Thursday, December 26, 2013

Inventive Idea always rocks

During last work week I received an internal mail from one of our employees saying that they have organized Cricket Premiere League Tournament of the employees. They already finalized some 8 or 9 different teams formed by employees of different departments. It was a great initiative and I was waiting to see some more action on it. Next day one of the employee came to me and requested to help him hire the Cricket ground for next 2 weekends, if I have any such contacts. Normally this is not the problem during week days however it is difficult to find it for weekends especially during winter. 

Next to next day I received one more mail saying that cricket ground has been finalized along with full details about the venue, organizing group, name of the teams and players, match rounds, umpires decided for each match, scoreboard and point table.

Everything was so well organized that I not only tap the back of the organizers but also wrote to the MD for getting this tournament sponsored by the company. 

I also decided to be on the Cricket ground on the 1st day of the tournament to make the boys feel good.

On last Saturday 9.30 AM, I reached the ground where 2nd match of the tournament was about to start and almost everyone welcome me and showed their gratitude. With all good spirit, the match started with running around, shouting, noise making and everyone was fully enjoying. I observed that the spirit was at pick however majority of the players were exhausted and drained while running for fielding, bowling or between the wickets.

Spirit of the sport does not permit you to highlight such things so I did not criticize or mention this to anyone. Something creative was happening by the employees and one should not try to point out negatives out of it however “physical fitness” was clearly identified as an inadequacy in the situation.

I decided to approach this from different perspective which led me to a new business Idea. I shared my thoughts with few colleagues and their response was even more positive. The business Ideas was to start a Gym in the basement of the office building and offer flexible daily monthly or quarterly services to the gym users. Further calculations proved that required customers one can easily get only from the company employees.

You need to deal with the crazy new ideas; question is “how?” After you capture some creative idea, you have the challenge of how to frame it, process it, act on it and arrive to decision that can be implemented. 

Lesson learnt for me was that “Idea applied to the situation will magnify the hidden business opportunities”. At the same time it is mandatory to further scan it and see whether it can support financial prosperity and create values?

Innovative abilities are acquired by experience, travel, cultures, situations, emotions, reactions and responses of the people. Your personal style of dealing with the people and effective communication will always help you win confidence of them in you.


Bhartesh Sagar
December 26, 2013

Friday, December 20, 2013

Moving forward on the right track?

Moving forward on the right track?
NOTE: Purpose of this article is to further highlight the concepts published in an article on October 23, 2013 by DR. Danielle Dowling

You’re definitely on the right road as per your desired road map if;
      Your current efforts in day to day task do not make you uncomfortable.
      Do not attempt things that express regrets at a later stage
      Your attempts should not initiate major compromises on large projects.
      While driving your business policies according to your wisdom of value should not reflect back negatively by your work environment.
     You should be very confident in selecting route that leads to growth path for your business.

If you get following results, conclude and consider that you are on the wrong path:
       The condition at hand is becoming very high cost to the company (financially).
       You start feeling exhausted with the unproductive work load.
       You start becoming directionless and but cannot share your feeling
       You feel fundamentally confused about where your business is going.
       You start losing your self-confidence to a particular situation.

Some guidance to get you back on the right track:

Don't be so hard on yourself. 
Stop with the self-attack! It’s not productive. Don’t get down on yourself because you ended up on the wrong track—it happens to everyone.

Determine the first step. And then take it. 
Change starts with one step. For example: If you were trying to lose weight, a small first step would be to select whole grain bread instead of white bread. Cutting down on fats or sweets is also a good first step. Don’t worry and give too much of your time to correction areas. Go on short vacation with family. Priority should be for balancing your work–personal life.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. 
Small, doable goals will get you there! Break down your BIG goals into a series of little, totally achievable steps. Step one: go for a 20 minute walk today. Step two: go for a 20 minute walk and switch to skim milk in your coffee.

Relax more. 
It may seem counterproductive to relax, but if this is what you need, then go ahead and relax for a day or so. Contemplate how you’ve been living your life, your delayed goals, and what things you want to change. Find a serene spot and write down your thoughts and desires in notebook. Begin by writing down what you need to get, want to give, and what your deal breakers are in regards to that area of your life. Make this day a mini retreat!

Have a mantra or meditation that helps to keep you on focus. 
If you tend to be discouraged easily by some things, create a simple mantra that will help you stay on target, one that will help you shift into a more loving and empowered perspective.

Accomplish a goal every week, every month and every year. 
Enjoy the snowball effect of gaining confidence as you accomplish more and more goals! When you set small, doable goals for yourself, you’ll be that much more likely to take on big ones.

Bhartesh Sagar
December 20, 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Mentoring V/S Micro Managing

Perceptive theory is also described as “"cognitive science" (e.g. any kind of mental operation or structure that can be studied in precise terms). This also applies to those who are responsible for managing large teams – people for their company. Studying new business domain and expected out come in precise manner before abruptly driving some strategies is mandatory requirement.

Perceptive theories are also known as concepts of personality that emphasize perceptive processes such as thinking and judging. This includes setting up of the expectations at a realistic – right level. Over optimism and depression, both are mind set issues however in every company; you will come across some amateur mid or senior level managers driving their teams with overly optimistic and unrealistic policies and spoil the work environment for everyone.

One of the most common mistakes some leaders make while managing people is that they go for micro managing people working under them. They use their designation and authority and spoil the whole working environment. They think that by creating an atmosphere of fear will push people and they will deliver good results however most of the time it end up damaging moral of the people.

Some people are like "born scientists" Their thought process is based on limited experience and they see the world through a particular lens, based on some uniquely structured systems of controls that they have used in past with some companies. They sometimes integrate systems based on their own personal mind frame which may not be suitable in dynamic business world where G.T.M. is different for the every business domain. They always anticipate future issues more than the future growth and keep the reasoning ready for under performance. By the time they realize their policies are misleading for the existing business situation, it is too late since “management mess” situation is already created by that time.

Factors like “micro managing” always affect performing employees much more than the non-performers. It does heavy damage to their goal-setting and self-controlling beliefs which leads to losing interest in their core activities. Even for new employees with limited domain knowledge-experience, micro managing creates high insecurity and fear which also prevent them to open up and use their creativity. In humanistic psychology, focus is mainly on subjective experiences of people as against forced, definitive factors that determine their behavior.

I have come across many such cases where the leader will micromanage people working below him, create atmosphere of insecurity, spoil the company environment and when it proves to be wrong in terms of growth achievement, they leave their own job after 2 to 3 quarters. This situation will damage the organization much more in terms of losing confidence of the performer / loyal employees into the organization.

Mentoring is always more effective option compared to micro managing however mentoring should always be aimed toward encouraging individuals to design ambitious goals and work toward them along with the recognition that there are external factors that may impact their achievements.

Effective mentor must have the ability to perform, demonstrate and set positive examples by themselves if they wish to earn respect of their team.

Bhartesh Sagar
December 18, 2013