“A business short on capital can borrow money. But a business short of leadership has little chance of survival.” - Peter Drucker
Currently some companies are struggling for their survival due to recession. It indicates that there is dearth of leadership talent across the world and urgent need for honing the same. Warren G. Bennis rightly put, “Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.” Both the failing and struggling organizations need to realize that it is more of leadership rather than managerial challenge.
Recession has thrown several challenges across the world. But when viewed positively, recession offers more opportunities than threats. With an intention to cut the costs the organizations are in a hurry to axe on training and development. It is indeed a retrograde step.
In fact, it is the right time for companies to concentrate on training and development as during peak times they are all busy with booming economic activities. Now it is the time to cool off from overheated work activities.
Engage the employees actively in learning and development as it prepares the ground for booming period. It is like grooming the employees ready for a bullish period. If the budget is not adequate, engage the senior managers and leaders from within the organization in taking up the training programs for their employees so that they get in close touch with their employees in the name of training programs. They get to know the practical problems faced by the employees at the lower level as well. It engages the senior staff actively and briskly for institutional building and organizational development rather than being concerned about recession. The employees too appreciate the good gesture of their employers for widening their mental horizons as well as for not firing them during downturn. Since employers handhold their employees during downturn, the employees will extend their hands to their employers during upturn. It promotes long term bonding between employers and employees leading to better productivity and performance and employee loyalty.
If organizations feel that it is inevitable for budget cuts, they can cut down expenses arising out of hiring external facilitators and trainers and bank on existing in-house experts in building strong leadership potential.
During downturn the organizations should upgrade the talent by engaging employees constructively and creatively. Instead of fighting against their employees they should take the support of their employees and fight against recession. They should explore other areas and avenues of cost cutting.
The secret behind the success of several global companies is their continuous investment in the learning and development. These companies focus more in innovation and creativity during downturns and reap rewards during subsequent upturns.
We encourage unemployed individuals going for higher studies and courses during downturns. Similarly organizations should encourage their existing employees to prepare ground for organizational growth and prosperity as it is the right opportunity. Instead of treating training as an expense the companies should treat training as an investment and hone the skills of their employees.
The End
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Book Review by Prof.M.S.Rao – “Leadership and the One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi (Harper Collins Publishers)
Today I read a book titled ‘Leadership and the One Minute Manager’ by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi (Harper Collins Publishers). It took four hours for me to read this book. It has valuable takeaways for all and especially for managers and leaders.
The entire book revolves around the first hand experience of an entrepreneur with One Minute Manager (OMM) and his people. The book dwells at length on situational leadership and how to use a specific leadership style as per the situation. OMM dons several hats as per the situation.
The book sets a conversational tone between the entrepreneur and the OMM and OMM’s partners. At the end; the entrepreneur takes away the skills and styles essential for becoming a situational leader. The book provides several exhibits which are informative and interesting for the readers.
The book briefly explains four basic leadership styles such as directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.
The directing (Style 1) is for people who lack competence but are enthusiastic and committed (D1). They need direction and feedback to get them started. The coaching (Style 2) is for people who have some competence but lack commitment (D2). They need direction and feedback because they are still relatively inexperienced. They also need support and praised to build their self-esteem, and involvement in decision-making to restore their commitment.
The supporting (Style 3) is for people who have competence but lack confidence or motivation (D3). They do not need much direction because of their skills, but support is necessary to bolster their confidence and motivation. The delegating (Style 4) is for people who have both competence and commitment (D4). They are able and willing to work on a project by themselves with little supervision or support. In all these styles the support of the leader decreases gradually from Style 1 to Style 4. For instance, when a fresher (fresh graduate) joins in an organization the leader has to adopt S1 style. As the fresher learns, the leader has to shift the style of orbit to S2, S3 and finally S4 where the fresher becomes non-fresher, i.e. experienced individual.
Directive vs. Supportive Behaviour:
Directive behaviour contains structure, organize, teach and supervise and it involves: clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, when to dot it, and then closely monitoring their performance. On the other hand, the supportive behaviour needs praise, listen, ask, explain and facilitate and it involves: listening to people, providing support and encouragement for their efforts and then facilitating their involvement in problem solving and decision-making.
The book uncovers that directing style is appropriate during time constraints and for inexperience people. However, coaching works best when disillusionment sets in the individuals. Participative management style suits best for experienced individuals.
Competence and Commitment:
The person should have both competence and commitment while doing a task. Competence is a function of knowledge and skills, which can be gained from education, training, and /or experience. However, commitment is a combination of confidence and motivation. Confidence is a measure of a person’s self-assuredness a feeling of being able to do a task well without much supervision, where as motivation is a person’s interest in and enthusiasm for doing a task well.
Sutras for Success:
It unveils several sutras for practicing managers and leaders to execute their tasks effectively such as:
1. Don’t work harder – work smarter.
2. Different strokes for different folks.
3. There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.
4. When I slow down, I go faster.
5. Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there.
6. You can expect more if you inspect more.
7. “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘we did it ourselves’”- Lao-Tzu.
8. Situational leadership is not something you do to people but something you do with people.
9. Everyone is a potential high performer. So some people just need a little help along the way.
What OMM Says?
• Managers should work for their people.
• Deal people differently. Change style depending on the person working with and on the situation. That is different strokes for different folks and also different strokes for same folks.
• Flexibility, diagnosis and partnering are essential while leading.
• A whole manager is able to use four different leadership styles such as directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.
• Good performers don’t grow on trees. You have to diagnose people and train them.
Leadership Lessons:
• When someone does not understand and doesn’t do well, you need to say, “I made a mistake. I must have given you something to do that you did not understand. Let’s backtrack and start again.”
• Leaders need to do what the people they supervise cannot do for themselves at the present moment.
• Always catch the people doing right things and applaud them.
Conclusion:
The OMM concludes with Buddhist saying, “To know and not to use is not yet to know!” At the end of the book the entrepreneur dons the hat of a situational leader with several valuable takeaways from OMM. So do you?
To sum up, OMM walked the talk with flexibility, diagnosis and partnering with entrepreneur by donning several hats as per the situation. The book is a must read for all. It not only gives you valuable inputs but also makes you don as a smart manager and leader as per the situation.
The entire book revolves around the first hand experience of an entrepreneur with One Minute Manager (OMM) and his people. The book dwells at length on situational leadership and how to use a specific leadership style as per the situation. OMM dons several hats as per the situation.
The book sets a conversational tone between the entrepreneur and the OMM and OMM’s partners. At the end; the entrepreneur takes away the skills and styles essential for becoming a situational leader. The book provides several exhibits which are informative and interesting for the readers.
The book briefly explains four basic leadership styles such as directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.
The directing (Style 1) is for people who lack competence but are enthusiastic and committed (D1). They need direction and feedback to get them started. The coaching (Style 2) is for people who have some competence but lack commitment (D2). They need direction and feedback because they are still relatively inexperienced. They also need support and praised to build their self-esteem, and involvement in decision-making to restore their commitment.
The supporting (Style 3) is for people who have competence but lack confidence or motivation (D3). They do not need much direction because of their skills, but support is necessary to bolster their confidence and motivation. The delegating (Style 4) is for people who have both competence and commitment (D4). They are able and willing to work on a project by themselves with little supervision or support. In all these styles the support of the leader decreases gradually from Style 1 to Style 4. For instance, when a fresher (fresh graduate) joins in an organization the leader has to adopt S1 style. As the fresher learns, the leader has to shift the style of orbit to S2, S3 and finally S4 where the fresher becomes non-fresher, i.e. experienced individual.
Directive vs. Supportive Behaviour:
Directive behaviour contains structure, organize, teach and supervise and it involves: clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, when to dot it, and then closely monitoring their performance. On the other hand, the supportive behaviour needs praise, listen, ask, explain and facilitate and it involves: listening to people, providing support and encouragement for their efforts and then facilitating their involvement in problem solving and decision-making.
The book uncovers that directing style is appropriate during time constraints and for inexperience people. However, coaching works best when disillusionment sets in the individuals. Participative management style suits best for experienced individuals.
Competence and Commitment:
The person should have both competence and commitment while doing a task. Competence is a function of knowledge and skills, which can be gained from education, training, and /or experience. However, commitment is a combination of confidence and motivation. Confidence is a measure of a person’s self-assuredness a feeling of being able to do a task well without much supervision, where as motivation is a person’s interest in and enthusiasm for doing a task well.
Sutras for Success:
It unveils several sutras for practicing managers and leaders to execute their tasks effectively such as:
1. Don’t work harder – work smarter.
2. Different strokes for different folks.
3. There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.
4. When I slow down, I go faster.
5. Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there.
6. You can expect more if you inspect more.
7. “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘we did it ourselves’”- Lao-Tzu.
8. Situational leadership is not something you do to people but something you do with people.
9. Everyone is a potential high performer. So some people just need a little help along the way.
What OMM Says?
• Managers should work for their people.
• Deal people differently. Change style depending on the person working with and on the situation. That is different strokes for different folks and also different strokes for same folks.
• Flexibility, diagnosis and partnering are essential while leading.
• A whole manager is able to use four different leadership styles such as directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.
• Good performers don’t grow on trees. You have to diagnose people and train them.
Leadership Lessons:
• When someone does not understand and doesn’t do well, you need to say, “I made a mistake. I must have given you something to do that you did not understand. Let’s backtrack and start again.”
• Leaders need to do what the people they supervise cannot do for themselves at the present moment.
• Always catch the people doing right things and applaud them.
Conclusion:
The OMM concludes with Buddhist saying, “To know and not to use is not yet to know!” At the end of the book the entrepreneur dons the hat of a situational leader with several valuable takeaways from OMM. So do you?
To sum up, OMM walked the talk with flexibility, diagnosis and partnering with entrepreneur by donning several hats as per the situation. The book is a must read for all. It not only gives you valuable inputs but also makes you don as a smart manager and leader as per the situation.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
“Indian President Pratibha Patil’s Historic Feat – Symbol of Indian Women Power” – Prof.M.S.Rao
25 November 2009 is the historic day for the women of India. It is the historic day for the Indian Air Force. It is the historic day for the Indian Armed Forces and to the entire Indians where our President Pratibha Patil who is 74 years old flew Sukhoi-30 MKI supersonic plane successfully.
It is unique in many ways as Pratibha is the first woman President to fly in a war plane and also she is the oldest women to fly in Sukhoi-30 MKI. It is not the success for Pratibha alone. It is, in fact, the success for all Indian women who dare to dream and think big beyond gender barriers.
Pratibha has become a symbol of inspiration for Indian women to look for career in defense forces also by coming out of traditional mindset of working in civilian organizations. It helps Indian women to break the glass ceiling and achieve big. In this context, let us know what ‘glass ceiling effect’ means.
Glass Ceiling Effect:
The glass ceiling effect is all about the artificial barriers that prevent women from moving up to the senior positions within the organizations. It is mainly based on attitudinal or organizational prejudices towards women. In fact, there are certain myths that prevent women from rising from ranks such as women are weak physically and cannot don leadership roles. The truth is that women are better at interpersonal relations and they are emotionally more intelligent than men. They gauge the body language better than men as they are smarter in gauging the hidden data of communication such as egos, emotions and feelings.
It is unfair not to treat women on par with men. Indian organizations should remove the barriers and allow women to rise from ranks on par with men. Indian women are no way behind men in terms of capabilities and competencies. When we look at Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsi company, she broke all traditional barriers and currently she is one of the top powerful women in the world.
The successful flying in Sukhoi by Pratibha Patil is a laudable one. The aircraft flew 2 kilometers above the ground with a speed of 700 to 900 kilometers per hour and the sortie was for 30 minutes. With her inspiring act she connected with Indian women successfully. Indian women should break their mental barriers based on gender and must dream that everything is possible in the world.
With her bravery act Pratibha achieved twin objectives of proving that Indian women have full capability to perform and sent a message to Indian women to seek career in Armed Forces.
Dear President, I salute you wholeheartedly for your act of bravery and inspiring Indian women to dream big. You proved that you are the real Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces with your personal example. Keep soaring high.
The End
It is unique in many ways as Pratibha is the first woman President to fly in a war plane and also she is the oldest women to fly in Sukhoi-30 MKI. It is not the success for Pratibha alone. It is, in fact, the success for all Indian women who dare to dream and think big beyond gender barriers.
Pratibha has become a symbol of inspiration for Indian women to look for career in defense forces also by coming out of traditional mindset of working in civilian organizations. It helps Indian women to break the glass ceiling and achieve big. In this context, let us know what ‘glass ceiling effect’ means.
Glass Ceiling Effect:
The glass ceiling effect is all about the artificial barriers that prevent women from moving up to the senior positions within the organizations. It is mainly based on attitudinal or organizational prejudices towards women. In fact, there are certain myths that prevent women from rising from ranks such as women are weak physically and cannot don leadership roles. The truth is that women are better at interpersonal relations and they are emotionally more intelligent than men. They gauge the body language better than men as they are smarter in gauging the hidden data of communication such as egos, emotions and feelings.
It is unfair not to treat women on par with men. Indian organizations should remove the barriers and allow women to rise from ranks on par with men. Indian women are no way behind men in terms of capabilities and competencies. When we look at Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsi company, she broke all traditional barriers and currently she is one of the top powerful women in the world.
The successful flying in Sukhoi by Pratibha Patil is a laudable one. The aircraft flew 2 kilometers above the ground with a speed of 700 to 900 kilometers per hour and the sortie was for 30 minutes. With her inspiring act she connected with Indian women successfully. Indian women should break their mental barriers based on gender and must dream that everything is possible in the world.
With her bravery act Pratibha achieved twin objectives of proving that Indian women have full capability to perform and sent a message to Indian women to seek career in Armed Forces.
Dear President, I salute you wholeheartedly for your act of bravery and inspiring Indian women to dream big. You proved that you are the real Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces with your personal example. Keep soaring high.
The End
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