The High Performing Employee & The Halo Effect

It would have been so wonderful if man had learnt how to keep his personal and professional life poles apart. And what if there ever was a switch to turn oneself off out of workplace into a different mode? Living a split personality life, would feel all so fresh and rejuvenated for a new day. Sadly the complexities of leading multiple lives is straightened out by a simple fact that however hard we try we end up intertwining our personal and professional lives, be it even by 2%. We tend up being so professional and efficient at one place that we end up messing the other largely coz of the halo effect of the supremely larger part of us. I once read a statement that goes something like ‘People who are professionally very rich, are on a personal front very poor!’

To better understand how this halo effect affects the lives of people, I borrow this piece from Gautam Ghosh’s recent post on ‘Tiger Woods and the Halo Effect’. True to Gautam’s observations many of us are enveloped by the greatness of a person’s effectiveness at something he’s meant to do, such that this high performing one may personally not be even close to being effective. Something which Gautam has defined as - a psychological shortcut that causes human beings to infer good things about a person based on a single area of achievement. How does this matter to us as organization? Nope it doesn’t to a large extent as long as we stop thinking an organization as a family setup. But the moment the mere thought of a one big happy family emerges, we tend to go beyond project deadlines, deliverables, client handling and inch closer every minute to exploring the human interactions with one another.

There may be this very generous manager who can at the drop of the hat shell out resources and capital wherever he sees a need felt. But the very next moment this unhappy and disillusioned manager may leave the organization in pretty much a mess and creating troubles for the others. Would we say we never saw this coming our way? Or maybe we never thought he could stoop so low? Or was it a simple fact that he always protected the other side with a screen of generosity and empathy for others?

These screens are so thin and transparent however we are trained to not look beyond perfection! For what may seem like a mirage may have an ugly face behind the illusion.

Coming to the point how the halo effect can create problems for us and how to deal with it. Many a times when professionally rich employees decide to job hop due to unhappy decisions, chances are certain one may expect a rebuke in hand. Whereas dealing with the issue is not an easy task, as we never know what the mind behind the smiling face is thinking. But we can walk on the lines which says ‘When everything is going all so very right, stop yourself, think, and think over again. Everything may not be that right to pursue!’

So the next time if we see a highly efficient executive working with perfection and tending to be reliable on all accounts, and one has no reason to be alarmed by her. Maybe one should check her drawers and desk to see if there lies an underneath behaviour that she is hiding. Or one can explore her speediness on the job, or the way she interacts with people who aren’t her peers.

Being a Techno Geek

The routine of a mid twenty / thirty year old at workplace is sit for those blissful 8 hours of work in front of a desktop. Not even for a minute flinch away from that insane stare and the lunch hour seems like we are missing a lot of things. 7 pm back home and after another hour we have our home desktops switched on, either for work from home purposes or merely for the fact that some of us are computoddicted!

We can imagine no task complete without a few clicks here and there and rap tap goes the keyboard. We form the brigades of employees who are completely paralysed when power failures occur.

But to imagine a whole large chunk of those employees, who have taken onto manual working all their lives. So much so even today with the advent of this revolutionary technology they still find themselves among piles of papers, innumerable files and cupboards full of 3 decades old stock of data maintenance that nobody ever would give a glance to! Layers of dust gathering on those historical data that form the base of the Organization’s inception and the well laid out building plans.

A manufacturing sector somehow tends to a clear demarcation of two genres of employees. One being the old horses that grow along with the aging organization and the other being the newbies. It’s said that it’s hard to get in-depth technical competence from the newbies when compared to the golden period of engineers of the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s era. Similarly it’s like taking the horse to the river but unable to force it to drink water, when the old horses suddenly find a rectangular inanimate object on their tables with a mouse. From right away dismissing the idea to initial hiccups and slow motion clicks around in vain; many ultimately end up resorting to following their old ways. Along with an explanation that 5 years more and retirement knocking their doors, these rectangular objects best lay assured at newbie desks. The hindrance seems to be pushing limits when critical data needs to be retrieved and the concerned person wishes how lucky would he be if they were a click away, rather than flipping pages amidst a land full of dust. Compiling information also feels like a Herculean task, as years need to be matched and the corresponding data needs to be fed and worked upon. Lot many things have no information, as back then nobody thought it could lead to a link in the new strategy background work or maybe the CEO wanted to see the attrition levels of the last 10 years.

What’s a predominant feature of not being techno geek for some is that their great ideas face premature death, because of the inability to present them in the sweetest and shortest way. How would a VP of the organization devote some 30 minutes to listen to a new thought if the same idea can be caught within a span of 2 minutes via a presentation? Afterall things seen visually are recalled stronger than pages of thesis work on the matter which ultimately land up in some corner of the office. Similarly being techno geek can save a lot of time in hand to do more work that could help clear out backlogs if any and give in more space to think of the innovative and untried. By and large the whole of 8 hours is consumed in doing the routine task and when does one have the time to think something new and fresh? What may form to be 6 points of a job description when examined closely may turn out to be just 2 points when computerization of the same collective is implemented! What management may think is eating up their financial resources and adding onto the weight of employees may be eventually sorted out such that the manpower count is reduced, kind courtesy disinterest in learning the technology!

So if the fear of getting redundant by introduction of technology is of prime concern, then how about the fear of getting redundant by not knowing the ways of the techno world? Why when one doesn’t shy from acquiring new machines for increase in production, is there a hesitating human in front of a rectangular inanimate object?

How Not To Be A Strategic HR

An HR’s job has always been under a magnifying glass of a microscope. People have always wondered why there is a need of such a department in any organization. The work that is done in routine can always be done by somebody as a part time apart from handling other meaningful tasks. And what has remained in position ever since is the HR sample on the slide and the microscope. All that have come and left are the looking through set of eyes of scrutinizers. Nothing conducive has said to evolve in the species of HR until now that is over the past decade. A new stream of science has intertwined and has been showing a prosperous seat by the business class window of the management aircraft. Suddenly there’s a buzz called Strategic HR and everybody wants to be in the hot seat. Or they don’t?

Aspirations are many yet inputs and the processing levels are varied. For how many HR’s would go beyond the routine administrative work? Understanding business is not an easy task and certainly not a day’s job. There are always people with super smart rationale on all matters and though HR folks are said to be the ones who start the ball rolling for a change, yet the 8 hours job of rolling appointment letters, transfer orders seem to be the most lucrative task in hand. There still exist 70% of individuals for whom an HR’s job is said to be something that has nothing to do with what others do! Some of the best reasons why these certain 70% classify under the category ‘How Not to Be a Strategic HR’ is:

1. They say it’s not my job to keep a tab on other departments proceedings. For all that they may do throughout is be given a vacancy count from respective departments and an incessant search for the most suitable profile. This recruitment life cycle never ceases and as demands raise so do the supply without the blink of an eye.
2. For these certain people recruitments are the only domain that they associate with their inclination towards HR, so it’s all about playing this game of collecting the data bank, screening, short listing, and handing them over for final interviews. And it stops there to begin with the data bank stage all over again. It’s immaterial whether there was a final fit between the employers and the employee. Which many times lead to immediate exiting due to unstructured policies.
3. Unconcern to understand the nature of the industry they work with. Many a time’s saturation in one industry makes an individual drift towards the opposite. Say from an IT industry to a Manufacturing, where the cultures are juxtaposed. So policies that worked out previously in an excellent way in the IT industry may not move pillars in the Manufacturing. Or the inability to fit oneself in the climate of the organization posing severe threats to the future of the organization, if one occupies a decision making position.
4. The same genre of people who know the in and out of Human Resource yet fail to interlink the Marketing decision to theirs and their resourcefulness to the Finance folks.
5. They land up in sticky situations by not knowing the main product or service of their organization but relentlessly ramble underneath the PMS cloud and 360 degree appraisals. So much so they start viewing training and development needs and the budget for the organization as different articles. As long as HR is able to carry out it’s functions it’s immaterial to them whether recruiting costs are tipping the iceberg or unnecessary expenditure on whitewashing department are overbearing to the projects in hand.
6. When these folks are unable to comprehend the operation flow and cycle of product so much so they cannot make out the differences between two stages of completely different processes and do not leave a moment to smirk and flaunt their ignorance. With the added attitude that says “I’m an HR, why should I bother whether department X comes in process before department Y or not. It is for them to see the quality management. My work ends in satisfying their manpower needs.”
7. When policies aren’t structured to the organizations needs and are air lifted from elsewhere. Or best when the organization is said to be under the Zoo culture, where everybody is monkeying around and there is too much interference from everywhere such that the HR department loses its essence and authority over things.
8. When aptitude is marked by the ignorance of the obvious and one believes on running on the single track to achievement, where targets mean monthly realization of supply and demand and fear of the unknown makes them explore less on the shady sides of the organizations fumbles.
9. When routine work seems to be the best task that involves growing people within the organization by implying on the fact that HR folks are contributing in making work easier and serving the employees at their best in their smallest of the needs.

The list can get endless but the crux of the theme is, do we consider HR as a never changing sample, or a slowly evolving one which may take another decade to grow out of its skin or a new species very much modified and innovated in a new package of intellectuals who not just own the reins of the industry but know how to dig the underground lines at the right depths.

Defining Right Consciousness

To be right conscious is an easy task, for no boundaries or lines are defined that would differentiate what could be a right conscious decision, action, thought or what could form the basis of being unethical at the workplace. To pick up one and place him under the white cloud of appreciation is difficult as much as it is to place one under the black cloud of reprimand. These issues arise because an individual seems to show streaks of all personalities and behaviour, so much so that they can be physically viewed simultaneously in minutes of separation.

One such conflicting behaviour is exhibited by many individuals who realise the problems of the organization from an eagle’s point of view. Not only are they sharp eyed, they can also critically examine all the dimensions leading to the growth and failure of the organization’s strategies and policies. If given a chance they have scores of opinions and suggestions to sound to a willing ear. They even have self made strategies in place which if given a direction may result to better outcomes. They are those individuals who are high performers in the jobs bestowed upon them and have earned quite a reputation for being blatant. And the top management likes them too.

However they sport a bad body language when it comes to interacting with new people, specially the one’s appointed in powerful positions. The new head honchos bring new policies that are framed within a matter of time, where a feedback is necessary to begin with. Here is the place where these high performers start behaving unexpectedly in a split second. They may give go ahead nods to the directives or plans, and tow in to the idea but frequently disregarding the hierarchy of the opponent and challenging the effects of the implementation do not go unnoticed. They even indulge in ganging up for soft mockery of ideas and brushing off new methodologies from the ones long established by numerous trial and error techniques. For once that can be counted as defensive mechanism to the already existing policies; however in the long run they show high levels of instability and insecurity. They may be once ruling the roost but a change brings about a reshuffle in the structure and the processes. So despite being a high performer the constant fear of being redundant aligns them towards a behaviour that is counted negative. Upon being questioned as to why they have ideas that do not reach day light, they believe in blaming the system for the inefficiency all over. And the dullness and lackadaisical environment that doesn’t provide opportunities for initiatives. Any new thought is welcomed by a ‘not possible’ or ‘cannot be done’ or ‘you’ll have to do it all by yourself’ attitude. These people on the other hand do not stop being ethical at their work, however end up being the cribbing geese of the coop, who believe in preaching every moment; yet shift no bones to develop a dying idea or improve a situation that has no direct dealing with them.

Are organizations to be blamed for such people being bred within themselves? Is the top management brass to be blamed for not being able to reach out to those at the lowest or middle level branches of the tree? Is change the root cause of all insecurity developing of getting redundant? Or is it human nature not to welcome great ideas from relatively new people who’ve just taken baby steps and not grown along with the organization? Or is it just about being vocally right conscious?

I Delegated Authorities, But Oh I'm Ignorant

Delegation of authority is said to be a growth path for all those subordinates whose shoulders bear the files and notes of work. For the person delegating his authority and responsibility on others, the process is a clear sign of not holding all important work to himself, and believing in his team and entrusting upon them important work and the power to make decisions.

However after so much of delegation of responsibilities there are certain times and moments of oh-ah when the person himself ends being ignorant of many of the processes that were passed down the line of hierarchy. He may have been the source at one point of time, but now that he has made his subordinate the SPOC of the entire process, little comes his way but a mere feedback once a fortnight or maybe never as long as the flow is there. Along come sticky situations at times, when the super-boss decides to query on matters or clients (employees for the HR) want some information, and the beholder of the post has no answers to the queries. He requires some moments to himself and some minutes from the subordinate to receive a briefing. All this while he was comfortable being ignorant, or had other pressing issues under his consideration.

However the responsibilities if delegated to such minutest of the levels, many a times cause more of a problem than just being helpful where follow-up is not considered as necessary as getting things just done. So it’s not just about getting efficient, reducing one’s work load and channelizing it to proper direction; it's about following it up and digging deeper in times of movement of information; than just wait for the river to take its course and when rains come lashing  down, a desperate look to find the basin.

HR For The Elite

The great divide that exists in a manufacturing sector is of the two categories: the worker level and the staff/managerial level. When it comes to the functionality of Human Resources in this sector, there is a modified version that has been into existence since long, better known as the Personnel Department. They look into each micro level of the organization ranging from dealing with Trade Unions, to handling contractors, to being the caretakers of housekeeping and safety propositions. They even have employee grievances both from the worker and managerial level in their kitty, et al. They go around getting water source tanks cleaned too with disinfectants and sometimes have worked in those roles that were very technical, yet the organization needed the shift. It surely amounts to enormous tasks under their paper weights.

But on an hypothetical comparison with the IT industry, where Personnel is non-existent the functionality talks about words like Employee Engagement, Succession Planning, Competency based Development, and the likes in this genre. When we try importing these concepts into the manufacturing sector, and in particular the mid sized organizations, what happens is initial resistance and severe criticism that follows. One of the contributing reasons that I can think of is that these terminologies sound like fancy words picked up from an American dictionary. And it’s like an uphill task to convince people that HR is here for good and means good intention.

Analysing on the criticality of one of these aspects namely Succession Planning, for one it’s the workers who are into the jobbing process in the industry. Be it the welding, or soldering, or working on auto parts or with the arc furnace there are skilled and un-skilled workers for each category of work. Whereas the staff/managerial employees are into supervisory work and their main competency involves around understanding the drawings and technology behind a process. The technicalities are what staff/managerial employees possess; however working on site with tools, cranes, lathe machines etc is the workers job. And if these workers go on strikes, the organization suffers in productivity. When we talk of Succession Planning, we may have our slots filled in for staff/managerial level folks by the next competent fellow fished from the market. Yes without him any breakdown in a machine cannot get proper directions to be fixed, or the strategies and shortest path solutions cannot be brought about. But it’s equally necessary to fill in the slot of a worker, who after 3 decades of service in the organization leaves a post vacant minus the skill too. Though it’s well known that doing a certain task for n number of years makes the person able and capable in it; however when we talk about using shorter path means to achieve quicker cycle times of the products life cycle and achieving delivery time; won’t it be quintessential to have a similar competency chart available for workers too. What if worker x is on leave for 2 days, there should be a worker z to quickly fill the spot! We as HR involve ourselves into designing On-the-Job-Training (OJT) schedules of numerous training sessions for the staff/managerial; however how many OJT schedules for workers are made? What if an organization has a worker’s average age of 40-45? The next decade would see the organization exhaust it’s value in the market as the core skill workers would be due retirement. Succession Planning isn’t just about queuing up the next man hour resource, it is about a competent workforce that needs less of coercing into doing the job and an equal opportunity of availing training and upgrading themselves in courses that are relevant. It’s a part of an HR’s responsibility to aide everybody in the organization. But if the HR and the Top Management feels that the organization would be wasting resources on unnecessary development of a task that requires no prior knowledge, but just common sense and the knowledge of the right way of doing a certain thing, which is more or less monotonous in nature; we are indicating that after all HR policies are for the betterment of the Elite a.k.a. staff/managerial.

Along with grooming the next level of employees, we also indulge in activities that would make our employees happier in the long run. We come out with this message that says “Look we are not just aiding you in your career growth; but we are taking care of you as well in the best of the ways. It’s because you mean as much to us, as we do to you!” We’ve come up with various policies indicating the benefits that they would be entitled to receive because they lay in the band level. Surely it does make them happy, and yes it has been a practice being followed all over the globe. Benefits like purse allowance, magazine allowances, etc, all tagged under the Fringe Benefits kitty, of which am so thankful to the Government for abolishing it from the Budget 2009. We do try our every bit of taking care of our employees; however why just restrict such benefits to staff/managerial levels? Human Resource is about taking care of the entire employee base of the organization and inching towards development of every individual. Would HR always cater to the needs of the Elite or are there chances of broadening the span to the less blessed? Would introduction of HR in an atmosphere that existed as a conglomerate of functions – Personnel Department survive the tests of meaning good intention? Would Succession Planning stand good for workers? Would mid sized manufacturing organizations grow with the process or end up being tangled in a mess of understood and not much understood methodologies? All of it depending upon the culture of the organization and the openness to accept HR with arms wide open, minus the nitpicking of associating it with American mumbo-jumbo as well as broadening the expanse and the reach of the HR Department in the lines of hereditary Personnel bloodline.

The Sweetest Sound

I remember coming across one statement which I felt is so true. It said “Remember that a man’s Name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language”.

Yet there are many of us who within minutes of introduction to a person forget their names, worse despite being embarrassed in all such situations, try little to possessing an elephant’s memory. And when it comes to HR folks, this is one tool that is supposed to be congenital.

I have known this very efficient a HR Manager, but he was bad at names, which was his biggest flaw. At the organization where he worked, his department had just one lady owing to the fact of being a manufacturing industry. There were days when she would be called by altogether different names, and everyday a new name would crop. But since she was the only lady, she would figure out it was her who was being summoned. Other colleagues faced the same fate; however they got used to it, since he would signal which subordinate he wanted in his cabin.

However this is one habit that refused to leave his premises even when he interacted with people from the other departments. He would end up coming confused, thinking hard recollecting names and attaching them to faces. It was always like an uphill task against earth’s gravity. There would be moments when large number of workers would turn up to his cabin in the count of 10-15 and every few minutes he would ask their names. And after giving up, one of the subordinates would help prompting the names, or go ahead with the session without mention of names. This adversely affected his reputation, who otherwise meant good work and intention, yet his forgetfulness indicated less attention in the interests of the employee.

Though his forgetfulness dodged areas that required strategic thinking and prompt recollection of information that meant crucial to the Co.’s working. His observations were always very thorough and scientific in approach. Nobody could question his calculations, since they were just very accurately made. However the name recollection wasn’t his cup of tea. He was in fact suggested of trying ways to learn and remember names; however despite accepting the lacuna he worked less in that direction.

The consequence being, his subordinates started resisting from being addressed as somebody they weren’t. As a crude joke the workers would pop their names between conversations and the whole organization knew that this HR Manager could recognize nobody from their names. The general perception grew by manifold that he wasn’t interested in the welfare of the employees, as he paid less attention towards their minutest details. And if he couldn’t remember a name, how could he remember the grievances they faced. How could he stand against the Management for those rights, each person had a different one and each had a name to it?