#management lessons

Capt. Raghu Raman | The 32-Minute MBA From Indian Streets

Source | YouTube | JoshTalks

Capt Raghu Ramanhas possibly one of the most unique career profiles spanning over 25 years. He spent eleven years as an officer in the Indian Armed Forces, followed by another eleven years in the corporate sector before joining the Government as CEO of the National Intelligence Grid. In this talk, Captain Raghu speaks about India’s unorganized sector and what…

6 MANAGEMENT LESSONS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW. #3 IS PRICELESS.

Do

Attract, nurture, coach, and retain talent. Talk to engineers to tease out concerns early, then fix them if you can.

Communicate to every engineer the next most important issue for them to work on.

Be the tiebreaker when the development team can’t reach consensus.

Be the information hub. Know what every engineer is working on, and help connect the dots that wouldn’t otherwise get connected.

Provide administrative support. Schedule issues, coordinate releases, and make sure the bureaucratic machine keeps ticking.

Enforce behavioral and performance standards. Fire bullies and underperformers.

Don’t

Personally fix bugs and ship features. You have to write code to remain an effective tiebreaker, but that’s where your coding responsibilities end.

Supervise the quality and volume of people’s work. Software engineering isn’t an assembly line. If you find yourself supervising too often, you haven’t attracted the right people or given them the right incentives.

Rough Edges

People will push and prod to discover your boundaries. Knowing when to stand back and when to stand firm is half the battle.

Occasionally someone will push too far. When they do, you have to show a rough edge or you’ll lose authority with your team.

A firm “I’m not ok with that” is usually enough.

Don’t laugh things off if you don’t feel like laughing them off. Have the courage to show your true emotions.

If you have to firmly say “I’m not ok with that” too many times to the same person, it’s your job to fire them.

Unless you’re a sociopath, firing people is so hard you’ll invent excuses not to do it. If you’re consistently wondering if someone’s a good fit for too long, have the courage to do what you know is right.

Don’t let people pressure you into decisions you don’t believe in. They’ll hold you responsible for them later, and they’ll be right. Decisions are your responsibility.

Believe in yourself. You can’t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

From HN:

biztos

Protect your engineers' attention

kator

Provide resources

Provide direction

Provide Air Cover

3 Sports Victories that all Managers can Learn From

Wherever there is failure, there is a lesson to be learned. Wherever there is a success, there is an even better lesson to be learned, no matter where the victory happened. There is a good reason that good managers take lessons from war stories, sports victories, and sometimes even fiction – because no matter the field, management is management. Whether you are managing one of the biggest Super Bowl teams ever or managing a team at a paper office in Scranton, there are many management lessons that can be used without change. Coaches have a long history of taking lessons from corporate managers, to the point where often the teams sit down with business talkers to get in the right mindset. Let’s look at the other side of the coin; three sports victories that teach valuable management lessons for the workplace.

Leicester’s Amazing Win:

Those who do not watch soccer may not have understood why what Leicester did was so amazing and why all sports media was going crazy over it, but once they learn the story they are amazed as well. Soccer has different leagues – the top teams are in the premier league, then there is the second division, the third division, and so on. The worst teams at the end of the season are relegated to a lower division, while the best teams from the lower division make it to the better league.

During the 2014 season, Leicester was at the bottom of their league table, and there were high chances that they would be relegated. The team worked hard however, winning seven out of their last nine games, and managed to barely survive being relegated. Then the team was mired in scandal. A Leicester player, who was also the son of their current coach, made a lewd tape with prostitutes in Thailand. The worst part was the racist slurs him and three other players in the video kept screaming at the women. The tape leaked, which lead to the firing of all the players involved, as well as the coach. Surprisingly enough, this turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to Leicester.

To replace the coach Leicester F.C. brought in Claudio Ranieri.  When the next season started, everyone could see that Leicester F.C. was not a different team. However no one could have guessed the fairytale season they had. Leicester ended up winning the premier league, one year after they had barely survived being relegated from the same league. They had made no significant player signings – it was the team they had always had, except with a different coach. Another major reason was that while Leicester was playing at peak levels, some of the biggest teams were not having good seasons, and Leicester totally capitalized on the situation.

Management Lesson:

There are no bad teams, just bad managers. Yes, there are bad employees, and they can be blamed, but if the whole team is underperforming then the manager needs to change things up. Claudio Ranieri took the same team that the previous coach barely escaped relegation with and won the league title with it. His coaching allowed the players to perform at their best.

Niki Lauda wins again and again:

Niki Lauda is a legendary Formula One driver known not just for his driving skills but for his outlook and style as well. His story becomes even better in context; he was one of the top drivers along with James Hunt, a man who could not be more different than Niki if he tried. Niki Lauda was known for his excellent planning and management skills, while James Hunt was known as the person who would do what he felt like doing regardless of the conditions. Niki Lauda suffered a horrible accident where he was trapped inside his burning formula one car. Many thought he would retire but, amazingly enough, he was back on the race track in six weeks.

He was winning the season, and needed only one point to defeat James Hunt. The final race however was happening in dangerous conditions – unexpected torrential rain meant that there would be low visibility and a lot of skidding. The key players all got together to decide whether the race should continue or not. Niki wanted it to be postponed, but James Hunt and most other drivers chose to go on. Niki raced, but retires in just two laps because of the low visibility. James Hunt had problems too with his tires, but managed to finish third, barely winning the title. Niki would go on to win many more titles in the future.

Management Lesson:

The greatest lesson one can learn from Niki’s story is that you have to be cautious. If something seems dangerous, then it is sometimes better to stay alive for another battle instead of risking it all for a small victory.  You have to take risks, but not when the risk is that you will not be able to survive.

The Cavaliers and the Warriors:

This one is recent, but we are still amazed that it happened. Golden State was coming to the finals with the record for the best season ever. Everyone expected Cleveland to be steamrolled, and they almost were. With four games gone, the tally was 3-1 in favor of the Warriors. No team in the history of the NBA had ever made a comeback from 3-1. Golden State just needed to win one game, and they were having the best season anyone has ever had in the history of NBA. Yet, magic happened. Cleveland ended up winning all three, cementing their legendary status forever.

Management Lesson:

This one is simple. No matter how bad things seem, even if no one has ever done it before, it is still possible as long as you have the talent and the ambition. The Cavaliers went against statistically the best team in the history of NBA and still managed to beat them three straight games. So no matter how tough your competition seems, as long as your focus and determination is better than the competition, you can do it.

Chris Valletta is a award-winning entrepreneur, author, TV personality and former NFL Player. With a passion for using athletic-performance principles to achieve business success, Chris has developed an established track record of launching and scaling several multi-million dollar ventures. He is the Co-Founder of MISSION and author of “Team WORKS!” , a book that converges athletic principles with business success. Serving entrepreneurs as well as companies of all sizes, Chris is a sought-after speaker for top-tier universities, professional development programs and business teams looking for an edge in their performance.