6 Leadership and performance lessons from Jaipur Pink Panthers - Part 1

Thank you Mashaal Sports; thank you Charu Sharma and thank you Star Sports. You gave us a treat by reviving the sports of Kabaddi and giving it a great glamour quotient. Pro kabaddi has been a great hit.

For starters, Kabaddi has 8 players in each team. It’s a 40 minute intense, high energy game with one 5 minute break after 20 minutes. Two terms often surface in the game. Raiders and Defenders. Raiders are the one who go in the other teams’ arena; try to touch the opponent players and touch back the mid line without being held back by the opponent players. The defenders job is to catch the raider and not allow him to touch the mid line.

The final match was between U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers. The first half was intense. However in the second half, Pink Panthers very decisively won the match with a score of 35-24.

The key question is what made this team demonstrate such a high level of performance so consistently match after match?

Here are the six (3 covered in this blog) leadership and performance lessons from this team

1.  Team composition :

The first task before the franchise owner Abhishek Bachchan was to get the people who can select the best players. He chose K Bhaskaran, an Arjuna awardee as the coach of the team. Next was to select the company or a person who can manage the team effectively. He chose Bunty Walia who runs G S entertainment. Mandate was to ensure that the team is taken care of well.

Now was the time to select the players. Abhishek Bachchan, K Bhaskaran and Bunty Walia did extensive research; studied player profiles and selected a fine mix of players. Pink panthers’ has some of the finest raiders; defenders and all-rounders.

In the business context, choosing your team right is of utmost importance. You don’t grow business. You grow people and they grow your business. If we have this piece right, the businesses or projects get going fast.

    

2. The Strategy :

K Bhaskaran who has been there, done that knows the game in and out. He ensured that the players were given enough time and opportunities to practice. For 15 days the players practiced in Jaipur. Abhishek Bachchan was personally present for a week to encourage the players; keep them in the right frame of mind and keep them motivated. Bhaskaran ensured that right game strategy is put in place. He strengthened the position of each player and offered insights to make it sharper.

In the context of business, while getting the right people sets the pace, getting your strategy right ensures that you are in the right direction. Depending upon our business and the scope, we can decide which strategy tool or method to use to formulate the blue print for the business or unit. For example, my friend who hold a key position in one SBU (strategic business unit) uses 2 X 2 matrix, 5 force analysis and strategy maps quite extensively.

3. Execution :

Each player was trained to do his role well. Prashant Chavan and Gokul Shitole held the right corner well. The team’s captain Navneet Gautam was at his best handling the left corner. Rajesh Narwal and Maninder Singh raided very well.  Jasvir Singh demonstrated cool, composed, smiling but a sharply focussed demeanour when he raided. He remains my favourite.

In the business context, using the strength of each and every team member is the real test of a manager or a leader. Fitting their skills and capabilities in the larger scheme of things is nothing short of a jigsaw puzzle.  Keeping the team member excited about the uniqueness of his contribution to the overall picture is tough but a fulfilling job of the manager or leader.

I will release part 2 (final) of this blog subsequently.

Why do we choose chocolate over fruits when under stress?

Do you choose chocolates over fruits when project deadline approaches?

Let's see some situations.

Situation 1: Its 28 of the month. You are at 70% achievement of your targets. You are pressing all buttons to ensure you do not miss the 100% achievement mark.

Situation 2: You are in-charge of an important project. You are one week away from the final delivery date and your team just identifies a major problem that needs a fix. You cannot miss the deadline and you know a week’s time is not enough to fix the issue.

Situation 3: You are responsible for an important presentation to be given to senior management scheduled 3 days later. You realise that you just received data from 2 teams out of 5 for the presentation. You are unlikely to get the data from 2 teams in the next 2 days. Your supervisor wants to see the presentation the next day.

In all of the above or any other situation like this, have you noticed your eating preferences? Do they differ than the usual choices you make when you are more relaxed?

If there is a difference, you will find it interesting to read the below experiment to know the reason.

Baba Shiv a professor at Stanford University and Sasha Fedorikhin a professor at Indiana University examined an idea that people fall into temptation more frequently when the part of their brain that is in charge of deliberative thinking is otherwise occupied.

Their experiment went something like this.

They divided participants into two groups. Members of group 1 were asked to remember a two digit number (like 62). Members of group 2 were asked to remember a seven digit number (say 3278651).

What the participants were required to do is this. Remember the number (2 digits for group 1 and 7 digits for group 2) that was flashed on the screen; walk down to the other end of the corridor and share the memorised number to the other experimenter who was waiting for them. There were no rewards if they didn't remember the number.

Here is the twist in the experiment that they did.

As the participants walked towards the other end of the corridor, they unexpectedly passed by the cart that displayed two items. (1) Rich, dark chocolate cake and (2) Bowls of colourful, healthy looking fruit.

As the participants passed by the cart, another experimenter told them that once they go to the other room and recite their number, they could have one of the two snacks – but they had to make their decision right then, at the cart.

The participants made their choice, received the slip of their choice, went to the other room and shared the number with the experimenter in the room.

The findings of this experiment are interesting.

In Group 1 who had less strain remembering the two digit number, more participants made fruit bowl as their choice. More participants in Group 2 who had higher strain of remembering 7 digits made dark chocolate cake as their choice.

Prof. Baba and Prof. Sasha’s experiment showed that when our deliberative reasoning ability is occupied our impulsive system gains more control over our behaviour.

So what do we do?

Some of us would still be happy eating chocolate cake over fruit plate. And if it is an outcome of a deliberative reasoning, all the more better.

Here are a couple of steps expert recommend while exercising the choice(s).

1. When confronted with a distraction (unexpected Cart in the experiment), take a step back.
2. Take two to three deep breathes.
3. Then make your choice.

Well I am now signing off to have my plate of rich, dark chocolate cake…..

What precedes: Passion or Preparation?

‘To be or not to be is the question’ wrote William Sheksphere the famous English writer in ‘Hamlet’. The context in the play is with reference to the dilemma of life and death. Here however we are only referring to the dilemma.

The dilemma of whether passion supersedes prepararation or vice versa.

If you have seen the movie ‘300’, you may recall the passionate and a spirited fight the 300 Spartans put against 1,20,000 (0.12 million) Persian soldiers and their King Xerxes. This means each Spartan fought 400 Persian solders. A ratio of 1:400. We don’t see such a ratio even in action movies.

We see passion superseding preparation that holds us onto the edge till the end of the movie.

Recently Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched PSLV C23 carrying 5 foreign satellites in the orbit. Scientists were preparing for this for the last 16 months after PSLV C20 launch in February 2013.

The Mars Orbiting Mission is yet another mission under planning and execution that tests ISROs ability to take something to Mars, keep it in good health during the journey and make it go around the red planet.

It is their meticulous preparation that helped them launch PSLV C23 successfully or the Mars Orbit Mission.

India won many medals in the recently held Common wealth games, Glasgow. We saw two Phogat sisters from Haryana winning the Gold medal in free style wrestling. Vinesh and Babita Kumari. Babita in one of her interviews shared that she damaged her ligament during training in Glasgow. She said to her sister Geeta that I don’t care how bad it is, if I can stand I will fight. She did and she won the Gold for the country.

Preparation and passion got these sisters where they are today.

A look at the biopics like Chak de India, Bhag Milkha Bhag or recently released Mary Kom give us insight that it is the preparation and passion combined that helps break the ceiling and achieve the desired goal.

Famous writer T Alan Armstrong says “Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend in preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character”.

Sometimes your breakdowns become the seed for your breakthroughs, says the writer-speaker-coach Robert Ricciardelli.

Yet there are many who believe that one should not wait for the perfect time to start.

I know one person who did not wait for the perfect time or an opportunity. His circumstances as per the normal understanding of most of us were not all that good. Just after completing his engineering he started a small manufacturing unit. He used to go to his unit on a bicycle travelling 10 miles one way. With his relentless efforts he expanded his company. His company today is one of the preferred auto component suppliers to big auto companies.  He believes that there is no perfect time. The moment your thought crystallises, you should start and keep improving along the way with the best quality benchmarks in mind.

Juxtapose the above things in office context.

Following process enhances selling however we also need gut to understand the customer’s requirement, work out the right fitments and offer suitable solution.

What is the outcome of over preparation for a sales call and under passionate pitch? Will we be able to close a sale?

On the other hand take work areas like setting up of the processes & systems; managing projects etc. We need to be meticulous in our approach while handling these portfolios.

What if we are required to prepare a business plan? Mostly we will try and use the science of developing a plan. Now what if we are to present the plan? Do you think sharing just the science part, the projections, the statistics and the assumptions will suffice? Or a conviction of the teams’ participation, common vision and a passionate belief in executing the plan will be more convincing?  What is your experience?

The bigger question still is what precedes. Passion or preparation?

Can we learn selling in Mumbai local train?

Travelling in a local train of Mumbai is an experience in itself. And if you get a place to sit, the ride becomes all the more enjoyable. This was one such rare ride where I could not only enter the train but got a place to sit.

‘An erasable notebook’ came the voice in a coach.  Suddenly I saw some people looking at the seller who was selling a notebook on which you can write, erase, re-write and keep repeating. His power pitch or unique selling proposition (USP) ‘An erasable notebook’.

I found some people looking at the seller with interest. Out of nowhere he was able to generate a prospect base. He swiftly recognised their interest and moved towards them. Then started the demo. He noticed the deepened interest of a couple of them and handed over the ‘erasable notebook’ only to them. Dekho, dehne ka paisa nahi lagta… (Check it out, no money for checking out). I remembered Ghadi detergent tag line ‘Pehle istamaal karo, phir vishwas karo’ (Use it before believing it).

Now I saw some more people jumping into the fray as his prospecting continued. I saw him giving the sample copies only to those who according to him qualified from ‘cold leads’ to ‘hot leads’.

By this time one person enquired about the cost. I found an impressive way of telling the cost. ‘Do special chai ki kimat main ye book lijiye’ (take this book at the cost of two special tea’) and then he disclosed the price as Rs. 20/-. Amazing way of connecting the cost to his daily routine and showing the cost benefit analysis I thought.

This person had a doubt. ‘Ye kharab ho jayega’ (this will get spoiled). I was impressed with the way the seller handled this objection. ‘Zindagi bhar ke liye istamaal karo, kuchh nahi hoga (Use it for life, nothing will happen). Aapke bachche ye dekhkar khush ho jayenge (Your children will be very happy to see this). ‘Unke padhai ke liye bahut kaam ki cheez hai (Very useful for their studies).  I could see an earnest emotional appeal by the seller. He was in perfect control of the situation while appealing to the emotions of this buyer.

The person ultimately bought the ‘erasable notebook’ and started looking at it as a priced possession.

The other people who were in the fray were by now at various stages of the buying process. And I saw the seller handing each one of them simultaneously with equal ease, comfort and confidence. a. Qualifying the lead from cold to hot; b. giving the demo; c. handing over the sample to hot leads; d. handling objections and e. closing a sale.

In 10 minutes time this seller sold some 10-12 erasable notebooks and got down at the terminating station.

As he was hurrying towards to next local I caught up with him and asked him how he creates this magic?

His reply. Maal achha hona chahiye Saab (product should be good Sir); ‘aur baar baar vahi baat bolne ka Jazba hona chahiye’ (and you should have the passion to keep talking the same thing).

Ye jazba tumko kahase aata hai (where do you get this passion from?) I asked. Mere pariwaar ki raat ki roti saab (Food for my family Sir).

By the time I was thinking of the next question, he was long gone possibly to re-write his survival and success story with ‘erasable notebook’.

Can we make changes and sustain them – Part 2

Can the New Year resolution this time last longer than it ever did? Can the weight management program sustain till the time the desired weight is achieved? Can the financial savings and investments discipline be better than ever before?

 

Can we make these changes? Can we sustain the decisions or resolutions?

 

We are figuring out whether changes are possible. Whether we can break old habits and form new ones that will elevate us to the level we desire and deserve.

 

In the previous blog (Can we make changes and sustain them too? – Part 1) we spoke about three powerful steps for forming new habits. If you missed reading that blog please follow the below link.

 

http://bhushankulkarni2903.blogspot.in/2014/09/can-we-make-changes-fast-and-sustain.html

 

 

There is a famous dialogue in the movie ‘Wanted’. The dialogue goes something like this. “Ek bar jo maine commitment kar di, uske baad main apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta’ (Once I make any commitment then I don’t listen even to myself).

I think our brain has many characteristics of this dialogue. That is where breaking old habits and forming new habits becomes challenging.

 

Every habit starts with the psychological pattern called as ‘Habit Loop’. This is a three part process.

 

1.      The cue or a trigger:

This part of the habit loop tells our brain to go into automatic mode and let a behaviour unfold.

2.      The routine:

This is the behaviour itself. When we talk about habits, we are generally talking about this part of the habit loop.

3.      Reward:

Something that our brain likes about the behaviour that help it remember the ‘habit loop’ in future.

 

Now the question is if this is how habits are formed is it possible to break unwanted habits and acquire or inculcate the desired habits?

 

I am sure we all have seen sometime or the other our friend transform completely. Be it weight loss, more energy, more passion for the purpose, new and efficient habits etc etc. And we wonder just little less than a year when I saw her, she was not like this. I am seeing a completely different person. How did this person make it possible, we wonder?

 

 

My friend Tony who is a pilot with a private airline company is one such person I have seen. He says he has been using ‘rocket philosophy’ to form new habits. A rocket requires tremendous energy while taking off and reach lower orbit of earth.

 

Habits are like that. We need maximum energy to form new habits initially.

 

I still had two questions.

 

1. How many days of deliberate efforts are required before the habit gets into routine?

2. What is the guarantee that we will not come back to the earlier habit?

 

Many experts have suggested repeating the new behaviour for 21 days. It’s painful to get up early morning. It requires lot of effort to go to gym and take that first step. We all have tried these things. And we all have reverted to the earlier habit.

 

Tony says it’s not a straight line thing. It’s not a cookie cutter kind of a solution. You will have a tendency to come back to the earlier pattern. That’s easy for the brain. Effortless.

 

He says he uses another method called as ‘flight height’. What is it I asked? At lower altitudes you need more power to run an aircraft and vice versa. Whenever you see the new habits losing steam, you apply more mental thrust and sustain the habit.

 

A combination of ‘rocket philosophy’ and ‘flight height’ will help improve the chances of acquiring and sustaining new habits.

 

 

Can we make changes fast? And sustain them too?? – Part 1

Can we make changes fast and sustain them too?

The question is do we want to? Isn’t the existing living better? Well if you have answered this question earlier and have told yourself that changes are required than the next question is that is there a mechanics or science that will allow us to change fast and sustain these changes?

 

It is generally held belief that whatever comes fast goes fast. Whatever changes that happen fast do not sustain for long. Classic example is our weight. Usually it is said that if you lose weight fast, we will have a tendency of regaining it equally fast. In short, if any changes that we try to make are faster than ‘desired’ time, the assumption is that it will not sustain.

 

My experience and discussions with experts in the field of Performance coaching; medicine; health etc. suggests that speed of change and sustainability can be directly proportional. In other words we can make changes faster and even sustain them.

 

So does this mean that we can lose weight fast? Does this mean that we can speak in front of a group without problems, faster than we thought? Does this mean that we can effortlessly connect with people?

 

The answer according to experts is a big YES.

 

Has someone done it earlier?

 

Few years back, I used to do a small television program for a local cable channel. The purpose of this program was to interview people from all walks of life and get the answers broadly to these two questions.

1.      What is the secret(s) of their success?

2.      How did they go about acquiring that trait or a mind-set faster?

 

Today we will see some of the responses given to question 2. How did they make changes fast that helped them succeed?

 

One of the respondents Nikhil attributed this change to something he calls the ‘Switch’. He shared with us that he was thinking of a change for some time so intensely that one day something ‘switched’ in his mind and he acquired the trait much faster.

 

Yogita said she has applied the power of two forces to make the changes fast. The two forces she says are ‘Pain’ and ‘Pleasure’ she read these concepts in a book ‘Awaken the giant within’ by Anthony Robbins. She said she associated intense pain to not changing what she wanted to and associating immense pleasure with the changes she was going to make. Every day Yogita reminded this to herself and that according to her fuelled the changes faster than she expected.

 

Here are the 3 golden rules that experts suggest for changing or acquiring new habits.

 

a.       Cue: Trigger for an automatic behaviour to start

b.      Routine: The behaviour itself

c.       Reward: The way in which our brain remembers the new pattern for future.

 

More on Cue, Routine and Reward later.

 

We have spoken about 3 things here. “Switch’; ‘Pain-Pleasure’ principle and ‘3 golden rules of habit change’.

 

Now the bigger question. Can we use these principles to fast forward the changes we aspire for?

 

Well, it depends.

 

1.      Depends on whether we have identified and articulated sharply what we intend to change.

2.      Depends on how deeply we want to believe in ‘Switch’; ‘Pain – Pleasure’ and 3 golden rules of habit change’ principles.

3.      Depends on how interested we are to take action around these principles.

 

 

 

 

Anchors - Powerful way for instant change

When I wrote about anchors earlier, one of my friends gave an example of a movie by the name ‘Munna bahi MBBS’. If you have seen the movie you may recollect a character Dr. J.C. Asthana played by a renowned actor Boman Irani. Whenever Dr. Asthana goes through stress he has this tendency to laugh deliberately. Induced laughter. Induced laughter is an anchor to change the state of mind for Dr. Asthana.

 

If you missed reading that blog, you my follow the link.

 

 http://bhushankulkarni2903.blogspot.in/2014/08/want-to-change-your-mood-use-this.html

 

Take another example from movies of Rajanikanth. Most of us are aware of the characteristic style in which he wears his goggles. The moment he does that, we know that the opponents are in trouble, we as audience have a treat and there is some high point in the movie.

What we see in these examples is how a particular action by an actor triggers some change either in his mood or the scene around him.

I once interacted with a dolphin instructor. She shared with me that they use anchors with Dolphins quite extensively. They train dolphin to behave in a particular way or give a particular performance and they get rewarded with their favourite fish. Getting fish is an anchor for the dolphin.

I have a friend who crosses his middle and the index finger before an important presentation. When I checked with him what it means to him, he said that crossing his fingers give him the signal that he has to be extra alert than usual. He said he took that from a movie ‘Hindustani’. Kamal Hassan in that movie crosses his fingers whenever his is required to fight with another person for a better cause. He says I use it to have elevated spirits and a confident voice while making presentations in the meeting.

Many people use specific actions while performing their regions’ rituals. These actions induce a certain frame of mind or evoke some specific emotions in an individual.

Anchors are specific actions or words that one assigns to a particular behaviour. Once assigned, the brain gets conditioned to invoke the similar behaviour in future.

Since it’s a skill it requires practice, sometimes deliberate and once we are comfortable we can change the current state into the desired state or frame of mind or mood with that action.

Where all have you been using this method, I asked my friend who crosses his fingers before an important meeting. He found anchors useful in many ways. Whenever he is in in a low mood, he has assigned some anchor that instantly revives him. He says it’s like having an Orange juice when your body is dehydrated. Like the orange juice to a dehydrated body, my specified anchor is to my mind. It allows me to come back to the resourceful state of mind.

So if anchor is a particular action than don’t you feel uncomfortable using it in office or any other public place, I asked. He told me that it need not be a grand body posture always. Like crossing my fingers is not visible to other but it’s a trigger for me. They can also be some words. Slogan or war cry like ‘Har har mahadev’ induced insurmountable energy to fight enemies amongst soldiers. ‘Vande mataram’ filled people with great patriotic feeling. ‘We can and we will’ changed the entire nation’s mood. He says even these have been great anchors.

So where do we start, I asked.

 He said start using it to change your mood from low to high. Assign something that indicates revival to your brain. Continue it for a month and check if it works for you.