RSS Theory of Empowerment and Leadership:

Recently I got a chance of becoming a part of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) “Guru Dakshina” activity; I observed the empowerment and leadership style closely and it helps me a lot in learning the core rules of leadership and re-defining  my perception on team building theories. 

I have concluded my learning in 7 key rules:

1. Be a team member rather than team leader to empower other team member towards the assigned goal. It helps in creating the productive environment.
2. Set your expectation very clear and define the process steps if your team members are doing any task first time.
3. Empower your team member with required resources to accomplish the task.
4. Re-confirm from your team members’ whether they have understood the assigned task. You can take a DRY RUN with your team members if your task is critical.
5. Let your team members know that their task is a very important milestone in achieving common goal of the team.
6. Lead by example, you need to set the bench mark which you are expecting from your team members. (e.g. discipline in work-area, showing the respect to other team members)
7. Regular review of process update to take corrective actions if required. Don’t forget to appreciate your team members for their achievements.

Price of Non Conformance (PONC)

In general, human being always tried to find the short-cuts for doing the given task. Sometimes it helps in inventing new & improved ideas to complete the given task by keeping the required quality standards. But generally it leads to Non-Conformance from agreed quality standards.

Quality standards may vary from customer to customer. Conformance of quality standard means delivering the agreed quality to customer.

The "cost of quality" isn't the price of creating a quality product or service. It's the cost of NOT creating a quality product or service.

Every time work is redone, the cost of quality increases. Obvious examples include:

•       The reworking of a manufactured item.
•       The retesting of an assembly.
•       The rebuilding of a tool.
•      The correction of a bank statement.
•        The reworking of a service, such as the reprocessing of a loan operation or the replacement of a food order in a restaurant.

In short, any cost that would not have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality.

Most of the costs of poor quality are hidden from our normal quality measures. These costs of quality are often referred to as the Hidden Factory. This includes:

1.  Unhappy customers
2. Schedule interruptions
3. Fire Fighting
4. Unnecessary Procedures
5. Equipment Failures
6. Extra Operations such as touch ups and trimming
7. Distracted Engineers
8. Expediting time
9. Poorly performing product
10. Extra inspection and testing
11. Wasted materials and energy
12. Sorting
13. Extra inventory
14. Unexplained budget variations
15. Missed shipments
16. Complaint Investigation Cost

Total Quality Costs

Quality costs are the total of the cost incurred by:

• Investing in the prevention of nonconformance to requirements.
• Appraising a product or service for conformance to requirements.
• Failing to meet requirements.

It is highly recommended to follow the Quality standard to avoid re-working cost in Project Management.

Be an Example

“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other”, said Edmund Burke.

It is the truth of this statement which makes good management such an exacting discipline. We all achieve most of our learning from experience, but especially from the actions of those above us.

Following are some of BAD HABITS your subordinates could be learning from you:

1. Poor time-keeping, long lunches, or ‘missing’ for long periods when no one knows where you are or when you will be back. 
2. Delegating unpleasant tasks to others, e.g. informing unsuccessful job interviewees, handling the regular ‘pain in the neck’ client, carrying out an evening or weekend assignment, or doing duty over the holiday period. 
3. Fiddling’ expenses, misusing company equipment or supplies, and making personal calls on the office telephone. 
4. Sending staff out in office time to do personal household tasks for you. 
5. Keeping junior staff waiting when you have arranged to see them, and then letting anyone and everyone interrupt when they are talking to you. 
6. Making disrespectful comments about your boss, or your boss’s boss-even in jest. We all know that reveals the greatest truths.
7. The way you treat customers, clients or patients, but most of all what you say about them afterwards, including non-verbal communications- it takes only one gesture to make a lasting impact.
8. Interrupting your subordinates’ work unnecessarily, and not meeting your own deadlines.
9. Accepting mediocrity rather than striving for excellence.

Few effective tools to use socialization as a POSITIVE FORCE:

1. Share your own development and learning with your staff tell them what went well and what didn't, how you might handle it next time, and what you have learned from your experience. When possible, let them observe you at work.
2. Talk about what you rate as successes; relate the myths of ‘greatest’ in the oganisation, and your staff will learn what is valued and emulate it.
3. Treat your subordinates as you would like your boss to treat you, and they will treat their own staff the same way.
4. Share your mistakes (or some of them), and demonstrate how to learn and develop from them.
5. Keep staff informed on what you are doing, especially on things which relate to their work.
6. Be enthusiastic about your work and theirs, and about what you are all there to achieve – it is second only to self –interest as a source of influence!
7. Respect people, time and the company’s goods, and be seen to do so.
8. Maintain high personal standards of honesty and truthfulness, but if it is necessary to be ‘economical with the truth’, do it yourself, don’t delegate it. 

Stop Being a People-Pleaser!

It you’re always felt a compulsion to meet everyone else’s needs before your own, it’s hard to imagine being different. People-pleasing is not only what you do, but a strong part of who you believe you are. If you’re ready to start investing your time, instead of letting other people spend it for yours.  

There are three common scenarios that can trigger our people-pleaser tendencies and how you can think and act differently.

1. The Unrealistic Standard Scenario- many managers feels guilty about the fact that they are in so many meeting so they develop the mindset that “I am bad manager if I don’t always keep my door open when I’m in my office”. But this can lead to every spare minute between appointments being field by people walking though their door eager for attention. In turn, all of their own work needs to happen in the evenings and weekends which then lead to a cycle guilt about being a bad spouse, parent, or friend. It sound like you, the escape route is to change your standard for what it means to be a good manager. This then frees you to set better boundaries and get more work done at work.
2. The ‘YES!’ Man or Women Scenario- if you are an energetic, service-oriented person, your tendency is to always respond to any saying. “Sure, I can do that.” Or when you are sitting in a meeting and someone ask for volunteers to help, you always raise your hand. Or even when no one ask for help; but you know they need help you offer to assist. In end of itself, a strong desire to take action is not bad. But if this attitude means that you are completely overloaded with work and unfocused on your top priorities, you are failing to keep commitments that truly should fall under your ownership.
3. The “I’ll Just Do It Myself” Scenario- Generally highly intelligent, hard-working people tend to struggle with letting go of control though delegation. This challenge seems most acute when they go from a “doing” role such as a consultant to a “leading” role such as a department head. Instead of passing off responsibilities to the appropriate parties, you tell yourself, “It will just take a minute I can get this done better and faster than anyone else.” These thoughts do have some truth to them in that you may have the ability to execute on some activities very well. But if you are like most business leaders, you don’t have the minutes to spare. In a typical week, you will have just a few precious work hours you can devote to doing the activities that only you can do. The first question you should ask with any item big or small is :” Could someone else do this for me?”  If so, delegate it. The more organized you get, the better you will be able to delegate without “inconveniencing”  others.

You cannot please everybody in world. So priorities your own assignments first before lending your time to other person. This will help you to keep your own commitments.

Handling Team Conflicts

When two or more persons work together in a project for a common goal, conflicts may occur. What we mean by conflict in nothing else but the disagreement that broken our between in their views, thoughts and opinions. Conflicts are natural. But at any time, it should not disrupt the mutual relationship nor affect the functionality of the entity be it in personal or professional life.

Dealing with conflicts at work:

Conflicts are unavoidable but a solution is essential to give mutual benefits for both employees and organization to complete eh project.

Let’s have a look at few tips; essential for a project manager to handle the conflicts within team:

1. Analyse the source/reason of conflict. As project manager, you should have a complete understanding about the root course of the problem.
2. Emphasize the need to solve the conflict. Define the solution, what do you have to achieve at the end of the conflict, it course and consequences.
3. Identify the level, when the conflict is constructive and beyond which it becomes destructive for the team. 
4. Organize indisputable discussion among the team members to explore about the topic and their opinions. This will enable the mutual sharing of information and a clarity of thought within team.
5. Communication during the discussion should be democratic, but manager should follow autocratic style of communication when needed.
6. There should be active participation among the members.
7. During the discussion time, complete focus should be on the topic and no deviation should be entertained by project manager
8. Control the emotions and showing of professionalism becomes key points for a project manager, in solving the solutions of conflicts
9. Note down the key points of discussion and prioritize it for solving the conflicts
10. Arrive on a solution which is supported by members

A Project Manager holds the responsibility, in finding a right way to solve the conflict with its team.

Preventing Conflict

As well as being able to handle conflict when it arises, teams need to develop ways of preventing conflict from becoming damaging. Team members can learn skills and behaviour to help this. Here are some of the key ones to work on:

1. Dealing with conflict immediately – avoid the temptation to ignore it.
2. Being open – if people have issues, they need to be expressed immediately and not allowed to fester.
3. Practising clear communication – articulate thoughts and ideas clearly.
4. Practising active listening – paraphrasing, clarifying, questioning.
5. Practising identifying assumptions – asking yourself "why" on a regular basis.
6. Not letting conflict get personal – stick to facts and issues, not personalities.
7. Focusing on actionable solutions – don't belabour what can't be changed.
8. Encouraging different points of view – insist on honest dialogue and expressing feelings.
9. Not looking for blame – encourage ownership of the problem and solution.
10. Demonstrating respect – if the situation escalates takes a break and waits for emotions to subside.
11. Keeping team issues within the team – talking outside allows conflict to build and fester, without being dealt with directly.

Handling Negative People.

When people spend most of the day in close proximity, you are bound to be affected by the positive and negative moods of your co-workers. Will you let a negative colleague affect you professionally or personally?

Do you remember the last time you had a bad day because of a negative colleague? Or the time when you adjusted to the sarcastic remarks by a co-worker. While these workplace blues are unconstrained you can try and bring a change in how you deal with Mr./Ms. Miserable. 

We can avoid pessimist trap by following simple measures:

1. Don’t get into a debate: arguments lead to conflicts. It is human to react and argue to protest and point. However in this situation we need to control our behaviour and responses. Don’t let the snide remarks bother you. Deal with the matter firmly but nicely. 
2. Avoid going public: Such miserable people are insecure about their conduct. They say or do things to get attention of your and others too. By confronting them in public you are actually falling into their trap. Once you make the situation public, it will destroy all future possibilities of fixing it. 
3. Lend a helping hand: complaining starts shouting in the morning, “I handle everything. I have no life after office. I don’t have any friends.” Now, although it is difficult, try to get to the root cause of this outburst. The outburst suggests the person needs help in his work or someone with whom he can talk to.
4. Limit yourself: By now, you must have tried everything- a combination of politeness and a good dose of firmness and positivity. If nothing works, it is time to deal with the situation by staying aloof. Neither is supportive nor critical. Such people eat you energy and in turn your productivity. Reduce contact with them as much as possible. 

Traits of a Good Leader!

Generating trust amongst employees is one of the most important qualities that a leader must possess. Trust forms the foundation of effective communication, employee relation/ retention, and employee motivation. When trust exists in an organization or in a relationship, almost everything else is easier and more comfortable to achieve. So can you build trust when it doesn't exist?

Traits of good leader:

1. Talk Straight- Be clear and concise in your communication. There should be transparency and clarity in what you speak. Be honest and demonstrate integrity. 
2. Demonstrate Respect- Genuinely care and respect everyone and make sure you express it correctly. Be nice to employees who don’t belong to your team as well. Be kind and empathetic towards your employees issues and grievances. 
3. Create Transparency- Be open and authentic. Don’t hide information or have hidden agendas from employees. After all , everyone in your team is working towards a common goal. Always operate on the premise of “what you see what you get”
4. Right Wrongs- If there has been an error from your end, apologies quickly. Make sure you always do the right things and not what is convenient.
5. Show Loyalty- Most often ignored, but must always give credit to hard working employees. You must also be there voice of those who cannot speak for themselves. Avoid speaking negatively about your employees behind the backs.
6. Deliver Result- Make sure you have a track record of results. Accomplish the task you are hired for. Never over promised and under deliver. Avoid making excuses of not delivering.
7. Get Better- Always make an effort to learn and improve.
8. Confront Reality- Do not have unrealistic goal and expectation. Always meet issues as they are. Address tough situation directly. Always acknowledge what is the unsaid and lead conversation courageously. 
9. Clarify Expectation- Be clear while disclosing and revealing expectation from employees. Make sure you discuss and validate your expectation from them. If there is a difference of thinking, renegotiate with them. Always make sure expectation are clear.
10. Practice Accountability- Always hold yourself and others accountable and responsible for their respective tasks. Take responsibility of result, be it good or bad communicate with your employees about how they play in their tasks.
11. Listen First- Don’t make any assumptions. Listen to your employee before speaking. Don’t just listen with ears but also keep your eyes open. Understand the employees’ situation, and then diagnose a solution.
12. Keep Commitments- Make sure you commit carefully.  Always state your intent while committing. Make keeping your commitments the symbol of your honour. Don’t break employee’s confidence in you.
13. Extend Trust- The last and most important point extend trust abundantly to those who have made an effort to earn your trust. Always extend trust conditionally to those who are in the process of earning your trust. Don’t withhold the trust in employees even if it involves risk.

Managing "Bad Apple"!

The principle of fact, as we know, is that one bad apple can spoil the entire bunch. This fact is true on project team in many organizations. A “bad apple” team member may not always be obvious. But, they will usually show up somewhere during the life of the project. As a manager project manager, the “bad apple” has to be dealt with properly promptly and swiftly.

John Maxwell in his work, Seventeen Laws of Teamwork, suggests that a leader, before dealing with a person with a bad attitude, should do some self-reflection and check their own attitude. The person that is leading needs to make sure they are not the problem.

A few simple steps in dealing with the “bad apple” are as follows:

1. First document the problem or symptoms are they begin themselves.
2. The next step is to meet one-to-one with the “bad apple” to provide counselling and advise on how to improve the problem that has been encountered.
3. As a project manager, you must try to get the root of the problem and find out what can done to correct the situation.
4. Once you are assured of the problem, a correction plan or course of action to solve the problem should be initiated. As a manager, you should document the course of action discussed and you and the team member should sign-off on this plan.

Finally, after these steps are completed, the team member will need some time to make the necessary agreed-upon changes to correct the problem. Visible result should be seen, documented and praised. However if no change is observed and the behaviour continues, the manager must start the process of removing the team member. It is obvious to everyone on the team that bad attitude can and has affected the project. The team members are waiting for the manager to take the lead and make corrective action.

Team Building-Upgradation of Team Members

To start with, you can help your subordinates to learn more from their experience by:

Giving time for them to review their actions and work out what was effective, what wasn’t and why, rather than indulging in constant ‘fire-fighting’ (it might prevent a few fires) – Every person it having his/her own grasping power. A team leader should give enough time to his/her team-mates to review their actions in respective the assign goal/tasks. It leads to learning from their own assignments rather a push from outside and it gives positive energy to respective team-mates to accomplish future assignment.

Giving feedback on how they perform; on the results and the way they achieved them- A team lead should share regular feedback with his/her team-mates on their performance on given task, and guide/coach them if required to improve productivity.

Encouraging them to question their assumptions and ready-made conclusions about what experiences mean – A team lead should allow a healthy environment in team, which allow team-mates to approach team lead in the case of any query on assignment. Even after a effective communication on task requirement, some of team-mates might required some clarification on his/her assignments.

Letting them try new ways of doing things to create fresh experiences, rather than rigidly following previous patterns or adapting other peoples’ solution as short-cuts- If the assigned task is not crucial and need not require to follow rigid path, a team lead can allow his/her team mates to try new ways of accomplishing the given tasks. It leads creativity in team and might result more effective ways of doing a task.

Hard Working vs Smart Working

Hard work, no doubt, will pay you. But, hard work in the absence of smartness will not yield the desired results.

It is the smartness in execution of work that distinguishes a successful manager from others.

If a manager drowns himself in hectic activity, finds no time to have his cup of coffee in a hurry, it all indicates that he is not working smartly.

A manager who is not smart enough will only generate lots of work-oriented work oriented work instead of result-oriented work. In his organization, there will be hectic activity and everybody will be very busy, but there will be hectic activity and everybody will be very busy, but there will be very little action and the result will be disastrous. 

I believe it is. Of course, you have to be ‘smart’ about working hard, but hard work always pays. Just being smart or working smart is only half of the real story.

The fact remains that hard work and smart work must go hand in hand for you to be successful. Smart work is about making the right strategy, about following a disciplined work culture. Hard works translates your vision and ideas into results.

Working hard and working smart are not exclusive of each other. Smart work teaches you to be more productive with your time. If you are happy with your current level of success, then smart work will surely allow you the luxury of not having to work as hard as you otherwise would. But if you want to reach the pinnacle of success in your chosen field, than smart work alone won’t really help.

Many people think that hard work goes largely unnoticed. They believe that unless you are ‘smart’ about letting others know that you are working hard, you remain a drudge. They call hard work a kind of drudgery. They are more interested in letting the ‘boss’ know that they are working hard. Their focus is in the wrong direction.

I believe that hard work always gets noticed - perhaps not in the short run, but eventually people can’t help but notice hard work. And the rewards follow without you having to push for them.

You need to stop worrying about doing ‘hard work’ or ‘smart work’; you should just concentrate on doing your best every day. Thinking about rewards and results saps your energy, creating a ‘neediness’ in you.

Rewards come to you when you are not looking for them continuously. When you step out to work with a passion to do your best, you will bring out the best in others as well! That itself is a great reward.

MIS Reporting!

Gather only such vital data/information that is crucial and relevant for your plan of action. Calling for all and sundry data will land you in an information jungle from where you cannot come out, leave alone leading your organization to success.

The MIS reports should not contain unwanted, irrelevant insignificant data. Ask only for such data/information that you really need and that you can make use of.

It should contain maximum information and minimum data.

It needs not supply the managers with the routine details of an organization’s daily activities. Instead, they should provide the manager with the new insights about the business and thus lead the manager to action.

Designing of MIS reports is a job that needs special attention of the manager. There should be proper interaction between managers at different levels in the hierarchy and the floor level personnel before designing the formats. Any amount of time in designing of proper MIS is worth spending.

Calling for too many reports, apart from spoiling accuracy, often tends to give inconsistent result since different reports emerge from different departments.

Let not your MIS be designed in such a way that information gets lost in the jungle of data.

You Can't Please Everybody

It is highly impossible to please everybody; every individual is a different person with different aspirations.

At times managers may have to take hard decisions which are unavoidable. Such decisions may prove to be good for some of the employees and may not be to the linking of others.

An ideal manager will not hesitate to take the right, timely decisions even if they happen to be hard decisions. However, he will obtain honest views of as many people as possible and go ahead with taking such hard decision, after he is fully convinced.

While a particular action will benefit the organization and many people in the organization, a few others in the organization may at the same time not like it. This is because the personalities of individuals differ and there can be no way to keep each one satisfied.

Read a really god story on this:

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: "You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?"

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way.  But soon they passed a group of  men, one of whom said: "See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides."

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn't gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: "Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along."

Well, the Man didn't know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey.  By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them.  The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at.  The men said: "Aren't you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey with you and your hulking son?"

 The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do.  They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey's feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders.  They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole.  In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.

  "That will teach you," said an old man who had followed them: “Please all, and you will please none."

Pro-active Approach

Prevention is better than cure; you can prevent failures only if are proactive.

It is not enough if a manager is active; he must be proactive.

A manager ought to be proactive in such a way that he makes the required change early in his organization, before they are forced upon the organization.

Don’t wait for problems to arise. Go all out to find them and nip them in the bud.

Look at the word responsibility – “response-ability”- the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon. As well as enabling us to choose our response to particular circumstances, this empowers us to create circumstances.

Taking initiative does not mean being pushy, obnoxious, or aggressive. It does mean recognizing our responsibility to make things happen.

Reactive Language	Proactive Language
There’s nothing I can do.	Let’s look at our alternatives
That’s just that way I am.	I can choose a different approach.
He makes me so mad.	I control my own feelings.
They won’t allow that.	I can create an effective presentation.
I have to do that.	I will choose an appropriate response.
I can’t.	I choose.
I must.	I prefer.
If only.	I will..

Another excellent way to become more self-aware regarding our own degree of pro-activity is to look at where we focus our time energy. We each have a wide range of concerns- our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war. We could separate those from things in which we have no particular mental or emotional involvement by creating a “Circle of Concern”

Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their “Circle of Influence” to increase.

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. This literally turns a failure into a success. “Success,” said IBM founder T.J. Watson, “is on the far side of failure.”

It is not what others do or even our own mistakes that hurt us the most; it is our response to those things. Chasing after the poisonous snake that bites us will only drive the poison through our entire system. It is far better to take measure immediately to get the poison out.

Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Suggested steps to be pro-active:
1. Plan you tasks in advance.
2. Pre-identify the risks of respective task.
3. Make a mitigation plan to respond the above risks
4. Review of task & achievement regularly to identify the upcoming risks/problems.

Blaming Others for Failure!

It is easier to find scapegoats, but gentlemen never do that; be a gentleman.

If an organization fails, the prime responsibility lies with the chief Executive. He cannot pass on the responsibility to his next level officers. If that were so, everybody would pass the buck and only the peon or the watchman at the gate would finally be made responsible for the failure (obviously, they cannot pass the buck further down).

When you realize that you have made a mistake, accept it with courage instead of finding a scapegoat. Your confession will only improve your image in the minds of your subordinates.

People who don’t want to accept any responsibility, shift the blame on the others.

Take responsibility for your current situation. Figure out a way to change the part of your life that you are not comfortable with. Blaming others is not going to solve your problems.

According to Harvard Business Review: “Playing the blame game never works. A deep set of research shows that people who blame others for their mistakes lose status, learn less, and perform worse relative to those who own up to their mistakes. Blaming is contagious.”

The bottom line is simple. When you blame others for how you feel, you give them your power.  No one can make you feel anything.  No one is more in charge of your destiny.  Believe this and watch your confidence soar.

It’s an illusion if you believe, “If they’d be like that, I’d be like this.” You give away your power by believing your state is dependent on others.  By playing the blame game, you shout to the world:
1. I have no control over my life—I’m a victim
2. Other people in my life are more powerful than me—I’m a victim.

Refer my blog on Handling Failures without blaming other "http://rkc-mgr.blogspot.in/2013/04/managing-failure.html"

Cost-Cutting!

Cost-cutting is good, but not at the cost of your organization.

People are assets, though not reflected in your balance sheet. It is people who give life to the other factors of production that are lifeless.

When you dispose off a physical asset you get revenue while you have to shell out money when you dispose-off human assets. Indiscriminate reduction of staff in the name of VRS and CRS will have telling impact on the organization.

Though downsizing the workforce will show an immediate improvement in earnings, in the long run it may result in a great loss to the organization. Never orverlook the time, money and effort spent by your organization on you staff in training them to suit the requirement of your organization.

There is a difference between cost and investment. Amount spent on human capital is an investment and not a cost. If you are downsizing your workforce in the name of cost cutting, bear in mind that you are really doing away with your investment. Hence, think twice before acting on it.

I strongly recommend the Cost-Control in place of Cost Cutting.

Cost control, also known as cost management or cost containment, is a broad set of cost accounting methods and management techniques with the common goal of improving business cost-efficiency by reducing costs, or at least restricting their rate of growth.

Businesses use cost control methods to monitor, evaluate, and ultimately enhance the efficiency of specific areas, such as departments, divisions, or product lines, within their operations.

Cost control is a continuous process that begins with the proposed annual budget. The budget helps: (1) to organize and coordinate production, and the selling, distribution, service, and administrative functions; and (2) to take maximum advantage of available opportunities. As the fiscal year progresses, management compares actual results with those projected in the budget and incorporates into the new plan the lessons learned from its evaluation of current operations.


Decentralization of Profit Centre can help company to do effective Cost Controlling. In this case individual Division/Department/Subsidiary will be responsible for its Profit & Loss Account or Earning v/s Expenses and they need to maintain their minimize margin or Break-Even Point to continue the operation.

The idea of profit centers and decentralization often gets in the way of good management if the idea is taken very seriously. Such ideas are often not what they seem.

Many companies profess decentralization that do not really have it. Profit centers are not necessarily so – if overall corporate profit performance is being optimized. Independent profit centers are by definition neither independent nor profit centers if, in fact, there is any significant mutual interaction or synergy between cost centers.

Right Man For The Right Job

Never allow personal prejudices and preferences to influence the selection of personnel.

Assigning the right job to the right person should follow selection of right persons and giving them the right type of training.

An ideal manager attaches highest priority in placing the right person for the right job because without this the earlier two exercises of selection of personnel and imparting training to them would only go waste.

All are not alike. In fact, all cannot be alike. Accept people as they are and make the best use of them. 

Delegated task must consist of following parameters

1. Task should be a Specific one
2. Task should Measurable 
3. Task should Agreed by second person, unwilling tasks does not extract fruitful results.
4. Task should be Realistic
5. Task should a Timebound to measure.

Go for best use of available resources; assign the relevant tasks to your team-members based on their expertise and willingness. 

It is manager’s responsibility to assure best use of his/her team member with his/her full strength. 

Judgement

Never make judgements based on hasty analysis.

Management prejudice is the worst disease.

It is quite unfortunate that there are many managers who allow many things to cloud their judgement and make prejudicial decisions about people.

Give a person a fair hearing to ensure that the decisions that you make about him are not prejudiced.
An ideal manager will not judge based on half-truth, blind assumption, hearsay, etc.

Manager’s decision should not be one sided. He should consider all available facts before making any decision. As his decision may lead to adverse effects to his team member’s performance.

A Manager should consider following traits before making any decision:

1. Available Resources to find actual facts.
2. Time Consciousness- future implications 
3. Cost Effective (within budget)
4. Good Listening Habit.  Allow manager to get the feedback of other party before taking one sided decisions
5. Positive Attitude. He should not take decision with any prejudice.
6. Organization/Team’s Goal 
7. Confidence.

Freedom to Work

Let your subordinates enjoy freedom in their work; they will contribute their maximum.

People can contribute more when they are given freedom to work. People may need your guidance and advice, but they would never prefer to work under your watchful eyes.

Freedom at work increase creativity. The very confidence in your people that they won’t be blamed for occasional mistakes, if any, will encourage creativity.

As a manager you should share the expectation from your team member, let them choose the way they want to accomplish the task.  But make sure that you try this option with experienced manpower rather than a fresher. 

Business Acumen

Only by earning money does one know its value.

If you want your people to realize the imperativeness of running the organization on profitable lines, you must at the first instance make them aware of the value of money.

Empower your team member with business acumen so they also know the value of savings and earnings for your organization. 

Business acumen is an almost intuitive and applicable understanding of how your company makes money. It includes a thorough understanding of what drives profitability and cash flow, a market focused approach to the business, and an overall big picture understanding of the business and its interrelationships.

Some important Terms of Finance Management:

Profit & Loss Account : A financial statement that summarizes the revenues, costs and expenses incurred during a specific period of time - usually a fiscal quarter or year.

Balance Sheet : A financial statement that summarizes a company's assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity at a specific point in time. These three balance sheet segments give investors an idea as to what the company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by the shareholders

Cash Flow Statement : A financial statement that shows the amount of cash generated and used by a company in a given period, calculated by adding non-cash charges (such as depreciation) to net income after taxes.

Gross Profit Ratio: The proportion of money left over from revenues after accounting for the cost of goods sold.
Formula: (Sales – Cost of Sales) / Sales

Net Profit Ratio: A ratio of profitability calculated as net profits divided by sales. It measures how much out of every Rupee of sales a company actually keeps in earnings.
Formula: Profit After Tax/ Sales

Operating Profit: The amount of profit earned from a firm's normal core business operations.
Formula: Operating Revenue – Operating Expenses
Operating Profit Ratio: Operating Profit / Sales 

EBITDA: An indicator of a company's financial performance which is calculated as follows:
Revenue – Expenses (excluding tax, interest, depreciation & amortization)

EPS: The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding Share.
Formula: Profit After Tax/ No. of Shares

Trends and Peer Group Analysis: Year on Year Growth Trends and comparison with peer group companies in same industry, helps in understanding the profitability trend & financial health.

Working Capital Management
Working capital management ensures a company has sufficient cash flow in order to meet its short-term debt obligations and operating expenses.

Ratio analysis will lead management to identify areas of focus such as inventory management, accounts receivable, payable management and cash management.

Converting Failure into Success!

Take failures as challenges and convert them into successes.

Managers fail only when they give up; those who persevere will finally succeed.

You should always try to learn a lesson or two from each failure and try to correct it in your next attempt. This is the only way to handle failures.

Failure doesn’t mean end of life, keep trying the things after learning from last failure.

It is unfortunate that in societies obsessed with success and achievement, failure can be made to feel like the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. 

Steps to avoid failure:

1. Expect mistakes: No one in world is perfect, you should always ready to expect mistake in achieve goals. 
2. Be motivated: Remind yourself that you are good enough to achieve the target goals.
3. Don’t bother other’s negative views: Don't obsess about what others are thinking; their criticism reflects their own inadequacies.
4. Review what your failure has taught you.
5. Focus on trying again: Keep trying; persistence does pay off.

People who found success despite failures:

Colonel Sanders : The founder of KFC. He started his dream at 65 years old! He got a social security check for only $105 and was mad. Instead of complaining he did something about it.

He thought restaurant owners would love his fried chicken recipe, use it, sales would increase, and he’d get a percentage of it. He drove around the country knocking on doors, sleeping in his car, wearing his white suit.

Do you know how many times people said no till he got one yes? 1009 times!

Walt Disney: The man who gave us Disney World and Mickey Mouse. His first animation company went bankrupt  He was fired by a news editor cause he lacked imagination. Legend has it he was turned down 302 times before he got financing for creating Disney World.

Albert Eistein: He didn’t speak till he was four and didn’t read till seven. His parents and teachers thought he was mentally handicapped. He only turned out to win a Nobel prize and be the face of modern physics.

Thomas Edison: No list of success from failures would be complete without the man who gave us many inventions including the light bulb. He knew failure wouldn’t stop him.

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

Determination and Perseverance

Determination and perseverance will yield result.

Once you are determined to reach your goals, you will discover opportunities available and use them to the best of your advantages.

If you lack determination, you may not be able to spot the opportunities, even if they are right your nose.

Having spotted the opportunities, next requirement is perseverance, to make the best use of the available opportunities. Perseverance may not always guarantee success, but lack of perseverance guarantees failure.

Steps to be determinate to your goals:

1. Believe in yourself! Believe you can do what you want to because with effort and determination you can do whatever you put your mind to. You definitely achieve the assign goal if you believe in yourself. 
2. Set a goal and stick to it. Don’t change your goal statement frequently, be focus on single goal only. The goal will be achieved only if aimed at without getting distracted.
3. Understand that there will be good and bad times.

A manager cannot lead his team if he has not fixed his aim it will only be like one blind man leading the others. Be determinate to your goal. Because “a quitter never wins; a winner never quits”.

"A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done." -Vince Lombardi

Why we need PLANNING?

Plans that lack practicality are seldom useful.

Come down to the field level, have a feel of the work, as is being done and then do your planning. After all, plans are meant to be implemented.

Too much of paper work and bureaucracy will only result in devising impractical plans.

An effective plan can let the organization to achieve its goals. But planning does not mean fulfilling the paper work only. Our planning should be based on strong input parameters with proven scientific method of analysis the given parameter to get proper planning in place to achieve the target goal.

We need to make sure our planning should fulfil following purposes:

1. Minimize risk and uncertainty
2. Gives direction in the line with preset goals and objectives
3. Help team to coordinate effectively
4. Reduces overlapping and wastage of efforts
5. Focuses on organizational goals and its functioning

We can do successful planning by following steps:

1. Establishing verifiable goals or set of goals to be achieved. It should be realistic, achievable, measurable, and it should be lined to defined timelines. 
2. Finding alternative courses of action. It should always content PLAN-B to safeguard be your defined planning from uncertain circumstances.
3. Evaluating and selecting a course of action.
4. Measuring and controlling the progress

I will discuss more of different planning verticals in PMP, Prince and 6 Sigma methodologies. 

Negative Rumour-Mongers!

Don’t believe rumours without checking them; herd instinct is no good.

Beware of rumour-mongers. Double check any statement of your peers or subordinates that defies your logic. Keep you people informed about the happening in your organization. If they are not kept fully informed, they resort to grapevine, which is a potential source for rumour. 

Successful rumour management may prevent this negative word of mouth propaganda (Liao, 2007). More disturbing for managers is that rumours will always be a part of a business environment and contrary to beliefs that rumours are only spread by word of mouth (as if that isn't difficult enough to handle), recent technological developments have expanded dramatically our ability to disseminate information. This is made obvious with the rise in frequency of rumours being spread by media outlets (Kimmel, 2004).

Unexpected and unexplained events can spark rumours among employees. If ignored by Human resources and the management team, rumours can take on a life of their own hurting productivity and morale (Mishra, 1990).

It's natural for employees to assume the worst. But there's an art to dealing with rumours and it involves timing: You must know when to act and when not to.

Four tips have been identified by The HR Specialist (2007) for managing rumours.

1. Take note of subtle changes in the atmosphere. When a usually bustling workplace becomes quiet and conversations halt when one walks into a room, beware. Dispel the mystery by asking employees directly "What's going on?" Listen and respond.

2. Announce upcoming changes, whenever possible. Unexplained surprises breed rumours. Whenever possible, keep employees informed of changes that could affect them. If employees cannot be told ahead of time, expect rumours to spread and preparations should be made to manage them.

Stay particularly alert in situations that breed uncertainty, but be equally candid about the type of information you can (and will) share. Refuse to indulge in the rumour.

3. Head off rumours at the pass. Establish a reputation for having an open and above-board style. If employees believe management will be straight with them, they will be more likely to come and ask for answers and less likely to indulge in speculation. Couple that with an open door that is truly open and 99 percent of the problems will be avoided.

If a big rumour brings work to a standstill, consider a meeting or a memo to bring everyone up to speed or to quash the rumour.

If there is a rumour about sale of the organization, bring employees together (maybe during an already-planned training event), so they all hear the same thing at the same time.

4. Tap into the grapevine. Managers should make sure they are never the last to know. They should fine tune their "radar" and question employees if they suspect that rumours might be developing. Rumours grow when information is scarce. If employees know they can trust you to keep them informed, they will have no need to invent answers themselves. This can be done by creating an internal company blog site where issues with the company are posted anonymously and other employees share their opinions.

Read more: http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/marketing/rumour-mongers.php

Setting Priorities!

Dwelling on finer points will make you miss the main thing.

Never waste your time on petty matters. Spend your time judiciously only on those areas that affect the organization as a whole, particularly those that affect profits. 

Whatever may be your style of management, it will be a failure if you fail to produce the desired result. Results speaks louder than techniques and you spend your time on trifles you won’t get the desired results if your dwell on trivial issues. 

Work by assigning priorities. Ignore trivial issues and concentrate on core issues. If you spend your time on trifles, you are sure to miss vitalities.

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” – Johann Goethe

“The nicest thing about not planning time is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”- Sir John Harvey Jones

Ineffective way : “I put urgent things first.”

Effective way: “I put important things first. Otherwise they will turn-to urgent and critical.”

The Time Matrix

A really good video for setting your priorities "Big Rocks” Scheduling, Timeless Truth from Stephen Covey: Put Your Big Rocks in First...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8705cHTKEgQ

Crisis Management-Plan B!

Presence of mind will be great use when there is no time for preparing great plans.

Respond to a CRISIS  quickly. There is no point in studying the problem in detail, analyzing the various options available to solve the problem, choosing the appropriate option, planning to solve the problem, etc. at the time of crisis. 

Crisis management is a good test to see how a manager reacts. In times of emergency, act fast. Emergency situations need quick decisions. Many great opportunities have been lost because of procrastination.  It requires more of non-programmed decision making. Be bold enough, act rationally and quickly at the same time. Opportunities missed once rarely reappear. 

Crisis Management is the process of responding to an event that might threaten the operations, staff, customers, reputation or the legal and financial status of an organisation. The aim is to minimise the damage. 

A good PLAN-B can safeguard the organization from bigger loss.

Be ready for contingency plan (Plan B) to respond the known risk/crisis.

Organisations prepare contingency plans in recognition of the fact that things do go wrong from time to time.

Contingency planning involves:

• Preparing for predictable and quantifiable crises
• Preparing for unexpected and unwelcome events

The aim is to minimise the impact of a foreseeable event and to plan for how the organisation will resume normal operations after the crisis.

Contingency plans:

1. Identifies alternative courses of action that can be taken if circumstances change with time
2. Details standby procedures to enable the continuation of essential activities and services during the period of the emergency
3. Includes programmes for improving the business in the longer term once the immediate situation has been resolved
4. Steps in drawing up a contingency plan
5. Recognise the need for contingency planning
6. Identify possible contingencies - all the possible adverse and crisis scenarios
7. Specify the likely consequences
8. Assess of the degree of risk to each eventuality
9. Determine risk strategy to prevent a crisis & to deal with a crisis should one occur
10. Draft the plan and identify responsibilities
11. Simulate crises and the operate of each plan

Useful links for Crisis Management

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_management

http://archive.adl.org/security/crisis%20management.pdf

Decision-making under uncertainty!

Take decisions diligently, calmly and without any haste.

Hasty decisions and belated decisions are both ruinous. Decision-making under uncertainty calls for more qualitative judgement than quantitative analysis. Decision-making  under uncertainty depends much upon the behavioural aspects of the manager. If the manager has the courage not to panic about the uncertainty of the situation and has acumen not to postpone or ignore or take an indifferent attitude to decision making, he is more likely to make rational decisions. 

Only a calm mind will help one make wise decisions that will leave little room for regret later.

A manager should choose his strategy accordingly to his wisdom about uncertainty of given environment and he may reach to these beliefs through a combination of reasoning and the knowledge of past behaviour. 

Please refer following link for some scientific ways to make wise decisions.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/14-123-microeconomic-theory-iii-spring-2010/lecture-notes/MIT14_123S10_notes03.pdf

Beware from Flattery!

Never succumb to flattery as most men do.

Be watchful and guard against flattery. It is so subtle that you will get carried away unless you are alert, after all every human being like being flattered. 

You must be able to distinguish between appreciation and flattery. While appreciation comes out of sincerity, flattery will have ulterior motives. 

Being a manager you should keep yourself away from the trap of flattery, because it may lead to unfavorable environment for truly hardworking team-members by favoring the one person based on his/her flattery behavior. At end of the day it spoils your image in team.  So beware from such team members.

You can accept the soothing words of praise from your subordinates with a ‘Thank you’. But, take extra care to ensure that you don’t allow any prejudices in your dealing with that person.  

Solution of a Problem?

Don’t rush to find solutions before knowing what the real problem is.

The first step in the decision-making process is to identify the real problem.

Inadequate, incomplete, incorrect understanding of problems will only lead to improper decisions. Quality decisions can be made only if the real problem is identified and its root cause studies.

Scientific Ways to find out real cause of a problem: 

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving that tries to identify the root causes of faults or problems that cause operating events.

RCA practice tries to solve problems by attempting to identify and correct the root causes of events, as opposed to simply addressing their symptoms. By focusing correction on root causes, problem recurrence can be prevented. RCFA (Root Cause Failure Analysis) recognizes that complete prevention of recurrence by one corrective action is not always possible.

RCA is typically used as a reactive method of identifying event(s) causes, revealing problems and solving them. Analysis is done after an event has occurred. Insights in RCA may make it useful as a preemptive method. In that event, RCA can be used to forecast or predict probable events even before they occur. While one follows the other, RCA is a completely separate process to Incident Management.

Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa (1968) that show the causes of a specific event. Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention, to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify these sources of variation. The categories typically include:

1. People: Anyone involved with the process
2. Methods: How the process is performed and the specific requirements for doing it, such as policies, procedures, rules, regulations and laws
3. Machines: Any equipment, computers, tools, etc. required to accomplish the job
4. Materials: Raw materials, parts, pens, paper, etc. used to produce the final product
5. Measurements: Data generated from the process that are used to evaluate its quality
6. Environment: The conditions, such as location, time, temperature, and culture in which the process operates

On the basis of listed causes, we can easily identify the majority of causes which causing to End Problem.

After that we can do PARETO Analysis to find key problematic area causing maximum problem.

Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto principle – the idea that by doing 20% of work, 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job can be generated. Or in terms of quality improvement, a large majority of problems (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%).

Pareto analysis is a formal technique useful where many possible courses of action are competing for attention. In essence, the problem-solver estimates the benefit delivered by each action, then selects a number of the most effective actions that deliver a total benefit reasonably close to the maximal possible one.

Steps to identify the important causes using simple rote (20/80) Pareto analysis[2]

Step 1: Form an explicit table listing the causes and their frequency as a percentage.

Step 2: Arrange the rows in the decreasing order of importance of the causes (i.e., the most important cause first)

Step 3: Add a cumulative percentage column to the table

Step 4: Plot with causes on x- and cumulative percentage on y-axis

Step 5: Join the above points to form a curve

Step 6: Plot (on the same graph) a bar graph with causes on x- and percent frequency on y-axis

Step 7: Draw line at 80% on y-axis parallel to x-axis. Then drop the line at the point of intersection with the curve on x-axis. This point on the x-axis separates the important causes (on the left) and trivial causes (on the right)

Step 8: Explicitly review the chart to ensure that at least 80% of the causes are captured

Important References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_analysis

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nasa/root_cause_analysis.pdf