Keep a Journal

This HBR link suggests that keeping a journal is one good things that leaders can do.

Idea in summary

• Buy a journal. 
• Commit to reflecting for 15 minutes a day. This is by far the most difficult step. So if 15 minutes initially seems impossible, start with three minutes. But start somewhere.
• Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
• Choose the right time, preferably the same time each day when you won’t be disturbed. Pick a time that works for you, but keep those 15 minutes carefully guarded in your agenda as an appointment with yourself.
• Write whatever comes to mind. A journal’s blank pages invite you to hold an honest conversation with yourself every day. In the journal, you can say anything. So give yourself permission to follow your stream of consciousness without judging, censoring, or trying to direct where your thoughts might take you. In my best reflection sessions, I feel like I am peering over my hand, just waiting to discover what I’ll write next. And don’t worry about grammar; however you express yourself is fine.
• Don’t share your journal with anyone. Your reflections are yours; they are not for anyone else. They bring you what all the world’s experts, advisers, and executive coaches combined can’t offer you: your own unique perspective.

If you find yourself not knowing how to begin when you’re facing the journal’s blank pages, here are some suggestions:

Ask yourself a trigger question, and capture your response. These are some of my favorite questions:

• How am I feeling right now?
• How am I feeling about my leadership?
• What deserves my highest-quality attention…
• in my leadership?
• in my life?
• in the world?
• What is the most outrageous (or fun or novel) idea I’ve heard in the last 24 hours? What do I love about it?
• What is the most exciting initiative I’ve heard about this week that is happening outside of my industry or in another part of the world?
• What contributed most to my happiness this week (or to the happiness of my people)? How can I have more happiness in my life?
• Let art ignite your imagination. Art invites leaders to go beyond the frantic busyness of life. Viewing paintings and other forms of art offers possibilities to experiment with new perspectives. If I really focus on a painting, what do I see? If I connect what I’m seeing with my current situation, what new vantage points does the painting reveal?

Using Art

• Choose a painting (or other work of art). Let your eye rest on a work of art that attracts you for any reason whatsoever (because you love it, you hate it, or for a reason that is unknown to you).
• Observe the painting uninterrupted for at least three minutes. Time yourself! Three minutes may feel like a very long time.

• Strengthen your ability to see. Describe the painting: What did you see? How did it seem to change as you viewed it? What were you able to see at the end of the three minutes that you didn’t notice when you first chose the painting?
• Ask bridging questions. What new perspectives does the painting reveal? For example: How is the current situation in the economy (or in my company or team) like this painting? 
• How does the painting’s complexity reflect the hidden complexity in our recent tri-continental merger?
•  In what ways does the painting reveal opportunities we are missing in transitional economies? Let yourself be surprised by the insights that emerge.

My reflections and thoughts

• How am I feeling right now? - Good about what I did and happened to me in last few weeks
• How am I feeling about my leadership? - I have reached my strength zone in terms of an individual contributor and need to take to next level
• What deserves my highest-quality attention…
• in my leadership? - people around me
• in my life? - family
• in the world? - any good knowledge nugget
• What is the most outrageous (or fun or novel) idea I’ve heard in the last 24 hours? What do I love about it? - Sachin's biography
• What is the most exciting initiative I’ve heard about this week that is happening outside of my industry or in another part of the world? - An Indian making the Olympics gymnastic team
• What contributed most to my happiness this week (or to the happiness of my people)? How can I have more happiness in my life?- Time spent at work and home with Ruchi

Love

Love is a stimulus and not something to stop you in your journey.
--- The Alchemist

I have started blogging more than I did 5 years ago on this blog.Probably its one of the happiest time for me.
I realized true love recently.It is a wonderful feeling.Completely unconditional ,caring and full of empathy.Its a divine feeling and something that's very difficult to explain.
May be a hug or a kiss shows it externally but the internal thoughts are more difficult to describe.

Thanks Ruchi for being there all the time.

The Uber Experience - Pune

After coming to Pune, I have been a frequent user of Uber cabs.

Reasons are simple

• It comes on time ( Convenience)
• It charges equal to auto charge minus an haggling ( Pricing)
• It helps me reach office / home on time ( Time saving)

Recently I met the Top Uber cab driver in Pune. Some of the simple consumer insights that he gave are worth following in other industries as well :-

• Ask water to consumer once he is on boarded
• Keep the car clean
• Uses Google navigation effectively
• Eulogizes Uber like anything as if it made his life better ( He used to drive Shivneri bus Mumbai to Pune for 5 years)
• Gets the best rating and gives the best rating to most clients
• Continously checks for daily feedback and finds if there is any area of improvement
• Maintains a track record and his observation on what the customer might rate him

His rating had gone below 4.7 on 26th January and he brought it near 4.8 in one month time after talking to his wife.He does not have FM yet but plans to keep that different by his talks and might use CD player in future.

He also told my wife on how he keeps looking young because he has tomato, milk and home cooked food stuff.

For him his moment of recognition came with the diary that Uber gave him and recognized him in Novotel hotel ( one of the mid size good hotels here) along with his family.

But the most important part of the conversation was his self confidence and can do it attitude once his rating had started to drop a bit. May his tribe increase.

Lessons for me :-

• Every customer touch point is important
• Self confidence takes you a long way along with self talk
• Never get into the over confident zone and keep track of self performance

Learning to learn

The rules of learning have changed. Please refer the  HBR link
You need to be more aware, have curiosity like a kid and be vulnerable ( fail and fail fast).
One can become more self aware through self talk.

Self talk
The trick is to pay attention to how you talk to yourself about yourself and then question the validity of that “self-talk.
To become aware, one needs to have more self talk and question self and other person Point of view.This is also one of the key parts of being emotionally intelligent and improve creativity.

Emotional intelligence

I recently attended a 2 day workshop on Emotional Intelligence by Satish Mandora. I could connect more with it since I had received a feedback in October 2015 that my mind, body and soul were not in sync. I was also asked to improve my communication skills and be more aggressive. I think they meant to make me more assertive as I can never become an aggressive person to show anger and fire people. In the past, I had received feedback on looking for role clarity and becoming a facilitator as next level of growth for me. I am thankful to all my senior colleagues for all the feedback I have received in last 1 year. This was much more than I received in my previous roles probably because my knowledge has taken me to places I have been. It’s now upto creating the right attitude, skills, habit and strategy to take me to the next level. Its also important for me to do a lot of self talk to help my cause.

1. The 5 areas of EI are: Self Awareness, Self-Management (Self Regulation), Self Motivation, Social Awareness (Empathy) and Social Skills.
2. The Ice berg model has 4 levels, from top to bottom they are: Results, Behaviour, Feelings and Belief
3. The 4 classifications of Emotions are: Intolerable, Tolerable, Pleasurable and Too Pleasurable
4. In the equation A*B=C; A is Activating Event, B is Belief and C is Consequences.’
5. The learning that we have is in 4 phases (Learning cycle) :-

a. Unconscious incompetence ( don’t know cycling)

b. Conscious incompetence (know parts of cycle i.e. brakes, handles, etc.)

c. Conscious competence ( know cycling but less confidence at turns)

d. Unconscious competence ( complete knowledge and think other things while cycling)

6. 4-box model of Skill Will Matrix and the leadership styles

Things that I intend to do in future with the learnings

1. I will have a face to face interaction with colleagues to understand their “Iceberg model” of (his beliefs, feelings and behaviours”) and explain the results I expect from him.
2. Have “Expectations “clearly defined with roles and responsibilities and objectives
3. Share “concern” ,demonstrate “Confidence” in Colleagues abilities ( be in Pleasurable and Tolerable zone) and bring more Optimism in his behaviour
4. Treat colleagues with empathy during the discussion. Listen to him empathetically, appreciate his achievements and try to understand reason for his shortcomings /complaints without preconceived notion.
5. Try to guide Colleagues and improve his will and skill by guiding him
6. Use the 5 golden pairs i.e. ( Goals to set priorities, Consequences with different alternatives, discuss problems instead of blaming, discuss the person instead of behavior demonstrated and not labelling and regulating self behavior)
7. Move from becoming the big “I”(know it all), dot(know nothing) , small “i” (know something) to bundle of I’s ( know emotions)

I have decided on 3 goals related to health (exercise, marathon, swimming), finance (home, car) and social (writing book) outcomes that I will try to work in the coming days. Will keep updating the blog as I progress.