It is the summer of 2003 and I am standing on the kerb of the Newark International Airport with my brother–in-law puffing furiously on the last inch of my cigarette. I feel like my life depends on it before boarding my nine hour ‘non-smoking’ flight to Amsterdam en route to Singapore. It has been a hell of a busy week that started in California and then took me to the east coast. We decided to wind down over the weekend and drove out to Atlantic City to roll some dice and throw some cards and hope to hit some 21s. Then again, what is a downtime without a few vodka martinis and some greasy junk that often ends up being called ‘food’. So there I was, loaded with greasy meat, alcohol, nicotine and sleep deprivation barely making it to the airport on time, feeling more drained than rejuvenated! Security check was announced and we hugged and said our goodbyes. I vividly remember my cigarette butt still clasped between my fingers as I did so – then as I turned towards the trash bin and flicked my cigarette into it like I had done a thousand times prior, the haze suddenly cleared! “Let this be my last cigarette” – just like that, clear and loud!
I rushed through immigration and security and boarded the plane. I was so tired that I dozed off even before the seat belt signs came on! Daylight finally shone through my lids as the airplane thudded on the tarmac at Amsterdam. Guess what, the first thought that blazed in was –‘gosh I quit smoking’ – a swell of emotional pain followed soon … the pain of parting with a 24 year old habit is never an easy one! I slept through the Amsterdam stopover and most of the next 14 hours into Singapore. By the time I woke up again, most of the fatigue had washed away, my mind had cleared and I was able to reflect on what I had done more objectively. By the time we landed in Singapore, I was getting very comfortable with my decision and almost had a plan to deal with it and make it happen!
For years, like many before me I gave up smoking many times only to pick it up again. Smoking did not do me any good at sports, my clothes and hair must have borne the tobacco ‘stink’ that I knew was not pleasant for any non-smoker close to me, it was not good for my health and most importantly would leave me feeling embarrassed and awkward when my daughter (seven years old then) asked me pointed questions about when I would quit and I did not have a confident answer that would satisfy her! All that changed in a nano-second … that moment in time when all the past thoughts, awareness, questions, everything in my sub-conscious mind snow balled into a critical mass that made me take a decision to change it all! I write this in such great detail because it is indeed one of the most impactful and fulfilling decisions I have taken in my life - it impacted my life in more ways than one! It also taught me how to successfully make massive changes in life that initially looks too monstrous to overcome.
We live in a changing world where change has been universally touted as the ‘only constant’! Easier said than done really! Change requires resolve, courage, determination and massive actions. While I see many people resisting change (which by the way I do not endorse), what is more alarming is to see people or even organizations ‘overdoing the change bit’. They do not clearly understand the reasons that require the change and often let their emotions run wild, pushing for changes purely on emotional grounds! The actions that will drive the planned change needs solid commitment and commitments need resources (time and money that are both finite) to bring the right results. If the expectation about results is improperly set or if the results do not show due to poor or inadequate execution the ‘change exercise’ often does more damage than good!
All I am asking of you is to pick your battles (read ‘Changes’) wisely! If you think there are things you need to change in yourself - list and prioritize them. Be absolutely certain why you need to change in each of these aspects? Where are you falling behind in your life by holding on to these habits and how you will benefit if you let them go? What will your net gain through this transformation be and how it will impact the people around you? Your findings need to be pretty dramatic to consider the change seriously!
Once this is done, talk to someone you trust, friend, family, whoever you feel comfortable with. Someone who will candidly tell you who you are rather than make up things to make you feel happy. Seek their opinion on your list and how you have stacked them. Very often we are over critical on ourselves; many of us are out to find too many faults that really are not there. Talking to others smoothen this criticality out while identifying other new areas that might not even be visible to us. During these ‘tell me about me’ sessions, be aware that all you need is their opinion only. The final list will be for YOU to decide – do not let others do this for you!
I ask for selectivity because as I have said earlier, successful change will need incredible commitment and massive actions. Being able to manage this is never easy as you go through the following stages -
Commit to dramatically transform a deep rooted behavior rather than progressively replacing it. I firmly believed that my kerb side cigarette would be the last cigarette I would smoke. I did not decide to slow down on my daily intake and progressively wean myself off like many do – I just stopped!
Next, build walls around the change related actions so that initial hardships do not make the resolve wobbly. I would at every opportunity speak to everyone around me about how rapidly comfortable I was getting without a cigarette and how I was absolutely convinced that I would never have to get back to it. I also placed some wagers with the naysayers. Every time I spoke those words, I strengthened my resolve and strengthened the wall around the change that I was driving!
Finally, supplement your change related actions with other parallel actions that are empowering. These actions should support and reflect in a positive light the change that you are implementing. I revved up my gym work, improved my eating habits and felt my energy levels soar! I felt calmer and started to relate better with people around me. My confidence sky-rocketed with the awareness of the fact that I had accomplished quite easily what others struggle to do in their entire lifetime etc etc.
Honestly, I chanced upon this opportunity to change and learned a very valuable process from it. Try these steps I laid out – this is no rocket science and can be accomplished. If the desire exists, voila you will see the magic unfold!
It has been six years since that afternoon at the Newark Airport and I have not smoked since! More importantly, I have not felt the urge either ….. well, not that much! The human mind and intent is indeed more powerful than what we normally give it credit for. Use this amazing force wisely!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Who Bombed my Company - Preparing for the Inevitable!
Some years ago I started my ‘stock market investment’ initiative as a part of my Investment Portfolio. The ‘analyst’ in me demanded that I learn the game from the masters before putting in my hard earned money. I picked up a Warren Buffet book at the airport on my next business trip and read it from cover to cover understanding most of Mr. Buffet’s philosophy if not all! As my awareness grew, I learnt of Benjamin Graham (the man Buffet attributes his financial market education to) and his famous narrative - The Intelligent Advisor
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor).
These masters taught me the fundamentals of value investing and the art of profiting from market follies and disruptions rather than by participating in it! How to identify and buy into ‘value’ companies and invest in them for the long haul. How to stay away from speculating in organizations and businesses I was not familiar with irrespective of how lucrative their valuation and potential seemed to be! Many other anecdotes and advise that I have come to understand and appreciate. I actually followed up by reviewing Berkshire Hathaway’s famed Letter to the Shareholders that Mr. Buffet writes every year. (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html). I also got insight into the Mr. Buffet’s own stock picks and other well regarded recommendations and then feeling fairly well ‘covered’ I put in my money in the market. Despite this attention, all my famed and well researched ‘blue chips’ are significantly down today!!! Mr. Buffet and Berkshire were not spared either! In the 2008 Letter to Shareholders he wrote – “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.”
While I trust in God, Mr. Graham and Mr. Buffet like the rest of the investor planet, I begin to wonder why these famed organizations that I trusted my money with are actually failing to perform as the financial markets go sour and what other established and upcoming organizations can learn from them! Once you think about it …there is plenty!
All organizations are destined to face ‘market disruptions’, ‘conflicting and negative internal forces’ at some stage of their evolution that will force them to take dramatic measures to survive and hold on to their positions of leadership. When this situation is coupled with a larger macro economic slowdown that we are in the middle of now, the impact obviously is further amplified! Unlike what is usually the norm, I do not blame the management team for the organization’s fall though this is easiest to do! The lackluster results are hardly because of a single wrong strategy that the leadership has implemented or a specific move of the competitor that the leaders failed to see. Rather, the root cause often is a sum of many different reasons – inability to see a prominent market shift early enough (normally called a ‘disruption), unwillingness to change the way of doing things, inability of hiring the right skills into the company and surprisingly the inability to see an emerging competitor who leverages the disruption and changes the game for the incumbent market leader!
Lets be realistic though, this is a natural consequence and will happen to every organization – not just once, but many times in the history of the organization. It will happen despite the skill, diligence and track record of the management team – no exceptions! The forces that make these happen are far more diabolical than the people who are impacted by it! So the end game is not about prevention but about how to respond to these circumstances.
Very often I see organizations and their leadership going straight in with knee jerk reflexes trying hard to do things that make them look good in the short term to their boards and shareholders. Sometimes they do not really have a choice either, as the larger forces start to lean on them! However, given the choice here is my pick of pointed actions by the leadership team when the going gets really tough…
Stay the course, show that you know what you are doing – Demonstration of confidence is critical in troubled times. It is natural for the leadership team to be concerned and worried but they need to be able to face their troops, stakeholders and customers with demonstrated confidence. Demonstrate ability to face the situation however bad it might be and lead through the crisis riding on the plan that they have built with their leadership teams! While doing so they can be vocal about what is unknown to them – taking this position does not weaken them, on the contrary, this makes them more credible and human!
Ensure complete consensus amongst the leadership team; commit to consistent & extensive communication, both internal and external – A classic fall out of a crisis is a flurry of misguided activities by executives who make a valiant attempt to demonstrate that they are doing ‘something’. These actions are not products of collaboration, consensus and in many instances are conflicting and counter productive. Hard times call for complete consensus amongst the leadership. Resources are usually scarce in today’s competitive environment, more so in troubled time. It is absolutely ridiculous to squander this rare asset due to irresponsible and unsynchronized planning by management. Once leadership gets around the table and determines a common set of actions, consistent and regular internal and external communication is a must – over-communicate rather than go soft on it! Communication gives people the belief that things are progressing and will hopefully be in control, positive data if available, heightens this optimism!
Focus on your customers more than ever before – Customers either make or break organizations. During the tough times, it is great to have your customers along with you. Do not just be happy satisfying them, wow them off their shoes! Knowing the situation that your organization is, they will admire your gesture even more than they did during the sweet times!
Focus on the areas of strength, in parallel fix your gaps – As I have mentioned earlier, it is common for crisis to bring in a flurry of activities that are neither properly orchestrated nor necessarily good for the organization. The leadership team has to agree on some key areas to focus the limited resources on and they better be areas of visible strength! These done, use the ‘downturn’ to let the bottom open out – discard wrong products, processes and people! Fix the engine that will propel the organization forward. This is as a good an opportunity as any that will come along!
Find every opportunity to differentiate – Leadership in revenue, margins and share has to be driven by differentiation. In today’s world of readily available information, it is hard to do anything that someone else has not already done or is not in the process of doing. Yet, a Yahoo happened despite an Alta Vista, a Google happened despite an Yahoo and an ipod despite a whole array of portable mp3 players that preceded it. You get the plot – great examples of differentiation and value creation. Do it better, faster, cheaper and easier than anything anybody has ever done before and you have a chance to win! Differentiation comes out of innovation and innovation is a product of attitude! Good times or bad, this attitude and commitment at every level of the organization is an absolute must for any organization to turn the corner. If you are in any doubt, ask a certain company in Cupertino and they will clarify your doubts!
I am confident Mr Buffet’s handpicked stocks (and the organizations that stand behind them) are staffed by executives who share my beliefs in one way or the other and are actually implementing them! I feel this way, not only in protection of my investments but the millions who are dependent on how these organizations will do, going forward. If they do, Mr. Buffet’s next letter to the Berkshire’s shareholders will be a lot more optimistic!
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor).
These masters taught me the fundamentals of value investing and the art of profiting from market follies and disruptions rather than by participating in it! How to identify and buy into ‘value’ companies and invest in them for the long haul. How to stay away from speculating in organizations and businesses I was not familiar with irrespective of how lucrative their valuation and potential seemed to be! Many other anecdotes and advise that I have come to understand and appreciate. I actually followed up by reviewing Berkshire Hathaway’s famed Letter to the Shareholders that Mr. Buffet writes every year. (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html). I also got insight into the Mr. Buffet’s own stock picks and other well regarded recommendations and then feeling fairly well ‘covered’ I put in my money in the market. Despite this attention, all my famed and well researched ‘blue chips’ are significantly down today!!! Mr. Buffet and Berkshire were not spared either! In the 2008 Letter to Shareholders he wrote – “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.”
While I trust in God, Mr. Graham and Mr. Buffet like the rest of the investor planet, I begin to wonder why these famed organizations that I trusted my money with are actually failing to perform as the financial markets go sour and what other established and upcoming organizations can learn from them! Once you think about it …there is plenty!
All organizations are destined to face ‘market disruptions’, ‘conflicting and negative internal forces’ at some stage of their evolution that will force them to take dramatic measures to survive and hold on to their positions of leadership. When this situation is coupled with a larger macro economic slowdown that we are in the middle of now, the impact obviously is further amplified! Unlike what is usually the norm, I do not blame the management team for the organization’s fall though this is easiest to do! The lackluster results are hardly because of a single wrong strategy that the leadership has implemented or a specific move of the competitor that the leaders failed to see. Rather, the root cause often is a sum of many different reasons – inability to see a prominent market shift early enough (normally called a ‘disruption), unwillingness to change the way of doing things, inability of hiring the right skills into the company and surprisingly the inability to see an emerging competitor who leverages the disruption and changes the game for the incumbent market leader!
Lets be realistic though, this is a natural consequence and will happen to every organization – not just once, but many times in the history of the organization. It will happen despite the skill, diligence and track record of the management team – no exceptions! The forces that make these happen are far more diabolical than the people who are impacted by it! So the end game is not about prevention but about how to respond to these circumstances.
Very often I see organizations and their leadership going straight in with knee jerk reflexes trying hard to do things that make them look good in the short term to their boards and shareholders. Sometimes they do not really have a choice either, as the larger forces start to lean on them! However, given the choice here is my pick of pointed actions by the leadership team when the going gets really tough…
Stay the course, show that you know what you are doing – Demonstration of confidence is critical in troubled times. It is natural for the leadership team to be concerned and worried but they need to be able to face their troops, stakeholders and customers with demonstrated confidence. Demonstrate ability to face the situation however bad it might be and lead through the crisis riding on the plan that they have built with their leadership teams! While doing so they can be vocal about what is unknown to them – taking this position does not weaken them, on the contrary, this makes them more credible and human!
Ensure complete consensus amongst the leadership team; commit to consistent & extensive communication, both internal and external – A classic fall out of a crisis is a flurry of misguided activities by executives who make a valiant attempt to demonstrate that they are doing ‘something’. These actions are not products of collaboration, consensus and in many instances are conflicting and counter productive. Hard times call for complete consensus amongst the leadership. Resources are usually scarce in today’s competitive environment, more so in troubled time. It is absolutely ridiculous to squander this rare asset due to irresponsible and unsynchronized planning by management. Once leadership gets around the table and determines a common set of actions, consistent and regular internal and external communication is a must – over-communicate rather than go soft on it! Communication gives people the belief that things are progressing and will hopefully be in control, positive data if available, heightens this optimism!
Focus on your customers more than ever before – Customers either make or break organizations. During the tough times, it is great to have your customers along with you. Do not just be happy satisfying them, wow them off their shoes! Knowing the situation that your organization is, they will admire your gesture even more than they did during the sweet times!
Focus on the areas of strength, in parallel fix your gaps – As I have mentioned earlier, it is common for crisis to bring in a flurry of activities that are neither properly orchestrated nor necessarily good for the organization. The leadership team has to agree on some key areas to focus the limited resources on and they better be areas of visible strength! These done, use the ‘downturn’ to let the bottom open out – discard wrong products, processes and people! Fix the engine that will propel the organization forward. This is as a good an opportunity as any that will come along!
Find every opportunity to differentiate – Leadership in revenue, margins and share has to be driven by differentiation. In today’s world of readily available information, it is hard to do anything that someone else has not already done or is not in the process of doing. Yet, a Yahoo happened despite an Alta Vista, a Google happened despite an Yahoo and an ipod despite a whole array of portable mp3 players that preceded it. You get the plot – great examples of differentiation and value creation. Do it better, faster, cheaper and easier than anything anybody has ever done before and you have a chance to win! Differentiation comes out of innovation and innovation is a product of attitude! Good times or bad, this attitude and commitment at every level of the organization is an absolute must for any organization to turn the corner. If you are in any doubt, ask a certain company in Cupertino and they will clarify your doubts!
I am confident Mr Buffet’s handpicked stocks (and the organizations that stand behind them) are staffed by executives who share my beliefs in one way or the other and are actually implementing them! I feel this way, not only in protection of my investments but the millions who are dependent on how these organizations will do, going forward. If they do, Mr. Buffet’s next letter to the Berkshire’s shareholders will be a lot more optimistic!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Criticism is for the ‘Fortunate’ – so use it wisely!
Criticism is for the ‘Fortunate’ – so use it wisely! Everyone, everywhere normally view ‘Criticism’ with unhappiness, concern, disdain and even negativity! Criticism is best done without and usually makes people visibly uncomfortable – not only those who face it but even those who happen to be around when it is doled out, especially in Asian circles!
I am currently enjoying being a judge the MBA Challenge – an online reality show in Singapore and part of my role is to put up contestants for elimination by ‘online voting’. In course of doing so, all the three judges are verbally and visibly critical on the contestants with the objective of either showing them the ropes that they need to learn to survive in the show or to make it very clear to the viewers, why some of the contestants should be eliminated.
In several instances, I feel we are too harsh to these contestants, but then I have second thoughts! I recall my growing up years .. I was the only son, the only brother and the youngest member in a nuclear family and always had my way! Never did anyone at home see or judge me and my actions critically! Seemed great at that time and I did not mind a bit nor do I blame my dear ones who lavished that treatment on me. As I grew up and came in close contact of the outside world, I started to see the disadvantage of my privileged childhood! I could not face up and cope with anything ‘even faintly not-so-good’ that was spoken about me. It was not that I was dumb enough not to realize that I was not ‘right’ in everything that I said nor that I was not the ‘best’ at everything I did – but it was very difficult to accept, leave alone digest the reality!
As I worked my way through primary and tertiary education and then through my work life, I met, worked with and learned from highly talented individuals who I was fortunate enough to associate with. I learned about work and life, about people and relationships. All this learning has shaped my career and what I have attained over the years. I am happy that as I progressed, I was more willing and agreeable about stepping outside my comfort zone of ‘personal perfection’ & seeking feedback from these people who saw me from up close and were thankfully willing to be critical about personal and work attributes that I needed to work on – many of these were indeed true and I knew about them if not acknowledge them! These corrections (some, if not all) molded me and made me more adequate in addressing today’s challenges at home, work and play!
Along the way, I learnt that any criticism is a gift really! It is advice that enables an individual to visualize a shortcoming that others see, which might or might not be immediately visible to him or even if visible, he might be in denial for different reasons. Whether this observation is considered valid or what the individual does with it, is absolutely personal – but atleast it presents a choice. Being aware of an area of weakness is halfway to resolving it! If you are not even aware of a shortcoming – how are you going to eliminate it?? So the next time you are criticized, view it as a free feedback routine – no one knows you better than yourself. You have the absolute and ultimate authority to determine whether you will accept this feedback or reject it. If you do determine that the recommendation is one that improves your current standing then by all means accept it and take massive action to implement it. Strengthen yourself and thank the outside world and the individual for presenting you with this ‘gift’!
I have also seen people who accept criticism in the right spirit and then some who go overboard and often overdo the personal transformation bit! While being ‘closed’ to acceptance of feedback is not a desirable position, acts of dramatic acceptance are not recommended as well! Look, we all have individual character traits. Depending on age and circumstances, many of these traits are fairly deep rooted. These traits represent us, make us what we are and help us to be accepted by our family, friends and co-workers despite our imperfections! Trying to change these is not only difficult but not desirable as well! When people try to overdo this, the changes that follow might work for a while but will definitely not be sustainable!
So here is the balancing act that I will recommend. Be self aware – be a firm judge of your strengths and perceived areas of improvement. Be prepared to actively solicit feedback from people who know you well and will judge you without bias! While feedback on ‘Strengths’ are welcome and pleasing to the ear, lean more on determining areas and traits that need more development. Find every opportunity to eliminate (to whatever extent possible) your weaknesses and strengthen your strengths! Be open to criticism – even if some of these are unfairly directed at you, use them wisely, not emotionally! Whether you accept or do anything with these is totally upto you, consequentially if you choose to do nothing is also upto you. Your attitude and actions will determine where you go from where you are today!
I am currently enjoying being a judge the MBA Challenge – an online reality show in Singapore and part of my role is to put up contestants for elimination by ‘online voting’. In course of doing so, all the three judges are verbally and visibly critical on the contestants with the objective of either showing them the ropes that they need to learn to survive in the show or to make it very clear to the viewers, why some of the contestants should be eliminated.
In several instances, I feel we are too harsh to these contestants, but then I have second thoughts! I recall my growing up years .. I was the only son, the only brother and the youngest member in a nuclear family and always had my way! Never did anyone at home see or judge me and my actions critically! Seemed great at that time and I did not mind a bit nor do I blame my dear ones who lavished that treatment on me. As I grew up and came in close contact of the outside world, I started to see the disadvantage of my privileged childhood! I could not face up and cope with anything ‘even faintly not-so-good’ that was spoken about me. It was not that I was dumb enough not to realize that I was not ‘right’ in everything that I said nor that I was not the ‘best’ at everything I did – but it was very difficult to accept, leave alone digest the reality!
As I worked my way through primary and tertiary education and then through my work life, I met, worked with and learned from highly talented individuals who I was fortunate enough to associate with. I learned about work and life, about people and relationships. All this learning has shaped my career and what I have attained over the years. I am happy that as I progressed, I was more willing and agreeable about stepping outside my comfort zone of ‘personal perfection’ & seeking feedback from these people who saw me from up close and were thankfully willing to be critical about personal and work attributes that I needed to work on – many of these were indeed true and I knew about them if not acknowledge them! These corrections (some, if not all) molded me and made me more adequate in addressing today’s challenges at home, work and play!
Along the way, I learnt that any criticism is a gift really! It is advice that enables an individual to visualize a shortcoming that others see, which might or might not be immediately visible to him or even if visible, he might be in denial for different reasons. Whether this observation is considered valid or what the individual does with it, is absolutely personal – but atleast it presents a choice. Being aware of an area of weakness is halfway to resolving it! If you are not even aware of a shortcoming – how are you going to eliminate it?? So the next time you are criticized, view it as a free feedback routine – no one knows you better than yourself. You have the absolute and ultimate authority to determine whether you will accept this feedback or reject it. If you do determine that the recommendation is one that improves your current standing then by all means accept it and take massive action to implement it. Strengthen yourself and thank the outside world and the individual for presenting you with this ‘gift’!
I have also seen people who accept criticism in the right spirit and then some who go overboard and often overdo the personal transformation bit! While being ‘closed’ to acceptance of feedback is not a desirable position, acts of dramatic acceptance are not recommended as well! Look, we all have individual character traits. Depending on age and circumstances, many of these traits are fairly deep rooted. These traits represent us, make us what we are and help us to be accepted by our family, friends and co-workers despite our imperfections! Trying to change these is not only difficult but not desirable as well! When people try to overdo this, the changes that follow might work for a while but will definitely not be sustainable!
So here is the balancing act that I will recommend. Be self aware – be a firm judge of your strengths and perceived areas of improvement. Be prepared to actively solicit feedback from people who know you well and will judge you without bias! While feedback on ‘Strengths’ are welcome and pleasing to the ear, lean more on determining areas and traits that need more development. Find every opportunity to eliminate (to whatever extent possible) your weaknesses and strengthen your strengths! Be open to criticism – even if some of these are unfairly directed at you, use them wisely, not emotionally! Whether you accept or do anything with these is totally upto you, consequentially if you choose to do nothing is also upto you. Your attitude and actions will determine where you go from where you are today!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Leadership Models – What is relevant today?
Leadership Models – What is relevant today?
I had to go ‘off-line’ from this blog for about 6 months or so! While I felt guilty every day for being away, I was busy doing something very meaningful at Brocade. After stamping our leadership in the Fibre Channel based Storage Area Network (SAN) space for 12 years we at Brocade needed to expand our total addressable market beyond the datacenter into the broader Ethernet LAN/WAN space. On 22 December we completed the acquisition of Foundry Networks for $2.5Billion, a staggering sum in the difficult money market of today! Having made such a big bet, it is critical for us to ensure that the integration between the two organizations concludes satisfactorily and communicates comfort and confidence to the customer and partners that enables us to bring our end goal (revenue and non-revenue) behind this acquisition to fruition! Pleased to say that things are on track and I am happy as a leader with the progress we have made. Enough said … for more details, please visit http://www.brocade.com/
Starting June, I am also playing ‘Judge’ at the MBA Challenge – Asia’s First Online Reality Show (use this search string on the Facebook search field) i.e. aired EXCLUSIVELY over the WEB with 2 MBA seats worth $25,000 up for grabs (http://www.mbachallenge.tv/). This is the first season of MBA Challenge and from the interest that is quite visible, I am quite certain subsequent seasons are in the offing! The organizers are already putting plans to export the show beyond Singapore. The elimination process has commenced and we are down to the ‘last 8’. The contestants are young, energetic and bubbling with ideas, energy and perspective – very eager to learn. It’s a pleasure and joy to be amongst these young folks and my interesting co-judges. I do confess that I come out of each session (definitely not a walk in the park!) having learnt more than what I have contributed besides having a lot of fun! Go take a look at the website and you will know what I mean! Better still vote for the remaining contestants and aim to compete in the next season if you are one of those who are after an MBA!
In one of the episodes of the MBA Challenge (The Active Channel biz plan – Episode 3), the judges me included came down on the contestants hard for not demonstrating ‘leadership’ in a group situation which goes without saying, is a key attribute of a business leader and for what an MBA stands for. Leadership need not just be linked to a position – a person does not need to be a designated team leader to demonstrate leadership qualities. Leadership can be demonstrated by an individual contributor as well. This core trait shows up because of some specific skills – subject matter expertise, communication skills or just the innate ability of an individual to get people in the team to participate, collaborate and contribute irrespective of their competencies. While doing so a ‘leader’ demonstrates the ability to guide the discussion to its intended conclusion rather than have everyone rambling on endlessly!
Talking about rambling endlessly brings me to the common sight of certain people hogging air-time and not really communicating meaningful substance. Their belief is in equating visibility to importance. This is hardly so! The audience in every possible forum is intelligent and educated to decipher substance from baloney! In today’s connected world, where news travels fast the results can be catastrophic!
In some of the elimination related discussions and deliberations at the show and the Facebook entries, I chanced upon selfless leadership – the ‘servant-leader’ model. The willingness of the leader to set aside personal needs and wants in seeking the greatest good for others, in accomplishing through others rather than seeking personal wins. I have also read about beliefs where the model ‘super leader’ is expected to know where he needs to go and how to get there! They should then be able to communicate with and convince their teams with adequate passion and conviction. Both these concepts could be real and there could be individuals who successfully live out these roles. However like in other instances, I will advise reader discretion and will recommend that these concepts be viewed in the right perspective keeping ‘real world’ workplaces, businesses and circumstances in mind!
The real world has an incredible scarcity of leaders who ‘do-not’ have any personal ‘needs and wants’. These need not be financial or even material! I just find it hard to perceive a leader being successful in leading a team across the line without any personal skin in the game at all! On the contrary, I would call it a risk in hiring or nominating a leader who has no motivation of a personal gain at all and is purely ‘serving’ the team by leading them! To me the servant leader is a relevant philosophy with a specific place in the leadership doctrine but not wholly relevant on a practical plane at least in today’s world gone crazy!
Next, the leader who knows where to go and how to get there… concept wise okay but I question how realistic this is in today’s context?? At work I mostly face management challenges that are mostly multi dimensional in nature. Solving or even addressing these situations by a ‘generalist’ leader or one with a single core skill is virtually impossible! Yes, the leader should be able to set directions towards a ‘landing zone’ in terms of outcome expectations but can hardly do every thing else to take the team to the desired outcome by himself!
Good leader’s build their teams with great people! When faced with a situation, they get these smart guys who ‘get it’ & posses different core competencies and expertise around a table, define the situation, the end goal and then pretend to be the dumbest person in the room! Almost without exceptions, the leader asks great questions, solicits involvement and opinions from everyone on the table (the broader the skills mix the more rounded the discussion & the cumulative opinion) and ensures that the discussion stays on track. These leaders are great at timing their own entry and exit from the group discussion. They do not hog air time, prefer to be great listeners instead! In almost every instance they demonstrate immaculate timing in closing the meeting. They successfully consolidate, summarize and direct the actions that evolve from the ‘session’ that will likely address the required end goal. So you see – the savvy leader of today did not exactly know where to go and definitely did not know how to get there, but leveraged his team members to determine the possible answers.
I had to go ‘off-line’ from this blog for about 6 months or so! While I felt guilty every day for being away, I was busy doing something very meaningful at Brocade. After stamping our leadership in the Fibre Channel based Storage Area Network (SAN) space for 12 years we at Brocade needed to expand our total addressable market beyond the datacenter into the broader Ethernet LAN/WAN space. On 22 December we completed the acquisition of Foundry Networks for $2.5Billion, a staggering sum in the difficult money market of today! Having made such a big bet, it is critical for us to ensure that the integration between the two organizations concludes satisfactorily and communicates comfort and confidence to the customer and partners that enables us to bring our end goal (revenue and non-revenue) behind this acquisition to fruition! Pleased to say that things are on track and I am happy as a leader with the progress we have made. Enough said … for more details, please visit http://www.brocade.com/
Starting June, I am also playing ‘Judge’ at the MBA Challenge – Asia’s First Online Reality Show (use this search string on the Facebook search field) i.e. aired EXCLUSIVELY over the WEB with 2 MBA seats worth $25,000 up for grabs (http://www.mbachallenge.tv/). This is the first season of MBA Challenge and from the interest that is quite visible, I am quite certain subsequent seasons are in the offing! The organizers are already putting plans to export the show beyond Singapore. The elimination process has commenced and we are down to the ‘last 8’. The contestants are young, energetic and bubbling with ideas, energy and perspective – very eager to learn. It’s a pleasure and joy to be amongst these young folks and my interesting co-judges. I do confess that I come out of each session (definitely not a walk in the park!) having learnt more than what I have contributed besides having a lot of fun! Go take a look at the website and you will know what I mean! Better still vote for the remaining contestants and aim to compete in the next season if you are one of those who are after an MBA!
In one of the episodes of the MBA Challenge (The Active Channel biz plan – Episode 3), the judges me included came down on the contestants hard for not demonstrating ‘leadership’ in a group situation which goes without saying, is a key attribute of a business leader and for what an MBA stands for. Leadership need not just be linked to a position – a person does not need to be a designated team leader to demonstrate leadership qualities. Leadership can be demonstrated by an individual contributor as well. This core trait shows up because of some specific skills – subject matter expertise, communication skills or just the innate ability of an individual to get people in the team to participate, collaborate and contribute irrespective of their competencies. While doing so a ‘leader’ demonstrates the ability to guide the discussion to its intended conclusion rather than have everyone rambling on endlessly!
Talking about rambling endlessly brings me to the common sight of certain people hogging air-time and not really communicating meaningful substance. Their belief is in equating visibility to importance. This is hardly so! The audience in every possible forum is intelligent and educated to decipher substance from baloney! In today’s connected world, where news travels fast the results can be catastrophic!
In some of the elimination related discussions and deliberations at the show and the Facebook entries, I chanced upon selfless leadership – the ‘servant-leader’ model. The willingness of the leader to set aside personal needs and wants in seeking the greatest good for others, in accomplishing through others rather than seeking personal wins. I have also read about beliefs where the model ‘super leader’ is expected to know where he needs to go and how to get there! They should then be able to communicate with and convince their teams with adequate passion and conviction. Both these concepts could be real and there could be individuals who successfully live out these roles. However like in other instances, I will advise reader discretion and will recommend that these concepts be viewed in the right perspective keeping ‘real world’ workplaces, businesses and circumstances in mind!
The real world has an incredible scarcity of leaders who ‘do-not’ have any personal ‘needs and wants’. These need not be financial or even material! I just find it hard to perceive a leader being successful in leading a team across the line without any personal skin in the game at all! On the contrary, I would call it a risk in hiring or nominating a leader who has no motivation of a personal gain at all and is purely ‘serving’ the team by leading them! To me the servant leader is a relevant philosophy with a specific place in the leadership doctrine but not wholly relevant on a practical plane at least in today’s world gone crazy!
Next, the leader who knows where to go and how to get there… concept wise okay but I question how realistic this is in today’s context?? At work I mostly face management challenges that are mostly multi dimensional in nature. Solving or even addressing these situations by a ‘generalist’ leader or one with a single core skill is virtually impossible! Yes, the leader should be able to set directions towards a ‘landing zone’ in terms of outcome expectations but can hardly do every thing else to take the team to the desired outcome by himself!
Good leader’s build their teams with great people! When faced with a situation, they get these smart guys who ‘get it’ & posses different core competencies and expertise around a table, define the situation, the end goal and then pretend to be the dumbest person in the room! Almost without exceptions, the leader asks great questions, solicits involvement and opinions from everyone on the table (the broader the skills mix the more rounded the discussion & the cumulative opinion) and ensures that the discussion stays on track. These leaders are great at timing their own entry and exit from the group discussion. They do not hog air time, prefer to be great listeners instead! In almost every instance they demonstrate immaculate timing in closing the meeting. They successfully consolidate, summarize and direct the actions that evolve from the ‘session’ that will likely address the required end goal. So you see – the savvy leader of today did not exactly know where to go and definitely did not know how to get there, but leveraged his team members to determine the possible answers.
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