Reflections: the stoic way!

The Beginner’s Mind – talent orientated business culture Simon Wright former CEO and President, Virgin Entertainment Group According to Wright, many companies fail to make best use of their talent because they  are still ‘pigeonholing’ people on the basis of their age and experience. However, in his  view, in some instances experience can actually get in the way of solving problems,  because of the preconceptions it can engender. There is consequently a strong argument  for approaching challenges with what is described in Zen Buddhism as a ‘beginner’s  mind’, an openness to possibilities tempered with the application of a quality that Wright  believes is all too rare in the corporate world – common sense.  Wright cites instances at Virgin where individuals were ‘parachuted’ into areas where  they had little or no directly obvious experience. One woman, for example, apparently  went from store manager to IT director to very succe...

CHECK MY COMMENTS BELOW THIS ARTICLE- Courtesy:  http://blog.brodzinski.com/2010/07/manager-role.html#comment-96570 The Role of Manager by PAWEL BRODZINSKI on JULY 26, 2010 Leader This vague term describes first and most important trait most managers should have and only few have. If I’m a team member I expect my manager will show leadership and charisma. I want to be ignited to follow his ideas. I need to be sure he knows why and where we are heading. I have to see him around when problems arise. I eager to be managed by someone I’d like to follow even if no one told me so. A good manager is also a good leader but these two are not the same. What a pity it isn’t common mixture. Coach Help newcomers with learning the organization. Help inexperienced with gaining experience. Help everyone with growing. Help those with problems with fixing them. Easy? No, not at all. First, you need to know who needs what. Then, you need to know how to reach people so your helping han...

Myths that I am yet to get clear with.. 1. Good B school matters-I do not know why? 2. With experience, B school hardly matters. What matters is experience. 3. There are companies who promote and select as well people with regional affiliations. 4. Longer you stay in a company, powerful you become, because you know how to manipulate things and you learn culture, character and even helplessness or join the bandwagon of survivors. 5. Politics is more important than hard work. You may have read the "ant story". ( https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwBOW5MTJapWaTkxREthaXZZX0E/edit?usp=sharing ) 6. Managers do not take risk of hiring team member smarter than them. 7. You need to fake your experience and resume a bit to get ahead. Actually it is resume that gets hired and not people, most of the time. 8. Most of the interviews look for a docile and meek candidate. Do not ask questions. Sound mediocre, accept interviewer's view point. 9. Praise your boss and get that pro...

To test your mental acuity, answer the following questions (no peeking at the answers!): 1. Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name? 2. A clerk at a butcher shop stands five feet ten inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 5. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly? 6. Billie was born on December 28th, yet her birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible? 7. In British Columbia you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not? 8. If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 9. Which is correct to say, “The yolk of the egg is white” or “The yolk of the egg are white?” 10. A farmer has f...

In early 2009, Google's HR team began a project code-named Project Oxygen. Their mission, reported the New York Times, was to build better bosses. After combing through performance reviews, feedback surveys and other data-rich metrics, they distilled the essence of what makes a good manager down to eight jaw-droppingly simple rules. Odds are you've heard all of these--but when was the last time you practiced them all in concert? Below, a comprehensive list of what Google sees as the ingredients of highly effective managers: Eight Good Behaviors 1. Be a good coach Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the postive. Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees’ specific strengths. 2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice. Make “stretch” assignments to help the team tackle big problems. 3. Express interest in team...

How many times have you heard the whine, "Too many bosses, too few leaders"? Many times, right? Think of the last time, this came to your mind..What happened? What all incident/s cross your mind? Any people? Rajeev Peshavaria wrote the book by this title Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders (Free Press), Rajeev Peshawaria, CEO of ICLIF, former chief learning officer at Morgan Stanley and a veteran of dozens of blue chip companies. I read this book. anecdotal and more of summary of experiences that Rajeev had with Morgan Stanley and Am-ex. Most of his career has been there. Though I did not find it an interesting read, as it lacked original thinking and it is absolutely my personal opinion. It appears like a Coffee-table book, more of summary of what all Rajeev found and did in those big companies, when he donned Big Title Positions. Though the book is just OK, the title is worth giving your 20 Cent thought, if not more. We all know we have very few leaders as most o...

Incidentally, I spoke with 2 of my MBA batch mates, Manish and Parag in past 1 week. Intelligent and experienced folks, they had come to do their 2 years full-time MBA at SIBM, 2001-2003, (Some call it Symbi, and many do not know that SIBM is a flagship MBA college of National and maybe Global repute). I was also there with my work ex with a PSU and Central Police Organisation. Manish had worked for Marriott and helped Marriott set up their first footprint in India (precisely Goa). He did their SOPs, training, coaching and setting up processes. It was all before he came to SIBM. BTW, he was rank-1 in SIBM entrance for MBA. Those days, it was called MPM and we were under Pune University. Symbiosis became deemed University in 2004 and the gen next got their degree titled, MBA. Somehow, I was not excited about SIBM being under Symbiosis University, for simple reason of me seeing that average professors, office staff and librarians, and also the Director remained t...

Ref link at TLNT- http://www.tlnt.com/2013/02/26/how-google-is-using-people-analytics-to-completely-reinvent-hr/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tlnt+%28TLNT%3A+The+Business+of+HR%29 Dr. John Sullivan is a well-known teacher, author, and HR thought leader. Below is his article published on Feb 26, 2013 in TLNT. I have written my responses from my experience of being in Human Resources functions with Indian large companies, to MNCs and start-ups. On average, each employee generates nearly $1 million in revenue and $200,000 in profit each year How does the Google approach reinvent HR? HR at Google is dramatically different from the hundreds of other HR functions that I have researched and worked with. To start with, at Google it’s not called human resources; instead, the function is called “people operations.” The VP and HR leader Laszlo Bock has justifiably learned to demand data-based decisions everywhere. People management decis...

The Yahoo! memo said, "We need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together." She took a decision and many of us did not like that. Why? Because, we have our own perspectives and we have all the rights and perhaps right arguments to believe in and say, "Why Marissa is wrong" and "Why we are right". Even if we do not say, why we are right, we can say, why she is wrong. All that happens as every one of us have some hands-on experience with the kind of situation, which she has tried to control. Did we really like this? When a CEO, that too new CEO, a very young CEO and perhaps a lady CEO, who was hired when she was pregnant and deliver...

Imagine if you could:  Create massive emotional commitment among all your direct reports Turn apathetic groups into high performance teams exhibiting huge discretionary effort Be a leader who people fight to work with Win a "Best Place to Work" award within 12 months Indeed, you can do all that and more, and it doesn't take a lot of time or a big budget. Builds respect and dignity into everyday work life Nothing is more important than to harness the loyalty, discretionary effort, and commitment of the workforce through respect. Traditional employee satisfaction surveys make three assumptions that just don’t hold water. Wrong assumption #1: Every employee response is equally important. Wrong assumption #2: Every employee opinion is credible. Wrong assumption #3: Engagement alone drives results. What Cy Wakeman says are prudent words of caution on Engagement Survey. Helps overcome emotional excitement and bias. Let’s put a stak...

Everyone heard the saying, " A happy child is a healthy child." We also have heard EE and OD experts saying, "A happy employee is a productive employee." how many of you agree? But the logic is not that simple and true! Debatable, right? Read out what Kevin Kruse has to say----- “What’s the difference between happiness at work and employee engagement,”  Someone can be happy at work, but not “engaged.” They might be happy because they are lazy and it’s a job with not much to do. They might be happy talking to all their work-friends and enjoying the free cafeteria food. They might be happy to have a free company car. They might just be a happy person. But! Just because they’re happy doesn’t mean they are working hard on behalf of the company. They can be happy and unproductive. When someone is engaged, it means they are emotionally committed to their company and their work goals. They care about their work. They care about results. This makes them...