Communigator: March 2022

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Notes on Leadership 310322

Humility is a key trait among leaders who successfully keep up with today's rapid pace of change. Humility enables leaders to change course when facts indicate a better direction.

Doing the right thing requires a mindset of right action. For leaders, this means courage and tenacity while remaining open to change.

Leaders with 360-degree thinking take a systems view. They understand the interconnectedness of complex systems when making critical decisions

Leaders need to balance broad knowledge with focused knowledge. Both leaders and employees need to stay relevant by continuously learning.

Good leaders reflect on their thinking and behavior regularly and change them as needed. They focus on personal learning and growing and developing others.

Inspirational leaders have an innate ability to inspire a broad range of followers. They're capable of connecting with people at all levels to create a shared vision.

Collaboration is a foundational skill for leaders today. Collaborative leaders share information, listen to others, and synthesize diverse perspectives into new solutions

A diverse and permeable team can provide a competitive advantage if led effectively. As the first step to leadership in an on-demand economy, do an assessment of how your organization welcomes and integrates gig workers.

Traditional onboarding no longer works in the gig economy. Make sure your entire team sustainably engages new team members, works collaboratively, and stays focused on a common purpose.

Focus on communication and motivation to artfully influence your organizational culture. Ensure that every communication has a clearly articulated purpose; take care to see and interpret challenges in a meaningful, motivating way.

Team alignment happens when your people know you care about them and want them to succeed. Clarify goals, align incentives, and make sure you communicate and uphold the standards you want for your team.

Build a culture that respects each person's contribution and values their growth path. Create a structure for inclusion that includes ground rules, healthy debate, and diverse viewpoints.

(From Emeritus Insights)

I can be reached at gorask@gmail.com and whatsapp number 8800477973 for feedback, suggestions, ideas, collaboration, guest podcasts and other opportunities for working together.

My English Podcast "Lifebook" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora7

My Hindi Podcast "Kitabi Keeda" can be listened on the link https://anchor.fm/sanjay-gora

Books written by me are available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notionpress sites.

https://www.amazon.in/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ASanjay+Gora&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

https://www.flipkart.com/search?q=sanjay%20gora&otracker=search&otracker1=search&marketplace=FLIPKART&as-show=on&as=off

https://notionpress.com/author/36667

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Notes on Management 300322

Ace the most difficult negotiations by gauging your skillsets correctly and not transferring power to your opponent. Avoid mistakes such as overestimating their ability and imitating negative behavior. Instead, urge yourself on, listen and ask questions, and go into the meeting well-prepared.

A story that supports your brand makes the customer the hero. Determine your customer's greatest need and let that drive your narrative.

Every story needs a villain. Define your customer's main obstacle and make it the villain that your brand helps them overcome

Make your brand the guide in the story, not the hero. Offer your customer a way forward with empathy and confidence.

Customers trust the guide with a plan. Present your customer with a plan for achieving what they want and mitigating risk.

Challenge your customers to take action. Give them a direct or transitional call to action that moves toward closing the sale.

Customers need to know what's at stake if they don't buy your product. Show your customer how their vulnerability to key risks increases without your product.

Your customer needs a happy ending. Finish your brand story with a picture of exactly how your brand will help them achieve what they want—a win, a change, a holistic experience.
(Emeritus Insights on book Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller)

A fear appeal is a persuasive message that attempts to arouse fear in order to divert behavior through the threat of impending danger or harm. It presents a risk, presents the vulnerability to the risk, and then may, or may not suggest a form of protective action.(Wikipedia)

Monday, March 28, 2022

Notes on Life 290322

Collective unconscious, term introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain.

(Britannica.com)

Isomorphism means that in the process of adapting to our surroundings, we behave in increasingly similar ways.

Status quo trap is the tendency to favor what already exists and information that confirms that choice.

Think of every exit as an entrance to somewhere else and develop a practice you can maintain and show up with consistently.

If you can work hard to get authentic in your interactions, you’ll not just fulfill your duty to be a messenger (in communication), but also your obligation to be yourself.

Picture the future you want then plan and work towards it. Live every day as a contribution towards that vision. (SRC)

Consider your single most important personal and professional priorities. Your other priorities should stem from these; organize and execute around them.(SRC)

At its core, a win-win approach is based on trust, an agreed-upon set of outcomes, and acceptance of those outcomes. Ultimately, everyone involved should benefit from the outcome.(SRC)

Active listening is critical to productive relations. If you listen with the intent to understand, you will engender openness and trust and this will lead to a better outcome.(SRC)

Synergy involves balancing individual differences to create new paradigms of thought and action. Experts working together yield better results than the same experts working independently. (SRC)

Your habits will be most effective if you take time for self-care and renewal. As you work on each habit, your experience with these habits will then deepen.(SRC)

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Notes on Marketing 240322

Marketing myopia—a nearsighted focus on selling products and services, rather than seeing the “big picture” of what consumers really want.....Levitt used to tell his students, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”............There are several examples in the article that illustrate the main concept, that your product is not your business. Perhaps the most famous is the railroad lines, which Levitt argues fell into steep decline because they thought they were in the train business rather than the transportation business. If those leaders had seen themselves as helping customers get from one place to another, they might’ve expanded the business into other forms of transportation like cars, trucks, or airplanes. Unfortunately, they let other companies seize those opportunities and steal away their passengers instead.

Source- https://hbr.org/2016/08/a-refresher-on-marketing-myopia

Provenance paradox. A product’s country of origin establishes its authenticity. Consumers associate certain geographies with the best products: French wine, Italian sports cars, Swiss watches. Competing products from other countries—especially developing markets—are perceived as less authentic. Even when their quality is on par with that of established players, the developing-market firms can’t command a fair price. The lower price, in turn, reinforces the idea that the offering isn’t as good and that the region doesn’t make premium products.
Source- https://hbr.org/2010/12/why-you-arent-buying-venezuelan-chocolate

Shrinkflation.’ Check-processing fees, surcharges for materials, and charging for previously free services: companies are creating new ways to pass along cost increases to consumers, and often without changing the sticker price. Several industries have long employed what economists call “shrinkflation” during challenging times, downsizing packaged content to avoid conspicuous price hikes—for instance, selling cans of tuna with less meat. Hidden price increases may allow firms to pass along costs more easily, but consumers are also pushing back, forcing some businesses to cancel fees.
Source- WSJ

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Notes on the book, The Goal

Insights from the book The Goal by Goldratt (as summarised in Emeritus)

Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive.

Throughput is the rate at which the system generates money from the sale of manufactured products. Reducing inventory and operational expenses are profitable for the business.

The Theory of Constraints helps identify the most important bottleneck or constraint in the way of achieving a goal and focusing on improvement until it is no longer a roadblock.

Tackle professional challenges by asking questions. The critical thinking process helps draw innovative solutions.

A combination of balance and reflection through questions generates creative ideas and strategies that can be applied to both work and personal life.

Ask three key questions: What needs to change? What does it need to change to? How do I execute the change? Facing the fear behind any change is the only way to surge and grow.

Monday, March 21, 2022

Notes on Storytelling 220322

By Paul Smith

Stories offer a way to draw an emotional connection between the listener and a particular situation. Use stories to motivate your team by showing a path forward rather than telling.

Tell a story with a conflict that matches the conflict your team may be experiencing. For example, use a story about trailblazing to motivate team members to trailblaze.

Your cultural mythology includes stories to draw upon at different times. When your team is suffering setbacks and needs a boost of courage, tell them the story of the US president who lost more elections than he won—Abraham Lincoln.

Folktales have universal themes that transcend eras and ages. Tell a story to inspire team members to face their fears and make progress.

An unhealthy concern with what other people think can become a debilitating anxiety. Stories about overcoming a concern with what other people are thinking can help team members focus on what matters.

Stories hold lessons. To make your story relevant and inspiring, draw a parallel between your story and your company at that moment.

You don't always get a second chance. There may be times when a story can help you inspire teammates to tackle each opportunity as if it were their last.

A leader's job is to keep people focused during times of trouble. True stories about overcoming real setbacks can help you motivate your team through frustration and disappointment.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Notes on Parenting 150322

We make our children unlearn sharing by teaching them possessiveness. If child gives his toy to someone, we tell it was yours.

Children doubt negativity in others, not positivity. So if we tell he is bad, they will ask why and how.

Having relationship power over child is better than having an authority power over child.

A child is going to remember who was there, not what you spent on them. Kids outgrow a toy & outfits, but they never outgrow time and love.

Let your child know every time you shout or punish him that it is being done out of care and concern. You don't like doing it but every good action has a reward and every bad action has a consequence.

Many people think that having a child instantly makes them a parent. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Nothing to it parenting" style is wrong.

Role Modelling works. Do as I am, and not Do as I say.

Smart parents around the world have invented all kinds of variations on the calming womb-like sensations I’ve dubbed the 5 S’s: Swaddle, Side-Stomach Position, Shush, Swing, and Suck.
Source - https://www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/baby/the-5-s-s-for-soothing-babies

IDIOT COMPASSION The late Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche coined the term "Idiot Compassion." Idiot Compassion takes place when during times of trying to display compassion to others we end up letting them walk all over us or harm their interest when we should be tough. This often happens when we try to avoid conflict.
https://www.greggraber.com/post/idiot-compassion#:~:text=The%20late%20Tibetan%20teacher%20Chogyam,we%20try%20to%20avoid%20conflict.

Monday, March 14, 2022

Notes on Management 140322

Three Rs of apology are

Remorse
Responsibility
Repair

The peak–end rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. The effect occurs regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant. (Wikipedia)

To assign specific roles to teams, companies use RACI model. That is those who are
Responsible
Accountable
Consulted
Informed.

When it comes to listening, there are five major areas of focus or listening intentions,
recalling details,
understanding the big picture,
evaluating the content,
attending to subtle cues, and
empathizing with the speaker.

when it comes to listening challenges, five specific ones make the top of the list,
mental filters,
multitasking,
distraction by delivery,
information overload, and
inappropriate response

Neuroplasticity can be viewed as a general umbrella term that refers to the brain's ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience.
https://www.google.com/search?q=neuroplasticity&oq=neuroplasticity&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i433i512j0i512l8.4163j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

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