Saturday, November 24, 2012

Do you know these types of people?

Enjoy the funny side of a person….
If you observe people carefully, you will find the consistency in their behaviour. Most of people are predictable. If they are predictable, it is easy to understand and manage them. There are different types but still unique personalities around us. If you see the lighter side of their behaviour, you will enjoy them. This is one of the ways to make the life more enjoyable. I have identified few of themJ. While reading, please refer “he” as “she” also.
Me too guy
You have different stories to tell to people. These people may be your friends, relatives or neighbours. They are in families, communities, societies and offices. The conversation with them goes like this.
You are planning to purchase a new car and you speak with the guy of “me too” type.
“I am planning to buy a car.” You share with your friend
“I am also planning to buy a car.” Your “Mee too” type friend replies
“I think Honda City is better.”
“Yaa, I am also planning to take Honda CRV or Skoda Rapid.”
Whatsoever you plan, they also have the same plan but at better or higher level.
“My son has been sent to USA by his company.” One proud father tells to his neighbor when they meet for society meeting.
“My son is also planning to go to UK for a year.” He replies back.
If you tell them anything what you do, they will have something similar to tell you. In such conversations, another person doesn’t recognize the success, achievement of first person.
They will have similar experiences like you. They will cut you in between and tell you their story which is similar to you.
“Knows everything in this world” guy
Oh, very knowledgeable guy. He knows everything in the world. He has always something to say on. Content of their knowledge is questionable, but he will comment on everything.
He knows why Manmohan Singh is still the Prime Minister; He knows what Uddhav Thackaray will do after Balasaheb Thackaray; He knows what politics happened while selecting Indian team; He knows why Vijay Mallya doesn’t care his airlines and he also knows why FDI should not be allowed in India.
He will throw references, numbers on your face. Anyways you don’t know what actual numbers and references are.
“Challenger”
This person will challenge you in everything.  You say that FDI is necessary for the growth of India. He will challenge and argue with you why FDI is fetal to Indian economy and poor people in the country. If another person says that FDI is not necessary, he will still challenge and argue why FDI is required.
This guy is really a monster. He can play the role of effective opponent in meetings.       
“Question Mark” guy
Have you seen the person asking questions in every meeting, every occasion? He has lot of questions in his brain. If he doesn’t have questions, he will still create question. You can’t guarantee the quality of the question. During whole conversation, he may miss what you said. Back of his mind, the question processor is always on during conversations, meetings and he never miss the opportunity to ask questions.
“Opinion in everything” guy  
He will have opinion in everything. When he doesn’t have any opinion, he will still have the opinion! He is like the judge of TV Reality Shows. He will comment irrespective of any knowledge in subject matter. He is an expert on his own in any subject matter.
“Friend of influential people”
He always says that he knows most of the influential people in his area. Local corporator of Municipal Corporation is his good friend. He has good network with the top boss in his organization. He will mention top references during the conversation.
He knows local MLA. He knows judges, police officers and who not? But you can’t be sure how his relationship with them is.
“Oh, I know Police Commissioner very well.”
“I know the local corporator of our area. If I decide I can get the desired parking in colony within 8 hours.”
Fact is when it comes to police verification for passport, he has to take somebody with him as a witness and his parking issue never resolves.  
This is just because he says and you have to believe him just for the sake. Actually nobody knows him. I wonder why his child doesn’t get the admission in desired school if he has good relationship with the President of School Committee.
Identification of these types of people is easy. Just start the conversation with them and you will enjoy.
If you know anybody different typo person please share with me.  

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Balasaheb Thackeray

End of the Charismatic Leader...

That was the different epoch. I was doing my management. At evening, Balasaheb Thackeray was supposed to address the election rally at Golf Ground at Nashik. I have seen how people were mad to listen him. People from whole district travelled voluntarily to listen him.

I along with my friends was also curious to see him and listen his speech. That experience was mind blowing. I realized that day, how one person can influence the mob. It was surprising to see people from all the social strata seating together. In the mob, there were students, doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers irrespective of their political affiliations and interest.

When I joined Semperit Group and started to handle the Roha plant of Sempertrans Nirlon Ltd., the JV with Nirlon Ltd., I started to deal with the union, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), affiliated to Shiv Sena. We had to visit Sena Bhavan at Dadar frequently to discuss issues with Union office bearers, the then President, Ramakant More and the then General Secretary Krishnakant Kondalekar and afterwards their successor, Suryakant Mahadik and Kiran Pawaskar. (Kiran left Shiv Sena and is now MLC of NCP). Once I, along with our Plant Head, COO and local union committee members went there to discuss the long pending bonus issue. We were waiting for the meeting and discussing with Albert Pinto, the secretory and our plant union in charge from BKS. Suddenly everybody started to move. We understand that Balasaheb was coming at the Sena Bhavan. The whole building suddenly woke up. I sensed different energy in that building that day. While walking towards his office, he just saw us, we greeted him, he smiled, waived his hands. Albert introduced us with him. When he understood that we were from Sempertrans Nirlon, the JV between Semperit and Nirlon, he enquired about the JV and financials. Balasaheb had a soft corner about Nirlon Ltd as it was among first few units where BKS started their unions in 1970s. “Fight for the right, but don’t close the plant.” He used to say to workers. My reaction was, he came, he saw and he conquered. It was hardly 2-3 minutes conversation, but his persona, his style influenced me and my team members. When he visited Roha for rally, he chose our Guest House for the short stay.                      

People loved him and made him icon, larger-than-life, in politics. He was the mascot of Marathi pride. Balasaheb Thackeray always was a God to common Sena workers. He was the example of tough but popular leader. He was the great cartoonist, with generous humor. He was the only fiery orator, who could bring Mumbai and Maharashtra to a standstill with a wave of his finger.

What makes him a great, charismatic and most influential leader?

1)      Kingmaker instead of being a King: Balasaheb never contested any elections. He never dreamt to become Chief Minister, Prime Minister or never projected himself as a candidate for any position. When Sena-BJP alliance came into the power in 1995, he chose Manohar Joshi as Chief Minister. This was unusual in the history of India. Even, it was possible for him to crown his son Uddhav as Chief Minister, he chose Manohar Joshi. People admired his gesture.
2)      People Connect: I personally experienced this when I attended his rally or even his short 2 minutes gesture. He spoke what people wanted. This does not mean that he was luring people. Through his gesture, body language and speech, he used to connect with the people easily. He ensured self-reliance among people. He was advocate of new things. The Pune-Mumbai Express highway, flyovers in Mumbai and infrastructure development was his idea and he did that.
3)      Unconventional Views: He was known as much for his unconventional views. He never fought shy of expressing that views, sometimes contradictory to political philosophy of alliance. He supported Prathibha Patil and Pranab Mukharjee during presidential elections. He also supported his political rivals when it came to something good. He admired Hitler for his art and leadership qualities.  
4)      Talent Management: Yesterday, one Shakha Pramukh (In charge of a ward in the city) was interviewed by news channel. He was a waiter, got opportunity to work with the party and was entrusted the responsibility of the ward. He said that this is possible only in Shiv-Sena. And this is true. Though he was the remote control for the government, he gave the opportunity to all people. Maharashtra witnessed, the first Bramhin Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi, OBC leader Chagan Bhujbal was the first Mayor (from Sena) of Mumbai Municipal Corporation and first Leader of Opposition of Legislative Assembly. He developed leaders at all social strata and delegated responsibilities. He aligned them towards one political goal.
5)      Charisma: He had a Magnetic persona. Very few people have this. He had built his image with lot of thought. Being a cartoonist he had a great sense of humor. He always used this humor in his speeches. His voice was authoritative. There are many magical ways to express with voice. This is required to command and Balasaheb commanded his party workers with this authoritative voice.
6)      Leader, organizer, team builder etc etc.: Shiv Sena is the success. This party has an influence over the Maharashtra politics and nobody can ignore them. This is not possible without leadership qualities.

Balasaheb Thackeray was the tiger, warrior, he roared, he fought and he ruled over heart of millions.

Rest in peace Balasaheb!

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Find out some time...

It's all about Life Management…


People always ask me about my different activities. I write blog and articles. Colleges and institutes call me as a speaker. Sometimes I spend my time with NGOs and also involved in CSR activities. This all is done after office hours. In professional life there are lot many tasks which are beyond my JD and still I perform with passion.

 “How you get the time to write all this?” One of the friends asked me.
“I don’t get the time, I find out the time.” I answered.

We all run with the time. Sometimes we also don’t know what we are doing. People have great excuse of time always. People really work hard but getting some time is dream for all. This is all about the attitude towards our life.

Here I remember the statement of famous person, “Assign responsibilities who have lot of work, people who just say that they do not have time for doing something, will not do the job best.” Fact is you will not get the time anyways, but the reality is if you find the time for something, you will definitely get the time.

This is all about the attitude towards life. If you have positive attitude about the time, time will be there to support you. The question is how you go the extra mile. Sometimes we do not challenge ourselves. I am involved in budgeting exercise. Making budget and then aligning with the finance is real challenge. We have different styles. In past I use to spend almost 10 days in making the budget. Today I complete the budge within 2 days without errors. In past I was doing hard work and now I do the smart work, the result is more time for more value added activities. I recognize that my time is very important to the company. I need to spend my time on relevant value added tasks. However I even can’t delegate the budget exercise to team members as it involves lot of confidentiality and integrity. So what I did, I made a programmed excel file, where I just need to put the relevant percentage for increment as per the cost center and whole calculations are done automatically.

I have seen, people actually spending time on the tasks which can be handled with effective technical knowledge. Actually, you need to be innovative. Every morning when I go in the office, I ask one question to myself, how can I improve, innovate and change today.

How many times, we go extra mile and push ourselves? When I decided that I have to find out time for some other activities, I push myself. Coaching you team for taking more responsibilities and delegating some activities will definitely help. For getting some personal time, I started to cut my sleep by ½ hour by every morning.  

There is everything available on Time Management, but we will not get the time by just reading such references. We actually need to go extra mile and push our attitude..

Hence first find out some time to get the time. After all Life is not about finding yourself, Life is about creating yourself.  

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