The Uncomfortable Calm
Calm is a good way of living life, especially if interspersed between two high intensity timelines. Perhaps that is why it’s called calm! And a similar period of cautious calm is what we are experiencing in the business world. It is as though the world is sitting quiet to record even a whisper or an inkling of a sound that points at the recession ending. But as it always happens that one senses what one wishes to sense, we find reports and statements being made in public that make us believe and have a hope against hope that the recession could actually be coming to an end. But is this lull actually the best plan of action or perhaps the lack of it?
One very interesting fact about the uncomfortable calm we are in is that neither are we sure if the high-intensity period is arriving in the near future nor are we sure of how long the bad times are going to last. But isn’t it taught in almost every B-school in the world that managers need to work with incomplete information and take measurable risks. And is it really beneficial to act when the world lies low scathing in pain? Mckinsey & Co in its paper titled ‘Learning to love recessions’ (June 2002: Richard F. Dobbs, Tomas Karakolev, and Francis Malige) talks of how some companies by their sheer act of getting active in times of recession have resulted in improving their value and emerging stronger from the recession. The article specifically mentions high risk activities like M&As carried out in times of recession by such companies to have fetched higher returns than the ones that pursued the same activity in boom time. It is interesting to find that 63% of the former organisations laid low when times were good and used the pent up capital to make an impact when the world was down with recession flu!
These are strategic decisions that defy man’s conventional Make-hay-while-the-Sun-shines wisdom and yet result in returns that are significant and differentiating in character. So what’s the take away for us HR folks? Get cracking in bad times. This is the best time to act. Just when all the competitors lie low in a circumspect manner trying to evaluate options in a state of corporate confusion, some others are cashing in on the opportunity to make the most of the clear strip available on the talent highway. A testimony to the fact is the participation of SMEs and start-ups along with PSUs that made a beeline at India’s premier B-schools last year. The puzzle was not all that cryptic that we can’t understand. The demand-supply mismatch let these firms to make the most of the situation and lap up talent in a way never done before. It just went to show how the economy lets the spirit of initiative drive growth: a drive that is coupled with the need for a change and is dependent on the hunger for growth.
The role of the state is debated in many an economy stuck between capitalism and communist ideologies. Whilst the communist ideology believes in the rule of the state and state run businesses to achieve inclusive growth, the capitalist model blames the role of the state for reduced productivity and complacency in performance of industries. A country like India is effectively a hybrid of both – and hybrids are interesting. The government and the corporate sector come together in various Public-Private Partnerships to ensure viability of ventures that result in social benefits. Interestingly Dr.Montek Singh Ahluwalia , Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in one the interviews mentioned that in times of recession when the business world is suffering, it is the state that needs to come forward and stimulate economic activity. Investments in improving infrastructure can be one such intervention by the state in such times. This will pave the way for a smoother transition of the corporate world with the requisite infrastructure in place, once the recession begins to subside.
The calm therefore need not be universal in character. If one actor is down with a flu the other needs to fill in. Because the show must go on!
NHRD & XLRI: Giving strategic inputs to HR
The Personnel Management & Industrial Relations batch of 2008-2010 at XLRI School of Business & Human Resources is busy in developing robust learning centers to aid NHRD understand and formulate HR Strategies. Check the link:
Flexi work force to tackle lay off blues – Lucknow – City – NEWS – The Times of India.
Unemployment in Europe – No Hindu rate of growth here!!
Unemployment rates in Europe have scaled a new high! Spain continues to be the worst hit with a staggering rate of 18.1% ! Wonder where this is heading….
The Satans & The Gods of Talent – Part 2
The previous article looked at idetifying The Satans of Talent – The Talent Blockers. This one looks to establish common attributes of the Talent Accelerators -The Gods of Talent in an organisation.
TALENT ACCELERATORS!
Talent Accelerators are those set of managers that contribute to fostering the organisation’s talent pipeline. They are assets to an organisation’s objective of developing a robust talent pipeline to create a sustainable competitive advantage. A Talent accelerator is adept at identifying talent and encouraging his subordinates to perform to the best of their abilities. A Talent Accelerator should be identified and commended for his performance and the practice should be cascaded to other business units as well. Certain attributes of a Talent Accelerator have been pointed out below:
Recruit and select high potentials even if they’re hard to handle
A talent accelerator is the manager who displays his intent of developing a high performance team by identifying high potential at the time of hiring in spite of being aware of the fact that there could be a need to manage high expectations of the employees. By doing so, he helps inducting hi-pots early into the organisation.
Coach for skills development & Mentor for career development
A Talent Accelerator believes in coaching and mentoring to improve the quality of his subordinates. He draws from his career and experiences to coach his subordinates for skills development and guides them with regards to the career decisions they should take to advance in their professional careers. All this, in spite of being aware of the fact that they would move on from his team for better prospects. He makes up for it by continuing this process to churn out successful professionals over time.
Give totally candid feedback on performance
Unlike Talent Blockers, the talent accelerators are candid in giving feedbacks to their subordinates even on issues that are sensitive and personal. By doing so, they not only earn the respect as straight talkers but also, result in their subordinates understanding the expectations from them clearly. On the flip side, they are open to accept critique on their actions from their subordinates.
Create stretch assignments
To develop the talent under them, the talent accelerators encourage them to take up stretch assignments to explore their potential. In doing so, they identify the talent that can be banked upon and once the talent is identified they expose the talented individuals to develop their leadership skills. This helps in creating a base of ‘ready now’ individuals to take up leadership roles in the event of talent crunches at the senior levels.
Surrender their high performers for corporate challenges
Talent accelerators firmly believe that their subordinates belong to the organisation and not to them alone. This ideology helps them surrender their best talent to be deployed to the areas that most need their expertise. By doing so, not only do they aid the organisation’s strategic plans but also contribute to the personal development of their subordinates. They are firm believers of talent exchange process and do all in their capacity to contribute to the process.
Reference:
Talent Development, Jeffrey Gandz, Ph.D. Professor, Managing Director – Program Design, Richard Ivey School of Business, September 2006, Ivey Executive Development
The Satans & The Gods of Talent – Part 1
Talent in an organisation is susceptible to inconsiderate handling. An ill-managed talent will always contribute to the regretted attrition levels of the organisation. The widely used saying ‘Employees quit bosses, not organisations!’ drives home this point all too clearly.
Talent in any organisation is the ability of its workforce to exceed expectations and deliver value consistently. In an era when technology, strategy or quality benchmarks can be emulated, it is the talent that provides the requisite sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation. In this ‘war for talent’ that has gripped organisations, it is becoming increasing critical to identify the blockages of talent and address them before the actual damage is caused. Conversely it is equally important to identify the talent accelerators to recognize them and reward them for their efforts in developing a robust talent pipeline with a considerable level of stability.
This article in a series, attempts to look at the ‘Satans’ and the ‘Gods’ of Talent Development & Retention in organisations today.
TALENT BLOCKERS!
The dubious distinction of ‘Talent Blocker’ is attributed to those managers who end up in stifling talent and thereby failing to contribute to developing an organization wide talent pipeline. Most times, the talent blockers are not aware of the damage they are causing to the talent ecosystem. It is more to do with the comfort levels and the lack of mentoring and coaching from senior management in terms of fostering talent in the organization. To broadly lay down specific situations when talent blockers thrive, certain obvious areas that result in the blockage of talent have been pointed out:
Recruiting and selecting easy-to manage people
The process of talent blockage manifests at the very beginning of the employee life-cycle when managers tend to recruit candidates who they think will be easy to manage and will be ‘tooth-less’. This happens because a lot of focus is laid down by the senior management on the working relationship between a manager and his subordinates. Having recruited a candidate who will be easy to manage, the manager tends to overshadow the existence of that candidate in the organization there by maintaining a smooth relationship without any ‘ripples’. This is a sub conscious effort by the talent blocker (manager) to ensure his importance in the setup is not undermined and that he continues to call the shots.
Not coaching or mentoring effectively
A majority of successful individuals attribute their professional success to the presence of a coach or a mentor who guided them through rough times. It is this quality that is found missing in a talent blocker. Absence of effective coaching and mentoring practices by managers results in a slow development of the talent under them and there is always a possibility of a stunted career growth for the subordinates in an organization under a manager who is indifferent to the growth and development of individuals.
Lack candor in their feedback
Feedback is a critical tool of correction. But it takes a lot of heart to have your subordinates critique your style of management and to give a frank opinion on the subordinates/ performances. Having said that, a manager who does practice candid feedback programmes benefits not only in improving his own management style but also improves the engagement levels of the employees reporting to him. A talent blocker on the contrary is reluctant to indulge in feedback practices as it involves giving frank opinions on sensitive and personal issues and the blocker is hesitant on issues. It requires getting feedback yourself – and this may not be welcome!
Do not reward differentially for success
Performance if not suitably rewarded will result in demotivation and dip in performance levels. But a talent blocker does not believe in this philosophy. He tends to overlook good performances and believes that such performances will sustain only if the expectations of subordinates are kept in check. This results in the absence of any incentive for the subordinates to perform for the manager or the business and in spite of having promising potential, the subordinates end up as work horses or ‘solid-citizens’ under the talent blocker and eventually quit as a result of pent up frustration.
Horde the people who get the job done
The most common characteristic of a talent blocker is the hoarding of talent and masking it from getting exposed to the talent exchange process. In his selfish bid to maintain performance, a talent blocker tends to horde the talent under him and thereby prevents their progression to lateral movements or promotions. This is the most critical blow that an organisation suffers. On the talent being blocked from further growth by the talent blocker, the subordinates (talent in discussion) tend to get frustrated and end up either as workhorses devoid of any enthusiasm or in more critical cases quit the organisation.
Reference:
Talent Development, Jeffrey Gandz, Ph.D. Professor, Managing Director – Program Design, Richard Ivey School of Business, September 2006, Ivey Executive Development
Understand your organisation’s Talent Maturity
Fill in this survey to help me understand the talent maturity level prevalent in organisations all over. I am working on a talent maturity model that requires me to define stages of maturity. Your participation will go a long way in refining my model. I will be sharing the results of the survey and my model in the days to come. Thank you for participating.
Please fill in the survey. Click here
Go ahead and measure the talent you’ve got!
Talent is crucial to any organisation. But how can we improve something that cannot be measured? Talent is something which is innate to an individual. It is the ability and the capability to achieve results. So it is fair to assume that talent precedes results. Taking this relationship forward is Dr.Sullivan who makes a fair attempt to measure the value of talent in this article.
The ‘better’ half yet to come!
Contrary to the positive connotation given to the clichéd “Well begun is half done” this article intends to generate curiosity to look at the other half as far as talent management is concerned. Organisations all over have been openly supportive of driving a performance based culture where the best are treated the best. Talent assessment activities are being carried out on a war footing at many an organisation, taking stock of talent issues if any and drawing out comprehensive plans to improve the pitfalls. Corporate world is caught in a frenzy to identify its top-class talent and quarantine the grey areas to ensure that priorities and privileges are set realistically. Half job well done. It is the other half that bothers.
If many have not guessed yet, it is the set of activities that succeed the assessment. All the reports generated, information gathered and plans drawn are not finding the light of day thanks to the absence of robust talent development strategies at the desired levels. Organisations finding gaps in competencies and performance are lacking in developing training programs that result in an effective plugging of these drawbacks. The importance of strategic talent development is overshadowed by the day-to-day activities in the organisation today. Companies are so engrossed in tying the loose ends up that no alignment of strategic training and development with the business requirements is ever attempted in an earnest manner. Any lack of competency is nullified by ushering in requisite talent from external sources. And at what cost!
There is a visible lack of drive and initiative in presenting a sound case for developing a strategic learning and development wing at organisations to ensure the prime-mover churns out talent to sustain a long term competitive advantage. Barring firms like Deloitte PLC (featured in the Top 10 Training Hall of Fame, Business Source Corporate, February 2009) who seamlessly integrate training programs with individual’s job requirements, there are many firms who either do not see sense in spending to develop their workforce’s competencies or develop ‘one-size-fits-all’ plans that are unable to address specific competency gaps in individuals.
The problem stems from the lack of leadership in senior management positions that can drive this initiative. There is no idea buy-in when it comes to identifying training and development as a strategic concern. Training and development (T&D) always contributes to a lag effect and thus is inadvertently thrown to the backburners. Insufficient indicators in real time that can reaffirm the importance of T&D lead to this aspect of talent management ending up in mere lip talk than action. Top thinkers and management moguls have always voiced their support in favour of talent development & training programs as an effective tool to improve business performance. So much so that, IT majors like Infosys and Wipro have dedicated training centres with world class facilities to foster training and employee development in a comprehensive manner. These efforts have paid rich dividends in developing talent bench that is ready to take up challenging assignments thanks to the developed capabilities and more importantly the developed competencies to deliver value.
There is a compelling need for leaders in senior management to focus on not just assessing the talent but invest in developing the same inside out. This will take patience, spending and a long-term view in copious quantities.
Unemployment – Arrested??!!
Unemployment in the United States seems to have slowed down with the newest numbers indicating a decrease in the rate of growth of unemployment (Unemployment Still Growing, But at Slower Pace – NYTimes.com) Analysts attribute the same to a slight ease in tensions with the health of finacial institutions looking positive. How fast the public latches on o these signals given the show at the stock markets. But what does this information hold in store for the 539000 people who have lost their jobs this year? That things could get better with investments into the economy flowing back in. Dr.Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of India, made an interesting observation when he quipped that when the things are going bad in the private sector, the government needs to take the initiative and generate employment and opportunities for improving the economic infrastructure.This initiative will not only spur economic growth but will also create the foundation for the private sector to smoothly transit in once the turn is taken.
This form of public-private partnership is what the economy needs at this juncture to keep the spirits up and the markets ticking. And for the scores of people who have been ‘culled’ by the corporate world, its just a question of time and opportune moments round the corner.
Cheers to Alghanim!!
Hewitt Associates recently announced the ‘Best Employers in Middle East in 2009′ awards and Alghanim Industries, Kuwait (where I ‘m interning currently) has been adjudged one of the 10 best employers in the Middle Eastern Region along the likes of Deloitte Touche and P&G among others. Really excited to intern in a company which is growing leaps and bounds in terms of being a desired employment destination. Read on for more.
