Leadership & Business Health

Leadership as it goes- it’s not a designation or title. It’s the way of leading and showing the path to your teams. It’s not something which is cascaded or built upon, it’s natural and leaders are born to lead. The leadership style that you exhibit as a leader has a direct correlation to your results and the health of your business.

An autocratic or authoritative style of leadership might deliver and give you good results in short term. However, it hampers long term and sustained growth as it affects the team’s performing and ideation capabilities.

Some examples of such type of leadership, which should be avoided as it, will have a negative impact on the overall health of your business:

·        If the leader is poking nose in everything what teams are doing. It has to be participative form with leader leading

·        Not sharing business information or the way ahead builds non performing teams as employees do not trust the leader and things are not transparent

·        Cornering someone in a team meeting or outside is another aspect to be avoided

·        Raising pitch/tone or sharing feedback in front of others does not build trust and invites disrespect- A big No!

·        Micro managing work and teams

·        Not sharing constructive feedback

·        Not providing solution to problems is not what leadership is about

Leadership does not come with seniority or large teams that you manage. It comes with maturity, perseverance and brews from the team that you lead.

In a longer run, the health of the business goes down as the performing teams become disengaged from the vision of the person who manages those teams. The leader looses the value of the position she/he is supposed to lead. 

Few signs which might give you an indication of such a problem in your business:

·        Employees not willing to share issues with you/management

·        Increase in back office/corridor talks

·        Increase in attrition

·        Challenge to retain your trained pool as they look for new opportunities

·        Use of social media platforms by employees to vent anger as status messages

·        Ideation stops in the team

·        Anonymous concerns being raised through emails

It’s important to keep a check on leadership and the people practices to ensure the health of heart (people), soul (values) and mind (processes) of the business.

Are you a catalyst?

The morning when you start your day, the evening when you reach back home, the hero of this story is always you and you alone. It depends on how you shape the events of the day and carve your own story. The story is never about who is the catalyst in your life, who is that villain who will drag you down the success ladder. Your mind and heart is in charge of the decisions you take and how you shape the future.

As an employee, you are the catalyst of the equation where organization, your mentor, competitors, external market and organization culture are the chemicals which react but the outcome- which is your future and the success is derived by the catalyst in that equation. The outcome can help achieve your dreams or otherwise can form a chain reaction, which becomes a vicious cycle and you are unable to close the chemical reaction.

Properties of the catalyst in discussion need to be:

·     Out of box thinker like the unknown members of the periodic table

·     Be like elements  Na, Ca which are key members to form the backbone of the universe and human being

·     Result oriented like inert gases which do not react with other chemical substances

·     Structured approach and logical thinking like the structured members ordered in periodic table on basis of atomic number

·     Remain unfazed by the challenges on the way like the actual catalyst whose mass remains unchanged after the chemical reaction

It depends on which path you chose on everyday basis and drive the positive energies around you towards your larger objective and goal in life.

2018: What next?

Happy 2018 to all the readers and this month, let’s figure out what this year unfolds for HR. With millennials in the workplace - empowered, information on finger tips and highly socially connected- here are few aspects which will be crucial for organisations to survive as attract the right talent:

• Moving from employee engagement to employee experience- Employees now are looking for the experience organisations have to offer and do not get swayed by the engagement index/numbers. Experience is brought through the culture team builds, the practices built and implemented by the organisation and through unique incentives/benefits offered (Not the cash part)
• AI & HR- As discussed in my earlier blog, AI and HR will have a long term relationship to offer unique experience to the workforce. Chatbots will be the ‘IN’ thing to check the pulse on floor and engage employees
• Digitizing HR- With all information on the ‘thumb’ of the employees and moving towards a total digitized HR. Back end processes to run automatically through highly complex systems and attracting talent basis competency and not on skill sets and past experiences
• #MeToo- This trend will also get absorbed in the workplace and organisations would have to ensure that grievances are resolved and build an environment and systems where harassment in any form is not tolerated
• Branding- Employers will have to focus on employer branding as Millenials/Gen Y are not attracted towards the CTC component only. They need to be convinced on ‘What’s in it for me’ and where I would be in next 1 year.

Reward Strategy for Millennials!

How do we consumerize the rewards strategy for millennials who have entered our workforce? We have been debating and working on rewards strategy for Gen Y all these years, however, with millennials joining us we need to decide how we consumerize the rewards strategy for them.  Across the globe, there has been a massive change happening due to shift in ideology, demographic change (workforce dynamics) and technological factors.

Let’s discuss on how we can re-define our rewards strategy for the millennials:

• Medical Insurance- Gone are the days when medical insurance as a benefit was a differentiating factor for talent in the market. What needs to be re-defined is the insurance for the dependents as well for the new age workforce

• Medical Benefits- As the new recruits are busy in office, it takes a load off from the mind if they know there is someone (Tie-up with medical facilities) who can take of their parents/dependents and they can provide medical care, OPD (Corporate tie-up) and lab diagnostics from the comfort of homes

• Health Checkup- How about telling your employees that you need not worry about minor health problems and check ups as we have doctor in our office to take care of that. We will also have dental, eye and health check done regularly in the office. Healthier workforce means productive workforce

• Accommodation- Millennials relocating for jobs will always take it as a point of consideration on selecting job offer if they know that my office has a tie-up with company who will assist me for accommodation (E.g. Motif) or they already have accommodations available for me to walk in (E.g. CoHo)

• Home Furniture & Appliances Rental- What more could you have asked, if you know that after helping you settling in the new city, your new workplace has another tie-up with a company where you can rent all the stuff you need in the house ranging from bed to refrigerator to a recliner (E.g. Rentickle)

The strategy needs to be constantly revisited and re-worked as millennials do not belong to a null set but rather its always intersection of various subsets!

Future of AI & HR:

Ever wondered how would you feel if you didn’t have to check your schedule on a day when you are sick? Or do not want to fill up a feedback coming from HR end? AI and Chatbot is the new age HR which will help you to avoid the age old processes in your daily work life.

With the new chatbots coming up employee will be able to send a communication to his/her manager regarding a sick leave and the chatbot will automatically alert all the users w.r.t your schedule. Chatbot will help your manager to align the meetings in your absence.  Gone would be the days when you are writing a mail to HR and waiting for revert. With chatbot you would be able to ask queries or clarifications on any company policy or process and you would be able to get an instant answer.

HR would not be required to send lengthy feedback forms but with the help of chatbot  they would be able to gauge the pulse of the people through set of defined questions. HR including the business leaders would be able to view the responses, which would help them to take necessary intervention. AI will alert the business leaders and HR on how the people are feeling and who are the people who have moved from happy to unhappy zone or even probably have become a fence sitter. Annual Employee Satisfaction Survey will become archaic and real time feedback through AI will become the fashionable thing to be implemented.

The future of performance management will be when employees will share their feedback with chatbot on a regular basis and not fill the long annual performance forms.  Chatbot will be the new friend of all the managers to give them real updated information. HR will also see a transition from people to business and interventions. AI will be the new tool to help HR in decision making. 

Chatbots on mobile phones will revolutionise the way we work and will become a key ask from Gen Z/Millenials.

HR Trends:2017

As we usher into another year, let’s welcome 2017 with open minds, free thoughts and network clouds to understand the complexities that we deal with everyday. 2017 will witness more technology, financial and human disruptions. With Amazon Go, PayPass, Digital Wallet & with latest UPI/BHIM transactional modes coming into mainstream, it will require people capabilities and competencies to be constantly upgraded to remain ahead of the mind game.

Let’s look at some of the competencies, capabilities and trends which would be necessary to add in 2017:

• Learning Agility- People need to be constantly upgraded on the latest happenings around the world and should always in hunger mode to learn new things. It will require our people to quickly unlearn and learn new things
• Communication - It is of utmost importance for the leadership to be constantly in touch with the employees in a volatile and dynamic business environment. It also means that leadership should also be seen taking feedback and inputs from the people as any idea or suggestion could be a game changing strategy
• Transparency - Companies should ensure that they are having transparent policies and processes as with holding of information or knowledge may be instigator for competition. Having ambiguity or not leading the vision of the organization will not lead to path breaking innovative products
• Data – This year will require HR professional to build more data predictive models and partner with the business to take accurate decisions
• Career Development- Carving clear defined road maps for employees and providing them avenues to learn new things will be very important for quarterly feedback, performance management and as retention strategy  
• Reward Practices & Tools- It will be required to innovate more in terms of benefits rather than relying only on money. With more of Gen Z/Millenials in the workplace and the business models it will be required to build HR tools on smartphone, empower them with information through mobile and engage with the employees through apps

Let’s look forward for this New Year as a new opportunity to learn and consequently keep ourselves innovating!

Workplace Bullying!

Workplace bullying or exhibiting unreasonable behavior towards any one is something which is found at every workplace and could be subtle as well. It not only discriminates against the employees but also impacts physical and emotional well being. 

Here are some of signs that will help you understand if you are also one of the victims:

·        Your boss keeps a record of your negatives/mistakes rather than focusing on the positives
·         You don’t want to talk to certain people and avoid confrontation with them
·         You tend to show your frustration at some other place or person
·         Your boss/colleague takes all the credit of your work
·         There is a lot of yelling at workplace and you feel threatened, humiliated or insulted
·         You are not invited to meetings or lunch discussions
·         You feel you want to take a break for mental health

Every employee should be treated respectfully at work and with dignity. In case you have felt any of these signs you need to immediately contact your senior management/harassment committee for quick resolution to your problems. Corporates need to immediately address this issue and come up with anti-bullying policy which addresses the concerns and list the consequences.