Are you a Real Woman ?

One day after finishing the work Rachael was unwinding by checking her personal mails. Suddenly she saw a mail from an unknown person and he wrote in his signature “I am a fan”. Well she had a fan following of her blogs but she never thought that one day she will get such nice and heart touching mail. That was an Invite to become the speaker and the topic was “ Women - The change agents”. Well usually she doesn't like being a speaker because of public glare but this time the invitation was from “A fan” so she could not say no. She knows that being someones favorite is a“great responsibility” as she herself was fan of many people. And when people look up to you, it's your responsibility not to hurt the feelings. Well Rachael accepted the invitation and started preparing for the Seminar.

On the seminar day, there were four other speakers along with her and all of them were from different background. It was a privilege to share the stage with such talented successful women. She was happy that she will get to learn new things from such distinguished guests who were not only senior to her in age but in experience as well. She was the first one to speak and was a little nervous as that was her first seminar as a speaker. Well she fumbled initially but then she became more confident and was unstoppable. She spoke on the topic based on her experience of being woman…. Simple things of life and how simple things in life (if not taken care properly) can become bigger issue later.

Now was the time for another speaker to take the stage. When the seminar ended she was surprised to hear the opinion of other speakers. One of them said “I am surprised how a woman can take care of kids as well as office. I can never imagine myself taking care of my work and family together. I somewhere feel that such women compromise on work and don’t give their 100%. The kind of profile I am in I can never imagine to start family that’s the reason I never got married”. Another one said “Don’t get upset when your boss comment on your lips and say that “ Your lipstick is awesome””….. Well Well !

Let's take the point one by one. The primary role of women in the society/family is to take care of the family. If that’s not true then Why only women have the capacity to undergo  the process of meiosis because Its women role to have kids and take care of them and define the future of the society and country. I am not saying that Women should not work . They should but Family should always be a priority for women. Men and women have defined roles by GOD and it should be followed in that order only. If we try to change things completely it can lead to devastation.

Rakhsita being woman always believed that Women role has to be performed by women and no men can match the role of women . In the similar way Men role should be performed by Men only, No Women can match that. Rachaels  mother and father had defined “role” in shaping her as an individual hence she believed in that logic. People will label Rachael as Orthodox but according to me She is a modern woman and trying to do her duties of life and I am sure one day she will be a successful mother, wife as well as professional.  We have many examples from the corporate world where the  woman is  successful mother as well as professional. It's not difficult and can be easily achieved with the help of family members ,colleagues & mentors. That’s the reason it's very important to marry the right person/Choose the right organisation….A person/organisation who can understand you, help you grow as an individual. Climbing the corporate ladder, or juggling between the companies or straightway starting of your own … Whatever way one has chosen, it doesn’t matter… what matters is the success of each role play. Women have to plan their house chores as well as office chores in a more professional way and nothing seems impossible. Planning is the core of everything whether its personal or professional life.

Coming to the second statement of speaker “Don’t get upset when your boss comment on your lips and say that “ Your lipstick is awesome”…. It is a concern and matter to get upset. It depends on the individual. Some women like such compliments, some don’t... so men should be very careful before making such statement. Men should better avoid making such loose statement. Everyone appreciates beauty but when this appreciation becomes habit for men and is shown to every second women then its a matter of concern as the next step will be to visualize women in "Ooh la la" way…. Infatuation at any age is bad but if its limited to healthy flirting then it's absolutely fine.  Now the issue is if you don’t appreciate such statement you will be termed as “ Arrogant”. Don’t bother what people say, DO what you feel is right and appreciate the behavior if you find it ok. If not then ask the person ( whatever position the person holds) in a polite manner to “ SHUT UP”

Someone rightly said “ Women's role is to unite the house”….. Women are known as “Female”… The word itself has “Iron” in it which means that women are strong, intelligent and ready to take the  world. Reach the top but don’t forget the primary responsibility of “Being Woman” !

*Image Credits : Creative Commons.

Saamna - The Real Story

Empowerment – Empowerment is a strong word and we talk in today’s world with respect to Women Empowerment, Employee Empowerment…. Empowerment is what young job aspirants are looking for in organizations. More than monetary rewards, it is the feeling that employee “owns” the job that motivates him or her nowadays. Empowered employees are energetic and passionate, however in a middle level position when “Boss” empowers the subordinate, it always doesn’t mean that  “Boss” is doing to make the subordinate feel empowered but it can also mean that he is incapable of handling the work and has chosen the best brain to help him so that he can show his work to seniors by simply erasing the employee name from the document .

So how to handle such Idiotic, mad boss… here presenting the story of Saamna a middle level manager.

One fine day Saamna got a call from an HR firm stating “ Will you be interested in joining ABC company” ? She said “ No” because she had heard that Women are not treated well by ABC company. After few days she was surprised to get call from the Head marketing of the same organization called “ Nilesh Kumar”. First of all she was shocked and taken aback that how “Nilesh” got her number and secondly Why is he calling her… This was the first time in her life when Head marketing was calling her directly without any appointment. However she gave him ear… Nilesh tried to persuade her to join the organization and ensured her that she will be treated well.

After the call he started texting her. She was shocked and didn’t know how to handle the person like him…. So she gave it a thought and tried to ignore the messages. However she had a strong feeling that someone else is controlling this entire act ( The stupid act of Head marketing) so to get into deeper she also got friendly on sms but things were still not clear as whose brain is behind all this activity.

 One day she got the call from HR that she has been finalized and she had to join on x day. So finally she joined. Nilesh tried to get close to her and shared his personal life. She easily could have said “ FO” but he was her boss and she had to think smartly so she hatched the plan in her mind.

Problem statement – Nilesh was mentally sick and needed a shoulder to cry as he was undergoing Divorce in his personal life.

To know about the person who is asking him to get friendly with Saamna.

Solution : For problem statement 1 she needed someone who can become Nilesh friend so she zeroed in on a girl who was always checking guys and was known as “Saana” by some of her friends.  So this “Saana” was best mach for him as there was lot of similarity between Nilesh and “Saana”.

1. Both of them can't stick to one person.

2. Both of them had the habit to show off and were masters in manipulating the situation. Both of them were born liars. Lie was in their blood. Both had the bad family background.

3. Both of them had little brain and were divorced. Nilesh was divorced twice whereas “Saana” was divorced once.

So she thought of introducing them to each other because by doing that she will be at peace and Nilesh will stop harassing her and both Nilesh & Saamna will be able to concentrate on work and will have peaceful professional life. Sammna was professional enough to handle the work and she just wished that Nilesh let her work peacefully which was beneficial for the organisation as well as for her. It would have been the WIN WIN situation for both the organisation and for her.   She once thought of sharing this with senior management of the organization but  she was told that senior management doesn’t hold good opinion about her, however she tried once sharing with senior management but got cold vibes. One of the option was to tell his wife but she was shocked to hear Nilesh opinion about his wife. He told her that she had cancer once and she goes out with guys. Her English is poor. She drinks and smokes. She is on depression pills. Saamna thought the person who had no respect for his wife will never make her life happy. In fact she will become more depressed if she stays with person like Nilesh.

So in front of her there was only one option which was good for the organization as well as for her  that she get him friendly with that “Saana” so that he remains busy with her and she gets peace in life and they as team were able to deliver the project on time. So she introduced him to her . Life was going good till the time Nilesh behavior became worse ( A man ego that how a woman can say no to him). One day when Nilesh misbehaved with her she thought of teaching him lesson for life because there is saying “When we ignore a wrong, we also become part of the wrong” so she decided that she will leave that organization only after  teaching him lesson for life.

She took the matter to HR and she moved on in life. One month later she got call from a lady stating that “Saana” was sleeping with her husband and she needed Saamna’s help in meeting “Saana” as “Saana” was ignoring her calls. She mailed her the videos of her husband and Saana in a compromising position. She also got the shock of her life when she was told that Saamna account was hacked and few mails were sent using her account to show the world the different story. Saamna could have gone to the police but she thought this situation was like mud, if one throws a stone then some mud will be on her as well. So like a sensible girl she thought of ignoring everything. Time will tell who is what and you can't hide the truth for long.

So finally her plan worked. Both got together, the organization came to know the real Nilesh, and she saved his wife life as well.

When the life showed her right vs. wrong , she chose the right even for that her image was at stake and she had to leave the organization on a bad note. Leaving on a bad note was less painful than to suffer from daily harassment. One mistake which Saamna made that she heard the personal story of Nilesh. According to me she should not have given the ear to Nilesh story but her inquisitive nature and a thought that someone is behind her stupid boss action and her thinking that the organisation is like family, made her hear the story. She learned a big lesson that the Organisation is not family and one should never hear the personal story of anyone or never try to help anyone.

When I heard the above story I was moved and proud of being a woman and only a woman can make such sensible judgment .  Hope you all agree that Saamna was a good decision maker and did the best in that particular situation. There is lot to learn from the above story and the fact that empowerment always doesn't mean that Boss is empowering subordinate to give him/her the power of decision making and allowing the employees to say on how things are to be done.... Empowerment needs to be implemented with caution and senior management should be able to differentiate between empowerment and Bosses non performance. Empowerment doesnt work at the place where boss have highly inflated egos and are self centered. When boss look for secured but not challenging jobs, empowerment sounds hollow.

Keep Reading this section.... 

Challenges at work place – Managers Dilemma

“ I can't work with that Swine. X is Swine.” These words were forwarded to  Rachael who had recently joined an organization which had crazy boss and the team was highly demotivated.  For a minute she was awestruck because not only she was shocked to read those lines but was surprised that how someone can write such lines for a colleague. She thought “from” must be junior or a fresher  and doesn’t know much about business communication but she was amazed to find out that “from” was part of the senior management and a very close friend of COO. The fact that he was writing this mail to one of his juniors and by mistake he sent to x person ( sometimes it does happen that we send to the wrong person about whom we are writing instead of the right recipient). Now x person  reported to Rachael and complained to her that he has raised this issue many times with Rachael’s boss but he has not yet taken any action. Hence he was asking for her help.  Rachael decided to discuss with her boss but got the same old reply that “from” is senior person and it's already been highlighted to MD but MD has decided not to take any action on same. Since its sensitive issue and Rachael's boss is handling it she should be out of this. So for Rachael it was a tough decision as Boss is saying to stay away and here is a colleague who is looking at her with hope that she will help him getting justice.  So it was an ethical question for Rachael… She did which she always do when she is stuck in such dilemma’s. She asked herself what is right… and she got the answer that “from” is wrong and he has to apologize…. Rachael raised the issue in a forum and “from” had to apologize but that apology was not from the heart but for the sake of it….. So here the question is  -

When business leaders make mistakes , should they apologize ?

 Traditional thinking says they  can’t afford to, because by doing so is an admission of guilt that can go against them in the future. However an emerging school of thought says that apologizing isn’t as risky as previously believed. It's better to apologize and set up an example that apologizing doesn’t make one small and create culture in the organization that anyone who makes the mistake will have to apologize… No matter which position the person holds. Ethics are the accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior within the society. Put another way ethical principles define the boundary between right and wrong. For me its knowing the difference between what you have “right” to do and what is right thing to do. To make the right choices as a business communicator you have responsibility to think through not only what you say but also the consequences of saying it. Ethical behavior is a companywide concern, of course but because communication efforts are the public face of a company, they are subjected to rigorous scrutiny from regulators, legislators, investors, consumer groups, environmental groups, labour organizations and anyone else effected by business activities.

Lets come back to Rachael… The other problem she faced was that team was highly demotivated so she decided to figure out the issue by simple method .. by doing “Root cause analysis”. She knew the symptoms of demotivation in the team were – Negativity, Dislike of each other, No team bonding, Keeping to oneself, ego, arrogance, immaturity. She could have easily erased these symptoms by doing small activities like team outing, appreciating the team, asking HR help and getting the training organized for the team members but she chose not to do so because simply by removing the symptoms the chances of reappearing the symptoms are much higher. (Its like fixing the bug temporarily and bug reappearing every financial year. Therefore its very important to fix the bug from the root. )

Hence she decided to get into the root cause of the issue.   She asked 3 questions to herself

1.       Factors- What had led to this situation

2.       Reason - Why it happened

3.       Solution - What to do so that it doesn’t arise again

Hmm…  It was a tough task. She decided to make problem chart. Problem with higher management ( including her boss), Problem with group as whole ( colleagues of different department), Problem with oneself.

Well she could figure out that all the 3 areas defined above were the root cause of the problem and being in the position she was in, she decided to let it go or leave it to the way it is as there is an intelligent saying “ Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control. “ And Rachael didn’t have any control. She didn’t wish to take control but wished that her seniors could take control of the situation. Even if she would have tried to control she was sure that she would have failed because strategy is successful only when executed from top to bottom not the other way round. When we suffer from myopia its better to get it operated rather than putting eye solution, as short term solution will lead to blurred vision and eventually will lead to blindness.

* Image credit = Creative commons

The Consulting Business

Hi friends… Yes I am back after a long gap. This gap was needed as was setting up my own start up hence was very tied up but I always missed writing and interacting with you all.

Few months back when I took the decision to move out of comfort zone of VAS to consulting, people/friends in the industry were surprised and I was flooded with calls and smses. Well Well, I always wanted to get into consulting business as hearing others problem and solving them was something I learned from my grandmother, hence I can say that consulting is in blood even grand ma consulting is different from the consulting which I am trying to do.  I also get to hear that you need domain experts  for consulting, however I have different view.

Few days back as part of HR consultancy to a group I was talking to young gentleman and he after spending 1.5 yrs in the industry wants a change as he wants to learn something new. Now I don’t need to be domain expert of that industry to solve his problem. We all have faced this issue in our professional life and still face it. After spending sometime in the industry we feel we have learned all and want to move to other industry as other industry looks very promising but one thing we forget that whichever industry we join we will always face some issue. No industry is perfect. Everything has its own merit and demerit. Change is definitely spice of life but you cant have spicy food at all levels and at all the time. Somewhere you have to stop and think what exactly you want to do in life.

Now since we are discussing consulting business here let us also discuss strategy as strategy is the core of consulting. Lets take live example -  Chadha brothers killing each other was conspiracy or strategy by the rivals to bring their market value down. Whatever the facts are, strategy can change the future of the organization . It can change for better as well as for worse. It’s the strategy & its implementation defines the future of group. Now at what level you can strategize ( Not by planning to kill someone) but yes definitely help organization grow to next level by killing the rival product not brain. Because if you kill the brain you will have many brains standing to kill you and your business. Rivalry should be confined to business only. Killing the brain behind the strategy is not the solution but to hire the brain is definitely a good strategy to grow your business to next level. So how do you create strategic plan ? Strategic plan is a puzzle and whoever creates should ensure to solve it as well. And before you lay down the strategy you should ask yourself 3 magical questions ;-

1.       Where are we in terms of business now ?

2.       Which direction we are going ?

3.       How we will get there ?

Where are we in terms of business now :-

To answer this question we need to look at the foundational elements ( Mission and Value) of the organization. Mission and Value is for long term and is usually not revised on regular basis and that lay the foundation of the organization. Then you would like to look at your current strategic position by evaluating the internal and external environment. After evaluating you can conclude whether you need to shift and change or not. One should review the strategic position regularly through the use of SWOT/PEST

Which direction we are going?

Once you answer this question then you can be sure of answer of a question “What will my organization look like in the future” ? It’s the same question when you go for nursery admission for your child the teacher asks you “ Where do you see your child in next 10 yrs?” because teacher wants to understand which direction your thinking goes ? Where is your child headed in future ? Future is hard to predict but you definitely will enjoy predicting the future of your organization as you are the creator of that future. Following elements can help you determining the future for your organization

1.       Does your organization have sustainable competitive advantage ?

2.       Does your Vision statement is aligned with the Mission of the organization and does all the stake holders are aligned with the mission of the organization? Do all of them speak the same mission statement?

How we will get there ?

Once you achieve “where” and “which” you definitely will know “How”

Reaching your vision is the most important element of the strategy and its also the most time consuming. The reason it takes so much time to develop because there are number of ways to look at your current position and how to achieve vision. Picking the right one determines how quickly you can reach your destination. The road-map is the future of the company and must include the following points:-

1.       Strategic Objectives

2.       Strategy to achieve the objective

3.       Short term goals

4.       Action points

5.       Scorecard

6.       Execution

As per my understanding from all the above points the last point is the most difficult if the stakeholders are not properly aligned with the formation of the strategy.

A successful organization will also depend on the person driving the entire organization. As I mentioned earlier that brain behind any organization success is the key but as part of strategy you should not think of killing that brain because an intelligent brain always think ahead and would have mentored someone to replace him/her at anytime.

Ciao !

How important is the role of Middle managers in shaping up organization’s future

I was taught since childhood that the GODS were thought to have complete vision into the future. They saw everything to come, right down to the intricate details. Human beings on the other hand were seen as victims of fate, trapped in the moment and their emotions, unable to see beyond immediate dangers. Those heroes such as Odysseus  who were able to look beyond the present  and plan several steps ahead seems to defy fate, to approximate GODS in their ability to determine the future. The comparison is still valid.  Those among us who think farther ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seems to have GODLIKE power. Because most people are too imprisoned in the moment to plan with this kind of foresight, the ability to ignore immediate dangers and pleasures translates into power. It is power of being able to able to overcome the natural human tendency to react to things as they happen and instead to train oneself to step back, imagining the larger things taking shape beyond ones immediate vision.  The most ordinary cause of peoples mistake is their being too much frightened at the present danger, and not enough thought process which would have avoided this danger. The dangers that are remote, that looms in the distance – if we can see them as they take shape, how many mistakes we avoid. How many plans we would instantly abort if we realized we were avoiding small dangers only to step into larger one. So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do- the rash and foolish action that you refrain from before they get you into trouble. Will this have unintended consequences ? Will I stir up new enemies ? Will someone take advantage of my labors ? unhappy endings are much more common than happy endings – Do not be swayed by the happy endings in your mind. When you see several steps ahead and plan your moves all the way to the end you no longer will be tempted by emotion or by desire to improvise. Your clarity will rid you of the anxiety and vagueness that are the primary reasons  why so many fail to conclude their actions successfully. You see the ending and you tolerate no deviation.  So what we conclude….. We conclude that “ The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give glory to hard work to someone else. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by the circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead…….

The reason I have given the small description of thinking ahead as it is one of the most important characteristics of successful leader. Successful leaders not only think ahead but all their strategies are laid on planning and accordingly they give direction to the organization.  A top down approach to managing strategy and strategic changes sees middle managers as implementers of strategy. Their role is to put into effect  the directions established by top management by making sure that resources are allocated and controlled appropriately, monitoring performance and behavior of staff and if necessary explaining strategy to those reporting to them. Those who take such approach often tend to view middle managers not so much as the facilitators of the strategy but as blockages to its success. Indeed, this is sometimes seen as one reason for reducing the numbers and layers of management, so as to speed up communication between top management and organizational members and to reduce potential blockages and filters. In context of managing strategic change it is important to emphasize five important roles they play ;-

1.       The first is the systematic role of implementation and control.

2.       The second is the “translators” of strategy when it is established by senior management. Top management may set down a strategic direction but how it is made sense of in specific contexts may intentionally or not be left to middle managers. If misinterpretation of that intended strategy is to be avoided, it is therefore vital that middle managers understand and feel an ownership to it.

3.       Similarly, middle managers are likely to be involved in the reinterpretation and adjustment of strategic responses as events unfold.

4.       They are therefore crucial bridge between top management and member of the organization at lower levels.

5.       They are also in the position to be advisors to more senior management on what are likely to be the organizational blockages and requirements for change.

Middle managers may therefore contribute substantially either to galvanizing commitment to strategy and the change process or to blocking it. Such involvement could help to achieve positive role of commitment. The involvement of middle management in strategy development, the planning of and implementation of strategic change programmes and feedback on strategic change can therefore be very important. Also one of the most important aspects in all this is this hiring of middle managers. Since they are the backbone of the company it is very crucial and critical to hire the best of brains because if you hire best of brains you are definitely progressing towards right path and rest other things will automatically fall in place. Hence we can conclude that role of middle managers is very vital in the growth of an organization

Ciao !!

BCG - HR Matrix

BCG – HR Matrix

“He is very faithful to his boss” commented a colleague…  Now that’s called corridor gossiping. I said “ Is he a dog ?” because whenever one says faithful only one word comes to my mind i.e. “dog” and I personally believe that one should be faithful to the organisation not to the boss and trust me both are not same..I mean being faithful to the boss and being faithful to the organisation are 2 different perspective…… oops !! I think I am digressing from the topic.

I am sure we all have seen the below matrix called “ BCG matrix”. Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram is a chart that had been created by Bruce Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1968 to help corporations with analyzing their business units or product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis. Well Well Well !! what’s new in this ?? we all have studied and sometimes used as well in professional life but what we have not yet done is drawing the below matrix with respect to employees !!

Sudarshan Banerjee ex COO Hutchison Essar says “Most CEOs busy meeting shareholder expectations, tend to neglect People Excellence and end up creating a "we they" organization instead of working towards a " we " type, in today's knowledge economy, people are the biggest assets.”

Many world leaders agree that people are the biggest assets. So what we do in terms of asset management of our respective organizations ?. I am sure most of the people in HR would answer “ we compensate people well, Some will say we train them and let them choose their bosses ( LOL !!)

Have we ever tried mapping the people on above matrix……There will be few employees who contribute to higher growth of the company and contribute the most in the overall profit of the organization and they can be termed as “stars” of the company.  How do these people become “stars” ?

How do people lend competitive advantage ? There are several ways. First , people offer skills capabilities, systems, practices, speed, language, bonding and behaviors, which help execute firms strategy. There also will be “Cash Cows” in the organization, whose compensation would be highest in the organization and contribute highest in company’s profit. In my view stars are any day more effective than cash cows. Dogs are the ones who are being paid highest but contribution is nil. They are also called “bosses puppies”.  “Question Marks” are the ones whose compensations are low anf they contribute lowest to company’s profit. They can also be termed as “ Laggards”

Once we have defined or mapped each employee on the above matrix, it will become easy for us to move and train people to move from one quadrant to another. Dogs to be moved to cash cows and then to stars…..

Appraisal is the medium through which one can measure employees and fit them in the above matrix and then start working along with employees to move them from one quadrant to another. Objective of HR personnel to be able to make employees reach to the highest quadrant “ Star”.

How we can shift employees from one quadrant to another….Lets take example of one organization. Google promotes innovation in an unique way. It makes its work force adhere to 70/20/10 rule. An employee in Google is expected to spend 70 percent his or her time on own job, 20 percent on “continuous innovation” and 10 percent on “discontinuous innovation” in any area he or she deems productive.

HR function seeks to convert an adverse situation into an opportunity. HR often gets trapped in a policy role, mediating employee grievances, monitoring compliance with employment laws and enforcing code of conduct. What is more, the function often has seen its mission as one of helping workers overcome deficiencies and obstacles that hinder their performances. Without ignoring these tasks the new HR concentrates on the positive. How can firm enhance its revenue by doing more for its employees? Instead of trying to fix chronic employee weakness, how can firm tailor a role that matches and capitalizes on strengths? For instance after performance review rather than dwell on a talented marketing executives lack of knowledge in finance, a firm can seek to leverage executives creative talents   in broader marketing role – one that helps company expand in key overseas market.

The organisation designs do not remain static over a period of time. Environmental changes compel organisations redesign their structures. Along with changes in designs, organizations adopt uncertainty avoidance mechanisms, differentiation mechanisms and integrating mechanisms to cope with the compensation of environmental changes. These changes in the organisation designs need to be reinforced by innovative HRM strategies.

Finally HR executive role is not limited to distributing salary slips or structuring salary, its more than that and hence we can say that HR executive is becoming an effective change agent. Change management is very critical for any organisation and differentiates between the winning and losing organisation. While winning organisation adopts and prepare themselves to adapt and assimilate the change, losing organisations are overtaken by events, ruminate over the events and are left behind.     

Its entirely on the organisation and the important stakeholders of the organisation to make their babies ( employees) winning or losing one. Its time to smell the coffee and react to the situation rather than waiting for “boiling frog” syndrome.  It is important to remember that linking strategy and HRM effectively requires more than selection from series of practice choices. The challenge is to develop a configuration of HR practice choices that help implement the organisations strategy and enhance its competitiveness. A well designed strategy can fail if sufficient attention is not paid to the HR dimension. Hence we can conclude that in today’s environment HRM is strategically managed unit rather than supporting unit.

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Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships

Few Years back when I joined a MNC, my first day was something to remember for life. My boss an EXPAT called me and said let me introduce to your team. I was thinking .. my “team” Gosh… spare me.. I don’t want to handle any team, I don’t want to take any responsibility.. then came another voice from inside “ Stay focused. Remember your long term goal of professional life..”leader”.. to be leader you should know how to handle followers… Hmmm interesting so 3 female & 2 male was my team strength. That day I realized handling woman is much difficult than handling man :) So what was the purpose of my team and what values I was looking in my team ? was the first question came in my mind & I drafted the purpose and values for my team 1. The team should have clear commitment to common purpose. Team member should know what the team’s work is and why it is important? 2. Collaboration, quality & integrity should be common values among team members. 3. Team goals should be clear, challenging, agreed on and relevant to the purpose. 4. Strategies for achieving goals are clear and agreed on. 5. Individual roles should be clear and & their relationship to the team purpose and goals is understood. It looks interesting on paper but hard to execute. It took 60 days to make team a team… Next stage to team building was empowerment to team members. While talking to some of the members I realized that they are looking for freedom to work. So to encourage empowerment I took the following steps :- 1. Made the team realize that values, norms & policies encourage initiative, involvement and creativity. 2. Ensures that all relevant organization and business information is available to the team. 3. The team has the authority, within understood boundaries, to take action and make decisions. 4. Direction, structure & training is available to individual team members based on their professional needs. 5. Team is committed to the continuing growth and development of all team members. Well empowering definitely made my team members confident about themselves and work. To boost their motivation and to bring synergy in team I introduced the concept of “Building relationship through continuous communication” 1. Different ideas, opinions, feelings and perspectives from all team members were encouraged and considered. 2. Team members listen actively to each other for understanding, not judgment. 3. Method of managing conflict and finding common ground are understood. 4. Cultural differences including race, gender, nationality, age etc are valued and respected. Flexibility was the next step I introduced in team. By flexibility I mean team members share responsibility for team development and leadership. The team is able to meet challenges using the unique talents and strengths of all team members. Calculated risks are supported. Mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning. Apart from optimal performance, recognition and appreciation was next step to motivate team. Individual and team accomplishment were often acknowledged by team leaders and team members. Team members have sense of personal accomplishment in relation to task contributions. The team celebrates successes and milestones together. Team members are confident and enthusiastic about the team efforts and are committed to success. The team encourages hard work as well as having fun. There is strong sense of pride in and satisfaction with the teams work. There is strong sense of trust and team spirit among team members. Team members develop supportive and caring relationships and help each other. One of the best compliment I got from one of my ex team member. On his last working day he hugged me and said “ Thanks Kams for defining clear purpose. We felt empowered, our relationships and communication were good, we were flexible, our quality and performance were high, we felt appreciated and recognized and our morale was strong. … U r rocking” I said “ thanks man” u were rocking too… nd we said goodbye for the day. After that I have got team to handle (which includes some bunch of jokers as well) but like your first love, first child first team also becomes special. Special for life…… and I miss my first team and do meet them in conferences/meets….. and feel happy to see them growing professionally and personally in life. 3 cheers to my first team… Bravo…..