Day 5

First two sessions were on 'End User computing: Modelling with Spreadsheets'. Many basic powerful features of Excel were covered. Professor gave a useful session, will be useful lifelong.

Operations Management was interesting again. Professor spoke on 'Product-Process Matrix', as usual with a dose of humour. Many of the problems faced by IT companies are because of Job shop kind of characteristic.

'Organisational Behaviour' was good. A questionnaire helped the participants identify the leadership characteristics in them (selling, telling, participating, delegating - where People Focus or Task Focus - how rigid/flexible is one in chaging one's own style) .
Its important to Delegate, so you are freed to do bigger tasks. Day to Day operations should not be taking your time. While delegated be careful about
- select able/competent candidate
- anticipate resistance to change from the others in organisation and prepare to handle it
- set clear goals
- have a regular feedback and review mechanism
- Exhibit trust in whoever you delegated. Dont hover around (i.e. keep checking the status with anxeity). There are possibilities of failures, try to minimise them by planning the feedback process. If there is a failure, coach and correct the situation
- Give both Authority and Responsibility. Responsibility without authority shows that you dont trust the person, which is a recipe for failure. The person cannot motivate himself in a negative environment.
- Motivate and be present (but do not hover)
- Reward/Acheivement
- Dont dump your work. You should have fairly good understanding when you are delegating and when you are dumping (simple rule: if you dont understand the task you are delegating, you know that you want to skip the task).
- Ultimately you are responsible and owner of the task. Whoever is taking up the task should know that there will be repercussions for both of you, if there is a screwup.
- Provide right tools and resources