Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Empathy In Business Leadership - Traits of A Great Leader

Daniel Goleman first introduced the concept of emotional intelligence to the business landscape after his international best seller, Emotional Intelligence, was a great success.  This new book was aptly named Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Goleman takes the position that every good leader's task is to prime a good feeling in those that they lead. That good feeling occurs when a good leader has the ability to create resonance - source of positiveness that unleashes the best in people. Further he emphasizes that the primal job of leadership is emotional.  To learn why emotionally intelligent leadership drives resonance, and thus performance, and how to tap into its power for the individual leader, teams, or entire organizations, I highly recommend reading Daniel Goleman's Primal Leadership - Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.

The four fundamental domains of emotional intelligence are:
1) self-awareness
2) self-management
3) social awareness, and
4) relationship building

These four domains are closely related and in order to be successful, a great leader must understand their relationship.  A leader who is not aware of his or her emotions cannot manage them well due to lack of self-awareness.  Their emotions are out of control and as a result relationships will suffer. In this post, I shall just focus on the relationship aspect of emotional intelligence and how empathy plays an important role in leadership. Dealing with emotions in the workplace is an skillful leadership trait and is easier said or written than practiced. Relationship management is not just about being a friendly person, it is about being genuine and authentic. For a leader, it becomes a powerful catalyst for resonance, once they are tuned in to the emotions of their teams they lead to fuel richer, more meaningful interactions.

Empathy You Me We Graphic

Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and it is also an artful skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions. It fuels deep connections. Business leaders who are empathetic are great active listeners. They are not just paying attention to what is being said  verbally, but also tuned into the non-verbal cues from their audience. They are able to probe deeper, understand purpose, and most importantly, summarize back key points of agreement and build rapport effectively with meaning.

Hence, to be a great leader, it is important to make the connection with the people you lead- genuinely at an emotional level - in order to foster strong relationships.  This in return builds rapport and becomes a powerful catalyst for resonance in bringing out the best in people.  In conclusion, I am sharing this short video clip on The Power of Empathy - A RSA Short by Dr. Brennie Brown. Dr.Brown is a research storyteller & professor at the University of Houston, TX. In this clip she demonstrates the key differences between empathy and sympathy and how one drives connection while the latter drives disconnection.


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Thursday, January 30, 2014

TED Talk Resource: Communication as an Art Form by Sangeeta Isvaran

For those of you that frequent my blog, you are familiar with my video postings from various resources around the web. Today, I am pleased to share with you a TEDx video clip presented by Ms.Sangeeta Isvaran. This is special for me, because Ms Isvaran was my senior in high school back home in India. She is an amazing artist and expresses herself through the traditional dance form of ancient southern India, Bharatnatyam. In this video she explains how she communicates with the people around her using non verbal facial expressions and how she utilizes this art form in the social work she is involved in globally. Hope you enjoy the clip and gain insight in to this art form. I would as always, love to hear your comments on this post below. Watch this TEDx Sairam Talk by Sangeeta Isvaran and share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Sunday, August 18, 2013

TED Talk Resource: The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar

This is a great video on the Art of Choosing. We have a lot of choices available to us and around us. How are we doing making choices? Is it easy? It is difficult? Why so? Watch this TED Global talk by Sheena Iyengar and be inspired and share your thoughts in the comments section below.



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Friday, October 5, 2012

3 Tips for Embracing a Client-centric Approach to Project Management


Earlier this year, ComputerWeekly.com published the Top 10 trends for Project Management in 2012 authored by LeRoy Ward. The one that got my interest was #9. "Client centric project management can outperform the "triple constraint". The three fundamental constraints in project management, often referred to as the iron triangle or triple constraint are: cost, time, and scope. The success of our projects and our roles as project managers is measured on how effectively these three metrics are managed. Are we capable to deliver the project successfully on budget, on schedule and within scope.

While we are so focused on the triple constraint, we sometimes tend to forget on the value proposition and customer perspective of the project. This can be detrimental to the health and success of a project when our client has a different perspective on the definition of project success. Hence, as we bring 2012 to a close and move forward into 2013, as project and program managers, we must actively listen to how our clients define as a successful project. We must learn how to engage stakeholders in discussions about project value and success, without having to wait until the end of the project to do so.

These three fundamental tips on client-centric approach to project management are a great starting point that will help you achieve consistent success on all your future projects.


client-centric graphic
Original Image Courtesy of FreeDigitalImage.com
Tip 1: Conduct a stakeholder analysis workshop: During the stakeholder analysis phase identify the names of your project stakeholders and their level of influence on your project. Assign either with a influence scale of 1-5 or color coded grid. Make it interactive by asking key questions relating to your project. Example: What does a successful project look like? What does the final outcome look like?

Tip 2: Maintain an updated Stakeholder Register/Journal: Once you have conducted a stakeholder analysis, don't just stop there. Make sure that you keep your stakeholder register updated. Even if you are just engaged in projects longer than six months, the chances are that you might have stakeholders join and leave. It is important that you keep the stakeholder register updated regularly. I maintain an electronic stakeholder register that can be easily viewed by all my project team members easily.

Tip 3: Facilitate a monthly or fortnightly "Listening Session": A listening session is where you invite your stakeholders to listen to their feedback and opinions on the project. If you have a large group of stakeholders, you may consider inviting your key influencers from the stakeholder analysis performed earlier. Listening sessions are a means of gaining valuable insight on the voice of your customer or client regarding your project.  This is not the time to get defensive or come up with answers on the spot, but it is an opportunity for you to listen and become better connected with your stakeholders. This is not a status update meeting.

Being client-centric is a journey and this transformation occurs over a period of time.  As we begin to embrace the client-centric approach on our projects, we shall start to see our customers's satisfaction increase steadily over a period of time.  The triple constraint now has a sibling - voice of the customer or client, and is taking a leap forward as the new quadruple constraint aka the four-legged stool.

I hope you find these 3 Pro Tips for Embracing a Client-centric Approach to Project Management helpful in managing your future projects. Do you currently embrace a client-centric model in your organization for project management?  If so, please share your experience in the comments section below.

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Monday, October 1, 2012

Data Visualization: Free WiFi Hotspot Locations in New York City

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to play with some fun data visualization tools. I must say of the ones I tried, I enjoyed working with Tableau Public the most! I created a simple visualization for the wireless hotspots in various New York city zipcodes. The dataset is among the several available on the New York City Open Data. It took me less than one hour to build a fun and simple visualization of the city's zipcodes with free (and fee-based) Wi-Fi hotspot locations. It is an interactive visualization. Please click on the graphic map below to be taken to the site. Give it a try and leave your  comments below.



I am currently using data visualization tools to create dashboards for my clients that helps them visualize their massive data in a simple, interactive, and cost effective way. Recently on the Forrester blogs, there was an article, "The Changing Landscape of Data Visualization Requires a Radical Approach" by John Brand, where he outlines the five triggers that might be contributing to this change. They are listed as:
1) Increasing volumes of data
2) Complex data relationships
3) Need for interactivity with data
4)Gamification (fun, playful and engaging simulations of boring data)
5)Cognitive computing (expression of data in compelling new ways)

Your can read the complete article on Forrester Blogs, a link is included above.

Do you currently use any data visualization tools in your organization? Which one do you use and what is the primary purpose? I would love to hear about it! Leave your responses in the comments section below.
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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Perfect Networker

I was invited to join this wonderful group. Another fine example of business social networking.

The Perfect Networker

LinkedIn Group

Perfect Networker - A Community Contributing to Your Success... One Connection at a Time.
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