Respect At Workplace : Reasons & Remedy

Recently read an article in Forbes showing that 80% people do not get respect at Work Place. As education levels are increasing what is making us lose the social touch.

Students are provided Life Skills in new Curriculums but they hardly show any qualities in their real life as students. Moreover we are role based human beings & are situational in our behavior.

So while there were only statistics in the article  I began introspection & analytics into lack of respect at workplace.

What may be the reasons of not getting respect at workplace.

1.       Incompetence , can be corrected through training.

2.       Over competence,  following group norms can help.

3.       Using gender to extract undue benefits, corrected through ethical gender behavior.

4.       Lack of Character, very difficult to hide

5.       Not getting along with people due to different culture & sensibilities.

6.       Being a Individual player in a team setting.

7.        Generation Gap

8.       Different Sexual Orientations

9.       Being a different race

10.   Being honest or dishonest in a wrong setting

It’s a complex problem to fetch respect. Its leadership if you get respect of 80% people & don’t get into dirty situations with the other 20%.

Also to get respect it’s important to give respect. Be cosmopolitan, broadminded & open to horizon expanding stretch experiences.

Thriving in a Political Environment

Umpteen number of times people complain about the political nature of their jobs.

Now come on we can't escape from the fact that man is a political animal. With 200 govt's of the world some nation or the other is always on polls, not to talk about the various wars that countries indulge in.

So all in all it can be called politics and hostility or simply HUMAN DYNAMICS.

So one should learn to adapt to Human Dynamics. And managers should make sure they know how to harness the dysfunctional politics and CONVERT into functional conflicts which boost productivity of the Human Capital and improves the general psychological well being of the organization.

The psychological or emotional health of the organization is to be lead by key people.
The role of the managers in this regard is to show magnanimity and leadership in not involving in petty ego stands.

Remember the show should go on and to achieve that numbers have to be churned every quarter.

This can not be achieved with out study and stoic emotional intelligence of the org.
which has to be guided and moulded from time to time.

SO GO ON THEN, STOP COMPLAINING AND START SCORING.

Tolerating the High Performers in Organisation

We all know that high performers are the no nonsense guys in the organization. They frequently resent the wrong decisions and practices. in the organization. Hence they are a sort of org. purifiers.

There are hardly people in this world who have initiative and there are hardly a few who have a voice. So these people are handy to keep around for the purpose of creating new neural pathways in the org and destroying dysfunctional attitudes and practices.

The high performers also stimulate the work environment with mirroring effects which means that people learn from them on job, winning attitudes and wining styles and overall company training costs may also be reduced and result and achievement orientation may also improve.

So don't junk that man with the achievement drive. He may not be very friendly but he may add the value of five regular team members to your team. Also you may use correction methods for some deficiencies which they may show. Correction always works wonders with adults and children. So why have flabby yes men around you who slowly cause the org bones to weaken.Have a strong backbone.

The Human Relation Synergy

Its never under stressed how important is harmony at work place.
Why only at work place even at home or in a country situation.

The role of the leader in this aspect is hardly underwritten. The leader is the in charge of the organisational mood. How the employees traet their customers is very well also determined by how employees are treated themselves at the work place. So it is imperative to respefct the employee as a franchisee of the business.

Employees are the most nearer to the customers and their voice matters the most. Hence it is also important to meet the frontline employees of the org. and take their valuable feedback and finetune processes, products, and strategies from time to time.

If you keep your employees happy they will keep the organisation healthy.
So its the duty of all leaders to be cheerful and enthused at all times. They should keep at least one day for any employee to walk in and share their views on the day to day happenings in the org.

You can differntiate your org. very easily on the caring aspect. It is important to remember that in this age of Social Networks you can easily get good or bad word of mouth based on these parameters.

So you could include a employee bash for every achivement so that their winning streak is reinforced. The more people have fun the more they are likely to enjoy the work and work with passion, which will surely increase the productivity and profitability of the organisation.

Risking / derisking Business Model by Globalising

Recent Japan earth quake gives us all a lesson. The companies which have their businesses spread across the globe have inherently derisked their business against natural disasters. Also it tells us the importance of Insuring and Re-insuring by the Insurance companies.

Many US comapnies have exposure from 10% to 75% in their Japan ventures and hense stand to loose by their strategy of concentrating to much on a geography. Area's like Japan and Gujarat in India are famous to be Earthquake prone but are also very akin to business ventures. This shows what PR can do, it can make a person invest in a inherently risky area, but suitable to business growth and entrepreneurism.

So planning a business think of it, not more than 20% of the business in One country esp. if it is disaster prone. Similarly with the markets, better to have more diverse customers to de risk the revenues and marketing function of the Company. Always think of de risking your company. If only the US businessmen thought they would have avoided the great second depression in Global economy.

Living with Honor

Man has a nature of Group Dynamism and Black Mail minorities in organisatin with overload and insulting advances. This reduces the self esteem of those not subscribed to groups. Many organisation thrive on office romance like many Training institutes and call centres. There are many call centres exclusively for women why?

So are you a team or a ethical group? How to know?

How do you deal when someone is inferior to the post to which they join. By training them or by humilating them.

How do you respond to a star in a average organisation, by Double Promotion, or shattering her confidence by spoiled ACR. Or giving the feedback that they are really better and some thing good is waiting for them.

People of Honor form a team ready to gel and not forcefully ensconse people into their cellular lives.

Living with Honor

Sometimes you are better than average at the job you are doing . Sometimes you are below average at the job which you are doing. If you have a good appraisal for your job although U are average or below average then your boss is living with honor and you are not. If you have a bad appraisal for a good job done, you are living with honor but your boss is not. It is important to live by honor. The old Mother India Song Says," Zinda hai jo Izzat se vo izzat se marega". So honor lies in earning ones wages. Honor lies in teaching others to live by Honor. Moral of the story : If one keeps improving ones purse and social graph will improve.

When there are too many leaders

I am a old author of Management through Blogs.

When people used to talk about change as a management fad, I proposed that only positive change should happen and working practices should not be abandoned.

Today I have another proposition. Too much emphasis is given on leadership development at all levels. But one must be cautious not to allow this to become a leader managers situation. A leader manager situation is when all the leaders join the managers and no body is left to manage or work.

Such situation is likely to happen in government office when they adopt new management principles. Similar trends are sen when succession planning is being done and more than two to four candidates are being trained for the top post and the disgruntled leave the organisation along with their team. There should be a management strategy for such a situation and the problem could be viewed as a challenge, by setting up new small sunrise sector small companies with ESOPs for the rejected candidates. Or as a measure of corporate CSR they should be allowed to set up their own companies with angel funding and stake by their owners.

All management terms and axioms are fads till practiced and understood insight fully. Just like all problems are essentially challenges for those who have the grit. So India's and US's large swathes of Unemployed could also be a advantage, are you the leader who can make it?

How a Failure in Exam could be a Winner in Life : By Indian Jack Welch

Well when I was at AU college of Engineering. I could not topped. Those who topped copied in all exams and were successful earlier in life.

But I got success later on in life as a successful social blogger and a clear conscience.

How a person who fails the Exam with out writing a single word is a winner in life. If the student refuses to copy he is likely to have the quality of integrity which even big Industry Tycoons lack. So this person can be a cashier at a hotel, as he is unlikely to steal. An accountant who cleared his exam cheating is likely to become a partner at a big firm which fudges and commits fiduciary crimes.

So integrity matters and is found in few. These few are the diamonds in the genetic junk of deceptive people who are sporadically spreading like epidemic in society.

My Leadership Lessons

It was when I used to teach at a School. There was a paucity of Text Books of the subject I used to teach. One girl lent me a book of hers which was used throughout the academic session by me. The girl coped well and was a fine grader. After reflecting on the incident I realized that she was also a good leader even while at school. She had shown the quality of making a sacrifice for making the goal of the group.

How often do we see even matured people making a sacrifice for the group. A true leader. I was also reading an article in newspaper on how a woman fired herself being the CEO to keep her team mates in job. That is the crescendo of leadership. Sacrifice.

Most people are self centered and selfish and hardly understand the group goals. In this scenario the above two examples stand out in explaining leaders how they can be better at their jobs and even managers can develop some accommodating behavior and learn leadership.

Decision Making and Revisionism

many a times many ministers have been branded as Roll Back ministers if they roll back a previous tenant of their Financial Budget or policy.
Yesterday I was going through the Jack Welch Column in 4p where he stressed that Revisionism is decision making is not bad.
Many a times the leader has to take decision under uncertainty and may lead to wrong decision at such times not correcting the decision in the face of possibility that people may brand the leader as Flip Flop leader is even more damaging.
Its better to revise than to continue with a wrong decision.
Many a times strategic insights are upended to previous insights and make it imperative to change the course of previous decisions. At such times Jack stresses that it is a leadership quality to make changes without clinging to the wrong decision.
Mr. Jack Welch I completely agree with you.

Corporate Governance

There is this corporate governance question rasied all the time if CEO and Chairman position should be held by the same person or different persons.

Different posts can hinder decisionmaking speed but gives the much needed perspectives to decision making.

But then how do actual people handle these processes. According to a survey about 80% of all organisations have only 1 person handling the same post and they also have 5% higher sales figure.

So if you want better performance better have one person as Chairman and CEO.

Importance of Succession Planning

Succession Planning is important in politics as well in Business. WE come across so many public spats in Business and politics alike about rebellions.

Well to avoid that there are various strategies that can be used by leaders. Delegation of authority and sharing of power and decision making can keep the squabbles at bay.

In a conglomerate it becomes easy to share power between generations by making each son in charge of a separate division or companies or group of companies.

So if you don't want your son or daughter to make a public disgrace of the family business make plan as soon as your son is 25 or daughter is 21.

How To Save Your Job in a Recession

Just like companies have their strategies for recession beating individuals should themselves come up with their own strategies to beat the recession blues.

Strategies have to be adopted to keep one self alluring enough in Job scenario's.

1. Multi Skill your self : Add new skill's to your resume through e-learning or self learning using computer and internet at home or through self help books or friends.

2. Accept More Responsibility : Don't shirk responsibility in recession as it may even cost you your job.

3. Be Team Oriented : Individualistic achievements may do in the normal times but hard times require networking and aligning individual goals to organizational goals and team play to synergise and increase effective goal achievement.

4. Don't spread rumors : Spreading rumors at such times may invite flak from management.

New Age Media Vehicles

With coming of a new era , comes the opportunities of new Advertising Vehicles.
1. Malls : Malls are used increasingly to target hip and young crowds who are out there to hang out or watch a movie in a multiplex.

2. Cyber Cafes : A survey shows that 50% of Cyber Cafe goers are students and rest 50% are grad's and PG's , these profiles are decision makers and hence can be targetted by advertising solutions used by Cyber Cafes. Using geo tagging you can create tactical advt.s instead of just generic ads.

3. Road Shows : Road shows can be used to create a hype around the product.

4. Mobiles : Mobile advt can be used to reach your potential customer in a cost effective way.

5. Painting Trains and Buses : Painting trains and buses could also get you requisite mind share and high brand recall.

So what are you waiting for go for that new media.

Used Car Market Downfalls due to Nano

How categories of products are intertwined is displayed aptly by the Nano Car launch. The prices of used car is down up to 15-20%. And so is demand. If one can get a new car in around 1.25 lakhs then why go for a expensive car without guarantee.

So here you are with a car competing with the used car market. But then a car for common man at last, with security for the pillion riders as endorsed by the Tata himself.

Even the rates of entry level small car markets are down by 40,000 to 50,000. Now this is some car creating ripples in the Car Market.

Bravo Tata you did some thing commendable.

9XM and Innovative Programming

9XM is a new channel but in its relatively short sting of operation it has seen undue success. That is all due to clutter breaking programming model.

All channels play the same videos. So how can you distinguish your content. 9XM did so by animated propriety content of its own.

Its jocular mascot "Bheegi Billi" and "Chote Bade" jokes are now very much popular with the audiences.

So its up to the programming department to go about menial tasks or think out of the box and make disruptive programming content around its core business.

Who knows some day they may come up with a cartoon channel leveraging the equity created in the core channel.

Now that is some business Acumen, what do you say?

Getting a Job in Recession

IIM Indore records a 15-20% decrease in salary offered to student placements, although more number of companies participate in recruitment.

This shows the job scene in recession. So if you are thinking of getting a job, you are likely to get that job by quoting a lower than expected salary figure. The demand of people is there , more so of multi skilled people.

So the best strategy to have for getting a job at this time is to hop on to the company and wait for the recession to pass sway and then demand your worth.

Now , why wait for your dream job.

Growing Business Through Joint Ventures and Partnerships

Recently Naukri created a application for GTalk customers to add naukri as Friend and search for jobs from GTalk without leaving GTalk.

So millions of GTalk users become potential customers for Naukri.

No referrals, no leads, no followups,

Just pure marketing Nirvana.

If you think out of the box, ready made businesses of the type mentioned above await you. So in this age of recession its more important to Co-opt than compete.

Joint ventures and partnerships are tools to achieve the above.

In joint ventures you have the advantages of market knowledge and insights , plus ready made customer bouquet. One can easily cross sell products to each others customers in a Partnership, or charge a small amount for every business conversion for one way partnerships.

Organisational Replenishment - 20%-70%-10%

Keep you organization vital at all the times, and how can you do that.

For the above purpose you need to understand that there are three classes of workers in any organization

1. Top Performers ( 20%)
2. Mediocre Performers ( 70%)
3. Non -Performers (10 %)

So you need a performance appraisal or measurement system which can measure and classify employees into the above three classes. It is very important for you to be transparent in this process as any attempt to include a sycophant in a above category than deserved will certainly not get unnoticed.

After classifying the people according to their capabilities you have to take necessary action to increase the vitality of the organization.

The above percentages are average. So it should be your endeavor to increase the percentage of performers, reduce the percentage of non-performers and take necessary measures to send the mediocre performers into the performers category by training and motivational techniques.

You know that performers can be ticked off by equity treatment and need differentiated treatment. That's where you need to be bold and carve out a strategy to retain the best at the cost of non-performers.

But non-performers and mediocre may take this to be inequity at workplace so you need to device ways of retaining top performers, like offering secret joining bonus to a top-performer joiner and ask him to keep shut about the whole affair.

So it is totally up to you how you use HR to invigorate your organisations DNA to a performance oriented from a clunky mediocre performence based.