Lesson learnt from my son

Ahan is growing up fast and learning new things everyday. However, the other day I learnt a very important lesson from him - firmness of purpose.

Once he sets his mind on something, he does everything possible to get it. I've tried putting obstacles in his way, putting it way out of his reach, moving the target or him when he has almost reached his target. No matter what happens, no matter how many times he has to start over, he almost always puts in all his effort to get what he want.

I think there is a very important lesson to learn there. Perseverance and determination win over any and all obstacles.

Who gets the credit?

One of the most important aspects of managing a team is recognizing the contributions of the team and sharing credit appropriately. Responsibility and accountability comes from owning the mistakes and failures and not hogging the credit on successes.

It is of paramount importance that the team never gets a feeling that the manager or senior management is not fair in all transactions. One often sees managers socializing based on gender, culture or other interests and it is very important that this be controlled. I remember an episode from the TV serial "Friends" where Rachael takes up smoking to be around with the Boss because her boss and her colleague (who both smoke), keep taking all the decisions when they are at the smoking lounge. I am sure we all have witnessed this in some form or the other at our place of work.

There is no doubt that the manager, being at the helm of the team is the one who is responsible for everything that the team does. (S)he owns the successes as well as the failures, but it is alarming to see managers take responsibility only for the success and point to others when there is failure! Worst still is pointing to the team for the failures, then working with them to fix the failure and take the entire credit for the success!