Leading Under Pressure

"It is harder to lead when you are not scoring runs but that is when your character and fighting qualities as a leader come out. " - Brendon McCullum, New Zealand skipper on leading from the front.

Play Your Cards Right

I realised my face was never going to be my fortune,  I decided to impress ladies by tickling their palate - good food, full-bodied wine, candlelight and my storytelling powers are a lethal combination.  It has always worked. - Prahlad Kakkar, ad guru.

#MyLearning
Reminded of what Randy Pausch said, "we cannot change the cards we are dealt with, just how we play the hand."

9 Thoughts to Craft The Leader In You

Though much of the art and science of leadership remains unchanged over time, it needs to be crafted to suit the needs of the current environment. The following stories of contemporary leaders and views of leadership gurus, should give you food for thought to craft your individual leadership style and craft it to suit your time and context.. 

1.Reinvent Yourself  

"Companies fail or are successful because they either get or miss market transitions", says John Chambers, CEO and Chairman of Cisco. ..."What Cisco has done is that we compete on market transitions, not against competitors...We have reinvented ourselves five times"

Reinventing is not a necessary evil to be undertaken to undertake to survive. Being inquisitive - a hankering to learn new things, can lead to seeing the world of work as an opportunity and make it easier to adapt - a quality essential in the present times.

2 Give your people permission to fail

"One of the saddest things that happen with creativity...I think sometimes it isn't expressed because of fear," says Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. "Everyone is born very very creative. But at some point it can be scary to do something new." To overcome this fear, Snapchat encourages the idea of 'failing fast', since it's better that those failures happen in private before being released on users.

3.Play for Win-Win

Unlike Steve Ballmer, Satya Nadella is clear that times have changed and he is taking tough decisions. For him,  competition is not a zero sum game. Just because Android wins does not mean Microsoft loses.  If Android wins great. I'll also put Office 365 on Android so it can be a win - win,  it doesn't have to be a win - lose.

3. Make the right life choices

"There is nothing like work-life balance, there is only one life", believes Padmasree Warrior, former CTSO of Cisco. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Of Microsoft India, agrees with her wholeheartedly. "You live life the way you want it. Life is about choices," he say

4.Practice brevity in communication

A Microsoft research reports that the average person's attention span is just 8 seconds, a second less than that of a goldfish.  For humans it used to be 12 seconds in 2000. Abundant reason why CEOs and you and me, need to communicate well internally and externally in the most effective manner.

5. Surround yourself with the best people

Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist usually gets involved worn CEOS in their first 100 days  that they  build up their credibility quickly. And this what she tells them, in that order - listen to customers, surround yourself with the best senior management and communicate with the board.

6. Make your knowledge 'future ready'
"Half-life of knowledge is getting shorter and shorter with new breakthrough technologies and discoveries," says Management Guru Jagdish Seth, Management guru.."Therefore old perspectives and evidence are no longer relevant.We need to develop or discover new perspectives which are suitable for tomorrow's world"

7. Tailor your communication to the audience

Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik explains how in the Gita, there is a three way communication between Krishna the speaker, and three receivers; Arjuna, the seeker of knowledge, Sanjay the transmitter of the knowledge  and Dhritirashtra, who is eager to know only the fate of his sons. This, Devdutt observes, is aimed to draw attention to the complexity of any communication. Are people around you interested in what you are saying (Arjuna),  are they merely memorising (Sanjay), or are they just disinterested or even suspicious (Dhritirashtra)? 

Tailor your communication accordingly.

8. Be Considerate of your people

On his last journey from Guwahati to Shillong for a speaking engagement, the late president's car was being escorted in front by three soldiers travelling in a Gypsy. Seeing one of them standing throughout the journey, Kalam repeatedly asked his aide to request him to sit down, but his aide was not able to get him on the phone. At the end of the journey, Kalam invited the soldier to his room, shook hands with him, thanked him and enquired whether he had eaten.

9. Appreciate - Motivate

Debutant Actress Ruhi Singh says, "When you enter the sets of (film director) Madhur Bhandarkar's film, you hear words like 'jalwa' (charisma/luster/ splendor) and 'aag laga de' (be on fire) which is a driving force for us. I had to shoot a waterfall sequence in the night, and it was freezing cold. But I could only do it because (Madhur) makes sure everyone feels comfortable before filming." 


Call To Action
Time to craft your own leadership recipe? Set the fire going!

Saying it like it could be!

In his autobiography restaurateur Vithal Kamat describes strategies he used to attract customers to his newly started Udupi restaurant. Lining up his friend’s cars outside his restaurants - many of them also sitting inside as dummy customers to create a perception of a busy restaurant. Wafting smell of fresh ground coffee and food in the restaurant to titillate and tempt customers. All strategies to create the perception of the amazing experience waiting for customers inside.

#Viewpoint
Greg Creed, CEO Yumi Brands says, "you can market to love and hate,  you cannot market to indifference.

Communicate to Motivate

Debutant Actress Ruhi Singh says, "When you enter the sets of (film director) Madhur Bhandarkar's film, you hear words like 'jalwa' (charisma/luster/ splendor) and 'aag laga de' (be on fire) which is a driving force for us. I had to shoot a waterfall sequence in the night, and it was freezing cold. But I could only do it because (Madhur) makes sure everyone feels comfortable before filming. "

#Viewpoint
Good leaders communicate to #motivate. They channelise the desire and energy of their people to achieve things they know must be done for mutual success.

1+5 Ways to Be The Complete Hu(Man)

The advertisement of a well-known suiting and shirting company assures us that wearing garments made from their fabrics will make you 'the complete man'. But completeness is not complete by only wearing smart clothes. Clothes, and something more go into making the complete (hu) man.

The 5 stories I have gathered suggest some ways of going about making ourselves more complete.

1. Invoke the Universal Power
When Saurabh Kochhar of Foodpanda approached mentor Praveen Sinha in putting putting together a business plan, the latter's advice was ' epic '. He suggested that after creating a business plan, scale it down by 20 %. Consider it " God's share, " for hoping things go well, said Sinha. 

2. Have a healthy ego
"My profession demands that unless I bury conceit, I will not be able perform," says actor Kay Kay Menon. "Today people seem to prioritise ego and call it acting.
The film industry is just a part of my life, I have other interests like sports and reading. I try to understand the inner me and not bother much about the superficial me," 

3.Keep an open mind
An open mind and a willingness to expose oneself to new experiences, new ideas and new people is the fuel of creativity. When he painted ‘Femme D’Algiers”, Picasso took visual information and emotional understanding of his life experiences and transformed them into something unique and unexpected. His creation is now the most valuable painting in history. 
Creativity transforms information into more insight, a better picture of our world, and therefore a more solid foundation on which to build bigger, better ideas.

4. Starve your doubts
When he first approached his boss at Kuoni India, with the idea of offering visa processing services to the American embassy in 2001, Zubin Karkaria met with understandable skepticism. Their was the toughest visa regime, with more processes and documentation than any other country. But Kuoni had nothing to lose in letting Karkaria try, and when he did submit the proposal - the Americans said yes! Today, the visa services operation has turned into a global money spinner. 

5. Maximize your mind’s potential
“Your mind is like a sponge, and less filled it is with muck, the greater the capacity of it to absorb water,” Says Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor. “Keep your mind out of petty jealousies like who is doing what and who is talking about what. You are taking away the tremendous capacity of your mind. You don’t know how much talent and energy it is sucking out of you.” 

Call to Action
The said suiting company also offers bespoke tailoring at its showrooms. You might want to tailor some of the above strategies to suit you. Do share your efforts with us.

Goal Alignment

Lenovo's roots have been as an enterprise focused B2B business. But now, with growth happening more in the smartphone space than in the PC space, they have realised that if you have a B2B mindset and B2B structure, you cannot succeed in the B2C space. To give itself a youthful look, Lenovo's formal dress code, reserved parking space and cabins for senior managers have been done away with,  All senior managers have also been asked to be on Twitter to get a better understanding on how millennials think.

#MyLearning
For success in  work and life, align what you have with what you want.

Adapt or Perish

Restaurateurs today, realising that food is not the only carrot drawing diners in are giving more emphasis to the design and giving their places a makeover. Attention is being paid to the decor, layout, music. lighting, the clean fragrance (of herbs or fresh coffee and bread or wood charring in a clay oven) comely staff. All of which come together very nicely to pull in the customers.

#MyLearning
Adaptability is one quality that is key to success.  Know when to focus on targets, when to pay attention to emotions and when to focus on the changing needs of customers. Being sensitive to the ecosystem and responding as per need the need of the time is the essence of adaptivity.

Starve your doubts. Believe

When he first approached his boss at Kuoni India, with the idea of offering visa processing services to the American embassy in 2001, Zubin Karkaria met with understandable skepticism. Theirs was the toughest visa regime, with more processes and documentation than any other country. But Kuoni had nothing to lose in letting Karkaria  try, and when he did submit the proposal - the Americans said yes! Today, the visa services operation has turned into a global money spinner. It has captured 50% share of the market and contributes to 60% of Kuoni’s FY14 profits.

Share Offering

When Saurabh Kochhar of Foodpanda approached mentor Praveen Sinha to put together a business plan, the latter's advice was 'epic'. He suggested that after creating a business plan, scale it down by 20%. Consider it "God's share," for hoping things go well, said Sinha.

The Data Continuum

The seemingly unlimited data available to us nowadays, seduces easily into an illusion of certainty and objectivity, says Jason Gonsalves, MD, BBH London. But ultimately, data will only provide a description of what has happened. Not what will. The alternative is to look at the available data and come to an original conclusion, or imagine a new application or action from the data. Data is the fuel of creativity. Creative execution and constant reflection on the learning becomes wisdom.

5 Ways to Never Give Up

What do you do when a project you have invested everything on - your blood, sweat, tears, mind and heart - proves to be a failure? Why, just get up, dust yourself and get going again, of course! Here are five stories I have gathered of how some people did it. 
1. Take pride in past success
Dustin Brown ranked 102, on beating Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, but losing his very next match to Viktor Troicki. 
"It doesn't matter if I lost or not, no will ever be able to take that (beating Nadal) away from me."

2. Respect failure
Howard Schultz after a major setback at Starbucks.
"Celebrate failure, learn from the failures, and not hide from mistakes". He also spoke of the bottle of Mazagran, a coffee drink he helped launch in the 90's. It proved be a spectacular failure. He now keeps a bottle of the drink on his table, to remind him to do a reality check on his success when he's up, and equally - never give up, when he's down. 

3. Reconnect with your passion.
Filmmaker Deepa Mehta on the failure of her film 
'Monsoon' at the box office. 
She remembered her father, who, when told about her decision to take up filmmaking, had encouraged her, but cautioned her about life's unknowns, "You make a film because you have incredible passion and because you want to tell a story. If it does well, good. But if it doesn't, you can't do anything about it, but you've had the satisfaction of doing something honest." 

4. Reframe strategy
Satya Nadella on how he handles the failure of the Windows OS for mobile phones. 
Competition for him, is not a zero sum game. He believes, "Just because Android wins does not mean Microsoft loses. If Android wins great. I'll also put Office 365 on Android so it can be a win - win, it doesn't have to be a win - lose."

5. Keep the spirit
After Edmund Hillary's great, but failed attempt, at scaling Mount Everest in 1952.
Though he regarded himself a failure. He did not however, lose his spirit. At a function organized to recognize the attempt, people greeted him with thunderous applause. Hillary, walked onto the stage, balled a fist at the picture of the mountain and said, "You beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you the next time, because you’ve grown all you are going to grow… but I’m still growing."  

He beat Everest on 29th May 1953.

Two Worlds One Life

"There is nothing like work-life balance, there is only one life" - Padmasree Warrior
As more and more people work 24x7, thanks to the internet and smart devices, the lines between professional and personal, work and life get blurred. And without our being aware of it,  the professional and the work side creep up  to overtake the personal and life side. It becomes one life.

This truth hit Umang Bedi (UB) MD Adobe India, when he met Harvard Professor Clayton M Christensen(CC),
who asked him three questions;
CC: "What is the most important thing in your life?" 
UB: "My family".

CC: "How much time do you spend with them not watching a screen or discussing logistics?"
UB: "Maybe 10 minutes a day,"

CC: "How much time in the 60 minutes a week do you spend with your most important priority in life, not giving them an instruction or criticising?"
UB: "Half the time."

"Is your family, really your biggest priority,” asked Christensen, “or are you making it sound good?" Bedi was shaken - he had been fooling himself along!

Call to Action
In the mad race to get ahead in our business or career, we begin to attach our values, our purpose and identity, to our work and achievements. All the while fooling ourselves into thinking that the family means much to us.

“You live life the way you want it. Life is about choices," says Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman of Microsoft India.

Are you making the right choices?

Read a HBR article on making work-life choices:
https://hbr.org/2014/03/manage-your-work-manage-your-life.

Back to Your Roots

"Understanding where you are from help you better understand where you want to go."
                          - US Ambassador to India Richard Verma, describing his recent visit to his hometown in Punjab. 

Be Mindful not Mind Full

“Your mind is like a sponge, and less filled it is with muck, the greater the capacity of it to absorb water. Keep your mind out of petty jealousies like who is doing what and who is talking about what. You are taking away the tremendous capacity of your mind. You don’t know how much talent and energy it is sucking out of you.” Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor.

The Awareness Framework

Awareness precedes choice and choice precedes results. - Robin Sharma

When Paul O'Neill arrived as CEO at Alcoa, he didn't hold his troops to criteria that CEOs commonly use, such as profit margins, sales growth rates, or share appreciation. His singular standard: time lost to employee injuries. By focusing on just one  highly impactful habit, O’Neill managed to create change at different levels of awareness within the organization, the company's annual net income went up by five times and its market capitalization rose by $27 billion.

The Awareness Framework can help us understand the deeper and wide ranging implications of the focus on safety:

1. Task Awareness: Empowered employees began to offer suggestions and accidents were immediately brought to the attention of executives. As a result, the accident rate declined — ultimately to about 5% of the national average.

2. Situational Awareness:  Workers realizing that the management was keen to examine and improve every inefficient and dangerous manufacturing process, increased  communication among employees. Line workers offered suggestions to improve efficiency, and the company underwent a renaissance.

3. Emergent Awareness: Employees started recommending business improvements that otherwise would have remained out of sight. One day, a low-level employee made a suggestion that quickly worked its way to the general manager. Within a year, profits on the product doubled. By creating patterns of better communication, a chain reaction started that lifted profits.

4.  Self Awareness:  ''Paul came in and got us to do things we never thought we could do,'' says L. Richard Milner, head of Alcoa's automotive unit. The safety habit influenced every part of the employees’ lives - how they worked, ate, played, lived, spent, and communicated. Employees’ thoughts, feelings and  beliefs and their attitudes and reactions to changes in the environment improved. Their attitudes to people around  having a different point of view also took a turn for the better. Hard-core, ladder-climbing, capitalist executives turned into soft, feel-good samaritans, adept at identifying, co-opting, and shaping behavior patterns to increase profits.

By creating awareness around safety, O'Neill unleashed a pattern with the power to start a chain reaction. A reaction that improved a host of processes in the organization, created a employee-friendly environment, aligned people to the company’s goals and increased profits.

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Want a Business coach to clarify/create/action the awareness process?
Contact Coach Uday

Living mindfully

When we think of the word 'food', we only think of nutrition, says chef Pankaj Walia. But the truth is our connection with food is deep and spiritual; something that our ancestors realised and respected. Archaeology professor Dr Kurush Dalal recommends slow cooking to establish the connection. Slow cooking, he says, recognises the connection between plate, people, planet and culture; things we have forgotten to correlate these days while munching on fast food.

#Viewpoint
People, planet and culture - each, some, or all three, are integral to our every action. Recognising the impact of our actions on the three, can help us become more mindful citizens.

The Healthy Sceptic

Before Isaac Newton came on the scene, people believed that the rainbow comprises of three colours;  red, blue and yellow. Through his famous prism experiment, Newton demonstrated that color is intrinsic to light. He also divided the spectrum into seven colours giving us ROYGBIV.  We now know that the spectrum consists of more than just those seven colours. Turns out, there wasn’t any particular scientific reason he chose the number seven, it was just his idosyncracy; he  thought it made more sense that way!

#Viewpoint
In these days of dependence on Google for research and knowledge seeking, and stories going instantly viral, it makes sense to recollect what the Buddha said more than 2500 years ago.

Celebrate Failure

To "celebrate failure, learn from the failures, and not hide from mistakes," says Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks....
Read on
http://eepurl.com/btoWIb

How to be reborn

Kishore Biyani with his Big Bazaar and Pantaloons (now with Aditya Birla Group) was a first mover in big format organized retail. Now he is seriously exploring to practice being 'Reborn'. Biyani's theme of Reborn essentially is about the need for an organization to reinvent itself....
Read on...
http://eepurl.com/bqPazr