ladder of influence - why we go wrong in our thinking or understanding other's thinking

Great engineering, well architected to explain basic concept of understanding others mind and explain why we go wrong in understanding !!

For now, please window shop the concept here

http://leadershipdiamond.blogspot.com/2009/04/ladder-of-inference.html

I will be back with my 10cents in my next post.

Are you a Leader or a Manager ?

Good post from Bruce Lynn, good consolidation of those 2 dimentions.

1. Leaders optimise the upside; Managers minimise the downside. Both together net more.
2. Leaders envision possibilities; Managers calculate probabilities. Both together win more.
3. Leaders focus on the ends; Managers focus on the means. Both together reach more.
4. Leaders focus on the what; Managers focus on the how. Both together do more.
5. Leaders prepare beyond the limits; Managers focus execution within limits. Both together perform better.
6. Leaders generate energy; Managers preserve energy. Both together energise more.
7. Leaders seize opportunities; Managers avert threats. Both together progress more.

knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
'What?!' the owners exclaimed. 'He hardly did anything!'
So they wrote the old man a note saying, 'Please send us an itemized bill.'
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer...... ......... ........ $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap.......... ......... ...... $ 9, 998.00

Moral of the story …………… Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

Know your master

It works !! if you know your master... not only in academics but also in practical life, be it professional or personal, at home and at play. Its "key" to the success.

Here are the fine example from my experiences, in during my M.Tech in IIT - getting a A+ grade in communication engineering subject is next to impossible, because its not a high scoring subject like algorithms or data structures. Its plain text & you get bored to write paras after paras with at most one or two diagrams. Then how to get A+ and how to win the game (of getting top ranker in IIT)? Thats where knowing my master (professor) helped me :) Instead of writing entire answer sheet with one pen, I have used multiple color pens - using all my art skills, and made my answer sheet impressive to look, and thats catched my master (I understand now how monotonous he felt going through other answer sheets, so far, all his experience. He is a senior professor btw) and awarded me A+. So what made me to win? yes, its Innovation, I agree. But innovation is targeted to suit my master, isn;t it?

Every body agrees that it applies to office/profession. Where in your master could be your boss or a manager .. and if you don't have a boss (if you are one among few lucky chaps :) ) then your client or customer will be your master.

That said. lets take another example, at home (I would say indian home more precisely), I am sure my wife sees me as a master & kids too, and they try to win my attention by doing things which I like.. food, choosing articles & apparels. But again not always :) as I feel, I guess every master feels the same way. So there are occasions where you do things for yourself, winning your own master, in you.

To wrap up, its fine balance that you try to achieve, so that both masters are satisfied.. some time one dominates another, and thats where knowing your master(s) helps to win the life game.

How does science defines Leadership ?

“Power is either created or lost depending on how you choose to think, feel and respond to the world,”

I cooks for friends, goes on nature walks and does yoga to meditate andrelax. “But what I really enjoy is interesting conversations with people.”

Without feedback we simply don’t learn who we are. “The art of leadership lies in conversation, not only in making the right strategic decisions. Ironically, so many people are not aware of themselves and how they interact with others,” says the coaching guru.

How do you keep cool? I am mostly cool. We lose our cool when we lose our perspective—like when someone is overtaken by a car, and starts chasing that person. You do that because your brain gets flooded with emotions, you go into a state of unconsciousness. If you are aware of everything happening around you and yourself, you don’t lose your self-awareness; this is a key aspect of leadership.

What is the best way to re-load batteries for work? Breathe well. Smile a lot more. Take an interest in your “self” and the people around you. I don’t watch television, except for films that I am interested in, and I ignore things feeding on negativity.

How does manage his workload? “I don’t have any difference between work and life. Everything is just one big flow; other people might say it is one big mess, but I get paid for what I enjoyed doing it.. thats perceptive I take.

These are the some of snippets that I liked from "sudhanshu palsule" work on self-ware leadership learning. Most important points here is get feedback or (if not) reflect your self in your conversations and give a perceptive to control your emotions.

Behavioural economics - a definitional step towards your guts.

This is an article published on TOI online, under coroporate dossier:

If you are offered two jobs – to be the CEO of Chrysler (this interview took place before the company announced it is filing for bankruptcy ) or the CEO of Toyota, which one would you choose? If you immediately picked Toyota just as you finished reading the question , hang on for a minute and think again.
Remember that irrespective of which one you select , you would need to improve performance by 10% or else the board and shareholders will want a new CEO. “At Chrysler, you have an unproductive workforce and are making cars people don’t want, where as at Toyota, all the processes that you would possibly implement at Chrysler to boost productivity are already in motion,” says Jim Clifton, global chairman and CEO, Gallup Consulting.
“At Toyota, the CEO needs something new to take the company to the next level, and that is when you turn to behavioural economics,” he says.

Behavioural economics goes against the essence of what classical economists swear by — that man is a rational being and hence, all his decisions will be rational — it didn’t get it’s due till a few years ago. Newer studies show that only 30% of decisions made by people are actually ‘rational’ , with the balance 70% being classified irrational or emotional. According to him, behavioural economics has really come into its own in the last few years, simply because all the other processes to improve productivity, right from Six Sigma to Business Process Reengineering and Just in Time, have been hugely successful.

Citing the example of US electronics retailer Best Buy, he says, the company first found how many employees had a ‘high level of engagement’ at work. “This means that rather than just giving the customer what he asks for, the employee was likely to ask him why he wanted it and suggest alternatives/ additional things he could buy as well and in the process make a bigger sale,” Clifton explains. After mapping where each employee was on the engagement scale, the CEO then doubled the level of engagement required. “The best way to make sure that it works is to have a system of mapping it that is as accurate as your accounting practices, and to link it to compensation,” he says. At Best Buy, a part of the compensation is linked with engagement, which Clifton feels people have far greater control over as compared to profitability. The end result: its nearest competitor, Circuit City, filed for bankruptcy.

Smart leaders are recognising that to take the company a notch higher, they need to look beyond the traditional theories, and behavioural economics appeals to people like them. Behavioural economics has no use in a ‘lousy company’ . It would work best in a company that has already straightened out its systems and processes and is now looking at newer ways of growing, ideally, with a minimal investment.

When the going is good, everyone will grow well. As the sector matures, companies need to look at new ways of retaining customers, finding new ones and most important, continuing to grow,” he says. According to him, most people rank towards the middle of the scale, and simply getting them to realise their full potential can result in a 30-40 % growth for the company.

Final thought. If you think that the impact of behavioural economics is restricted only to the boardroom , think again. It’s now a well established fact that US President Barack Obama relied heavily on his team of behavioural economists to get people to get out and vote in record numbers. And it seems to have worked just fine for him.

Can your passion eclipse your short comings ?

"Those who succeed here are not those who have degrees from Harvard, but those who share the same passion.”
I enjoy this caption & agree to most extent - we should not be limited by not knowing or not having the knowledge. But if you have the passion, know-how follows :) just believe in your passion, and brings you the knowledge & subsequent success.

In the similar lines, one of the author said - “If you have talent and energy, you’re king. If you have only energy and no talent, you’re still a prince. But if you have talent and no energy, you’re a pauper.”

So tell me who is helping whom? Energy brings more talent or Talent brings more energy? Yes, talent can bring the energy since you have the knowledge and you know there is no way you can go wrong so its fills you with +ve energy, Agreed. Then how about when you believe in something (by passion) but you don't have knowledge/talent in doing it.. will I succeed? .. YES, you will, because you believe in it.. so your passion should be eclipsing all your shortcoming & fill them with alternatives.

This equation wins only if you have that level/intensity of passion. Bingo ! you are the better judge of your self !!! see if your strong passion can eclipse your short comings or not, and IT IS then you are the winner.