Management

Do one thing at a time. Period.

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When you’re extremely busy, there’s the temptation to multitask.
 
Have you ever had that moment when two people are texting you, one is sending you WhatsApp message, and the other is trying to get you on the phone? When it happens, the initial impulse is to jump from one to the other and answer everyone as quickly as possible.
 
But try to fight that instinct and instead focus on each conversation to give it the attention it deserves. For example, if on a call, try to be 100% present. That means no texting or looking at email.
 
When you multitask, you end up with two (or more!) suboptimal results. Give all your attention to a single interaction at a time, and the outcome will be better.

Are you a busy person?

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The busy person has a bias for action, the ability to ship, and a willingness to contribute more than is required. The busy person is wrong more than most people (if you get up to bat more often, you’re going to have more hits and more outs, right?).
 
Those errors are dwarfed by the impact they create.
 
Being a busy person is a choice. It might not work for you, but you could try it out for a while.
 
We need more busy people.

What’s the best use of a leader’s time?

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As a leader how you spend your time will make or break the success of ur company. I think here are the top three focus areas:
 
#Recruiting + Hiring
 
The team is the most critical aspect for the success of a company. And hiring has to be topmost in the lists, a cultural fit team with the best skill set in the given budget, requires a lot of balancing act for the leader.
But its the only way to grow and reach ur vision.
 
#Considering your team’s long-term strategy, vision, and culture
 
Keep thinking and driving the long term strategy and vision for the company, this will be the beacon for everyone to follow.
 
#Communicating the direction to everybody all the time
 
Consistently communicating with everyone to guide and show them the right path. If the driver of a bus is not showing the right direction how the team will move forward. Let everyone apply there skills, their forces but u need to be the director of them.

 

But how about for you? Do you find yourself spending time in these areas as a leader… or not?
 

How to build company culture…

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Culture is one of the most critical pillars that keeps standing in the ups and downs of a company. It defines the success and growth of the team and the company. 
 
Also wherever there is a team, a culture (good or bad) is already set within the team. Defined by the leaders and top management etc.
 
So how to build or rebuild a culture? Here are a few pointers:
 
#Personal accountability
 
You must model the behaviors and basic underlying assumptions you want to be true. Greatest shortcoming of a leader is wanting others to do something that she doesn’t practice it herself. For instance, a leader wants to set up “ownership and trustworthy” culture but doesn’t own her own weaknesses and expects employees to be upfront and own things. See the disconnect?
Others in the team will emulate what you do, so exhibit those basic underlying actions yourself and the team will follow.
 
#Consistency
 
Whatever culture we want to set, it should be consistent over a period of days, months and years to build it. It cannot be that one day we want ownership & trust, other days we want hierarchy and formal structure.
 
Also whatever process we want to follow to inculcate the culture, All hands meetings, one on one etc should be consistent. Yes, there will be learnings but the core process has to keep hitting the cultural attributes.
 
#Use All Mediums or Communication Channels
 
When companies buy Instagram followers, it proves the importance of communication through social media. In today’s environment, with the support of some advertising like bus stop advertising. We have different ways of communicating with the individuals or team. It can be meetings, remote video calls, internal social media, WhatsApp groups, etc.
 
Use all these to communicate the same core attributes, for example, if All hands meetings are for openness and gathering ideas, displaying an open culture of ideas. One on Ones and any team meetings should have the same theme, openness towards any ideas. 
Now, this is no grand formula by any means for creating the culture that you want. Shaping a company’s culture and tapping into a team’s basic underlying assumptions is more art than it is science.
But consider these three elements — personal accountability, consistency, and richness — in how you’re upholding the basic underlying assumptions you want to make more real.
Pick one, commit to it, and see progress build over time. Slowly, but surely, you’ll see the difference.

Almost ready…

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Almost ready is Not ready
 
When someone says its “almost ready” it’s more dangerous than saying its “not ready”.
 
Almost ready implies that they have no clue when it will be ready.
 
Beware of people who say “Almost ready or Almost Done” they are not committed enough to know when it will ready!
 

Best Managers…

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Best Managers are exceptional at three skills:

  1. Trust: If you don’t build rapport as a leader, nothing moves forward.

2. Honesty: If you don’t speak the truth to your team, problems fester.

3. Context: If you don’t get everyone on the same page, confusion sets in.

All the other traits revolve around these, so if you can build these in your team, you got it right.

 

Skin in the game…

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Our highest level of motivation comes from “Skin in the game”. We keep procrastinating the task which does not have any kind risk for us and most of the times end up not doing it.
 
“Skin in the game” or level of risk, is also most critical for best performance. Almost all our best performances come under huge pressure because of the level of risk in it (When Failing leads to a huge loss for us). Think about exam preparations, interviews or a presentation.
 
Hence to motivate anyone including self, find or define the “Skin in the game” in it and our best performance will follow.

How to build the Best Team…

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“Best Team” is the holy grail for any company big or small. But it’s not easy to build a top-notch team. Here are a few things, that’s critical to build the “Best Team”
 
# Hiring:– Hiring is one of the most complex problems. Its a multi-billion dollar industry but still difficult to find the bests. It’s not about skill-set but a lot of soft parameters and that’s where we fail to judge most of the times.
Further budget constraints, timing issues – how to hire a skill-set at a particular time. Attitude & culture fit with the current team.
 
All this makes it much more difficult. So how do we hire the best person with the right skills, the right attitude, fits well with the team?
 
One solution is to always keep hiring, keep looking for talent, especially in the most critical teams. For example, if you are a tech company, always keep looking for good tech talents. Always!
 
# Invest in your best performers:- Focus on best performers they are your assets, nurture them to go the next level. With this, your team can grow in the best way possible.
 
# Layoff non-performers ASAP:- Don’t be scared to fire non-performers as soon as you know. Things are already in a mess if you have a non-performer.
Forget trying to mold them, giving them chances, you are wasting your critical time and money. More than anything it actually de-motivates the performers as well. Move on fast…
 
It gives another reason to keep hiring to replace the non-performers as soon as possible.
 
# Strong HR:- Don’t think of HR as a support function. HR is most critical for both hiring and creating productive teams. They help build culture, team motivations and help scale the team. Build a strong HR team.
 
# Build Team Top Down:- Hire the leaders first, invest time in hiring the best managers or team leaders. They can help you build the “Best Team”. This might be difficult because of budget constraints but whenever possible try to do get the Seniors or Leaders first in the team.
 
I find the above points very critical for the making of the “Best Team”, though it’s not full proof. Let me know your thoughts by adding comments below.

Boost Your Team’s Productivity? Really?

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As Manager or Leader, one of the most critical problems is How to increase our Team’s Productivity. We constantly think about it and keep reading trying different things to achieve it.

Some of the main points (From different sources) are:

1. Set the best example for your team.
2. Set Goals and Clarify expectations.
3. Encourage open communication.
4. Give team members autonomy.
5. Give team decent breaks or holidays, so that they are not overworked.

There might be more…But does these work?

One of my friend who is based out of California(US), had set up an office in Delhi and did all of the above but the team was not productive. Moreover, the employees’ came late and had started taking things for granted. He wasted 6 months and couldn’t figure out the problem. In the end, he hired an experienced Ops manager. Who rolled out his stick, kept attendance registers, fixed timings, a penalty in coming late etc and Baam!!! –  It started improving. Last I discussed he was happy with the output and didn’t care much about the above rules.

Take away:– Some of these rules might work in a culture, probably US-based team, but may not work in other culture. All the books/literature we read are typically based on US environment and hence should be taken with pinch of salt. It might not work in a different country or culture. In the Indian context where we have been trained to obey the rules from childhood and even in school/colleges being driven by “Stick” more than “Carrot” these rules as it is might not work.

We need to have “Carrot” and “Stick” in right mixture…

What rules do you think applies to the Indian context? Please share your comments…