‘CONNECTING MORE’ & ‘CORRECTING LESS’
I have always advocated the fact that, India would have one of the youngest workforce in a decade or so. We would be also featuring in the list of top four world economies by 2020-25, as predicted by the World Bank. Post that, it would be a different ball game altogether.
Impetus is on us, to provide the youngsters, with the learning opportunities, pass on the baton and groom them for future. Interestingly the younger lot want to make the world a better place, wish to be their own bosses, and in the worst case scenario, work with bosses who behave like mentors or school teachers. The teachers/mentors should have tremendous grasp on the subject and should be able to answer their questions aptly, apart from providing them timely feedback.
Middle generation currently has a lot of self-pride, ego, and are hungry for recognition needs. These line managers are our real bread earners. They are important for successful policy implementation in organisational change situations. They are also a very important communication link between senior management and team members. They also manage, control and communicate with the teams. They are the most important piece of the economics in the country like ours.
The next generation, would be a bit more different. This generation is supposed to feature a more inbuilt team work. It is not because of simple management skills but is because of social media, their closer association to the technology and the virtual world of games. Aren’t you surprised?
What can create magic for these Gen Y and the next generations? The answer is simple, mentoring at the right age, inviting them in the process, autonomy with clear set expectations, and experiential learnings. This involves us rightly to move from ‘correcting more’ to ‘connecting more’ phase. They learn faster with peer experience, so ‘connecting more’ becomes really significant differentiator.
In these critical testing times, approach of being with the teams, on shop floor, available on phone, timely feedback, etc would add up to success in long run. Thus important of connecting more become more relevant especially in these tough times.
Studies prove worldwide that engaged employees, produce up to 20 per cent more than the disengaged ones, even with limited resources. This can be achieved through continuous improvement via genuine timely feedback, empowerment, communication, and most importantly intent of restoring faith.
People leaders should realise that satisfaction denotes how a team member feels about the job. It can be a derivative of one of the factors like remuneration or work-life balance. Engagement is the state where an employee goes beyond the call of the duty. Good and engaged people are our key resources. People leaders would be shocked, after seeing the black and white, 9 per cent engagement score, at the country level. Thus, time has come, when we entrepreneurial leaders, need to look for an alternative approach of engaging and working towards ‘connecting more’ than ‘correcting more’.
I firmly believe that people managers are hired 90 per cent of time for skills and knowledge, but on the other hand are fired 90 per cent of time, for their people skills. Performance either makes or breaks an organisation, especially in testing times. We need to be together as a team, whether it is world of sports or organisation, to win continually. The path is very simple and can be summed up in following points: –
- Focus on objectives.
- Integration of thought process by ‘connecting more’.
III. Compassion towards needs of your team members.
- Long and short term planning.
- Support for innovation.
- Applying the best practices available post alignment with overall organisational culture.
VII. Employee development receiving the highest priority.
To sum it up, in the next decade or so, I feel my style of leadership which I term as ‘connecting more’ and ‘correcting less’ would be useful for people leaders. We may see more and more line managers, getting benefited out of it, if they religiously follow it.