Checklists!

A checklist is a list of things that are required to be "Checked off", simple isn't it?

Many Managers, use their Random Access Memory (also know as brain!) to manage this list of things. I have a good memory, but I find it un-reliable under intense pressure. Trying to remember things in a high pressure situation is very difficult and more often, adds to the stress. This results in errors, which in turn leads to rework and delays.

Rework and Delay are the two words all Project Stakeholders (Project Managers, Management, Customers and last but not the least, the Team Members) dread the most. Rework and Delays are boring to individuals associated to the project and expensive for the Organizations. It is simply "good time wasted". Imagine what one could have done if there were no rework and no delays!, a team member could have added a new skill, Project Manager could have made a plan for a new project, an Organization could have deployed the entire team to a new project, resulting in more revenues. More revenues results in more investments in new equipment and to hire more people. The cycle goes on...

The first thing that comes to my mind as a preventive action for rework and delays is a "Schedule". This is the best possible answer to the question. Schedules are detailed, need a lot of time to prepare. They talk about the sequence of events, dependencies, resource allocation (people, hardware and software) and budgets.

A schedule is very useful for a large project, in an organized environment and large heterogeneous teams located in multiple geographies.

When teams are small, turn around times are small, dynamics are high and Project Management resources are scarce, a Checklist is very effective!. A Checklist is not a replacement for a schedule, but more like a tailored version of the schedule.It is more suitable to smaller organizations/systems.

When time comes to "get things done and out the door" as quickly as we can, and when preparing a detailed schedule is not practical (I am not recommending not preparing one....!), I use a "Checklist". It's quick, it's concise, it's portable and very very easy to use.


Preparing a checklist

I recommend using a small group of people to do this exercise. This group of people may be the stakeholders or drivers of the project. When I say "drivers", I mean key people who play critical roles to get the project done.

1. Ask - :"What are the things to be done to complete this project/task/activity?"
2. Make a list of check items as the members of the meeting start talking
3. Sequence the items, so that no one is idle or is waiting for others to finish.
4. Look for ambiguous statements and try and break it down to multiple simple sentences, so that all understand the statement in the same way.
5. Discuss each point in detail so that any key sub points are covered and documented. 
6. Review the checklist to see if each check item is "indivisible" & "measurable". Indivisible means, cannot be divided further. Measurable means, the outcome of the check item is unique and decision on the check item is either a "YES" or a "NO", nothing else!

A Checklist as a mini-Schedule

1. Assign each check item to an individual or a small group of individuals.
2. Assign specific deliverables as a result of the check item
3. Assign a time line for the check item, meaning, start date, end date and effort to be expended on the task
4. It is difficult to assign dependencies in a checklist, so try and sequence out the activities such that dependencies are accounted for.

Once the checklist is ready, it is important that all stake holders are in agreement with what is required to be delivered and the time allocated. The checklist is shared with the team members and queries are addressed.

After this we are good to get started with the execution! Keep in touch with the stakeholders, check off items that are completed, and the outputs/deliverables verified. Re-plan in case of issues. Project is completed when all check items are "checked off"

A checklist is a simple and effective Project Management Tool in the absence of a detailed Schedule.

Summing up: A checklist helps in...

• ... reducing stress, by not having to remember as many things.
• ... keeping a track of a To Do list and ensures all items are covered and nothing is forgotten.
• ... keeping the team on the same page, meaning all individuals have the same understanding of what is to be accomplished.
• ... simple and effective tool to use in Project Management and personal life.

Boredom and Staying Motivated

A team member approached me a few months ago and told me, "I'm bored and I need some change".

Jack is a very experienced team member and one of the best I had on my team, so my mind started racing towards the conclusion "Jack wants to quit". Personally I don't believe in persuading anyone to stay and I strongly feel that an individual wants to quit because he does not feel for his team or the organization anymore and what's the point of holding on to such an individual who works half heartedly?

Both of us were quite for a moment, I think he was waiting for my reaction, and I was fighting the thought and my conclusion that Jack wants to quit, what if my conclusion is wrong? I was not sure. I had learnt and resolved long ago, that I will not jump to any conclusions and will ask for more information or clarifications when in doubt, and this is what I did.

I asked Jack to elaborate... he said, he is been doing the same thing over and over again for the past few years and he is finding it difficult keep up with the output requirements because of boredom. He admitted that he has started taking more breaks in the past few weeks and does not know what to do. He was aware that his performance was dropping and needed help.

I thanked my lucky stars that I did bring up the subject of "him quitting"... it was a good decision to ask him to elaborate on his statement.

I was thinking at the back of my mind, can I give him another assignment? is there some other team I can deploy Jack? does Jack possess any other special skill that can be used by other teams? All my questions had the same answer, "NO".

Now I had no choice but to motivate and inspire him to go on and fight the battle. For this, I had to understand more on this situation.

Here's the dialog that followed

Q: What NEW techniques/tools have you learnt in the past One Year?
Jack: None

Q: What NEW techniques/tools have you learnt in the past Three Years?
Jack: None

Q: So, all tools and techniques you use today are what you learnt more that 5 years ago?
Jack: Yes, it is true

Q: What is the standard that you follow to get a task done?
Jack: Jack describes the standard procedure that he follows to get each type of task done.

My Thoughts: I was surprised that Jack used to follow the exact same procedure each time that he would encounter a certain type of task or needs a certain result. Jack's life was very mechanical. He knows exactly what is to be done and he can close his eyes and perform that task. This is probably why he was quick and efficient. Systems and Processes makes the team efficient, but I realized, that our system was not taking care of boredom. Good Management principles talk about job rotation but this project was no assembly line! and I was not talking to a skilled labor!. A Knowledge worker was sitting in front of me, and I had to do something quickly or risk losing Jack forever. How many people have come up to me and said, boss, I am bored. In my entire experience, this was the first instance. So, I was to rely on my expertise!

Here's what transpired subsequently...

Q: Do you know the meaning of the term "Improvisation"?
Jack: No, I am not aware.

Q: Do you agree with "a problem can have many solutions"?
Jack: Yes, I do.

Q: If you want a certain result, have you tried different ways to reach the result?
Jack: I know how to achieve a certain result, and I use my set of techniques for this.

Q: Do you like your job?
Jack: Yes I do.

Q: Do you like the team and the company you work for?
Jack: Yes, I do. That's why I have come to you.

My Thoughts: Jack likes his job, the team and the company, he has not tried anything new in the past few years and has been leading a very mechanical work life which has led him to Boredom. So, the situation is salvageable, in my opinion. All Jack needs is a new "perspective" in his work life.

I told Jack that his problem of boredom at work can be solved by using a technique called "Improvisation".

Improvisation means "doing things differently and more efficiently each time for achieving the same or similar result!".

I explained to Jack, "make small changes to the process you follow for achieving the desired result each time you encounter an opportunity. Try and see if you can improve efficiency by cutting down unnecessary steps in the process. When you discover a more efficient technique, teach others in the team so that the whole team can benefit from this learning. When you teach others all you know and when people look up to you for solutions, you would always like to stay a few steps ahead of them, so you will try and discover something new. Improvise in the available time, do not lose sight of your goal and deliveries".

Further I encouraged Jack to start something new after office hours, like join a gym, pursue a new hobby, take some music lessons or just learn cooking. This would give Jack something new in his life after office hours so, he does not take work pressures home and has something different to think of and do when he gets home. Jack went back to his desk and started working on his new project!....

Today, Jack is rejuvenated, his performance has improved, he has joined the gym and started cooking. He has better relations with his coworkers and has grown in popularity.

My conclusions:

1. I will not be motivated if I don't want to be motivated - Jack chose to be motivated and approached me for help, he could have just walked away.

2. I am employed to get a job done. Employment helps me earn my bread, butter and the jam. It is my duty to stay motivated in my job for as long as I can and deliver.

3. If I am unable to stay motivated, I will escalate the matter to my boss an seek help.

Staying Competitive: Experience Vs Expertise

"Staying Competitive" means, staying in the business, adding skills to enhance or maintain a competitive advantage. Every professional must stay competitive to be able to deliver consistently, earn raises and bonuses year on year.

I have always heard people I meet, telling me that they have N years experience at work. I have heard candidates talking about their "experience" during interviews. They passionately state what they have achieved in their work life.

On deeper interrogation, I find that most candidates I meet are "kinda" shallow. I find that they are able to answer questions that are "straight out of the book" and they are able to answer questions to situations that they have faced during their careers with ease. When I ask, if there is any other way to solve the same problem, they don't have an answer. For argument's sake, when I twist the situation a bit, they are unable to find a solution or an answer.

Very few candidates, have demonstrated the ability to think differently and find a solution to a "twisted" situation. I am constantly on the look out for these kind of people for my organization, because these are the kind of people who are potential leaders.

What makes the second type of candidates different from the first type? For one, they are more in demand, for two, they are are better suited because they possess a special quality of thinking differently and three, these type of people are simply more fun to talk to during an interview.

The difference is "Experience" and "Expertise"

Experience is the number of years of service one has put in at his career.  For example: in a bank, there is a certain standard process that the people are used to, in an automobile assembly line, the people are used to working in a certain way, in other words, process B follows process A, and process D follows process C and so on. People know the sequence of activities to be carried out to get the job done.

In the above situation, we see a phenomenon, "History repeats". Experience comes in hand when history repeats.

Now look at the possibility of a BRAND NEW situation that can stare at you at anytime, a situation that has never occurred before in your life, no one you know of has ever faced this situation, you read all available books and search the internet for a solution, but fail to find one. What do you do when this "situation" strikes? Who will come to your help at this point in time?

There is something that can help you, something called "Expertise"

Expertise, in my opinion, can be defined as how efficiently you handle a situation that you have faced for the first time.

Expertise cannot be studied in classrooms. It is a quality that a professional develops over time. A professional spends times to gain experience, reads books/attends classes to gain knowledge. It is the application of this knowledge and prior experience with other situations that helps the professional develop expertise. Experience tells a professional where to apply a certain technique. An expert seems to have an answer to every situation that someone brings up, he/she seems to know how to handle a problem, even though the problem has never occurred before.

Professionals are made thru' education, but how many of them stay educated? Very few I admit.

Stay competitive by reading good books, understand new techniques. Don't be in a hurry to implement any of these tricks, wait for a time. In time, you will face a situation where you will have to apply the knowledge that you have a gained to crack the problem.

When I interview candidates, I filter candidates by experience in a certain process. When I meet them, I search for the quality of expertise thru' their answers to "twisted questions", alternative answers and solutions. I meet 1 in a 100 candidates, who actually fit the bill, but are very hard to find.

Work Life Balance

I see a lot of people talking of work life balance. About 10 years ago, I would hear this from people who "have been there and done that". Today I hear it from people who have started working less than a year ago. Honestly, I have started to think of it after around 15 long and hard years of working, am I late? I don't know.

What does "Work Life Balance" mean?

To me it means, how you balance your work and your personal life. All work and no play makes you a "workaholic", all play and no work makes you "unemployed".

I have always been a strong believer of "work hard and play hard". So, during the week days, I am all about work, and during the weekends, I am all about time with my family and recreation. There are occasions when I am required to take a break in the middle of the week, to attend a family function, to attend a wedding of a friend or to socialize. I ensure that work does not suffer and organize for things to be taken care of when I am gone, and take this break happily.

Young people today, generally complain about long work hours and no work-life balance and are constantly complaining. Come on, if you don't slog it out now, will you do it at age 50? and who will pay you a salary if work does not get done? I tell them, if you want a work life balance, you better be highly efficient, when your manager assigns 8 hours for a task, do it in 8 hours or less, get the work reviewed, get your manager to sign off on the work, and walk out of office at 6 PM, who will stop you?

In my opinion, people work additional hours due to the following reasons.

1. New on the job, learning the ropes
2. They know what to do but are lazy
3. They are low on skill and inefficient
4. They are assigned more work than they can get done in the day
5. Circumstances in the team, cause them to be overloaded

New on the job, learning the ropes

These are people who have just joined and are learning the ropes, they will surely need more time to complete a task. This is the time to spend long hours and get efficient. If they get efficient now, they can take it easy in time to come and of course, they grow too. These people don't have the right to complain, they have to be patient and go through the grind. If they want to continue to complain they must get out or sent out of the system immediately because they do not deserve to be in the system.

Know what to do but Lazy...

These are the people who come in to work at 10 AM, have a coffee between 10 and 10.30 AM, email all friends between 10.30 AM and 11.30 AM, browse the net between 11.30 AM and 12.30 PM, discuss with colleagues where they will go for lunch between 12.30 PM and 1 PM, come back to their desks at 2.30 PM after lunch and then think about their assigned tasks. If this guy starts at 2.30 PM, he can get an 8 hour task done only by 10.30 PM. Now, does this person have a right to complain of work-life balance? No he cannot, but he does!

Now, if the person is super efficient, he/she can get an 8 hour task done in 4 hours and this person can still get out of work at 6.30 PM.

Low on skill and inefficient
These are people who have never tried hard enough in life, they could have spent enough time studying in the initial days and could have mastered all that it takes to deliver, but did not. They chose to enjoy and take it easy at that time.

It's like this, Jack and John joined a company as programmers. John worked for 12 hours each day while Jack spent only 6 hours each day taking advantage of the flexible working at this company, had a great time with friends and partied hard. In 1000 days time, John has 12000 hours of experience while Jack could manage only 6000 hours. Theoretically, Jack could do only 50% of John could do. When compared to John, Jack was lower on skill and was inefficient. During appraisal, John was seen as someone who had twice the experience that Jack had and gets a better deal. Jack is in no position to complain because he just did not put in the effort.

Assigned to more than 8 hours of work
This is a special case, the Manager is allocating more than 8 hours of work per day, this may be due to the following reasons...

• The manager knows that you are super efficient and can get an 8 hour assignment done in 6 hours, so try and see if he can get more out of you. If this is the case, explain to your manager, and negotiate when you need time off.
  
• The Manager has over-committed on the project deadline and pushing his team to get it done by working additional hours. Is everyone else in the project also working as hard as you, if yes, then continue to work hard, because if you revolt, you are more likely to feel guilty if the project fails. If no, the following point would answer the question. 
• The manager does not like you, and he is hell bent on working you to death, so he is trying his best to ensure that you fail. However, this is a rare possibility. You should discuss this matter with your manager and explain that you are overworked and negotiate a possibility.
• It may just be that the situation is tight, the customer is pushing your organization to deliver faster than committed dates, or your company expects this deal to close ahead of time and is trying to wrap up the project quicker. Now, don't expect your manager to come and give you all the details and be sorry for you, but you can always ask your manager why you are being overworked and the effect it is having on you.

Each of the above is a special case and one must carefully consider before escalating, if you choose to escalate, try and understand the situation and give benefit of doubt to your organization and try and help your company when required, after all, they have created an opportunity for employment for you.

If you think your Manager or organization is lying to you, be patient, believe me, they don't stand a chance trying to fool a large team for a long time, they will pay for it.

Circumstances in the team, cause them to be overloaded
There is a high possibility that some of your team members are low performers and are delivering less than what is expected. The manager may be giving you additional work, just to get by and maintain the overall team productivity under check.

Try and analyze the situation see if any of the above points make sense, but do not conclude. Discuss this with your Manager and allow him/her to conclude. Highlight the fact that you need some time off, or that you are tired, I'm sure he/she will understand. If you help the Manager when he/she needs it, the Manager too will respond on the same coin.

To end...
Be the best, work as hard as you can, while you can. This will enable you to have a better work-life balance, a better chance to spend time with your family, with your friends, or just be with yourself and relax.

YOU!, have to make that beginning.

People in the project

"People" is a very important aspect of Project Management. After all, it's the people who run the project and the Manager is there to provide direction, keeping a check on things and tying aspects of the project together.

Types of people on the Project team

• The "Driver"
• The "Independent Driven"
• The "Dependent Driven"
• The "You tell me what to do" type
• The "Complainers"
• The "Pessimists"
• The "Sitting on the fence" type

These are just a few types of people we find on a project and the list is not exhaustive. The following picture provides a map and my opinion.

Dependent Driven >>> Independent Driven >>> Driver
Dependent Driven >>>>>>>>>>  "You Tell me what to do"
Dependent Driven >>> Complainer
Dependent Driven >>>>>>>>>> Pessimist


Going ahead, I would like to explain what each type means...


The "Driver"
These are people with a ton of initiative. The goal is always on top of their mind and are willing to do anything to achieve the goal; be it a coding task, a review task, a testing task, a documenting task or a training task. These people have very strong likes and dislikes on what they would like to do but dont mind spending time on doing things they dislike for the sake of the goal. I have seen very few people who belong to this category. These are the people who "make things happen" in the system and make a big contribution in project delivery, but due to the variety of jobs handled, they tend to be branded with a "lack of focus tag", but these people move on because, the goal is met, and nothing matters more.

The main issue that the "driver" face in their careers is that they have to demonstrate a lot of patience to get recognized. It takes many long hours and months of toil. This is just because, these people will go on after the goal irrespective of what is going on around them and are slow to recognize that they are missing something in life.


The "Independent Driven"
The "driven" people are ones who will take instructions from who they trust and will go ahead and wrap up the tasks as quickly as possible. They will come back only if they have a doubt. They will come back to the "driver" and ask for more work or the next assignment. These kind of people work with a high degree of efficiency and again play an important part in project delivery. These are the type of people who get the best reviews and appraisals as they demonstrate "focus" on the job and meet targets almost 100% of the times.

The "Dependent Driven"
The "Dependent Driven" people are ones who need instructions at every step on the assigned tasks. These people are committed to the job but are unsure if they are in the right direction. They ask someone they trust every time they get confused or are unsure of the direction they are moving in. This is largely due to the lack of a good understanding of the system they are working in and lack of required skill. More often that not, these people move up to the "Independent Driven" state in a few months or years. This happens due to a better understanding of the system and improved skill.

The "you tell me what to do" type
This is an interesting classification of people I have found on project teams. These are a shade different from the Drivers and I define these people as "Driver minus Initiative plus Disgruntlement". These are kind of people who have chosen to be judges of past actions from their team members, other managers or even the company in quite a number of cases. They are upset with these actions and think that they can punish or take revenge for the action even if it has not affected them directly. They think that they "feel" for the society and must do justice. Now these are conclusions that they have drawn by themselves or thru' participating in discussions with colleagues and friends. The others who participated in the discussion did not take the discussion seriously and have walked off, but these people have allowed the thoughts to linger and is affecting them. They don't know of it as yet.

These people are usually "Independent Driven" type who have demonstrated promise to be the "driver" of tomorrow and then, this sudden loss in initiative and added disgruntlement. When a task is assigned, they know what to do and make a mental map of things to do to complete the task. But then, they won't show initiative to go ahead and complete the task. They will ask the manager for more information. When the manager explains what is required to be done, they will immediately see flaws in the explanation, but won't highlight it. When they see a design flaw or risk in the implementation plan, they won't escalate it but they will know how to overcome these issues. Instead, they will choose to ignore the issues and will allow things to come to a stand still at a later date. Quite a danger to projects, these people.

I have personally tried to turn some of these people around, but it is a 50-50 chance. What usually happens is that, these people keep resisting what is good for them. The company realizes, but does not take action against this individual. The team leaders start going to next in line to clarify and to discuss, these individuals get sidelined eventually and become obsolete. These kind of people cannot be out of the lime light for a long period, so they find another job and resign, the company let's go of them because they are obsolete. Who loses? the team? the Manager? the company? the loser is the individual, and he/she will not realize it for a long time to come.

The "Complainer"

The "Complainer" is usually an under-performer and falls between the "dependent driven" and the "driver". This person has found an easy way out from any sort of commitment by complaining. This person will complain for the coffee served in office, the attitude of office help, the company policies and even their own colleagues. By complaining, these people think they will be absolved from taking responsibility. Ask them once, if they have any ideas for improvements at work, they will immediately say, it is beyond "repair". They will never say how they can help, instead, they will tell you how others can contribute to improvement. These are the types of people who resort to politics

Usually, these people are a "lost cause", the earlier the company can get rid of the person, the better it is for the team and the company.

The "Intelligent Pessimist"

The "Intelligent pessimist", in my opinion, has high intelligence and low self esteem. It is this combination, that makes them pessimistic. They demonstrate brilliance and exceed expectations in most assigned tasks. The Intelligent pessimist does not harm the project in anyway, but will always be depressed. When you ask what the problem is, they will complain of a lot of work and then they will overwork themselves just to overcome their self esteem. In-spite of playing important roles in the organization, they are not satisfied with their own output. These people do not know how to balance their personal and professional lives.

It is a task in it self to manage the "Intelligent pessimist" and one has to exercise caution while doing so.

The "Sitting on the fence" type

These are the people who are within the system but always on the lookout for a better "opportunity". They are always looking at what others are wearing, what others are driving and live in an ideal world that just works perfectly for them. They want to be the most recognized, they want to get paid the best salaries, wear the best clothes, expensive watches and drive big cars and want to have the perfect work-life balance. These are the people who will always participate in every discussion with a limited knowledge and will not leave an opportunity to be the MC on any occasion.

These are people with intelligence, but do not believe in expanding on their knowledge. They want to rise in the organization structure early just because they think there is little work to do when you get to the top, they don't realize the importance of ownership, accountability and qualities of leadership.

In most occasions, these people either realize and move to "driver" or move to "you tell me what to do" positions. Once they move to the latter spot, their career is over.

Conclusion

Interesting points to note in this analysis of people are:

1. No one but oneself can move from one stage to another
2. No amount of training can take you from one stage to another, unless one participates whole-heartedly and contributes.
3. The only states that are related strongly with each other are "dependent driven", "independent driven" and "driver". Hence I call these the "In-Line States". Others are weakly related or not related to each other.
4. All people join teams at the "dependent driven" state. From here, it is up to the person to make it.
5. An individual does not choose which state to be in or which state to move to. Instead, it is the circumstances and other people in the team or friends who contribute to the individual's movement to a state. Individuals get motivated and inspired by the words of their colleagues and friends and move on the "In-Line States" or away from the "In-Line States", mostly people tend to move away, the managers need to keep a watch.

Leadership

Leadership is all about inspiring people to break their performance barriers and over achieve. It’s about directing people to get things done and meeting goals and objectives within time and cost constraints. Leadership is a set of qualities and is not necessarily associated with a title. A title is consequence of demonstration of the leadership quality. Leadership is not about banging the table and telling people that you are “the boss”. Leadership can be established but is not readily accepted. Leadership comes with respect and respect is to be commanded and not demanded. Being a leader takes a lot of hard work. Leadership is not for the individual to state, but it is to be acknowledged by others who surround you.

LEADERSHIP is an ART. It is the ART of creating FOLLOWERS…

Leadership is a mixture of some qualities in the right proportion and these qualities must be developed and practiced over time. In the following paragraphs, I put down some of my thoughts and practices, which, I hope, will help me to be a good leader someday, and I am working very hard to get there…

Be humble
I believe that I am a Manager and because I possess certain skills and qualities. I am a Manager because there is no other person in my current organization who suits this position better. So, I must be thankful to others who have not spent the kind of time or effort in honing the skills that I have become good at over time.

Another line of thought is that, “What is my identity without my team” the answer is “I am nothing, because, I will not be able to deliver any product without my team”. So, for me to perform I need my team and I am grateful to all my team members for choosing to stay and work in my team and in my organization.

These thoughts keep me grounded and humble.

Be approachable
My team members must feel free to come over anytime to, discuss the product requirements, escalate matters, discuss personal differences with me and other team members, get inputs on their personal finance management or discuss the pros and cons of buying an apartment in a certain location. Some of my old team members have even approached me to get my advice on a certain job assignments that they are considering. When I am approachable, the bad news travels faster resulting in quicker actions to minimize damage. First things first, I will be approachable only if people feel comfortable talking with me. For people to feel comfortable with me, they have to be assured that I am their well wisher and a neutral individual, meaning, I have demonstrated that I am fair and impartial. They have to believe that I am not there to harm them. It takes a lot of time and effort to win over people.

Be available

I must be available when my team needs me. If I am not physically present, I must make suitable arrangements for communication with my team and ensure that the team functions well, in my absence. I must demonstrate “let’s get to work” instead of “go and get to work” effectively. I must be able to foresee issues that my team might face and have suggestions and/or solutions in hand ahead of time.

Be fair

I must be fair to all my team members, I must not demonstrate special liking to one or a few individuals and my decisions must be neutral and acceptable to all. There must be a single set of rules applicable to all team members and no special accommodation to one or few people in the team. I must load all team members with equivalent amount of work.

"Being fair" is tricky as I am dealing with perceptions of people. I can control my actions but not people's perceptions. There have been occasions when I have been accused of partiality by my Managers when my intentions were good, this hurts. I could have run, but I chose to stand and continue to fight this perception and change it. I am learning to think thru' all my decisions and it's effects on people before implementing it. It takes a little more time than usual, but it is worth it.

Be a good follower
Many times, I have faced situattions where I was unable to take a decision, unable to take a stand. In these occasions, I bring together a few key players in the team and explain the problem to them. I also express my inability to take a decision. Then I invite suggestions from these team members and look for a consensus. Once all have agreed to a decision, I stand by the decision and take it forward. By doing this, I am demonstrating to my key team members that I can follow too. Being a good leader requires one to be a good follower too. By following others' decision, I don't degrade myself, I only better my chances of being accepted as a good leader.

Demonstrate patience and control the temper
I must accept and be patient with the shortcomings of the business, the system and it's people. If something does not happen as expected, it does not always mean that the effort was not there, I must understand and accept that "we win some and we lose some". An outburst and throwing a temper tantrum only complicates matters, it demotivates and humiliates others. The relationships that I have worked on for years are very delicate by nature and good associations go bad with one outburst or show of temper. The result of a temper tantrum is a team which fights battles half heartedly, evidently the battle will be lost.

When things go wrong, I must express dissatisfaction first and then work on the shortcomings of the system and it's people, demonstrate patience, and encourage people to go on and the job will be done.

Demonstrate a positive attitude
I must demonstrate a positive outlook and attitude towards life, my company, people in my team and the project in general. I believe that good things happen to people who do good. If I have any difference of opinion, I must be able to mask it suitably so that my difference of opinion does not come between the team and the goals of the project I am working on. When my team members have a negative feeling, I must be able to guide them and give them a positive outlook without compromising on the goals and objectives set for me or for the team member by my Company’s management. Last but not the least, I must shield my team members from the business pressures, I must be smiling and encouraging under all circumstances.

Demonstrate knowledge
I must have a good understanding of the project requirements my team is working on, or the project that the team will take up next. I must be able to give my team suggestions and solutions when required. If I don’t know an answer, I must obtain an answer thru’ escalation and revert to the team members without fail. Most of all, I must be in a position to take an informed decision on any situation in the project. I understand that people will approach me only if they know that I can provide a solution to their problems, so I must be prepared.

Demonstrate empathy
When my team members approach me with a problem, professional or personal, I must demonstrate empathy, I must acknowledge the problem and listen them out instead of jumping to conclusions without giving them a chance to talk. Other people’s problems may seem silly to me because I am not facing the problem myself, nevertheless, I must show sufficient interest and try and provide a neutral solution to the individual. Sometimes, I don't have to provide a solution, I just have to listen them out, they get rejuvenated and find a solution by themselves.

Empower
I must identify the next in command and groom them to take on more responsibilities. I must partner with them and empower them to enable them to take decisions on project activities and I must show trust and stand by their decisions. If the decision is wrong, I must correct them and show them the way, so that they don’t make the same mistake again. I must enable them to run the show in my absence.

There is a lot more to leadership qualities than what I have stated in the previous paragraphs and I am sure these are documented elsewhere...

Here are some key aspects of leadership

• The success of a leader is measured by how well the team performs when the he/she is absent.
  
• Leadership does not depend on your level of operation in the Organizational hierarchy, you can demonstrate leadership qualities at all levels.
• Never wait for an opportunity to demonstrate leadership qualities, demonstrate it in your current assignment.
• Win over others with your positive attitude, knowledge and personality.
• The leader does not wait for things to happen, the leader makes things happen.

Empowerment

Empowerment is a very important and interesting aspect of Management. An action that plays a vital role in building teams, creating ownership and accountability within people, resulting in success of the team/project/organization.

From my experience, "Empowerment" is a very loosely used word, Managers think, they can empower people by...

• making an individual or a team responsible for a certain task
• giving an individual the power to take a decision
• giving an individual the authority to take a financial decision

This is not enough and this is not all.

In my opinion, true Empowerment comes from creating

• a good feeling for the team/organization: "I FEEL GOOD" Factor
• a sense of belonging in the organization/team: "I BELONG HERE" Factor
• an awareness of the vision and imparting knowledge: "I KNOW WHAT TO DO" factor

When people are empowered in the "True Sense", they demonstrate a sense of Responsibility, Ownership and Accountability for a task/project. They demonstrate initiative. They are proactive. The war is theirs and they celebrate each victory in a battle, however small the battle is. There is energy everywhere, people help each other, share knowledge and stay late just because their colleague is having a difficulty in his/her task. People come forward to ask for more work a week ahead.

This is not all, the organization starts seeing a difference, the defects are low, the customers are happy resulting in more business. There is prosperity.

I strongly recommend to Managers, to use the following steps to achieve "true" empowerment in their teams/organizations

1. Treat people well
2. Impart Knowledge
3. Bestow responsibility

Treating People Well

This is the first and the most important step in empowerment. "Treating people well" is not always achieved by talking nicely to them or greeting them or accepting anything and everything that an employee has to say.

Managers have to encourage them, inspire them, trust them, listen to them and acknowledge their achievements.

Encouragement comes from saying kind words and being supportive when people are down. Kind words of encouragement fills team members with a strange confidence to do the "undoable". The team member does wonders with his/her task.

A word of caution:

• the maturity of the individual plays a very important role in "Treating people well". An individual with high maturity will respond positively to encouragement and kind words, the ones with low maturity will go around boasting that the Manager is his/her friend and will not hurt him even if he/she makes a mistake. Managers have to study their people's maturity and then act. I have seen admonishment, a bit of embarrassment and then saying the kind words of encouragement works with people with lower maturity levels in most cases. 
• High maturity usually results in high commitment in individuals and these kind of people work with good intentions,  managers need to be supportive and encouraging, these people feel bad, when they make a mistake, these people usually accept admonishment as a punishment for wrong doing, but they cannot and will not appreciate humiliation or embarrassment. These people will leave the company if they are subjected to humiliation.
  

Impart Knowledge

Step 2 deals with training people, providing them knowledge, tools and techniques that come handy in day to day activities.

There are two types of Managers who impart knowledge:

• Type 1: Most managers have a unique way of dealing with tasks and situations. These are techniques that they have read in books, used and perfected over time. These managers usually have better success in step 2 of empowerment as they are closer to ground realities, they know more about the project, product and processes and have a better relationship with their teams.
• Type 2: Some managers, however, go by the book. They are better "read" than the "Type 1" managers, they are loosely related to their teams, the project, the product and the processes. These Managers will have a tendency to implement a Six Sigma Technique that was successful in another company, without showing consideration to the current organization, it's maturity, it's people, it's people's maturity or the product requirement. These managers try to implement systems with "Mission Critical robustness" when it is not required, just because some "Guru" appreciated this technique. These Managers have a lower chance at success in imparting knowledge as most people in their team just don't understand what this person is saying or where he is coming from.
  

Imparting knowledge means, "showing them the way", by telling them:

• What to do
• How to do it
• How to Measure
• Take necessary Actions (based on the measurements to minimize deviations)
• How to Share Knowledge with others in the team

This is a classic Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle first stated by Deming, PLUS knowledge sharing.

Managers need not define everything by themselves, they may get their key team members to participate and define the tasks, the process, measurements and the possible actions to take when deviations occur. This way, the key players themselves will own the process and train others on the process that they defined.

Bestow Responsibility

Once the team members are trained, the Managers must share responsibility of the project along with key players in the team. An announcement must be made to let everyone know, so that other team members know whom to approach, when required. A formal announcement, makes team members proud and gives them a sense of responsibility. Their pride helps them contribute to the project objectives and goals.

Once a person is made responsible, the Manager must stand by this individual under all circumstances. Great leaders acknowledge the success of the individual and make it known to all. A failure is also handled, thru' escalation, and thru' counseling to the individual, reassuring him/her, that this happens and that it can be overcome. The counseling should be kept private.

The act of bestowing responsibility fails when the Manager resorts to "Success is mine and failure is yours" philosophy. In these cases, the person will never accept responsibility from this manager again.

Where managers go wrong is when, they call a certain team member to their office, and tell him/her that he/she is responsible for a certain process and keep the act of bestowing responsibility private. This way, the person never really accepts the responsibility, even if he/she does, he/she does not get the support from other team members to execute the responsibility. This results in frustration and disgruntlement in the employee, he/she is unable to live up to the expectation of his/her manager and the manager holds him/her responsible for the failure, while, the failure is really the Manager's, who could have turned this situation around by merely making an announcement and showing his/her support to the cause.

To Summarize, empowerment, when done properly, works wonders and helps building great teams. Great teams produce great products, great products result in great revenues for the company. The manager must acknowledge success and attribute to individuals and also standby and accept responsibility if things go wrong.