How can mid level managers enhance their effectiveness ?

Did you know

In India, 70 per cent of business managers created a demotivating climate for their employees. The world average was 55 per cent.( Source Hay Group Research -reported in BS 5th April 2013)

Good bosses are teachers. In fact their teachings accounts for 67% of  boss's effect on employees productivity - Kathryn L Shaw Stanford Professor of Economics - co -author of Value of Bosses.

Globally , 2 out of 3 employees are disengaged from their work ( Gallup Survey ), this leads to a loss of more than US$ 350 billion per year.

As per Dale Carnegie survey 50% of employees are engaged in India.

Towers Watson Study 2012 indicates that companies with engaged employees achieve 3 times more margins than companies with disengaged employees.

So the Question ?

If the business implication is obvious, why are managers unable to create the magic of engagement ?

Among many other reasons , the ones that stand out are :-

• Managers often do not get specific about role deliverables and expectations from their team members
• Unpredictable responses to situations
• Low interest in the employee 
• Low trust between the employee and the manager

Few simple ways to restore engagement if you are a manager

a. Provide support
b. Communicate by showing interest in the employee - listen more
c. Pay attention to task role and clarify outcomes and expectation
d. Work to build trust - as a sincere partner to your team member's success

Preformance Enablers

For capability to be realized into performance you need support systems. Agreed. So what is the big deal. It is all about performance then do you need temporary capability with support systems or do you need systems that can allow flexibility in capability development. Too much of emphasis has gone into capability development - knowledge growth and skill development, are some aspects that are almost synonymous today.

Think about a movie, the actors perform a part that befits the role. The role exists because of a story . The acting responds to contextual situation. You see the inter-connectivity.So knowledge of the context is married to the situation demanding a particular response from the actor. Props, script, action are detailed out to demonstrate the outcome. The acting skills of the actor ( core capability ) is tailored to the situation as modelled by the director. You get it . The systems and  processes and the eco-system enable the translation of an idea into reality.

Let us shift now to the corporate world. It appears , that we want a movie like outcome from all players. Except , that we want a larger and dynamic canvass ( the story does not end as in a movie), with all players moving in unison and demonstrating flexible capability based on a given situation. The real world does now work this way anymore and hence performance variations are quite drastic. The rate of change externally is at a mismatch with internal rate of change - creating great performance variations.

So what is the way forward . Focus on platform skills of learning agility. Create an eco-system where knowledge repository can exist. Much like the director in a movie , create directors who can teach and if that is not possible , have a repository of skill videos so that temporary skill can be acquired at a short notice , intended just for the purpose. Let's say , your job does not involve vendor negotiation. Yet , a situation demands that you need to lead a negotiation with a vendor for a price agreement.. You are worried about how to present a value. Pause. At this point , you may want to get yourself trained in negotiation skills. Time does not allow it. You can google search and read a few articles on successful value presentation. Or have a library of videos that shows sample presentation of values. If such screened resources are available , you have a good chance of modelling few techniques and being better equipped for your meeting.

You can see, that capability is not necessarily equal to performance , unless a performance system exists to allow that process.

Mobile Learning: The Next Evolution - Chief Learning Officer, Solutions for Enterprise Productivity

Mobile Learning: The Next Evolution - Chief Learning Officer, Solutions for Enterprise Productivity

Performance - What and How

This is the time of the year, when appraisals happen. The news will be out - who performed and who lagged . Rewards, increments, promotions will be awaited by one and all. At the end of it - some would be more happy than others. HR department would tick mark the annual ritual as having been completed with a sigh of relief.

Look at this process closely. What will be used  is the Performance Data. The larger organisations would flaunt their inflallibility - because of Performance Management System infrastructure. The smaller ones would use some measures, scraped from different parts of the organisation. Given this input, the supervising managers are likely to conduct an appraisal based on objective  and irrefutable facts as reflected in the results. The employee would get into this meeting prepared for a  one sided discussion revolving around the What of Performance - the hard facts. He or she, may not have the heart and the courage to highlight the How of the performance. Such discussions would be a matter of one upmanship between the boss and the subordinate resulting in disgruntlement and potential attrition.

The above process has an error bias and hence it is likely that a high performer in one year does not appear to be a consistent performer the next year. One major aspect  is the lack of exploration of the "how" part in a scientific manner. Fortunately tools are available to open this area - e.g PDI Ninth House has a tool called Talent View of Leadership Performance. In addition to the performance data a 360 degree tool digging out the how of the performance can supplement the performance data. Such a tool can reflect the challenges in the role, degree of difficulty, situations faced etc.With these inputs the appraisal process is more scientific and can result in a  better buy-in from the employee on the feedback.

Any performance appraisal must neccessarily focus on the employee and more rigorous and transparent the process, the better is the quality of outcome. Employees would look forward to their own development and the organisation can expect better retention figures. The reward and recognition system will earn  credibility and aspirational value.

When all CEO's are saying that processes and technology can be replicated , and people are the only differentiator, does it make sense to take short cuts in the process ?

Employability in year 2011

As we get ready to usher in 2011, most parts of the world are staring at economic reality and uncertain future. No one knows for sure in India, how many are employed for a livelihood. Last cited information indicates a total of 459 million people with 7% ( 26 million) under organised employment. A recent reference by the Ministry of Labour indicates that Contract labour is 130 million. The rest would  presumably be self employed and or engaged in agriculture. While this is where we stand today, future forecast states that India would be needing 240 million new work force by 2022 and  another 80 million by 2015 as per CII estimates. So, what is happening on ground. Most employment surveys indicate, that hiring has improved , doubt remains if that is actually creating the millions.

If this is the demand side, let us look at the supply side. More than 240 million would pass out from schools and vocational education would be needed for 170 million students. The remaining may need higher education. The current capacity of our infrastructure is barely 3 million students in higher education. Shortages of trainers, vocational education infrastructure is apalling . All the major private players in vocational education space can barely address intake of half a million a year.

I wonder if the Government is actually serious in doing something about this gap. Take a look at skilled resources who are retiring out of defence forces every year. A backlog of nearly 2 million retirees already exist, and yet they have hardly any meaningful resettlement plans while the industry is supposed to be starving for skilled talent. Simply by using this abled work force by transferring their current skill set into corporate requirement can help in mitigating some of the acute shortage that industry is clamouring e.g., in the Automotive industry a significant population can be absorbed in franchise network across the country.

The government seems to be more worried about assessments and certification. Since government is not likely to be the largest employer , certification should be driven by industry. Most businesses are looking at rural economy. I am sure opportunities exist in all parts of the country. Creating , mini cooperatives by enabling entrepreneurship can spar rapid economic development. We have seen in the past. AMUL did wonders to Gujarat. China did it 25 years ago, and they have a GDP 5 times of India. L&T realising need for skilled labour in construction has set up a school where training is imparted on the job/ apprentice model. The pass outs are placed suitably. They have stated in ET, that Rs 24000 is the cost incurred by L&T for training vocational skill. Team Lease , a staffing solution provider has plunged into this business. They see it as a natural integration to their core area. They are charging Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 per candidate. This means, cost of imparting vocational education is not going to be cheap. Surprisingly Government of India seems to have provided Rs 15 per hour for modular employability courses. Such prices will make a mockery of skill development. These Government run institutes have facilities but no faculty. Some are languishing with out dated equipment and teaching processes.

It is high time , that a cooperative model is created between the private sector and government institutions with least red tapism, if one has to seriously do something about creating employability and entrepreneurship in the Indian sub-continent a partnership model is a must. The key enablers would be to draw out a curricullum based on industry needs, faculty with industry experience ably supported by performance and learning and development experts. While this can come from the private sector, the Government , should make available their current resources and facilities. Industry can augment investment in technology and tools for the prepare phase and support employment post training. Such a model can address the needs

Micro Learning

It appears that organisations realise the value of continuos education, but are constrained to let people dedicate time and effort for the same purpose. The reasons for such a paradox , vary from resources to loss in business productivity. These are some real testing times for L&D folks. Adding fuel to the fire are the learners - the texting folks, who value independence as opposed to compliance.

Since training , is an intervention step to make a behavorial change, getting the new age workforce to recognise the importance of doing a job effectively and efficiently is a challenge.

Since much of learning is based on observing, conversing, trial and error, coaching and searching a system that can create a very short duration learning track covering some of the steps above may work.

Ray Jiminez's has an interesting solution to this - "One idea -one action". This has a deep seated connection that learning needs to connect with learners context. Try looking at a picture in a group, and what each one sees may be at variance to what others may see. It is also known that people create own strories out of the information stored in their mind. Remember Inception and dream within a dream. Very often, we leave this process alone in any kind of learning. Conventionally, we let people to form their own opinion after tabling an idea or a proposition. If this were to be reversed - show a picture and than ask a question ( more of thought provoking kind) , the idea gets planted by finding answers to questions asked. Or better still, Reverse it by getting the learner to ask those questions based on the image. This process triggers a connection between ideas, images and actions quite instantaneously. Some have opined that learning is not a linear outcome of an image , process and behaviour. Learning can happen at anypoint.

I like this idea , as it is based on natural learning principles of observing, conversing and trial error. As the modules can be extremely short (may be couple of minutes) , and one idea one action at a time, it is possible to build a whole repository reflecting various situation.

It is known that informal learning aligns with our natural learning ability. However, leaving learning completely open and self paced may not match organisational outcomes. Therefore , creating short cycle learning helps to give an informal flavour to a formal requirement. This helps in developing bite size learning chunks, and therefore an interesting step.

Is training a performance enabler or a measure of employee welfare?

Most organisations cut training expenses, whenever cost reduction is an imperative. During the recession, training expenses, manpower and associated costs bore the brunt. Now, when economic revival is visible, are companies spending on training? It appears that many organisations are following a cautious approach and training budgets are assigned after high degree of scrutiny and diligence. Decisions are now being taken at an executive level, even for a minor expense. Consider this paradox; most training expenses are booked as a measure of employee welfare rather than skill development solution. These days, several international training companies are doing good business, while the Indian ones are struggling to keep afloat. It appears that the certificate brand as perceived by the employee, as opposed to actual operation effectiveness and business impact is a key decision consideration. Often, training vendors are requested to submit a proposal to impart 1 day training as a part of a business meeting. No ADDIE here, period.
How did we get to this state of affairs?
In the earlier times, management trainee scheme was employed as an investment for developing the employee – using on the job exposure and classroom training, with a graduation like ceremony for successful completion and final placement. This was practiced in segments like Banking, FMCG and diversified groups like Tata’s. The businesses valued knowledge and skill in their command and control based organisation. With emergence of IT and OA in the early 80’s, Customer interactive skills like selling and client handling gained ground as a trend setting strategy used to educate the market- picked up from the pharmaceuticals. In the 90’s, when Indian economy opened its door, operations training through compliance requirements like ISO, six-sigma, CMMI, led corporate training as a measure to improve business competitiveness. As India moved ahead in this millennium, and information management driven through technology acquired high importance, measurement of performance got the focus. Since most business processes got automated (by-product of ISO and business process management) with better metrics management, training as a performance enabler got detached from the business performance. The metrics captured the outcome, but failed to capture the in process measures e.g. ., if “x” no of calls led to 1 order, (this got captured) but definition of a call standard was not. Since training enables better performance through modified behaviour (skill development), the enabling measure was missing. In the earlier days, this was well aligned. Take for example a repair technicians performance measure when post training intervention could impact repair at first call performance based on an acceptable standard. We now have a situation, that what get’s measured reflects the results but no further drill down is possible, because some of the process steps are missing. For training related intervention, many CEO’s fail to see the connection between training and performance due to absence of credible analytics.
How does the future hold?
Training will continue to be viewed as a dispensable performance enabler. Given the global business trends, the IBM CEO Study of 2010 indicates that people skills have reduced its importance from 2nd most to 4th position. It appears that training and development needs to redefine in the changing scheme of things. Focus , will shift from how well you do something to how well you know something, given, that further technological advancements may trigger solutions requiring little or low skills.
My two cents?
L&D must make the first move by talking metrics and talking performance. Vendors and training departments must collaborate to ensure that a feel good employee welfare workshop is not labelled training. Every Rupee spent in training must be measured for returns like any other investment. The function must necessarily help create and or facilitate measures that can accurately convey the impact of the training intervention by aligning skills to the business process. Take for example a measurement of a business meeting. The end outcome of this meeting could track participation index, decisions arrived, post meeting actions executed on time. If all of this is developed into a work process, a training intervention will reflect results. The important thing here is to get to this stage so that measures are aligned to the work process.