Search Results for: leadership skills

“Crucible” Experiences Can Transform Your Leadership Skills

October 18, 2016 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

In Geeks and Geezers (2002), renowned leadership academic Warren Bennis and management consultant Robert Thomas interview 40 “geeks” (aged 21–34) and “geezers” (aged 70–82) to evaluate differences in their leadership values and success patterns.

The two groups vary in backgrounds, ambitions, and their role models. The geeks are more concerned with work-life balance than the geezers. The geezers formed their characters during the Great Depression and World War II and hence hold Franklin Roosevelt, Gandhi, Lincoln, Mandela, Kennedy, and Churchill as leadership role models. In contrast, the geeks tend to model themselves after their parents, friends, bosses, and co-workers.

Leadership “Crucibles”: Pivotal life-changing experiences that alter your thinking and actions

The statistics and analyses of geeks and geezers are a gross distraction from the book’s central idea: that all potential leaders must pass through a “leadership crucible” that provides an intense, transformational experience. Only after they “organize the meaning” of and draw significant lessons from their crucible experiences can they become leaders. They must also cultivate complementary leadership skills such as adaptive capacity and the ability to engage others by creating shared meaning, voice, and integrity.

All geeks and geezers interviewed by the authors had one thing in common: each had at least one leadership crucible. The authors explain that each experience was “a test and a decision point, where existing values were examined and strengthened or replaced, where alternative identities were considered and sometimes chosen, where judgment and other abilities were honed.”

The best leaders excel in their ability to create meaning out of adversity

Crucible Experiences Transform Leadership Skills Geeks and Geezers lays monolithic emphasis on the role of transformational crucible experiences in building leadership skills. The authors conclude that such experiences shape a leader; therefore, “great leaders are not born but made—often by tough, bitter experience.” The book implies that most leadership development initiatives (selection, training, mentoring, job rotation, etc.) are not as effective as they are touted to be. The book advises would-be leaders to develop themselves by seeking out crucible experiences at work, school, or in their communities to maximize their leadership potential.

One meaningful takeaway from Geeks and Geezers is a contemplative exercise: to reflect on some crucible experiences in the reader’s life and examine what he/she has learned from them. The reader may be able to create his/her own story and find his/her “leadership voice.”

Recommendation: Skim. Read the final chapter. Beyond the authors’ anecdote-heavy “research,” Geeks and Geezers will engage readers in interesting case studies of successful men and women who moved beyond the constraints imposed by trying circumstances and reshaped themselves. However, most of Geeks and Geezers lacks substance and practical application, especially in comparison to co-author Bennis’s bestseller On Becoming a Leader.

Pulling Off the Impossible Under Immense Pressure: Leadership Lessons from Captain Sully

May 25, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

I recently watched Sully (2016,) the overrated Clint Eastwood-directed drama about the US Airways Flight 1549 incident, aka the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

In summary, on 15-Jan-2009, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (played by Tom Hanks) heroically dead-sticked his Airbus A320 aircraft in New York City’s Hudson River after both the aircraft’s engines failed from a bird strike. He then helped get passengers and crew off uninjured.

Sully centers on Sullenberger’s post-decision dissonance. To spin the real-life six-minute flight and the 24-minute swift rescue into a 96-minute Holyrood extravaganza, the filmmakers devised an antagonist in the form of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators who try hard to blame Sullenberger for the mishap.

Overdramatized Portrayal of the NTSB Investigators

On the screen, the smirking NTSB investigators use flight simulators and computer analysis to second-guess Sullenberger’s lightning-quick decisions. They would have rather he made it to an airport nearby—a possibility that he had instantly judged was not viable given his 40 years of flying experience.

Contrary to Sully‘s portrayal, the NTSB was unequivocal that landing the aircraft on the Hudson was the right call. In his memoir, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (2009,) Sullenberger mentions that he was “buoyed by the fact that investigators determined that [first officer] Jeff and I made appropriate choices at every step.”

In the course of the real-life 18-month investigation of Flight 1549, the NTSB did investigate the odds of landing the aircraft in a nearby airport. Exploring all possible flaws that contribute to a crash is part of the NTSB’s charter. The NTSB, like other accident-investigation agencies, concerns itself principally with preventing future accidents. It rarely seeks to assign blame, nor does it make the pilots justify their actions.

Leadership Lessons from Flight 1549 and Chesley Sullenberger

The Complex Leadership Requirements of Flying

Apart from the sensationalized portrayal of the NTSB investigators, Sully misses the opportunity to call attention to the complex leadership requirements of aviation. Flying a civil aircraft is characterized by a high level of standardization and automation, while still placing a strong emphasis on formal qualification and experience.

Today, highly trained pilots have to work with ever more complicated and autonomous technology. The routinization must be weighed up against deliberate action. On Flight 1549, the A320’s much-studied fly-by-wire system allowed the pilots to concentrate on trying to resurrect the engines, starting the auxiliary power unit (APU,) and deciding the flight path in the direction of the Hudson. Airbus’s legendary computer controls will not allow the pilots to override the computer-imposed limits even in an urgent situation. Sullenberger and others have commented that lesser human-machine interaction may perhaps have allowed him a more favorable landing flare and helped him temper the aircraft’s impact with the water.

Aircrews now consist of ad hoc teams working together typically only for a few flights. They build their team quickly and rely on the crew’s collective knowledge and experience to round out the high levels of standardization.

Due to the complex demands for leadership in aircrews, specialized training programs such as Crew Resource Management (CRM) are in place to improve crew communication, situational awareness, and impromptu decision-making. These systems were established to help crews when technical failures and unexpected events disrupt highly procedualized normal operations.

Furthermore, individual and organizational learning from accidents was institutionalized through mandatory reporting of incidents—not only within the airline involved but also across the aviation community.

Leadership Lessons on Acting Under Immense Pressure: The Context of Success

Owing to intuition, experience, and quick coordination, Sullenberger was able to “land” the aircraft on the Hudson within four minutes following the bird strike and have his passengers and crew quickly evacuated onto the aircraft’s wings and onto rafts.

The rapid and highly complex coordination required for this extraordinary achievement was only achievable because of exceptional leadership, exemplary decision-making under stress, and the technical skills of both the cockpit- and cabin-crew.

The pilots were highly experienced—Sullenberger even had experience as a glider pilot. Further contextual factors—the calm weather on that afternoon and the proximity of NY Waterway ferries—helped bring this accident to a good end. All this facilitated the almost immediate rescue of passengers and crew from the rapidly sinking aircraft and the frigid water.

On another note, Sullenberger’s memoir, Highest Duty (2009,) is passable. The most interesting part of the book is the last fourth, where he discusses Flight 1549 and what went through his mind. Interestingly, Sullenberger writes that even after he realized that the plane was in one piece after hitting the water, he worried about the difficulties that still lay ahead. The aircraft was sinking: everyone had to be evacuated quickly. The passengers could survive only for a few minutes in the frigid waters of the Hudson.

Growing Your Career in Finance: A Look at the Most Essential Skills and Training

December 23, 2019 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

The nature, look, name, and value of money has already changed so many times, and it will continue to evolve in the future as well. However, the need to manage it has remained constant because the need for money management is a concept that is more reliable than money itself!

This is precisely why financial advisors, chartered accountants, investment bankers, and various other financial workers have never been the ones looking for a job, at least not the good ones anyway! However successful one is in this lucrative career of financial management can differ quite dramatically, based on the individual’s qualifications, aptitude, and innate/trained skills. Today, we are going to highlight a number of both essential and advanced aspects, which are crucial to making progress in the field of managing and growing money.

The Right Qualifications

Whether you are just starting out or you have been in the profession for a while, the idea behind the term “right qualifications” can be any training or skill development course that can help you at that specific point in your career. The definition of the right course is, therefore, highly variable, but in order to make progress, training, experience, and skill development in the right areas are all essential and continuous requirements.

All courses accredited by the CISI or the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment are globally recognised and respected. Which one of the many available programs is suitable for you depends on where you are exactly in your career at this time, and also your specific line of work.

To make matters less confusing, check out the best CISI accredited training programs on findcourses.co.uk, as this could help in finding the exact program which you need to advance from your present position in the industry. From a fairly basic CISI Investment Advice Diploma program to much more advanced courses such as the CISI Chartered Wealth Manager training, there are multiple career enhancement training options listed on the site for financial workers across all levels and fields.

Selective Variability Skills: Communication and Relationship

Now, if you go through random sites on the web, they will emphasise on the importance of financial workers being excellent communicators with amazing interpersonal skills. However, that may or may not be as significant, depending on who you are, the kind of job that you do, and your overall work setting.

No employer on the planet who is worth working for will employ an accountant for their ability to communicate because it’s an accountant’s ability to calculate and manage that matters more in respect of the job! Therefore, communication and interpersonal skills are secondary at best and only applicable in selectively variable circumstances, such as the ones listed below.

If your job description requires you to make sales/land clients as well
A financial mentor has to have supreme control over the necessary soft skills
If you are/want to be the owner of a firm; entrepreneurs must be excellent communicators and relationship builders
If you want to step up and assume more advanced, leadership roles in the future
If you, your clientele or your company feels that there is something lacking in your soft skills

To conclude, one would have to say that having excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills is always going to be advantageous, irrespective of the profession. However, completing dedicated courses to improve upon and develop those skills is only necessary when you have to deal with clients directly or if you have aspirations and ambitions beyond your current role. Completing a CISI accredited course in relevance to your position should still be a priority, but if you have high ambitions, soft skill development programs can prove to be quite beneficial.

Relevant Technical Familiarity

This is where things might get a little complicated, especially so for financial workers who completed their education years ago. Technology is everywhere these days, and it’s an intricate part of effective money management today. Although software did not replace accountants like the rumour mill was predicting, it has made things a bit confusing for older professionals who are less acquainted with evolving tech.

Make no mistake, modern tech has made accountants/financial experts infinitely more productive and capable. These are the tools on which the entire business of financial management relies on quite heavily these days. However, technology and software are constantly evolving, which can create a confusing scenario for many.

If you want to progress and stay on top of your game in finance today, it is highly advised that you take the training course/courses necessary to familiarise yourself with the most important and widely utilised tools in your specific field of work. If you neglect it, sooner or later, the knowledge gap will catch up and by then, it may very well be too late and too wide to fill!

An Innate Skill of Utmost Importance: Solving Problems

Not every financial professional is an excellent problem solver, but all successful financial experts are decent problem solvers, nonetheless. How successful they are in their respective careers will depend largely on how good they are at problem solving, After all, be it financial advising or chartered accountancy, they are all by definition problem solving jobs, both mathematically and practically!

Although problem solving is an innate skill, based on intelligence and aptitude, it is possible to sharpen it significantly with the right kind of training. However, it’s worth noting that if you are still a student who is looking at a career in financial management, do make sure that you have the innate tendency to solve mathematical and real-life problems frequently. In the absence of a basic inclination and ability, money management might not be the best career option.

Business Education

Aside from getting the necessary qualifications in your specific field of financial management, this would have to be the second most important training for financial career advancement. This will effectively eliminate the gap which separates core departments from the business itself.

An accountant for example, must understand business well enough to be able to do the job, butt that’s just a rudimentary understanding at best. It’s usually not sufficient to help them run the actual business. Even the head accountant in most companies have little to no idea about how to run the business, and that’s where business education comes in to fill the gap.

These courses are meant to turn experienced financial managers into potential entrepreneurs and business leaders of tomorrow. Even if you want to continue working as an employee, your chances of being promoted to the executive level will become much higher, because an accountant who understands both business and money is an asset by all means.

To sum it all up, the steps to career progression in finance can be divided into the following categories.

Acquiring advanced skills specific to the job
Estimation and sharpening of innate, relevant skills possessed by the professional
Staying updated with relevant tech
Expanding career horizons beyond the immediate

At least a majority of everything we just discussed should have some relevance to you, either as a working financial professional, or as an aspiring student. Either way, now you know the guidelines to follow, in order to meet your current and future goals for career progression.

Leadership: Stay out of the kitchen if you can’t handle the heat

April 8, 2013 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Leadership: Stay out of the kitchen if you can't handle the heat Not everybody is prepared to endure the demanding responsibilities of a leadership role:

It’s tough to challenge status quo and to pilot your organization forward into unfamiliar territory
It’s tough to be long-term oriented and to propose transformative ideas that may fall eventually short of expectations
It’s tough to see around the corner and to rely on gut intuitions to develop an “end state” vision
It’s tough to prioritize decisiveness over inclusivity and to take tough—and sometimes unpopular—decisions
It’s tough to resist the urge to settle and to avoid letting circumstances define your strategy
It’s tough to gain strong credibility and communicate the direction and priorities of your organization
It’s tough to face censure and be verbally graceful under fire
It’s tough to be decisive, to acknowledge setbacks, and to change course midstream, if required
It’s tough to rationalize seemingly irrational actions and to ask for resources
It’s tough to be tough-minded without being inflexible or insensitive
It’s tough to do the right thing while resisting the temptation to please your constituents
It’s tough to say no when you must; it’s tough to say yes when you can’t

If you cannot come to terms with the pressures of a leadership role, perhaps leadership may be the wrong kind of work for you.

It is acceptable to be an individual contributor; although you must still develop your leadership skills to succeed in any role in the modern organization.

Expressing regret or apologizing: A critical component of leadership

January 7, 2007 By Nagesh Belludi 2 Comments

Expressing regret or apologizing: A critical component of leadership

Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world’s leading executive coaches, will release a new book on leadership skills next week. In ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,’ Marshall focuses on interpersonal skills essential to lead people to get ahead in our careers.

In the current issue of the Business Week magazine, Marshall offers previews of two of the twenty critical interpersonal skills he covers in his book: (1) clinging to the past, and, (2) refusing to express regret.

On Refusing To Express Regret

Here are highlights of Marshall’s write-up on apologizing. Read the full article on Business Week magazine’s website.

Many of us have difficulty with expressing regret, or apologizing; we think apologizing means we have lost a contest. Refusing to apologize causes as much ill will in the workplace, and at home, as any other interpersonal flaw. [My note: I paraphrased the first sentence.]

Apologizing is one of the most powerful and resonant gestures in the human arsenal–almost as powerful as a declaration of love. If love means, “I care about you, and I’m happy about it,” then an apology means, “I hurt you, and I’m sorry about it.” It compels people to move forward into something new and, perhaps, wonderful together.

The best thing about apologizing is that it forces everyone to let go of the past. In effect, you are saying: “I can’t change the past. All I can say is I’m sorry for what I did wrong. I’m sorry it hurt you. There’s no excuse and I will try to do better in the future.” That’s tough for even the most cold-hearted to resist.

Making Mistakes is Human Nature

Expressing regret or apologizing We all err from time to time. Our reaction and follow-up to our errors and missteps reflects greatly on our character. Recognize your slip-ups, express regret and say ‘Sorry.’

Humbly admitting mistakes and apologizing is a critical component of leadership, both in our personal and professional lives. Admission of mistakes and careful distillation of lessons learned, in fact, can strengthen the bond between you and the people around you.

Leo Burnett on Meaning and Purpose

June 15, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Adman Leo Burnett (1892–1971) founded a global advertising agency that ranks among the titans of the trade. Burnett and the company that bears his name produced such famous brand icons as the Marlboro Man, Tony the Tiger, Jolly Green Giant, Maytag Repairman, and Pillsbury Doughboy.

Advertising Executive Leo Burnett's Valedictory Address on Meaning and Purpose Burnett pioneered the ‘Chicago School’ of advertising, wherein product campaigns centered on the inherent appeal of products themselves. Burnett’s advertisements used meaningful visuals to evoke emotions and experiences. This approach contrasted the time-honored use of catchy catchphrases and clever copy describing the products’ features. The models in Burnett’s campaigns resembled ordinary people rather than celebrities.

“When to Take My Name Off the Door”

After 33 years at the helm of his company, Burnett officially retired at age 76. He delivered a remarkable valedictory (film clip,) reminding his colleagues of his advertising agency’s core values and its high creative standards.

Let me tell you when I might demand that you take my name off the door.

When you lose your itch to do the job well for its own sake—regardless of the client, or the money, or the effort it takes.

When you lose your passion for thoroughness…your hatred of loose ends.

When you stop reaching for the manner, the overtones, the marriage of words and pictures that produces the fresh, the memorable, and the believable effect.

When you stop rededicating yourselves every day to the idea that better advertising is what the Leo Burnett Company is all about.

When you begin to compromise your integrity—which has always been the heart’s blood—the very guts of this agency.

When you stoop to convenient expediency and rationalize yourselves into acts of opportunism—for the sake of a fast buck.

When your main interest becomes a matter of size just to be big—rather than good, hard, wonderful work.

When you lose your humility and become big-shot weisenheimers … a little too big for your boots.

When you start giving lip service to this being a “creative agency” and stop really being one.

Finally, when you lose your respect for the lonely man—the man at his typewriter or his drawing board or behind his camera or just scribbling notes with one of our big black pencils—or working all night on a media plan. When you forget that the lonely man—and thank God for him—has made the agency we now have—possible. When you forget he’s the man who, because he is reaching harder, sometimes actually gets hold of—for a moment—one of those hot, unreachable stars.

THAT, boys and girls, is when I shall insist you take my name off the door.

Idea for Impact: Leaders are Meaning-Makers

Burnett’s valedictory is a potent reminder of the power of meaningful organizational values and a leader’s role in upholding his company’s principles-based DNA.

Organizational values are at the heart of the long-term success of a company. When these values grow fainter, the company may no longer reflect the intended culture. The organizational values will no longer clarify, inspire, and bind the company’s customers, employees, partners, investors, and other stakeholders.

As the steward of a company’s culture, a leader is responsible for institutionalizing—not merely individualizing—a sense and meaning in the workplace. And, as Burnett demonstrates, an effective leader passionately expresses what the company stands for and shares personal lessons learned in that process.

Burnett’s name is still on the door.

Enabling the Highest Degrees of Understanding // Book Summary of Howard Gardner’s ‘The Unschooled Mind’

June 27, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Traditional Schooling Fails to Teach Kids to Ask the Right Questions

In The Unschooled Mind (1991,) Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner makes a persuasive case for why even the brightest students often lack a deep understanding of what traditional schooling purports to teach them.

According to Gardner, students (in elementary schools to graduate colleges) may take exams and earn degrees, but their supposed knowledge turns out deficient in situations that are at variance from the “text-to-test” framework in which they learnt it. To some extent, this disconnect is an outcome of teachers’ settling for “correct-answer compromises” whereby students take the rote repetition of facts, formulas, concepts, and theories for a real understanding of fundamental concepts.

Robust Forms of Intuitive Knowledge

Overall, Gardner argues that children tend to acquire well-established models for perceptive learning and intuitive thinking by the time they are five years old. They develop wide-ranging beliefs about the physical world and distinctive models of events and people.

Traditional Schooling Fails to Teach Kids to Ask the Right Questions Subsequently, when children begin their schooling, they are launched into pedagogic methods that often sidestep—even interfere with—the children’s entrenched patterns of learning and understanding. That is to say, children have to put up with a disagreeable dichotomy between their intuitive learning patterns and the academic learning:

In its theoretical resourcefulness and intuitions, [a 5-year old’s mind] is powerful; in its artistic endeavors, it can be creative and imaginative; in its adventurousness, it is exemplary. … Education that takes seriously the ideas and intuitions of the young child is far more likely to achieve success than education that ignores these views, either considering them to be unimportant or assuming that they will disappear on their own.

Experiential Learning, Supplanted by Critical Analysis and Synthesis, Can Enhance Students’ Points of View

The Unschooled Mind contends that far-reaching knowledge and appreciation of education can occur only when students are allowed to integrate their “prescholastic” learning modes with the scholastic and the disciplinary ways of traditional school education. “The problem is less a difficulty in school learning per se and more a problem in integrating the notational and conceptual knowledge featured in school with the robust forms of intuitive knowledge that have evolved spontaneously during the opening years of life.”

Gardner’s solution to this problem is to situate students in educational environments that pique their curiosity about the subject matter and, at the higher levels of education, challenge their preexisting assumptions. Educating children for the utmost degrees of understanding involves designing educational systems that help students synthesize these several patterns of learning.

Real Education Opens the Way to Thinking, Knowing, and Deeper Understanding

Real Education Opens the Way to Thinking, Knowing, and Deeper Understanding For real learning to occur, Gardner argues, students must have an opportunity to realize their own ignorance, and then ask and explore their own questions. Teachers must regularly expose students to “Christopherian encounters”—compelling personal discoveries of the inconsistencies between their various frames of reference—by approaching any subject matter through at least five instructive channels:

through narratives and stories,
through logical and quantitative lines of attack,
through “foundational” or philosophical inquiries,
through aesthetic approaches (exploring the creative and artistic elements) and
through creating and drawing upon the students’ life-experiences.

Gardner claims that traditional schooling should incorporate more apprenticing—apprenticeship programs build most effectively on the ways children learn—and schools should become more like children’s museums.

Recommendation: Read The Unschooled Mind by Howard Gardner, especially if you have a child in school. The key takeaway: to enable the highest degrees of understanding, any skills instruction must be systematically reinforced by instruction in which the deployment of the skills makes holistic sense.

Books I Read in 2016 & Recommend

December 27, 2016 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Personal Finance: Thomas Stanley and William Danko’s The Millionaire Next Door summarizes anthropological research from the ’90s on the attributes of unassuming wealthy Americans. The authors discuss the fancy trappings of affluence and the high cost of maintaining social status. They explain that prosperous individuals prioritize financial independence over a high social status. Key takeaway: It’s easy to get rich by living below your means, efficiently allocating funds in ways that build wealth, and ignoring conspicuous consumption. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Decision-Making / Problem-Solving: Dan Ciampa’s Taking Advice offers an excellent framework on the kind of advice network you need on strategic, operational, political, and personal elements of your work and your life. Taking Advice offers important insights into a seemingly obvious dimension of success, but one that’s often neglected, poorly understood, or taken for granted. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Creativity / Decision-Making / Teamwork: Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats describes a powerful problem-solving approach that enriches mental flexibility by encouraging individuals and groups to attack an issue from six independent but complementary perspectives. Key takeaway: The ‘Six Thinking Hats’ method can remove mental blocks, organize ideas and information, foster cross-fertilization, and help conduct thinking sessions more productively than do other brainstorming methods. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Presentation / Communication: Edward Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint argues that presentations reduce the analytical timbre of communication. In other words, presentation slides lack the resolution to effectively convey context, “weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis.” Tufte contends that, by forcibly condensing our ideas into bullet point-statements, phrases, and slides, we break up narrative flow and flatten the information we’re trying to convey. Key takeaway: Well-structured and succinct memos can convey ideas comprehensively, clearly, and meaningfully. {Read my synopsis in this article. Also, learn about Amazon’s ‘Mock Press Release’ discipline and Procter & Gamble’s ‘One-Page Memo’ practice to communicate ideas.}

Happiness / Relationships: Janice Kaplan’s The Gratitude Diaries. For one year, Kaplan maintained a gratitude journal and wrote down three things that she was thankful for each day. She also decided to “find one area to focus on each month—whether husband, family, friends, or work—and … see what happened when I developed an attitude of gratitude.” Key takeaway: A grateful heart is a happy heart. Stop whatever you’re doing, take stock of your blessings, and be grateful for everything you have in life. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Psychology: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. When subject to brutal treatment at Nazi concentration camps in Germany, Frankl changed his initial reaction from ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why is this happening?’ to ‘What is life asking of me?’ Such profound shifts in thinking, Frankl argues, could help you find meaning in life, regardless of what is happening on the outside. Key takeaway: The one power you have at all times is the freedom to choose your response to any given set of circumstances. Uncover a sense of purpose in life and you can survive nearly anything. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Psychology: John Tierney and Roy Baumeister’s Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. The book’s central theorem is the much-debated “muscle metaphor” of self-control, which states that willpower is like a muscle that tires out—or runs out of energy—as you use it, but can be replenished and purposely fortified through practice. Key takeaway: Budget your willpower and spend it where and when you need it the most. Eliminate distractions, temptations, and unnecessary choices. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Biography / Leadership: Sam Walton’s Made in America is the Walmart founder’s very educational, insightful, and stimulating autobiography. It’s teeming with Walton’s relentless search for better ideas learning from competitors, managing costs and prices to gain competitive advantage, asking incessant questions of day-to-day operations, listening to employees at all levels of Walmart, and inventing creative ways to foster an idea-driven culture. Takeaways: ten rules of management success, learning from failure, cost and price as a competitive advantage, and Walton’s ‘Ten-Foot Rule’ to become more likeable.

Biography / Leadership: Deborrah Himsel’s Beauty Queen: Inside the Reign of Avon’s Andrea Jung offers an insightful tale of the spectacular rise to the top and the tumultuous fall from grace of the former Avon CEO. Jung initially led six consecutive years of double-digit growth and then presided over a series of operational missteps that led to her resignation. “Her story is a cautionary tale, one that suggests the critical importance of being aware of your weaknesses and how they can sabotage you.” Key takeaway: Spectacular success, especially those attributable to external circumstances, can often conceal on organization’s or an individual’s flaws. When the tide turns, the deficiencies are exposed for all to see. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Biography / Leadership: David Packard’s The HP Way recalls how Bill Hewlett and David Packard built a company based on a framework of principles and the simplicity of management methods. In addition to their technical innovations, Bill and David established many progressive management practices that prevail even today. Starting in the initial days, the HP culture that Bill and David engendered was unlike the hierarchical and egalitarian management practices that existed at other corporations of their day. Key takeaway: The essence of the “HP Way” was a strong and clear set of values, and a culture of openness and respect for the individual. {Read my synopsis in this article. Also learn about management by walking around and Bill Hewlett’s ‘Hat-Wearing Process’ for decision-making.}

Leadership: Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas’s Geeks and Geezers. The authors posit that all potential leaders must pass through a “leadership crucible” that provides an intense, transformative experience. Only after they “organize the meaning” and draw significant lessons from their “crucible experiences” can they become leaders. Key takeaway: Find your “leadership voice” by reflecting on transformative experiences in your life and examining what you’ve learned from them. {Read my synopsis in this article.}

Look at my articles on how to process a pile of books that you can’t seem to finish, and on how self-help books bring hope that change is possible.

Also, see a list of books I read in 2015 and 2014 and recommend.

The Halo and Horns Effects [Rating Errors]

April 30, 2010 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

Rating Errors Halo Effect Horns Effect Preamble: We are often unaware of the many biases and prejudices that influence our social judgments. Psychologists call these “bias blind spots.” We can overcome many of these subliminal biases by teaching ourselves to be aware of them. This is the second in a series of articles on the common rating errors. See my earlier article on the recency bias.

Unconscious Judgments of an Investment Broker

Unconscious Judgments of an Investment Broker A 2007 study highlights two of the most common unconscious social judgment biases. Prof. Emily Pronin of Princeton University showed study participants one of two pictures of the same man whom she introduced as an investment broker. One picture showed a suited man with a highly regarded Cornell degree and the other showed the man in casual clothing with a degree from a nondescript college. The professor asked her participants how much of a theoretical $1,000 they would invest in each. The participants rated the suited man as more competent: on average, he got $535 on without having his background checked. In contrast, the causal dresser received just $352. Not only were the participants more likely to have the second broker’s credentials verified —but also they did not consider him as trustworthy.

The Halo Effect

Halo Effect Generated by Apple's iPod The “halo effect” captures what happens when a person who is judged positively based on one aspect is automatically judged positively on several others without much evidence. For instance, as a result of the halo effect,

attractive people are often judged as competent and sociable. Film stars and other celebrities are assumed pleasant and sharp-witted,
inexperienced interviewers tend to pay less attention to a candidate’s negative traits after discerning one or two positive traits in the first few minutes of a job interview,
charismatic professionals tend to get noticed and move up the corporate ladder faster, irrespective of their technical and leadership skills,
articulate speakers are likely to influence their audiences more even if their messages are poor in form and content.

Politicians, film and TV stars, sportspersons, celebrities and brand managers have learned to construct a halo effect and capitalize on their reputations. Apple’s iPod spawned positive impressions of other Apple products—the company took advantage of this halo effect and delivered excellent products in the iPhone and iPad. In another example, renowned fashion designers can set high prices for perfectly ordinary clothes.

Halo and Horns Effects in Social Judgment

The Horns Effect

The “horns” or “devil effect” is the concept by which a person who is judged negatively on one aspect is automatically judged negatively on several other aspects without much evidence. Clearly, this is the opposite of the halo effect.

For years, American car manufacturers have battled the mistaken public perception that cars made by Japanese companies are of significantly better quality. This misperception remains even when American car manufacturers use identical components from the same suppliers and assemble their cars using identical manufacturing processes. Even today, Japanese-brand cars resell for much higher prices than American-brand cars.

Call for Action

Reflect on your decision-making process to steer clear of biases. As human beings, we incessantly form opinions of people, objects, and events, both consciously and subconsciously. However, our judgment is rarely free of biases and our measures are not always comprehensive enough. Before reaching any important decision, be sure to collect all the relevant facts and reflect on whether your thought processes are free of the common biases.
Understand that perception is reality and be conscious of the image you are projecting. People judge the proverbial book by its cover. Your friends and family, workplace and society at large have a certain perception of who you are and what you can do, irrespective of the reality. As much as you would prefer to be evaluated based on who you actually are and what you can actually do, understand that your identity and prospects are based on others’ image of you. Do everything you can to connect people’s perception to the reality. Look and play your role. Begin by reading the seminal article on the topic of personal branding, “The Brand Called You,” written by renowned management author, Tom Peters.

Compilation of Job Interview Questions

April 4, 2009 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

A couple of years ago, I compiled a list of job interview questions and loosely categorized this list by personal attributes, career performance, communication skills, team skills, managerial skills, and leadership skills.

I have since shared this list with recruiting managers (interviewers) and job candidates (interviewees) who I have coached. I suggest that recruiting managers choose eight questions on varied topics for a thirty-minute interview. Job candidates can select twenty-five questions and practice answering these questions by recording and reviewing their answers.

Job Interview Questions on Personal Attributes

Why do you think you are successful at what you do?
What you consider your biggest fault at work? Why do you think you have it and what are you doing about it?
What defines a challenge to you?
Describe the situation when your expectations were not met.
What is a misconception people have about you when they first meet you?
How do you maintain your passion in a place that lacks accountability?
Tell me about a time when you felt culturally ill-at-ease and how do you cope with it?
What is the single best quality that you have seen in people—a quality that you do not possess?
Tell me about yourself.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What was a constructive criticism you received and how did you respond to it?
Tell me about a failure. How would you know you failed in something?
Tell me about a time when your belief was challenged.
Give me an instance when your ethics have been challenged.
Give me an example when you were criticised for your personality.
If you had a month without any commitments, what would you do?
What are people most surprised to learn about you?
What do you consider to be your key values? Name a time when these values were challenged.
What is something from your past that you wish you would have done differently and why?
List three things that motivate you at work.
What is your one personal trait you most admire and why?
What motivates you to succeed?
How do you measure success?
What are you passionate about?
Which business leader do you admire? Why?
Describe a typical day at work.
Tell me about the current (non-professional) book you are reading? What did you learn from it?
Who is a prominent figure that you admire? Why?
What is your biggest regret and thus far?
What do you enjoy most about your job?
What is the one impression you want me to leave this interview with?
What do you look for in a job?
What were the high and low points in your life over the past few years?
What was the toughest integrity violation you have ever encountered, and how did you handle it?
Have you ever had to define yourself in the midst of criticism, and did you succeed?
When have you been blindsided in life, and why did it happen?

Job Interview Questions on Career Performance

What class did you like the most while you were at school? Why? How have you pursued that topic since you graduated?
When was the last time you were forced to step out of your comfort zone? What is the situation and how did you deal with it?
Suppose you discover that you missed a significant detail six hours before a project deadline. What would you do?
What you think about your current or former boss?
Was there a time where you had to choose between good opportunities? Which one did you choose?
Career-wise, was there anything in the last five years that you would have done differently?
How does your current or last job relate to the overall goals of your department or organisation?
What are you most proud of?
Tell me about a time when you personally failed. How did you handle it?
How do you feel about your career progress to date?
What would your peers at this organisation say on your second year anniversary?
When did you realise you needed a change in your career path?
What was your best mistake?
What about our position do you find most attractive? Least attractive?
Tell me about time when you overcame a problem and took initiative.
What was your most challenging work situation?
What has been your most creative solution to a problem?
What has been the highlight of your career?
What is the best idea you have ever had and why?
What is the one thing you would change about how you performed in your job in the last few years?
How have you changed the nature of your job?
Tell me about a time at work when things did not go well.
Describe the key characteristics of the business you are in.
Describe your organisation.
Describe your job. Being effective in this job means?
What are the key things that have happened since you took this job? What did you do? Why? What effect did you have? What problems developed? How did you handle these problems?
How effective do you think you have been in this job? Specifically, why do you say this? What are the performance measures? What is it about you, the job, or its context that has contributed to this level of effectiveness? What could you have done better?
What are you trying to achieve in your career? In your life?

Job Interview Questions on Communication, Conflicts

Tell me about a time when you worked with someone and had a difficult interaction or disagreement. How did you resolve it?
Describe a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker. How did you resolve it?
Tell me about a time when your powers of persuasion failed.
Give me an example of a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen well to what someone had to say.
Describe the most challenging negotiation in which you were involved. What did you do? What were the results for you? What were the results for the other party?
When a number of different people come to you with ideas about solving a problem, how do you go about using their information? Please give an example.
Tell me about a time when you have had to stand or defend a position that was not popular or easily accepted?
What was the hardest thing you had to say no to in the last two years?
Have you ever disagreed with your manager?
How do you approach resolving a conflict within a group?

Job Interview Questions on Team Skills

How would you pick a team?
What is your role on a team?
Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news to your team.
Tell me about a time when you let your team down.
How do you create accountability and create a strong team?
Describe a time when you were working in a team and you failed. How did you resolve the situation?
What characteristics do you look for in your team members?
Describe a situation when your team fell apart.
How would you describe your best friend?
What weaknesses do you have or experience when you are working in a team environment?
In the teams that you work with, how do you deal with disagreements between the team members?
Who was the toughest person you have worked with?
Discuss your worst team work experience.
Describe five qualities that you would want your team members to have for you to work effectively with them.
Tell me about a time when you lead a team and failed.

Job Interview Questions on Managerial Skills

What was the biggest mistake you have had when delegating work?
What is your biggest weakness as a manager?
How do you know when the project is working well? If it is not, how do you address the problem?
Describe a time when you had to be assertive in giving directions to others.
Tell me how you go about delegating work? How did you keep track of delegated assignments?
Describe characteristics of a bad team member or supervisor you have worked with.
What would you do if your boss in the job came to you requesting you to do something that you know is definitely dead wrong?
What is your management style?
Tell me about a time when your relationship with a colleague broke down. What did you learn from that?
Tell me about a time when you helped someone else succeed without doing the job for them.
Describe the situation when you had to micromanage. How did you go about it? What were the results?
What is the most difficult aspect of being a manager?
Tell me about an instance when you had to work with a difficult person? What did you learn?
Give me an instance where you handled a difficult subordinate at work.
Consider me to be your employee. I am not performing well. How would you fire me? Please play it out.
Describe an experience where you motivated your followers. Why you think you were able to do it?
Tell me about when you had to work with someone you did not get along with, or someone whose personality was different from yours.
What would your subordinates say about you and your leadership style?
How do you deal with difficult personalities?
If you were the CEO of a company and had to do downsizing, what people would you layoff, and, how would you implement this?
How do you handle working with people who are not good at their jobs?
How do you evaluate the productivity / effectiveness of your subordinates? How do you get data for performance reviews?
How would you describe your managerial style? How has changed over the past five or ten years?
Give me examples of your hiring successes and disasters? Explain what you got right—and what you missed.
Can you point to any of your people who grew up with your guidance and have gone on to succeed in your own company or beyond?

Job Interview Questions on Leadership Skills

Describe the qualities of a good manager or a leader you have worked with. Why are these important?
How has your leadership style evolved from ten years ago?
Define leadership. How does a good manager differ from a good leader?
Tell me about a time when you challenged somebody else’s idea and generated a new business initiative or project.
What kinds of decisions are most difficult for you? Describe an example.
Tell me about a time when you influenced others who were not your subordinates.
Tell me about a time when you saw poor leadership at work.
When you start your own company, what qualities will you look for in people you choose to partner with?
What is the most competitive situation you have experienced? How did you handle it? What was the result?
Tell me about a time when you developed a new business opportunity. What was the impact?
Describe a failure at work, how did you deal with it, and what did you learn from it?
What will be happening in our industry five years from now?
Have you ever been caught unaware by a problem or obstacle that you had not foreseen? What happened?
Tell me about a time when you overcame a problem or took initiative to solve something.
Describe a project where you preferred a common sense approach to an analytical approach to solve a problem.
What is your leadership style? How do you build consensus without using authority?
Some people consider themselves to be ‘big picture people’ and others are ‘detail oriented.’ Which are you? Give an example of a time when you displayed this.
What do you think is the most important thing a business needs to develop?
What is the riskiest decision you have made? What was the situation? What happened?
What you think are the three qualities of a leader? Give me an example of a situation in which you exhibited each of these.
If you had to assemble a team to work on a project, which three celebrities would you choose and why?
Describe a situation when something went totally awry.
In your present position, what problems did you identify that had previously been overlooked?
How do you get new ideas?
Tell me about a time when you saw a solution before everybody else.
Tell me about the most impactful failure in your life? What did you learn from it?
Tell me a situation where you took risks.
What innovative procedures have you developed? How did you develop them? Who was involved? Where did the ideas come from?
What is the role of management in today’s global economy?
What are the toughest decisions you have had to make in the last few years?
What was your biggest management challenge, and how did you handle it?
In your career, what is the best example of you anticipating market changes that your competitors did not?
When did your curiosity lead you to probe deeply and uncover a competitive trend or marketplace dynamic that others did not see, or, did not want to see?
People frequently borrow ideas they have seen elsewhere and then apply them in a new setting. How have you done this?