Are You Boss of Your Cognitive Bias?

Photo by Marta Nogueira: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ pink-and-blue-background-divided-diagonally-with-two-matching-colored-pencils-placed- on-opposite-colors-top-down-view-flat-lay-with-empty-space-for-text-17151677/

 

If you are human, cognitive bias comes with the territory. You cannot beat it, but you can fight against it. In a new white paper, we explain why it is particularly important for organizational leaders to understand and check their cognitive biases, especially when making critical decisions.

Cognitive biases present a serious risk to organizational leaders who bear any responsibility for high-level decision-making. Educating yourself and your team on these five common mental traps will help you neutralize them for improved decision-making, team dynamics, and workplace culture.

1) Anchoring Bias

Read the rest of the article here.

Decision-making in Uncertain Times.

This is a timely article on #decisionmaking in #uncertaintimes.

From the article "Unprecedented crises demand unprecedented actions. Lessons from past crises suggest that #leaders are more likely to underreact. What is necessary is to take the bold and rapid actions that would feel too risky in normal times."

Being a Situational Leadership Trainer and a GLG certified coach, I have a deeper understanding of how these methodologies help in taking decisions when business as usual is not possible.

Read the rest of the article here.

Participant Feedback - Holistic Decision Making

 It was a wonderful experience to design and deliver this critical workshop for the participants of a manufacturing organization.  It was a two-day workshop and was attended by junior, middle and senior level participants.  They enthusiastically participated with questions and points of view and made the entire workshop an experience to remember.

I used a blend of facilitator led discussions, facilitation processes, Decision-making tools and Group discussions that enabled participants to articulate their understanding of the topic, as well as their action plans.

I'm grateful to Skalent India for the opportunity to do this workshop.

Here are a few pictures of the action and their learnings from this (life-skill) topic.  Do click on the images to see details of their learnings.

A Blueprint for Smart Decisions

 A lucidly written article on #decisionmaking - if there's one skill that keeps leaders and managers awake, it's this one.

From the article “In every market, strategy is a theory about how to do well. Which means you have to be specific about a lot of things: What is my Market? Who are my customers? What value am I providing to them that's unique? And how am I going to fulfill that in a way that allows me to make that gap between revenue and return.”

Read the article here

How to Eliminate Burnout and Retain Top Talent (a Strengths-based solution)

 'The truth is: This isn't just a pay issue. It's a burnout, stress and quality of life issue. Employers must ultimately address the root causes of burnout in their organization if they want to have any chance at retaining a talented workforce in the years to come.'

Leveraging strengths to reduce #burnout at the workplace - click here to read the complete article.
#strengthsdecoder #strengthscoaching #burnoutprevention #workplacewellbeing

Effectively Interviewing technical candidates using a Sherlock Holmes technique

Here's a super article on how to interview technical candidates effectively.

I have used a variation of this technique, but this article has helped me add to my knowledge and skills in this area.

Read more here

Displaying Lighthouse Leadership - A Different Perspective

I recently attended a Global Table Conversation organized by IEDP which had Mr. Krishna Thapa as a speaker.

Krishna Thapa is a Gurkha from Nepal who shared his story of growing up in a traditional Nepali village along with the lessons and insights he gained from watching how his community leaders dealt with natural disasters and other challenges. He also detailed the realities of the selection process to become a Gurkha in the British Army and subsequently to be the first Gurkha to be invited to join the SAS.

Among the many gems of wisdom that he shared, here are some that stood out for me.

1) Will I be ok with my decisions 30 years later?

My insight - We make decisions everyday.  Some big (in terms of impact) some small (mundane).  Some are successful, some aren't.  Taking a decision means allocating sufficient time to identify the variables involved, assess them and their possible degree of influence on the current situation, and of course the impact of the decision.  We sometimes miss out on giving sufficient careful thought to the impact of our decisions.  Some of the impacts of decisions are immediately apparent and others invisible to us at that time, and become visible much later.  The reasons for the impacts being invisible are many.  In today's fast paced world, it is difficult to identify and understand those reasons within short timeframes.  So his (Krishna's) method of checking his decision "Will I be ok with my decision 30 years later?" is to ensure that:
a) I have taken into account whatever information is available to me in the given timeframe
b) I have applied my own knowledge and experience in the best manner possible,
c) I have done whatever I could to make sense of the circumstances.
d) I have consulted and pooled my knowledge and experience with whoever I could, as quickly as possible in the given timeframe and taken their inputs, applying them wherever possible.

Whether you lead a team (never mind the level) or not, these are great guidelines for taking decisions.

2) Save others to save ourselves.

The background to this statement was how he and his team went about assisting others and themselves during an avalanche in the Himalayas during a climb, and how he listened to their suggestions - thus enabling a higher survival rate among the climbers with him.  He spoke of a helping mindset which was developed as he grew up in his village, where the survival of one meant the prosperity of all.

My insight - The importance of teamwork and collaboration is critical to the survival of the team and the organization.  In fact, the situational leader will match his input according to his team members needs and capabilities to execute specific goals / KRAs.  He will encourage them to help one another as well. It's tough to call one's department a team if each team member is too preoccupied with executing their own KRAs at the cost of the department goals.

3) The leader is like a lighthouse.  

My insight - This is because, like a lighthouse, he / she shares their light (knowledge and experience) at all times, as much as possible, so that others can learn, be guided and make better decisions on their course, and reach their goals.  It means that he/she  don't wait till it gets completely dark (urgent) but starts sharing information with the team as early as possible.  He also won't bombard them with information all the while, or too soon, again depending on the goal at hand, and his team members' capabilities.

An insecure leader who hoards knowledge and experience is going to bring down not just himself but the organization.  How?  The pace of work will reduce due to bottlenecks created by information hoarding and slow approvals because the team is not empowered to share information or take decisions. Soon the competition will overtake such an organization.

By doing all these three things, the leader would have achieved the highest level of leadership -

He would have created more Leaders

Would you like to have your leaders coached ?

Would you like your next line of managers groomed for leadership in the Situational Leadership Model?

Then write to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call me at +919820155778 to set an appointment for a telephonic discussion.

Employee Engagement for All Situations

When people are financially invested, they want a return.  

When they are emotionally invested, they want to contribute

- Simon Sinek

Employee Engagement has been in the conscious mind more and more over the past decade, ever since it was talked about by Gallup's Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham in their ground-breaking book "First Break all the Rules".  It has frequently been quoted in HR conferences and HR initiatives along the lines of "X percentage of employees in organizations are disengaged".

Here's a simple definition from Google - "Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work". 


And Forbes.com - "Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals".


Here's what it looks like:

This means that employees put in more than required effort in their work, because they're not just working for a salary or bonus or promotion, but job satisfaction, transparency, along with fulfilling personal growth goals and other things.

A cursory google search will turn up loads of links on the topic, including definitions, how to do it, things to watch out for and so on.  And this article is not really about those things. This article is about what managers can do to drive engagement.

While we're at it, I would like to clearly state that Employee Engagement has nothing to do with fun activities (birthday celebrations, festival contests, annual day events) run by HR and / or line managers every month / quarter.  These are stress buster activities, nothing more, nothing less.  For those who think that these fun activities are employee engagement, ask yourself - "How many candidates will join my organization or take back their resignation because we are running these fun events?"

In my experience of twenty years in HR across different industries, Employee Engagement comes down to the relationship between the manager and his team. This is applicable to for all departments including HR.  Employee engagement is not the responsibility of HR, but the responsibility of anyone who leads a team, irrespective of organization level or delegation. When you come to think of it, it's also the responsibility of those who don't have teams, but work across the organization.  HR can provide a framework of Talent Management (Hiring, Performance Management, Rewards, Learning), but the actual work has to be done by the manager personally.

Why the manager?
The manager has to set goals for the team, ensure discipline, manage and monitor performance regularly, provide effective feedback, groom and develop his team members, and ensure goals are met.

So how does the manager drive engagement in his team ? (the term "he" is interchangeable with whatever term you like)

• He has to know his team, beyond their resumes.  
• He has to let the team get to know him / her - beyond the designation.
• He has to develop a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.  
• Define the goals
• Monitor and manage performance
• Enable them to understand and use their own motivation in their work.

Some may say - Who has time for all this?  It seems a lot of work, and it definitely does require substantial investment of time from the manager. Unfortunately, there's no shortcut from this time investment.  There is of course, the Situational Leadership Model by Dr. Paul Hersey  (Center for Leadership Studies) which can help the manager do all of this.

Here's an image of the model:

The #SituationalLeadership model will enable you to:

• Allocate the appropriate task to the correct employee
• Adopt an appropriate management style with each employee (not a one style fits all approach)
• Get employees to participate in the planning the execution of the department's work.
• Identify high performers
• Manage low performance
• Develop the capabilities of the team members

In a crisis or in Business As Usual (BAU), a leader / manager has to take frequent decisions in many areas where he and his team have to get things done.  The Situational Leadership model is an excellent guide for doing all the above-mentioned points. 
For Situational Leadership to succeed, the manager must know both his own Strengths and Weaknesses, as well as those of his teams. A tool such as the #CliftonStrengths or the #PRISM Brainmapping Professional (or DISC, FIRO-b, etc) is necessary as a precursor to ensure that the team becomes an engaged, smoothly-oiled unit. A few reflective questions to start  could be :

1. "What do I need from my team?"
2. "How do I support my team so that they deliver what I need from them?"

Of course, Team Coaching and Individual coaching will also help, along with regular conversations which treat the employee as a person and not just an employee.

Want to know more? Leave a note here, or write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to set up a call. I can also be reached at +919820155778 for a conversation.

Your Choice

Always Remember That Where You Are Is A Result Of Who You Were, But Where You Go Depends Entirely On Who You Choose To Be, From This Moment On. ~~ Hal Elrod, The Miracle Morning

Thanks to Uma Karunakaran for sharing this.