SAMWAD

It has been firmly established that while the employee may join the company because of its prestige, reputation or the line of business, but it is the relationship with the immediate boss or manager that determines how long he/ she stays and how productive one is while remaining in the company. The managers are catalysts to turn each employee's talent into performance and help the company to outperform its competitor.
 
If we look at the working life from the point of view of the employee then the manager's influence is higher than that of the company. Despite this all of us know that ultimately it is the company which wields enormous power. In order to empower managers to turn the available talent into performance it has become necessary to break away from conventional wisdom.
 
In most of the companies, the conventional wisdom remains deeply entrenched, and despite many of us disagreeing with some of them, we are still not able to break away from the same. All conventions are barricaded behind a wall of selection, training, compensation, (Performance Management System) and so on.
 
Hence, we need to break all the rules.
 

The world is not perfect, great mangers are still a minority. Should you be working for a less than perfect manager, you may use some of the tips given below to manage your manager.
 
A. Your manager never has the time to discuss your performance: Offer to structure the meeting and request him for 45 minutes of your time. Tell him all you need is his hearing and his suggestions. You may structure the meeting around the questions given above. Guide him through your past performance, reveal your plans for the future and seek his guidance and inputs. Leave him a copy of the process. Be insistent on the meeting.
 
B. Some managers force you to do things their way: A great deal of tact is required in this situation. Do not get into 'whose style is better', delve on that your style gets you the desired outcomes and is your path of least resistance. You may like to relate examples of the same.
 
C. Some managers praise inappropriately or not at all: you may need to start by thanking him for this but during the course of the appraisal meeting you may point this out to him. However most times the problem is with not receiving praise at all. In such cases you must rely on your own talent for striving and take pleasure from your own performance. However this is not possible over a sustained period and you may like to bring this to his notice in tactful ways.
 
D. Some managers like to micro manage: They ask questions on a daily basis and want to know what you are doing all the time. In such instances you may like to tell him/ her that you will check in with him every week and since you have a cycle scheduled it will work better that way. You may suggest that you were looking forward to working a little more independently.
 
E. Some managers consistently distrust you, are suspicious of you and take credit for your work and blame you for their mistakes, and disrespects you, ask for a lateral shift within the Company or you may decide to stick it out for 6 months hoping he will leave. However even if your pay packet and sympathetic ear of human resources tides you for some time you will not be able to sustain this for a long period.
 
Result: You will catch your peers doing the right things

When anyone of you enters your work place, you never leave at the end of the day at same level as you entered. You either make it little better or worse, filling the 5 above you will make it little better place to work.
 

Our role as a company is to identify the desired end. The means to reach to the end should be left to the individual. This would mean that the companies attain expertise in finding the destinations easily and provide the individuals to enjoy the thrills of the journey to destination. 
 

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    As much as possible, define every role using outcome terms
  
  
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    Find a way to rate, rank or count as many of those outcomes as possible. Measurement always improves performance
  
  
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    The four most important emotional outcomes for an employee are accuracy, availability, partnership, and advice. Examine each role within the company and identify what actually needs to happen to create these outcomes. In training classes, explain how the standardised steps of the role lead to one or more of these emotional outcomes
  
  
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    Hold the managers accountable for their employees'. Although, we would not advise paying managers on their employees' responses Managers should use the questions as part of their overall performance scorecard.

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    FOCUS ON OUTCOMES
  
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    MEASURE
  
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    INNOVATION
  
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    ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ITS PEOPLE
  
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    ACCURACY
  
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    AVAILABILITY
  
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    PARTNERSHIP
  
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    LEARNING
  
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    DEFINE

 

Read about how shifting focus at work from one role to the other leads to average performance change into an excellent one.
 

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    Within as many roles as possible, set up different levels of achievement. Identify specific criteria for moving up from one level to the next. Reward progress with plaques, certificates, and diplomas. Take every level seriously.
   
  
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    Within as many roles as possible, set up broadband (multiple) compensation plans. Identify specific criteria for moving up within each band. Explain clearly the reason for the pay cut when shifting from one band to another.
   
  
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    Celebrate "personal bests." Many people like to compete with themselves. Design a system so that each person can keep track of his or her performance monthly or quarterly. Use this system to celebrate monthly or quarterly "personal bests", as and when they occur. A growing number of "personal bests" means a growing company.

 

Read about how to start bench marks within yourself.
 

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    Start with your most significant roles and study your best practitioners. Build a talent profile for each role. This will help you select more people like your best.
   
  
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    Revise all training to incorporate what you have learned about excellence in each role.
   
  
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    Set up an internal "university." The main function of this "university" should be to provide a forum for showcasing how your best, in every role, do what they do. As far as is possible, every employee should be exposed to the thinking, the actions, and the satisfactions of your best, in every role. Your employees can learn many other things at this "university"-policies, rules, techniques-but the main focus should be a presentation of internal best practices. This "university" can be as flexible, informal, and brief as the size and complexity of the organization requires-the important thing is to learn from your best in a disciplined way.

 

Creating a common language across the Company is the key message this week's SAMWAD imparts. Read on to know more.
 

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    Teach the Four Keys of great managers. In particular emphasise the difference among skills, knowledge, and talents. Make sure people know that all roles, performed at excellence, require talent, which a talent is any recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior and those talents are extraordinarily difficult to teach
   
  
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    Change recruiting practices, job descriptions, and resume qualifications to reflect the critical importance and the broader definition of talent
   
  
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    Revise all training content to reflect the differences among skills, knowledge, and talents. A great company is clear about what can be trained and what cannot
   
  
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    Remove the remedial element from training. Send your most talented people to learn new skills and knowledge that can complement their talents. Stop sending less talented people to training classes to be "fixed"
   
  
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    Give every employee the benefit of feedback. Know that 360-degree surveys, personality profiles, and performance appraisal systems are all useful as long as they are focused on helping the person understand himself better and build upon his strengths. Stop using them if they are focused on identifying what needs to be fixed
   
  
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    Start the great managers' 'performance management' routine

 

The art of interviewing for talent.
 
'Which are the right questions to ask?'
 
1. The interview for matching the talent should be separated from the rest of the other discussions. The candidates have to know how many things about the work, compensation etc. You will also have to see other issues and to commit to each other.
 
The candidate should also know that it is to learn about his/ her talents. Let him know that it will be different than others and more focused yet more questions (which may sound unrelated with the job).
 
 
2. Your questioning has to be open ended and try to keep quite and listen more
 
The best way to discover a person's talent is to allow him to speak and reveal himself by the choices he makes. Try and tailor your questions in a way that it should mirror verbally what he will face on the job and how he would behave. In many situations that he faces every day, he has choices of responding in a number of ways. How he consistently responds, will be his performance.
 
Hence ask open ended questions that offers many different directions. Example: "How closely do you think people should be surprised?" or "What would you enjoy most in the proposed job". The direction he takes spontaneously will be most likely his/ her future behaviour.
 
It is best to pause and remain quite while asking the question. If he/she asks a counter question asking you to explain what do you mean? Do not give a straight answer rather tell him that "I am more interested in what he has understood of the question or it is more important to know what he/ she means. It is your interpretation that is important, you answer my question in a way you have understood my question".
 
Also one more important lesson believe him/her with their answer and do not doubt his/ her intent. Also no matter how much you like his first impression, if you ask him how important it is to be the best and he/she replies "well I like to be the best, but mostly I just try to be the best I can be" believe him/her. Trust that unaided response to an open ended question is powerfully predictive. Trust him/her no matter what you wanted to hear.