Important Management Lesson

The best managment lesson I've learnt and managed to apply in most places is - "Listen to people". The catch behind the listen to poeple is not just to hear them out before you can start replying, but the skill lies in the fact that the reply should not be formulated while you are listening and only after you have heard the person completely. Why you might ask? Some of us are so caught up in the idea that we should give quick solutions that we might solve the immediate problem being heard, but might fail to eliminate the root cause. And in not way does a quick reply raise the caliberation of a person as a good manger/leader!! And the better part to it is that employee loyalty is ensured for a longer time. So my year resolution is going to be a better ................... any ideas?? Well better Manager :-)

And hey, wishing everyone a happy, safe and successful year in 2005!!

Vacation week of partying, enjoyment and work tension!!

Finally, the dreaded moment has arrived - visit to my in-laws and that too for a marriage. After adopting a self imposed ban to large social gatherings, this is the worst nightmare coming true. Anyways being away from work means that I'm always mentally with my colleagues fighting it out, which will also lead to the tension. But I hope the vacation does refresh me.....And its about time I got a break! My body needs it, though my mind will refuse to rest :(

Promotion to God from lesser mortal!!!

In the current setup in India, I feel as though I've been promoted to being a god after being a lesser mortal all the time!! The reason you ask - at office I've upgraded myself to a P IV 2.8 GHz 1 GB ram machine (I was managing with P III 750 MHz 512 MB ram) and at home I've got a new system, P IV 2.8 GHz 512 MB ram CD R/W-DVD combo (I was struggling with a Pentium 450 MHz 64 MB ram with a faulty CD drive). And compared to most friends, I atleast enjoy the speed of computing if not the mobility of computing. And on a personal front, the Diwali was a blast!! I spent the first day spending a lot of money on stuff I would never have thought of buying and then ended the night with bursting plenty of crackers (sadly contributing a lot to environmental pollution on the pretext of my first Diwali after marriage) at my friends place. On the second day I was at Neetu's place for a fabulous lunch and I realized that the family there was quite the type I enjoy being with - not much fuss, very open on matters, an opportunity where both couples talk without reservations (otherwise generally interactions happen between the same genders or between the people who are friends, without care for the spouses - something I'm terribly uncomfortable with) and a son who makes everyone run around to get his way!! I came back at night to burst my share of crackers with them and it was a thrill seeing Aryan (their son) enjoy the lights and sounds. He's only closing up to 2 years in age. What a Diwali it was!! I was extremely happy and thrilled to enjoy this diwali in a looong time!! And hey, I must add that Payal was dressed in a sari on both days and she was really beautiful!! On Saturday I was at office since morning and managed to do a little bit of installations for my project. But sometimes I wonder why am I so committed to work when I go out of the way to do things. On Sunday I played quite a bit of tennis though I my service is now giving me a problem. And then I saw King Arthur - a movie that I enjoyed totally. It was definitely worth the money and I can see it many more times too, though I liked The 13th Warrior better. So my long weekend was totally fun and now I have the power to compete with the better crowd in the world of computing - any takers??

A long weekend, booze party and tennis rounds later.......

Well a cushion to last weeks extremely disappointing week - long weekend away from office, loads of booze with friends and best of 3 set match with a friend which I won 2-0. Not that I like what happened last weekend, but I've overcome it by resigning myself to be the 'scum' of the batch. Maybe my expertise lies in being a student and getting to learn stuff and take exams on them. But when it comes to career, I am a miserable failure. Who else would stagnate at a position after completing an MBA, seeing their juniors at a rank above them? Well, now I've accepted and have decided to move ahead with whatever has to come. Can't afford to waste too much time on this silly reason. True, I may have to scale down my dreams; but hey, that not something new. But then there is a catch - all this is if my good friend (actually my project manager) does not succeed to find his way around the system. He has been trying to cheer me up and will try for me and I do hope he succeeds. Thanks a lot da!! Till then I shall try and enjoy the treats of colleagues who have been promoted.

And then coming back to other things in life - I'm going to get a chance to play around with a Sun Solaris box. And I have to get my home plan approved and then the back breaking work of scouting for a loan, getting the estimates in place and get my house to look good too. All that I need to do before I leave for my vacation towards the end of this month. I need to get a new book to read and also a new bag (cause the zipper on my favorite blue one, which I had for over 7 years, conked out). Life is getting tougher and tiring, wonder how I will survive this day and any day in future!!

Oh, the cruel life!!

Finally the facts are beginning to sink in. Seems I am facing the biggest failure of my 'planned' life. Maybe not to someone else, but I guess my planning has been wrong at some place. While my colleagues at office are contemplating the hike, seems like I may have nothing to look forward to. Seems my faith in people being fair is not holding good anymore. Not that I am very naive, but I always thought everyone has a better side and it always comes into play. I thought the same when I was joining this company back, but after 6 months and rumors of no increase in pay or promotions and no judgment to my work done currently, I am really at a loss. I know I have done my work well and also gone out of the way to do things (at the expense of my personal life) and it will be the same in any other organization too, now or in future. But then I will definitely feel cheated. I've been pretty laid back regarding the 'money' matters and soon I'll be crushed under the weight of my attitude and the company trying to take advantage of me. Not to mention the salary gap between my peers and myself (which was not much of an issue till now as I was content with work, but then the gap is becoming at a distance of a few light years). Maybe I should seriously contemplate trying for that opening at Intel that a friend was telling me about. Of course there is gain for him, but then I too will be compensated better, atleast twice better. Even though the primary aim of my MBA was the work I wanted to do, the hidden motive of 'materialistic' wealth is going to catch up faster. I'm still not happy in this rat race (something my dad always ridiculed me for), but I think there will be a time when I give up my principles for my selfishness to survive. And then I know I will not be this 'nice' person anymore (not that being 'nice' has done me any good other than the good friends I've made). My wife is already angry with me for various reason and one of the thing she resents is my love for the work I do and the long hours I spend at office (time cheated away from her). I know she understands me perfectly well, but now I think she is right. At the moment, both professional and personal life are in doldrums and the reason (sadly) is ME!!! Whats good if I'm in charge of every thing when there is nothing but poverty in my kingdom?? Well I know the fact about fighting spirit and all that load of motivational series thoughts, but suffer when I, myself am the root of it??

Given to the foils of time,
And shattered like plate glass,
I imagine unconsciously -
Darkness now lives at daylight,
And shadows turn to ghosts
And while pretending to sleep,
I realize - Nothing is what it seems anymore.

Its true, its real - I'm living in a dream and weakening the foundation of my future. Maybe its time I stood up to ask for myself and take decisions centered around me. Let me think it over and till then see if my principles hold water!!

Life in "New York" of India

Firstly, my sincere apologies for not posting in the last 15 to 20 days of which half the time I spent in Mumbai (in fact this post is from Mumbai too) . I am here for the design of a project. In fact, my nomination here was based on the pick of the straws and as luck might have it, I came up with the shortest one. The reason?? Well this city has no soul, full of disconnect, extremely high pollution (maybe in further Health Insurance policies, they should take into account the number of times one visits Mumbai) and the water supplied is considerably hard being near the sea cost (it results in rampant hair-loss!!!). Only those who can absorb these anomalies, can fit into this city (which is actually over 12 million people). Hey, I am more human than they are!! For a culturally gifted country, Mumbai is almost a confusing place - exposure levels are at the highest, smoking is a way of life, celerating all festivals are a must but then communalism also runs high, highest amount of young couples (I've seen) are here and most of them are immature in many ways (though I'm no judge of maturity, lot of incidents opened my eyes on this) and of course a extremely high cost of living (surprisingly, this is overlooked and lavish spending is a way of life - man, what a lot of money people have here!). Being in this rut of a place, especially without my wife and moreover the tensions at workplace - well there is nothing else logical than to hate this place on the planet. It wasn't this bad even when I was in Princeton!! And to compound all the irritations, the road I take to office (of all the good roads in Mumbai) is under construction (part of the governments 'Golden Quadilateral' project) and every day, twice, I am tossed around like a ball in the back seat of my ride. Wonder why is this a 'heaven' for the 12 million+ population??
And coming back to technologies, now my battle is with JSF. Barely had I managed to do something with JSR 168 and WebSphere Portal, I was "crowned" the expert to now add JSF along with them. Another fight, but I guess that's how the software community works. And I definitely like it, which I guess helps me boost my enthusiasm. And somehow, I have a feeling this time the wall is much higher to scale and I might find myself in really hot water!!
Apart from that, there is this book titled "5 Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat - a masala, fast paced, enjoyable book. Its a good book to spend some time on for some hilarious anecdotes and an embedded love story. Other than that, I'm currently reading "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. Will give comments on that soon. Otherwise life is moving fast and I'm all excited to be going back to Bangalore this weekend and then relaxing since this weekend (as well as the next) is a long one. I also promise to blog more often too.

Change Mangement / Strategy implementation

Have been reading up the latest book from Kaplan and Norton called Strategy Maps. Seems a real interesting concept - connection between intangible assets and value creation. Also talks about implementing strategy with sustained value creation based on management of 4 internal processes that are operations, customer relationships, innovation and regulatory & social processes. Anyway, I've just started on it, but I think its an extremely cool concept.
Apart from that, I've been a spectator to change management (though it being done in a very crude manner) wherein the management is trying to introduce hierarchy in de-centralized management situation. The company has already lost a valued employee (important since the organization is about 30 member strong with 'aggressive' growth plans) and has visibly upset atleast a third more of the remaining. One thing visible to me as an outsider is the fact that the only people who raise voice in change management situations are those concerned about the organization while those who resist it, don't talk about it but fill the grapevine. Unfortunately, the management in this organization thinks that the best way is to support those people who do not say anything or resist change, that obviously in this case are those without opinions which means that the organization now lacks people with leadership capabilities. Its the same situation wherein the CEO has a board of directors who don't oppose anything he/she says. We all know, from existing data that these organizations don't move forward a lot. In this situation, I felt that those valued employees should have been used as vehicles for bringing about the change, rather than treating them without confidence. Now the management is aware of their performers losing interest in the organization and are trying hard to retain them. I'm waiting to see what happens next.
Other than that work is going on smooth. And yeah, Bangalore is getting with interest all the rainfall due till 2004. What a season it has been!! Rains started in April and has been going on, which has definitely brought out the pit falls in the city corporation on maintainance of roads, sewage, traffic load, etc.. But then, on second thoughts, I love the rain (except when it traps me and gets me wet). I guess, I better get back to work soon, else I might never leave for home today.

Whats with ability when number of years count??

This is one thing I've always wondered about - who looks at ability when they go by thumb-rule that if you have spent a number of years, you are automatically blessed with ability. Maybe thats why people like Narayan Moorthy had to move out and start out on their own. Its probably the "most st###dest" thing a manager can do. Its soon going to be difficult to keep the ability within the same organization. I'm not advocating that all resposibility be give to the able guy without the years under his belt, but then keep the person involved.
HBR quotes:
"To manage is to bring out the positive energy that exists naturally within people. Managing thus means inspiring and engaging, based on judgement that is rooted in context".
This context shouldn't be the biased to number of years. Anyways I am tired of being work that is only technically challenging and keeping me away from my skills that I believe are more people oriented. I came back to my first employer with the hope of started indulgement in management skills, but unfortunately no one believes in givng me a chance. Maybe I too should step out and try doing things out on my own. Or maybe I should be patient, a virtue that conviniently avoided by me all the time. But you know what, I just might make a good manager, and some one else might crib about me :)
My wife would definitely like a better say in this regard!!!!!

Vote for the guy who conceptualized 'weekends'!!

What a weekend!! First I get to sleep the whole of saturday......I watched 3 Asterix VCDs (I am a vivid fan of bookish-cartoons) but then so flushed out from last 2 weeks work that the only time I was awake was to change the CDs!! Then I was again awake when my wife took me out to lunch with another of my MBA batchmates at this restaurant called 'Woodys'. But then apparently it was a bad day - slow service, extremely salty raitha and more over high priced and less quantity food. Then back to sleep before we visited my colleague's house (who are also from the place as my wife and hence they hit off pretty well). This colleague of mine has been a terrific inspiration for my work because her charm can transport you away from the stress and tensions of work, refresh you and then get you back. It would be terrible for me to have to see her go away to take care of her son, but then I've never always got everything I want (as is the case with most humans). She's always a special source of inspiration for me and she's like a elder sister to me always. And then of course we went to a cousin's place to coolect a few things sent by my mother-in-law. She sent 'kajoo'-burfi, a sin which I willingly indulged in inspite of my target of weight loss. That night I drove on the ring road with loud music, I was extremely happy for no reason - what a feeling!!
The previous nite(friday) I managed to get out of office finally at 9:20 PM and join my wife (who waited me for .5 hrs more than the scheduled time). Then I had to take her out to dinner and listen to her talk, since I was unable to do it all week. So finally as we finished the butter chicken, sindoori kabab and kerala parotas, she was back to her jolly self. We even called up the 'Pari' of our MBA group and she was chirping at her happiest yet. Yeah, no doubt, she's deep and badly in love with an architect. True, there are all the signs of it shaping into one of the bollywood block-busters, but here too, the hero-heroine will definitely triump. I would also love to play a part to see them succeed.
And sunday, the day my friend came back from Shangai, we played tennis with the new chinese rackets and then had masala-dosa's at home. He also has brought close to a 100 DVDs from China. Wondering how much time we might take to see all of them. I also decided to buy a DVD/MP3/CD player and have it installed in my new house. It will be wonderful to have to listen to music (surround sound, mind you!!) in my study and read all those books!!
So what a terrific weekend!! Now on this monday morning, I need to take rest from my weeekend!! When is that concept going to be implemented??

Facts that haunt and a nice one

Boy it was a hectic night - first fight the sleep, in the process do the work and then realise after one hour that the code is not working because of a spelling error?!! Anyways now that is the past, a milestone reached (not exactly successfully since I'm still slogging at it, but not a worry) and time to worry about where my ife is going.
Thats comes to who I am and what am I good at. A mechanical engineer, armed with a MBA (not to forget that its a diploma) doing the work of software development with a little bit of here and there activities of project management. Compared to my friends and backed by the records of "Rank-Holder" (though personally it means nothing more than a piece of paper issued by the university (and of course the medals) which no one even considers worth looking) in both BE and MBA, I seem to be working for a pittance compared to many of batch mates. Not that I dislike my work (its challenging and engaging), but should I be earning more that what I currently do. And the nature of work, according to the market (for my qualifications), says I should be that high-flying executive having meetings after meetings and making decisions for my company. I do believe that I have what it takes to do it and also know my limitations. But what happens to the part when I am supposed to get the right opportunity? Did the script-writer of my life actually forget to put that part in? My uncle says "Look for a God-Father (a.k.a mentor) in the organization since God-Father also look out for God-Sons". But why would someone even think about mentoring me when they all are busy fighting the part scripted for them. And if I'm to find someone who is not in the rat race, either I should be introduced to their leagues or I would be with a loser (who also is apparently not a part of the rat race). There is no way I can walk into the office of Narayan Moorthy and ask him to be my mentor!!! Well I guess I still ahve to fight in the rat race, but the only consolance (for my psyche) is that I believe "Sincererity never goes un-rewarded". So I'm sure that the opportunity is going to come up soon and when it does, this "warm-up" part in my life will help me face it.
BTW, I thought it would be nice to tell my wife about my blog. And, in all my contemplations, one fact for sure is - "She is the best thing that ever happened to me in life". So all un-married people, its time to get into the muddle and you will realise that two people are better than one. And hey, the catch is choosing the partner.
;-)

Who ever thought Java was easy??

Who ever said Java was easy?? Just remind me to kill that person!! A strange language - the lastest developments, easy to pick up while the older ones make life a hell!! Well I'm referring to JSR 168 for the former and JSP(!!!) for the latter. I've been in office the whole of last week, including saturday and sunday and today, I think I might just spend my night here. My wife is already complaining and but this deadline is just too close. Right now I've already committed the crime of shouting at her and making her feel miserable, all for the sake of JSP behaving badly (especially when the community on Google says its supposed to behave some other way). Yet she calls me and tries to make me comfortable. I have to make up to her sometime this week, but the question is how??? Anyways I hope to write more tomorrow coz I have to finish this worlk(else what use is this entire night).
On the lighter side - "Thank GOD, US is on an average 0.5 days behind us"