Good Boss or Bad Boss ?

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bad boss, Good boss

Even at the risk of over simplification, a good read is “Good Boss or Bad Boss. Which are You?” by Paul R. Brown in the New York Times.

As I went through the list of attributes that made bosses good or even bad, one point was re-inforced in my mind. Ultimately, it is the way we conduct ourselves that makes these impressions on others. The points listed are not earth shaking. They are so simple yet we do not give them the required importance or priority.

The good news is that no one became a good boss from the day he/she was born. They learnt the ropes as they went along, learning from their mistakes and picking up good practices and habits from more effective others.

The bad news is that if we are not careful and practice effective managerial skills as a matter of course, we could become complacent and lazy. Within a short while, we slide downhill as we ignore the things we gave importance to yesterday.  Sooner than later we end up as a bad boss!

So it’s really up to you. Take your pick. Would be rather be know as a good boss or a bad one?

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Sir Edmund Hillary, RIP

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Mt. Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary

Sad to hear of the death of Sir Edmund Hillary. He died at home in New Zealand at the age of 88 on January 10. May his soul rest in peace.
For many of my generation, he was one of our earliest heroes as he was the first man to conquer Mt. Everest. When he climbed Mt. Everest in 1953, he and Tensing Norkay, the Nepali Sherpa with him became household names all over the world.

On May 29, 1953 he reached the peak of the 29,028 mountain peak, doing something which many have done since, but no one had ever done before.

Sir Edmund worked for environmental causes and humanitarian work on the behalf of the Nepalese people for the rest of his life. Sir Edmund lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity.” Hillary summarized it for schoolchildren in 1998, when he said one didn’t have to be a genius to do well in life.

”I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it,” he said.

The New Zealand flag will be flown at half-mast on all government and public buildings until midnight Saturday to mark Sir Edmund’s death.

In spirit, I am sure one will fly at half-mast on top of Mt. Everest as well.

Time Management Tips

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A Step A Day, Ed McGrath, Time management tips, XLRI

My Professor at XLRI, so many years ago, Fr. Ed McGrath taught us so many things.

All of us have only 168 hours each week, he used to say, make the best of it.  34 years after he spoke of it, I remember ( and try to practice) 3 techniques :

• Premack Principle: We like some tasks and dislike some others. Do what you dislike first! Doing what you like is easy but you are prone to postpone doing what you don’t like. If you have to do Tasks A & B and like A but dislike B, do B first. You will do both better. Do the unpleasant task first.
• Swiss Cheese Technique: Even if you do not have enough time to complete a top priority task, do something related to that task accomplishment instead of attending to a lower priority task. For example, if you have 20 minutes to spare before your next meeting, gather data or assign work to gather data for your top priority task, instead of reading a magazine or making lower priority phone calls.
• Act on a piece of paper only once: Don’t move it from place to place on your desk or move it from one folder to another. Act on it the first time, file it, assign a task to some one else, reply to it, make a call, do whatever but act on it the first time.

Fr. McGrath remains a major hero for XLers of my time. He uses these techniques himself because he is as cheerful as before and very active in his 80s.

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