Recognized as Welch Scholar !

11th June, 2016

Met with Jack and got recognized as Welch Scholar, an honor bestowed upon Top10% of the graduates at JWMI.

It is a surreal to look into Jack's eyes and know he believes in me.
Dr DP

Excite people as a role model through Actions, Truth & Trust building

9/21/14

Jack Welch's business leadership principles illuminate my way through work and life every day.
The complete immersion at JWMI truly has truly been a great transforming experience.

Here is what I learned from Jack from a recent Q&A.

(1) Speak through Actions, not just words

"You have to be a role model with what you do, not what you say.

Bosses typically do not like to hear how to do it.
It never works as it is a moving proposition.

No one likes to hear what they should be doing.
They want to see you doing it and they get excited by it.

Your job is to demonstrate what you want with what you do, not with your mouth.
Demonstrate the behavior needed through innovation and other things to make it happen ".

(2) Health care market is exploding with opportunities.

(3) CEO's Job: Look for Truth & Build Trust in Relationships
Best thing Jack loved about being GE's CEO
- loved being around people and winning
- don't hire people whose values don't match; personalities can be different
get people you believe in,you like and want to be with
you give everything you got to them and they give everything they got to you
- Truth & Trust: Two words that go with leadership
Every day you look for truth
Every day you build Trust; that you can be trusted and people you are with can be trusted
Trust each other to Act on the Truth

It is such a treat to hear Jack speak about how to win in business.
Dr DP

Leadership Competencies Checklist - Achieve Mastery through Extraordinary Self Awareness & Avoid Derailment Factors in long run

6/21/14

This is a handy checklist to contemplate and refer to often in continually honing leadership skills and taking team-performance to the highest levels in any organization.

MASTER THE LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
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1. Work well with people whose background, culture, language, or work style is different than one's own
2. Seek out new insights about clients that represent sources of opportunity for Enterprise and value for them.
3. Help others identify proper course of action under uncertain conditions.
4. Create systems that enable all to be routinely considered for increased responsibilities
5. Ask questions to ensure 2-way understanding
6. Prioritize multiple expectations against strategic direction
7. Leverage an informal network of influential people to achieve goals
8. Create an organization in which all members take initiative to address shortcomings
9. Create an organization in which members have a well-grounded trust in each other's integrity, skills, motivation to achieve shared goals
10. Apply a broad and deep understanding of enterprise-wide capabilities to partner with clients in transforming their business
11. Generate new ideas not constrained by traditional thinking or procedures
12. Provide guidelines that emphasize the purpose and intent so people can take self-directed actions to adapt and achieve intended goals
13. Establish ways to routinely monitor clients, markets or technologies
14. Anticipate impact of actions on other parts of Enterprise
15. Make decisions with speed and urgency required
16. Express own opinion clearly and confidently
17. Translate complex problems into manageable actions
18. Communicate clearly and simply in complex situations enabling all to understand
19. Coach employees to step out of comfort zone to reach their highest potential
20. Provide breakthrough insights that challenge clients' current perceptions about their own business to increase their success
21. Inspire others through example
22. Ask questions and seek feedback to learn from others at all levels of the organization
23. Establish a system for routinely moving talent across the enterprise
24. Analyze own organization to identify impediments to trust
25. Promote healthy sense of urgency in achieving objectives
26. Shift group members from trying to achieve their ends, to assuming leadership responsibilities for accomplishing common good
27. Help others deal with ambiguity and to see it as an opportunity to change the way they do business
28. Provide timely performance feedback
29. Shield the team from structures or processes that interfere with performance
30. Collaborate with leaders across the enterprise to create innovative and sustainable cross-enterprise business solutions
31. Admit when lacking knowledge or answers
32. Create an enduring "can do" attitude within the organization
33. Ensure people know their contributions are valued
34. Take time to listen and appreciate other view points, even when they differ from one's own
35. Mentor and coach others across the organization
36. Communicate regularly with a range of constituents to gain an understanding of the big picture
37. Move talent to other parts of the organization for employees' or enterprise's growth
38. Establish strong relationships with key decision makers at multiple levels within the client's organization
39. Prioritize work demand by focusing on what is important
40. Build an organizational climate in which all have internalized collaboration as a norm of the way they do business
41. Set standards that challenge employees to deliver high performance
42. Transform organizational culture to one of optimism in the fae of great adversity and challenge
43. Monitor tone and demeanor to reflect the message being communicated
44. Acts as the client's advocate within Enterprise
45. Establish an organizational norm that encourages members to take right risks in service of growing the Enterprise
46. Create an environment of openness to new ideas and approaches
47. Identify causes and/or relationships not immediately evident to others
48. Demonstrate a curiosity about other cultures and disciplines
49. Follow through on commitments from beginning to end
50. Create learning organizations that continuously transform themselves
51. Appreciate - What are the employees' greatest strengths ?
52. Assess - what are  specific areas where an employee needs to improve and how could these changes make the employee a more effective leader ?

AVOID DERAILMENT FACTORS FOR LEADERS - BE SELF AWARE
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1. Is unaware of how his or her behavior impacts others.
2. Does not demonstrate accurate understanding of his or her strengths & weaknesses
3. Gets defensive when he or she receives feedback from others
4. Overreacts to disappointments or setbacks
5. Is emotionally volatile and unpredictable
6. Is slow to recover from an emotional upset.
7. Has difficulty remaining calm and confident under pressure
8. Lacks empathy for other people's thoughts and actions
9. Has difficulty reading non-explicit communication eg. non-verbal cues
10. Deos not demonstrate care and concern when people bring problems to his or her attention
11. Is overly demanding and insensitive to others' needs and workloads
12. Tends to use an intimidating/bullying style
13. Escalates conflicts rather than working to reach a resolution
14. Has difficulty building consensus to reach decisions
15. Cooperates with others only when forced to
16. Lacks broad and trustworthy relationships with others outside of his or her immediate organization
17. Does not take a stand on controversial or unpopular business issues
18. Does not take responsibility for his or her actions
19. Is overlay reliant on the sponsorship of powerful others; not seen as independent
20. Has difficulty adapting to change
21. Is not open to learning from his or her mistakes
22. Does not demonstrate an appreciation for differences when working in a multicultural environment
23. Betrays trust
24. Says one thing and does another
25. Does not follow through on commitments
26. Does not take care of important details
27. Does not admit his mistakes
28. Does not think strategically or broadly; overly focused on details & tactics
29. Is ineffective in leveraging others' strengths

Dr DP

Pull the Career Comeback Levers - Overdeliver, Volunteer, Attitude, Change

6/13/14

The advice in Jack & Suzy's LinkedIn article would be very useful to anyone who has faced a slow down in their careers.  Better still, by pulling these levers consciously, a slow down can be avoided in the first place.

Of the four levers, I believe change is the hardest thing to do. Inertia is a common detractor for most of us. Not wanting to upset the apple cart and blindly hoping "it will change" and taking a "ride out the down turn" approach invariably allows status quo to continue. Secondly, important external constraints can keep one stuck and stalled. The cost of making a change may outweigh the benefits in such cases. Finally, fear of making a wrong decision is a key factor.

What I learned from observing Jack Welch is that he is never satisfied with status quo. "It won't change, so MOVE", he booms in a class video. Amazingly, that video did help me push myself in making some major decisions. Also, Jack does not let fear block decision making. Instead, he relishes making changes continually to improve from status quo.

Ways to Make a Career Comeback
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Welch & Welch, June 2014

(1) Overdeliver
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- Do what you are doing better and faster
- Expand the job horizons to include bold new initiatives
- Create new concepts or processes that improve overall results across business units
- Surprise everyone

(2) Volunteer at cutting edge
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- work on tough new projects
- take global assignments
- prove you are willing and able to go extra mile

(3) Adopt " Yes, can do" attitude
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- Preserve Political Capital: stop disparaging fellow employees even in jest

(4) Change before you have to
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- Jump before you get pushed
- Find a company with a better fit doing work you like
- Build results and reputation from day one

This is great advice to reboot careers.
Dr DP

Reference
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140610102118-86541065-three-ways-to-make-a-career-comeback?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

Skilfully Balance Transparency vs Privacy in Business

5/3/14

One of the most exciting things about JWMI MBA training is the numerous frameworks we are exposed to that have been tried and tested in various business situations. These frameworks are deeply insightful, save time and could save companies, careers and jobs. I find them to be precious and exciting.

Jack & Suzy Welch have come up with yet another amazing framework this week for masterfully handling a complex business question: when to open up and talk and when to zip it in business ? Reading their LinkedIn article one walks away with an incredibly handy framework  that can be gainfully deployed in appropriate business situations.

Before I present the key points from the article, I must add a word about frameworks and techniques. There are not enough case studies or books that can be written to cover every business situation and prepare a business person completely. The training can only be taken as a starting point for thought leadership.

The Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK) cautioned about the bias from conditioning of human thoughts. "freedom from the known" is key to approach reality more completely rather than with smaller fragments of truth.

There is a similar  parallel in martial arts. No amount of exotic techniques can adequately prepare the practitioner to deal with unceasingly complex reality.  Bruce Lee,  profoundly influenced by JK, created Jeet Kune Do with "the way of no way" as the center principle. Too much of any style could mean too much  of thought-conditioning and that could prove to be the undoing in the ultimate battle.

It is, to me, all about balancing the known and the unknown.
Dr DP

Skillfully balance Transparency vs Privacy, good Public Relations vs Business Strategy

Rule#1 - When communicating financial information to the public (investors, analysts, media & social activists), be transparent
What to do - Disclose plenty of data, increase market insight and build trust

Rule#2 - When gaining marketplace advantage, maintain strategic privacy and take opponents by surprise
What to do - When a breakthrough in the works or a bold acquisition is under consideration, keep it confidential

Rule#3 - When employee-life-altering changes are to be made, let employees be the first to know
What to do -  When things go awry eg. plant closings, layoffs, massive changes in organization, do not keep employees in the dark
What not to do - Screw ups from Awful Leadership are more common in this situation: employees are taken by surprise and are confused by media that always seems to know more; managers don't have time to figure out what to do to whom; Trust is irretrievably lost.

Rule#4 - When facing a Crisis in Business, be completely open, fact-based and lead from the front
What to do - Don't be in denial; Don't make evasive statements; Don't say problem fully contained; never forget there are no secrets in such situations. Take responsibility, deep-dive for a fact-based response and over-communicate to win trust back.

Reference
Jack & Suzy Welch (2014)
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140429041210-86541065-secrets-are-for-breaking-with-one-big-exception?trk=mp-reader-card

Unlock the doors to reach full potential

4/12/14

True North - This is the direction to reach full potential
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One of the greatest qualities I find in Jack Welch is his ability to keep moving, trying new approaches and constantly growing. He does not stop at obstacles. Instead, he practices what he teaches in class. He shows how to use the 3Ss - Simplicity, Self-confidence and Speed - masterfully.

In the latest LinkedIn article, Jack and Suzy Welch teach how to navigate through complex work situations and continually find work that excites and leads to sustained happiness. I think this is one of their best articles ever as it serves as a sign-post for leaders to reach full potential.

Dr DP

Four Reasons to Quit Your Job (Jack & Suzy Welch, 2014, April 8)
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Key Points:
To move up in any organization, need to endure Difficulties, Dull assignments and Crisis.
But do not let inertia be the reason for staying in a company.
Unlock your door and get out if the work environment fails the four questions below.

1. Are you happy going to work every morning ?
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Do you want to go to work every morning?
Does the prospect of going in each day excite you or fill you with dread?
Does the work feel interesting and meaningful or are you just going through motions to pull a paycheck?
Are you still learning and growing?

2. Do you like your coworkers ?
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Do you enjoy time with them or do they bug you ?
Are these relationships worth cultivating ?

3. Goals and values - Company vs You - are they aligned ?
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Does your company help you fulfill your personal mission ?
Examples:
Travel vs chosen work-life balance
Stagnation due to non-growth of the firm vs need for upward mobility
Are you investing your time in the right company ?

4. One year Look Ahead Test
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It takes one year to find a new, better job
Where will you be in the organization ?
What will be your role and what work will you be doing ?
Whom will you be managing ?
Who will manage you ?
Is this scene exciting ?

Reference
Welch & Welch (2014), Linked In Articles.
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140408040010-86541065-four-reasons-to-quit-your-job?trk=mp-reader-card

HR should be second only to CEO and must be on par with CFO

The critical role of HR
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People are the biggest part of the game of business.
HR must therefore be the most powerful part of an organization.

I. What HR should do
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Put the best people on the field and get them to play together.
Direct who gets hired, developed, promoted or moved out.
Know what it takes to win, how good each player is and where to find strong recruits to fill gaps.

II. What HR should not do
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Palace intrigue - Act as cloak-and-dagger society.
Cloyingly benevelont - Put on health-and-happiness show. Plan picnics, put out newsletter.
Bolster bureaucracy - enforcing rules and regulations that have no real purpose.
Become king makers or cops- making or breaking careers behind the scenes.
Be relegated to background eg. behind CFO.

III. Who should be leading HR
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(I) High impact Pastor-Parent types with real stature and credibility.
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Improves the company by overseeing and monitoring a rigorous appraisal-and-evaluation system.
Lets every person know where he or she stand.

Part pastor
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- hear all sins and complaints without recrimination
- run something in their careers eg. factory or function
- understands the business, inner workings, history, tensions, hidden hierarchies that exist in people's minds
- relentlessly candid even with hard messages
- hold confidence tight
- earns trust of organization with their insight, integrity
Part parent
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- loving and nurturing but correcting with straight feedback when off track

(2) Creates effective HR mechanisms
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to motivate and retain people - money, recognition, training.
to force organizations to confront charged relationships - unions, individuals no longer delivering results, problematic stars.

(3) Elevates employee management
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to same level of professionalism and integrity as financial management.


Reference
Welch & Welch (2014), LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140324053712-86541065-so-many-leaders-get-this-wrong?trk=mp-reader-card