Better organisation :)

God created adam and eve, then everything created one-by-one.

It takes a while to create everything,  some organisations are better in one way or other.  I guess my  statements are mixed. 

Any organisation will be made by founders and afterwards it is driven by the set principles and leadership. 

Successful organisations driven by employees and employers commitment.

Like balance between above create a healthy organisation

Royal baby in making

You might be wondering, I am going to write new royal born in UK.

But guess every one has already written, what is in store for him.

Before inception of task:

1. In “ten commandments”, god gave few tasks to followers.
2. Jesus crucified for the people of Rome and worldwide ( based on Benhur movie)
3.Noah built arc to save the essential and key stakeholders for the earth.
4. According to Hindu mythology, lord Brahma creates people and everything.

What in store for new born?

1.Enjoy the life in childhood
2.understand what is in for “Royal family” in democratic country.
3. How best we protect the economy and people.
4. Royal family to guide UK government

Best wishes to the new born and people.

Top ten items of technical project managers

In software industry this is multi functional role with specialist and management role. This is rare bread of the skill, which IT industry needs.

1.This individual would  have gained enough technical skills and can do attitude.

2.This person more might have done team lead role with strong  fundamental in technology,  architecture,  processes.

3. In addition to the above a project management experience which has additional characteristics of this person.

4. This is dual role which person to balance.

5. In client or project calls, this person can balance technical and management kind. And can take decisions on the spot.

6. Sometimes too much in both areas makes tasks tougher than single task You are bound to tend towards one are other area

7. As technical manager, this person can lead/build team in technical front very well.

8. This role is most suited product firms, where you need to have minuted details, on technical implementation.

9. This person can code, design, architect in addition to project management.

10. Even though company’s prefer both elements in one person, getting relevant domain/skills will be difficult.

Indian Management ( influences of western culture)

Indian Management borrowed from west

When fist wrote few articles on management, my blogger friends mentioning, this similar to what “Count your chicken before you hatch”. After that I wrote “Indian Leadership” with similar set of ideas.

Following article base my experience in working IT industry as well as observations. This is generic, this would not represent my current an earlier firms.

India’s culture

1.We were ruled and dictate by Ramayana and Mahabharata (Great Epic stories), which were taught and practiced in India. There were “n” number of movies and books.

2.Family culture is very much there and great bonding support, as we grow-up. Father/elders mostly set direction

3.People/Relatives are friendly. And we get good support from every one as we grow-up.

4.India’s gurukul ( olden school methods) till linger in mind (from kings and rulers)

What is working due to Western Influence?

1.We were ruled and dictate by British and their culture a well as American culture is followed. Also Japanese also influenced western  people

British Culture

2.What Indians follow:

a.TQM – Total Quality management 

(management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes)

b.JIT  – Just in Time policy (Lean):

Just in time (JIT) is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs. To meet JIT objectives, the process relies on signals or Kanban

c.Balance score card

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategy performance management tool – a semi-standard structured report, supported by design methods and automation tools, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions

d.Business Process Management

Business process re-engineering is a business management strategy, originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization

e. Management by Objective (MBO)

Management by objectives (MBO), also known as management by results (MBR), is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization in order to achieve them.

e.And many others

What is not working due to Western Influence?

1.Short term goals and vision

2.Hire and Fire policy

3.360 degrees appraisal system 

In human resources or industrial psychology, 360-degree feedback, also known as multi-rater feedback, multi source feedback, or multi source assessment, is feedback that comes from members of an employee’s immediate work circle. Most often, 360-degree feedback will include direct feedback from an employee’s subordinates, peers, and supervisor(s), as well as a self-evaluation

4. Open door policy: 

What Indian’s need?

1.Friendly bosses and atmosphere

2.Long term employment 

3.Good career path

4.Clear direction and Parental family kind of culture

Final words

Hope you have like this, please feel free to comment. 

Technical Ladder VS Management Ladder

Technical vs Management  ladders

Technical ladder :

This is one place, where  cluster of jobs where technical skills are utilized to meet technical   capabilities  of the project or work.

Management ladder:

This is more on people management, not much on technical stuff, more on deliveries and team management. 

The above two roles can be considered for any industry (manufacturing, chemical, petrol chemical and so on) in addition to software industry.

Ideal  of Dual Career Path

Texas Instruments and chip maker firms 

Dual ladder in practice. 

This is my thoughts on how this actually works. Also this is also can be implemented, where ome times both ladder can be equal.

In product firms also start-ups like Facebook, Google, Quora, Microsoft and all, you can find great “technical leads” available, with a great potential to solve technical problems and design problem a well

Some of Job Descriptions on Technical Manager 

1. The Technical Team Lead should have deep knowledge and practical experience in software design, from design concept creation to development and release and possess excellent communication abilities. 

2. Fantastic opportunity with leading Investment banks across India, who are looking for Passionate Technologist having hands on coding and development experience.


3. Will lead the team of functional, technical consultants in the functional areas/s of SD, FICO, MM, HCM, Project Systems, BI, BO etc.

4. Architect with 12yrs of overall experience. Strong in technology architecture and design of complex, enterprise-level applications and systems.

6+ years of relevant J2EE enterprise architecture, data architecture experience

Required qualities of Technical ladder?

1. Highly tech savvy in terms software tools an technologies

2. constant  technical problem solver

3. People consider this person has “Technical Evangelist”

4. Person, who would software architecture in-around system firm is working on

Required qualities of Management ladder?

1. People Management

2. Budget an deliveries

3. Staff issues

4. Project life cycle management

Which one is better?

1. Base on your capability

2. If you are having  technical skills, not keen on “People Management” consider technical

Please feel free to comment on this article.

Credits: onepetro, TVG, VinayD

Managing Harry – a knowledge worker

Managing Knowledge worker 

In the era of Internet/Face book generation, technology is changing. Have written articles on “team member“

1.Who is Knowledge worker?

The following are skills of Knowledge worker [1]

Knowledge worker skill

Following are few pointers for effective leadership and management

2.Managing knowledge worker is key. 

In media player project, we had always had great team. One of my team member was inducted has good reference from my senior colleague. This person has later become star performer. We could not believe speed at which he has contributed.

Cannon Media Player project

Believe me this is not easy one.In Texas handheld firm, we have hired intern from American university. He created wonders in the work.

Telxon Handheld scanner

As knowledge people need good work environment, also infrastructure needed.  Google, face book and great infrastructure and freedom for theses teams enhancement.

If you have great people like Jeff Dean and rock-stars , you have to be extra efforts in providing right environment to stars.

3. Respect the individual/Team

Every one is expecting respect in work they are doing. As the team grows and work increases and complexity increases, Managers responsibility increases.

It is always better to have good roles and responsibilities.  Have leads for each team, who can take care of team.

4. Employee Motivation

• Keeping employees motivated by monitory benefits and infinite learning.
• As manger you have to distribute your responsibility, in addition to current aligned task.
• Employee needs constant motivation and need the work on the particular task in particular fashion.

5. Organization connectivity 

How will organization and employee is connected? 

• It is mandatory to have leader or managers to help teams to achieve what they want.
• This will help everyone to grow in the project and firm. 
• Unless employee is aware the Roles and responsibility, he/she can achieve a per goals of organization 

6. Challenge the team 

As a lead you must expose develop the team in known area. Always bring in external team, if current team has some issues in understand.

8. Different strokes for different folks

Using Situational leadership: According to Kenneth Blanchard (author of one minute manager),  Leadership style goes beyond traditional autocratic or democratic leaders.

8. Teams creation is art.

Need to select right tempo people/members. Wrong selection of team members will throw out balance of the project boat.

Need to involve team in any decisions.  Need to have team support in-order have good execution.  Always keep good discussion before hiring/firing decisions.

9. How do you treat people?

Treat them like you want them to be treated. No explanation required here.

10. Power, position, capacity will keep on changing.  

• Keep your ego out of back of pocket.
• Unless you have team buy-in and support, otherwise you will be lone-ranger.

11. Job rotation is key.

 Keep having rotation either employee initiated or project initiated.  End of the day team member to be benefited.

Your comments and suggestions are needed.

Reference:

1. Knowledge worker skills http://f2.washington.edu/fm/edp/kwskills
2. Pictures (copy rights of respective owners)

What Color Is Your Parachute?

Is your resume/CV good?

 The moment I thought of writing something Resume/CV, I realized a great book of job search is here.  This is “Dale Carnegie” kind of self-help for the job hunters. This book is also constantly being revised to suite with times. This will help the job searcher to get on hold what needs to be done, in job hunting.

Keeping this aside, let us digress on the intended title/main heading.

Resume –  A business card

1. It should give a quick info on what you are , what you have accomplished

blogger, writer, Author

Chief Technologist(cloud computing)


2. Avoid in first person

3.  Summary of Resume would help

Worked on  “Sales Tool Automation” software in Java/.Net 

4.  Re-write resume from scratch:

This help to keep the flow in resumes.  Many years ago you might be software engineer, now you might be “program manager”

Rewriting will help you write with fresh perspective.

4.  You resume should have skill-sets or keywords to get a telephonic call.

Content writing,  blogging, creative writing, Marketing 

5. You have just 10 secs to get an attention

10, 9, 8 ……….

Better , create a clean resume, not less nor more.

6.  Write on what you have accomplished

7. Do spell-check

8. Mention your publications, blogs , PhD and training program

9. Publish less contents on job portals, so that recruiter will come back and ask you for detailed resume.

10. Avoid listing same jobs you have done in particular firm , you can group them

Plumber at  Home depot, Johnson controls ,  Macy’s 

11. Be a salesman

Had enhanced department revenue by 50% in two years

12. Stand-out in crowd

13. Mention Skills, tenure, Education Goals, work ethics and so on

14. Do not write “auto biography”

15. Write what you did, and mention precisely about the projects/work you have done

Build Barnes/Nobel store, Painted Amazon sales office 

16. Get it reviewed by friends

17. Write in simple English, so that recruiters can understand and it will go through right teams

18. Do-not use current firm jargon, convert it equivalent  industry terminology

You might have worked “wolverine” internal code project for “SBAS” , instead expand “SAP based Accounting system”.

19. Edit number time, until you got good formatted resume

If this is useful or you want suggest, will gladly accept modify the contents.

Learning Organization

Learning organisation

A learning organization is the term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself

1. System thinking

a. System thinking may be high-level view what we need to build as a organization

b. If you are start up environment your team should able to document what we are doing. What customers want?

c. In product or service firms need to have set-process which will help.

 

d. Here scope of work, everything must be crystal clear.

2. Personal Mastery

Here individual to master the process, this may be organization process or industry process. This might have including business and product modelLearning organizations should be able to setup process and create organization to help individuals to accomplish their goals.

Management should be able to provide guidance of organizations strategy.  Without strategy it is like driving somewhere.  And ever effort you put in does not help anyway

 3. Mental models

These are may be block diagrams or process flow charts, which helps individuals to work on.

4. Shared vision

Here organisation is built around employees. And its a common vision from  across the organisations.  It helps to build a organisations where every one works  at same level.If there is no shared vision and values are followed , organization will become like below traffic.

5. Team Learning

The development of a shared vision is important in motivating the staff to learn, as it creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning

Disclaimer:  concept and some of picture are from Wikipedia and other organizations.

One Minute "micro" Manager ……

In your experience you might have seen people , who care for very minute details in work , family life or business.

source: http://www.kraniumhr.com

1. Few people are born such a way that, everything they would like to track.  At my relative place,  this person, wants to do control every minute at home. How to turn on the tap/close that tap an so on. This needs a great skill.

Source: http://www.forgetlimits.com

2. If you are controlling every steps, like you spoon-feed or each step of a kid. In my opinion  we have to let  go and provide freedom from working/managing.

3. People constantly fear some unknown thing will happen, if minute details are not reviewed or captured. 

4.  Micro-manager is  24/24 hours person. He/she is always at work or working

 

5. Micro management is ok, when there is very crucial work, but not always

source: www.wardwired.com

6. Micro manager would not value people or he/she thinks, unless they involve, no task can be completed.

7. People/Management will do micro-management, when they fear particular task is not completed. If you do not distribute your time across the board, other things will fall-out-of-place

I guess this is enough to give you my feelings .

Know your Manager/Boss

In career spanning many years, had worked with variety of bosses and managers. You would see these traits in your experience.   Some of the below are based on what heard/seen in my career.

1.Friendly manager

This term is just coined by me, you can see the the below pictures, where you can understand these people are collaborative. Team like’s them very much. 

 

American way of open-management helps lot. Things are done collaboratively, team can be stressed very less. 

 

As manager goes-up the ladder, they would learn to help teams, and teams will be able finish the task with good productivity and success.

 

They know teams well, and involve in problem solving at hand than creating more troubles to team.  One of manager was always at work,when people approach him with major issues, he used provide solution or show the path to complete the task.

When some one is friendly/co-operative, team will also try to open-up discuss issues with them. He/she is like friend who helps you to accomplish things.

One of earlier firm Sr VP, was so approachable, and have very good connections at all levels. In room of 20 people, this person able to guide on BOM/Software, which one to use, who will be the contact point for issues resolution.

We always have great manager, efficiently manage teams, and work.

2.2.Toughest boss:

This kind bosses are very problematic.

Common symptoms:

1. Micro-managing :  Micro managing at the slippage on the tasks or at the time of very  complex project is ok, but not always .

These person needs to to daily reports/hourly reports. Log-in/log-out reports of your and entire team.  These  will create more problem teams, teams are busy making reports an sending status reports as always.

2. Bosses who complain on every issues:

3. Passive Aggression: Un provoked attack on people for no-reason, constant verbal/e-mail attack

Some bosses are very tricky, they would need you to memorize mission, vision, Sales target/team size/ average team age and so on . Welcome to kinder-garden school 🙂

With tough bosses, people would not open-up, and teams would be afraid to approach, and  the problems will be more.

Please share feedback, and also let me know if any other type you can add?