Defence Officers are great leaders

On 13th Aug, I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop at CDM (College of Defence Management) at Hyderabad. It is a highly reputed premier management training establishment of the Indian Armed Forces. The topic for my workshop was 'Goal Setting and Achieving Them'.
The conference hall with a capacity of about 200 was almost full. I was highly delighted to be amongst brother officers. I was remembering my days in the Indian Navy.
My presentation was applauded by one and all. The feedback during the Tea Break and then at the end was great. I had touched upon the topics like

• Purpose of Goal Setting
• Importance of written Goals
• Dreams vs Goals
• Personal and Professional Goals differ from person to person
• Benefits of Goal Setting
• Types of Goals: Short Term and Long Term
• Following up of Goals
• SMART Goals
• Why Goals fail?
• Role of Hard Work, Dedication and Discipline
• Celebrations of achievements of Goals
• Questions to consider while setting goals
• Journey to the achievement of Goals is equally important
• Six Parameters of True Success
• Setting Goals for the Six Parameters of Success.
• Seven Steps to setting Goals in Life

I covered all these points with maximum possible examples from the defence environment. I also highlighted that majority of the defence officers are doing very well in the private sector. They have all the desired qualities of very good managers and great leaders. They just need an opportunity to prove themselves when they join private sectors after they hang their uniform.

I was a bit taken aback during the highly interactive Question-Answers session, when an officers asked me that please tell us what we don't have. I paused for a moment and then replied, "According to me, our defence officers, when retire are a bit at a loss to understand about the expectations of the private sector. There is a lack of confidence in them. The Techie officers are comparatively more confident when they hang their uniform. The Infantry/Executive officers, though have a great experience of leading their men but they find it a bit tough to handle situations in the private sector initially."

I exhorted them that they have all the qualities that the private sector desperately needs. They just need to become a bit more Tech Savvy and boost their own confidence through self affirmations that they are no way less than anyone and particularly those who are undergoing an excellent training at CDM, that will lead them to an MBA as well.

Overall, it was a great experience for me. I look forward to Giving Back to my Defence Forces where I learnt so much during my 22+ years of commissioned service.

Jai Hind

And My Salute to all men and women in uniform in the service of the Nation

Veerendra K Jaitly

Team Building Offsite

Hi Friends,
Recently I conducted a 'Team Building Offsite' for an MNC at a beautiful resort on the banks of Kosi river at Jim Corbett Park (Ramnagar). It is a beautiful place. Just 5 hours drive from Delhi and also connected with train from Delhi.
The participants had a great time. One of the activity was 'Blind Folded Walk' where participants walked in pairs with one of them blind folded. So every participant was made to have Full Trust on his buddy who was guiding him. One of the outcome was that one of the participant on completion felt so much empathy for the blind people that he declared that he shall donate his eyes so that one blind person will be able to see this beautiful world after he is gone.

Then we had a nature walk, in the midst of nearby jungle. The participants volunteered to clear the complete stretch of about one Km free of all plastic bottles, plastic wrappers and tetra packs. This was a very small attempt to show our concern for the natural beauty and Mother Earth.

And then there were plenty of games and activities that kept the participants fully busy and rejuvenated them so that they can carry on with  their routine jobs with much more vigour, energy, innovation and creativity and like a team.

Here is one of the feedback received from a participant:

  Dear Mr. Jaitly,

Thanks for providing us valuable inputs during three days stay with you from 05.08.11 to 07.08.11 for our professional and personal life.

 You will be glad to know that learning of these three days have forced me to rediscover  myself and to set goals/action plans  to improve my professional and personal life.  Various games we played are helping to put them in actual use with my team for better productivity.   

 I have re-started morning yoga exercise which I long back used to have. But, this time I have committed to myself to keep it continued for ever. This is helping me to have extra energy to carry out various activities.

 Your training method was excellent as it kept us away from computers for preparing presentations etc. which normally in training sessions is done. Your method allowed us to have enough time to think about the learning we had during various games and to have intro inspections, mixed up with team members etc.

 Thus, you are the best trainer I have ever met and the program conducted by you for me was excellent. If it is to rated on the scale of 1 to 10, I rate it as 10.

Thanking You and Regards,

 CSG

Building Positive Attitude

Last week, I conducted a 'One Day Workshop on Building Positive Attitude' at HRD center of CSIR at Ghaziabad. It is an excellent place with beautiful infrastructure and great surroundings. This was my third workshop there during last 4 or 5 months.
There were about 25 senior officers and the response was very good and I really enjoyed each and every moment of my training.  The participants interacted freely and we all enjoyed the whole day. Everybody really appreciated, praised and I got a lot of clappings at the end. But I was touched when one of the participants approached me at the end and told me that his day was made and he is going to be a different person from now onwards.

I really feel very happy, if I can make a difference in the life of people and help them in taking them to 'The Next Level of Excellence' in their personal, professional and public life through these workshops.

Profits Thru Business Excellence

Boosting profits is the single most important motive of any business outfit. We believe that profits come from greater productivity of the employees. And productivity is the outcome of Business Excellence. So how do employees achieve excellence so that gets converted into Business Excellence. It is the Personal Excellence, Professional Excellence and even the Excellence in Public life of the employees, that will result into Business Excellence for the company. 

Somehow most of the companies falter on this. Their stress is minimal on this aspect. They don't realize that these employees who demonstrate excellence in every aspect of life when interact with customers, they create great relationships and that is the foundation of big sale deals. And also happy employees will ensure satisfied customers, nay delighted customers.

And those who advocate PPT (People, Processes and Technology) model for the success of any operation/project also agree that of the three, it is The People that is most important.

Therefore, a "Business Excellence Program (BEP)" that can create a new culture in your company and propel it to greater productivity and profits is required in most of the companies. Even the success rate of special tools like ERP, CRM, EPM etc or any other projects will go up considerably if the implementation team undergoes BEP (Business Excellence Program) prior to launching their specific project.

Achieving Excellence in Professional Life

Hi, I have been a student throughout my life, though I have now more than 30 years of experience. I have a strong belief that no amount of CRM, HRM, ERP, or EPM etc can really succeed in any organisation till their manpower is equipped with basics of Excellence in their personal and professional life. So after studying a lot many books and talking to corporate leaders and my own learnings, I came to the conclusion that professionals must work on the ten areas given below to elevate their level of excellence. Some of us may be having a very high level in 3 or 4 areas but may be very low in another 3 or 4 areas. And highly average in another 3 or 4 areas. I am not in a position to quantify the level of any individual on these 10 parameters and then decide the average for him. In case someone knows a method to quantify accurately, I will be grateful to learn that. Also I believe it is a process of continuous improvement in all these ten areas:  

1. Time Management

2.  Attitude
3.  Ethics at work place

4.  Empowering your Teams

5.  Business Etiquettes

6.  Effective Communication

7.  What makes a Great Presenter?

8. Up the Leadership Ladder
9.  Goal Setting

10.Stress Management

Any person with a sound rating on these 10 parameters will be considered as being excellent in his personal, professional and social life. And he/she is bound to succeed whatever he/she aspires to achieve. 

Wish List of CXOs in the Corporate World

The CXOs of a company make the strategy for global competitiveness, market expansion and increased productivity per employee. They wish that their employees demonstrate qualities like:
        -Positive attitude,
-Good business etiquettes,
-Corporate Ethics
-Great communication skills.
-Leadership at their level and in their domain
-Good team behavior and
-Urge to learn new skills,

In nutshell, it is expected that everyone in the company pursues excellence in whatever he/she is expected to do. Our mid level managers should be able to bring about a cultural change in the organization that will
definitely result into improvement in top line and bottom line of the company.

vkjaitly