Time is precious, the only resource which cannot be preserved nor can be reproduced. Yet, there are people who love the gossip and the grapevine. Water cooler conversations are normal, but there is a limit beyond which all of us understand how painful the gossip king and gossip queen are. They feast on rumors and false news, spread toxicity and negativity in the organization.

The best way is to stay away from such people and conversations. If you are in a position of power and influence in the organization, you must publicly take a tough stance against behind-the-back conversations and promote transparency in all aspects. You must focus on ‘what’ rather than ‘who’ and try addressing the root causes than chasing the villain. Communication from the leadership team plays an important role in quelling the impact of these gossipmongers. Confront the gossip-king or gossip-queen if you can easily onlinecasinogo.ng isolate them and take them to your People Office if need be.

Idea-stealers, loud-mouthed colleagues, sarcastic colleagues, bullies, gossipmongers – all of them can make your day at work tough. They may all create stress individually or in combination. Take a deeper dive into yourself and see if you have been any of these people knowingly or unknowingly. Live a balanced life so that the stress doesn’t get to your heart. Stay objective!

You may also like to read: #WorkBytes4

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World over people are concerned about privacy. However the more we want to protect our privacy, the more public we are about our thoughts, feelings, and reactions. Thanks to the smart phone and social media! Should the organization keep a tab on the sleep pattern of its people in leadership roles?

Hard work needn’t be long hours!

Researchers have proved beyond doubt that sleep deprivation makes one feel tired, irritable, edgy and blunt in making judgments. So, leaders have to rest well to be able to listen well, converse meaningfully and inspire their teams.

However, given the social norms that seem to govern most communities in the world today, most people in leadership roles consciously try building an image of being dynamic, quick-on-the-feet and versatile. So they tend to work extra hours, keep communicating with the crew using all possible channels of communication. They tend to squeeze in an hour or two each day. Long flights, packed agendas, quick turnarounds and obsession with emails and various other social channels keep one busy for sure.

One must take a hard look at this and ask if one could be equally effective by appropriate delegation, solid planning, and rigorous performance management. We know that the world here is a lot of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous than ever before; hence the leader has to keep his or her eyes on the ball all the time. Hence it’s all the more important for the leader to stay alert, anticipate events, connect the dots quickly and act decisively. A leader must sleep well!

Don’t infect the others!

Some leaders brag about their work timings, the stretch goals of getting things done and being lightning fast in their responses. Their team pays for such misadventures.

Everyone in the team feels obliged to follow the footsteps of the boss so that they do not get branded as slowpokes and their commitment towards the organization and the boss do not get questioned. If most people in the team sleep less and get to work with deficits inattentiveness, energy and drive, the service quality suffers and the organization runs into a vicious circle. Nobody wants that to happen!

Maybe, the boss stumbled upon an interesting thought, so he or she gets up in the middle of the night and starts working on it immediately so that the thought gets its due attention and energy; the idea could blossom forth into something very big. So, that’s a midnight lamp burning and an exception. But this can’t be expected to happen each day.

Some bosses expect their subordinates to be active on their smartphones and stay connected until late in the night. That becomes a culture in the team. Most often the long work hours don’t accompany high levels of productivity in the organisation. So, it’s no point dragging everyone in the team to sacrifice their time outside the usual work hours in tasks which don’t yield business results.

Can we not plan better?

Some organisations do better than the others in planning their way up the hill. The people in leadership roles across the levels learn to work accordingly. Countries like Japan encourage their workers to take a nap in the afternoon so that they are better prepared to take up the next set of tasks. This is an example of how some plan for high productivity.

Coworkers, subordinates and bosses have to play their role in dealing with isolated cases of sleep-deprived managers. They need to be counseled and given feedback about their actions. Sometimes they may not know the amount of stress they create on their team members by firing long emails before the bedtime or holding periodic meetings on a holiday and so on.

Sleep well to repair the damages done during the day to the mental fabric and boost morale in the team!

You may also like to read: Leadership at the Foundation of Company’s Success

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There are some who are hidden bullies. They make you do tasks which are not your responsibility – can be anything from admin tasks such as booking meeting rooms to answering calls from an angry client. This makes you lose out on precious time and sometimes being seen as either a spineless soul or under-loaded co-worker. You want to be seen as a nice and helpful colleague. Your confidence gets shaken and you feel helpless. What do you do?

Some people suggest the best way is to confront and take a stance. However, if the bully is your manager, more often than not, you will lose the plot. You might end up bullied more and more. It is best to discuss with people who take an interest in you and conclude if your feelings are for real or you are over-reacting. Once you are clear about it, it’s important to take the next steps of discussing with your People Office or Committee on Workplace Health and Safety. You must prepare well with facts rather than inter-lacing them with your emotional experiences.

If it is a colleague or someone who is not directly connected with you, drop hints at the person and try influencing him or her to stop asking for help and nagging. If it is a tough nut to crack, be direct and explain why you cannot oblige the person. You could involve others in the process if the person does not stop. Do not take it lying down, protect your dignity and respect!

You may also like to read: #WorkBytes3

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You have a colleague who has an opinion on everything, knows all, finds faults easily and tries to add value to the work of co-workers and juniors with her comments. You are having a difficult day at work. You need a moral-boost rather than comments, criticisms and worst of all, sarcasm. What do you do when you are faced with someone who is often sarcastic?

All of us face such people in our lives. They pretend to know all and come forward to offer their comments and inputs which are often sarcastic. Sometimes, they do not know how hurtful they are. They might do this to add humour or a genuine interest to add value. They need to be told tactfully about the impact they create and the trail of feelings which grip the recipient oddly. Private conversations focused on this behavior would help.

Easier said than done, is to stay objective rather than letting the sarcasm disappoint you and drag you behind. Sometimes, they have valuable inputs that need to be listened to and acted upon.

In the worst case, stay away from such colleagues. If your workplace norms treat this as bullying, you might want to draw the attention of the appropriate authorities about these behaviors.

You may also like to read: #WorkBytes2

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You are in a meeting with an objective of taking stock of the progress and making a few decisions about the journey ahead. A participant speaks at length, labours a point to highlight his or her expertise and goes to unnecessary details that add negligible value to the meeting. The long-winding monologue of the person cuts short the time at hand for you. How do you deal with such a loud person?

It is rude to interrupt a person, more so if he or she enjoys power or goodwill. Sometimes, power bestowed on a person is not due to the position or authority; it could be due to a track record of performance or knowledge on the subject or could hold the key to your success in some way. So, you might be willing to tolerate the loudness of the person to an extent. It is important to be aware of the situation and be tactical accordingly.

Laying ground rules for a conversation right in the beginning is a good practice. For example, time limits for each speaker, the order in which people speak, circulating the supporting material for the discussion can be set well in advance. The host of the meeting plays an important role in ensuring that people kiwigambling.co.nz focus on facts and opinions rather than indulge in self-aggrandizement. One has to be skillful in interrupting the speaker, summarising the point and invite counter-points if any.

The reporting senior has the responsibility of giving a feedback to the person about his or her style in conversations and making necessary changes. Sometimes, peers can provide valuable feedback to the person so that the individual can consciously make changes to his or her style.

You may also like to read: #WorkBytes1

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Your colleague steals your ideas, projects those as her own, she is seen in a better light, you do not get credit for your work and you get marginalised. You feel shocked, angry, cheated and frustrated. Some say, your work should speak for itself. You do not know if you should ignore and stay positive or retaliate, confront, counter the claim publicly. Everyone else forms an opinion how good she is and her ideas. You are not in the reckoning. What do you do?

It is hard to stay objective when you are emotionally charged. However, one has to curb the itch of confronting the person on the spot or taking it to the boss. No point creating a scene then and there!
Sometimes, you might be judgmental about your colleague and bring up a bias in your mind that he or she is an idea-stealer. One must take a pause and look within if there is a bias against the person just because of one or two experiences. If so, you might be accusing the person unjustly! You should seek another point of view about the situation, maybe from your boss or peer.

Sometimes, you might be too greedy of the spotlight and unfairly desirous of recognition. So, you should discuss with your colleague one on one to understand the situation with an open mind. One must not conclude that you are being victimised and your ideas are being maliciously stolen.

Every organization has its own norms and practices around recognition, rewards, metrics, a delegation of work, peer communication and engagement with the manager. Based on these, you must know the best way to create an impact on the business, showcase your work and work together with the others. Your company may encourage people to step up and be cut-throat while others may want you to put your team first and so on. Learning to structure your ideas and the way you present them within the company’s culture would help you earn all the recognition that you deserve and prevent theft of ideas.

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There have been debates around glass ceiling for women, inadequate participation of women in the Board rooms, inequality in pay, discrimination against women while recruiting and inadequate social infrastructure to support women at workplaces. These debates have been taking place across the world over the last few decades.

The debate continues…

We can already experience a huge change in India when we compare a workplace in the early 90’s and now. Number of women employees at work vis-a-vis men has risen rapidly; number of women students in the higher education courses such as Engineering and Management has increased manifold; many Boardrooms have women. Some of these changes have happened due to changes in legal provisions and some due to the peer pressure in the society. These days, firms provide paid maternity leaves for six months; some offer sabbaticals and friendly policies around pregnancy and early stages of motherhood. Governments make special arrangements to ease the woes of women in commuting to work, attending to strenuous tasks, working at odd hours and so on. There are additional safeguards such as Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act to dispel fears of women to come to work. All these are aimed at increasing participation of women in the economy and its GDP. In spite of so many changes in our society, the debate hasn’t been put to rest.

Let us not be fanatic about gender equality!

We have seen families in their overzealous drive to scale greater peaks of achievement in the realms of financial and professional status, compromise on building social capital for their future. The next generation that gets ready to join the workforce bears a set of values which are very different from their parents. Social scientists are studying this phenomenon. The jury is still out on that. However, one thing is for sure : fanatic rush to achieve a set of goals is not the same as focus and determination to achieve them.

We have seen senior executives of large multinationals chasing gender diversity targets and going on a recruiting spree to achieve that score. Does this overdrive get the organization the desired assets and human capital? Not always! The cost of such overdrive outweighs the results that we land up with.

Should each workplace reflect the gender ratio of the society?

As per 2011 Census we are 940 females per 1000 males. In 2001, it was 933 per 1000. This is nearly 49-51; should all organizations ideally have their workforce in the same ratio? If we are fanatic about gender equality, we will force every organization to reflect this.

Are we ready for this? While this could be a highly desirable situation and a socio-political masterstroke to pursue, it is not feasible at this point of time. We do not have so many women available for work. Reasons behind poor supply of women talent for work are plenty. Right from social dogma, economic need, availability of social infrastructure to opportunities, there are many factors.

Moreover, nature has created the bodies of men and women differently; it has created unique capabilities for each of them. We must not ignore them. We should leverage on this diversity rather than trying to fix everything with the same brush.

And at the same time, we must not typecast some roles with a certain gender as was the practice decades ago. Women need not be compulsorily raising children, growing families and providing care to the others. The point here is to argue against the mindless drive to achieve equal participation of men and women in each and every walk of life.

How can organizations deal with this?

We have many challenges at hand; we have to evolve pragmatic solutions.

When we see the rural vs urban India, we find more women in rural India participating in the labour force (27%) than in urban areas (16%). This could be due to the limitations in our social systems and economic realities. Women in the urban India are educated and capable as much as their men counterparts. Factors such as lack of support systems to take care of the young and the old in their families are a big obstacle. Organizations can leverage on this unemployed and under-employed diaspora by redesigning their work. Some parts of work can be done with no supervision, at hours the employee finds convenient; the organization has to build systems in such a way that one can find solutions when he or she faces a challenge. Needless to say that IT and the intent of the leadership are big enablers here.

We have seen several small organizations fearing the prospect of maternity leaves and the costs. While the intentions are noble and genuine, many of them find it too much of a disruption and too expensive. Secondly, we know how young mothers struggle to balance the demands at work with those at home. This is one of the big reasons why so many women drop out of the active workforce for many years in their prime and more often than not, find it difficult to return to the productive work life. Organizations have to influence the Government of the day to improve the social security measures, bear the costs and provide utilities such as creche, play schools and so on which people at large can avail. Currently, they are too few and far between.

In summary, we see this as a journey that has to be undertaken by the government, the society and the organizations at the same time towards leveraging the talent and capabilities that men and women possess. Social systems have to keep evolving so that the girls in the families do not fall behind when their parents prioritize the possibilities. The drive towards having equal participation across genders is mindless. Let this be based on the talent and capabilities only. If that makes 80 women and 20 men, so be it!

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We associate autocracy, dictatorship, authoritarian styles to tyrant leaders like Hitler, Stalin and Fidel Castro. But, there is a bright side of this unique style. Think of Henry Ford who created a great impact in the auto industry. He is known to have followed the autocratic style of leadership with his belief in economies of scale and assembly line manufacturing. Ford Motors created thousands of jobs and a solid history. Leaders who consider themselves as experts and have a huge conviction.  In a cause, do not consider it essential to seek opinions of others, build alignment of thoughts and so on. They are action-oriented; expect their flock to carry out the instructions perfectly with the same conviction without questioning the purpose behind the efforts.

It works well in some situations!

Across the world, this style works well in the military because they do not have the time to build consensus and alignments with the troops. The leader is expected to make the right decisions given the support system that is working elsewhere. The members of the troop are expected to stay battle-ready and wait to receive the instructions from their leader. The trust is implicit and a foundational principle here.

Similarly, in a factory or in a construction site, the work processes are so complex that the workers have neither the knowledge nor the wherewithal to decide if the tasks carried out by them are worthwhile for the business or not. They just carry out the assigned tasks in the manner they are told to do. In return, they expect a secure job and fair wages. The leader assumes great responsibility in such cases and is obliged to do the best to ensure that the team reaches the goal.

Autocratic leaders are hyper-criticized!

The common belief is that autocratic leaders are control-freaks, keep a close watch on the tasks being performed, do not trust the people in their team, do not recognize the efforts being put by the individuals, reap hugely lucrative rewards vis-a-vis the earnings of their teams and are short-term focused. However, this is a bit of over-generalization and hence, unfair to paint the canvass with a single stroke.

Like we say, horses for courses, leadership style demonstrated by the leader must match the need of the hour and the context in which the team has to perform. To lead highly skilled scientists in an R&D laboratory is a task very different from leading highly skilled commandos in a counter-insurgency strike. Similarly, leading a team of factory workers in an assembly line is very different from leading a team of engineers ensuring consistent performance of a data-centre.

One size doesn’t fit all. So, a leader has to bring the right mix of leadership behaviours to the team. She or he has to communicate, delegate, build trust, receive feedback, inspire the team to pursue lofty goals, show the bigger picture and deal with reactions of the team-mates. While an autocratic style is closely identified with instructing the team, monitoring progress and pushing them to achieve bigger targets, a successful leader shows the other facets of leadership behaviors at the right time.

Do not lose control over your intentions!

In the military organizations, the leader makes his intentions clear to the troop and the soldiers become clear about the goal. While the broad strategy is known to the troop, it is impossible that the leader can tell them what to do at each step of combating the enemy. They apply the principles that they have learned and do their best to realize the goals defined by the leader. This works all over the world. However, we see business enterprises struggle to achieve this level of maturity.

At times, a leader invests a lot of energy in alignment and consensus-building. In the process of give and take, often the intentions agreed jointly become an octopus, hard to manage and often invisible! We can well imagine, the organization fails in these situations in spite of the best efforts of the leader to co-create the intentions and goals.

There are situations when a leader tries to have a close oversight. The team perceives that the leader doesn’t trust anyone; doesn’t value the ability of anybody in his team. The energy drops, momentum declines and commitment falls. Naturally, the organization fails to deliver.

Ideally, the leader has to keep a good control on the intentions and evolve the principles for the play. He must communicate with his team in such a way that the players in his side are clear about these. They have the freedom to apply the principles in their respective tasks. Leadership, I think, is about a good balance in multiple dimensions. One must draw upon these dimensions of energy in the right proportion to make the ideal mixture that paves a strong path to success.

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Why do organizations value diversity so much?

Undoubtedly, the first step is to recruit a mix of talent in terms of gender, academics, culture, ethnicity and physical abilities. The second and the most crucial step is to include all of them and engage all their hearts on the same set of goals and drive a common sense of purpose. All of us know that leading a diverse team is not an easy task, yet most forward-looking organizations call upon their employees in managerial roles to see the bright side of the coin.

We grow up with a set of social beliefs, norms and practices. We operate with a set of do’s and don’ts by the time we join the labour pool. We behave in certain ways without knowing why we do as such. In an organization, an employee deals with stakeholders who is not necessarily having the same perspective as the employee has. If the organization lacks diversity, the mismatch between viewpoint of the employee with that of the external stakeholder starts manifesting as customer complaints, employee grievances, lack of motivation to achieve the goals and so on. The stress starts showing up in the results of the firm.

To solve this undesired situation, organizations assemble a team which brings to the table a variety of experiences, views and beliefs. This team starts viewing a challenge from multiple angles and develops a solution which is more holistic than that can be delivered by a homogeneous team.

Inclusion is much beyond the diversity index.

Organizations want diversity and the index must look good. Hence, they want to hire women leaders, ex-servicemen, people from cities other than the home city, people with different abilities, young mothers returning back to work, older folks and so on. What do they get other than a healthy number meeting the target of diversity index?

One must not lose the sight of the wood for the trees. Organizations want diversity because they believe that they would be able to respond to external and internal situations holistically. The leader has to be build the environment where all the viewpoints are generated, heard and worked upon. Diversity plays its role only when the power of this characteristic is leveraged.

Organizations have to build platforms to bring together all groups of people to analyze a situation and come up with alternates. Every view must reach the ears and minds of people who are supposed to act on them.

Do not compromise the pace!

A leader in the armed forces has to direct the troops rather than engage in a dialogue and debate. This is because of the fact that a battlefield does not allow the luxury of time for a discussion, debate and consensus. Organizations who want to leverage on the power of diversity might get caught in the trap of slow pace. In today’s world, businesses need to be extremely agile. How can one be agile, yet at the same time engage all its rank and file in conversations?

In fact, organizations who value the talent of their employees, provide them with adequate freedom and independence to act. This empowerment creates a sense of responsibility and ownership in the minds of the employees, in turn creating a greater organizational momentum. A homogeneous workforce, on the other hand, might just fall into a zone of comfort, take things for granted and not challenge each other enough. It is not necessary that a lack of variety makes decision making easy and quickens the pace of execution. And at the same time, diversity does not slow things down.

The leader has to truly believe in the fact that a cross-cultural team can potentially deliver holistic and complete solutions. He has to build the right platforms in the organization to facilitate the integration of ideas.

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We all know, bosses have their favorites. They are human beings and so do the people who work with them. It is natural that the boss likes and trusts someone more than the others. You become first among equals, the go-to-person for prestigious project, a critical decision or a crisis. You enjoy his proximity and often become a part of the inner circle that has the knowledge of classified information. You feel privileged and start enjoying a special status in the team. Is life a bed of roses for you?

Are you able to drive Change programs effectively?

Since you are the go-to-person for your boss, your plate remains full all the time. You are undoubtedly important for your team and the organization. You get to work on challenging assignments and can potentially learn a lot from these assignments. However, there is a catch here!

Problems in the organization are solved not by just one person but by a team and often by a cross-functional team, especially if you are in a role that has a significant strategic bent to it. The boss’s favorite is a spotlight in the organization and is looked upon with a range of emotions such as jealousy and awe. When you are in the situation of getting things done by collaborating with people from other teams, you experience bottlenecks. They do not open up to you; some of them start sabotaging your intent in a stealth mode. You start feeling frustrated and shooting from the shoulder of your boss. It often backfires especially when you are talking to people from other teams who do not report to your boss.

You are unable to get the things done as per the plan. Often, you do not get the complete picture of the ground reality because people are not forthcoming with you. You are unable to identify the root cause of the problem you are supposed to solve or give those critical inputs to your boss. You fail to deliver the business impact. So, do not oversell your clout! Stay modest and do not take advantage of your special status.

Are you developing your career?

You are protected well by your boss, enjoy a big elbow room in many things related to work and get to solve the meaty challenges. Does that mean that you are developing your capabilities and increasing your worth? Your boss could have a rough patch in your organization and might fall out of the mainstream. Your boss might become cold and distant suddenly. The peers of your boss could come to the limelight and might have opportunities which are better for you. But, your deep loyalty to your boss could come on the way of you being trusted by the front-running leaders in the organization. What happens to you in that situation?

Secondly, as you work through the maze of your organization, you being the boss’s favorite tends to be the spokesperson for your boss and his ideas. This happens unconsciously; over a period of time, this leads to you being branded as someone who toes the boss’s line, lacks the depth and confidence to form opinions and speak one’s mind. This kind of an image harms your future prospects and potentially compromises the kind of recommendations that you are likely to get from the others in future.

Each passing year, you must analyze if you are increasing your experience by a year or strengthening your abilities and deepening your expertise. Staying as a sidekick will not necessarily enrich your abilities unless you are delivering on assignments which have an increasingly greater impact on your organization. Your title might change and rewards might increase; you might deepen your roots in the organization. However, the most critical factor to analyze is to check if you are producing greater impact each year. If not, you must look out for career options within or outside your current employer!

Are you hungry for approval?

Many times, we have noticed the school kid in us want to be in the good books of the teacher. We look for the pat on the back, the stars on our books and so on! We want to be the apple of the teacher’s eye. We behave well by following all her instructions and do our best to shine in the tests that she takes. Are we carrying the same to our workplace?

It is important that we introspect and understand who we are. In case, we look for the praise or the abrogation all the time, we fail to stand on our own feet. As a professional aspiring to break into the higher echelons of an organization, it is important that we learn to think independently and present those thoughts firmly. At the same time, we have to learn to stay modest and sensitive so that the bosses do not feel hurt to hear another perspective rather welcome them.

Being the favorite of the boss puts us on a pedestal. However, we must make sure that we are growing well by increasing the business impact that we deliver and build the social equity in the organization at the same time.

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