Management Lessons from Bedtime Stories

This episode relates the rules of the jungle to the corporate environment and the need for organizations to do what is right to sustain the business. It also highlights the need to apply judgment in relationships at work and not get carried away.

Through this famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, this episode highlights the importance of staying relevant by evolving skills as well as playing to the strengths that make one successful in the role. It also highlights the key aspect of recharging and relaxing to prevent burnout.

This episode highlights the importance of putting the right person in the right job by making judicious choices during selection and honing their skills with the right guidance, training, and support.

In this episode, I have highlighted the importance of succession planning and selecting the right successor. The lessons also emphasize on the criticality of the right leadership competencies and expectations to be leveraged for selecting leaders.

In this story, I have drawn an analogy related to the purpose and working of well established large organizations vs start ups from the story of the  airliner and the fighter plane. Both kinds of organizations have very different environments and drivers and employees often end up comparing and competing between the two which might be futile. 

This is the second part of the story in which I discuss the impact of acquisitions on organizations when not thought through well as well as the tendency of leaders to not call out risks and involve the right parties in time which impacts overall organization cost and productivity. 

This episode is the first part of the story the Oil Tanker and the Iceberg where I draw out lessons on trust, enablement and quick decision making in times of crisis.

This story highlights the responsibility of leaders not just for themselves but for others too. It shows how when one is in command and responsible for others, one tends to see things differently. This is why it is important to trust and empower employees with opportunities for decision making when leaders are away and make them accountable for both success and failure. 

This story highlights lessons for leaders on not getting carried away by multitude of new initiatives and the need to always appear ahead of others. Good leaders hire smart teams who can question and challenge to help them make informed decisions. 

This episode relates the story of Prince Samba from Africa who transformed from a cowardly boy to a brave ruler. It draws lessons on importance of skill and will match with the role as well as performance management at the right time. 

In this episode, I have shared the perspectives on leadership and team development in organizations leveraging the famous German fairy tale of the Elves and the Shoemaker. 

Welcome to my new show- Management Lessons from Bedtime stories. In each episode of this show, I will share a tale from different parts of the world and the lessons that can be learnt from it to make organizational management better. 

This episode draws analogies and shares key insights on the importance of organizational purpose, goal setting and driving accountability from the English tale of the King who wanted to build a pond of milk.