Management

The Rise Of The Guardians – Leadership & Self-discovery

September 21, 2016 post

The Rise Of The Guardians – Leadership & Self-discovery

 

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The plot involves five of our childhood make-believe characters that make up The Guardians: Santa, Easter Bunny, Sandman, Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost. While the evil side is represented by the Boogeyman.

Our guardians characterized in movie:

Santa as WONDER
Rabbit as HOPE
Sandy as DREAM
Tooth fairy as CHILD HOOD MEMORY
Jack Frost as FUN

and evil characterized in the movie

Pitch Black as FEAR

(Pitch Black, the Nightmare King, is the Rise of the Guardians’ re-imagining of the Boogeyman, the mythical creature that haunts the closets and dark corners of childhood nightmares).

  • The movie is about self-discovery (impersonated by Jack Frost), Remember the scene where Santa asks him whats your center?
  • Discovering one’s purpose (same character), Later in the movie Jack realized that his center is FUN.

As an adult, majority have forgotten about this.

Watch this movie, if you haven’t and ponder on following or allied thoughts…. you may have a different version, but you know you have your own version of it:
1. how you WONDER how it feels to have Superhuman abilities
2. how you HOPE to become like Bill Gates or someone else
3. how you DREAM to be an astronaut or anything else
4. how SILLY you were as a kid?

But as an adult you FEAR a lot of things, job, money, etc and in amidst of this you have forgotten your real version of FUN.

For example, Your way of fun earlier would be reading a book on a couch or a simple maggie party with closed friends in midnight or anything else. Versus, the new version of fun which is mainly to upload on social media, then you have curiosity of how many likes and comments you get? Is this your real fun or something else.

That’s for you to enquire for yourself 🙂

Well, along the wonderful message in the movie, I found several leadership principles to ponder.

1. Passion: Through the character of Jack Frost the movie taught the lesson of discovering what you are truly passionate about. It was not until Jack discovered more about who he was and what made himself tick that he then understand why he had been selected as the newest member of The Guardians. Once he discovered his own individual passion for helping others he became an effective member of the team and became a strong ally in defeating the Boogeyman and his evil forces.

  • What are you passionate about?
  • What causes you to be excited about getting up in the morning?

Once you discover the answer to these questions you will be on your way to being a more effective leader and team member for you organization.

2. Teamwork: The Boogeyman had successfully destroyed almost all the happiness and delight in the world by attacking the imaginations of the children of the world. With only one child left to reverse the evil curse brought about by the Boogeyman, the entire team had to unify and use their individual strengths collectively in order to be successful. This movie does a great job of showing the great truth effective teamwork: “Team members must put their individual pride and agendas aside in order to effectively serve the team’s greater objectives.”

  • Are you a good team member?
  • Are you willing to put your personal agenda and pride aside to accomplish the greater good of the team?
  • Do your teams function at a high level by serving one another?

3. Overcoming Fear: The big weapon that the Boogeyman used was “fear”! He used that to wield his power over both the children and The Guardians as well. The fear was paralyzing everyone and The Guardians were not able to stand up to the Boogeyman and his evil forces until they collectively conquered their fears and took positive action to eliminate the obstacles they had been challenged with. Allowing fear to paralyze us cripples our leadership and limits the effectiveness of our organizations.

  • What fears are holding you back today?
  • Is fear inhibiting your team in any way?
  • What positive steps do you need to take to eliminate the power that fear has over you and your organization?

4. Strength Zone: The last lesson we learned from The Guardians was how we are all most effective working within our strength zone. Each team member has his own unique strengths from which to pull from and support the team most effectively. At the climax of the movie we saw each team member excel by using the special gifts they each possess individually to help the team collectively. There is power in unifying behind a mission with each team member contributing their strongest talents to serve the team’s mission.

  • Are you working within your strength zone in your current role?
  • Are your team members working in their individual strength zones?
  • How much more effective could your team be if you were to get all the team members working collectively from their strength zones?

Leadership skills in Whatsapp Group Admin

September 21, 2016 Management Mantra post

 

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While we talk about the leadership, the persona having capabilities to transform the vision, in reality, taking all teams along with him, becoming a guiding light, motivator all the time to reach the final goals. We never thought earlier about the comparing and taking an example of leadership qualities before on Whatsapp Group Administrator. The following write-up is inspired by few WhatsApp group where I am an admin as well as my day to day experience of being an Entrepreneur.

Vision: Creating a group on a certain theme and make it successful is a vision of the Group Admin, and he or she makes it happen by having a thought in mind first. Certain people create a group on the theme of School members, college students, certain company members or some industry altogether. Some groups are of special interest or like-minded people who wish to exchange ideas on very prompt medium. Have read somewhere that the first ingredient of success is to dream a great dream and if you can dream it, you can do it. Our leaders are also visionary and they led us to some goals and achievements.

Establishment: People need courage and a strong commitment to establishing something new, on which they are not sure about the clear-cut goals and guidelines. Group admin creates a group by having certain thoughts in mind, like from what will be a theme, first conversation, who will be group members, from where he or she will get those number and etc etc. The small things matter, micro-planning required, even if you are at top level being a leader. The planning while and before establishment makes the leaders confident and makes him aware of the potential problems lie in the path. The foresight will help teams to find a solution.

Selection / Recruitment :
Selection of members in Whatsapp group is also a very important task since the activeness of group and members lies on this criteria. Even in some cases where the count of members increases above 50, Admin needs to select some inactive members to remove and add new aspirants in the group. What exactly the Admin does in this process. Selection of suitable member and add them in a Group, Monitoring of Performance ( Activeness, effectiveness, and Value) of the group members. Take the decision to remove and add new members. Same is happening in the Corporate world. In today’s scenario, the Corporate is totally Performance driven and an employee is rated, graded, awarded and terminated based on the performance.

Policies :
Whatsapp group Admin admin generally makes and helps others to break the rules either way. I have seen certain Admin, who restrict members by posting unwanted material, photos or contents on racism which may not generate a healthy discussion. It is a leader who decides how his group will behave. In certain groups there are only light contents will be forwarded whereas some groups are so active where they discuss technology, job opportunities, current affairs which adds value to your knowledge.

Conflict Resolution :
Many members have a difference of opinion with others still they are active participants and who make the group alive, it is a leader who keeps them alive and encourages them to talk and share their views whereas applicable. In some of the cases, Admin becomes intermediator to resolve the difference of opinion and drive the discussion to some other fruitful directions.

We never notice such leadership skill but it is everywhere in each individual if a person starts looking at that angle.

Note: Not all WhatsApp admin are leaders! Not every admin is successful in managing the group. A success of a WhatsApp group can be measured with the content and discussion happening in the group. You can ask questions like: Is the purpose of the group still intact? Purpose can expand, Vision can get larger, but it cannot dilute! 🙂 Happy Whatsapping.

Gulaab gang and management

March 14, 2016 post

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Movies and Cricket are most common form of entertainment in India. Why not learn something from there? I saw movie Gulaab Gang this Sunday(first time), though i missed initial 45 mins of the movie.

Movie had very interesting lessons from the management perspective:

1. “NO” is not no but “Next Option”:

When Madhuri and Juhi meet first time, madhuri handovers a letter for justice to which juhi gave a sarcastic answer and rates for the rape victim and mocked at madhuri. Next Easiest thing for madhuri was to beg or move out. But she had next option ready.

2. Be bold to move towards your dream or be a pawn to accomplish someone else’s dream:

Scene where juhi offers madhuri to be in her party and be on her side. Madhuri calmly refuses to be on her side and says, “agar election me khade hi hona hai toh aapke under kyun, aapke saamne khadi rahungi” and that creates a new journey of leadership for her. Of she has been leader so far in the movie, but now moving on to next level.

3. Play to your strength not to weaknesses:

When elections rally and promotions are commenced, madhuri plays to her strengths, scene is quite convincing at she promoting herself at a college whereas in fear, threat and survival juhi keeps plotting to bring madhuri and her support system down. Result is already known to people who have seen the movie.

4. Be clear of what you want and be clear when You ask:

Madhuri in entire movie is clear of what she wants… may be the paths keep changing from violence to being a political leader.
Similarly, even juhi is very clear of her goals. When you have clarity of goals, you know what to do, when is the right time and what is the right method.
Like knowing killing madhuri inside the village is threat to her. She is ok if she is killed outside her political boundary. Like madhuri knows that enough of violence for what she wants… she can achieve the goals by being a political leader too.

And so on.

Personality myths in management

February 10, 2014 Management Mantra post
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Introverts and Extroverts

We are always told that:

To be happy is to be sociable
To be great is to be bold
If you are sitting alone in a social gathering, it means you are sad
If you are a part of group, means you are smart, happy and fun loving
If you are quiet, it means you are shy and not bold
If you are loud and speak a lot, mingle a lot, you are a leader

Talkative people are rated as smarter, better looking as more interesting and more desirable as friends. Velocity of speech also counts as well as volume. We rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than slow ones. Voluble are considered as smarter than reticent

We see ourselves as the nation of extroverts. If you are not an introvert, you are surely managing, raising, married to or coupled with one.

There are also a set of people who pretend to be extroverts. Extroverts with their loud voice, constant communication and interaction with people, leave an impression that they are smart and intelligent. Which may be true or may not be true.

We have been born and brought up in an environment or a value system called “Extrovert Ideal” – an ideal self is gregarious and comfortable being in spot light.

Parents feel they are not providing something when they see their child sitting with books and spending time alone instead of playing or interacting in a group or staying alone for most of the times. At times they may even be resentful when they see other kids.

Even in schools, desks are arranged in such a way that group learning can take place, there are various programs, events, functions, competitions in schools and colleges to foster group work. And the one who cant fit themselves in the group, start feeling inferior and go into a shell or thinking that there is something wrong with them.

Do you know, without introverts, world would have been devoid of theory of relativity, theory of gravity, the GOOGLE, satyagraha revolution, Harry potter, Charlie Brown, W.B Yeat’s the second coming, Proust’s in search of lost time, Orwell’ s 1984 and animal farm, the cat in the hat,etc.

We would have been devoid of geniuses like Einstein, Gandhi, Newton, Roosevelt, Abraham lincoln, speakers like robin sharma, etc.

Apple computers are a brain child of an introvert!

Worlds greatest ideas, art and inventions – from theory of evolution to Van Gogh’ sunflowers to the personal computers, came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune into their inner worlds and treasures to be found there.

Introversion – along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness and shyness – is now a second class personality trait, somewhere between disappointment and a pathology. Not all introverts are shy. Do not mix up both. Shyness is fear of social gatherings and public speaking and fear or acceptance. Even extroverts can be shy.

Extroverts is an enormously appealing personality style, but we have turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us conform. Let their voice not over shadow the voice of introverts. Listen to them and you will be surprised to hear some treasures, something innovative that you would have ever come across.

If you are an introvert, reading this article, be proud to be so and know that you are equally powerful and equally important. Know that most of the world leaders are a part of you.

If you are an extrovert, know that you are missing on something from the geniuses around you. World needs you and introverts also.

Of course extroverts are also genius. Infact, Its not the extrovert or introvert that tells us who is genius, its the intellect. All we need is not judge genius in the scale of loudness, volume, social gatherings, clothings, talkativeness, loud body language, number of people surrounded by. All these factors do not co-relate in terms of being genius.

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