The Intriguing Icebreaker!

As I walked into meeting room in 2017, a genuine smile greeted me. While I smiled & tried to refresh my memory, quiet a few questions were racing in my mind:

• Do I know him? Why is he smiling as if he knows me well?
• Is he an employee or a contractor?
• Why is he trying to be nice to me?

When I started my professional career 2 decades ago, one of the definitions of professionalism was seriousness. In general, seriousness is associated with strength, seriousness is associated with intelligence, seriousness is associated with results.

We were in the storming phase of a large initiative & we were building a large team with new members. As I had just traveled back and as it was a large meeting with a regular cadence, we didn't get introduced during the meeting. Soon I met Sudheer Ravella & I understood that he is a Business Analyst in our department. We started working together as he was part of our cross functional team.

I always believed and practiced that professionalism is not anti-human. Few characteristics that should exemplify our professionalism in thoughts, words & actions are:

• Integrity - no compromise on ethics
• Equilibrium - in good & bad times
• Competence - be on top of our game
• Confidence - in the known & unknown
• Commitment - for results

A genuine smile starts from the heart & connects to the hearts of humanity

Seriousness term in professionalism is used to keep the focus but not to ban smiles.

If professionalism is not built with humanity, we know that the career will not last long

As I observed Sudheer, apart from the sincere efforts he puts at work, I could see that he interacts with anyone he comes across even if they are not remotely related to what we do at work. He instantly connects to someone working in the same floor if he meets them in pantry, the chef or the cashier in the cafeteria, etc. We in team think that he is secretly planning to be the next mayor. He knows all people he interacts by their name (not just a hi/bye), not just to kill time but to understand & keeps the tone of interaction upbeat. People who work with him are also ready to go the extra mile (beyond contractual obligations); support him to accomplish our Product goals. He starts all this with a genuine smile.

Smiling is not giving up our our guards:

Our smile is an intent expressed that I trust

• An intent that I choose to trust first, until it's broken.

Smile says that we still have hope in humanity

• Our smile shows that we are interested in genuine connections.

Our smile shows the inner state of our being despite the challenges we might be facing

• Our smile says that we can add positive value.

Our instincts tell us not to trust someone if the smile is not genuine; in the same way our instincts tell us to trust someone if their smile is genuine.

If you haven't realized yet, trust is the biggest asset; it can start with a genuine smile!

Due to reorg, Sudheer has been reporting to me for more than a year now. As I have been coaching him, it has been a delight watching him learn our business/application-implementation everyday & becoming an indispensable team player.

I am glad that Sudheer is now successfully transitioning to Product Management job family in our Lowe's Canada Digital space.

Next time when you meet someone, genuinely greet them with a smile. You don't know how you will ending up adding value in each other's lives!

The panic strike!

Cleaning/washing delivered groceries has become our routine now. The fun part of shopping is gone & the thought of cleaning makes it a dreaded experience.

Now we all know what an emergency feels like. Even in these trying times, when we see things in the right context, we can continue to stay calm and focus on our goals.

We all have different leadership styles.

• Inspire or bully
• Create the way or wait
• Work with team to unblock or appear only for postmortems

One of the leadership styles I have observed is the panic strike mode. To make team understand the sense of urgency, some leaders use this method of "crying wolf". We know it only works until associates realize. Then the leader has to resort to new levels of escalation & eventually team get's completely disengaged instead of scaling up as intended by the leader.

• Some user stories will be high risk but accepted into sprint to see how much we can make progress.
• Some user stories will be more complicated than how it initially seemed.
• After our solution goes live, we will face challenges of the ever evolving world.

To help team to perform with the best of their abilities & to help them understand the sense of urgency:

• Help team understand how their contributions helps team/department goals & eventually that of the organization.

Give team the big picture

• Ensure team works from user perspective (Customers - internal or external).

Trust that team is doing their best

• Look for options to unblock their challenges while encouraging out of the box thinking.

Not every block is technical

• If it is a challenge with employee(s)' morale address it appropriately.

Improving productivity is a long term activity

• Only few things can be fine tuned immediately.

Foresee & plan for skill refresh

The impulsive reactions to every challenge drains the team. Sustaining the context & showing support to help instead of finding a scape goat improves the team moral. Let's respect the emergency button.

What's your start of day strategy?

Mine is to plan for end of day shopping groceries if delivery slots are not available.

The Dizzy Climb

As we (me & my family) were exiting from the IHOP restaurant in Brevard, Florida we saw a sign for Brevard Zoo. We were very clear that we didn't want to visit Disney or Universal parks to avoid year end holiday frenzy. When wait times were multiple times longer than ride time, it didn't make it worth the park visit. As we didn't have any other plan we decided to explore Brevard Zoo. Finding the parking lot full at 10 AM was a good sign that we found a happening place though it is relatively unknown. In addition to the zoo, we were excited to hear about the obstacle course. I knew that there is more than one day of exciting fun to engage kids. We chose the toughest obstacle course (Black Diamond) to align to our adventurous spirit but wasn't sure if we can finish as we didn't know what exactly is in store.

As we went through the obstacle course, we realized how critical the safety rope hooked to our harness is. We were trained to shout "clear" as we reach each level and remember to unhook & throw the support rope to next in line.

It was a beautiful learning experience which reminded me of leadership in realtime:

• As we climb up, it is inspiring to see our associates climb along or ahead of us.

Appreciate other's growth to feel inspired

or

choose to feel jealous to stun our growth!

• Throwing the safety rope down is like mentoring to uncover team's blind spots, providing visibility for efforts from the team instead of taking all the credit, not showing favoritism and making them feel that we have their back.

It shouldn't feel lonely on top!

• If we are focused only on ourselves then obviously we will feel lonely wherever we go, we can't trust anyone & we can only go so far as we can go alone. The magic of synergy is never realized.

Our team's success is our success.

• We should also be ready to discover our own safety rope instead of waiting (more on this later).

Shoot your web & create your rope!

• We should find our niche to keep our momentum.

Momentum is not just in moving up but having the discipline to consistently sharpen our skills to add value everyday.

Some obstacles were really challenging & pushed our limits but we were a happy bunch as we emerged as Black Diamonds from the toughest obstacle course in Brevard!

The "Energy Intelligence"​

As I finished work for the day, I came to the living room. It was the early days of lockdown & the school break was extended. There was a strange silence in the house.

There was lot of hustle bustle during spring break with both the kids at home. When it was announced that kid's won't be back to school for an unforeseeable period, it was a new stress for kids to handle. Our high school son couldn't meet his friends in school & obviously his sleepover requests won't be honored. As he is an older kid, he had his ways to manage the stress (online gaming, home gym, time with Leo our pet, etc).

For our daughter in middle school, it was little more difficult to get adjusted. She was curled up on the living room couch with her fleece on. As I sat next to her she started making long howling noises. She was not crying but when I hugged her, I could feel a sharp pain in my heart. I told her once softly to stop howling as the sound was annoying. The burden I felt hugging her made me feel what she must be going through. I didn't stop her after that, I didn't tell her anything. I just held her as I tried to process the stress and burden I was feeling. I had never felt so out of place & helpless before when I didn't have a way to comfort her.

As the howling continued, I understood that :

• Lot of times when we speak in these times, it spoils the effort though the intent is right. Words become noise, bounces off & sometimes bounces back colored with pain.
• We know that we easily offend people and trigger reactions by speaking our mind. In our mind layer, there 'might' be logic but there is no connection. So, people just hear and don't process what we say. Hearing & not listening is a way of shielding our emotional balance.

When we speak based on how we feel, we instantly connect to people as we add less colors to our words. Empathetic words born out of feelings open the channels of listening as they are lot more refined than impersonal words from our mind. Thus, a human face to leadership is born. This is what we call emotional intelligence.

• Our words have their limitations. Most of what we feel we can categorize as "Unknown, No words, Inexplicable" as it is beyond the human mind. As our friends in psychology continue with their research to tag the feelings with a name, it certainly is like over engineering our life if we try to know what is the scientific term for every feeling we experience.

This is where, we can make people feel what our intent is, without uttering a word. The level of "Energy Intelligence". If we can harness this, we can make people around us feel that energy, yes with just our presence without us uttering a word.

• What we need in these times is energy; an energy that can give hope that everything will be alright, that we can go through this & that we can come out of this as better people.

As the howling continued for minutes (certainly looked long as I lost count of time), I had to remind myself that I am a reservoir of unlimited energy (so are all of us). Just like how the sun gives rays of hope to all living beings in this planet 'without uttering a word', I felt I too can provide the required comfort. As I felt the pain & burden in me reduce, I could hearing my daughter calm down. The moments of silence we felt after that was priceless.

In a few seconds, she threw the fleece & became her usual bubbly self. Since then I am glad to see that she has adjusted very well to the current routine of the unknown & learnt how to thrive well in the abstract.

Step #1 to conquering 'Space & Time'​

Before my travel back to US from India, we (my Lowe's India team & me) wanted to plan a team outing. We chose a weekend with minimum work commitments, and decided to start "early" to beat Bangalore traffic. The "early" time I was told was 3 to 3:30 AM to assemble near our 1st pick up point (Manyata) so that we can leave by 3:30 AM. I was one of the luckiest ones as I had to take 27 km journey to reach the first pickup point. As usual I planned in reverse to pack everything the previous evening, wake up at 2 AM, leave from my condo (near Doddaballapura) by 2:30 AM, reach office by 3:05 AM & take the ~1 km walk to the pickup point. Due to a sprain in my leg, I was completely incapacitated 2 days back & I wasn't sure if I can make it to the trip we have been planning few a months. With Ultracet (most powerful analgesic yet - for me), I was able to drive 27 kms and take the ~1 km walk to reach the finish line by 3:30 AM, on time! I was expecting to see 10 of our associates (all but me) so that we can start; I was greeted by 2. Then the scrambling started to find where the rest were. While some where untraceable (on the way and couldn't pick phone or update location), some were still at home waiting for their Cab. One of the key planners of the trip surprised me at 3:45 AM by saying, "I booked the Cab for 3:30 AM & still waiting". Despite the 10 minute journey for him, I couldn't understand how he can plan for all of us to leave by 3:30 AM without accounting for unforeseen delays & travel time.

• Space & Time are the 2 most inspiring & impactful constraints in our physical world.
• Though many lives (including that of Einstein, Hawking Et. al) were dedicated to study & demystify them, in simple terms we know that "Despite being the right person, we also have to be in the right place at the right time to be successful".
• The whole world is tightly connected by space & time despite the spatial & time zone differences. Our every action (proactive or reactive) has a domino effect on this world.
• Where we stand now in our life is a summary of our choices (we made & didn't make).
• The only way to beat these constraints of 'Space & Time', is to take control of them instead of being controlled by them.
• Step #1 to conquering 'Space & Time' is to be on time.

As we left the first pickup point by 4:30 AM, the key planner sighed in relief, "on-time!". Yes, you read it right. Looks like the planned ETD was 4:30 AM & conveyed time was 3:30 AM. How I wish this notion of "Indian Standard Time" can be banished forever!

I was glad this happened as I took this opportunity to talk to team about this most important aspect in life. Nevertheless, this is one of the best trips yet - Coorg, October 2019!