Managing Companies to Success Using Dashboards

A short visit:

I saw Tony Starks coming out of the airport terminal looking exactly like I had seen him 10 years ago. He is 6 foot 4’ and built like Iron Man himself. He was looking sharper than usual even after an 8 hour plane ride from Europe to India. Starks Enterprise had signed a big agency for the European operations and Tony had come to launch it. Tony had just been named CEO of Starks international after his father’s unexpected demise. Tony is in the services industry and had started working with Vantage Agora as a customer only a few weeks ago. He was coming in to see how the project was taking off before he got completely caught up in his new role. Tony and I worked together in the past. I had come to respect his incredible creativity and brain power in terms of software development. I had also come to respect the fact that Tony was a self made man before he went and joined his dad in his family services business. In under five years Tony had helped grow the sales of the organization grow from a $23 Million to a $456 Million. For the last year plus sales had stalled because of the relentless economy. The pressure on margins had become so high that Tony had engaged with Vantage Agora back-office service and started his own team with Vantage Agora to leverage from the cost benefit and process efficiency we bring to the table.

On a side note, when we worked together Tony was the one that introduced me to golf. Not only did he introduce me to the game but also taught me the finer points of the game.

Lack of Accountability or Lack of measurement:

We were in the office early next morning at 7:00AM sharp. After a six straight hours at the office we headed out in the mild December afternoon towards my golf club. In Bangalore the weather is beautiful year round but in December it is especially nice between 60 and 70 degrees. On a weekday at 1:30PM in the afternoon there was literally nobody on the course. In India you have the luxury of having caddies that carry your bags. This gave both of us to catch up on varied topics of life and business.

The first hole is a short par 5 which I managed to double bogey while Tony true to his form managed to par with a great sand save. I grumbled to him that his business must have taken off really well and that he is getting to practice even after taking on his new responsibilities. That is when Tony actually confessed that he has been having issues. I casually enquired what kind of issues.

To this he replied, “Oh! It is the usual thing I guess. On one side I have the old timers that are not big on any automation and change. Now they are opposing every change that I want to bring about. On the other side I have people that have no accountability. They all seem do to the job for the sake of doing and don’t seem to care about anything. All they are interested in is how secure their job is and how much raise will they get. I am really sick of all this because I have a great feel for my customers and business but I have no idea what is happening on the floor. It seems that I am running at 100 miles/hour and the rest of company is running at 99 miles/hour but in the opposite direction. Bottom-line there is no accountability at all in my organization.”

I just thought of how typical this problem was with literally every company we meet. Not just in mid-sized or small companies but even in larger companies. Most senior managers believe that their systems have failed them or their employees have failed them. They say this when they themselves don’t use the same yardstick to measure both themselves and the organization. I must not have realized but must have started to smile. Obviously Tony was not amused and challenged me. “You think this is funny. I am here trying to ask you for your help from all your executive consulting background and you are mocking me. Nice!”

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About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

'Operating Rhythm' why you should know this word if you really care about your companies success

Operations Operating Rhythm

Many moons ago, I was new to managing teams. I was struggling from being relegated down from a 'top individual performer' to a 'newbie manager'. I looked around the organization to see who I could learn from. That is when I first observed how my friend Jack (Today, he is the CEO of a fortune 1000 organization in the mid-west. He is also a musician and plays the guitar in his spare time) managed his teams. He would run his organization and his life like a music orchestra. Everything was done with great ease. He never seemed to be rushed, he was kind in his conversation, organized in his thought, & detailed in his work. Everything about him and his teams seemed to have a rhythm. 

I was fascinated and looked into how he was able to achieve this. I asked him to tell me his secret. He said, "It is really simple Harsha..."

"...when you run any organization or project, you have plans that you want to execute. You also have issues that you need to overcome. When I meet an issue, I ask myself "Is this important & urgent? If it is, then I drop everything and take care of it immediately. But if it is.....

Please click here to read more.

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: Do you bleed VA red and black? How it can help your career

“What on earth are you talking about?” Bleeding red and black means that you put your team and company interest ahead of even your own. That is when they you say “you bleed red and black” (Since Red and Black our company colors). But why is it important for your career to bleed ‘Red and Black’? and what makes us bleed red and black?

What does it mean to bleed Red  and Black?

It is a notion of being true to one that we all believe in the organization. At VA is ‘Doing one thing and doing it better than anybody else in the world’. But how do we do this? What does it mean to be better than anybody else? For this let us look at some great people that have achieved amazing heights and have become the best in the world in their fields. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandala, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, come to mind. What do they have that we don’t? They did not have anything more in terms of money, benefits, extra ordinary gifts. Yet they came out ahead because they refused to believe in limits that people had set on them, they took every opportunity that they got as their first and their last, they believe that everyday that they would meet obstacles and they and they alone were meant to remove these hurdles and move the limits of their field to a new level. Putting their teams ahead of themselves meant that they tried their hardest and did whatever it took to get their team ahead without wondering what would happen to them. Because they all did understand that by doing the best to their team they would be rewarded more than one can imagine. 

If you try this yourself, by simply working everyday like it was the last, like your life depended on it, you succeeding in any task, you undertake. You too will become the best at what you do. With this mindset and your thoughts, your intentions, your actions will benefit the people, company, society around you. With this mindset you will ‘Bleed Red and Black’.
Let us all strive to ‘Bleed Red and Black’.

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc. has made him an expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: Can a cost mindset help your career?

YES! It is a known fact that a cost mindset can improve careers very quickly. It is critical that you and every person around you believe and work with a mindset “Every dollar saved is every dollar earned”. Let us look at how this attitude helps your career:

• You save money for the company
• The company can reduce the costs of its services to its customers
• This will mean that our company services cost less than the competition to potential customers
• This will result in more customers signing up with VA

Meaning, you will grow in your career (I am assuming that your leadership in cost savings and quality of work has impressed your leadership that when there are new opportunities of growth they will select you)
For all those that feel “This will all take a long time. Why should I bother?” Think again. It is a proven fact that an operational savings 5% of total costs can translate into 2 to 3% cost savings to the customer literally immediately. This can increase the growth of a company in less than six months!!!! That is a short time in a career of 40 years! Isn’t it worth trying it out?

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc. has made him an expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: A Shortcut To Getting Promoted

Short cut to promotion

In all these years I have seen that there is only one way of getting promoted and fast. 'Do your managers job'. I can hear people saying "What are you talking about???? This is not done!!!! My manager will think that I am taking over his or her role!” I have been working at different companies and seen people climb up the corporate latter very quickly because they the increased their 'locus of control'. Meaning they looked at what their managers wanted (where their  managers were hurting) and made it their business to go the extra mile to solve the problem before  they were asked to, without disrupting their managers plans for the team! "It is not that easy Harsha!" you say, "Give me an example of how I can do this"

Here goes…In one my previous jobs, our manager was a highly innovate, highly dynamic, micro manager of the nth degree. While he was a visionary he would do treat everyone as gophers. While most of the team members felt helpless and talked behind his back, one of the team members (Let us call her Jill) would just stick to her business and never indulge in loose talk. She knew the strengths and weakness of our manager. She would study what our manager did with the information that we provided him. She would then go the extra mile and analyze the data that we provided our manager to help him present the information to customer and his management alike.

Jill’s proactive attitude was so effective that very soon our manager would not take any major decisions without running it by Jill (while he continued to treat the rest of us like gophers!). Jill's work ethics, her view of the team problems and going above and beyond without side stepping our manager was so impactful that within a year our manager was promoted and Jill become our new manager despite being five years younger than the average team age and despite not having an MBA.

Jill’s attitude was so good and her work ethics were so incredible that today she is the CTO of a fortune 500 company in the world!

You can do the same! No two ways about it. The only way to grow is to provide more value to the organization.   Promotions are NOT automatic. Promotions are not about age or qualifications.  Great careers are all about providing   more value to the organizations and taking more responsibility when everyone complains about the problems!

Let us know the challenges you are facing in your teams and career. We are here for you.

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: The Best Way to Ensure that YOU Don't Get an Increment

No increment

"Who do you think is the one person that is most interested in your career in this company?" asked a very big burly dressed in a Armani suite man across a very expensive table. This was the Vice President of Airlines solutions at American Airlines. One of the people that made it to the top of American Airlines within no time at all. The person across the table from him was me. It was my first day at AA and I did not have a clue. I said somewhat  tentatively "You?".

He laughed heartily. He pointed his finger at me and said "YOU! Are the only person that is interested in your career here at American and anywhere else.

I was shocked, disappointed and felt like a cricket ball had just hit me on the head. In my exasperation I asked "But how?" 

Steve was not a patient person and perfunctorily said "Have you worked on your BSC?".

I really don't remember anything else. I just remember coming out of his swanky office and heading straight to the water fountain feeling betrayed that the company had let me down!

Let us pause for a moment and jump into some background information.

AA and most of the companies I have worked with from there on had a program for tracking your own career growth. This entire program was based on Kaplan's Balance Score Card (BSC) system. Where people were Managed By Objectives (MBO) using Key Result Areas (KRA) and a quantitative measure for measuring the progress in the KRA called Key Performance Indicators (KPI). "Ah, ha!" Sounds familiar?

"Why do they have these programs?" It is a simple structure to ensure that the entire company is aligned to the needs of the organization. From the top to the bottom!

In the BSC program the company goals are set based on the market conditions in the annual planning exercise. Each department in the company set their own goals, KRA and KPIs that are aligned to ensure the company goals. Based on the department goals we set the managers goals, and based these every employee. These KRAs become the fabric by which a company can be moved along much like a steering wheel to a car!

Let us ask the question again, "That is all fine Harsha, how does this relate to me"? Simple, on a monthly basis just make sure that you have a specific KRA. Usually about four or five (Guess what are the prime KRAs almost unilaterally across engineer?). Each KRA must have one or more clearly measurable task. You and your manager can go through this in your 1-1 (One on One) and fill in a simple one pager that talks about what you have done against the KRA and how you have performed.

I can hear the skeptics say, "What will that give me?", "How does this relate to what my increments?". Think about it, if you are going through with your manager and making sure that your KRAs and tasks are inline with the organization goals and that you are performing up to your expectations set by your manager on a month on month basis. You should be in good great shape to when you get to your annual review. If you feel you are not doing well in the first few months you can seek for help from your manager or from other quarters in the organization.

Let us jump back and conclude my tribulations,

After receiving a thunderbolt from Steve about BSC (KRA), I wobbled around to my mentor at the office to ask him what on earth Steve was talking to me about. He gently pointed me to the HR team who helped me realize that what he was saying (However curt :)) was absolutely spot on. I gradually realized that my career was entirely up to myself. By having a solid KRA/KPI and by pestering my manager to meet with me at least on a monthly basis (Where we actually talked about my KRA), I found myself in a pretty good position when it come to increments. Sometimes my increments were late, sometimes they were completely crazy (I was paid less than 11 of the 12 people that worked for me :)), I found that I was compensated fairly and for the value that I brought to the organization. Best of all, I could have a constructive meeting with my manage during my annual review that helped me immensely with my career. Steve had a way of cutting to the chase and because of him I had learnt a great lesson that has helped me immensely though my career.

Follow the simple guide lines that Steve give me:

1. You are the only person interested in your career

2. Make sure that you have a monthly KRA meeting with your manager (1-1)

You will be surprised how quickly you will start doing better in your increment meetings! For those that don't believe me, don't work on your BSC and you are sure to have a bad if not hopeless review meeting with your manager or HR. 

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: Closed Loop Communication

Closed loop communication

In the last few months we have talked about the value of good communication and how we have to practice a consistent, closed loop communication to make sure that our communication has the desired effect. I have personally talked about different forms of communication and how to improve upon communication.

A note before we start, good communication is like a good habit, once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. So go on and give some of these a shot.

1. The target: Remember when you are communicating with anyone please make sure that depending on the audience, the content and the style of communication changes. But the basic premise and structure remains the same. The usual people that we talk to at VA are: Customers, Individual, Management, Team (CIMT).

2. Purpose: What is the purpose of your communication? What do you hope to achieve?

3. Closed loop communication: This is a process where you respond to every communication in a way that will make the person that initiates the communication to acknowledge in a yes or a no.

4. Process: If someone sends a request on email/task/phone for a certain job to be done to you. Please make sure that you send me a response back saying that I have read it and will respond back to it today (or whenever you are going to do it). If it is something that you are promising to do everyday or every week, please make sure that you send a response out when you were not able to do it, telling the other person that you were not able to make it and you will take care of it at a certain other time. Ask if this is okay. You should again hear back a 'yes' or a 'no' as a response. This acknowledgement is critical.

Example: The first time I encountered closed loop communication was when I had an email exchange with a friend on some help that I wanted from him.

   1.  I sent this request over an email.

2. Within three minutes of sending the email I got an email telling me that he will take a look at the email and get back to me.
3. Within the next 24 hours I got an email on when he will complete the task.
4. The next day I got an email from him saying that he was going to be delayed by a day since something urgent and important had come up that would push this task out by a day. He asked me if I was fine with it. I responded that I was fine with it.
5. On the second day he kept me updated on the progress with a one line email saying "Things looking good, I am on the job. Right now I have finished the first half of it".
6. Then at 3:00PM on the third day (On the day when he had agreed to finish the job for me) he sent me an email telling me how he had completed the request and a full transcript of the proof of when he had closed this out.

I felt so great about this entire experience, that many years later when I was looking for a partner for the company I started I knew that I would request him to work with me. As you can tell this was one of the reasons for me looking out to work with him was the great experience that I had with his communication style.

There are many other areas where closed loop communication can be followed: I am looking for the management team to complete these sections below in the days to come.

1.       Action items:

2.       Follow up:

3.       Consistency and discipline:

4.       Brevity:

5.       Active vs. passive listening

6.       Passive aggression:

7.       Well left:

8.       Seek first to understand: Then to be understood

9.       Silence is stupid:

10.   Interrupting is disrespectful:

11.   High context vs. Low context communication:

12.   Smile: Even when you are on the phone. You can feel if a person is smiling. It is very important.

The modes of communication:

1.       1-1:

2.       Phone:

3.       Emails:

4.       Team (Huddle):

5.       Team (Presentation):

6.       Management (Reports): When generating: Make sure that everything is actionable. Make sure that they all report into the company KRA or metrics.

Reach them before they reach you:

Beyond what we have talked about there is one fundamental truth about communication that is true everywhere in the world, across regions, and languages. “If someone follows up with you for the status of any work that you are doing, you are NEVER going to have a good response”. On the other hand if you reach out and tell them proactively you can literally get away with anything! You don’t agree or believe me? Just look at the example listed below:

Conventional conversation:

John “Sam, I want you to please take project ‘X’ and complete it by Jan/15/2012”

Sam “ok. Will do”

Five days into the project Sam runs into heavy weather and knows the project is going to be delayed. But he is afraid that John is going to go ballistic and does not tell John hoping that things will get in the next two days. Then by the 7^th day he is trouble. He pushes out reaching out John for another day. By then John is concerned and follows up with Sam to find out how things are going. Sam says “Sorry for not keeping you posted. We are going to be delayed.”

To this John says, “Do you have a back-up plan? How many more days is it going to take? What am I supposed to tell my customers?”

Sam does not know the answers to this and says “I am not sure we will have to wait and see”.

This is John blows up and Sam starts to believe that John is a very bad person and John believes that Sam is a bad manager.

Eventually Sam does some magic and pulls the team together and with great effort gets the job done on time. But by then there is a lot of bad blood between the two people.

Reach out conversation:

John “Sam, I want you to please take project ‘X’ and complete it by Jan/15/2012”

Sam “ok. Will do”

Every-day at 6:00PM Sam updates his dashboard and reports to John what is happening with a link to the dashboard. On the third day he get a note back from John that says, “Don’t bother sending the email. I will review the dashboard”

On the fifth day Sam runs into heavy weather and knows the project is going to be delayed. Instead of hiding the information he updates the dashboard stating “Run into heavy weather. I have a plan to pull the project back on track in three days. No action required as yet from your end. Will keep you posted”.

Sam keeps John posted every day. By the 7^th days since he is still in trouble turns the project to Red on the dashboard and before John can check it calls him on the phone to let him know that he is having some issues and wants some help from John in managing expectations with the customer. John is concerned but understand and does his bit. Sam as in the previous case pushes does his magic and pulls the team together and with great effort gets the job done on time. All along he keeps John posted on the efforts and the progress.

End of the project John sends a letter to Sam’s manager that reads something like this “I cannot thank Sam and your team for going above and beyond their call of duty and taking care of the project in a timely manner even through there things beyond your control. We really like the way you work and want to award you the next phase of the project with time factored for such anomalies. Thanks again. Appreciate all the hard work.”

What was the difference in the two scenarios? Nothing at all!!!! It is just that Sam communicated better in the second case. He reached out before the checked back on the progress. This is the critical differentiator. 

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.

Career: Does Being Kind Mean Being Weak?

 kindness=weakness?

To write this article I played the word association game with the word "Kindness" in a business connotation with 10 people in the company. These were the words that I heard 'weakness', 'forgiving mistakes', 'someone we can walk over', 'impractical in today's environment', 'for the losers', 'does not fit into today's business environment'.

Are they right? Has the word kindness become a weakness in today's business environment? I completely disagree with them. Let me tell you why. 

Now let us look at this from my perspective. I have a fairly simple top down planned approach to work. I look at the company goals for the year and quarter and plan the work for what we need to do. I am almost religious about managing task lists with due dates, owners, and a clear articulation of the task. The due dates to most parts come from the people that commit to the due date. In just the last couple of years I have seen that 8 out of 10 times people don't deliver to the promise they make. Is this being kind? I think not.

I can hear cry's of exasperation. "What on earth are you talking about. This is absurd! This has nothing to do with kindness".

Let me tell you why it is. The basic premise of kindness is that it is a charitable contributions towards others and a knightly virtue. If this is right then, in business we have come to work to help the company do better. The only way to do this is to make sure that we value our words and commitments. This is by far the biggest problem that most of us face today. Nobody is kind to their own words and to their fellow employees. If we have any hope of becoming a great company we have to start by being kind. Kind to the promises that we have made to others. In case you are late or miss out on any promise, please make sure that you own up. Then go and fulfill your promise. Now, that is kindness.

Oh, yes! Then there is this other thing about kindness. Measure yourself by the same yardstick that you measure others! Sounds simple. But how may times have you broken it in the last 24 hours? (If you are like me, many times! Yet I try and will keep at it till I succeed) Kindness really boils down to accepting:

1. That we all make mistakes and when someone else does giving them the opportunity to own up their mistakes and giving them a helping hand when so that they can succeed. Sometime this might mean pushing them to succeed, sometimes looking at the yourself in the mirror and asking for help.

2. It is accepting that others (people, animals, plants) also have a right to live in this world and accepting them for who they are keeping up your promises with everyone you interact with including yourself.  

In conclusion, we have to 'Make kindness a way of life'. Kindness is a knightly virtue where you care about others. Let us practice kindness in our daily life by,

1. Making sure that we honor our word and promise.

2. Help others that make mistakes by imagining how you would feel when you made that mistake and how you would want to be treated.

3. Make sure that you smile, say thanks and please. And really mean it. It will come a long way in helping us become a happier and productive organization and better human being.

Many years ago, I met one of the most successful people both in terms of material success and values. His name is Mr. Bobby Lyle. He was one of my mentors at SMU and it has been 11 years since I completed my degree at SMU but yet he is there for me. Every time I meet him I come back a better human being and a better professional. If you want to learn more about Mr. Bobby Lyle, just google him. I am promise, you will be inspired. 

The first time I met him he gave me his business card. On the back of the card was written six letters that has changed my life for the better. It read, 'Make kindness a way of life'. From that day I have tried to make it a guiding light for my own life. I figured, if it was good enough for Mr. Bobby Lyle, it is good enough for Harsha Chaturvedi!

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SAS70 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as payroll, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.