The Ten Best Management Tips I received

None of the ideas in this piece are original. They are things I have read, heard from gurus or seen in different parts of my journey, which has incidentally just begun. Like many of us, I have been high on intent, positive in direction but miles to go towards achieving consistency in thought and action. The tips below have helped in making the journey a little better than it would have been without them

Passion, Energy and Optimism are your true friends

You don’t control what the world does to you. You do control what you make out of it and how you react or don’t. Passion allows you to brush off set backs & irritations like a water rolling down a lotus. Energy allows you to do so day in & day out. Optimism gives you a distortion field that makes the glass always appear half full. One discovers that the glass is always after all half full!

Sales shortfall can be explained, but not the MIS coming late

This is a lot like the story of Al Capone. For those of you who came in late, Al Capone was a gangster in the 30’s who couldn’t be booked for much due to lack of evidence. However the IRS (the tax authorities), interned him on tax evasion charges. Not achieving your sales target in a month could be on account of factors beyond your control. Not generating sufficient leads, qualifying them, progressing them along the sales funnel, submitting proposals etc are unpardonable, besides being impossible to explain

Don’t Boil Oceans

Most of us are not rocket scientists! We don’t work for NASA or design in Apple (I am hoping some of you do,in which case I am thrilled that you have read till now) . We do need to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. This requires us to be receptive, perceptive, sensible, collaborative and quick thinking. I have seldom seen the quality of critical decisions improve with the time taken to make them. Decisions taken using intuition, data, participation and ownership – are typically of a better quality

The more the Goals, the lesser the delivery

The above statement is not true for Superman. He has X-ray vision, super hearing and can wear his underwear over his trousers. For most mortals in an increasingly complex world, we already have a multitude of goals that we are continuously pursuing. A part of us wants to be fit, another wants to learn music or a new language, a third part of our self- desires great education for our children, a fourth part wishes a happy married life and so on and so forth. Add to this more than 1-2 professional goals every quarter and you have a situation tailor made for Superman. Remember to take stock of all your goals in your personal, professional, social and economic life – before you commit 3-4 goals or more professionally. If the last ones were not achieved, then there is slant chance of the new ones going too far. It hurts in the solar plexus

Focus, Focus, Focus – on the big, on the better, on the higher

A tent never goes higher if you plonk more rods inside which are of the same height, it only gets more crowded. Similarly your career graph goes up only if you plant higher rods. The only way to find and plant a higher rod is through focus. Look at a time in your life that you achieved something that really gives you joy today. I can bet my bottom dime that– it was very important for you, you pursued it with passion and you overcame a number of hurdles. Yes, that’s right, go and do the same again for what’s important to you over and over again from now on

Say to Do Ratio should be one

Spell out clearly what you will do. Do what you have spelled out. Make this a part of your habit. Do this for 66 days without fail and it would be a habit that would help you for all your days remaining. As a team, as a family, as a community and as a nation – one should follow this mantra.

One should Generally have a healthy disrespect for things General

In my experience things happen when the RACI(Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed) matrix is clear, articulated, measured and understood. Generalities are used when one does not want to commit to something specific. Things get done when one can focus on what one has to do, and knows that the others would do the same, without having to look over ones shoulder.

The CEO has only three jobs – create & strengthen the internal markets for ideas, capital and talent

Growth happens when the best ideas get funded and are driven by the best talent. Whilst most organizations have very well laid out methods for even the smallest capital purchases externally, the market for internal capital is weak. To give an example – the processes for attraction, selecting and retaining human capital is far weaker than buying a computer. Internal talent should go the highest bidder and there should be demand and supply. Unfortunately with the focus on the ‘war for talent’, it is easy to forget that talent exists internally, and the same effort is not being invested there.

A leader should spend a third of his time with customers, a third with employees and a third with himself

Reflection and introspection are rare in an instant world. With device proliferation, digital distractions and multi-tasking permeating, ‘me time’ has become a casualty. Insights are generated mostly with reflection & introspection which nurtures intuition. When data and intuition intersects insights start

The ethical challenge of leadership is to be different things to different people and do so ethically

A leader cannot and should not share all he knows with even his most loyal followers. Transparency does not mean the art of verbalizing every thought that comes to ones mind. Transparency means providing all information that is needed by different people to work collaboratively and effectively. The nature, source, scope and timeliness of information for different levels, functions, teams and geographies are different. Different cultures and people also handle information differently. In the truest sense, adjusting frequently to the requirements of the situation, will lead to appear inconsistent to himself. That is the price of leadership

What are the best management tips you received? Please do share them. I really appreciate your reading my posts. If you find the post useful, please circulate share it with people, groups or forums where you think it is relevant. You can follow me on @sarajitjha