My first interaction with the China team...

My first interaction with the China team...


This was a brief 30 minute leadership listen only call and hence not really active but I am very interested in being active participant moving forward esp. with the DEV team in China.
Time difference really works for me from US pacific timezone, Good live meeting and network connectivity on-premise and no issues communicating. Wish me good luck so that I can be successful in delivery and management. :)

Here are few learnings that I learned from my past offshore experience -
1 Connect the team more (if possible daily standup).
2 Good project management and understanding of all activities/tasks assigned to the offshore team.
3 Having said, that Offshore team being remote and distant away, would do wonders if you give them a bigger picture. Believe me, that would make the team  feel part of the bigger pool and give them a sense of ownership.
4 You may have to give away some of your time and be flexible/agile to work with a different timezone with the Offshore team.
5 You must know the powermap - Supervisors and managers who own/control the team. Trust me, they treat feedback from client/onshore team very seriously and take corrective action.
6 Understand their culture and be empathic while on call/conferences and change your behavior instead of asking them.
7 Typical work that can be executed successfully
8 If none of this work, then please pull out at the right time than later in the game and avoid heart burns :)

Cheers - Dipesh

Can empathic listening do wonders and win more battles?

There are several experts, who would say that one should be a GOOD listener if they want to avoid troubles for themselves and have a constructive dialogue. Yes, very true but I think one should take it to the next level... NOT just listen, active listening but be an Empathic Listener. huh? What does that mean?

By definition, Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion - per Wiki.

Empathetic Listening is a technique which can help you manage and avoid disruptive and assaultive behaviors and land you great success in reading right messages and solving problems with client, customer, supervisors, team members or even personal relationships - the way you want!

There is a popluar word that is coined in my organization - LEAP: Listen, Empathize, Ask and Propose. J The message is = Don't just Listen and jump to conclusions and Propose but Listen, empathize with the person, Ask/probe more questions to understand his/her context better and then propose - put forward your ideas/suggestions. That is the skill every executive/leader would find it helpful. Don't play this but br true to yourself and it will benefit you in longer run! Learn to Practice! Practice! Practice!

Success in Emphatic listening is understanding and it can be summarized in 4 simple steps below: 

1. Follow the LEAP process, Give your judgement/advice only after you have completely listened. Give some time, Think through the issue, not required to have an immediate response.


2. Give your full attention while listening. Don't be distracted or be involved in multi tasking while listening. This won't yield the results you want.
3. Give due importance to the topic and the speaker. Show true concern and feel it genuinely. Don’t trivialize the issue. 

4. Assure your understanding. Ask clarifying questions and restate what you perceive the speaker to be saying.

Again, it's an art and learn to Practice! Practice! Practice! Hope that helps win you more battles, :) Cheers - Dipesh

How to start your own small business? How to venture into any new space? Are you afraid of competing against large corporations?

How to start your own small business? How to venture into any new space? Are you afraid of competing against large corporations? OR Are you just double minded on whether you should or you should not?

 There is NO straight answer to this, but I have made an attempt to list some of the basics that I think from my experience are MUST HAVE’S for a leader/entrepreneur by design. Don’t consider them as magic steps that would allow you venture into a new business OR make you a successful entrepreneur, CEO OR for that matter even a business lead in your company. But, my 2 cents draft with some of my thoughts that I think every person should have to enable him/her to take that first bold step to venture into any new space OR a startup company. (will keep it simple) –


4 key fundamentals one would need to be successful venturing into new space as a Startup company OR working at the next level –

CPLB (Courage, Passion, LOTS of patience and most importantly Belief in YOU.)


• Courage – To go against the odds, To take balanced risks, to get out from your comfort level,
• Passion – You need to have the killer instinct passion, desire to prove a point (in a good sense),

• Patience – you may fail, but don’t give up…. Keep on trying and you will get there,

• Belief – Strong belief in you, don’t lose heart with small failures, don’t give it up….keep trying!


In addition, you also need Xtreme dedication/focus, commitment towards work.


• Xtreme dedication/focus – Should have razor sharp focus and clear vision to what you want to achieve. Be very clear headed. Will need lot of sacrifice of your personal time – family will need to stand by/support you for each decision/action you take. Won’t be easy but you will have to practice that during early stages of growth for sure.

• Commitment – Work hard, Work hard, Work hard! There are no shortcuts and don’t play games! Be real, be honest and be true to yourself.


I think few important key points that one should embrace are –


• Need to have VERY STRONG in ideas/thought process. If your product is NOT a value add, then it won’t help you sail :)

• TIME is an important asset for you, utilize it wisely.

• You don’t need to attract lot of money, build upon an IDEA and sell it. Investors will get attracted to an idea anytime.

• Create a blue ocean strategy and compete in the red ocean as well – to grow it’s OK to keep your margins low. Once you are at level 2 – you can think of revising your strategy.


At the end, most importantly - Have FUN in doing what you do!


Here are few DON’TS:


• Don’t treat your venture/new experience as pure competition.

• Don’t get stressed out – set some time aside to celebrate/pat on your back and the team that worked hard for you. The way large corporations term – WORK LIFE BALANCE :)

• Don’t be afraid of FAILURES, but learn from it. (recent entrepreneur/leader example –X CEO for Apple: Steve Jobs)

• Don’t get absorbed in mundane/routine tasks/activities; Outsource them if possible to someone who loves doing it and you take on the value adds. Free up your time to move on.
• Don’t stop learning, Invest time in learning, growth for you and the team.

Will try and focus on how to compete head-on with large corporations and create your own mark/brand in Part 2. 

Pardon my scribbling’s if any....