Saturday, November 15, 2014

Time to review your performance management system…


“You are asking employees to be collaborative and at another side everybody in the organization is assessed based on their individual targets. Where individuals are more focused towards their own targets, how can they be collaborative. In fact, “my targets” feeling is actually detrimental to team spirit.” One employee was challenging his supervisor during annual performance evaluation meeting. Superiors are superiors and they have explanation for everything, but when they don’t have any valid justification, they refer the matter to HR.

The supervisor also referred the employee to HR. When employees went to the HR Manager, she actually had no explanation either. The performance management system was established in the company almost few years back on the recommendation of some top consultant. When the system was implemented the circumstances were different, however there were no changes in the performance management system.

Above story is common in corporate world. Almost everybody follows the similar performance management system, same KRA and KPI system; based on “What should be achieved”. Some organizations add the element of “How it should be achieved” by introducing some competencies, capabilities and behaviour where they make the system more equivocal. At the end of the year. Off course they also don’t forget to classify their employees in forced distribution. By doing this all, they don’t even consider the nature of their business. At the end of the year, it becomes just one of the rituals and tool for giving salary hike to beloveds in the hand of line managers. You can see the examples where business is not doing well, but employees in team are rated excellent. Most of the times, HR is clueless as usual. Line managers are more smarter than HR to adjust any HR system as per their convenience.       

Deloitte consulting had published the research on global HR trends and clear cut assumption is related to performance management. It says,:    

“Today’s widespread ranking- and ratings-based performance management is damaging employee engagement, alienating high performers, and costing managers valuable time.

Only 8 percent of companies report that their performance management process drives high levels of value, while 58 percent said it is not an effective use of time.

Leading organizations are scrapping the annual evaluation cycle and replacing it with ongoing feedback and coaching designed to promote continuous employee development.”

We need the system where employee would be evaluated but also be fairly evaluated. However the system should be in align with your organizational business and culture. If your business needs more teamwork and collaborative thinking, you may have to choose the combination of team based and individual based targets and complimented by bahviour, but if your business needs “daily bout” like FMCG segment or media marketing,  you may choose to have more focus on individual targets.

I am not saying the whole performance management should be replaced, but we need to take the holistic approach as per the business need and cultural context of the organization.   


Your views please….

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Make your own Luck…


Luck is the choice and you can actually design your luck.
Do you believe on luck? Almost all believe on these two words. There is positive and negative connotation to the words. But do you think that you can always be lucky? Luck means occurring by chance, which implies that luck just happens by chance and it can’t be planned or obtained by intention.

Off course you can’t influence the decision of raffle or lottery or roll of dice. So here you can’t win by wishing or hoping, yet you can be lucky, how? Just observe following,

Know what you want: I decided to take a new car and it was clear in my mind that I would like to purchase Honda City. When I decided, I seemed to see the Honda city everywhere on the road. While driving, car next to me or car besides to me was Honda City. Off course it hadn’t just appeared, it had always on the road. But it was only after I had learned the Honda city that I noticed it.

If you don’t know what you want, how will you know when you find it?        

After few days, I was the owner of new Honda City.

In a similar way, when we become aware of opportunities, we notice them everywhere. Like my new Honda City. When we feel lucky, we see opportunities everywhere. When we do not feel lucky, we miss them completely. Off course, the opportunities are always there, but we are not aware of the, unless we feel lucky. Opportunities of all kind around us, but we recognize them only when we feel lucky.

Let people know what you want: if you let others know what you want, they pass on to useful information and tips. If your friends are not aware that you want to change the job, they can’t help you. But if you communicate, they would definitely
communicate opportunities.

Try, try and try again, but if it still doesn’t work, then try something else. If something is not working well inspite of all efforts, give up and try something else, when you have done your best. But give it your best first.

Believe on your intuition: Respect your feelings. This does not mean you gamble on, it means that you listen to your feelings and intuition. Consider them carefully and check them well. you don’t know, you may discover something all of sudden from your insights. Some may be hidden and you may have to take it out from you.

Do you know that chain of carbon molecule was invented in dream…here is the story.

August Kekule, a Germen scientist, is regarded as one of the principal founders of modern organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon-based compounds. In 1858 he showed that carbon can link with itself to form long chains. In 1865 he reported his discovery of the benzene ring as the basis for another major group of carbon molecules. Kekule told that he had a dream after falling into a reverie aboard a horse-drawn London bus. “The atoms were gamboling before my eyes!'' he saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them but only at the ends of the chain. Kekule literally invented how the carbon chains are formed while in dream. This is a power of intuition.   

Believe you will succeed: Many great achievements did not overnight. Often they were precede by many false start and difficulties. You need to maintain your faith that you will soon succeed in small things and in times in great ones. Never give up on your dreams.

You can be lucky, not by magic or dreaming, but by following some of the time tested tips mentioned above. However they do not substitute to smart work and efforts.

Good Luck.            

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