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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Looking for Performance?

Getting people to perform is the single biggest challenge for organizations. Of course, people in organizations work. But do they perform to their potential? Generally I don’t think so! There is huge untapped potential within people and it simply never comes out. However great leaders are somehow able to ignite a passion for performance that makes people put in that extra little bit for them. What magic potion do these leaders have that makes performers out of ordinary people? Is it a rocket science? Can I have it?

Of course you can!
Like everyone else I am too searching for that potion, but in the course of my search I have found some tidbits that I believe will be helpful. I have found that

  • Everyone has a performer within them. Often the performer is sleeping. Awaken that performer in your team.
  • Performers are wary of politics! But given that organizational politics is a reality, Performers see a performer who is good in organizational politics as more worthy adversary than a non-performer! If you can discourage organizational politics, at least shield your team from the pan-organisational politicking.
  • Performers are not wary of other performers. In fact they love performers. Promote the performers in your team to get together, act as a team, take on bigger challenges!
  • Performers are not hugely motivated by money alone. Along with money, performers need recognition. As a leader, it is your responsibility to advertise the performers in your team! Performers will love you for it! Yet remember performance love genuine appreciation and can see through fakes!
  • Performers want preferential treatment over non-performers. Any indication of socialism in reward allocation is a big put-off for performers. After all there has to be enough motivation to perform. A healthy bias towards performance is a good performance initiator! Remember show the bias to performance and not to performers!

What has been your experience? Have you experience this as a leader, or as part of a team? Let me know.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Web 2.0 and New Yahoo!

Internet has revolutionised everything! How many times have you heard that phrase? By now surely a million times and you will hear more of it as we enter Web 2.0 era. Because it is true!

What is Web 2.0?
Simply put Web 2.0 is the next generation Web applications. You can look at the links (del.icio.us and Yahoo! mail) and flip through the pages in detail to know more about Web 2.0. So now with the new version Yahoo! gives me an option to right click in browser window and search through Yahoo! Search engine. Google does one bit better through Google Desktop by searching within my computer, out in the web and maintaining a record through personal search. Yet one person is still not seen. Believe me, he has aces up his sleeve. And that would be Mr. Bill Gates!

Microsoft Advantage
One wonders what he is upto these days? Where are his best programmers? What products is he thinking of through his .Net platform? How do they compare with Web 2.0? Believe me if that person is worth the operating system I am using, he is making MS Office on Web 2.0! Also I believe he will surely come up with the new innovations for browser, search engine, OS that will tightly integrate web and computer!

Web 2.0 changes the way we communicate
With the advent of the internet the modes of communication has changed considerably. We now no longer believe in snail mail, we look at computer screens more than we look at A4 sized papers, we spend as much time looking at websites as we do looking at newspapers or TV, our first stop for information is almost always the web. Yet all this has not been incorporated in our habits. One needs to question why I have to read reams and reams of paper electronically published. The website interfaces need overhauling to suit the new lifestyle. Web 2.0 will make that easier. Yahoo Mail looks like Outlook, soon word processors and other programs will be available in similar formats and then we will be totally integrated.

To conclude
I remember looking at a stand-alone computer with wonder and amazement, with even more wonder and amazement I looked at LAN in my college lab, still amazing wonder was when I signed up for email and chat program and made friends across the globe. Today I am looking at Web 2.0 with even more wonder and amazement! Now I am going to buy Microsoft shares! I welcome myself to the next tech boom!