Wishes on a productive year ahead in each others' company to all those who are reading/registered on this blog. This is my first post here. I run an independent blog over here . Please feel free to visit/comment.
I'll be completing my last week at work this Friday. Inspite of the fact that I'm leaving, my manager insisted that I participate in the Yearly Performance Review (YPR) process. As always, I found the feedback process a great way to become aware (and refresh one's convenient memory) of my development areas. For those of us (and I think most of us) who are still working, I'd strongly recommend participation in some form of feedback. In a sense, even the application process - writing essays, discussing and coming to concrete career goals from a hazy state of mind and the interview itself was the best feedback we could have got about ourselves. While the ISB admit is certainly special, we may be better served if we entered ISB aware of these development areas than in a state of complacency.
During discussions with my manager, a lot of points came out in general about how good managers function and go on to hone their skills. I'm tempted to share some of these ideas on this forum although they may be repetitions of ideas you may have come across elsewhere. These ideas may not apply in all scenarios or situations but generally hold true more often than not:
1. Good managers are usually inclusive and do not hesitate to delegate power with responsibility. Often, we function in environments where we may have felt - what if I had more powers, I could have changed this state of affairs. A good manager allows his group sufficient powers and delegates not just responsibility at times, but even power. Empowering people around us is the best way to go forward, get noticed. Sounds easy, but is particularly difficult when we may have our own insecurities.
2. Anticipation is a skill good managers possess universally. Often, we tend to sit on our accomplishments. Anyone who has read Andy Grove's book Only the Paranoid Survive will know that only those who anticipate change and prepare for it survive the actual inflection periods.
3. Develop instinct. Being able to use your gut feeling when available data is insufficient is a skill that evolves over time. How often are we in a position of making a decision without time/resources/information to guide us? Developing the gut-feel for a situation and tuning this feel to make a sound decision comes with time.
4. Place your ego and your emotions in the trash-can. Hopefully, ISB will teach this lesson in more ways than one. More often than not, we will need to subordinate our emotions to reason - atleast in the work place.
Enough said. I'll now leave you all with some gems taken from "The Daily Drucker" - a book who's author we'll frequently come across in B-school lecture references.
I'll be completing my last week at work this Friday. Inspite of the fact that I'm leaving, my manager insisted that I participate in the Yearly Performance Review (YPR) process. As always, I found the feedback process a great way to become aware (and refresh one's convenient memory) of my development areas. For those of us (and I think most of us) who are still working, I'd strongly recommend participation in some form of feedback. In a sense, even the application process - writing essays, discussing and coming to concrete career goals from a hazy state of mind and the interview itself was the best feedback we could have got about ourselves. While the ISB admit is certainly special, we may be better served if we entered ISB aware of these development areas than in a state of complacency.
During discussions with my manager, a lot of points came out in general about how good managers function and go on to hone their skills. I'm tempted to share some of these ideas on this forum although they may be repetitions of ideas you may have come across elsewhere. These ideas may not apply in all scenarios or situations but generally hold true more often than not:
1. Good managers are usually inclusive and do not hesitate to delegate power with responsibility. Often, we function in environments where we may have felt - what if I had more powers, I could have changed this state of affairs. A good manager allows his group sufficient powers and delegates not just responsibility at times, but even power. Empowering people around us is the best way to go forward, get noticed. Sounds easy, but is particularly difficult when we may have our own insecurities.
2. Anticipation is a skill good managers possess universally. Often, we tend to sit on our accomplishments. Anyone who has read Andy Grove's book Only the Paranoid Survive will know that only those who anticipate change and prepare for it survive the actual inflection periods.
3. Develop instinct. Being able to use your gut feeling when available data is insufficient is a skill that evolves over time. How often are we in a position of making a decision without time/resources/information to guide us? Developing the gut-feel for a situation and tuning this feel to make a sound decision comes with time.
4. Place your ego and your emotions in the trash-can. Hopefully, ISB will teach this lesson in more ways than one. More often than not, we will need to subordinate our emotions to reason - atleast in the work place.
Enough said. I'll now leave you all with some gems taken from "The Daily Drucker" - a book who's author we'll frequently come across in B-school lecture references.
- There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. He alone gives employment.
- Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.
- The one person to distrust is the one who never makes a mistake. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial.
- There are keys to success in managing bosses. First, put down on a piece of paper a "boss list," everyone to whom you are accountable. Next, go to each person on the list and ask, "What do I do and what do my people do that helps you do your job?" And, "What do we do that makes your life more difficult?"
- A decision is a commitment to action. No decision has, in fact, been made until carrying it out has become somebody's responsibility.
- Luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.
- Just go out and make yourself useful.
Wishing everyone a good break ahead before the grind.
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