Busting Productivity Myths

Popular productivity myths busted:
+ Long to-do lists change unconsciously to “what we haven't done lists,” creating stress and anxiety.  Switch to a positive ‘done list’. Makes you feel good about yourself

+ Focus on failure rather than success so that you can identify threats to your success in time.

+ When you have a problem, talk to a rubber duck. Stating the problem loud, organises and simplifies information & engages more parts of your brain. Besides, the duck won't interrupt, yawn or say he's too busy.
                                     -  in.askmen.com

Insight
Bust the myths, face reality!

Dealing with Crisis

The ban on Maggi noodles resulted in Nestlé’s first loss in 17 years. But MD Suresh Narayanan believes a crisis is a blessing in disguise, and the best opportunity to recalibrate, redefine, reenergise and refocus yourselves.

Insight
Good times or crisis, sorrow or happiness, rich or poor are all states of mind and how we deal with the times separates the men from the boys (and girls from women too!).

Picture: applied neuroscience blog

See the Vision, Feel the Vision

In July ‘15, Bill McDermott CEO, SAP, met with an accident and lost the vision in one of his eyes. He is now back at the helm and says, “I am living proof that vision is not what you just see but it's what you feel and how you make other people feel.”

Insight
To the leader's mind’s eye, the promised land he wants to take his flock to, is clearly visible. But it is  only when he FEELS the promise of the destination he is leading them to, that he can carry his people with him.

Mantras for Cultural Transformation

Suresh Narayanan, MD Nestlé India has a simple mantra:
1. Be Fast - Be empowered & take a few risks
2. Get Focused- Know what you do well & not ape what others are doing
3. Be Flexible - In terms of market outcome, future MS & evolution
He believes by unleashing these three behaviors into the business, it can be run better & can come up with newer, more compelling business models for the future.

Insight
Behaviours are useful tools for cultural transformation in an organisation as they are observable and measurable. Being aligned to the organizational vision, they also help to institute a mindset change.

Innovation Has Many Faces

Do we have original innovation in India? Snapdeal’s Kunal Behl, when asked this question, says innovations in India are unique to the country's challenges. To prove his point, he cites the instance of innovations made around digital payments, supply chain and platforms to cater to the multilingual nature of our country.

Insight
Innovation has many dimensions. An innovative product or service does not necessarily have to be globally unique or globally applicable. More important, focus on innovation should be around making social and environmental context specific systems and processes more efficient.

How to Make Life Easier

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey runs two companies and has an 18-hour workday. He says, a consistent schedule and work structure helps him achieve this. Most of his work is focused on:
1. Reviewing the product team
2. Recruiting
3. Follow-up meetings to check on their weekly progress

Insight
Time cannot be managed, more correctly, you manage yourself. Long hours don't translate into more productivity - a consistent schedule and structure does. This makes life easier for both for the leader, as well as  those who execute his vision.

When Profession Becomes Slavery

“If your profession doesn't give you a chance to evolve as a human being, then it is a burden or a curse for life. It should be able engage you intellectually. I think if your work doesn't help you grow as a person, it is slavery.“ - Irrfan Khan, Actor

Insight
When your work stops becoming engaging and emotionally satisfying, it is time to have a rethink about your future. Time to break free, to have a fresh purpose in life.

The Periodic Stock Take

“The important things in my life are my relationships and well-being, where I am going as a human being in my development mentally, emotionally and physically” - Cameron Diaz, Actress

Insight
The ebb and flow of our relationships and fortunes have an effect on our emotional and physical well-being and can either grow, or hinder our mental development. Are the changes transient, or are they permanent?  Are they controllable, or are they uncontrollable?
Taking time-off for a periodic stocktaking can prove useful.

Work-Life. Or Just Life?

Are work and life two separate compartments? Do we need to maintain separate personal life-professional life lists? TCS chief N Chandrasekaran doesn't think so. He believes you have to keep a very simple priority list and keep it short. This, he says, makes life easier. His list comprises building a strong team and long-distance running, music and photography his interests.

Insight
Life's priorities can be sliced in many ways - there is no one best way to it. Just do what you feel comfortable doing.

Design life with Coach Uday.
Connect uday@arurbizcoach.com

Choosing Life Priorities

“.... a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving."
Together, those factors help you to take care of your psychological life and truly be successful….” - Arianna Huffington, Author and Columnist

Insight
This realisation dawned on Huffington after collapsing from overwork chasing money and power. Clarity on life's priorities usually comes after undergoing a life threatening experience. And that is something we understand only intellectually but fail to act on in time.

Tactical Withdrawal in Business

“You have to try different things & you define time frames within which you get to a certain milestone. And if you don't, it's OK to drop them and move to the next one.” Rishad Premji, Chief Strategy Officer WIPRO

Insight
Launching, and then withdrawing a project/product/service, is a difficult decision for leaders - it's a public sign of failure & their ego is on the line. Defining time frames & milestones, & withdrawing if the goals are not met, displays leadership maturity. E.g. Ola is to shut down its struggling grocery division barely a year into its launch as it failed to meet expectations.

The Scopes of Leadership

A leader needs many tools to be successful in our volatile world at the same time - a telescope, a microscope and a stethoscope. A telescope to view disruptive forces, a microscope to see the near term shocks and opportunities and a stethoscope to maintain their organisational health. - Noshir Kaka, MD McKinsey India

Insight
Each of us is a leader managing three dimensions of leadership:
1. Leading Oneself
2. Leading People and
3. Leading  the organisation
Each instrument has to be used discriminately & in the right context. Each plays out differently & with different levels of dominance at every level of the organisation.

Respect The Hierarchy

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of Airasia says he makes it a point to be accessible to his staff. He recounts how a flight staff came up to him at Bengaluru and said,”Hey look,I have some issues. Can you look at it?’

Insight
In 2011, Airasia's employee force was 5000+, it may be more now. If every employee looks up to the CEO, and not his immediate superior for sorting issues, not only does he get overburdened with operational matters, but more critically, senior managers become less accountable, they also lose their morale because the dignity and sanctity of the hierarchy have not been respected.

Realising Individual Abilities

The symbol of infinity (a horizontal number 8) represents the loci of two energies, spiritual and physical, that meet in the middle at the point, the point around which energy flows. - V. N. Mittal in the Speaking Tree

Insight
The first of the two energies - the spiritual, represents the energy born of inner knowing and awareness, the second, the physical, is the energy born of the resultant behavior and actions. The two in right balance, provide the strength to realise our individual abilities.

Change or Perish

“Jack (Welch) was a great CEO, but he really controlled his world. Those days are over. I’m in the risk-management business. You’re not in the control business today, you’re in the risk-reward business.” - Jeff Immelt, CEO GE

Insight
The accelerating impact of technology on the natural forces of market competition are taking the world by storm & the unconventional business model adopted by Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp of: get users, get them to use more of your product/service & then make money is difficult for traditional businesses to understand, says Uday Kotak. “As a banker, when I sleep at night, I worry about whether I’ll have a bank next morning, or will there be an Ali Bank or a Flipkart bank or some other bank doing  what we do.” he says.

Jeff Immelt & Kishore Biyani's no risk, no reward attitude of reinventing yourself is the way forward.

Be Your Own Judge

“If you want to get rid of being judged for being a man or a woman, Indian, or American, Brown or Caucasian, you need to to be your own judge and set your own benchmark. I have kept my head down and worked very hard. Eventually people get impressed by your dedication and calibre more than anything else.” - Actor Priyanka Chopra

Insight
More often than not in India, Browns bow to the Whites out of a colonial hangover and women bow to men out of a cultural hangover. Stop comparing yourself with the rest and focus on excelling in whatever you do.

Being Relevant

“There are no small roles, only small actors,” said Boman Irani to fellow actor Sonam Kapoor. And that made her realise that she needs to make herself relevant in everything she does and to constantly prove her relevance.

Insight
To evolve, to keep up with the times, give everything you do your 100% and being resilient, keeps you relevant.

Amitabh Bacchan was out in the filmdom wilderness when he decided to do television, which other film actors had up till then shunned as a comedown. And that became his platform for his bounce back into films.

What’s your take on making yourself relevant?

Defining Success

Naveen Jain is serial entrepreneur whose company Moon Express, is the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon. Talking about when customers don't come on board easily, he says, “...Your success is not about your bank balance, it is about how many lives you have touched.”

Insight
One of the most critical task in today's materialistic times where the money god seems to have the largest following, is to define what success means to YOU personally. Here are 9 ways incredibly successful people define success.

http://tinyurl.com/jv5p2sv

The 10/90 Leadership Rule

10% of leadership has to do with your DNA. 90% has to do with how you use the right combination of what you have, into behaviours to suit your work context.

A Leadership Coach can assist you in putting together your very own leadership recipe through creating awareness of your potential and modeling it for success.

Dealing With The Uncontrollable

There are some people who are fated to play second fiddle, - eg Shashi Kapoor to Big B, Ronaldo to Messi, & Djokovic to Federer, says sportswriter Akshay Sawai. Bonafide achievers all, but nevertheless not the public's first choice. Djokovic initially  hated the feeling & displayed his ire to the partisan crowds, having taken to yoga and meditation & eating goji berries, he now merely smiles at them.

Insight
Life sometimes throws situations at us that we can neither fight, nor understand why they happen. To deal with such times, each of us has to arrive at his own mix of coping responses.