JIGYASA 2016 1

JIGYASA 2016 2

Contact us Team JIGYASA

MBA (Human Resource Development) Department of Commerce

University of Delhi, New Delhi—110007 Phone - +91 - 11 27662037 , 2766 2608

Email: Jigysa@mhrod.in www.mibmhrod.com

JIGYASA 2016 3

About MBA (Human Resource Development) The MBA program in Human Resource Development was started in the year 1995 by the Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics with the objective of providing quality education to highly motivated young men and women so that they can provide professional expertise to business and industry in the twin areas of Human Resource and Organizational Development. Identified by NHRD and NTPC as premiere course in the field of Human Resource, MBA (HRD) (Previously known as MHROD) is a two-year full time professional program spread over four semesters, which combine gruelling academic schedules with proactive efforts to develop new perspectives and a higher level of knowledge and understanding. Going beyond books, theories and case studies to open new windows, MHROD helps young HR and OD experts to enter the increasingly competitive and constantly changing global economy equipped with the ability to face every challenge head on and emerge victorious.

About JIGYASA JIGYASA is an annual journal of M.H.R.O.D. The name signifies the nature and intent, which is to arouse or pacify curiosity i.e. Jigyasa. Being a non-profit, in-house, student initiative, first launched in 1997, the journal has ensured wide circulation and garnered appreciation from both the corporate and the academia. It is the compilation of articles, interviews, case studies and book reviews by stalwarts in their respective fields. It provides valuable insights and viewpoints of specialists in the field of Human Resource, Organizational Development and Management, and thus secured a place for itself in famous libraries nationally as well as internationally. The objective behind the initiation and evolution of the journal is to provide the readers with an idea of the complexities of working in the industry and to help broaden their knowledge base in the field of Human Resources.

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MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD

With immense pleasure, I present forward the current issue of Jigyasa 2016, the annual journal of the Master of Human Resource and Organisational Development (MHROD) programme. Jigyasa primarily has been the platform of disseminating knowledge on Human Resource along with its varied dimensions. The journal has been successful in encouraging students, academicians, and the corporate leaders to share their ideas and opinions on various current topics on Human Resource Management and Organisational Development. In today's business environment of shifting paradigms of Human Resource, it is highly important to explore new dimensions and trends which are shaping the future of HR to be business driven. The current issue of Jigyasa touches upon various contemporary issues like Role of HR in bridging the gap in Gender diversity, HR transformation to Shared Services, Managing Below-Expectations Performance, Predictive Analytics, evolving feedback mechanisms in organisations etc. It is expected that the present issue would provide a perfect platform for deliberations on how businesses can be handled and sustained, primarily focusing and channelizing the most important asset of any organization, i.e. the Human Resource. I congratulate the Editorial Team for their hard work in producing this issue of Jigyasa and hope that it would provide a platform to professionals, students and academicians in the domain of Human Resource management and Organisational Development to express their insights on key issues pertaining to the business and Organisational Behaviour.

Prof. Kavita Sharma

Head, Department of Commerce

University of Delhi

JIGYASA 2016 5

MESSAGE FROM THE COURSE COORDINATOR

Dear Readers, Greetings from Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi! It gives me immense pleasure Jigyasa (meaning curiosity) is an annual journal of MBA(HRD) (previously known as MHROD). The objective of JIGYASA is to disseminate concepts of professional management and contribute to a better understanding of the systems, resources, theory and performance of people in organizations. It encourages practitioners, academicians and professionals to share their valuable research work, knowledge, and their experiences in the corporate world to explore the new dynamics in the business arena. Current Issue of Jigyasa touches various dimensions of Human resources and include articles on Team Management, Role of HR in bridging the gap in Gender diversity, Shared Services, what they don’t teach you at Management/Business Schools, Global Mobility, Managing Below-Expectations Performance etc. from the authors associated with renowned companies like Yahoo, Titan Company Limited, Tata Steel, Reliance Jio, Xerox Technology, Averda, Ericsson, Kotak Mahindra Bank etc. Our budding managers encourage all categories of learners and learned to collect innovation of ideas and a cross cultural exploration in different facets of human resource management. The journal is an essential reading for everyone involved in personnel, training and other aspects of human resource management. I would like to congratulate the editorial team for their thrilling hard work and dedication to releasing Jigyasa on the occasion of the legendary convention of MBA (HRD). I also wish them all success in their future endeavors.

Dr. Urvashi Sharma

Course Coordinator – MBA (HRD)

Department of Commerce

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PATRONS

Prof. Kavita Sharma, Head, Department of Com-merce, University of Delhi Dr. Urvashi Sharma Course Coordinator - MBA(HRD), Department of Commerce

EDITORIAL BOARD Harshita Rai Roli Jaiswal Abhishek Chakrobrotty Tanay Tandon Sehba Iqbal TEAM JIGYASA Divyanshu Asthana Aishwarya Yadav Khushboo Mandal Rewant Katyal Abhinav Shrivastav Sahiba Sehgal

To our readers,

Human Resources has undertaken lot of change recently in various arenas like coach-ing, performance management, talent acquisi-

tion etc. as a result of changing the way to approach and do things. The thoughts, as-sumptions, beliefs, and values are evolving as

per the market conditions and this edition of JIGYASA introduce you to the shifting para-

digms of HR professionals and employees from the perspectives of eminent personalities from the business.

Moreover, this edition also highlights the

trends which will shape the future of HR which might help the companies to be com-petitive and proactive at the same time.

The credit for overwhelming success of this endeavour rests largely with the distinguished

authors who have contributed with their knowledge, thoughts, opinions and most im-

portantly, time. We hope this edition brings as much pleasure to all the authors, as it has brought to us in framing and compiling it.

We value the incomparable inputs of the con-tributors for this journal and thank them for infusing their knowledge and experience into

each article of JIGYASA .

We value your invaluable inputs and sugges-tions and hope that your journey though JIGYASA would be a pleasure

We look forward to your valuable feedback

and we are optimistic this edition of JIGYASA would be a thought provoking.

HARSHITA RAI (Editor - in Chief)

JIGYASA 2016 7

1. Retake Effect – Team Management

Harjeet Singh Khanduja, VP – HR, Reliance Jio Infocomm.

2. Human Resource Technology that connects new employees

Bala V Sathyanarayanan, CHRO, Xerox Technology

3. Bridging the Gap of Gender Diversity in the Organization – Role of HR

Kamalika Deka, Manager HR, Titan Company Ltd. 4. Success Vineet Gambhir, VP and Head, Yahoo

5. Befriend the Brain

Sudip Mukherjee, Proprietor | Trainer | Coach, Anchor NLP

6. Can Everything be Predicted?

Aparna Sharma, Director, Tata Steel Alloys Ltd.

7. Feedback….a Gift

Manager, Campus Recruiting, LinkedIn

8. What Employees want from New Recruits!

Dakshdeep Singh, Practise Head – Transitions and Consulting, People Strong

9. Positive Psychology – a field of utmost relevance for the coming decade

Vidya Muralidharan, OD and Leadership Development Consultant, Ashok Leyland Ltd

10. What they don’t teach you at Management/Business Schools in India?

Pooja Magoo, Manager – HR/ P&A, PEC Ltd

11. Transformation from Core HR to Shared Services

Neeraj Jasrotia, Sr Manager/DGM WFM/HRMIS (Unit Manager - Global Shared Services), Ericsson Ltd.

12. Information Asymmetry and Decision Making in Hiring and Succession Planning

Omar Farooq, CEO, AceProHR

13. Do not let your Employee to search Job using Company Resources: Gamify Employee’s

Performance

Reshmi Manna, Assistant Professor, IBS Gurgaon

14. Global Mobilty

Neetu Sonthalia, Project Specialist – Rewards and Talent, Averda Pvt Ltd.

15. A Leadership Crucible – Managing Below-Expectations Performance

Rishi Raj Gupta, HR Leader, Cipla Ltd.

16. Coaching – The Catalyst for Leadership Transformation

Makarand Khatavkar, Group Head – HR, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

17. Why empower employees?

Vijay Kumar Shotriya, Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

18. Interview

Avadhesh Dixit, Head Global HR- Moody's Copal Amba

19. Interview

Rajan Kalia, Co – Founder, Salto Dee Fe

20. Age of Millennials and iGeneration- Changing Paradigms of HR

Juhi Jain, Student, Department of Commerce, University of Delhi

21. Cultural Impact on Negotiation

K Naga Deepika, Student, IIM – Indore

JIGYASA 2016 8

Santa was working with a soc-

cer team. Team owner and

Coach used to select the play-

ers. There were defined num-

bers of positions in the team.

Each position required a spe-

cific skill set for team to suc-

ceed. Once team was selected,

team used to sit together and

plan the strategy for the year.

The participation in the overall

strategy planning was critical.

This made each and every one

responsible and accountable.

They believed that Shared

vision brings commitment

and responsibility. Although

Santa was a mere attendant,

it was made sure that Santa

shares the common vision of

the team and is equally com-

mitted.

The culture was very open.

Everyone had clearly defined

roles and everyone in the team

was clear about each other’s

role. Processes were clearly

defined. If someone gets hurt

on the field, alternate was al-

ways ready. Team used to

work hard and practice

enough to ensure perfect co-

ordination for the moment of

truth “Show Time”. Apart from

openness, there was a brutal

performance orientation. If a

person is not performing due

to whatever reason, perfor-

mance feedback was given

and person used to step aside

for the sake of the team. Santa

was very happy with the pro-

fessional environment.

One fine day Santa got an ex-

cellent opportunity to work for

his childhood passion. Without

thinking too much, Santa left

his soccer team job for the sil-

ver screen. Santa always ap-

preciated the magnificent sets

and aura of movies. He had

read about the big budgets of

the movies and had a desire to

make big money. However

since it was his first move in

the movies, Santa compro-

mised on the salary and joined

his dream.

On the very first day, Santa

was shocked to see the shoot-

ing location for the movie. Lo-

cation was a shattered work-

shop outside the city covered

with dust and cobwebs. Hy-

giene standards were pathetic.

In middle of the chaos, there

was an elaborate set surround-

ed by cameras. Santa took

some time to come to terms

with the place itself. Then San-

ta realized that there were ex-

cellent caravans available for

stay but Santa was not eligible

for those caravans. Caravans

were reserved for Lead actors

and Director. Coming from flat

structure, this hierarchy fur-

ther added to the grief of San-

ta. Intangibles hurt more than

tangibles.

Another aspect which hurt

Santa badly was the “Time”. In

Soccer team, every one used

to practice hard for the fixed

time. Once in a while, Santa

was made to put long hours.

In movie shooting, the day

used to start late but there

was no end to it. Many a

times, Santa used to sit idle

and wait for instructions. San-

ta approached Director. Direc-

tor told him that Santa is not

HARJEET SINGH

KHANDUJA

Harjeet is a HR leader, writer, speaker and a na-tional poet. He is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and IN-SEAD. He is cur-rently working as Vice President HR at Reliance Jio In-focomm. Harjeet is a Linked Power Profile. He is awarded for his “Outstanding con-tribution to Global Learning” by World HRD Congress and received HR Lead-ership Award by Asia HRD Con-gress

Harjeet is a SAP HCM Solution con-sultant, Six Sigma Green Belt, White Belt in Executive Coaching, Asses-sor for Predictive Index, visiting fac-ulty at NMIMS and Corporate Advisory Board Member for Chandigarh Univer-sity. This Chicken Soup writer is pub-lished in several leading HR Maga-zines.

RETAKE EFFECT—

TEAM MANAGEMENT

JIGYASA 2016 9

paid to sit idle. Santa should be

rehearsing all the time. Santa

tried rehearsing the script given

to him but Santa was not clear

of the context. What kind of

emotions Santa was expected to

deliver. Reason was that Santa

got his portion of the script not

the full script of the movie.

Santa tried to get the full script

of the movie legitimately. Santa

was made aware that script is

secret and cannot be shared.

Santa was used to phenomenon

of “Shared vision” and was not

able to appreciate secrecy. More

so, secrecy was affecting his

performance. Any time director

would call and ask him to per-

form. Santa was not able to per-

form to the satisfaction of Di-

rector due to lack of context.

Also there were no performance

standards. It was all in the head

of the Director. This used to

bring lot of public mocking for

Santa.

Santa consulted his friend Ban-

ta. Santa cursed the culture of

the movie production for hours.

Banta advised Santa not to jump

at conclusions. Banta explained

that culture is an offshoot of

the work which is being per-

formed. Soccer team culture is

open because Soccer team per-

forms in front of live audience.

All the players have to own re-

sponsibility of winning or los-

ing. In movie perfection is to be

achieved and the responsibility

of success and failure rests with

the director. Soccer team gets

multiple chances. If they lose

one game, they have a chance

of winning the next game.

Whereas movie once released

does not get another opportuni-

t y t o r e c o v e r .

Soccer team believes in perfor-

mance orientation because play-

ers have to take decisions on

the field at a split of a second,

which cannot be changed. Mov-

ie director gets a chance to

edit the bad performances.

Retakes bring in flexibility to

see what works, and suits the

best for the movie. External

environment in movies is ex-

tremely competitive and poses

extreme threat. If someone

steals the idea or script, entire

investment can go waste.

Hence secrecy pitches in and

openness in culture goes

away. In the soccer world,

alignment with the team is

competitive advantage. When

it comes to movie, alignment

with the director brings com-

p e t i t i v e a d v a n t a g e .

Santa understood that both

the cultures are unique in their

own way. Cultures are created

to serve a purpose. Organiza-

tions running continuous op-

erations work as a soccer team

to be successful, working on a

philosophy of making every-

one in the system accountable

and responsible. On the other

side, Project organizations be-

have as a movie production

house and aspire to deliver an

excellent product.

Banta further refined and said

that Purpose of organization

does have an impact on cul-

ture but the fundamental dif-

ference in culture comes from

the flexibility to correct mis-

takes in the project duration.

One can picture perfect the

project before taking it to the

customers. This flexibility is

known as “Retake effect” and

is responsible for culture dif-

ference in continuous opera-

tions and projects. After un-

derstanding the difference,

Santa found it easy to adapt to

the environment and since

then, has been doing well in

the movies.

JIGYASA 2016 10

When your company has been

in operation for more than

100 years, it is not unusual to

find processes that have not

been updated for a while. A

subset of my team did a re-

view of and discovered our

onboarding system was one of

such process.

The review soon led to a full-

blown project that involved

revamping and updating the

onboarding process to align

with the company’s current

strategy, present employee

base and modern technology.

We had discussions with our

internal technology team to

see if we could create a user-

friendly system for our new

hires.

I share this story to highlight

how technology has changed

and continues to change the

way we do Human Resources.

From hiring to onboarding,

from enabling virtual work to

providing numerous opportu-

nities for better collaboration

with colleagues globally, tech-

nology is definitely a major

determinant of successful HR

departments.

Two examples: mobility and

recognition

Mobile technology is especially

interesting to me, mostly be-

cause one of our goals in HR is

making the Xerox Technology

Business an attractive place

for millennials. It is no longer

news that millennials are tak-

ing over the workplace or that

they are addicted to their mo-

bile phones and tablets. As an

employer of top talent, it is

important that I am reaching

potential great employees

across every platform they can

be found.

It is also critical that our brand

is easy to engage with for this

subset of the global working

population, without alienating

other generations. A good ex-

ample was when our learning

program was made available

on a mobile platform, we saw

an increase of approximately

40 percent in in engagement

across the entire organization.

Another major area where HR

technology has enabled our

business success is in the area

of global growth.

As multinational firms like

mine expand their presence

and footprints globally, it is

easy for the original culture,

business values and strategy

to get “lost in translation” as

they cross borders.

For example, a company head-

quartered in the United States

might recognize its U.S. em-

ployees through a simple re-

ward system that allows them

build points that can be

cashed out at a certain level

for gift cards, cash and more.

How can this company ensure

that:

Its system of reward is

not perceived wrongly in

BALA V SATHYANA-RAYANAN

Bala V Sathyana-rayanan is cur-rently working as an Executive VP of Business Transformation & CHRO, Xerox Technology and has a work expe-rience of more than 25 years in the field of HR working with the various organiza-tions viz. Hewelett-Packard, Avavya Inc., Polaris Soft-ware, Coca Cola Inc. A recipient of prestigious Out-standing 50 Asian American in Business Award, organized by the Asian American Busi-ness Develop-ment Centre.

HUMAN RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY

THAT CONNECTS NEW EMPLOYEES

JIGYASA 2016 11

a country with a different

culture of compensation?

The differences in curren-

cy value does not lead to

unfairness in the recogni-

tion system?

With recent HR Technology,

these questions have been easi-

ly and efficiently answered with

little or no added cost. Numer-

ous organizations offer compa-

nies like mine simple technolo-

gy solutions that ensure fair

and consistent reward and

recognition across borders

As businesses try to under-

stand, comprehend and deliver

growth outcomes in today’s

global, digital, mobile, context

centric environment, HR must

step up and evolve.

Firms need to think “outside the

box” and consider a broader

tool kit with mobile, social and

analytical functionality that at-

tracts, engages and grows indi-

vidual talent if they are keen to

succeed.

That is what we are doing at

Xerox.

JIGYASA 2016 12

Anita, a post graduate from a

premier Business School is do-

ing extremely well in her pro-

fessional career. After spend-

ing 4 years in the organiza-

tion, she is on Family Way.

There has always been a sense

of insecurity in her mind

whether she would be able to

pursue her career after she

comes back from her materni-

ty break.

One reason is whether her

organization would have the

confidence to assign the

same role to her after she

comes back (Job Insecurity)

and the second is if she

would be able to manage her

family (Family Responsibili-

ties).

This is Not only the case for

Anita but for many aspiring

women in this world. Manag-

ing Career and Family is a big

challenge in women’s life.

The perception still prevails

that men have the decision

making power. Discrimination

of gender exists where women

are not given equal status. Of

the 195 independent countries

in the world, only 17 are led

by women. Women hold just

20 percent of seats in parlia-

ment globally. In India, 11 per-

cent of seats in Parliament are

held by women.

The percentage of women in

leadership roles are even low-

er in the corporate world. 4

percent of the Fortune 500

CEOs are women. In the US,

women hold about 14 percent

of executive officer positions

and 17 percent of board seats.

The gap is even worse for

women of color, who hold just

4 percent of top corporate

jobs, 3 percent of board seats

and 5 percent of congression-

al seats. Throughout Europe,

women hold 14 percent of

board seats.

In India, women hold about 5

percent of directorships

among 100 companies listed

on the Bombay Stock Ex-

change. 11 percent of the top

240 Indian companies had fe-

male CEOs.

There has been always differ-

entiation in compensation

paid to men compared to

women. In India, women earn

about 72 percent of men’s an-

nual pay. I

n 1970, American women

were paid 59 cents for every

dollar their male counterpart

made.

By 2010, women protested

and went all the way to raise

that compensation to 77 cents

for every dollar men made.

There are few countries where

women are denied from their

basic rights. It has been re-

ported that worldwide about

4.4 million women and girls

are trapped in the sex trade.

In places like Afghanistan and

Sudan girls receive little or no

education, wives are treated as

property of their husbands

KAMALIKA DEKA Kamalika Deka is work-ing with Titan Company Limited as Manager –HR based out of New Delhi. She is currently manag-ing HR Business Part-ner role for Watches & Accessories and Eye-wear divisions for North India. She has 9+ years of work experience in managing Human Re-source Function. She is part of Tata Group’s Affirmative Action Pro-gram as an Assessor and has assessed com-panies like Tata Power Delhi Distribution, Tata Steel Processing and Distribution Ltd & Tata Capital. She is also part of Ethics Committee of Titan as an Ethics Coun-sellor and member of North ICC committee for POSH. She is a member of CII’s Regional Com-mittee for Affirmative Action – North. She was awarded “Child Scien-tist” award at National Children’s Science Con-gress, 1995 and also many awards at various State-Level ( Assam), North- East level and National level debating competitions during 2003 -2004. She is a Chartered President of Interact Club of Don Bosco Don of doomdooma and life member of NHRD Net-work.

BRIDGING THE GAP OF GENDER DI-

VERSITY IN THE ORGANIZATION—

ROLE OF HR

JIGYASA 2016 13

and women who are raped

are cast out of their homes

for bringing dishonour to

their families. Some rape

victims are even sent to jail

for committing a “moral

crime”.

Coming to the workplace, at

a time there are only 31 per-

cent of organizations who

have taken action to improve

gender diversity on their

board (CIPD 2015).

In this case, it is a big chal-

lenge for HR to imbibe this

culture in the organization

through senior manage-

ment/leaders. For any

change in an organization, it

is necessary that the change

is driven from the top and

they take the whole organi-

sation with them in the

change journey. They need

to embrace the change and

constantly lead the change.

This in turn becomes the cul-

ture of the organization

where every employee from

top to bottom truly embraces

diversity. It was also found

through surveys (Executive

Online) that 33 percent of

senior officers doubt the val-

ue of boardroom gender di-

versity.

A 2012 Talking Talent Study

of 2,500 women profession-

als from the UK pound that

71percent highlighted rigid

career options and 79 per-

cent inflexible working prac-

tices as the main hinders to

career development. In such

scenarios, HR has to play an

important role in diversity

and inclusion in the organi-

zation, through innovative

policies & practices.

The word inclusion is very

important as without inclu-

sion, diversity is simply not

sustainable. Diversity and in-

clusion cannot be a long term

goal through a quota system

alone at workplace.

It is indeed important to en-

courage women to take up

higher responsibilities and at

the same time create the inclu-

sive atmosphere where women

can thrive. Employer of equal

opportunity will have a strong

say on this. It has come out in

one of these studies in 2014

that companies which have

performed financially well,

have a good proportion of

women in leadership roles.

For example, Microsoft has a

Diversity and Inclusion Council

formed by them senior lead-

ers, who are in-charge of im-

plementing programs to adapt

better diversity and inclusion.

The council drives initiatives

like mentoring them women

employees in their career de-

velopment, interactions with

senior leaders, etc.

It is very important for an or-

ganization to identify talents

within the ecosystem. This will

add more value to the organi-

zation rather than differentia-

tion at workplace.

Creating Talent Pipeline in an

organization for future and

training them through rigor-

ous talent development pro-

cess will create a sense of ex-

citement among employees

irrespective of gender differen-

tiation. This will give equal op-

portunity for all to climb up

the ladder for his/her career

development.

“ HR has to play

an important

role in diversity

and inclusion in

the organiza-

tion, through

innovative poli-

cies & practic-

es.“

JIGYASA 2016 14

Having said this, around 43

percent of women with chil-

dren leave jobs because of

their family needs. So how

do we encourage these wom-

en to come back work?

This is where HR needs to

innovate strategies. Compa-

nies like Tata, Accenture,

Birla, etc. have wonderful

programs like Second Career

Program for women who

take breaks in their career.

There is a feeling of insecuri-

ty among working women,

whether their employer will

offer the same role to her

when she returns from her

parental leave. So it is very

important that an organiza-

tion has a “Work Return Poli-

cy”. This helps in setting

clear expectations and com-

munication from both sides.

In the recently announced

new maternity benefit bill in

Parliament of India, the min-

istry has taken up to pro-

mote the concept of work

from home in order to in-

crease women participation

in the workforce. The culture

of 'Flexi' is working hours

attracts employees as it is a

step towards maintaining

their work-life balance. The

term 'Flexi working hours'

does not cater to only work

from home options, but also

many other innovative op-

tions which many companies

have adapted for improving

work life balance.

An organization also needs

to have consistent programs

in place focused for women

employees, which would con-

tribute to overall holistic de-

velopment.

These would increase the

confidence level and encour-

age taking up more responsi-

bilities. Companies need to

then also make the policies

around inclusion and making

the work place safer for wom-

en. It should be mandatory for

every organization to have a

policy on prevention of harass-

ment and anti- discrimination.

To bridge the gap of Gender

Diversity in an organization,

HR needs to take a very broad

view - starting from head

count to building up capabili-

ties. There is a marked drop in

percentage of women com-

pared to men as it goes up

from entry level to senior level

across organization drops.

Hence there is less number of

women represented in the

leadership role. Therefore, if

an organization really cares

for the cause of diversity, the

organizations need to put pro-

grammed in place to build up

their capabilities of their fe-

male employees. There

should be mentoring pro-

grams and provide for cross

functional exposures along

with many other talent de-

velopment activities, which

will make the female em-

ployees like Anita to look

forward to come back to

work after her parental leave

and give her the confidence

to take up higher responsi-

bilities and become a future

leader.

“It is very im-

portant that

an organiza-

tion has a

“Work Return

Policy”. This

helps in setting

clear expecta-

tions and com-

munication

from both

sides.

In the recently

announced

new maternity

benefit bill in

Parliament of

India, the min-

istry has taken

up to promote

the concept of

work from

home in order

to increase

women partici-

pation in the

workforce.”

JIGYASA 2016 15

On a warm summer day, a

little boy walked with his fa-

ther. Delighted to see a wa-

ter puddle on the road

ahead, he raced, only to find

it vanish. “Mirage, an optical

wonder”, smiled the father.

Successes and failures are a

whole lot like mirages.

We visualize success, imagine

what it looks like. Sometimes

we attain it but don’t realize

we have done so.

Sometimes we attain it, but

quickly move on to attain the

next one.

And sometimes, we are run-

ning towards it when sudden-

ly, failure extends a leg,

makes us trip and fall flat on

the ground. And the Tom and

Jerry chase between success

and failure goes on.

Let’s demystify this mirage.

Let’s prepare a fool proof plan

to fail. Forgets CSFs (Critical

Success Factors), let us talk

Critical Failure Factors or CFFs.

Don’t forget that robust Fail-

ure roadmap and a Failure ac-

tion plan. So what would a

great failure project plan look

like?

1. Resources: What if I cut

my project resources by

30%, 50%, 75%. What will

need to be dropped? How

would I do the work?

What alternatives do I

have?

2. Time: No deadlines

please. What is the long-

est I can delay the result?

3. Cost: WooHoo. I am on a

shopping spree. What

would I need to do to

overspend the budget?

Let me think of all the

wasteful and unnecessary

expenses

4. Speed: Snail is my hero.

How much can I drag

each task? I delay one

task and I can easily see

how the interdependent

milestones will slow

down as well.

Now we place the Mirror of Re-

ality before our Failure plan.

Yes, you got it—you are star-

ing at your best laid out suc-

cess plan.

You just thought of everything

that could have come in your

way-while you were focused on

the outcome of success.

You find this surprisingly re-

laxing, much more than when

you are defining success

where the fear of failure could

make you anxious.

VINEET GAMBHIR

Vineet Gam-bhir is the VP & Head of Tal-ent for Yahoo in APAC based in Sin-gapore. Vineet is a seasoned HR executive with over 20 years of internation-al experience in human re-sources, HR information systems and global opera-tions. Having worked in di-verse markets including the US, China, In-dia and Singa-pore, Vineet has led, built and managed HR as a stra-tegic partner for the busi-ness.

SUCCESS

JIGYASA 2016 16

You see, when we are sitting

in a room with the lights on,

we do not often plan for

darkness—when the room

plunges into darkness, we

fumble for a matchstick, a

source of light, navigational

guidance.

This is the paradox of suc-

cess. To chase light, we must

plan for darkness.

To chase wisdom, we must

plan for ignorance. To chase

fearlessness, we must plan

for fear. And similarly, to

chase success, we must plan

for failure.

By doing so, we inch even

closer to success.

“Come, let’s race to the mi-

rage ahead.” The father

dashed. Splash! His trousers

got wet. The mirage was not

a mirage after all. “Mirage of

a mirage, Dad?” “ I guess

so, I guess so” …….

“We visualize

success, imag-

ine what it

looks like.

Sometimes we

attain it but

don’t realize

we have done

so.

Sometimes we

attain it, but

quickly move

on to attain

the next one.”

JIGYASA 2016 17

“I do not teach anyone I only

provide the environment in

which they can learn”― Albert

Einstein

Meanwhile somewhere in the

Training world....

Scenario 1. You are a Manager

in the Human Resources De-

partment of a company look-

ing to get your employees

trained and hence approach

one from the plethora of

Trainers and Training compa-

nies across the country spe-

cialising in 'Team Building', or

'Communication Skills' or

'Leadership and Motivation'.

The training is loved by the

team, the Trainer posts the

pictures of happy faces all

over Facebook, LinkedIn, Twit-

ter and Instagram. After 3

days or 5 or a week, your em-

ployees are back to what they

were - all issues that were ap-

parently 'cured', fully intact as

if the training had been a

dream.

Scenario 2. You, at one point

in your life, decide that you

want to be a Trainer and/or a

coach (advice is the most

freely disbursed item in the

history of mankind - leaving

the second entity - 'smiles' -

way behind). You figure out

after deep introspection that

THIS is your life's purpose and

look around to arm yourself

with the tools of the trade.

There are innumerable certifi-

cations that claim to make you

a Trainer/Coach viz Master

Trainer, TTT, TA, NLP, Image

Consultancy, ICF, Maxwell

Goldsmith, Dale Carnegie -

you need a glass of water or

something stronger, just to

sort that kind of information!

So you select one or more such

certifications and jump in

waist deep into the madness

and as you read this article,

you will realise that no one

tells you the 'whys and hows' -

just the whats!

Scenario 3. You are a success-

ful Trainer and have been

training people from all indus-

tries in 'soft skills' and are now

looking to raise your value to

the next level. And again you

are conflicted as to what you

should do and how do you re-

invent yourself to become the

best from just 'good'.

The answer to all the three

scenarios lies in understand-

ing how the human brain

learns new things. And how

you can change existing pat-

terns and therefore help your

trainees attain the third and

fourth levels of Kirkpatricks

Levels of Evaluation (just to

jog your memory those are

Reaction, Retention, Results

and Impact).

We thus come to the question

that will address all these is-

sues and empower you to be-

come the 'Meta Trainer' - a

Trainer of a higher grade than

all Trainers because you will

know how learners learn, and

therefore can be 'in charge' of

the process of learning.

BEFRIEND THE BRAIN

SUDIP MUKHERJEE

A Trainer, Coach and a behaviour-al specialist and Consultant for Organisations seeking to raise the level of their excellence. For schools and col-leges and educa-tional institu-tions to be better educators and proactive social transform-ers. An NLP Master Practi-tioner and NLP Trainer and Reiki Master, currently working on a Ph D in Psychology and an experi-enced Coach helping get rid of self sabotaging thought pat-terns. Experience in active army op-erations, logis-tics and training for more than 21 (including a ten-ure with the Unit-ed Nations) and corporate experi-ence of being a Vice President of an airline.

JIGYASA 2016 18

What is Learning?

At the core, learning is

change. Learning changes

the physical structure of the

brain and results in its or-

ganization and reorganiza-

tion. Learning is always hap-

pening—consciously and un-

consciously. We learn a new

word, a new song, a new app

on the phone, a new route, a

new joke...Yet, when develop-

ing training for business en-

vironments, we spend most

of our time focused on the

content we want people to

know rather than how they

will learn. As a result, we fail

to engage them at the neural

pathway level, and therefore

fail to help them transfer

their knowledge into action.

Certainly, good instructional

design can go a long way to-

ward getting it right. Even at

its best, however, it misses

out on some powerful new

insights into the workings of

the brain—insights that can

help us create learning expe-

riences that are both more

effective and more efficient.

And, more often than not,

learning professionals strug-

gle to stand up to the pres-

sure to get quantities of in-

formation to learners quick-

ly.

Training buyers often feel

they get more for their mon-

ey if they can include more

content in a training session.

Neuroscience offers a way to

think about the design of

learning activities and pro-

grams. A biological approach

cuts through the clutter of

potentially conflicting learn-

ing theories. By moving be-

yond theory to empirically-

based statements, 'proven'

takes on a new meaning.

The aim of learning is NOT

retention - it is perfor-

mance! Your first reaction

after reading the sentence will

perhaps be 'what nonsense -

learning is for knowledge' or

something similar. However,

as you process this infor-

mation, you realise that you

only learn things that you will

utilise in the future (and thus

your performance). How many

of you have set the clock on

your microwave? My guess,

very few! Because you don't

need to use that clock. As op-

posed to, within no time, you

learn all the features that you

use on your new mobile phone

while there would be some fea-

tures, you don't even know ex-

ists till someone draws your

attention to it.

What changes in our brains

when we learn?

Fortunately, there have been

some fascinating insights

surfacing from the fields of

cognitive neuroscience and

educational psychology. In-

sights allowing a deeper un-

derstanding of how the brain

works, as well as how we can

develop educational practices

that take advantage of these

understandings. Neuroplastic-

ity is perhaps the single most

important concept in terms of

learning and the brain. The

knowledge that our brain is

constantly changing and grow-

ing—that cortical plasticity ex-

tends throughout the human

lifespan—shifts our under-

standing of what is possible

for adult learners. Learning is

not just changing external be-

havior, but changing the very

wiring of the brain as it relates

to those behaviors. Deep, last-

ing change is possible at all

ages.

For optimal learning to occur,

the brain needs conditions un-

der which it is able to change

in response to stimuli

(neuroplasticity) and able to

produce new neurons

(neurogenesis).

“fascinating

insights sur-

facing from

the fields of

cognitive neu-

roscience and

educational

psychology.

Insights allow-

ing a deeper

understanding

of how the

brain works,

as well as how

we can develop

educational

practices that

take ad-

vantage of

these under-

standings. “

JIGYASA 2016 19

The most effective learning

involves recruiting multiple

regions of the brain for the

learning task. These regions

are associated with such

functions as memory, the

various senses, volitional

control, and higher levels of

cognitive functioning. These

common-sense healthy hab-

its promote optimal learning

performance in two ways.

First, they promote neuro-

plasticity and neurogenesis.

Second, they keep cortisol

and dopamine at appropri-

ate levels.

The advancement in neuro-

science has also flipped the

tenets of Bloom’s taxonomy.

The human brain doesn't

work in the sequence of re-

member - understand - apply

-analyse - evaluate - create.

You can start off at create

and go on to remember. In

fact, learning in that case is

the function of the learner

and therefore more effective.

Learning begins with con-

necting with what we already

know. There is a neuronal

network in the brain for eve-

rything we know. Every fact

we know, every idea we un-

derstand, and every action

we take assumes the form of

a network of neurons in our

brain. (Remember Known to

Unknown, Simple to Com-

plex and Concrete to Ab-

stract that you were taught

in B Ed or in the TTT you at-

tended?)

Brain structure dictates that

learning design should begin

with what the learner knows.

The challenge is that one

person’s network does not

resemble another person’s

network and that these net-

works are both complicated

and tangled. Using the learn-

er’s networks as the starting

point requires a significant

shift from the view of learn-

ing as imparting knowledge.

Neuroscientists have shown

that dopamine levels increase

as we anticipate a reward.

They rise even more if an ele-

ment of blind chance deter-

mines whether we actually get

the reward. Dopamine uptake

in this specific context can

lead to heightened emotional

responses and increased en-

gagement. Moreover, tickling

the brain’s reward circuitry in

this way can enhance the for-

mation of new memories.

When we learn something,

what we’re doing is exercising

our brain in a specific way.

Just as in physical exercise, it

stimulates our body to

strengthen and grow the part

of the body being exercised.

In physical exercise, we’re not

making new muscle cells,

we’re making existing ones

stronger. Similarly with learn-

ing we’re not able to make

new brain cells although we

are able to create new connec-

tions between existing cells.

By re-visiting the information

and observing it in different

ways, we’re strengthening this

connection, a process that

helps us to further understand

the information and recall it

more readily.

So what would make you a

Meta Trainer?

Start with the brain. Under-

stand how the brain processes

information. It doesn't matter

what you want learners to do,

it matters what the brain does.

Just because you or they want

to do it, doesn't mean that the

brain will let them. You will

know what I mean if you have

used the Stroop Effect.

The brain is active. Don't pre-

sent to learners and expect

them to absorb. The brain has

limited computational power

(Remember Neuro linguistic

programming (NLP) and

“When we

learn some-

thing, what

we’re doing is

exercising our

brain in a spe-

cific way. Just

as in physical

exercise, it

stimulates our

body to

strengthen

and grow the

part of the

body being ex-

ercised.”

JIGYASA 2016 20

George A Miller's 7+2 Theo-

ry?). The brain can not pro-

cess all the information com-

ing in, no matter how intelli-

gent or focused you are. You

are going to take on a frac-

tion of the information.

There is an instant mismatch

between the information the

brain can take in and what it

can process. It's your job to

give the information that is

reasonable in terms of their

brain processing, interaction

and so on.

The problems are not with

the eye when you show infor-

mation, it's how the brain

will process it, represent it

and remember it. It's not up

to the learners to learn. It's

up to us to give the infor-

mation in a brain friendly

way for them to focus on the

learning. The learning exam-

ples you give are critical. The

brain uses this in many cir-

cumstances. The same ex-

ample, what context do you

present them in, in what syn-

tax? In different orders peo-

ple learn things differently.

More extreme on the contin-

uum is for learners to experi-

ence errors. The power of

error in the brain is that we

remember the errors and it

changes our behaviour. It's

wonderful when we make

mistakes! We learn so much.

Set them up to make mis-

takes. The brain is a dynam-

ic, plastic, experience- de-

pendent, social and affective

organ and is not just en-

gaged in, but driving, its

own learning. By extension,

the more the brain is proac-

tively involved in its learning,

the more effective it be-

comes. This is why the self-

generation of ideas, strate-

gies and actions is so critical

in adult learning. With the

focus on relevance and im-

mediacy, adults learn best by

taking a problem-centered,

rather than a subject-centered,

approach. This includes defin-

ing and analysing the prob-

lem, challenging the learners’

thinking, determining ap-

proaches to its resolution and

encouraging team debate. The

key is that ownership of the

process, as well as its out-

comes, is with the learner.

The Bersin & Associates Learn-

ing Leaders® 2010 report

states that majority of learning

actually occurs outside the

classroom/training room/

lecture theatre has come to

the fore at a time when re-

sources are tight and the value

of social interaction, coaching

and mentoring have become

prevalent - it’s like the perfect

storm. Consistent with this

trend, many organisations rec-

ognize the simple 70-20-10

rule: 70% of learning occurs

informally and on the job; 20%

of learning occurs through ob-

servation of others; 10% of

learning occurs through for-

mal training. This also high-

lights the collaborative nature

of learning; potentially 90% of

all learning occurs through in-

teraction at some level with

others, which makes learning

possible by tapping into the

varied approaches and think-

ing styles of others in a group.

Road Ahead

The brain loves

to learn - funda-

mentally, that is

its job. From the

earliest conver-

sion of the basic

sensory input an

infant sees ,

hears and feels,

to the ongoing

adaptations and

growth we expe-

rience through-

out adult life, our

b r a i n s a r e

changing, re-

structuring and

learning. When

you go to sleep

tonight, it is with

a brain that has

changed as a re-

sult of today’s

learnings and

when you wake

up tomorrow,

with new consoli-

dated memories,

more learning

awaits you.

N e u r o s c i e n c e

casts light on is

how the brain

acquires, stores

and uses infor-

mation, and what

intrinsic and ex-

trinsic factors

can limit us from

optimising this

process. By un-

d e r s t a n d i n g

more about how

humans learn,

educators and

organisat ional

Learning and De-

velopment pro-

fessionals can

tap the learning

capacities of the

brain that will

drive the learn-

ing results to-

ward which they

strive.

Be a Meta Train-

er - facilitate

change.

JIGYASA 2016 21

Times flies! There was an era

of Manpower Planning; differ-

ent techniques were used to

do so accurately to the extent

possible.

Now, we speak of Workforce

planning which is more ex-

haustive than Manpower Plan-

ning or to put it simply, Work-

force Planning includes Man-

power Planning. Sales Fore-

casting for the Annual Busi-

ness Plan (ABP), later became

Rolling Sales Plan, however,

this was a controversial one...

Since it was more about a

build up on last year, one may

have discounted sandbagging

or dumping, however, the

market was/is not always pre-

dictable! Now, it is the era of

Predictive Analytics- from hard

data like attrition, retention,

consumer demographic pat-

ters to soft data, such as con-

sumer behavior, career growth

path of a hi-PO (High Potential)

employee in the organization,

an employee’s probable tenure

in the organization-- - attempt

is being made to “Predict It

All”.

You would all agree that the

management is as much a Sci-

ence as much as it is an Art-

then, can we predict every-

thing about every human re-

source- thoughts, actions, be-

havior? What are we trying to

do & why? In HR, data entry &

computing has moved on to

become HR Analytics. We have

moved from local made HRIS

(Human Resource Information

Systems) to PeopleSoft, then

SAP, to BIG Data- Work Day

which is a Cloud based Data

system. I have tried to cover

fundamental aspects of HR An-

alytics in my maiden book

“Reality Bytes-The Role of HR

in Today’s World”* as a sepa-

rate chapter. (Chapter 7)

Predictive analytics is the

branch of the advanced analyt-

ics, which is used to make pre-

dictions about an unknown

future events. It uses many

techniques from data mining,

statistics, modelling, machine

learning, and artificial intelli-

gence to analyze current data

to make predictions about the

future. Often, the unknown

event of interest is in the fu-

ture, but it can be applied to

any type of unknown whether

it was in the past, present or

future. It is widely used to

solve real-world problems in

business, government, eco-

nomics and even science—

from meteorology to genetics.

Experts use predictive analysis

in healthcare primarily to de-

termine which patients are at

risk of developing certain con-

ditions like diabetes etc.

As super computers get more

and more super, you'd think

that eventually we'd be able to

calculate the position and in-

teractions of every atom in the

universe and be able to accu-

rately predict the future. Sci-

ence, government and private

enterprises are asking if they

can predict future events by

creatively crunching massive

amounts of data made availa-

ble by you!

APARNA SHARMA

Aparna is an independent Director on the Board of T. S Alloys Ltd. (100 percent subsid-iary of Tata Steel) and au-thor of ”Reality Bytes – The Role of HR in Today’s World ”. The Book is available on www.amazon.in or Flipkart. It is also on Kin-dle.

CAN EVERYTHING

BE

PREDICTED?

JIGYASA 2016 22

There is a frenzy around

this; we are trying to play

demi-gods by trying to pre-

dict everything including “the

art of managing people”-

Please note that it is an art!!!

Predicting turnover is the

most common area where

predictive analytics are being

used by Human Resource

professionals in organiza-

tions. Others include as-

sessing the quality of hires,

and forecasting the benefits

and return on investment of

training programs. However,

today, many companies are

still grappling with the ques-

tion of how predictive analyt-

ics can improve talent man-

agement issues.

Despite a slow start, we see

that the HR function/

professionals are starting to

embrace data. In 2013,

Deloitte reported that 57

percent of HR departments

increased their investment in

measurement and analytics.

Challenges:

Firstly, data has to be com-

piled from disparate systems

that don’t always talk to each

other and often don’t agree

when they do. Pertinent data

reside in systems tracking,

payroll, time and attendance,

applications and educational

programs, among other

things. Today, tools to inte-

grate that data are few and

far between. One does find a

few vendors offering solu-

tions in this regard.

Next, resources have to be

found to develop the tech-

nical tools required to man-

age and analyse talent and

recruitment data. That pre-

sents a challenge to many

HR departments, which are

rarely given the same priority

as sales, marketing or opera-

tions when it comes to secur-

ing IT resources since many

have outsourced this, perhaps,

the most fundamental changes

involve HR itself. While the

idea of HR becoming a strate-

gic partner to the wider organ-

ization isn’t new, the idea of

using analytics to accomplish

that the goal is. This poses

challenges both in terms of

skills and addressing issues

surrounding privacy and com-

pliance. Talent data are very

different from, say, manufac-

turing data, and companies

need to be careful in how they

present even summary infor-

mation. Talent management,

is typically viewed as a “soft

science,” but the increasing

application of data changes

that. I would say one can teach

an HR person, analytics, but

you can’t teach an analytics

person, HR. HR is unique when

it comes to data. There are

certain nuances in its struc-

tures and hierarchies. It would

be like telling a software guy

to go figure out the hardware

specs.

In summary, the good news is

that we have moved beyond

mundane data entry; report

generation to exploring more

advanced permutations &

combinations of basic data to

forecast trends, future events

in most fields that science can

explain behavior, thoughts ,

soft acts continue to be unpre-

dictable since rationale or log-

ic does not govern human be-

havior.

It is managed and motivated

by numerous factors not

found in textbooks or various

theories of management!

JIGYASA 2016 23

It’s that time of the year when

we all pen down our efforts for

the year – self-evaluation fol-

lowed up with feedback from

our peers, managers, associ-

ates, clients, vendors, etc. It is

an important part of how we

work and it definitely helps us

scale.

At LinkedIn we are encouraged

to give open, honest and con-

structive feedback and not

wait for a particular time to

give it. We give and receive

feedback on a regular basis

and this, according to me, is

one of our core strengths.

However, often times receiving

feedback could be quite taxing

on us and most of us get into

the syndrome of thinking

‘why’ the person gave this

feedback rather than ‘what’

was told to us. We fall victim

to either of the 3 syndromes.

1. Truth triggers – argue

on what actually happened

because of which we are

receiving a certain type of

feedback

2. Relationship Triggers

– We look at ‘who’ gave us

the feedback and then ac-

cept / reject

3. Identity Triggers – The

classic “that’s not me” syn-

drome

I read this interesting article

around receiving feedback by

HBR. Here is how I de-code it.

.

1. Know your tendencies –

You have being receiving feed-

back all your life. Try to find if

there is a pattern in the way

you react when you receive

feedback. If you defend your-

self for example – (This is just

wrong, this is not me) or try to

counter (how could you feel

this way?!!), often time you are

not listening to the feedback.

Once you know how you react,

you might be able to get to a

place to actually decode it.

Give yourself a day to process

the information.

2. Disentangle the “what”

from the “who” – If feedback

is honest and constructive it

shouldn’t matter who gave it.

But it does. Almost always. For

example, As kids, if our par-

ents gave us feedback we al-

most never heard it the way

we would if a friend gave the

same feedback. To utilize the

feedback we are getting, its

important to make a serious

effort to separate the who

from what.

DEYA

BANDYPAD YAY

She has 8yrs experience in HR - passionate about recruit-ments (tech & non-tech), uni-versity relations, employer brand-ing, social media hiring, process improvements. Have a diverse experience in IT Services, Manu-facturing & Inter-net industry. Currently work-ing with the or-ganization which is working on creating an eco-nomic graph & thus opportuni-ties at massive scale. A wonder-ful dream to change the tal-ent space & cre-ate new para-digms in the field of talent hiring, branding & now training. Know more about the Eco-nomic graph be-low.

FEEDBACK...A GIFT

JIGYASA 2016 24

3 . S o r t t o w a r d s

“coaching” – Some feed-

back is evaluative, like

marks or scores (rating is

3) while some is coach-

ing, (You could improve

on). Both are equally im-

portant. The tricky part is

when in doubt, we tend

to think of extreme, and

what was probably easily

coachable feedback goes

into the bin. When you

feel judged, your identity

trigger sets off, resulting

in anxiety which closes

our mind to the actual

feedback.

4. Unpack the Feedback

– Often times you do not

know if the feedback is

useful or valid. Give your-

self time to unpack all of

the information you. We

need to keep aside our

judgment and take time

to explore the feedback,

and go back to have a

constructive discussion

on where is it coming

from, how can you im-

prove so that you could

take an rational decision

to either take the feed-

back or reject it.

5. Ask for just one thing

– At times our feedback

decision is all-positive.

While that’s a wonderful

piece of information, you

wouldn’t know what to

improve on, unless you

know what could be bet-

ter. If you see your feed-

back session going on

only one way, its suggest-

ed to ask the “just one

thing” question on how

could you improve. It al-

ways changes the view of

the person giving you

feedback – they know you

are genuinely interested in

learning. You influence

how they perceive you, so-

liciting critical feedback

communicates humility,

respect, passion for excel-

lence all at the same time.

6. Engage in small experi-

ments – Now that you

know how to solicit feed-

back, its important to know

how to put them to prac-

tice. A good way to start is

engaging in smaller experi-

ments. When I was given a

feedback on communica-

tion (I spoke quite fast and

it was difficult at times for

peers to understand), I

started making it a practice

to speak to them and ask-

ing if they noticed change

almost for 4 -5 weeks.

Criticism is never easy to take.

Even when you know that it’s

essential toyour development

and you trust that the person

delivering it wants you to suc-

ceed, it can activate psycho-

logical triggers. You might feel

misjudged, ill-used, and some-

times threatened to your very

core. Your growth depends on

your ability to pull value from

criticism in spite of your natu-

ral responses and on your will-

ingness to seek out even more

advice and coaching from

bosses, peers, and subordi-

nates.

Ultimately it for your own de-

velopment and therefore treat

feedback truly is as gift!

JIGYASA 2016 25

In a competitive world driven by

rapid social and technological

change, it makes sense that in-

novation will breed new jobs in

sectors on the cutting edge of

science and technology. Yet, that

alone doesn’t explain the shift in

the skills profile required for to-

day’s world of work.

Today organisations focus a lot

on unique hiring methods. Also,

any organisation’s goal is not

only to identify and recruit best

possible talent but also to get

them assimilated within the or-

ganization’s culture and values.

While every organization has

ways of assessing knowledge

and skills, they are increasingly

looking to find more than just

right skilled candidates.

Take a moment to think about

the following scenario. You're in

the middle of a job interview.

The hiring manager looks up

from your resume and asks,

"What are your biggest

strengths?" Do you say you're

passionate, organized and a

team player? Or do you play up

your past leadership roles and

ability to think outside the box?

It turns out that, for employers,

these traits may not be the most

important ones ! A recent study

by LinkedIn reveals that when it

comes to interviewing and hiring

early-career professionals, em-

ployers aren't just considering

their education, experience and

job skills. They are also looking

for specific soft skills and per-

sonality traits. The qualities that

employers would like stressed

fall mainly under four labels: At-

titude, Curiosity to learn, Align-

ment to values and Entrepre-

neurship.

Everything is embedded in the

learning attitude. Enter an or-

ganization with the attitude to

accept ‘I don’t know’, ‘I need

to learn’, I may even need to

learn to learn and see how

things change !

Demonstrate the curiosity to

learn and willingness to learn

from practice. It is curiosity

which takes a beginner much

higher in corporate ladder

than those who start with what

to do and how to do type

questions. How well you ex-

plore new avenues to learn dif-

ferent skill sets from your own

field as well from various busi-

ness operations makes all the

difference there is. Next, be

willing to recognize, appreci-

ate and live the values which

govern an organization. In

some ways it could mean un-

derstanding the organization

as a political entity, but from a

broader point of view, appreci-

ate what drives the organiza-

tion—and that too quickly. In

short, develop business acu-

men in totality and nurture the

zeal to take that extra step

and effort to make a differ-

ence. Challenge the status quo

and keep the entrepreneurial

spirit to actively seek out

change alive. Before its time to

walk through the famed place-

ment cell corridors, prep up

for interviews in light of these

attributes and see how analyti-

cal mindset, out of the box

thinking combined with an ur-

gency to learn more and more

becomes your ticket to take

off with the first and fastest!

End of the day whatever role,

grade or expertise you bring

to the employer, the focus will

always be to look for people

who love making a difference

wherever they can, using their

leadership and entrepreneurial

skills.

DAKSHDEEP SINGH

He is currently working with People Strong as Practice Head in Transitions and Consulting. He had done MBA – HR, School of Inspired Leader-ship | Responsi-ble for business process devel-opment and tran-sitions of com-plex processes in outsourcing setup. Also re-sponsible for HRO consulting project initia-tives for various clients. Hands-on experience in key areas of the Human Re-sources man-agement, includ-ing HR Shared Services, HR Outsourcing and implementations of ERP’s like SAP and Kenexa Brassring.

WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT FROM

NEW RECRUITS!

JIGYASA 2016 26

Introduction

The attempt to find meaning

and a larger purpose to life is

not new, and has been reflect-

ed in the works of various so-

cial scientists and psycholo-

gists through the decades in

varying forms. One such body

of work that has gained promi-

nence in the last decade is

Positive Psychology. While it is

argued by some that William

James, a renowned psycholo-

gist of the late 19th

/early 20th

century, had in fact introduced

the idea of Positive Psycholo-

gy, the term, perhaps was

popularized more recently.

Martin Seligman, introduced

this term to the American Psy-

chological Association in

1998. Martin Seligman has

been a pioneer in this field in

recent times, and has devel-

oped several tools and tech-

niques, presented in his books

– ‘Learned Optimism’, and

‘The Pursuit of Happiness’.

These will be discussed fur-

ther in this article.

Definitions and Key Person-

alities in the Field

While talking about any con-

cept or area of work, particu-

larly an emerging one, it is ap-

propriate to start with a defini-

tion (s). So, here are a few.

‘Positive Psychology is the

study of how human beings

prosper in the face of adversi-

ty (Seligman and Csikszent-

mihalyi, 2000; cited by Jef-

frey J. Froh, 2004). Its goals

are to identify and enhance

the human strengths and vir-

tues that make life worth liv-

ing, and allow individuals and

communities to thrive.’

Put very simplistically, Positive

Psychology has emerged out

of an attempt to break away

from the Psychoanalysis

school of thought, which fo-

cuses on what is wrong/has

gone wrong with a person’s

mind and behavior, and at-

tempts to fix it – the Sigmund

Freud, Carl Jung school of

thought. Of course, even Carl

Jung at some stage broke

away from Freud’s thinking

and aligned with the Human-

istic movement.

Humanistic Psychology is said

to have begun formally in the

United States and Europe in

the 1950s, with Maslow being

one of its pioneers. Human-

istic Psychology is defined as

‘primarily an orientation to-

ward the whole of psychology

rather than a distinct area or

school…concerned with topics

like love, creativity, growth,

self-actualization, peak experi-

ence, courage and related top-

ics. (Misiak & Sexton, 1966;

cited by Jeffrey J. Froh,

2004).

Positive Psychology attempts

to go a step further in this di-

rection, though the pioneers

of Positive Psychology don’t

overtly give credit to the Hu-

manistic movement, as it

were. Besides William James

and Martin Seligman, the

VIDYA

MURALIDHARAN

She has 25 years of experience in the field of HR Consulting and Practice across various compa-nies and industry sectors. She is currently working as OD and Lead-ership Develop-ment consultant with Ashok Ley-land; and had worked with TCS, Satyam, Bharti Airtel, Orchid Pharma, Murugap-pa Group, Ashok Leyland; and han-dled assignments for clients across public sector, Govt., public lim-ited and Pvt ltd. Companies. She is currently under-going an OD and Talent Manage-ment program of-fered by World HR Board, Carlton Advanced Mgt. Institute and IIM-Indore.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – A

FIELD OF UTMOST RELEVANCE

FOR THE COMING DECADE

JIGYASA 2016 27

pioneers of Positive Psychology

who have popularized and devel-

oped concepts, tools and tech-

niques – known as the ‘Founding

Fathers’ of Positive Psychology,

are:

1. Christopher Peterson – He

was the co-author of Char-

acter Strengths and Virtues

with Seligman, and is noted

for his work in the study of

optimism, hope, character

and well-being.

2. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi –

He is renowned for his work

on what he calls ‘Flow’ and

‘Optimal Experience’. He is

author of the bestselling

book ‘Flow, the Psycholo-

gy of Optimal Experience,

1990. It is interesting to

note that his work emerged

out of his critical life expe-

riences, including a term in

an Italian prison, stripped

of his family (weblink - Pos-

itive Psychology Pro-

The Founding Fathers of

Positive Psychology).

3. Abraham Maslow – The

term ‘Positive Psychology’

is said to have been first

coined by him in his book

‘Motivation and Personali-

ty’, 1954.

Martin Seligman’s work and its

usefulness

Any contemporary article on Pos-

itive Psychology would be incom-

plete without discussing the

work of Martin Seligman in some

detail. He is credited as the Fa-

ther of Positive Psychology and

its efforts to scientifically ex-

plore human potential. His

preeminence in the field perhaps

stems from the fact that he has

pioneered the movement to de-

mystify concepts in this field and

develop tools and techniques

that practitioners can apply in

their work with clients. In fact, in

his book Learned Optimism –

How to Change your Mind and

Your Life, 1990, 1998, 2006;

he has provided us with inven-

tories that individuals can use

to evaluate where they stand

and focus their energies in

overcoming mental blocks

therein. In this book, Seligman

shows how Optimism is not an

unchanging personality trait,

but a skill that can be learned.

He provides simple question-

naires to help evaluate one’s

prevailing predisposition, as

well as practice tools that help

build ‘Optimism’. In another of

his seminal works, ‘The Pur-

suit of Happiness’, 2002,

Seligman puts forth a theory

that there are three forms of

Happiness that can be pur-

sued – ‘The Pleasant Life – cul-

tivating positive emotions;

‘The Engaged Life’ – wherein

you identify your highest

strengths and talents, and

seek to use them in all walks

of life; ‘The Meaningful Life’ –

in which you use your highest

talents and strengths for a

cause larger than the self.

One notable contribution

made by Martin Seligman and

Christopher Peterson is their

work in creating a classifica-

tion and measurement system

for human strengths. They

have studied character

strengths and found these to

be a basis for ‘lasting happi-

ness’. It is also interesting to

note that, in their work, they

went deeper than cognitive

thinking and worked on char-

acter strengths. Application of

these character strengths

would help build lasting re-

sults in individuals and organi-

zational work. They identified

24 character strengths that

individuals would possess in

greater or lesser measure,

each individual having 3 – 5

top character strengths. Appli-

cation of these character

strengths would help build

lasting results in individuals

JIGYASA 2016 28

and organizational work. They

identified 24 character strengths

that individuals would possess in

greater or lesser measure, each

individual having 3 – 5 top char-

acter strengths. These character

strengths lead us to attain cer-

tain virtues that give a larger

sense of purpose and meaning

to life. Seligman and Peterson

identified six core virtues, which

are as follows:

1. Wisdom

2. Courage

3. Love and Humanity

4. Justice

5. Temperance

6. Spirituality and Transcend-

ence

Applications of Character

Strengths in working with indi-

viduals and organizations

The identification of character

strengths in individuals have in-

teresting implications for coach-

ing and development profession-

als working with individuals as

well as in recommending devel-

opment strategies for organiza-

tions. As opposed to the Compe-

tency Development approach,

which focuses more on identify-

ing and building those compe-

tencies that are lacking, the Posi-

tive Psychology approach in gen-

eral supports the idea of identi-

fying ‘signature strengths’ of in-

dividuals and building on those.

It recognizes the uniqueness of

each individual and works to

strengthen this very uniqueness

– thus working in the best inter-

ests of the individual and to the

advantage of organizations em-

ploying these individuals. Armed

with the unique strengths of

each individual, organizations

can attempt to place employees

in roles that are best suited to

their strengths, rather than plac-

ing them in roles and trying to

fill gaps in their competencies

relative to the role. In a practical

sense, this may of course not be

possible for mass jobs and all

roles. But, critical roles in or-

ganizations can be filled using

this approach. It is also possi-

ble to use the ‘Character

Strengths’ in conjunction with

the Competency framework of

the organization, using the

typical ‘fill-the gap, build-on-

competencies that are

strengths’ approach; and jux-

taposing it with the ‘Character

Strengths’, to find the role

most suitable for the individu-

al. Organizations can go a

step further by drawing up ini-

tiatives wherein individuals

can have as special action

learning projects, the task of

building on one or more top

character strengths on a daily/

weekly basis. For example, if

collaboration is a Character

Strength of an individual, he/

she can be encouraged to car-

ry out at least one action that

allows him/her an opportunity

to collaborate. A simple act

like this can provide the much

needed positive motivation at

work.

The idea of ‘Character

Strengths’ also has a further

benefit in that it goes beyond

mere skills and helps build

deep character in individuals.

This would form the much

needed glue for organizations

to become ‘Value-based’ and

become self-sustaining in the

long term, even as they carry

out tasks necessary to be ef-

fective in business in the short

and medium term.

Another pioneer in the field of

‘Positive Psychology’ who has

done extensive research on

what makes people really hap-

py is Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi-

He has found that people ex-

perience a condition called

‘Flow’ wherein their ‘psychic

energy is released effortlessly,

resulting in a strengthening of

the ‘Self’. This makes it possi-

ble for them to be totally in-

volved in the task at hand and

JIGYASA 2016 29

Conclusion

The essence of ‘Positive Psy-

chology’ is that ultimate happi-

ness lies very clearly in the

hands of individuals and can be

attained through the cultivation

of certain ‘Virtues’, through

identifying and building on

‘Character Strengths’, by engag-

ing in activities that help create

‘Flow’, and through the practice

of techniques like ‘Mindfulness’.

A significant aspect of the ide-

as, frameworks and practices of

‘Positive Psychology’ is that it

has distilled some ancient and

deep-rooted tenets of Eastern

philosophy and blended it with

contemporary research and sci-

entific tools created in the West-

ern world. Another aspect that

distinguishes ‘Positive Psycholo-

gy’ from earlier schools of

thought is that there is an ongo-

ing attempt to create simple,

scientific and measurable tools

that can be put to use by schol-

ars and practitioners no doubt;

but also easily understood by a

person somewhat uninitiated

into the subject.

Unlike the traditional approach

to Psychology – Clinical Psychol-

ogy - that focuses on repressed

negative emotions, and neurotic

conditions that result in mild or

extreme psychological disor-

ders; Positive Psychology, by

seeking to harness the positives

in humankind, makes for better

and long-lasting well-being. It is

therefore applicable to all cross

sections of people in a wide va-

riety of situations. Besides the

pioneers and founding fathers

of Positive Psychology, there is

a group of practitioners and

other researchers who are con-

stantly adding to the body of

knowledge, through articles,

assessment tools, practice exer-

cises and so on. One of the

most advantageous aspects of

Positive Psychology is that it can

be practiced and experienced –

even by those with little or no

background in Psychology or

the Social sciences.

There are practice exercises

that help cultivate the qualities

o f ‘ G r a t i t u d e ’ a n d

‘Forgiveness’, as opposed to

extreme desire and anger.

These kind of exercises would

be of particular use to individ-

uals and communities con-

stantly under strife. There are

assessments to evaluate quali-

ties like ‘Grit’ and ‘Resilience’;

that would be of particular use

to the youth population, to

handle adverse and challeng-

ing situations and emerge un-

scathed. Positive Psychology,

truly, is an extremely useful

body of knowledge and prac-

tice, relevant and topical in the

world of today and for future

generations; to help build a

peaceful and progressive soci-

ety. It is indeed an idea who

time has come!

JIGYASA 2016 30

Point 1- B-Schools in India

are oriented towards the pri-

vate sector. They don’t pre-

pare you to handle the dy-

namics of the public sector.

The focus of most B-Schools in

India has largely been the pri-

vate sector, be it through cur-

riculum, networking practices

and/or placement. Barring ex-

ceptions, business education

has largely neglected the pub-

lic sector, cooperative socie-

ties and non-governmental or-

ganizations. Even the term

“Corporate Culture” is collo-

quially used to signify the or-

ganizational culture of only

the private sector. The public

sector, contrary to perception

is neither an easy place to

work in nor a non- rewarding

one. It has its own rules, pro-

cedures and guidelines that,

more often than not, seem al-

ien to those who start work

there, post a B-school educa-

tion.

A few major consequences of

this inclination away from the

public sector are:

1) Mismatch between talent

and public sector require-

ment- It is so in terms of the

relative number of desired

candidates applying for a pub-

lic sector job vis-à-vis a private

sector job, the right aptitude

and knowledge of candidates

and in terms of employees

who stay on in the organisa-

tion.

Recent years have seen the

public sector on a massive re-

cruitment drive in anticipation

of the large number of em-

ployees who will retire in this

decade. The global recession,

brought about an unprece-

dented acceptance of these

job offers by droves of stu-

dents. Though it is encourag-

ing to have such talent, it is a

fact that they can’t hit the

ground running. The private

sector and the public sector

differ widely in approach, cul-

ture, work systems, rules, pro-

cedures, hierarchy, et al.

Though one banks on prior

awareness, experience, time

and training in cultivating this

talent, the process could be

made all the more fruitful if

prospective employees re-

ceived adequate, if not special-

ized education focused to-

wards this sector.

There are those who have and

will change their job every

couple of years. It is a fact,

however, that many who

joined the public sector during

the recession left for greener

pastures soon after. That has,

again, led to a shortfall of hu-

man resources and of course,

a complete wastage of ex-

penditure incurred on recruit-

ing and training the workforce

that quit. Such probable fall-

outs may be averted if there

are specialized business

courses covering the public

sector that will attract people

who wish to work there out of

choice and not mere compul-

sion. Such courses will also

serve to highlight the im-

portance of the public sector,

POOJA MAGOO

She is presently working as Man-ager (P&A/HR) in PEC Ltd., New Delhi. She has done her schooling from Mater Dei, gradu-ation in Bachelor of Business Stud-ies at Shaheed Su-khdev College of Business Studies, University of Del-hi and post gradu-ation in Master of Human Resource and Organisation-al Development, Delhi School of Economics, Uni-versity of Delhi.

WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH YOU

AT MANAGEMENT/BUSINESS

SCHOOLS IN INDIA ?

JIGYASA 2016 31

much as courses in entrepre-

neurship, digital marketing and

rural management have done.

All said and done, the talent

mismatch issue is serious be-

cause the public sector does

significant work for the country

and (for other nations, especial-

ly in the developing world in

terms of projects, supply of es-

sentials, etc.). SBI has a greater

reach than any private sector

bank. MMTC holds a gold festi-

val that lakhs of Indians throng

to, GAIL/IOL/SAIL/BPCL do

much to make and supply es-

sentials at low prices; the Indian

Railways are one of the largest

employers in the world, the

flagship programs of most gov-

ernments are made easier

through the sheer reach of this

sector and it provides welfare

benefits on the principle of

egalitarianism that most private

sector employees can only

dream of.

2) By ignoring the public sec-

tor, one actively ignores busi-

ness opportunities. For exam-

ple, conducting training pro-

grams/CSR activities/software

modules holds immense poten-

tial for the private sector- in

terms of money, reach and

learning. The set-up, however,

is different from what they are

used to.

3) Ignorance about the public

sector means fewer lifestyle

choices to choose from- Indi-

viduals, lacking knowledge

about the public sector, or

worse, harbouring incorrect as-

sumptions regarding benefits,

compensation, work, etc. don’t

join this sector. They miss out

on the fact that the public sec-

tor rewards more in terms of

time, work-life balance, welfare

facilities and job security rather

than outright money in hand.

4) An interesting way to

build your resume- A stint in

the public sector will hold val-

ue for those who are interest-

ed in a well-rounded career. It

teaches patience and a

glimpse into how much of the

country works, besides ex-

panding one’s network. This

would surely add on to the CV,

if one later wishes to work at

an international institutions

such as the World Bank or the

United Nations or even reput-

ed multinationals.

Point 2- B-Schools don’t en-

courage you to be an entre-

preneur.

Though there is the odd insti-

tute focusing on entrepreneur-

ship, and fests are organised

by students, entrepreneurship

is usually studied as a semes-

ter subject, the bottom line for

most B-Schools being their

placement records.

There is only a handful that

chooses to tread the unbeaten

path by starting its own enter-

prise. Dr. James A. Belasco,

Business Leadership Strategist

and Best-Selling Author says,

“Evaluate what you want — be-

cause what gets measured,

gets produced.” B-Schools

measure packages and not po-

tential turnovers. Thus, they

restrict themselves to the of-

ten lambasted middle-class

mindset of preparing students

for a job. The endeavour of

entrepreneurship is not given

the credence and appreciation

that it deserves.

Point 3- They haven’t discov-

ered India

Most B-Schools need to re-

discover Indian management

thought. Most of the learning

JIGYASA 2016 32

imparted is through taking the

examples, experiments, re-

search and applications from

the first world. The fact that

there are differences between

India and the first world in

terms of culture, ideology,

thinking and the general way of

life, and that these differences

impact the way systems are or-

ganised, structured and run, is

often not taken into considera-

tion.

To illustrate, there is research

and emphasis on team-spirit,

Emotional Quotient (EQ), Spiritu-

al Quotient (SQ), etc. at work.

These phenomena may be new-

found for others but not for In-

dia as community and family

play an eminent role in each in-

dividual’s life in Eastern socie-

ties. Nevertheless, they are

thrust upon as “something

new”.

“The basic unit of society in

the west is the individual and

in India is the family.”

Lt. Gen (Retd.) Shamsher Singh

Mehta

Point 4- They don’t teach you

adequate life skills, especially

not financial education.

“Academic qualifications are

important and so is financial

education. They're both im-

portant and schools are for-

getting one of them.”

Robert Kiyosaki

Taxes, saving and investment

for the individual are not

taught. That is a pity as most

students start work with educa-

tion loans on their heads. There

is the pressure to buy a car, a

house, have a big fat Indian

wedding, go on fancy vacations,

etc. It’s conventional wisdom

that it’s not enough just to

earn, one needs to save for a

rainy day, and more…

Education in these may lead to

generation of ideas and even

encourage students to launch

start-ups in the same field.

There could also be greater

focus on stress management,

balance and relationship coun-

selling, especially in the con-

text of today’s increasingly

fragile world.

JIGYASA 2016 33

15 years back HR was considered to be support function, how-

ever based on global challenges and changing business con-

text, HR is becoming partner in the business. In other words

the global business environment is experiencing unprecedent-

ed change, and human resources (HR) should develop new ca-

pabilities if it wants to remain relevant.

Our social and economic center of gravity is steadily shifting

from local ways of working to global ways of working. Analytics

offers solutions to all HR Area as shown in below Table1.

Need for Shared Service Center (SSC/GSSC - HR Transfor-

mation)

In the past, HR Transformation mostly focused on making ex-

isting HR services more efficient, effective, and compliant. The

unspoken assumption was that HR was already doing all of the

things that needed to be done; it just needed to do them more

effectively, faster, and cheaper.

Transforming HR to deliver forward-thinking capabilities like

these can help companies respond more timely and effectively

to changes in the business environment, expand their global

footprint, and increase revenue and margins. This has resulted

in improved competitiveness, profitability, and growth

NEERAJ JASROTIA

Neeraj Jasrotia cur-rently working with Ericsson Global India as DGM WFM - Unit Head (past experience HOD WFM with Network18/AonHewitt/Vertex/IIPL), with 15+ years of Shared Services/Business Strategy experience in the Telecom/Media/BPO/IT/DTH/Insurance/Benefits/HR Out-sourcing/Retailing with exposure to SLA Governance, Business Analysis, Manpower Plan-ning, Manager MIS/WFM, Contract Negotiations, Client Mgmt and Consult-ing & Transfor-mation activities across geographies (Sweden, US, UK & India). This includes man-aging Consulting Programs to im-prove Productivity & Customer Service thru a global team of Project Managers

TRANSFORMATION FROM CORE

HR TO HR SHARED SERVICE

HR Area SOLUTION (Table 1)

Workforce Planning & Analytics (WFP)

Leverage analytics to predict potential skill gaps based on past trends and current employee behavior.

Talent Acquisition (TA)

Reduce the time spent shifting through high volumes of similar CVs and improve the likelihood of selecting the right candi-dates.

Talent Reward (TR) Identify the best people for high-level leadership roles and the employees that will likely (or not) stay with the organization.

Talent Management '(TM)

Discover the reasons for turnover and identify potential chang-es in employee engagement, leadership, culture or compensa-tion.

Learning & Development (L&D)

Spot current and future skill gaps and provide leaders with a blueprint for action.

Region Data

Analytics Leader-

ship

Service Excel-lence

SME (Subject Matter Expert)

Technical Proficiency / Technology Adeptness Others

Western Europe 12% 13% 47% 21% 6% 1% Central & East-

ern Europe 0% 6% 53% 35% 0% 6% APAC 22% 16% 44% 13% 4% 0% India 20% 0% 20% 55% 5% 0%

Australasia 19% 22% 39% 11% 7% 3% North America 18% 15% 44% 13% 8% 4% Latin America/

Caribbean 17% 0% 67% 17% 0% 0%

JIGYASA 2016 34

Region wise skillset priorities

shown in below table2.

Some of the key question in

shared service scenario

How do you measure perfor-

mance?

71% of Asian based respondents

still measure performance pre-

dominantly via financial metrics.

How do you plan to optimize

services in the next five

years?

58% feel Technology is the key

Which enabling technologies

have you already deployed?

62% voted for SharePoint

Which of the following are rel-

evant to your digital strategy?

53% feels enabling end to end

process flow

Which technologies offer the

most promise to a more digi-

tal enterprise?

62% feels self-service solution is

the key to be ahead in the game

What is the biggest obstacle

to implementing digitaliza-

tion?

29% feels its cost

Where will data analytics de-

liver the biggest impact on

operations?

76% feels identify problem area

for improvement

How often do you review cus-

tomer satisfaction scores with

customers

face-to-face?

42% review it Quarterly or more

frequently

Business drivers that affect

HR Shared Service

In order to develop HR capabili-

ties that can enable a compa-

ny's business strategy, it is im-

portant to understand the criti-

cal drivers that are shaping that

strategy. This section highlights

some of the market forces and

trends that are likely to influ-

ence business strategy (and HR

Transformation) in the months

and years ahead.

Growth. Revenue and market

growth are essential for com-

petitiveness and long-term

shareholder value. In fact,

growth is so important and

pervasive that most of the oth-

er business drivers listed here

are in some way related to it.

Until recently, businesses pri-

marily grew by hiring addition-

al in-house staff. But these

days, the formula for growth

has become far more complex

— involving acquisitions, new

staffing models, new technolo-

gies, and new approaches for

finding, attracting, developing,

and managing talent. Moreo-

ver, today's companies aren't

just looking for growth; they

are looking for profitable

growth, which significantly in-

creases the challenge. For HR,

the key is to develop new ca-

pabilities that can enable the

business to expand as timely

and efficiently as possible.

Globalization and emerging

markets. As business be-

comes increasingly global,

companies should improve

their ability to build and man-

age a global workforce — of-

ten in places they have not op-

erated before. Many compa-

nies are seeing their global

footprint shift from west to

east as they pursue opportuni-

ties for accelerated growth in

emerging markets. By 2050,

the global population is ex-

pected to grow by 50 percent

— primarily driven by India

and China. Yet 70 percent of

the world's corporate manage-

ment is currently located in

Europe and North America. To

thrive in this new environ-

ment, companies need HR ca-

pabilities that can enable them

to effectively realign their

workforces with their chang-

ing global footprint. They

“ T o d a y ' s

compa n ie s

aren't just

looking for

growth; they

are looking

for profita-

ble growth,

which signif-

icantly in-

creases the

c h a l l e n g e .

For HR, the

key is to de-

velop new

capabilities

that can ena-

ble the busi-

ness to ex-

pand as

timely and

efficiently as

possible.”

JIGYASA 2016 35

should also consider creating an

operating environment in which

global and virtual teams can

thrive. Critical capabilities in-

clude improved global mobility

programs that make it possible

to move employees between

countries efficiently and easily;

standardized and repeatable HR

processes and systems for en-

tering new markets; and new

staffing models that use out-

sourcing, contingent workers,

and strategic partnerships to

improve scalability and flexibil-

ity.

Cost pressure. While cost-

cutting naturally remains a key

priority globally, with around

40% of global respondents indi-

cating it as a core target, Asia

sets itself apart by recognizing

Shared Services’ potential to de-

liver improved business perfor-

mance/added value in addition

to cost cutting.

To have a greater impact on

costs, HR should focus its spe-

cialization on people-related

costs that are outside of the HR

budget, such as pensions and

health care. Another way for HR

to contribute is by helping the

business reduce the 'cost of

work' through improvement ini-

tiatives that focus on things like

worker productivity and man-

agement of contingent workers.

Talent. Around the world, jobs

are shifting from mature mar-

kets where talent is expensive

and scarce to emerging markets

where talent is cheaper and

more plentiful. This fundamen-

tal shift requires companies to

consider developing new HR ca-

pabilities for managing a global

supply chain for talent — just as

manufacturing companies have

had to learn how to manage a

global supply chain for prod-

ucts. Demographic shifts at

both ends of the age spectrum

are also having a big impact on

talent. Companies continue to

face a mass exodus of retiring

baby boomers, even as they

struggle to deal with an influx

of young workers who have

different needs, skills, and ex-

pectations than their elders.

This changing workforce re-

quires new talent management

capabilities in areas such as

leadership development, work-

force planning, strategy align-

ment, and workforce diversity.

Innovation. The days of rely-

ing on a small, elite group of

innovators are over. In today's

business world, breakthrough

ideas and continuous improve-

ment can come from anywhere

in the organization. To tap in-

to this priceless resource,

leading companies are devel-

oping new ways to help their

employees around the world

collaborate and share infor-

mation. And more often than

not, HR is at the center of the

action. Whether the task is de-

veloping a 'people portal' that

bring employees closer to-

gether; working with the busi-

ness to create a more innova-

tive culture; or developing new

rewards programs and perfor-

mance management processes

to promote innovation, HR has

a valuable role to play in help-

ing companies use innovation

as a competitive weapon.

Emerging technologies. New

technologies such as cloud

computing, social media, and

mobile devices affect HR in

two ways. First, they help ena-

ble HR to deliver services more

efficiently and effectively. For

example, cloud computing can

reduce the cost and time re-

quired to develop new HR so-

lutions, and can improve

scalability, enabling HR to ef-

fectively and efficiently grow

or shrink its capacity and ca

JIGYASA 2016 36

pabilities in response to chang-

ing business needs. Second,

and perhaps even more signifi-

cantly, new technologies raise

the bar on what HR's customers

expect. For example, thanks to

smart phones and the Internet,

today's employees expect the

ability to access HR systems and

services 24/7 from anywhere on

the planet. Similarly, today's re-

cruits expect the ability to inter-

act with a company and its HR

function through social media.

HR can use emerging technolo-

gies to satisfy these ever-

increasing expectations, and to

deliver new innovations quickly

and affordably.

Mergers and acquisitions

(M&A). HR's goals are often lim-

ited to achieving cost synergies

and integrating workforces from

an administrative perspective.

Although such goals are im-

portant, they are just a starting

point. What companies should

really consider are HR capabili-

ties that make mergers, acquisi-

tions, and divestitures fast, effi-

cient, and repeatable. These

new capabilities should include

the ability to effectively and reli-

ably combine two distinct work-

forces into a truly integrated

organization that can help the

business achieve its growth

goals. They should also include

an improved ability to retain

critical talent.

Risk and compliance. HR must

deliver services that comply

with local labor laws and work-

force regulations — a challenge

that is magnified as a business

expands its global footprint. On

another level, HR must also

comply with broader business

regulations, such as those relat-

ed to data privacy and security.

Although these regulations are

not specifically targeted at HR,

they often have significant HR

implications due to the highly

sensitive nature of HR's work.

Finally, HR can play a valuable

role in helping a company

manage the change associated

with developing a risk-

intelligent, compliant culture

— a culture where employees

understand the full impact of

their actions and take smart

risks that are consistent with

the organization's policies and

objectives.

JIGYASA 2016 37

Middle & Senior management

hiring & succession planning

is always a challenge and its

made tougher by most firms

not having institutionalized

mechanisms to identify and

treat information asymmetry

between internal and external

prospects .If you have ever

bought a used car- infor-

mation asymmetry is the dif-

ference between what the sell-

er tells you and what you dis-

cover 3 months later ;)

If you think the above state-

ment is a bit extreme- take a

look at the churn in manage-

ment and the reasons given by

folks in exit interviews that

their company did not recog-

nize their potential but gave

someone else the "benefit of

the doubt".

And if you are looking for a

scientific basis- look no fur-

ther than Nobel prize winning

Psychologist- Daniel Kahen-

man who gave the concept of

WYSIATI -"What you see is all

there is" which means that

we take a decision based on

information presented to us -

our mind does not compare

the depth and quality of infor-

mation available.

The result is that folks who

are hired from outside are ac-

tually hired on potential but

folks who are not promoted

from inside are done so on ba-

sis of the in-depth information

available or sadly the/ biases

that form because of knowing

them so long.

But no one questions the

quality of information availa-

ble to make the comparison.

But the information was not

taken and provided in a proper

manner to the decision mak-

ers and Candidate X was left in

the lurch, he soon left and

joined a competitor and so did

most of his team and is on

track to be a CEO.

Here is a case study based on

true events.

Candidate X was a national

sales leader with a large finan-

cial services company- he was

creative intelligent and open

to new ideas; most of the sen-

ior sales team had been

groomed by him- and liked his

personal attention knowledge

sharing and training and

above all his tendency to dele-

gate and challenge. The CEO

identified him as a successor

and gave him general manage-

ment responsibility over a re-

gion to develop him. X got

them results, soon was an-

choring 65% of organizations

revenues and growing in confi-

dence and got it a bit of swag-

ger- which rubbed some of the

senior folks negatively and

might have been prudent on

the part of CEO to advice men-

tor him but since the guy was

giving results most turned a

blind eye. He had another

problem- trust his “team” im-

plicitly and soon enough one

of the entourage was discov-

ered to have serious value/

compliance issues and his first

reaction was to protect him

OMAR FAROOQ

Omar Farooq has done his masters in Hu-man Resource and Organiza-tion Develop-ment(MHROD) from Delhi School of Eco-nomics. With over 17 years of experience in HR, he is cur-rently the Chief Executive Of-ficer of AceProHR. He Specializes in Executive Search, Em-ployer Branding and Talent Ac-quisition Strate-gy.

INFORMATION ASYMMETRY AND

DECISION MAKING IN HIRING

AND SUCCESSION PLANNING

JIGYASA 2016 38

without finding the facts. And

with this first strike combined

with his swagger the winds

changed- words like immature,

arrogant and indiscipline start-

ed being used. So when the

company decided to look for a

CEO they still had him in the

panel but decided to look out as

well and guess what

Candidate X – assessment- bril-

liant strategist, sales person,

got us 65% of our revenues con-

sistently but immature, arrogant

and might have a value prob-

lem.

Candidate Y from outside- from

a good competitor good strate-

gist sales figure not so great-

but institution builder as he had

run a general management role

for longer time.

This is halo effect at its best

and also no one checks the data

available and asymmetry in the

information available. While

there were tons of data- objec-

tive and subjective for candi-

date X there were limited

sources available for Y

The only way to rectify this is

to make a level playing field

in terms of quality of data

available for both internal and

external candidates

Information needs to be

captured and displayed in

a structured manner -

Table B is a representative

template we use while ad-

vising clients

Weightage needs to be giv-

en to information source

as well

Get Panel discussions

done- they help in reduc-

ing the Halo effect

Invite Outside experts who

are immune to internal

politics and biased

When someone starts say-

ing " my gut instinct says"-

hit them with a bat - okay

don't but this is your cue

you are not talking to an

expert or someone who

has anything credible to

say

Do 360 degree discus-

sions, involve - allied de-

partments as well as

folks who might report to

the role involved.

JIGYASA 2016 39

Gamification is derived from

the word gam(e) + -ification,

which means applying game

elements and design to non-

game activities or situation to

influence human behaviour.

An effective gamification pro-

gram actually looks like per-

formance criteria super-

charged to help achieve real

business goals when it is ex-

panded beyond game mecha-

nism or game elements such

as points, badges and leader

boards.

Gamification has gain lot of

attention in domain of digital

marketing to engage custom-

ers online and retain their loy-

alty. It has tremendous power

to spur motivation and influ-

ence consumer behaviour.

Companies like Amazon, Flip-

kart are into war of digitalize

heir product, thus involving

affiliates to increase web traf-

fic for their products. To fire

the race between affiliates,

those companies have de-

signed different game to push

affiliates towards exceeding

their limits and achieve more

for business.

Similar like customers, em-

ployees are main constituents

of any company. These em-

ployees when feel neglected

by their organisation, they get

disengage and get distracted

from job easily. This will result

into lack of job involvement

and organisation commitment.

Employees will be more en-

gaged into searching alterna-

tive jobs in competitor compa-

nies using current organisa-

tion resources, leading to

wastage of human efficiency

and organisation resources.

Sometimes employees trend to

be downshift also for not be-

ing recognised for his/her

achievement. This situation

might happen unintentionally

and HR team by any way

missed to recognise employee.

But this incident will lead to

perception error about em-

ployee. Thus gamification pro-

grams are the significant tool

of engagement and motivating

employees for working into

unbiased environment in

which they receive instant

recognition and reward for

their achievements. This will

be fostering deep rooted or-

ganisation commitment and

job involvement among em-

ployees. Recently most of the

company implemented gamifi-

cation for boosting sales per-

formance, similar same effort

can be implement by human

resource department for em-

ployees to incentivize quickly,

give employee satisfactory,

reward employees for com-

pleting important tasks with

deadline, engage employee for

long time and minimize hu-

man efficiency wastage.

How HR Can Use Gamifica-

tion

Some of the area discussed

below where human resource

department can implement

gamification programme to

enhance effectiveness and lev-

erage the business goals

achievement.

Talent Acquisition and Man-

agement

RESHMI MANNA

Reshmi is an academician with 7 years of experi-ence and 2 years of corporate ex-perience in the domain of human resource man-agement. She has been actively in-volved in re-search area of behavioral sci-ence, human re-source manage-ment and busi-ness strategy. She is supervis-ing Ph.D. re-search scholars of reputed Uni-versity, Jhar-khand. She is de-veloping learning simulation tool such as case study, situation analysis etc. Miss Manna is also Conducting Fac-ulty Development and Management Development Programs for in-stitute.

DO NOT LET YOUR EMPLOYEE TO SEARCH

JOB USING COMPANY RESOURCES: GAMIFY

EMPLOYEE’S PERFORMANCE

JIGYASA 2016 40

To acquire best talent, screen-

ing of competent candidate can

be done for person-fit recruit-

ment process. This will not only

reward appl i cant s and

acknowledge them for complet

ing each game levels, but will help HR

to map potential future talents, who

have organisation commitment and

job involvement. Thus this process will

increase onboarding efficiency and can

help HR in minimising attrition rate,

mortality rate among nascent employ-

ees.

HR team can minimise talent acquisition cost

by implement gamification programme like

Referrer of the Year to reward employee

source for best talent supply.

Enhancing Cultural Competency

Cultivating strong corporate culture can only be

possible, if old employees are retained for the

long time, so that they can socialize their juniors

or subordinates to transfer the organisational

culture from one generation to others. Retaining

productive employees and keep them engaged to

make them feel important for organisation is key

to employee retention. Retaining employees will

contribute to maximisation of human efficiency,

optimisation of process by elimination of energy

waste and maintaining valuable personnel assets,

institutional knowledge, consistent performance

and avoiding costly employee turnover. The pro-

cess of acculturation promotes positive corporate

cultural competency by rewarding employees for

cross-departmental collaboration, providing pro-

cess or product improvement suggestions, or

even participating in company-wide volunteer

programs, for example contribution towards cor-

porate social responsibility cell by offering volun-

teer activities during weekends. These kind of

engagement programs which bring employee sat-

isfaction, might keep employee away for applying

job to competitors’ company.

Motivate Employees for continuous develop-

ment : Training and development programs are

often not high on priority lists among employees,

especially when they don’t find out correlation

between training programme and day-to-day du-

ties. However, gamification experience through

online learning program can spur action among

employee to perform in the game resulting into

being trained in particular competency. Employ-

ees who earn rewards and recognition for having

completed these tasks, or missions in the gamifi-

cation, are far more likely to make performance a

priority. HR team can derive benefits by checking

leaders board as compliance, without the pres-

sure of having to hound employ-

ees to complete the programs.

This establish good relation be-

tween employee and company

lead to low propbality of leading

current job.

Instant incentivize or recog-

nise employee action

The best thing about gamifica-

tion programme is visual impact

of performance among employ-

ee through leader broad, which

will tell employee, where they

stand in the competition and

how much efforts required to

reach the target or earn incen-

tive or recognition. Leader board

gives the sense of achievement

among the employees for in-

stant rewards system leading to

reinforcement of positive behav-

iour among employees and en-

hancing employee satisfaction.

Map the Path to Career Suc-

cess

Collaborative team work and

peer mentorship is a powerful

motivator that drives employees

to want to succeed. Employees

are able to see milestones of

their performance to achieve a

particular level or status. Using

gamification, HR departments

can create transparent, mission-

based career ladder that show

the steps employees have taken

to level up in the organization

either displayed through gami-

fied leader board or replacement

chart.

To some, the idea of

gamification sounds like a light-

ly covert attempt to entice em-

ployees into doing what they

should already be doing. Howev-

er, truth behind game mecha-

nism into performance are an

effective tool to stop distracting

employees from current role,

add value to bottom line of busi-

ness and combat the employee

engagement crisis in India. Gam-

ification if implemented properly

with rational action plan will

stop employee using organisa-

tion tools and resource for ap-

plying to competitor organisa-

tion.

JIGYASA 2016 41

The Global Nomad

As companies aspire to stay

competitive in this globally

connected world, an effective

talent management strategy

becomes imperative in achiev-

ing business objectives. The

explosive growth witnessed by

emerging markets in the last

decade, has contributed to a

significant increase in the

need for companies to move

people and source talent from

all around the world. More

complex and challenging con-

ditions have resulted in a

growing investment in interna-

tional expansion and rapidly

adjusting business models.

Having an international experi-

ence is now a sin-qua-non for

emerging leaders and top tal-

ent, within many organiza-

tions!

The role of Global mobility has

continuously evolved over the

years. From a traditional stage

of haphazard Global Mobility

assignment management to a

scenario where assignment

processes are consistent &

generally automated, and fur-

ther on to the current land-

scape where Global Mobility is

considered a strategic adviso-

ry function & key enabler of

business & global workforce

planning strategy, the journey

has been transformational.

The assignment landscape is

becoming more complex with

more and more of different

types of assignments such as

long-term, short-term, com-

muters, local plus and perma-

nent moves.

A recent study by Deloitte to

understand the role of Global

Mobility in key business initia-

tives revealed that 49% of the

organizations surveyed need

Global mobility to facilitate

expansion into new territories,

43% to reduce costs across

company/HR and 32% to drive

business transformation.

Key elements of a robust

Global Mobility Strategy

“You’ve got to think about big

things while you’re doing

small things, so that all the

small things go in the right

direction.”

― Alvin Toffler

Therefore, to ensure that the

small things we do are in the

right direction and align with

the ‘bigger picture’, we must

evaluate our global mobility

strategy from a new perspec-

tive.

With a plethora of complexi-

ties and varied level of techni-

calities involved in any Global

Mobility policy, it can be safely

inferred that no two organiza-

tions can have the same Glob-

al Mobility Strategy or policy.

The old model of ‘one size fits

all’ no longer works. Incorpo-

rating elements that are more

customized and relevant to

organization’s philosophy and

business objectives is clearly

emerging as the need of the

hour.

Best-in-class organizations

have reported their global mo-

bility programs have been crit-

ical to supporting new busi-

ness growth, improving finan-

cial performance, bolstering

employee engagement, suc

NEETU SONTHALIA

Neetu, an alum-nus of MHROD (Batch 2006) is currently working as a Project Spe-cialist-Rewards & Talent (Center of Excellence) with Averda - a lead-ing environmen-tal services com-pany headquar-tered in Dubai, UAE. She has over 10 years of experience pri-marily in Consult-ing and Financial Services industry in India & Middle East. In her previ-ous stint she has worked for Mer-cer Consulting as a Rewards expert in Life Sciences industry.

GLOBAL

MOBILITY

JIGYASA 2016 42

cession planning, retaining and

developing top talent, and in-

creasing diversity.

So, what should be our key fo-

cus areas while designing a ro-

bust Global Mobility program to

help us achieve the aforesaid

objectives? For the sake of sim-

plicity and more importantly my

love for acronyms, let’s look at

some of those ‘MOBILITY’ ele-

ments:

Motivate people to join emerg-

ing markets:

As we all know in the current

scenario, Growth market is

where all the action is! However,

when it comes to expanding op-

erations in emerging economies

and mobilizing staff in hardship

regions, it still lacks luster as a

preferred choice amongst as-

signees.

Companies need to innovate

and think differently as pay and

hefty mobility/hardship premi-

ums alone will not provide an

attractive carrot!

One of the clients of a leading

consulting firm introduced the

concept of allowing managers

on assignment in Ghana to take

time off to work in the commu-

nity and volunteer to help build

schools and hospitals etc. The

chance to give something back

to society proved extremely mo-

tivating & opportunities were

oversubscribed. Approaches

like these encourage people to

sign up to roles in locations that

might otherwise be unappeal-

ing.

As companies venture into new

regions, many consider how to

provide the infrastructure that

will enable the employees to

maintain an acceptable stand-

ard of living. Some of the min-

ing and oil & gas companies in

Africa operate a ‘country within

a country model’ in which or-

ganizations develop infrastruc-

ture and accommodation facil-

ities to enable assignees meet

all their needs under one roof.

In most of the cases, move-

ment of people is generated

by the need to have subject-

matter experts in a country

who possess the necessary

transferable skills, especially

in the most sought after tech-

nical/specialist roles like engi-

neers, geologists, scientists

etc.

However, organizations should

also look at aligning this with

their talent management strat-

egy and identify key talent for

such international assign-

ments for their personal lead-

ership development & career

growth.

Reinforcing the significance of

working in difficult markets

which has both the potential

and appetite for ground-

breaking work, should be a

great value proposition for

many.

Nature of the job responsibili-

ties, the opportunities for ca-

reer development and profes-

sional satisfaction that it may

bring can possibly outweigh

perceived issues regarding the

desirability of a place to live –

for a limited period, at least.

That said, the more demand-

ing a location, the more effort

is required in terms of assist-

ing assignees with the move

and supporting them through-

out their stint in the host

country.

Offer support and empathy:

Ongoing support is required

by assignees and their families

in the host location, irrespec-

tive of the tenure and type of

assignment.

In a recent study by Mercer,

managing ‘Dual Career’ x

JIGYASA 2016 43

In a recent study by Mercer,

managing ‘Dual Career’ emerg-

es as one of the top challenges

to employee mobility. Spouses/

partners want to actively pursue

their career aspirations and are

less willing to sacrifice one ca-

reer at the expense of the oth-

er. In such a scenario, it helps if

organizations remain consistent

and transparent in their com-

munication with regards to the

support they can offer to the

spouse/partner of the assignee

so that they are well informed

for e.g. – assistance in job

search through local HR and

consultants, orientation ses-

sions, introduction to local sup-

port networks etc.

Overcoming language barriers

is another critical area especial-

ly for international assignments

in locations like Japan. Most or-

ganizations encourage and are

willing to fund language lessons

to support assignees. Intercul-

tural training for assignees and

their families, still considered

by most companies to be an im-

portant part of the expatriation

process, with about two thirds

of companies provide inter-

cultural training as per a recent

survey by ECA International.

Shorter half-day to one-day pro-

grams which have been tailored

to the participants’ needs help

to familiarize the assignees with

the local cultural nuances and

challenges.

Bring in an element of Empa-

thy; Offering lucrative packages

in the form of hardship premi-

ums, cost of living, quality of

living differentials is just the tip

of the iceberg. Additionally, our

priority list may often include

providing resettlement agents/

destination services providers,

shipping assignee’s personal

items, housing, (where rele-

vant), schooling for children to

smooth the transition to a new

location.

However, it always helps to

also focus on the non-

transactional and intangible

aspects of the move. Take

time to understand the needs

of the assignee and their fami-

ly and also explain the pro-

cesses and policies involved

from the organizations per-

spective. Set realistic expecta-

tions about organizational

support. Assigning local men-

tors to support the interna-

tional assignee and family will

help to build understanding

and communication, empathy

and relationships. Most im-

portantly encourage leader-

ship to build a corporate sense

of empathy around the assign-

ees experience and keep them

included at both home and

abroad.

Business Objective:

Global mobility is an increas-

ingly important strategic ena-

bler which should align to core

b u s i n e s s o b j e c -

tives. Understanding the or-

ganization’s mission, compen-

sation philosophy, cost and

risk appetite and expansion

plans into new geographies

enables one to develop a suit-

able and customized global

mobility program most rele-

vant to the organization’s

needs.

Identify right reason for

movement:

One needs to be clear on the

reasons for the assignment

and ensure that the person

selected is entirely suitable.

Many companies rely on ex-

patriate policy segmentation

to reconcile the cost control

versus international expansion

dilemma – how to have the

same number of assignments

or more without increasing the

budget dedicated to

JIGYASA 2016 44

international mobility? Segmen-

tation means reallocating part

of the budget to business criti-

cal assignees and limits the

costs of non-essential moves.

Hence it’s important to under-

stand the various assignment

reasons which may include for

example strategic moves

(business-critical), developmen-

tal moves (which benefit both

the company and the employee)

and self-requested move

(requested by the employee but

not essential to the business). A

consistent policy segmentation

approach allows HR to present

business cases/ assignment op-

tions to management and pro-

vide a clearer understanding of

the cost and business implica-

tions of relocation for different

assignees. It could also help

manage exceptions into a well-

defined framework based on a

consistent talent management

approach.

Larger issue of Repatriation

Expatriates and organizations

alike tend to overlook the chal-

lenges and risks associated with

returning from an international

assignment. The tenure for

most long term assignments is

two years or more years. The

insatiable speed at which we

witness growth, can lead to sig-

nificant changes in the home

country environment and cul-

ture during this time period.

The assignee may develop a

broadened culture horizon that

incorporates values & attitude

of the host location and it often

tends to clash with the behav-

iors predominant in the home

country. From an exotic over-

seas assignment experience,

the returning expat may feel

demoted, develop a sense of

alienation, become more critical

of his/her workplace environ-

ment. How do organizations

handle this situation of reverse

culture shock and anxiety?

Talk to the assignee (and

spouse, if applicable) about

repatriation planning, the

company’s expectations, and

their expectations. Provide the

expatriate with opportunities

to plan career steps upon re-

turn. Work with the assignee

and HR colleagues to facilitate

the return by discussing the

assignee’s new position, po-

tential career path, and rein-

troduction to colleagues. Help

the returnee with other expat-

riates, and join expatriate or

cultural forums. In case of in-

voluntary return or trauma,

provide appropriate resources

such as the Employee Assis-

tance Programs.

Identify right compensation

approach:

It’s a constant challenge to

find the best approach appli-

cable for all international as-

signments. Moreover, dealing

with individual assignment

complexity, envisaging greater

mobility policy segmentation

and, if relevant for the compa-

ny, mapping each compensa-

tion approach to a particular

assignment in a consistent

way is a far more daunting

task.

The home-based approach still

proves useful for certain kinds

of moves (e.g. business-critical

assignments or moves to hard-

ship locations). Assignees on a

home-based approach retain

their home-country salary and

receive a suite of allowances

and premiums designed to

cover the costs linked to ex-

patriation.

Local strategies are becoming

more common but, due to the

difficulty of applying them

consistently in all transfer des-

tinations, they are used only in

JIGYASA 2016 45

some cases (moves between

similar countries, developmen-

tal moves.) and take multiple

forms as “purely local” or “local

plus” approaches. However,

their practical implementation is

often tricky and cumbersome.

Additional hybrid approaches

like international compensation

structures have emerged to ad-

dress issues of global nomads.

Trend & Benchmarks:

Keeping up to date with the lat-

est trends and challenges in

global mobility world always

helps in building best-in-class

mobility policy. Changes in ex-

ternal market dynamics like

growth of Emerging markets,

rising compliance requirements,

demographic change, need for

inclusion in talent management,

increased buzz around host-

based policies etc. are some of

the key trends worthwhile to

watch out for. That said, one

needs to imbibe the key ele-

ments to suit customized or-

ganizational requirements and

align with its overall strategy.

Benchmarks are the usual way

to establish a guideline for com-

petitiveness when defining poli-

cies as an expression of the

strategy. It serves as an indica-

tive barometer of what market

standards are. However, organi-

zations need to clearly define

who they want to benchmark

against? if it is for example a

competitor/peer in their indus-

try or similar industry, or peg

themselves against companies

with world class assignment

programs?

Benchmarks have to be consid-

ered ineffective unless they are

utilized in connection with

trends, since they only give an

overview of the market at a giv-

en point of time and do not

highlight developments over

time. When seen in conjunction

with trends, it helps to evaluate

if adopting any best practice is

workable in an organization,

keeping in mind its objectives

and priorities.

Yield/ROI:

“However beautiful the strate-

gy, you should occasionally

look at the results.”

- Winston Churchill

With growing need for interna-

tional expansion, we all unani-

mously agree that global mo-

bility adds value to the organi-

zation in multiple ways from

increasing geographic pres-

ence, to facilitating individual

career growth and improving

employee retention. But how

does one demonstrate the re-

turn on investment on these

assignments to the C-Suite?

In the U.S. and EMEA, compa-

nies are focusing on strategic

business objectives involving

global mobility, and in APAC,

the top driver for changes in

the role of global mobility is

entry into new markets. Yet

global mobility is often viewed

as a cost center rather than as

a value center, even though

more than three-quarters of

global mobility professionals

believe that their programs

deliver value to their organiza-

tions.

Some organizations do pre-

pare a cost estimate for tradi-

tional assignment types such

as long term & short term in-

ternational assignments but

still much needs to be done to

effectively track costs associat-

ed with new assignment types

like commuter assignment/

business travels. Also in most

of these cases the cost esti-

mates are ballpark numbers

which are not integrated with

the budgeting process.

As per recent study by EY in

collaboration with Harvard

Business Review Analytic Ser-

vices the top two challenges

JIGYASA 2016 46

cited for measuring mobility

ROI holistically was absence of

company-wide metrics in place

and ‘mobility ROI is not seen as

a priority’. However, one can

align certain specific business &

individual performance metrics

to global mobility to assess ef-

fectiveness of mobility pro-

grams.

Tangible metrics like increased

revenues can be easily tracked

by monitoring sales and other

measurable accomplishments of

assignees. Certain other

measures like tracking career

progression and post assign-

ment retention rates are also

very simple and cost effective

ways of showing the value of

global assignments. Providing

data to show that employees

who have been on international

assignment on average pro-

gress twice as quickly or have

an average of one performance

rating higher than their non-

expatriated peers is hugely val-

uable, and can aid in broader

strategic decision making.

Employee retention is always a

challenge. As ‘Millennials’ being

the largest demographic in the

workforce expected to account

for more than 50% of the global

workforce, organizations will be

forced to reassess their reten-

tion and attraction efforts. Many

of the Millennials seek cross-

border opportunities for not on-

ly their professional develop-

ment but their personal growth.

Demonstrating the value of

global mobility in terms of em-

ployee engagement can be a

key factor in computing ROI of

Global Mobility.

Concluding Thoughts

As we envisage a future busi-

ness world significantly differ-

ent from that of today, a radical

review of policy/processes is a

must to keep pace with the

evolving market dynamics and

to stay ahead of the curve at all

times.

Let’s rethink how best we can

utilize some of the insights

shared above to help redefine

the way we look at Global Mo-

bility and be better equipped

to embark this journey of a

‘global nomad’ across the

small world we live in!

JIGYASA 2016 47

Almost every day, we hear the

phrase – ‘performance -

improvement plan’ or PIP, as it

is famously, or rather infa-

mously, known as. Most often

than not, PIP is a scary word

for the employee in question.

And if we are talking about an

employee who is either new to

the company or role, and is

not found doing as well as it

was envisaged, the phrase be-

comes all the more grave –

again for the employee, i.e. I

have always believed that

when an employee struggles,

she needs her manager the

most. And most often than

not, it is in managing such an

employee, the people manag-

ers struggle themselves. I

agree that the onus of improv-

ing her performance is on the

employee herself to a large

extent. But what about the

role that the supervisor need

to play in making this employ-

ee successful? Aren’t her

stakes as high as the employ-

ee himself? At the same time

and even more importantly,

what is the role the senior

leader(s) play in this entire epi-

sode – the manager’s manag-

er? Because for him, the task

is two-pronged – one, to en-

sure fair chance be given to

the employee in question; and

two, to make the supervisor

and other seniors in the hier-

archy learn to deal with this

crucial leadership challenge,

thereby in the process making

them better leaders… and the

team-leader has to tread this

double-edged sword without

losing the sight of organisa-

tional goals of result -

orientation and productivity.

Some challenge, this is!

As a HR leader, I have faced

this challenge many times in

my career. Such experiences

have taught me one thing –

there cannot be any shirking

of responsibility; if the leader

really wants to make his team

successful, in all aspects. To

make this simpler, let me tell

you a story… Some years ago,

one of my lieutenants came to

see me with his subordinate,

who was herself a young, albe-

it promising people-manager.

They were confounded with a

similar challenge, as I dis-

cussed above. Her predica-

ment was a newly inducted

subordinate of hers, who

showed a lot of promise at the

outset, and was now strug-

gling within 6 months of join-

ing. Despite a lot of coaching

& support by herself and her

own supervisor, this new

teammate’s performance was-

n’t improving up to mark. And

worse, the business had start-

ed to feel the heat… A long

and intense discussion ensued

in my office. We reached an

agreement on the way ahead.

Next day, I wrote a note to this

young people manager, outlin-

ing my thoughts and an action

plan. I am reproducing it

here…

Let me share upfront; this is a

rather long note, which I felt

was required to cover my

thoughts on managing perfor

RISHI RAJ GUPTA

Rishi Raj Gupta is the HR Lead-er at Cipla. Prior to Cipla, he was associated with Accenture Consulting, Bharti Wal-Mart and RPG Enter-prises. Rishi is an alumnus of MHROD, Del-hi School of Economics, Class of 2005.

A LEADERSHIP CRUCIBLE –

MANAGING BELOW-

EXPECTATIONS PERFORMANCE

JIGYASA 2016 48

mance and developing a

high-performance team.

To assist in your reading,

I have made necessary

modifications. Other than

me, the other three char-

acters in the case are:

1.Ms. ABC – the young

people manager,

2.Mr. JKL – her manager;

also my deputy, and

3.Mr. RST – the employee whose per-

formance is being discussed.

Here goes the advise that I gave her:

Dear ABC,

Yesterday, we discussed at length the

performance challenge that you are

currently managing with RST. I heard

both you and JKL, and shared my

thoughts too. I am writing my notes,

as under, to encapsulate my thoughts

on this critical leadership challenge

that we have on hand. I have always

firmly believed in the gospel of

‘making everyone successful.’ Having

said that, to do so is indeed a daunting

task for a leader. As multifaceted as

the team becomes, no one ever seems

to behave & perform like the other!

Out of the lot, the toughest ones to

manage are those, who showed a lot of

promise & capability while being in-

ducted into the job, but have slipped

off the performance charts some-

where. Now, it requires meticulous

thought and concerted action, to bring

such team-mate back to where he be-

longs – road to success for self and

team. Firstly, let me thank both you

and JKL for showing commitment to-

wards your teammate’s development.

This is by no means a small act – re-

quires a lot of honesty and courage to

stand up and say, “Hey! My team needs

to do better, and I am game to make

them better, whatever it takes.” Thank

you, for recognizing the need for im-

provement and showing the promise to

do better.

Our first step with such a below-expectation

performer is to figure out what went wrong.

Something DID go wrong. Nearly all employ-

ees start their new job with positivity,

enthusiasm and are raring to go – we

all know RST did start like that. May-

be, something along the way dimin-

ished his enthusiasm. Or, he killed his

own enthusiasm; both are possible in

the workplace. Ascertaining the pri-

mal cause of this poor performance

will be the key; if you are committed

to help teammates like him become a

contributing member of our team

and not end up being a poor perform-

er. No employee decides to have a

miserable day at work and feel fail-

ure as he leaves the workplace daily.

Even an otherwise incompetent or

misfit employee wants to do well for

himself. Very importantly, you need

to ascertain if RST has his intentions

in right place; for, if he is really a

work-shirker, there is little hope for

improvement. However, you have all

hope if he really wants to perform

and to succeed. That said, whatever

conclusion you arrive at about the

reasons of his below-expectations

performance, you must try your level

best to turn him around.

Start by assuring him that you

have faith in his ability to succeed.

Inspire through showing the big

picture – help him see what fruits

his efforts shall bear – why should

he strive to succeed and improve.

Guide him and make him set sever-

al short-term, achievable goals;

which should be time-bound, with

clear outcomes about which you

agree. Once the goals are set, track

execution and progress. And don’t

forget the power of daily encourage-

ment – make sure he gets an oppor-

tunity to record small daily wins; that

should take care of his morale.

We also discussed the need of a writ-

ten performance monitoring docu-

ment. For those who feel that the

team-mate who needs a Performance

Improvement Plan (PIP) will never

succeed, I have many success stories

to offer – we have seen so many of

them succeed. In fact, I have used

this to my benefit many a times, in

making my team successful. So, I am

a believer in the power of a well-

JIGYASA 2016 49

planned, measurable PIP

that is reinforced by well-

intentioned and demon-

strated support and en-

couragement provided by

the manager. We dis-

cussed at length the key

ingredients of such a PIP.

Some points that I wish to

reiterate:

Clearly outline parameters of expected

improved performance. Please be objec-

tive in setting these parameters and ex-

plain clearly, leaving no room for ambi-

guity.

State the minimum expectation level of

performance.

Ensure there is an appreciation of con-

sistency of this improved performance.

This is crucial as sporadic spurts of im-

provement aren’t really sustainable.

Discuss and agree the upon feedback

mechanism. Specify the time and perio-

dicity of performance reviews. Set the

documentation mechanism of each re-

view stage.

Ensure he understands measurements

of improvement evaluation.

Specify what role you shall play in order

to make him successful.

Explain upfront if he needs to make any

changes in behaviour or attitude to-

wards work. Share examples.

Focus on ‘what if’ – clearly outline what

is the road ahead if expected perfor-

mance levels aren’t achieved on every

parameter, at various review stages.

With above parameters considered, you’d

have a robust PIP document ready. With this,

ensure you provide any other support, re-

source, training, et al, which will help him

expedite his improvement. Let me say, I have

always regarded problems as opportunities

to do better, gain experience, and learn

more, just to be a little bit smarter and per-

haps wiser on how to handle life issues and

situations.

After all, as they say, we learn best, not by

being taught and not by studying or reading,

but by experiencing and then reflecting on

what we did and what happened and then

drawing conclusions and experimenting. As a

coach, I’ve practiced this method with consid-

erable success; it helped me build and

develop stronger teams. I am quite

inspired by this leadership nugget

that I read long ago – ‘the tactics es-

poused by great managers of people

are very simple, they select people

based on talent; when setting expec-

tations for the team, they establish

the right outcomes; when motivating

an individual, they focus on

strengths; and, to develop an individ-

ual, find the right job fit for the per-

son.’

As we speak, you are currently man-

aging the second and the third as-

pect, and what will make you success-

ful is the willingness to make your

team successful. I am sure; you have

it in you do so. Please do reach out,

should you need any support from

me. Happy leading!

A rather long note, wasn’t it? How-

ever, it helped me manage the chal-

lenge at hand. Let me tell you, this

worked well for all the characters in

the story above. It helped each one

of us become better. It helped the

struggling employee receive a fair

chance to demonstrate improved

performance, guided and backed by

his supervisor’s encouragement

and intention to make her team suc-

cessful. It helped his supervisor

learn the leadership lesson in man-

aging poor performance; and

helped my lieutenant – the man-

ager’s manager – resolve a crucial

team managing issue and not miss

out on either productivity or morale

of his team. Given the fact that both

these managers were young profes-

sionals – both millennials – they

learnt the invaluable lesson on peo-

ple leadership and taking responsi-

bility for their teammates in an ut-

most well-intentioned manner, un-

like a lot of managers who consider

PIP only as route for creating docu-

mentation and exiting the employ-

ee.

And what did I get? Well, I got three

super-engaged team-mates in re-

turn. What else could a team-leader

ask for?

JIGYASA 2016 50

Disruptive changes in busi-

ness, society and nations are

possibly the strongest theme

of our time. Today, change

has become the most depend-

able reality in our lives and in

our world. The change is con-

tinuous, fast and disruptive.

This reality of today was not

true for the twentieth century

where the world seemed de-

pendable, uniform and operat-

ed with a fair degree of pre-

dictability. Organizations were

designed around central au-

thority, predictable business

models and a willingness to

follow the overarching cultural

and market rules. Today’s

VUCA world (Volatile, Uncer-

tain, Complex and Ambiguous

- An acronym coined by the US

military to describe extreme

conditions in Afghanistan and

Iran) is turbulent, unpredicta-

ble, fragile and most im-

portantly disruptive. Organiza-

tions and its leaders are oper-

ating in continual state of dis-

ruptive change led by technol-

ogy and innovation, unpredict-

ability and extreme complexi-

ty.

During the last one decade,

coaching has emerged as a

transformation tool of choice

to deal with the VUCA world

and the disruptive changes in

our ecosystem. Further, re-

search in the area of leader-

ship development points to

the fact that the old prescrip-

tive ways of developing lead-

ers based on a preset scale of

competencies does not help

them to address adaptive busi-

ness challenges in the VUCA

world. This calls for a greater

focus on building the

“capacity” of leaders to ad-

dress emerging business chal-

lenges through individual

transformation and change.

Therefore, traditional class-

room based training approach-

es may not be practical from a

business perspective and more

one on one coaching is called

for to address individual lead-

ership maturity and capacity

needs. Though cohort based

learning could support in shar-

ing best practices and learning

from peers.

There are many definitions

and perspectives on coaching.

However, the most insightful

perspective on coaching

comes from Tim Gallway, a

tennis expert. Galleway says-

“Coaching is unlocking per-

son’s potential to maximize

their own performance. It is

helping them to learn rather

than teaching them”. Every

word in Galleway’s articulation

is important: first it entails

that we must see people in

terms of their future potential,

not past performance, second,

it refers to unlocking the po-

tential which means the own-

ership for action rests with the

coachee and thirdly, coaching

is more of learning and less of

teaching. Coaching is a lot

about shifting perspectives of

the coachee and dynamically

changing the context they op-

erate from. I will elaborate

more on each of these ele-

ments, the underlying psycho-

dynamic principles, conditions

for ensuring success of coach

MAKARAND KHATAVKAR

Group Head – Hu-man Resources, heads the HR func-tion at Kotak Mahin-dra Bank Limited. With more than three decades of experi-ence, Makarand has held senior leader-ship roles at Multina-tional banks viz Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley & Merrill Lynch. Makarand has exten-sive experience in transformational leadership develop-ment, change man-agement, HR Strate-gy and executive coaching. An accred-ited coach, Makarand has

coached senior lev-el leaders across financial services, FMCG, Banking and Consulting sectors. He has passion for learn-ing and is fascinat-ed by innovation & technology. Makarand is an alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mum-bai. He holds a post-graduate cer-tificate in change management from Case Western Re-serve University, Cleveland, USA.

COACHING: THE CATALYST FOR

LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION

JIGYASA 2016 51

ing and the business

benefits of coaching.

Tim also highlights the

need for a coach to

identify the inner game

the coachee plays while

concentrating on the

outer game. The inner

game which comprises

beliefs, assumptions,

fears, and the mental

chatter has to be regu-

lated and managed by

the coachee to reach

the coachee’s poten-

tial.

Coaching is based on the fundamental

principle of identifying a person’s poten-

tial. Good people managers understand

this secret and they place bets on their

high potential talent. Celebrated executive

coach, John Whitmore, affirms that while it

is important for managers to focus on peo-

ples’ potential, it is even more important

for people to recognize their own hidden

potential. Whitmore believes that only 40%

of people’s potential manifests successful-

ly at workplace. The rest of the potential

remains hidden and dormant. Both exter-

nal and internal blocks obstruct the mani-

festation of complete potential. Typical

reasons for untapped and dormant poten-

tial are lack of opportunities, restrictive HR

practices and manager’s incessant focus

on results chucking individual develop-

ment to chance. Thankfully the picture is

changing and coaching has certainly

earned respect as a key development inter-

vention in organizations. Executive coach-

ing has come a long way in last one dec-

ade. Perpetual demand on leaders and

employees to deal quickly and frequently

with paradoxes and complexities of work

and life has increased dramatically. To ef-

fectively navigate the complex change pro-

cess, the need for top-class executive

coaches has become greater than ever be-

fore. Coaches are engaged for a variety of

needs and specialities like executive

coaching, performance coaching, leader-

ship coaching, public speaking & voice

coaching, life coaching etc. HBR’s research

report identifies top three reasons why

coaches are engaged and these are:

to develop high potentials, as a

sounding board, and to address de-

railing behaviours.

Clearly executive coaching is growing

by leaps and bounds. As per ICF-PWC

(International Coach Federation) re-

search report, the coaching industry

globally is estimated over 2 billion

(USD) in revenue/ income.

Evidently, executive coaching has

earned recognition as a potent trans-

formation tool among business lead-

ers. Coaching is about bringing the

desired behavioural change in the

coachee. I would like to elaborate on

the principles on which the science

and art on which coaching is based.

The first principle is more self-

awareness creates a strong foundation

for change. Self-awareness demands

two outcomes: the ability to be con-

scious of one’s own sense of self,

emotions and behaviours providing a

congruence in our thought, speech

and action and secondly there must

be a cohesion between how we see

ourselves and how others see us.

People can regulate and change only

those patterns of behaviours they are

aware of and are willing to engage

with. This awareness helps in attitude

change, overthrow self-imposed limi-

tations and build skills for change.

The second principle of coaching is

taking responsibility for own actions

but do remember that people take re-

sponsibility when they are able to ex-

ercise choice. Deep down people want

to have choice and independence. All

the progress in the world has taken

place because humans wanted choice.

For example, passionate people make

conscious choice and this ability to

choose results in exemplary commit-

ment. In a healthy coaching relation-

ship, a coachee chooses his agenda

and acts on it. A coach merely stands

by and guides the coaches in a non-

directive way. This simple principle of

choice leading to responsibility and

commitment makes change in behav-

iour possible.

JIGYASA 2016 52

The third key principle

of coaching is- there is

no-risk path. In fact

doing nothing in itself

is a risk since one will

end up with a default

future which happens to them

and they have no influence

over. A coach pushes coachee

out of his/her comfort zone for

superior results. This is where a

skilled coach makes a big dif-

ference. As a matter fact, smart

coachees are aware of what

they need to do and what risks to take

but it takes a strong coach to transcend

beyond the self-imposed, self-limiting

and self-defying limits. Tim Galleway, in

his book “The Inner Game of Tennis”

makes a profound point when he says-

the most common complaint of sports-

men ringing down the corridors of the

ages is “It’s not that I don’t know what to

do, it’s that I don’t do what I know”.

Therefore, each of us seems to have an

inbuilt immunity to change and transfor-

mation.

The fourth key principle is all coaching

conversations are laid on a powerful

questions that open up coachee’s mind.

Skilful questioning is the best tool in the

hands of a coach and if used well can

bring about ground-breaking changes. It

is based on the well-known norm that

telling or asking closed ended questions

saves people trouble to think, however,

asking open ended questions pushes

people to think on their feet. All of us

have heard about 5W1H framework of

asking questions but let me tell you that

good coaches never use WHY question.

The reason is simple- a WHY question im-

plies criticism and makes people defen-

sive. Consider these questions asked by

a driving instructor to a learner driver:

the first question is- “Why don’t you slow

down your car near traffic light instead of

breaking hard?” The answer could be “No

I tried to slow it down” or “I don’t know”.

Now replace the question with: “How will

you mentally calculate the breaking dis-

tance as the traffic light changes?” or still

better “What should be the safest speed

of the car when you are expecting the

traffic lights to change?” Questions

without why will not only remove de-

fensiveness but will also help a new

driver improve his driving skills. As a

matter of fact, answers to questions

gives valuable data for coachee to act

and helps the coach in determining the

next line of questioning. Questions are

the building blocks of good coaching

conversation. Marilee Adams, executive

coach and consultant has aptly said

that “Great results begin with great

questions!”

Structuring a coaching session needs a

framework. The GROW model (Goal,

Reality, Options, Wrap-up) is one of the

most common coaching models used

by many great coaches. The GROW

framework provides a simple four step

structure for focussed coaching con-

versation. During the first step of a

session (Goal), coach and coachee

agree on a specific topic and objective

for the discussion. During the second

step (Reality) both coach and coachee

do reality testing thru assessments,

perspective testing and objective feed-

back. Then they move into the third

step (Options) where suggestions of-

fered to solve the problem and differ-

ent choices are evaluated. And finally

(Wrap-up) the coach and the coachee

commit to a set of actions, define a

timeline and agree on how to measure

progress. In other words, the GROW

model deals with four fundamental

questions- G (Goals) what do you want?

R (Reality) what is the present situa-

tion? O (Options) what could you do?

And W (Wrap-up) what will you do?

Coaching, if used well, can make a pos-

itive difference and save billions of dol-

lars worlwide but you must be aware of

two key challenges. Coaching practice

remains unregulated industry world-

wide and it has become fashionable for

retired executives to anoint themselves

as executive coaches (some years back

the self-awarded label was consultant!).

The second and the most important

issue is untrained individuals calling

themselves as coaches is causing huge

damage to this respectable profession.

Some international bodies are doing

JIGYASA 2016 53

their bit by offering certifications but their

effort is neither guaranteeing highest

coaching quality nor protecting some of

the best coaches. Therefore, identifying

qualified coaches with deep management

and leadership experience is a key chal-

lenge for Human Resource managers.

Making a coaching relationship successful

is a three way responsibility. It is shared by

the coachee, coach and coachee’s manag-

er. That said, there are some preconditions

for the success of coaching. A coachee

must see himself honestly - this is easier

said than done. All of us have blindspots

and unfortunately higher the executive is in

the hierarchy, more damaging the blind-

spots could be. It is very difficult to help a

coachee who is in denial mode. The second

condition is a coachee must acknowledge

his own contribution to certain dysfunc-

tional patterns of behaviour. All of us have

negative and dysfunctional patterns of be-

haviours or in other words the shadow or a

dark side of our personality. Acknowledg-

ing this shadow is a bold step. Simple

acknowledgement of the dark side is no

guarantee that improvement will happen

but awareness and acceptance of one’s

contribution to dysfunctional behaviour can

lay a solid foundation for long term behav-

ioural change. Staying in the shadow, ac-

knowledging it and identifying a way out of

it would help for individuals to overcome

the limitations that come in the way of lib-

erating themselves.

Thirdly, a cocahee must be open to feed-

back. A 360 degree feedback is used com-

monly. Some coaches even include spous-

es, children, close family members and

friends in addition to work colleagues to

identify behavioural patterns. It is im-

portant that a coachee must be self-

reflective. Making sense of highly complex

behavioural data can be overwhelming and

therefore coachee’s emotional maturity and

their level of consciousness both for their

current state of being and for the need to

transform and change becomes crucial for

individual transformation.

Finally, the coachee’s manager must also

be supportive and offer many opportunities

to experiment with new behaviours at

work. In essence, success of coaching is a

shared responsibility of coachee, coach and

coachee’s superior. Unless the manager is

able to create the appropriate environ-

ment for the coachee to operate in the

transformed space and also provide feed-

back on an ongoing basis, the coachee

will not be able to live his/her transfor-

mation and could potentially slip back

into their comfort zones.

As coaching comes of age and managing

leadership transformation for individuals

continue to remain top management

agenda, behavioural scientists are trying

new approaches to coaching. Skill, per-

formance and behavioural coaching is

practiced by coaches but honestly the

results are mixed.

Let’s understand this with a pyramid

model. A human personality can be un-

derstood at three levels. At the top of the

pyramid is observable behaviours, ac-

tions, what someone says and does. Be-

low this level are underlying drivers that

get manifested as personal style, prefer-

ences, motivations, assumptions and be-

liefs, mental models which is also re-

ferred as the person’s DNA. At the bot-

tom of the pyramid is deep life experi-

ences, childhood experiences that

shaped your personality and even abuses

that a person may have subjected to as a

child. This is a broad structure of our

personality. Most coaches operate at the

top of the pyramid. Performance and skill

coaches typically operate at this level

with occasional dabbling at the next level

of underlying drivers. Let me explain this

with a real-life example of a manager

who came to me for improving his dele-

gation skills. I taught him some tools to

help him to delegate both task and au-

thority but retain the overall accountabil-

ity. This coaching operated at behaviour-

al level. After more probing I realized

that this manager’s belief was that he

cannot go wrong and that everything he

does has to be perfect, therefore there

was a significant resistance to delegate.

Finally I realised that as a child he was

punished severely whenever he made a

mistake. This was the root cause level

intervention. After some deep, passion-

ate and personal dialogue, the manager

realized the root causes of his behaviour

and his behaviour changed. In next few

years, he became skilled at delegating

JIGYASA 2016 54

and earned well de-

served career growth.

Coaching at the bottom

of the pyramid is gener-

ally avoided and is of-

ten considered the

realm of trained psychi-

atrists. However, well

trained coaches can

help coachees touch the

deeper core of their

personality to get permanent re-

sults. The psychodynamic ap-

proach to coaching can create

positive and lasting results. This

is not to suggest that coaches

have to be trained in psychiatry

but well-trained and skilled

coaches can certainly help indi-

viduals to explore the core of

personality for lasting changes.

As mentioned earlier, the effectiveness of

the coaching process is a function of the

personal involvement of the coachee and

his/her commitment to walk on the trans-

formation path. However, sound coaching

processes operate on certain best practic-

es, and a few recommendations from re-

nowned coaches have been listed below.

These best practices ensure that the

coachee is well supported and equipped on

the journey of self-discovery

Self-Awareness and Responsibility: Coach-

ing works because it adheres to the key

principles of development, that is, self-

awareness and responsibility. In coaching

situations, these are not mere advocacy

measures but a journey of self-discovery

that a coachee must undertake. Perhaps

one of the first tasks for a coach is to cre-

ate self-awareness for coachees that culti-

vates self-reliance, self-belief and self-

dependability. Responsibility is crucial for

high performance. When we accept respon-

sibility for our thoughts, actions and conse-

quences, our commitment and perfor

mance intensifies. Stretch Goals: Profes-

sional coaches believe that people possess

more capability than they currently ex-

press. We all have seen people give their

best during crisis. The capacity exists and

crisis is the catalyst. Coaches derive the

best from coachees with carefully designed

stretch goals and actions. Coaches see

people in terms of their future potential,

not their past performance or historical

track record no matter how impressive it

might be. Transitional Space: Great

coaches create transformational changes

by creating transitional space – a place

where a coachee can experiment with

new behaviours without being afraid of

failure or criticism. No other develop-

ment tool provides such robust safety

net to experiment, reflect and learn. New

experiences and perspectives push

coachees out of their comfort zone and

trigger powerful learnings that last.

Spirit of Inquiry: A central skill of a good

coach is to ask powerful questions.

Questions could take many forms but

discovery is the foundation. Powerful

questions make coachees think creative-

ly, examine core issues and take actions.

Powerful questions open the blind spots

and encourage a coachee todiscuss

“ u n d i s c u s s a b l e s ” .

Agenda: A coach always works on the

coachee’s agenda, which makes the pro-

cess of coaching powerful than any oth-

er. The coach’s role is to influence the

agenda, not set it. The learning experi-

ence is first and foremost, for and about

the coachee. Coaches view coachees as

Michelangelo’s marble block – once you

remove the excess material, a beautiful

s t a t u e e m e r g e s .

Coaching is not merely a problem fixing

technique, but a managerial philosophy

and a powerful world view. The INSEAD

Global Leadership Centre believes that

leadership coaching is more an art of dis-

covery than a technology of delivery.

Coaching is not something that you do to

people but entails a joint accountability,

exploration and partnership.

JIGYASA 2016 55

When you enter the premises

of a public sector bank and

see few counters with heavy

rush and few others deserted,

you may feel why the load is

not shared by others. Similar

such encounters are common

at many institutions which are

governed by the government

or which traditionally have

clear-cut demarcation of the

job profiles of their employ-

ees. At times when you apply

for a service/product to such

banks or similar such organi-

zations, you are asked to wait

or visit them next day or after

few days as it involves applica-

tion handling, forwards, sanc-

tions, approvals, delivery, etc.

And all these processes are

handled by different individu-

als. So it ought to take time.

Some of the organizations

have moved towards having e-

approvals, which is relatively

faster. However the core issue

is that if the matter does not

involve some serious business

implications and the issue can

easily be handled by front of-

fice staff, what is the need of

carrying through the long bu-

reaucratic process.

Many modern day organiza-

tions have evolved processes

to provide an autonomy to the

dealing concerned person to

take the call and decide at that

level. This has been termed as

empowering employees. Em-

ployees take decisions on be-

half of organization and are

made accountable. This is a

two way sword as it develops a

sense of ownership and pride

in the minds of employees and

on the other hand helps in

faster decision making where-

by improving organizational

performance. In the process

expectations of the stakehold-

ers are met, psychological

needs of employees are ad-

dressed and service-value

needs of clients/customer are

responded well through this

mechanism. Ultimately it is

the employees who win cus-

tomers, it is they who matter

more than a customer. Only

satisfied employees can get

you satisfied customers.

Traditionally HR has not been

finding place in the board

rooms but as competition is

growing and the customers

are making informed choices

and decisions, it is becoming

crucial to address the needs of

the employees and to allow

them to take decisions at their

level. The role of HR in strate-

gic decision making has start-

ed getting prominence and HR

academics as well as practi-

tioners are sounding bullish

on making them part of the

board room. This view has

emerged from the base of al-

lowing employees to take the

call at their level and to stand

accountable for their deci-

sions.

Technology is a great disrup-

tor in nurturing the culture of

engagement and empower-

ment in organizations both for

its employees as well as cli-

ents. Most of the technology

driven companies are using

different types of prescrip-

tions, programs and platforms

VIJAY KUMAR

SHOTRIYA

Vijay Kumar Shrotriya is pro-fessor at Depart-ment of Com-merce, Universi-ty of Delhi. He is an M Com, LL B, PHD. Prof. Shrotriya is a recipient of Young Re-searcher Award. His area of inter-est is Organisa-tional Happi-ness, Leader-ship, CSR and Training & De-velopment.

WHY EMPOWER EMPLOYEES?

JIGYASA 2016 56

to engage their employees and

empowering them through

their participation in decision

making. In-house surveys are

conducted to track their per-

ception about their level of en-

gagement and empowerment.

The practices are reformulated

and followed in response to

the survey reports.

Empowering employees also helps in

developing innovative products and de-

signing new and updated services.

Google is an excellent example of em-

powering employees to innovate and

participate in product development, de-

signing and delivery. Through Google

Cafes, employees interact across teams

and are allowed to send direct mail to

any of its leaders. They have designed

Google Moderator which works as inno-

vation management tool facilitating tech

-talks and allowing anyone participating

to ask a question and there could be

voting as well on preferred answer. This

tool also provides insights into existing

pool of ideas, questions and sugges-

tions and also respond to them. This

open environment allows employees to

express themselves freely and positively

which in turn helps them develop them-

selves better. There are many such plat-

forms for employees at Google which

empower them through learning and

development. Google employees feel

highly empowered.

In India we have an organization called HCL

Technologies which provides opportunities to

its employees to raise issues and seek clarifica-

tions and guidance. Much talked about ap-

proach as advocated and practiced by their

CEO, Vineet Nayar, Employees First Customer

Second, has helped HCL technologies to have

an edge over their competitors as well as to re-

duce attrition rate effectively.

Engagement and empowerment are closely knit

concepts and widely accepted practices across

small or big organizations. It is reported that

in India only around 9-10 percent of employees

are fully engaged as against 15 percent as per

global standards and globally around 25 per-

cent are disengaged as against 30 percent in

India. We have much greater a challenge to deal

with and I believe the organiza-

tions have to develop employ-

ees through their effective en-

gagement. Their participation

in decision making and re-

sponding to the need of fellow

workers have to be tackled af-

fectionately so that their sense

of belonging and citizenship

can boost their morale to per-

form better in the interest of the

organization. And yes this also

asks for HR being part of the

board room.

Next time when you visit a pri-

vate sector bank, just observe,

do you see long queues. When

you visit a privately run organi-

zation, you may observe their

employees multitasking and

helping their counterparts who

might have more workload. If

we have to sustain better organ-

izational performance in the

competitive environment, we

have to move from disengage-

ment to engagement, we would

need to have open structures

and systems in order to allow

employees to freely interact and

express their concern on build-

ing the organization. And that

is possible only when an organi-

zation opts for new thinking

and new way to look at whole

philosophy of managing men.

The organizations have to com-

mand respect and oblige their

employees through a belief that

- We need you to remain market

relevant and to respond to the

call of the customer. And that

is possible through empowering

them to take and own decisions.

JIGYASA 2016 57

Question: How will you de-

scribe your experiences in

Human Resources so far?

How has it evolved when

you started out versus to-

day?

Answer: It has been a fantas-

tic HR journey for the last 17

years after I post graduated

from Delhi School of Econom-

ics in 1999. In these 17 years,

I have been part HR function

of some of the most admired

Indian and Multi-National

Companies. I had privilege of

managing HR both in India as

well as outside India. My roles

evolved from operational HR

to strategic HR as I moved

from one company to another.

Roles also evolved from being

highly domestic to very cross

cultural and International in

nature. All this while, HR itself

has moved from a peripheral

function to core part of organ-

ization’s strategy.

Question: As we see today,

technology is forming a very

critical part of HR. Do you

think technology can be

used to optimize various HR

processes and the way em-

ployees are serviced and en-

gaged?

Answer: Technology is chang-

ing every aspect of the organi-

zation today and is going to

continue making significant

impact on HR Function as well.

Technology has ability to en-

hance productivity by auto-

mating multiple processes that

impact employees. HR Service

delivery using technology has

already made big inroads in

the organization. We are no

longer required to push pa-

pers to employees and that

itself is a big change. I expect

technology to play bigger role

in helping HR professionals

take more informed decisions

on all aspect of the HR func-

tion like talent management,

selection, training etc. HR Ana-

lytics, which is driven by adop-

tion of technology, has tre-

mendous scope predict and

manage HR metrics. I am sure

that HR technology will shape

the way we manage and en-

gage our employees.

Question: What according to

you are the current trends

that is going to shape the

future of performance man-

agement and performance

appraisal?

Answer: Current trend in per-

formance management is

clearly towards more periodic

feedback on performance ra-

ther than yearend feedback

mechanism. We also see a

trend that companies are re-

sorting to feedback on employ-

ee from multiple sources like

peers, customers etc. to make

the feedback more complete.

We are also witnessing a big

debate on companies moving

away from normalization of

performance.

Question: How can HR Man-

agers contribute to ensure

effective performance man-

agement in the organiza-

tion? What are the reasons

for failing performance man-

agement?

Avadhesh

is a Global HR Leader with HR work experience across all HR functions. He has exten-sive International HR experience in UK and Ireland and has led HR function for USA, Europe, Latin America and Middle East.

Currently, Avadhesh is Head Global HR at Moody's Copal Amba. He is leading the HR function that is spread across India , Sri Lanka, Costa Rica and China. He is accounta-ble for HR Strategy and HR operations for the global organiza-tion with more than 2500 financial services and analytics profes-sionals. Previous to Moody's, Avadhesh was Vice President & Head HR for GE Capi-tal's BPM unit and GE-SBI JV in the space of retail cards. Before GE, Avadhesh was Head Global HR and part of Management Team at CMC Ltd. As Head-Global HR, he was responsible for HR strategy and HR Service Delivery for 12000+ employees across India, USA, UK & EMEA. Avadhesh has worked in Interna-tional HR and was based in London, (UK) for 4 years. He is Certified Global Professional in HR (GPHR) from SHRM, USA. He is active speaker on all dimen-sions of HR in various HR conferences.

INTERVIEW:

AVADHESH DIXIT

JIGYASA 2016 58

Answer: The biggest role that

HR professional can play is to

ensure that performance man-

agement is not restricted to an-

nual ritual of completing PMS

for the purpose of compensa-

tion review alone. Real value of

PMS is in constructive feedback

to employees to help improve

their performance and guide

them on development and ca-

reer planning.

Question: What are the most

important components of per-

formance appraisal ?

Answer: Most important com-

ponent of PMS is development of

employee. It’s important that

PMS becomes the basis for

meaningful dialogue with the

employee and a tool that helps

them navigate their careers. It

becomes important that employ-

ee gets feedback on his perfor-

mance from all stakeholders

and the exercise should not be

reduced to annual ritual. Out-

put from the feedback mecha-

nism should become integral

part of employee development

programs in the company.

Question: To what extent we

can link performance manage-

ment to employee’s career

progression? What are the

ways to do that?

Answer: Good PMS process will

establish clear linkages with ca-

reer development and overall

employee development. Output

from PMS must feed into Train-

ing Needs and career planning

process. PMS process should

identify people who are ready to

take up higher roles and HR

should facilitate that process

with line managers.

Question: There has been a

new wave of entrepreneurship

in India recently but most HR

processes of startups are un-

organized. What, in your opin-

ion, should be the starting

point when designing all HR

processes?

Answer: As the startups scale

up their organizations, all HR

processes should also scale up

to keep pace with the organi-

zation. HR professionals

should be at the center of

these initiative. This can

achieved through scaling up

HR technology, designing rele-

vant HR processes and build-

ing culture that supports high

growth. PMS is at the core of

building culture that supports

organizational priorities.

Starting point could be to de-

sign good and robust PMS that

supports growth.

JIGYASA 2016 59

Question: What are the traits of

an HR manager?

Answer: People who are successful

in HR must know the business. Of-

ten people forgot that they are

serving the entire business. For ex-

ample, if you don’t understand

what customers want from HR,

how are we you going to go about

hiring the right kind of salesmen!

Now, if you are working in automo-

bile industry versus in airline in-

dustry, some elements will be com-

mon and some will be different. For

one, customer service will be same.

But the technical game will be dif-

ferent. So one needs to mold him-

self according to the business.

Strategy and growth.

Secondly, HR is the flagbearer of

the organization, like the General

of an army. He is the one who peo-

ple look up to for direction. So he

should keep the company’s flag fly-

ing high.

Thirdly, HR is the one who upholds

the values in an organization. He

keep the values and boundaries of

the organization intact. Therefore,

HR manager must realize that he is

responsible for setting a culture in

the organization.

Fourth, the HR manager should be

the master of his subject. Nobody

in the organization should know

more than you because everybody

thinks they know HR. So you must

know it in depth and understand

the principles. For example, if your

CEO asks you how many goals

should we have and he suggests 8

goals, you should be able to cite

relevant studies and tell him that

people lose track after the 5th

goal.

That is the kind of grip you should

have on your subject. So always

have enough data and knowledge

to support your decisions.

Lastly, always champion the cause

of your employees. One should be

able to stand up to the manage-

ment for the rights of the employ-

ees. The leadership model that I

follow is servant-leadership

model, wherein, the leader is

the servant and not the high

command.

Question: How important is

empathy in HR?

Answer: Empathy is important

but it is not the only thing re-

quired. Empathy usually stops

at understanding. However, it

should extend to listening.

There is a concept called gener-

ative listening which is the

fourth level of listening. After

one has understood the prob-

lem, one should be willing to

come up with solutions as well.

It should not stop at taking

stock of the situation.

How do you think has HR trans-

formed when you compare the

times when you joined to today?

When I joined, there was a de-

bate on whether we require HR

or not. That debate still exists.

The companies are changing

the nomenclature of the titles

conferred on HR professionals.

I see analytics as an emerging

field. Talent management has

evolved a lot. We talk about sci-

entific ways of measuring tal-

ent, rewarding talent and keep-

ing talent. Learning and devel-

opment as a function has cov-

ered significant traction, for

example, gamification.

It is important for HR manager

to understand numbers. I have

handled Rs. 450 crores worth of

payroll. Someone in that capaci-

ty should definitely be well-

versed with financial aspects of

the business.

Something that is not taught at

B-Schools is how to interview.

Most management graduates

take their first job in Talent Ac-

quisition domain, but it is im-

perative to understand behav-

ioral patterns and develop keen-

ness to peer through one’s

mind.

Rajan is Co founder of Salto Dee Fe and is Con-sulting in the areas of

Organisation Transformation, Talent Manage-ment, Employee Retention, People Decisions and Leadership Skil-ling. He is

focused on solving "People Problems" to enhance productivity and engagement. Have recently built a revolutionary mobile application to en-hance performance of employees through changing behaviour @www.karmanotebook.com. He has served more than 40 clients in past 4 years in 18 industry segments across Asia and Eu-rope. More that 40% of our clients give us repeat business. He has more than Two decades of HR experi-ence involving in-depth work in Busi-ness HR role, Large Scale Organisation Transformation, Or-ganisation Enable-ment & Talent Man-agement (including Acquisition & Reten-tion). He is successful in working at the inter-section of Strategy & HR : Sales & HR. For over a decade directed, motivated and created value for an organization through its Human Resource function, managing a workforce of 15000+ He have experience in wide range of indus-tries - Manufacturing, Automobiles, Consult-ing, FMCG & Financial Services

INTERVIEW:

RAJAN KALIA

JIGYASA 2016 60

The metamorphosis of the traditional

HR from a humble support function

into a more powerful strategic posi-

tion has been underway for long. A

new development in the available hu-

man resources is becoming prevalent

and demands urgent attention. There

is no denying that now is the time of

millennials, and Generation Z is gear-

ing up to climb the corporate ladder. I

t is estimated that by 2020, the mil-

lennial generation will make up for

50% of the global workforce. By 2025,

that number is likely to reach 75%.

With this dynamic shift in the compo-

sition of the workforce, new trends in

the organization culture are bound to

brew.

Human Resource Management as

complex it is, not only needs to iden-

tify the gaps, but also evolve to adapt

to the requisite changes in the sys-

tem.

From wanting a flexible approach to

work and timely feedback, millennials

expect rapid progression and a liberal

workplace culture. In the data com-

piled by PiQube, the fact that stands

out is 2 out of every 3 millennials

want to take up management roles in

another three years. When this hap-

pens, it will catalyze a radical modifi-

cation in the strategic direction of the

organizations and most certainly

bring about a massive alteration in

the processes and the framework. Key

highlights in PiQube’s survey of the

trends that millennials are transport-

ing into the workplace are:

Firstly, the need to have topnotch

technology. Aptly called the iGener-

ation, updated services and solu-

tions are a must in the workplace.

Secondly, a heavier focus on results

than on hours of work is levied by

this generation. Flexible work hours

are a preference of about three

fourth of the millennial generation.

Thirdly, pay is not the deciding fac-

tor for the new leaders. More than

60% believe in non financial re-

wards and consider them as a re-

ward strategy of the future. Recog-

nition is more important than mon-

etary incentives.

Fourthly, for 88% of the re-

spondents’ employer branding

is paramount. They price

strong mission/value systems

and are willing to work for less

pay with an organization that

matched best with their ethical

and social beliefs.

Lastly, factors like work from

home and open communication

policy rank high in the list of

essentials for choosing a job.

On the other hand, the millen-

nial generation believes that

dress code does not affect their

productivity in any way.

With all these in place, the big-

gest of challenges arrive for HR

departments in terms of design-

ing an effective plan to cater to

all the different groups.

The semblance is only in terms of

the need to succeed, the path to-

wards the same is bifurcated. Var-

ied definitions of success prevail

for both the generations.

Striking a balance between man-

aging collaboratively and grant-

ing autonomy seems to be the

key. Need of the hour is to identi-

fy the potential of Generation Y

and Generation Z, and then in-

habit in the organization a cul-

ture of support which is mutually

beneficial to all age groups.

For this, HR function needs to be

robust and updated. A farewell to

the old system which weighs on

fixed schedules, obsolete paper-

work, monetary incentives and

reviews at the end of the year is

required. Stress must be on the

pace. The escalating standards

of productivity and rising bench-

marks of efficiency necessitate

transformation. It must be taken

into consideration that the expec-

tations of the new generations

focus on achievement and thus,

demand a high degree of flexibil-

ity. With more millennials enter-

ing the workplace and job-

hopping every couple of years,

companies that learn to embrace

change will be the ones who win

in the talent capitalization game.

JUHI JAIN

Juhi Jain is a first year stu-dent of MBA (HRD) at Depart-ment of Com-merce, Delhi School of Eco-nomics where she is also a member of Cor-porate Rela-tions Team.

AGE OF MILLENNIALS AND IGEN-

ERATION- CHANGING PARADIGMS

OF HR

JIGYASA 2016 61

“World War I was not inevitable, as

many historians say. It could have

been avoided, and it was a diplo-

matically botched negotiation.” -

Richard Holbrooke

Negotiation is an inevitable aspect

of business. Therefore, when com-

panies move cross-border owing

to globalization, efforts can be

marred by cultural differences

leading to businesses not achiev-

ing their desired objectives. If ig-

nored, these differences can im-

pede business transactions signifi-

cantly. Even subtle differences

need to be kept in mind, else con-

sequences can be drastic. Take for

instance a contract offered by a

Japanese cable company to an

American manufacturer. When the

order was delivered, the Japanese

rejected the consignment in spite

of all specifications been met. The

reason quoted was that the cables

looked ugly. This was beyond the

understanding of Americans, as

the cables were to remain hidden

under ground. But for the Japa-

nese, aesthetics was an essential

aspect irrespective of the product.

What led to the failure, in this

case, was that both parties ig-

nored cultural differences com-

pletely when negotiating contract

terms.

Differences can come into play not

only as ideas and beliefs but also

as processes followed. To reach

an acceptable consensus during

negotiations, these must be deep-

ly studied a priori.

Bridging the players and process-

es

The negotiating parties may be

organized in a different way. While

one party may have a supreme in-

dividual decision maker, the other

side may be team oriented and

consensus based. It is there-

fore, essential to identify the

key players and put forth argu-

ments tactically.

Also, the negotiating teams

may have other parties in-

volved who may influence the

decision. For example, private

Chinese companies most often

have a local political party offi-

cial on the team and labor un-

ion members serve as repre-

sentatives on the Board of Di-

rectors in German companies.

Even entities like the mafia in

Russia need to be considered.

The opposite party must

hence shun home-market pre-

sumptions and keep every-

one’s interest in mind.

Adapt to the Approach

When we negotiate with peo-

ple, we typically seek to influ-

ence the outcome of an organ-

izational process. These pro-

cesses can vary across cul-

tures and call for strategically

planned negotiation tactics.

If the counterparts view the

purpose of negotiation as to

build a long term relationship,

it would be worthwhile to add

efforts and explain how the

bond between the companies

would be fruitful in the long

run. However, if the goal is to

seal the deal, then relationship

building would be a waste of

time and energy. One party

trying to speed up processes

to save time may be seen by

the other as unseemly haste

and may ultimately give up on

K NAGA DEEPIKA

K Naga Deepika is a second year student of MBA Indian In-stitute of Man-agement at In-dore where she is pursuing her PGP .

CULTURAL IMPACT ON

NEGOTIATION

JIGYASA 2016 62

the deal. Also, the general

perception of people in a

country may differ. While one

party may view negotiations

as a problem-solving and col-

laborative process (win-win),

the other may see it as con-

frontational (win-lose). Hence,

tactics need to be devised to

win a negotiation based on

these views. The degree of

formality in demeanor and

attitude may also differ

across nations. While Ameri-

cans use first name-basis to

build friendly ties, Germans

are more formal insisting on

addressing people by their

titles and avoiding a personal

touch.

The way of communicating

also varies across cultures.

Japanese tend to use gestures

and body language to com-

municate acceptance or rejec-

tion. A more direct and infor-

mal party can come across as

aggressive and insulting to

them, exacerbating relations

between the two sides. Deal

makers, hence need to learn

not only the technical aspects

of negotiating but also the

softer elements such as read-

ing emotions and body lan-

guage to steer the deal to-

wards success as per indirect

responses from the other

end.

In order to tackle these differ-

ences, two approaches were

introduced. The first was

building-down, where the

complete deal is presented

and slowly chiseled as per

conditions accepted/rejected.

This method is generally pre-

ferred by the Americans. The

Japanese, conversely, wel-

come the building-up ap-

proach where a minimum

deal is proposed and gradual-

ly broadened as the other

party accepts additional condi-

tions.

Other cultural aspects that

come into play are the process

and form of building agree-

ment. As we saw earlier, Ameri-

cans place a lot of emphasis on

the contract, hence it is easy to

assume that they insist on

clearly defined terms to ad-

dress future contingencies. The

Chinese on the other hand set-

tle for broader terms and pre-

fer to use the relations built to

resolve conflicts. They view de-

tailed terms as lack of confi-

dence by the other party in the

underlying relationship.

Ultimately, it is worth noting

that cultural allegiances are not

as simple as they appear. While

national culture can tell a lot

about the person sitting across

the table, each person is an

amalgamation of varied cul-

tures, each one affecting the

negotiation style. Gender, eth-

nicity, education and profes-

sion, all play a role. But more

importantly, it is being able to

assess the intricacies of the or-

ganization, its governance and

decision-making structure, be-

hind this person, that is im-

portant. Devising a culturally-

fit strategy with arguments

aimed at the right people is

what will help strike a sustaina-

ble deal.