Category: .live and learn

With everything going around us – this is what 2020 feels like. 🙁

// Livelock == an infinite loop that 
// means the program is frozen
#define FROZEN while(1)
// in hell, there are demons with pitchforks
#define HELL fork();

FROZEN HELL

Rain drops as I dive,
into packet stream; Chaos.
Malicious patterns.

#Haiku #GeekHaiku

Recently, a few of us went through a workshop where one of the ‘homework’ was to score oneself, on the following 7 aspects – some of these are attributes that allows one to grow from being (hopefully) good managers to great leaders.

In most enterprises, as one grows in their career, managers need to acquire new capabilities – and quickly. What they have, in terms of skills and capabilities and got her or him to this place, won’t be enough for the next step – as the scope and complexity increases it can leave executives underwhelmed. At the core, new executives need support on these seven dimensions that will help them make this transition.

• • Specialist to generalist – Understand the mental models, tools, and terms used in key business functions and develop templates for evaluating the leaders of those functions.
  • Analyst to Integrator – Integrate the collective knowledge of cross-functional teams and make appropriate trade-offs to solve complex organizational problems.
  • Tactician to Strategist – Shift fluidly between the details and the larger picture, perceive important patterns in complex environments, and anticipate and influence the reactions of key external players.
  • Bricklayer to Architect – Understand how to analyze and design organizational systems so that strategy, structure, operating models, and skill bases fit together effectively and efficiently, and harness this understanding to make needed organizational changes.
  • Problem Solver to Agenda Setter – Define the problems the organization should focus on, and spot issues that don’t fall neatly into any one function but are still important.
  • Warrior to Diplomat – Proactively shape the environment in which the business operates by influencing key external constituencies, including the government, NGOs, the media, and investors.
  • Supporting Cast Member to Lead Role – Exhibit the right behaviors as a role model for the organization and learn to communicate with and inspire large groups of people both directly and, increasingly, indirectly.

I was surprised on how few people talk about this. These come from an awesome HBR article called How Managers become Leaders, which if you haven’t read, I would highly recommend.

So, what can one do? The suggestions outlined are not rocket science, but something to think about. And fundamentally not that much different on how the armed forces trains new officers.

• Give potential leaders:
  • Experience on cross-functional projects
  • An international assignment
  • Exposure to a broad range of business situations – accelerated growth, sustaining success, realignment, turnaround.
• When a high potentials’ leadership promise becomes evident give them:
  • A position on a senior management team
  • Experience with external stakeholders
  • An assignment as chief of staff for an experienced enterprise leader
  • An appointment to lead an acquisition integration or a substantial restructuring
• Just before their first leadership promotion:
  • Send them to an executive program that addresses capabilities like – organizational design, business process improvement, and transition management.
• When promoted, place new enterprise leaders in business units:
  • That are small, distinct, and thriving
  • And are staffed with an experienced and assertive team that they can learn from.

At a recent internal meeting, we were discussing productivity and the various levels of distractions that one has these days. Did you know that there is a hierarchy of digital distractions (see image below). No wonder, in todays connected, and agile world, for some people why it is so difficult to get any actual work done (that is not to suggest that they are not busy of course).

At this meeting, analogy of the distraction was coined as the “monkey” – the monkey that each of us has on our shoulder and the constant attention it demands – I.e. the distraction. And we all know we cannot control this monkey and bottle it up. The idea isn’t to try and bottle it up, which will rattle it more trying to get out and demand more attention – but rather let it out in a controlled manner for some time – similar to how one would take a dog out for a walk (of course different outcomes) .

So instead of avoiding distractions, which might be very difficult for some folks, the idea is to let it out in a controlled manner – so the monkey is entertained and happy. This will help concentrate on the rest of the times and enable one to be more productive. And the science behind is how our brains gets the same effect as with drugs, and the ‘pleasure’ effects – it is both fascinating and scary.

The legacy all parents should give to their children is an insurance policy in happiness; but the premiums must be paid today during their upbringing.

You think Life is the mystery; Life is but the rapture of flight – Allama Iqbal

How inspirational is this! I get goose bumps just seeing it. Awesome. If you put your mind to it, anything is possible.

Lessons from the Internet – If you never learn how to fail, you will never learn to scale!

Who cares what it smells like, it’s what it sounds like that matters. See the first 54 seconds, and then you will be hooked.

Got a really good read from Jerome, fellow Avanade colleague – ten extraordinary things bosses give their employees. Not surprisingly, good bosses care about getting important things done. And exceptional bosses care about their people.

1.  Autonomy and independence
2. Clear expectation
3. Meaningful objectives
4. The true sense of purpose
5. Opportunities to provide significant input
6. A real sense of connection
7. Reliable consistency
8. Private criticism
9. Public praise
10. The chance for meaningful future

More details here.