On Mentoring

The philosopher Socrates mentored his student Plato.  Aristotle was mentored by Plato.  Socrates, Plato and Aristotle: the three great minds in philosophy.

Great leaders develop leaders.  The only way to develop other leaders is to become a better leader yourself then, mentor others.  
Good leaders grow more leaders not followers.

Trivia: Did you know that Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great?

On Kaizen

People who want to learn and are serious in getting better always ask for feedback. This is true for athletes, students, workers and even leaders.
 If you want to stretch yourself, apply kaizen, a never-ending improvement. Small changes, if done regularly, would result to a big change.
 You can ask your boss “on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how would you rate me as a worker?” If your boss says, “6” ask “how do I make it to 10?” This is a way to level expectations between you and your boss.
Ask your child, “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how would you rate me as a parent? What do I need to do to score a perfect 10?’
If you are not a good worker or parent, expect to get hurt with what you will hear. Continue listening and commit yourself to change for the better. This practice of asking questions will be difficult for arrogant and insecure leaders.
 Listening and asking for feedback is a humbling experience. If you are not serious in changing and improving, do not ask for feedback. It will just be an exercise in futility.
Not all change will lead to improvement. But there will be no improvement without change.

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." -Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson, "The One Minute Manager"

Living a balanced life

In one of my training sessions, I asked my participants if they keep a planner. About half of them said they do. When we talked about the contents of their planner I was not surprised to hear work-related agenda.

Shall we not also plan for our family and friends? How about our health and spirituality? Is your personal and professional growth in your planner?

Did you know that we spend more time planning our holiday than planning our own lives?

In Habit 7 (Sharpening the Saw) of Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, he talked about the four dimensions of a balanced life: physical (exercise and nutrition), spiritual (value clarification, purpose), mental (reading, writing, visualizing) and social-emotional (relationship with others).

As the year draws to an end, let us strive to create balance in our goals by including the four dimensions in our agenda.

Recommended link: http://www.stephencovey.com/

Watch your language

I encountered the following in a learning session and I saw it again in one of the social-networking sites.


In one school, a teacher wrote the following in the chalkboard:

"A woman without her man is nothing" The teacher instructed the students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the male students wrote:

"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the female students in the class wrote:

"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Did you notice how punctuation and perspective changes everything? This can happen at work or at home. Have you communicated with people using jargons? People tend to assume that "we speak and understand the same language" and that we have the same perspective.

When I was new in my job I did not know " 201 file." nor "SOP." One professor in college said, "this is very simple" but it was complicated for me.

To avoid confusion be clear when speaking to new employees or people coming from a different background or department. What you know, they don't know.

What if you're wrong?

During the 1950’s no athlete can run a mile in less than four minutes.  1954 marked a momentous event in sports when Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 (source :Wikipedia).  When the world record was made there were athletes who broke Bannister’s time.  What was thought as physically impossible then, had been shattered.  It took one man to prove to the world that it can be done. 
When people think it is possible then it becomes do-able.
When someone makes a suggestion do you say “impossible” or do you look into the possibility of making it happen?
Before sneering at a suggestion, try asking yourself “what if I were wrong?”

“We must discard the idea that past routine, past way of doing things, are probably the best ways. On the contrary, we must assume that there is probably a better way to do almost everything.  We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all.” –Donald M. Nelson

Leadership is a balancing act

Leaders need to cast a vision for their teams.  But before venturing into this, do some self-assessment first.  What is your relationship with your team mates?  Your team will never buy your vision if they don't like and trust you.

Character and relationship-building precedes the selling of a leader's vision.  Your followers will want to go along with you if they can get along with you.

A leader will never be effective if he will just focus on the task.   A leader must balance task and relationship.

Delivering bad news

How do you package bad news?  Is it true that it is not in the content of the message, but how you say it?  How about the timing of the delivery?  

Here is a slightly edited joke sent to me by a friend.

God called three individuals to announce His intentions toward the human race.  At the meeting were Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Bill Gates.  God announced that he was putting an end to the human race in 30 days and that each was to inform their respective constituents.

Vladimir Putin goes back to his countrymen and tells them, “I have some bad news and some terrible news.  The bad news is that our communist ideology was wrong.  The terrible news is God is putting an end to everything in 30 days.”

Barack Obama goes back to his followers and says, “I have some bad news and good news.  The good news is our religion is correct and there is a God.  The bad news is that God is putting an end to everything in 30 days.”

Bill Gates goes back to his followers and says, “I have good news and better news.  The good news is that I am one of the three most important humans on the planet according to God.  The better news is we don’t have to ship the next version of Windows.”

If you are managing a team or a department, how do you deliver bad news while minimizing push back especially when you are announcing some changes?