Straight to the point

Developing leadership skills in your people or in yourself is a complex and long process -no doubt about it.

If you have attended leadership programs (on-site or off-site), you would have noticed that they tend to be

-high on philosophy
-high on words or
-high on exercises or games that have nothing to do with your actual work

Someone might explain their utility by saying that one learns through analogy and transferring the “learning” to one’s work situation.

Does it really happen this way?

And look -when one learned maths one learned by doing those actual sums, to develop muscles you need to work those very muscles. Our real learning happens only by doing things, committing and correcting errors (usually under some guidance).

Development of leadership skills require learning to think and act like a leader. Why is it different for leadership development? should it be?

Our web based Learning Leadership services fulfill this crucial need. Try them! You will notice the difference.

Hemant

 

Have you thought about returns from training?

As a CEO do you think about the returns on cost of time and money spent on training?

Particularly notorious is management (leadership) development area. There are many outbound programs. Everyone including the trainers are happy. Are you happy too?

Reports say that many companies are waking up and asking serious questions. If your company is doing well, you can probably put down the expenditures as part of budget (employee welfare!).

But the hard question is -are you developing a pipeline of leaders who can power your growth?

If you wish to consider a more transparent approach where time, fees, and returns are visible, do visit

for online leadership development workouts and coaching.

An do contact me for coaching support.

Hemant

 

Try and buy – a laptop or a cellphone…

I was in the market for buying a laptop to replace my old workhorse. Before I stumbled upon what I needed -I must have made a dozen visits to various shops and dealers in Pune -I had to suffer speaking to half-wits who were designated as customer executives, for whom the weight or the battery life of a laptop didn’t matter. The experience is the same if one wants buy a music system.

If you have dealt with new technology powered banks, you may have dealt with ill-suited products, unhelpful or ignorant staff. My question to HDFC Bank on digitally signed documents remains unanswered – I can not run their signature endorser application on my Vista machine. It just ran fine on good old windows XP machine.

It is very hard to come across knowledgeable people or well designed services which can make your life easier. Imagine people like you and me have to sweat it out to buy things!

I am afraid, for all the talk of talent development very little is done on the ground. The growth in economies around the world has made attracting and retaining talent a very critical necessity for companies. Executive salaries are hitting new highs like crude prices but there is no talk of managerial or leadership output!

Don’t you think that companies ought to put their people to through leadership development paces (and not send them off on a training vacation)?

Hemant

 

Learning Leadership on the go!

I feel good while returning to my blog after several months, since I have something to show for my absence.

Somewhere in this blog I had mentioned this question

“Can leadership be taught?” I had heard this question in many places.

I had answered it in the affirmative -I have been coaching managers, particularly CEOs, in leadership skills.

The difficulties in finding “time” for face to face coaching prompted me to look for delivery of learning and coaching through the web.

I am glad to announce that Learning Leadership is now available online.

You can work on this from anywhere.

The program structure allows self-learning by doing various workouts (assignments) with the help of learning resources provided side by side. Coaching by me is optional. The program design allows my coaching inputs inside the workouts themselves. The coaching methods have been developed and proven through my managerial and consulting work.

The workouts are to be done totally in the context of your work challenges. So there is no “learning overhead”.

Confidentiality: You workouts and identity shall be visible to you alone (password protected).

Please visit the link, and register. You will need a key to enroll for the course which I will send, after your registration. Enrolling enables your self-learning.

You might like to encourage your direct reports to go through this program.

Visit and enroll
http://www.learning-leadership.com

Let me know if you have difficulties.

Hemant

 

People or processes?

People or processes… appears to a classical paradox (like quality and
delivery speed, quality and cost, creativity and logic).

A leader has to straddle these yawning gaps. Generally one of them
holds an opening for the other. Like e.g. one way of influencing people
is by establishing and improving processes which in turn improve not
just business results but also their working environment.
This can create a virtuous cycle.

If you have some really good
people, they would definitely try to create processes through there
good work can be sustained when they are no longer on the scene.

Hemant

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Can leadership be taught?

Leadership can be taught if willingness to learn and efforts are there.
This is true of all that can be taught.

Leadership skills can be taught by teaching and practicing components
of leadership. Practicing leadership skills gets better with coaching
support.

It is necessary to define leadership profile required for particular
job and practice it accordingly.

Hemant

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b2b branding or not to brand?

My experience (founding a b2b company, establishing its brand, consulting to b2b companies including a packaging machinery company) shows that branding helps b2b companies in getting price and / or purchase preference.
-Looking from purchaser’s point of view branding helps in short-listing probable vendors -branding symbolizes some significant aspect (technology, service etc) of a usually complex offering -branding activities can go beyond the scope of market offerings and deliver some unpaid (usually) but significant benefits to purchasers like simplifying search and evaluation -branding can make it safe (less risky) to purchase complex equipment (no body got fired for deciding on IBM!)
Download my articles on b2b branding from our web site.

Hemant

 

Motivating…

There are two kinds of employees.

One: Those who like have an easy ride and can be bought by more pay, more benefits etc. You shouldn’t buy them.

Two: These people want to do good job and get very frustrated when their outputs levels are low in their eyes compared to their input work. They are also concerned about adding new job skills. You should know both types.

For the second type people you need to put in mechanism for improving business processes and project execution. For this you will have to provide them with information, tools, infrastructure, values, and of course leadership so that they can come up with what they need. This is a great a way of building their skills and improving working environment.

It will also expose the category one people. You should know what do with category one.

The business gains that you will make will be a bonus for you for the above work. Share this with those who made the difference.

If you need any help, contact me.

Hemant

 

More on Google & MS…

Mr. Milton D’Silva, Editor, Industrial Products Finder, sent me this ….
I guess Google is a nimble smarty and MS a bit lethargic behemoth. Google can selectively target and focus on an area while MS has to guard its fortress from all sides all the times. In the long run, Google would certainly make itself more and more relevant and trendy. But it would be mistaken to assume it can outsmart MS in all departments. Morever, with the net moving to mobiles and other handheld devices, the next few years wuld be very interesting to watch the way companies and devices capture the imagination. I guess MS would have to factor this in its strategy…rather than offering a sumptuous buffet spread in a large hall where one becomes suddenly indecisive as to what to eat, it should concentrate on offering quick and interesting small bites in the cubicle for the busy exec, something that Google seems to have understood well. In the meanwhile, just look at todays headlines for techies:

1. Google Replaces Microsoft as No 1
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Google_Replaces_Microsoft_as_No_1/551-80716-547.html
2. Microsoft results beat forecasts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1286012.stm

Thanks Milton for an insightful comment…I like the analogy of sumptuous buffet / quick bites. Well, this is the age of quick bites, SMS, one line blogs….

Hemant

 

Which process improvement technique?

I introduced and supported a “Business Process Breakthrough” program that uses some principles of Six Sigma and that relies on simple measurements like cycle time. The method uses a number of creative techniques for unearthing root causes and for finding cures.

I developed this method while running an engineering company and broadened its scope while consulting to a machinery manufacturer and a processed food manufacturer. The results were: dramatic improvements in throughputs with minor investments. The ROI was very big.

I later used this method for customer acquisition process and distribution process leading to good results.

In my opinion:
TQM is too abstract and indirect for most managers and process players.
TOC is really a problem solving framework and a not problem defining technique.

Both above techniques fail to provide pro-active look-ahead controls in the hands of managers.

Lean methods specify a philosophy and asks managers to manage accordingly. They have limited diagnostic and control abilities.

Six Sigma: is the most powerful but extremely demanding in terms implementation and therefore rarely gets applied to wider business processes. It is usually restricted to manufacturing sub-processes.

The biggest gains can be obtained in wider business processes for which the method I developed has been very effective in terms time to see results (3 to 6 months typically) and easier acceptability by managers. The method provides both diagnostic and controlling tools to managers.

Hemant