A truth about organization culture

 This is an #OrganizationCulture fact that I learnt quite early in my career.

Researching your potential reporting manager before interviewing or joining would be most insightful.

#strengthsdecoder #training #learninganddevelopment #strengthscoaching

My Brief Thoughts on Goalsetting for Growsum.com

Happy to share my brief thoughts on #goalsetting in a blog by GrowSum along with other HR experts.  From the article:

"A well planned goal-setting approach makes what it takes to build an effective process and helps an organisation run successfully.

The stage of goal settings is the foundation for building an effective performance management system and gives a snapshot of the employees’ health of the organization.

We asked the experts, whether the goal settings process should include the active participation from both the employees and managers to let the former’s goals."

Of course, being a Strengths Strategy Coach, I had to mention the role of strengths in goal-setting.

Read the entire article here

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.

Questions about effectively using Strengthsfinder at the workplace?

So you have heard about strengthsfinder and how it creates magic at work.
But you're not really sure what can happen. What if the same conflicts and quarrels resurface?

Here's a short snippet from an article by Gallup on this. Enjoy.
The Five Principles of Strengths-Based Development are listed below. 

1. Themes are neutral.
2. Themes are not labels.
3. Lead with positive intent.
4. Differences are advantages.
5. People need one another.

Read the article for more details.

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/249821/strengths-based-principles-action-not-forget.aspx?fbclid=IwAR278wU8MWwSfxABepq4yZI3T3kej1lJjsVTUccbRM3WFI8GbbK_XyZ1nJI


If you wish to explore more, please call me on +919820155778

Recruitment is a sales role

In today's market where skills are a premium, the candidates are more interested in having multiple experiences instead of a "job for life", the recruiter cannot have a "to take it or leave it" attitude with candidates, especially the super talented ones.

There must be a shift from a monopolist mindset to a sales / marketing mindset from the organization and the recruiter, in order to attract talented candidates. Else you end up with expensive hiring errors whose effects spread further than you think.
To know more about this, and how to develop a marketeer's mindset for hiring, join The Selection Discussion Workshop on 21 Sept 2019.
The Early Bird pricing ends on Sunday, 15 Sept 2019, so hurry and register at the link below now:

https://www.townscript.com/e/the-selection-discussion-behavioural-interviewing-skills-044202

Collaborating Using your Strengths in Conflict Situations

Leaders have become painfully aware that one man can't do it all.  In today's scenario of VUCA,  IoT, AI and AR, a single employee / manager or leader can't make the organization succeed and thrive.  There's no superman, just employees.  A well-molded team can help things move faster.  Teams that collaborate effectively across the organization, end up winning more for that organization, than those who don't.

And yet, in every organization that tries to encourage collaboration, conflict inevitably occurs, and most people have an instant dislike to conflict.  Conflicts arise primarily because people come from different backgrounds with different learning experiences which are not yet shared.  Also, few people can easily accept that there can be accurate perspectives which are different from the one they hold.  Some people shy from conflict, hoping it will go away. This extends the duration of the problem - similar to continuing to walk when there's a stone in your shoe.  

I am one of those who don't prefer conflict.  Over time I have realized it is necessary else we, as a species, will not progress.  This quote helped me realize that conflict is actually a manifestation of some awareness of a mismatch / dissonance / something that doesn't sit right in one's mind.  It may be real or imagined, but if not surfaced and explored, will cause bitterness, resentment, frustration and so on.

Conflict can be addressed through a workshop training or coaching.

Managing conflict as a Facilitator or Trainer
Many times as a trainer, particularly, during workshops on Teamworking, Building Trust or Collaboration, I have sensed that some participants in the room are not comfortable with each other, and it shows in the manner they interact.  Others are aware of the tensions between them, and modify their behaviour so as to not make things worse.  What actually happens is that no one is able to participate genuinely during the program, and interactions are painfully polite.

As a facilitator or trainer, it's now my task to get them to interact authentically during the program, without forcing them to resolve the conflict.  So I do this with carefully crafted questions or statements, which I ask them to discuss.  Being clear about the outcome of the workshop is extremely important, else such participants will provide lip service at best or derail your schedule at worst.  Occasionally, I get a heads-up about such participants during the diagnosis stage, and so I am able to plan a process or activity that will help them to work together despite differences.  

Understanding conflict from a Strengths Strategy Coach perspective
From a Clifton #strengthsfinder perspective, conflicts can be looked at from the Four Domains of strengths, viz. Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Executing and Influencing domains.  Very few people, when looking at their Top 10 Strengths, have an equal distribution of strengths across each domain.  So the chances are high that the strengths can be concentrated across one or two domains more than others. These strengths will cause people to see things differently, even if two people have the same strengths in their top 10 (see below).

If the needs of the strengths from the dominant domains are not permitted to express themselves, dissatisfaction and conflicts can arise.  Also, if the situation demands the use of strengths which are the bottom 10 of the 34 Strengths Report, then this too will cause uneasiness, dissatisfaction and conflict.

For eg. a person who is high (meaning - his/ her strengths are in the Top 10) on moving to action, getting things done (Activator, Achiever, Discipline - Executing Domain), is going to feel some irritation if invited to a meeting where people are brainstorming (using Analytical, Ideation, Learner, Futuristic - Strategic Thinking Domain), if they are in his bottom 10 strengths.  Unless facilitated well, brainstorming meetings, as we know, can take up a whole lot of time. This may probably escalate into frustration or anger for that person, if he was not informed about the purpose of the meeting.

As a Strengths coach, I ensure my coachees take time to understand their strengths, how they manifest in behaviours, by correlating what they enjoy doing and not doing through different exercises.  I ask them to reflect on what this conflict might be trying to bring into their consciousness. I allow them some time to identify whats going on, identifying which of the needs of their strengths are not being fulfilled.  Then ask them to create a plan of how to call on other strengths to help not only to manage the current situation, but also be a helpful contributor.  This of course, is how people collaborate when they come from different parts of the organization.

The point is, don't shy away from conflict.  Here are the gifts of a conflict - 

• It helps realization of dissonance, thus reducing stress and emotional waste.
• If reflected upon, it provides a starting point to working towards a dialogue, which can lead to a solution.
• It can create an opportunity to grow a strength, experiment new things. 
• It's a chance to have fruitful discussions with those who disagree with you - and now you get to learn another person's perspective.
• Surfacing a conflict sooner means that you save the most valuable resource of an organization - TIME.

Contact me on +91-9820155778 or ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or leave me a message here, if you want to run a Collaboration or a Conflict Management intervention for your organization. 

Workshop on Setting KRAs

At a workshop on setting KRAs for the top management team of a large Hospitality Organization.

After sharing pointers on the features of #KRAs, they were asked to distinguish between #objectives and #outcomes of their business. Finally each department created their own KRAs as well as helped other teams build their KRAs, thereby making it a collaborative exercise.  Later that day, these KRAs were evaluated and finalized by the CEO.

Boss Vs Leader

Boss Vs Leader

Among all the literature that distinguishes between a #boss and a #leader, this is the most clearly articulated that I've come across.

Your thoughts?

https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/stop-trying-to-make-the-boss-look-good/

Book Review "Quiet_Leadership"

Book Review "Quiet_Leadership"

If there were more stars to give, I'd give them all to the author of this book.<br /><br />It is a simply brilliant, outstanding book which details the necessary skills for the leadership of the current times. To help your employees develop their thinking, the author shows the neuroscience of how our brain reacts to the perception of feedback and what we can do to actually put it into practice.