Leadership Development Process

Why does Organizations choose to invest in YOU?

It is not requisite that you have excellent skills and knowledge; if you not are saleable!!

Others should also discover you, and they should get an interest in you.

And you should be useful to them! You develop an interest to those fishermen so that they move behind you to catch You!!

“Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.” – Howard Schulz

Some of the outstanding factors which you can be ready with so that organization grabs you!

The organization chooses to invest in you based on the track record you have with the execution of a substantial scale critical program. Do you have any?

A track record is a key motivator for businesses or organizations to acquire you!

You have potential skills and knowledge which are profoundly significant in the forthcoming market and relevant to the prevailing technology trend.

You also have some indicator that you have exercised those skills and knowledge. The more hot the skills are, the higher demand you can create.

The organization is thinking long term by utilizing these skills they will build products and solutions and generate a lot of wealth.

They seek the opportunity and anticipate the potential use of those products and solutions which you will be capable to generate and will establish an impact on the same for the organizational bottom line.

“Dating and hiring have a lot in common.” – Scott Wintrip

What particular problem you will be solving for the organization. How significant is the problem for the organization, How efficient you are to solve those problems? How complex those problems which only you can solve?

Have you dealt with such problems earlier and how is wisdom? what is feedback from the people who have benefited from your service?

What is the unique strength you are bringing about this problem where the organization is searching for the solution?

You also require to ready with the proposal if the organization ask, what are the distinct way your skills and competencies can serve? What alternative approach you can apply to figure out these problems, etc?

If you have any failure in your current track record, that again benefits you to sell yourself to the organization, every experience affects.

You need to aware about your competitor and come up with a better proposal than your offering, which is unique and nobody has such a solution, you can bargain with the organization better

You should be capable to present your offering for 1 mins pitch, 20 mins pitch, and 1 hrs pitch about your key attributes and services flawlessly.

You should have business acumen about making wealth, how to exercise your skills and knowledge to build up the business.

What are numerous cultures, countries, and challenges you have struggled with, stronger is the story, they more attractive the story is, they will generate into more curiosity about your offering, so what is your selling story?

what is your current demand of yours in the market, can you show someway statistics to persuade? 

Organizations may pick up you and amalgamate with some other remarkable team members who have complimenting skills and establish a greater solution and service which you alone can not produce

“You need to have a collaborative hiring process.” – Steve Jobs

Organizations may take you, train you, and strengthen you for a grander mission, they have seen something which with limited investment can expand.

Are you warm up? are you watching at the horizon and strengthening yourself for those powerful people who can grab you?

Which Book cover you will choose? please advice

Leadership Development Case Studies

Case Study 1: 

You have been appointed as a leader to a fresh department established in a healthcare product. What will be the initial few steps as a leader for the first 15 days in your appointment? 

This is a new startup company. CEO has a lot of ambition from your department. 

Once 15 days is over, you got an invitation from your sales team that there could be a million-dollar order in a pipeline for a software solution development. They involve you in their initial potential software product development dialogue. 

What would be your steps as a leader? As a presentation to others, what you would be suggesting to them? 

Let us first forward to this condition. After 1 year, your department has 100 + team members, and you are the leader for all of them. 

You got an invitation from a potential company in the health care department to take over and integrate the same with your team. As a leader of the department, what is your understanding and what you will be sharing in the department town hall meeting? 

Case Study 2: 

You are an associate director in a business line that provides assistance in Business Transformation to the whole enterprise. You report directly to the Center, head of the enterprise. The whole organization is going through a cost optimization drive. And also, the corporation is experiencing severe attrition. Many talented team members have left the organization. 

You are under immense pressure not able to spend time with your 2 managers who are managing the whole program in your Transformation business line. 

These 2 managers are here with the organization for a long time and you are comparatively fresh. There was a constant accusation that your department is not competent to help the organization in the overall transformation process. The transformation is remarkably slow and not efficient. 

The managers are sensing that staff are becoming overworked as everyone takes on increased responsibilities due to significant staff turnover. The staff has also reported that your “glass-half-empty” communication style leaves them feeling disheartened. In addition, you have not shared budgets with your managers, so they are having difficulty appropriately allocating work to staff. You also recognize that you have not obtained ample information from the finance department to complete the budgets. The finance department said they have sent you all the information they have available. 

As the staff becomes distressed, the managers are becoming frustrated. They feel like they are unable to advocate for their staff or solve problems without key information like the departmental budget as well as vision. You sense that your managers also not so competent in the transformation work. Most of the time you got the report that both of these managers are conflicting with each other. 

You as a leader 

· What steps could be taken to strengthen staff confidence? 

· How can you most effectively use both management and leadership skills in your role as associate director? What combination of the two do you think would work best in this setting? 

· Which leadership style do you think a leader would need to be adequate in this situation? 

Case study 3: 

Prasad is functioning as a department manager; he was working with this company for the last 10 years. He has two decades of overall IT experience. He has developed himself from the bottom up to this department manager position by performing hard work. He is a remarkable people-friendly individual and most of the team members appreciate his management style. He understands the pain of the team members. He supports them whenever demanded. He has many managers reporting to him. Some are efficient and some are not so competent. But Prasad mentors them periodically. In Recent major re-org, Prasad was baffled about what will happen to his position as the whole organization has suffered considerable transformations. He was assigned for a new digital transformation program with 50 team members. On an earlier occasion, he was managing 200 people. 

a) What will be his motivation or drive to perform better? 

b) What stakeholder management he will do in a digital product? 

c) What should be his initial few steps once he commenced this unique role? 

d) How he will safeguard his success? 

e) What you would have done when you are in his situation? 

Case study 4: 

Niraj was the project manager, he was performing great for his project and all stakeholders acknowledge his hard work. He was consistently managing his project better and his team members also recognize it. He has remarkably efficient network skills with the top. He understands the domain. In new organizational transformation, he has promoted to a new business line lead. He has been in charge now to define the product strategy with 120 team members. He has never administered more than 30 individuals in his career. 

He is responsible for new product budgeting and sales as well. 

a) What he should do differently? 

b) What new thing does he need to know? 

c) What you would have done when you are in his situation? 

Case study 5: 

Alok was the center head. He was one of the distinguished young individuals to run this center. He is a dynamic and quick learner. He was managing 400 people and driving a major multimillion-dollar portfolio in a retail unit. He is a hard worker and a workaholic person. In recent turmoil, his center got dissolved and fragmented into many minor units. He has got a global role with 120 team members to establish a Dev sec and ops team first time in the organization. He had many competent managers who were his close company. In the new structure, he has not given any of the mature people. 

He obtained an all-new set of team members from a distinct company that recently been acquired. 

a) What will be the few challenges he will have to focus on? 

b) What will be his strategy? 

c) What you would have done when you are in his situation? 

Case study 6: 

Kannan is an extremely poor project manager but someway in front of the stakeholders he managed to carry out the show by which Stakeholder was extremely pleasant, He was managing testing projects and it was one of the mission-critical projects. He used to market his deliverables extremely well, however small it may be. He used to take many initiatives across the organization, and everyone knows him. He used to take many training sessions and CSR activities. 

There was massive program development work showed, 120 individuals, 3 various department requires to build this program/product. 

He has been appointed as an in charge of this large program as everyone knows him, but he does not have done such monumental work before. 

a) What do you think he should do to be first considered? 

b) How he will establish he got the appropriate individuals on the bus? 

c) As he was dealing with 20 individuals, what he should be working to deal with 120 people? 

d) What you would have done when you are in his situation? 

e) Most of the team members are incompetent in this company what he should be doing to safeguard delivery? 

Case study 7: 

Balaji was managing global product, development teams. There was a competitive product being developed in another corner of the world in the same company. 

They are marginally varied offering in nature. Most of the time customer was perplexed as both of this product team participate in sales bidding and demo work. Balaji was consistently in conflict with one more global manager to demonstrate whose product should remain and which one to drop. This tussle is ongoing and most of the top leaders realize. All the top leaders choose to preserve their buddies on the payroll. As these products have been around for the last few years. 

Balaji is leading this distributed product development team, and he is retaining the budget. These teams are distributed in 5 different geographical locations. It has developed into challenging to continue this product due to diverse issues, product issues, people issues, cost issues, license issues, a political issue, internal departmental conflicts, customer issues, etc. 

Team morale is down at the highest level 

a) What is the next step for Balaji? 

b) When can he get the promotion? 

Case study 8: 

Dilip is a recent college pass out. He did 2 MS in a different subject. He did one internship with one of the prominent firms, and one of his ideas accepted the best idea award and select for a product to be developed with immediate effect. The company where he used to work as an intern, they grant him for a full-time job for the same product development. He started functioning as a project manager for product development. 

With him 4 architects all are more than 25 years’ experience, 2 product managers, and 30 team members, most of them are 15 yrs. of experience. 

What do you think Dilip should be doing as a leader? He is young, smart, quick to learn, bright but fresh to the software product development world! 

How he will get along with all these experience personalities? 

How you will ensure he gets acknowledgment for all these team members? 

How he should be driving the whole show? 

Should he go back to earn a management degree? 

Case study 9: 

Shilpa is a technical lead. She is a district topper and extremely bright developer. The organization where she was working, they got a development assignment that they were seeking for some time. But the Organization could not pick up it owing to the resource competency issue. The client was willing to pick up a few developers as an on-site developer. Shilpa was among them. She has gone there at client location for 6 months assignment; it was a c++ work for large-scale product development in the Medical system. There were 25 experienced team members working, Shilpa was among them. She turns into an on-site coordinator after 6 months. She got extensions for 2 years and further work started showing up to India. There were few more team members who started traveling to an on-site location for development. Shilpa used to conduct the weekly call with offshore location, Every 6 months she used to travel to India and take classes. After 2 years, she came back and decided to marry and relocate to America. Sharath will succeed in Shilpa's role and will take up the on-site coordinator role. 

a) What do you expect Sharath to do? 

b) How do you think Sharath will take care of business expansion and business continuity 

c) What action plan Sharath should have? 

Case study 10: 

Narshimma is a Transformation lead for the Agile Transformation department in an organization. He has received the target to transform the team with an absolute deadline from the top. He has got 75% contractor and 25% full-time employed to run the show. The transformation budget was extremely tight and there was an abundance of tracking to demonstrate the outcome. There was immense pressure on the staff to show the progress. There were daily calls, weekly calls, monthly calls to indicate the progress. The staff is having an internal call with global colleagues. There was a speed pressure, delivery pressure everywhere. Team members were collapsing and Narshimma also pressuring as from the top also individuals are asking Narshimma to produce development. 

One day in one of the global meet up, few team members complain again Narshimma. The global leaders took prompt action and they eliminate Narshimma from the lead position and nominate a new person. 

The new person does not know anything about the transformation program 

a) What do you want the new person to do so that healthy environment prevailed in the department 

b) How to boost team morale?

Leadership Development Process

For a long time, I have been working with squads, who are assuring that all of our leaders are welcoming the new Leadership style which is absolutely essential in today’s dynamic business.

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” – Vince Lombardi

This can not be one particular leadership style to continue in today’s disruptive environment.

It has to be the consolidation of many best styles testified to by many leaders in various circumstances.

After evaluating several years we recognized that to simplify the leadership process, it has to concentrate on 3 significant areas.

1. Leading SELF:

Leadership development is self-development - John G Agno

“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.” – Ken Kesey

All the leaders have to be deliberately concentrating on building up their SELF. Whatever it is, whatever state the self is in. The Self is the fundamental driver or foundation for any leader development in the digital era.

Self-development is an incredibly massive area like the ocean and takes a lifetime to polish and mature. Things are in the constantly changing condition, the same way individuals are adapting rapidly to endure with new circumstances.

It is a life-long striving.

We observe the individuals who have an exceedingly robust self, they could able to steer through many complex circumstances. 

As a coach, we require to constantly polish our SELF and recognize what it chooses to advance anyone’s SELF . and enable others to expand their SELF

2. Leading OTHERS:

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Jack Welch

Another vital area that we have witnessed is the competence to LEAD OTHERS. 

This is again another vast knowledge area like an ocean and will take a lifetime to master this area.

This is an art and leading others takes many years of performance to master this art.

Whenever your SELF is polished, it would be natural to connect with others. Others should get benefits because of your sophisticated SELF. 

Once you give your best to others, others will follow you.

The moment you build more leaders like you, you will have many followers and you develop into a legitimate leader.

Another vital area we realized that to strengthen Self and leading others, we require many varied tools and skills.

These are enablers for any leaders to strengthen their SELF and leading OTHERS skills

Every individual is unique, what works for one individual may not perform for others. So every individual should search for their own tools and polish their skills.

Let us glance into the metaphor of the tree to understand the Leadership development process. It looks extremely simple but takes a lifetime to be like this.

Let us take any big giant tree. What creates such a giant tree to stand for long years with all types of extreme weather. We admire such trees wherever we discover them near our places. Close your eyes and visualize such a tree you have visited recently.

They are deep-rooted. It took several years to travel inside several kilometres bottom of the earth for the search of nutrition, minerals for such a giant tree. They suck those nutrients and transport them back to the upper part of the tree. Leading SELF is like this analogy(Bottom part of the tree). Leaders who are impressive, they have extremely deep-rooted SELF, they recognize who they are? Why they are here in this system? they are stable and strong mentally. Their self is well developed and took many years of deliberate reflection process and action to advance their SELF like an oak tree, big banyan tree, etc.

The upper part of the tree is for others. All types of trees help mother earth and individuals in some of the other ways, by producing fruit, air, shade, shelters, etc.

Leading others is like helping all the individuals with whatever strengths you have, and through that that you are some way enabling others. Your strength is helping who are weak and they are building up from your strength. They will come to you more because you support them, comfort them.

To develop into a great tree, trees use air, water, mineral, wind pressure, cyclone all these are tools and skills for the tree. Those make a vigorous tree or a powerful leader.

Let us use one more analogy to explain our leadership framework, what we are proposing. 

Look at the suspension bridge, why suspension bridge is one of the finest civil engineering marvels?

A suspension bridge (more precisely, suspended-deck suspension bridge) is a type of bridge in which the deck (the load-bearing portion) is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s.

This type of bridge has cables suspended between towers, with vertical suspender cables that transfer the live and dead loads of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses.

The main forces in a suspension bridge of any type are tension in the cables and compression in the pillars. Since almost all the force on the pillars is vertically downwards, and the bridge is also stabilized by the main cables.

Let us imagine, we choose to grow into an excellent leadership position, from a Technical lead position to become a Senior Vice president position.

It a lengthy journey, like a bridge. Taking individual from point A to Point B.

For our leadership development bridge, your SELF is the fundamental pillars of this bridge. the stronger your SELF is established, it would be comfortable for you to reach your destination without any disappointment, You will grow into a more stable bridge with better endurance. The self is a pressing force in the suspension bridge. The SELF is the main 2 pillars of the suspension bridge.

Your cables are how comfortable for you to influence others. It stretches all of your skills to influence others, pursue others, inspire others, etc. It is a pulling force. 

When both these force works effectively, the Leadership bridge will function flawlessly and people can reach the destination without any issue. Even in harsh weather, the bridge assures that nothing will happen to the commuters on the bridge.

As both, the forces are perfectly working smoothly.

It takes hell lot of tools and skills to build such a bridge and many years of endeavor to obtain the result. 

To strengthen ourselves as a better leader, to develop into an outstanding leader, we have to work on our SELF and the capability to lead OTHERS also requires to strengthen. We can develop into an enormous banyan tree or oak or Golden gate bridge, Brooklyn bridge....…

“Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” – Warren Bennis

“Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” — Peter F. Drucker

What do you think?
I have started developing mine like below

How can I keep Track of my progress?

Let us retrospect where we are in all these 3 pyramids.

Level 1 is Novice and Level 5 is Master

How appropriate are you at your “Leading Self” Pyramid ?

Please rank the 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest. Please give it a thought while rating yourself. It is you who require to upgrade the present state.

1. I have my Purpose clearly defined, and I am constantly examining my Purpose? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

2. I am driven by my Value and belief. I can rate my value-driven progress at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

3. I am Passionate to attain my purpose and thoroughly working on it? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

4. How far am I to reach at the Self Actualization state? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

5. I am constantly monitoring my Emotional Intelligence status and I can rate my EQ state is at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

6. I am Self-driven and I know how to re-energize myself. I can rate my Motivation state is at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

7. I am always Optimist and learn from my Setback. I can rate my Positivity state is at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

8. I invariably seek for New Ways of working. I can rate my Growth mindset state is at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

9. I am always Curious and ask powerful questions to discover the unknown. I can rate my competence to discover the unique thing is at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

10. I am learning anything very rapidly with Deliberate practice. I can rate my learning ability at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

11. I continually monitor my Self-state and refine, I invariably look into my Ego and cultivate, I look into my mental Bias and review. I can rate my mental inspection frequently exercise at? Rate 1-5 scale, 5 is the Highest.

Leading Self, the rate is = 55/55 = 100%, You are at Level 5 in Leading Self Pyramid Hierarchy!

How good are you at your “Leading Others” Pyramid?

Please rank the 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest. Please give it a thought while rating yourself. It is you who require to upgrade the current state.

1. I am Empathetic to my companions. I am continuously developing my empathetic skill, I can rate myself at 1-5 scale at?

2. I ensure I Trust my companions, I am credible and Trustable, I am continually working on these skills, I can rate myself at 1-5 scale at?

3. I Engage my companions, I energize, empower, and encourage my team members, I can rate myself at 1-5 scale at?

4. I Coach my companions, I am constantly refining my coaching skills, I can rate myself at 1-5 scale at?

5. I am cognizant of Social skill, behavior science, I am working on this to build up my social intelligence, I can rate myself at 1-5 scale at?

6. I am great a Collaborator, I am the chief catalyst for a collaborator, I can rate myself in 1-5 scale at?

7. I am excellent at Change management, I am a change agent, I work on this topic to strengthen myself, I can rate myself in 1-5 scale at?

8. I ensure I create Psychological Safe heaven at the organization, I welcome feedback and take action to enhance my competency, I can rate myself in 1-5 scale at?

9. I strive for winning the heart and mind of my companions, I can rate myself in 1-5 scale at?

10. I am a storyteller and I facilitate, influence better my companions though this approach, I can rate myself in 1-5 scale at?

Leading Others, the rate is = 50/50 = 100%, You are at Level 5 in Leading Others Pyramid Hierarchy!

How to Nurture Hope?

In 1965 Martin Seligman “discovered” learned helplessness. He noticed that when animals are subjected to painful positions they cannot control, they stop trying to escape. They become passive. Seligman attributed this helpless behavior as something that was learned after repeated failure.

Learned helplessness is a form of conditioning. Conditioning is based on the idea that human behavior is learned via associations and responses in the environment.

Unlearning this association and deconditioning the response takes just a little bit of practice.

So what do we do to improve the Hope situation? Unlearning this association and deconditioning? Leaders enhanced Hope in follower's minds. So as a leader what they do to improve people’s mind.

What is hope?

“a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen” - Oxford Dictionary

“the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life” - Wikipedia
I dwell in possibility. Emily Dickinson

When we develop hope, then self-confidence and self-belief that matters will probably work out in our favor.

Creating hope takes hard work. All the team members need work on HOPE to make it better.

Hope is directly related to our sense of possibility. The greater our perception of possibilities, the greater our hope.
A leader is a dealer in hope. Napoleon Bonaparte.

There are many approaches to discover hope. We may have our own plan.

People who successfully cultivate hope in their lives don’t become helpless by seemingly insurmountable obstacles. They get involved. They look at the stable thing that they can, in the place where they are, with the tools and the people around them. They contribute and impact positively in people's life.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller

People who successfully cultivate hope surround themselves with the individuals who are doing an outstanding task; It inspires individuals to be learned from others and better prepare for the future.
There is a saying in Tibetan, “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength”. No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. Dalai Lama.

People who successfully cultivate hope read inspirational books that can stimulate their thoughts and their devotion to go on to do more.
Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows. Helen Keller.

People who successfully cultivate hope take a break and spend time with nature. This exercise has to be performed frequently, it will revitalize individuals.

Believe in something remarkable: Be it spiritual or some miraculous power, which will support us when we are in trouble.

Doing mindful exercise. Mindful exercise will make us refresh, reduce stress, and promote hope situations.

Find our core competency and strength; which is unique to us and at ease, we can do it. When we play with our confidence, we are more hopeful to achieve the result and learn something new additional in a process.
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu

Maintain good health, when we have excellent health, we will be vigorous and can perform many things as our mind will also be with full of our support
Every cloud has a silver lining. John Milson

When we are hopeful we are curious to explore more and seek an opportunity to identify more. Hopeful people cultivate a curious mindset.
Hope itself is like a star – not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Hopeful people stretch their comfort zone and grabbed the opportunity to support others. In a process, they learn many things.

Learn from the individuals who are passing through a similar situation. We learn max form others and be ready for future challenges.Hopeful people build relationship with similar minded people and learn from them.
However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there’s life, there’s hope. Stephen Hawking

Asking a better question to clarify doubts and ambiguity of your life. Hopeful people ask and discover so that they are more confident.

Set a bigger purpose and work for it to achieve it. Hopeful people set a better goal and achieve those by taking action.

Collaborate with others, create a team for the journey, when we are alone, we occasionally suffer more, when we are accompanying an understanding companion, Hope will improve.
Hope is the ocean for the river, the sun for trees, and the sky for us. Maxime Lagacé

There are many more but all these steps will strengthen our HOPE.

Winning the heart and mind of the team members?

Every leader wishes to identify this secret and want to gain from this. 

Every leader tries there best to obtain it.

I also have worked with a few such leaders, and when I glance back, I can learn from them.

It 2003, we were joined fresh in the software company. We were in a startup company. We were thrilled that after several years of struggle we could get into the software development job! An outstanding accomplishment for us! None of our core competence was computer science, but we acquire all the applicable knowledge by performing many means!

But after joining, at the same time, we were depressed that we do not have any project. Projects were stopped coming owing to slow down. We were VB6 developers, awaiting for the assignment. Our leaders were earnestly seeking for an assignment.

We were 10 new joiners, some were developers and few are test engineers. Our leaders were few senior individuals. Very respectable people managers. Always caring and supporting us. Assuring us, encouraging us and engaging us by offering us various tasks to understand and hone our skills.

One day one assignment came, it was a C++ project. Very big program but granted to pilot with one module. We recognized that we do not have the competence to solve that immense problem. Leaders were encouraged us to engage with this project. We received a team leader from a different program and a few senior developers as a mentor for our program.

We had a routine schedule call about the program and exploring to solve the problem offered to us by the client to demonstrate that if we have the appropriate framework of thought and competency to solve that problem available with us or not.

We were working 10-15 hrs at that time, to figure out and crack that problem, we were also giving different Brainbench exams and C++ test to strengthen our knowledge.

All the 10 team members were giving 70-80 hrs in a week.

The leaders were invariably with us, accompanying us, mentoring us and with our learning journey. We never felt that we were working so hard! We were part of the whole gang where we are working out a complex problem in our life!

6 months we struggled to build the prototype system.

We lost the project!! Leaders were contending to grant us something to the client. We received an agreement. Few of our team members were allowed to travel to the customer place and work with customer teams to build the system.

And 60% of our team members will do the Unit and system testing for that solution. In rotation, after 6 months, a couple of us will accompany the team on-site for development. 

3 years we have worked for that large system development in C++ and embedded OS, once that team was 40 individuals. In one of the dominant profit-making entities at that time for our startup company wing!

We all were giving 120%, all the time, without objection. The leader was smiling and constantly inspiring all of us. We were functioning as a team like glue.

We did not have any issues working for that program.

When I look back what was the bonding the leaders have established among the team members?

Leaders have established a compelling vision for all of us. If we do not have that project, we as an individual, as a department, will lose everything.

We stretch ourselves for knowledge to know C++, to know the domain, to know software architecture, etc to establish a complete system.

We formed an appropriate team to by collaborating among ourselves, to take care of ourselves by sharing and caring for each other.

We all had to go on-site, learn from all the strong software experts to develop a complex software system.

The leader was sharing how team members were growing, getting acknowledgment from clients, expanding our project, who is traveling for the next assignment, complete transparent communication, and trusting environment.

All the leaders were excellent listeners and mentoring all of us about how to overcome conflict, challenges.

Our mentors were remarkable, as they were gaining and teaching us, and we used to share our challenges with them and was receiving guidance.

Our leaders empathized with all of us, and we also strengthen that empathy culture.

Our leaders used to travel to the client place every 6 months and share the uplifting story and support us to strengthen ourselves, They choose to establish people will travel, come back and share stories about new challenges and share success among all of us. Over a period of time, we all have developed into an excellent storyteller. 

We all had a shared purpose and all of us were passionate to accomplish the same.

All credit goes to those leaders, they win our hearts and mind, we never understood that!!

Leaders, have you built a resilient organization culture?

Resilience is described as,” the strength to overcome rapidly from troubles; toughness. And the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.”

Resilience in the organization world means an organization will endure and may even thrive when difficult situations happen.

Organizations that are full of a toxic environment and loaded with political climate quickly collapse in the crisis situation. The ecosystem is loaded with inefficient processes, incompetent people and corrupt culture.

It will be tested at the crisis time. Those companies will deteriorate substantially, anyway.

At the time of crises, all organization has to be resilience due to external circumstance.

In most of the organization, leadership sets the strength of the resilient culture.

In resilient culture employees do not look at themselves as victims of circumstances outside of their control, but rather as empowered individuals capable of going with the waves of whatever life hits them with.

Resilient organizations last long and navigate change better than anybody else.

The first and most fundamental foundation of the resilient organization of tomorrow is considering a compelling vision. Leaders assure all the team members are driven by the vision. All team members are building up their own individual vision, with that they associate with the organization’s significant vision.

Resilient people make resilient cultures. From leadership to all the team members, they recognize what resilience mindset is all about; they ensure they spread this mindset.

Leaders continue to build resilient teams and team members.

They find waste into the system and rapidly eliminate this waste by taking aggressive actions promptly.

Leaders constantly work to minimize layers so that team can instantly and rapidly build up the product and solutions.

Leaders are continually monitoring the acceleration of delivery and customer satisfaction.

Leaders help the teams to get rid of all the hurdles on the way of smooth execution.

Leaders ensure all the team members have collaborated frequently and the silos wall has been collapsed immediately.

Leaders ensure all the employees are exhibiting new skill development and their attitude is to quickly learn and develop solutions with the demonstration of knowledge in their delivery

Leaders recognized all the employees for share and care culture and each team member mentors each other.

The leader builds a continuous improvement in a community. At the time of crises, those relentless improvement drive supports the organizations to be prosperous.

To build resilience, culture leaders ensure transparent decision-making and candid discussions across all the departments. They use tools and technology to immediately connect with all the team members, and display the progress to all members.

To build resilience culture leaders are a future thinker, they glance at the horizon for what is upcoming, discuss with the team members and debate for implementation. They are not inhibited by the roadblocks. With the help of high-performance team members, they explore to eliminate the unknown and discover the unique world.

Leaders of resilience culture constantly associated with the end-users, they receive their feedback and see through to close those. They empathize with the individuals and listen to their concerns and demands.

Leaders ensure positivity spread in his/her team members. A leader’s belief is contagious which to contribute bigger and stronger and in a process, we all should expand. Optimistic leaders know they will be successful in the end, It becomes a part of a resilience culture.

Leaders are tenacious and persist to accomplish their goals. In the case of a crisis, they focused more effort to come through with success. They walk the talk and develop into a role model for others. When individuals work with such leaders, they reproduce these traits and spread. It grows into a part of a resilience culture.

In Resilience culture team members are closely connected, they are in the solid network, leaders establish the bonding and well-established relation with better communication. They communicate, communicate and communicate, they speak out of their mind. There is no hidden agenda.

In Resilience culture, leaders trust their team members, Leaders acknowledge and thankful for their team member’s contribution. They acknowledge the work done by the team members, this positive culture promotes the team members to contribute more and stretch for it if called for.

In resilience culture, team members know what are the team shared vision and purpose for their performance, The leader reinforce these shared visions and purpose. Leaders check if we are altering the working agreement owing to current development.

A community of like-minded team members: Team members ensure, in resilience culture, all the team members establish a network of people, who can support each other all the time. They establish that we all can aid and learn from each other.

Innovation: Leaders encourage the experiment and reinforce a fail-fast mindset, Leaders engage in innovation events and honor the top 10 best product and solutions ideas that go into production. They follow through maximum ideas to go into the delivery.

“Resilience isn’t a single skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive.” – Jean Chatzky

It takes a lot of effort from leaders to create such a resilient culture.

How Leaders energize and empower people?

As a leader to accomplish success, we need to ensure energize and empower our team members. It is the desire of the moment. 

Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company. - Zig Ziglar

Great leaders inspire action with their words.

“When people know why you do what you do, they are willing to give you credit for everything that could serve as proof of why.” – Simon Sinek

Leaders have to know further about their team members. They inquire what inspires their team. Is it the mission? The intimacy and teamwork? Personal ambition? Leaders discover and jointly with the team members create a common shared goal.

Great leaders are continually find approaches to honor their team members and celebrate their individual and shared successes.

Leaders know how to acknowledge people’s contributions. They reward their team members as an when they encounter small opportunities.

Leaders are curious about their people, their intention is to help the team members. To energize their people, listen with curiosity, speak with honesty and act with integrity.

Leaders understand the people’s value, they respect each individual. They understand the strength and weaknesses of their team members. They work by aligning with their team members and organization big picture.

Leaders are always grateful for their team member’s contributions. They thank frequently about team member’s commitment and acknowledge the challenges team members are facing and support to overcome those.

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” - Stephen R. Covey

Leaders who are high in emotional intelligence are in a good position to energizer the team members, They understand the people’s mindset better and influence people attitude positively.

Leaders who can easily energize employee look at the positive side of employees activities

Leaders support team members and mentor team all the time. Leaders ensure they guide team members to strengthen their skills and competency. Leaders create more leaders.

They inspire the team member’s positively to obtain a bigger vision. 

I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised. - Sir Richard Branson

Leaders ensuring their team member’s skills and competency are strengthened and regularly leaders assess their growth progress. They send team members on various training and skill development programs. They ensure on the job team members exercise those skills and multiply.

Leaders give feedback to all the employees about their performance. Leaders ensure that that feedback is taken positively and employees prepared to perform on those feedback for advancement.

Leaders ensure team members exercise their creative skill and there is a culture of experimenting and gain from failure.

"There is little success where there is little laughter." - Andrew Carnegie

Leaders do not treat the employee as a child but as a partner. Leaders work with the team members for a shared goal and common purpose.

Positivity at the workplace: Leaders eliminate toxic environment from the office. They ensure positivity is available at office culture. Decisions taken are transparent and there is trust among team members.

Accessible: Leaders ensure that they are accessible to the team members as an when required, that is the best support leaders can produce. Whenever there is a conflict or any crisis situation if employees are able to obtain support from the leaders, it establishes a constructive impact on their attitude.

The leader asks powerful questions to identify expectations from the team members. Leaders connect with the team members to figure out what are the strength and weaknesses of their team members, what they choose to accomplish, what are their vision, based on the input leader chalk out the career advancement plan.

“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.” – Tom Peters

Leaders Provide autonomy to their team members. Once team members have the freedom, they will be more empowered to make their own decision and ownership level intensified.

Leaders communicate precisely and clarify what they expect out from the employee. Leaders set distinct expectations and track through and support wherever requested.

Leaders constantly give feedback for advancement, appreciate whenever the task has been accomplished successfully. 

Trust your employee, once you as leaders trust employees, they trust culture will establish. Leaders have to walk the talk and these will spread. 

By letting your employees grow, your company will also grow exponentially. - Mark Samraj

Empathize with team members, it goes a long way when we understand the challenge each team members are experiencing. Empathy leads to empowerment. So leaders exercise empathy to realize their team member's challenges.

Let employees take a vacation and ensure work-life balance is maintained. That is what great leaders expect. Once as a leader you encouraging these team members to revitalize themselves, they will come with sufficient energy and they will be prepared to contribute better. 

“Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.” - Lee Lacocca

As a leader try these steps and see the result you gain. It needs a lot of preparation and practice.

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Imagining the elegance of nature in mind and its benefits?

Imagery is a process of applying our imagination, and it has myriad potential benefits. 

Why not apply this technique for our excellence, when it is proven? How can we take advantage of this process for our own mental boost? 

When we imagine a positive mental image, it heightens our emotional well-being. 

The technique uses words and images to help move your attention away from the worry, stress, and pain to serve us and find our own inner strength and creativity. More and More positive words and Positive image the better it affect will be. 

The more negative thoughts come, the higher we will feel an emotional disruption. 

There is an Association between mental imagery and emotional and cognitive processes in emotional disorders. 

Mental imagery can enhance engagement in planned behaviors, potentially due to its unique role in representing emotionally salient experiences. 

Mental imagery allows us to “pre-experience” forthcoming activities and thereby to prepare for their potential to be pleasant and rewarding. 

This exercise is extremely valuable for anyone. 

For example, a participant presented with a picture of a rain cloud in combination with the word “refreshing” may imagine the pleasant feeling of cool rain on a hot day. 

The word we use with the picture plays a pivotal role to influence our minds. More positive and optimistic words with optimistic photos, the better feeling participants will experience. The reverse is also true! 

Imagery can be employed to improve qualities in ourselves we would like to have — it’s like emotional body-building — and applying a technique called “Evocative Imagery” we can encourage courage, perseverance, patience, wit, concentration, self-confidence or any new quality we would like to establish. 

We can apply it to improve relaxation, which can reduce blood pressure and diminish other problems related to stress. 

Imagination is an extremely powerful tool when we think about lying down on the beach in Goa, our body behaves as if we are indeed lying down on the beach in Goa. 

This scene maybe something in the natural world like a beautiful coffee estate in Coonoor with dazzling and cool water at the bottom or a quiet and dense forest where we may choose a gentle walk in our imagination. 

It will help us to think clearer, and clear our mind of cluttering thoughts, that congest the mind. 

Improves our visualization skills, which will benefit to enhance right-brain thinking. 

For example, in any significant event like large room planning, I employ this technique; I consider it for the end. What will be the outcome? I Use all the sense about the room, individuals, conversations and experience things are already taking place and it moving remarkably well, individuals are engaged in their discussion, presenting the outcome and voting for the magnificent result. I hear the clapping from all the individuals after successfully accomplishing the events. 

Let us all employ a delightful moment from our life, picture, places we have visited and restate those wonderful memories in our mind. when we are down, let us use appropriate visual images, rain sounds, jungle walk and use positive words.