Framework for a UTOPIAN Leader

Framework for a UTOPIAN Leader

Leaders persevering to build a utopian world will need to focus on developing human capital and creating a synergistic work environment. In the new era, leaders must shift their existing paradigm towards agility in their actions and immutability in their values.

Here is a framework of key characteristics for a utopian leader:

Integral

Utopian leaders need to have high integrity and exhibit an ethical code of conduct in order to gain a deep sense of respect from their team members. A conscientious leader helps in building a trustworthy culture.

Nimble

Utopian leaders need to sense their business landscape, be aware of the dynamics and rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the changes.

Catalyzing

Utopian leaders need to ask insightful questions and enable group thinking through meaning and implications. They need to foster an environment of accelerating learning through prototyping and experimenting. Utopian leaders ought to enable a self-actualizing workplace through a collaborative setting based on context and perspective.

Resilient

Utopian leaders need to take calculated risks to propel growth. By continual reflecting, reframing, reassuring and resolving; they need to set stretch goals and inculcate a growth mindset in their organization.

Disruptive 

Utopian leaders need to encourage new thoughts that result in innovative ideas and concepts. They need to build teams that can develop novel solutions through collective intelligence rooted in effective intra-company and external networks. Utopian leaders could generate game-changers by establishing new paradigms for competitive advantage & by cultivating intellectual curiosity.

Bonding

Utopian leaders need to solicit interactions inside their organization and with external influencers. This will create synergistic systems that dynamically learn and evolve in response to the changing market space.

Lateral

Utopian leaders need to envision the bigger picture, think through various possibilities, and accordingly anticipate the future course of action. They need to introspect their plans & decisions through multiple viewpoints. They will need to execute and reflect simultaneously thus constantly customizing the action steps to achieve the desired outcome.

Empowering

Utopian leaders need to create an environment of meritocracy and open-minded conditions allowing new ideas to emerge. They must set a culture in which employees feel encouraged to share their perspectives for a meaningful dialogue. This diversity enables applying different lenses to a potential problem and thus achieve a better return on investment.

Utopian leaders in the coming era will build teams that are responsible for all stakeholders: shareholders, clients, employees, vendors, community. This will enable a self-sustaining, socially responsible, interdependent, and thriving ecosystem.

Affordable innovation through ‘JUGAAD’

JUGAAD = an Indian slang word pronounced as "joo-gaard"

Jugaad is a term applied to a creative or innovative idea providing a quick, alternative way of solving or fixing a problem. Jugaad literally means an improvised arrangement or work-around, which has to be used because of lack of resources - Wikipedia

The usage of this term is sourced from India where farmers were building makeshift trucks powered by agricultural water-pump engines. These small contraptions came to be known as jugaad. Then there was the television antenna created out of metal clothes hangers, the electric iron that flipped over to become a stove, the bucket with tiny holes that when hung up high, turned into a shower. So, jugaad,

when considered as a verb instead of a noun means to be innovative despite scarcity or to be resourceful even when the odds are against you.

This term recently entered the lexicon of consultants, along with six sigma, total quality, lean, kaizen, etc. A key difference - Lean is supply-side focused; whereas Jugaad is primarily demand-side focused. A ‘jugaad’ mindset strives to create products and services that score high on three attributes: affordability, quality, and sustainability.

In a business context, jugaad is a frugal, flexible, and inclusive approach to problem solving and innovation. It can be considered as an approach to develop products that cost a fraction but offer enough value to attract demand.

Jugaad can also be used in day to day management. We may sometimes be tightly bound by our stringent processes & rigid structures and get constrained by rules. In this context, jugaad could be a sort of out-of-the-box and network-style thinking that could serve us well in times of change, crisis and in extreme circumstances. It implies using strong collaborative skills, an open mindset, and boundless flexibility. Thus, jugaad works as a ‘soft competitive edge’ in business.

Caveat: Jugaad may not be applicable for solving systemic issues which need root-cause analysis. It might be ineffective for changing deep-seated beliefs. Jugaad is not a transformative approach. Instead, it could be considered as an improvisational or makeshift style of innovation due to scarce resources.

Principles of jugaad:

1. Frugal. Do more with less and it doesn’t have to cost a lot

2. Agility. Instead of over-engineering, prioritize what is most critical and aim for the low-hanging fruit

3. Simplicity. Less is more, and sometimes the best ideas are the simplest

4. Thinking laterally. Don’t get constrained by the odds against you, and explore alternatives

Mantra for Jugaad: Think laterally, keep it simple, and do more with less

Resilience enabled my inner growth

Resilience enabled my inner growth

Resilience ***

*** getting stronger with every challenge and overcoming them

*** continuing when times are tough, and you’ve experienced some failures

*** enduring challenges with an optimistic view for a better outcome

Resilience is not cultivated in favorable conditions. During moments of adversity, an individual introspects the reasons for the occurrence, sees the bigger picture, and learns to adjust. This build effective resilience.

Sharing my experience of developing resilience when I was faced with adversities and how it helped me in bouncing back from my failures.

After acquiring my degree in engineering and a brief stint as a hands-on technical engineer’s role in a systems integration company, I decided to take up a role in sales. In an extremely competitive market space, I had to quickly learn various soft skills such as building rapport, presenting, persuading, negotiating, etc.

During these years, I worked in some organizations wherein I was subjected to unrealistic revenue targets, demanding timelines, and destructive criticism from bosses. At times when I couldn’t achieve sales targets, I pondered over the events and analyzed the factors involved. I segregated the occurring failure from my effort towards the goal. This enabled me to fortify my self-worth and helped me reframe the situation. What is done by others may not always be governed or controlled by me. However, the aspects that are in my control were how I think, speak, communicate, follow-through, and collaborate.

While many external factors were at play, in my mind’s eye I kept an optimistic viewpoint. I envisioned a future wherein I would gain respect through my work and positive contribution in the community. I trusted my ability to learn and find a way to surmount my hurdles. This belief helped me to endure tough times.

I realized that the common denominator underlining the path for my success was in maintaining high self-esteem, learning from setbacks, and improvising my approach. I was sure that when my intentions, optimistic attitude, and efforts are in alignment; then success and victory would eventually happen. These habits empowered me to relentlessly pursue my goals with zeal.

As per my observation, emotional resiliency is a mandatory skill for any leader as it enhances their capacity for mentoring.

According to the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute: As adversity presents itself, pushing to expand your emotional capacity by training and ‘flexing your muscles’ of self-control, empathy or patience during these storms, your ability to adapt to and interpret these storms in a positive way may result in you becoming more resilient in any future storms you encounter.

Framework for becoming resilient:

Reflection: meditation and journaling, pondering on recent occurrences in a constructive & non-judgmental manner.

Reframe: reassessing the situation, becoming less rigid in the approach, adopting flexible thinking patterns, exploring creative alternatives & newer pathways.

Reassure: believing in yourself, your unique talents and gifts, having faith in your ability to find a solution, and maintaining a positive outlook for the outcome.

Resolve: breeding inner confidence, pursuing your goals with full gusto, developing a growth mindset.

Quote: “The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success” – Yogananda

My journey from a stressed-out executive to a catalytic COACH

My journey from a stressed-out executive to a catalytic COACH

Total words = 853

Reading time = approx. 4 mins 30 secs

This narrative illustrates how my work-life got transformed from despair to triumph. Use my story as a stimulus to find your own purpose.

I firmly believe that as I could transform my life ANYONE CAN!

My initial work experience till 2000 was in the Indian I.T industry. When I migrated to the US, the dotcom bubble had just burst. So, my employer thought it best to use my skills in their tech staffing business as he believed that I was good in understanding and guiding people. I quickly learned about profile matching & interviewing in a competitive marketplace which rapidly turned into a recession. Amidst all this I realized that the aspects I liked the most was in helping candidates to stand-out in their job interviews. 

As the economy moved out of the recession, my work now encompassed developing new business, building a team of recruiters and sales executives, negotiating contracts, building alliances etc. This spurred my quest for more impact inside the company and finding the critical path for enabling exponential growth. I realized that the ‘next level’ of performance and value-growth for my organization could only happen through a systemic change in our way of operations. 

Due to my zeal of enabling this renaissance I became direct in my communication and tenacious in my work-style. That’s when I learned the difficulty of coaching upwards and leading from the middle. I got constantly rebuked by my boss and felt the backlash from some folks who were not directly reporting to me. My missionary zeal looked to others as a forceful behavior. All this caused a decline in my well-being and adversely affected the quality of my sleep. Due to my attachment for the company and bonding with the owner, I back-tracked and relinquished my tight-hold on some of the operational aspects. However, it didn't improve the company growth. Rather it led to a lack of synergy among our functional units.

Coincidentally during this time-frame I had started volunteering outside my company. I contributed my spare time in career & job placement workshops at NJCC, Edison Job Corps, SHRM etc., and teaching yoga at YMCA. Thankfully this provided a validation on my work-life approach and helped in restoring my mojo! It also led to paid opportunities to provide career coaching. These coaching engagements fulfilled my intrinsic desire of helping people to achieve their goals. I considered it as a side-gig while focusing on my mission of transforming my employer’s business for enabling exponential growth. I believed that increasing the company’s market value would help in building wealth for myself in the long term.

Then came the recession of 2008-09 which caused a reduction in our company’s revenue and an increase in our employee attrition rate. Due to the critical need to salvage the organization I tried once again to institute a change, albeit with limited force this time. This change was with the hope of stemming the downward spiral. To my despair it completely failed to work and back-fired on me. 

I decided to move-on and took a role in another company. Thus, began my worst-period of stress and frustration almost leading to a burnout. My last job had a long commute which left me with no time and energy to pursue new coaching engagements. 

Over these years I learned the following:

1. Trying to fit in a culture which is not aligned with your beliefs & values causes a decline in your workplace productivity and adversely affects your personal growth 

2. Change in an organization’s operational approach can happen only in an environment of mutual trust and respect

3. It’s extremely difficult to change your boss’ behavior unless s/he wants to make that change 

4. To protect your own well-being, it’s crucial to be aware of those who use emotional masking and engage in publicly embarrassing others

5. Managers who constantly indulge in blaming and undermining their workforce would not be open to constructive dialogue and learning

So, in 2017 I had to make an important decision as to whether it’s the right time to pursue my passion for coaching. Finally, with the support of my wife and son I started working as a full-time COACH. 

My knowledge and skills are now being fully utilized for helping my clients to ascend to their 'next job' or ‘next level’. I facilitate their path for achieving positive outcomes, meaningful results, aligned growth, and intrinsic satisfaction.

Lessons learned in my recent years of coaching:

1. I don’t have all the answers; I have the confidence to co-create the answers with my client

2. The more open I get in sharing about my flaws & shortcomings; the more trust I build with my client. This helps them to share about their own fears, dilemmas, and hurdles

3. I can only help a person change a behavior or habit which s/he wants to change

4. Asking neuro-emotional questions stimulates my client’s intuitive thinking and helps in discovering new approaches & pathways

5. Active listening is vital for me to uncover my client’s latent issues & hidden-blocks 

I love being a catalyst for my client's breakthroughs and transformation!

How to CONSULTize your skills for today's market

How to CONSULTize your skills for today's market

In today's gig-based economy, it's important to find out your marketable skills. Here are a few steps to figure out how to accomplish the above.

These steps are for those skills which you have used for a minimum of 5,000 hours in an actual work-place and not in a classroom setting.  

Initial Steps:

• Pinpointing your differentiators
• Labeling your expertise
• Articulating your success stories
• Finding out your WHY
• Conducting a SWOT analysis

Next steps:

• Defining the market for your expertise: segment, size etc.
• Defining the operating structure & work processes 
• Defining the deliverables
• Defining the delivery logistics 

Final steps:

• Clarifying and detailing the market segments
• Developing an effective strategy to penetrate these segments 
• Developing meaningful marketing collateral 
• Writing compelling message(s) for promotion
• Preparing response guide-sheets and proposal templates 
• Reviewing progress and adapting to market dynamics
• Establishing a continuous monitoring process

For financial stability and a steady income growth, it's crucial to package and promote your expertise.