Archive for 'Distinguish yourself'
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 03 Apr 2005, 12:19 PM - Leave Comment
Let me see. What I really mean is we should seriously engage with one
or more mentors or coaches for our life and business. Sports people
have figured this out long back. It works and we just have to
experience it to believe it.
In my last post, I talked about the need to ask the right questions.
The right coaches are great at doing that. I have three mentors/coaches
and I am fortunate to have been associated with them for years.
Every interaction I have had with a coach has been fascinating to say
the least. Many times the the issue that I started the discussion with is not even the real issue that I was supposed to address. Coaches are great at getting to the bottom of things by asking the right questions.
The beauty of a good coaching relationship is that coaches have no
agenda of their own in this relationship except to make us more
effective. If you observe any other relationship, there are multiple
agendas at play.
Many of my friends who were skeptics and cynical about what a coach
could do to their life today say that the relationship with the coach
has made a significant impact on their lives.
Once again, this is one of the long term projects that you should undertake. Although possible, don’t expect to see instant results the day you have a meeting with your new coach. It takes a long time, but the rewards are sweet and substantial.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 01 Apr 2005, 7:41 PM - 2 Comments
Questions have great power. One right question asked at the right time can change the direction of our lives. Hence, the quality of the questions that we ask ourselves is VERY important. It is for the same reason that we need to choose our company very carefully. With the right people around us, for some reason if we miss asking the right questions, someone in our group might.
If we are not going in the direction that will ultimately lead us to our goals, one of the problems may be the questions that we ask ourselves. It may be time to reframe some of the questions. Here are a few examples
#1
Original question: What am I getting?
Reframed question: What am I becoming?
#2
Original question: Why is this happening to me?
Reframed question: What can I learn from this?
#3
Original question: Why can’t he/she understand me?
Reframed question: How can I communicate so that he/she can understand me?
I urge you to look at some of the common questions that you ask yourself and see how you can reframe them to make them more effective. I have a few more examples and will post them in the next few days. You are welcome to comment with your set of original and reframed questions.
Good luck!
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 29 Mar 2005, 11:14 PM - 1 Comment
Come to think about it – life would be pretty boring if there was
certainty every step of the way. Unfortunately life is not boring and
we have uncertainty about several things in our life. However, most of
us can’t handle uncertainty very well. In fact, many of us panic
when there is uncertainty although the same people are smart enough to
know that there is no way to get certainty on everything. There are no guarantees.
Life presents us with a series of situations and challenges almost on a
daily basis. If there is a problem that will affect us (in other words,
the solution to the problem is of interest to us) we are eager to
respond to it quickly (most of the time) and we want to be certain that
we come up with the best response to the problem. None of us are
interested in giving a mediocre response to a problem whose solution
matters to us deeply. Let us think about this for a minute. I am sure
that in many cases we don’t know what the right response is. The right
question therefore is “Do we have the courage to admit that we don’t know the answer?”
Most often, we are self-conscious and we may make up something or
provide a diplomatic response. What’s really going on in our mind is
something like “May be I should know the answer”, “This is part of my
job and I know I am good at this” or “What would others think if I say
I don’t know” and so on.
I urge you to take the challenge and next time you are presented with
such a problem or situation respond with “I am not certain about how to
handle this.” and watch how new ideas will flow in. May be you will
decide to call someone and discuss the situation or you will go the
library and pick up a book on a particular topic or you will go to the
web and research. You may decide to respond totally different this time
around.
One thing that I have realized is that there is more help than you ever need only if you are humble enough to ask. For that you need to develop an attitude to embrace uncertainty with ease.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 28 Mar 2005, 11:06 AM - 4 Comments
If we ask a kid “What are you doing?” the response you will get is
something like “playing”, “reading”, “watching TV” etc. The time
horizon for kids are very short. If we ask “What do you do in school?”
again the response will be about what they will do on that particular
day in the school.
When we grow up, unfortunately (for most of us) the time horizons don’t
extend much. When we ask “What do you do?” to someone, most often the
reponse will be related to their job and their role in the company.
Very rarely, we will hear a passionate answer about how someone is
going to change the world. Very rarely you will hear an answer that
will cover the time horizon of a lifetime.
I continue to believe that we are becoming a world of “short term thinkers.” My good friend Vallal told me a few months ago that “we over estimate what we can achieve in a day and we underestimate what we can achieve in a year”
This is so true. Take a look at some of your daily “to do” lists. Very
rarely you will check off everything that you planned to do that day.
Now, take a look at your annual plan (if you don’t, please create one
right away) and see if that’s the best you can do in a year. You will
be amazed at what all you can pack in a year with some discipline and
commitment.
We can distinguish ourselves just by refusing to give in to the temptation of “short term results.”
Next time, when someone asks “What do you do?” think of your lifetime
as the time horizon and try to answer the question. Again, if you have
not thought through this, please don’t try to get an answer to this
question in the next few minutes (short term) it may take a while to
figure this out (long term)
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 25 Mar 2005, 6:52 AM - Leave Comment
Everyday there is so much to do. But if we look back at the end of the week, most of us have a problem identifying a few things that got accomplished. The culprit – planning by activities and not focusing on outcomes.
Granted, an activity or a set of activities will produce outcomes. However, during a week we may perform a number of activities and not produce any outcomes. If this by design, it may be OK but most often it’s NOT! We get carried away by a number of activities (planned and unplanned) and a week passes by with no outcomes.
What we should all be aware of is that we get rewarded for producing outcomes and not for participating in activities. If all the activities that we are participating are leading to no outcomes, there is a problem, a serious problem! That needs to be fixed asap.
The solution may be as simple as planning our week by outcomes – what do we want to accomplish this week? It can be only one outcome or a few outcomes but the deal is to know what results do we want to produce this week. End of the week, we can do a quick analysis to see where we are and design the next week accordingly.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 23 Mar 2005, 12:42 AM - 4 Comments
They say all leaders are readers. From what I have seen so far, it’s true that most successful people read a lot. Most people don’t read. My friend Tim Sanders tells me that from the statistics he has, a manager reads about 0.75 business book in five years. That’s dismal.
My goal is to read about a book a week and that practice has has served
me well in my life. I have seen people reading a lot more than that.
Each person is different. You can set your own goals based on your
priorities and need. What would definitely work is to have a reading
plan for the year. Whatever is the case – 1 book a quarter, 1 book a
month, 3 books in a year – you choose but have a plan. Most people that
I have an opportunity to mentor start with one book a month plan and we
come up with a list of 12 books for the year. The choices are based on
variety of factors but the underlying theme is that these books should
help in taking them to the next level. Every month they may not fulfill
the promise of reading a book but the idea is to make up in a year and
complete reading 12 books.
If we choose the right books, there will be enough that we can take and
apply in our lives. Once we start seeing results, no other motivation
is required.
Although the temptation may be to look at the Bestseller lists and
create your reading list, what might be better is to ask some of your
role models about the books that helped them in their journey. You will
be amazed at what you will learn.
Happy reading!
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 21 Mar 2005, 10:18 PM - 3 Comments
It is interesting how many of us hoard information and knowledge.
Knowledge used to provide competitive advantage a while ago, not
anymore!
I have seen this time and again in the IT services industry where if
you ask for help, rather than providing the source and explaining how
to solve the problem, the tendency for a fellow developer is to
actually go and solve the problem. That helps but remember the old
adage “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” People are happy when their problem is solved but they will be delighted when they learn how to solve it themselves.
One doubt you may have is that if you share everything (including the
source) why would anyone come to you again? Would sharing make
you dispensable?
My point is that with all the resources that are available, most often,
people can find the information all by themselves. By helping people
help themselves, you are taking the road less traveled. Next time, when
people ask for help, see if you can provide enough information so that
the person can solve the problem himself or herself. He or she will
thank you for that. You will have the satisfaction of growing someone
rather than just solving a tactical problem.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 20 Mar 2005, 7:58 AM - 1 Comment
What we know is important. Of course, we all know that who we know is
more important than what we know. What is also important is how we know
who we know. This is where the membership comes in.
We are not revisiting the MBA discussion. But the MBA alumni networks
are quite powerful. That is one example. There are many such membership
opportunities available. The right place can be, well, a golf club
where the people that we want to meet hang out.
Some of these memberships cost a ton of money but I think they are more of investments than expeneses. The ROI for the right membership can be huge.
My personal example – membership with TEC,
a network of CEOs worldwide, the largest of its kind. When I became a
member in 2003, I never imagined the impact it would have on our
business. It has been phenomenal.
Each one of us are unique. For me, TEC was great and the timing
couldn’t have been better. You have to figure out what the right
memberships are at this point in time in your life. What “clubs” should
you belong to – to take your life to the next level? It may take a
while to research and find out or you may already know it but have not
taken the time to pursue the membership seriously.
The right memberships can payoff big time. All the best.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 19 Mar 2005, 7:43 AM - Leave Comment
At first, I thought the title should be “Make effective decisions” or
“Be a great decision maker” but I decided against it as our personal
values are the foundation on which we make our decisions.
We all know that values are important. Whether we want to believe it or
not, we all have a set of values. Guaranteed! Values, in the basic
terms are deeply held beliefs of what is important for us, Values state
what matters most in our lives.
Values may change over time but it’s important that we know what they
are at this point in time. Interestingly, very few people spend their
time trying to identify their values. Whenever we make any significant
decisions, it will be based on our values so it’s important that we
know what those are.
There are so many resources available on the Internet to help you
identify your core values. Do a search on google for “personal values”
and you should see a few websites popping up.
When we attended the The Leadership Challenge workshop a few days ago (from Bluepoint Leadership)
we went through a values exercise that was simple and effective. There
were a set of cards (each one with a value such as Achievement, Wealth,
Relationships etc.) and the process was like this:
a. Make three piles of cards. First pile with all the cards that we
think are very important, second pile with cards that matter but not as
important as the ones in the first pile, third pile with cards that
didn’t matter much to us
b. Put the third pile away
c. Revisit second pile and move the cards either to the first pile or third pile
d. Now, the first pile has a set of cards with values that mattered
most to us. Our job is to come up with five cards from this pile.
Follow whatever model that you like, but please do come up with your
own list. There is no “right” set of values. They are your values and
not knowing what they are may put you at a disadvantage.
One of my close friends has “Family” on the top of the charts and
another close friend has “Wealth” on the top. It’s very easy to guess
their decision making patterns.
What are yours?
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 17 Mar 2005, 4:54 PM - 4 Comments
When describing why he is so successful, Michael Jordan once mentioned
that his secreat was to demand more from himself than anybody else ever
will. Michael Jordan obviously sets higher standards for himself.
In order to good results, we need to set the right expectations and
exceed them consistently. However, if we want outstanding results, we
need to operate at higher personal standards than what others expect of
us.
Let’s take an olympic event. We remember the gold, silver and bronze
winners but not the person in the fourth place. The difference may be
very small but the person in the fourth place is rarely talked about.
Difference between good and outstanding again.
When you send the next email, stop for a minute and think about what
the recipient will think about your standards from the style and
content of the email. What could you do to raise your standards in a
simple act of sending an email? It may take you a few minutes more but
it may be worth spending that extra time..
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
Recent Comments