Initiative, Innovation and Integration Lead to Excellence

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience.” – By Robert Fulghum

In today’s world of high technology and competition, you need to be imaginative and thinking out-of-the-box, innovative and be the market leader. The global market is quite turbulent and a lot of uncertainty in political and financial systems. Therefore you need to use your initiative and creativity to evolve sustainable and cost-efficient products/services. Due priority should be given to important tasks, while rest can wait. As a manager/team leader you should review your task in-hand and readjust priorities. Follow the simple rule of Must do, Should do and Could do (MSC). Some basic points for guidance are given in the following sections:

• Ideas. Keep a small notebook in your pocket/bag to note down ideas as these may occur at any time. Do weekly/monthly sorting of recorded ideas to find doable and something out of the ordinary. Getting a new idea is part of creative thinking. The idea need not be yours and it may be of any team member. Ideas of other members or your team may be small but must be appreciated. Every idea may not be successful but you must be determined to make it work. The good old saying is ever true-

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life, Think of it, the dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda

• Identity. God has provided a unique identity like a fingerprint to all of us. We may have an identity by our appearance/ uniform as a soldier, policeman, advocate, doctor nurse or pilot or hostess. You should aim for developing your identity for great performance and support.
• Idiosyncrasy. Be simple, trustworthy and easily accessible. Do not have idiosyncrasies to make you a difficult person.
• Idle. Be active, participative, supporting and moving ahead. Do not sit idle as they say, “ Idle man brain is devil’s workshop”. A busy person is a happy person. Likewise, keep your resources including money to be actively and wisely deployed /employed to get the best return.
• Ignore. Ignore the small mistakes of others and see the best in them. But do not ignore your family and friends, while you could be very busy with your job, Learn to share time and give due attention to all those who need your participation.
• Illegal. Do everything which is legal and admissible. Do not indulge in any illegal activity which could harm you and even the name of the organisation. . Illegal activities/action, procurement, possession will draw legal action and could be a huge penalty. It is better to be contented with what you have and must not be greedy to grab someone's resources illegally.
• Image. We like to all need popularity and praise for our work. Your performance should build your image of a hard-working, sincere and flexible professional who is committed to his/her words. This will also enhance the image of the company and your family.
• Imagination. You must think innovatively apply your knowledge and stretch your imagination to innovate new products/ services.
• Imitate Do mot imitate others to show off. This could be beyond your means. Be honest and real with no false projection to match/ beat others.
• Immaculate. Your dress need not be costly or flashy but it should be spotless, pure, and clean. Similarly your workplace and home should be immaculate. Likewise your performance. display of talent, product and service must flawless, and capturing the mind of customers.
• Immature Immaturity in thoughts and action will annoy others and you will lose many good friends, As you grow in age, experience and knowledge, you must show, maturity while speaking and negotiating. A mature person is liked by all and wins many friends and associates
• Immediate. Always do first thing first and pay immediate attention to the emerging situation. Certain things/ persons can wait while others require immediate attention. Therefore you should be discrete
• Imminent. Stay alert to watch for imminent danger/risk and respond in time and appropriately. Remember the old saying “ coming events cast their shadow before.”
• Immunity. Keep good health and eat healthy food so that your body maintains adequate immunity against various verses and diseases
• Impact. Your speech, demonstration, display or discussion should have a good impact on the audience/participants. Similarly, while negotiating with a business partner, vendors or customer you should have a thorough knowledge of the subject/product, self-confidence and good preparation to engage them and create an impact that they love to listen to you.
• Impartial. Be impartial, fair and transparent when dealing with your team members, vendors, business partners. You should be impartial while reviewing the performance of your juniors. Impartiality breeds trust and cohesion in the team.
• Implement. Good planning is a must for the success of any project or task. Once planning has been carefully carried out, you and your team must implement faithfully, speedily, within the allotted budget and as per user specifications.
• Implication. While making decision and actions you must also consider its implications so that all stakeholders are happy
• Implicit. Instruction is given with implicit meaning often leads to misunderstanding among some team members. Your instruction to the team must be explicit and clear so that all concerned carry out their assigned task correctly.
• Important. Do first thing first but give due consideration to the important task and manage your time and effort judiciously. The normal or routine job can wait but an important task needs immediate attention.
• Impose. Always create a friendly work environment and avoid imposing restrictions on your team. Be gentle and friendly while dealing with others and do not impose yourself upon them as nobody likes bossy people
• Impossible. Some problem or situation may be difficult to find a solution but nothing is impossible. Confidence in self, hope/ support from others and faith in God will make it impossible to possible. The famous book on world war 2 “ Defeat into victory”, is a classic example of facing the odds bravely and come out a winner.
• Impression. Remember the first impression is the best impression. While conducting a teaching class/workshop, or giving a demonstration of any product/service dealing with customers, channel partners/ business partners, team members or senior, you must prepare well and make your impression so good that they all like to listen to you again and again. If the first impression is not effective, it requires a lot of efforts to improve that and rebuild good relationships.
• Improvement of Competence. Improvement in skills, knowledge and processes is a continuous activity. To stay ahead and lead from the front, self-improvement should be an on-going activity.
• Impulsive. Be calm and composed to collect facts before you make a decision. Any decision taken in a jiffy reflects your impulsive nature and one often become hash in her/his dealing for which he/she may regret later. You need to control your thoughts, mood and expectations so that you stay cool and more understanding. Take your time and may seek help to take bugger/ important decisions.
• Inaccessible. Always keep your doors open to your team members, peers, friends and be easily approachable. Be ready to pause your work at hand and pay attention to help others. Create an atmosphere of a happy family and easy accessibility among all.
• Inaccurate. Always seek excellence and be accurate in your estimates, spending and any transaction, Any inaccuracy in specifications, quality or a financial transaction can lead to rework and financial loss.
• Incentive. To motivate your team to work more and willingly, there your be an incentive. It could be monitory or non-monitory. Everyone looks for appreciation and reward which may be small but time yo boost morale. Do appreciate even small, the achievement of your team and give them an incentive, Infect, most employers have a built-in incentive in your pay package, so that you are ways remain inspired and more productive.
• Indifferent As a member of your team, you must mix well and participate actively. Be a useful member of your team and give respect to the views of all others. You should not stand upon any formality or be indifferent to the suggestion or observation of others. Always believe in a shared goal and get wholeheartedly involved.
• Independent. You should be independent in decision making for building your carrier. Trust in your own capability and prove your worth to yourself, the team and your seniors. However, while working on projects and bigger tasks you need to network, interdependent with others and integrate the efforts of sub-teams.
• Individualism. No individual can solve all the problems but as a team when many individuals unite to give a rush to any big task becomes smaller and easy to accomplish. Team effort is always strong than any individual. One may be very bright and a superstar in his / her skills but he/she must make a good team member ensure the team succeeds not individual, Take the case of players in, hockey or soccer, it is teamwork to score goals and win the championship.
• Inertia to change. You should not get stuck in your comfort zone as that is a sign of laziness. You are to be bubbling with energy and taking initiative and move ahead of others. Today’s world is highly dynamic where speed in decision-making and taking action is the key to stay ahead. Hesitation to change will be a drag on your career.
• Inferiority Complex. We often make comparison with others regarding our life, looks, skills, capabilities, status, wealth and performance. Be proud of your competence and have your own style of doing a job. Inferiority the complex will bring down your self-esteem and performance No one can make you feel inferior until you yourself scum to such thought.
• Initiate. Remember the old good saying – “Well begun is half done.” Always response quickly to grab an opportunity and initiate the process. People who keep waiting and thinking, often hibernate and lose the opportunity. Time never waits and an opportunity comes like a flying bird coming to your window to chirp for a while and fly away. Do not get “pyrolysis thorough analysis” that you get into an endless loop of weighing pros and coins while others who took initiative, are already ahead of you.
• Inference. When you read or listen to an instruction, you should be able to quickly infer what does the organisation of senior expects out of you. To draw correct inference one should be attentive while in the audience
• Influence. As you grow in age, status and experience, you should gain the maturity to influence others and build the relationship, new partnerships. Your area of control may be limited to your team size but your area of influence could be much larger.
• Informal. To is good to maintain discipline in the team/ organisation and be formal in your workplace. However, it is also useful to have informal contacts outside the team and even outside the organisation, where you could freely share knowledge and enhance your business success.
• Initiative. The initiative is the most important trait of a good leader. When an opportunity comes don’t say – I think I can do it, or say I can try it. Instead, take initiative and take off. When asked for a volunteer to do a special task, take a step out and say “I will do it”
• Innovation. Innovation is not an invention or discovery but to improve a product/process or service through the creative application of resources. Always keep customer feedback in b view and carry out a modification to result in saving of material/cost, reducing weight, ease of operation, ease of carrying, dismantling or assembling. It need not be a manufacturing effort of engineering work. It could be even an artwork, painting, music or dance. It could be the improvement of a process to enhance productivity and saving in cost and time.
• Inspiration. It is a higher level of motivation and comes from a leader who leads from the front. It is demonstrated the performance of the leader that the whole team follows most willingly and puts in their very best.
• Instigate. Be friendly, caring and supporting your teammates or friends. Motivate them to do well and never instigate them to commit any bad act.
• Instructions. A good organisation have many Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure that everyone knows what to do when doing and how to do it. SOPs ensure a speedy response to any emerging situation. However, there will be a need to issue additional instructions for implementing a project or developing a new process/ product. Instructions should not be too lengthy but explicit, Any ambiguity leads to wrong action at various stages where rework will result in undue delay, increase in cost and customer displeasure. Your instruction to your team must crisp, well understood and in the language/format, which is easily understood by the participants
• Integrity. It is a higher form of loyalty to the organization, profession, seniors, juniors and peers. A person with high integrity will not talk against his/her organization and always uphold the dignity and honour of team members. You may be a hard taskmaster and the team may find it difficult to satisfy you but you must speak well about them while dealing with senior management or customers.
• Interaction. As a team member always interacts to draw strength from each other. As a manager, you must interact with functional managers and other stakeholders.
• Integration. As a manager, one of your prime roles is to integrate effort and subsystems to evolve a cost-efficient solution. It requires proper interfacing and readjusting for any incompatibility. A fully integrated team makes use of everybody’s talent/contribution and always exceeds expectations.
• Intellectual. All professionals and well tested for their IQ, EQ, and technical skills and selected by the employer. HRD of the employer also plans reskilling and special workshops as needed. If you apply your creative thinking, knowledge and skills you will be noticed as intellectual. You will be respected as a problem solver or solution provider. You will be the most dependable asset of the organisation and always in demand by various teams.
• Initiative. Opportunity comes like a flying bird and you are to be quick to grab the opportunity and move ahead. Initiative and risk-taking is an essential trait of a successful leader.
• Innovation. Innovation is not an invention and it could be some modification, improvement in look-and-feel, different material, ease of operation. Innovation provides you lead in the market and sustainability of the business. Your employer/senior is always looking for new ideas/innovation to progress their business and that is the pathway to your success. Along with your team, you need to do lateral thinking and experimenting with new ideas and innovate. Your market demand will grow and your career will get the quantum jump.
• Inspiration. Inspiration is a higher level of motivation that propels us up the ladder. You should have a good mentor who's life/job and personality inspires you. His/her achievements are like flags on the hill while running cross country race.
• Intention. When you are taking some, action, there may be some issues related to various criteria and by applying your skill and keeping cool some solution will emerge. Even if you make mistake, your intension should be 100 commitment to do a good job. Good intention is to honour your commitment towards your seniors/ the organisation, customer, friends and family.
• Interest in task. You must love your job. A task in hand. If you like it you will show interest to do a good job of it. Your seniors and juniors and team members will notice your interest in your job/task and will appreciate it. If a person lacks interest in his/her hob, that person will perform poorly and will not enjoy the job. To such a person, a job will appear boring and consequently stressful.
• Interference. Do not interfere in others affairs and do nor accept interference by others in your affairs. Allow people to use their skills and the initiative, Give suggestion/.advice when asked for. Let everyone carry on their own respective task as assigned and as understood by team members. Interference is like noise in AM Radio, which is quite annoying.
• Interpersonal Relationships. Always maintain a good relationship with team members, senior, customers and vendors/ subcontractors. If you respect others they will also reciprocate and that will bring joy at the workplace or in the family.
• Interpret. Always read carefully all instructions from senior management or and business-related document carefully and interpret the essence correctly. Any miss-interpretation can lead to misunderstanding and loss of confidence of seniors. Wrong interpretation can lead to wrong design, failure/delay in project implementation.
• Intimidate. You should respect every member of your team and do not intimidate anyone in any manner. There must not be any fear and enmity among any members of your team. A successful leader/manager always gives due credit to his/her team and seen as a facilitator to boost the performance of juniors.
• Intolerance. Be tolerant both at the workplace as well as at home. Be secular, love/respect all religions, genders, Ignore/ forgive others for their small unintentional act. Show your magnanimity and reflect calmness and good composer so that your juniors and inspired.
• Introspect. Whenever you find events are not taking place as planned, you must do introspection to identify the cause and respond accordingly. Often it is our own mistake, misunderstanding or ego which needs to be corrected to improve the situation.
• Irritants. As a manager/team leader, you should ensure that there are no irritants and all team members work in a healthy work environment. If you love your job, love your team and look after them, there will be no irritant.
• Isolated. You should neither be aloof yourself nor allow others to be alone. You should be a social and good mixer in your workplace as well as among friends and family members. Isolation causes sadness, depression and a drop in productivity.
• Iterative. Adopt an attitude of continuous learning and improving iteratively. An iterative approach for project management or any product development/refinement is progressive improvement till you get its acceptable status.
• To know more, refer to my Book/eBook: “A2Z – 26 Steps for Assured Success”, available on www.amazon.com or www.notionpress.com

Brig ( Retd) Dr Sarbjit Singh, Former Exec Director, Apeejay College of Engineering & Hony Advisor to School of Engineering and Technology, Apeejay Stya University, Sohna, Gurgaon, Haryana, India