Different Perspective

Different Perspective: 25 Unwritten Rules of Management I blogged about this more than 2 years back and maybe read this as the same time, however with time I have only seen the relevance grow of this list. This list now is pinned on each and every of my team members desk. See the rules The rules are simple, but little harder to understand, and very hard to practise and make it a habit. Lot of issues can be avoided by these simple rules. I have seen many people failing by not following these simple rules. Or people who are just stuck where they are, and not moving ahead... A lot is written, read, trained in management, but that is nicely summed up in these points. My fav in the list are - 2. It is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it. 15. Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements. 17. Promises, schedules, and estimates are important instruments in a well-ordered business. * You must make promises. Don’t lean on the often-used phrase, “I can’t estimate ...

Here are some common reasons for people working late - Plain inefficient – Lacking logical thinking you spend loads of time on simple problems. Bad planning – Managers bad planning, leaving no time for the execution phase, so team has to slog. Bad process – Whole process is inefficient so lots of time waste. Managers perception – If people working late are assumed to be efficient, then you have to sit late.. Bad personal planning – people wasting time in initial phases and then scrambling in the end. We tend to have the last minute scrambling syndrome. Inefficient team – So you end up doing what you team was to do. This is probably fine in initial phases but sometimes it just never improves.  Office perks - Bachelors sit for free internet, coffee, dinner, comp off's, etc. I have had many instances where people working late as perceived as hard workers. The problem is big in software industry as this is a service industry. You can spend h...

The Case of the Bonsai Manager: R Gopalakrishnan: PB Books Buy The Case of the Bonsai Manager India: - Infibeam.com I am reading the second book from this author, when the penny drops, and there are few references to the Bonsai trap. Whats interesting is that every manager falls into this, but few only manage to understand, learn and come out of the bonsai trap. What i also feel the difference is that book talks about the challenges in management in Indian companies, which are different from those in MNC's. A good book which somehow i feel is some years ahead of me...the writer has poured his yrs of experience. What is also interesting that writer feels, that loyalty to manager, is more important than loyalty to your company. For many yrs i used to feel otherwise, but recent experiences also make me agree with the writer. However, this is something i believe will come very hard to me... Learning is never easy,,and never stops....

Loads of books have been written on effective communication and related topics. A quick googling on reasons for communication gap, did not turn out anything interesting, simple and straight to the point. Therefore i decided to blog my thoughts on this. Some reasons according to me are  - Fear - Sometimes when the position of 2 parties are not same, then because of fear, you may not have clear communication. People should not have the fear, that what they speak in front of you shall be used against them. Mistrust - If the persons engaged in communication do not trust one another, then they are not actually listening. both try to do one way communication, or worst still, they just don't bother to communicate. Contempt- if there is contempt, then that reflects in words, and leads to dirty or half hearted conversations. Fixed ideas - People are just too fixated on what they want other person to understand and know, that they just do not listen. Not listening, breaks down the commun...

Everyone wishes the other person with whom they are dealing with have a clear thinking and decision making. We want to move ahead in life and not get stuck because of delay the other person is introducing by not giving the decision. However, we ourselves are guilty of sitting on many decisions? This needs some serious introspection. We are afraid of decisions, about being wrong. Suddenly, i see being wrong as something totally unacceptable by ourselves. We go to great lengths to prove we are not wrong . We can hurt people who dare say that we are wrong. People feel age or position/rank gives them the immunity or that innate power of never being wrong. We avoid confrontations and sit on decisions, hoping situations might just resolve itself. The pressure of always being right, is leading to people being more and more lonely, because they are afraid to share. The permutations that go into making any simple decision has increased many folds. Thus more depression and aggression. life u...

Reading “Winning” by Jack Welch and his thoughts on differentiation-- the person who introduced this idea, and also implemented it globally. One good point he made and that is clearly missed is before an organization goes this route, they need to have a robust performance appraisal system, that is free from bias. “Here is the background on what i am talking about ” Here are the reasons to hate differentiation and their answers. Most of the companies have embraced this system without actually understanding the strengths and weaknesses in their HR processes. I don’t even think companies look back to see if they are gaining anything implementing it or not. Personally small teams of less than 10-15 people can do away with this. Small teams cannot work if they have a less than average guy, and incase there is someone then it should not need waiting till the appraisal cycle. I have been asked to just implement the normalization curve many a times without anybody wanting to explain me...

A 29 year old Steve Jobs sounds off on philanthropy in an early interview with Playboy . "I'm convinced that to give away a dollar effectively is harder than to make a dollar. "There are some simple reasons for that. One is that in order to learn how to do something well, you have to fail sometimes. In order to fail, there has to be a measurement system. And that's the problem with most philanthropy--there's no measurement system. You give somebody some money to do something and most of the time you can really never measure whether you failed or succeeded in your judgment of that person or his ideas or their implementation. So if you can't succeed or fail, it's really hard to get better." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For me the measurement is the difference you make to someones life. I don't believe in giving some rs to a roadside beggar, it only encourages beggary, and is no good. But yes follo...