a simple guide for the right decision making

 a simple guide for the right decision making 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

In line with our topic on "problem-solving and decision making," recently, in one of the management reviews, one manager asked the following question, which i thought was relevant for the topic.

The question was, " how to balance the boss and the junior colleagues?".

He seems to find it challenging to manage his boss and junior colleagues as some of his decisions went against him. This situation is common as most middle-level managers go through in a day to day life in the organization.

My view is as follows.

We do not need to balance any stakeholders with our decisions other than how to make the right decision so that the impact would be more significant and we will not feel guilty about the consequence.



When we make a decision and consider the impact of our decision at a higher level in the hierarchy, as shown in pic, it helps us to make the right decision most of the time.

For example,
as a manager, if you want to do a favor for one of your junior colleagues and the decision will not affect other people in the function or the organization, the decision will be right. If the favor to one person will affect the functional team or even the organization, then the decision may not be the right decision.

i know an entrepreneur with high creditability among his customer's circle, not due to the quality or craftsmanship of his product, but because he always decides in favor of the customer than his organization's short-term expenses. For example, when the customer approaches him for doing the rework in the product due to the customer's mistake of mentioning the wrong specification, he never hesitates to do the rework, and he does it at this expense than arguing with the customer on who is right and what needs to be compensated etc. His generic decision-making thought process puts the higher purpose first than his organization in the short term. In the long run, his decision-making process pays him well as he gets repeated orders from the customers.

My key learning is when we make decisions when we put the higher stakeholder as a priority, likely we will make the right decision, even sometimes, in the short term, we face criticism or pain.

Above all hierarchy of consideration in decision making, listen to your inner consciousness before making any decision, which is more powerful to guide you to make the right decisions than anything else.

Have a great week ahead.

Wisdom from Experience

 Last week, i happened to meet one of my coaches after 12 years gap. He is one of the highest-paid CEO coaches in India, and even now, he is very active in coaching and training high-profile people in business. 

In 2009, i attended his intense training programme, and he spotted me due to my peculiar and nasty behaviors during the session. I benefited immensely from the programme, and he was instrumental in my decision to venture into coaching and consultancy.

I did not dare to contact him after the programme since he expects high performance from his students. Coincidentally, i completed ten years of my venture this month with reasonable impact or success. So, i thought of meeting him to express my gratitude to him for shaping my profession and asked for an appointment. Immediately he agreed to meet and met him in his office last week.

He had spent more than 75 minutes with me, and the discussion went around those horrible and enjoyable experiences in the training session, my venture experience, success/failures, revenue, growth aspects, and so on..He also shared some of his life experiences, and the meeting went on just casual.

after returning home, when i assimilated the conversations between us, stunningly, i realized that he shared many pearls of wisdom from his rich coaching experience just casually..( he did not charge anything as he seemed to be happy as a guru about my transformation/performance post-training session!!)

i thought even though it was a private discussion and the wisdom he shared with me could be helpful for anyone in the professional setup, either as an individual or an entrepreneur.

Hence i have listed some of the pearls of wisdom i learned as follows. 

1. Identfying the purpose of life at an early age is a must for everyone as it opens up huge potential and life experiences. He even suggested Simon Sinek's books on structurally learning the process of knowing our purpose..( sometime back, we shared the "start with why" book written by Simon Sinek).

2. Either individual or organization, one should know our "Core Competency"  and work on it than cribbing too much on weakness or competition

3. Know your niche and be aware of your core competency in business. Keep on polishing it rather than  diversifying in many skills  

4. You are known for your craft ....go depth on it and improvise it.

5. dilemma on scaling up or being content with the existing status quo is purely individual, or entrepreneur choice..what works for you will work for you. ...anything you make it happen if you decide on it either way...your temperament matters.

6. Do not copy any business model; each business model will work for the entrepreneur's mindset and values. What works for you, you will work and be happy with the process. The other side is always green, and you may not know the struggles in it.

7. one way of scaling up in today's environment is to productize your knowledge and experience in the niche segment.

8. You must be happy with what you have and what you are.

Hope you may relate it to your professional challenges

i thought those are profound, and wisdom comes from experience ..can be applied to anyone in life

Have a great week ahead.

Developing Action Plan skill

 Developing Action Plan skill 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

On the topic of structured problem solving for chronic issues in the organization, we have discussed the importance of data, data analysis, getting into causes, and selling the ideas to others. In selling ideas to others, each manager must learn one critical skill: "making an action plan."

Action plan :

• An action plan is planning the action in terms of what, who, when, and sometimes explaining by how.
• The action plan is about articulating what needs to be done to solve the problem, who is supposed to be accountable for the action and when the action is to be completed.
• It is all about setting the direction for others to solve the problem

Making an action plan is nothing but the manager's conviction on the solution part.

 
One typical pattern i observe in many young managers is that they are good at data collection, analyzing the data, and identifying the causes, but stuck at converging on the solution part with conviction.
 
Why are we stuck in making the action plan stage? 
 
The simple reason is uncertainty about the future outcome, fear about the consequence of failure, and worry too much about others on rejection. That is natural for anyone, but one who overcomes it emerges as a  better manager/leader in their profession.
 
There are many techniques/formats available like 5W1H / 3W1H, which can be learned as knowhow.

However, the lack of courage is pulling us into making the consolidated action plan skill, which we can develop with awareness and by practice whenever the opportunity comes.
 
Benefits of developing the skill  :
 
When we improve the craft of making an action plan,

• our communication or articulation ability is increasing even in day-to-day conversations
• enhances our comprehensive skill  in any complex situation  
• Team perceive us as a leader as they need someone to guide them on things to be done

 
Hence, developing the skill of making an action plan is an art that can be developed by learning the techniques and practicing.
 

Have a great week ahead.

Why should we define an Objective clearly before solving a problem?

 Why should we define an Objective clearly before solving a problem?  

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we discussed the insights in structured problem-solving methodology, first, we have discussed how the business managers can choose or prioritize the problem in the organization. The next step after selecting the problem is         " Defining the objectives clearly."

What is meant by Objective?

Objective means aim or goal or target or where our effort should go towards solving the problem.

For example," Reduce the customer complaint by 50%" is an objective, goal, or target.

Why should we define the Objective clearly?

First, it gives clarity to all what we intend to solve
Second, it sets the boundary condition or scope under which we are going to work 
Third, it improves the focus as we define the end and the scope clearly at the beginning.
 
Without a clear objective definition, the team may divert the focus in many sub-problems related to the main problem and go endlessly without achieving the goal.
 
For example,

As a business head, you set the goal to increase the business profitability by 25% in the next financial year.
 
To achieve this goal, you may have multiple options, and you can pursue all the possibilities. In the process, you may be chasing many options, achieving the goal, or failing to achieve it.
 
When you define your Objective clearly, like by specifying the result and the focus area, like
to increase profitability by 25 % by introducing new customers or new products, it sets sharp direction and clarity to you and the team on which path you want to pursue. By establishing a clear objective, you are certain to focus your energy on building new products or new customers, and most likely, you may achieve the result.

Likewise, instead of defining objectives like reducing rejection by 50 %, if you define clearly, like, reducing the supply base rejection by 50 % within three months timeline, you are giving more clarity and direction to the team, where they suppose to focus. Otherwise, the team can choose to work on supply rejections, inhouse manufacturing rejection, customer rejection, and so on…
 
The point is that articulating the objectives clearly helps to reduce ambiguity and improve the focus. 

Suppose managers and leaders learn to articulate the objectives with a clear target, timeline, scope, which will likely improve the team's effectiveness in solving the problems. Also, it helps them become better problem solvers in their careers.

Have a great week ahead!

Big picture Thinking

Big picture Thinking 

One of the qualities of competent people is the ability to have “Big picture thinking or perspective” in any circumstances.

What is meant by Big picture thinking or perspective?

A big picture perspective is looking at any interaction or event or opportunities from a higher, broader angle view to get the holistic idea rather than immediately getting into details.

For example, when you fly over your city on a flight, you able to view the entire city. You may be able to look at high rise buildings, rivers, roads, flyovers, and so on. This holistic view is possible only when you are at an elevated level, say at higher feet from the ground.

Similarly, in personal and professional life, when you look at any events, incidences, conversations from a higher-level view, you will get a holistic idea about opportunities, growth potentials, and other benefits. The key is elevating yourself at a higher level or distant yourself emotionally and look at the things.

Suppose your boss is asking you to take additional responsibility as being aware of your potential. If you are a big picture thinking oriented person, you will be immediately thinking about learning opportunities, future growth prospects, exposure, and so on. Else, immediately you will be worrying about too much about the unfamiliarity of the job and refuse to accept or getting into a conversation on monetary benefits, working hours flexibility, and so on.
 
The point is not to get into the details, but how you are distant yourself emotionally, elevating yourself to look at a higher and wider level helps you to get a holistic view. Once you see the comprehensive picture, your mind is ready to take on any challenges on the micro-level. This mind shift only provides the path for growth.

Now the question maybe

1. As a leader, how can I develop my people to get into big picture thinking?
2. As an individual, how can I develop my thinking process?
3. When can we shift from the big picture to detailing and vice versa

Let us discuss it next week!

Leading through Result- (Managing Expectation)

One of the areas, a leader, need to sensitize is on understanding or managing the expectation clearly from others in a professional environment. When the expectation on the result is not clearly understood and clarified, it leads to disconnect and frustration on both giver and receiver.

In one of my client operations, the business head asked his accountant to help him with P&L analysis of the previous year. The accountant worked through the accountancy software and prepared P&L statement data. With a sigh of relief as he delivered the work on time, he explained the business head the hardship he had undergone to make the report. However, the business head was not happy with the output.

What the business head expected from his teammate was that statement with analysis on what needs to be done to improve the P&L as he thought that information was already available in the software system. His expectation was to get “sensitivity analysis”, whereas the accountant felt that taking summary from the system itself was a significant task and he delivered the result on time.

Here is the issue is lack of expectation management.

We may suggest that communication needs to be improved on both ends. In reality, there is an emerging trend in the professional transaction is to give more value added than stated expectation given the technology, information available in the professional environment. The transaction could be between peers, customer and supplier, employee and employer.

Discounting the fact of communication improvement, the question an individual must ask himself is whether he is making an effort to offer an extra bit of value addition. That will be the starting for leadership development towards making an impact on others!!
 

Leading through Result ( Developing your Thought leadership)

One of the ways to make an impact in your professional environment is by developing thought leadership.

What is meant by thought leadership?

Thought leadership is that you develop expertise in your core functional area or any subject and people in your network always seek your opinion or ideas or your perspectives when they face any problems in the technical domain or subject.
 
That is, Thought leader is one who is “sought after expert”  in a given field or functional domain.

For example,
If people in your network or your organization perceive you as an expert in creative problem solver for any business challenges, they will approach you when they face any business struggles. By making yourself as an expert in any given functional domain, you are making an impact on others, or you are delivering results as a leader in a professional environment.

You might have come across some people as an expert in Tooling, Design, Coaching, Negotiation, Investment, analyst, problem solver and so on. 

You can become an expert in your functional area with systematic effort.
 
How to develop thought leadership in your functional domain?

1. First, you need to identify your core area or your strength
2. Polish your knowledge and skill in your core area
3. Continuously add value to others in your core area, especially in a meeting forum or during the crisis in a professional environment
4. Over some time, people will identify and associate you with your expertise

Developing thought leadership will pay you in the long run, and the development effort is a continuous effort. You need to invest in you!!!