Participant Feedback - Design Your Life for Take Charge Mentees

I had a wonderful time designing and running this session for the mentees of Take Charge 5 i.e. Fifth Batch.  The participants comprised of those on the cusp of graduation, as well as those who were already employed in some capacity.

They went through various exercises focused on enabling them to think about how they want to build their future, understand the values that drive them, consider the personal brand that they want to build for themselves, take steps to understand their strengths and to navigate the helpfully harmful advice that will come their way.

Here are some pictures of what happened.

And here's some of the things that stayed with them by the end of the day.

Thanks to the people at Take Charge (Cheryl / Andre / Jessica) for giving me the opportunity to contribute my knowledge and experience.  

Pics of Coaching & Mentoring Session for Mumbai Educational Trust, MET League of Colleges.

It was fun to design and conduct this 4 hour session along with my colleagues from the Association of Mumbai Coaches, Saira Kale and Ambuj Jain  on coaching and Mentoring Skills for the faculty at Mumbai Educational Trust, MET League of Colleges.

Due to the short time we were given, we partly facilitated the session and ensured it was interactive.  We used Fishbowl role plays, group discussions, a listening skills activity along with carefully prepared slides and a video.

We were willingly aided by the participants who enthusiastically joined in for each activity, and also with their questions. We'd love to do this again.

Click this link to go to their LinkedIn page, where they have appreciated the session.

Here's some pics of the action:

Article: 5 Simple Concepts for Becoming a Better HR Business Partner

Super article on the future of #HRBP i.e. #hrbusinesspartner and how to add value to the organization from that role.

The first point itself says - "If your mindset is wrong, your skillset hardly matter".

Read the rest of the article here.

#hrmentor #mentoring #mentoringprogram #strengthsdecoder

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.

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. 

Strengths Strategy Coach Ryan Barretto tells us why you should work with your strengths.