Oct 8 2015

The People Archetypes you want to avoid at Work

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my all-time favorite authors. I love his thoughts, his books and the way he plays with words. In his book “The Tipping Point” he talks about three archetypes of people – Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. His premise is that the probability of any idea tipping to exponential success is higher if it is endorsed and advocated by people of these three archetypes. I found his explanation fascinating.

As I was thinking more about this, I observed that there were many such people archetypes around me at work. Some of these people you want to be around, and some you want to keep at bay!

In this post, I’m listing people archetypes I’d want to avoid at work.

1) The Evergreen Ever-ready Critic

These are the kind of people who are critical about anything and everything that others say or do. In their eyes, nothing anyone does is ever good enough. No idea has any real merit. No communication is really up to the mark. Before you even finish what you have to say, they are ready with a barrage of negative feedback. “Oh! This is nothing great”, or “Ah! Even a school kid could do it better”. Well criticism is good…sometimes. But all the time? No way! I’d rather stay away from such people

2) The Arrogant Expert

Expertise is good, and I have immense respect for all the “experts” I know. However, the other thing that I do know is that “expertise” either breeds ‘humility’ or ‘arrogance’ in people. A vast majority of so called Technology / Subject Matter / Domain Experts exhibit different flavors of ‘arrogance’; it is a wide continuum. Many of them truly believe that they are their words are the gospel in a particular topic; and may be rightly so!. Many of them also think that they know-it-all. And some of them behave as if they are the supreme power among other ‘lowly’ mortals. Knowledge is power, and due respect to their knowledge. However, today’s reality is that a lot of knowledge is free (online) and a collaborative workspace is essential for progress and success. So no matter what your expertise is, if you can’t work with / in a team, then chances are you’ll be gradually sidelined. At least, I’d draw a firm boundary with such people.

3) The “I don’t want to do any work” Type

This is for the person who just does not want to work. No matter what the work is, how easy / difficult it is – They will give a zillion excuses on why they can’t do it. And when they accept it, they will find another zillion reasons why it is tough. And when they start doing, they’ll ask another million questions on. Not to mention, extra help support time and resources to get the work done. Well, I’d rather again stay away from such people because either they’ll make you do their work or make it hard for you to work

4) The “I won’t let you do any work”Type

This is the kind of person who always has a problem, question, needs a suggestion or needs to talk or needs to take a break. They don’t let you work. And if you find it hard to say No, then you’ll end up with a huge backlog of work. Best is to keep such people at a distance

5) The “I’m close and well connected to the CXO, President.. and almost everyone in power” Type

This is an interesting archetype. They are well connected, or at least appear to be. They know the CXO, President and almost everyone in power (business, politics, Government, etc.). They use names and designations generously and also talk about powerful people like their best buddies. Honestly, I don’t know if everyone wants to hear about your personal stories all the time. And why do you need to flaunt it all the time? Something steers me away from such people.

6) The “Always URGENT” Requester

This is the type of person who always calls / mails with an urgent request. The first time you oblige. The second time you try to reason. Next time, you just ignore. I mean everyone has things to do, and there is only so much you can re-prioritize your work. If indeed it was urgent – you should know earlier right? Again, I’d put a cap on the time and attention I give to their work or requests.

7) The “You Give Me This and That, But I’ll give you NOTHING in return”Type

This type of people are the ‘shrewd and smart’ worker. They want to take everything from you – including your ideas and credit for all your good-work; but don’t give you anything in return. Neither work related updates or information, nor data nor insights. Even for basic things, they behave “mighty and lofty” to share; and never miss any opportunity to highlight how much they know, and how little you know. Well, I’d again stay away from such folks as they do more harm than good to your thinking. And maybe they remember that nothing lasts forever.

8) The “I love to talk about myself”Type

These are the type of people who love to talk about themselves. Their education, their family, their preferences, their routine, their hobbies.. The story never ends. While interesting company sometimes, they suck into your time, energy, thoughts and work – leaving you drained because they are so full of themselves. Again, I’d like to keep them at a distance

9) The “My way or Highway”Type

Hmm.. This type thinks and believes that the only way to do anything is the way they do it. They are closed to alternate view points and influence everyone around them to function the way they do. Something like a “creating mini-clones of themselves at work”. Again, I prefer to keep my distance from these crash-courses in cloning others…

10) The “Ungrateful / Thankless” Type
These are the kind of people who will never be grateful or thankful for what you do for them – in work or life. They will always find reasons to believe that things could have been better. Well good for them as they find their happy space. Till then, I’d stay away from them…

In reality, may be everyone displays shades of all the above behaviors, but if you do it all the time.. then may be you need to introspect …

That’s my list. What does your list read like? Leave a comment to let me know

First published on LinkedIn

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Interviews and Media Mentions
Newspaper Interview | Twittering Heights (Deccan Chronicle, 2015)
Quoted in “Open Letter to Women looking for job”
Quoted in “The Best Advice you’ll receive as young women starting your careers”
Interview | My blogging journey – How it came to be?
Interview | A wise Blogger
Interview | Secrets to Successful Blogging
Quoted in “Are entrepreneurs born or made?”

Dec 30 2014

12 months in 2014 taught me 12+ lessons as a Working Mother

As I look back on my career journey in 2014, I recognize that this year has been significant for me in very many ways. Firstly, I worked for one more year, so “+1” in my resume for number of years of work experience :). While there were some highs in this duration, this year was filled with rocky patches at work and my quest to find that elusive ‘work-life resonance’. What I realized along the way is this:

The ‘rocky patches’ at work will continue to exist , just that their dimensions and nature will change – but what matters the most is how you deal with it and how you let it affect your life– especially your self-confidence, self-worth and family / personal relationships.
There is no universal definition of ‘Work life resonance’. It is simply what works for you and what trade-offs are you willing to make for those choices. There is no right or wrong. You should be able to go to bed at night in-spite / despite your choices, and that’s what counts.

But beyond this, every month of 2014 taught me something which inspired a specific writing piece. In this post, I’m putting it all together to share my Reflections and Lessons as a Women at Work

January : It is the start of the New year. New beginnings. New possibilities. This year I did not start with goals or resolutions, but with questions . Asking yourself the right questions at the start of the year or at a critical phase in life compels you to think, ponder, understand – and many times burst your bubble so you can see things clearly. Click-over to this post on “Questions to Ask and answer for yourself”. As we end 2014, and enter into a new year 2015 – I strongly recommend you answer to yourself these questions too

February : This is the month of love, and as clichéd as it sounds “Self-Love is the best love”. And learning something new / interesting / exciting is a great way to love yourself. Click over to this post “Love thyself: Learn something new” to get inspired on learning something new

March: I realized that self-belief is key to keep and succeed in your career and life as a working mother. That inspired my post on “I believe in you, Do you?”. So the big question is Do you believe in yourself?

It was also the month when I truly realized the power of “Only Women” Social networks which inspired the post on women communities can be powerful peer-group support networks – which act as friends, guides, advisors or just punching bags to release all that is within your heart or mind

The other big take-away was about the importance of Saying NO and why women find it so hard to say No went into this post on “Women – When did you last say NO?” If you can’t recall when you said No to someone, try it today!

The other topic I felt strongly about is the need and importance for mentorship among women professionals, which went into a post called “Mentors for working women – Essential, but do they exist?”

April: As a working mother, I realized that I could not function without taking help – both at work and at home. But there is some science, skill and art in asking for help which inspired my post on “Asking for help : Are you an A+ or D-“

May : This was the month that I realized that as working mothers 3F’s were important for long term career continuity and growth. Focus on what is important, Flexibility at critical life phases and Flow to keep your work and life going. These insights went into my post “A Working Mother’ Career Continuum : Focus, Flex. Flow”

June: This was a time when I realized that for more women to continue meaningful careers and to flourish at work, we need systemic multi-dimensional change and those thoughts went into my post titled “Do we need a Lean In movement in India?”

July: This was the month which marked the “rocky patch” at work for me. And I was unable to write. I did let it affect me in more ways than one. However, over the next few months, I found ways to deal with it

August : It was the month when I wondered about the need and importance for women to work. That inspired one of my most popular posts “ Why women should work? – Here are 30 good reasons” .Do read and feel free to add to the list with your comment

September : This was a defining month for me personally when I realized that so much needs to said and done for the case and cause of Indian Women At Work. Since I had already a significant body of writings on this topic, and felt strongly about it – I launched a new section on my blog for Women At Work. Do read, and if want me to write anything in specific, please leave a comment. I do plan to write more on this subject in 2015

I also tried to find mantras to live by as a working mother, and those thoughts came together on my post titled “Working Women : Mantras to Live By”. This was shared generously in several networks.

October: This was a busy festive month / season and as I tried to navigate through expectations of work and personal-front, I needed some guide to help me focus and prioritize on things which I need to do regularly. These thoughts came together in one of my first infographic titled “Sheroes Must Do’s : Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly”. I find it a useful reminder every now and then

November : If there a prize for the FAQ(Frequently Asked Question) that I was asked in 2014 by women in my network, it was this. I’m on a career break and want to resume work. What options, possibilities, opportunities exist? It is to answer this question that I put in significant effort in one of my most shared post “Know a woman (in India) on a career break and looking to resume work? You must read this post”

It was also the month that the team at SheroesIndia invited me for their Delhi Summit. It was a wonderful experience, and I wrote about my lessons, insights and experiences here.

December: 2014 was also the year I finished 14 years of work experience, and so in the spirit of sharing what I learned all these years, I wrote a post “14 cherished lessons from 14 years of corporate work experience.

So that sums up my lessons as a working mother in 2014. What did 2014 teach you? Leave a comment to let me know.

First published here

Nov 20 2014

The 14 cherished lessons from 14 years of corporate work experience

In 2014, I completed 14 years of professional work experience. Looking back, I can say that I’ve come a long way from where I started. 14 years is indeed a long time in life..!

Sometimes I wonder about how far I’ve come

Sometimes I ponder about what I really achieved

Many times I wonder and ponder on where that time really went!

In all these years, the good thing is that the penchant for ‘new and diverse experiences’ has fueled my career taking me across the world through unique, exciting and enriching destinations, cultures, places, people, work assignments, challenges, failures and successes which have all played their role in what I am today. I have been fortunate to experience in my career (up close and personal) the great, good, bad & ugly (law of averages at play!); and I survived. All these experiences have given me a holistic understanding of business, work and life. Apart from paying the bills, these experiences give me enough thoughts, ideas and material to write regularly! For now, it all comes together in my numerous writings / blogs, which are widely read and immensely popular across the globe. I really can’t say where it will take me, but am open to explore new possibilities, opportunities, paradigms that life throws at me..

During many a pensive moment, I wonder what I learned during all these 14 years. As I go down memory lane, I can say that each year was defining in some way – and there was at least 1 “cherished” lesson that it left me with!

In this post, I am sharing that one key lesson that I learned along the way every year. “Do you really need 14 years of corporate world to learn these lessons?” you might ask.

Obviously NO. And that’s why I’m sharing them in a post on blog. Hopefully, you understand and appreciate each of them much faster than I did!

You can learn them in a moment, with one experience, .. or never understand the gravity and entirety even for a lifetime.

Sep 18 2014

Blogging for Business / Run a corporate blog? – Here are a list of topics for 1 year (for FREE!)

Are you blogging for your business / run a corporate blog to gain mind-share, market-share or profit-share?

And you don’t know what to blog about?

If I had to create a Blogging FAQ( Frequently Asked Questions) on what I get asked most of the time, the top questions would be
1) Why blog?
2) What to blog about?

If I had to answer Why should a business / corporate blog? – The answers are manifold :

(i) To share their views / voice

(ii) To engage / nurture your industry ecosystem by connecting with customers,partners, suppliers, analysts, solution providers, etc.

(iii) To learn yourself and stay updated with market / industry trends

(iv) To generate leads and

(v) To create a brand!

The next question is What to blog about?. In this post, I’m listing blog post ideas for a business blog which can last you for 1 year – if you publish at least 1 post a week.. The key to success is consistency over a long period.For that, focus, plan and a commitment to invest in your blog is most important.

I usually recommend a healthy mix of different content formats on a corporate blog – including blogs, pictures, infographics, video content, etc.

So choose a topic from the list below, decide on the format, and publish publish publish away 🙂

1) Why did your business / corporate start? What was the idea and how it came to be?

2) The initial phase – Challenges and Lessons. What you learned from setting up your business?

3) The founding team – Who they were and How they came to be? A fun or lesser known facts about the team. It always makes an interesting read if a reader knows a “personal / human” side to you.

4) A timeline which highlights key dates / milestones since inception.

5) What are your offerings (services / products)?

6) Recent innovations in your business / which affect your business – This could be done once in 3 months, so you can have at least 4 posts / year

7) What is unique about your offerings?

8) What difference will your offering make to a customer?

11) An industry timeline – Infographic (How the industry came to be?)

12) Less known facts about your business / industry – – With interesting trivia, facts and figures (well researched and data accuracy is important)

13) Industry survey / trends – Infographic (What all the latest market surveys are saying – for your industry as a whole).

14) Video from your CEO on any topic he is passionate about

15) A blog post on the current trending topic (technology / business / process) and your view on it – Even you do this once in 2 months, you’ll have 6 posts for a year

16) A success story for your business | Who was the client? What was the problem? How you solved it? This could be done at least 2 times / year

17) Lessons learned from a not-so-successful customer project | What was the problem? What did you learn? This could be done at least 2 times / year

18) A Must-Read monthly round-up of 8 – 10 interesting industry articles, news, views, opinions, perspectives – from your customer, partners, competitors | as an online curated resource which anyone can refer to (With 1 / month, this adds up to 12 posts for the year)

19) A Must-Read monthly round-up of 8 – 10 interesting articles, news, views, opinions, perspectives – on life hacks, productivity, getting better at work, general inspiration | as an online curated resource which anyone can refer to (With 1 / month, this adds up to 12 posts for the year)

20) Interviews with Experts – What your industry experts are saying about the future? Even if you do 1 / quarter, you will have 4 posts in a year

21) Choose any topic that is currently trending and get the 3 or more alternate views on the subject. for e.g.: if the topic you are currently interested in is around next generation analytics solutions, write a post with the views of a customer, technology provider, product vendor and analyst. Just bringing together voice from different perspectives can make a truly unique and compelling read

22) A note of CSR initiatives (Corporate Social Responsibility) and what your company is doing towards specific causes

23) 10 reasons why anyone should join your company

24) A post on Marketing – Its relevance and importance for your business

25) A post on Digital – Its relevance and importance for your business

26) A post on Social – Its relevance and importance for your business

27) A post on Big Data – Its relevance and importance for your business

28) A post on Analytics – Its relevance and importance for your business

29) A post on Cloud – Its relevance and importance for your business

30) Your company’s view on “The Next Big Thing that can change the world”

31) Your company’s view on Innovation

32) Your company’s view on changing role of Leadership

33) 10 Must-Read books – for your business / industry, and Why?

34) Open Letter to anyone joining your company

35) 5 – 10 Blogs you suggest anyone to follow to stay updated / relevant in your business / industry

36) 10 – 20 Twitter thinkers / influencers you recommend others to follow and Why?

NOTE: Some of the above may already be part of most company websites, but a blog post is usually more informal and can be written by the CEO / founder/ core team in an anectodal / story-telling fashion.

Suggested Readings

Understanding the Hype Cycle of a Blog

Why you should were the 6 Thinking Hats on your blog

Focus on Diversity on your blog

Why will a reader remember your blog?

Importance of an editorial calendar

May 15 2013

Session on Corporate Innovation

Yesterday (14 May 2013), I had the opportunity to conduct a session on “Corporate Innovation” to a diverse audience (3 to 10+ years experience). It was an interesting, and interactive session. The one strong view which was echoed from the participants was that there is VERY LITTLE INNOVATION happening at the ground level within most organizations!

Sharing below the key messages from my session

Overview to Corporate Innovation

Innovation has evolved from “Nice to Do” To “Good to Do” to “Must Do”. Innovate to survive
There is no “universal / standard definition” of Innovation
Innovation within an organization can happen at any time, at any place and from anyone. Innovation can occur at any level within an organization – from entry level to executive management
Innovation can be of technology, process, business, delivery methodology, product or user experience
What the wise have to say about Innovation. To read a set of interesting Innovation Quotes, click here
Focus of Corporate Innovation is how to “Simplify” / “Solve problems” / “Make things easier and better” / “Improve efficiencies” for internal (employees) and external (customers , partners, suppliers, vendors) stakeholders. Of course, corporate innovation initiatives focus on “Reducing costs” / “Improving Revenues”

* Innovation Life Cycle : Every innovation typically follows a life cycle as depicted below

* Importance of Corporate Innovation

Getting employees to “Think”, “Learn”, “Reflect”, “Experience”, “Comprehend” and “Apply” : Build a culture of innovation
Key Differentiator ; Competitive Advantage in the market
Additional “Revenue Potential” ; Non-Linearity
Better Customer Engagement
Market Positioning & Thought Leadership

* Lessons from my Corporate Innovation Journey

There are three distinct phases in the Innovation Life Cycle and each requires a different mind set
Your idea need not be unique; How you position your innovation makes all the difference
The Business Plan is just a baseline plan
When you start the GTM [Go-To-Market] activities can make all the difference
The first customer is the most crucial in your journey to success
Corporate Innovation should be a priority from the top
Internal communication and collaboration is critical to succeed

Extracted from paper published in the IIMB Summer Magazine (2012)

Jun 19 2012

The 7 Treasured Lessons from Corporate Innovation Experiences

I’ve been part of different corporate innovation initiatives from 2008 till date. And during this tenure, the most noteworthy change is that corporate innovation has transitioned from “Nice to Do” to “Good to Do” to “Must Do”…

Along this journey,
• I have had the opportunity to play a diverse set of roles and shouldered varied responsibilities – The key ones being a Business Owner to a Project Manager to a Business / Process Analyst to a Marketing / GTM (Go-To-Market) Specialist to Solution Specialist to Requirements Specification Owner
• I have interacted with a diverse set of individuals – internal and external to the organization {partners, analysts, customers (Diverse domains, Diverse positions in the organizational hierarchy [starting from the CEO to end-users] and from different parts of the globe}
• I have been involved in diverse kinds of innovation projects – from business to technology to process; each with a different team composition (2 to 20)

And the bottom line is this – Each of these initiatives achieved a different level of success.

“How do you define the success of a corporate innovation?”
The answer is simple and straight forward: The innovation initiative should generate the promised Return on Investment. If not, it is usually considered a failure in the business sense.

Going purely by this definition, I’d have to confess that some of the corporate innovation initiatives that I’ve been a part of were SUCCESSFUL and some were FAILURES…

Did we have cool ideas? Sure – We did!
Did we have a grand vision? Sure – We did!
Did we have a great team? Sure – We did!
Did we build what we set out to? Sure – We did!
Did we win business? Sure – We did!
Did we impact the organizations brand image in a positive way? Sure – We did!
Most importantly, Did we LEARN, GROW and EVOLVE? Sure – We did!

In this article, I will list the 7 TREASURED Lessons from the experiences in CORPORATE INNOVATIONS that I was a part of:
1) There are three distinct phases in the Innovation Life Cycle and each requires a different mind set
2) Your idea need not be unique; How you position your innovation makes all the difference
3) The Business Plan is just a baseline plan
4) When you start the GTM [Go-To-Market] activities can make all the difference
5) The first customer is the most crucial in your journey to success
6) Corporate Innovation should be a priority from the top
7) Internal communication and collaboration is critical to succeed

For full reading, refer to my artcile in the IIMB Alumni Magazine | Summer 2012 (pages 22 – 25)