Core Requirements of Success

Last weekend I read “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance” by Dr. Atul Gawande. Dr. Atul is a surgeon, writer and a public health researcher. He writes extremely well in that his story telling ability is one of the best and it is hard to put off the book once you start reading. 

This book was no different. The book is disturbing in parts (when you read, for example, things that go in when a death sentenced convict is killed by giving a lethal injection!), informative (how massive it is to organize a polio eradication program in a place like India), outraging (when you read about how some people manipulate insurance), numb (when to stop fighting to save a patient) and above all thought provoking (almost all the sections). While the book mainly deals with things needed for a doctor to succeed, some of the principles are universal for any job.

He lists the following three things as core requirement for success:

1. Diligence – the necessity of giving sufficient attention to detail to avoid error and prevail against obstacles
2. Do it right – making sure we minimize human failings like avarice, arrogance, insecurity, misunderstanding etc.
3. Ingenuity – The willingness to recognize failure, to learn from failure without papering over the cracks. It arises from deliberate, and even obsessive reflection on failure and a constant searching for new solutions.

I think the above three are pretty good parameters to measure our own performance and/or hold ourselves to higher standards.

I’ve read two more books from the same author and they both are exceptionally good:

• The Checklist Manifesto- How to get things right: Thru riveting stories he reveals how simple checklists can bring in striking improvements in various fields
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End: Here the author argues that while medicine has triumphed in modern times transforming dangers from harrowing to manageable, but when it comes to inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should. Must read for anyone having aged parents.

You may be a jerk and not realise it!!

Last week in a meeting I snapped. I felt/thought/assumed/concluded/decided that some core tenets of what I believe and what has contributed to our success was being questioned. And I acted in a way that I’m not proud of. To add insult to my injury, this happened a few days later after I read this article titled Social Blind Spots: Why we need feedback to develop social intelligence. I had noted down a few points to share in one of my BBL article, but never thought I needed it more than others!

Anyways the author, Angela Duckworth, makes the following points. Even when We may be thinking that we are acting responsibly or selflessly,

-          We can be quite blind to our social blunders

-          It’s easy to act like a jerk and not realize it

-          Don’t assume you’re acting as graciously as you think you are. Social intelligence is in the eye of the beholder.

-          Do listen for feedback. No matter their age, the people you’re with may be more attuned to your social blunders than you are.

As leaders, it is ultra important that we do not create an atmosphere where people are scared to challenge status quo and/or propose new way of doing things. This doesn’t mean you should shy away for educating or dis-agreeing. It is a tough balancing act and not easy to master.

Feedback helps. See whether you can assign a peer or even a trusted reportee to let you know when you are off rails.

Angela Duckworth is the author of this beautiful book Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the secrets to success. I’d reckon this as one of the must reads for anyone. And while we are at this, may I make another fervent appeal to read atleast one book per month? There has been lot of research to suggest  “all leaders are readers”. Lot of world leaders like Bill Gates, Zuckerberg etc., are all voracious leaders and regularly recommend books to read. Several senior NI leaders including Eric and Alex are heavy readers. Trust me it pays.

Do you need a lot of time to read one book a month? Actually no. An average business book is about 300 pages. Which means its about 75 pages a week. If you decide to read daily, its about 7-8 pages a day (less than 10mins), or if you choose to read only on weekends its about 30mins every Sat and Sun. I find it difficult to imagine that anyone aspiring to become a good leader can’t even invest an hour a week to get better!!

RamP!

What RamP's reading: Apr'19

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance: Nowhere is the drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives are on the line with every decision. Atul Gawande’s gripping stories take us to battlefield surgical tents in Iraq, delivery rooms in Boston, a polio outbreak in India, and malpractice courtrooms in the US. He discusses the ethical dilemma of lethal injections, examines the influence of money on modern medicine, and recounts the contentious history of hand-washing. And as in all his writing, he gives us an inside look at his own life as a surgeon.

Getting Ahead: 3 Steps to Take Your Career to Next Level: A leading executive coach pinpoints three vital traits necessary to advance your career. In Getting Ahead, one of the top 50 executive coaches in the United States, Joel Garfinkle reveals his signature model for mastering three skills to take your career to the next level: Perception, Visibility, and Influence.

Fixed vs Growth Mindsets

Who you are today is not who you have to be tomorrow.

And

Who your team member is today, is NOT the one tomorrow

I’ve been guilty of labelling myself “I’m this and not that” or “this comes to me naturally and I simply can’t do that” and have held myself back from exploring my fullest potential (as they say “YOU are your greatest enemy”). And the most dangerous thing for a leader apart from labelling self, is to label a team member this or that and not being open to possibilities.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their qualities are fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These people document their intelligence and talents rather than working to develop and improve them. They also believe that talent alone leads to success, and effort is not required.

Alternatively, in a growth mindset, people have an underlying belief that their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience. When people believe they can get smarter, they realize that their effort has an effect on their success, so they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.

Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford made the concept go viral in her pathbreaking book Mindset: How we can learn to fulfil our potential.

This concept is very very important for each individual to realize our own potential. And could make a difference between a good and a great leader. As a great leader our job is to move people from fixed to growth mindset whenever we see one. Please make time to read this book.

Reflection:

It was a tad late when I ran into this book. You are right, this is a wonderful book for parenting. My sons, both of them, somehow got this notion in their head, “I’m not good in Chemistry, OK in Math, Very good in programming” – a classic Fixed mindset. I’ve been trying hard to get them to understand that we can make incremental improvements in virtually any subject if we make consistent efforts and push the boundary. The book infact advises to NOT praise “inherent talent”, but to praise the “effort” when kids do well. It implores parents to put into every kids head to value effort over talent. I cannot recommend a better parenting book.

To Don't List

We all know to-do lists. Some of us diligently keep one either in paper or in XL or in some app. Some of us are good in keeping everything in our head (atleast we think so).

To-do lists can become unwieldy if we are not focused. It is easy to add to the list than remove from it. Focus is about saying NO and not saying YES as Steve Jobs famously observed. This is where to-don’t lists come into picture. To-Don’t list is another list that we maintain to say NO. We can do it only if we are sure what is our primary objective/role, what does our boss care about the most, what does the team require and finally our personal goals. We should ideally be saying NO to everything that is outside of this list. Many eminent management Gurus are using one or the other variant of this:

1. I first heard about this from Tom Peters, long time ago and started using it.
2. Warren Buffet is notorious to saying NO to almost everything and recommends this method to stay focused on your top priorities.
3. Recently Adam Grant talked about it

I strongly recommend creating one for yourself and keep moving items from to-do list to to-don’t list periodically (once in 6 months works for me). This process is almost akin to cleaning our attic/cup-boards/ward-robes and other storage area as things get added without us noticing and clutters the whole thing in no time. One warning though: You are likely to upset many people when you start saying NO. You need to hold firm if you want to remain focused on your goals (and not someone else’s).

Now some personal story as to how I’ve benefitted from this concept (you can ignore too as it is more an example)

Based on the concept, for the last 18-24 months, my top level personal goals are only three (not in any order)

• Meet or Exceed all the professional goals my boss has set for me (Why? I’m afraid of getting fired. I was out of job for 6 looooong months and can understand what it means. Without the security the salary brings, everything else becomes very difficult to achieve and I want it to make very very hard for anyone to fire me)

• Help my sons succeed in studies and in life (Why? this is a lifelong commitment, obligation, privilege and perhaps nothing else would bring bigger joy than seeing them succeed)

• Personal development goals - reading and running primarily (Why? One needs to be healthy – both physically and mentally to be able to achieve other goals. There is a reason why airlines advice you to first put the oxygen mask yourselves and only then help others)

With the clarity obtained from the above, I happily say NO (well, “NO, but …”, instead of “YES, but …” – something I learnt from our earlier R&D SVP, Phil Hester) to any requests that is not fitting into the above – both in personal and professional fronts. Some of the things I’ve stayed away from include:

• Came out of the board and eventually even from membership of not-for-profit as I couldn’t figure out a way to meaningfully contribute
• Closed all/most of my mentorship responsibilities as change is hard to come by and most people don’t recognize the need to do things differently till pushed to a wall. I was just wasting my time. 
• Gave up on a few “give back to the society” initiatives as I got disillusioned and embraced the philosophy that I’ll focus on becoming a better me and raising good children and not worry about helping one and add (selfish? Yes).
• Saying NO to help folks in an area that I do not have any expertise (like helping someone with a business plan for example)
• Relying on experts and not trying to do R&D on things where I don’t have expertise, nor inclined to build one (investment for example)
• Saying NO to “lets just meet-up over lunch/coffee” type requests from acquaintances and from folks from professional network
• Limiting social gatherings to about one per month for requests from some members in professional network where I cannot say NO (person calling is either a big shot or someone that I’ve worked closely with) – this is where the difficulty starts if one is not clear to draw boundaries
• Stopped attending functions (marriage etc.) where I’m invited mostly as a formality (my wife is very popular even in my side that brings several invites and make things very difficult to say NO)
• Moved my financial planning to an expert and now look into my investments only once every six months or so
• Moved home maintenance to a big contractor – he is expensive, but I need not spend my time
• Stopped attending concerts as a ton of great recordings are available on youtube
• Last but not the least, limiting Social Media to weekends (barring Twitter which I use only to stay on top of things).

I can attest that doing all these has given me a LOT OF TIME to pursue things that are truly important to “me”. I still fall off the track, but the framework gives me the crutch to get back. On the people front, expectations are set and people are actually surprised if I show-up in some gathering!

What RamP's Reading: Mar'19

Radical Candor: Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring its obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging its ruinous empathy. When you do neither its manipulative insincerity. 

Fast after 50: As I got back to running after a gap, I could see that my speed has dropped, though it takes a while to get back to rhythm. Fast After 50 presents guidelines for high-intensity workouts, focused strength training, recovery, crosstraining, and nutrition for high performance:

How great leaders inspire action

Out of nowhere I remembered this fab TED talk by Simon Sinek where he talks how great leaders start from “Why”, but not from “What” and explores how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change. I strongly recommend going over the 18min talk that has 42M+ hits. If you like this, you may also want to read his classic  Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.

I also like the talk for the way it is presented and we can learn from it. When you are watching, keep an eye on:

• How he uses the flip chart to explain the concept in simple terms
• How he repeats the central point again and again
• Subtle humor
• Examples that everyone can relate to (Apple, Dr.MLK, Wright brothers etc.,)
• Voice modulation

RamP!