Archive for April, 2006
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 20 Apr 2006, 8:43 AM - Leave Comment
Life is full of problems. Oops. Did I say that? For those optimists out there, re-read the sentence as “Life is full of opportunities.”
Whatever you want to call them – problems, challenges, situations or opportunities – they appear in front of us everyday in our lives. Our tendency (just like when we are posed a question) is to respond to this new problem, challenge, situation or opportunity immediately. In fact, we want to know the high-level execution details to find out whether we can get through this or not. There are a vast majority of cases where this is the right response. However, there are cases where this may not be the most optimum response. Here is a case:
One of your co-workers or direct reports presents you a radically different way of doing things at work. Since it is “radically” different, there is a lot of thought that has to go into whether this needs to be pursued or not. Should you rush to find a solution or an execution plan, you may not have the necessary background and framework to arrive at one immediately. Your past experience does not have a blueprint for this future solution. You can try to get creative and extend your imagination but you may just not get anything immediately.
So, what could you do differently? My friend Kimberly Wiefling says that the best response at that moment is “Interesting. Tell me more..” and stop and listen to what the person has to say. You may find something that you have never thought of and this new information may change the way you think.
New problems or opportunities of a reasonable size and especially those that extend longer time horizons need a different kind of treatment. There is no point in rushing to a solution quickly. You won’t find a good solution and you may dismiss the whole thing prematurely or find an alternative that is not good in the long run.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 19 Apr 2006, 6:36 AM - Leave Comment
Those of you who liked Steve Farber’s Radical Leap will like this even more. Steve has put together a compelling package to persuade you to buy his book TODAY.
Here is the link to the special page
Radical Edge: Special offer for purchasing the book on 04/19/2006
Disclaimer: I am supporting Steve by providing a previously unpublished Audio Interview as one of the gifts with his package. Cheers.
Posted under Compelling Offers, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 18 Apr 2006, 11:21 PM - Leave Comment
In a recent two-hour lunch meeting with Jnan Dash, not only my stomach was full but my head was filled with a ton of knowledge. As always, it was great to meet with Jnan. One of the takeaways for me was Jnan’s take on “Stress”
“Stress is directly proportional to the delta between who you are and who you are projecting to be”
- Jnan Dash, former EVP of Oracle
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 17 Apr 2006, 1:15 AM - 2 Comments
When you start any significant initiative all you need is one “good reason.” Next time, change the game. Find another important reason to do whatever you are planning to do. Try to do this even if the first reason you have got is REALLY good enough to engage in this initiative. Let me try to generalize this even further. Make this a fun exercise. Even for simple things that you do in your everyday life try to find a second reason to do it.
Let me give some examples (ranging from sophisticated to whacky)
1. You are a consultant and you are always flyingSecond reason: Try to collect frequent flyer miles
Third reason: Meet old friends in different cities
Fourth reason: Watch latest movies on the flight and get caught up on entertainment
2. You commute about an hour to your work everyday
Second reason: You can listen to the latest audio books and get caught up on reading
Third reason: You can use a hands-free phone and talk to some long lost friends
3. You take out garbage every friday
Second reason: Go to the farthest dumping place and treat this as an exercise
Finding a second,third or fourth reason to do the same thing will not only stretch your creativity and imagination but will also show you how you can “leverage” yourself better. There is one thing that is common to everyone on this earth – each person has only 24 hours in a day. However, we also know that different people get different levels of value out of those 24 hours. One common factor that high-achievers have is that they can get higher leverage out of everything that they do. We can all get higher leverage only if we can think and act differently. Imagine the same eight hours of work that you put in everyday producing multiple returns rather than one. Can this be done? Of course yes! Does it take a lot of discipline to do it? You bet!
All the best!
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 16 Apr 2006, 10:19 PM - Leave Comment
Mukundan S. sends me this set of notices (fictional, of course) and each one is a gem. While they provide the much needed laughing tonic, they also show how a simple idea can be brilliantly communicated to enhance effectiveness of the message. Here they are:
#1. Seen on a famous beauty parlor in Bombay:
Don’t whistle at the girl going out from here. She may be your grandmother!
#2. Seen on a bulletin board:
Success is relative. More the success, more the relatives
#3. Sign at a barber’s saloon in Juhu, Bombay:
We need your heads to run our business.
#4. A traffic slogan:
Don’t let your kids drive if they are not old enough -or else they never will be…..
#5. THE BEST ONE from Indian Armed Forces
Its God’s responsibility to forgive the terrorist organizations It’s our responsibility to arrange the meeting between them and God.”
Enjoy and have a great week ahead!
Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 16 Apr 2006, 7:32 PM - Leave Comment
When I was a kid, I had four people other students with the same name -
Rajesh. So most of my teachers and friends called me by my initials – CP. This is a very common name in India.
Now, I have many friends with the name Navin (in variety of spellings.)
I was talking about this Jnan Dash over lunch two days ago and he said
- “You should be happy. Navin means ‘New’ and you have a lot of new
things in your life.” Yes, I am happy about all my friends and that was
a nice way of looking at things.
This one comes from Navin Nagiah (CEO of CIGNEX)and now a blogger at OpenLogue. You can read his views on open source and other business issues over there.
Over
the last 65 years of my consulting career, I found no stereotypical
leaders. They were all over the may in terms of their
personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses. The
ranged from extroverted to nearly reclusive, from easy-going to
controlling, from generous to parsimonious.
What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight practices:
1. They asked, “What needs to be done?”
2. They asked, “What is right for the Enterprise?”
3. They developed action plans
4. They took responsibility for decisions.
5. They took responsibility for communicating.
6. They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
7. They ran productive meetings.
8. They thought and said “we” rather than “I”.
One other final best practice … “Listen first, speak last.”
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 15 Apr 2006, 6:16 PM - Leave Comment
Last week I was attending an event organized by SIPA related on SOA. While the organizers were setting up things, Jnan Dash (former EVP of Oracle) was one of the speakers on that day and he shared this story (fictional, of course) with us. I am sure you all will enjoy this.
John is changing planes at Chicago airport. He just realizes that he had forgotten his watch. He wants to know the time. There is a person passing by carrying two suitcases one in each hand. John notices that he is wearing a watch. John stops him and asks for time.
The stranger is more than happy to help. He puts both the suitcases on the floor and looks at his VERY interesting watch. The watch looks almost like a TV. He says that his watch is the latest miracle that’s unfolding. The underlying chip was supposed to be Pentium 10. The watch did look cool – almost like a TV. The stranger pressed a few keys and suddenly a beautful woman appeared on the screen. “That’s my secretary…” said the stranger and looked at the display and continued “Mary, can you please tell me the time?”
Mary said “It’s 11.30AM central time. But why do you want to know?” The stranger said “Don’t worry. There is a gentleman here who wants to know the time” and disconnected the call. John was intrigued. He wanted to know more about the watch. It appears that the stranger was actually manufacturing these watches and was selling them for $500 a piece. After a few more minutes John was convinced that he had to have the watch. He convinced the stranger to sell it to him. The stranger agreed. John had the watch and stranger started walking away with $500. After a few seconds, John realized that the stranger had forgotten his suitcases. “Hey there. You forgot your suitcases here” shouted John. The reply was prompt. The stranger shouted back “They are actually the modems for the watch. They are for you” and disappeared in the crowd.
What you see is not always what you get
Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 15 Apr 2006, 3:02 PM - 1 Comment
When something needs to be delegated, generally people are comfortable to delegate stuff to others who have had experience and accomplishments in those areas. That way there is some predictability is what they think.
Of course, we all know that only in an ideal world can we always get people with the right experience (and accomplishments) to take care of things. Sometimes we need to work with people who have the potential to take care of things but they have not executed such projects in their past lives. This is very common. In fact, those who have had the experience before can vouch that sometime in their life they got the opportunity to get the “first experience” without being fully qualified to do the job. They had the potential, though.
How much a person accomplishes during their dance with the “first experience” is directly proportional to the “amount” of expectations that is placed on that person. If you want to get the best out of these people, best is to “overestimate” what they can do. That will make them stretch and reach beyond what they could do if the expectations were “normal” or “watered down.”
The general tendency among people is to “underestimate” what a person can accomplish since this is the person’s “first experience” on that particular kind of job. There is an implicit contract between the two parties which states that it’s just OK for the person to be not the “best” on this time. The problem with this approach is that the “full potential” of the person won’t come into play. The person actually does not know whether he has the potential to create “something average” or a “masterpiece.”
By overestimating what he needs to produce, you are actually giving this person a gift allowing him to stretch and bring the maximum out of whatever he has to offer to this job.
He may not like you at that point in time but a few years from now when he is flying high, he will thank you for the gift.
Have a great weekend.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 11 Apr 2006, 8:44 PM - Leave Comment
I have got so many emails that I have a very serious blog and sadly I have also been accused that I don’t have a sense of humor. It is not true (probably) and I want to prove it. I will be posting some things that make me smile every now and then. This is the first one in the series. Enjoy and have fun!
My friend Arun shared a story about an interesting incident that happened when he was working in the middle east. First some background. Arun was a power user of the web and was making the most of all the resources that he knew on the web. One of his favorite sites then was a site called “Experts Exchange (expertsexchange.com)”
He could find answers for some of his technical questions over there. After a few days of using the site, he got a call from his manager to see him 1-1. The discussion was that Arun was surfing questionable sites during office hours and that had to stop immediately. Arun was perplexed but his manager had the proof. From the access logs, they had found that Arun was surfing a site related to “sex change.” 
In reality, what had happened was that the website in the logs was read as “expert sex change” rather than “experts exchange.” and the person had not bothered to clickthrough the site to find out what exactly was the site all about.
Interestingly, the site name is now changed to experts-exchange.com. I am sure many more people had complained about the name
Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 10 Apr 2006, 10:28 PM - Leave Comment
Last night Naveen Lakkur mentioned an interesting definition that I had never heard before. Here it is..
The job of a CEO is to put a smile on the faces of
Customers,
Employees and
Owners (CEO)
Posted under Main Page.
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