Leadership 101 - Anticipate Failures

The world is a physical balance. It has good and bad, ups and downs, successes and failures. Often people get carried by Positive Mental Attitude and they feel that being over optimistic is PMA. There is a difference. When we approach work, it is right to be optimistic. But when you are planning, you have to plan for failures. The success is not the outcome but it is your ability to out think failures. When you anticipate failures, you will know what to do when you are about to fail.

Each outcome, irrespective of success or failure, needs to follow a general pattern. There is a success pattern and failure pattern. When you anticipate failure, you will be more attuned to recognize the red flags and hence you will try to make corrective action. When you do that, there is a great chance for you to get away from failure. One of the key things needed to be successful is the ability to anticipate failures due to your action and correct your action recognizing the red flags. Great leaders anticipate failures. It doesn't mean that they are pessimist. It means that they are even prepared for the worst. So, anticipate failures.

Leadership 101 - Truth Travels with Great Speed

One of the thing that I often wonder is "truth". In my lifetime, I have lied for many things and went against truth many times but yet surrendered to the truth "always". The more I think of being "untruth", the more fierce it becomes. So, it left a deep impact and I learned the importance of being truthful. The truth travels with great speed. If you are truthful, it helps us to steer through the tight corner and if you are untruthful it grills us. If you are untruthful, clear submission to the truth is the only option.

Today, I happened to meet a person who was very poor in something. The impact that he is going to cause me is very little but yet I sat with him and told him the "hard truth". Then, his perception about life/work changed and within few minutes he understood his true state. His confidence grew and he promised that I would see him differently next time when we meet. In the whole of situation, my contribution is very little but the contribution of truth is immense. Today, yet another time in my life, I learned the importance of being truthful. It was a wonderful day.

Retaining People – Human Resource is Abundance yet Scarce

The economy is recovering and we see organizations investing again with a lot of hope. Job market too has recovered due to people movement and creation of fresh positions. If you are leading a team and for next one year, you will be facing enough challenges in terms of retaining people. During this period if we keep up the basics and control things that we can control, firefighting will give decent results. Here are some of the things that you have to do. BTW, the following things should be done “always” irrespective of job market.

Connect with the team. Make them understand about the organization. Give authentic information and suggestions.

Challenge them quite well. Give assignments that make them think and always little bit tough to achieve with ordinary efforts. Appreciate openly and celebrate them when they make big mistakes trying big things they never tried.

Recognize both efforts and results. If you are dealing with less experienced people, sit with them and hear how they solved the problems. You can see their eyes go bright.

Give a feeling that you won’t let them fail. Authentically work on their growth. If they don’t have enough skills, sit with them and draw plan.

Motivate people and celebrate successes. Most importantly respect them. If you turn their suggestions down, do it respectfully.

Keep a close watch on overall performance. Understand the language of performance and never compromise on it. It is lifeline. You don't need non performance even if they have niche skills.

Understand their concerns. Empathize. If their concerns are not valid or reasonable, tell them up front that you cannot fulfill them. Let they also know why it is not reasonable. Set the expectations right.

Don’t negotiate money. If they want to exit because of money, let them do it. If it is more ownership and challenges, give them opportunity that gives them new experience. Don’t negotiate money. It doesn’t work.

Anticipate bad things and work on contingency plans. It is highly important that you deliver even when you don’t have super stars. Have “Plan B”. Start to work on contingency plans.

Always speak the truth. Don’t woo them.

I have been practicing above things past two years and so far it worked. I strongly believe, it will work in future too.