Palleneni Dinesh Yadav || Section D

Ego States and Transactions:

Being the eldest child in my family, using many ego states on the same individual has always been a way of my
communication with my family members. For instance, while playing with my brother at home, I was a natural
child. However, when giving him career guidance I had to be a critical parent to make sure that he is on the
right path as well as be a nurturing parent to encourage his progress. To cite an example, when we were
deciding on what courses to opt for after his class X, I asked him his interests in the subjects, his goals in life
and what excited him the most. The adult in me was processing the information that was passed on to arrive at
the logical suggestion. Meanwhile, the natural child in me was excited and curious to know what my brothers
tastes and strengths were. The adult in me was again validating the perceptions and prejudices I had on my
brother.
I have always attributed my behavior to the natural characteristic of my personality. But after understanding the
three different ego states and the sub-states in each, I have understood the importance of speaking at the same
level to arrive at pleasant conversations. Many a times we tend to speak to adults in an animated fashion. To
our peers we always speak in a crisp tone. We are essentially speaking to the adult in him. Though this is
effective in normal circumstances, this will lead to failed relationships during emotional conversations. Though
we are immediate to ask the opponent to stop behaving like a child, the child-ego state in the opponent is
expecting care and wants us to behave like a nurturing parent or as a child by not taking the issue seriously. I
have realized that the rocky relationship with my cousin was because I was responding to her WhatsApp
messages as an adult not fully understanding that she was treating me as a child and speaking to the child ego in
me.
Complex transactions also lead to sub-optimal results when the transactions are crossed. Looking back, this is
the primary reason why most of the employees in my previous organization were not satisfied by their
managers. While the employees were thinking that they were at the same level of mental state as the managers
and wanted adult-to-adult conversations, the managers unknowingly turned the conversations to that of a
critical parent to child. Also, as the results have shown that talking at the same level will lead to good
conversations and hence favorable results, this aspect is what we call the lack of patience in an individual. The
lack of patience is actually the lack of understanding of the importance of complementary transactions.

Palleneni Dinesh Yadav || Section D

Strokes:
Strokes can come in many forms. In organizations, strokes usually come through bonuses, promotions and
sometimes being asked to leave the organization. The joining bonus I received was an unconditional stroke for
just joining the company. My company felt that they encourage me the moment I join the team. Later on, the
bonuses were dependent on my performance. Leveraging the individuals need for stroke is the basis for
success of performance oriented pay scales in private organizations. This is also the reason why companies try
to tie-up regular outings with some significant achievements of the team like going for an offsite trip at the end
of each project.
Time Structuring:
When I was working with PayPal, I used headphones when I was coding or doing an important task. Though I
was physically present in the workplace, headphones allowed me to concentrate on the work at hand by
effectively withdrawing from the surroundings. This also reduced the need to respond to pastime conversations
that were started by people in the wing. When the calendar reminded me of the daily meeting at 12, I would go
to the meeting room to update on the status of my task. This activity turned into a routine ritual after the initial
months, by which time my brain was conditioned to update the previous days work with minimum effort.
Between 4 PM and 5 PM, we used to go for a tea-break to the cafeteria where we discussed my topics of our
interest mostly related to the trending news of the time. One of the notable practices of PayPal was the snack
served to all employees every alternate Wednesday, helping to improve the intimacy among different teams in
the organization.
Games and Psychological Positions:
When speaking frankly will lead to worse situations for oneself, like the recipient brandishing cheap talk,
people are more likely to adopt conveying the message through games. This behavior is more apparent in the
workplace after the yearly promotion cycle. Dissatisfied employees are more likely to convey their feelings by
playing the kick-me victim card. Psychological positions are also not uncommon among PGP1s in IIM A. Most
of the students who are very new to the level of competition take the get-away-from position thinking that
everyone in the batch are very talented except them. This behavior is also found in Facebook browsing where
users are exposed to only the bright sides of others lives making them feel diffident.

Palleneni Dinesh Yadav || Section D

Leadership:
Leadership is a misattributed word most of the times. A young dropout who collects a few lakhs from ones dad
will call themselves a leader after establishing an organization and becoming a self-designated CEO. The
student in a primary school who happened to score high marks is anointed as the class representative because of
the favorable impression with the school-teacher. The poor lad who was immersed into books all his life is
called a leader from then on. This becomes more embarrassing when it comes to the elder child of the family.
The order of ones birth is tied up to being the leader of the family even though the person in question might be
very much uninterested in taking up any kind of responsibility.
The same philosophy has precluded into the workplace I have recently come out of. During my work at a major
IT industry in India, I have seen many people who were promoted into leadership positions for their good
work in implementing better code. This was ironic on two counts. Firstly, the promotion into the new roles was
based on the employees success in a different field. The promotion meant a bad fit for the new position as well
as a loss of skilled member in the former team. Secondly, the leadership positions were actually tasks that
involved managing work to be done before deadlines with little need to exhibit leadership acumen.
At an organizational level, a true leader in my opinion is the one who is able to put himself in line of his
immediate bonus or promotion if there is a larger good to it. This is more typical and apparent in the banking
industry where most of my friends work. Effective managers in the banking industry are always concerned
about the short-term profits of the organization without realizing the effects it has on the portfolio of their
clients. The global economic crisis of 2008 was also a result of the high effectiveness of the investment bankers
at the jobs that were assigned to them. Unlike a true leader who would step aside when he senses bad for the
larger economy, these managers were more concerned about their personal benefits and about doing their job
well. Those these qualities do not exactly define the characteristics of the manager, they definitely are recipe to
how people would behave when they are confronted with tasks that require one to show their managerial
acumen. And as the saying goes, it is enough to test a single grain to see if the rice is cooked.

Palleneni Dinesh Yadav || Section D

Negotiations:
Most of the times we are more concerned about what we want to gain than being concerned about what others
might also gain out of the process. This is mostly because we think that the product is exclusive and can only be
added or subtracted. But in reality the outcomes of inputs can be non-linear if they are executed properly.
This is one of the fundamental principles that our politicians have realized long ago. Coalition governments are
a result of this wisdom. This was exhibited in the previous elections in Andhra Pradesh. The BJP and TDP had
a common vote share that belonged to the youth of the state predominantly. Though the voter base as a whole
was the majority, the other voters were loyal to YSRCP come what may. Had BJP and TDP gone into polls
thinking of their own benefits and with the desire of being the sole ruling party of the state both would have
ended in the opposition. This was evidenced in the prevous elections when PRP and TDP, two parties with
similar voter base went to polls separately. The result was a 29% voter share to TDP and 25% voter share to
TDP while congress won the election with 34% voter share.
However in 2014, TDP and BJP understood the overall impact. Despite many ego tussles among the top
leadership and many hurdles in allocating the seats between both the parties, both parties were able to realize
the importance of coalition and went into the polls together. The result was there for all to see as TDP and BJP
combined have acquired an overall vote share of 49% while YSRCP had to sit in the opposition despite getting
a vote share of 47% single-handedly. This taught me the importance of clever negotiation instead of sticking to
brute force bargaining.