As the author of this book it is my responsibility to ensure it gives the reader maximum benefit. It is important to share my view of the intended audience and how it can be used by different types of readers and different levels of professionals. ● If you have never been exposed to management, treat this book as a collection of management tips and tricks. It will help familiarize you with the terminology which has been explained in detail along with field examples mentioned in each chapter. ● If you are already practicing management or have been exposed to management terminology, use this book as reference material to understand specific terms or as a guide in specific situations. ● If you are keen to learn from the experience of the field, read this book as a story and the book may help you improve your management style. ● If you are an experienced manager and come across a situation that puts you in a dilemma, look up the relevant chapter and revalidate your actions. ● This book will help you learn how to navigate in a multicultural environment. It will also help you to work smarter and to formulate strategies at different levels and different life cycles of your professional mile-stones. In all, part reading of the book will give as many benefits as a cover-to-cover reading.
The Literature Times: Welcome to The Literature Times, author. Congratulations on the release of your book. What responses are you getting from your readers? Please share your experience with this book.
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: I am getting a very positive response from readers. I am happy that the book has been perceived the way I wanted it to be for the readers. The purpose of the book was to share my experience to new leaders and / or seasoned managers. Focus is more on the practical aspect of management and not academic. It has been appreciated by the readers as they are able to connect to their day to day work.
The Literature Times: What encourages you to become an Author?
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: To transform from leader to author is also a journey. I was taking baby steps to improve thought leadership and promoting it. For that I have started analysing the incidents and writing blogs on those topics. Later I realized that this can be preserved and used by a wider audience. Obviously, books and e-book are better means of preserving the experience for a longer period. This way you can see an author in front of you.
In addition, during my work with multiple companies, I have observed the gap between academic knowledge and practical aspects. This impacts the Individual’s performance. Employees get confused on what to choose, how to operate and be successful in their leadership role. They try to resolve these with their closed circle friends and struggle to get practical answers.
I thought it is a good idea to consolidate all such practical aspects in the form of a book for a wider audience.
The Literature Times: What are your favorite topics of writing? Please tell us something about your interest areas in the literature.
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: My favorite topic is people centric subjects and leadership. I prefer to write only about subjects that I strongly believe. I am a strong believer of diversity inclusion in all spheres of life. Innovation and creativity is always inspiring me to do things differently in every area. Transformation of the technique of upskilling is important and one of the favorite subjects. Without business value, an individual will not be recognized in his areas, so I prefer to talk on these topics.
I also like blogs in Hindi and mostly that is simple humor from things around us.
The Literature Times: We were hoping you could tell us about some of those writers who had inspired you and whom you follow!
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: Naming one author is not justified as we read many books and learn. I am highly inspired by my few managers. That reflects in my learning and is mentioned in the book also. Personally, I feel there can not be one role model for your journey, an individual needs to observe and learn from different leaders and gain knowledge.
The Literature Times: The titles seem different and catchy; how you decided it? Please let us know the story behind it.
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: My personal belief is that management is not an academic subject only. It is an art, science, acquired skills and inborn characteristic and to be used as per the situation demands. There is no set rule to manage the same situation by different leaders. Management is refined as you experiment and practice. So, I found Practicing Management in Corporate as an appropriate name.
I also believe that the more you practice management, the more you learn. The good thing about management is you can learn from a child, campus graduate or senior leaders. This practice is different from any other profession like Doctors, Lawer, Chartered Accountant and so on.
The Literature Times: Can you please explain how this book is different from the other books of the same genre? In addition, is it based upon any particular experience of yours?
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: This book is different as we are not explaining theory, rather sharing field experience. I tried to explain the different situation on shop floor and how that was handled. Practical aspect is taking precedence over theory or ideal solutions. Some of the topics are not debated enough example “Examining the role of HR?” or “organization politics and politics in the organization”. I am talking about it very openly.
The Literature Times: What are your achievements so far? Tell us something about your writing career.
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: Achievements are not something that I tell to the world. Achievements are that people associated with you recognize in your work. My efforts should be to do things differently and leave a signature in what I do. If people find it valuable, this is an achievement. So from my perspective, these questions should be asked to the readers or colleagues.
About my writing career, as I mentioned, I started with blog writing and turned to being an author. This is my first book, if I get better subject I will write but not just for the sake of writing.
The Literature Times: What is your current goal in writing a career? How do you see your future in writing?
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: Normally I don’t set long term goals for my career. I believe in the first step and then subsequent baby steps to reach the pinnacle. I write humor in hindi. If I will have good collection of that, will prefer to publish that. One more social topic that is in my mind is more on parenting in current situation and how this has to be focussed in society. We are seeing the gap between the names of GenX, Gen Y and Gen Z. Probably by categorizing generations, we are generalizing everyone based on age only, which is not correct and people use it to hide behind that tag.
The Literature Times: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: Already answered in above questions.
The Literature Times: How you see Indian writing in the 21st century? What changes do you see in the modern way of writing? Do you feel it has been changed by the time?
Jitendra Dutt Sharma: Change is constant and inevitable. Indian writing is not an exception and continues to have an impact. Book reading habits are replaced with audio or video. That has further shortened to 1 minute audio / video. The messaging is also very precise and in a lighter way so finding serious authors and serious readers will be challenging over a period of time. Authors should not stop writing.
Predicting anything by me is not justified but It will continue for some more years and then people will return to book or e-book format.
The Literature Times: How easy/ difficult it was for you to publish your book? What message would you like to give to budding authors?
Answer : I will split this question into two parts. One is how difficult it is to write a book and second will be how difficult or easy it is to publish it.
In book writing, the beginning 0-10 percent is tough and as we reach the finish line 91-100% is toughest. In between 11-30 percent need better content planning, next 31-90 percent are writing the contents which is easy.
As far as publishing the book, If you get a good publisher, the work is very easy.
I am fortunate that I got a good publisher and good relationship manager. Publishing a book is easier than finishing the book writing.
