Why suddenly...?

Did you not hear this expression when somebody said, I am resigning? Especially, from your boss when you told him you are quitting. The typical response is 'Why?', 'I am shocked to hear this', 'I never expected, that "you" would do this', etc etc. BULL SHIT!!

If I were a team leader, I exactly know who is reporting to me, what is the work being carried out, what are individual aspirations, what is the value addition to each team member and how each person is peforming. Even if a small disconnect between individual's expectation from the organization and his/her aspiration ignites the negative thinking. I fully support the theory that people quit not from the organization, but from their immediate boss.

And to enlighten the poor boss's soul, the chicken starts to think at the first negative sign and many things keep adding up. Finally the individual either encounters a spike that completely demotivates him/her or reaches a saturation state accumulating all the encounters in the past (like illogical appraisal talks etc). This process could take anytime from 6 months to one year. And then the employee announces his decision to be free from the boss (not from the organization). So my dear bosses, when somebody says I want to resign, please dont pretend to put a shocking expression on your face. You better be aware of whats happening in your team and atleast verify where the 'disconnect' is. Mere talking does not help, act.

Leader and Manager

I have been thinking about this for a while and asked my sister whats the difference. She told me Leader is the one who leads and Manager is the one who manages. Hmm... thats a trivial answer, but not clear enough. Infact, when I started writing this, I gave the title as 'Leader vs Manager'. I wanted to distinguish the roles that each one play. Later I realized, these two roles do not really compete with each other, but sometimes are best performed complementing each. Based on the situation one of the qualities come out from the same individual (not induhvidual). The reason I started writing about this topic was, simple organization behaviour. I believe work atmosphere should never create 'challenging confusions' among work force.

Let us look at a typical team structure in a Bangalore based software services company. A team of size 30, has one line manager, has 4 or 5 project leaders (or team leaders) reporting to him/her and the remaining (24) is a mix of senior and relatively junior set of developers. In such a set up, a project leader (or team leader) is the one who is closest to the work force. He/she knows about business intricacies and execution. Seldom is the manager aware of them.

In this kind of setup, the ideal role for manager is to do 'measure and control' and interfere less in the daily operations of execution. May be the manager could look at measuring the productivity or 'observing' the quality process or motivating the work force or providing a safe and inspiring work environment, matching their professional and personal goals, etc. It is upto the project lead to ensure that deadlines are met, team members are skilled to perform the tasks, there is a great degree of inter and intra team co-operation, quality processes are 'followed', ensure transparent reporting of activities for better visibility etc. If the project is adequately staffed and project leader is able to manage the execution and still has time, there is no harm in sharing few responsibilities of line manager. BUT I would expect its a great disaster if manager tries to micro manage the project leader's functions. It hurts the confidence of team members and the project leader.

I conclude with the fact that a leader is more result oriented person with a team to produce results and a manager need to steer the energy in right direction. A manager has got 4 to 5 engines and he/she needs to make them function with synergie to make the vehicle move in right direction. But a steering could never try to become an engine.

One liners...

I am currently reading 'High Performance Entrepreneur' and came across this sentence. I thought I dont always have to write minimum of hundred words to make up a post. So, here it goes.

"Do not try to solve all the problems you face, some problems do not need to be solved and in those situations try to change the rules of game".

For example, if you are running a business where its no more profitable and has negative margins and with no proven business model, it does not make sense to pump in more money. Just forget it and start a new life. Or you picked up a stock without your own research and later realized its a dead investment, just get out of it even for a loss. Atleast you are free of the space it is occupying in your mind.