Never Eat Alone

The tight schedule due to business priorities had put me on a reading fast for past few weeks. Yesterday, I decided to break that fast and get a nice book to read. I spotted a book that had an interesting title ‘Never eat alone’ by Keith Ferrazzi. I went over the pages and finalized to check it out from library. After reading its first 10 pages, I thought that it matched with many of my thoughts and hence thought of putting them down in this blog.

First of all, the title is pretty much in line with the philosophy of how I would like to grow our business/organization. I truly believe in growing together and there is lot of fun in growing together rather than growing alone. When all of your team members dream and get passionate to work on the defined goals and work towards the same mission and vision, the energy and enthusiasm is contagious. This makes it easier and faster to achieve the objectives.

Its hardly 10 pages that I have read; however, another point that I liked was to respect the relationships. Somehow, I have never been comfortable to go out and network with people with an intention to seek favors from them. Here the author has beautifully explained that we should not keep scores which makes you to remain unbiased and relentlessly trust the relationship. Indeed, when nobody keeps scores, they tend to help and seek help without having to tally the scores.

I understand that one may think that this is not necessarily in reality that others will not keep a score even though you may help them wholeheartedly. Well, for those, I have a very simple question – ‘Who controls you?’ Do you realize that when you tend to think on those lines, you tend to lose your control and obviously lose the focus of your objectives? The net result – You then start being very cautious about that person. In short, you start losing control of your own and start getting controlled by others. Next, you start slowly judging or keeping a track of when was the last time he had helped you, why should you help him etc. As you may notice, in this process although you had an intention of helping, you feel not to.

Do not mistake this with dependence. I tend to avoid creating dependency which sucks and makes one lazy. That’s one of the reasons why I ensure that nobody gets a spoon feeding when we get someone trained in our organization. We set the expectations on what is expected towards the end of the goal. This also helps to evaluate the learning curve of the person and how much would he be able to manage the assignment himself without relying on others much, except for genuine help. Indeed, he needs to establish the relationship with existing folks so that he will be helped, i.e. if he eats alone, he needs to digest it all by himself.

I don’t think that this is something new either. This is similar to the thought –‘United we stand, divided we fall’. There are many literatures written on this in different variations. In all versions, we see that victory begets those who work together towards the same goal. So, why venture alone when there is so much of fun when you win it along with your friends/near and dear ones? The important part is to share with them who support you to make it happen with equal trust and confidence. I would summarize it as ‘United we eat and serve better, divided we starve and beg’

Dissatisfied Creativity

I came across this phrase recently while reading an article written by CEO of one of our customers. As usual, I tried to instantly relate to if we practiced it or if I could share this with my team members. The more I thought, the more I was convinced that we did practice it.

The ambitious people usually set a goal and work towards it. I have seen few people who unknowingly tend to stop their growth after achieving their long cherished goals. The problem seems to be NOT thinking beyond goals. Many a times, people find themselves not being able to move ahead after achieving the goal as they would not have thought beyond it. I am sure you would have come across folks working hard to get into IIT. Some folks, after securing a seat in IIT, go into such a satisfied stage that they do not feel like studying or working hard any further. Consider the case of people lining to do MBA. Many a times when they do not get job of their interest, they join Information Technology. Why? Because, they would not have thought of options when things may not work after achieving goals. At least half a dozen people who I have asked why do they plan to do Masters have answered that it is only for higher studies. None of them seemed to have given a clear justifiable reason so far.

Why do you think it is necessary to have dissatisfied creativity? It is a natural tendency to go into satisfaction mode the moment some important work is done. I do not intend to say that it is necessary do post mortem of every activity that you do and explore improvements. However, there are certain tasks, especially important milestones for which I would suggest to be into dissatisfied creativity mode. This is important explicitly during planning phase. Genuine dissatisfaction to explore that you have been able to think through the options, ensure best quality, calculate risks and mitigations help to deliver the project/milestones more effectively. I do not mean that you should not celebrate your achievements.

I have always been in the awe of people who have built big business empires in India. Tata, Birla, Goenka, Khaitan, Bajaj etc. Its very obvious the way these people worked to grow their establishments despite having influential political connections. I would recommend to read ‘Business Maharajas’ by Gita Piramal for those who are interested to know more about their biographies. It is amazing to know the way they have climbed the ladders of success. Most of us know their success stories; however, this book also sheds light on the projects that they did not succeed. Their stories reflect their dissatisfied creativity of starting a new project the moment one is completed. They used to always set their focus on another project, mostly larger than earlier ones as soon as they were done with one. Steve Jobs too, in one of his popular speech, urged during Stanford University graduation ceremony to remain hungry and foolish, which I believe, in turn, is to refrain from being satisfied with success/knowledge.

If I may, I would add and make it as Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Stay Dissatisfied

Leadership Myths

Let me start this short blog by listing the typical myths that sometimes unknowingly bog down many people –

• I can’t lead if I am not at the top

• When I get to the top, then I’ll learn to lead

• When I get to the top, I’ll be in control

• I can’t reach my potential if I am not the top leader

• If I can’t get to the top, then I won’t try to lead

I am sure that the above thoughts would have whirled in your head at some point of time, especially when you were feeling low. It is the attitude that differentiates how one dusts off the above thoughts and moves ahead. Many a times, people use above myths as an excuse to give up trying/exploring and continue with their mundane activities.

Did you notice that all above myths seem to be self-centred? Now, do you see how leaders tend to leverage potential of their teams to move ahead together rather than putting their personal interests ahead of the team? This also helps the leader to overcome his own limitations and yet lead the pack.

Interestingly, I have experienced instances where in people who are average in their domain but good in changing perceptions; manage to get going. So, how does one manage perceptions? I would suggest defining what success means to you without getting bogged down by the failure. Although success and failure are context relative, one should be able to clear on what is expected as net result. Ok, rather than putting generic thoughts, let me share some of the thoughts what can be communicated to the team by leaders/managers in IT industry to help change a perception from being a non-performing to a contributing team –

• Let the team know that you are NOT a magician and you are there to ensure smooth deliverables.

• Ensure that intent is to control project/process and NOT people.

• Be well prepared for the meetings to respect every individual’s time. Also, if you are managing onsite-offshore teams, ensure to be ready with smart questions to avoid the wasting next working day.

• Take accountability of assigned tasks. (Accountability is taking ownership of that task rather than coming up with excuses that it was not completed because of others).

Once you ensure that you have set the expectations and taken care of your team, you can rest be assured that they will seldom disappoint you.

How do you know if the team has understood your communication and is ready to change the perception? Well, you can mark the day when team members would start asking what they can do for the organization rather than asking what can the organization do for them.