Register

Tag: leadership

Attitude and Skill

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Attitude and Skill were found to be the two key differences between great competitors and good ones in swimming in a study done by Daniel F. Chambliss and shared through his paper “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers.”

Daniel reviewed the habits, backgrounds, and performance of competitive swimmers and discovered that attitude and skill were the main differentiators between the great swimmers and good swimmers. The great swimmers swim differently (strokes, turns etc) than the good swimmers. The great swimmers have practiced and honed their skill(s) and technique(s) over a period of time. Also the great swimmers came with a different attitude to their swimming training compared to the good swimmers.

How are you approaching your craft everyday and where’s your current skill level at that craft?

Customer experience ownership

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

On a recent weekend, we were shopping at a local Marshalls store and picked up few items to purchase. One of the items was on sale and another similar item was not on sale. When we were checking out the products from the store, the cashier suggested that the other similar item might be on sale too. She checked with her manager and confirmed that the item was on sale too and provided us the sale price.

We walked away from Marshalls that afternoon feeling that the cashier took ownership of the customer experience and looked out for the shopper. We had not requested the cashier to see if the item was on sale and she was proactive to give the customer a better store experience. She cared enough to provide the customer with the actual sale price of the item. If she didn’t care enough, she could have just scanned the product and charged us what was listed on the item’s price tag. With that, the store could have received a little bit more money from us and we would still be fine with it.

The ownership and care shown by the employee has now given us another reason to continue to shop at Marshalls. When customers have an abundance of shopping options (online or other retailers), employee ownership and care for the customer experience goes a long way. Delighting customers is just an empathy away!

Creative is a choice

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

In The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, Seth Godin describes that creativity is an Action, Not a feeling.

Taking action on the ideas we have (writing a blog, composing a piece, contributing something new to a conversation or in a meeting etc) is very important. We should not wait for the “right moments” when we feel like doing creative work, we should continue to focus on the action and keep shipping the work. Seth adds that “waiting for a feeling is a luxury we don’t have time for.”

What are you shipping today?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Riqd9RMuNUg%3Fsi%3Di4W0yZ7DKOpto3Mg

Relationship equity

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

What’s your relationship equity like?

Have you invested time and energy into building the personal and professional relationships in your life?

If there’s not been much investment in the important relationships, should we be surprised by the current status of those relationships?

Relationship equity is about putting in the time, energy, care, generosity, and empathy in building meaningful relationships in our lives. It’s a message, a call, an email, a gift, an acknowledgement or any effort you make to cultivate the relationship in your life. Healthy and beautiful relationships take time and evolve as needed. The more we give and help others, the more joy we receive!

the art of excellent customer service

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Erica and Tony both aspired a career in hospitality after college. They wanted to be working for a multinational hospitality group that operated hotels all over the world. Both start an internship at a national hotel chain. When the internship comes to an end, Tony decides to go back to college to finish his final year while Erica decides to pursue another internship opportunity this time with a multinational hotel chain. She wants to gain more work experiences in the industry and wait at least a year before returning to college to finish her studies.

Few years later, Tony and Erica end up working for the same multinational hotel group. (Erica does finish college through distance learning in the evenings and working during the day.) While Tony has built his knowledge and expertise in the hospitality industry through classes, workshops and industry visits, Erica has built her knowledge and expertise through years of day to day interactions with customers and guests. If Tony is process-oriented, Erica is people-oriented. Customers and guests give Tony and Erica positive reviews for their work. Tony receives general feedback highlighting his commitment to following the hotel group’s core values, prompt service request turnarounds, and helpfulness. However, Erica receives more emotion oriented feedback commending her active listening skills, empathetic nature, positive and engaging attitude, thoughtfulness, and authenticity.

From Entrepreneur to Empowerer

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

How can entrepreneurs grow their startup?

The qualities that help entrepreneurs start their businesses might not be the same that will help take the startup to the next level.

There will still be challenges that entrepreneurs will face when they have hired all the “right people” for the different roles of the company. If the entrepreneurs continue to become heavily involved in decision making of the different functions even when they have put “right people” in those positions, the company will be limiting itself. The entrepreneurs’ efforts might actually be counterproductive then.

For entrepreneurs to grow their company, most times they themselves become bottlenecks to the growth. It’s time to switch from being an entrepreneur to becoming an empowerer (one who empowers others to do their best). If entrepreneurs have empowered other leaders in the best way possible, the company will experience growth in many ways.

Delivering exceptional value to clients

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

In service focused businesses, meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations is everything.

Providing excellent client service is both an art and a science.

You can learn a lot from others’ experiences, read book(s) and blogs and watch relevant content to understand what client servicing is.

Then there’s the exciting part of actually managing clients yourselves. That’s where the fun, excitement, and value comes in.

I believe if you deeply care about helping clients become successful in whatever they do, they will sincerely feel it. You can’t fake caring!

The beauty of providing exceptional value to clients is to putting your clients’ needs above yours, being empathetic, and making sure they’re successful.

The rest will take care of themselves.

Will you have the audacity to wave ’em off?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks waved off his teammates to take the game winning shot in Toronto against the Toronto Raptors on February 14, 2012.

Why is this a big deal?

It’s a big deal because we witnessed an Asian man in the NBA have the confidence to say that I’ve got this and led his team to victory. We need to see more visible Asian role models in sports, media, colleges/universities and workplaces have the confidence to lead just like Jeremy did that night on February 14. These individuals have put in the work, earned it and now it’s time to take credit for it. It’s been long overdue.

I could think of few questions to start empowering the current and next generation of Asians to have the audacity to wave ’em off (said in positive sense) when the time comes.

Are we encouraging children to speak with confidence at home and at school?

What’s the mindset that the parents and culture are creating for their children?

Who are the kids’ current role models and why?

Are the children and youth able/given the opportunity to see more individuals that look like them in sports/media/colleges/universities and workplaces?

Are parents and mentors having meaningful conversations and discussions around documentaries such as 38 at the Garden?

I’d love to hear other thoughts and suggestions on how to empower the current and next generation of Asians.

Inspired to write this blog after reading Dave Lu’s The Audacity to Wave ‘Em Off and watching the documentary 38 at the Garden. 

Who’s the most valuable member of the company?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Since it was the founder/co-founders’ idea that led to the company’s start, is she/he/them the Most Valuable Member (MVM)?

Sales team brings in clients and revenue. Are they more valuable then?

How about the technology team that made the software which the sales team sold?

And the human resource team who found and hired the talent with the right attitude, education, and skillsets?

Let’s acknowledge the Training team who help employees to keep their skills and knowledge up to date as per company’s needs.

Getting the software in front of potential customers at the right place and time, isn’t the Marketing team deserving of applause and attention?

Client services team is communicating with the client and making sure they have an amazing experience. Don’t they receive credit on what they do to make the customers happy?

What’s your dominant question?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Jim Kwik, author of Limitless says a dominant question is the thing we keep asking ourselves, over and over throughout our day. It’s what drives our decisions in the moment and focuses our obsessions when we’re alone. He says the dominant question feels permanent but it is not.

“The questions you ask yourself will shape your life.” – Jim Kwik

In Entrepreneur magazine (June 2021), Jim shares his experience working with the actor Will Smith. They realized that Will’s dominant question is “How do I make this moment magical?” Jim recalls “One night, he was with Will Smith and his family on a movie set and it was 2am and everyone was freezing. He starts making hot chocolate for everybody, even though there’s a crew there that does that for them. He starts bringing us blankets. He starts cracking jokes. He starts telling stories. And I realized. He’s living his dominant question.”

2 WAYS TO FIND YOUR DOMINANT QUESTION according to Jim Kwik
  • Review 

Listen. Reflect on your thoughts, listen to your inner talk. Sit in silence. Silence isn’t empty, it will be full of your own questions.

  • Record

Journal every day. Review and record your day, and you’ll start to notice patterns skewing towards the things you find important in your life.

Read more at Discovering Your Dominant Question

Useful resources on curiosity and questions

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Articles/blogs:

The DNA of the World’s Most Innovative Companies

Curiosity is a Must-have Skill

The Business Case for Curiosity

Forget Brainstorming. Try Questionstorming

Why must businesses step back in order to move forward?

Videos:

How to Ask Better Questions | Tim Ferriss

The Truth about Being the “Stupidest” in the Room | Simon Sinek

Podcasts:

Cal Fussman’s Big Questions podcast

The Career Contessa Podcast

The Tim Ferriss Show

Akimbo A Podcast from Seth Godin

Others:

The Right Question Institute

A More Beautiful Question

This list will be continuously updated. Please share any resources that can be added to this list.

Asking questions to understand better

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and other books says that “asking questions doesn’t mean you’re the stupidest person in the room; it usually means you’re the only one brave enough to speak up.”

Some of the reasons why we aren’t asking enough questions even when we don’t understand the topic of discussion are the beliefs/thoughts/internal questions we have going in our head:

By asking this question(s), will it make me look “stupid”?

Would I look like the person who doesn’t understand this topic if I ask this question?

It’s actually not relevant to me at all so why ask this question.

I am the “expert” or “smartest” person in this room. Why ask questions and make myself look like a beginner?

Do I have the “authority” to ask questions in this group or in this context?

Organizations that grow

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

In Carol S. Dweck’s groundbreaking book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she talks about the research that Jim Collins and his team did on what made companies move from being good to being great. The five-year study showed that there were several factors that distinguished the thriving companies from the others. In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, he states that the one distinguisher that was absolutely key was the type of leader who in every case led the company into greatness. “They were self-effacing people who constantly asked questions and had the ability to confront the most brutal answers – that is, to look failures in the face, even their own, while maintaining faith that they would succeed in the end.”

Carol states that these leaders have the growth mindset and believe in human development. They are constantly trying to improve themselves and surround themselves with the most able people they can find, they look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.

Take care of your employees.

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

We’ve heard the phrase many times “Employees are a company’s greatest asset.”

Do you think most companies actually believe that phrase in their core and behave accordingly? That’s a profound statement that companies have to visit and revisit all the time. Some well established companies tout all the benefits they provide to their employees but seldom ask employees how they value each of the company’s benefits or what other benefits could be more important to them. Some companies’ benefits package reflects what their industry counterparts offer and do just enough to remain competitive employee benefits wise.

If companies wholeheartedly believe that employees are indeed a company’s greatest asset, how are they showing that they care for their employees?

Here’s something to ponder upon…

The foundation

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

A lot of projects get started. Some big and some small. Yet, I believe the right team can make all the difference and the project’s foundation is very important.

I have been part of many projects including planning company events. Most recently, I was part of a team that organized our company’s annual gala. Our first organizing team’s meeting was full of excitement, energy, and fun. I felt great about being with this team right away. That same level of excitement and enthusiasm carried over to the following meetings leading up to the gala. The day of the gala arrived and we all delivered on our parts. The gala was very well organized, finished on schedule, and everyone had a great time. I credit the organizing team and the amazing group of volunteers for pulling off such a feat.

Starting with the right team will do wonders.

The Next Right Thing

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Leadership has to evolve. To constantly take on newer challenges and lead the pack. To drive the culture forward.

People are looking for ways to make an impact in the world. They are searching for the next big thing to attach their name to. They want to contribute and they want to matter. At times, there are already many platforms to contribute but there are times when the platform is not there, yet. The leader should recognize the opportunity or the void and create the platform for the pack and take the bold steps to venture into the unknown.

Leaders make decisions and focus on the next right thing. What is the next right thing in your position? What steps should you be taking right now? Are people counting on you?

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive our blogs, information on upcoming workshops and exclusive content.

Nirmal Thapa

Linkedin
Register