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My column at CIOUpdate was published today and the topic is Leading Smart IT professionals.

The focus of the article is how to recruit and manage people smarter
than you (basic requirement to build a powerful organization)

Cheers!

I am sure you have a lot of close friends. The question is how many of these folks are in your “100% Trust Network.”
A person is in your “100% Trust Network” if you trust him come what
may. It is not a simple “trust” that you extend where it really means
“I trust you 100% as long as you don’t screw up.”  In other words, it is sort of an
un-conditional trust.

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to be extremely careful
in choosing who to put in the “100% Trust Network.” Once you put
someone there, let them know that they are in your “100% Trust Network”
and what it means. What happens next is simply amazing. This friend now
knows that if he inadvertantly makes a mistake or slips up, he does not
have to bend backwards to get back into your good books. It’s a sort of
a freedom that will get him closer to you.

Sometimes we all err and if it takes a long time to mend a small error, it drains us.

As always I have to say that always be trustworthy so that lots of people will put you in their “100% Trust Network.”

Have you participated in a boxing contest before?

I bet most of you will answer “No” to the above question. That’s if you
take the question literally. This was of course a trick question. Let
me explain why we play and mostly lose in the boxing contest almost
everyday.

When you meet someone for the first time and you start to get to know
each other, the first few minutes go by with each one giving an
individual elevator pitch to the other. Let’s paint a scenario here.
Jack meets Janet and they start talking. Jack explains who he is and
what he does for a living and Janet does the same. While Jack is
speaking and giving his spiel, Janet is very busy in her mind trying to
“box” Jack with something. She is basically looking for some keywords
“Software Engineer”, “Attorney”, “Project Manager”, “Doctor” something
that will make it easy for her to remember. Don’t worry Jack will do
the same for Janet. It’s a real “boxing” contest.

By the way there is nothing wrong with this approach. Let’s not blame
Jack and Janet - we are all victims of this in our daily life and we
are all guilty of doing this to others. It makes sense too. Here’s why
- When Janet finishes her meeting with Jack and later meets an old
friend Paul, Janet wants something easy and simple to explain who she
met. It’s easy to say “I met Jack for coffee and he is a software
engineer” than give the whole spiel she heard from Jack.

There is hope though. If Jack and made a compelling elevator speech,
something that is memorable and remarkable, Janet would be compelled to
say a few more words about Jack. In effect, Jack would have won the
“boxing” game.

I have to say that this requires more than communication skills. They
are necessary but not sufficient. You need to be working on something
that is remarkable or be remarkable yourself.


Summary: You are constantly
being “boxed”. Work towards something remarkable so that you are always
ready to win the boxing game. Learn to communicate well and be relevant. Make it a point to give a compelling elevator speech.

One of the questions in a recent interview was “What is your yardstick of success” and I remembered the above sentence and that was my answer to the question.
(Disclaimer: It’s not me who coined this phrase but I don’t remember who said it first)

Think about that for a second. Most of the time it’s easy to impress
someone who you met recently. They don’t know you and when they get to
know you for the first time - what do they hear? All your success
stories and achievements and how you are very good at that and how you
are very good at this. Simply speaking you will put your best foot
forward. Since the relationship is only luke warm, there is no
discussion about topics that will make you uncomfortable either. So you
are freely talking.

Now think about people that are close to you. They know a lot more
about you than others. There is no question of you putting the best
foot forward. You can try. But these people know your best and the
worst. So, if people that are close to you have to genuinely love and
respect you, you must be “special”. If you want to continue to gain
respect from people that are close to you, it requires special effort.

Some of the things that come to my mind immediately are:
* You can’t PRETEND to be good; you MUST be good
* You can’t PRETEND to care; you MUST care
* You can’t PRETEND to be honest; you MUST be honest

Of course, there are many more. I am sure you can create your own to-do list to continue to gain respect from people that are close to you.

Sumaya Kazi and her team do a great job of producing an online newsletter called The Cultural Connect. The Cultural Connect showcases one professional and one non-profit every week.

This week, I am honored to be profiled there.

Please take a look at the interview when you have a moment.

Thanks.

Go back about one year ago in your life. Imagine this scenario - you
put all the smart people (remember SMART!) that you know and can
influence on the ground. You go up on a plane about one “mile high” in
the air. If you look down from there, you will see an area covered by
these smart people. Let’s call that area “Mile High Factor”. Mentally
note down the size of this area

Fast forward to today and repeat the exercise. Look at the “Mile High
Factor” today. Was it better than before or worse than before. If
better, how much better. The speed at which your “Mile High Factor” is growing can be one indicator of your progress.

Since you Mile High Factor does not automatically grow, you have to work towards growing it diligently.

What could you do to grow your “Mile High Factor” next year?

I am attending two events in the next few days and I am excited about
both of them. If you are there, I look forward to meeting you all

1. “Follow your passion“
   Organzier: Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP)
   Date: October 29 - 30

   
2. “Global Opportunities in Technology Enabled Services“
   Organizer: Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Association (SIPA)
   Date: November 12

Both conferences have a solid line-up of speakers and I look forward to participate, teach and learn.

Planning is important but without timely execution, no plan will make sense.

“Imagination is more important than Knowledge”
                   
 
                              
- Albert Einstein

Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” said
everything happens twice - once in your mind and once in reality.

It is easy to follow than to imagine. But anything that’s easy won’t
make you special. While there are a lot of people who complain about
what is wrong with the current scenario but only a few can imagine
“what could be” a better scenario.

The higher you are in the organization, the more you have to imagine.
If that’s true, if you need to start moving higher up in the
organization, you need to start imagining NOW!

Questions to ask yourself:

Yesterday I wrote about the need to handle criticism with grace. I got a few emails and one of my friends suggested something that resonated well with me.

When a person is criticized, typically its a “disapproval of something”
that the person has done. However, the person criticized can’t
dis-associate himself from something he has done. He thinks its a
“disapproval of him” and naturally he launches into defend or attack.

Something to think about!