Sustainability, as a concept, has of late gathered a lot of momentum and associated efforts towards the same have been stepped-up by the global business community.
In the earlier days of Capitalism, the essential (and almost sole) purpose of the business was to create ongoing profits. This has, over a period of time, undergone a fair amount of transformation, resulting in making sustainability as an equally essential (if not more) factor in running business. In the Post-Modern era of today, the kind of world we will create and leave for the future generations has assumed very high importance and from that perspective discussion on sustainability becomes critical.
At a micro level, when the going is good for the business organization, predicting whether such prosperity will continue for long, and if not, how long, is normally not easy. In contrast, taking a benefit of hind sight, when we closely look at some of the giant global organizations that are now merely a part of history, we can almost accurately pin point factors that caused them to perish! But even just before they actually vanished, nobody had ever predicted such a fate. And why go so far? In the last decade of the last century, when the Indian skies where opened to competition, didn’t we observe emergence of some seemingly strong players, who seemed to like real solid long-haul runners? But many of them didn’t survive even that decade!
Sustainability, therefore, to my mind, won’t just get created as a casual by-product of good management practices in action. Organizations have to consciously work out clear and long-term plans to build sustainability.
One other point that must be made on sustainability right away, and that is, sustainability is neither a mere business imperative nor is it something “Good to have” kind of an initiative. Sustainability is a serious responsibility of every business organization and is non–negotiable. Businesses do not run in a vacuum or in isolation. They draw resources that are limited and diminishing and therefore it becomes their responsibility to utilize those in an optimal way.
Sustainability strategy clearly has three pillars -- principles, processes and people. What makes the whole thing complex is that these pillars are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The potential expanse of a full scale debate on this issue itself is humongous. However, the focus of this article is limited to only highlighting key aspects of managing people for sustainability and that is why such a fleeting reference to the pillars of sustainability.
It is an established fact that people employed within the business (or indeed ‘talent’) are the key differentiators in successfully fighting competition at the marketplace. Similarly, I would like to argue that the same is true for the businesses that have well structured sustainability approach. Just think about a business with high employee attrition and what does it do to the entire business eco system. It leads to steep challenges in managing customer satisfaction. It results in a continuous sense of not-so- stable kind of feeling in the minds of employees. It also puts a lot of strain on maintaining seamless and rhythmic business continuity and so on. And now let’s imagine a business that employs people with long term plans to stay, are fully engaged who take accountability for the organizational growth etc. Isn’t it an apt example of creating sustainability from the people stand point?
And now the moot point, how do we really do it? Again here, it is better to remind ourselves that just the good people practices by themselves may not necessarily lead to sustainability. We will have to do more and different and that is not going to be necessarily within our comfort zones i.e. only the newer ways of people management, questioning even the approaches that may have led us to success in the past etc., will show us ways to sustainability. But, we will have to embrace those with right earnestness. I have a strong belief in what someone once said “Everything that you want in life is waiting for you, outside your comfort zone and inside your effort zone”.
So what are these people imperatives?
• Stay relevant
Taking a cue from the observations made above, we may not necessarily be able to predict or even have complete control over factors that can help us achieve long term sustainability and this is precisely where the issue of staying relevant comes into play. It has been eternally true that what is relevant has stayed and what is irrelevant has died. Specifically from people perspective, de-training of the obsolete skills and re-training on the emerging skills, habits and behaviors will keep the workforce continuously galvanized. A conscious inflow of external talent and equally importantly, exiting misfits where necessary, is also going to be very critical.
• Resilience
No truth is absolute and no principle is immortal in the ever changing world of business! The world is constantly evolving and so will have to be the people practices. Thick and hardbound HR manuals that were once treated like holy books will have to give way to newer practices. What was thought to be rightfully appropriate, will have to be questioned, changed or binned, where necessary. At the advent of the internet, we all in our wisdom thought, that a liberal internet access to employees will only distract them and bring down the productivity and therefore imposed a lot of restrictions on its usage. And hasn’t the situation transformed just within a couple of decades? Can we think of a modern day global business organization that has similar restrictions in place? Moreover, haven’t we realized today as to how business-enabling it is to grant such accesses to lay employees? That’s the power of resilience.
• Flexible
Downsizing became a politically incorrect term and that led to the birth of a new phrase—rightsizing. Now even this has turned out to be an excessively used term today. And in any case these terms, in a way, had a unidirectional connotation. But in reality, the cylicity of businesses requires a 360 degrees flexibility. We will have to, therefore, put in place flexible network of organizations that will be willing to coincide their structural reformations to reflect the business needs of the core organization from time to time.
• Slender
Fatter the organization, difficult it is to move and respond with speed and agility. That’s why, staying trim is very critical. Continuous efforts in exploring creative ways to delayer supervisory chains of command and maintaining optimum (yet stretched!) spans of control will enable organizations to stay fit and active. Here again, giving up older principles (such as unity of command) and making ways for the newer (such as shared resources) ones will be important.
• Employee Engagement
Employees will continue to invest their efforts in organizations that provide them a definite sense of purpose, equip them with right training, provide them appropriate functional autonomy and timely reward and recognize good work. Instant returns for instant karma, is going to rule the new order. Annual cycles of rewards revisions, low frequency recognition events etc will be looked down upon as too slow and non-stimulating.
Given all the above, if one were to write a Stop-Start-Continue prescription for the business executives, it will look something like the one detailed below:
STOP: Excessive focus on transaction management that tends to get into realms of micro-management.
START: Developing strategic focus, ergo, proactively concentrate on work that produces fundamentally new/different and sustainable business results. Define ‘core’ business activities and separate them from the ‘peripheral’ ones—thereby create environment to outsource peripheral activities and attain long-term business continuity. Benchmark internal practices opposite the best-in-class external norms; thereby ensure the culture of continuously challenging the status-quo that has a tendency to set into the organizational DNA.
CONTINUE: Feeling pulse of the employees, deploying as many channels of communications as possible to capture the voice of employees, building organizational cultures that set them apart from others (i.e those falling in the competitive arena). And most importantly, continue to reward performance and potential of employees.
All that has been stated above seems a bit daunting—given the scope, expanse and dynamic elements of the work involved. But, in my view, sustainability gets created only when one is able to develop an eye for the right moments to act—no matter how adverse the circumstances are. As someone has rightly said that when the winds of change blow, some people simply build walls and others build wind mills! Now, do I need to really place an observation on record that the wind energy is the other name for the sustainable energy?
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Some behavioural aspects of ‘Power’
Situation 1: You are caught by a traffic cop while you are trying to race through the red light. He has three options at that time: To fine you for jumping the signal or to ask for a small bribe to ‘settle’ the matter or to just let you go, may be, with a verbal warning. Haven’t we seen cops exercising one of these options from time to time? Now think about this—by levying a fine and providing you a proper receipt, his revenue objective (given by his bosses) is met. And by taking a small bribe, he earns some additional money. But what does he get by simply letting you off?
Situation 2: A child has not finished his homework and his teacher finds it out. She has some options as well: To punish the child (like asking him to stand-up for the entire period or asking him to stand outside the class etc.), or to send a note to the parents reporting non-completion of homework or simply pardon the child! Why would she opt for the pardoning route?
Situation 3: Your school going daughter demands an expensive gadget from you—something that you can afford with some stretch but it is not something that you would normally buy her on your own i.e. without her insistence on having it. And then you actually end up buying it for her.
Situation 4: You are a first time people manager. As part of your new role, you get to decide salary rises for employees within your span of control, sanction/reject their leave requests, make decisions on which training programmes they should be nominated for etc. Also, as part of your new role, you have budgetary responsibilities for your department/function, you get to set annual objectives for your department etc. Question: what are your precise feelings when you make specific decisions that directly affect individual employees—say granting salary hikes, approving leave claims etc.
Situation 5: You are walking on a footpath that leads towards a bus stop, where you want to catch a bus to your destination. And you suddenly realise that the bus you wanted to catch, stops next to you, owing to a traffic jam. Your natural instinct draws you towards the bus and you make an attempt to board it, even if it is not a designated /official stop. Your behavior being not consistent with the rule, the bus conductor doesn’t allow you to board and asks you to walk up to a proper bus stop to catch the bus. However, in a similar situation, if you were to first ask for conductor’s prior permission to board the bus(before attempting to board it on your own) he would have had two options: either to allow you to board or disallow. In that case, he allows you to board!
Is there something common in the above situations that look seemingly disparate?
When I ponder, I do find a common thread. A thread that clearly tells me that people derive subtle but definite satisfaction out of holding power to influence someone’s destiny! I know, destiny is a big word, but I say it in a limited context of a small part of life—even though it may be short lived or many a time not so significant/profound E.g. with reference to the cop’s example above—when the cop lets go the defaulter without any penal action, he actually makes a small difference to the defaulter’s life, and he knows it, more so, he enjoys that feeling.
In the other situation, when the daughter was gifted the thingamajig, the father’s behaviour wasn’t predominantly motivated by a desire to grant her wish, as much as a motivation(almost compelling one) to feel reassured that he had a wherewithal to make a difference to one part of her life! As a (loving) father of two daughters I hate to believe in my own argument, but I know it represents an intricate reality of what is generally wrapped within commonly known ‘power motivation.’
And now let me add another twist. We all are judgmental, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly. When Sachin Tendulkar gets out chasing an outswinger, almost every such time we pass judgments like ‘he shouldn’t have even attempted to play that ball’ or ‘he was right in going for that shot and would have even succeeded, but for the uneven bounce on the wicket’ and so on. Or, when Lata Mangeshkar sings a racy number, our verdict goes like ‘it doesn’t befit her stature’ or ‘a song is song—how does it matter what genre it belongs to?’ etc. We keep passing such judgments, but, most of the times lack an ability to execute any tangible actions arising from those, since many such possible actions are completely beyond our scope of influence. However, there are many situations where we possess a capability of executing our judgments. E.g. in the above example of traffic police: clearly, the fact that the cop stopped the commuter, shows, that in his judgment, the wrong act was committed. He also had capability of taking punitive (in this case) action, which could have been a logical consequence of his judgment that an act in contravention of law was committed. And yet, he chose to let go the defaulter. Why? That is simply because, people in power positions (even though some of those may at times be just the perceived power positions!),like to enjoy freedom to act in a self- empowered manner—and many a time such acts of theirs could actually be against the normative frameworks or to use a simple term, against the applicable rules. However, I am not necessarily suggesting that the human nature/bahaviour, by definition, gravitates towards anarchy. It simply means that even within the set rules, laws etc. people like to have their own ways of dealing with deviations.
Now if we combine the following two phenomena:
‘Intrinsic drive to influence personal lives (in fact, most of the times, fractions of lives) of others’
And
‘A need to feel free and empowered to pardon non-normative behaviours of others, despite having an ability to enforce norms,’
we can clearly appreciate how important it is to understand these fine aspects of ‘Power Motivation.’
Indeed, more we think, experience and reflect on the real life we live/face, more we realise how difficult(almost impossible!) it is to wrap all such finer aspects of human behaviours in theoretical forms. That’s precisely the beauty of human behaviours and that’s the challenge as well!
Situation 2: A child has not finished his homework and his teacher finds it out. She has some options as well: To punish the child (like asking him to stand-up for the entire period or asking him to stand outside the class etc.), or to send a note to the parents reporting non-completion of homework or simply pardon the child! Why would she opt for the pardoning route?
Situation 3: Your school going daughter demands an expensive gadget from you—something that you can afford with some stretch but it is not something that you would normally buy her on your own i.e. without her insistence on having it. And then you actually end up buying it for her.
Situation 4: You are a first time people manager. As part of your new role, you get to decide salary rises for employees within your span of control, sanction/reject their leave requests, make decisions on which training programmes they should be nominated for etc. Also, as part of your new role, you have budgetary responsibilities for your department/function, you get to set annual objectives for your department etc. Question: what are your precise feelings when you make specific decisions that directly affect individual employees—say granting salary hikes, approving leave claims etc.
Situation 5: You are walking on a footpath that leads towards a bus stop, where you want to catch a bus to your destination. And you suddenly realise that the bus you wanted to catch, stops next to you, owing to a traffic jam. Your natural instinct draws you towards the bus and you make an attempt to board it, even if it is not a designated /official stop. Your behavior being not consistent with the rule, the bus conductor doesn’t allow you to board and asks you to walk up to a proper bus stop to catch the bus. However, in a similar situation, if you were to first ask for conductor’s prior permission to board the bus(before attempting to board it on your own) he would have had two options: either to allow you to board or disallow. In that case, he allows you to board!
Is there something common in the above situations that look seemingly disparate?
When I ponder, I do find a common thread. A thread that clearly tells me that people derive subtle but definite satisfaction out of holding power to influence someone’s destiny! I know, destiny is a big word, but I say it in a limited context of a small part of life—even though it may be short lived or many a time not so significant/profound E.g. with reference to the cop’s example above—when the cop lets go the defaulter without any penal action, he actually makes a small difference to the defaulter’s life, and he knows it, more so, he enjoys that feeling.
In the other situation, when the daughter was gifted the thingamajig, the father’s behaviour wasn’t predominantly motivated by a desire to grant her wish, as much as a motivation(almost compelling one) to feel reassured that he had a wherewithal to make a difference to one part of her life! As a (loving) father of two daughters I hate to believe in my own argument, but I know it represents an intricate reality of what is generally wrapped within commonly known ‘power motivation.’
And now let me add another twist. We all are judgmental, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly. When Sachin Tendulkar gets out chasing an outswinger, almost every such time we pass judgments like ‘he shouldn’t have even attempted to play that ball’ or ‘he was right in going for that shot and would have even succeeded, but for the uneven bounce on the wicket’ and so on. Or, when Lata Mangeshkar sings a racy number, our verdict goes like ‘it doesn’t befit her stature’ or ‘a song is song—how does it matter what genre it belongs to?’ etc. We keep passing such judgments, but, most of the times lack an ability to execute any tangible actions arising from those, since many such possible actions are completely beyond our scope of influence. However, there are many situations where we possess a capability of executing our judgments. E.g. in the above example of traffic police: clearly, the fact that the cop stopped the commuter, shows, that in his judgment, the wrong act was committed. He also had capability of taking punitive (in this case) action, which could have been a logical consequence of his judgment that an act in contravention of law was committed. And yet, he chose to let go the defaulter. Why? That is simply because, people in power positions (even though some of those may at times be just the perceived power positions!),like to enjoy freedom to act in a self- empowered manner—and many a time such acts of theirs could actually be against the normative frameworks or to use a simple term, against the applicable rules. However, I am not necessarily suggesting that the human nature/bahaviour, by definition, gravitates towards anarchy. It simply means that even within the set rules, laws etc. people like to have their own ways of dealing with deviations.
Now if we combine the following two phenomena:
‘Intrinsic drive to influence personal lives (in fact, most of the times, fractions of lives) of others’
And
‘A need to feel free and empowered to pardon non-normative behaviours of others, despite having an ability to enforce norms,’
we can clearly appreciate how important it is to understand these fine aspects of ‘Power Motivation.’
Indeed, more we think, experience and reflect on the real life we live/face, more we realise how difficult(almost impossible!) it is to wrap all such finer aspects of human behaviours in theoretical forms. That’s precisely the beauty of human behaviours and that’s the challenge as well!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Change: the only option!
Same time, last week, I was invited to speak on Matrix Structure in one Globalization conference. While working on my brief, some stray thoughts came to my mind and I’ve tried to capture those below.
Despite working in modern day globalised businesses, old memories continue. E.g. things that we learnt during the post grad management programme, way back in early 80’s—that not only belong to the last century but also to the last millennium!
I often times wonder, how some of the theories and principles that sounded so convincingly eternal then, have almost become ancient, sometimes irrelevant and sometimes even extinct! The principle of ‘unity of command’ is an example that comes to my mind easily. Fayol, the doyen of classical school of management, while calling out 14 principles of management, had ‘unity of command’ as one of those. In his time and in his way, Fayol was absolutely right in mandating that each employee must have one and only one boss. If one looks at how he saw a manager’s job, this principle becomes even clearer. According to him, the manager had the following 5 components in his job.
• Planning
• Organising
• Commanding
• Co-ordinating
• Controlling
The above introduction is sufficient to set the context for our current discussion. A closer scrutiny into these components of a manager’s job leads us to a conclusion that the managerial role was conceived around the task accomplishment in a systematic way. Taylor, in a way Fayol’s contemporary, also took a similar position while explaining his ‘scientific management.’ Going by Fayol’s work, we do not get any indication that he had ‘people orientation’ in his conception of a typical managerial role. Principle of ‘unity of command,’ therefore, made great sense, given that, in the industrial organizations of that era, there existed two types (or classes?) of people--those who did the actual work (workers) and those who got the work done (managers). There is another important background we have to bear in mind, while understanding and appreciating why ‘unity of command’ was so important those days. And that is, many of the management concepts then, actually evolved out of best practices in people management within military organizations. Therefore, some other principles out of Fayol’s 14 principles also indicate such influence. Authority, discipline, sub–ordination of individual interest, scalar chain (line of authority), and order are examples of some of those principles.
All the above happened roughly 100 years ago and ruled almost 80% of the last century, if not more, in some specific parts of the world. But global organizations today speak a different language, follow different norms and work on different set of principles.
So, what has caused this change?
Essentially, the organizations have spread their existence across countries and continents, cultures, time-zones etc. In addition, the employees have graduated to demand more functional autonomy within their responsibility boundaries—in short they are relatively more empowered and strive for even more of it. On the other hand, ‘managers’ of yester-era are evolving into ‘leaders.’ Although, much has been said, written and is being discussed about a difference between a manager and a leader, to my mind, the key difference is, that while a manager has a great ability to control things in his immediate sphere of influence, a leader is constantly in the process of challenging the existing spheres and looks beyond the obvious – an essential quality that has emerged for the global business builders. None other than Peter Drucker, had sensed this pretty early, when he said that the managers’ job was not to merely manage people but it was to lead people and the managers’ goal was to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of every individual within their organizations.
'Unity of command’ was great when the businesses were local, direct supervision was feasible and in any case, manager’s job then was essentially to ensure task delivery from the group of workers they managed. Therefore, the system which was created around command and order principles has given way to the one that follows delegation and empowerment as new mantras.
All this has had a major structural imperative for today’s global corporations—which has given rise to the modern day ‘matrix organizations.’
For ease of explanation: The genesis of a matrix structure lies in its resemblance to a table (matrix) where each item in a table is an integral part of both, the rows and the columns. Now consider each item in the table as an employee, who has linkages at both levels—rows and columns. Therefore, matrix style of management is one where an individual has two reporting bosses - one functional and one operational—in complete subversion of ‘unity of command!’
Now let’s take just one example of why such structures have become inevitable. ABC Corporation is a large global company headquartered in the US and does business and has its employees based in about 75 countries in the world. It’s CFO for India reports administratively to the CEO of India and functionally to the Vice President- Finance in regional headquarters in Singapore.
Since this article has a limited purpose, I’m not getting into the intricacies of a matrix organization. Yet, the conclusion is obvious: what needs to change must change as per times—else the forces of change will anyway make that happen!
Despite working in modern day globalised businesses, old memories continue. E.g. things that we learnt during the post grad management programme, way back in early 80’s—that not only belong to the last century but also to the last millennium!
I often times wonder, how some of the theories and principles that sounded so convincingly eternal then, have almost become ancient, sometimes irrelevant and sometimes even extinct! The principle of ‘unity of command’ is an example that comes to my mind easily. Fayol, the doyen of classical school of management, while calling out 14 principles of management, had ‘unity of command’ as one of those. In his time and in his way, Fayol was absolutely right in mandating that each employee must have one and only one boss. If one looks at how he saw a manager’s job, this principle becomes even clearer. According to him, the manager had the following 5 components in his job.
• Planning
• Organising
• Commanding
• Co-ordinating
• Controlling
The above introduction is sufficient to set the context for our current discussion. A closer scrutiny into these components of a manager’s job leads us to a conclusion that the managerial role was conceived around the task accomplishment in a systematic way. Taylor, in a way Fayol’s contemporary, also took a similar position while explaining his ‘scientific management.’ Going by Fayol’s work, we do not get any indication that he had ‘people orientation’ in his conception of a typical managerial role. Principle of ‘unity of command,’ therefore, made great sense, given that, in the industrial organizations of that era, there existed two types (or classes?) of people--those who did the actual work (workers) and those who got the work done (managers). There is another important background we have to bear in mind, while understanding and appreciating why ‘unity of command’ was so important those days. And that is, many of the management concepts then, actually evolved out of best practices in people management within military organizations. Therefore, some other principles out of Fayol’s 14 principles also indicate such influence. Authority, discipline, sub–ordination of individual interest, scalar chain (line of authority), and order are examples of some of those principles.
All the above happened roughly 100 years ago and ruled almost 80% of the last century, if not more, in some specific parts of the world. But global organizations today speak a different language, follow different norms and work on different set of principles.
So, what has caused this change?
Essentially, the organizations have spread their existence across countries and continents, cultures, time-zones etc. In addition, the employees have graduated to demand more functional autonomy within their responsibility boundaries—in short they are relatively more empowered and strive for even more of it. On the other hand, ‘managers’ of yester-era are evolving into ‘leaders.’ Although, much has been said, written and is being discussed about a difference between a manager and a leader, to my mind, the key difference is, that while a manager has a great ability to control things in his immediate sphere of influence, a leader is constantly in the process of challenging the existing spheres and looks beyond the obvious – an essential quality that has emerged for the global business builders. None other than Peter Drucker, had sensed this pretty early, when he said that the managers’ job was not to merely manage people but it was to lead people and the managers’ goal was to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of every individual within their organizations.
'Unity of command’ was great when the businesses were local, direct supervision was feasible and in any case, manager’s job then was essentially to ensure task delivery from the group of workers they managed. Therefore, the system which was created around command and order principles has given way to the one that follows delegation and empowerment as new mantras.
All this has had a major structural imperative for today’s global corporations—which has given rise to the modern day ‘matrix organizations.’
For ease of explanation: The genesis of a matrix structure lies in its resemblance to a table (matrix) where each item in a table is an integral part of both, the rows and the columns. Now consider each item in the table as an employee, who has linkages at both levels—rows and columns. Therefore, matrix style of management is one where an individual has two reporting bosses - one functional and one operational—in complete subversion of ‘unity of command!’
Now let’s take just one example of why such structures have become inevitable. ABC Corporation is a large global company headquartered in the US and does business and has its employees based in about 75 countries in the world. It’s CFO for India reports administratively to the CEO of India and functionally to the Vice President- Finance in regional headquarters in Singapore.
Since this article has a limited purpose, I’m not getting into the intricacies of a matrix organization. Yet, the conclusion is obvious: what needs to change must change as per times—else the forces of change will anyway make that happen!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Generation Gap - A welcome challenge
At times, people appear to be saying things very casually, or shall we say impulsively—without necessarily applying conscious thinking before saying things. However, invariably, such remarks arise from their own experiences/observations-based opinions, that are crystallized over a period of time.
Think about this situation: You are chatting with a child of (say) four years. You are generally enjoying the experience of trying to answer a flurry of questions that the child keeps firing at you. At some stage during this whole delightful experience, the child’s mother/father appears on the scene and gently asks the child to keep quiet and not to continue bombarding you with endless questions. It is at that stage, you say, “Oh, don’t worry. I’m thoroughly enjoying this experience. I tell you, these children are way smarter than the earlier generations!”
Or think about this one: You just bought a new electronic device, say a Kindle. And you got it as a surprise gift for your school-going daughter. Obviously, you like the whole idea behind this gadget i.e. a ‘knowledge-enhancing’ machine, and that’s why you have invested in it. You reach home, handover the gift to your child and expect that she will thank you and then hand back the machine to you to quickly train her into using it. Instead, she thanks you for sure, hugs you and then tears open the pack in a jiffy. Next, at a lightning speed, she takes all the logical steps that lead to a very successful installation of her ‘new toy’! You are amazed—to say the least! This job would have taken you not less than an hour to complete. It would have taken no less than 10 irritating moments for you, while you would try to understand installation instructions from the User Manual and simultaneously attempt to satisfy your daughter’s interfering enthusiasm! Not to mention your inability to manage ignoring your wife’s ‘loaded’ stares in the process! But, saving you of all such embarrassment, your daughter simply puts the new machine to work and that too in minutes. And then you say to your wife with mixed feelings of pride and resignation—“these children are a whole lot smarter than us, aren’t they!”
Don’t we keep coming across such situations? As a result, quite involuntarily, we develop belief that new generations are smarter/more intelligent than the previous ones.
Being patently aware that my readers are generally well ‘initiated’ in a large array of subjects, many of them may have surely heard/read about Flynn Effect--that offers a substantial theoretical backing/explanation to our abovementioned commonly held experiences. Yet, this may not be a bad place to quickly touch upon the concept—especially given its direct relevance to our lives.
What is Flynn Effect?
In most laymanish terms, it can be explained as a theory that brings out a fact that average intelligence quotient (IQ) scores have risen/and rising over generations. And as the name suggests, the author of this theory was Flynn (James Flynn).
Experts have offered several explanations to such rising IQ levels in newer generations. Mainly, they include improved nutrition, nuclear/smaller families, access to a higher quality of education, exposure to greater environmental complexities and also some positive genetic changes etc… And I am aware that these are still only parts of many more possible explanations. Overall, the process of modernization has made the environments around us more complex, which seems to have led to requirements for higher intelligence--basically to manage life effectively.
Very interestingly, the research tells us that the Flynn effect has ended in most of the developed nations and is more of a common phenomenon in the developing world. In fact, Flynn himself, after observing the phenomenon, questioned whether the intelligence itself was rising or whether there was just a continuous improvement in abilities of newer generations to solve abstract problems! Be that as it may, in my observation (and I am sure this is no different for my readers), the overall intellectual ability seems to be increasing with generations.
It is important here to note that--considering above postulate to be true, we need to understand what it means to us in practical life. Hence, this effort to highlight some imperatives of Flynn Effect for us:
• We must acknowledge next generations’ higher abilities to solve more complex problems and accordingly provide them opportunities to face situations where they can apply their capabilities effectively. In short, do not protect them from real world complexities – as it will amount to clipping their wings.
• We should expect higher standards of results from them than what their earlier generations accomplished. They will find the environment of ‘modest goals’ boring and non-stimulating, which will adversely affect their potential ‘achievement motivation.’ In short, continue to raise the performance bar for them.
• Every next generation is likely to take up the same/similar responsibilities (or more) that the earlier generation executed but at relatively younger age. Corporate honchos-- please take a note of this, because you will have real situations to deal with, where employees with the same job descriptions will be at different age brackets, challenging you to manage them uniquely as per their age groups and years of experience.
• Educational curriculum should not remain static, because new generations will anyway figure out ways of quenching their intellectual thirst, whether within or outside the academic syllabi.
As can be easily made out, the list can really go long. But the point that should be borne in mind is that we should apply newer yardsticks to newer generations—else, we will cause stagnation to the process of overall societal development.
All in all, interesting days ahead for all of us--at least till India consolidates its position as a developed nation!
Think about this situation: You are chatting with a child of (say) four years. You are generally enjoying the experience of trying to answer a flurry of questions that the child keeps firing at you. At some stage during this whole delightful experience, the child’s mother/father appears on the scene and gently asks the child to keep quiet and not to continue bombarding you with endless questions. It is at that stage, you say, “Oh, don’t worry. I’m thoroughly enjoying this experience. I tell you, these children are way smarter than the earlier generations!”
Or think about this one: You just bought a new electronic device, say a Kindle. And you got it as a surprise gift for your school-going daughter. Obviously, you like the whole idea behind this gadget i.e. a ‘knowledge-enhancing’ machine, and that’s why you have invested in it. You reach home, handover the gift to your child and expect that she will thank you and then hand back the machine to you to quickly train her into using it. Instead, she thanks you for sure, hugs you and then tears open the pack in a jiffy. Next, at a lightning speed, she takes all the logical steps that lead to a very successful installation of her ‘new toy’! You are amazed—to say the least! This job would have taken you not less than an hour to complete. It would have taken no less than 10 irritating moments for you, while you would try to understand installation instructions from the User Manual and simultaneously attempt to satisfy your daughter’s interfering enthusiasm! Not to mention your inability to manage ignoring your wife’s ‘loaded’ stares in the process! But, saving you of all such embarrassment, your daughter simply puts the new machine to work and that too in minutes. And then you say to your wife with mixed feelings of pride and resignation—“these children are a whole lot smarter than us, aren’t they!”
Don’t we keep coming across such situations? As a result, quite involuntarily, we develop belief that new generations are smarter/more intelligent than the previous ones.
Being patently aware that my readers are generally well ‘initiated’ in a large array of subjects, many of them may have surely heard/read about Flynn Effect--that offers a substantial theoretical backing/explanation to our abovementioned commonly held experiences. Yet, this may not be a bad place to quickly touch upon the concept—especially given its direct relevance to our lives.
What is Flynn Effect?
In most laymanish terms, it can be explained as a theory that brings out a fact that average intelligence quotient (IQ) scores have risen/and rising over generations. And as the name suggests, the author of this theory was Flynn (James Flynn).
Experts have offered several explanations to such rising IQ levels in newer generations. Mainly, they include improved nutrition, nuclear/smaller families, access to a higher quality of education, exposure to greater environmental complexities and also some positive genetic changes etc… And I am aware that these are still only parts of many more possible explanations. Overall, the process of modernization has made the environments around us more complex, which seems to have led to requirements for higher intelligence--basically to manage life effectively.
Very interestingly, the research tells us that the Flynn effect has ended in most of the developed nations and is more of a common phenomenon in the developing world. In fact, Flynn himself, after observing the phenomenon, questioned whether the intelligence itself was rising or whether there was just a continuous improvement in abilities of newer generations to solve abstract problems! Be that as it may, in my observation (and I am sure this is no different for my readers), the overall intellectual ability seems to be increasing with generations.
It is important here to note that--considering above postulate to be true, we need to understand what it means to us in practical life. Hence, this effort to highlight some imperatives of Flynn Effect for us:
• We must acknowledge next generations’ higher abilities to solve more complex problems and accordingly provide them opportunities to face situations where they can apply their capabilities effectively. In short, do not protect them from real world complexities – as it will amount to clipping their wings.
• We should expect higher standards of results from them than what their earlier generations accomplished. They will find the environment of ‘modest goals’ boring and non-stimulating, which will adversely affect their potential ‘achievement motivation.’ In short, continue to raise the performance bar for them.
• Every next generation is likely to take up the same/similar responsibilities (or more) that the earlier generation executed but at relatively younger age. Corporate honchos-- please take a note of this, because you will have real situations to deal with, where employees with the same job descriptions will be at different age brackets, challenging you to manage them uniquely as per their age groups and years of experience.
• Educational curriculum should not remain static, because new generations will anyway figure out ways of quenching their intellectual thirst, whether within or outside the academic syllabi.
As can be easily made out, the list can really go long. But the point that should be borne in mind is that we should apply newer yardsticks to newer generations—else, we will cause stagnation to the process of overall societal development.
All in all, interesting days ahead for all of us--at least till India consolidates its position as a developed nation!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Relationships
Every time two human beings interact with each other, a notion of relationship is created. This is a universal phenomenon. However, many such interactions do not necessarily have either a potential or many a time even a need / requirement to blossom into a long lasting and wholesome relationship. Let’s take an example, you go into one grocery store for the first time and you meet a very helpful and willing sales person behind the counter, who provides you prompt service with a smile. A notion, or shall we say an illusion of a relationship gets created there. And if you never go to that shop again ever, the relationship starts and ends at that one particular transaction. Now let’s extend this example further: consider that the above interaction arose out of your buying a house for your permanent stay in the area where the store is located. During your first ever visit to the store you got a pleasant experience as above and that led to many more such visits. As you started shopping there frequently, you tended to go to the same sales person again and again, this culminated into a slightly deeper and more long lasting relationship.
We, in this complex world of relationships, easily work our way through without consciously realizing how many relationships we manage every day! In a way, that is a good state to be in. Because if we were to consciously reflect on every relationship, we would not have any time left to do anything meaningfully! At the same time, continually living almost at such an involuntary level will take away the developmental opportunities that the periodic reflections will provide us from time to time. Hence, these thoughts!
For the scope of this article let us focus on non-casual relationships with a perspective of sizeable time span. Two words are critical here: ‘non-casual’ and ‘sizeable time span’. By this definition, long lasting relationship with the grocery vendor is not ‘in scope’ given that it is still a casual relationship. Similarly, a contractual relationship which is non casual but is created for a specific task and limited time is also not ‘in scope.’
Boss- subordinate, husband-wife, brother-sister, mother-son etc… are the kinds of relationships that are in reference. Without touching any behavioral theory or relying on any research material I give below what I have learnt as the fundamental tenets of relationships:
1: Relationship is a mutually explorative (mutual exploitation included!!) process that doesn’t have a ‘point of arrival’ state.
I would like to take one of the most long lasting relationships here for illustrating the point. Husband and wife! Starting from the ‘point of departure’ i.e. say, wedding the relationship begins. However, never ever does it become so stagnant that the mutual exploration stops. And if indeed, it does stop, then the deterioration begins—sometimes leading to a divorce and many a time to painful co-existence! The most important point here is that relationships are so dynamic that their constituents have to constantly work on them to keep them relevant for themselves.
2: Every transaction takes the relationship either forward or backward.
We often times don’t notice it, but it’s a fact that the fabric of relationships is woven by the multiple threads of transactions between the constituents of particular relationships. It is for this precise reason why individual transactions are so critical. Depending upon their severity they can significantly impact the relationship maturation process.
Here, the example is very easy to pick from our daily life. Quite often we observe that when heated words are exchanged between the two individuals, it leads to hurt feelings that last for a very long time clearly affecting the relationships or to take a positive example: when a child does something praiseworthy, an instant praise/pat goes a long way in strengthening the child-parent relationship. Every transaction has an influence over the relationship.
3: It is erroneous to assume eternal stability in any relationship.
Given that there are built-in destabilizing factors within the relationship coupled with many external factors, makes it incumbent on the constituents to make efforts to retain vibrancy in the association.
Timely admirations, giving required time/energy/attention to the partner, being there for each other when required are some of the ways to retain vitality. Taking anything for granted is a sure recipe for failure.
While I am a great proponent of the belief that the relationships last only to the extent of their strength, I equally believe that no relationship can merely and automatically last unless parties thereto continue to make investments.
4: Every transaction is necessarily preceded by earlier experiences and every transaction induces feelings and beliefs.
It is therefore necessary for the relationship to prosper that the individuals concerned should be aware of each others’ contexts. These contexts provide insights on ‘whys’ of certain behaviours and as such help the constituents to respond ‘with awareness’.
Let’s consider a newly wedded girl enters her new home and observes that her husband behaves in an unusually dry and distant manner with his father. The girl, without having any clue about the background, holds a grudge against her husband for such indifferent behaviour with the father and even comes to some conclusions about his ‘nature’ being insensitive. This persists for a long time till one day she decides to speak to her husband about it. And that day happens to be the day of revelation for her, when her husband explains to her about many childhood experiences where his father always discriminated him and favoured his elder brother and that he was so deeply hurt about it that it was impossible for him to get those feelings out of his system. That day saw husband-wife relationship moving many miles ahead!
5: The relationship superway is connected by the emotional bridges.
It might sound like a big and bold statement, but I do believe that if there is one factor that the relationship can survive without, then that is ‘intellectual connect.’ I don’t mean to subvert the role of intellectual affiliation here. All I want to emphasize is that such connect does not form the foundation of a relationship. Important point here is that the ‘emotional affiliation’ is at the core of any relationship.
One may have a very big gap in IQ with one’s mother but does that really hamper the relationship? Or consider this: two scientists at a very high and same/similar intellectual level may have a very bad relationship due to the emotional disconnect!
I feel this point is of great importance, when one looks at the official relationships. We often times ignore/underplay emotional aspects in official transactions and try and treat issues impersonally, with curtness and rationality alone. This never works. Because when two humans interact, emotions come into action and then trying to turn a blind eye to those becomes not only counterproductive but it actually leads us to unreal/untenable solutions that frustrate the entire effort.
When a subordinate says ‘he can’t work,’ each time it is not an insubordination situation! Sometimes it may be, but most of the times it is either a demonstration of the subordinate’s lack of confidence, or the boss’s unforgiving style, or a plain statement of subordinate’s incapability of handling that particular work! It is up to the boss in such situations to decipher actual emotional meaning out of such seeming ‘insubordination.’
There can’t be a pure play intellectual transaction in a relationship unless there are subtle or explorative emotions at play. But the converse is not true, i.e. there can be a series of emotional transactions to a complete exclusion of any intellectual give and take.
As I said right at the beginning, what I have tried to briefly capture here are some thoughts of mine on relationships that are exclusively based on my experience. I can’t claim their universality nor can I say that they are consistent/ inconsistent with what the experts have said. I felt the need to write and share my views, and invite my readers to share theirs!
We, in this complex world of relationships, easily work our way through without consciously realizing how many relationships we manage every day! In a way, that is a good state to be in. Because if we were to consciously reflect on every relationship, we would not have any time left to do anything meaningfully! At the same time, continually living almost at such an involuntary level will take away the developmental opportunities that the periodic reflections will provide us from time to time. Hence, these thoughts!
For the scope of this article let us focus on non-casual relationships with a perspective of sizeable time span. Two words are critical here: ‘non-casual’ and ‘sizeable time span’. By this definition, long lasting relationship with the grocery vendor is not ‘in scope’ given that it is still a casual relationship. Similarly, a contractual relationship which is non casual but is created for a specific task and limited time is also not ‘in scope.’
Boss- subordinate, husband-wife, brother-sister, mother-son etc… are the kinds of relationships that are in reference. Without touching any behavioral theory or relying on any research material I give below what I have learnt as the fundamental tenets of relationships:
1: Relationship is a mutually explorative (mutual exploitation included!!) process that doesn’t have a ‘point of arrival’ state.
I would like to take one of the most long lasting relationships here for illustrating the point. Husband and wife! Starting from the ‘point of departure’ i.e. say, wedding the relationship begins. However, never ever does it become so stagnant that the mutual exploration stops. And if indeed, it does stop, then the deterioration begins—sometimes leading to a divorce and many a time to painful co-existence! The most important point here is that relationships are so dynamic that their constituents have to constantly work on them to keep them relevant for themselves.
2: Every transaction takes the relationship either forward or backward.
We often times don’t notice it, but it’s a fact that the fabric of relationships is woven by the multiple threads of transactions between the constituents of particular relationships. It is for this precise reason why individual transactions are so critical. Depending upon their severity they can significantly impact the relationship maturation process.
Here, the example is very easy to pick from our daily life. Quite often we observe that when heated words are exchanged between the two individuals, it leads to hurt feelings that last for a very long time clearly affecting the relationships or to take a positive example: when a child does something praiseworthy, an instant praise/pat goes a long way in strengthening the child-parent relationship. Every transaction has an influence over the relationship.
3: It is erroneous to assume eternal stability in any relationship.
Given that there are built-in destabilizing factors within the relationship coupled with many external factors, makes it incumbent on the constituents to make efforts to retain vibrancy in the association.
Timely admirations, giving required time/energy/attention to the partner, being there for each other when required are some of the ways to retain vitality. Taking anything for granted is a sure recipe for failure.
While I am a great proponent of the belief that the relationships last only to the extent of their strength, I equally believe that no relationship can merely and automatically last unless parties thereto continue to make investments.
4: Every transaction is necessarily preceded by earlier experiences and every transaction induces feelings and beliefs.
It is therefore necessary for the relationship to prosper that the individuals concerned should be aware of each others’ contexts. These contexts provide insights on ‘whys’ of certain behaviours and as such help the constituents to respond ‘with awareness’.
Let’s consider a newly wedded girl enters her new home and observes that her husband behaves in an unusually dry and distant manner with his father. The girl, without having any clue about the background, holds a grudge against her husband for such indifferent behaviour with the father and even comes to some conclusions about his ‘nature’ being insensitive. This persists for a long time till one day she decides to speak to her husband about it. And that day happens to be the day of revelation for her, when her husband explains to her about many childhood experiences where his father always discriminated him and favoured his elder brother and that he was so deeply hurt about it that it was impossible for him to get those feelings out of his system. That day saw husband-wife relationship moving many miles ahead!
5: The relationship superway is connected by the emotional bridges.
It might sound like a big and bold statement, but I do believe that if there is one factor that the relationship can survive without, then that is ‘intellectual connect.’ I don’t mean to subvert the role of intellectual affiliation here. All I want to emphasize is that such connect does not form the foundation of a relationship. Important point here is that the ‘emotional affiliation’ is at the core of any relationship.
One may have a very big gap in IQ with one’s mother but does that really hamper the relationship? Or consider this: two scientists at a very high and same/similar intellectual level may have a very bad relationship due to the emotional disconnect!
I feel this point is of great importance, when one looks at the official relationships. We often times ignore/underplay emotional aspects in official transactions and try and treat issues impersonally, with curtness and rationality alone. This never works. Because when two humans interact, emotions come into action and then trying to turn a blind eye to those becomes not only counterproductive but it actually leads us to unreal/untenable solutions that frustrate the entire effort.
When a subordinate says ‘he can’t work,’ each time it is not an insubordination situation! Sometimes it may be, but most of the times it is either a demonstration of the subordinate’s lack of confidence, or the boss’s unforgiving style, or a plain statement of subordinate’s incapability of handling that particular work! It is up to the boss in such situations to decipher actual emotional meaning out of such seeming ‘insubordination.’
There can’t be a pure play intellectual transaction in a relationship unless there are subtle or explorative emotions at play. But the converse is not true, i.e. there can be a series of emotional transactions to a complete exclusion of any intellectual give and take.
As I said right at the beginning, what I have tried to briefly capture here are some thoughts of mine on relationships that are exclusively based on my experience. I can’t claim their universality nor can I say that they are consistent/ inconsistent with what the experts have said. I felt the need to write and share my views, and invite my readers to share theirs!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Opportunities and Challenges in managing the Millennial Generation
Have you heard the latest? Where, A is for Apple, but B is not for ball—it is B for Bluetooth, C is not for cat – but it is for Chat. And the saga continues! D for Download, E for Email, F for Facebook, G for Google and it goes on all the way up to X for XP, Y for You Tube and so on.
Leaving the humour apart that’s the story of the generation in reference.
And now, let me make an unconventional beginning.
I want to place before you a few discreet and disparate data points for your consideration. And you can tell me if you have either not heard or experienced any of these or something similar to these.
There are two friends. These two young lads say they are very close friends of each other. They live in two adjacent flats and yet don’t meet each other for days and weeks, yet they know everything that is happening in each other’s lives - literally on a day to day basis if not on an hourly basis! Their media of bonding are email chats, text exchanges, facebook, etc...
A friend of mine recently went to attend a two week long workshop on Vipasana – A way of Life that guides you to make a connection with oneself without allowing any communication with anybody around oneself. An introspective, soul searching and meditative intervention. What he found there was that his class had 40% representation from the millennial generation.
You all must have seen one of the popular cartoons making rounds on the intranet where a young child was seriously asking his mother whether he was born or downloaded! I am told that, that cartoon was depicting a common story.
A major political upheaval is happening in Egypt and it is already believed that but for the existence and propagation of the social media in its current state, the result of the uprising against the long standing political power would not have been the same. To what extent technology and social media have played a role in this political transformation will eventually be settled and surely the political scientists will make their studied conclusions. However, the fact cannot be denied that the social media powered by a strong user-base of the members of the millennial generation, has had an influential role to play here.
Such is this generation – impatient, experiential, exploratory and active learners. It is not really so important, for the purposes of this discussion, to debate as to what are the cut off points related to the beginning and end of this generation. It is generally accepted that millennial generation consists of those who were generally in their teens at the turn of the last millennium.
Characteristics of this generation vary, depending upon their socio-economic and regional context. However, they have some common threads. We already mentioned about impatience and learning capabilities above — additionally, they are extremely savvy when it comes to usage and familiarity around communication media and digital technologies – an ability sadly missing in our generation when compared with the Millennials.
As the educational awareness grows around the world, coupled with higher learning orientation of this generation, it is safer to assume that the Millennials will not adapt to the existing organizational cultures without asking some hard hitting questions. The earlier generations choose cultural compliance as a preferred route but this generation will demand cultural re-definition in the face of changing realities around them. Obviously, the imperative for the corporations will be to redesign their supervisory and leadership training interventions that would address a need created by the induction of Millennials in the work force. Managers of this generation will also need to create extra bandwidth for handling some additional work, because apart from the task allocation and supervision they will also have to explain to the Millennials the norms of business behavior related to the use of cell phones, internet, digital cameras and so on.
Unlike the earlier generations that saw a comparatively stable business environment, the Millennials unfortunately have already seen and experienced the bumpy roller coaster rides within the businesses they have been working. They have seen and felt the effects of right-sizing, economic meltdown and the resultant actions that the organizations took to tide over the crises. This has made them cynical about issues like job security, long term loyalties etc.. The organizations, as a result, are now faced with managing the residual effects of such actions that have made a long lasting impact on the millennial generation. This is the time that calls for immediate and focused investments in employee mentoring, training and strengthening platforms within the organization for building credible relationships that can start working as loyalty builders within organizations.
When I was a teenager and I needed a bicycle to go to the school, it was by any definition a necessity and not a luxury. Looking back, I hardly possessed any items or services of luxury at that age and in those days. I am sure, given the enhanced ability on part of the millennial generation to argue logically, they can very easily prove to me that the iphone, the kindle, the tablet PC etc. that they possess are all equally basic necessities! But that is not the point I am making. My point is that my bicycle was bought by my dad and handed over to me but today the Millennials are playing ever increasing and larger roles in influencing all the purchases within the family. Goods and services for their consumption are not even a matter of consultation outside themselves. Result ? As a prospective family car seller, you better appeal to those young folk within the family rather than go in the conventional way to reach out to the one who is going to write the final cheque!!
This generation does not like restricted choices, they like to exercise their freedom to select, personalize and customize the products and services they consume.
In short, they want to be in the centre of the decision-making plate. It is a good news - if you look at them as future business leaders and it may not be such a great news for their current managers and coaches if they are used to a habit of making non-inclusive decisions!
And finally some India perspective :-
- One of the recent studies shows that 72 % of the Millennials in India , 52% in the United States and 45% in China have said that, the more state-of-the-art technology the organization has, the more will be their inclination to join such an organization.
- Millennials of China and India have significantly higher positive perceptions of technology when compared to their counterparts in the Americas and APAC.
So far so good!
But, equally, one should not ignore some other facts that surround India.
- All the discussion we have had above predominantly covers certain sectors of Urban India, but we should not ignore that 50% of people in India work in agriculture, fisheries and farming sectors.
- 25% of India lives in Poverty.
- With the best estimates we are running 10% of unemployment and I am not even counting the disguised unemployment and that the current leading indicators of inflation will only worsen the situation. Our labor force is growing at an annual rate of 2.5 % and employment at 2.3%, clearly adding to the ongoing unemployed youth!
- More than 90% of the working population is employed in the unorganized sector.
- On an ongoing basis, amongst those who find employment, just 10% are absorbed by the service sector.
- And finally, the top 10% of India’s population enjoys almost 30% of the country’s income and the lowest 10% have just over 3% of the country’s income spread over this segment of population.
Although on the face of it, this statistic may look out of place within the framework of the subject in reference, I always think that it should form a necessary reminder to every Indian about the entire context in which we live and operate. Non-appreciation of the same can make us nationally irrelevant!
In summary, the emergence of the millennial generation is universal but its manifestations have unique socio-economic and regional dimensions. It is very important for us, the business leaders, to understand what this generation is made of, what their aspirations are, what works for them and what does not work and what we need to do to re-orient our operating strategies that can best accommodate co- existence of more than one generations within our business set-ups. Millennials, although are the least understood, but have a highest potential to influence the futures of our organizations. Hence, this discussion!
Leaving the humour apart that’s the story of the generation in reference.
And now, let me make an unconventional beginning.
I want to place before you a few discreet and disparate data points for your consideration. And you can tell me if you have either not heard or experienced any of these or something similar to these.
There are two friends. These two young lads say they are very close friends of each other. They live in two adjacent flats and yet don’t meet each other for days and weeks, yet they know everything that is happening in each other’s lives - literally on a day to day basis if not on an hourly basis! Their media of bonding are email chats, text exchanges, facebook, etc...
A friend of mine recently went to attend a two week long workshop on Vipasana – A way of Life that guides you to make a connection with oneself without allowing any communication with anybody around oneself. An introspective, soul searching and meditative intervention. What he found there was that his class had 40% representation from the millennial generation.
You all must have seen one of the popular cartoons making rounds on the intranet where a young child was seriously asking his mother whether he was born or downloaded! I am told that, that cartoon was depicting a common story.
A major political upheaval is happening in Egypt and it is already believed that but for the existence and propagation of the social media in its current state, the result of the uprising against the long standing political power would not have been the same. To what extent technology and social media have played a role in this political transformation will eventually be settled and surely the political scientists will make their studied conclusions. However, the fact cannot be denied that the social media powered by a strong user-base of the members of the millennial generation, has had an influential role to play here.
Such is this generation – impatient, experiential, exploratory and active learners. It is not really so important, for the purposes of this discussion, to debate as to what are the cut off points related to the beginning and end of this generation. It is generally accepted that millennial generation consists of those who were generally in their teens at the turn of the last millennium.
Characteristics of this generation vary, depending upon their socio-economic and regional context. However, they have some common threads. We already mentioned about impatience and learning capabilities above — additionally, they are extremely savvy when it comes to usage and familiarity around communication media and digital technologies – an ability sadly missing in our generation when compared with the Millennials.
As the educational awareness grows around the world, coupled with higher learning orientation of this generation, it is safer to assume that the Millennials will not adapt to the existing organizational cultures without asking some hard hitting questions. The earlier generations choose cultural compliance as a preferred route but this generation will demand cultural re-definition in the face of changing realities around them. Obviously, the imperative for the corporations will be to redesign their supervisory and leadership training interventions that would address a need created by the induction of Millennials in the work force. Managers of this generation will also need to create extra bandwidth for handling some additional work, because apart from the task allocation and supervision they will also have to explain to the Millennials the norms of business behavior related to the use of cell phones, internet, digital cameras and so on.
Unlike the earlier generations that saw a comparatively stable business environment, the Millennials unfortunately have already seen and experienced the bumpy roller coaster rides within the businesses they have been working. They have seen and felt the effects of right-sizing, economic meltdown and the resultant actions that the organizations took to tide over the crises. This has made them cynical about issues like job security, long term loyalties etc.. The organizations, as a result, are now faced with managing the residual effects of such actions that have made a long lasting impact on the millennial generation. This is the time that calls for immediate and focused investments in employee mentoring, training and strengthening platforms within the organization for building credible relationships that can start working as loyalty builders within organizations.
When I was a teenager and I needed a bicycle to go to the school, it was by any definition a necessity and not a luxury. Looking back, I hardly possessed any items or services of luxury at that age and in those days. I am sure, given the enhanced ability on part of the millennial generation to argue logically, they can very easily prove to me that the iphone, the kindle, the tablet PC etc. that they possess are all equally basic necessities! But that is not the point I am making. My point is that my bicycle was bought by my dad and handed over to me but today the Millennials are playing ever increasing and larger roles in influencing all the purchases within the family. Goods and services for their consumption are not even a matter of consultation outside themselves. Result ? As a prospective family car seller, you better appeal to those young folk within the family rather than go in the conventional way to reach out to the one who is going to write the final cheque!!
This generation does not like restricted choices, they like to exercise their freedom to select, personalize and customize the products and services they consume.
In short, they want to be in the centre of the decision-making plate. It is a good news - if you look at them as future business leaders and it may not be such a great news for their current managers and coaches if they are used to a habit of making non-inclusive decisions!
And finally some India perspective :-
- One of the recent studies shows that 72 % of the Millennials in India , 52% in the United States and 45% in China have said that, the more state-of-the-art technology the organization has, the more will be their inclination to join such an organization.
- Millennials of China and India have significantly higher positive perceptions of technology when compared to their counterparts in the Americas and APAC.
So far so good!
But, equally, one should not ignore some other facts that surround India.
- All the discussion we have had above predominantly covers certain sectors of Urban India, but we should not ignore that 50% of people in India work in agriculture, fisheries and farming sectors.
- 25% of India lives in Poverty.
- With the best estimates we are running 10% of unemployment and I am not even counting the disguised unemployment and that the current leading indicators of inflation will only worsen the situation. Our labor force is growing at an annual rate of 2.5 % and employment at 2.3%, clearly adding to the ongoing unemployed youth!
- More than 90% of the working population is employed in the unorganized sector.
- On an ongoing basis, amongst those who find employment, just 10% are absorbed by the service sector.
- And finally, the top 10% of India’s population enjoys almost 30% of the country’s income and the lowest 10% have just over 3% of the country’s income spread over this segment of population.
Although on the face of it, this statistic may look out of place within the framework of the subject in reference, I always think that it should form a necessary reminder to every Indian about the entire context in which we live and operate. Non-appreciation of the same can make us nationally irrelevant!
In summary, the emergence of the millennial generation is universal but its manifestations have unique socio-economic and regional dimensions. It is very important for us, the business leaders, to understand what this generation is made of, what their aspirations are, what works for them and what does not work and what we need to do to re-orient our operating strategies that can best accommodate co- existence of more than one generations within our business set-ups. Millennials, although are the least understood, but have a highest potential to influence the futures of our organizations. Hence, this discussion!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Corporate Values
Corporate Values - Can they be unique to each organization? Or has the time come to examine if there is an over-arching set of values that by and large binds the corporate world together?
Given that this is not an academic article in a strict sense, a broad definition of the term ‘values’, will suffice to establish a context to this discussion.
“Corporate values are a set of principles that the organization overtly proclaims and mandates its employee behaviours in compliance with such principles.”
There are many words in the above working definition that are critical, in that, they require some more explanation before we proceed with the discussion further:
- ‘Principles’ denote guidelines.
- ‘Overtly’ signifies a high degree of openness and transparency.
- ‘Proclaim’ stands for hard coded (or say written down) documents /communications as well as statements made by the top leaders of the organization. Interestingly, such proclamations, in an indirect way, could also include leadership behaviours.
- ‘Mandate’ clearly brings out the non-negotiability around such principles i.e. not following them is not an option!
- ‘Compliance’ shows an additional level of organizational resolve to actively discourage any/ every behaviour that is in non-conformance with these principles.
The reason to lay out a definition (howsoever broad or indeed loose, it may be!) right at the start is to ensure that discussion remains focused - else, there is always a chance of using the terms such as values, mission, objectives, vision etc. interchangeably.
Essentially, having established the basic and workable meaning of the term Corporate Values, we must now go back to the main thread of the topic, i.e. can the values be really unique to each organization or indeed is there a scope to generalize a set of desired values?
At this stage, it will be appropriate to glance through the proclaimed values of some of the organizations to examine the extent of their uniqueness (or otherwise!). Following list contains companies drawn from various sectors such as IT-h/w and s/w, Heavy Engg, Consumer Electronics, Financial Institutions, BPOs, Industrial conglomerates, Food and Pharmaceuticals and they are a blend of Indian, American and European global companies.
Company A:
• Integrity and honesty
• Passion for customers, partners, and technology
• Openness and respectfulness
• Taking on big challenges and seeing them through
• Constructive self-criticism, self-improvement, and personal excellence
• Accountability to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees for commitments, results, and quality
Company B:
• Customer Delight: A commitment to surpassing customer expectations
• Leadership by Example: A commitment to set standards in business and transactions and be an exemplar for the industry and own internal teams
• Integrity and Transparency: A commitment to be ethical, sincere and open in dealings
• Fairness: A commitment to be objective and transaction-oriented, thereby earning trust and respect
• Pursuit of Excellence: A commitment to strive relentlessly, to constantly improve ourselves, our teams, our services and products so as to become the best
Company C:
• Passion for customers
• Trust and respect for individuals
• Achievement and contribution
• Results through teamwork
• Speed and agility
• Meaningful innovation
• Uncompromising integrity
Company D:
• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Ethics
• Continuous Improvement
• Candor and Openness
Company E :
• Responsible Care
• Safety
• Environment
• Quality Products
• Products Safety
• Community Relations
Company F:
• Customer orientation
• Results orientation
• Risk taking
• Great place to work
• Quality
• Discipline
Company G:
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Respect
• Fairness
• Purposefulness
• Trust
• Responsibility
• Citizenship
• Caring
Company H:
• Unparalleled Client Satisfaction
• Teamwork
• Respect for the Individual
• Developing People
• Diversity
• Shareowner's Trust
• Corporate Citizenship
• Integrity
Company I:
• Honour our commitments
• Treat everyone as equals and value differences
• Develop expertise and apply it to uniquely benefit our customers
• Identify leaders and help them realize their potential
• Anticipate ideas and trends, not just follow them
• Stay passionate about succeeding and celebrate each other's success
• Recognize and fulfill our responsibilities to the communities around us
Company J:
• Good corporate citizenship
• Professionalism
• Customer first
• Commitment to quality
• Dignity of the individual
Company K:
• Commitment to innovation & continuous learning
• Respect for the individual
• Collaboration & team work
• Harmony & social responsibility
• Quality and delighting customers, internal and external
Company L:
• Achieving customer satisfaction is fundamental to our business
• Provide products and services of highest quality
• Practice dignity and equity in relationship and provide opportunities for our people to realise their full potential
• Ensure profitable growth and enhance wealth of shareholders
• Foster mutually beneficial relations with all our business partners
• Manage our operations with high concern for safety and environment
• Be a responsible and corporate citizen
Company M:
• Customer Commitment - We develop relationships that make a positive difference in our customers’ lives
• Quality - We provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service that, together, deliver premium value to our customers
• Integrity - We uphold the highest standards of integrity in all of our actions
• Teamwork - We work together, across boundaries, to meet the needs of our customers and to help the company win
• Respect for People - We value our people, encourage their development and reward their performance
Company N:
• Integrity: We do the right thing
• Excellence: We deliver superior products and services to our clients and take pride in the quality of our work
• Respect: We treat people with respect
• Teamwork: We work together to get the job done
• Ownership: We act like owners and take responsibility for our actions
• Leadership: We believe in leadership by example, in the office and in the community
Company O:
• Integrity
• Teamwork
• Respect
• Professionalism
Company P:
• Ethics
• Respect
• Teamwork
• Development
• Merit
• Excellence
Company Q:
• Delight customers
• Deliver on commitments
• Develop people
• Depend on each other
Company R:
• Sustained Growth
• Empowered People
• Responsibility
• Trust
Company S:
• Respect
• Integrity
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Teamwork
• Spirit of winning
Company T:
• Leadership: "The courage to shape a better future"
• Passion: "Committed in heart and mind"
• Integrity: "Be real"
• Accountability: "If it is to be, it’s up to me"
• Collaboration: "Leverage collective genius"
• Innovation: "Seek, imagine, create, delight"
• Quality: "What we do, we do well"
Quick Analysis:
Firstly a minor point; none of the organizations listed above have specifically stated that their respective values are presented in either ascending or descending order - therefore, we must assume that each value carries equal weightage.
And now going into some level of detail:
- Out of 20, 12 companies have specifically called out Integrity as one of their values. Although at times, some other terms are used to convey similar/ same meaning such as: Ethics and Honesty.
- 15 companies enlist Respect as a value. There are some other words used to convey similar meanings such as dignity, equity, fairness etc.
- 11 companies clearly emphasize Teamwork by specifically stating it as one of the values. There are some other terms used by some organizations (such as collaboration, interdependence) to denote a similar meaning.
- 10 companies have specifically referred customers/ clients in their ‘value sets’. Interestingly, 9 companies have Quality related values and 4 out of these 9 have Customer Satisfaction/ Customer Delight written uniquely as values, in addition to Quality.
- 7 companies list down Responsible Corporate Citizenship as one their values. Some companies also use words like community relations, social responsibilities to covey a similar meaning.
- 6 companies identify Innovation to be an important value.
- 6 companies stress on Developing and Empowering People.
- Interestingly, values such as Diversity and Inclusion, Winning, Growth etc. seem to have found a place only in some organizations and aren’t as common as one would expect them to be in today’s global business organizations! And same is the case with Leadership, which is present only in the value sets of 4 companies!
So, where does all this lead us?
Broadly, if one takes a look at the proclaimed values of this diverse set of corporations, it is pretty evident that the following values are common across the majority of them.
• Ethics/ Honesty/ Integrity
• Respect/ Dignity/ Fairness/ Equity
• Teamwork
• Customer Orientation
Then there are some others that are also commonly called out such as Corporate Citizenship, Innovation and Employee Centricity.
And yet, these organizations widely differ in terms of their the performance, brand image, competitive edge etc.!
If we were to go by a polemic that values guide organizational behaviours and in turn, these behaviours lead to performance and the brand image, then obviously there is a missing link somewhere. Else, performances and brand images of the organizations with similar values would have been similar.
So, where’s the catch?
To my mind, the differentiator is not the stated (proclaimed) values. The real difference is made when these values are brought in action.
And how are the values put in action?
Simply put, in a programmatic way! Individual behaviours, although very important (especially the leadership behaviours) in ensuring that the values are put in practice; what is more important is whether the organization has created a programmatic framework to ensure that individual/ group/ team behaviours are guided for their consistency across the organization and whether such programmes are directly related to the organizational values.
Finally, what is a programmatic framework?
It is nothing but a set of organizational programmes that encourage/ reward behaviours in conformity with the values and discourage/ punish/ reprimand the ones that are out of line.
Let’s take examples:
- A section of Employee Performance Management process is dedicated to appraising employee behaviour vis-à-vis company values.
- Presence of a Reward and Recognition programme that publicly acknowledges behaviours that are consistent with the company values.
- New employee induction programs, ongoing refresher training initiatives have specific learning modules woven around the company values.
- Employee Potential Appraisals have a section on behavioural indicators evident from employees’ past behaviours (the maxim being past behaviours equip us to predict future behaviours!) that are consistent/ not consistent with the organizational values.
When such programmes are well institutionalised over a period of time, they create a solid framework for the entire workforce to deliver consistent behaviours in conformity with the organizational values.
There is a BIG difference between the values that are merely formally stated and the ones that are systematically practiced. And that explains why similar sounding organizations return fundamentally different results!
Given that this is not an academic article in a strict sense, a broad definition of the term ‘values’, will suffice to establish a context to this discussion.
“Corporate values are a set of principles that the organization overtly proclaims and mandates its employee behaviours in compliance with such principles.”
There are many words in the above working definition that are critical, in that, they require some more explanation before we proceed with the discussion further:
- ‘Principles’ denote guidelines.
- ‘Overtly’ signifies a high degree of openness and transparency.
- ‘Proclaim’ stands for hard coded (or say written down) documents /communications as well as statements made by the top leaders of the organization. Interestingly, such proclamations, in an indirect way, could also include leadership behaviours.
- ‘Mandate’ clearly brings out the non-negotiability around such principles i.e. not following them is not an option!
- ‘Compliance’ shows an additional level of organizational resolve to actively discourage any/ every behaviour that is in non-conformance with these principles.
The reason to lay out a definition (howsoever broad or indeed loose, it may be!) right at the start is to ensure that discussion remains focused - else, there is always a chance of using the terms such as values, mission, objectives, vision etc. interchangeably.
Essentially, having established the basic and workable meaning of the term Corporate Values, we must now go back to the main thread of the topic, i.e. can the values be really unique to each organization or indeed is there a scope to generalize a set of desired values?
At this stage, it will be appropriate to glance through the proclaimed values of some of the organizations to examine the extent of their uniqueness (or otherwise!). Following list contains companies drawn from various sectors such as IT-h/w and s/w, Heavy Engg, Consumer Electronics, Financial Institutions, BPOs, Industrial conglomerates, Food and Pharmaceuticals and they are a blend of Indian, American and European global companies.
Company A:
• Integrity and honesty
• Passion for customers, partners, and technology
• Openness and respectfulness
• Taking on big challenges and seeing them through
• Constructive self-criticism, self-improvement, and personal excellence
• Accountability to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees for commitments, results, and quality
Company B:
• Customer Delight: A commitment to surpassing customer expectations
• Leadership by Example: A commitment to set standards in business and transactions and be an exemplar for the industry and own internal teams
• Integrity and Transparency: A commitment to be ethical, sincere and open in dealings
• Fairness: A commitment to be objective and transaction-oriented, thereby earning trust and respect
• Pursuit of Excellence: A commitment to strive relentlessly, to constantly improve ourselves, our teams, our services and products so as to become the best
Company C:
• Passion for customers
• Trust and respect for individuals
• Achievement and contribution
• Results through teamwork
• Speed and agility
• Meaningful innovation
• Uncompromising integrity
Company D:
• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Ethics
• Continuous Improvement
• Candor and Openness
Company E :
• Responsible Care
• Safety
• Environment
• Quality Products
• Products Safety
• Community Relations
Company F:
• Customer orientation
• Results orientation
• Risk taking
• Great place to work
• Quality
• Discipline
Company G:
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Respect
• Fairness
• Purposefulness
• Trust
• Responsibility
• Citizenship
• Caring
Company H:
• Unparalleled Client Satisfaction
• Teamwork
• Respect for the Individual
• Developing People
• Diversity
• Shareowner's Trust
• Corporate Citizenship
• Integrity
Company I:
• Honour our commitments
• Treat everyone as equals and value differences
• Develop expertise and apply it to uniquely benefit our customers
• Identify leaders and help them realize their potential
• Anticipate ideas and trends, not just follow them
• Stay passionate about succeeding and celebrate each other's success
• Recognize and fulfill our responsibilities to the communities around us
Company J:
• Good corporate citizenship
• Professionalism
• Customer first
• Commitment to quality
• Dignity of the individual
Company K:
• Commitment to innovation & continuous learning
• Respect for the individual
• Collaboration & team work
• Harmony & social responsibility
• Quality and delighting customers, internal and external
Company L:
• Achieving customer satisfaction is fundamental to our business
• Provide products and services of highest quality
• Practice dignity and equity in relationship and provide opportunities for our people to realise their full potential
• Ensure profitable growth and enhance wealth of shareholders
• Foster mutually beneficial relations with all our business partners
• Manage our operations with high concern for safety and environment
• Be a responsible and corporate citizen
Company M:
• Customer Commitment - We develop relationships that make a positive difference in our customers’ lives
• Quality - We provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service that, together, deliver premium value to our customers
• Integrity - We uphold the highest standards of integrity in all of our actions
• Teamwork - We work together, across boundaries, to meet the needs of our customers and to help the company win
• Respect for People - We value our people, encourage their development and reward their performance
Company N:
• Integrity: We do the right thing
• Excellence: We deliver superior products and services to our clients and take pride in the quality of our work
• Respect: We treat people with respect
• Teamwork: We work together to get the job done
• Ownership: We act like owners and take responsibility for our actions
• Leadership: We believe in leadership by example, in the office and in the community
Company O:
• Integrity
• Teamwork
• Respect
• Professionalism
Company P:
• Ethics
• Respect
• Teamwork
• Development
• Merit
• Excellence
Company Q:
• Delight customers
• Deliver on commitments
• Develop people
• Depend on each other
Company R:
• Sustained Growth
• Empowered People
• Responsibility
• Trust
Company S:
• Respect
• Integrity
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Teamwork
• Spirit of winning
Company T:
• Leadership: "The courage to shape a better future"
• Passion: "Committed in heart and mind"
• Integrity: "Be real"
• Accountability: "If it is to be, it’s up to me"
• Collaboration: "Leverage collective genius"
• Innovation: "Seek, imagine, create, delight"
• Quality: "What we do, we do well"
Quick Analysis:
Firstly a minor point; none of the organizations listed above have specifically stated that their respective values are presented in either ascending or descending order - therefore, we must assume that each value carries equal weightage.
And now going into some level of detail:
- Out of 20, 12 companies have specifically called out Integrity as one of their values. Although at times, some other terms are used to convey similar/ same meaning such as: Ethics and Honesty.
- 15 companies enlist Respect as a value. There are some other words used to convey similar meanings such as dignity, equity, fairness etc.
- 11 companies clearly emphasize Teamwork by specifically stating it as one of the values. There are some other terms used by some organizations (such as collaboration, interdependence) to denote a similar meaning.
- 10 companies have specifically referred customers/ clients in their ‘value sets’. Interestingly, 9 companies have Quality related values and 4 out of these 9 have Customer Satisfaction/ Customer Delight written uniquely as values, in addition to Quality.
- 7 companies list down Responsible Corporate Citizenship as one their values. Some companies also use words like community relations, social responsibilities to covey a similar meaning.
- 6 companies identify Innovation to be an important value.
- 6 companies stress on Developing and Empowering People.
- Interestingly, values such as Diversity and Inclusion, Winning, Growth etc. seem to have found a place only in some organizations and aren’t as common as one would expect them to be in today’s global business organizations! And same is the case with Leadership, which is present only in the value sets of 4 companies!
So, where does all this lead us?
Broadly, if one takes a look at the proclaimed values of this diverse set of corporations, it is pretty evident that the following values are common across the majority of them.
• Ethics/ Honesty/ Integrity
• Respect/ Dignity/ Fairness/ Equity
• Teamwork
• Customer Orientation
Then there are some others that are also commonly called out such as Corporate Citizenship, Innovation and Employee Centricity.
And yet, these organizations widely differ in terms of their the performance, brand image, competitive edge etc.!
If we were to go by a polemic that values guide organizational behaviours and in turn, these behaviours lead to performance and the brand image, then obviously there is a missing link somewhere. Else, performances and brand images of the organizations with similar values would have been similar.
So, where’s the catch?
To my mind, the differentiator is not the stated (proclaimed) values. The real difference is made when these values are brought in action.
And how are the values put in action?
Simply put, in a programmatic way! Individual behaviours, although very important (especially the leadership behaviours) in ensuring that the values are put in practice; what is more important is whether the organization has created a programmatic framework to ensure that individual/ group/ team behaviours are guided for their consistency across the organization and whether such programmes are directly related to the organizational values.
Finally, what is a programmatic framework?
It is nothing but a set of organizational programmes that encourage/ reward behaviours in conformity with the values and discourage/ punish/ reprimand the ones that are out of line.
Let’s take examples:
- A section of Employee Performance Management process is dedicated to appraising employee behaviour vis-à-vis company values.
- Presence of a Reward and Recognition programme that publicly acknowledges behaviours that are consistent with the company values.
- New employee induction programs, ongoing refresher training initiatives have specific learning modules woven around the company values.
- Employee Potential Appraisals have a section on behavioural indicators evident from employees’ past behaviours (the maxim being past behaviours equip us to predict future behaviours!) that are consistent/ not consistent with the organizational values.
When such programmes are well institutionalised over a period of time, they create a solid framework for the entire workforce to deliver consistent behaviours in conformity with the organizational values.
There is a BIG difference between the values that are merely formally stated and the ones that are systematically practiced. And that explains why similar sounding organizations return fundamentally different results!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Leadership
It is important to mention right at the beginning that this discussion is primarily focused on the ‘leadership’ in the context of business organizations. However, an inevitable reliance is also placed on references outside the business organization paradigms, where necessary.
It’s a shame that the word 'leadership' has become a cliché! Everyone wants to at least offer an opinion (even if not write/talk about it) on the subject! Theories have been written and debunked around the subject. And prolific quotations are available (and increasing) from millions of people, drawn from all possible fields and parts of the globe.
I still think that the last word on the subject has yet not been written. I also think that given the ever changing situation around the world, that last word may never be written, after all!
So, what is this ever changing situation? And why is it so germane to the subject of leadership?
It is not my case that there aren’t many solid eternal qualities that define great leaders e.g. ability to empower teams, execution capabilities, drive for innovation, courage of conviction and as one can imagine, there are many such time tested characteristics that can be listed here. However, the important point that often gets missed out is that leadership is not about possessing and all the time merely honing these attributes. It is, in fact, more to do with the leader’s judgment about understanding which skill to use in which situation. Let’s take an example: The world recently saw (and the situation even today is far from normal) an unprecedented economic slow-down. Many corporations lost their original identity as an inevitable consequence of this economic depression, while some others have so far managed to keep themselves afloat. We have still not seen any major examples of organizations leveraging this crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally change their business model that could potentially insulate them from any future downturns. When we start seeing powerful examples of corporations coming out as victors from the current crisis, it will certainly be largely attributable to the leadership effort. It will be clear only at that point as to what really worked! So, the lesson here seems to be that what sets apart a good leader from the average one is the leader’s ability to apply right skills to the right situation.
Now to the other important point that is also often neglected while understanding the concept of leadership and that is ‘inclusiveness’ or ‘respecting diversity.’ An example here will make this point amply clear: Take a case of any successful global corporation and pick-up the top 5% of its global leaders and you will invariably find that their individual leadership strengths are very unique to each one of them. Highly successful CEOs allow such uniqueness of qualities to flourish amongst their top leaders such that the collective organizational leadership style becomes a fine amalgam of each leader’s unique style and not a perpetuation of the CEO’s own preferred style.
And lastly, my most favourite one. Leadership within a business organization can’t survive, sustain and grow without its harmonious linkages with the social milieu within which that business organization operates. Again here, an example will be in order. For a country/society where democratic processes are well established, an organizational leadership style that is democratic will yield a lot of favourable results, however, in a hierarchically arranged society/culture if an organizational leader tries to inculcate a class-neutral (or egalitarian) style, it will not work. Isn’t it a fact that after putting in place very flat (modeled on western ways) organizational structures within the India arms of the global organizations; we have ultimately found our own ingenious ways of inserting sub-layers within the overall broad-banded org structures? And we did that for a purpose, right?
So, leadership is not about what common attributes the leaders should possess, but it is about what works—culturally, situationally and indeed dynamically!
My stray thoughts to begin the New Year!
Cheers!!
It’s a shame that the word 'leadership' has become a cliché! Everyone wants to at least offer an opinion (even if not write/talk about it) on the subject! Theories have been written and debunked around the subject. And prolific quotations are available (and increasing) from millions of people, drawn from all possible fields and parts of the globe.
I still think that the last word on the subject has yet not been written. I also think that given the ever changing situation around the world, that last word may never be written, after all!
So, what is this ever changing situation? And why is it so germane to the subject of leadership?
It is not my case that there aren’t many solid eternal qualities that define great leaders e.g. ability to empower teams, execution capabilities, drive for innovation, courage of conviction and as one can imagine, there are many such time tested characteristics that can be listed here. However, the important point that often gets missed out is that leadership is not about possessing and all the time merely honing these attributes. It is, in fact, more to do with the leader’s judgment about understanding which skill to use in which situation. Let’s take an example: The world recently saw (and the situation even today is far from normal) an unprecedented economic slow-down. Many corporations lost their original identity as an inevitable consequence of this economic depression, while some others have so far managed to keep themselves afloat. We have still not seen any major examples of organizations leveraging this crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally change their business model that could potentially insulate them from any future downturns. When we start seeing powerful examples of corporations coming out as victors from the current crisis, it will certainly be largely attributable to the leadership effort. It will be clear only at that point as to what really worked! So, the lesson here seems to be that what sets apart a good leader from the average one is the leader’s ability to apply right skills to the right situation.
Now to the other important point that is also often neglected while understanding the concept of leadership and that is ‘inclusiveness’ or ‘respecting diversity.’ An example here will make this point amply clear: Take a case of any successful global corporation and pick-up the top 5% of its global leaders and you will invariably find that their individual leadership strengths are very unique to each one of them. Highly successful CEOs allow such uniqueness of qualities to flourish amongst their top leaders such that the collective organizational leadership style becomes a fine amalgam of each leader’s unique style and not a perpetuation of the CEO’s own preferred style.
And lastly, my most favourite one. Leadership within a business organization can’t survive, sustain and grow without its harmonious linkages with the social milieu within which that business organization operates. Again here, an example will be in order. For a country/society where democratic processes are well established, an organizational leadership style that is democratic will yield a lot of favourable results, however, in a hierarchically arranged society/culture if an organizational leader tries to inculcate a class-neutral (or egalitarian) style, it will not work. Isn’t it a fact that after putting in place very flat (modeled on western ways) organizational structures within the India arms of the global organizations; we have ultimately found our own ingenious ways of inserting sub-layers within the overall broad-banded org structures? And we did that for a purpose, right?
So, leadership is not about what common attributes the leaders should possess, but it is about what works—culturally, situationally and indeed dynamically!
My stray thoughts to begin the New Year!
Cheers!!
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