What Is The 'Shark' In Your Fish Tank Today?

#SridharPeddisetty #Motivational #Inspirational #Leadership #Management #Agile #ProjectManagement 

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish but the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The further the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish and if the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea and freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish and they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price and so fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan. How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!

Many of us are living in a pond, which is making us most of the time, tired and dull. We basically are in need of a ‘shark', which is the new challenge that is necessary to keep us alive and kicking. In my earlier post 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today, I had shared how important it is to not only keep pace with current disruptive phase but to run faster with combination of your experience and knowledge.
As shared in the post Only If You Knew How Much You Actually Know, mantra for your success is your ability to understand the potential of the wisdom you have gained by correlating the knowledge gained in all your experience and using that wisdom to come out of your comfort zone and challenge the status quo.

Summary

To summarize, discover your shark and put it in your fish tank today to keep you alive, energized and fresh. As I had shared in the post Positive Attitude Defines Your Successful Career, we mostly underestimate the power of choice we make everyday and its worth reminding ourselves so often that its our positive attitude towards every aspect of life, which is what makes it a successful journey.

PS: Above was a WhatsApp forward so source is unknown but the message is worth sharing.

Previous posts you might be interested in

• Value Stream Mapping As A Process Improvement Tool
• Only If You Knew How Much You Actually Know
• 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today

5 Reasons To Let Your Team Struggle Today

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #ProductiveTeams #TeamMotivation   
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Struggles are exactly what we need in our life to emerge stronger and smarter. Same philosophy is at times applicable when your team is struggling. As a leader, create safety net just enough not to let the team fail completely but mentor the team to face the adversities themselves. In my earlier post 'Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities’, I shared why its important to empower your team and let them own their responsibilities. With the empowerment, team is in a better position to learn from their struggles. So here are the 5 reasons why you need to let your team struggle today

#1. Development of second rung leadership - In the face of adversity would emerge your next leaders, who emerge stronger and smarter.

#2. Revaluation of team goals - provides an opportunity to reevaluate team goals and align them as needed. 

#3. Reassessment of team skills - provides an opportunity to reassess skills needed by the team to perform more efficiently. 

#4. Opportunity of change - provides an opportunity to change for the good whether its letting go someone or changing the work culture. 

#5. Better team dynamics - provides an opportunity (provided handled properly) to increase the team dynamics as the team struggles together and emergencies victorious. 

If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

Previous posts you might be interested in

• Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities
• Trust Your Team But Make Sure To Verify
• Is there a rope holding you in managing

5 Reasons To Let Your Team Struggle Today was originally published in LinkedIn

My 7 Lessons Inspired By Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #AbdulKalam #DrKalam  

“Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great.” ―  A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

There are some who inspired few and there are very rare who inspired an entire generation, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was one of the very rare ones. Dr. Kalam was inspirational to an entire generation is evident from the outpouring of tributes from all walks of life. He had touched so many lives and ignited so many young minds to believe in the power of thinking, knowledge and on top of it, self belief. Dr. Kalam has shared his wisdom in numerous inspiring speeches he has given with the sole aim of igniting the young minds to lead the nation, not where its going but where it ought to go. Its ironical that he breathed his last doing what he loves doing best, passing his knowledge torch to a new generation of torch bearers.  Below are some of my lessons inspired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. 

1. A true leader would own team’s failure and let team take the credit for success
2. You need difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success 
3. All of us do not have equal talent. But we all do have an equal opportunity to develop our talents
4. Do not lean on to an excuse counter and whine about injustice, corruption and wrong doing in the society but be the change agent to fight the evils of the society.
5. The sides of the mountain sustain life, not the peak. This is where things grow, experience is gained, and technologies are mastered. The importance of the peak lies only in the fact that it defines the sides.
6. Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Thinking provides knowledge and knowledge is power 
7. Failure will never overtake you if your definition to succeed is strong enough

When asked how he would like to be remembered, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam responded by saying, as a ‘teacher’.

So here is to his legacy and a teacher lives on...

My 7 Lessons Inspired By Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was originally published in LinkedIn

5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #Agile #ProjectManagement #ScrumMaster   

Every morning when Deer wakes up, it thinks that today I have to run faster than the fastest Lion for me to survive & live and every morning Lion wakes up to think that today I have to run faster than the slowest Deer for me to eat & survive.

No matter who you are, you have to run faster than somebody today nevertheless. Today’s workplace is comprising of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and possibly few Traditionalists. Its becoming quite competitive with number of years of experience under your belt does not automatically qualifying you to hold a position but what you bring to the table does.  So its not only important to keep pace but to run faster with combination of your experience and knowledge. Always be a step ahead by

1. Being a vivid reader of whats going in the area of your domain, technical skills or industry in general, which would always help you take informed decisions or contribute intelligently in a conversation. 
2. Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. Listen to understand in the company of experts to gain knowledge. We often listen to reply, which is counterproductive and sometime back I had written a blog 'Why Active Listening is Key for Successful Delivery of Agile Projects' on similar lines
3. Blogging or sharing your insights with the community on relevant topics. You either would intelligently be able to share with your experience or would do some research on the subject, thus gaining knowledge before sharing. 
4. Get your hands dirty or feet wet by working on a prototype or proof of concept on a newer technology or process to get a better handle. 
5. Being positive in attitude, which would always result in your ability to see through the challenging times.Positive attitude defines your successful career is a blog post I had shared earlier on how positive attitude does matter. 

Always keep in mind that if you are not enough fast, you are not just left behind but are left in the past. 

PS: Above picture was clicked by me in San Diego Safari Park

Note: 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today was originally published in LinkedIn

Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Delegation #DelegationManagement #Agile #ProjectManagement #ScrumMaster #TeamWork   

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant - Robert Louis Stevenson

We all understand the word delegation but seldom put the art of delegation in play. I wrote an earlier blog post on Trust your team but make sure to verify, jest of which I am extending in this post. We need to learn the art of empowering our team to own responsibilities while creating the safety nets around those responsibilities so that even if they fail, they do not hurt themselves bad. Remember, it is often your best people that make the worst mistakes, because your best people do the most complex work. When we take so much pains to hire the best possible talent with the good intent to keep them in the team for long term, we might as well encourage them to pursue their ideas while giving them the tools they need to succeed.

The key to start empowering your team to own responsibilities is by making the list of tasks, which play to their strengths better and letting them own those tasks. Major constraint of not letting your team own tasks is because of the fear of losing control and facing consequences of the result. It is understandably difficult at times to think about pulling hand out of projects while letting the team own them but the fact is that the more your team feels that they are trusted to do their jobs, the more commitment and interest they will show in their work. Remember that you have hired smart people with right attitude and the best way to find whether you made the right decision or not is to just let them play it. More often the brightest of ideas come from the most unlikely sources and only way of knowing that is by empowering.  

Effective managers know from their experience that they can climb greater heights and achieve their professional goals only by delegating the work to their talented team of people.  By empowering, you are creating the next generation of leadership so always remember the quote "Do not count the number of followers you have but the number of leaders you created" 
Having shared this, there are certain tasks, which at times just cannot be delegated out. Jay Goltz has shared one such funny experience in his blog The one task I can’t seem to delegate and also there is this humorous piece

Mom: "Son, please go to the market and buy 1 bottle of milk. If they have eggs, bring 6”.  Son came back with 6 bottles of milk.   Mom: "Why the hell did you buy 6 bottles of milk?" Son:“Because they had eggs"

What are your thoughts on empowering your team to own responsibilities?  

Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities was originally published in LinkedIn 

It is always best to know a second language

#SridharPeddisetty, #Leadership, #Management, #Cultural, #Argentina, #Inspirational.

Once upon a time there was a Baby Mouse and Mother Mouse. They lived in a hole in the skirting board in a big, warm house with lots of cheese to eat, where they wanted for nothing. Then, one day, Mother Mouse decided to take Baby Mouse outside of their home. Waiting outside for them was a huge ginger tomcat, licking it’s lips and waiting to eat them both up. “Mother, Mother! What should we do?” Cried Baby Mouse, clinging to his mother’s tail. Mother Mouse paused, staring up into the beady eyes of the hungry cat. But she wasn't scared, because she knew exactly how to deal with big, scary cats. She opened her mouth and took in a deep breath. “Woof! Woof! Bark bark bark!” She shouted, and the cat ran away as fast as he could. “Wow, Mother! That was amazing!” Baby Mouse said to his mother, smiling happily. “And that, my child, is why it is always best to have a second language.”

In the above case, knowing the second language was a life saver and fortunately for us we do not necessarily encounter above situations in our daily life. But having said that, we do however encounter situations where we work with teams and client stakeholders, who come from different walks of life and background. We cannot possibly learn all languages but we can certainly make an effort to understand the culture to appreciate how an information is perceived. Nelson Mandela famously said 

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞

So whether you are talking with a team member or a client stakeholder, its important to understand their language and make an honest effort to learn if you want to win them over. 

Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. ‒Rita Mae Brown

What are your thoughts? 

It is always best to know a second language was originally published as a LinkedIn Post

7 Leadership Skills All Project Managers Should Embrace

Managing a project to successful completion on time, on budget, within scope and with high quality results requires project managers to have exceptional leadership skills. Having the right set of leadership skills ensures project managers are making informed decisions, while adapting to changes and responding to risks appropriately. While some project managers possess natural leadership qualities, other leadership skills must be learned and adapted to ensure consistency in managing projects.

These 7 Leadership skills are fundamental to effective project management

1. Communication
2. Delegation
3. Commitment
4. Positive Attitude
5. Creativity
6. Honesty
7. Focus

1. Communication

Effective communication with all project stakeholders both internal and external is essential. To manage projects well, project managers must articulate clearly while communicating vision, objectives and expectations with stakeholders. It's very important to share business values derived from the outcome of the project and consistently shared throughout the tenure of the project. Multi-channel communication should foster the delivery and reception of information in a timely manner.

2. Delegation

Delegate project tasks according to respective project team member strengths. Before delegation it's very important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team member and assign project tasks appropriately. Create environments where project team members experiences play to their respective strengths, thus facilitating health and trust.

3. Commitment

Commit to project success by ensuring alignment with goals. As a project manager, you need to lead the team and acquire commitment to achieve project objectives. It's equally important to acquire commitment from client stakeholders to provide necessary support while remaining aligned and moving towards common project goals.

4. Positive Attitude

Ensure positive attitudes are reflected across the project team. Be a trailblazer by creating a path for your team members to feel inspired and achieve greater things. Foster an environment where team members are given goals to achieve and encourage them to use their ingenuity. Create awareness that they are being observed to enhance productivity and as a project manager, you are there to provide support when needed.

5. Creativity

Be creative and think out of the box when things deviate from plan. Your team is your biggest asset so create an environment where their feedback is encouraged and valued. When teams feel empowered, they back you up and when things deviate, they can help you come out with ideas on how to manage unscripted work. It is said that a successful project manager sees the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.

6. Honesty

Be honest and ethical, setting standards and inspiring team members to follow. By showing your commitment to adhere to your own set of values and ethical practices, the  project team will be inspired to follow suit and trust you to lead them. It's also important to establish a trust worthy relationship with clients where transparency is provided on how the project is being managed. One way of defining quality is to do the right things when nobody is watching.

7. Focus

Remain focused on your team and ensure your team remains focused on project goals. Whether managing projects traditionally, iteratively or using Agile methodologies, it's important to remain focused and aligned with project goals. Team members remain focused if their respective task goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. There should also be a constant feedback loop to ensure alignment with overall project goals.

7 Leadership Skills All Project Managers Should Embrace was originally posted under Prokarma blog on Nov 12 2014