Coach-Ram

The deadline for a deliverable is near. Your team is facing a technical challenge. While you are the Senior Delivery Manager, you have been solving technical issues for a large part of your career. What would you do now? - Schedule a team meeting and TELL them what to do - Schedule a team meeting and ASK them what can be done If you would choose option 1 and are always solving your team's problems, you're not helping, you’re holding them back. It’s tempting as a leader to swoop in and save the day. But real leadership isn’t about doing. It’s about developing. The best leaders don’t create dependency.  They build capability. As a Leader, here are three principles to remember: 1. Don’t outsource all of the critical thinking and problem  solving to yourself. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being the one with all the answers. Well, you were providing the answers not so long ago as an individual performer. However, you have a different responsibility now. You need...

Conflict on teams is inevitable. But here’s the real question: does it need to be resolved? Not always. In fact, the type of conflict matters just as much as how you address it. Some conflicts demand immediate resolution, while others can be channelled into creativity and progress. Knowing the difference is critical to leading a team effectively. At its core, conflict on teams falls into two categories: personal conflict and task-focused conflict. Personal conflict is what most of us think of first—tensions that get personal, unkind remarks, or behaviours that erode respect. Left unaddressed, this type of conflict undermines trust and productivity. Task-focused conflict, however, is entirely different. This is the natural tension that arises from diverse ideas and perspectives. It’s not a problem to be solved; it’s a tool to be harnessed. Handled well, task-focused conflict can propel a team forward. Let’s look at both in depth—how to resolve personal conflict and how to channel ...

There are many skills identified as essential for Leaders.  For example, coaching is an essential leadership skill because it’s easy to measure the impact of coaching and the number one-on-ones. It’s easy to draw a connection between the number of difficult conversations and accountability. However, there are some leadership skills which are underrated maybe because the direct correlation to business results is often a gray area.  When you specifically ask individuals about the impact of these skills on their work, the response is likely to be very positive but it’s challenging to point to them as the exact reason a team is successful. So, what are these underrated leadership skills? 1. Culture eats strategy for breakfast Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”  Drucker’s point was that no matter how advanced a company’s strategy is, its success ultimately depends on the culture. You can think of it like a game of cricket.  The coach and c...

 I came across these statistics recently: SHRM reported 30% of employees feel that their managers provide sufficient feedback and encouragement. Gallup found that only about 21% of employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. Mistakes and failures are inherent to every job. How a manager responds to it determines his/her effectiveness.  What is your typical response when your team member commits a mistake? A - Do you provide appropriate feedback and encourage the team member to learn from the situation and move forward? Or B - Do you form a perception about the team member and avoid giving him/her important work? Or C - Do you step in and rectify the situation for the team member? After all, you want the issue to get resolved since you are responsible for the results. If your answer is A, well done. You are an effective Leader. If your answer is B, you are part of the majority who get influenced by unconsciou...

I was speaking to a friend. He mentioned that his company had lost a significant business opportunity during the week. He was disappointed and as the Head of Sales, felt a sense of responsibility for the loss. During the conversation, he reminisced on some of his decisions and felt a sense of regret. That evening, I reflected on the conversation and related it to a few coaching conversations that I had where my coachees expressed a similar sense of disappointment. These are some suggestions which could work in this situation 1) Disappointment is the gap between our expectations and reality. Everyone has some form of expectations from self, from others and also from situations. Inevitably, when the outcome doesn't match the belief that something will or is likely to happen, it often creates negative feelings and emotions.  This suggests that if we have no expectations, we won't be disappointed. Easier said than done, right? As human beings it is natural to have expectations. T...

Effective leaders set a team’s tone, direction, and sense of urgency. While great leaders possess all kinds of skills and capabilities, one needs to be discussed more: assertiveness. Most Organizations are grappling with the challenge of their leaders lacking assertiveness in their behaviour. This is an issue because assertive leaders bring a sense of certainty in their behaviour eliciting trust in their team members and confidence in their senior management. To better understand assertiveness, it’s often easier to recognize what it isn’t. Leaders lacking assertiveness tend to be either passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive. Passive –  Passive leaders avoid conflict and aren’t sure of themselves. They beat around the bush when it comes to critical topics and struggle to get to the heart of what they want or need to say. This could be attributed to a sense of fear, lack of confidence, being over-empathetic and having a feeling of insecurity. Aggressive – Aggressi...

𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫e   𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 , 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 . Before anyone decides to follow your guidance or trust your decisions, they make a decision about you as a human being. Such decisions are based on whether they perceive you as someone who truly connects, who they can trust, who understands and cares about their needs, concerns, and aspirations. Trust is built over SIX components: - Empathy - Competency - Integrity - Consistency - Reliability and  - Vulnerability. All are important, But the order matters. So, always lead with EMPATHY . And that is what I would be elaborating here. These can be applied in the context of prospects and also your team members. E ngage Actively : Engage in active listening and open dialogue. Pay full attention to what others are saying, without judgment or interruption. Active L...

Over the years, we have been enlightened with theories on  Leadership and Organizations expect their Leaders to be adept at one or more of these. These theories highlight the need for Leaders to imbibe skills which are relevant to their context.  While there are a range of Leadership skills which get talked about, the one skill which has remained common across all Leadership theories is that of 'Listening'. Leaders that listen change the trajectory of their team and the quality of their relationships. T his is the most basic of skills but the irony is that even with ample opportunities to listen, most leaders aren’t very good at it.   Research shows only 13% of professionals have “effective” listening skills. Another study suggests roughly 60% of communication time is spent listening, yet most people retain just 25% of what they hear. Do you believe that you are an effective listener? If I ask this question to anyone, a majority would answer in the affirmative. And i...