Eleven
years ago, Meenakshi felt she had everything going for her. Two
promotions within a span of 20 months, third time recipient of The
Best Account Manager award, and heading the most strategic corporate
account in one of South India’s fastest growing banks… she was
now counted among the top 1% super performers. Every day Meena would
be among the first to arrive for work, with that radiant smile and
oodles of energy. For weeks on end she was literally living out of
her suitcase, and didn’t seem to mind it one bit! This was a dream
she’d pursued right from her B-school days. Rajan who was into his
sixth year as CEO, would often call her Meena the Unstoppable!
Until
one day, when Sandhya, a Program Manager who directly reported to her
suddenly announced she was quitting to move closer to her hometown.
This was like a bolt from the blue as Meena often looked at Sandhya
as a potential successor. The latter was always the ‘hands-on
details gal’ while Meena was happy to push the envelope when it
came to the ‘Big Picture’. Together they were a winning ticket
(Rajan would call them MS-Office!), and Sandhya was very critical for
the expansion plans of this new account. What came as an even bigger
shock for Meena was the buzz in the corridor that Sandhya was
actually leaving in frustration, unable to cope with Meena’s brutal
deadlines and those occasional outbursts (no w a little “frequent”
after some sudden crises in the new account).
It
was a particularly warm late August afternoon. Sandhya was about to
arrive for her one-on-one discussion, and Meena had picked up a
third espresso to beat that recurring migraine. As she sat in
anticipation, Meena wondered why she never had a clue. “What on
earth could’ve gone wrong”? “Were there any signals, really”?
Above all, this would seriously hit the new account as getting
someone up to speed in a role like this ain’t gonna be easy. She
was surprised to see Rajan in her office instead of Sandhya. “She’ll
meet you soon, can we have a quick chat Meena”?
Last
week, there was a lot of excitement at one of the most sought after 7
star hotels in the city. PST Bank had recently announced big changes
in their leadership team. The Bank CEO has just arrived for the
customary press conference to announce the yearly results and take
questions about a recent mega acquisition.
The
Emcee had just announced “Let’s rise up and Welcome the first
woman CEO of PST”.
Meanwhile,
on the left side of the stage, something interesting was going on.
The Exec Vice President of PST was giving “Tirupati Prasadam” to
the CEO and whispering “All the Best, Madam CEO, this prasadam is
from Rajan Sir. He sent it specially for you from Hyd with good
wishes”.
Meena
gave a warm hug to the EVP and said “Thanks Sandhya. Tell him I owe
you both a big treat; And yeah, tell him Magic 7 still works
wonders!!!”. The two women had a nice chuckle, before Meenakshi
Raman briskly took the steps to make a grand entry that would a make
big splash across the media that evening. Meena the Unstoppable had
finally arrived…
So,
what exactly was this Magic 7 that Rajan shared with her when he
suddenly walked into Meena’s office while she was waiting for that
one-on-one chat with Sandhya? While waiting at the airport lounge
recently, this is what Meena managed to scribble on her notebook. And
while doing it, she even came up with a smart acronym (SMILESS).
Rajan instinctively knew that destiny had great plans in store for
Meena. As he summarized some of his greatest insights from his life
as a leader, he knew that his Magic 7 toolkit will surely help Meena
to harness her strengths most effectively. Let’s read on to know
more.
SMILESS:
The Magic 7
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Shared ownership
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Micro-wins
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I-Talk!
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Learning Hat
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Expressions
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Story: Listen to the Story
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Switch-off
Shared ownership
As
a leader, you’ve got to make the shared vision, goals &
outcomes relatable to your team. Cut out the jargon and figure out
how each one of them can see him/herself growing in alignment with
the vision of the organization. Can they ‘feel’ it (the
excitement about these outcomes) in the gut, at a visceral level? Or
does it seem too impersonal and something “out there”? Think of
different ways to refine your messaging and get the buy-in that will
motivate folks from deep within… so much that at the crack of dawn
they’re so excited that they can’t wait to get to office. It is
leaders like you who make it happen. You have it within you!
Micro-wins
You’ve
got to plan for quick wins, didn’t they say that at that leadership
seminar for the n’th time again? Well, it’s not only about
celebrating each positive outcome or development. As a leader, you’ve
got to plan victories for your team; quick, small & big wins that
make them experience a high, a sense of fulfillment as they better
themselves in every step of the way.
How
can you reframe your project tasks as ‘winnables’, and not just
‘deliverables’ on a spreadsheet or project plan? ‘Winnables’
may often involve stretch mini goals where they’ve got to learn
something new, develop a new strength, or re-discover a talent they
haven’t used in a while… Scour your plans and reframe them, and
get them involed in the process too!
For
example, rather than sending that drab reminder for the monthly
report with the same text, do it this way:
“So,
Mike I want you to learn 3 very powerful ways to aggregate and
present this data for the monthly report. Are you ready to take the
challenge; Let me give you some tips, or wait let’s figure it out
together!”?
I-Talk!
Your
Self-Talk uses up a lot of the CPU processing power of your brain,
much more than you can imagine! Since a lot of it happens without
notice, very often it is the wrong kind of messages that clog up the
CPU ! Without your express permission, they’ll alter your mood,
change your thoughts and at times drain you out and may even send
your blood sugar levels crashing with all that heavy duty “thinking”!
Even
when the situation is dire, engage your brain consciously with
questions that force you to explore and evaluate options and
possibilities to move forward. Answers may take time, sometimes a lot
of time, but that’s okay. Get your brain to spot that ‘elusive’
silver lining or send a command asking for clues to create a silver
lining instead! Generously notice, acknowledge and appreciate inside
your mind to begin with!
I-Talk
is about talking to the friend that you can always count on more than
anyone else in the world. Make it a habit!
Learning Hat
Learning
and growth is no doubt important from a competitive edge point of
view for an organization. But it also instills a sense of empowerment
in every employee when she/he gets to enhance skills, talents,
strengths, capabilities, and competencies and see themselves growing.
Moving beyond the cognitive level, learning acquires a radical impact
when it changes attributes, traits and characteristics of people, and
thereby transforms not just the “way we do things here”, but more
importantly, “the way we think out here”.
As
a leader, it is up to you to “breathe life” into this very
process. See yourself as an enabler in this process. Teach and learn,
codify, share and reuse knowledge, and also create new knowledge
(every insight, every “Eureka” moment counts even while
reflecting on setbacks and abject failures). Show them that you
absolutely care and want this to happen. Smartly tweak some of your
‘deliverables’ by adding ‘learnables’ alongside. Keep track
and raise the bar whenever you can.
Expressions
One
skill that can really be handy is the ability to read micro
expressions on their faces. Especially as you become more senior, it
can get increasingly lonely. As you may often get a very sanitized
snapshot of reality from your reportees. By reading those fleeting
micro changes in facial expressions and gestures, you may get more
valuable hints about what they are actually thinking.
Micro
expressions are not that easy to fake even if you attend workshops on
body language skills! These micro expressions are often so automatic
that people may not even realize they are showing these expressions.
Explore more about the topic on your own, and take your non-verbal
communication to the next level!
Story: Listen to the Story
How
often do you take time to listen to the “story” behind that
recent crisis resolution, or how your colleague managed to escape the
customer’s wrath tactfully? Many leaders sign off with a
traditional “Well Done, keep it up” routine that’s been done to
death already. Instead, start asking them to elaborate about what
really made it all happen, what they learnt about themselves… ask
them open ended questions with genuine curiosity (let it show on your
face, most importantly your eyes!)
People
feel valued and acknowledged when they have an eager audience (in
this case an audience of one is actually a cool privilege). Make it a
learning process. Acknowledge and appreciate liberally and very
sincerely. Encourage them to visualize the future and ask them to
think loud about how they’ll handle even tougher challenges in
future. Do this with more people, and do it often. It can work
wonders, and can be far more enjoyable and rewarding than sitting
through those employee engagement survey result presentations!
Again,
breathe life into the process and observe your own growth as a Leader
who is a cut above the rest!
Switch-off
Rhythmic
breathing is a cool skill that you can add to your reportoire along
with many other tools and methods that help you to switch off. Even a
30 seconds break to do two rounds of abdominal breathing can help
your brain take that much needed chance to absorb information and
connect diverse strands of data, information and thoughts.
Connections do happen, just let them be!
Create
mini habits that you can invoke at different times of the day; add in
a few stretches, a few breathing exercises, eye rotation, a stroll,
maybe some acupressure techniques, some great music, whatever works
for you… variety and movement are the operative words.
Self
Management is an art, an investment that pays off and a gift that
keeps giving. So, breathe in...hold and relax!
