Tears ...

Yes ! Emotions have a lot to do with how one carries his leadership.

Emotions - powerful tools to touch and connect and hence influence desired decisions. 

Display of emotions is how you make  your decisions more palatable, more acceptable and less rational  for your followers and peers.

What modern business (and not that business has changed in thousands of years) has taught through "Emotional Intelligence" is, how to "play" the emotions to get to a decision you want to get to ! Something that is re-discovered in board room lingo, originated from the Mahabharat days.

A certain display of extreme emotions in form of tears in a fellow colleagues eyes, who has worked for 15 yrs for the same corporation, has made me derail a long-in-design org structure that was being put in place to achieve very ambitious results. It was a lunatic at work ! And few drops of tears from a very sensible and matured fellow leader, arrests the lunacy !

Those drops were out of "passion" towards work or "passion" towards "norm"..but out of "passion" for sure.

Business results and org structures can wait ! Time to cherish that level of passion now.

Value of "absence" in leadership

We have heard, value of "presence" and price paid for "absence" of leaders ! Now, lets read about absence.

Once a loyal, very senior man who manages most of the floor for many years, wanted to go on a long vacation. Around 6 weeks. He knew the entire team depends on him. He has never taken off, because he has this great sense of ownership and loyalty. After all there are many undocumented answers to numerous unassuming questions, that pop up everyday.

The man had all that in his head. Out of seer experience and kin observation. A good employee indeed.

The man had two bosses (one solid line reporting and one dotted line reporting). So he had to go talk to both of them about the intention to get a 6 week long vacation.

The first boss is around his age. Been in the company for long long time, just like him. Very matured and knowledgeable.

When the man approached him and asked for the vacation, the boss #1 smiled and said, "Go ahead. You need some time off. Enjoy your time off".

This bothered him ! Hmmm.. he thought his absence will raise an alarm bell. And in the least needs some planning to make up for his time off. On the other hand the boss seemed pleased that he is taking off ?

The boss #1 sees the puzzle in his eyes and explains, "If you have set the organization right, coached your people correct, then your absence wont be felt. If you have not done that, there is no better opportunity to get that feedback first hand".

Then the man goes to the other boss - a much younger MBA and expressed his desire to take off for six weeks.

This guy is much more aggressive and believes in running shop with head than heart.

To his surprise the boss #2 says, "Go ahead enjoy your time off". This time he is puzzled again.

Boss #2 explains, if all your teams escalations come to me when you are absent, I would know how much you have been dealing with day in and day out. How much you keel me off the daily management. I would understand your real value when you are absent.

The man did have a great vacation !!!

Airport - Not open for business !!

Stepping out of the hustle  bustle of City life is definitely a welcome change. But one thing for sure.
There is a certain level of "inertia of motion" as you step in to the sleepy hill stations or laid back beaches.

One such this happened when I landed in a North East hilly, sleepy town. Beautiful place ! Me rushing to make to the airport check in counter, as per the airline instruction.  Sufficient planning went in to make it on time. Early morning flight. Get up earlier, leave time for commute, and leave 1 hr for airline that is mandated now a days for check in and security.

When we reached the airport, at the front door the security person says, "Airport Khula Nehi, Staff nehi ayehe ab tak".

We waited there until the staff showed up, very anxiously close to the flight time. Casually said, "Flight is on time" and checked us in.:)

Immense pressure for SLA ..

McD welcomes the burger buyers with "Get your order in less than 1 minute or get a coke free".
And they go ahead and walk to talk ... put a Sand Clock on your tray to make sure the order is on before the sand runs out.

The people behind the counters, run like machines - I can imagine, having such micro level targets and constantly running, can be really irritating :(

"Only in Bangalore" - instructions can be this considerate ;)

In your face - grabbing attention ..

Marketing folks never seize to amuse one. Last week there was a small cheapo gadget, with a photo sensor and a pre-recorded advertisement of a car, was embedded in to the news paper.

When you open the news paper, the device will read out the page long add to the reader ! In a loop, until the reader puts the paper down.

Hmm.... even news paper reading is becoming "listening". I am sure, more functional applications of such simple devices are coming up !!!

The art of empowering .....

One day a street smart, suave man, stops by a restaurant a little past mid-night.
He demands a 25% discount from the restaurant manager, saying he is a friend of the owner of the business.

The poor manager did not know what to do. Whether to acknowledge it or to take his chance and deny it!
And its past mid-night. He did not have guts to wake up the owner by calling his cell / mobile phone. 

After struggling a bit with himself, he decided to call up the owner. The owner heard the story, and took a very prolonged 20 minutes asking him several questions.

- Why do you think a 25% discount is unreasonable at this hour in our hotel ?
- If the manager gives more such discounts post mid night will the business make more money ?

etc.

A lot of such questions, but never asked "who is the guy demanding the discount to validate if he is really a friend".

At the end of this long 20 mins of conversation past midnight, the owner says to the manager - "The reason I spent so much time with you on the call at this time, so that next time you don't wake me up at such time".