Interview podcast

The speaker discusses the challenges of being a manager and how to overcome them. They mention that every role has its own challenges, but as a manager, some challenges include planning, hiring the right team members, ensuring team performance, managing conflicts, and aligning team goals with organizational goals. They emphasize the importance of communication, empathy, and resolving conflicts within the team. They also mention that as a leader, it is important to be a subject matter expert, have good communication skills, and manage stakeholders effectively. Overall, the speaker emphasizes the importance of building a positive environment, knowing individuals in the team, and leading by example. Hi Shiv. Good evening Shiv. Thank you for joining. Hi Vinay. Very good evening. Yeah Shiv, since you have an experience of 8 years in managerial position, I just had a quick question like, what are the challenges that you faced being a manager and how did you overcome those? Yeah. See, you do not have any role which is not challenging. Every role comes up with certain challenges. Being a manager, there are multiple challenges I could say. I mean it depends on which situation you are and what kind of clients you are working with. If I have to link out the challenges, it starts with the planning. So, when I say planning, it can be with you have a project to work on and whatever planning we have, have you considered everything, all the risk, dependencies and all. How you deal with those if you meet with an uncertainty. That's one thing I could say. And you have team to work on those activities. Hiring right team members to make the project successful. That's one thing. Other thing that you look at. Okay. And the third thing which I could say is the team itself. How they are performing, how to make sure that they meet the expectations as per the plan that is defined. Okay. That's the third thing. When we talk about team itself, that might be interpersonal conflicts. How you deal with those conflicts. If I have to say that, it is how you motivate and manage the aspirations of the team members. Okay. That's one thing. And the sixth thing I have to say, the important one, like how you manage the expectations of the team members. Okay. And last but not least, but there are multiple, I am just listing out the important ones. How you make sure that your organization vision is converted into implementation. How you take into the implementation. Okay. So I would say these are the factors you pay day in day out. Okay. Yes. How to see that the organization goals are in line with the team goals as well, or the personal goal is in line with the organization goal as well. Yeah. So organization goals can be very generic. So how you convert them into, how you ensure that those are converted into the team goals. Okay. Like how you, you cannot have those goals as is. You have to see how those goals fit into the team goals. Okay. That's the important thing. Okay. And ensuring those goals are implemented. Okay. How you motivate the team members to, you know, adhere to those goals. Okay. Yeah. Here I could say that communication is important. Yeah. But to be communicating those goals is important. Okay. And making sure that you make sure that your team members feel that there's a sense of belonging. So they feel that they take it as their personal thing rather than it is coming from somewhere else. Making sure that, you know, they treat it as their goals rather than, you know, they are connected to those goals rather than they are, you know, they don't feel connected, disconnected to those goals. Yeah. Create an interest so that they take up that whatever problems or tasks that they have given and motivate in the sense that they are very interested in contributing to that. Right. Yes. You ensure that what is needed for them. Okay. How they are connected to those goals and what, you know, yeah, what is that, you know, they have to contribute, how they can contribute to the success of, to make those goals successful. Okay. And since you mentioned motivating the team to get the outcomes and how do you resolve a conflict while working with the team or how do you resolve the conflicts that has arised in a team? Yeah. You see, conflicts arise due to various reasons. If I have to probably classify, it might be due to the mismatching expectations. Okay. Or it can be because of the behavioral skills of the team members. Okay. I would classify that. When I say mismatching expectation, it is about the skills. Okay. That is where we see in general. But if I have to deep dive, okay, we have to understand why this conflict has occurred. What is the reason behind it? Talk to the parties to understand, you know, we have to see like who are the parties involved in this conflict? Is it two individuals that you have a discussion with those two individuals to understand, okay, why from their side, like from their point of view? Okay. Don't be judgmental. That's one thing. Like, don't be biased. We always have that, you know, unconscious bias. Okay. So, we should be, you know, not there. Okay. We should have good listening skills to hear from each other. Okay. And look at what is right rather than who is right. Right. Okay. And, you know, from there on, okay, I usually tell, okay, well, I have involved in many such, you know, resolving such kind of conflict. Best way to resolve the conflict is between those two members. Okay. Right. That is what you build the character within or you build the skill set within the team members. You should have empathy to each other. Try to understand each other's perspective. Okay. Understand each other's weaknesses and strengths. Okay. Okay. Try to resolve conflict rather than involve third person. Again, what happens is if third person involves, yeah, it may not be that effective if the two people who are in conflict are defensive. Okay. Okay. When you as a manager involve, yeah, you again say, like, summarize what you have discussed. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hope, you know, based on that, we discuss how to make sure that, you know, conflict will not help anybody. Okay. Not to the people, not to the team, not to the organization. Okay. Right. So, we have to make sure that we have a, you know, look at both sides to make sure that we resolve it amicably, not that we force, you know, certain decision on individual. Okay. We make them understand, okay, what's the right thing to do. They feel, you know, yeah, they understand that maybe we, one or four person, but they are both of them, we are not, you know, not adhering to certain way of working. Okay. So, it's better if we make them understand it and what is the best way forward. I think that will help in not only resolving that conflict, but we prevent the future conflicts that may arise. Okay. So, you just also tell them, like, what are the consequences of having a conflict in a team and how it affects the team members and the performance of the team overall. Right. Yeah. So, what is the impact of, you know, it will be not in deep certain activities. Yes. Like, it will be complex. So, it may not, it might have an impact on the performance of the team members around team. You know, we get this, right? Okay. So, yeah, building that positive environment is important. Having trust among the team members is important. So, how do we build that positive environment? Okay. Well, one thing, what we do is having personal connections. And that will really help. Okay. Yeah. What functional background they come. What is their, you know, what is the path the individual has taken to come to that level. Okay. Understand that. That way, you know, like, personally you know the person and what skill that individual takes. Okay. That way, you really know what is the, what you can expect from that individual. Okay. So, know the person. So, you align on that. Yeah. Yeah. So, personal traits or get to know the individual more better and understand him so that, that helps in resolving conflicts as well. Like understanding the people in the team and getting a sense like how people behave in certain situations and to know people and resolving conflicts. This helps a lot by knowing individual and their personality traits. Right. Okay. And, yeah, you told your how you approach the conflict resolution and what according to you is the key attribute that you think according to a manager or a leader when you're working that is very much essential or very much required in handling people in your like from your, you can say it from your experience or what you believe that is very much important for a leader. Okay. Okay. One thing I could say when it comes to the leadership is, okay, you need an example. You be that person who people want to be. Okay. That team member want to be. So, okay, and how that you can do is, like I could say multiple attributes. One is, you know, you being a subject matter expert in the area you are working. Okay. When I say subject matter expert, again, it's the domain you are working, the technology you are working, but also the process that you are working in. When I say that organization culture that is there around you, are you well aware of it? Okay. If you have this, you know, quality knowledge that is required to lead the team, that is important, I could say. And having, you know, good communication skills, how we can effectively communicate is important. Okay. And also, you have a better team management skills or stakeholder management skills, that is also important. Yeah, maybe I will limit to these, but there are numerous ones to be successful. If I keep on continuing, it will be a linear conversation. Okay. So, it is the communication tools and what is the other thing? You being, you know, a leader means you do things and show them how to do. That's what I would say, like, you inspire them by doing things rather than just saying, hiding. That way, they know what is the right way to do, so they respect you in that way, like what value you bring to the team. Okay. Okay, Shiv, that was a really good conversation and there were a lot of takeouts that I can see from your having this conversation. And thank you for sharing your time. I really appreciate it. And have a good weekend. Thanks. It was my pleasure being part of this conversation. Thanks for making me part of this conversation. And yeah, have a nice evening and also good weekend. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye.