Archive for 'Leadership'
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 31 Oct 2006, 9:22 PM - 1 Comment
What has a Haiku got to do with the need for us to have great teachers throughout our life?
Consider the following Haiku:
When I look carefully,
I see the nazumia bloomingby the hedge!
- Basho, Zen mystic and master
Nazunia is a common flower – grows by itself by the side of the road.
What did you understand from the above? If you were like me, it wouldn’t be much. It is so simple that we may read it once and move on.
I was reading Osho’s book “Intuition” where he disects a bit deeper into this poem of three lines. Here is what I got from that analysis:
The last syllable – kana in Japanese – is translated by an exclamation mark as there is no easy translation for kana. Kana really means “I am amazed!”
So, what is the Haiku hinting? That when you look at something attentively or with caring even a nazunia can transform itself into a lotus. Remember the old saying – “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The point is that if someone can see something fascinating in a nazunia, the whole world can look better for him or her.
Now, isn’t it clear without a doubt that we need great teachers throughout our life? Anybody can identify the extraordinary. Great teachers discover extraordinaty from within the ordinary.
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 25 Oct 2006, 2:50 PM - 1 Comment
There are lot of VERY rich people in this world. Most of these people have the power to make a difference to the world in general. Very few have the desire to do so. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is a shining star in this respect setting an example on “what could be” possible.
An example of how the foundation works can be seen below:
As an example, our Global Development Program
works with an organization called Opportunity International on a
relatively simple technology that is helping women in Malawi save their
children from destitution. In Malawi, life expectancy is about 37
years. When a man dies, his parents and siblings often seize his
possessions and his money, leaving his wife and children with nothing.
Opportunity International helps by distributing “smart cards.” These
cards are similar to our ATM cards, and they let women keep money in
super-secure savings accounts that are protected by a thumbprint
scanner. Only the cardholder herself can access the account, using her
unique thumbprint. Smart cards have become so popular in Malawi that
they’re now regularly given as gifts at wedding showers.
Please read and be inspired by this letter over there on their site
Our Values: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
It almost feels like GOD’s work!
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 23 Sep 2006, 8:59 AM - 2 Comments
I have always been fascinated by good questions. Three of my mentors most of the time just do that – ask great questions and make me THINK. I think I am smart enough to find good answers (or get help) but I miss asking great questions to myself.
For the many things that I thank GOD everyday – one of them is the opportunity to meet with a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. It is fascinating to watch those ideas at their budding stage and then bloom into full life. Coming back to the point, I collected ten questions from the field and suggested a better versions of the same for your consideration.
1. Typical question: What is the business idea we should execute on?
Better question: Who should I build the business with?
My $0.02: Your idea is important but more important is your team. Teams have to transcend ideas and hence the right team is the #1 requirement.
2. Typical question: How can I find a great VC to fund this?
Better question: How can a great VC find me to build “a” company?
My $.02: Like many things in life, you will get money when you least need it. When is a good time to get a line of credit? When everything is going well. When is a good time to raise money? Way before you need it. A few entrepreneurs (very few) have standing commitments from investors about investments in their new ventures. Aiming to become one such entrepreneur is more fun than hunting for capital going door-to-door.
3. Typical question: When should we be profitable?
Better question: When should we be cashflow positive?
My $.02: We have known of companies that are profitable but crash and burn. The key reason is that the leaders took their eye off the cashflow required. Without cash, the company has no oxygen to survive.
4. Typical question: How can we build cool stuff into this product?
Better question: How can we build useful stuff into this product?
My $.02: You should not build cool stuff just because it’s cool.
5. Typical question: What can we do to eliminate competition?
Better question: How can we execute better than our competition?
My $.02: Ideas are just that – ideas. Once an idea is out in open, all it matters is execution. If you can execute better than your competition, you win!
6. Typical question: When should I start building good relatinoships that will help this project?
Betterquestion: When should I start building good relationships?
My $.02: You can’t build good relationships because you can “use” them. You have to build good relationships. Period. In fact, a better way to build good relationships is to see how you can help them with their goals.
7. Typical question: How much ownership should I retain so that I am in full control?
Better question: How much should I share so that everyone in the team feels that they are an owner too?
My $.02: You can have a small piece of something big or a big piece of nothing. The choice is yours.
8. Typical question: How can I package this company to sell it?
Better question: How can I build an asset that is so attractive that buyers will come looking for it?
My $.02: Many times – someone wanting to “buy” you will fetch you a higher value than when you want to “sell” to someone.
9. Typical question: How can we convince our customers to pay higher price for our products?
Better question: How can we demonstrate to our customers that our products provide higher value?
My $.02: Simply put, customers will pay a higher price for your product if they find a higher value in it. No scheming required.
10. Typical question: How can I learn to eliminate the risk in this business?
Better question: How can I learn to be comfortable with the unknown?
My $.02: Entrepreneurism and risk go hand-in-hand. Rather than wishing away that “risk” will go away, try to see how you can learn to handle risk and be comfortable with it.
For my lens on “Questions” please visit
Squidoo Lens: The Power of Questions
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 20 Sep 2006, 10:30 PM - 1 Comment
Being originally from India, I had to talk someday about Cricket. It is almost my duty 
Just kidding – I am using something from cricket to make a point.
This was a comment made about a player in the recently concluded match in Kuala Lumpur
“If he scores runs, it is attractive, a sight to
behold. I want my players to learn from a guy like that, he’s an exceptional talent.”
“Seeing him bat, there’s not much you can do sometimes. He is such a
perfect batsman that on occasions, you see guys struggle and he does
not. I’m happy that he has come back and is scoring runs because such a
great player needs to come to the fore.”
What was interesting was that this comment was made by Brian Lara (Captain of the West Indies team) on Sachin Tendulkar (star player from India)
When was the last time you showed this kind of respect to someone from your competition?
Hats off to Lara! There is a lesson for the rest of us there.
PS – some related reading:
Ways to distinguish yourself – #77 Treat your competition with respect
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 12 Aug 2006, 9:20 AM - 2 Comments
Steve Farber, the author of “Radical Leap” and “Radical Edge” will be talking about extreme leadership. I am sure it will be a blast. The call is FREE – no strings attached.
Here are the details:
Link: Let’s talk Monday (Steve Farber Conference call)
Don’t miss it!
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 12 Jun 2006, 12:00 AM - 4 Comments
I read about one business book a week. I get to about 80-100 in an year. Not all are good but I get my fair share of good business books every year. I have been doing this for more than ten years now and it has served me well. People ask me why I am obsessed with books. I am providing my reasons with a sincere hope that some of you will identify them as your reasons too:
1. Saving time:
My first company was the fastest company on earth. It started and crashed in a matter of months. I experienced the value of experience first hand. I don’t have time to learn all the lessons through my own experience. It might be costly.
2. Saving money:
The first thing to know is we may not be able to afford bringing in the thought leader to consult for us. Second, the thought leader may not have the time to consult with us. Reading their books may be the simplest way to get inside the mind of the thought leader. Thinking about this, you will see that its a steal to pay a $20 or $30 for a book.
3. Research for a song:
Good business books are well researched. I know of several authors having reasonably sized research times that spend months or years before they have enough material for the book. Two great books that come to mind immediately are:
4. Deal with change:
Change is the only thing that is constant they say. The time has now come to upgrade the saying. We have to now say “Change at breathtaking speed is the only thing that is constant.” You need (lots of) help to deal with that change. Business books can be great resources to start preparing yourself for the change.
5. De-commoditization Insurance:
Knowledge workers are getting commoditized at a rapid rate. If you are a knowledge worker, your competition is now global. If you are doing commodity work, there will be someone else in the globe that can do for a fraction of your cost. You HAVE to do something special to NOT be displaced. You can try to invent what you should do differently on your own or you can learn from thought leaders.
6. High ROII:
The return on investment for an interaction (ROII) for a good business book is very high. For a few dollars and a few hours in total, the kind of education that I can get is just awesome.
7. Keeping my mind sharp:
A good business book makes me think. Just like the body needs exercise, the brain needs exercise too. Reading a goob business book or two per week is like taking your mind to a gym.
8. Relationship Building:
There is a saying that all great leaders are readers. While there is no research to prove that conclusively, in my experience I have found that this is true. Since I want to build relationships with great leaders, reading helps me start an intellectual conversation and continuing to read helps me keep the conversation going.
9. Insights on current business concerns.
Business books become famous for several reasons. One of the reasons is the topic of the book. People buy a book because they have concerns in that area and they think that reading that business book will take care of those concerns. By looking at the themes of business books that are getting “hot” I can get an insight into what topics are of prime interest to business people. Being an entrepreneur, these insights helps my own ventures.
Hopefully I have made you think about investing a few more hours of your time to read business books
PS:
—
Now, how much returns you will get from a non-fiction and/or business book will depend on how much you put into this exercise. A while ago, I wrote a note on my thoughts about reading a non fiction book. Here is the link:
For a list of books that have inspired me recently, you can take a look at my squidoo lens
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 03 May 2006, 10:00 PM - Leave Comment
I have always argued that one the key skills that geeks should develop quickly is their ability to communicate effectively with non-geeks. I had spoken about this topic extensively with CIO Australia Magazine staff writer Sue Bushell a few weeks ago.
Today CIO Australia magazine has a story titled “De-Nerding Your Geeks” that covers this and many other related topics.
Here is the link:
CIO Australia: De-Nerding Your Geeks
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
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 Tue 04 Apr 2006, 7:43 PM - Leave Comment
Ramesh Rajamani of TechMasala sends me this gem from Goethe. Leaders play a very important role in shaping the lives of people that they lead.
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them and you help them to become what they are capable of becoming”
- Goethe
Posted under Great Quotes, Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 07 Mar 2006, 3:10 PM - 2 Comments
In simple terms – a brand is a promise that you make to the world. So, since you keep making promises to the world anyway, whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand. Whether it’s effective or not depends on how much time and energy you put in your own growth and in building your personal brand. At the outset, it seems like it’s a “no-brainer” to invest in yourself and in your personal brand. When I started probing further to find out why very few people invest in this journey, I discovered a few things. This article is my attempt to highlight some of those reasons.
1. Culture
I was born and brought up in India and was almost “trained” to be humble. My parents didn’t want me to get carried away by anything that I thought was an achievement. I would always be told that bigger things are yet to come and I should continue to work hard. Every achievement was a stepping stone. So, celebrating moderate successes was not an option. I don’t blame anyone but that’s the way life was. Everyone around us were doing the same thing to their kids. The culture was to not make a big deal about every other success. That in itself is not a problem but growing up, you get used to what you learn when you are young. You take it to another extreme and not make a big deal about any of your achievements. Hence, personal branding takes a back seat.
Having lived and worked in five different countries other than India and United States, I can say that what I talked about culture is not unique to India alone. There are many other places where humility is taken to an extreme.
2. Borrowing brand power and getting used to it
Last month I was in India and spoke at several companies. I got to meet a number of software professionals as a group and also got to talk to some of them 1-1. A simple question like “What do you do” would almost elicit a standard response from many young folks there – something like “I work for IBM” or “I work for Infosys”
It was almost as if they didn’t want to go into the details of what exactly they do but they were just proud that they were working for a respectable company such as IBM or Infosys. Hats off to those companies for making their employees feel that way. It takes a lot of hard work.
While I agree that you should be proud of who you work for, you should not get carried away to permanently borrow your company’s brand. You will get used to it. How about making sure that your company is also proud of the fact that you are working for them? That will be the beginnings of building a personal brand.
3. Don’t want to “show off”
Personal branding and “showing off” are different. Many people that I talk to don’t want to “show off” and since they can’t really make out the difference, they put off building their personal brand. For now, think of “showing off” as being in the lowest (or negative) end of the “Personal Branding” scale.
4. Lack of Training
I have not seen “Personal Branding” as a subject that is being taught anywhere. There are not many classes that are out there that cover this topic. So, the quick way is to go and figure it out yourself by reading books, blogs, mentors and other resources. I am confident that with training, it gets easier to build a personal brand. The bigger problem though is “What would motivate you to look for that training?”
5. No short-term benefits
When you say it takes nine months for a baby from concept to completion
nobody has a problem. When it takes years for a tree to bear fruits, again nobody has a problem. However, if I say it takes years before you see benefits from a personal branding exercise people somehow don’t like that idea. There are a number of things that may yield “short-term benefits” but personal branding is not one of them.
6. Not a requirement to succeed
If you look at any job application, you will see that they don’t typically look for the strength of your personal brand. It is not a requirement to succeed in life. However, if you want to thrive then the game is different. The rules are different.
Personal branding can accelerate your journey there. Many times we look at things that are required to succeed and not focus on things that are required to thrive. No wonder they say “Good is the enemy of the Best.”
7. Not comfortable with lot of attention
I have met so many people who are extremely successful but don’t want the attention that comes with personal branding. They don’t want to talk to the press, give intereviews, share their stories – they just want to lead a good life. This is a valid reason and if you are one of them, it’s easy to understand why the personal branding journey is not for you.
8. Fear of losing friends
I have heard this several times. There are some people in your life who will disappear if you are not one of them. Once you start focusing personal branding, there is no option but to grow. If your friends are not growing as fast as you are growing, chances are that some of them will be not uncomfortable with you anymore. You may be perfectly OK to continue your friendship with them but friendship is not a one-way street. So, rather than suffering that loss, you might as well go slow on the personal branding journey a bit is what you think.
9. It’s hard work!
Yes, I have heard this reason too. You may already be working nights and weekends in your job. It may be taxing on you and your family to take on this journey. This is perfectly understandable. Although, I have to say that personal branding is not hard work if you establish the right configurations and get high leverage on everything that you do. Well, that’s a separate discussion for some other time.
10. Don’t think it’s important
You just don’t think that personal branding is important. You have heard about it from different sources and read about it but you are not sold on the fact that you need to put in time and energy towards this.
11. No time!
You are swamped with work and you have absolutely no time to devote to this exercise. When you get done with your immediate projects, you plan to look into this in detail.
12. Not having enough accomplishments!
Personal branding is of no use if you don’t have the “stuff” to support your promise. It is important for you to GROW and BECOME that someone that is worth creating a personal brand for. An entrepreneur can build a personal brand for himself provided he has some valued accomplishments in building successful companies. It looks obvious – but I have seen many people trying to build a brand that is out of sync with the speed at which they are growing. It is almost similar to trying to build a super structure on a foundation that can hold only a single family home. Won’t work
Of course, as always – this list is not complete. This is compiled from my observations and interactions with a few people during my speaking engagements.
Enjoy!
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
Recent Comments