The Habit enemy - Petty Laziness

Success may mean differently in different contexts for different people. I think, success is a corporate coined term for happiness. True success is when you can ride life gracefully in all situations.

Many times, what powers one's happiness is not the once-in-a-time big life decisions or the events, but rather the culmination of how we handle many small things that happen every single day. 

Most of the biographies of successful people often cover major events, opportunities, struggles, and how they overcome those challenges but usually omits their everyday habits due to the time, space, and mostly unattractive nature of those activities. The truth is, those mundane daily chores are what prepared and pushed them to win the battles.  

You may think you are not lazy just because you are working and are keeping up to average standards of wealth, health, and relationships. You may usually be aware of this, and if not, people around you will point to you quickly if any of these standards fall below the line. 

As these conventional wisdom of life make sure you are not falling below the line, they also become a curse by not allowing you to reach greater heights easily. The band of the average is so wide, and we usually do not understand whether that we are improving or degrading.

We take it for a grant, to procrastinate on many petty things that do not show any symptoms of degradation quickly. 

For example, these are some of the small activities that are proven to bring happiness to everyone irrespective of age or profession.

• Do the damn 7-minute exercise a day. 
• Read or write for at least 15-minute every day.  
• Tidy up the place in about 10 minutes a day. 
• Keep in touch with near ones with a message or a quick phone call. 
• Eat healthy with fresh cooking instead of frozen food. 
• Appreciate being alive every day. 

They altogether can be done in less than an hour in a day, and nobody can claim they cannot spend at least an hour in a day if they wish for long-lasting happiness.

However, many people find themselves not able to do this. In an impact-driven world, these petty habits may not produce results quickly, and at the same time, not doing them also does not punish us much. 

"Petty Laziness" - I call it for all the procrastination we do for things that may not change our life upside down but are essential in drafting our life and lead to the stepping stone of our habit-building and success. 

With a little bit of practice, we can identify petty laziness easily. 

Just ask yourself, following questions whenever you try to delay/skip doing things 

1. Is it making you uncomfortable to do the activity? 
2. Are you trying to give a lot of reasons for not doing it? 
3. Will you forget the alternative actions, that you are undertaking within a day or two? 

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, you may be at the mercy of "petty laziness". 

Identifying this trait is more than half of the battle. Improving this awareness will elevate you to build strong habits. 

"Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can!" 

                                               - Arthur Ashe - American Tennis Player. 

Climbing from average to great is usually a slow process as it requires tweaking your efficiency step by step. It involves doing mundane things repeatedly, meticulously without expecting an adrenaline push or quick gratifications.

Let 2022 be our step forward in building our habits, breaking one limitation (petty laziness) at a time. 

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

Leadership Flexibility

 

Recently I had an opportunity to learn Blanchard & Hersey's Situational Leadership Training. 

For the leaders, the main takeaway is to adapt and be flexible to every one of your team members on their phases of development. Leadership flexibility is critically important especially, during these uncertain times. 

Phases

It is interesting to reflect on how my journey relates from low confidence to high confidence through different stages, especially when I started learning bicycle.  

Initially it was huge interest without any skills (D1) which turned into loss of motivation with struggle to peddle (D2). Without any option to move around and seeking to gain freedom, slowly I was able to get on to D3. For me the last stage came out when I took up long drive of 5+ miles to my school in distant city. Today, I miss going on purposeful trips on bicycle but the learnings stayed with me for any other struggle I undertake. 

D1: Unable and Willing (Low Competence and High Commitment)
D2: Unable and Unwilling (Low Competence and Low Commitment)
D3: Able and Unwilling (High Competence and Low Commitment)
D4: Able and Willing (High Competence and High Commitment)

More details can be referred at 

https://www.business-to-you.com/hersey-blanchard-situational-leadership-model/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory

Compensation Structure in 2021

 Most companies baseline the employees' compensation during the year-end and convey the updated structure during January. 

Irrespective of many different kinds of recognitions, cash compensation remains the topmost in terms of how people value their work. 

For a variety of reasons, the current structure of compensating everyone at the year-end only falls short.

• It does not promote the team culture. Always Individuals are rated instead of teams. How can we reward the entire high-performance team?

• Performance reviewers always have an unconscious bias towards the performance during the 4th quarter. But, it should consider for the overall performance of the year. Individuals who exceed and go beyond in different times of the year may not be well appreciated. 

• In difficult conversations, the managers reiterate the company quarter results to convince the employees. This strategy does not correlate well many times. 

• Compensating everyone at the same time of the year may bring uniformity but unfortunately, it brings unnecessary comparisons. Individual's compensation should just be tied to the company contract and not to the other team members.

• Top talent may not have the patience to wait for the year-end.

• It also induces sudden instability and attrition during the first quarter. Some of the managers even started to expect this year over year. 

• Mobility and moving across the teams during the mid-year may impact the individuals.

• Due to predictability, People can start to game the system. 

People are the core asset of any company. How to reward the top talent, appreciate the hard work and retain the talent has always been the most debated and highest priority item for many C-suite executives. 

Its the time for the companies to start thinking about how to restructure the employees' compensation. 

I certainly do not have the best alternatives but, I believe the timely appreciation, transparent incentive rates, team rewards will demystify the clutter and pave ways for the continuous run of high-performance teams. 

Reflecting 2020

It's the time for reflection on 2020. Instead of going through the typical retro format, I like to attempt to answer the following powerful questions. 

What is the most important lesson you learned this year?

Ability to live with less. Life needs just sufficient food and a place to live. Everything else is optional for reasonable good living. 

What challenges did you overcome?

Adapt to remote working. Improved Communication. I am now open to sharing more details with colleagues and strangers. My perspective on WFH changed a lot, and I no longer feel guilty about working from home or taking a break during work hours. 

Too many calls (mostly video calls) drained me physically. I started questioning the need for my participation more diligently and delegated as many as possible to either peer or my team. 

Deadline wise delivery is a thing of the past. We encounter people's availability changing daily. So continuous planning and adapting to the changes has become a core part of leadership roles.

I am a bit more organized compared to the last year due to the scarcity of many resources. 

We entangle with a lot of chores. The priority and the need for these chores are highly magnified being at home. I yet to find a cleaner handle on this. 

What new skills did you acquire?

Learn to educate kids: Volunteer as an assistant teacher for a local nonprofit school on educating kids with foreign languages.

What did you do for your career growth?

Leading a team with multiple workstreams in this ever-changing crisis is a fabulous experience. Remote working broke many logistical barriers with senior management, and I could gain insights on my strength and opportunities for embarking on technical leadership. 

How did you have fun?

Spending time with the kids on their remote education and playing with them in the evening hours has been a fantastic experience. I also took post-lunch breaks every now and a while and went out for a walk. 

Lucky to gift me with excellent homemade food and sound sleep of more than 8 hours a day. 

On many weekends, we either hiked or walked and had brunch picnics in the parks. We also enjoyed the drive-in movie shows from the Township.

What were the most useful resources you had?

Zoom

What did you leave unfinished?

My spouse sacrificed a lot to enable kids remote learning as she could not get on with their next level in career roadmap. 

My kids missed New York City rides.

What was the best compliment you received?

Unattributed feedback from my direct reports called me - an empathetic, inclusive, strong technology leader. I am proud of standing by my core values, especially during this pandemic year. 

If you were to talk about this year like a story, how would you write it?

2020 is a showcase of war-like uncertainty in a milder way. 

How do you describe this year in 3 to 5 keywords?

2020 reminded us of our mortal nature. Expecting the change anytime on anything and positively adapting to it is the real insurance one can have for a promising future. 

What advice would you give your last-year self?

Too many short term ambitious goals go meaningless in a spectrum of broad timeframe. Try to focus on skills and long term goals. 

We do so many things unconsciously that are nothing more than entertainment. With little awareness, I can try and even efficiently overcome the urge to fall back on old bad habits. 

Right outputs happen only with the right inputs. Intentions may influence a starting point, but only perseverance will take you to the end. 

Volunteer Teaching - Part I

This pandemic year has seen many twists and turns in most of our lives. On the positive side, I am volunteering as an assistant teacher at the local language school. I just completed my first trimester, and reflecting on the last three months is satisfying as well as enriching. 

I am always passionate about education. Teaching goes back a few generations in my family history. Several of my friends & relatives are in the teaching profession. My very first job was also as a teacher at a prominent Technology Training School. Another forced reason being, my kids are enrolled in the same school, and the principal requested additional help due to all-out remote learning. I got an opportunity to teach the Tamil language to 3-graders. 

First of all, I have to admit, remote learning for kids is an uphill task. The school teachers are, especially in lower grades, are doing an excellent job. Managing and coaching with so many limitations in an ever-changing environment is not only commendable but also needs innovation, resilience, and courage.  

Kids are way advanced in adapting the technology, the culture, and the nuances of remote learning. Teaching has become truly two-way, and teachers also learn every day. I am surprised to see that kids have a great understanding of current affairs, politics, climate, and sports. 

We have a Saturday class of 90 minutes. Setting up the mood of the classroom with cheering after a week-long engagement has been an extreme ordeal. Nevertheless, closing the classroom is bliss for everyone. 

Remote learning requires teachers to prepare more in advance, have razor-sharp focus during the class, and above all, maintain balanced, composed patience all along. For a naive teacher like me, teaching 20 students is like teaching a student 20 times. Even though the curriculum is simple, I have to run through it a couple of times to make sure I can explain all ancillary questions that may arise.  

 

We used Google Meet for better integration with Google Classroom. However, it felt way inferior to Zoom in terms of stability, performance, and clarity. 

Distractions are contagious. Bringing back the class attention from the side conversations, subject deviations, and the demotivated students has to be achieved as micro-goals with utmost care and patience. For example, allowing students to take a bathroom break on their own is far better than making students ask for permission. The moment one student breaks the attention, the entire class follows this suit. 

No matter, whatever you teach, some students test out the teacher's patience by displaying indifference. That's where one has to step up and try a creative diversion so that the entire class is not discouraged. 

There are sometimes wifi issues, external noise, household interruptions, bathroom breaks, and snaking during the class. But they are in no way cause any critical damages. 

Evaluating the students on their participation has been another challenge. Some extrovert students continue to seek out attention, but many others wait for the time may miss out on the chance. A teacher has to keep track of individual personalities for an unbiased evaluation. 

Over-communication on digital channels (WhatsApp Group, Google classroom, email list, etc.) is another must to ensure everyone gets reminders on homework, projects, test schedules, and any other expectations.

I tried, explored, and tested a few techniques and continue to learn every week. 

Expressing the thoughts does not just go with only voice, but it will take so many clues from the body language (nonverbal communication). Albeit, Zoom and Google Meet are improving the experience day by day; the following limitations still need to be distilled out.

• Making sure participants are involved totally. Can you color code and categorize the image based on movement or retina focus? 
• The number of people displayed on the screen is limited. Most phones can display only 4 participants at a time, and tablets may show a maximum of ten people. Tough?.  
• It is not easy to guess who will talk next - Can easily invent something like instant messages now "typing" clue. 
• How to respect fruitful side-conversations? Develop something better than a breakout room. 
• Convey the body language. Nonverbal learning. A long way to go. 

We are certainly going to innovate and move towards better solutions. Instead of migrating towards better schools, the affluent will certainly prefer full-time online schools with part-time tutors. We might see the big corporates think out globalizing K-12 education. 

Probably a full VR approach might work out well too.  

Note: I will follow up with another extensive reflection on this journey at the end of the school year. 

Developing for Cloud Platform - Introduction

As financial industry finally move towards cloud adoption rapidly, we are now in a time to develop anything and everything cloud friendly. 

In last few months, we have developed and productionalized (serving 10MM+ users) couple of microservices in private cloud based on Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF). 

Cloud enablement comes with many challenges and at the same time offers few luxuries compared to traditional stand alone distributed hosting. 

This blog assumes, you have already chosen the cloud platform based on your other constraints (cost, availability etc).

In broader perspective, I can categorize my experience in following areas. 

• Design 
• Choosing tech stack, managing dependencies, extensibility 
• Development  
• Breaking the assumptions, Local development environment, Tools, Best practices 
• Deployment
•  Managing environments, moving the code, Automation
• Testing 
• Methodology changes, Execution, What "else" to test, Automation
• Performance 
• Scaling, Performance Measurements, Reporting 
• Support 
• Logs, Troubleshooting, Metrics, Monitors 

We will cover each areas elaborately in following weeks.

Note 9 Tips

1. Double tap the recents button on your nav bar to jump directly to the previously used app. 
2. Customize nav bar, notification bar, recent apps, etc. with Good Lock from the Galaxy app store.
3. Secure Folder - you can set up separate apps logged into different accounts with different fingerprints, etc.

http://www.androidbeat.com/2018/09/best-samsung-galaxy-note-9-tips-tricks/