Reality Bytes - Wired Perspectives #AnandKumarPadmanaban

I have many of my friends lamenting that they need to change but have not been able to ...well, here are some pointers ... A. Stay involved in whatever you are doing - if someone else were considering the work you do, what would they think ? B. Keep an eye on the big picture - our workplace is more than our workstation C. Talk and listen - we will be better able to interpret the world around us if we talk and listen D. Look for ways to add value - conduct a personal swot analysis E. Be flexible - be flexible in your attitude and your responsibilities ; be keen on finding efficient ways to adapt to new realities F. Learn from your network - if we don't learn together, we hang together ... As Peter drucker said • Managing oneself (Sept. 13): Drucker says to ask yourself some basic questions in deciding how to guide your career. Are you a reader or listener? How do you work best: alone or with others? Please refer to the link as well ...

I was reading a report which says that an average worker spends at a minimum 2 hours a day at work doing personal work. This could be either doing day trading , or house hunting or trying to buy something etc etc. Managers have a dilemma ? how much of this should be allowed and what should be done ... I have a few pointers around this ... involve your teams and employees on what is reasonable and what is not ... once you do this .. you set guidelines and you also elicit tacit disapproval on what is not reasonable. You will find more cooperation around what you believe is not reasonable time spent at work doing personal stuff having regular dialogues and updating the guidelines and reminding them is also a key aspect for sustaining the message sometimes, when employees dont follow the guidelines, disciplining them is a key part of the whole message as well. the key message should be ... keep your personal work at work time to a minimal amount .... hope this helps ... have a ...

I have been hearing from my colleagues and other friends that sometimes managers seem to think that they are superior in intellect and capability and that is the reason they are part of the top decision making teams in their organizations. That is not necessarily true - I have studied and also read many articles around successful leadership teams and have noticed that teams that have had the greatest impact derived it from their informal networks of collaborators in the workplace. Their value did not come from the meetings they conducted and the decisions they made together? a leadership team is in most companies a misnomer although many senior executives throughout the company may jostle for a seat on the leadership team because that is where the key strategic decisions are supposedly made. In actuality, the leadership team rarely conducts its work in group mode, as a deliberative body or a source of direction. Instead, its power comes from its team member's informal and...

As work pressures mount on individuals in organizations, they are faced with mental challenges and face myriad issues in the workplace and need some good unbiased advice? The person who can help them best may be someone they already know well – YOU. Some organizations are looking at this as an opportunity where they can help the larger workforce deal with the problems being faced by lending a helping hand using the power of coaching. In one of the organizations I used to work for earlier, there was a clear cut approach towards developing coaches and individuals who demonstrated a high level of Emotional Quotient and Social Quotient were asked to take on informal coaching roles. In a sense it was a win-win situation as the individual and the organization benefited using the coaching model. Coaching by peers is a model where colleagues offer each other advice about issues each one is facing in the workplace. These could be issues around teaming, around dealing with performance prob...

Happy new year 2010. The thought for today's blog came from my experience standing in a queue of a fairly respected retail chain. The queues were long and the number of check out counters were minimal as usual ;=) ( I think a lesson in queuing theory is warranted for all retail chain outlets I think ;=) ), anyways, the line moves on and suddenly stops .. I enquire and they say that there is a system problem, I nod my head and wait on, after some time its my turn at the check out counter and the sales clerk gets a phone call ( presumably from a friend as she was smiling and talking) while I the customer was waiting ... finally I got my good paid for and went up and met the store manager who was standing there and indicated as to why he did not open more counters ... he started moaning about the workers he had and about his manager and that nobody pays attention etc etc etc and I quickly exited from the store. That got me thinking how many of us encourage our teams to come to us with...

I was ruminating about some discussions I have been having with some friends of mine around what are the chances of companies holding onto their star employees till they retire ? If the question was pondered on in the 70's or the 80's or the early 90's I would have said the chances are near 100 % but nowadays I would say that it is a lost endeavor ... The funny aspect of this is that I still find companies trying their hardest to keep their star employees when all they need to do is realize that they cannot hold onto their stars forever. Let me explain ...the real goal for leaders and organizations should be to have great people working with you, even after they have stopped working with you .... confused ... let me explain further ... Some of the best companies in the world actually celebrate their star employees leaving ... why ? because they are clear that they attract the best and the brightest to come and work for them and these people are hard to hold onto ..the com...

What does commitment mean ? It is a word which has been much abused by individuals ... recently the issue around David Letterman - the talk show host of CBS has been the latest to abuse the word commitment .... commitment means devoting yourself to someone or something and honoring that choice ( however tough the obstacles maybe). Examples include committing yourself to a relationship with somebody , committing yourself to a cause etc ... I think it is really conviction which drives commitment. When we commit to something and when we are convinced about what we are committing to, then problems around not meeting the commitment etc do not arise ... I once met a friend who has been incredibly successful although he was not the smartest nor the best at what he did ... the one reason he shared that he was successful was that he never reneged on his commitment to others ... whatever he committed to, he delivered ... that is a BIG deal and it is one sure fire way to be successful .... Take ...