Implicit Laws Of Giving And Receiving Feedback - The Game Everyone Plays

Sam manages a team of over 25 technical associates, Sarah is one of them. Last week Sarah made a mistake in one of her assignments. Sam immediately caught the error and called a meeting with all the team members. He went on to share the incident along with the details of what went wrong. Sarah was annoyed with the fact that her manager Sam gave her negative feedback in front of the whole team. She approached him and said: I know I made a mistake but is it right for you to give me all the feedback in front of the whole team? You could have done it in private too! I am really disappointed.

Sam responded I had no intentions to make you feel bad in front of the whole team; I was just doing my job and thought that if I share the incident with the whole team then everyone can benefit from the information and avoid making similar mistakes in future.

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This is a classic example where the implicit laws of giving and receiving feedback are not being followed. 

Here are those laws:

Never give negative or critical feedback to individuals in a public forum. Everyone has an ego. As a manager you need to be careful of not hurting any one's ego. Make sure that you first share critical or negative feedback in private and then share the information with the larger audience.

Utilize one on one informal discussions as a mode to share critical feedback. Rather than calling up for a formal one on one meeting, a quick discussion over coffee may be a good informal setting to share feedback in one on one discussion. However, if this doesn't work, you may need to go back to a formal setting later.

Avoid sharing critical feedback on e-mail. Emails are best suited for sharing information or action items but e-mail should be avoided as far as sharing critical feedback with a team member is concerned. If arranging an informal meeting is not possible then the next best way is to call for a formal in-person meeting. If you want to record the events then you may capture and share the meeting notes after the meeting is over.

Giving Feedback to Employees

As a manager one needs to careful while giving feedback because one bad experience can have a lot of negative impact on the associate. Sometimes employees feel that the Manager only looks at the negative aspects hence it is very necessary to share the positive feedback from time to time. Unlike critical feedback scenarios, public forums are ideal place to share positive feedback. Managers should encourage the culture of sharing positive feedback in public forums. Following are some tools and techniques to share positive feedback:

• A quick 'Thank You' and/ or appreciation email
• Nomination for award or reward certificate
• Sharing the good work done by the employee in team meeting/ group forums
• Awarding gift vouchers/ value points as per policy

Receiving feedback from employees

As far as receiving feedback from the employees is concerned, managers should utilize the following proven tools and techniques:

• One on one meetings
• Online Surveys
• Informal group meetings(Like Lunch, Coffee or Tea Meetings)
• Gamification techniques

Giving or receiving feedback is a tricky thing. Once has to be very careful irrespective of whether you are giving feedback to employees or giving feedback to managers or giving feedback to your boss. While there are so many tools and techniques available some people still find it difficult to share or ask for feedback. Sometimes they are just scared of listening or saying negative things and hence they avoid asking or giving feedback to/ from their boss or employees. In the end, I would like to stress that one should not shy away from giving or receiving feedback because it is a very critical factor in the overall growth of a person/ organization/ society. However, one needs to be careful in picking the right medium of communication to convey as well as receive the message. Needless to say that it should be done in the right spirit, sharing feedback with wicked intentions does not serve any purpose.

To conclude, here is a quote from Ken Blanchard...

"FEEDBACK IS THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS"

The Tricky Transition From Middle Management To Top Management

Question: What are the key actions that the folks in middle management need to implement to reach top management, the next level of their career?

In general, folks at middle management demostrate and focus on following key skills and competencies:

• Critical Thinking
• Business Orientation
• Influencing
• Customer Partnering
• Engaging and developing others
• Self-leadership

While the above skills are extremely important for the middle management role, these skills are not enough for the next level. Now let us look the six key areas/ competencies where the shift is required. While you are in middle management you may still be doing few of these things but in order to get into the exec/ top leader band you need to uplevel yourself significantly in these areas.

• Strategic Thinking
• Business Acumen
• Customer Advocacy
• Driving change and impact
• Leading groups
• Innovation

So while at middle management your graph for these competencies may look something like this…

The above graph is just an example, from here what you need to do is to focus on each one of these skills and uplevel yourself to take these scores from 3 to 4 or from 4 to 5.

Tools and Techniques:

• Workshops and Seminars
• Behavioral and Competency Building Trainings
• Live opportunities at workplace/ Experimentation
• Partnering with the senior management in shadow executive boards etc.

Actions/ What you exactly need to do in each of the areas:

Strategic Thinking

• Drive long-term business advantage after assessing all relevant environmental factors
• Update self on global trends and has a global perspective in relation to own work
• Develop robust strategies towards achievement of the goals
• Demonstrate effective use of scenarios to generate and evaluate alternatives

Business Acumen

• Constantly looks for opportunities for revenue generation
• Utilize knowledge of various operating and pricing models to improve profitability
• Identify ways to reduce the operating costs and optimise operations
• Work to build the brand of the organization and promote offerings amongst customers and industry bodies

Customer Advocacy

• Constant lookout for avenues for adding value to the customer
• Identify possible areas of conflict between customer and own organization and works towards addressing them
• Advise customer with their best interest in mind
• Ensure that the customer receives the best service possible and feels valued
• Prepare business cases in line with customer's views, preferences and work to gain support for the same in own organization

Driving change and impact

• Identifiy and adapt to changing priorities and uncertain times
• View and utilize change as an opportunity to improve ways of working
• Keep people motivated and engaged during times of change
• Take ownership of the change initiatives and ensures smooth implementation
• Serve as a role model of the change that she/he expects of others

Leading groups

• Provide clear vision, direction and purpose to team members, ensuring that they understand and are accountable

• Create opportunities for team members to surpass their performance benchmarks

• Facilitate collaboration and addresses conflict effectively within the group

• Take onus of development of team members and promotes learning

• Empower team members to make decisions by delegating effectively and support them

I completely agree that it is not easy to get from middle management to top management. Lot of people face the same trouble where one mostly gets branded/ perceived as excellent at operations or very good at execution but not seen as exec/ top leader. Developing some of the skills mentioned above may help to change that perception over a period of time.

Employee Motivation: Direct Result Of The Sum Of Interactions With His Or Her Manager

Let us look at a conversation between a manager and his employees. Inspired by true events:
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Tom and Jack approached their manager and demanded that their job titles should be changed from 'Business operations analyst' and 'Tech support engineer' to 'Software Engineer'.

Sean, their manager was baffled, he asked 'Why? do you want your job titles to be changed?'

Tom replied: 'Because of multiple reasons: (A) Software engineer sounds more dignified than the other two titles (B) We have a degree in computer science and IT so the current job titles is not suitable (C) In the social circle we are looked down upon by our friends as doing some low grade work, mostly treated as doing some BPO work/ non-technical work (D) We are not getting the right marriage proposals because our title is not apt.' These are some of the key reasons.

Sean was taken aback by this response. Stunned he looked at them and said 'You were hired to do a certain kind of job, the title that you hold currently he is absolutely suitable for the role that you are playing currently. There is nothing that I can do about it. Please go back to your seat and concentrate on your job.'

Jack was offended and he protested: 'But we are not able to move ahead in our careers with these titles. We are not getting a better job in the market because the recruiters feel that we are not skilled to do IT work and our profile and job title doesn't help us at all.'

This got into Sean's nerves. He raised his tone and said 'I don't want to listen to all this, these are your personal problems don't mix them with work. There isn't anything that I can do for you.'
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The above conversation is very common in IT industry where people have the luxury to move from one role to another. However, as stated above the luxury sometime brings certain challenges which are difficult to address. Let us re-look at this situation from two different perspectives of employee as well as manager.

The employee perspective

If you were in place of Tom or Jack what would you do? How would you respond? What would be your next step? Here are some suggestions:

Identify blockers in your life. For example, in the above situation the manager Sean is a blocker. Because he is continuously saying 'No'. You need to dodge a blocker like him and take an alternate route. For example, you may opt to meet the HR or go to Sean's supervisor and explain your situation. In short, you need to find a person who will say 'Yes'.

Sometimes our thoughts are the main blockers. In the above example both Tom and Jack are worried about their titles, they have stated few reasons why their job title is not good/ working for them. However, what they have failed to realize is the reality. They need to ask tough questions to themselves. Are they really doing any software development or IT engineer job? If not, on what basis should the company provide them the title? Sean is absolutely right when he says that the role that they are performing and the job title that they have are perfectly matching so from his perspective there is no change required.

So here is what Tom and Jack should do: Instead of asking for a title change Tom and Jack should focus on learning software development or IT engineering skills. They should look at getting some refresher or fast track course and then search for right opportunities where they will be recognized as Software engineers and get a platform to prove themselves. Because in their current role even if they get a title change the type of work they do will not change so without real-time experience the change in the title will in effect not add any value to their profile.

The Manager's perspective

Now, let us look at Sean. What could have he done differently when his employees approached him? Saying 'No' was probably the simplest thing but it was not the right thing to do. Instead of playing a hardcore manager, Sean could have played the role of a guide/ coach or a mentor. He could have put aside his manager hat for a while and looked at possibilities of re-skilling his employees, he could have also looked at potential opportunities within or outside his department where these employees can be placed in future(once they are re-skilled). And most importantly he could have made a genuine attempt to understand where his employees are coming from, he could have made an attempt to feel their pain and then guide them accordingly.

Conclusion: Whether you play the role of an employee or that of a manager you will always come across such scenarios. Here the question was that of a job title change, other common example may be where an employee feels that he deserves more salary and asks for a pay raise but the manager feels otherwise. In all such scenarios it is extremely important for both parties to be 'rational' and ask these right questions to themselves: 

Employees:

• Do I really deserve what I am asking for ? 
• What steps do I need to take to really get it? 
• Am I talking to the right person? 
• Whose advice should I accept and whose advice should I reject? 
• Am I just considering one perpective or have I looked at all the options?
• Is this going to be a short term gain or a long term gain?
• etc.

Managers:

• Does the employee really deserve it?
• Is the employee an asset to the company?
• Is there anything I can do beyond the scope of my project/ department?
• Is it going to be beneficial for the employee/ team member?
• Is it aligned to the organizational goal?
• etc.

If both managers and employees are able to take this logical and rational approach they may be able to identify a win win scenario almost all the time. So next time you get into a similar discussion: Think before you ask(advice) and think before you give(advice).

Quote: An employee's motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.

Other good reads:

Are You A Reluctant, Overprotective OR An Effective Manager
Phase Your Career Before It Phases You Out
15 Powerful Techniques To Pay Attention In Meetings
20 Effective Work Life Balance Tips For Professionals
39 Key Critical Competencies Of Successful Business Leaders
Is The Digital Revolution Going To Take Away Your Job?

Are You A Reluctant, Overprotective OR An Effective Manager?

Are you a reluctant manager or an over protective manager? Do you provide enough space to you team members or are you always breathing on their necks?

These are some tricky questions that even senior managers need to ask themselves from time to time. Irrespective of whether you are leading a small team or managing a large group; as a manager you always need to ensure that you are effective. Being effective is not easy, however one can make it happen by asking for constructive feedback from all stakeholders and then working on the improvement areas. 

How To Enhance Your Effectiveness As A Manager?

Here are some tips that will help you become very effective as a manager:

• Be upfront in placing opinion
• Dont be a reluctant manager, be direct in sharing and receiving feedback from your team members. Open and transparent work culture will help you build trust. This will result in long term association and worthy partnerships with all stakeholders.

• Develop strong business understanding 
• Invest time and efforts to understand the business of  your company and that of its customers. Strong understanding of the domain will help you create value for your company/ clients and also help you strategize for creation of new services.

• Share learning with peers 
• Always believe in the mantra of inclusive growth. Sharing your experiences and learnings with your peers will create an atmosphere of companionship/ comradeship. Implementing best practices across groups can result in win-win outcomes for all groups. More collaboration and sharing best practices for overlapping areas may also result in identification of new business opportunities.

• Help team members grow 
• Sometimes in order to give their best outputs the team members need to come out of the shadow of their managers. Less hand-holding may help the team members grow; provide them opportunities for front facing and leading. Let them learn by making mistakes, don't be an overprotective manager. Be more open with more distribution of responsibilities.

• Skip Level Meetings
• Communicate deep down in your hierarchy and talk to team members at all levels; dont just restrict yourself to your direct reports. Don't be confined to your cubical. Talk to people around you. Skip level meetings may be a good way to get connected. Other options can be mentorship forums or informal meetings over lunch or coffee.

• Fairness on all grounds
• Giving equal/alike attention to all the team members is one of the key attribute to become an effective manager. Provide them equal opportunities and challenging them equally are very important for their growth. There is a possibility that one of your accounts may be big and may require more attention but that does not mean that you will overlook the other smaller acounts. Remember at the end of the day each business unit or account is made up of team members, each team member is a human and all humans need attention.

• Focus on Industry trends
• Developing understanding of changing market trends and focus on industry benchmarking is essential for your success as a manager. Senior managers need to spend time to guage what the industry is shifting towards and then accordingly build a strategy for their account/ department or company. Those who ignore this important aspect get washed out.

As a manager some of these qualities may come to you naturally and for some you may need additional training or coaching. Don't shy away from learning. Attending a training program or a workshop may actually help you get a new perspective. Don't underestimate the power of learning, it doesn't matter whether you are young or old, it doesn't matter whether you are senior or junior; if there is an opportunity to learn, just grab it, don't let it go. Continuous learning, improvement and practice will eventually lead to effectiveness.

To conclude, here is a quote:
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out - Stephen Covey

If The Learner Hasn't Learned The Teacher Hasn't Taught

In India Teacher's day is celebrated on 5th September every year. It is the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was the first Vice President of India (1952–1962) and the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. It is a special day to appreciate and honour our teachers. Teacher's day is celebrated in over 100 countries, however, the date on which Teacher's day is celebrated varies from country to country, for example in Australia it is celebrated on the last friday in October while in United Kingdom it is celebrated on 5th October.

Teaching is an art and a noble profession. We remember and respect our teachers who have helped us learn and grow in schools and colleges; marking one day as a special day for appreciating them is a super idea.

Learning is a never ending process. We continue to learn even after we graduate. Once we land up in a job we generally focus on job oriented trainings, but even at that juncture the presence of a teacher or a mentor is crucial. Many organizations run a mentorship program which help their employees to connect with right mentors who provide timely guidance and direction to employees when needed. As an employee however the most one gets to learn is from the immediate reporting manager. As mentioned in the Spirit of Lean Mentorship: "If the learner hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught". In this respect, team leaders and managers carry a huge responsibility and play a very vital role in the organization.

Playing a mangerial role is tricky, concept of 'Manager as a teacher' adds more complexity to it. If you are playing this role here are some tips to make your life simple:

• Create a learning plan for each employee in your team
• Conduct one on one discussions with all your employees and understand their learning needs and priorities
• Based on the discussion include learning as one of the KRA(key result area) for all your team members
• Identify the right training courses based on the needs identified
• Plan and nominate them to attend these trainings
• Assess their progress by conducting periodic assessments
• Encourage them to get industry recognized certifications
• Award and recognize their learning achievements

Following this simple approach will help you get organized and also ensure that each employee is personally treated according to his/ her needs and priorities.

Some more bonus tips are:

• Organize learning based contests in your team
• Encourage employees to learn new processes or technologies even if it is not associated to your current project/ scope of work
• Conduct knowledge sharing sessions for promoting the culture of sharing is caring

There is absolutely no doubt that managers have to be result oriented. Earlier managers used to have a 'Do it may way' dictator style, those days are now gone. Few years ago managers started to follow 'Do it your way' empowerment style and got amazing results. These days the shift is towards lean style of leadership: 'Follow me...and let's figure this out together'. Teaching and mentorship are an intergral part of this model. 

To conclude: If you are in a managerial/ leadership role it is important that you adopt this model of leadership and groom your team as a true mentor. On the other hand, if you are an employee then it is equally vital for you to find a leader/ manager who can provide you the right guidance and direction. This will help you grow by leaps and bounds.

If you read this, go and Thank Your Teacher for making what you are. Teacher's day is here. Happy Teacher's Day to all teachers who made us what we are!

Other good reads:

The Making Of Olympic Champions
15 Powerful Techniques To Pay Attention In Meetings
20 Effective Work Life Balance Tips For Professionals
39 Key Critical Competencies Of Successful Business Leaders
Is The Digital Revolution Going To Take Away Your Job?

15 Powerful Techniques To Pay Attention In Meetings

Meetings are an important part of day to day work in corporate organizations. A lot of valuable time is spent in meetings or discussions, so it is extrremely important that the meeting time is utilized carefully. Meetings are all about communication, not only the speaking and listening skills, but all the eight elements of communication model play a vital role in conducting productive meetings. So first let us understand these eight basic components of a communication model:

Source/ Sender
Message
Communication Channel
Receiver
Feedback
Environment
Context
Interruptions/ Interference

Now, having understood the above, let us look at some of the key points which will make sure that you get most out of the meetings by being focused and attentive:


Don't be preoccupied

There is a possibility that you may be preoccupied with certain thoughts when you move from one meeting to other, especially when you have back to back meetings. Hence, try to avoid back to back meetings, take a break and gather your thoughts before you move from one meeting to another. Before you join the meeting spend some time to understand the meeting agenda in detail and also have a look at the profile of meeting participants. This will ensure that you are well informed in advance and hence productive during the course of the meeting.

Be prepared to listen

• If you attending the meeting over phone make sure that you are not distracted by other discussions around you. Try to find a room where you can get audio privacy.
• You may be a good speaker  yourself but in order to take a discussion to a logical conclusion you need to be a good listener too. Be prepared to listen to what others have to say. 
• DO NOT interrupt when someone is speaking. Make your point but only when the other person has completed speaking. Dont jump the guns and assume based on half baked information.

Be organized

• Always carry a notepad and a pen to write/ note the key highlights and action items discussed in the meeting. Asking for a notepad or a pen are not very professional habits. 
• If you have the habit of noting down the points in your tablet or laptop then ensure that you dont get distracted by emails popping up in your inbox or other important tasks diverting your attention.
• If you are in a room where there is a large group of people attending the meeting on phone then make sure you are within the audible distance of the phone. You should also ensure that you move near the phone when you speak so that you are audible to the people on the other side of the phone.
• Speak with a speed that is good enough for the people of understand the meaning of what you are saying. Dont be in a hurry and dont rush through your statements.

Identify and avoid the distractions

• DO NOT whatsapp while you are in a meeting. You get singled out if you keep browsing on your phone when others are engrossed in a discussion.
• DO NOT chat over IM(instant messaging service) on your computer while you are attending a meeting. Best way to keep your focus in a meeting is to logout from the IM messaging as soon as you join a meeting.
• DO NOT daydream, it may so happen that sometime one of the point being discussed in the meeting may divert your thought process and you may start thinking in a tangent. Avoid such daydreaming and stay honest to the agenda and context of the meeting.

How to be awake?

• If you have a meeting immediately after lunch and you are feeling sleepy then a simple way to avoid sleep is to use something to chew. By continously chewing you keep yourself alert, a chewing gum might come handy.

Don't take ownership of general stuff

• When there are multiple people attending a meeting there is a possibility that someone may ask a general question which may have an action item associated with it. Be careful. Don't be over enthusisatic to answer and take ownership of something which is out of your scope. 
• In general, follow the rule of "Count to 5", that is, if you are attending the meeting on phone then before you respond to a general question take a pause by counting till 5. This will give you sometime to think and there is a high possibility that someone else may give the answer in the interim which may help you avoid taking ownership of an unnecessary action item.

Some other basic etiquettes include...

• Responding to meeting invites promptly(either accept, decline or mark tentative). 
• Joining and leaving the meeting on time. 
• Proper delegation of meeting invites to other stakeholders from our own team. 
• Avoid discussing any items which are not on agenda/ for which you are not prepared.

Going back to the basic elements of the communication model: One needs to be careful about the location/ geography of the sender/ receiver. Once that is figured out then based on the type/ kind/ sensitivity of the message one needs to choose a proper communication channel(in person meeting, phone meeting or tele/ video conference etc.). Environmental and contextual conditions are critical factors which may play an important role in reaching logical decisions. Focus should be to reduce interruptions and encourage healthy conversations with proper feedback loop. Taking all these elements of communication model into consideration will ensure that one meeting doesn't lead to another meeting and help you conduct productive meetings/ drive concrete results.

If you read the above, you may also like to read the below mentioned blog posts of interest:

How Much Would IT Professional Save In USA
USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
How To Go Onsite?
Most Valuable Skill For Your Life
21 Important Things To Know If You are Traveling To USA For The First Time
How To Hunt For Job After Career Break

5 Secrets of Salary Negotiations

39 Key Competencies Of Successful Business Leaders

In this post, we will go through 39 critical and key competencies of successful business leaders. These competencies are developed over a period of time and are extremely relevant for leaders in the middle management role. If the middle level managers are able to acquire, adopt and display these traits then they can become very successful in their career and climb the ladder of success with great pace.

Business Orientation

• Constant lookout for avenues for further business generation
• Identify and work towards converting prospective opportunities into big deals
• Regularly monitor key financial metrics and takes step to improve the same
• Analyze the commercial and business value of the proposed ideas
• Implement various operating and pricing models as per the context and need
• Support the branding efforts for organization with industry bodies and analyst organizations

Self Leadership

• Gain sound technical and domain knowledge, do not depend on others
• Adapt effectively to change, develop ability to take quick decisions
• Ability to share a valid point of view in his/her area
• Take charge of the situation, lead from the front
• Self driven and do not need directions from others
• Manage multiple and diverse responsibilities effectively

Partnering with the Customer

• Deliver solutions which have direct and measurable business benefits to the customer
• Act as an advisor to the customer and not just an order taker
• Keep customer's best interest in mind at all times and be genuine
• Propose a compelling business value proposition to the customer
• Recommend and implement different business and operating models as per the needs of the customer
• Deal with customer escalations effectively, focus on problem solving for long term
• Make strategic tradeoffs in the interest of the customer and own organization

Influencing

• Build extensive networks within the organization
• Understand the formal/ informal structures as well as dynamics in own as well as customer organization
• Influence others to gain support for own agenda
• Express own thoughts and ideas in a convincing way
• Negotiate skillfully with internal and external stakeholders
• Anticipate the effect of an action on others and modulates own behavior

Engaging and Developing Others

• Instill confidence amongst team members and motivate them towards achievement of the goals
• Mentor and coach the team members
• Assess the skills levels of the team members and identify development needs
• Ensure that team members get the right support and guidance from relevant sources within the organization
• Be sensitive to the cultural differences amongst team members
• Facilitates a common understanding within the team
• Communicatee the vision and goals of team/organization in a powerful and convincing manner

Critical Thinking

• Keeps revenue generation as the larger goal while making decisions
• Ability to look beyond the obvious
• Ask probing questions to identify the real problem
• Shift effectively between micro and macro perspectives
• Consider the strategic implications of decisions
• Analyze the situation at hand and derives key insights
• Identify innovative solutions for addressing the problem

Note that these skills or competencies cannot be acquired in a single day or in a single training program. These have to be learned and developed over a period of time and most important is that one needs to practice these skills at work on a day to day basis so that they become a part of one's business behaviour.

To conclude, here is a quote 'Leadership is never an avenue to be self-serving but,a platform to render great service to people'

If you read the above, you may also want to read the below mentioned other blog posts of interest:

How Much Would IT Professional Save In USA
USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
How To Go Onsite?
Most Valuable Skill For Your Life
21 Important Things To Know If You are Traveling To USA For The First Time
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21 Powerful Presentation Tips To Grow Your Confidence As A Speaker

Do you get nervous when you are asked to speak in front of a group of people? or if you have to deliver a speech or address a decent gathering of people? Do you get butterflies in your stomach? or Do you start shaking or shivering at the very thought of getting center stage? If answer to any one of these questions is 'Yes' then dont worry, you are not alone. Over 90% of people have this issue when it comes to public speaking. Speaking in public or delivering a presentation is an art, some people have it naturally in them but some dont; the good news is that it can be learned and with practice one can get very good at it.

Delivering a good presentation is just not merely about your speaking skills. A lot of preparation goes into making and delivering a good presentation. Prepartion starts way before you enter the seminar hall, it often takes few hours to prepare and on few occassions it may take several days to prepare for delivering a good presentation.

In this post we are going to mention very simple but powerful tips that will help you grow your confidence as a speaker. Here you go...

Before the presentation(Preparation)

• Know your subject very well, if you are speaking on a subject in which you do not have expertise then it is wise to spend a lot of time on research. Read books, surf internet or ask other experts, but get as much as information as possible. This will boost your confidence.
• Examine the seminar hall or meeting room prior to the presentation. If it is a new place then make sure you have checked every detail of the room, for example, light arrangements, projector arrangement, white board, markers, dusters, pin board etc. everything should be in perfectly working condition.
• Do your homework, research about your audience before you deliver any presentation. Try to find about their age group, work experience, domain experience etc. This will help you interact with the audience and also help you respond to any questions that they may ask.
• Don't bombard your PPT slide with lot of text. Use of pictures is highly recommended, however, don't clutter your slides with too many irrelevant pictures.
• Use a font size that is visible to the person sitting in the last row of the seminar hall or meeting room.
• Use animation when absolutely required. For example, if you are going to talk about 3 bullet points sequentially then use animation to control their appearance on the screen. This is because if you flash all three bullet points on screen in one go then the audience tends to read point#2 and point#3 while you are explaining point#1. This leads to distraction.
• Guy Kawasaki advises to follow the 10-20-30 rule. That is, to use not more than 10 slides, spend not more than 20 minutes on the presentation and use 30 point font size on all your slides. This may or may not work for everyone but this is a solid advise and a very good point to customize as per individual needs.

During the presentation(Delivery)

• Set the ground rules for the presentation. If your presentation is a day long affair then you may want to mention the break timings and the length of each break. You can also get agreement on penalty for late comers.
• If the group of people attending the presentation are strangers to each other and to speaker then Ice breakers are extremely important to get them started. There are several ways to get the people speaking but some of the simple ways are to ask them to introduce themselves to the group in a innovative way. For example: In the introduction (a) they can use an adjective as a prefix to their name or (b) they can mention which animal they relate themselves with and why? These are some fun ways to get started with a group of people.
• While delivering the presentation look in the eyes of the audience. Eye Contact is extremely important while delivering a presentation. Also, stand in such a way that you dont face only a certain section of the audience. Rotate or move in a way that everyone gets your attention. This includes people sitting at the back, on the left, right, corners etc.
• Keep the presentation delivery interactive. If you speak without any interaction then audience may lose interest. Ask questions and be prepared to take question from the audience.
• Never read word by word through/ from the PPT slide, use it only for reference. Your audience can read it on their own. You should be thorough with your content.
• Generally people sitting at the back are either latecomers or people who are disinterested. Walking towards them and having a healthy conversation with them may help you to win their interest.
• Storytelling is an important aspect of making good presentations. These are small incidents/ stories/ examples relevant to your subject, you should mention these while talking to the audience. People love to hear real examples so if you can give them short story bursts then it will keep your audience engaged.
• Go slow. Don't rush through your presentations. Keep a check on time, however, don't rush through or speak very fast. Take frequent and required pauses. This will allow your audience to take notes or ask questions or make comments. Not only that, it will help you gain some breath.
• Always keep an eye on your watch, that is, keep a check on time. Don't overshoot the schedule in any case.
• Don't keep your hands folded while speaking, also avoid sitting cross legged. Avoid keeping any object, like a table or a desk between you and your audience. All of these are negative signs.
• Be a good listener, if someone is asking you a question don't jump to conclusions, be patient and allow them to complete their sentences or questions. Once you have understood the question or comment then start answering. If you dont know the answer then dont bluff, be truthful, note the question and get back with an answer at a later point in time/ after the presentation.

After the presentation(Post Delivery)

• Always ask for feedback, either distribute forms that the audience can fill manually or send them a online survey for providing you feedback.
• Once you receive the feedback, note down the good and bad feedback, create a summary. Look at the opportunities for improvements and work towards improving the shortcomings before next presentation.
• Send out the answers to any pending questions or any course material that you promised to deliver.

Conclusion: Delivering great presentations or developing good public speaking skills is not a rocket science, with continuous focus, dedicated efforts and planned approach anyone and everyone can learn, improve and master it. Remember a quote by Benny Bellamacina 'You are only limited by your own imagination'. All the best!

Bonus Tips: 

• Keep a water bottle or a glass of water ready and near or on the stage. If you speak for long your thorat may dry and you will need to drink water to keep going.
• If rehearsal works for you then practice your speak ahead of time. It will also be helpful for you to tone you voice and help you decide the pitch while stressing on certain points.
• Clothes and body language matter a lot. You should wear something which makes you look professional as well as makes you feel comfortable. You dont want to wear something which will irriate you while you speak. Next most important aspect is the body language and facial expression. Always wear a smile and be sure to greet people in a pleasant way.
• Be prepared for emergencies, for example, if someone from the audience who is very vital to your presentation needs to leave early then you should be prepared to fast track your delivery so that instead of 1 hour you can complete your presenation in 40 minutes.
• Avoid being nervous, if you lose your thought or get blank while speaking then don't panic, just smile. Take a moment to gather your thoughts back. It is always good to have a small piece of mapper with key points of your presentation it will help you get back on track in these scenarios.

If you found this useful then you may also want to read:  7 Secrets To Make Your Own Luck

Change Is The Only Constant For IT Professionals

IT Industry as we know is changing very rapidly. Client expectations are increasing and changing with the evolution of digitization. In this changing scenario Business and Employee interests must be aligned. According to a gartner research businesses that focus only on technical aptitude and do not align their IT workers with their business goals willl fail.

Having said the above, technical competency- although still a necessity for IT workers- has clearly become less valuable, while business knowledge, project management and communication skills have become more important. In this changing scenario behavioral competencies are key requirements for success as an IT professional today.

Gartner also mentions that 75 percent of midsize and large IS organizations will consolidate hiring, development and promotional criteria around behavioral and interpersonal skills rather than purely around technical skills and know-how (0.8 probability).

This leads us to The Million $ Question…What Should Be The Focus Of IT Professionals, specifically the Senior IT Professionals? 
Answer is simple: Senior IT professionals should look to develop skills which will enable them take bigger responsibilities in the business domain. Here are some examples of such desired skills and responsibilities:

Irrespecive of the technical experience or expertise professionals should focus on gaining experience in a particular domain, say for example, banking or insurance or manufacturing, that is, even if IT professionals move from one one project to another or one company to another they should focus and continue in the same business domain. They should avoid moving from banking to manufacturing or say from finance to sales/ marketing.

Next priority should be in gaining ..

·         6 to 8 years of experience in managing or leading projects

·         Project / Program Mgmt certification

Other desired skills that should be developed are:

·         Excellent collaboration, proactive and influencing skills

·         Ability to build consultative relationship with stakeholders

·         Ability to tell compelling stories and explain complex issues in simple ways

·         Ability to work independently and jointly in unstructured environments in a self-directed way

·         Strong research skills with an attention to detail

·         Ability to manage multiple activities in a deadline-oriented environment; highly organized and flexible

·         Excellent oral and written communication skills with a high degree of attention to detail

Following business analysis skills will also help a lot:

·         Gather, interpret, and document business needs into functional and nonfunctional requirements 

·         Translate business problems into requirements that facilitate capability development

·         Complete business and operational impact assessment

·         Document, track and maintain in Master Priority List

·         Closely manage communication of business process and systems changes to impacted stakeholders across the globe  

·         Look at transformational project plans and identify impacted groups within the organization and plan for targeted engagement to socialize the change

·         Be the voice for Operational functions and drive improvements with the stakeholder community

In short, IT professions need to 

• Develop important behavioral competencies
• Make deliberate efforts to develop “soft skills” in addition to technical skills
• Develop organizational and work-specific competencies: go beyond myopic focus on technical skills
• Become business savvy

Conclusion: It is very important that professionals research, observe, read and understand the changes happening in the industry and be ready to make adjustments in their own skillset, this will ensure that rather than struggling they can be in a position of advantage. Remember a famous quote from Charles Darwin "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

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