All entries for January 2019

DECISION MAKING

Today's day brought an end to something that I was really excited about. It is about value-elicitation. I had a fair bit of idea about my values but now most importantly, I have the ranking of them on which are the ones that are most important. As a child I was educated in an environment of value creation but little did I know back then the importance of these values in decision making. As a leader of the organisation I have a set of values/template which can help me in making the right decisions. The more these decisions are aligned with my values the more satisfied , well-off and happy I would be. I will develop these personal values further to set them as a basis of my organisational values. The more aligned the leader is to these organisational values the better will be the synergy in the organisation. These personal values can help any leader to develop the desired organisational values. These values can define all the spheres of decision making in the business. A organisation with the values of compassion and respect for the community will not shy away from taking decisions within the organisation such as setting up health and safety mechanisms in the business. On the other hand, an organisation with the value of being the most profitable business will align all its decisions that generate immediate profit building. Having defined the values, it is easier for the employees to understand as well what to expect from the organisation. This can further help to set up the Human Resource strategy of the organisation. It eases up the recruitment process as well. The people applying for the job in the organisation know exactly know whether they want to work in the business looking and interpreting the values of the organisation. Some people enjoy working in the hard core money making businesses such as investment banks whereas other people don't. Adaptability can be a core value of the business. It means whenever business faces a new challenge, all the employees need to develop an acumen where they are able to welcome change and adapt to dynamic business environments. Values can go even one step further in defining the brands. Reliability is a human value but it can also be a brand value. We all know the reliability of NIKE as a shoe brand. Values are a reflection of our personalities , our organisations , our brand value and above all the kind of decisions we will make. Again, the more the decisions are aligned to the values, the more happy a person would be. This has brought a complete circle to my learning in the leadership module. I asked this question what is the right thing to do? I know now what is the right thing to do. Taking the decisions on the basis of my values will always help me figure out the right thing to do.

Saurabh Kukreja : 24 Jan 2019 23:43 |  Tags: Leadership Management Mbe Values |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

BEING EFFECTIVE AS A LEADER

Today I was given an opportunity to lead by my team members in an exercise known as Black Swann. I was not too willing to lead because I was not mentally prepared, but couldn't refuse to the task. The challenge was again reading and giving the right instructions and delivering the right message to the group. All this week I was thinking about motivation and getting the people on board. I started the exercise on the same thought. I tried to align my team members to the vision by a energetic smile. The power to create the right environment lies in my hand. So I tried. This was a learning I had from yesterday. Yes the first box tick. I learnt and applied. As per feedback I received, that energetic briefing helped the team to align with the vision. When there is one goal going on in the team, the work of leader becomes easy. All the time this week I was thinking about aligning people and motivating them. After yesterday I thought I have learnt a fair bit. But guess what , a great learning was waiting for me today. Today I was able to reflect on the operational aspect of my leadership. As always there will be some positives and some which are not. I ll talk about the areas of improvement. Yesterday I made a conclusion about reflecting your actions as a leader. Today I applied it but not to the full extent. There was a time when I went into brain fade mode and didn't think about the things going on. Rather I should have reflected on the strategy and suggested the team to develop a new action plan. We did the reflection bit in the first couple of hours but weren't able to do it at the end. My responsibility was to lift up the team spirit. You can never get complacent. It's always about following the PDSA cycle. Resilience is a very important quality to have. Such small instances of energy can have major impact on the outcome.

Another thing is the ability to work under pressure. I know that I can perform under pressure. But it is necessary to think crystal clear under pressure. I was not able to fully achieve it. A calm mind can lead to better decision making. This is something to pick up from the great leaders. They are one step ahead of the game. They have the larger picture in mind when people are involved into tasks. If I could improve it even more further, that calmness can be infectious for the benefit of the whole team. Today's learnings for me were really from an operational point of view. One thing that I am sure about right now is that leadership is about learning daily. More I reflect the more I learn.

It is interesting how the learning points that I concluded yesterday took a practical form for mr today. I have already discussed about the reflection and creating an environment bit. Further, I talked about skill development centres yesterday. I could relate it with the concept of value-based CSR from today's session. I also believe in the social responsibility. I was moved by what Ratan Tata said about CSR, that material benefit is of no good unless it is contributing toward's development of the country.These skill centres can also serve as being responsible towards the society. There has been a lot to take from this module already and still there is one day left. Applying all my learnings today gave me greater satisfaction. To end, I would say that values have become an importnt part of discussion everyday. Somehow or the other I end up thinking about them, be it decision making or CSR. Exploring them further.

Saurabh Kukreja : 17 Jan 2019 23:44 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Never Judge Employee's Performance

It is interesting to observe that I am doing a leadership module and I am blogging about various aspects such as strategy and employee motivation. This is exactly what leadership is. It is everywhere. It is essential for wide range of activities within business and everyday life. I will be building upon the yesterday's thought about setting people's expectations. To bring all the people together it is necessary to bring a shared goal and shared vision on the table. It is important to note that all the menmers of the team need to buy-in on the vision and the goal . It has to come from within. A leader has to be aware enough to give their team a sense of purpose. This is where revolutionary leadership comes into picture. showing the people a graeter vision and having them establish a shared goal. I can feel passion bubbling out from the word revolutionary. A leader should never expect the same amount from passion from the other members. Just accept and take whatever they have to offer on a daily basis. Respect what they want to do. Maybe that is how they can work the best. The true sense of leadership will be realized when a leader creates an environment which instills high amount of motivation within the team. Also, if the situation gets critical and leader realizes that the team needs to put in more effort , that calls for action from the leader. Ask for help from group members. According to experience of my classmates, leader is always given help if they ask for it. Overall, Reflect and Take Action ; and create right learning environment.

Having talked about expectations, how do we measure the performance of the employees. How to give them promotions? Judging the performance of the employees is a bad way to motivate them. It includes, giving ranks, declaring the best and the worst employees and firing on the basis of that. Never link performance with pay. The employees will never feel motivated if someone is getting a higher pay sitting on the same table. So how to proceed forward. The concept of developmental performance appraisal was somehow catchy for me. We don't rank and employee and give them marks. Here our vision is to push them to keep on improving. There can be feedbacks on the same level creating a learning environment for the employee. But now let me consider the exploited workforce. How to help them improve continuously? Maybe creating skiil development centres for them within the organisation can help in their career development. Why to provide skills to just my employees? It can also be available for all the unskilled labour in the region. This learning and development on the mass scale will increase the employibility of the workforce. This sets the basis for the revolution. This is something what revolutionary leaders could do. It takes some difficult decisions to start a revolution. If this thing is done by a particular organisation, won't all the people would be willing to work there? giving them skills means empowering them. Such a decision has the potential to set the revolutionary vision for the industry. It just has to start with one organisation, and I believe it will spread like fire.

Important thing is to convert this vision into action. The organisational vision can be implemented through HOSHIN KANRI, which I wish to explore further. But, there are certain things that are possible if the leader is ready to amke tough decisions. How can these tough decisions be implemented/taken? A leader's values will guide these tough decisions , because something that is tough for the ordinary, is a necessary thing to do for a leader. The values will guide you home. These values will motivate the revolutionary leader to take the right decisions and define the right things. Look at history, most of the revolutions happen when strong values are applied into action by leaders. Hoping for happiness of each living being!

Saurabh Kukreja : 16 Jan 2019 22:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

LEADERSHIP IN REFLECTION

Everyday forces you to learn something new. There were a couple of learning points at the end of the day. But how do I know the actions that are required to build on the learnings? It comes from reflection. Taking the feedback from your group members is really important in order to know how to adjust the leadership style. In a multi-cultural group, there might be different expectations from different people. As a leader, expect all to have different in opinions. All the members might not have a same style of working or might not be on the same page as you. It is very necessary to then reflect on your actions and try to improve them. This is not the first time in my life that I have received a very conflicting view on the way I should lead a team. My way is to expect the same amount of seriousness and commitment from the team members. But sometimes due to different personalities and cultures my team expects different things from me. Maybe they want their own space or they do not want to be convinced on what are my opinions. So what do I do as a leader? The first step I have established right now is to reflect. Reflect on your actions. Reflect on the impact that your actions are having on the group. Reflect on what are the necessary things to be done in order to achieve the goal. There might be instances where certain actions are necessary, and application of those actions might not make you a likeable personality. But the questions that a leader really needs to ask themselves while reflecting are that, Do I really want to be liked? Or do I really want to be respected? How do I manage the expectations of my group?

The point to consider here is that, when you as a leader have different expectations from what your group thinks, you as a leader have a different definition of "Right thing to do" in your dictionary. It might not be something very right in someone else's dictionary. Reflection will help to identify the necessary actions to be taken. If a leader can take feedback from the team, then they will be able to act better and develop the correct definition of "Doing the right thing".

To summarize, here is something that I have learned which can be applied differently in my leadership experiences -" The feedback mechanism is necessary to see your direction as a leader. The reflection will help you to keep on updating and improving your actions which will lead to a better end result." I am looking forward to explore more on managing people expectations and defining the right thing while leading, because I recognize that I cannot expect the same level of motivation from everyone because it is something that lies under individual's jurisdiction.

Saurabh Kukreja : 16 Jan 2019 01:22 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Can leaders motivate?

Today we were running a very interesting simulation exercise in class which was about the styles of leadership. My tean leader was given a role of transformational leader. A transformational leader influences the people with vision. What I found out during the exercise was that it is difficult to motivate people. If a person do not want to do their work it is a bit chaotic for organisation. But Paul said that we cannot motivate people. It is their wish. I can conclude such a statement only when I try to apply it. As leaders we need to make some tough decisions . The best a leader can do is to create the right kind of learning environment. Again it boils down to the right processes. It is the right kind of learning environment that will give the right results. The questions that I need to ask myself is that ,"What do the people of my organisation really need?" If I am able to fulfill their needs , I can motivate them or atleast I can give them an opportunity to get motivated. Again it comes down to maslow's lower three needs , fulfilling them.

In the second exercise for the day, I came across a very common fact, that leaders have to take very risky decisions. Decisions can have various sort of effects. So being the leader, how do I ensure that I take the right decisions? When you want to transform the thinking, you need to be right in your actions. The answer is something that I am coming across too often now-a-days. It is the value system of the person. Your values will guide you towards the right path. Same applies for the organisations as well. The values of my organisation will guide the kind of decisions it will make, the people it will recruit, the kind of environment it will present. Having such guidelines help make the right decisions such as hiring and firing. Need to develop a value system!

Saurabh Kukreja : 14 Jan 2019 23:28 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS

Leadership is all about people, so are businesses. Hence, leadership becomes so important in a business context. The next week is going to be really interesting. There are a lot of things that can be learnt about leadership. The main challenge that I see for myself is to apply leadership effectly in the business. Although I have been at various leadership positions earlier but there is always something that you can learn about. The current theme I have in my mind is to learn to apply leadership in various forms. The question is ," How leadership can be applied to fill the gap between doing the right thing and fulfilling people's expectations?" Sometimes you might a face a situation where people prefer to be in their comfort zone and don't realize the importance of doing things differently. The role of leader is to influence them. But it is easier said than done. Leadership when applied in the right way can put in a stepping stone for various organisation implementations. It plays a role in creating a continuous improvement culture, implementation of six sigma programmes and deployment of human resource strategies. It plays a role in every sphere. I hope to answer the question in the coming days of the leadership module. It is going to be exciting. The important thing is reflecting back everyday, that's how you learn. Hoping to write a blog by the end of the module and atleast developing a process by which I will find an answer to my question. That's something I have learnt, isn't it? The process is always important. Not to worry about the results.

The last week was pretty interesting, there were certain things discussed in the class that triggered a lot of thoughts. Always the concern for me is to drive a revolution in the industry where people have low levels of awareness. It can be tough to introduce changes without people understanding them and getting them on-board. Interesting point is about the intrinsic motivation. How to get people motivated to do the job without any monetary factors. One way is to take the money off the table. That is a point to consider. But it is something that I need to do regularly to keep up with the cyclical inflation changes. Should not be a major problem.

The term that I like particularly , I read about it a few days ago, it is "Revolutionary Leadership". What does it mean? I cannot answer it on a general basis but I can think of how it can be applied in my scenario. We were having a discussion in the class about the Maslow's Hierarchy. The bottom three parts of the hierarchy are Psychological, Safety and Belonging needs. Paul asked me this question, "Do you think that the workers in your organisation have these three needs fulfilled?" My answer was straight no. This is what revolutionary leadership can do for me. Satisfy all these three needs of people part of my organisation. Fulfill their esteem needs. Make them feel they are respected. Then I can bring intrinsic motivation into picture. That will be a start of a journey to make a contionuously improving organisation. Again the stimulator is leadership.

There was one another learning in this study week module for me. I have always observed researches backing up their arguments with facts and research. it gives credibility to your views. Particular experience was when I was trying to make a point and it was backed up by a research outcome by Paul. I couldn't convince everyone just on the basis of my view. After the fact the argument seemed to be more strong. This is something that I have learnt as a WMG Research student. Waiting for an exciting week ahead . Hoping to reflect and learn.

Saurabh Kukreja : 13 Jan 2019 00:06 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem