Dear Friends Colleagues and Business Associates….my last month book synopsis was of one minute manager meets the monkey. This book talked about the new manager coping up with work load. Today I will be talking about he having achieved the first step of managing the work load how does he lead his teams. The book that I have chosen this week is Leadership Wisdom by Robin Sharma.
1. Ritual of Compelling Future Focus: I connect his to an activity in from my life. There was a mega new product launch and as leader I had to get alignment from the team hence I drafted a mail message addressing each one of front end sales person as “campaign name Leader” (getting their alignment and liberating them to take appropriate actions) further in the message explained salient features of the campaign and how that campaign was going to help them gain market share and also help them earn rewards too. Also included in the message a sense of urgency reminding them of “law of diminishing intent” which says longer you wait to implement a new idea or strategy, lesser is the enthusiasm you will have for it.
2. Ritual of Human Relations: This reminds me of another incident in my life. Once department head in dispatch section who was hard working and used to deliver on his commitments consistently, on one occasion came to work in spite of his wife being operated on the same day. Once the MD & CEO of the company came to know about it MD& CEO came to department along with the employees boss and told the employee that he needs to go and attend to his wife who was in hospital and if he sees him back to work till his wife is in hospital will fire his boss. This MD & CEO did not stop at that but also visited his wife in hospital. Imagine the impact it had not only on that employee but also on all other employees across the organisation. The employee narrates this incident well after retiring from the company and I am sure the story lingers on in the organisation too.
3. Ritual of Team Unity: This reminds me of another incident from my life. There was an urgent need to complete a catalog for launch of a new brand of products and time frame was very short and challenging. Lot of work needed to be done on making of product presentations, stocking, pricing and also coming out with a new 125 pages catalog. Team worked really hard and in a disciplined and united way to ensure that all the tasks are completed within the time frame and had to burn the midnight oil to ensure completion of all activities within a short period of available time. Launch went on very well and it kick started the sales of new brand very well. Acknowledging the effort of the entire team my American boss during next visit ensured he addressed the entire team acknowledging their efforts and followed it by hosting a party too.
4. Ritual of Adaptability & Change Management: We had a new MD & CEO who had a product management background. In first few weeks he invited the entire PM team and asked them to present the bench marking for exiting products and obsolescence plan for older product. The multinational company he had joined did not have any of these things in place and were dependent on their principals for inputs. By asking these right questions he infused in the local PM team to have bench-marking plan with local competitors and also come out with obsolesce plan of old and aging products where sales were stagnating /declining replacing them with newer products. Just these 2 actions drove the market share and sales going north which were earlier stagnating. Teaching the PM team an important lesson on adaptability and change management.
5. Ritual of Personal Effectiveness: L2L system of Samuthana Consultancoaching focuses on this aspect where as an individual/ organisation one .. 1. Integrates high leverage activities into your day every day plan. 2. Reviews AOP’s. 3. Brings in the focus on what are the minor goals that must be achieved on weekly basis which drives in direction of individual/ organisational vision. 4. Integrating weekly goals into daily routines. 5. Regular reflections so that all the important course corrections are done to keep you on track.
6. Ritual of Self Leadership: This takes me back to my early days of working i.e during 1990’s when the then MD & CEO of our company through a program of 7 habits of highly effective people brought the focus of the organisation back on self-leadership. Once he got the leadership team trained for personal effectiveness it percolated down the levels in the organisation and this one activity really fuelled the growth of the organisation and in 2 years’ time organisations surpassed the competition to book No1 slot in the market.
7. Ritual of Creative Innovation: I would like to connect this to playing the doHow® game. Where leader is able to tap into every one wisdom within the organisation making him feel belonged and bringing in creative Innovation by breaking the normal thinking patterns so that group comes out with path-breaking innovative ideas. In doHow® game discussions and debates happen on carefully designed contextual hints on situation on hand creating the much required emotional experienced required for initiating the change by helping people think laterally by connecting the dots to achieve the Amazing outcomes.
doHow® believes that every human being is creative. doHow® makes the task of the visionary leader is to create a workplace that liberates this natural endowment much easier. doHow® shed the shackles of outdated ways of thinking & discover smarter ways of doing what you do. doHow® removes the inhibitions of fear of failure. dohow® assists the leader to create a workplace that rewards curiosity and recognize that new ideas that are seeds of success. Remember that even one good idea can transform your organisation. doHow® makes working a fun activity. doHow® promotes creative questioning as one of the finest methods to keep thinking fresh and original.
8. Ritual of Contribution & Significance: The Purpose of Life is Life of Purpose. What makes Greatness is beginning something that does not end with you. Create a successful Present while building a brilliant Future.
This time I have changed the format where I have taken 8 simple rituals mentioned in the book added some personal experiences of mine that are connected to my life and shared it with you. By adopting the things in the book to actual things happening into your life one is able to better relate and internalize the learning much faster. Please let me know if you liked this new format or prefer the earlier format of book synopsis.
Excellent analysis. The examples sharing always brings the concept very clearly. Thanks for this excellent way of book analysis