Food for thought for the Weekend (26-May-2018): Harsh Truths. Listening etc.,

Food for thought for the Weekend: My series where I present assorted collection of interesting blog posts, TED talks, podcast and articles I read/listened this week, some quotes that resonated with me, excerpts from my own reading.

19 Harsh truths you don't want to hear, but must: I've had my fair share of ups and downs in my life and have been grateful to my creator. Yet, there always something to learn - especially in the areas of "harsh truths". This is a nice set of rules, and was a timely reminder for me and I also immediately forwarded to my college going sons. You'd probably are aware of most of these.

The power of listening in helping people change: Recent results indicate that the performance declines in about 38% cases after a feedback has been provided. One possible reason could be that the boss might come as judgemental and person receiving the feedback tends to get defensive. This HBR article explores whether a more subtle intervention, namely asking questions and listening, could prevent these consequences. Whereas feedback is about telling employees that they need to change, listening to employees and asking them questions might make them want to change.

How to say NO when it matters most: "The wisdom of life lies in elimination of non-essentials" - Lin Yutang. In this article Tim Ferris teaches overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), to kill the golden goose when the goose is no longer serving you and general principles to say NO to something, which you'd have otherwise told YES. Finally he talks about start-up investment, but the questions he ask are generic enough to arrive at a considered "Hell! Yeah" or a default NO.

Feel the Fear ..... and Do it Anyway

Some fifteen years ago, my then boss (and who incidentally was also my mentor before getting into reporting relationship) asked me to read the book with the same title. This was when I was developing cold feet over an activity that was so vital for my growth. He tried persuading, motivating, reasoning and even issued a threat to make me take up the activity. Though I was clearly able to see why the activity so vital for my growth, my "fear of failure" was so high that I simply was not budging even when it came as an order from the boss. A kind soul he has been, he took to something that he knew I'll never refuse - read a book. 

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway was the book he asked me to read. I not only read the book but happily implemented some of the suggested stuff. Ofcourse I did complete the activity that I was not willing to try, with flying colors and have done it so many times later without batting an eye-lid. To say that changed my career trajectory is an understatement (hope you recognise the power of constructive feedback and a great people's manager in play). 

The book is based on the following five observations:

• My fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow.
• The only way to get rid of my fear of doing something is to go out and do it.
• The only way to feel better about myself is to go out… and do it.
• Not only am I going to experience fear whenever I’m on unfamiliar territory, but so is everyone else.
• Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.

The above "truths" are very assuring in that it gives comfort in knowing we are not alone in such a struggle and it is a natural phenomenon when you are growing and there actually is a way to overcome it. 

A detailed description by chapter is here. 

Are "High Standards" Teachable?

Jeff Bezos in his annual shareholder letter has touched upon this topic very persuasively. He argues that "high standards" are both teachable and contagious. The four elements of high standards as he sees it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope. Here are some highlights:

• High standards are teachable and contagious. People can learn high standards simply through exposure (the opposite is also true - if low standards prevail, those too will quickly spread.
• High standards are domain specific. You have to learn high standards separately in each domain of your interest (He warns that if you consider yourself to be a person of high standards in general, you might still have debilitating blindspots!)
• To achieve high standards you have to be able to recognize what good looks like in that domain. Second, you must have realistic expectations for how hard it should be (how much work it will take) to achieve that result – the scope.
• Someone on the team needs to have the skill, but it doesn’t have to be you. The football coach doesn’t need to be able to throw, and a film director doesn’t need to be able to act. But they both do need to recognize high standards for those things and teach realistic expectations on scope.

Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high.

-- from the Amazon Leadership Principles

Liked it? Do spread the word. 

Food for thought for the Weekend (12-May-2018): Career mistakes, Buffet's tips etc.,

Food for thought for the Weekend: My series where I present assorted collection of interesting blog posts, TED talks, podcast and articles I read/listened this week, some quotes that resonated with me, excerpts from my own reading.

6 Big Career Mistakes That Can Sabotage Your Future: Sabotage may be a strong word, but "setback" surely is and I've made some of these. I regularly see and hear many people continue to make some of these. There seem to be very little understanding in general of what attributes leadership might be looking into (or more importantly what attributes they don't like) to grow their people. This article sheds some light on at least on six such things (Bonus: Do read "What Got You Here, Won't Take You There", for some more inputs on this subject.

How Amazon Beats Google in Innovation: Popular belief is that things like free food etc., increases employee engagement and engaged employees deliver more, create more or innovate more. However, there is no free food and such freebies at Amazon, their engagement scores are about half of that of Google. Yet they are far ahead of Google when it comes to Innovation. This article has an interesting take.

Warren Buffet's Success Tips: I'm a big fan of Warren Buffet - the man, his methods and the clarity he seem to bring into everything. His annual letter to shareholders and the Q&A session during the annual shareholder meetings always contain nuggets of wisdom. Some kind soul listed to over 120hours of his Q&A sessions and has come-up with the list. 

How to Get Along With a Co-Worker You Hate: Its quite common once in a while we run into a co-worker we hate. Usually there are no obvious escape routes. It helps to address the undercurrent head on. This article gives a few tips on how it could be done.

What RamP's reading: May'18

Uber guru Tom Peters! has been a big influence on me (including the exclamation mark I use on my short name) ever since the CEO of my first company asked me to read his seminal book In Search of Excellence. I ended up reading all his books and when I joined NI, was pleasantly surprised to know one his books Thriving on Chaos is a recommended reading for managers here. I have been liberally using the word "excellence" and have embraced "excellence" as a life value (though I struggle most of the times) - all thanks to the influence of Tom Peters. I was excited when he announced almost two years ago that he is writing a new book titled Excellence Dividend and grabbed a copy as soon as it was released. I'm now hoping that this book will inspire me to renew my passion for excellence. Tom Peters agues that "excellence" is needed now more than ever before and "the best defense—and offense— for technological change is an unabashed commitment to excellence in all we do" - couldn't agree with him more. 

Second book just grabbed my attention in a bookstore at Los Angeles. No idea whatsoever on the contents or the author.