Q1 How often do I communicate a vision and key priorities to achieve the vision?
A1 In my professional carrier, when I work with my team, I try to make a point to reflect on the key goals that are set by the firm and try to align ourselves accordingly. However, most often than not, I sometimes get confused with the mixed signals that I receive from the senior management. They sometimes don’t speak the same language. Especially for the big firms the challenge has been to get synergies and work in tandem.
As far as my personal goals are concerned, I always make an earnest effort to progress my life in a way to get closer to my goal. However, I do agree that l sometimes get lost and move away from the goals and priorities. But, I always try to refocus and make efforts to move closer to the goal.

Q2 Does the way I spend my time match my key priorities?
A2 In my personal life I do believe that for the majority of the time I try to spend time in order to match my key priorities. However, I know that I am not perfect, and therefore, time to time I have to refocus and re energise myself in order to keep myself on track.
In my professional Carrier things are not that smooth. I work for a very large firm. And therefore, there are too many players and departments. These create lot of noise in the overall implementation of the strategy/vision of a firm. Sometimes procedures over rule common sense and boundaries become hindrances. Conflicting priorities across teams the organization creates distortion from the common goal. I try to raise concern wherever I see such disconnects and loop in Senior Managers for guidance.

Q3 Do I give people timely and direct feedback they can act on?
A3 Yes I do give regular feedback to my team members. This is very critical for me to improve performance and build leaders/successors. I believe when you give feedback, it takes away any ambiguity on the expectation from a team member. It gives an opportunity to evaluate the past performance. I provide positive feedback on the good work and cultivate continued behaviour on that aspect. Similarly I talk about the areas of development. This would help the individual to improve on his/her skills and become an expert. This also helps the individual to take corrective actions to improve on the performance. I try to keep 1-1 discussions every week to keep regular touch point on the performance and check progress on key action plans. I also believe in providing timely feedback. Any delayed feedback is a useless feedback and it doesn’t help the individual to remember the exact activity related to the feedback. I always like to have an actions plan that clearly defines the next steps to accomplish any tasks or developmental areas. And I also have touch points to evaluate the progress on these tasks.

Q4 Have I identified potential successors?
A4 To be honest, I don’t have any potential successor yet. The reason for this is the relative tenure of my team. Most of the employees under me are less the 1 yr in the organization. And I was myself new to my current department. But, I do see some key people with potentials who could be my successors. And I have started delegating some of my tasks to these key team members. This will give them good exposure to the role that they might have to take in the future. I truly believe that this is key for any organization.

Q5 Am I attuned to business changes that may require shifts in how we run the company?
A5 I work with HSBC and Change is a norm in my organization. I am fully accustomed to changing styles of operation driven by business needs. I can quickly learn and change directions based on the business needs. I believe in the current work environment nothing is constant. Therefore, we should always be ready for changes and adapt quickly to delivers results.

Q6How do I behave under pressure?
A6 I tend to be appear little too cautious under pressure. I tend to reflect that on my interactions with my team. However, I have started working on this aspect of my behaviour. I believe staying calm under pressure is key. I always stand up for my team and always try to involve them, wherever possible, to help me overcome the pressure situation. This could be as simple as delivering few extra reports or any additional support that I need. I try to communicate effectively with my team and seek their support in such situation. I tend to work more inside my cabin when I am dealing with something critical. I try to organize my thoughts better and avoid any behaviour that reflects frustration.

Q7 Does my leadership style reflect who I truly am?
A7 I think my leadership style matches my personality. I am an optimist and a taskmaster. I encourage good performance and believe in developing under performers. I am a good communicator and have a good camaraderie with my team. I do also believe that I have short comings which is part of my personality that is not good for a leader. I tend to get little aggressive in achieving my goal and that at time might cause a defensive behaviour from my team. I am a great motivator and inspiration for my team. I love building strong individuals and take pride in their success.