My innocent learning from TEDx IIM Calcutta!

"Quit the 'Rat Race'  as at the end of the rat race there are either 'Winner Rats' or 'Looser Rats' but they all remain as  'Rats'. You are 'Human' and you deserve much better"-Pratik Poddar

Pratik who was one of the inspiring speakers during the TEDxIIMC, encapsulated the genesis of an entrepreneurial dream in a well articulated manner. Found honesty and refreshing unpretentiousness in his talk where he spoke about his learning as an Entrepreneur & a  mentor to many budding entrepreneurs.

While his talk was not essentially about the theme 'Entrepreneurial Innovation' but it did serve the purpose of getting the 'Entrepreneurial' bit right in a  riveting manner.

His focus on 'Happiness' as one of the key qualities for Entrepreneurial Success did strike a chord with me. It was a befitting end of an interesting day when he said "No one has created anything beautiful by being 'Unhappy' ".

Blame it on the effect of recency or maybe genuine connect, this last talk from Pratik made a lot of sense to me.

The start of the event was equally inspiring or rather quite moving. Fahim Vora, the co-founder of 'Be the Local Tours'  spoke about the transformational  employment opportunities he brought into one of the largest slums in Asia called 'Dharavi' through his visionary idea of offering tourists across the globe an inside view of the world within Dharavi which is beyond poverty or dirt or disease; its about the fascinating world within Dharavi where its residents have created opportunities of multiple small but sustainable industries.

Fahim has failed his B Com exam multiple times but these failures are small due to the scale of his vision. I am sure he would clear his B Com exam this year and I am much surer that he alongwith his partner Tauseef would also actualize their dream of providing jobs to the students of Dharavi  to support their education while bringing the inside view of Dharavi to the world with a positive perceptual change.

Please watch this fabulous video powered by Intel or rather powered by Fahim & Tauseef :-)

Sumit Gandhi was definitely the most 'impressive' of all speakers in terms of his oratorical skills & showed how 'technology' & 'heart' can juxtapose in perfect sync complimenting each other.

Sumit left his well paying job from one of the world's most admired companies & forged ahead in his vision of creating hundreds of white collared chat based BPO jobs for Hearing Impaired people through the simple technology of 'SMS' & a typing course certified from an University of Global Repute.

Sumit with his empowering vision spoke about the 'Thinking inside the box' theory as against the popular 'Thinking out of the box'. He emphasized that no matter how occupied the box is, there is always scope for more. Just a little more space...just a little more 'heart'...a little more contextual use of 'technology'...

Krutika Karat, the founder of Oo Womaniya was the only woman entrepreneur in the event who brought up a 'seemingly' uncomfortable topic by conservative standards on Women Health & Wellness in the most convincing & relevant manner.

Krutika spoke about her personal experience which further motivated her to architect an online network on Women's health & wellness which empowers women to access  credible information on emotional & physical well being. Definitely the most persuasive yet effortless talk that urged women to be absolutely uninhibited in their pursuit of  well being they truly deserve and urged the men like me to be more supportive towards our women friends than ever before.

Indeed a great day infused with inspiring thoughts. I wish all these inspiring speakers paramount success in their endeavor.

  PS: We also watched the awe inspiring pre recorded TED videos of Sugata Mitra, Arvind Gupta, Pamela Meyer & Apollo Robbins

The Blue Tie & The Scarf

Someone recently asked me about my innocent thoughts on identifying, developing and nurturing high potential talent. This led me to think about the reward & recognition in my school days at 'Delhi Public School R K Puram' from where I passed out 10 years back.

Every student who passed their academic year with 80% & above were awarded a scholar badge which they could proudly display on their green colored school blazer. Winning 3 scholar badges or more meant we did not have to go to our parents to ask for a blazer as the school awarded us with a Blue Blazer. Few more years of academic excellence meant a Blue Tie and then came Gold Medal.

Going by the above Reward & Recognition model, there were three categories of students by class 12th:

1. Those who waited for Winter: These were students who wore the Scholar Badge on their Blazers or received the Blue Blazers from School. Essentially they had to wait for the winter for the same so that they could proudly display their reward.

2. Those who did not have to wait for any season: These were the students who wore the Blue Tie and Gold Medal. They could wear the same (Not the Gold medal though!) throughout the year and some of us like me aspired to be like them.

3. Those who kept waiting: These were students like me who did not achieve the academic excellence which they desired as they did not go the extra mile to achieve it.

Let me make an attempt to find two key features of this R & R model:

1.     Focus on right behavior: It focused not only on ‘excellence’ in academics but it focused on the right behavior which is ‘Consistency’, ‘Focus’ &  ‘Patience’ as the reward got better with sustained  excellence. Two consecutive years of academic excellence meant another Scholar Badge and not anything better which lead to the student to imbibe the value of ‘patience’ along with excellence to achieve better rewards like Blue Blazer/Blue Tie/Gold Medal. In this age where there is a hunger for ‘visibility’, there is a need for sustained excellence along with ‘patience’. Those who missed out on these rewards got help from School in terms of remidial classes and students could seek help from teachers to which teachers were always willing to help.

2.     Clear Criteria: The criteria were clear and specific for the rewards ie 80% & beyond. Let the criteria for superior performance be clear so that its aspiring in nature driving right behavior & not be ambiguous leading to inaction & cynicism. While we secretly desired to earn the Blue Tie but we never had any ill & jealous feeling towards the ones who wore it. The blue tie did not elude us from them, it rather brought us closer to them as inspirations who could help us in improving our academic performance. 

Identification of High Potential employees can be a futile exercise. An organization should rather focus on creating a credible & transparent Reward & Recognition model.

The High Potential employees should get drawn towards the R&R model of the organization and it would become very easy to filter the High Potential employees from the High Performing employees. High Performing associates needs to get rewarded and the High Potential associates need to get recognized.

The above bit which has been posted is about ‘Identifying’ High Potential talent ( Being better known as HIPO).

Now lets focus on the ‘Developing’ & ‘Nurturing’ bit of High Potential talent. While I worked for close to 4 years in HR and had experienced the same with depth, I am very new to Learning & Development profession so I would reserve my thoughts on ‘Development’ & ‘Nurturing’ for a future course of time.

However, I will leave you with a question.

Is there a need to ‘develop’ a talent when you can ‘nurture’ them?

A leader in my organization introduced me to a theory called ‘SCARF’ model by David Rock. Seek the help of professor google and ‘figure it out yourself’. It might help you to frame a ‘Nurturing’ model for the organization.

Also can your organization create a story which can inspire you even after 10 years the way my school inspired me?

'LUNCHBOX'-Virtues of error

A taciturn man who is about to retire from his professional life but hopes against hope to get inducted into a new fulfilling phase of life....

A married woman whose culinary skills opens the floodgates of her emotions  to a pen friend....

A Lunchbox....

"If we dont find the right person in life to share our memories with then the memories itself fade away". While Irfan Khan renders this line in the movie Lunchbox, you feel struck by the layers of emotions cocooned in it. 

Lunchbox is a movie which spells its magic on the audience with its sincere storyline, the magical realism of the two leads played by Irfan Khan & Nirmat Kaur along with Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s unbridled yet subtle acting prowess  and the under celebrated virtues of love & simplicity in modern times.

Its a movie that stands tall and makes you feel humbled. It’s a movie which must not be reviewed but only experienced. 

Its heart warming how Nawazuddin Siddiqui tells Irfan Khan "A wrong train can lead a person to the right destination”.

The movie deals with how a remote mistake by the much famed Dabbawalas leads to the 'right Lunchbox' being delivered to the 'wrong destination' but to the 'right person'.

While you get geared up to watch this movie, please make an attempt to recognize the’virtues’ made possible due to the error of an innocent Dabbawala.

This time it’s virtues of an error being celebrated and thankfully not comedy of errors.

Lessons from Prof. Pi

The first movie I watched with Sayantika post our marriage was 'Life of Pi'. Not the typical 'romantic' movie which one would ideally watch with their special one. Yet I cant stop romanticizing about this epic movie. Lets have a keen look at the lessons from Prof. Pi:

1. Sometimes your greatest fear can serve as the greatest purpose- Pi was lost in the middle of the ocean with the Tiger named 'Richard Parker'. Pi was scared of Tigers since childhood but his only living companion in the boat was his greatest fear 'Richard Parker'. Not only did he survive but he also made 'Richard Parker' his friend. He ensured that he put his constant effort to keep 'Richard Parker' alive.Taking care of 'Richard Parker' gave him the meaning to survive. It gave him purpose. Hence, dont let your greatest fear control you, allow yourself to control it and it will ensure you survive the biggest storms in your life.

2. Make sure you say 'Good Bye'- At times saying 'Good Bye' can be very difficult but if you indeed have to leave your dear ones, please look back and say 'Good Bye'. Pi was potrayed as a very strong human but the only time we found him in tears while narrating his story was when he spoke about how 'Richard Parker' left him alone in the shores and never looked back.

3. Above all, keep your hopes alive- Pi had a survival book which contained survival tips. One phrase in the book said "Above all, keep your hopes alive". This phrase deeply influenced him in all crisis moments. Had he lost all hopes even few minutes before reaching the Mexican shores, he would not have been alive to narrate his inspiring story to others.

4. Replace 'Worry' with 'Work'- At every stage of Pi's crisis moments, he did the 'right' actions in the 'right' way without wasting time. The depressing moments did not get him an inch closer to his purpose. Only focusing on the 'right' actions helped him to progress further.

5. You are not as lonely as you think- While you watch the movie, it might appear that Pi was extremely lonely in his journey. However, at every step he received support in various forms. Even in the worst times, we might feel that we are treading a lonely journey, but if our actions are righteous we would most likely receive support from unexpected corners.

6. Make that journey from Head to Heart- Towards the end of Pi’s journey in the ocean, Pi and Richard Parker felt extremely fragile and starved. This was a point where intelligence alone would not have helped. Inspite of Pi’s childhood fear for Tigers, he showed utmost compassion towards Richard Parker. At the final leg of the journey, it was not only Pi’s intelligence which kept him going, it was Pi’s compassion for Richard Parker which helped both of them to remain alive. Sometimes we have to make that journey from Head to Heart. You must know when to start that journey.

7. Be Grateful- Inspite of all the challenges, Pi never appeared to be cynical. At every step of his journey he thanked his parents, uncle and Richard Parker. As much as his strength and courage, he also appears to be endearing because of his gratefulness. Being grateful makes us happy and makes the journey tread so far really worthwhile.  Thank someone special in a special way today.

When a bit of kindness and patient listening means.......

Firoz was ready for his  internal exam in College. He seemed confident of keeping up his momentum of being a class topper. On his way towards college, he found a kid bleeding profusely near the 'traffic signal'. It seemed like  an accident.

Without any unnecessary delay, Firoz placed the kid carefully inside the car along with  the kid's father who seemed to have sustained a minor injury and rushed  his way towards the hospital's emmergency section.

Firoz's shirt had blood stains and it perplexed him for a while. Few moments from then he realized that he missed his crucial internal exam which would adversely impact his Final Grades.

Completely wavered of what his future would unfold, he reached his college in a jiffy and narrated the entire incident to Professor Mathew in a candid & lucid manner. The professor keenly listened to him and asked him if he could hug him. Firoz recieved a tight hug from his unassuming professor. Prof Mathew agreed to allow him to write the exam but with a 'condition'.

The condition was that Firoz's passing marks in the re-scheduled exam would be 60 as against 40 out of 100. Suddenly the lingering effect of that hug did not seem encouraging to Firoz anymore. Prof Mathew explained that he deserved aswell as earned this exclusive benchmark. Firoz deserved it because he got extra time to prepare for the exam and earned it because he was amongst the most promising students in the class.

Firoz found the decision unfair and wrote his exam with a heavy heart on a different date. When the results got declared, Firoz was delightfully surprised as he again topped the exam. Prof Mathew did not seem surprised at all.

Today Firoz is a career coach who helps his clients by providing  a purpose & direction to their career. Sometimes when his clients complain about slow career progression he tells them about the accident many years back near the traffic signal. Everyone in the traffic signal were busy in their race on that day. Their respective races were important to them. Even Firoz's race towards his exam was important that day but he forgot about his race on that day. Many years down the line, today he is much ahead of his batchmates because of the patient listening and kindness of Prof Mathew. Prof Mathew enamoured Firoz with the subtle message that "Sometimes there will be those priorities which will indeed seem much more important than our respective races but that momentory loss will not determine our long term fulfillment or even accomplishments in life.  'Goodness' and 'Cynicism' can never coexist. Choose 'Goodness' over 'cynicism'."

Today Firoz  gives seemingly tough advice to his clients much like Prof Mathew did many  years back.

Irrespective of whether you are playing the role of Firoz or Prof Mathew, play your role with empathy, logic & patience. There are many who will overtake you with short cuts but do not loose your goodness at any cost and do not be 'cynical' at any cost. You might be well ahead of the driver who overtook you in the next signal itself ;-)

Mentor matters!!!

"Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them"-Forrest Gump

The above statement  justifies not only because Forrest Gump was differently abled, anyone irrespective  of any factors influencing them  deserve and require to be explained things in a way they understand.

Irrespective of the power position you hold, you still need a mentor. Few days back I was in a discussion with a senior collegue  on his career lessons and he mentioned that one of the greatest lessons which he learnt was to never think too much all alone.  It's important to bounce one's ideas, thoughts and even insecurities with one's mentor. Mentor acts as a guiding force only, he doesnot play the game for you.

So the relevent question is "How can I find my right mentor?". Even though the relevance of the question cannot be challenged, the question still remains wrong. I feel there cannot be one right mentor in our lives. We need to have multiple mentors as every career has multiple aspects to it. There cannot be just one mentor who can specialize in all aspects of your career.

For example, in your office that super intelligent young lad who champions data analytics can serve as your data analytics mentor, the elderly senior collegue who speaks eloquently can serve as your communication mentor, the quite fellow who exudes maturity can be your job mentor.

Yes! finding multiple mentors might seem tedious but if it seems tedious then maybe you are not in the right place or maybe you do not have the required amount of patience or maybe you are not a keen observer.

A few checks before you choose a mentor:

1.  He  must have great work ethics- A higher designation doesnot qualify him to be your Mentor.  Its higher order of 'work ethics' which is the most basic criteria for choosing a Mentor.
2. He must be a champion in his field- Not only its important that your mentor masters his subject but has the capacity to further contribute in the growth of his area of specialization.
3. He should understand business and more importantly 'life'- He must know when to switch  a journey from heart to mind and from mind to heart.
4.  He must be a keen listener- He should listen to you till you know that you must stop :-P
5. He must have his list of failures- You need a mentor the most when the chips are down. Hence its important he must have bounced back from his failures so that he can help you.
6. He should not give the answers. He must ask the right set of questions till you give the right answers yourself.

Last but not least, he should be a friend in need and a friend indeed :-)

Happy Friendship Day!!!

Can your team celebrate mistakes?

 I remember my 'Maths Tutor' in school trying various means to teach me  how to solve  complex  maths problems. Considering my limited acumen in maths, nothing seemed to work for a considerable amount of time.

He 'seemingly' gave up any remote hope which was left. Finally, he told me about his struggling phase of dealing with maths in childhood and more importantly how he came out of it.

That was the 'inflection point'. I felt I was not being taught by a super human but an human. Maths was no more a 'Horror Show' for me since then.

On a different note, in a Team context, our pursuit 'towards'  success unites us relatively more than enjoying 'success' itself. In that pursuit of success, we make 'mistakes'.

Now keep the thoughts mentioned above in the parking lot for sometime.

How different would be the morale of the team in the below two different scenarios?

1. Your Team Leader talks about his previous success stories with a special focus on what he did 'right' and expects you to get motivated from the same.
2. Your Team Leader  talks about his previous success stories with a special focus on what he did 'wrong' and expects you to get motivated from the same.

There is no proven data points/ research available with me but I feel the later scenario mentioned above would ensure a better team morale. The reason is clear if I consider the example discussed earlier about my Maths Tutor.

It's natural for all teams to celebrate success but it takes a lot of humility, sensitivity and wherewithal for a Team Leader to celebrate his mistakes. Discussing one's mistakes with the team might  create a better bonding with the team than the overrated Pizza or Beer party. The team would feel 'comfortable' to tread beyond their 'comfort zone' yet be more 'cautious' about the possible mistakes.

Allowing yourself to celebrate and candidly discuss your mistakes would ensure each and every Team Members in your team to be  an "Idealistic Pragmatist"  (coined by Peter Senge).

However, its important that while sharing your mistakes, you adequately and more importantly do focus on the lessons you learnt from the mistakes. Finally, encourage your team members to make mistakes and keep learning but never repeat the same mistakes.

It's fine to make different mistakes and not repeat the same ones ;-)

My innocent thoughts on Ra One...

This is not a movie review. I have never felt intelligent or qualified (if needed) enough to clinically assess any movie. Also especially when it comes to a SRK starrer I struggle to remain objective as I am his die hard fan.

Let me just attempt to share a few thoughts on the movie 'Ra One' and also 'SRK'.

I feel 'Ra One' is a landmark movie.

A true entertainer right from the outset. Every frame of the movie is an ode to the paragon of entertainment in itself as I have never watched any Bollywood movie which packs so much of entertainment in varied & engaging forms like the visual delight of VFX/ 3 D, the action sequences, a few tersed & emotional poetry in the midst of kick a@# action, Kareena's thumkas, the foot tapping music, the promising kid, the hideous villian and so much more.

There are those initial scenes in the movie like the ones where Shahrukh speaks in Tamilglish (Tamil + English) which can be a bit disturbing to the extent of being amusing for someone who has stayed 7 years in Chennai. However, these scenes give me an oppurtunity to laugh at
SRK and in other instances I laugh along with him. Either ways I am left entertained.

Rajnikant's guest appearance creates an impact on the audience even in a Kolkata cinema hall. Many might argue that the timing and logic of Rajnikant's guest appearance was not sensible 'enough'. Can those critics name a single bollywood movie where a guest appearance was sensible 'enough'?

However, what caught my imagination completely was the sheer investment SRK has done in this movie. Investment in terms of money, passion, time and effort.

The movie actually personifies his core philosophy: "Even if you are not hungry, be greedy. "

The 'Greedy' bit can be a little misconstrued but he had once explained this bit many years back in an exclusive and very candid interview with Vir Sanghvi. In that interview, he very beautifully articulated that he has greed for 'life' and in his last 10 years then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had put in 20 years, in his last 1 film then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had pushed in 3 films, in his last shot then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had pushed in 18 shots.

Hence, Ra One is a very inspring spectacle for me.

It inspires to try something new with logic, intent, passion, ownership, courage and above all 'heart'.

And when you try something new then critics who are either intellectuals or pseduo intellectuals (majority) might all point their guns at you shamelessly waiting to pounce & defame you. In that case you follow SRK's recent tweet which says "New things make us uncomfortable cos they fall beyond the scope of our usual habits. Allow it to breathe & soon it becomes One with us..."

You might be 'some' 'one' or 'the' 'one' or 'any' 'one' but do not ignore 'Ra One'. Give it an innocent try, not an intelligent one. You will be left delighted.....

Seven years in Chennai...

It was year 2000 when I watched a movie called 'Seven years in Tibet' starring Brad Pitt. Even as a kid I liked the movie, there was sense of serenity in the movie which I was drawn towards. As I grew up and so did my candor (quite an unlikely progression :-P), I told my parents about how much I wanted to do something similar to what Brad Pitt did in the movie.

As expected they did not endorse my crazy and adventurous ways. My pursuit of being 'Brad Pitt' ended there.

The last few years at school in Delhi just passed by without much of significant memories . In 2004, I came to Chennai and I 'lived' there. Yes!!! I lived every bit of it.I lived every bit of the 'Chennai' experience.

Those action packed experience in the moments of nothingness in Madras Christian College brought me closer to myself. It blessed me with a sharp sense of awareness, whether it was mindfully observing the scenic beauty hurtling by on either side of that mystic road inside the 350 acre of flora and fauna inside the campus or exploring the facets of friendship with some wonderful people. In the little spare time I could manage, I would also study a bit. Whatever little study I did, I actually enjoyed it. My priorities in life were very clear. Studying BBA in MCC also made me determined that I wanted a career in Human Resource.

Then I got recruited in TCS BPO as a process associate. Idealism was at its peak then with little room for patience. I wanted to get into their HR team in a jiffy. I could not get into the HR team for variety of reasons and all of them were reasonable. But it was a significant experience where I understood what it feels like to be on the other side as a customer of the HR guys. It made me more grounded than ever (I assume so).

The third phase of my life was in Madras School of Social Work studying MA-HRM. It was wonderful to study the subject of my passion. It was fun. It was fulfilling. I enjoyed my HR field works the most. It was a contrast to my MCC experience. I was more engaged in my academics here and in my spare time I hanged around with my MCC friends who suffused me with a joy that was exclusive to the days spent in MCC.

TCS came for campus hiring and I did not appear for the interview this time. Honestly there was no ego involved as my TCS experience humbled me in many ways. But I did not feel connected enough to let the marriage between me and HR happen in TCS. It was an emotional decision.

This was followed by another emotional decision of appearing for the Cognizant interview which was my first interview in Campus. I felt connected to Cognizant then and I feel so even now after one year.

Most of my decisions in life have been in the midst of emotions. I dont regret any decision. My experience in Chennai taught me that the deepest of my emotions originated from the bottom of my heart. And when the heart is fine then the the emotions cultivating from it are also fine.

The above para is indeed the best lesson I have learned in Chennai.

Also the last 6 months in Chennai was the most defining period of my life as I literally became part of a big family. As a Campus Talent Manager in Cognizant I was able to meet many trainees who became my friends and at times my teachers.

As I type this post in Kolkata sitting in my drawing room, I realize that the seven years spent in Chennai did not help my childhood (or rather teenhood) persuit of becoming Brad Pitt even an iota bit. Yet it helped me to become 'Saikat Saha'.

There are many more experiences waiting to embrace me in Kolkata and i am ready for it. But the 'seven years in Chennai' shall remain ethched in my memory....in my heart....

It's time to switch off my lappie and make further sense of this ethereal connection........

In conversation with my mentor....

There are few people who influence,impact and inspire your life as a student and continue to do so in your formative period as a professional. Rajesh Kamath is one such mentor I found during my final year in MSSW. He not only enriched my learning curve as a student but provided me various oppurtunities during my association with SHRM India and MTHR Global which I deeply value till date. My conversations with him has always been scintillating and invaluable. Please read on as I capture one of my recent conversation with him:

Saikat: Since the time I have known you, you have been very passionate about the student community. What fascinates you the most about 'Youngistan'?

Rajesh: Too many things fascinate me about Youngistan but I am most excited at how different they are from the earlier generation, in terms of lifestyle, work style and interpersonal characteristics. I feel that it is extremely complimentary and creates opportunity to learn and enjoy.

Saikat:What is going to be the New Age HR ethos which will be fostered by upcoming young HR leaders?

Rajesh:You’ll know better Saikat. Yet, my observation is that young HR leaders (mostly) are characterised by more openness to ideas and transparency in communication. I also find them more energetic.

Saikat:The first few years of any professionals life is very eventful? What is your advice to young professionals so that they can fully leverage their early years with greater clarity?

Rajesh:I am sure that young professionals have more advice to offer me than me to them. The principle I follow is what comes to Youngistan rather easily: “Question every Answer” (this was prominently displayed in Northpoint Learning Center years back). One advice I can offer is respect age and experience.

Saikat:You are one of the founding members of MTHRG. MTHRG has been associated with very engaging and knowledge intensive seminars where the members are not even charged a penny. How do you and your team manage it?

Rajesh:Its rather simple: It has no business or even a basic not-for-profit commercial model because its powered by passion for learning. Partners who are equally passionate about knowledge and community fund the Events. The partner benefits by way of visibility and the community and facilitators, by way of unbridled learning.

Saikat:What has been your most defining moment in professional and personal life?

Rajesh: This is an impossible question since I truly have many such moments each year. I can share that they have one common factor: the moments are always caused by great men and women, from day to day life.

Saikat:You recently went for a brief spiritual journey What were your key learning from this spiritual journey?

Rajesh:I took a short 4 day break to Rishikesh, Dehradun and Haridwar. I do this every alternate year though I wish I could do it more frequently. These are with a Spiritual (neutral to religion) Group called Ananda Sangha. Learnings were too many but I would pick two:

1. Certain places and people carry a phenomenal energy about them which rubs on you.

2. As one Swamiji at Doon shared – “There is unrest, strife and disharmony around because everyone is right”

Saikat:Please share a few quickies:

• Your life philosophy: Respect every person for what each one is, something to learn from everyone
• Blog or Twitter: Twitter
• An evening with Dalai Lama or an evening with Jack Welch: Morning with Dalai Lama
• I Phone or Blackberry: I’m a Blackberry Boy
• All rounder or specialist (Who is a more promising future talent?): Specialist

My learnings from Robin Sharma's workshop 'Leader without a title'

Last week I was fortunate to attend Robin Sharma's Live workshop on 'Leader without a Title'. Three hours of listening to Robin Sharma was incredibly enlightening. I paid Rs 3000 (the cheapest ticket available) for the ticket which I felt was an investment.

It's a privilage to share a few of my key learning from the session:

• Most of the times we get busy being 'busy'. We keep climbing the wrong mountain and realize the same much later. Do not live the life of regrets. We deserve the best and not 'mediocrity'.
• 2.1 hours are wasted on distractions and it takes 25 minutes to refocus at your work. Ensure distractions at work are completely removed.
• Three duties of a leader: Creating impact, Influencing, Inspiring.
• You double your income at triple the rate of your learning.
• The king and the begger would be buried next to each other's grave. What matters towards the end is not the car you drove or the castle you lived in. What really matters is how much value did you add in others lives.
• Ideation without lazor sharp execution is only dillusion.
• Your behavior broadcasts your values.The way you do one thing, the way you do 'everything'. Disipline is indeed the key.Get rid of silly excuses.Get addicted to results.
  
• If you lead only by the virtue of your title, then when you loose the title , you loose the people.
• Lead yourself first before leading others. Aim at being a great human being.
• When you were born, you cried and others rejoiced. Live such a life that when you die, others cry.
• Always learn and embrace change. Successful people are inspired by change.
• Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people's names and titles. Shift your focus from entertainment and gossip to education.
• Find a cause bigger than yourself and give your soul to it.
• Secret of passion is purpose.
• Leadership comes from bringing passion to the workplace by making each person realise his true potential. You can be the Lady Gaga of autodrivers or the Mick Jagger of the mailroom. Be a rockstar at work.
• Managers develop organisations, leaders develop people.
• Connecting and collaborating is what Leadership 2.0 is about. You need to remind people at your workplace that each of them has a purpose and can be a leader if they work with focus and passion.
• Consistency is the mother of mastery.
• The little acts of risk taking, authenticity and kindness REALLY matters.
• Secret to genius is specializattion. Geniuses are really good at FEW things and not everything.
• Make sure when people leave you they feel better than the time they met you. They should become the brand ambassadors of your company and not brand vampires.
• Edit + Amplify: Nothing fails like success. Ensure the growth is purposeful. Let's not grow for growth sake.
• Keep your video in sync with your audio: Walk the talk...Practice what you preach...
• Pleasing everyone and being liked by everyone is a major hinderance to innovation.
• Successful people want to make history with their work and not money. They want their work to remain alive even after their last breath.
• 8 traits of a leader without a title:

1. APR: Absolute Personal Responsibility
2. OAD: Obsessicve Attention to Details
3. LBE: Lead By Example
4. ABBOU: Always Be Delivering Outrageous Value
5. NSI: Never Stop Improving
6. BIW: Best In World
7. BRBO: Put you Best Resource in Best Oppurtunities
8. KMF: Keep Moving Forward
   

• High productivity practicees:

1. Get up early- You will have enough time to sleep when you die ;-)
2. Do not check e mails in the morning. Creativity appears best in morning. Spend some quite time in solitude.
3. Learn to say 'No' with respect.
4. No gossips and critisicm. Truly world class people talk about ideas.
5. Clarity provides focus and creativity.
6. Eat less and in a purposeful manner.
7. Drink lots of water and super hydrate yourself.
8. Be aware of your environment. The external environment inspires internal creativity.
9. Practice & preparation are the key as all of us are in show business.
10. Ensure you make 5 daily wins. They need not be revolutionary in nature, but should be evolutionary.
11. Develop 'leadership language'. Your words energise you and others.
12. Leave your ego today

Hope this helps :-)

The reminder - A (Very) short love story

Love can make us do crazy things...Love unleashes our smarter self...Love makes us look gullible & meek...Love is mature...Love is kiddish...

Love makes us feel empowered...Love is intimidating...Love is charming...Love is suffocating....Love is liberating....

So many contradictions yet thats what keeps us going....

It's been 40 years since we grew in this relationship and will continue to grow. Times have changed since we met. Our love has been witness to the changing times. The changing times has been witness to our love.

As I sit next to your grave, I understand you will not be with me. But your love has always been much larger than your own sweet self. Your love has been selfless. Your love will continue to grow in your physical absence and it will help me to enrich my life.

But I am feeling incomplete.I feel like a lesser being.I don't feel any amount of optimism will ever fill the vacum that has been created by your absence.

[The cell phone rings. It's a reminder message which reads "Water the flowers in the garden or else honey shall scream ;-)".]

I guess I should make a move. A move from 'this graveyard' to 'our garden'.

Dhobi Ghat- A cine painting with grey shades....

Dhobi Ghat(Mumbai Diaries) is a piece of Cine art...a painting that captures the shades of Bombay with all the colours it offers to its inhabitants...

Colours which are seemingly bright but as we delve further it appears grey...colours that often suffuses our hearts with joy and in other times haunts us to the point we feel ridiculously intimidated.

The movie revolves around the lives of 4 characters-Arun (Aamir Khan)- a painter,divorcee,loner middle aged man; Shai (Monica Dogra) is an Indian banker who is in Mumbai on a sabbatical to pursue her passion 'Photography'; Munna (Prateik Babbar) is a washerboy by the morning & rat killer by the night who dreams of being a bollywood superstar one day and Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra) is a lower middle class migrant from UP who is newly wed.


Inspite of the disparities in their social status, views and circumstances, their lives are intertwined. Shai (Kriti Malhotra) gets fascinated by the art work of Arun (Aamir Khan) and progresses into an intense relationship which lasts only for an iota of times. Shai (Monica Dogra) meets Munna (Prateik Babbar) and gets besotted by Munna's charm and innocence. Along with Munna she captures the lesser known essence of Bombay through her camera lenses.

Arun increasingly gets drawn towards the video diaries of Yasmin which encapsulates her delightful fascination with Bombay yet exudes her conflicted & gullible relationship with her husband. This inspires (as well as depresses) Arun to capture the elements of his interpretation of Yasmin's video diaries and her short yet impressionable relationship with Shai in a painting.

To what extent these relationships between the four characters are interwined?

Only the fifth character of the movie 'Bombay' which closely witnesses their lives getting interwined can answer the question.

As mere viewers of this Cinematic genius we can only make an effort to interpret the multitudes of possibilities yet not seek the answer.

The joy is encapsulated in making the effort to interpret the possibilities. Possibilities which might be promising...depressing...bright...dark...but most certainly with shades of grey....At times a darker shade of grey ...and in the other times mercifully lighter...

The Royal Ganguly snub and a few lessons...

These are hard times for Sourav Ganguly. Similarly, these are hard times for me to keep my objectivity intact for purely cricket reasons.

Tough to understand why Sourav, who displayed one of the best batting performances in the last IPL edition (Amongst the top 5 run getters with an impressive strike rate) get ruthlessly snubbed in the IPL auction.

First inference is that he was snubbed not on the basis of performance.

Was he snubbed because of his age?

Not really!! Warnie, Gilchrist, Dravid & Laxman also found place in the auction.

Was it because of his larger than life approach to cricket?

Naaah!!!! Remember his performance in the Sri Lanka tour after his comeback from a considerable break due to a spat with Aussie Dimwit 'Greg Chappel'. He integrated with the team fabric in an effortless manner and even won the 'Man of the series' award.


Was it because he doesnot gell well with Aussie coaches (Most of the team coaches in IPL are from the Aussie land)?

Maybe Yes!!!

Whatever be the reason, here are a few lessons one can learn from the 'Royal Snub':

• Be careful of your image: His 'Prince of Kolkata' image probably went against him. Team management might have found him tough to be handled.

• There is nothing like 'over-communication': Ganguly is an honourable man, yet he should have seeked complete information from various teams to gauge their interest in buying him.Only after that he should have made himself available for the auction.(He could have also gone the Kumble way)

• Honour versus Idealism: Shahrukh Khan extended the olive branch to him offering a chief mentor role in KKR. He has not been very kind to the request. But if he truly cares about KKR then he might just accept the role of a mentor and play an integral role in fulfilling KKR's mission of 'Korbo..Lorbo..Jeetbo Re!!!(We will do..fight & win)' .Of course with KKR in context, there would have been too many mentors and there is certainly nothing official about it.Saurav is intelligent and let him decide the rest.

• Keep the passion on!!!: If the intent and passion is right then many seemingly significant (otherwise insignificant) outcomes do not matter in long run. His fans will always love him. His critics will always make ridiculous judgements. But he will be respected by all forever and beyond. Till now his batting did the talking. It's time his silence does the talking. And if he ever gets the bat he will ROAR!!! In the true ROYAL BENGAL STYLE!!!!
  

Do you have enough HEROes (Dabanggs) in your team???

There are two places in Chennai where you can locate me on a Sunday late morning:

My room or Landmark Bookstore!!!

While surfing the books I came across 'Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business'.

A few random turning of the pages & I found an insightful matrix:



The X axis signifies 'the quantum of empowerment one feels at work' and Y axis signifies 'quantum of resourcefulness with which one acts in his workplace'.

It's depressing to know that only 20 % of US Information workers fall under the category of 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resourceful Operatives'.

So who has a greater onus in ensuring that the employees fall under the 'top right hand quadrant of the matrix'??? Employees themselves or employers???

I would not recieve any brownie point for giving the lucid answer. But the answer is 'Both'. In the age of Co-creation, it's both the employee and the employer who have to work in an ever inclusive manner to 'co-create' many Heroes.

However, the most conflicting issue is that when companies want to create more 'HEROes' and employees themselves desire to become 'HEROes' then why dont we have enough HEROes (Based on the above matrix)?

According to my ever innocent opinion, I feel the conflict often arises when it comes to paying the right price for either enabling or becoming an 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resorceful Operatives' from both the employee & employer's end.

The singlemost important attribute in creating enough 'HEROs' at workplace would be the 'mutual confidence' in 'co-creating HEROs'.

I wish everyone a Glorious & Dabangg('Fearless' in Hindi spoken in Uttar Pradesh, India) new year in the persuit of finding the 'super heroes' within & around themselves.

'Walk & talk' to resolve conflicts...

The impressive ads from Idea Cellular with the tag line 'Walk and talk' has many lessons to impart. Most of these lessons have been lucidly disseminated by Abhishek Bachan in the ad itself.

However, we can learn one more rich lesson specifically from the tagline.

Many years back, while my fascination for HR was growing, I asked an HR expert about his opinion on how to resolve conflict?

He gave a quintessential HR answer to it saying "Get both the parties to face each other and let them talk(& listen) their way to the solution".

It did sound sacrosanct then but with all due respect the HR expert, I would dare to modify his statement "Get both the parties to walk alongside and let them talk (& listen) their way to the solution".

There were a few triggers to this thought. One being the idea cellular ad with the above mentioned tagline but more importantly this TED video where William Ury, Senior Fellow, Harvard Negotiation Project speaks about 'negotiation' under the theme "the walk from 'no' to 'yes' ".

According to him one of the basics in negotiation is to identify the third party who can always remind the two parties at loggerheads about what is at stake?

It also explains how walking side by side with the two parties (symbolic) while finding the resolution is more effective instead of facing them in opposite direction.

Walking side by side is symbolic of moving in the same direction towards the persuit of finding a resolution instead of facing each other which is symbolic of confrontation.

Most certainly a simple technique which should not be overlooked.

Managing the career aspiration of Youngistan

In a recent Conference organized by MTHR Global in Bangalore , I particularly got fascinated by an interesting analogy given by Mr Sangeeth Varghese.

The panel discussion revolved around managing career expectations of freshers.

More specifically it was a discussion on the after thoughts of presentations by 3 incredible students on their 'Dream Company'.

Mr Sangeeth Varghese spoke about how he also was in a simmilar quest of finding something perfect a few years back. Just like the students were chasing their dream of finding the perfect company/job/career, he was in the quest to find the perfect life partner. He met the 'perfect' girl and had the 'perfect marriage'. The situation remained perfect for a few days after marriage but soon he felt it was far from perfect. The relationship was not perfect anymore!!!

This made him retrospect for sometime. He did realize that his wife probably did not meet his expectations but did he ever make any effort to know if he met his wife's expectation? On further retrospection he felt that he did a worse job.

His wife also had expectations which were probably overlooked. He then decided to work on the shortcomings and gaps. The relationship did improve and today he feels he is blessed with a 'perfect wife' :-)

Whatta perfect analogy!!!!!!!

Indeed, freshers (including me) often ask how much has the company done for them and how much more it can do for them. Often they measure their expectations from the company. It's equally important to reflect on how much we are able to live upto our company's expectations.

I remember Mr Sangeeth saying that 'Perfection is a frame of mind'. I feel in order to achieve that frame of mind one has to sincerely reflect on their own & others' expectations and more importantly work sincerely on meeting those expectations.

This also reminds me to share an insightful post contributed by Gautam Ghosh & written by Sunit Sinha. Here are a few excerpts from the post:

1. A job is what you make it. If you look at your function as only a job (show up, fill a desk, answer a phone, pass on a report), that’s what it will be. But if you recognize the time you spend in your early, entry or junior position as a process of career building, then that’s what you will have: a career. Always play your role with dignity, looking for ways to learn from it.
2. The real keys to success are not smarts or qualifications or belonging to a brand-name firm. Rather, success is derived from courage, drive, energy, passion, ambition, enthusiasm, excitement, initiative, discipline, a dream and enough self-confidence to keep trying.
3. Don’t be intimidated by senior people. Remember, they also started somewhere, and if they are purposely intimidating you, they can’t be very secure themselves. Don’t, however, confuse intimidation with respect. Even if you don’t agree with a senior person, they have earned and deserve their due for what they have achieved in the organization.
4. When you feel underappreciated (or undercompensated) take a deep breath. Even if you are doing better work and have more responsibility than someone earning more or being treated better, show some patience. It’s the long term that counts!!
5. Broken promises are remembered more than kept promises. Do what you say you are going to do. It’s better to have the guts to say up front, “I’m not sure I can get that done,” than to accept a task that you can’t deliver on.
6. It is important to , listen to the assignment and carry out what has been asked. Again, remember that you are the directee, not the director, at this point in your career. You may not like the assignment, but do it with the same enthusiasm that you show for those projects you do like. Pencils must be sharpened, and everyone (even the CEO) has taken his turn.
7. Remember that success is not spontaneous combustion; you have to set yourself on fire.
8. Last but not the least – remember who actually pays for your salary – the client. Never lose your connect with clients, and always put them at the centre of what you do.

More on 'Employer Branding' lessons from SHRM India Monthly meet

I am keen to share a few learnings I recieved on 'Employer Branding' from Mr P Ravishankar, Chief Human Resource Officer, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd during the last SHRM India Meeting held two weeks back.

Following are my key learnings:

• Employer Branding is essentially the reinforcement of Company's values.
• Key messages that the HR function can transmit using company's employer brand are: Redifination of leadership competencies, living your core values,redefination of performance,renewed code of conduct & governance.
• How you drive change in your organization, community and the ecosystem is also a major value lever of your 'Employer Brand'.
• In the persuit of branding one should remember to 'balance' both internal and external employer branding.
  

Game for testing your 'employer brand'?

I have been invited for the SHRM India monthly meet to be held in Chennai tomorrow evening and the theme to be discussed is 'Employer Branding'. Would like to share a few innocent pre discussion thoughts on the topic.

Here are a few questions a business leader might ask himself to test his company's 'employer brand'(Answers should not be on a likert scale. A plain 'yes' or 'no' would suffice):

• Do people join your company to 'build a career' instead of just having a mere job?
• Do they market the success of their company as if it's their own?
  
• Do your employees get riled up when the company's brand becomes a victim of unjustified critisicm?
• Does your employees always look for the next 'big or small' oppurtunity to talk about their company with great enthusiasm?
• Does your employees take a major onus in ensuring that the new recruits get fitted into the company's proud organizational fabric?
• Can your employees find a world of oppurtunities, moments & friends within the company which they can cherish?
• Is your company able to attract the talented yet passive job seekers in the market with minimum visibility?

An 'Yes' to each of the 7 (a spiritual number according to numerology) questions might make your 'employer brand' an incredible brand :-)

TEDx Chennai 2010

I had an incredible time listening to diverse list of speakers during the TEDx Chennai 2010 conference on 9th October 2010 held at IIT-Madras.

All of you who have missed the show and want to get a snapshot about the event, just click the following labels which will link you to interesting posts from the official TEDx Chennai Blog:

• TEDx Chennai 2010 Mindmap
• Rasmus Ankersen's talk
• Peter Van Geit's talk
• Lakshmi Pratury's talk
• Dr Tara Thiagarajan's talk
• Chendil Kumar's talk
• Chinny Krishna's talk
• Dr Ananda Shankar Jayant's talk
• Shekar Dattari's talk
• Rajendran's talk
• G J Siddharth's talk
• Prassana's talk