Creating the personal impact…

J

oydeep is a performing employee, he is working well and his manager is happy with him, but he is not in a list of high potential employees. He is tagged as a good employee, but not an excellent employee. Sudeep is another employee, he is also working well, but manager is more happy with Sudeep and he is definitely in the list of high potential.

Why this difference?  

All of us know businesses thrive on strong relationships, so we do all we can to impress our clients and external stakeholders. Most people, however, pay little or no attention to their relationships with peers, bosses and co-workers, though this might seem an obvious thing to do. Here's how you can become the 'Go to' person and get noticed at work.

The difference is Sudeep is more smart than joydeep and knows how to do the personal branding. There are different ways to create your personal impact. Following are few tips:

Be visible in the office. Walk around the office:

Offices are communities, communities of different workgroups.  Most of us spend up to 9-19 hours a day in close proximity, sharing the same office space, facilities, break rooms, refrigerators, coffee pots, etc, with our work colleagues. Everyone shares responsibility for making the company work, run smoothly and stay profitable. Keep aside about 10-15 minutes a day to take a round, greet all the people you know with a smile and exchange pleasantries. Show the interest in other people. Recognize their achievements, their attire, good thing, you observe.

A smile and a warm handshake can wear off the stress most of us go through. Besides, making this effort adds to your desirability factor at work. And, even though it is considered a cliche, do remember smiling is contagious.

Recognize and appreciate your colleagues: 

Always recognize the good work done by the colleagues. Communicate this to manager how much you appreciate a certain colleague or subordinate for the specific skill sets. When your colleagues come to know this appreciation, you have already build the credibility.  You can also do this in his presence. You would have won his/ her trust and  it will make your senior colleague respect you.

Be genuine and specific as you can. 

Make your name visible:

Have you thought of contributing to your organization's newsletter or Website or the journal that gets distributed within the organization? Since company publications are frequently read by top executives, you'll be increasing your personal reach while establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen area. It's a great way to blow your own trumpet, albeit in a sophisticated fashion.

Join a cross functional team or committee:

Organizations now a days take lot of initiatives for improvements and developments. Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) are formed and company either nominates employees to work or expect some volunteers to join the same.  Have you thought of volunteering to Join such CFTs?  Interacting with the same colleagues everyday won't increase your exposure; however, working on a CFTs with new people gives you an opportunity to make new contacts. It also gives you the opportunity to show your talent and skills to people who matter within the organization.

Handle and sustain with the Conflicts:

Workplace conflicts are most common and therein lies the opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and management skills. When done correctly, it can give you amazing results.

If you are trying to resolve a workplace conflict, do not get judgmental and take sides; rather, just serve as a facilitator and establish the ground rules for professional conduct at work. Keep resolution of the conflict in mind at all times; do not get involved or become emotional.

Offer a Support:

Fill it up. If you've used the last piece of paper in a shared copier or printer, fill it up again even if it means going to the supply room to get another ream. After you've poured the coffee into your cup, take a minute to make another one for the next person in the queue.

Offer to mentor that new recruit at work or share a trade secret -- something that will help a colleague look good before his/ her boss. Often, these small gestures help you build relationships and also spread a good word around about you at the workplace.

Your best performance:

There is nothing that will give you more exposure than getting the employee of the month or quarter award at the Rewards & Recognition event. Since these awards are often given by the top management, it gives you an opportunity to put your name before the key decision makers in your organization. Remember, you won't get ahead with mediocre performance, regardless of how many other steps you implement.

Keep updated:

Read industry publications, reports and magazines, and be aware of market trends. Your knowledge will reflect when you communicate with colleagues and they would look up to you for advice and information. They will also talk positively about you with other members of the team. There is nothing better than third party publicity, as it establishes you as a thought leader within your organization.

Be a Subject Matter Expert & Volunteer for conducting trainings: 

Organizations prefer internal SMEs for training employees and new recruits. Choose one of the area where you are strong and offer the module to new employee in the function or other department. Get the support from your manager for doing this.

Don't shy away from personal branding at work. If done well, it can have a positive impact and help you get ahead at work.

You may also like to read  Personal Branding .

Changing face of HR

I had been at SCMHRD, Pune as a key note speaker in “the International Conference on Contemporary Trends in Managing Modern Workforce on 28^th Feb 2015. (https://www.facebook.com/HR.SCMHRD) I spoke on "Changing Face of HR". I also spoke on “HR in 2020” in the HR conference at Sinhgad Business School on the same day. It was great interaction with the students and other industry professionals. For the summary, please view the presentation.    

HR: be the physician…

Organization Development: HR agenda with OD mindset.

O

ne of the important area HR professionals miss is the organizational development. Sometimes it is pushed from top management to the HR and then HR re-actively engages OD professionals. The question is when you need a OD intervention. It is always what we sense and what to correct in the organization. I personally think that OD intervention is like diagnosing the real problem in the organization, finding the solution and administrating the solutions in the organization. HR professionals also needs to have the mindset like OD professionals.  

Right diagnosis if the key in OD

I would like to use the metaphor of patient and doctor. When you sense (proactively) the problem, you need to really look into and start fixing it. Let’s take an simple example of attrition in the organization. You find that the employee attrition is very high. Now you have to really define what “very high” means for you. Perhaps market benchmark may be good indicator to decide, but the percentage may be misleading. If your organization is small, then even small percentage may also have the adverse impact on the business. In such situation, it the wisdom of HR and business leader to decide what indicator they would like to work on. For example, the attrition in market is 15%. Your attrition is 20%. Definitely you need to work on. At the other hand you decide that you would like to reduce the attrition upto 15% as per the market benchmark. Here you need to do something. You administered employee engagement survey. You do the analysis and in the analysis, you find that people leave because they feel that they are not treated well by their supervisors and line managers. And everybody thinks same. Finally you brainstorm with the management, team members and employees. From the discussion you come to know that the treatment by the line manager actually is not the issue. The issue is stress on the supervisors and line managers. They are forced to react on employees because business stress is cascaded down from the top.  Now it is the time to actually work out on the solution with the management. You  have to first address the top management and then plan actions for educating & training supervisors and line managers. Probably you may think to roll out some leadership programme and also decide if you need further diagnosis.

Organization development is not the rocket science. You need to understand that the solution should be situation specific. You need to customized it as per your organizational context. The end purpose is to increase the effectiveness of the process, organization, people and business.    

Today's organizations are dynamic. They operate in a rapidly changing environment. Consequently, one of the most important requirement for an organization is the ability to manage change -- and for people to be agile and flexible.

And hence the meaning and definition of OD has been changed to different understanding. Now Organization Development is the attempt to influence the members of an organization to expand their candidness with each other about their views of the organization and their experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as organization members. The assumption behind OD is that when people pursue both of these objectives simultaneously, they are likely to discover new ways of working together that they experience as more effective for achieving their own and their shared (organizational) goals. And that when this does not happen, such activity helps them to understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this understanding. (ref Neilsen, “Becoming an OD Practitioner”, Englewood Cliffs, CA: Prentice-Hall, 1984, pp. 2-3.)

As a HR professional you also need to have a focus on OD. HR professional may have to work like a doctor. Few points:  

1. Networking with key people in the organization;
2. Understanding the business, evaluating systems in the organization to understand dysfunctions and/or goals of the systems in the organization;
3. Keeping eyes and ear open to understand what is going in the organization. Remember that you should be the first person to know what is going right & wrong;
4. Identifying approaches (or "interventions") to improve effectiveness of the organization and its people;
5. Applying approaches to improve effectiveness (methods of "planned change" in the organization);
6. Evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of the approaches and their results.     

For point 4,5,6 you may take the help of professional practitioner. Sometimes you may have to go to the MD or MS doctor.  

But first be the physician.. 

Do you know the name of the person who keeps your workstation and dustbin clean?

It was last day of the year, 31^st Dec. All employees were wishing each other before calling off the day. There were lot of plans for the evening. Most of them were planning to go in pubs and have a party, however few of them were planning to spend time with families at home. Everybody was exited and were ready to welcome the new year.

I also decided to call off the day after busy day. Employees and I exchanged greetings and new year wishes. I noticed that all employees were exchanging the wishes among themselves where the supporting staff working in housekeeping, office boys and security were ignored by everybody. Normally this staff is on contract and perhaps nobody knows even their names. In fact they also wanted to wish people, but showing themselves busy in their work.

When I stepped out and moving in the office to wish other employees, I saw one housekeeping guy looking toward me. I ensured that I greet him and give wishes for new year. He seems to be excited. All other staff came forward and we shook hands and exchanged wishes. I could see the happiness on their faces.  

There are so many people around us to whom we just ignore. Housekeeping staff keep our environment clean, office boys ensures that you get your morning tea on time, security wishes you when you enter in the office and secure our workplace. We can perform better because somebody is working for us.  Still we don’t respect what they perform. They get money for what they do, but they also have the impact on our job.   

There are people around us whose contribution can’t be ignored. You throw your papers in dustbin, you make your washroom messy, and expect somebody else cleans it for you. No problem, you hire them for you and pay them. However, you expect that you should be recognized for your performance, people should respect you, people should not ignore you. Others are also expecting the same. It makes their day and perhaps will do their job better next time.

I recollect the story which emphasize the importance of being humble, love & respect to others.

John worked at a meat distribution factory. One day, when he finished with his work schedule, he went into the meat cold room (Freezer) to inspect something but in a moment of bad luck, the door closed and he was locked inside with no help in sight. Although he screamed and knocked with all his might, his cries went unheard as no one could hear him. Most of the workers had already gone and outside the cold room (freezer), it's impossible to hear what was going on inside. Five hours later, whilst John was on the verge of death, the security guard of the factory eventually opened the door and saved him. John then asked the security guard what he came to do there as it wasn't part of his work routine.

His replies: "I've been working in this factory for 35 years. Hundreds of workers come in and out every day but you're one of the few who greets me in the morning and says goodbye to me every night when leaving after working hours. Many treat me as if I am invisible. So today like every other day, you greeted me in your simple manner "Hello" at the entrance when resuming for work, But curiously after working hours today, I observed I've not heard your "Good bye see you tomorrow". Hence I decided to check around the factory.

I look forward to your greetings every day because to you, I am someone. By not hearing your farewell, I knew something had happened. Then I Sought and found you!

Moral Lesson:

Be humble, love and respect those around you because life is too short. Try to have an impact on people in ways we can't even imagine especially the people that cross our path daily. Stay blessed!