Sherene Ellen Rajaratnam
Software Project Manager Consultant at Hanson Robotics Limited
PROFILE Technology leader with 15+ years of experience in project management and product design, specialising in robotics, AI, IoT, ERP, and telecom. Proven success in launching open-source...
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- AI and Robotics in Project Management: Effective strategies for managing AI projects
- Open-Source Robotics Development: Creating modular and scalable robotic solutions
- Agile Methodologies for Technical Teams: Enhancing efficiency through Scrum practices
- Quality Assurance in Software Development: Ensuring high standards in app performance
- Leadership in Tech: Principles for effective team management.
Meet the mentor
TALK SHOW VIDEOS
blog articles
Tricky Workplace Situation Handled
- Ideas need to be validated to see the practicality and the usability of the product.
- Talk to potential customers Use the mom test Have a prototype and see if its readily accepted
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- Experiences of how ideas i had were good but not sustainable
- If we are not adaptive we will not have a product and even if we manage to have one it would be not good enough
- How our product would fair in the market ? What are tye challenges the user may face and how we try to address them
- working with the skills of available people Planning my batch 25 school reunion - working with the constraints Adapting to the needs of my role and upskilling myself Look for the gaps and find solutions to close it
- My life experience
- Blame game
- Let not personal opinions hinder professional commitments.
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- Listening to their side with empathy/ curiosity
- 1. Facilitate the meeting of the Complainant employee along with the complainee. 2. Ask the Complainant if they would be comfortable if I complained about them behind their back,
- Share my experience of walking through with the team to achieve targets even as they could not see eye to eye with some of the team members.
- Annoyed, irritated, angry, dissatisfied disappointed
- Address the problem, Close sales Have satisfied customers
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- Share how we waste time and become inefficient when we choose to not listen with an open mind
- 1. lack of empathy 2. Taking accountability and finding a better way of servicing.[ may be the courier company has to be changed/ better packaging]
- 1. Add more customer service staff to have a short wait time. 2. Train staff to listen to the customers so they can hear the problem so that solutions can be found and customers are happy
- Being present in the conversation, showing empathy
- Narrate the time we delivered the wrong product because we failed to listen to the customer
- The second one as His body language shows open, approachable, inviting with a positive attitude.
- 1 : Pro: Ready, calm Con: closed, timid 2: Pro: Commanding Con: aggressive, controlling
- Showing their interest level by their actions. The first image communicates 'I am with you, go on'. The second image communicates ' I am not interested can you finish fast'
- Be comfortable in our skin and close the gap between what we want to communicate verbally and what our body communicates.
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- Share experiences of how peoples body language communicated differently from their words and what it did to them, along with how it worked for people whose verbal and non verbal communication matched.
- He did not ask for the customers requirement’s and was not forthright in what was available
- Annoyed, frustrated, disappointed and dissatisfied
- First find out what they want. Give them the ways our product can satisfy them Give them the possible options
- Close sales and satisfied customers
- Share my experiences and the failures
- feedback poll, meetings, market surveys, social media
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- Improve and handle the negatives, target the relevant customer
- Trust pilot
- We try to incorporate the valid feedback. Customers drive the business
- The sales improves as problem areas are handled.
- Share experiences where feedback from customer helped us move forward.
- Organisational change is about adapting to the changing political climate and customer needs especially with the pandemic
- Look to see if the sales is reaching the right customer and see if the environment has changed that is affecting the sales to drop. Then look to see what changes the organization should make to close this gap.
- Change is needed but the objective is not just to change but a goal to improve performance or adapt to the changing market climate. Having the right attitude will bring out the positive change the company needs.
- Mobile phones took away the once considered stable business of having a public telephone booth. Many people lost their livelihood. They needed to adapt to maybe providing accessories and SIM cards for mobile phones.
- Work with the team to understand the goals and work through the challenges. The team including the manager gets credit for a job well done. When results are not achieved the leader takes responsibility with the team explaining the challenges and proposing ways to overcome these in the future.
- Humility is to be able to speak about mistakes and being authentic. Being a servant leader. Humility is not humiliation .
- We will need to understand the problem better in the following areas to come up with an efficient solution.
- I hear your thoughts, but what would you advice someone, if they came to you with this problem?
- That’s a good idea can we work on it to see if it can help us achieve our goal.
- We know what doesn’t work and needs to be avoided in future. Failure gives you a new to-do list, helps know which are usually the reasons for failure.
- Setback 1: Having a distracting trainee - Tim should have encouraged the trainee to ask questions related to the discussion, and taken questions outside the training time in a friendly assertive manner. Setback 2: Being called by superior for correction - Tim would have to accept his failure, not necessarily to the extent described by the trainee, and come up with an action plan to avoid it in future.
- Accept responsibility if needed, learn from the failure, move on, approach the next problem in a creative way.
- Failures are stepping stones to achieving our dreams.
- but achieve goals
- to help as I lead
- confidently, empowering those around me
- see beyond
- fairness to results
- Yes. These are my personal principles I apply in my life everyday
- Confidence is not about being perfect; but it is about being vulnerable, truthful and owning mistakes.
- Cover up the truth; play safe, micromanage
- Bring out the truth; take risks; empower and delegate
- I would try to find the reason Mark and his team were underperforming . Some of the questions to help understand this 1. Is your team overloaded? 2. Is there a Knowledge gap which needs to be filled? 3. Would you like support from the management in any particular area? 4. What would have you done differently to avoid this scenario?
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- I had a team under estimating the time needed. I mentored the team to look beyond and make realistic estimations
- Engaging with Customers positively definitely increases conversion rates. Overdoing it may also have a negative effect. The customer should always feel they are in the driver seat
- More customers are ready to try the product as they can always return it if it doesn’t fit their needs.
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- Work on making sure the pros attract the customer as they walk into the store
- Evaluate if the cons are true and stratergise how they can be addressed.
- My experiences
- Power hungry, selfish goals vs Company goals personality traits, cultural differences
- 1.Understood the problem - non judgemental 2.Suggested a solution - found a way to move forward 3.Thought about both employees - didn’t blame one 4. Helped appraisee see her problem
- Yes, the important thing is addressing the problem and not the person
- Be asssertive, lay out the tasks and expectations, have a conversation where the problem is the focus. And not people
- Share my experiences .
- Being respected, generation gap, tech challenged, connection
- Talk about the strengths and why the older employee is valuable, and how his skills are needed to solve the current problem. Ask them for their opinion, and lead the discussion to get the best solution sparring with them giving them respect for their age and experience, while politely pointing out the gaps which need to be fulfilled and giving our ideas to fill them.
- It is an asset to have experienced employees as they bring valuable insights from limitations and failures faced in the past. These along with the modern technology and ideas would help give niche products to the market.
- The second one as it recognized the work done without shying away from the underperformance giving opportunity for turn around
- Being assertive and positive while genuinely trying to help people who are struggling with a helping environment can help managers take away positivity
- Yes, because i have seen it happen in my workplace and I have been able to make that change
- Ethinic barriers, people trying to take over. Recognize everyone and celebrate victories together while taking my part of the blame for the failures
- Share life experiences
- No this doesn’t help in relationship building. They need to be friendly, listening and courteous. Have a environment where customers want to served
- As a team they help each other and the company performs better
- We learn to trust and understand our team members better. We also get to see peoples natural skills
- Yes it is top priority as woking together helps us complete tasks efficiently and effectively
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- How I won the trust of hostile team members
- Workload imbalance Unheard feedback from new employees
- Praphrase the company vision Emphasize the role of each in reaching the vision Define roles and responsibilities Have fair, realistic, evaluation and feedback process so employees are motivated
- Spend time describing the company goals and how their work fits into it. Assign clear tasks and work with the employee ( not micromanage but giving the needed support while listening to feedback)
- Examples of people getting into conflict who lost opportunities for growth in their career
- RTTU
- They were given unrealistic targets and the employee potential was not taken into consideration
- Where SMART goals work and where they don’t work
- Define roles and tasks Define corporate goals broken into intermediate milestones Celebrate milestones Promote team culture
- We deal with stress by trying w find the root cause and addresing the problem.
- My experiences along the way
- Build better relationships with every department Use internal departments as inspiration for innovation Set measurable goals Fail quickly Leverage an outside partner
- Understand our team and their strengths Understand the industry changes Come up with innovative ideas where the team can work on its strengths and become a market leader Recruit needed expertise
- Most effective
- Pushes the company forward. The internal team decides teh change so its more bottom up tham top down
- Story of a watchmaker who moved from making watches to hospitality and created hotels to offer services of excellence even during a quarantine stay during the pandemic
- Improve service Find blindspots
- Social media Review sites YouTube influencers Feedback forms
- Fix blind spots Make the experience better even if it was the best
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- Feel the customer Look from their shoes and answer jow uou would like to hear it
- Stressed, rejected, mad, depressed, guilty and vulnerable.
- He is edgy, curt, disconnected and maybe disrespectful. He would be grumpy, loud and unfriendly. In all probability, he will not get the sales as the customer would not be able to get what they want and is not comfortable asking the questions to help them make a decision.
- I was upset and annoyed with what had happened and was trying to figure out the trigger.
- I have learnt to compartmentalise home and work. Home stays at home and work stays at work.
- If it get's too much, I acknowledge my feelings so people realise that they are not the problem; and I also breathe and bring my emotions under control.
- We are likeable, comfortable people to work with, thereby improving our performance.
- To take time and reflect on our responses from the other person perspective.
- The objective is the whole truth in a balanced way, Subjective is an analysis and has a bias depending on beliefs and understanding.
- This tells us if the person had personal bias against people or the environment he was working in. Also potential reasons he can leave the company in future.
- We get different perspectives so it is not biased.
- Helps understand his depth of knowledge.
- Shows how inclusive the person is.
- Looking to see how the company will help the candidate achieve his long term goal. Also recognising if the long term goal of the candidate is in conflict with Company vision.
- Be aware of your bias. look from the other person shoes. Attitude is always better than skill. It may be impossible to change the attitude of a skilful person but those with a good attitude can learn a skill.
- It helps us stay in context, staying relevant and achieving our goals
- I could not assure the client, their objectives were met. I would have worded my conversation better.
- Know the product, know your client and match the 2
- Yes can identify the pain and take corrective measures such as weight shifting, squats and stretches.
- To incorporate movement in their posture using the techniques of weight shifting, stretching, going for a short walk or just changing position.
- Working through our vulnerabilities helps us to perform better; while pushing them aside demotivates us.
- Find the triggers to our emotions and see if we can avoid putting ourselves in that position again.
- My mentor/ best friend who is my sounding board and does not judge me.
- I try to look at the situation from the other persons perspective and usually can come up with what I could have done better.
- Have open conversations to understand each other better and draw boundaries.
- Be their sounding board and accepting them despite their issues.
- My vulnarabilities motivate me to be a better understanding person drawing boundaries so that we respect our differences.
- I have moved from doing what people expect of me to doing my best. Usually, I exceed expectations.
- The Client feels mistreated
- They could have a place the customer could leave a recorded message and have the customer service get back to them. Give them the choice to wait if they really wanted to talk
- 1. Gave relevant information if in case the call dropped. 2. Found what the client wanted and made sure he got what he wanted. 3. Was involved rather than doing it mechanically. 4. Gave relevant introductions and feedback.
- To be involved ‘In the moment’, genuine and understanding
- I was waiting for the timer to go.
- No
- It was tough.
- Others took my attention
- Getting back to the workforce after a break of 15 years was possible as I developed the intention to get back, worked on the possibilities and took the opportunities.
- When our attitude is good our intention is good which is constructive, but a bad attitude causes bad intention which usually is destructive.
- Having a good attitude increases attention as we are conscious to our attention.
- When a person's attention is not focused on the intention the task is undone or done badly
- Constant disturbances via email and messages Justifying incomplete tasks rather than focusing on completing it Bringing divide between co workers Demanding rather than delivering Going back on their words
- Justifying the undone work rather than finding ways to fix it
- This is ineffective as the problem is not solved but the focus is on something else. Trust is built with actions not scrrenshots
- Start with expectations and be consistent. Usually the toxic co worker will bring her own downfall
- To keep work and feeling seperate. Make sure their tasks are completed and they have proof to show if needed. Use them only in absolute necessity. Be consistent and be careful that you are not bullied
- Find and plug the gaps.
- Never give up! Believe there is always a solution and work towards it!
- Review every sale made and figure out what was lacking and work on it. Check the knowledge gap of the product which afftects confidence in sales
- Did I answer the customer's query to their satisfaction
- Focus on the customer; Ask questions; Listen; Understand their needs and first speak about how your product will fulfill them while gaining their trust
- You need to be more than satisfied you have given your genuine best to every sales pitch. When you do this the sales will automatically happen.
- Weakness as people can walk over you
- Strength as it paves opportunity to mentor and empower people
- strength as you can be flexible overcoming unplanned events
- strength as you become dependable
- Strength if channelled in the right direction of problem solving
- We can find roles that use our strengths to propel us forward while working on our weakness
- Analytical & logical reasoning;Problem Solving; People management; leadership; team player in multiethnic communities
- numbers oriented; operational;
- Accept them and use your strengths to propel forward not being limited by our weakness
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- Moving to project management and Mentoring was the journey I followed based on my strengths and weakness. I don't do strenuous physical activity as i have a damaged knee
- The Customer agent should have steered the conversation. The agent could have summarised Janet's problem to make her felt heard. Transferred her to IT dept. right at the beginning as Janet had mentioned a technical issue upfront.
- Janet went all over the place not sticking to the issue at hand which were the challenges of not being able to checkout
- Life experiences of getting through to difficult customers who refused to listen but listening to their unsaid conversation.
- Intrinsic - curiosity, interest, sense of achievement, love Extrinsic - Praise,Prize, bonus, money
- Promotion, Bonus, awards
- They are dissatisfied. Productivity suffers. Work is done without passion and joy. Organization drives the vision
- Give them jobs according to their skills and passion. Right person for the right job. Empower employees to drive the company vision
- My life experience
- Sandra is showing disinterest in the applicant Just going through the motions of the interviews
- Libby would think the conpany is not worth the time and skill she has
- Prepare questions which find more about the candidate extending what we leant about the candidate from the resume Prepare questions to see how the questions skills can translate to the job they are interviewing for
- My experiences good and bad
- Martin needs to learn to follow his plan despite the obstacles faced. Learn ti expect the unexpected and working through them
- 7 There are issues which I have accomplished having the grit- change in lifestyle to reduce my weight, getting back into the software workforce after a 15 yr break, training my voice. However there are projects in the pipeline which are started and not finished after years because of the lack of grit podcast/ book written but not published
- My life journey
- Empower people, form relevant teams; list of check and balances ( eg: 3 Signatures are needed to implement the solution);
- Identifying the right people who have problem-solving as their strong skilll.
- There is no one solution to a problem. Coming up with multiple solutions and finding which fits best for our requirements is the Skill very few have. Every problem has many solutions but one implementation or as I would call it the smart and efficient solution.
- Facts are tested and proven truths acceptable by most people.. Opinions are untested feelings/ ideas which are subjective belonging to a particular person or group of people.
- I respect the opinions of people but would only believe facts. Decisions, based on facts bring confidence, which is lacking when opinions decide our actions.
- Yes, when I can't prove my opinion I know that it is not a fact. I would always qualify my opinions saying we needed to find out if its a fact. When stating facts I would always point the proof.
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- It is a fact that I have had lunch at Shangrilla, In my opinion, the food was awesome, my friends opinion was that it could have been better.
- Putting people in boxes because of their ethnicity or culture in the hope to respect them
- People don’t live upto expectations and then we are disappointed. We need to go through the curve of learning their individuality and helping them reach their potential
- Share experiences of Biases based on resumes proved wrong in a work place
- What are the overheads we face? What are some alternatives to avoid these overheads? How can we reduce the cost for a particular overhead?
- Finding a solution to replace the faulty Microwave at home 1. Evaluating the cost of repairing a microwave vs buying a new Microwave 2. results show it is better to buy a new microwave than repair the faulty one 3. Identify the brand we would like to purchase and the location of the store where the product is available 4. Purchase the new microwave 5. Install the microwave. Now you have a working microwave at home.
- I would share my experience where investigation led to unlikely solutions to the problems we faced.
- The way the email Addresses the reciever Language used Signing off
- Being empathetic and positive helps the customer feel wanted and hope for his problem
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- My experiences dealing with difficult cutomers
- Decorative item Hold a collectable Stationary holder
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- Have a makeover Give an illusion of space with eye catching products at strategic points. Comfort and warm lighting Eager, energetic and engaging staff
- We think out of the box solutions which may give simple and efficient solutions. They can be trendsetters
- Different solutions for same feature across different products Find the common features Build a common architecture Adpat the products to use common architecture
- Thinking out of the box usually helps us find a definite and sure solution usually simple. Sometime they do result in innovations.
