Better Customer Service = patient listening

Customer’s Friend or Foe?

Mid sized businesses often dream of becoming big and go all out trying to acquire new customers. However it’s almost 6 times more cost effective to grow by selling more to existing customers. And that’s not all, as happy customers get, even they get more customers without any additional marketing costs: through their referrals. Isn’t it smarter to pamper existing customers rather than chase risky new customers? Besides customers expect the SME to be more proactive in addressing their needs as that’s one of the main reason a customer chooses a SME as he finds big businesses to be more focused on other big customers. If SMEs do not pay sufficient attention to improve their customer service levels, they lose on cheaper ways to boost their revenues and may also lose out on existing revenue opportunities. Inefficient customer service is too big a risk to take, if SMEs want to survive and thrive as a successful. One of the most common mistakes which SMEs make is to stop listening to customers, or even if they listen they ‘forget’ to carry out the necessary changes (this is even worse than not listening as it’s a ‘fatal’ betrayal of customer trust!) .

Do you argue or do you listen?

Ok you are a busy SME business owner who has million tasks to attend and almost every task is life threatening: payment to suppliers, tax returns, chasing for refunds, fixing broken equipment etc etc. But what use is all this if you don’t have the time to listen to your customers? You stop listening to customers; you stop growing or even surviving as a business. Remember customer is the king? So can you afford to ignore the undisputed King?? For heaven’s sake no! He who cares and listens to his customers not only earns more from customers but also gets free insights to fix business flaws that may lead to major embarrassments or even major revenue leakages.

So how do you feel when people argue instead of patiently listening to you, especially when you are agitated about an irritant? Agreed you’re an expert and most of the time you know better while the customer doesn’t know what’s he is complaining about. But will your reputation take a hit if you simply shut your mouth; offer a concerned apology (costs you no money)? In fact many studies have indicated that businesses who argue less and patiently listen to their customers (offer solutions only after a patient hearing and an apology) win more with higher customer retention rates. As an SME you need to engage patiently with our customers, just like a true-friend. Will you be friends with people who only want to argue with you? If you can get exasperated with such irritable one-sided arguments, so can your customers.

Are you a lazy listener?

Your customers often enjoy multiple options and love to exercise their freedom of choice. Like your customer can grab an ice-cream from the roadside cart (belonging to the leading ice cream brand) or he can come to your store for your unique ice-cream flavours. Only if you take the effort to listen to the latest discounts offered on competitions’ ice-creams and beat them. If you think listening to customers is sufficient you are sadly mistaken as should continuously listen to competition’s offers. SMEs who fail to master this art of ‘proactive-listening’ miss out on many opportunities of making more sales to existing customers. Then there are times when you fall into a ‘research-lethargy’ trap. Ok you did conduct a comprehensive customer feedback campaign and also gave out exciting gifts to surprise sweepstakes winners. But did you implement the findings of the survey or simply forgot about them as you were too busy to go through the mountain of collected-data? The day you get lulled by growing business demands, you are inviting competition to not only steal your customers but also your business. Wakeup and become a better listener-doer for reaping the many benefits of proactive customer centricity.

Cheers Anshumali Saxena @ www.soilindia.net

Delivering successful HR transformation

The initial task is to define the current state of HR delivery within the organization, and determine the existing business strategy and priorities. It’s then important to gain an insight into what the customers of the HR function, the line managers and employees, think of the services they receive and examine the state of HR processes, assessing whether they are efficient and standard across the organization or if they vary by business unit or country. By applying various tools it’s possible to look at the existing technology, the current organizational structure and the company culture, and identify areas of improvement for HR. The next step is to design a new operating model – which may include outsourcing, service centers and new technology – which is configured to provide the best delivery model for the organization. Getting it right is worth the effort. Successful HR thought leaders, describe effective HR execution as “the difference between plans that become reality and those that go nowhere.” These HR leaders regularly connect HR strategy and execution as they firmly believe that, “value add of any HR initiative is the end-result of the quality of that effort, the acceptance of stakeholders and its execution.”

Business executives first, HR specialists second
In organizations globally, the most respected HR leaders are business executives first and HR specialists second. They partner with and are confidants of their CEOs and leadership teams and often find themselves at the epicentre of corporate change, being given credit for bringing about the toughest of business transformations. These HR leaders are also being recruited by progressive domestic and global boards. Responding to the intense focus on complying with new corporate governance legislation and increasing investor scrutiny, boards are retooling to ensure they have the right mix of highly qualified specialists, including HR experts. The price of failing to make the connection between overall business strategy and HR strategy is high. There will always be an option for the organization to hand over the HR services to an outsourcing organization who can effectively transform the function and make it work at considerably less cost. But HR functions which grab the nettle – those that convince the business of the value of transformation, can recognize that skills and capabilities in HR can change if needed and can harness technology – will become effective strategic partners and make a positive contribution to the continuing success of the organization.

Cheers anshumali.saxena@soilindia.net

Crisis Leadership Tips

When the going gets tough, the tough get going…well its easier said than done, right? Wrong! Simply keep your wits and courage and follow these simple instruction….
1. Do not get too attached to your ideas. While it maybe good at times to be passionate about your own ideas, but getting too emotionally attached to them is not logically correct. Most leaders are incredibly distrustful of ideologues trying to push things down their throats. It’s all about subtle-positioning. Be prepared to quietly walk away as logical separation from your ‘ideas-under-fire’ will give you the appearance of perspective & poise.
2. Be ready to accept alternative-views. Best way to react to most objections by success-leaders is by first embracing them, then patiently explaining why your plan could be better or at least is equivalent. Again, it’s a sophisticated positioning strategy. There is a subtle yet significant difference between, “My approach’s better and here is why,” & “That is an interesting idea; here is why I think this could be a better-approach.”
3. Mastering the art of zinger-retorts. When you aer getting grilled there could be some real-life zingers/ The only one way you can hope to beat a zinger is with the help of a zinger-retort. And the only way you can become good at your zinger-retorts is by getting good at thinking- on-your-feet, by leveraging equal parts preparation, knowledge, experience, and of course, self-confidence and belief. Not to forget the essential skill to have a sense of humor when under fire too (show you have courage and wit in the required measure).
4. Delicately managing your key stakeholders. You do need to know your info and strategies/ideas thoroughly and still be ready for the worst. Its very important to know the individual preferences and other business nuances of all your key business stakeholders and also have a pretty good notion of their expected objections. Select one-on-one pre-meetings with these stakeholders is a great idea as it will sufficiently equip you to handle their objections and suggestions with practiced ease.
5. Never, lose control of your meeting. It is your own-meeting, or at least your time to present your side of the story/strategy. So you are in charge & you’ll need to act like one. I do not care if the CEO & CFO begin going down a rat hole on a mindlessly trivial-point. You need to be adept at all the usual tactics for keeping your meetings on track: on topic + on time.

anshumali.saxena@soilindia.net

Evolving corporate ‘Landscape’

Organizations frequently survive the people who establish them. At some point it becomes the case that such organizations have been designed by one group of people but are being operated or run by another. Other people then have to live with the change challenges where the design and, the ends may have already been established. These people are then chiefly concerned with means. This is why so many problem-solving efforts start out focused on means. Some organizations are designed to buffer their core operations from turbulence in the environment. In such organizations all units fit into one of three categories: core, buffer, and perimeter. In core units (e.g., systems and operations), coordination is achieved through standardization, that is, adherence to routine. In buffer units (e.g., upper management and staff or support functions), coordination is achieved through planning.
In perimeter units (e.g., sales, marketing, and customer service), coordination is achieved through mutual adjustment. People in core units, buffered as they are from environmental turbulence and with a history of relying on adherence to standardized procedures, typically focus on “how” questions. People in buffer units, responsible for performance through planning, often ask “what” questions. People in the perimeter units are as accountable as anyone else for performance and frequently for performance of a financial nature. They can be heard asking “what” and “how” questions. “Why” questions are generally asked by people with no direct responsibility for day-to-day operations or results.
The group most able to take this long-term or strategic view is that cadre of senior executives responsible for the continued well being of the firm: top management. If the design of the firm is to be re-structured – these are the people who must make the decision to do so. Finally, when organizational redefinition and redesign prove necessary, all people in all units must concern themselves with all three sets of questions or the changes made will not stand the test of time.

Checkout more success-steps and inspired peace at www.soilindia.net

Making Organizational Change Successful

Successful change management requires a large commitment from executives and senior managers, whether the change is occurring in a department or in a complete organization. A change effort cannot be optional, especially for the senior staff. They must lead or get out of the way. The new system will ultimately have to stand on its own feet, but every new system needs support and nurture. Inspired leaders can do the following for successful change management.
•Establish a clear vision for the change management process. Paint a picture of where the organization will end up and the anticipated outcomes. Make certain the picture is one of reality and not what people “wish” would occur.
•Appoint an executive champion who “owns” the change management process and makes certain other senior managers, as well as other appropriate people in the organization, are involved.
•Pay attention to the changes occurring. Ask how things are going. Focus on progress and barriers for change management. One of the worst possible scenarios is to have the leaders ignore the process.
•Sponsor portions of the change or the change management process, as an involved participant, to increase active involvement and interaction with other organization members.
•If personal or managerial actions or behaviors require change for the changes to take hold in the organization, “model” the new behaviors and actions. (Walk the talk.)
•Establish a structure which will support the change. This may take the form of a Steering Committee, Leadership Group, or Guiding Coalition.
•Change the measurement, reward, and recognition systems to measure and reward the accomplishment of new expectations.
•Solicit and act upon feedback from other members of the organization.
•Recognize the human element in the change. People have different needs and different ways of reacting to change. They need time to deal with and adjust to change.
•Senior leaders must participate in the training that other organization members attend, but, even more importantly, they must exhibit their “learning” from the sessions, readings, interactions, tapes, books or research.
•Be honest and worthy of trust. Treat people with the same respect you expect from them.
For better career success and industry success-mantras join http://www.soilindia.net/business-leadership-program.html

Neo-Darwinism for Leaders to succeed

We all live in an era where theories keep changing, as we humans evolve at a faster pace than ever. No wonder today’s Business environment has made a mess out of Darwin's theories. For the most part, businesses have built their understanding of competition and strategy on a foundation of Darwinian mis-readings. Today facts have turned this on its head…here's the truth about some commonly misunderstood Darwinian principles:

The struggle for existence-One of the ways that Darwin used that expression was to refer to the death of a plant that didn't get enough water. The struggle for existence doesn't mean the lion biting into the lamb. Instead the lion could invest in rearing up lambs to ensure his future food supply.

The selfish gene-Do you believe that natural selection is just about selfishness? Try explaining it then: Think of yourself as a gene sitting in a body. You give an alarm call. By so doing, you call attention to yourself, which may alert the predator to your presence. At the same time, you will be saving the kin group -- and saving copies of yourself -- in future generations. Genes do self-sacrificial things regularly. Those that do are often the best replicators -- that is, they are the ones that make their way down through the generations.

Competition hurries progress - This false notion suggests that you get better outcomes by eliminating the weaker member of a group. That is supported by another Darwinian misreading: Only the strong survive, and the outcome will be better if you have people of first-rate strength. These assumptions have become the foundation of growth, progress, and capitalism: stronger, better, more. But they are not part of Darwinism. Darwin's insight was that competition can lead to all sorts of new ecological niches. If predators are devouring animals (like you) during the day, you might become nocturnal. If predators are becoming stronger or larger, you could become smaller, more mobile, or less visible.

Nice or nasty?-As the nationalities begin to disappear and global economics takes over from global politics…Darwin has got a gentler face…Big doesn’t eat the small, but co-operates to live and thrive for a longer time span. Welcome to a brave new and friendlier world,, where ‘co-opetition’ (cooperation with even competition) and not just competition rules.
So are you ready for the un-ending global oportunities coming your way. Prepare for them with confidence with practiced ease..its all happening at www.soilindia.net, check us out!

What Great Managers Do Differently

Great managers break every rule perceived as “conventional wisdom,” when dealing with the selection, motivation, and development of staff. Each “great” manager is identified based upon the performance results he produces in his organization. The insight most commonly expressed by mangers is the belief, “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.” The implications of this insight for training and performance development are profound.

This insight encourages building on what people can already do well instead of trying to “fix” weaker talents and abilities. The traditional performance improvement process identifies specific, average or below performance areas. Suggestions for improvement, either verbal or in a formal appraisal process focus on developing these factors. What great managers do instead is assess each individual’s talents and skills. They then provide training, coaching and development opportunities that will help the person increase these skills. They compensate for or manage around weaknesses. Does this mean that great managers never help people improve their inadequate skills, knowledge, or methods? No, but they shift their emphasis.

The Four Vital Jobs for Great Managers
It’s critical to know the four twists on conventional approaches which further define the differences in tactics espoused by great managers:
• Select people based on talent.
• When setting expectations for employees, establish the right outcomes.
• When motivating an individual, focus on strengths.
• To develop an individual, find the right job fit for the person.

Select People Based on Talent -Great managers usually select staff members based on talent, rather than experience, education, or intelligence. They define “talents” by studying the talents needed to achieve in different distinct roles. Talents identified are:
• striving (examples: drive for achievement, need for expertise, drive to put beliefs in action),
• thinking (examples: focus, discipline, personal responsibility), and
• relating (examples: empathy, attentiveness to individual differences, ability to persuade, and taking charge).

Setting Expectations & Outcomes-These great managers then assist each individual to establish goals and objectives that are congruent with the needs of the organization. They help each person define the expected outcomes, what success will look like upon completion. Then, they get out of the way. This is gets great results as most work is performed by people who are not under the constant supervision of a manager. At the same time, the manager will also establish the critical path and the check points for feedback, but at the same desist from to micromanaging the employee. This works as the manager can easily drive himself crazy while losing good people who feel he doesn’t trust them.

Motivating Individuals by Focusing on Strengths-Great managers appreciate the diversity of the people in their work group. They recognize that “helping people become more of who they already are,” since each person has unique strengths, will best support their success. They focus on an individual’s strengths and manage around his weaknesses. They find out what motivates each staff member and try to provide more of it in his work environment

For proven and industry leaders' created Inspired Manager learnng programmes join www.soilindia.net

Is There a Pattern in Employee Expectations?

As “quality of leadership and management, “culture,” “pay & benefits” and “growth & development opportunities” are considered to be most important factors within the employment deal for a vast majority of high-performing employees, is there any pattern in these? Research shows that “Culture” and “leadership and management” are factors that prove to be significantly correlated to each other. Employees who have great interest in culture tend to have high expectations in the quality of leadership and management. A culture that is neither well developed nor aligned with the company’s leadership and management practices is unlikely to appeal to a high performer.

Priorities of Employers of Choice
Employers of choice have built much of their standing on their reputation as “exciting places to work.” They regard their reputation as an essential part of their employer brand and tout
this image among graduating classes and in the job market. But there is more to their success than mere smart publicity campaign. The brands of the employers of choice have much higher
congruence with the employment deal expectations of their high performers. This holds especially true for the high quality of their “culture” and the good quality of their “leadership and management.” Most companies only partially meet the expectations of their most valuable employees. Answers to the following questions can avoid such a mismatch. They build a basis on which an employer brand can be built successfully:
• What types of employees are fundamental to the success of the business?
• What do the high-performing employees expect from the company?
Answering the above questions enables the employer to build a brand that reflects its business and culture and is attractive to targeted employees. Besides the company needs to share and live the brand. The employer brand may not remain a secret for HR professionals, but should be widely disseminated and shared within and outside the company. The employers of choice have proven that well-developed employer brands help attract and retain talent. A strong employer brand shows what a powerful means of differentiation an employer branding can be. It can be thus be concluded that a remarkable reputation, perception and image in the job market builds on both the attractiveness in factors that are of fundamental importance to high performers as well as elaborate efforts, which make this attractiveness visible in the job market.
Join the inspired success brigade @ www.soilindia.net

Becoming Better and Staying Successful, Now Simplified!

Who doesn’t want to be happy and prosperous, lifelong…and now thanks to available expert coaching it’s easier and safer too. Get going with our SOIL’s proven success-expertise and easy to follow advice at its popular Info sessions at its campus and Bangalore (on Saturday20 Mar 2pm- 4pm) with regular updates on our blogs/facebook pages.. With experiences and anecdotes from real life experience across different management and industry groups SOIL’s e-publishing is a must read and you’ll cherish its common sense appealing inspired leadership content and compelling suggestions.

It’s Your Life, Live it Up! Don't wait for negative thoughts to start thinking more positively, simply develop a habit to purposely feed your self with positive thoughts every day -- many times a day. Keep it simple: by telling yourself things like, "I am a good professional." -- "I love life." -- "I am good at what I deliver." -- "I make my own good-luck." -- "I have decided to be successful and be happy." -- And the really simple, "It is all good." Initially you may not really believe in these positive-thoughts, and that is ok, however keep at it. Say these to yourself as if you do mean them; eventually you’ll begin to believe them. Remember that our negative-thinking patterns are a result of many years of reinforcement and changing these thinking patterns to positive-ones does takes some time and effort. Optimism is a journey and you need not rush to the finish line, simply enjoy the scenery and calmly keep winning over pessimism.”
So go ahead and succeed faster, Now!
Success is God’s gift for us all, and you need to be better prepare and equipped to leverage all the opportunities that come your way almost daily. All you need to do is be better prepared to accept and harness them. Get started today by visiting us at our Info sessions Saturday 20 Mar 2010, 2- 4pm Gurgaon (SOIL Campus) & Bangalore (Symphony Services Corp premises) this Saturday 20 March 2pm-4pm www.soilindia.net

People-Savvy tips for organizational transformations

People empathy and care for their informal group sensitivities is very important if you want your HR resources to fully energized and goals-participative. Here are proven tips that will strengthen individual, team and larger system ability to succeed regularly:
1. Be Friendly and become more accessible
To win the trust and involvement of team members, it is necessary to smoothen out the rough edges of public perception. Make sure everyone perceives that top management is responsive to their needs. Then organizations will be able to create greater rapport with them, and close the gap between reality and their perception of responsiveness.

2. Treat Front and Back Alike: Not Just Front-liners
Everyone in the organisation, from the front end to the back end, are like the front and back edges of a serrated knife. They share the same responsibility of ensuring that customers’ expectations are met. If only one side of the serrated knife is sharp, it will only be half as effective. Therefore, those at the back end must support the front-liners so that the whole organisation can be responsive to the customer.

3. PracticeSelf-Running Motivation
An effective reward system is one with tangible benefits that appeals directly to your staff. It helps employees relate to the higher mission. If the reward system is fun and reinforces the right values, it will fully harness the people’s full potential.

4. Foster Networks
Build and foster networks and collaborations between organizational structures that will act as threads connecting ‘fabrics’ of different ranks, jurisdictions and sectors. Forge these strategic networks, so that you can leverage on the strengths of others to complement top management.
-Anshumali at www.soilindia.net

The Road To Organizational Success

Exploring and experimenting with various organizational structures, skills and strategies will positively impact workplace climate and productivity, along with team morale, focus and cross-team coordination. Simply follow the following guidelines:
1. Walk this Way: Leaders Set the Pace (Compass)
Proven success-leaders are like the directional arrow of a compass. Where they point will be the direction employees will go. So be clear where you are headed for, and show it to your organisation by success-leaders’ example.

2. See-Through Service: Transparency in our Processes (Magnifying Glass)
Employees tend to feel insecure or tense when they cannot get a clear picture of the policies and practices of our working processes. To help them gain a better perspective of matters, make processes more transparent enabling them to feel in control, too.

3. A Certain ‘P’ Factor: People Make the Difference (Screwdriver)
People are the vital nuts and bolts that hold the framework of any organisation together.
When a few come loose, the organisation will start to waver. Hence it is important to make sure that every screw finds its place. This can be done by recruiting the right people, and implementing training and development programmes that enhances their capabilities consistently.

4. The Way of the Bookie: Measure Everything (Ruler)
Performance indicators are yardsticks that help assess and gauge how an organisation is faring. Carried out on both the micro and macro levels, these appraisal methods will let you keep track of your performance, while providing a better understanding of employee and customer needs. Effective action can then be taken to further improve the standard of services delivered

Be more innovation savvy

Innovation is critical Businesses today operate in an increasingly crowded world, with fierce competition jostling for supremacy in almost all business activities. Organisations need to standup, head and shoulders above direct and indirect competition, to be simply noticed. Implementing business process innovation across diverse functions is key to staying ahead of competition. In fact with technology, competition too can quickly replicate innovations, hence companies need inspired leadership to speed up introduction of new innovations while ensuring that they fully assimilate the existing innovations. Agility with ability is the new innovations mantra. Cleverly designed business process innovations also help the online business position itself as a business savvy organization that gains credibility by leveraging best practices with its customers, building unique process conveniences. With little offline tangibility to reassure customers, many online businesses thrive on technology led innovations to build brand loyalty. They often introduce unique web-conveniences that increase customers ‘stickiness’ on their sites. Customers get addicted to these ‘convenience-innovations’ like personalized ordering/interaction webpage and love to stay loyal to their chosen e-commerce portals.
Get innovation-ready at our forthcoming Inspired Leaders' Expert Info-Session Series - Saturday 20 March 2pm- 4pm: NCR Delhi (SOIL Campus-Gurgaon) and Bangalore (Symphony Services Corp premises). www.soilindia.net

Be Change-Smart, Proactively!

Unstoppable Change
Change is an inseparable part of every life-form on Earth. As the only civilized creatures, humans are impacted most by the ongoing change events and thus can benefit more by managing change smartly than by being mere spectators. Change momentum is unstoppable and over the last decade has accelerated far more than any preceding time thanks to the twin forces of globalisation and internet. If you are not prepared to go along with the all pervasive changes then you may soon be overwhelmed in the ‘superhighway’ called ‘life’! It is simpler and cheaper to adapt gracefully than play the ‘catch-up’ game. For today’s agile and info-trained professionals, change is profitable as you can learn to proactively leverage its many elements and even lead vital aspects of omnipresent change forces. For example profiting from online learning forums and staying in e-touch with friends and associations through social networking assets like facebook and twitter is not just participating in beneficial changes but also capitalizing on them by following ongoing global best practices as per your time convenience.

Individual Change Assessment
We are first individuals and then employees or business professionals. Hence as the first step we need to be aware of our own capabilities to make the best use of the changing situation(s). You need to carefully plan your own responses to the emerging change-situation. Taking help of a seasoned trainer or mentor at a reputed management training or leadership grooming business school will be of immense help. An educated, well trained response is always better than an ad-hoc response. Change is a chasm and can cause anxiety as you fear unknown repercussions; training can not only remove these but also empower you to profit from changes. Preparing for change requires changes in the way we live, work and even sleep. For example moving to a 24X7 business environment may require you to work in night shifts at times. Preparing the mind, and body for this change will require implementing changes in your diet, fitness, relaxation and work routine. The earlier you adapt the easier it becomes to minimize the negative effect of the un-avoidable ‘change-chasm’. Be change-ready by visiting Inspired Leaders' Expert Info-Session Series - Saturday 20 March 2pm- 4pm: NCR Delhi (SOIL Campus-Gurgaon) and Bangalore (Symphony Services Corp premises). www.soilindia.net

Inspired Change Management- Bridging Macro and Micro Business Necessities

A productive organizational development process involves fortifying both individual parts (or replacing ones that cannot be supervised or rehabilitated) and strengthening the whole system. Similarly integrating formal and informal systems is vital to a proactive Organizational Development-Team Building process. Here are three essentials for inspired change management for better bottomline and happy customers (internal and external):
a. Macro and Formal. Using outlined structures and strategies as a foundation, your people building process needs to be ready to expand into an OD process through interaction amongst different departmental members. This occurs when various teams of a branch or division meet on a regular basis, for example, at a monthly staff meeting. Even if having employees run these larger macro meetings is not practical (though department heads might rotate as facilitators) you can still have a wavelength section. Here the primary focus is understanding the many obstacles in coordination and negotiation amongst the teams or departments. Do you have their mutual support or is it more in-house territoriality and seeped in cutthroat competition? A Q & A session on your prevailing macro structure can also disseminate key information. Such an event helps employees to scrutinize the knowledge and focus of their leadership.
b. Matrix Teaming. In between macro and micro, formal and informal is the matrix concept. Representative individuals from various teams or departments meet to discuss crosscutting issues. These meetings can range from small task groups to larger gatherings. This is an excellent way to gauge actual or potential, formal or informal productivity innovations that need to be given the green light for experimentation. The latter, when verified, can readily lend themselves to various “on the spot” rewards. Clearly, in an open system, such organizational problem-solving structures and teams can be mutually reinforcing in a very positive manner.
c. Micro and Informal. Team members need to gather and check with each other at regular intervals in informal settings, often with such icebreakers like snacks/coffee. Unfinished business or anticipated roadblocks can be easily identified. Useful short-term and spontaneous problem solving suggestions are easily generated at such meetings. Five or ten minutes of this informal morning or opening shift roundup will also increase people’s participation in the business goals focus. This collective ritual always enhances enterprise-wide cohesiveness, employee-morale and productivity.
- anshumali.saxena@soilindia.net

Responsive Change Torchbearers of Inspired Leadership

Many organizations are facing challenges associated with increasing development productivity, aligning ‘people networks’ to support overall business strategy. This is essential to sustain an agile and flexible organization that can rapidly respond to changing business requirements. Initiatives to improve the alignment of micro initiatives with macro (environmental) developments are commonly hindered by isolated business processes, duplication of decision takers and a fragmented information sharing model. This lack of micro-macro integration causes inefficiency, errors, duplication, and missed business opportunities as the business initiatives address only small parts of the business process continuum. Only a holistic approach to service-oriented architecture — adopted in the design, development, and operation of enterprise-wide micro initiatives makes any organization responsive. Innovative micro-initiatives that map to macro events can effectively act as "glue" that works as an adhesive (local level) strategy and a cohesive (global level) game-plan. While every seasoned manager has experience with the good, bad and ugly of micro planning there are a few core inspired leadership lessons for succeeding in responsive change-management:
* Responsive management looks ahead to new realities
* Responsive management works with focused priorities.
* Responsive management plays for performance impact.
* Responsive management lives with transparency in action.
* Responsive management thinks about its alternatives.
What do these responsive companies and the people who run them teach us? First, inspired leaders must be champions of the customer experience. By example and by emphasis, they must set high expectations for satisfying customers in their organizations. Second, employee empathy is what creates distinctive service. It's not enough to put on a happy face. And while technology is often central to providing a superior interconnects between micro initiatives and macro necessities, it must be used to benefit people, not just to replace the human element.

Shorter Leadership Learning Programs With Intensive Industry Participation Needed

Kids are maturing faster, businesses are expanding faster, globalization is galloping at a faster pace. Winner- leaders are now needed to take charge earlier, and people need to transform from regular managers to being inspired leaders far earlier in their careers. Exciting times ahead!! This is what came out after 2 years of extensive international research and industry consultation by founders of SOIL (School Of Inspired Leadership) at Gurgaon, NCR Delhi
www.soilindia.net

How to Leverage e-Social Networks

We humans are ‘social animals’ which means that we hate being lonely and love belonging to a social group. No wonder interaction is a popular necessity for many as we form many social networks based on religion, personal interests, individual hobbies, professional pursuits, pastime pleasures or even expertise and talents. Using social networks for personal benefit or business recognition is now more important than ever.
Overcoming e-networking challenges-One of the most difficult networking challenge is to expand your influence by being an inspired leader that people revere consistently. Theoretical knowledge is insufficient for grooming better leaders in the fast changing world of today. No wonder SOIL has got acclaimed business leaders to mentor students one-to-one so that they can grow both in confidence as well as reputation even before they get hired for plum positions. Students @ SOIL are using their social network presence to spread the inspired leadership message to far corners of the connected web world. This is giving many the perfect platform to reach out to many committed e-friends and business leaders-in-making.
Participate in this unique immersive inspired leadership program at www.soilindia.net and be transformed for the better, forever.

The Law Of Two Feet in action

The recent Inspired leadership conference based on the Open Space format, exposed SOIL students to the concept of “The law of two feet”, which in essence means that “If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet and go to some other place where you may learn and contribute”

Deep diving into the law, I had one of my “Aha” moments which came by understanding that a basic guideline of Open Space technology workshop can be translated and imbibed as part of personal growth for each one of us. Expanding the horizon and viewing two feet as that of Passion and Accountability. If you are not learning and contributing in a given context, use your two feet of Passion and accountability to grow.

The natural question which comes to mind is, how does one know what’s his passion and how to achieve it. The key is in learning again. Learning is not to simply unlearn to learn again, but understanding deep beneath why to unlearn at the first place? Learning is to explore your passion, breaking free from the clutters of mundane and energy draining chores of life.

However, the story doesn't end just by asking and answering the "5 Ws" of learning, the fun is in asking the "How"! The underlying mantra to this is to hold yourself accountable for your passion, because at the end of the day, it’s your passion and you got to nurture it.

As we tread our journey and run on the two feet of passion and accountability chasing our dreams, don't ever forget that the "Journey is more important than destination".
By Vinay Pandey, Student, Business Leadership Program

Seasoned Leader in 15 years Vs Trained Leader in 5 years

Pace, inspiration and loads of real business hand-holding are key to today’s business school education. New Age B-School SOIL creates an accelerated growth path for working executives and bright graduates. Our international faculty and India Inc’s successful business-leaders and acclaimed thought-leaders join hands to enable our students to leapfrog into the select league of people-compassionate, business goals-passionate and inspirational role-champions needed to outpace competition with better revenues and brand salience. Move over staid MBA, its time for industry designed, leaders’ mentored leadership grooming programme that’s wowing leading corporate and creating transformational leaders-in-making. Be the difference you want to be, today and forever. Visit and enroll for admissions at www.soilindia.net

Education Essentials & Life's Knowledge Necessity

Excellence in one’s life is all about having self-belief and a resolve to consistently strive at self improvement because success is a ‘continuously moving’ (upwards!) target. Continued self improvement is an enjoyable journey if you break it up into small achievable tasks. Taking expert help is advisable as you avoid common pitfalls and many embarrassing situations. It pays to have an unbreakable faith in society’s education infrastructure that was created to specifically create successful people armed with knowledge and skills that society needs to grow. Add to this the never ending power of All Mighty to help you with the right wisdom and fortunate miracles.

Hey isn’t it more comforting to think that there is some ‘super-power’ that is always ready to help you, no matter who you are and where you were born. All that's needed to invoke this divine power is to pray regularly and never ever loose faith…to be the best you can be requires faith in God’s doings and following His good teachings captured in planned education too. Only through proper education and a good human attitude can you rise above your negative cycle of life-mishaps, and negative surroundings. With this positive success-attitude and committed learning you begin to see your own problems as part of a larger corrective (divine) plan. It’s His way to help you discover a better, more fulfilling path to your continued glory.

Customer's the king & a source of innovation too!

We have all been brought up hearing stories of the customer being the king and how serving this all important king is the make or break for all businesses - big or small. True. But serving this omnipotent King starts with perfecting the fine art of sincere 'listening' – however successful or big one may be. One often-missed reality is that this listening is a valuable source of business innovation and all it takes is an investment in a good CRM tool. After analyzing several CRM reports and customer feedback, the CEO of Walmart.com realised the fallacy in the previously held perception about this new web front attracting its own set of unique customers. It was actually being used by offline regulars to check the product range before their store visit! Post this feedback, the web front was tweaked to serve as an ally of the offline stores (by running live campaigns to drive more offline retail traffic) than as a standalone website. Thus active listening and consistent CRM analysis helped Walmart to use the webfront as an innovative marketing tool for its main (offline) business rather than wasting money promoting both businesses separately.