Feedback - Managing difficult conversations

Feedback – a process that, incidentally, both the person who is giving and one who is receiving dread. What makes feedback so difficult for both the parties? It is primarily because both people do not know what to expect. When the associate walks into the room, she is unsure of how her manager interpreted her performance over the period. Similarly, manager is unsure of how her comments would be received by the associate. Both the parties are walking into the room expecting a confrontation, which creates a tense environment. Not a great place to begin having a feedback conversation.

Let me play out a typical scenario:

Raj (Manager) walks into the room to have feedback conversation with Jennie (associate). Raj is confident as he has prepared well for the meeting. He has all the details, data points captured well. He structured his conversation with all the right words. He sits down with Jennie and takes her through his evaluation. Jennie interrupts multiple times to ask questions. They disagree on many points as she has a different interpretation of the events from Raj. Raj, being the manager, finally prevails, gives her the rating, talks about what Jennie should be focusing on for next 6 months. Raj walks out of the meeting relieved that it is finally over and that Jennie would work on the action items for next 6 months. Jennie walks out of the meeting feeling angry that her performance has not been evaluated right and since there is no buy in on the points mentioned by Raj, there are no action items for her.

Where did this conversation end? What is the outcome of the time spent by both the manager and the associate? For both of them, it is an ordeal that has to be done with. Raj can now focus on other things for next 6 months and for Jennie, she will get over her anger (over time or through a role/job change) until it is time to have another conversation with her (old/new) manager.

How could this change where the feedback conversation is not an event but a process? Into a meeting that both the manager and associate could look forward to, a conversation that could translate the potential of the associate into performance, a conversation that would setup the associate for greater success?

Following are few building blocks that could make this conversation more effective:

Trust – Foundation for any effective interaction is trust. There has to be trust between manager and associate. Manager trusting associate that he/she has the right intent, willing to do what is right for the organization and for herself; and associate trusting manager that he has the right intent and is willing to invest in associate to be successful. More often than not, we find this missing. There are always questions about the intent. Manager has to take the first step to build this trust. This has to be done over a period of time (and not just at the merit or bonus time). Manager has to invest time to understand the associate – who she is, her aspirations, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, what excites her and what would not interest her etc. The best way to do this is through Listening. We usually find managers talk more while associates listen. To build trust and to understand the associate, it is important for manager to listen and for associate to talk. This should ideally be done through frequent short conversations as against one very long conversation.

Timely – It is important that manager shares his observations in a timely manner - as soon as he observes – both good and not so good behaviors/actions/outcomes. None of us are perfect and there are areas where we do well and areas we struggle. Manager has to be objective and share his observations with the associate in a timely manner. Doing it once in 3, 6 or 12 months brings in recent effect (where only actions/outcomes of the recent past are remembered or measured).

Fact based – While sharing observations it is important for Manager to be fact based. The conversation has to be data driven (as against based on interpretations). Managers always have to be cognizant on where they are operating on ladder of inference. Higher we are on the ladder, we are looking at the events based on filters/lens that we wear and hence we would be on a very slippery ground. It is important for manager just to be focused on the underlying data (without any filters). How many times have we seen that a manager does not find any weaknesses in a top performer and does not find any strong areas in a weak performer? Manager has to be data driven to ensure that there is a balanced view.

Team approach – Manager and associate have to work together as a team. It is important for the manager to give an opportunity to the associate to react to the data points (Note: Not interpretations). Manager and associate have to come to an agreement on what has worked well and what are the opportunities for the future. Through this approach, if there are certain points that do not have an agreement, it is ok. They should agree on an approach to observe together in those areas and to bring them up in their regular 1-1s. For the areas (both strengths and weaknesses) that they have agreement on, they should formulate an action plan and work on it. Action plan should have items both for the associate and for the manager.

Future oriented – One key aspect of any feedback conversation is that it should be future oriented. Past is gone and nothing can change it. It is important to focus the conversation on how it could mean a better future for both the associate and the manager as against focusing on the past mistakes/outcomes.

The above steps would make the feedback, a conversation that both the manager and the associate look forward to, a conversation that would happen many times a year (as against just around merit or bonus). More importantly, these steps would make feedback an easy and healthy conversation and such conversations would have significant impact on retention. How has been your experience on giving/receiving feedback?

Leadership Beliefs

I need to start by acknowledging that I had my first failure in the series of blogs. I made a commitment to myself that I’d write a blog once every 2 weeks. While I met that commitment through the first quarter of the year, I failed to deliver on it last weekend. I could state many reasons why I could not write the blog but the reality is I missed it and that’s not acceptable to me. I learnt a very valuable lesson and such a miss will not happen in the future.

This week, I take the opportunity to share my leadership beliefs. I thought it would be a simple task to just put them on a paper but as I started on it, I realized it was difficult – not because I did not know what they are, but to put them on a paper is like committing them and I had to be honest with myself whether I truly believed in them and do I practice them most of the time. So here they are (not exhaustive but few key ones that I strongly believe in):

1.       People should respect you for who you are, not for what you are – This definitely is one of the most important beliefs of mine. ‘What you are’ is primarily determined by the title, position that we carry. Any respect we get because of our position is limited for the period of time we hold that position. People should respect us for what we stand for, for our values and more importantly, for value we are able to add to them. The key part is to ensure that we are authentic in all our interactions. This ensures that we gain the respect even when we do not carry the title or position.

2.       Learning is a journey – It is important to continuously learn in our life. Learning ensures progression (not of title/compensation but of our mind). It’s a journey and as long as we are open, we can find many sources that we can learn from. These could be books, web, videos but the best sources are our colleagues, associates, managers, mentors, coaches and friends. There is an insurmountable experience around us and we just need to keep our mind open and it will get filled with many learning. Always ask – What did I learn today?

3.       Prioritization in life – This is a key takeaway from Transformational Leadership program that I attended last year at ISB and I was blown away by it. We all have to juggle multiple balls in our life and it is always difficult to manage all of them in an appropriate way (primarily due to lack of time). The best way to prioritize is to determine which of the balls that we are juggling are glass balls and which are rubber balls. A rubber ball can always bounce back and we would have a future opportunity to still put them in play; however if a glass ball drops, then we would lose it forever. Examples of glass balls in our lives are Family, Health, Friends – those interestingly are the ones that we usually ignore.

4.       Staying with the question – One of the biggest fallacies of human beings is that we like status quo. Whenever we are not in equilibrium, we feel highly uncomfortable and strive to come back to that position as quickly as possible. Hence, when we are faced with a difficult question, we tend to rationalize it by attributing a response. Similarly, when we come across two different, divergent view points, we just lean towards one and accept/acknowledge it while ignoring any data that drives us to the other view point. It is critical to understand that an intelligent mind is one that can hold two equally opposing thoughts at the same time. It is important to stay with the question. Stay in the uncomfortable zone and let new ideas/thoughts emerge. Enjoy the butterflies in the stomach. This would lead to success.

5.       Everyone is talented – Popular western management practice on people state that it is important to segment people into multiple categories to better manage them. But the reality is everyone in this world is talented. Every human being who comes into this world comes with certain strengths of their own. It is important for people to realize what their strengths are and should find opportunities that can leverage on them. Doing this would ensure success. However, we find many people trying to follow or replicate others in the pursuit of success, while ignoring their own attributes. It does lot more good to look inside for answers than outside.

6.       Definition of Success – Definition of success is relative and it is driven by what gives you happiness as against what others think of you. We all have two scorecards – Internal and External. Internal scorecard is focused on what’s important to us while external scorecard is focused on what others think of us. If we are constantly driven by external scorecard, we may put ourselves in a situation where we are living our life to meet others expectations as against our own happiness. Hence, it is important to ensure that we meet and exceed our Internal Scorecards. Go ahead and pursue your passions. Pursuing passions would enable us to score high on internal scorecard and at the end of the day, that scorecard is more important than the other one.

Well, these are not exhaustive but I thought I’ll write those that are important to me. When I started to write, I thought I would pen down Leadership beliefs. However, I now realize that these are my personal beliefs that characterize my Leadership. Penning these down has given a lot deal of clarity to me. What are your beliefs and are you practicing them? Please do share. We can all learn from each other.

Demystifying Strategic Thinking

Javed walked back angrily to his desk. He has been an excellent manager in the company and has received good ratings. He has successfully delivered on projects with tight deadlines and has been known as one who can deliver in crunch situations. His manager depended highly on him whenever there was a crisis. However, he was not happy with his current performance review. His manager talked about the changing circumstances and the need for strategic thinking before he could be considered for promotion to the next level.

Javed is furious. “Why should my promotion be put on hold when I am going beyond my call of duty to successfully deliver on projects?” he asked Richard who is his HR manager. There were sitting in a coffee shop at the campus. Richard gave a patient hearing to Javed and let him vent his anger. He then asked Javed “Would your daughter get higher marks in mathematics if she continues to do well in algebra but fails to learn geometry as she goes into higher classes?” He continued, “Organizations change over a period of time and the change in scenario drives change in expectations. Managers today are expected to be more focused on solutions and in demonstrating consultative capability as against purely focused on deliveries. You, as a bright manager, are expected to learn and demonstrate these competencies”. Javed retorted “How do I develop these competencies? My manager says ‘think big’ but never explains what it is. Most of the articles I try to read on these topics confuse the hell out of me”. Richard responded, “Why don’t you talk to Vidya? She is good at strategic thinking and her name is always taken as an example of the people in the company who are demonstrating these competencies. Maybe, she can help you with it.”

Javed reached out to Vidya to learn more about strategic thinking. “Tell me Vidya, what does it really mean? How can we demonstrate it? How do I learn and practice it?”  Vidya responded “Oh god Javed! So many questions? Let me share with you what I know about strategic thinking”.

“Strategic thinking is about knowing your customer’s customer and knowing your boss’s boss. If you do this well, you are good at strategic thinking”. Javed asked “Don’t kid. How can learning about customer’s customer and boss’s boss help us in strategic thinking?” Vidya continued “Let me explain”

“Knowing your customer’s customer helps you to be more solution oriented and consultative with your customer. Your customer is always thinking about their customers and having knowledge of their customers will set you up in a position where you can provide significant value add to your customer’s business. Let me give you few examples. If you are manufacturer of components of a mobile, knowing the consumer trends on the usage of mobiles would help you identify the changing shift to smart phones and will help you be better prepared to manufacture/innovate the components for smart phones. If you are a service provider to schools, understanding the changing trends in interactive education will help you foray into technologies required to support the schools. Similarly, if you are a service provider to mutual fund company, knowing the changing trends in the industry and investor sentiments would position you to better service your customer. Having this knowledge not only allows you to understand priorities of your customer but also helps in changing the conversations with your customer. You now have truly earned the right to sit at the table and provide inputs that could positively impact your customer”

Javed asked thoughtfully “That’s truly eye opening. I did not look at things that way and it makes lot of sense. Why should I then focus on knowing boss’s boss? Does that mean I should setup more face time with her?”

Vidya answered “Knowing boss’s boss is not about knowing her personally. Well, if you could do that, that’s awesome but it is not required. Knowing boss’s boss is about knowing her priorities and having a clear understanding of the direction of the group. For example, if your boss’s boss priority is about building in-depth domain/business knowledge in the group, you delivering, productivity releases, is good but if you could use that extra capacity to carefully plan and up-skill the business knowledge of your associates, you will be well aligned to the organization strategy and will be noticed by your higher ups. This part is having an understanding of your organization strategy and aligning your activities and focus areas to match that strategy.”

Javed added “Yes and knowing boss’s boss will help me make my boss more successful and that should help my bonus.” Vidya laughed and said “Yes. Now you know how strategic thinking can have a direct impact on your bonus”

Vidya further added “Strategic thinking is about bringing these two together. It is about how you bring to forth the organization capabilities/priorities that you now better understand (by knowing boss’s boss) to enable the customer to meet their priorities (with the knowledge of customer’s customer). More importantly, the deep knowledge you gained of your customers enables you to provide critical inputs to shape your organization strategy/priorities.”

Javed said “That’s great. But how can I get better at knowing my customer’s customer and boss’s boss. Are there any tips for me to get head start?”

“Well, let me share with you what I do in this space. May be that could help you” Vidya said. “Learning and Visualization are two techniques that I use. While Learning could be achieved by reading or through other secondary sources, I get lot of learning by asking tons of questions. I ask lot of questions about their business and customers, to my customer and similarly, I ask lot of questions to my boss and boss’s boss when I meet up with her on her priorities, challenges and focus areas. This questioning ensures two things – while I gain significant knowledge in a shorter span of time, it also enhances my perception in my customer/boss’s mind as someone who is engaged and interested in the success of customer/organization.”

“Visualization is another powerful technique that I use. It is about placing myself in the shoes of the customer/boss’s boss and see what I would do if I am in their place. I arrive at my own conclusions and make my own decisions/strategy. Then I observe the decisions made by my customer/superior and ask myself why did they make those decisions? How are those decisions different from that of mine? I then have an opportunity to ask questions to know more about those decisions. This added information will enhance my knowledge. Sometimes, I may just disagree on those decisions personally but that does not matter. It is all about learning. Since visualization is all about experiencing ourselves in the position of our customer/superior, this would be an added incentive when I talk to them as I now can speak at their level and in their language. This too would help in enhancing my perception”

Javed responded “That’s great Vidya. This coffee and time that I spent with you is worth a lot. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. I now have a clear picture of what I should be doing to develop strategic thinking”

Vidya signed off saying “Yes Javed. Strategic thinking in short is building deep knowledge of your customer priorities and organization capabilities; and finding ways to meet your customer priorities by leveraging organization capabilities. Best part is that it can be exhibited at all levels in the organization.”

Well, what are you thinking? How simple is it to be strategic?  Do share your thoughts.

Man in the Mirror

The world is fast changing to understand specific needs of the customer to be able to service them. Today, you look at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix or any other site, they try to understand your individual preferences (based on “likes” on Facebook or based on what you searched for/bought on amazon) to recommend new products/services to you. Similarly, you try to understand the needs/preferences of your boss, colleagues, customers, family, friends, others and meet their expectations. However, how well do you know and meet the preferences of the Man in the Mirror?

We live our lives trying to meet so many people expectations that we often forget about Man in the Mirror. More importantly, we do not understand his strengths (which are his assets) as much as we understand his weaknesses (or liabilities). Now, I cannot blame anyone about it. We are living in a remedial world where the front page of the newspapers carry bad news and what’s sensational on TV is what has gone wrong; not what has gone right. Right from the childhood, we have been trained to focus on fixing the weaknesses to the extent that we automatically grasp what others are doing wrong as against what they are doing right. Similarly, we know our weaknesses much better than our own strengths.

Now, we are natural at our strengths and playing to them would make us more productive, creative, innovative and better at decision making; and this leads us to Success. We are more energized, engaged and focused while playing to our strengths. However, research (from Gallup) proves that only 12% of people play to their strengths most of the day. Why do less than 2 out of 10 play to their strength knowing very well that this would lead them to Success?  How can we increase this number?

Well, before we set on to change the world, it is important that we change the man in the mirror. We could do that through framework CUSIP (pronounced Qu-sip; people in financial services would know this acronym though we will use this in a different context). CUSIP stands for the following: C -> Change the mindset; U -> Understanding your strengths; S -> Strengths focused; I -> Ignore your weaknesses; P – Push technique to move your role towards strengths.

Let us understand each of these areas better:

·         C -> Change the mindset: Before we forge ahead, it is important to challenge our beliefs that have been ingrained in us right from the childhood. We have always been shown a model boy or girl and have been trained by our parents, teachers to be that perfect person. Even if we have shown brilliance in one or two areas, it is not good until we fix all areas. We carry these beliefs so close to our heart that we now ingrain the same in our children. It is important to change this mindset. We need to recognize and acknowledge that we cannot be good in all areas and therefore focus on few areas that we are good at. This is very difficult to do but critical for our success. We need to acknowledge that there are areas that we are not good at and how much ever we spend effort/time in those areas, we are unlikely to go beyond being average. Same time spent in areas that we are natural at (strengths) will bring in exponential results.

·         U -> Understanding our Strengths: Best definition of Strength is given by Marcus Buckingham as a combination of Talent, Skill and Knowledge. There are many ways to discover Strengths (through Gallup’s Strengthfinder assessment or recent Stand Out assessment by Marcus Buckingham – they focus on different areas but could give you an indication of what your strengths are). However, the best way to know your strengths   is by closely observing yourself in your current job and identifying areas that you’re energized in (good sign of your strengths in play) and those that drain you (sign of your weakness in play). This can be done through Capture, Clarify and Confirm process as outlined by Marcus Buckingham in one of his earlier books. I’ll cover this process in detail in one of my future blogs.

·         S -> Strengths focused: Once we discover our Strengths, it is important to put them into practice to yield us success. We need to identify activities in our job that could play to our strength and do more such activities. This has to be result of a conscious plan. We should also start helping our team members in our areas of Strength and start initiating classes/discussions around this area so that we gain visibility in the Organization

·         I -> Ignore your weaknesses: Now, this seems very radical and difficult to accept. How can we ignore our weaknesses? Doesn’t it go against our development, our culture and expectations of our manager? This is where the first step of changing mindset comes in. I am not saying it is easy. I am not asking you to ignore fatal flaws. Those need to be fixed. However, it is important to understand that same time spent on building on strengths (as against improving weaknesses) would result in exponential results that will overshadow the weaknesses

·         P -> Push technique: We need to leverage on push technique to slowly move our job towards strength. This means pushing our manager, colleagues, family members and others to accept our Strengths and work in areas that play up to them. For example, we always wait for our manager to assign us a project/initiative and we try our best to do well in that project. However, Push technique requires us to proactively have a discussion with our manager to identify those projects/initiatives that play to our strengths and get them assigned to us. Push technique also requires us to proactively identify trainings that further build on our strengths; and team up with people who have similar strengths and are able to leverage them well. Push technique, in short, asks us to take charge of our life and drive it in such a way that it leverages our strengths to the maximum thus yielding us tremendous success.

I do understand that this requires a radical change in the way we have always led our life. But this is one time that I ask you to take the risk and bet on the Man in the Mirror. I assure you the returns would be exponential and more importantly, you would find the man in the mirror to be happier. Are you willing to bet on Man in the Mirror?

Employee Engagement - in a Play format

Scene 1: Staff Meeting; Venue: Nandi hills conference room

Characters:

Aditi – Manager – One of the top performers in the company

Aryan – Manager – another top performer

Javed – Manager

Elizabeth – Manager

Ram – HR Manager

Manish – Leader of this group

As usual, Aditi, Aryan, Elizabeth are seated in the conference room ahead of time waiting for others to join in. Aryan, who is a cricket fanatic, was talking about Dhoni’s recent comment on rotation policy.

Aryan – “Dhoni is not talking about the fielding ability of the seniors. He is expressing doubts about their batting ability. Even with all their batting powers, he believes that they cannot score 20 more runs than the juniors – gap caused due to their slow fielding.”  Meanwhile, Manish, Ram and Javed join the meeting.

Manish kicks off the meeting. “We have a tight agenda. Let us first start with Attrition analytics. Ram, All yours”

Ram – “I’d like to present today attrition analytics of our group. As you all know, attrition this year is lower than last year but still high from where we would like it to be. So, let us start with the first slide that shows comparative attrition percentages for each of your groups”

Manish – “I see that all the groups relatively have higher attrition percentages except for Aditi’s group. Aditi, what is happening in your group that has your attrition levels lower than others?”

Aryan jumps in and says – “This happens every year that Aditi’s attrition levels are lower than rest of us. Initially, we attributed it to timing, and then we said luck. I think we should see what some of the best practices are, in Aditi’s group and apply them in our groups. Aditi, what do you do differently?”

Elizabeth – “I agree.  All our associates are in similar job families with similar compensation levels. What is happening specifically in your group?”

Aditi – “I am not sure. I believe we have lower attrition levels because we have good engagement with people and focus on their development.”

Javed – “You mean to say we are not doing the same? We also have 1-1 with associates and focus on employee development plans”

Aditi – “I am not saying that. Only reason I can attribute to retention in my group is engaged employees. I am not sure what is different in my group from other groups”

Aryan – “We should definitely figure it out. Maybe, I should become your assistant for a dayJ”

Team covers rest of the topics and concludes the meeting. Aryan meets up with Aditi outside the conference room and asks her “Are you ok if I spend couple of days with your team observing what is happening from employee engagement perspective? I was not joking when I said that I’d like to be your assistant.”

 Aditi – “I do not know about you being my assistant but if you want to spend some time with my team, you are most welcome”

Aryan goes into Manish’s office and says “Manish, I think our organization would benefit for us to really know what is happening in Aditi’s shop. I’d like to spend couple of days with her team observing what is happening out there. I’ll ask my team to operate as if I am on leave so that I can pay full attention to this task. I spoke to Aditi and she is ok with the arrangement. Hope you do not see any concerns.” Manish agrees with Aryan.

Aryan spent time on the floor speaking to associates and leads in Aditi’s group. He sat through various meetings, discussions and also spent lot of time with Aditi. He now has a better insight of what is happening in Aditi’s group and is confident that if they replicate those best practices in the rest of the Organization, attrition levels will go down.

Scene 2: Manish’s staff meeting; Venue: Nandi hills conference room

On agenda is Aryan’s debriefing of his self-initiated assignment of observing Aditi’s group.  Aryan and Aditi have spent time in putting together the presentation and plan to share their findings with the rest of the group.

Manish – “Aryan, looks like you enjoyed doing assistant duty for Aditi. Maybe, we should permanently move you into that positionJ”

Aditi – “Maybe you should do that Manish. I’ll then have a very strong deputy and I can go on vacationsJ”

Manish – “On a serious note, I’d like to congratulate Aryan for his initiative. He has identified good results in another group and took the initiative to spend time to understand what is happening out there. Aryan, good job!!”

Aryan – “Well, for being deputy of Aditi, I got to learn few important lessons in employee engagement. I’d like to share them with you. To make it easier for us to understand, I have put them in a framework. Well, you see, being an MBA, I have to create a framework even to say simple thingsJ”

Aryan – “In order to effectively manage a large workforce, HR team and Business Heads tend to define segmentations in workforce. These segmentation could be based on performance, potential or any other drivers (or such combination) as is critical to the organization. These segmentations help them to drive different compensation/training/promotion guidelines to different segments and ensure as much as possible that right set of associates receive right rewards. However, we tend to drive such segmentation down to a front line manager level where his/her associates are being treated in a manner based on segmentation as against being recognized as distinct associates with distinct skillsets and aspirations. One thing that I have seen in Aditi’s group is the focus on each and every associate”

Aryan – “I have recognized that there are six key drivers for associates. In my framework, I call them 6Cs – Culture, Career, Compensation, Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication. While Culture, Career, Compensation are drivers that are distinctly visible to the associate (and to others), Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication are soft drivers that are not distinctly visible but have a significant influence on retention”

Aditi – “I agree with Aryan. While thinking this through with Aryan, it became clear to me that while organization policies drive Culture, Career and Compensation in which manager does play a role, each one of us can significantly influence the softer drivers Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication that could potentially reduce attrition.”

Aryan – “Before we share the details of each driver, it is important for manager to recognize what critical drivers (top 2) are, for each associate. Even if the associates fall in the same segment, for some, it could be compensation and for others it could be learning opportunities that could be delivered through coaching. This ensures that manager do not apply cookie cutter solution across to all people in the same segment but is more responsive to individual drivers”

Aditi – “We will not spend too much time talking about three drivers – Culture (Respect for Individual, Integrity); Career (Opportunities for career advancement and ability to build/switch careers within the organization) and Compensation (are we fairly priced from market perspective. Note: it is not about whether we are highest paying company in market but more importantly, are we competitive from market perspective)”

Aryan – “We will deep dive into other drivers. Coaching is all about learning opportunities that manager can provide to their associates. These take into consideration not only performance aspects of the associate but also their career aspirations. What I have seen distinctly happen in Aditi’s group is that most of those learning opportunities are provided on the floor and not in the training rooms. While associates do go to trainings, I have seen manager create opportunities for learning on the floor. This ensured that associates continue to learn while doing their jobs and build new skillsets. This could happen either in terms of initiative, project, travel or added responsibilities. One other key aspect that I have observed is that leads in Aditi’s group are willing to take risks. They are willing to bet on associates knowing very well that if the risk does not pay off (in some cases), Aditi would not be critical but would recognize them for their willingness to take risk. I do not see the same happening in my group or in the rest of the organization”

Aditi – “Camaraderie is about the quality of engagement with peers and managers. I have always noticed that people would like to surround themselves with smart people and if the quality of peers is higher, all of us would see many learning opportunities by working in such a team. Hence, we should never compromise on hiring. Also, relationship with manager is critical. We know the famous adage that says employees do not leave Organizations. They leave managers. It does not mean that managers have to make popular decisions but it is important for them to be fair & transparent; and invest time in building relationships with their team members”

Aryan – “Communication is critical driver and has many aspects. This is one driver that determines transparency and hence has a significant influence on the culture of the company. Communication is also about letting associates know how they are doing and recognizing them (different from rewards). I have seen Aditi take time to talk to an associate recognizing his recent achievements and also highlighting areas he should be focusing on. More importantly, when she highlighted areas of improvement, she related them to his strengths and to his career aspirations; and promised him support. This kind of communication helps reinforce the confidence of the associate and they place lot of trust in their manager.”

Aryan – “Manish, we do have lot more detail around these 6Cs. I strongly recommend that we share the framework with all our managers and get them to focus on Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication drivers”

Manish – “Great presentation Aryan and Aditi. I’d like all of you to think though on what you have just heard and we can discuss clear actionable in our next staff meeting.”

Mindset Vs Skillset

Let me start by telling you a story about Rahul who is a manager in an Organization. Prem (an average performer) and Preeti (a high performer) are his team members. Rahul has observed that both Prem and Preeti have opportunities for improvement. He has a conversation with Preeti, creates a development plan, assigns relevant trainings and asks her to sign up for the trainings agreed on the development plan. He similarly has a conversation with Prem, creates a development plan, assigns relevant training and asks him to sign up for those trainings agreed on development plan. During the course of the year, he observes that both Preeti and Prem have not improved in their development areas despite undergoing the relevant trainings. Promptly in the next meeting with HR, Rahul enquires about the effectiveness of the training programs offered by the Talent Development team and asks the training team to put together metrics to measure their effectiveness. HR and Rahul have a debate over how and who should be measuring the effectiveness.

What is wrong with the above scenario? Like all good managers, Rahul has observed development areas of his team members and worked with training team to offer relevant trainings. He was frustrated that the trainings have not yielded the desired results and wants the training team to fix the problem. But, what could Rahul have done differently?

Rahul, like most people, focused on Skillsets and ignored the critical piece of Mindset. When he assigned training programs to Prem and Preeti, he assumed that they are completely onboard with him on the need for change and hence are ready to acquire the skills to improve in their specific areas of development. They could have learnt new skills in the training programs but without the right mindset, there is no motivation in them to apply these learning at the workplace. Hence, there is no observable behavior change on the floor.

In the absence of mindset, Skillset is of no use. We all know the story of Elephants who are tied with strong bonds/chains when they are young. They try very hard to escape but are not successful. They quickly resign themselves to the fact that escape is not possible and even when they grow up and are tied with thin rope, they continue to believe that they cannot escape. A classic case where they have the required strength (skill) to break away; but due to mind block (mindset), they still remain in captive.

We have heard multiple stories where people have great skills but without the right mindset, they continue to fail.  Skillset building is primarily focused on improving effectiveness of people in certain area and can be led by the training team. However, Mindset is primarily focused on paradigm change in the thought process and has to be led by the Manager.

So, how could Rahul work with Prem and Preeti to change their mindset? Following are few steps that Rahul can take to influence the mindset of his team members.

Manager as a Coach: In order to influence Mindset, it is critical for Rahul to play the role of a Coach. As a Coach, it is important to recognize that the conversation is about Prem/Preeti and not about his own experience or expertise. He also has to ensure that he has a trusted relationship with his team members (they sincerely believe that Rahul has their best interests in mind).

Exploratory style: Rahul has to follow exploratory style by asking series of questions that would allow Prem/Preeti to explore their underlying beliefs/mental models. He has to recognize that everyone is different and that there are no right answers. It is also very important that these answers come from Prem/Preeti and not by Rahul providing answers/solutions to them. Prem/Preeti will have a buy-in only when the solutions are arrived by them. While this step looks simple, it requires manager to dramatically change his/her approach to conversations with their team members, which means a change in the mindset of the manager. Once manager is open to change the conversation style, he/she can attend classes on coaching to better explore this area.

Series of conversations: Rahul has to recognize that the whole process would happen through a series of conversations and not in just one meeting. It is important not to rush through the process but lead the conversation at the pace comfortable for Prem or Preeti. While this process looks inordinately long, you would be surprised how less time this would take. Frequent short conversations are more effective than one long conversation and from an end to end perspective, would consume less time for the desired change.

Buy-In: Once Prem/Preeti arrives at a solution, Rahul has to get them to put down action steps that they would be undertaking over next 6-12 months. These could include the trainings offered by the training team but he should not impose them. He should instead offer them as suggestions that Prem/Preeti could consider.

Follow up: In today’s fast paced world, it is very easy to fall off from the path that we set ourselves on. Hence, as a manager, Rahul has to continue to follow up with Prem/Preeti on their action plans. He should provide positive feedback whenever he sees an improvement in their developmental area. Positive feedback acts as a great reinforce to the team and would invigorate them to pursue the action plans more diligently.

Change in Mindset arrived through the above process is sustainable and is portable across jobs/roles. Such a change would enable Prem/Preeti to sign up for training programs much more enthusiastically as they know what to achieve out of these programs, enhances their participation during the program and bring back the learning to implement in their workplace. Rahul, as a manager, would be able to observe the change (higher effectiveness) on the floor as Prem/Preeti would now have both the Mindset and the Skillset.

The reason why I have constantly used two names Prem and Preeti together is to emphasize on the point that the process does not change whether the associate is a high performer or an average performer. We can still go through the same steps to influence the Mindset. Rahul is also undergoing a change from being a manager who gives instructions to a coach who works in collaboration with his team members and lets them find the answers.

If we examine the top talent in any Organization, we see the following traits: They bring in lot of energy, deliver results, willing to take challenging assignments, operate outside of their comfort zone but more importantly, they are always willing to learn, willing to see things from different perspective. This is all about Mindset. If as Managers, we are able to influence the mindset of our team members, we could develop a high performing team that could surpass all expectations.

So, are you willing to change your Mindset to influence the Mindset of your team?

Failure is Good

Have you failed in the last 6 months? If not, are you sure you are setting yourself up for success?

Failure – a word that many of us would like to avoid in our lives; a word that causes negative feelings and affects our confidence; a word that raises many questions on our abilities and makes us lose trust/confidence amongst our colleagues. Yet, are these the right feelings? Are these the right outcomes of a failure? If they are, how did Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mahatma Gandhi, Soichiro Honda, Akio Morita and many others become so successful? They had many failures. Infact, when we look at the history of any successful person, we find many failures. Without failure, there is no success. Yet, many of us abhor failure.

Before we go forward, let us look at two case studies:

Case study 1: Here is a man, who in his youth, went to war as a captain but returned as a private (lowest rank in the army); failed in business at the age of 21; defeated in a legislative race at 22; failed in business again at age 24; overcame the death of sweetheart at 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost congressional rage at 34; lost a senator race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice president at 47; lost a senator race at 49 and was elected president of United States at age 52. His name is Abraham Lincoln and he is now remembered as one of the greatest leaders of America.

Case study 2: Another example of a man who at the age of 65 is termed as failure by everyone. He had in his possession a beat-up car and $100 check from social security. He realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother’s recipe and went out selling. He knocked on many doors but his recipe was rejected. He tried 1,009 times before his recipe was finally accepted and then turned out to be a huge success. His name is Harland David Sanders, also known as Colonel Sanders and we all know about the famous recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

List continues with Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Oprah Winfrey, Charlie Chaplin, Harrison Ford, J.K. Rowling, Elvis Presley and many others.

When do we fail? Do we fail when we are doing what we know well, time and again? No. We do, only when we move out of our comfort zone and try something new. This in turn means we fail only when we are trying to learn or in other words, if we are not failing, we are not learning.  In such a fast changing world, if we do not continue our learning process, we become outdated very soon. Hence, we can easily summarize that if we are not failing, we are not learning; and if we are not learning, we are not setting ourselves up for success.

Yet, people fear failure. Why? That’s because while we all theoretically agree that failure is good and is a stepping stone for success, as a society, corporate we abhor failure. When was the last time we have seen someone who has taken risk and fail get rewarded or promoted? When was the last time such a person is shown as an ideal/model that others should follow? Instead, we look at it negatively and penalize such people. This behavior disincentives people from taking risks; and thus, opportunities to learn. Infact, outside of Silicon Valley, failure is not appreciated. Hence, is it surprising that a lot of innovation happens in Silicon Valley than other places?

I have two key messages to an individual and his/her manager:

To Individual:

1.       Don’t be scared of failure. It is the best teacher that you can find. Success, while exhilarating would not teach you as many things as failure. As a medical pill could be bitter yet provide better health to the person, failure is a bitter pill that sets us up for success. Failure also teaches up about relationships – who are wearing a façade by the way they treat us and who are the real people who are willing to stand by us and have confidence in us even during failure. The second set of relationships is the one we need to nurture.

2.       Move out of your comfort zone. Look back in your past and reflect on any major success/achievement of yours. Now, go back to the night before the success/achievement. What were you feeling? Most of us would have been feeling anxious, even restless with butterflies in our stomach. This clearly shows that success can be achieved only when we move out of our comfort zone, when we take risks. Hence, go ahead and take risks. Embrace failure and you will set yourself up for success

To Manager: Encourage risk taking. If people fail in the process, incentivize them. Celebrate their failures as this will further encourage risk taking and thus enable innovation in the organization.

The day we celebrate success and failures in equal terms, we will promote learning & innovation across the organization. I am not saying that we should promote a person who has capability issues and fails continuously in their job. However, we should not see such a failure in the same light as a failure resulting from risk taking and expanding the horizons of an individual. In a future blog, I’ll discuss examples of organizations which incentivize both success and failure.

In the words of Michael Jordan, famous basketball player who incidentally was cut from his high school basketball team – “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeeded”. This shows that failure is good. Are you ready to Fail? Happy Failing!!