What GICs Can Learn From Startups To Compete For Tech Talent

GICs (Global Innovation Centers) often face tough competition from startups regarding attracting and retaining top talent in the tech space. Startups are often perceived as more agile, innovative and exciting, while GICs may be seen as more bureaucratic and risk-averse. However, GICs can leverage several advantages to compete with startups and attract top talent.

First, GICs need to highlight the benefits and perks they offer employees, such as stability, strong company culture and opportunities for career advancement. By emphasizing the unique value they offer employees, GICs can differentiate themselves from startups and attract top talent.

But can they do more? Could they maybe emulate certain aspects of startup culture that most attract the top talent and thus offer a "best-of-both-worlds" workplace? Read on to find out.

Advantages Of GICs Over Startups

One advantage that GICs have is their association with large organizations, which offers stability and security. While startups may be more exciting and offer the potential for rapid growth and big rewards, they also come with higher risk and uncertainty. GICs, on the other hand, can be attractive to employees looking for long-term career growth. Another advantage GICs have is the resources and expertise they have to offer a range of professional development and training opportunities, which can help employees build new skills and advance their careers.

GICs also tend to have more structure and more defined processes and job descriptions, which leads to more consistency in operations, better-managed change and more structured rewards and recognition programs. On a more personal level, I find that GICs often offer better recreational facilities as well as access to counseling and mentoring, meaning that work-life balance may be easier to maintain. Finally, GICs are often a part of very reputable global organizations, which adds prestige to any employee’s résumé.

Now that we’ve listed some of the advantages GICs should emphasize when competing for talent, let’s see how GICs can emulate startups to offer some of the same excitement and agility in the workplace that often attracts top talent to startups.

What Can GICs Learn From Startups?

1. Remove some of the bureaucracy

One central point of criticism toward more prominent legacy companies is the amount of red tape, which slows processes down and can effectively halt innovation and creativity. If you want to compete for top talent as a GIC, try to give more ownership to your department heads, cut down on bureaucratic processes and consider introducing something like Google’s 20% rule, which gives employees time to work on whatever they are passionate about. Much innovation arises from this kind of freedom.

2. Become more fun

What makes startups so much fun is the informal work environment, the pace at which work is done, the spontaneity and the culture that encourages team members to be friends and have fun outside of their work responsibilities. It can be easy to import some of that into your GIC environment: Encourage people to create non-work-related Slack channels to discuss their hobbies and interests, trust people more and control them less, and host fun events like hackathons and fascinating talks by top authors and celebrities.

3. Allow for more exciting roles

Multinational corporations often have very narrowly defined roles that can make more creative spirits feel trapped in a job description that gives them little opportunity for creativity. Consider being more flexible with job descriptions and encouraging employees to weigh in on what they would like their role to be. That way, you will have more engaged employees and better results as they work on things they genuinely care about.

4. Offer more opportunities for growth

A GIC definitely has an advantage over a startup regarding long-term career prospects and succession planning. However, in the short term, the opportunities at a startup are more exciting. In a startup, someone who comes in as a software engineer could rise to CTO within three or four years.

What opportunities for growth could you offer to those who are ready to take on more responsibility? How could you make their mid-term prospects more exciting? This is an important consideration, as the average tenure at any one organization is getting shorter, and the younger talent often advances their career by changing organizations every three to five years. If you only offer long-term opportunities, you might lose out on some of the top talent.

5. Create a startup-like environment in capsules

Could you have an innovation center—a kind of Skunk Works, where the atmosphere is more startup-like, as it often is in R&D departments? Could you create a part of your GIC that allows more flexibility, creativity and playfulness to enter the workplace?

Offer The Best Of Both Worlds

As there is increasing competition for top talent in the tech space, companies looking to recruit the best and brightest must set themselves apart to become attractive. GICs would do well to redefine their employee value proposition (EVP) by focusing on providing a flexible or hybrid working model and offering a range of other benefits to attract top talent.

The best way to do that is to offer candidates the best of both worlds: the excitement, pace, innovation and creative challenge of a startup environment combined with the stability, reputation and long-term opportunities of a GIC.

First published on Forbes.com in June 2023

Boosting Operational Efficiency

Reaching optimal operational efficiency is a challenge even for organizations with the simplest structures. Multiple functions and departments have to sync and work together seamlessly to ensure productivity. Along with internal functioning, there are many external factors that influence an organization, like constant competition, technological changes, customer preferences, stakeholder expectations and so on. As the organization grows, maintaining productivity and efficiency can become a challenge. The best way to deal with this is to have a navigation system in place as you scale up to avoid loss of efficiency and resources.

 Care About Competition & Numbers

All leaders and entrepreneurs start their journey with certain numbers and goals as destinations. These goals define strategy, milestones and execution methods to reach the eventual target. While working towards this, measure your progress. Do this not just internally but compare it with your competitors to focus on the larger picture. Benchmark the practices that are helping them increase their efficiency and learn lessons from their processes. Go a step beyond, look at other industries that face similar problems as you do and benchmark their process as well. Incorporate these learning while creating processes for your own company.

 Standardize at Each Step

Creating standardized processes at every step creates structure and predictability in the company. It provides employees clarity regarding their roles and responsibilities. Standardizing is key to keep the quality of your services consistent. Install checks and balances to stop errors that could be foreseen. Standardized processes create efficiency while safeguarding productivity through repetition and accountability. Periodically, evaluate the efficacy of these procedures to identify room for improvement.

 Proactive Evaluation

The standard procedures and protocols that each company puts in place have to be appraised from time to time. As the company grows or external factors come into play, there is a need to make certain changes. Foreseeing bottlenecks and continuous improvement guarantees that your company fulfills commitments in a consistent manner as per expectations. Proactively doing this evaluation can increase and enhance the capabilities of your teams. While a crisis situation forces us to make changes, prevention is better than cure. Make proactive evaluation a part of your process to ensure operational efficiency.

 Invest in Infrastructure

While there is a lot of effort involved in hiring the right people, investing in infrastructure ensures that the employees have the right tools and support to achieve the goals set for them. Along with the technology, choose the right vendors and partnerships. Find the right connections at the appropriate costs to meet the customer need. Ensuring the quality of your offerings and establishing a set up that empowers your employees to do their best will not only guarantee growth for your organization but it will also increase job satisfaction amongst your employees. This will directly impact the organization’s overall operational efficiency.

 Make Learning Priority

The next step to ensure efficiency and productivity from your employees is to plan their growth within the company. Creating career options, learning opportunities, skill enhancement avenues, and training programs will increase their operational effectiveness while positively impacting attrition levels. Employee productivity and skill enhancement also keep them up the curve with respect to competition. As technological advancements also have a direct impact on the efficiencies, training only ensures that your team is prepared for the future.

Keeping a check on operational efficiency is a must for organizations that are aspiring to grow at a fast pace. Without a strong focus on this element of the organization, even the strongest products and services can fail to meet customer requirements. A customer’s experience of dealing with your representatives and using your product defines their future with you. The customer experience takes precedence over everything else and delivering a consistent, satisfying and efficient experience has never been as vital to success as it is now.

Transforming and Turning Around an Ailing Company

“If the plan doesn’t work change the plan, not the goal” -Anonymous

Profit unmet? Revenues collapsing? Losing customer retention? Employees abandoning the bandwagon?

Low-points are a part of every business journey. Losing heart and feeling demotivated does not resolve existing issues. No entrepreneur wants to be a part of any falling statistic. However, time spent wallowing over mistakes made is precious time lost. In such situations, the key is to take immediate actions, lest you run the risk of the company going down in flames. Irrespective of the scale of business, if your company is teetering between success and failure, it is helpful to first understand why your business is failing and then strategize how to overcome them.

The Fire-Fighter Approach

Whenever a fire breaks out, the flames are usually bigger than disclosed. You try to break through the door, oblivious to what may happen inside; either the house could collapse or you can put out the fire. Regardless, you charge, because such actions are taken when it’s almost too late.

Similarly, in the world of business, problems are tackled seriously only when the fire is about to collapse the house. In such situations, you play the fire-fighter and risk breaking-in. The catch here is to reach the cause of the breakout. The team needs to realize the flaws and be consciously aware as to where the functioning has gone wrong. Having a clear and open discussion about this negates the confusion and brings in clarity on how to tackle the problem going forward.

Train Insane or Remain the Same

You have often heard the quote “Train insane or remain the same” connoted to fitness enthusiasts. Did you know that this saying also applies to the employees of an organization? To turn your company around, you’ll need to push all the boundaries and make strategic moves to improve its health. Often when a company changes its strategies and plans, they rarely execute the same as the team lacks the potential to do so. So what are you going to do? Get rid of existing staff and fish for new talent at a juncture where the company’s future looks uncertain? This is a flawed plan. Instead, you can train and correct the existing staff and turn them into your dream team. Initially, they might resist change, but with time and willingness to initiate, employees will blend in.

One Victory at a Time

As the saying goes “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” Similarly, one cook cannot focus on different dishes at once. Akin to this, the organization should focus on one problem and resolve it in totality before moving on to the next issue. Even one small victory helps increase your employees overall morale. This can be better executed if there is openness amongst team members about sharing both good and bad news. This also helps in instilling a sense of ownership into your employees.

It is imperative to involve employees in decision making and undertake more roles as a leader. This will energize them towards transformation and commitments. It also makes them more accepting towards changes. Develop a singular vision between every individual and lay out clear key performance indicators (KPIs), which will ensure that employees work together as a team towards an objective.

People Matter

More often than not, major fallouts that take place in a company is because of clashes between people; employees, management or owners. These issues are often not addressed because of ego clashes. The challenge is to sort through all the agendas, defensiveness and embarrassment caused at all levels of the organization. Hence, people of the organization should actively address the issue. They should be open and talk more often to show that they care. Immediately taking stringent actions like firing someone can backfire manifold. It is extremely important to maintain the talent that originally created the concept or brand as they are the company.

Turnarounds are exciting and fulfilling when you begin to see changes work for the company’s betterment. It is rewarding to see a business that was left for dead to start fresh and keep going. At the end of the day, the goal is to transform, enhance and motivate your employees to reach their highest potential. Through a constant and rigorous review of work processes and employees, you will ensure that unforeseen circumstances do not throw the company for a loop. Thus, the ability to effectively transform a company is determined by the relationship shared between the company, employees, and customers. Change is the only constant, and embracing it with open arms will fuel the growth of the company.

Lack of Collaboration Causes Workplace Failures

The primary challenge in globally dispersed organizations is to ensure that the workforce operates productively to accomplish corporate goals and meet market demands.  It is important for these organizations that goals permeate through to the local teams and business units to ensure maximized worker productivity and meeting of market demands. Leaders of the organization are called upon to set standards around internal communication and productivity of the workforce.

Business Unit Goals Focus vs Company Goals

Leaders are the foundational members of a company and their style has a direct impact on how employees engage with each other.  Leaders must know the people on their team well and understand their strengths and skills in order to determine the best way to facilitate achievement of goals and objectives for their unit and the company as a whole. 

In organizations with a more command-and-control-style leadership approach, bureaucracy is more prevalent and communication between employees and departments or business units may be strained. Leaders in these organizations may be driven by achievement of departmental or business unit goals versus the larger collective goals of the organization.  However, this style of leadership often results in employees practicing behaviors that might negatively impact the larger collective. Employees may feel encouraged to keep information to themselves, reject new ideas for fear of failure, and possibly work against others, despite everyone working for the same company. The organizational impact of this style of leadership is poor employee morale and job satisfaction. 

Encouraging Collaboration

In a decentralized leadership approach, on the other hand, collaboration is encouraged and a more democratic style of leadership may be adopted. This style of leadership is built on consensus building and allows leaders to leverage the skills and knowledge of their workforce.  The ultimate goal should, however, not be lost on a leader.  They should work to manage employees so that they have limited barriers to effectiveness, feel empowered to look for new opportunities to grow their career, and equipped with the knowledge and abilities to successfully deal with the challenges of their job. This requires a leader who – as suggested in a Wall Street Journal article on leadership styles [1] – can adapt their style to meet the needs of their particular group of employees and the situation of their organization.    

Leadership Style Impacts the Bottom Line

Leaders of an organization must be cognizant of the impact their style has on the bottom line results of the organization. In a study conducted by Daniel Goleman at the turn of the twenty-first century, the results revealed, “that a manager’s leadership style was responsible for 30% of the company’s bottom line profitability.”  Therefore, leaders must be aware of how their style could cause ineffective communication throughout the organization, less productive employees, and eventually, less competitiveness of the organization.  Leaders must also be aware that other underlying issues may be prevalent throughout the organization which could cause a less productive workforce such as general fear of sharing knowledge and resistance to change and new ideas.  In these cases, other styles of leadership may be more appropriate.  For instance, the affiliative style, which emphasizes team work and harmony to accomplish goals, may be best when groups are prone to working in silos and resisting communication. Such a style can highlight the importance of working together for the collective good of the group versus adversarial relationships that reduce the productivity.  Such an acknowledgement can demonstrate how a leader can be mindful of changing or improving their style to produce better results for the company.    

Culture of Trust

In order for organizations to overcome operational ineffectiveness, a culture of trust must be established, whereby employees feel comfortable sharing with others in the company.  In fact, a study conducted by the IBM Institute of Knowledge-Based Organizations (IKO) noted that the most important factor to establish strong employee relationships and knowledge sharing is trust.  This study further revealed that there are two kinds of trust, benevolence based trust - individuals do not intentionally harm each other, and competence based trust - individuals believe the other person is knowledgable, which improves communication and knowledge sharing.  Both kinds of trust can exist independently of each other and individuals do not always need to share both types of trust with others. However, both types of trust support different goals for the organization, and therefore, organizations should find ways to promote both types of trust within the organization and between employees. 

Infrastructure & Systems for Collaboration

Another important factor for organizations is the existence of robust systems to support the teamwork of employees in order to achieve organizational goals.  These systems include technological infrastructure that supports communication and collaboration, formal and informal networks for employees to learn more about others (e.g. mentoring programs, communities of practice, lunch-and-learns, etc.), timely, well-designed training that is easy to access by the employee, and an appraisal and reward system that promotes the desired behavior.  These systems can support a more open environment where communication flows easily between individuals, trust is developed, and knowledge is shared to complete work, generate new ideas, and solve problems of the organization. 

Building Trust IN Organizations

In both cases, establishing trust and supporting robust systems, leadership is required for success. The study conducted by the IBM IKO noted three actions that managers can take to build more trusting organizations:

• Create common understanding of the operational activities of the organization. To create a common context of the work to be accomplished and the goals of the group will help to build shared language and a shared view for how work is accomplished.

• Model behavior expected of employees. It is important that employees see their leaders demonstrating the behaviors being asked of them. This starts with actively listening to others and encouraging employees to communicate and share their concerns. It is important that employees believe their leaders are trustworthy before they will feel comfortable sharing with others.

• Bring teammates together. While physical distance may prevent all employees from coming together face-to-face, leaders should work on ways in which team members, regardless of physical location, can interact with each other. These opportunities will go a long way in building trust and supporting the systems in place that can facilitate effective working relationships for the common good of the group and the organization overall.

These actions taken by managers can undercut silos of communication, strained relationships, and fear and begin to create a culture of sharing and trust. 

 To keep this really only makes sense if you can link to the Wall Street article in question and say “as suggested in this Wall Street Journal article”

Are You Speaking Your Customer's Language?

Make Customer Meetings Effective

After calls and emails, meeting a customer in person is an opportunity for progress. A structured meeting with an outline and agenda can be productive and measurable. Often customer meetings can go awry if you enter without preparation and goals. Depending upon the stage in the customer’s journey with your company, a meeting can change the course of your partnership with any client.

Prepare

While placing the meeting request, take some time to outline the agenda of the meeting including the expected outcome. As you fine tune the presentation and add relevant information to it, get to know your client, the company, and their business well. Communicating goals is an important step internally as well as externally. It assigns responsibility and effort to each member. It is also essential to have information about the client’s industry to understand the external problems that the company might be facing at the moment.

Focus on Them

During the meeting, while you might be pitching your offerings, keep the focus on your client and their needs. Emphasis on what your company can offer to them precisely as opposed to what you offer to the world in general. Discuss their business needs and problems. Focus on selling a solution instead of a product. Pitch your product as an essential to their business instead of just pitching your product.

Think Big Picture

While you might be meeting this new client with a set goal in mind, look beyond the set objectives. Take some time to ask questions and get to know the client’s thinking process and point of view. Spending time in understanding the client’s vision for the company and business objectives at this juncture can lead to better ideas and more business opportunities. Though the client might expect a certain kind of solution from you, this will help in creating better and more relevant solutions.

Get Clarity

Meetings are the perfect opportunity to have dialogue which is both necessary and insightful. These are opportunities to go a step further and dig deeper. When suggesting a solution or a service, first understand the problem. Ask the right questions to understand the cause of the problem instead of offering a solution at face value. Getting to the reasons and causes is a great way of getting insights. Addressing a deeper issue will also bring more value to your partnership.

Share What You Know

Apart from your services, share what you know about the client’s industry and your specialization. Sharing the right information at the right time, picking points from the conversation to share analytics, and illustrating innovative solutions that your company has created for other clients, is a guaranteed way to showcase your credibility and expertise. As meetings are a two-way conversation and are fluid, such conversations only benefit both parties. After the meeting, follow-up with the client with your case studies and published insights to support the same. The familiar adage, ‘Knowledge is Power’ continues to rule to this day.

Show Openness and Adaptability

It will be very rare that you will find clients who agree with your every point and vice versa. Meetings are the ideal time to resolve any conflicts that you may be facing with your clients. Not only does it give you a chance to avoid miscommunication, but it also guarantees that client values your effort. Depending on the nature of the conflict, formulate a solution beforehand. In a meeting,  it is much easier to show openness and dedication to achieve a fair resolution.

If you are meeting the client for the first time, understand that there will be an uncomfortable moment or two. Be prepared to put your point across and be clear about your negotiating positions. Throughout the meeting, maintain focus on reaching a positive outcome and engineer a win-win situation for both parties through communication.

Plan the Next Step

While concluding the meeting, plan a final next step.  Always end with an actionable point to ensure that discussion continues and your meeting achieves results. Make the meeting memorable for the client by following up with something of value to them. It could be an article that will resonate with them or just a sincere mail saying thank you. Use this chance to cement your new association with the client on a positive note.

Building the Dream Team

One of the biggest responsibilities of a leader is to form a team that can turn the company’s vision from words into reality. This requires not just a single leader but a leadership team that brings together a whole array of expertise, skills, and capabilities. Building a team at this level requires the leader of this team to go beyond skills and qualifications. It is crucial to consider all aspects of an individual while building a team that will lead your company. 

Forming a Team

Most individuals at this level of seniority have worked with the company for a long time. They might know of each other but in their separate departments. An individual in a leadership team goes beyond just representing the silo/department that they lead. Being a part of this team means actually leaving that title behind and working with each other to achieve collective goals of the company. Just as necessary as it is to ensure the seamless and efficient functioning of the operational aspect of the business, the leadership team has to also focus on staying true to the vision and objectives of the company. This can be done only through collaboration and teamwork.

While you start the process of building a leadership team, begin by being completely honest about your own strengths and weaknesses. As a leader, it is essential to know your areas of weakness and find teammates who can offer you valuable counsel in those areas. Next step while shortlisting candidates is evaluating their skills and aptitudes not just individually but with context to each other. Finding people with complementary competencies to join a leadership team will create a balance and an opportunity to drive collaborations. The varied experience of each individual will foster mutual respect instead of competition creating cohesion in the team.

Building Diversity

Professionals with individualistic thinking, unique thought processes, and distinctive talents offer a myriad point of views and perspectives. In a team like this, each problem is solved through collective debate and the most credible solution is found. There is less chance of opinions overlapping due to individual expertise, guaranteeing an innovative and robust approach to business problems and a long-term strategy that is futuristic and ambitious.

Communicating Responsibilities

In order to achieve success together, it is important to discuss and understand the role of each person in the team. In a team of this level, there cannot be any competition or personal agendas. Discourage this by engaging in conversations with each member, focusing on their unique role and responsibilities. Often, there is emphasis on the achievements and outcomes expected from the team and individuals. It is necessary to place equal importance on behaviors and decorum expected from them as they will be leading their own teams to achieve success by providing them motivation and direction. 

Evaluate and Realign

Many teams get caught up in resolving the operational and short-term challenges. As a leader, bring back the focus of your team to the bigger picture. Reinforce your long-term goals and strategy to this group of people as they will drive the company towards achieving them. Emphasizing the collective vision is the only way to stay true to the path of collective and company progress. This can be done through periodic evaluations and strategic meetings that discuss only the long-term agenda. Assess where the company stands, make the appropriate changes for course correction.

As you periodically evaluate progress, also appreciate the achievements of your team. Display the qualities that you would want your team to exhibit to their team members. Build channels of communication that promote openness and collaboration. Knowledge exchange should be a priority for this group of people as they chart the company’s future progress.

A leadership team is at the core of your company. The attitude, energy and vision of these individuals dictate the future of your venture. Spending time in forming a formidable team is an investment towards success. Go beyond qualifications, reputation, achievements and appearances to form a team that believes in your dreams for the company.

Preserve Your Core

We dreamt of space travel, hover boards, flying cars, and many other revolutionary changes. Little did we know that our lives were going to change in phenomenal ways in the coming decades, but not as we had imagined. Technology has seamlessly integrated itself in our lives in such subtle ways that we do not notice its existence.

Analytics and the Changing HR Game

There are numerous definitive ways in which Big Data and analytics can change the HR game, enabling an efficient and agile shift in human resource development and management. What are some of the areas that analytics will play a huge part, and how will this shape the future of the corporate world?

There is a set of problem questions that ubiquitously plagues every HR or Business Head. Some of these are along the lines of:

• What will my turnover be next year?

• What factors drive employee turnover?

• What are my biggest workforce risks?

Predictive analytics to provide such answers would hugely simplify processes for the HR department. Decisions, predictions and expectations become more objective and realistic, and therefore the path forward is significantly more concrete than it would be with the traditional guesswork approach.

The good news? There is an abundance of data available, 90 per cent of which was collected in the last two years alone.

There are numerous definitive ways in which Big Data and analytics can change the HR game, enabling an efficient and agile shift in human resource development and management. What are some of the areas that analytics will play a huge part, and how will this shape the future of the corporate world?

Managing Talent Agility

• The HR departments of the future will largely focus on talent agility. There is increasingly a shift being seen from attempting to foster change and recruit new people, to actually ensure that the talent deployed is agile and can seamlessly move with the times.

• Predictive data will give the HR department hints on which direction the trends are moving in. This will help build a people pool with the latest business developments in mind.

• Aligning and realigning at regular periods of time will prove easier with data available on people and their skills. As agility becomes the new norm, talent will have to be matched to work and vice versa.

Talent Advisory

• With talent agility, the HR department will also become career advisors. In a world where agility leads everyone to change careers at regular intervals, the unit with the most data at their disposal, will be the most effective source of career advice.

• The HR department will also be in charge of workshops, training sessions and onboarding initiatives that will align employees with their new job roles in a rapid, yet efficacious manner.

• In assigning new job roles, or simply giving input for employees’ future options, the extensive performance data will prove very useful. Analytics can help search through years of data across the organisation, match competencies, look for keywords, and find talent potential where mere human observation cannot.

Freelance Talent Management

• With the dawn of HR analytics, the future workforce with be mobile, possibly remote, and will be employed in multiple jobs.

• Talent acquisition will also expand. Rapid talent mobility will lead to freelance marketplaces, rather than job boards. These will deploy employees on a project basis, incentivising, evaluating and finally redeploying, all at a swift rate.

Persona Hiring

• Lengthy job descriptions will no longer serve any purpose. Roles will be created according to need, served and then dissolve in a rapid fashion.

• The hiring process will evolve to consider actual past performance of existing employees, sourced from various databases. This will in turn create a persona for a potential employee which will play a crucial role in the interview process.

Ultimately Big Data will lead to a culture of fishing where the fish are. Social media and big data analytics will play a huge role in matchmaking and finding the right talent. Hunting for new talent will go the route of digital marketing, where skills will be marketed in much the same way that products are now.

The HR department trajectory will go full circle. To keep up with a fast-paced, analytics-based culture, Human Resources as a field, will have to build strategic thinking as a core competency. In many cases, the inhouse HR will be downsized, and a large chunk of HR responsibilities will be handled by specialised agencies.

While the process is fascinating and will ensure that numerous loopholes in current HR methodologies are addressed, a regular culture of impact assessment is just as important. There is, after all, an ROI on everything, right from talent acquisition initiatives to employer branding and employee engagement – all of which come under the scope of HR responsibilities. The key to successful HR analytics is, thus, analytics of HR analytics.

The dawn of a new HR age means that humans will become more human, and machines will become more mechanical, efficient and predictable. The need for effective and competent leadership will grow and ultimately people will be more real with one other, because this is what will count – honesty and transparency, and claims that line up with results from extensive data analysis.

A Culture Beyond Paper & Jargon

Walk into any corporate office, and you are likely to see company values, vision and other mission statements plastered across window panels and on walls. While this is indeed a common sight but one does wonder ‘how does one actually live up to company values?’

While employer branding initiatives strengthen organizational culture, vision statements that explain the purpose of an organizations’ existence often get translated into smaller actionables that each individual eventually aligns themselves to. Propositioned with a business plan and backed by immense data, they become our pathways – meant to be a way of living for every individual employee. All we need to do is to follow the plan. But then, can we? 

Peter Drucker once said that ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. If you look at it, most company level Initiatives fail because what starts as a noble intention, eventually gets lost in a deadly Bermuda triangle thanks to office politics and the dearth of consistent communication and ownership.

Break Away from Silo Thinking

Have you heard about the 'Functional Silo Syndrome'? In a team of five members, when one individual shoulders all the responsibility voluntarily and refuses to seek help or divulge project details. Or on the floor when everyone is engaged in a ‘team building activity’, but this one team member will be sitting in his/her cubicle furiously typing away an email and complaining about all the ‘noise’ occurring in the name of bonding. 

Myth

If you are independent, you are more susceptible to becoming a loner. 

Reality

 Alienation (by any means) will cause you stress and adversely affect your health. 

Business Dictionary defines ‘Silo thinking’ as a mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company. Carelessly tossed around for the past three decades, this situation does not originate at the bottom of the corporate ladder. Rather, it is said to trickle down from the top. 

It is said that “leadership is not a position or a title. It is action and example”.  Organisations have been trying to implement various means to eliminate silos at the workplace. How can you as a manager help in changing the silo mentality? 

Work towards unifying the team

Address the issues that are central to the organisation. Encourage employees to align themselves with the same vision. As their leader, steer the wheel with conviction and lead by example. Support cross-departmental collaboration for various projects and activities. The goals of all employees must be aligned in the direction of general progress of the organisation and not just be limited to the fulfilment of their individual departmental objectives.

Employing EQ to Emerge Through a Crisis

Any crisis brings with it an atmosphere of hostility and ambiguity. Whether it is an internal or external crisis, it threatens the stability of the organization. Although, crisis protocols and programs are usually in place, the uncertainty attached to a crisis can create unrest significant enough to shake the very foundation of corporations. During this critical period, it is necessary to have a high emotional quotient (EQ) to deal with the volatile situation in an appropriate manner and to bounce back from it without any damage.

As you work towards finding rational solutions, it is essential to understand the emotional aspect of the crisis as well. When an organization is facing a situation like this, the employees look closely at the leaders for reactions and guidance. Considering the fact that their reactions will largely be modelled after yours, leaders have to demonstrate a high emotional quotient and encourage employees to do so as well. 

Empower the HR department

As the department closest and most equipped in the organization to connect with the employees, HR personnel must step up and leverage their people skills by engaging in constant communication with the employees. To evoke the EQ of the employees, this team can organize town halls, seminars, or workshops to facilitate conversations and bring about unity in the organization. 

This is the time when a company’s  policies designed to create a work-life balance become extremely important. The crisis may lead to additional work, stress or general anxiousness amongst employees. Encourage them to use their time off, provide flexibility, and promote better physical and mental health during this time. 

Experience, Experiment, Explore: Three-Step Business Owner's Guide

Remember the time you decided to venture out on your own? The days of struggle, the relentless researching, never ending enquiries, possible networking opportunities, word-of-mouth promotions, and a one-man army that was ready to take on the world. A while later when you succeeded in your area of expertise, you considered diversifying. But this decision had to be made after a thorough risk analysis.

Taking risks is a part of business. But if you kept saying yes to every risk, without weighing the pros and cons, you could have also lost your business. When it comes to maintaining the margins in the balance sheets, it can be extremely tempting to oblige to any project that comes along. But if it’s not a cultural fit and does not agree with your business ethics, it can do more harm than good.

While there are no official rules as such for the business to flourish, I personally recommend these tried and tested golden guidelines.

Experience: A much-needed reality check to keep you rooted

While business school taught you a lot, it could never replace first-hand, on-ground, hands-on experience. That eventually came from having observed the industry and its evolving trends. But what if it could have been an easier journey?

Earlier, the industry was volatile and uncertain. Now, it is ruthlessly competitive. A mentor can not only help you plan for the short-term deliverables but also aid you in strategising long-term goals. A wider perspective towards your career will help you plan better. In times of confusion, a veteran can groom you to make quality decisions even when there’s a crisis to be handled. Giving you that much needed push when you are low, but also critically evaluating and providing feedback, when you end up getting used to looking through tinted glasses.

Breaking Down Silos at Work

All businesses have hierarchies to facilitate the division of work. A decentralized system is efficient as it comprises departments with the required expertise in respective fields. However, the same system that vouches for smooth functioning can also create issues in the giant machinery of an organization.

Often, ‘silo mentality’ creeps in at several levels and establishes itself as an integral part of multi-departmental functionality. It is estimated that about 70 percent of executives see silo mentality a major obstacle in achieving goals. But what exactly is it and how does it impede progress?

We have seen tall structures used to store grains. These installations remain isolated with no windows or access to the materials kept inside. This serves as a perfect analogy to the way things operate between teams with a silo mentality.

The Know-How of Filtering the Right Talent

There are several criteria that go into hiring the right talent. Written tests, interviews, and psychometric analysis, all together promise to tell recruiters enough to make a long-term decision about a potential candidate. From a vast talent pool, all carrying with them the requisite qualifications, it becomes a tedious task to filter the right talent.

With multiple people who have decision-making powers in the process, different sensibilities compound the difficulty of making this subjective choice. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind about the hiring process and the modifications it needs. 

Conduct Effective Interviews

Professional interviews often become a series of questions and answers that are extremely generic in nature. The more generic the questions, the more cliché answers. The pattern this creates is that interviewers are not interested in the person as an individual, but rather ask a set of questions that they already have preconceived notions about and expect set answers for. The interviewee, on the other hand, prepares only to impress, providing canned answers to the questions, thereby giving absolutely no insight to the interviewer about their potential place in the organization. There must be increased focus on allowing the person to be at ease and challenging them to think before they give answers. What gets ignored often is that candidates are individuals and their personalities will either add value to or negatively affect the organization. Understand the candidate better, let them understand you, and visualize the kind of fit they would be for the company, both qualifications wise and culturally. 

Be Transparent about Challenges

At the outset, your potential candidate knows only what the organization allows to be perceived on the outside. This is normal. However, for someone you actually intend to hire, stay transparent about all the organizational challenges, the limitations of the role, and the areas for improvement in the company, especially for a role that might require change-making and innovation in existing processes. Be sure to discuss the culture of the workplace as well, and let the candidate determine whether they would be comfortable working in said environment. Show them around the office, right down to where they might sit and who they will have to deal with on an every-day basis. Take them through the amenities and facilities, and maybe even let them sit in on a meeting if possible. This will give them a good idea of the kind of discussions, briefs and interpersonal interactions that happen on a daily basis. There is currently too much emphasis on hiring the right talent, rather than allowing the talent to make the right decisions.

Stay Clear to Steer Clear of Ambiguity

Candidates need clarity on what is expected of them, and recruiters need clarity on whether the potential candidate is desirable and has the competence to fulfill these expectations. Outline the candidates KPIs with utmost lucidity, and ask them what they think of these indicators – whether they feel confident about living up to them, and whether they find them reasonable. In the case of new managers, they must always be allowed to meet and interact with their future team. This will enable them to better understand the challenges that lie ahead. Managers also need to know about the kind of support system that is being provided to them in the form of their team, while also being empowered to drive change and optimise the team after joining.

There is no dearth of talent and qualifications, but recruiting new employees needs to go a step beyond that to actually predict on the basis of insightful interviews, whether an employee is an appropriate fit or not.

This article first appeared on Entrepreneur India.

Understanding Why Multinational Firms Need Global Coaches

Making a case for why global organizations need to train their leaders under the guidance of multifunctional coaches and mentors.

As we are at the beginning of a new decade, there are speculations about if we have reached ‘peak globalization.’ If so, what does it mean for a leader, who heads a global company and is leading it into new markets? It may mean managing teams that are diverse in terms of nationality and geography or handling cross border and virtual teams. But it most certainly will mean that a challenging and daunting time is ahead. More importantly, it also means it’s time to adapt. Global organizations need to work across organizational boundaries and cross not only cultural barriers but also navigate the political and economic laws that rule the land. Add technological advancements in the mix, and you get how complicated the picture is. In such a scenario, how does a leader begin to manage and support the most critical asset an organization has: the people? Let’s find out. 

Cultural Challenges

With company branches spread across the globe, having offices in different corners of the world will inevitably bring in cultural differences. In a leadership position that requires leaders to travel overseas, experience different environments, and interact with people from other parts of the world, how do they bridge the communication and the cultural gap? Communication doesn’t just mean language, although that barrier remains. Employers and leaders must realize that culture drives how people perceive, think, and eventually act. Effective communication begins when there are awareness and acceptance that these differences exist and must be accepted. In such a case, leadership coaching can help build the conscious practice that is required to build a mindset that enables one to see different perspectives and helps in building a uniform corporate workplace culture.

Decision-Making

Business leaders make significant decisions every day. Yet, the most challenging part of leading a multinational organization is to be able to see the big picture when all the functions from various offices require equal attention. How do you ensure that leaders stay clear of analysis paralysis? Similarly, how do you ensure that the decisions which impact the company as a whole are effective and drive it forward while keeping everyone in tow? Decision-making doesn’t come naturally to people, and it’s a process that develops and strengthens over time. Executive coaching to help leaders merge the business dynamics with organizational principles and human understanding is critical here.

Building a Resilient Mindset

Resilience is nothing but the ability to recover from setbacks quickly. However, dealing with failures is not an easy task, especially with central responsibilities and if the failure impacts several stakeholders. Being in a leadership position comes with a fair share of pressure, and roadblocks are not uncommon. At times, issues in personal life start affecting the professional side as well. In such a scenario, leaders can benefit from leadership coaching to learn how to better deal with tough circumstances at work and to better manage themselves and their team in times of distress. The most valuable aspect of such a system is that over time, leaders absorb specific lessons from the coach, which they can, in turn, pass on to their team members in need.

Defining an Ideal Coach

While training for leadership is considered an essential part of developing the leaders of a global organization, basic coaching is not enough. Leadership coaches who have vast professional experience, with clients coming from diverse nationalities, demographics, and from across industries and functions, can help in tackling various challenges at work. A varied portfolio brings credibility not only in terms of what they have worked on so far, but what they can do to develop the leader. The right coach enables leaders to develop higher emotional intelligence and build compassion and empathy. After all, leaders impact people and their lives, not just improve the bottom line and share prices. An ideal coach would be someone whose experience aligns with the specific needs of the leader and can help them develop their potential. 

Multinational organizations carry higher levels of responsibility and accountability as they impact a wider variety of stakeholders. Naturally, the leaders of such businesses must be well-equipped to counter challenges thrown their way, whether the organizational changes or external disruptions, like slowing economies. They need experienced global coaches and mentors that have led by example to help them navigate the future.  

This article first appeared on People Matters India.

A Guide to Resolve Conflicts at Workplace

“Don’t fear conflict; embrace it- it’s your job.”

Here is the thing- conflict and workplace go hand in hand. A workplace is an amalgamation of a variety of people, coming from different backgrounds with a different outlook, all with an aim to achieve success. With an environment so diverse, conflict is part and parcel. While you can try and avoid conflict, which in itself is a bad idea, you just cannot escape it.

Conflict as a sharp disagreement or opposition of interest or ideas. However, the base for a conflict can be subjective.  The fact of the matter is conflict in the workplace is inevitable. It is like the air; it is everywhere, one needs to know how to purify it, filter it and work towards making it healthier. A conflict avoided is like instigating a volcano, which will erupt and cause a rift in the organization. The ability to recognize the conflict, understand where it comes from and able to form a joint- ground to resolve it, eases the workplace scenario and contributes to a healthier and positive office culture.

 How many times have you witnessed situations where otherwise savvy professionals lead the path of self-destructing because they wouldn’t engage out of fear of conflict? By having rational views or burying one’s head in the sand with the hope that the conflict will pass you by is a dangerous method for problem-solving. A conflict aggravates if not proactively tackled with.  To completely resolve a conflict, the essential approach is to go its roots- the causes. 

Causes of Conflict

#1 Communication Gap

Poor communication at workplace leads to misunderstandings which creates conflict. For example, if a boss is unable to express openly his expectation and delegate work, many times that can lead to mistakes, misunderstanding and finally conflicts. More often than not, employees, in such situations, may choose to bury the matter due to fear of losing their job or position, which causes even more frustration.

#2 Different Value Systems

Different people see the world differently. This gives rise to various values and opinions. Conflict occurs when there is a lack of acceptance of these values and understanding the differences in personalities. This also causes personality clashes between employees. A challenge being faced in most organizations, as an example of differences between the various generations.

# 3 Competitive Behavior

What worsens the matter is using emotional deceit as a weapon of destruction. Every workplace is plagued with manipulative employees who use emotional tirades like blame-shifting, small lies, etc., to create conflict to cover-up for their lack of substance.  If not tackled the right way, this leads to an overall downfall of the organization.

#4 Overpowering Emotions 

Emotion is both a blessing and a curse. This language of the soul can destroy if you let it harness the chariot of decisions.  At the workplace, you will often witness that people tend to succumb to conflict situations due to intense emotions. Employees throw a fit of rage and conclude only to realize the damage caused by the heat of the moment. Emotions are controlling and therefore should be used at the right time and place.

Having said this, the human nature is unpredictable akin to changing weather; therefore no matter how much you avoid a situation, conflicts are bound to happen. So the next question that arises is how to deal with conflict in an unbiased manner and build a work environment that accepts and addresses it.

 

Addressing and Managing Conflict

Some amount of conflict is desirable. Without conflicting ideas, allowing people to express their diverse opinions, we would not get the best ideas to surface. I once worked for an organization, where they needed to reach the market quickly, and created two independent teams to work on the same product, and eventually took the best parts for the final version.

But we should avoid unnecessary conflict, and take steps by expressing the behavior expected of employees. Mention what is accepted by him/her, the chain of work delivery. Also, stress on sound practices, policies and what is allowed and what is not.

Create an innovative culture where people understand that expressing diverse views is encouraged for the purpose of greater end outcome; communication means dialog, where there is equal parts of speaking and listening; where everyone has a voice and are able to express without fear of chain of command; the process of discussion is constructive and not to find faults; and finally drive a collaborative outcome which once decided, everyone adheres to and not to create unhealthy competition.

Organizational Support

Employees too need a guide to help them on this journey, especially when they experience bumps. Ensure that your HR or team leader is always available in stressful work matters. If a team leader can figure out something unusual, they need to confront the concerned employees.  

Another useful measure will be conducting frequent training programmes for employees which highlight the above process. This will enhance their problem-solving skills and also understand their workmates better.

 Resolution is not rocket science; no matter how grave the conflict is, it can be resolved. It may not be an easy task to confront, but when there is a sincere desire to solve something, it can be done.

Perfect the Art of Retaining Employees

Today, millennials make up more than 15% of the working population. However, they are expected to constitute three-fourths of the workforce by the year 2025. With such a drastically evolving workforce, it is essential to understand how you can retain and manage your millennial employees.

As a workforce demographics, millennials significantly differ from other groups. A key differentiating factor is their work mindset which looks to garner as much experience as possible, in a short time-frame. They prefer to be on the move and enjoy a frequent change of scenery. This can be seen in the way they skip songs half-way through and subconsciously switch between apps and browser tabs. Their short attention span has transferred to the workplace. It is commonplace for them to have worked for different employers in a short time frame. It takes continuous interest and a series of challenges to keep the millennial engaged.

Competitive Package and Perks

While the paycheck is undoubtedly essential for millennials, it is the benefits or the perks that make all the difference, when they are choosing whether to stay at a job or leave it. Traditional benefits like health insurance, a pension fund, and investment options are still considered relevant. However, it is perks like flexible working hours, transportation compensation, work-from-home, bonus paid leave and employee recognition, which draws millennials to a company while selecting a job.

Rather than finding a work-life balance, millennials seek a work-life blend. Building a culture that is open and caring towards every employee, is a crucial factor in retaining your employees. Go that extra mile and mold a company with culture, which shows employees that they matter. While perks like food benefits may seem insignificant to your organization, it helps employees preserve interest and enthusiasms towards the company.

Foster Employee Development

A key point to retain employees is to prepare them to work and perform better. This could be via education workshops to learn a new job skill, or providing tuition reimbursement to help further the employee’s education.  Instead of hiring a new bunch of employees for a specific job skill, you can conduct training for the same for the existing ones. This not only hones their skills but also makes them feel worthy of doing more than they can. This also gives them a sense of importance which inspires them to be loyal towards the company.

Teaching Managers to Deal With Different Mindsets

A company is an amalgamation of different people with different mindsets. As a manager, it can get tricky to understand and handle a variety of personalities. That is why it is crucial for a company to train their managers to be empathetic towards their team. Recruit managers not purely based on their skills, but more importantly on their ability to handle and work with other employees. Ensure that your managers hold regular meetings in which other employees can offer ideas and ask questions. Having an open-door policy encourages employees to speak frankly with their managers without the fear of repercussion.

Think Entrepreneurial!

Millennials have an affinity for digital tools, a desire for independence and a thirst for recognition. These traits, coupled with the low-cost of technology today, makes digital entrepreneurship a highly attractive option for them. As a result, companies must cultivate the right environment and convert the organization into a land of innovation. Organisations can retain employees by training and nurture the existing talent. Additionally, an important step is to reward employees and promote an open culture where ideas can be expressed. Show the employees to take risks and bear failures. Treat the employees as a part of the organization, based on whose decisions the company’s revenue can alter. Give them the stance of an entrepreneur.

Motivation Today, Employees Forever

To retain employees, it is necessary to motivate them from time to time. The first way to motivate your employees is to demonstrate that you have faith in their abilities to get the job done. Assign responsibilities and give them time to rise to the challenge. When excelling at work, appreciate and reward them. Positive reinforcement, after all, is one of the oldest psychological principles which holds true even today. Include your employees in big decisions. It can be discouraging for the employees when they see big decisions being made without letting them know. It makes them feel unimportant.

In today’s world of a highly competitive workplace, where people switch jobs within the blink of an eye, employee turnover is a big concern. You can stem the tide by putting light on employee engagement and training. Make the employees feel validated, take their opinions, listen to their concerns and create opportunities for them to grow. Doing so builds a solid foundation for employee management, stimulates growth and motivates them to provide their service for a long period. 

Emotional Quotient: The Key Ingredient in Recruitment

"If you can hire people whose passion intersects with their job, they won't require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external."- Steven Covey

How often have you come across someone who performs phenomenally well at the professional front irrespective of their above-average IQ? Conversely, how often have you come across people who despite having excellent educational qualifications have fallen short of being successful leaders? Burning out due to excessive stress, low productivity and moodiness are in fact, visible characteristics when it comes to these individuals. Clearly then, not only does EQ play an essential role in defining success, it's a but a balance of IQ and Emotional Quotient which is what professionals need.  People with a high EQ are known to be better at working with teams, adapt better to changes and can work well under pressure. As modern workplaces continue to evolve, with new technologies and changing culture, having a team which balances IQ and EQ well is imperative.

Impact of EQ at Workplace

Emotional Quotient is the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. There are certain traits of EQ which not only enhance work productivity but also makes the environment a happier place to work in. Starting with self-awareness, if a person is aware of their strengths and weakness and how their actions can affect others, they are better adapted to constructive criticism and can reinforce the same for improved work productivity.
 A person with higher EQ is self-regulated. Which means she/he has better control over her emotions and knows when to and when not to reveal them. Along with this, being empathetic and compassionate can help an individual connect with her peers on an emotional level. This helps in building rapport and trust with your colleagues. Inculcating these traits not only works in favor of the team but helps you as an individual to stay motivated at work. It also reduces the chances of misunderstandings and conflicts with colleagues.  

Boosting Your EQ

There are several ways you can consciously improve your EQ. It starts with learning how to listen to yourself. Though you might find it difficult initially but develop the ability to understand your emotions is the first and perhaps the most important step. That said, as individuals, sometimes you may find a certain feeling uncomfortable. Is your first instinct to avoid them? Instead, take a moment and ask yourself "How am I feeling?" Take this space for yourself at least twice a day for a couple of minutes and get in touch with your emotions. These emotions often rise, reach a peak and fade naturally. To enhance your EQ, try not to dismiss your feelings before you have a chance to think them thoroughly. Furthermore, your body plays a crucial role in understanding your feelings. For example, feeling heavy-hearted while driving to your workplace indicates that your work is a source of stress for you. However, following these signals and the feelings associated with it helps you reason with your behavior and exercise your emotions consciously. Yet, there comes a time where you need to stop looking inwards and shift focus on what's happening outside. Studies have shown that people who dwell on their negative feelings for too long tend to amplify it further. EQ involves not only the ability to look within but being receptive to the environment around you. 

Emotional quotient is about self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. So, what role does it play in recruiting a candidate?

Emotional Quotient and Recruitment

To enhance the productivity of your workforce, Emotional Quotient and recruitment needs to go hand in hand. Often while hiring candidates, Hiring Managers to experience an internal battle of whether Intelligence Quotient should be placed above Emotional Quotient or vice versa. To achieve the best for your organization, it is necessary to marry both.
 While recruiting a candidate, EQ helps identify individuals who possess the ability to understand, empathize and blend with the people around. But how do you determine the EQ capacity of a candidate during an interview? Emotionally quotient people are intelligent, self-aware, self-confident and are thick-skinned that allows them to utilize critical feedback positively. They take onus for their mistakes and can effortlessly align their thoughts. You can use questions like these in your interview-

"Who inspires you and why?" 
"Did you build lasting friendships at your previous job?" 
"What skills do you feel like you're still missing?"
 "Could you tell me about a time you made a mistake at work/ received tough feedback from your boss?"

Listen to what your candidates have to say. Do they rush into answering or take time to accumulate their thoughts and how comfortable are they in that silence? Everyone experiences emotions. But not everyone can articulate them when they occur. Also, people with high EQ possess a well-developed emotional vocabulary. Take insight on whether your candidates say they felt "bad" or "good" or if they use more explicit words like "anxious" "frustrated" or "excited" to express their feelings. A candidate's EQ is defined by their choice of words to describe their feelings, understanding of how others felt, what caused a situation and what actions they took based on their knowledge.

EQ is like the icing on the cake; it sets a great player apart from the average ones. IQ, on the other hand, takes care of the basics and shows the level of competence one might have. 
Organizations need to make empathy and expressive behavior a part of their culture. Today's young generation doesn't necessarily comply with the traditional office norms. Studies show that most millennials don't see work as 'just a job. It Is more than a paycheque. The workforce today requires emotional needs as a part of their culture. Paying attention to these needs means a happier workforce with enhanced productivity, ultimately enhancing company bottom-line.  A wise move is to invest in metrics that measure the EQ of a candidate so that you produce better outcomes, for the business and the people running it.  

Making the Workplace Your Happy Place

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable”- Moliere

Have you ever encountered a situation where your employees or team members have missed a certain deadline and then proceeded to reason it out without any real reason? As a leader, this situation can put you in a difficult place with respect to how far you must hold your people accountable.

You may be a leader who acquires great A-players, however, there will be moments when you are left with the feeling that your team can work more or perform better. That said, accountability does not mean taking the onus only when something goes wrong, it means much more than that. When someone takes the accountability for something, they make the commitment of delivery long before the task is performed. They then go onto fulfilling this commitment by executing the task with absolute precision. This involves taking initiative with a strategic way forward.

Taking accountability for actions or results is applicable to all levels of the hierarchy. Before censuring employees, great leaders first introspect on how they approach their responsibilities and how they transfer a sense of ownership effectively to their employees in turn. However, accountability cannot be achieved unless both parties communicate clearly enough to understand the other’s perspective and driving force. This can be a frustrating process, where empathy, guidance and assertion must all be blended in perfection. An important aspect to remember in such trying times is that resorting to anger when the team falls short on productivity, is a vicious cycle. It only leads to demotivation and a dip in performance which further frustrates and disillusions a leader. There are, however, long term solutions, to instil accountability at the workplace. 

Explicit Communication and an Open Conversation

More often than not, the reason for sub-par team performance is a lack of crystal-clear communication. The agenda could be clear in your mind, but it needs to be explicitly communicated to the team and even followed up with an email so that it is on record and can be referred to whenever required. Further to this, having a two-way conversation where you lay out your agenda and ask others to summarise it in a discussion, helps prevent any miscommunication and gets everyone on the same page. Clear and two-way communication results in building clarity on timelines and definitions of deliverables, prioritizing tasks in order of importance and setting dates for first drafts and final versions. This lucidity ultimately helps inculcate a sense of ownership – something that is absolutely key to building accountability. It is only when employees are invested enough in a job and can take the onus of planning and decision-making, that they will allow themselves to be accountable as well.

Regular Follow-Up and Streamlined Processes

While this is a set task for any leader, it is rather surprising how often this is overlooked because of the daily fire-fighting that one gets involved in. It is therefore crucial to get the team together every month or fortnight with all reports and updates and then discuss the progress so far by assessing early drafts and giving requisite inputs and feedback. Such meetings are also essential to know if tasks underway are still on track, whether some sort of damage control is required, or whether realignment of resources to roles is needed. Catch-up sessions can additionally help identify previously unthought of risks and obstacles and ways to avoid or counter them.

Finally, the route for the near future should be charted out, and the goal for the next follow-up session should be set. This will hugely enhance work quality, one of the factors that is hardest hit by lack of accountability. When employees pursue completion of a task only to placate a superior or to mechanically fulfil a deadline, but not because of their own sense of ownership, the outcome may be sloppy. However, with true ownership and accountability, comes definite and noticeable excellence at work.

The Strategic Play Between Honest Feedback and Mentorship

With a balance between constructive criticism and guidance, you enable the team to approach you whenever required and also create a culture of honest, productive feedback. As a mentor, your goal should be neither to berate employees nor to hand-hold them, but to help them, help themselves. Be it with resources, new knowledge, contacts and of course perspective, well mentored employees will finally be able to streamline their projects and make them a success, all while knowing that there is a leader to direct them if they are in the dark. Not only this, it is also important to make employees aware of the importance of certain tasks. If the job matters more to you as a leader and less to your employees, then accountability will never be achieved. The answer is to communicate the significance of a task, and drive home all the details so that this significance makes sense to each and every employee. Mentorship is not about telling people what to do, but inculcating in them a sense of ownership, such that they know what to do. After all, it’s not a one-man show but a whole orchestra.

The cherry on the cake of accountability is consistency. This is where the actual job begins. Results don’t show overnight, they take practice and consistency. Once committed, don't let ownership and accountability initiatives slip away like another new year resolution. Relentlessly pursue this practice of clear communication, regular follow-ups, feedback and mentoring for at least a year, after which the frequency and rigour can be modified according to results. These practises not only enhance the accountability of your team but also develop you into a more refined and reliable leader.

Team Cohesion with Differences

Teams are an amalgamation of various types of people. Everyone has a different outlook, yes, but how can we bring all these schools of thought together and channel the differences in a positive manner?