… is when you are still small. That is when implementing process is easier and less risky. In the growth phase of the organization, business leaders get overly obsessed with growth (numbers, targets, team size etc.) without thinking how growth will be sustained (culture, processes, tools). The more you wait for your processes to be […]
Henry Ford was a smart man who understood the power of reasoning. He quoted, “If two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary.” One of the most important traits of being a good professional is ability to bring alternative perspectives on board. Some people call it “contrarian thinking” and others call it “differential thought” […]
I wrote a post earlier titled “Points to Ponder on Your Internal Customers: Your People” listing some of the important considerations when managing your people. Internal customers are your people, and it is important to treat them well. Obvious! Today, I want to touch upon your “prospective internal customers” – people who you interview and […]
One of the sure ways to fail in any operational improvement initiative is to keep thinking about possible areas of improvements sitting in comforts of a corner cabin. Your thinking, approach and mindset may not necessarily align with those affected by such improvements. In worst case, you might not even be aware of the actual […]
At the core of leadership is ability to support improvements. One of the biggest change when an organization embarks upon a process improvement journey is the change in mindset. While the objectives change, business leaders tend to cling on to traditional management styles of ‘command and control’. With ‘command and control’, managers will control everything […]
A lot of organizations fall in what I call “planning trap” – a lot of planning in the meetings, lot of decisions on improvement areas and eventually very little action. One of the simplest measures of team/organization effectiveness is to keep a close watch on how much is decided in a meeting versus how much […]
We live in the world of instant gratification. Technology has made it easier for us to respond quickly, and rising competition/customer expectations has made it mandatory. We lay out a strategy and look for quick execution. The moment it goes into execution, we start looking for results. We need ‘early signals’ about probability of success. […]
Here is one idea that can dramatically strengthen your organizational fabric. Ask everyone in manager or lead positions to spend at least a couple of hours each month training others (preferably their teams). They decide the topic (mostly one that is their primary skill area, processes, methodologies, soft skills or whatever) and deliver a talk […]
I was recently talking to a budding manager who was very enthusiastic about his work of managing people and leading an initiative. During our discussion, we touched upon some of the most important things that a leader or a manager does in a business environment. This led to further thinking and following traits (amazingly all […]