Leadership & Business Health

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

·        Micro managing work and teams

·        Not sharing constructive feedback

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

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

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

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

·        Employees not willing to share issues with you/management

·        Increase in back office/corridor talks

·        Increase in attrition

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

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

·        Ideation stops in the team

·        Anonymous concerns being raised through emails

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

Are you a catalyst?

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

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

Properties of the catalyst in discussion need to be:

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

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

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

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

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

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

2018: What next?

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

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