Scale-up with PK!

Providing feedbacks and feed-forwards in an effective way enhances one’s Leadership Presence.

Feedbacks and feed forwards are generally offered to correct something, to improve performance, or to highlight something that could be done better.

It need not be so always.

One could catch someone doing things right, and offer a feedback. And accentuate the positive.

Someone asked a leader ‘Why would you commend someone for doing something they're supposed to do?’

The leader answered: ‘So they keep doing it.’

It’s important that in our focus on things to correct, we are not blind to the positive things people do on a daily basis.

When you catch people doing the right things and offer feedback, it provides clarity, builds trust and psychological safety.

Also it helps people to become the best version of themselves.

Providing feedbacks and feed-forwards in an effective way – it enhances one’s Leadership Impact!

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

Often Leaders catch themselves being stuck to the past and past events, finding it challenging to focus on future and move on.

Rear-view mirror is important while driving; however Windscreen holds more potential and promise.

Being aware of what happened, being alert to what’s coming from behind and the sides is important. At the same time holding a larger perspective, driving the business forward is important for a Leader, looking ahead through the windscreen.

Looking ahead more - through windscreen, than looking behind - through rear-view mirror, may serve Leaders well. This awareness - to move on and lead focusing on the way forward, the future, than being stuck to the past and past events, is pertinent for Leaders.

Great leaders are aware of the wisdom behind focusing more on the present and future, drawing learnings from the past.

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

Leading a business to perform at optimal level is a continuous challenge for CEOs and Business Leaders. The good news is that today Leaders have multiple support systems, including that of working with a Coach, to create, build, and enhance their leadership presence and leadership Impact.

I would like to share 6 significant areas where Leaders could enhance their effectiveness working with a Coach:

1. Enhancing leadership presence: to Inspire more, influence more and impact more by building and strengthening our ability to focus, listen, communicate, and be present.

2. Making better choices, taking better decisions: Leadership is about making choices and decisions that impacts many. Better leadership is about making better choices, and taking better decisions.

3. Working around the challenges: Possibilities exist to face challenges by thinking around them, working around them, than thinking about them and taking them head-on.

4. Discovering blind-spots: As humans, we all have our blind-spots. Discovering them, working on them, enhances our effectiveness.

5. Simplifying: It takes conscious efforts to simplify. When we simplify, things get clearer to us, and to the teams. When we simplify things get done.

6. Focusing, managing distractions: Focusing on the right areas also means building our ability to manage distractions.

Working with a Coach, CEOs and Business Leaders could build upon aspects that are relevant to them and their context, and enhance their leadership impact significantly.

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you

Leaders are often faced with the need to have difficult conversations - internally or externally. Being comfortable having those difficult conversations serves them well, and enhances their Leadership Impact.

Some of the ways in which one could enhance their effectiveness in difficult conversations are:

1. Choosing the space and the time to initiate and carry out the difficult conversations. Optics do matter.

2. Slowing down the pace of the conversation consciously, and separating facts from emotions help leaders carry out difficult conversations with grace.

3. Bringing the purpose, the larger perspective helps to center the conversation, and put things in perspective.

4. Being kind on people and tough on issues helps the leader in such conversations.

It’s important for leaders to practice deliberate calm in such conversations.

The adage ‘if you’re not over-prepared, you’re under prepared’ holds true for difficult conversations as well!

At times, taking a break, spending some time in the balcony helps clarify thoughts and bring about perspectives for oneself.

Ability to have difficult conversations with ease enhances one’s Leadership Presence.

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

It’s not where you look at, it’s what you see - Anonymous.

As a leader what we see is important; What we perceive influences our approach, attitude, decisions, and actions.

What we see depends on how we look at things.

For example, what’s the role of ‘brake’ in a car? Whenever I’ve asked this question to people, I’ve received responses such as ‘it helps us slow down’, ‘it helps us to stop the car’, ‘it helps us avoid accidents’, and so on. These responses are

But, when we look at it as ‘brake helps us go faster’, or ‘we are able to speed up (only) because we have the brake’, it opens up a whole new dimension, a new perspective! And provides fresh new energy and a set of possibilities.

How we look at things therefore assumes significance. Often it functions as the keyhole for finding appropriate solutions, and choosing our actions and responses.

The good news is that we have the ability to look at things the way we want, perceive things the way we choose to! And it impacts the outcomes significantly!

Let’s harness that!

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

Fitness is important for businesses too. The business needs to be fit enough to achieve its purpose.

For example, People fitness would mean right people are in right roles.

Product - market fitness would ensure the business strategy and execution are aligned to the market needs and dynamics.

Process fitness ensures appropriate systems and processes are in place.

Functional fitness would mean all key business functions are properly resourced and functional.

Cultural fitness would ensure a healthy, enabling culture is in practice.

Building, sustaining and improving the business fitness therefore is a leader’s priority. It enhances one’s Leadership Impact.

Is our business fit enough to achieve the business goals that we have set?

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

#ceo #scaleup #leadership #business

We always are in search for getting the right answers. But often the right answers don’t come and present themselves in front of us.

When we ask the ‘right questions’, the chances of getting the ‘right answers’ are high.

During the early days of space exploration it was a challenge with ink pens, as normal ink-pens didn’t work in space due to zero gravity.

Teams were formed to invent a special ink-pen that would work in space. After months of research and spending thousands of dollars, the attempt remained unsuccessful.

Another leader joined the team at this juncture and asked the team ‘how we could write in space’? One of the team members answered ‘we could use pencils’.

When we ask the ‘right questions’, the chances of getting ‘right answers’ are high!

Are we asking the right questions?

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

#ceo #scaleup #leadership #business

What we focus on, expands.  

Whatever we focus on, expands. It’s therefore

For example if we focus on challenges,

What we focus on, expands.

Focus drives actions and outcomes.

As a leader, what should I focus on?

A single answer that fits-all may not exist for this question. Also an answer may not hold good for all the times. Yet, the awareness ‘what we focus on, expands’ could lead us to choose the right areas to focus on.

In a way, our priorities drive our focus. In that sense it’s important to get our priorities right!

What we focus on, expands. Being conscious of where to focus on, making conscious choices on what to focus on,

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

Does every team member in our business know what’s expected of them? Are their individual roles clear?

Not knowing what’s expected causes hesitation, indecisiveness, anxiety, insecurity and stress to the team members. For the business, it causes uncertainty, chaos, gaps, under-utilisation of resources, and below-par performance.

Globally only one in two employees know what is expected of them at work, says a recent Gallup report. This means half the employees worldwide are unsure about their roles. These employees, the authors of the survey note, are anxious and stressed - even losing their sleep - because they don't know what their Managers want from them. And these employees don't know whether they're succeeding or failing.

Lack of clarity on roles causes damage at multiple levels - for the employees, and to the business.

Providing clarity on each one’s role, and how it rolls-up and fits into the overall business objectives, and setting clear expectations from each role, contribute immensely for improved business outcomes and well-being of team members. This is essential and fundamental for enhanced business performance and business growth.

Does every team member in our business, know what’s expected of them? Are their individual roles clear?

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

#ceo #scaleup #leadership #business

Shaping organisation culture is considered one of the most important things a Business Owner does - consciously or

Organisation culture is invisible, yet felt by all - every moment. It takes time to set-in. Once set, normally outlives the leader who has been instrumental in creating it; Often playing an empowering role in theorganisation reaching its goals.

The good news is that as Business Owners we have the possibility to create a healthy, constructive organisation culture!

3 things to keep in mind while shaping an empowering organisation culture are:

1.  Leadership is about inspiring high performance; It’s also about making people feel safe and secure. For eg: adversity is something usual to businesses. A leader remaining composed while facing the storm puts those being led also at ease - where one doesn’t feel threatened or panicky - leading to creation of a safe and secure workplace culture.

2.  Often feedback is given to people in an accrued, cumulative way. It’s given, rather the need is felt, only when something significant happens, or is done or not done. Alternatively one could encourage a culture of offering feedback more often, in small doses, for the so called 'lesser significant things' as well; for, those little things add up to becoming a significant thing. Such a culture also prepares everyone to start giving and accepting feedback and feed-forward.

3.  As a leader, one is visible - always. Actions, and inactions are seen, felt and discussed by people. This means the Leader needs to model the culture that they want to create. For eg: being on-time for meetings oneself consistently, before insisting and telling the team members to do so.

An organisation culture created and curated consciously goes a long way in achieving the purposes of the organisation.

My name is PK Narayanan

Wishing you the best, Thank you.

#ceo #scaleup #leadership #business