Of Love, Life, Happiness … and Teams?

Source: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

What better way to learn about how to live your life than from a dying cancer patient that loved his life and continued to love his life despite cancer. Due to this blog, I’ve started taking notes every time I read a book. This book has a lot of important lessons! I was categorizing them under love, life, communication and a category that came to my surprise was teams. However, its really no surprise that he did this in his book because so much of what we do involves working with others and effective communication.

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon and he had his students work in teams in his classes but what made him special was that he really taught them how to work in a team. He made students rate their teammates on how easy it was to work with them and made these results public. He always found that the students that were hard to work with never knew that about themselves until this data was made available to them. Of course they were also defensive and hard to convince that the data was indeed accurate. More on how he dealt with that later.

Randy had the following to say about working in a team:

1. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome.
2. Start by sitting together in class
3. Meet people properly – learn to pronounce names
4. Find things you have in common
5. Try for optimal meeting conditions – during meals
6. Let everyone talk – don’t finish sentences for others
7. Check egos at the door – Give names to ideas that are representative of the idea and not the person
8. Praise each other
9. Phrase alternatives as questions – use the word instead 

These are useful instructions but what struck me was how lucky his students were to have a professor that was willing to be an unbiased enforcer. He taught and showed them proactively the advantages of working together.

Do all teams need an enforcer to function properly and be productive? Should each team have an assigned enforcer from the beginning? How do we ensure the enforcer isn’t biased? The government uses checks and balances but we also know what happens when the enforcers become biased. Things come to a standstill and teams become dysfunctional. How we do we fix this? How do we move forward and get back to productivity? History shows us that a leader has to rise. A person that rises to change the status quo is on his way to be a great leader. When this person doesn’t let the confines of their position limit their ability to make a difference, that’s when there will be growth. Friction causes leaders to emerge. Friction shows us each teammate’s true commitment to the end goal. Enforcers should be put back in their place and the team needs to get back on track with the vision.

When a student on Randy’s research team was particularly difficult to work with, this is what Randy had to say. “I know you are smart. Everyone here is smart. Smart isn’t enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone else feel happy to be here.”

Are you willing to check your ego at the door? Are you willing to help others feel happy to be a part of the team? Are you ready to be a teammate first? Will you stand up in conflict and make a contribution? Have you in the past? If not, are you willing to change?

How you choose to react in situations defines the type of person you are and I hope you will react in a way that will shape you in to a great leader.

Let me know what you think. 

All About Money

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Leadership books often talk about the importance of management of people or personal time. They offer up best practices or give anecdotes into why gratitude or other virtuous characteristics are important to be a great leader. The book Rich Dad, Poor Dad does some of that but it mostly talks about money. The author recognizes that management/leadership comprises of three things:

• Management of cashflow

• Management of people

• Management of personal time 

There are managers that focus solely on results and there are those that focus on people but managers that are able to focus on both people and results are the successful ones. This book while teaching you about money gives you insight into people's attitudes towards money.

Leaders/managers are so close to the details of the problem/challenge faced that they are at risk of developing tunnel vision. When you look to solve the problem related to money, facts surrounding the solution are just as important as those surrounding the challenge. Insight into people's behavior about money helps us predict their actions and with practice this skill becomes a valuable tool in our arsenal to face any problem successfully.

I was raised to believe that hard work will pay off and eventually will get me to a point in life when I don’t have to worry about money. After having worked for a few years, I started to see a few glitches in this system. Taxes always come first, salary comes later. So mathematically for me to get to point A (Point A being a certain amount of money where I don’t have to worry about money), I really need to be at point B which is 1.5*A. This is disconcerting.

Money is a very real thing but we are all shy to talk about it. Money is a real thing for leaders at organizations and managers at corporations. When we gain knowledge on how money works and there by have control of it in our personal life, we will have a better grasp on how to make decisions at organizations and corporations. I can speak from personal experience that insight into people's attitudes towards money helps you fundraise, draw budgets, and get results!

This book talks about being financially intelligent. The leadership/management quality we don’t hear about often.

Before we get into what financial intelligence is, let’s actually open our minds to it.

Attitude:

Do you wake up every morning for work and return every day feeling unhappy about your salary, your work or your raise? Have you thought of changing this routine?

Albert Einstein says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This doesn’t mean you quit your job but I hope you ponder whether this is the lifestyle you want. where happiness related to money is always in the control of your boss or government policy. 

Action:

How do you take back control? Robert says first recognize that you want to change your routine and take steps each day to take back control. Invest in education to become financially intelligent.

Financial Intelligence:

1. Financial literacy – ability to read numbers or accounting. 

What are assets? What are liabilities? Assets make money. Liabilities don’t.

2. Investment strategies – science of money making money.

Knowledge about stocks, entrepreneurship and real estate. Good investments give you income without your involvement and even when you are not putting money. Good investments help during retirement.

3. Market – supply and demand.

Knowledge on how to manage investments that you have acquired.

4. Law – tax advantages and protection from lawsuits.

How to keep taxes low legally.

It is easy to dismiss all this talk about money with the pretense of taking the moral high ground that money isn't important but pause and reflect on how many times money has affected your decisions. 

Finally it is important to note that Robert Kiyosaki is a "best-selling author" not a best-writing author or the best accountant. Credibility and success is often measured by money that is backing up the idea or the corporation. 

Manage to inspire others to manage.

Source: The One-Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard

I picked up this book as recommended by a friend thinking it was about how to manage time effectively. Well, it kind of is. It talks about how to manage others effectively so time is created for you from the efficient management. How? (Replace the words manager and employee with leader and member to apply this for leadership related situations)

First key idea -- Both the manager and the employee have to inherently care about the development of the employee. The manager agrees to give honest feedback (positive and negative) in no uncertain terms to the employee for the sake of development. Employee agrees to accept feedback.

One-Minute Goal Setting:

-- Write in less than 250 words on a piece of paper the goals. Both parties (Manager and employee) have to agree on the terms of the goals and what it means for the goals to be accomplished successfully. 

Advantages:

1. Clarity for both parties

2. A measuring tool

3. A clear representation of success

4. A ready reminder of goals

One-Minute Praising:

 -- Manager takes a minute to compliment and give immediate specific feedback to the employee. It is caring and helps both parties create a positive space that encourages progress. 

Advantages:

1. Positive feedback loop

2. Immediacy of this feedback helps employee stay on the right track

3. Consistent feedback from the manager helps build trust in the manager

4. Employee eventually becomes self-aware of his own positive actions and becomes constructive

One-Minute Reprimand:

-- Manager takes a minute to reprimand and give immediate specific feedback to the employee. The manager takes 30 seconds to express how they feel about the error made by employee, allows time for it to sink in and finally clarifies that they are upset at the erroneous behavior and not the employee themselves. 

Advantages:

1. Immediate feedback prevents repetition of this out-of-the-norm/erroneous behavior

2. Reaffirms to the employee his/her value to the company

3. This feedback loop doesn't allow negative feedback to be piled up for an year-end review that seldom leads to improvement.

Favorite example in the book:

Trainers that hope to teach a whale to jump through a hoop for a sea-world show do not go into the ocean hang a hoop in the air and wait for a whale to jump through so they can bring it in for the show. They catch a whale, bring it in and teach it through a positive feedback loop on how to achieve the final goal. The whale starts out by excelling at this task at the bottom of the pool until it can finally jump through the hoop outside of the water for the audience to see. 

As managers or leaders, we are seldom given individuals that already excel at their future goals. It is our job to train and lead them to their goals while recognizing that each individual has the potential to accomplish the set goals. The author says that in his experience this method has freed up time for him as a manager because there is clarity at every step for the employee and himself. The employee also begins to adopt these ways and becomes self-sufficient. 

For Whom Is The Leader?

http://devdutt.com/topics/leadership/for-whom-is-the-king.html

Devdutt Pattanaik has been one of my favorite authors for the past couple of years. He combines my two favorite loves: Hinduism and Leadership.

It’s a short article. My previous post has talked about the ‘why’ of an organization but this one talks about the ‘why’ of a leader. The article encourages you to reflect on your motivation for being a leader in your organization. Are you a leader in X for your own sake or is it for the sake of the members you are working for? I know there is a politically correct answer but this question is rhetorical so no need to be PC. 

I was moved by this reflection at a time of conflict in my organization. It gave me clarity at a time of need. When asked to complete a task I would instinctively, out of habit, respond with the amount of time I could contribute to that task rather than remembering that I was in a fortunate position to complete that task. The choice of words here set a standard, a culture for generations to come. It is a very altruistic stance to take: always thinking of the populace and not self but I think with practice it helps me stay focused on the goals at hand.

Leaders are instruments to carry out the vision and mission laid out in that organization. It is important to remember that the cause is more important than the individual leader. Without this ideology in practice, I’m sure we are all capable of being good managers but do we become leaders?

I was encouraged that day to take the first step to emulate Bhagwan Ram of Ayodhya, I hope you are as well. Let's fulfill our duties and complete our tasks. Let's lead the way we want to be led. Let's treat our position as a privilege and not as a burden. Let's inspire people to take our place soon. 

Favorite line: “There are kings who exist for the kingdom, and there are kingdoms that exist to prop up a king”.

Why?

Ted Talk by Simon Sinek -- How great leaders inspire action

Watch at least the first five minutes before you read the following.

After watching this video, I asked myself “Why HSA?” (non-profit org) and “Why Cyberonics?” (work place)

I realized immediately that my success or the organization’s success relies on the alignment of my ‘why’ with that of the leadership and the organization.

I think it is common to come up with personalized answers or answers related to projects/events we are a part of but it is important to consider if the answer reflects the ‘why’ of the organization. The ‘why’ of the organization should be more important than the why of any individual in that institution. Individuals in an organization are tools to accomplish the goals of the organization at different levels.

By removing the factor of an individual’s ‘why’ we give the position more importance. We start to align with the position and the goals of that position rather than the person holding that position. At the end of the day, that’s why that position was created. With this, the position and the division of labor gain a new respect and standard.

(As Simon describes in the video) While individuals in the organizations may not always see eye-to-eye on how things are done, the ‘why’ should still stay the same. We can work on our differences in how we do things but it's a problem if our "why" is different. 

At every major milestone, it is important to question ourselves if the following has been accomplished:

Have I inspired anyone new to align with the goals of the organization?

Has someone inspired me in how they accomplish their goals?

Are the initiatives/events aligned with the goal of the organization?

Have I created a leader?

Did I come up with any new initiatives or processes to accomplish the goals?

This is how individuals become leaders; by spending more time on the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’ or the ‘how’.

Focusing on the 'why' differentiates Apple from HP. Focusing on the 'why' differentiates a person that inspires leaders from a person that manages people.