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The "Big Heart" leadership

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As part of my current role, one thing that has really changed in me is to be able to handle my responsibility towards people with more care. Numerous situations and incidents have helped shape me better to play my role today. Here are few thoughts from my journey over the last few years. Via your feedback/comments, we can learn more from each other. Finding your way : I think it is very important that one find their way of leadership. As you work with your seniors and leaders, you will imbibe some of their ways. At the same time, it is important you also think about how you would have handled a particular situation if you were in that role. What would you do differently or perhaps better? What works with your inherent personality (which will also evolve)? Every leader ends up developing a personal brand, and that brand should relate well to your ways (walk the walk). Handling mistakes and failures: How you handle mistakes and failures, defines you best as a leader. If you are in leade
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Self organising teams in Agile

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Agile talks about self organizing teams at the heart of it. I have always found this to be a great characteristics of agile but achieving it is easier said than done. For teams / organisations who may be new to Agile and just transitioning to same from a traditional project management structure this may be not so easy to formulate. The structure where manager typically has lot of power / control to a one where the team itself totally control their plans is a journey to make. Teams who have mode to agile already are also seen at times struggling to let go off old styles. While commune but following are indeed things to do achieve self organising teams: Providing the right guidance to make sure teams understand the true concept of self organizing Building the required trust on team and empowering them to deliver – Letting team take ownership of execution plan Build transparency and strive for highest level of team collaboration Build appetite for failures and missed commit
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Answering some (of my) agile questions!

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Following have been some of my queries that I found answer to in due course of time. Hope that to some of you these are useful! Where does the Project Management role fits in Agile methodology? When it comes to agile project management roles, most agile processes - Scrum in particular - do not include a project manager. Agile “project manager” roles and responsibilities are shared among others on the project, namely the team, Scrum Master and product owner. Read more @ https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/agile-project-management What types of projects should use agile? Agile projects work best when they are not clear upfront, they need exploration and are adaptive. So that's why they've been adopted by a lot with high-technology projects or creative projects (where as you're going along, you realize that there might be changes). The traditional project has the three constraints of Scope, Time and Cost. How does agile compares to that?
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Why transform to Agile?

I am sure many of you (or at least some) would have been faced with this question of whether or not to adopt Agile methodology.  The decision can be based on the benefits Agile an offer to your setup / product. It is not necessary that Agile will suit each situation.  Things where requirements are quite clear upfront and the job is not complex, one can assess the overall effort and execute it in a waterfall model. But as more and more complex problems are there to solve, agile can offer a good alternative approach. Here are some reasons why transforming to Agile will make sense: Executive teams are often pressured to produce long-term budgets and milestones. So why should executives sign off for a change to Agile framework? A short answer is that they want predictability .  Long term plans don’t last. Things change every quarter. Budgets can go so wrong! So a working valuable deliverable is a safer choice.  It's better just to get something that's completed a
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Project Manager Vs Product Manager

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Project Manager Vs Product Manager - Some basic differentiating definitions
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Functions of a Product Manager - Explained Visually

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Visual demonstration of different phases of product management which a product manager executes repeatedly as part of his/her functioning.
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Non-Technical Project Manager - Is that good?

I have come across project managers/product managers who have felt that they are bound to "less success" simply because they don't have great technical skills. There is an anxiety of not being able to judge things correctly or not being able to control project the way they would really want it to be. Well, here is how actually see it completely differently. I do agree that some bit of technical sense is certainly needed but you need not be an expert.  Why I say so? Project/Program management is a very different function. The responsibilities are very different from that of a technical manager. Project managers need to be continuously aware of the project pulse. They are the ones who need to have the most broader view of the overall project so as to connect different dots and identify risks/concerns before they hit negatively. There are so many things to be on top of just in terms of pure project management that trying to get too much into technical details can o
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