Empowerment - Happy to experience it!

Jan 8th, 2016

Having empowered employees is the dream of every leader. All managers want people who show initiative by taking on and completing tasks with little guidance. Of course, the expectation is that these people will perform only in ways consistent with company objectives and values. And there lies the leadership challenge. Often the leadership has not done their part to empower the employees or, worse, has gotten in the way through micro-management.

Not all leaders have selfish intentions or poor skills; many simply haven't had the training, time or focus to create an environment of empowerment

My nature is always empowering employees. Guide them and clearly provide them responsibilities to take care of the issues/tasks assigned. I expect my manager to empower me as well. 

During these 2 days, I was able to take care of what is required to support a critical customer case. I was empowered (manager trusted me) and I was extremely happy to say that I have achieved this with the same enthusiasm as what I used to achieve at great company I worked for..Cisco Systems. Is it a time to forget Cisco!....I don't think so. Cisco will always be a my first choice of great company in the world!...Sorry..I am obsessed because of all the positive and great things I have experienced at Cisco during my long stay there.

Behavior from Your colleagues!

Yelling!!!!

This can happen only in work places where they don't have exposure to other cultures. Someone yelling at you and others on the issues you are going or handling. I remember reading it in a book , as a Manager you are not supposed to show your frustration on others inspite of whatever the issues you are going through yourself or with your management. You are supposed to handle it wisely. You are supposed to reinforce the importance and assertively mention why things need to be improved etc.

Providing/Creating Opportunities

How do you create opportunities to employees so that they learn from their stretch goals and they like being part of the team.

As much as I think one can create the opportunity for themselves, it is also important to provide opportunities for engineers based on their interests.

If opportunity is not given or not created (by yourself) no one will learn or exposed to unknown territory.

Think about following aspects which might help you in creating/providing opportunities to others.

• What do you know about competitor products (compared to the product you are working on)?. Learn about these, understand critical aspects, discuss with others and share it with others.
• What can you do for the team? Identify the topics/situations that can be improved in the team (Collaboration, Tools etc) and work towards it.
• Learn something  new

Today I felt myself that, I was able to provide few topics which my engineers can go and explore!. I need to do more!!!

Jan 9th, 2015

I reminded myself of a book by Marshall Goldsmith : "What Got You Here Won't Get You There". 

I think I have spent lot of time(Years!) on making sure I take care of employees reporting to me, discussing on Employee development, Motivation and changing the behavior so that I can be a GREAT Manager/Leader. This has become my strength. I think some of these behavior is easily coming to me and I need not spend time (I do read blogs/books again and again) on learning these much.

I think I should concentrate on  something else(Technical aspects!) so that I do use my time wisely for better purpose and for my own career. I do have some thoughts on this and started on it. Let us see how far I go on this.

January 7th, 2015

I thought of doing some reading on the VC Technology during Dec'14 Shutdown. However, I could not do that; I did not go to any movies or go out of Bangalore.

Welcoming 2015 with a well deserved! REST during Shutdown.

There is lot of work to do and lot of 'mentoring/coaching' to do. I did spend good amount of time with couple of people on making them understand 'what is CDP(Career Development Plan) mean for anyone" and explained how they can make use of it. I felt , I was much more enthusiastic than usual to provide them details. Felt , I was also assertive and clear in my communication on this.

December 18th, 2014

It is always true that in any company or in any groups within a company, people resist the changes based on earlier experience. While it is not an issue, I feel one should be open to get other's(who joined recently or in last 1 year) views. 

I think one of the item related to employee development which is talked about year over year but not much progress seen is "Career Development". Every Manager have their own opinion about 'what is career development'. One think that it is related to Promotion; Another think that it is related to "Skill development in their current Role"; someone else thinks that it is related to "long term career development". Most of the time Managers think that 'Career development' is responsibility of the employee and Manager cannot do much about it.

In my opinion, 'Career Development' plan is responsibility of the employee, it is for the Skill Development (in current role) and for the long term career(perceived role in the future). Certainly it is not for tracking or doing things for Promotion; While the CDP will help to have the items which will help for promotion, but intention is not for assuring any promotion. CDP need to be well supported by the Manager so that Employee feels that he has all the resources to achieve his growth (w.r.t Talent and Skills).

Learning: Does not matter, how long you are with a company or the group, be open to listen to others and check whether we can make use of other's suggestions to change the way it has been done in the past.

Sep 19th,2014

Today was one of those day I could not take it easy. We are supposed to provide a PPT Slide which should be present to VP. I am not very good at creating Jazzy PPT Slides. However, I am amazed by one of my colleague who converted an earlier "Text Based! Preso' to 'Colorful Presentation'. Immediately I told him and requested him that, I would like him to be my 'mentor'/'coach' for creating excellent PPT Slides.

Result: The PPT Slide was reviewed. Based on the comments from others, I certainly felt that, I should give more importance to each and every word when we are presenting it to Senior Management. I am (self) motivated to create better PPT Slides in the future.

Motivation Factor: Knowing that I can go to someone to brainstorm ideas on creating better PPT Slides and thereby improving myself.