FACILITATING EXCELLENCE

The week gone by I met one of my friends who’s a software programmer. The trivial talk over cups of coffee and accompaniments seemed to race past the memory lanes. One discussion after another with little connect between the topics and then suddenly it veered to our careers. Without delving into what we discussed about his choice of occupation field, the discussion on a typical life of a sales person seemed to involve both of us. One thing which came to the forefront during that discussion was that the life of a salesperson was denominated by a constant fight within and a struggle outside. End of the day, the performance of a salesperson is measured in numbers delivered. The quantity is the currency of measurement of one’s acumen and caliber. Did we achieve the set number or not; the quality of work behind achieving that number another bullet point in the official discussion but the bullet point would often appear as a footnote. If the number was achieved, the quality of work wa...

Performance Management- the performance, the performer and the audience/ spectator. When we visualize a performance we see an act in action. The act is different from actor and that is what  performance management is all about. In our day to day usage from an absolute management perspective we often confuse between the act and the actor and more often that not, we work towards refining the act and some where in the process loose the actor. Recently while explaining what performance management is all about to a group of organization heads, I was supposed to provide them with possible solutions to the performance problems in the organization. I tried my level best but I dont think I could cater to all of their individual needs. Initially I was looking at processes to be established, but what was more intrinsic is the view towards performance management. Performance management is mostly looked upon as activity  management. So the focus is on the activity  that a person ...

This one line has the potency to make people feel as if their mental faculties are constrained, chained or possibly prehistoric in its ability to comprehend, conceive and infer. I want to out-rightly and unabashedly admit that I have been through these feelings on occasions. At times, the feelings propelled by self   judgment   and on other occasions, set off by opinions and remarks of those around me. Let me attempt to dissect the title itself: ‘Think’ - *‘it i mplies the entrance of an idea into one's mind with or without deliberate consideration or reflection’. Multiple words can be associated with process ‘Think’ – Consider, Ponder, Remember, Anticipate, Reason, Meditate, Imagine…the list has many more. ‘Out’ - *‘it refers to a direction, or externality, or a movement. ‘Box’ - *it is a reference to a container, space or enclosure, with a well defined surface or boundary - whether this has a lid or not is immaterial. Based on above, to run a thread th...

My previous post on 'efficiency or effectiveness : and the winner is....' generated some points of view. These ranged from: What is more important, 'efficiency or effectiveness'? Is there a framework which I could suggest on when to choose between effciency and effectiveness? Why the hype on this, efficiency and effectiveness have always existed - is there something new in their manner of existence? Does efficiency drive effectiveness or vice versa? Are efficiency and effectiveness driven only by the individual concerned or are there other factors also? At the outset, I would like to thank all the readers who went through my post and rasied queries. I would like to revisit some elements of my previous post on this topic. Based on my experience, I feel in current scenario, effciency and effectiveness are two side of the same coin. Creating a coin with only one of the two elements on the sides will only render it useless. The concept's of efficiency gai...

The art of managing people as I see it doesn't come with a special skill or training. It comes with a basic understanding that all people are different and that one standard is not universally applicable. But are we not as team leaders, HR professionals, project managers, etc aware of it? Ofcourse we are! Infact not only are we not aware of it; we at all our levels tell people of our knowledge, demonstrate people friendly behavior, develop relationships. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In my work career I have seen different team dynamics. Team members working together to achieve one common goal, team members working; not so much together but eventually towards one goal and group of people who are just working. Goals seemingly someone else's headache. Now amongst the three kind of categories ideally the first team will be performing best. However Ideal is not often "OFTEN". The question that one is bound to ask is that if the solution to the  pro...

“Why can’t you get this right the first time? You end up wasting time and resources in doing it correctly the subsequent time.” Sounds familiar! Most of us would have come across such a statement or its modified version, with similar purport, either in our personal or professional life. This simple and innocuous statement has much depth and meaning to it. Let’s take a step back and have a wider perspective. There are so many changes happening around us and at such a fast pace that keeping a tab on information flowing around is a challenging task. “The one who is quick enough to join the dots together is the one who wins the race”, is the oft heard comment. Increasingly, professionals across streams are expected to be quick. One point of view is “…it’s better to be quick and first rather be cent percent correct”. While one strives to walk this path, the other sounds doing the corridor rounds are “Let’s do this right the first time itself. We don’t have resources to waste and ce...

This past week, I met one of my friends who is an entrepreneur. In my view, he has a stable business portfolio (which he always disagrees – guess got to do something with entrepreneurial spirit) and has made a reasonable mark for himself in his field. The fact that he is ever so hungry to achieve more and dissatisfied with where he stands today, seems to be the reason of his success. During our chat, he mentioned that his prospective customers do not view him in a manner as he would want them to view. He feels there is a disconnect between what he feels his business stands for and what his prospective customers feel about it – something amiss between what his brand actually is or stands for and the manner in which consumers interpret it. That made me think if it has it got something to do with brand image and brand identity. Brand identity, in my view, is a combination of beliefs (emotional), symbols (physical), and associations (experiential) which the brand communicates to...