I was flying with collages on the way back from a conference. we were split onto groups.
After some time I realised that drinks were severed and many of us on the second or third round. It is quite normal on the long haul flights.
In front row, one started talking about senior manager's last visit. He was describing every minute details about his behaviour and making jokes out of it. Every one enjoyed it and shown interest to know more.
Week passed and some of met again for a meeting. In the evening we were in the dining hall of the hotel. After some time one of us passed a comment,
"make sure that Mr X is not around otherwise next time every one will know what were doing tonight".
I was shocked as I remember that on the flight, same people were enjoying his jokes and encouraging him to do so more .
I think that was a free lesson to all us that don't make clown out of you no matter how senior you are in the organisation.
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Power of communication -2
Senior Manager decide to brief team so the outlook invite was sent out to assemble on an audio. It was short notice but everyone made efforts to join the voice conference.
Audio conference started with greetings and next statement is that
" I am not happy to have such call ..."
Just after some moments, silence was felt on the call and even speaker after two minute of talk asked question to check the presence of an audience.
We were in one room ,confusion was visible , many questions were in air , still every one was trying to understand the purpose of the call and what is there for them.
I was aware of the context hence could relate the conversations.
This could have been more effective if the context were set before the actual message is conveyed to the team.
After voice conference, one of us decided to have quick chat in the meeting room and started all over again.
1. context was set by explaining why the call was held
2. explained the issue occurred in the recent past
3. explained the impacts of the issue on customer relations and financial losses
4. root cause
5. benefit of sharing this information with wider audience to avoid such occurrence again.
At the end, it was realised that emotions were too high during this voice conference to deliver high impact message. Perhaps this could have planned carefully and probably next day when things are claim and blood pressure is normal then desire impact could have been achieved with minimal efforts.
Audio conference started with greetings and next statement is that
" I am not happy to have such call ..."
Just after some moments, silence was felt on the call and even speaker after two minute of talk asked question to check the presence of an audience.
We were in one room ,confusion was visible , many questions were in air , still every one was trying to understand the purpose of the call and what is there for them.
I was aware of the context hence could relate the conversations.
This could have been more effective if the context were set before the actual message is conveyed to the team.
After voice conference, one of us decided to have quick chat in the meeting room and started all over again.
1. context was set by explaining why the call was held
2. explained the issue occurred in the recent past
3. explained the impacts of the issue on customer relations and financial losses
4. root cause
5. benefit of sharing this information with wider audience to avoid such occurrence again.
At the end, it was realised that emotions were too high during this voice conference to deliver high impact message. Perhaps this could have planned carefully and probably next day when things are claim and blood pressure is normal then desire impact could have been achieved with minimal efforts.
Monday, 24 December 2007
Power of communication - 1
My team is part of large group, this is divided in to three teams and teams are lead by leaders.
We work in matrix organisation which creates dependencies among us. Teams are spread across different locations and not all team members are in same location as team leaders.
One of us i.e. team leader choose to work in isolation. To ensure his success he built good rapo with team members from other teams . This relationship is helping him in getting all work done and ensure timely deliveries.
Over the period other team leaders learned about it and made a request to him to share his plans etc which off course was refused diplomatically. we could see it is all about showing down other leaders in terms of power and achievements.
After some time impact of his behaviour was that the staff which was not part of his team was not getting recognised for their extra efforts as they were not shared with respective team leaders. Other effects were
1. Efforts estimations and plans produced by teams were always way out
2. Team size estimations were proving wrong
3. Team members were dissatisfied as they were driven by some one else and not by their team leader
4. Staff could feel the power struggle at the leadership level ,not presenting good example
5 Insecurity is built up due to directives from all possible leaders.
6. Communication is confusing.
7. Misguided appraisals.
and on the top of this, the group is directionless and scavenger are put to advantage which is not at all in favour of the progress of the group.
The great danger of achieving success like this is turning him self in a suspicious leader and who least trust his team.
We work in matrix organisation which creates dependencies among us. Teams are spread across different locations and not all team members are in same location as team leaders.
One of us i.e. team leader choose to work in isolation. To ensure his success he built good rapo with team members from other teams . This relationship is helping him in getting all work done and ensure timely deliveries.
Over the period other team leaders learned about it and made a request to him to share his plans etc which off course was refused diplomatically. we could see it is all about showing down other leaders in terms of power and achievements.
After some time impact of his behaviour was that the staff which was not part of his team was not getting recognised for their extra efforts as they were not shared with respective team leaders. Other effects were
1. Efforts estimations and plans produced by teams were always way out
2. Team size estimations were proving wrong
3. Team members were dissatisfied as they were driven by some one else and not by their team leader
4. Staff could feel the power struggle at the leadership level ,not presenting good example
5 Insecurity is built up due to directives from all possible leaders.
6. Communication is confusing.
7. Misguided appraisals.
and on the top of this, the group is directionless and scavenger are put to advantage which is not at all in favour of the progress of the group.
The great danger of achieving success like this is turning him self in a suspicious leader and who least trust his team.
Be positive and get an extra mile
Me and my competitors were in meeting with customer, off course this customer initiated meeting.
Meeting room was full of people and fortunately it was not divided into groups and was just down to the fact that some people in room were meeting for first time, in short no natural groups were formed in the room.
Meeting was all about bringing change in the way we work, new tool is being introduced.
First half an hour was spent in the introductions and I could see that natural linkage was made among people from my company and competitors.
Over period of meeting few thoughts emerged , some positive and some negative. customer was getting pleased as soon as some support is expressed and visa versa.
During break customer was making individual conversation to dig into negative points presented during the meeting, just to ensure that he understands the rational behind the resistance. He used this information in the second half of the meeting either as action points or comments to note.
At the end of the meeting I could see that people who opposed most to the change were not seen as part of the picture where as people to presented positive thoughts with details of concerns were seen as supporter of the change.
for example
Negative person : we have been though such change in past and it did not worked so i doubt it will work this time.
Positive person : this change should bring good results as i see that the learning from past is implemented here and one or two more improvements should make this successful.
You will observe that both are pointing to past failures in different way. The customer is also aware of past failure but this time he is looking for more support for this initiative naturally he will lean toward positive person to ensure the success.
In gist , be supportive at the same time do not fail to point to improvement it may require to make it success story.
Meeting room was full of people and fortunately it was not divided into groups and was just down to the fact that some people in room were meeting for first time, in short no natural groups were formed in the room.
Meeting was all about bringing change in the way we work, new tool is being introduced.
First half an hour was spent in the introductions and I could see that natural linkage was made among people from my company and competitors.
Over period of meeting few thoughts emerged , some positive and some negative. customer was getting pleased as soon as some support is expressed and visa versa.
During break customer was making individual conversation to dig into negative points presented during the meeting, just to ensure that he understands the rational behind the resistance. He used this information in the second half of the meeting either as action points or comments to note.
At the end of the meeting I could see that people who opposed most to the change were not seen as part of the picture where as people to presented positive thoughts with details of concerns were seen as supporter of the change.
for example
Negative person : we have been though such change in past and it did not worked so i doubt it will work this time.
Positive person : this change should bring good results as i see that the learning from past is implemented here and one or two more improvements should make this successful.
You will observe that both are pointing to past failures in different way. The customer is also aware of past failure but this time he is looking for more support for this initiative naturally he will lean toward positive person to ensure the success.
In gist , be supportive at the same time do not fail to point to improvement it may require to make it success story.
Saturday, 28 April 2007
Meeting, prepare for it , Why?
This post is out of recent experience I had in a meeting with my collages.
We were to go for a meeting with the customer on the subject of the recent issue reported in the service that my company is responsible for. So I asked shall we sit down and discuss how and what were are planing to present to the customer.
"you got all facts right "
"Yes ! I have all information required for this discussion"
" so , that's OK , just present it as we have nothing to hide."
" do you not think that you should know what I am planning to present"
" don't worry "
then we met the customer, I started presenting to the customer the facts and numbers , logs etc. Customer was impressed with what we have done to address the issue and managed escalations. There by proving that we have done all we can in the set boundaries.
All going well , and just before we were to shake hands , my collage mentioned to me that we should change person X from the team as he is not competent enough to be part of this team. With this comment, customer picked the point as I mentioned that the same person was attending the calls when the issue occurred.
From this point onward we were at receiving end then it took lot of convincing efforts to give confidence to the customer that there is nothing wrong with that particular employee but we are looking for better experienced person to replace him . This comment by my colleague was merely a suggestions to improve the team skills.
After this meeting , the customer requested for a change in the team which was unwarranted and consequential effect on the person was unrecoverable.
So, I questioned my colleague "what made you make such suggestion in front of the customer" .
"I thought we should have demonstrated that we are taking some corrective actions out this "
"but it was not required , as customer had accepted in positive sense what we have presented."
..
..
We took a hit for not being in the sync and the cost was too high for my company.
Preparing for a meeting or a teleconference should be considered as a necessary activity to avoid embarrassing situations which might jeopardise your credibility and the organisation's reputation.
We were to go for a meeting with the customer on the subject of the recent issue reported in the service that my company is responsible for. So I asked shall we sit down and discuss how and what were are planing to present to the customer.
"you got all facts right "
"Yes ! I have all information required for this discussion"
" so , that's OK , just present it as we have nothing to hide."
" do you not think that you should know what I am planning to present"
" don't worry "
then we met the customer, I started presenting to the customer the facts and numbers , logs etc. Customer was impressed with what we have done to address the issue and managed escalations. There by proving that we have done all we can in the set boundaries.
All going well , and just before we were to shake hands , my collage mentioned to me that we should change person X from the team as he is not competent enough to be part of this team. With this comment, customer picked the point as I mentioned that the same person was attending the calls when the issue occurred.
From this point onward we were at receiving end then it took lot of convincing efforts to give confidence to the customer that there is nothing wrong with that particular employee but we are looking for better experienced person to replace him . This comment by my colleague was merely a suggestions to improve the team skills.
After this meeting , the customer requested for a change in the team which was unwarranted and consequential effect on the person was unrecoverable.
So, I questioned my colleague "what made you make such suggestion in front of the customer" .
"I thought we should have demonstrated that we are taking some corrective actions out this "
"but it was not required , as customer had accepted in positive sense what we have presented."
..
..
We took a hit for not being in the sync and the cost was too high for my company.
Preparing for a meeting or a teleconference should be considered as a necessary activity to avoid embarrassing situations which might jeopardise your credibility and the organisation's reputation.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Call and then email why?
I just came off the phone call with him and i saw an email from him confirming what we discussed.
This is weired isn't it.
Does he not believe me? this was the obvious question came to me. But few days later in one of the tele conference call, Dave was asking about Joe's commitment made on the last monthly call. That conversation made me realise that written confirmation is required just to ensure that what A means is same as B's understanding.
After few such incidences, I realised the importance of the email confirmation just because it makes easy to
trace back the conversation,
record decisions,
note issues and risks and
also the bouquets I have received in return of the good work.
It just takes few more minutes after the call to put it in the email and send out as record of the conversation to bring more clarity among the stakeholders of the program/project. Yes! Do not forget to offer an opportunity to others to provide their review comments as it brings in their participation . After all it should be dialog and not a monologue.
This has made my life easy as I do not have to remember anything particularly when virtual teams were involved.
Honestly this relieves brain from unwanted tasks.
This is weired isn't it.
Does he not believe me? this was the obvious question came to me. But few days later in one of the tele conference call, Dave was asking about Joe's commitment made on the last monthly call. That conversation made me realise that written confirmation is required just to ensure that what A means is same as B's understanding.
After few such incidences, I realised the importance of the email confirmation just because it makes easy to
trace back the conversation,
record decisions,
note issues and risks and
also the bouquets I have received in return of the good work.
It just takes few more minutes after the call to put it in the email and send out as record of the conversation to bring more clarity among the stakeholders of the program/project. Yes! Do not forget to offer an opportunity to others to provide their review comments as it brings in their participation . After all it should be dialog and not a monologue.
This has made my life easy as I do not have to remember anything particularly when virtual teams were involved.
Honestly this relieves brain from unwanted tasks.
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Who i am?
At the start of the professional career, I never thought of anything but only one aim I was chasing is to make my own place in the organisation. I looked around and there were plenty of examples of "leaders" and "experts" and this did not confused me , I chose to be an expert which was very easy and effortless . Don't laugh , it is really very easy to become an expert than the leader. See how
1. Do not document any thing you know
2. Spend as much as time after hours to know more on the systems.
3. Given a choice do not bother justifying your decision because you are sue that solution will work.
4. Beware of the problem or issue but wait till people come to you there by you retain your say.
5. Create your grapevine with customer so that customer is on your side and provides you as many as recommendations.
6. Plan your holidays with your superiors only and leave your contact details with him.
these are just high level action points.
And to become a leader
1. Be a team player
2. Share your knowledge and encourage other to share
3. Appreciate other's contribution
4. Provide learning opportunities
5. Understand colleagues as person and be a mentor if required
and many more difficult tasks.
I did gain lot of importance and even phone call at a hill station when I was on holiday with my family, felt lot important and evil joy that people are dependant on me.
Then the organisation decided to move on to the newer technology and methodology. By the time I realised , I have seen the symptoms of the obsolesce. I could see that I have to do it all over again.
Lesson learned is that the Leader lives longer than the expert and now I am a leader, still learning lot from others which I enjoy most.
1. Do not document any thing you know
2. Spend as much as time after hours to know more on the systems.
3. Given a choice do not bother justifying your decision because you are sue that solution will work.
4. Beware of the problem or issue but wait till people come to you there by you retain your say.
5. Create your grapevine with customer so that customer is on your side and provides you as many as recommendations.
6. Plan your holidays with your superiors only and leave your contact details with him.
these are just high level action points.
And to become a leader
1. Be a team player
2. Share your knowledge and encourage other to share
3. Appreciate other's contribution
4. Provide learning opportunities
5. Understand colleagues as person and be a mentor if required
and many more difficult tasks.
I did gain lot of importance and even phone call at a hill station when I was on holiday with my family, felt lot important and evil joy that people are dependant on me.
Then the organisation decided to move on to the newer technology and methodology. By the time I realised , I have seen the symptoms of the obsolesce. I could see that I have to do it all over again.
Lesson learned is that the Leader lives longer than the expert and now I am a leader, still learning lot from others which I enjoy most.
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