I have seen most people not coming up with counter-views in meetings.
Now, why does that happen?
Let’s delve into the details:
If the boss is intimidating then you will hardly find a person raising their hands to ask a question. And when people are not comfortable asking a question then forget about any counterargument. This is not a good omen for a company because a single person can’t be right all the time. You must create an environment where people get the confidence to speak up. If your culture doesn’t allow a junior employee to counter the views of the CEO then something is wrong.
Are you too demanding? Is your perception of being a tough taskmaster gone down in the negative sense? Are you reactive to criticisms?
These could be some of the reasons why your team is not putting up counterarguments. Being surrounded by YES men is the worst thing that can happen to a leader. Because when hubris sets in, there will be no one around to point out where things are going wrong. When things go wrong it falls in a spiral and before you get to the root cause, much damage is done.
So, as a first step, create an environment where all views are given a patient hearing. Allow people to criticise you without crossing the line of decency. Take open questions in town hall set up. When people realise that you are open to criticism, they will get the confidence to counter your views. You need people in your team who would openly talk when they find things are wrong. The boss can’t be right always and this needs to be instilled in your team for them to understand that when you criticise or give feedback, it’s for the betterment of the company.
When you are speaking to a group of team members, are you only talking or are you engaging? Recently I was speaking with a group of my team members and I found one of my colleagues, a bit off. A generally jovial person was hardly involved in the meeting. I suddenly stopped talking and asked him what’s wrong or what’s bothering him. As I found out he was having a bad time with a few of his clients and he was not getting desired results. I told him, you can’t do anything about what happened yesterday, so why are you ruining the present? We are here together now making some plans for the future and without your involvement in the meeting, it will be a wastage of time. This small pep talk of 30 seconds, got him back to his feet and the jovial colleague was back amongst us in the true sense.
So when you are talking, do not follow the monologue template. Ask questions, try to engage with your audience, throw in the humour sometimes and you will see most of your team members having a good laugh. You would need an energetic team to get success and one of the best ways to get people out of slumber is a dose of humour. Today all are working from home. Every family I know of has had some tragedy to tell. In such a scenario mental health is something you should be really concerned about. Work, work, and work-related discussions can get boring after a while, so release the pressure by talking something nice or some jokes which makes people laugh a little. When you are happy, dopamine gets released and that brings about positivity in you.
When you are happy and jovial, you will engage more with the speaker because you get confidence when you see your boss as a peer. Too much seriousness and your team members will settle inside a cocoon and your meeting will become a monologue that nobody loves or feels connected to.
The art of interactive speaking is about stopping after 5-6 minutes and ask questions. Rather than telling your audience to take notes and asking questions at the end, the better option is to allow people to ask questions at any point in time or when there is no question after 5-6 minutes, take a breather and ask questions.
As a team when they know that the speaker will ask questions in between, they will be extra attentive because the question might be thrown to anyone at any time. This keeps the audience on their toes. Of course, you as the speaker need to plan this well because if you ask too many questions then your speech itself might get diluted.
Any meeting if it goes on for more than 50 minutes will ensure that some or most members losing focus. Ideally, 45 minutes is what general human beings can focus on continuously. Anything more than that and some people will wane off. I have seen that whenever my meetings stretch beyond an hour, I see a few yawning faces. A few yawns openly and a few try to hide but the fact is that you can’t have the same energy and focus for more than 45 minutes.
Ideally, you should plan the meeting in such a way that the meeting can get over within 35 minutes with 15 minutes buffer. If you plan out the 3-4 important points in advance, you will be able to cover them in 35 minutes. If you have too many topics to discuss then divide the meetings into 2 days. Do not discuss everything in one shot and lose the entire intention of the meeting. If your team doesn’t digest what has been discussed then it was a complete wastage of time.
Time is more valuable than money. Money can be recovered but time can’t. So value everyone’s time. Do not have this attitude that just because you are the boss you can hold a 90 minutes meeting. I have been guilty myself of the same sometimes but consciously I try to avoid any meetings beyond 50 minutes. If it stretches to one hour, I ensure that we have enough humour breaks in between to keep everyone energised.
People who are introverts find it difficult to speak. And some who are not introverts also have difficulty speaking in front of 1-15 people. Do not despise them because most of the time these people are good listeners. If you check properly you will find that the ideas that you shared in your meetings will be followed properly by these introverts. Though it’s OK to let them be in their comfort zone once in a while, it’s good to nudge them. Good listeners are good collaborators so you can ask some insightful questions to them and ask them for their suggestions. Introverts need to be nudged and as a leader, you need to do that so that they can share some important insights with everyone. When you listen deeply, you can grasp a few things better than others and sometimes they give inputs that the speaker himself might have missed or not thought of.
But, never ignore them and neither should you pester them in all meetings asking them to speak up. They are different and it’s good to give them that space. Finally, if you can accomplish your goals there is no need to push hard on something in which the other person is not very comfortable.
People who are having an inferiority complex are people who are not confident about themselves. As a leader, you should ask yourself why so? Is it the background of the individual which has made him such? Or is it some recent happenings that have left a scar in his mind? Or was it a completely bad hire?
You can’t grow as a team if you have people with low self-confidence. I am in the sales team and if I find any person who lacks self-confidence which in turn has turned into an inferiority complex then it’s high time for me to look deep into the issue. People lacking self-confidence is detrimental for the organisation especially in client service roles because they are the face of the company. When they lack confidence, no way your client will gain confidence in your company. When you spot that, it’s time for you to get into a one-to-one conversation with that member. If you have built a team where conversations (at least the one to ones) are candid then you will be able to reach the root of the problem.
If a person is afraid to take part in group meetings because others might feel awkward about the questions or he feels that his questions will be deemed stupid then you as a leader have failed because it means he has faced humiliation in the past and you have not taken action. It’s high time you change yourself – first of all, if anyone is laughing at the question asked should be told to stop doing that and secondly answer his question in a simple manner to make him understand. Later on, get into a one-to-one conversation and try and listen to all his problems. When you listen to his problems and provide some solution to some of the problems, you will see a different person in your meetings in the future.
Your team will reflect what you are as a person. So try and be positive at all points of time. Do not work, make it a fun place to work. People gain confidence and interact more when they are in a transparent environment. And of course, an environment where everyone is treated equally.
Have you faced such issues in your meetings? How do you tackle the non-responsive team members?
I was speaking to a colleague recently and he said that after he speaks with me he gets motivated and charged up! But after a couple of days, he loses the momentum!
This made me thinking why does that happen?
Inspiration comes from outside. Motivation comes from inside.
After talking with your mentor if you are feeling motivated it means you are inspired but then how does that wane off in 72 hours?
Well, this is what I think is happening and holds true for many others!
What you do as a profession is not something you really love to do! – Sounding cliche?
If that’s true, it’s important for you to find out what’s your passion! And also find out that in your current profession is it the process that excites you or are you only looking for the final result?
If you are too anxious about the final result then you won’t focus on the process. You need to enjoy the process because without that your final result will never be consistent.
Coming from a sales background I generally give examples of the sales process. The atomic structure of a diamond forms a hexagonal shape and just like a hexagon has 6 angles, the Sales process has 6 dimensions.
What are they?
As a salesperson, you need to focus on these 6 major activities!
At any point of the day, you must be doing one or more than one of the activities listed above. Pick up an activity and try to do it better than yesterday.
For example, While qualifying a lead you need to try and understand the person through some research. Social media is the best place to do that.
It’s a fantastic place to meet new people, learn new things and connect with like-minded professionals (especially LinkedIn). Ask yourself: Do you like what people are talking about? How do you connect with them? Can you start a conversation? If this process of meeting new people, learning from them, and connecting with them excites you then do that daily. And you will find that your anxiousness about what will happen with your target will vanish.
Life is all about giving it forward. When you learn something new are you excited to share it with your colleagues? If you don’t, then change that habit and start sharing. There is no use of your knowledge if you don’t share it with others.
Your net worth is not the amount you have in your bank but the number of thank yous you collect in a day! Your dopamine levels will increase when you feel happy. And you will feel happy when you see another person feeling benefited by your teachings.
This is how you keep yourself motivated. You need to pick up one activity which you like and try and get the best at it. If you are good at customer elicitation calls then try to be the best in your team. Leadership comes from anywhere and when you share your experience about a certain elicitation meeting (which went well) with your colleagues then they will get motivated and they might ask you to join in their elicitation calls. Then you, as a colleague help them with that activity. Help them to win and suddenly you will find your niche. Suddenly you will be considered a leader in a particular niche area of a business process.
There is no use being average in 6 activities if you can be the best in one or two activities! By the way, you can’t remain the best if you stop learning. Markets are evolving. Human beings are evolving! The way people buy is changing so you also need to keep on learning to remain the best. Then, what will happen, is that you will always try to learn something new and keep your level above anybody else.
Too much time is lost by thinking of the future – By being anxious for events not in your control. Control the controlables.
When you stop regretting past events and stop being anxious about future events, you will start living in the present. For living in the present you won’t need motivation. Just think, that I will do this for the next 8 hours and try something new. Then tell yourself to do that again the next day. Keep repeating! Do the boring activities every day and one day you will become an expert. People will look up to you! And then you won’t look for external motivation to keep yourself energised.
It could be your friend, it could be your boss, it could be your parents, it could be your spouse or it could be someone else. Discuss your problems and follow the thought process. Most of the things can be solved if you have an open mind. It’s all about mindset. If you are rigid, you won’t be able to change. But if you are flexible and have control over your emotions like ego etc. then you will be able to grasp the models better. I mean the mental models. Write down the important points and go through them every day till you make it a habit.
When I read ” Think and Grow Rich”, I wrote down all the 13 most important points that the author tries to teach and I make sure to read those notes once in a while whenever I feel mentally bogged down! It gets me back to my feet.
Your success is totally dependent on you. And your success also depends on the decisions you make. If you take some wrong decisions don’t try to overcome them through shortcuts, accept your mistakes, learn from those mistakes and try to get better!
It’s your life – don’t try to lead another person’s life!
Read some self-help books which will help you to grow in your mind. Some of my personal favourites are given below:
1. Focusing
3. The greatest salesman in the world
4. Power of your subconscious mind
6. How to win friends and influence people
7. Influence
8. The almanack of Naval Ravikant
Take notes when you read them. And then go through those notes once in a while.
Your life is about to change! You are born to do something great in this world! Your time is about to come!
Do you believe in yourself? How do you motivate yourself?
Can you share your stories? Let’s try and grow together!
I learn from your stories and you learn from mine? Deal?
Everyone is born with their own destiny. You can’t change it. But you can’t cry over it too. You just need to accept the facts, give your best shot and move on.
If you think of India’s World Cup wins in 2007 and 2011, quite understandably, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who got the maximum accolades.
When we think of the 2011 world cup, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it’s the final sixer and Ravi Shastri’s booming voice announcing that the world cup comes back to India after 28 years.
When we think of the 2007 T20 world cup, what comes to your mind? It’s Misbah’s wicket, isn’t it?
But amongst all this, there was a man who was the highest scorer in both those finals but still didn’t win the Man of the Match award and remained in the background. It’s none other than Gautam Gambhir. His contribution in both those victories can never be ignored but did he get the due accolades that he so richly deserved? – Probably No.
Now, let’s look back at India’s first World Cup win, the 1983 Prudential World Cup.
What comes to your mind when you think of that world cup?
It’s Kapil Dev, isn’t it? That great catch of Viv Richards, that great innings of 175 runs in the group match against Zimbabwe – quite naturally he got the maximum eyeballs along with the fact that he was the captain, and all the media glare was spotlighted towards him. He richly deserves those accolades – don’t take me wrong. But who is the next man whose name comes to mind with regards to the 1983 world cup? It’s mostly Mohinder Amarnath – after all, he won the man-of-the-match awards in both the semifinals and finals. Next? Probably Roger Binny – the highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
But amongst all this, there was one player who didn’t get his due accolades as much as he deserved. And that was Yashpal Sharma.
Yashpal Sharma was the second-highest scorer for India in the 1983 world cup and if you take out that one innings of Kapil Dev (175 against Zimbabwe) then Yashpal Sharma was the highest. I don’t think we ever gave him the kind of mileage the way we should have.
Let me give you some examples. I will specifically point out 3 matches here.
Till that day (9th June 1983), West Indies were yet to lose a World Cup match. On the other hand, India was yet to win a World Cup match against a test-playing nation. It was a mismatch of the highest order and the result was a foregone conclusion!
But everything changed and the World Cup saw one of its biggest upsets ever when India against all odds defeated West Indies by 34 runs.
India scored 262 runs and the highest score was 89 by Yashpal Sharma. He won the man of the match too.
If India defeating West Indies was a big upset then Zimbabwe defeating Australia was an even bigger upset. What that meant was that the group was thrown wide open. Kapil’s heroics saved India the blushes against Zimbabwe and India’s final group match against Australia turned into a virtual knockout.
India won that match comprehensively beating Australia by 118 runs and though the architect of that victory was India’s bowling led by Roger Binny, the top scorer for India was Yashpal Sharma with 40 runs.
The win against Australia took India to the semi-finals and it was a great moment for Indian cricket. Here was a team who no one gave a chance, entered the knockout phase.
England probably took India too lightly and was already looking forward to the repeat of the 1979 finals. But 1983 was destined to be India’s year and the Indian bowlers once again came to the party to bowl out England for 213 runs.
Yes, it was a relatively small score to chase but England had a terrific bowling attack led by Bob Willis and it was never expected to be easy.
It was quite a hard-fought victory for India and they won with 32 balls to spare and once again the top scorer for India was Yashpal Sharma with 61 runs. The audacity of flicking Willis over the long leg boundary for a six would remain etched in memory forever.
3 major victories against 3 different test-playing nations and in all those occasions the common factor was that Yashpal Sharma was the top scorer for India.
As I said above some people never get their due and Yashpal Sharma is an apt example of that. Yes, it’s a team sport but individual brilliance matters.
Overall, Yashpal Sharma scored 240 runs in the 1983 World Cup coming second to Kapil Dev in the highest runscorers list for India but closer scrutiny will tell you that 190 of them were scored in winning causes against 3 top test nations. As the saying goes, “Devil is in the details”.
Recently during the 38th anniversary of India’s World Cup victory, we saw Yashpal Sharma in all glory with his former teammates but little did we know that it would be the last time we will see him alive. The news of him passing away on 13th July left everyone in shock.
One of the big architects of India’s World Cup glory left us suddenly and it just tells you that life can come to an end suddenly and so live the moment and celebrate the small wins. Yashpal Sharma didn’t win small because he helped India win the World Cup and probably everyone will now realise in hindsight what a big contributor he was during that campaign 38 years earlier.
As noted journalist Vijay Lokapally pointed out that Yashpal Sharma was one of the fittest of the lot and spoke enthusiastically about cricket even today. Not an age to go but life takes unpredictable turns and leaves you in shock.
When his teammate of 1983, Kirti Azad came back from Yashpal Sharma’s funeral, he tweeted that they will leave a front-row seat vacant for him during the screening of the movie ‘83 which is expected to release later this year. The WhatsApp group of the 1983 Indian team won’t be the same again.
All goodbyes are difficult but Yashpal Sharma will forever be remembered by all Indian cricket fans for his contribution to India’s biggest glory in sports history.
To be fair, I didn’t watch him play live because I started watching cricket after 1983 but the highlights of the 1983 World Cup is something I keep watching on a loop once in a while and whenever we see those matches we will remember Yashpal Sharma!
Thank you for the memories, Sir! Rest in Peace!
The 12th man bids adieu!
Do you know your target market?
Do you know your target customer base?
Many companies does this cardinal mistake of doing everything for someone or something for everyone! You don’t build a sustainable business if you have such a thought process. It would show that you don’t have values because as a company everyone can’t be your customer.
If you are in business for a couple of years, check the list of customers who turned out to be most profitable. Now being profitable doesn’t mean only your monetary profit but also value to the customer. How many of those customers have given you repeat business or referred you to new customers? Only satisfied customers will give references or repeat business. As a first step, make a list of all these customers.
Once you create that list, sit with your team and try to find out why you were able to satisfy these customers. Sales managers, account managers, project managers, and delivery managers need to sit together and should have a comprehensive meeting to understand the common factors which led to customer satisfaction.
Also, arrange one-to-one meetings with these customers and take feedback on why they chose you and why they preferred to refer you to others.
When you get the answers you will know what service offerings of yours are gaining the most traction.
Now expand your marketing efforts in that key segment.
Say for example if you are a digital transformation company that helps their customers in their digital transformation journey, find out the category of customers who are most satisfied with your services. If you find that start-up owners are very happy with you, find out what’s the top 2-3 reasons are for their happiness with you.
For startups, other than the economical offering what they need most is timeliness. They need their product to go out in the market in the shortest possible time. Is your team highly successful in certain types of product deliveries within a deadline? If that’s true it means that’s your niche and it’s time for you to expand that team and focus your marketing efforts in that segment.
People make this cardinal mistake of using costs as a negotiating tool. This never works because someone will come along the way and price it cheaper and you will be soon out of business. So rather than focusing on the price points, focus on the deliverables and the timelines. You can also focus on a consultative approach helping the customer, plan in such a way that he can go and launch his product in phases.
As founders, many think that they need to get their product pixel perfect before launching. It’s a gross mistake because however clever you are in your ideation, it’s wrong to believe that someone somewhere is also not having a similar idea and if he launches earlier with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) then you will be called a copycat.
So as a business consultant you should counsel the customer and tell him that he can do multiple iterations on his product and keep adding features throughout the life cycle but getting on to the market gives him a big advantage over his potential competitors. This type of approach needs a lot of persuasion because many clients don’t understand it and they will only listen to you when they are 100% sure that you care for their growth.
To find your niche you can do the following:
Another mistake that many sellers tend to make is that they brag about the good things that their company can do for the client. Believe me, customers do their research well and when you brag about these elements it makes them think that there are some problems that you are hiding.
You should only focus on how your service or solution can help the client win! If you have a reference of customers in a similar domain or country give that proactively! Show him your work if your portfolio is not directly available on your website. When you do these things proactively your customer gets the confidence to take the discussion to the next level. The old way of pushing doesn’t work anymore because there is too much competition. The new way is to put the customer first and to show him how you are going to make him win!
To improve a relationship you need to “give” first and in fact, give more. Do more than expected. There are questions in your customer’s mind and he misses to ask some important questions, sometimes during the initial phase. But as a seller, you know the pain points because you are the expert and you should proactively answer them. Don’t wait for your customer to ask.
Some important points to take note of
A Business becomes a great business when people start talking good things about you behind your back. Till that happens your continued focus should only be on improving your niche service areas. Don’t spend your time and energy on stuff where you are continually losing money. By default, you will see that where you are losing money, your customer satisfaction is also low. So for two to tango focus on your strengths and connect with your customers’ goals. Focus on your niche and keep working on those strengths.
Are you aware of your niche?
How are you aligned with your employees’ and customers’ goals?
Do write in with your insightful comments. Till then, take care and God Bless!
Being a sports enthusiast, I must admit that I have written very little about Indian sports other than cricket. Being a cricket fanatic that’s quite expected but I do regret that I do not write more often about other sports especially when I do follow some of them.
Many years back, 2012 to be exact, I wrote one of my earliest pieces in this blog and that was about the London Olympics. It was written one day before the opening ceremony and I am quite proud to say that I predicted correctly the number of medals that India could win that year. I predicted that we will win 6 medals and that’s exactly the number of medals we won eventually.
The high of the 2012 London Olympics couldn’t be sustained unfortunately by India at the Rio Olympics of 2016. We won only 2 medals, one by PV Sindhu (Silver) in Badminton and the other by Sakshi Malik (Bronze) in wrestling.
India had sent a strong contingent of 117 athletes (which was the highest ever from India) but came back with only 2 medals. It was a disappointment. But, India as a nation is obsessed with cricket so I don’t think we should be highly critical of these athletes because they do not get the kind of support that our cricketers get from the public as well as the sponsors. So hats off to each of them for fighting hard and trying their best for bringing glory to the nation.
Covid-19 led to an unprecedented situation with the Tokyo Games being postponed in 2020. Finally, it’s scheduled to start on 24th July 2021 – a good one year later. But, Covid-19 is still a reality, and hence for the first time, ever Olympics will be held behind closed doors with no spectators around. That straightaway takes the thrill out of the games. A buzzing stadium not only gets the athletes pumped up but also makes the TV viewers feel that they are inside the complex. But these are tough times and we should consider ourselves lucky that we will be able to see the Olympics be it, sans spectators.
So what are India’s chances this year? Will India be able to break her own record of 6 medals this time around? Let’s get into the details followed by my predictions.
India is sending around 126 athletes to Tokyo this year making it the largest contingent ever.
The disciplines along with the number of participants (in brackets) are given below along with my prediction on medals that India might win:
Athletics (26) – 1
Archery (4)
Badminton (4) – 1
Boxing (9) – 1
Equestrian (1)
Fencing (1)
Golf (3)
Gymnastics (1)
Hockey (Men’s) (16)
Hockey (Women’s) (16)
Judo (1)
Rowing (2)
Sailing (4)
Shooting (15) – 5
Swimming (3)
Table Tennis (4)
Tennis (2)
Weightlifting (1) – 1
Wrestling (7) – 2
As you can see from the above, I am expecting 11 medals this year with Shooting being our brightest hope. Many of our shooters are at the top of their game over the last couple of years and their performance would finally decide how many medals India end up with.
For the first time, India is participating in 19 different disciplines in the Olympics which shows that we are improving but to get Medals consistently one needs to have a bit more patience.
Anything less than 10 would be a slight disappointment and I hope we meet up to the expectations this year. With the crowd not being there, it can work in India’s favour because that external pressure won’t be there which gets built up during the medal rounds.
The games begin in 12 days. I will be doing some detailed analysis over the next few days on some of the disciplines where India is expected to do well. Do join in the conversation with your views and opinions.
Will you be watching the Tokyo Olympics? How many medals will India win this time? What do you think?
I was shy in my school days!
I was an introvert during my college days!
I was an average student throughout my life!
I was defined as “good for nothing” by many of my friends, relatives, and my father’s colleagues who called me lazy and also used to laugh at me due to my weight.
I got myself depressed thinking all the above was true. Accepted what the people said and a severe inferiority complex gathered inside me.
Such negative comments can get you to curse yourself and what I lacked most was a mentor! A mentor who could understand me and show me the path to overcome these mental issues.
I had no one to talk to about the mental depression I was going through. Day by day I went into a cocoon. There were friends around me, and nobody understood that I am having a problem with depression. It’s been 24 years and many friends who might read this blog would find this phase of my life unbelievable! But as the saying goes facts are stranger than fiction!
I was all alone and just going through the motion. For the next few years that is what I went through – just on the motion. I didn’t lose it in my mind probably only because of Cricket.
Then life took a turn when I joined ADDR.com. I got a job in inside sales and the work was only about writing. Writing emails to be precise. I had this habit of writing a diary during my school days but I stopped doing it. When I joined ADDR suddenly I felt the enthusiasm to go to work every day. I used to look forward to Mondays with a lot of energy. Still, I didn’t understand the inner calling. Once again I missed a mentor. Missing a mentor is something I realise today – if only I realised that 24-25 years back, things could have been very different. But I don’t have regrets of those depressing years because today I look back and think that was part of my journey and I feel happy that I overcame those bumps.
Writing!
I didn’t realise that I can weave magic around the words. I didn’t realise that simple English is loved by readers. I felt vocabulary is more important than free-flowing English. Didn’t realise that writing just like the way you are saying or talking is appreciated by many people. It was only in the year 2020 when a few unknown and unconnected people talked to me after reading my blogs and LinkedIn posts, I realised that it’s a talent.
The pandemic of Covid-19 which led to months of lockdown in 2020 made me read and write more. I had a lot of time in hand which meant I could spend time reading those books which were lying on my shelf for many years. As I started reading more, I started taking notes and as I started taking notes, I started writing small snippets of my learnings, and then I got habituated to writing daily. I started my personal journal. Then I added the gratitude journal and finally a decision journal.
Amidst all this, I wrote a book and wrote the plot of 3 other books (2nd book was released in August 2021) and it’s been less than a year of this writing habit.
Your mind knows what your real calling is! What’s required is to listen deeply to that calling. It’s only possible when you spend time in solitude. And when you get the answer, stop thinking & start doing! Never procrastinate!
Writing is bliss. Many don’t understand it. I see marketers who need content writers for their marketing initiatives! It will never give you great results! Writing is emotion. The brand is also an emotion. So as a marketer you need to write because you know your audience. You can employ an editor to fine-tune the writing, but you need to write your own copies if you are a marketer.
Writing comes from the soul. The words keep pouring out. This leads to decluttering of your mind. When that happens you get clarity of thoughts. You start living in the moment!
Too much time is spent in regrets of the past and anxiousness of the future. By writing, you can overcome these negative thoughts. Initially write for yourself. Better still, write it publicly because someone somewhere will get connected to your thoughts. Don’t spend time thinking about what others will think about you. Believe me, no one has the time to think about you, it’s just a wrong notion that people have, which stops them from writing publicly. This is the same reason why people don’t ask questions in group meetings.
Always think like a child. Children never think twice before asking a question because for them if they don’t know something, they ask. If they don’t get something, they cry. If they like something, they smile. As we grow up we send signals to our brain that we should know everything because others show that they know everything. But that’s not true because everyone can’t know everything. So google for answers or ask someone and of course, read.
As I started writing more and more, I felt happy. Some people connected or aligned with my thoughts, many didn’t but that didn’t stop me because I was writing for myself.
When you read a book or watch a movie or listen to a song do you do it for other’s pleasure or is it for your personal pleasure? It’s personal, isn’t it? Writing is also similar – you write for your pleasure – don’t think of others! Then some people will connect with your story and if you can inspire even one person in this world – remember you have done a great job.
I love cricket and when I decided to document my journey as a cricket fan I never thought if anyone would really like to read that story but when I got feedback from unknown people who read my book I realised that I was able to hit the right chord.
I built my career on writing. I am a sales professional and my emails connected with my clients who believed me and did business with me. It’s a different matter that I realised quite late that writing is my calling. Writing gave me happiness.
It’s important for you too, to understand your inner calling. You need to listen to your soul to understand your inner calling. Don’t compromise your happiness for anything. You are the hero and so it’s your right to be happy. But you need to take control of your life. Don’t lead a life based on peer pressure. Do what you love to do and I am sure you will be happy.
What’s your calling?
The year 2007 started with heartbreak with India bowing out of the Cricket World Cup in the very first round to make it the worst performance by an Indian team in recent history.
But then, every dark cloud has a silver lining and from the ashes rose the phoenix – and it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
India got a chance to redeem themselves in the same year because the International Cricket Council organised a T20 world cup in South Africa in September 2007. The senior players of the Indian team like, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, and Anil Kumble opted out of the tournament and Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Indian team.
India had played only one International T20 match till that time and was the least experienced team in that format. India didn’t have any domestic tournaments in T20 format at that time. In a way, the tournament was not taken very seriously by BCCI at that time.
All was about to change in a fortnight.
It felt like 1983 because nobody gave India a chance especially with the senior players not playing the tournament. The other teams were in full strength. But India surprised everyone by not only reaching the finals but also going on to win it. The 5 run win over Pakistan in the finals remains one the closest matches ever played between the arch-rivals in world cup history.
The tournament had all the thrills that the ICC expected it to have and this tournament turned out to be a defining moment in world cricket because IPL followed the next year and as the saying goes – rest is history.
A year that started with a major heartbreak of losing out in the 50 overs world cup turned into a great year for cricket fans as India won a world tournament in cricket after 2 decades.
Along with that win, India started a golden run in World Cricket.
In 2008, India went on to defeat Australia in Australia in a Triangular Series – thereby becoming the first Indian team to achieve that feat. Later that year, India defeated Australia in a Test series in India, and in 2009, India won a Test series in New Zealand after 4 decades. All this under the new captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
All this culminated in India being crowned the world number one in Test cricket for the first time ever. For 21 months, India held on to that crown.
In 2011, the 50 overs world cup was held in India. Till that time, no hosting nation had ever won a world cup. All of that was about to change as the Golden Boy of the Golden period in Indian cricket, MS Dhoni, led India to a famous world cup win on 2nd April 2011 – the cup came back home.
Though India’s test record outside the subcontinent suffered reverses after 2011, the ODI bandwagon continued to roll on, and then in 2013, India defeated England in England to win the ICC Champions trophy.
For the first time ever (and it’s yet to be repeated yet) we had a captain who had led his team to win 3 different ICC world championships – ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Cricket (50 overs) world cup, and ICC Champions Trophy.
I call this period of 2007-2013, as India’s golden period in cricketing history. In all this, one man played a pivotal role and he is Mahendra Singh Dhoni – The captain cool who led from the front with aplomb.
As the world’s best wicketkeeper captain, turns 40 today, here I am wishing him the very best for the years to come. His contribution to Indian cricket will remain unparalleled and I hope he keeps entertaining us through IPL for another couple of seasons.
Happy Birthday, Mahi.
I was speaking to a colleague and he said he was spending way too much time on meetings. I could see he was getting stressed and due to long meetings he was ending up spending long hours in office work.
If time is within your control then where was he messing up?
Spending more than 9-10 hours at work is not advisable! I wondered how I could help him.
After talking with him, I realised he was doing two big mistakes in time management:
For meetings, it’s best that you set the agenda beforehand. While sending the meeting invite, write down the agenda with the associated timestamp.
Say, for example, you are an account manager and you are scheduled to meet with a client and project manager on a particular escalation issue. This is how you can send the meeting invite:
Escalation Meeting: Project X
Players:
Duration: 30 minutes
Agenda:
The person who is sending the meeting invite should control the time. Human beings’ minds at a stretch won’t be focused for more than 50 minutes. So don’t drag any meeting beyond that.
Recently someone in my Twitter connections wrote that he got off a call with a client after a 6-hour meeting and he is pumped. Don’t take such comments on social media at face value. Because most people are wearing a mask on social media. You can’t be pumped after a marathon meeting of 6 hours. It’s insane.
I try to keep meetings within a window of 40 minutes. If it goes beyond 40 minutes then it’s mostly big group meetings where there are a lot of questions that needed to be answered. I feel bad when a meeting goes beyond 45 minutes because after that a big percentage of people won’t get any value – will be distracted hence I try to keep my points as short as possible.
After a meeting is completed, it’s important for the person who initiated the meeting that he sends an MoM to all participants. This then gets baselined for future meetings if and when it’s required.
Learn to say NO to meetings if you are already filled for the day. People will understand as long as you give the next available date for the meeting. If you are transparent then people will bend too. People get angry when you play around. Many times clients get irritated because as account or project managers many people start taking them for granted. Don’t avoid them. Be upfront informing them that you are busy today and schedule a time tomorrow. Do not force yourself into another meeting when your body and mind need rest. Nothing is more important than your physical and mental health.
I advise you to maintain a diary. You can create a timetable for yourself for the next day before shutting for the day. Don’t keep more than 3 meetings in one day. You are misusing your time if you are doing it. Because you need to prepare for meetings too. And if you are having 4-5 meetings in a day – then the last couple of meetings you will be present only physically.
Keep one hour of buffer every day. So if you are planning for 9 hours, your diary should be optimised to 8 hours. One hour should be kept for unknown occurrences.
This is a simple model to follow and it’s easy to follow if you maintain the diary and make sure you meet the objectives. Don’t think too far ahead. Take one day at a time.
Time is precious. Don’t waste it. Your family needs you. And they need you in full self. When you are with family they should be given 100% priority!
What’s the process that you are following?
In the end, it didn’t ache like the way it ached in 2019. I don’t know why but probably because somewhere down the line, I always felt that New Zealand had all the aces up their sleeves to win the WTC finals. Or is it because I have got used to India losing important finals of ICC tournaments? India after all has reached 6 knockout matches post 2013 (3 finals and 3 semifinals) losing all of them. That’s 6 knockouts in 7 years.
It could also be because the high of beating Australia in Brisbane paled in comparison to this match. It could just be the mindset. Probably, I still can’t believe that one match can make you the world’s best side. To be fair, even if India would have won, it wouldn’t have eased the pain of the 2019 World Cup loss to New Zealand in the semi-finals.
Let’s not dilute the matter though. New Zealand deserves this win. They planned correctly and they executed brilliantly. This is the best New Zealand side that I have seen in my 37 years of following cricket. The process that started with Brendon McCullum has finally ended with a victory at the WTC finals to be crowned the best test team in the world. What’s more, this New Zealand side is the world number one in ODI cricket too at the moment.
But where did India lose it? What went wrong? Can India turn this around during the next 5 tests against England? Let’s delve into the details.
But first, let’s start with two very interesting statistics:
1. India was 182 for 6 in the first innings and ended the innings at 217.
2. New Zealand was 162/6 in their first innings and they ended the innings at 249.
Remember, India was 7 overs away from coming out of this match in even terms but as the above statistics show you, the difference lay in how much each of the team’s tails wagged.
New Zealand has always been blessed with a plethora of all-rounders. All their bowlers contribute with the bat. And the WTC finals showed us how it made a big difference in the final analysis.
Let’s look at another piece of data:
The last day of the test match when we finally got bright sunshine at Southampton, it was expected to be the best day for batting. Let’s look at the numbers to understand the story.
India scored 106/8 on the final day whereas New Zealand scored 140/2.
The difference is stark. On the same pitch, on the same day, one team catapulted whereas the other team came out trumps.
This is one problem that India needs to fix within the next 40 days otherwise this English summer might end up worse than 1974.
If we review the matches over the last year that India played, one common scenario is that the team won due to humongous effort put in by the bowlers. Another important aspect has been the resistance shown by the lower middle order. India wouldn’t have reached the finals without the heroics of Rishabh Pant (Sydney & Brisbane), Ashwin, and Vihari (Sydney). The pace bowlers have done their job consistently but the batters have been disappointing.
Yes, the batsmen have scored heavily in India and against the West Indies but in two crucial series, New Zealand and Australia they have failed consistently.
Rohit Sharma has been one of the top scorers for India in this 2 year WTC cycle but close scrutiny will tell you that he has scored a solitary fifty during this period outside India. Virat Kohli has not scored a century across all formats for close to two years now. Chetashwar Pujara is averaging close to 29 in the last 2 years and Rahane has only one century at Melbourne which he can really be proud of. These things matter because the final was being played in England. I am sure the batsmen would have scored merrily if this same final was held in UAE. But in England, the conditions favoured swing bowling, and India was found wanting.
Things didn’t start badly though even after Virat Kohli lost an important toss. India was going at 4 runs per over till the first drinks break. But that break changed the momentum completely. Suddenly runs dried out and as soon as Rohit got out playing a loose shot away from his body, things started going New Zealand’s way.
From that time on, it was all New Zealand. Yes, India hung on. Gave a display of grit but that’s never India’s game. India is a team that loves to dominate but the conditions meant they had to dig deep. These were conditions where India needed the best out of Pujara, Kohli, and Rahane but all were found wanting especially Pujara.
The Indian think tank went with the option of two spinners which I think was the right call because Jadeja is the world’s number one allrounder and he can play purely as a batsman in any team. It’s unfortunate for India that he didn’t click in the finals.
After posting 217 in the first innings, it was New Zealand’s match to lose. They started with good intent and at 100/2, India was already hoping for 2 days of washout to save them from the loss. One day got washed out but two crucial days remained and as it panned out finally it was enough for New Zealand to win the inaugural WTC finals.
India had things going for them on the 5th morning when the bowlers came out with intent and didn’t give anything away. 31 runs were scored in 2 hours and in the process, India picked up 3 wickets too. India was well and truly back into the match. At 135/5, India got the window of opportunity to get hold of the proceedings but a bizarre decision to start with Jadeja and Bumrah (the two least effective bowlers for India) post-lunch backfired and by the time India got their main bowlers back into play, the New Zealand batters had got into the groove. India didn’t have a lot of runs to play with and naturally couldn’t go on an all-out attack and as soon as a few lusty blows were hit by Kyle Jamieson, the momentum shifted. Southee played merrily the way only he can, hitting a couple of sixes in the process and helped New Zealand eak out a 32 run lead.
From a position of losing grip of the match, New Zealand was back in the ascendancy and the onus was on India to save the match. With hardly much time left, it was a situation which India knew was not good for them. As soon as New Zealand got that lead, the match had only 2 possibilities, a draw or a win for the Kiwis. I had the feeling that we would get a result because India’s top order didn’t look comfortable against the New Zealand pace bowlers. Kyle Jamieson has been a thorn in India’s flesh from the time he debuted in 2020. He picked up 5 wickets in the first innings and he was the primary threat again in the second innings.
Southee’s positive show with the bat rubbed in his bowling too and he was the destructor in chief helping New Zealand pick up two wickets before the end of the day’s play.
The 6th and final day was supposed to be the best day to bat. There was an expectation from the Indian camp that finally Virat Kohli will come out blazing with the sun out. But he flattered to deceive and as it turned out fell victim to Kyle Jamieson once again. None in the top 5 looked comfortable other than Rohit Sharma who unfortunately got out to “Umpire’s call” the previous evening. The onus was now on the man of 2021 – Rishabh Pant to play positively and save India’s day. He tried his best but both Jadeja and Ashwin didn’t click with the bat. The entire decision to play the spinning all-rounders came to naught and as the records show expecting anything from the Indian tail is a fantasy that 9 out of 10 times doesn’t happen. India got bowled out for 170 runs and New Zealand needed 139 runs to win the finals.
India bowled well. They kept it tight but the wickets didn’t come. Ashwin brought in the cheers with two wickets but that’s where it ended for India as Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor carried New Zealand safely to home.
Jasprit Bumrah was a disappointment with the ball. He was supposed to be India’s trump card. But then all the trump cards failed to deceive and cricket is a team game and when your main players don’t show up it’s difficult to save the match.
New Zealand are the deserved winners of the WTC title 2021 but let’s not take anything away from this Indian team. India played a total of 17 test matches in the last two years (running up to the WTC finals) and won 12 of them – losing 4 (2 of those losses interestingly came against New Zealand). That’s the highest number of wins by any team in the world in the last two years. New Zealand on the other had played 11 matches and won 7 of them. So just on match count, India was far ahead of any other team but they lost the most important match of the last two years – the finals.
In this WTC cycle, India won 4 matches away from home whereas New Zealand won only 1 but when it mattered the most then came out trumps – the finals.
One of the best ways to judge how good a team has been is by checking how they fared away from home. And by this count too India has been ahead of everyone in the last two years.
As can be seen from the above or understood how this WTC cycle works, India passed the grueling tests of beating Australia in Australia and beating England in India – two of their toughest assignments but failed to turn on their A-game when it came to playing against New Zealand.
These statistics are more of a rumbling of an Indian fan but numbers don’t lie. Just on a series-by-series basis, this Indian team has been the best over the last 5 years and that’s why they have been the holders of the world number one title in Test cricket for most of the last 5 years.
With the finals over, it’s time for Team India to look forward and think of 2023 when the next WTC final will be held. India has a tough assignment of playing England in a 5 match test series which starts on August 4 and it’s high time the team management sits together and iron out the problem areas. For India to do well in England the top order has to play big innings. Cute-looking 30s and 40s won’t work because England will score big. England’s only weakness is in the top 3 but they hardly have a tail. If India got frustrated seeing the New Zealand tailenders bat then England will leave them with hands on their heads. Players like Woakes, Curran, Archer and Stuart Broad can hardly be called tailenders and hence it will be difficult for India to get through their lineup twice in a match so easily. Hence, to be competitive and to allow their bowlers to attack consistently the batters need to do their duty of scoring big runs.
It’s easier said than done because it’s difficult to play big against the pace battery that England has. But, if you want to be the champion side you need to beat the best teams in their home conditions. England was left frustrated in India with the spinning tracks and hence India should expect green seaming conditions in England throughout this summer. India needs to hope that the weather remains dry because then the combo of Ashwin and Jadeja will come to the party. More dry conditions would make our batsmen play a little more freely too.
One thing that hurt India a lot was the way the batsmen played – too slowly. Cricket is finally a numbers game. You need to score runs and in English conditions, you never know when that magic ball will come to take your wicket so when the sun shines make merry and score big.
India has the opportunity to relax for a few days and then start hard preparations for the long test series. I am sure Virat Kohli and his men want to leave a legacy behind them and the best way to remove this WTC finals loss from everyone’s mind would be by winning the series against England. India last won a series against England in England 14 years back. Time to create your own legacy – time to win England.
What do you think? Does India have it in them to win against England or will this loss leave them disheartened?
PS. India generally plays badly in the first test of a series – lost against England in Chennai and lost against Australia in Adelaide – but they bounce back strongly thereafter. If this tour is treated as a 6 match series then it’s not a bad omen for the rest of the tour!
You have a lead!
As a salesperson that’s where you start!
Now, it’s very vital to decide whether the lead needs to be given an adequate amount of time!
What you need to do here, is to qualify the lead!
Qualification is not possible without asking questions!
Ask questions that are pinpoint and which are related to the lead’s business!
Say for example a lead comes to you asking for a price of developing a food delivery solution! What are the questions you need to ask here?
1. There are already delivery apps available in the market. How do you position yourself in this market?
This question is something that investors ask before putting in their money – so there is no harm you asking it because as an entrepreneur he should be knowing his value proposition!
If he avoids this question, be sure that the lead is yet to be ready to do business! He doesn’t pass your qualification criteria.
2. Have you done any market research on how much traction you might get after launch?
If he has not done such market research advise him to get an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) done first before investing in this idea big time. If he is a genuine lead he will be interested. If he is not he will still ask you to quote for the full product. Disqualify him because he is yet to understand the basics of starting up.
As you can understand both the questions are more about him than you! You need to ask such questions to qualify the lead. You should value your time. The last thing you would want is to waste time on a lead who finally vanishes after taking the proposal. You should only send proposals when you are 70% sure about the client. After sending the proposal, there should a Yes or a No or questions from the client. If the client goes non-responsive it means you didn’t qualify him.
For every business idea that comes to you for development, you need to do the following:
After that, write down your questions as if you are an investor of this business idea or an early-stage user of the product. Ask questions from that perspective!
If the lead is genuine he will get extremely pleased with your questions because he will know that you care about him and his business!
If the lead gets irritated then you can very well know that the lead is not serious. Disqualify him.
We are generally trying to send signals to our brain that “All is Well”. But that’s a wrong strategy, rather you should look at finding ways of telling your brain that all is not well when you sit to qualify a lead.
If a lead is disqualified it’s one work done or rather one work less to do. Because you should look at putting 100% energy towards those leads which are genuine!
People come to me asking that after sending the proposal their leads are not responding to them and the first and foremost reason that they could think of is that the quote probably is high. This is the genuine mindset of most salespeople! Come out of that. You as a salesperson should think like a businessman! So you will charge which is profitable for the organisation!
You should go back from the day the lead came to you and check the communication thread across all channels! Look for the false signals which prompted you to think that it was a qualified lead. You will find that there were doubts which you planned to ignore. People generally ignore such doubts for two reasons:
Both won’t help your cause. As a salesperson working with targets is the name of the game. But pressure doesn’t mean you end up sending proposals to all and sundry. This is not a machine gun and you can’t be lucky all the time. So be selective with your choices. When you are not 100% sure, then, don’t end up spending a humongous amount of time on that lead. Ask questions – genuine clients like it. Only the non-genuine clients get angry with questions. Ask yourself do you want to work with genuine businessmen or with people having shady intentions?
Showing a fat pipeline to make your boss happy is a short-term activity that won’t linger for long. One day you will be caught and you will be judged as a salesperson who doesn’t know how to close deals. But that’s not the case. Probably you are a great negotiator but you are unable to reach that place by sending proposals to everyone and then getting swamped with follow-up work. Your quality suffers. And experience tells me that it’s better to focus on a small group of potentials to ensure better results.
Quantity is never equal to quality. So don’t end up spending an insane amount of time on leads who have not been qualified yet. Tell your brain that the lead is unqualified! Listen to your gut. Follow the process of elimination before zeroing down on that qualified lead on whom you are going to give your utmost attention!
Human brains are wired in such a manner that we always look for convenience. So we keep looking for shortcuts to reach our goals but the fact of the matter is that there is no shortcut to success!
You have limited time every day for your work and I see across many people, the same habit of spending maximum time on activities related to pitching. So it could be making a presentation, or a mock-up, or a proposal. But if you ask me, the most time that a salesperson should give is, on qualifying a lead. It’s difficult to qualify a lead as you can read from above because you have to follow the process of elimination. Hence put your most productive hours on activities that would lead to qualification or disqualification of a lead.
Rather than thinking about your target, you should have a mental model for yourself and maintain a qualification lead sheet.
If you follow the process of elimination to disqualify a lead, you will be left with very few leads. Now put your 100% focus on understanding the real need and requirements of these leads and give a customised pitch that would be client-focused.
Don’t sell your features! Sell the benefits. The value proposition is what the client will opt for.
Price is what the client pays. Value is what the client gets. It will be easier for you to sell the value to the qualified leads than the disqualified leads. Try this method on both types of leads (Qualified & Disqualified as an experiment) and you will see the difference!
When you focus on a few leads, the quality of your pitch/proposal will be far better and the lead will feel better about you because you will customise your pitch which is best suited for his business success.
There are a few advantages of following this method:
So the next lead that you get now, follow this process of elimination to qualify a lead. Please do write back if you benefited from this idea!
One final hack: The Pareto’s Principle.
80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. So it means 80% of your effort goes wasted. This wasted effort is basically in disqualifying leads. And when you disqualify better, you will be left with genuine leads to whom you can cater. Now target to win 100% of these leads.
Finally, you should be happy with what work you do. If you are doing it just because another person is saying it, without understanding the “why” then you might not get results. First, go through all the principles and hacks given above and sit back and think about how you have been doing thus far, and how you can customise your work schedule based on the above.
Put your best foot forward. Keep a note at every step of the above process and then let me know how it worked for you! Even if it didn’t work, at what step did you get stuck?
I am all ears!