In Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, Maria Konnikova explains how neurologist Marcus Raichle learned, after decades of examining the brain, that our minds are wired to wander. Whenever our thoughts are suspended between specific, discrete, goal-directed activities, the brain reverts to a so-called baseline, ‘resting’ state—but don’t let the word fool you, because the brain isn’t at rest at all.1 What this implies for business leaders is: they need to focus on the present moment, the only one we can really live in, to be truly effective.
Leadership can be defined as the process of influencing an individual or a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. In order to be effective as a leader, one has to be able to get work done by being able to understand her people, their feelings, desires, and then work towards aligning those with the work she has in mind for them. Command and order are the last resort for an effective leader. The big challenge for any leader thus is in understanding what drives her people’s feelings and behavior. She needs to be able to hear the unheard and take corrective actions proactively. One of the qualities that enable great leaders to lead their people well is ‘mindfulness’.
Imagine you have had a busy and exhausting day at office. You had asked your colleague to get a particular work done in the morning. As you enter the office, after a long and difficult meeting in the evening, you see a file kept on your table and the work not done. You feel overwhelmed and angry. You think your colleague is making an excuse and is not helping you at work. You react by shouting at her and doing work in anger. The next round of emotions and thoughts are more likely to be even more negative. The downward spiral continues.
The above-mentioned sequence of events can be well understood using the ‘automatic cycle of behavior’ (refer Exhibit 01 below)
This story is from the November-December 2017 edition of The Smart Manager.
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This story is from the November-December 2017 edition of The Smart Manager.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
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Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
