him for an urgent work. He runs, takes it down and also updates Boss with the previous tasks’ status. Boss suggests some changes. Rohit, again, runs back to the team and tells them about the new task and updates them about changes in the old one. Its 2.00 pm and it’s time for a meeting and everyone rushes for that. Rohit is relatively unprepared as he was busy the whole morning. After the meeting, Boss calls him again and asks him – “Why are you always so unprepared?”

Rohit, undoubtedly, is a hard working person. The problem that he has is that he believes in doing everything himself. What would’ve happened if he delegated tasks to his team and asked them to turn up in case they had any doubt? Couldn’t he have sent the team back every time they came with a mistake in the file, instead of trying to solve everything himself? Could he have also allocated half an hour per day for his Boss to update him with the status and take fresh downloads, instead of running to him every time a new task emerged? That would’ve helped him spend so much time with himself!  Spending time with himself would have helped him organize himself better, prepare himself for the meeting and plan for the times to come. Once this cycle started, everything would set itself in place.

Typically, this is what happens with all of us. Each working day involves Reviewing Mails, New Task Delegation and follow up of Old tasks with teams, Receiving and Updating Status of Tasks to Boss, Coordination with other Teams, Attending Regular and Ad Hoc Meetings. In the quest of doing everything ourselves, we tend to lose on the most important activity required for every working day – “Spending Time with ourselves”!  Either we spend too much time with our Bosses or our teams. Spending time with oneself is hardly considered in the never ending agenda for the day. Many times, it is considered “unproductive” to spend time with oneself and this is easily deprioritized when it comes to “taking care” of the teams and “being obedient” to the Boss. One big demerit of such close supervision is the building “dependability” of the teams on you, which hampers growth – both of your team and yourself. The same thing is true in the reverse manner, if you are spending too much time with your boss. The team becomes too dependent on you to grow, and you become too engrossed in day today affairs to look forward.

Every day is an investment. Just like we invest money to build more money for us, we need to invest our time in such a manner that we get the profit of some extra time every day. For that, we first need to identify where is our time going currently? Making our teams responsible and trusting them enough with the routine tasks is one key way. If you think the problem is with your Boss calling you too often, talk your problem out. Like I’ve previously said, if you’ll really want to spend time with yourself, you will definitely find a way to do that. In that sense, it depends on you! But it’s you who needs to identify where you want to head to. Spending time with yourself could also mean reading up articles to improve your own learning and therefore the organisational learning.

One management tip I completely believe in, is spending at least first and last 20 minutes of your day with yourself. In the first 20 minutes, we need to plan our day, prioritize things, and set yourself ready for the day. The last 20 minutes should be spent in reviewing the progress of the day – Was it according to how you had planned? What did you do today that you will not do again?

Would be nice to know if this article impacted your way of working in any way?

PS: You can also reach out to me at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Expectations are good

This note is about “Expectations”. Contrary to the belief of “Not Expecting Anything”, is good, I believe in the fact that what we are, or what we become is the result of what we expect. So, the premise that I am taking is against the deep rooted cultural backdrop. Our culture teaches us not to expect too much. Expectation is almost a sin!

A typical sales situation. Madhav is a sales person. He is a happy and content kind of a person and usually, when asked about “How happy are your customers”, he replies happily stating that they are satisfied with the service level and keep giving repeat orders. On the contrary, Hari, another sales person replies that things could’ve been better if he put in a little more efforts. On the face of it, it might look like that Madhav is a much better performer than Hari, but when you look inside, you’ll realize that Hari’s customers are happier compared to that of Madhav’s. Where’s the gap?

The gap is in expectations. When you expect less or expect nothing, you might be happy and content initially, but ultimately you realize that to be moving higher up, you need to raise “expectations”. Madhav is also amongst people who tend to take things on their heart too quickly and also are not very open to feedback. He thinks that his service levels are perfect and when you highlight the issues, they tend to retaliate. Hari, knows that there’s a scope of improvement, and thus, is more open to feedback and works his way up. Do you realize how deep rooted is this problem of “low expectations”?

Expecting nothing or less are surely no way to lead to happiness. Imagine if we were content with the way banks worked – the ATMs wouldn’t be invented at all. The discomfiture of not being able to keep in touch led to the evolution of Social networking Sites. Expectations make the world progress and better, by the day. Happiness is not when expectations meet the reality, it's when you have higher expectations and you work towards making it a reality.  If you are satisfied with everything around, everything will continue to be the same. Expectations are about Moving Upwards and towards betterment.

At times I can feel a gap between what I am expecting and what others are expecting. When I express discontentment, they think of me as snob or even rude. I don't mind it because the next time I visit the place, all the things that I expected are well in place. Though I was tagged as rude, I helped some people in terms of betterment,  and I clearly do not regret that.

For me, there’s a way of defining expectation - First time its awe, next time its appreciation and the third time (onwards) , its expectation! One of the most critical things for setting higher expectations is – Exposure. It is a reality check in terms of your current status and where the world is going. Also, Exposure and Observation go hand in hand when it comes to defining Expectations. Observing what’s going on and trying to adapt the best practices is one good way of setting Expectations. A raise in the standard of your expectations makes you a better individual and somebody to be looked up to. So meeting different people, visiting different places, observing different trends, not only raises your expectations, but also makes you a better personality.

Being content with what you have can give you momentary happiness, but when you raise the bar and strive for achieving it, you experience the ultimate joy! A “higher expectation” does result in much better execution. Can we also term this as dissatisfaction. How can this dissatisfaction be channelised to generate positive energy?

Looking forward to hear your take on this.

PS: Do give me your feedback. You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Demonstrating Leadership away from Limelight - the MS Dhoni Way!

I read a tweet on Sunday that Hindustan Times lead picture did not have Dhoni in the frame. Then I noticed that it was difficult to spot him even in Times of India picture. On news channels also, the pictures of the players with the cup did not have Dhoni in them.

Where is Dhoni? And I was aghast. This set me thinking.

Dhoni has won the T20 world cup, got India to the No 1 in test ranking, won the IPL and CL, and finally, after 28 years THE world cup. But who is taken around the stadium on the players’ shoulders? Sachin. Who is the stadium rooting for? Sachin. What is the mystery?

You can turn around and say that Dhoni was lucky to have been the captain at the right time. He had great senior players and talented youngsters in the team. However, fact is that he has had very different teams in all the championships that he has won. T20, Tests, IPL/CL and ODIs. He has been the glue to put the teams together, not the other way around. The fact that leaders are often considered to be lucky when the times are going good, but does someone really take note of the invisible efforts being put in by the individual. Keeping the team together and excited in one of the most important, but undermined, jobs done by a successful leader – doesn’t Dhoni just demonstrate that?

Look at Dhoni’s statements over a period of time, which are honest to say the very least. “We are not a good fielding side”, “I took some wrong decisions”, “reading the pitch wrong and playing 3 seamers”. Taking on his team mates publicly. He backs team members and takes tough decisions at the same time. Backing Piyush Chawla to the hilt or dropping Yuvraj or Raina are tough decisions taken by him. I am yet to notice bias in his decision making. He has dropped Ashwin from ODIs, despite him being a worthy team mate in CSK. More often than not, leaders with a WYSIWYG (What you see is What you get) style of working are the most criticized lot, even if it helps keeping the team aware of their strengths and weaknesses promptly. When this leader takes the blame upon himself, he is criticized for not carrying out things properly, but when the same leader blames it on his team, it is seen as a “Blame Game”. Aren’t we a bit too critical for leaders, including Dhoni?

Since becoming captain in ODIs he transformed himself from a dasher to an accumulator. With enough dashers around, he changed his role in the team for the sake of the team. As a captain his average is 52.7 vs 44.2 as a non captain, though his strike rate drops from 96.3 to 82.4. His numbers of 6s per innings go down to 0.56 from 0.95.  A number of times, a leader puts his individual performance at the back seat and adapts as the team requires him to.

I can go and on and on about Dhoni’s professional achievements as a captain. His humility as an individual (his pictures of sharing birthday cake with my colleague or pictures with my sons are some examples). Any comparisons with Ganguly and Afridi are misplaced. He definitely doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. He is the real man taking “criticism” and “Failures” on his face and letting go the entire credit of the Achievements to his individual Team Members. To me, all this, and more make Dhoni a True Leader!

Then suddenly the realisation dawns on me! This is about where the limelight lies, or where it is not? So, “Do leaders shy away when it comes to being in limelight?”

We should not pity him for missing from the frame of Hindustan Times lead picture on the day nation went crazy. We should give him due credit. It is about stepping back and letting your colleagues savour the moment! This is about having confidence and absence of insecurity – a situation in which you let your team steal the limelight while you smile at the back end, content with your and your team’s performance. It is this confidence, that makes him appreciate the past. Examples are of co sharing the trophy with Kumble, or letting Ganguly lead the last few overs of his test career. It is this confidence, that still makes him thank all his seniors for the victory of his team!

I can say that true leaders only create Limelight and not necessarily be in it – Just the MS Dhoni way!

PS: As usual, would be looking forward to your feedback and opinion on this blog! You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

Who is a Fool?

This blog is triggered by today's date and the significance of the same. “Fool’s Day”.

At the outset, let’s take a look at the reason this day came into being: The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.

Whilst this theory is seemingly simple (and stupid), what it does clearly tell us is “Who is a Fool?”. It is not about taking wrong decisions. It is not about  not being able to understand some obvious things. It’s about being closed to learning. It’s about thinking that you know enough and you do not need to know any further. It’s about making assumptions rather than taking the pain of finding out the reality or change.

If you are closed to the learning, I would also interpret the same as “Not Asking the Right Questions at the Right Time”!

Moving on to a real life situation. It’s a large forum and a presentation by the Department Head is going on. In one of the slides, you cannot make out the point being made. But, it’s a large forum, you don’t know if the question you’ll ask makes sense. You are afraid that you’ll be laughed at. You are collecting strength to raise your voice and ask that question. Meanwhile, a colleague of yours raises his hand and asks the same question. You Thank God. The question is appreciated by the Head and everyone in the room applauds your colleague for the same. You think even you were smart enough to think of that question. Do you realize what you really were? You were a Fool.

Consciously or unconsciously, a lot of us go through these situations. Momentary fear of being laughed at or over confidence in ourselves are two extreme situations where we actually make a fool of ourselves.  In the first situation, you keep fighting with yourself, feeling lesser confident and thereby, losing interest in the rest of the topic – missing one vital piece of information completely! In the second one, chances are, that you continue believing and working on the wrong information, a phenomenon commonly known as “living in Fool’s Paradise”.

Some thoughts to make yourself “Fool Proof”:

1.      Act Like a Child : I am sure you will agree that a child has very high level of inquisitiveness. Can we behave like a child. Ask questions which will have obvious answers and a lot of times, not so obvious! We need to decide what is more important – our public image, or our wisdom!

2.      No Age / Limit for learning – I genuinely believe that every day we learn something new, and its never ever too late to learn something. If you have doubts on some process, which you should have clarified long back, don’t hesitate, ask! Maybe this knowledge gives you a new idea to carry out your work in an efficient manner.

3.      Never Assume – It is easy for me to assume a lot of things and move on without bothering any one of you. Asking questions only help is cross verifying that everything is in place. 

4.      Speak Up – “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions”. I completely believe in the thought. For the fear of one moment of embarrassment, you let go your lifetime of wisdom. Make the wise choice.

He, who knows, and knows that he knows, is Wise – Follow Him!

He, who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is Simple – Teach Him!

He, who knows, and knows not that he knows, is Asleep – Wake Him!

He, who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is Fool – Shun him!

Avoid being in the last category.

PS: As usual, would be looking forward to your feedback and opinion on this blog! You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.