Leadership Empowers Team

Leadership empowers teams to deliver great results

I always believe that Together Everyone Achieves More. That is the meaning of TEAM. But one thing is only an able leader can drive the TEAM towards that success. Team members can be very talented and skill full, but with a right direction from an able leader, great results will come.

Sri Krishna and Pandavas are a great example for the same. Pandavas are individually very skill full, but as a team in the direction of SriKrishna, they have done wonders. Another example is Cricket team. The success of the team is mainly dependent on the captain who  provides the timely direction. Important aspect here is understanding the strength and weakness of each team player and giving the right opportunities and empowering them to utilize their strength and skill. This will provide the team member a great moral boost and also self confidence. That will help them overcome their weakness.

Manager, who handles a project theoretically with tools and techniques. Any project by the standard definition of a project we all know that a deliverable by a team in a finite time. Is Manager and Leader same? If not what's the difference? What I feel is management is executing a project in a procedural way to deliver the desired results. But when we look at leadership, it is practical way of getting things done by the team. With the right leadership in place, team members feel empowered and will be able to deliver more effectively.

When we talk about an able leader we need to talk about our Bapu, Mahatma Gandhji. there is a small story to show how a leader can get the great result. There was a lady, who was not able to control her son eating lot of sugar. Then she felt her son will only listen, if Bapu asks him to stop. So even if it is a long walk to meet Bapu, she took that pain and finally met. She mentioned the problem to Bapu. She was expecting Bapu to say to her son to stop eating sugar. But surprisingly Bapu spoke different things but not about sugar. And asked her to get her son after 3 days. With a little disappointment, she returned home and came back after 3 days. Then Bapu told her son to stop eating sugar, and the boy promised Bapu that he will stop eating sugar. Lady was surprised and could not stop herself asking Bapu, why he didn't say the same on the first day. Bapu replied that even he had that habit. Before he say that to the boy, he should stop doing it first.

This is called Leading by Example and this Leadership helps driving great results.

Our nation needs lot of great leaders to deliver great results by empowering the youth to make India super power.

Bird - Out of the nest

I still remember the caution my father gave me when I was supposed to join intermediate in APRJC, Nimmakur. He told me that "You are on your own from now. In new place you are not recognized as your dad's son. Rather we are recognized as your parents. So make your mark in your new world and make us proud. We are always there to support you."

While he was telling me this he also explained me the qualities of An Achiever. I know you might be looking for those best qualities to be an achiever. I wrote another blog on that. Here is the link to An Achiever

You are always a stranger in a new place, job and role. Starting from the day 1 at APRJC, Nimmakur, till today, I keep reminding my self with above two things, and leading my way towards the success. On my journey, crossing different stages, playing different roles, facing various new challenges at each stage I gain lot of experience and learning. But First experience is always like First love. cant forget that for life time. That gave me energy to make my first steps towards the success in life.

Both my parents are teachers, they not only taught me the subjects in school, but they also taught me how to fight and succeed in life. They encouraged me to handle situations on my own. Of course their unconditional support is available all along.

Specially if I look back to the two years that I have spent at APRJC, Nimmakur, First Hostel life, new friends from different places, early morning jogging, opportunity to learn swimming, My Hero NTR's own place and house, The Vizag (Araku) tour experience, handling my finances on my own... and many more ....  list goes on...

All these gave me strength and courage to move on in my life. Thanks to all my Nimmakur friends and Teachers for such a lovely memories..

Dancing Lights show at Street of lighting during Edinburgh Christmas 2016

Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland

Kinnu Trips Presents Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland

Its not raining in Edinburgh and you are on a holiday, that's the right time you can think of Calton Hill. A short and sweet trip, that you can spend along with your friends or family.

Calton Hill, is one of the nice places to visit in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is a good view point from which, you can see the beautiful city of Edinburgh. A nice short up hill walk to see some iconic monuments and buildings like

• The National Monument,
• The Nelson Monument and 
• The Dugald Stewart Monument.

Video Link for Calton Hill - https://youtu.be/M3jylI_SagY

Worth spending couple of hours enjoying the scenic beauty on the Calton Hill and also all the surroundings. Its a very nice scenic spot to take good photos, as this place gives a birds eye view of Edinburgh city and its important locations. Old and new cities, sea view and Aurther's seat etc.,

Very easy to go with kids also. I went with my family. My kids enjoyed the walk to the top and good open space on top of the hill. click here for a quick video on Calton hill. We spent couple of hours and enjoyed very well.

One important thing to let you know that I could not find any toilets on the hill. So plan accordingly
 

Life Balance

A very common term used in the IT industry is Work Life Balance. But I would like to talk about our lives and the balance we are all doing to manage. Wait wait.. What life we are talking about here? Work life and personal life? I don’t think these are the only two different lives we have.  I feel Work life and Personal Life are not just two, they have lot of internal variations. Let's see

 

Forget about your personal life for some time. Work life itself has different shades in it. Based on the location you are working, you have various stakeholders to manage.  Based on which, your work life is dependent on. Onsite, offshore, client and internal Leadership team, etc, etc. All these will drive your work life. You need to do lot of balancing act to manage and get things done. While managing client expectations, you will completely lose track of your internal activities. Its true other way round as well. Isn't it?

 

 

- JANA KINGSFORD

Now let's see how are we doing on our personal life. When I look back, I wonder how much I became busy. As busy as I can't check my Facebook posts or what'sApp messages. I am not even talking about any new posts from my side. I couldn't even check and follow others posts. I remember playing some games. Let me think what those are... oh yah! I now remember there are some pawns, a queen and a king. Yes you are right. That's Chess. I wonder how I used to get so much of time in the world to play such a lengthy game. Can I get those days back? Sometimes I feel why is the day is so short. You got it right, when I say day it's day and night. All together 24 hours are not sufficient, how can I only refer to only day.

 

In personal life also I see lot of shades. Family life, social life and the other important one that you can't ignore is your own personal life. Have you ever realized that you are missing so many small things that you want to do, but you skip them, rather sacrifice them for either for family or for work.

Why is this happening? Whom should I blame? my manager, my team, my client, my family, my friends or myself?

What's the solution then? Can I come back to normal anytime soon? Can I come out of this maze at all?

One thing I feel is early the better that you recognize that you are losing control over your time. Then the solutions will start coming.

Only YOU can get a solution to YOUR situation.

Realize it soon and Act on it.

All the Best

Are you in the Game?

Are You in the Game?

Change and Challenge are like twins. They always come together to bring back the energy in you. As your work becomes routine, your skills become dull. You just need something to happen to bring back motivation into your work and put your skills to work. That special thing, which can change your life, is the change in your work, or in the way you work. As I said in the beginning, the change does not come alone. Be aware, challenge comes along with change.

This is like a checkpoint, which questions the capability of the individual and asks, "Are you still in the Game?” How prepared are you for the change and the challenges to be unfolded? These questions give you an opportunity to prove your capabilities to be in the game and to win the game.

Do we do any miracle overnight to overcome the challenges and smoothly sail through the change? I don’t think there is any such magic wand, which can give you all the powers in the world to turn things into your favor. No magic wands, but Yes, there are some similar things do exist to smoothly sail through the challenges.

In my view Curiosity, Continuous learning and the Attitude. If you are curious enough, that keeps you always up-to-date on your knowledge levels. Only with the curiosity, you won’t gain knowledge, you should put in your effort to learn and expand your depth and breadth of your knowledge. With these two, added a positive attitude, gives you those additional powers to handle the Challenge.

Wish you a very Happy New Year.

Play along with the TEAM

Management can be defined as ManageMenTactfully. So, it’s all about managing the people. If team members are happy, things will automatically be done. You take care of the team; they take care of the deliverables for you. However, the big question is how to make them happy? Moreover, how to keep them happy?

                If we look at manager as the captain of a team, team expects the captain to be around on the ground with them. They look up to the captain, when they are in trouble and want some guidance. It is not only for the guidance, but they want you to appreciate their success. A non-playing captain may not be so successful. As mentioned above, if you want to manage people, you should know them well. The only way to know is to work closely with them and listen to them. Listening is the most important skill a manager should have to be a good manager. The role of a manager should not be looked at as a role with authority. This should rather be looked at as the role with more responsibility.

No manager will get a team full of star performers. Even if you are fortunate to have the best performers in place, they may not be motivated enough to do things for you. Team should do things for you more than as a duty. You will be able to succeed only when you are able to identify their strengths and give them opportunity in those areas where they shine and make good contributions. It’s also your duty as a manager to identify the weakness and cover them and guide them to overcome those weakness. That’s where you are adding value to the team, in a way to the organization to get the best out of the resources.

We can use couple of ways to know better about the team members.

·         Have regular one to one meetings to understand their aspirations, concerns, provide constructive feedback and to hear their feedback on you. During these sessions, patience is the key. You need to have very good listening skills. You need to let them speak completely and then you should be able to articulate your response in the right tone to them back.

·         Organize team-building activities; Make sure everyone actively participate and know each other. Don’t miss those opportunities to appraise desired candidates. There will be lot of talent hidden in each of the team members. Encourage them to perform in the group. This brings a special recognition to them and they get a special place in the team after knowing them better. This gives an opportunity to know little more about the person.

·         Provide as many initiatives and responsibilities as possible to the team and see how they respond or react to them. This gives you the next level resources that you want to build as a leadership team, which is very important.

 

It is equally important to give an opportunity to the team to know about you. For that, you have to participate actively in those team-building events. This gives them comfort to come to you for any issues they may have.

Play along with the team, but don’t play with the team.