Write your wishlist today: #1 advice for Leaders & Followers

There can never be better collation of thoughts than to write about 'wishlists' on birthday. :)

In dictionaries worldwide wishlist are defined as 'a list of desired things or occurrences.' This is something that has ability to sum up all expectations - from now to then, from present to future, even for the future so distant that no one has ever seen before.

Writing a true wishlist requires clarity and purity in thoughts, it requires courage and confidence to publish it to the world and sometimes it may take years to strike off each item after fulfilment.

The reason to emphasize on writing a wishlist is simple - unless there is a wishlist, there is a little chance of clarity on the goal to achieve or destination to reach. Without a wishlist leader cannot guide and follower cannot follow the path. A CEO will surely miss the mission and Project Manager will keep crying foul on scope creep :)

Wishlist published at the beginning of the project will keep teams on precise path during execution and sponsors delighted at the closure. In my opinion managing the wishlist is all what 'project management' is all about.

I encourage to screw around vigorously (Way # 108 S.A.V from The little big things by Tom Peters)  to get your reporting staff, your manager, your leadership, your CEO, your board, even your wife & kids to write true wishlists and publish it to you. Begin by asking - what is it that you truly desire ? Ask this question openly in townhalls, in your quarterly reviews, or weekly meetings or simply whenever you meet next.

Once wishlists are written and published - there is zero confusion on scope, expectation, the destination or the goal forever. Next steps become simple to take and that too on correct path - from the wishlists leaders & followers both know - whether to take the road less travelled or just keep treading on the beaten path.

Getting wishlists written becomes the forward step to take after Next Natural Step of Start with Why (preceding post). It settles dust & confusion, and is capable of getting everybody sign up for team.

Wishlists are important tool for everybody - from CEOs to Employees, from Head of the family to junior of the family, Wishlists have the ability to make or break a relationship.

In the chapter of humanity - relationship is all that matters - it's beyond the contract.

For tweets follow me on twitter: @hirdug

This post was first published on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/write-your-wishlist-today-1-advice-leaders-followers-hirdesh-gupta

Start with Why: Next Natural Step

Once the soul is written, the next natural step is to anoint the team. For this, I recommend to 'Start with Why' ~ Simon Sinek (https://www.startwithwhy.com/) of The Golden Circle fame. Here is his TED Talk : How great leaders inspire action http://go.ted.com/bb6g

I use 'The Golden Circle' from Start with Why (ISBN-13: 978-1591846444) to set perimeter on my efforts to build high performance, for the inception of excellence and to naturally align all around in the discipline of getting things done. Here I strongly recommend Execution: The discipline of getting things done ~  Lawrence Bossidy and Ram Charan (ISBN-13: 978-0609610572).

As leader one must be able to inspire people to act. Quoting Simon, "The golden circle finds order and predictability in human behavior. Put simply, it helps us understand why we do what we do. It’s for the leader (the Senior Manager) to be the guardian of this Why, enabling the team to align and bond around that belief."

This human quest of being curious is the key. Everyone on the team is curious - curious to know why they are there, what are they suppose to do, how it is to be done, where is the goal, how big is the reward, why is the purpose.

This is how I apply the principle:

I Connect with each and every individual on my team,

I Communicate with passion, with enthusiasm - the reason, I answer their WHYs, I answer why it is so important deliver excellence, what are our differentiators, and how to achieve them. I tell them "It's not luck (yes, I am referring to E. M Goldratt - I recommend to read both The Goal & It's not luck whenever you are missing the link in that Critical Chain.)."

I Cross-train staff to open them up to newer advanced tools, processes and technologies.

I Cultivate values, trust, energy in them.

I Conclude achievements and

I Celebrate with everyone on the floor.

Always remember and use these 6 C's to create your team viz Connect, Communicate, Cross-train, Cultivate, Conclude and Celebrate.

As a leader do not just sign off on a plan. Always ask an explanation, and drill down until the answers are clear on execution.

Quoting Execution - "Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work. Good judgments come from practice and experience". The building blocks of execution culture are defined with utmost clarity by Ram & Lawrence. I am quoting them as follows:

• Know your people and your business: Show up & connect personally. Show up on conference calls, prefer video (skype, gtalk, OCS etc.), Listen first & Talk next.
• Insist of realism: Regularly do SWOT Analysis - with Direct Reports, Skip-levels, be it Directors, Sr. Managers, Technical Team. Introduce these tools to your ground work-force (even Band X/Zero)
•  Set clear goals and priorities: Involve people, focus on max 4 priorities, always set time-bound goals. Set measurement scale. Speak Simple.
• Follow through: Take a walk, wander around, see your people on the floor, walk across the assembly line, take clues from MBWA - Management by Wandering Around (Tom Peters). Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1ZWvtX_ZM Narrative: http://tompeters.com/blogs/toms_videos/docs/Excellence_MBWA.pdf .
• Reward the doers: Always reward in public with applause. Speak with passion about the good work and how it adds to the discipline.
• Expand people’s capabilities: Carefully choose people on the team, craft the structure and invest to build capabilities. Provide a fertile environment and people will grow. Encourage tools like wiki to share and collaborate. Induce automation for mundane tasks.
• Know yourself: This is of utmost importance. Teams you build, culture you establish, achievements you make are all replica of yourself. Be-Aware - it's the first life-skill. Refer to my blog: http://hirdug.blogspot.in/2012/05/life-skill-1-be-aware-be-aware-now.html. Be Authentic & contain your ego.

Establishing high performance, building a culture of execution, driving excellence is always done with people. 

Thus, 

Be Human...Always

You can follow me on twitter: @hirdug 

This post was first published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-why-next-natural-step-hirdesh-gupta

Step Zero: Writing the Soul of your own High Performance Team

Every time, I talk on building a high performance team, people are curious. And all want to know if there is an stone carved step by step guide to build on, or if there is a secret sauce at a store nearby they can buy and add to team, or what's the first step to begin with. On all these curious questions, more often than not I briefly smile, and I say, "There is no guide, no secret sauce or the first step, but there is Step Zero, and that's the biggest leap of faith one can take. The journey begins with actually writing the soul of your own High Performance Team."

The soul of your High Performance Team is true-copy of thyself, it's not a shadow (a darker shade which vanishes when times are dark) and it's also not a reflection (mirror images are vice-versa). One has to personally write the soul and publish to all the world around, for every one to acknowledge it's presence & bring it to life.

The soul of my High Performance Teams is written around the central idea to - "enjoy the joy of togetherness" and the "view" each individual has of another in the team.

Once the soul is written, rest is not Utopian to achieve. Publish the soul to each & every individual and frame all other expectations around it. Building a high performing team is different from carving a high performing leader, it is different from hive-mind thought process, it's collaborative incremental effort, bit like building each muscle in the body.

I have kept this post short on purpose to establish the simplicity & importance of writing the soul. In future post on the series, I will talk in detail on many other aspects of High Performance Team building methods (not sequential steps :) )

Couple of those are published in presentation at slide-share: Anthem - Raise the Bar  http://www.slideshare.net/HirdeshGupta/anthem-raise-the-bar


This post was first published on my LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/step-zero-writing-soul-your-own-high-performance-team-hirdesh-gupta

Prioritize versus Randomize

...Incoming Post ;) I say Randomize !!!!

Stop Whining Start Winning

When was the last time you got anything by 'whining' around ? Don't think too long or loud...it happened when you were a kid & your parents gave you whatever you wanted, whenever you were throwing 'tantrums'. Did this procedure lasted long ? How did it felt afterwards to you, or your parents ? real soon, there were scoldings and then you were ignored!!!.

What's happening to the saying 'squeaking wheel gets the oil' ? In times like now, isn't it giving way to 'squeaking wheel is Replaced' or rather 'Performing wheel gets the rubber'.

....to continue....

One thing at a time

It may sound very simple to do 'one thing at a time', however it's not, at least not in complex work spaces and organizations of our time. Reason: Our mind is a wonderful object, it can focus and it can split focus at the same time.

Over the period of years I have seen, that almost all the time, myself and people around me have benefited by adhering religiously to this simple principle. The advantage of not getting knocked down by noise in the environment by multi-tasking weighs huge in favour.

We can argue about pros & cons and many other things, however the point I want to illustrate is how to actually do and implement this principle. While I was preparing to write, I came across a interesting post of Mark Forster with the same title on his blog 'Get Everything done'. You can read the post here.

In very simple words, he has spilled the secret sauce. The method is to list down everything (slotted already into tasks) in descending order of urgency ( not in order of importance - 'coz if they are not important, why they are on your list ;). [ This is just like AGILE methods, writing down user stories, prioritizing them, adding dog points and then allocating resources to complete the user stories. ]

Once you are done with the list, start putting an end date to each of the task after allocating 100% (or whatever % available) of yourself to the task. Once done, do S.A.V (Screw Around Vigorously - do it 'coz it fixes) and finish. No excuses to CYA (Cover Your Ass)

If you cannot finish on time, revisit the estimates and update all dates. remember not to skip to reduce the count of task at hand. Follow this principle and thy soul be rewarded in both long & short run with peace and comfort.