workplace culture - humility

Expert technologists play significant roles in high tech knowledge work environments. Accomplished thought leaders, business strategists, product and solution architects and top-notch electronic hardware designers are some sample segments of the "creamy layer" of the knowledge industry. They are respected and valued for the breadth and depth of their knowledge in their chosen areas -not just knowledge, but knowledge that translates directly into successful business ideas!

The value they create for the business they work for makes them often highly visible in the community around them. The circles around them are largely dependent on such idea generators for converting their priced ideas to products and solutions for the market.

The preeminence enjoyed by such sought-after segment of knowledge workers (the creamy layer) should never alienate them from the majority who take their ideas to the next levels of fruition. The highly talented few need to make sure that all the other knowledge workers feel comfortable to work with them. The select few need to be approachable. Rather they need to often volunteer support to the remaining majority of knowledge workers. Such a rapport if established will make a multiplying effect to the effectiveness and efficiency factors at workplace. We can imagine how significant will be the consequent business advantage!

Such a state of rapport can not be taken always for granted. Organization leaders need to be constantly vigilant to monitor the health of such relationships. Appropriate coaching by talented and influential leaders is an important element in maintaining such healthy work environment with a mix of knowledge workers of different expertise levels. As in many things, early detection and correction is the success formula.

Humility at all levels is a highly desirable quality that can be made a part of an organization's culture.

work pressure and stress

The technological advances we have seen in the last couple of decades have enabled extremely high productivity in many areas. We constantly raise the bar further; always set higher goals leading to more innovations that enable higher productivity and efficiency. We tend to believe that we improve our quality of our lives. Certainly in a materialistic way the quality of our lives have been constantly changing at a very fast rate.

The contradiction is that we see more and more cases of work related stress as we achieve greater improvements in quality of life. The very fact that we hear more often about stress management techniques is probably because we have more and more people who need to manage stress. Especially, stress at work has been on the rise. For material success in today's world, growth of business has become the single most important measure. Workers, professionals and leaders get sucked into the whirlpool of work pressure created by the ever-increasing business targets. The competition is so fierce that no one in the business-chain has an escape from this scenario, particularly if one is conscious about one's own performance at work.

But we do come across great leaders who are able to drive huge business successes and still manage the work pressures and consequent stress or, I would even say, remain stress-free! How do they do that? It will be very interesting to understand that success formula. I have seen people crumbling under work pressure; some fail to continue; some with sheer determination achieve their performance goals but completely stressed out at the end. I have also seen people who choose themselves to remain mid-level performers and contain the work pressure; and thereby manage the work-related stress. For many of them, it has become almost a norm today to resort to some kind of stress relieving techniques that are readily available in the market.

My experience is that work related stress materializes primarily from the attitude towards work. The simple observation is that if I consider work as a burden, more work is higher burden. So the mental pressure mounts and stress materializes. Each one of us needs to ask ourselves certain questions: am I on the right job? Or, do I possess all the skills needed to perform in my current job? If the answer is yes, I think, it is relatively easier to train ourselves for a stress-free life at work. If I am on the right job or if I have all the skills to perform in my job, stress cannot be due to my inability to do the tasks in my job. It should be certainly something else. For convenience, I would like to term anything beyond skills and capabilities needed in our jobs as complexity. Complexity at work appear in various forms and colors. Many a time, an instance of such complexities will completely confuse and tire you; it may even give seriously shocking experiences.

How can we address complexity? I am sure we can not avoid complexity in today's world; rather it is increasing in all walks of life on a day to day basis. Complexity can give the feeling that the work is impossible to do or it is too voluminous to complete on time. If I have already done an assessment and I am convinced of my skills to perform in my job, then I need to develop the rght attitude towards work. I need to see every single complex problem that confronts me at work as an opportunity to enjoy. Think of the joy I will have when I would have solved a very complex puzzle. Every complex issue or task at work should be an interesting puzzle for me to apply all my skills, capablities and thought. Doesn't the goal sound a very positive one - the immeasurable joy when I find the resolution to my complex problem? And, I should enjoy the "journey"too. Working through each complex task is a journey to be enjoyed until I reach the destination, only to find the ultimate joy of reaching the destination (which is the solution to your complex problem).

If we develop an attitude like that towards work, we could better manage work-related stress(maybe we could even become stress-free). If we do something that we always enjoy, I do not think that it will cause tremendous stress. Perhaps this approach can help in our personal lives too!

fear of offending

There is a thin line between agreeably disagreeing and offending someone - especially when this happens, most often inadvertantly, with someone who can influence your "good fortunes"! It is easy for many of us to relate to this in an organzational context.

It is important to speak the truth and do the right things. How many people, how often, are able to speak the truth and do the right things? Organizational environment in general has become so complex that people are often confused about how to respond to situations. Organizational politics has become a serious management topic.

At the same time, the business pressure and challenges have been rising exponentially. Thus the need for realizing the truth and doing the right things keep rising equally.

A few things certainly need attention:

* Constant encouragement to speak the truth; re-inventing the open culture
* Realizing the need for higher levels of executive patience to understand the ground realities
* A set up to constantly monitor the pulse at grass root levels; indications of real issues plaguing the organization come from the bottom
* Ability to distinguish between superficial actions and fundamental changes/actions based on ground realities
* (Needless to say)the importance of taking the right actions through successful completion

The parallel endeavor should be to develop people's communication skills with an emphasis on "how to present the bitter truths". Once developed we will certainly realize how invaluable this skill is. However well-trained people we are, it is not an easy task to reveal bitter truths at all times.

It is a combination of the right communication skill of the people and the open culture of the leadership that can eliminate "fear of offending" at workplace.

If we closely observe at all levels from top to bottom in an organization, we will see that fear of offending is a subtle element that becomes a fundamental dampner in a business environment.

skills for leaders on strategic roles

A few weeks ago, someone sent me a question by e-mail, "What are the skills that a Human Resource professional must possess or cultivate so as to make it to business related strategic roles? Please guide!"

The first thing came to my mind was about communication skills (whether or not the leadership role is strategic in nature). Nowadays, I fear, this skill is becoming a rare one! Communication is not just about speaking incessantly. Many who speak fluently believe that they are good (effective) communicators-that need not be true always! Effective communication is about making sure that one gets to know exactly what others mean, and others understand one's views unambiguously. A leader has to ensure that the views expressed by the team members (more importantly, the central theme of a discussion) are understood consistently by the entire team. A good leader first understands an idea herself by asking many clarifying (and leading) questions, and then she paraphrases the idea for the benefit of the entire team. The leader continues to repeat this process until everybody in the team understands the idea the same way. All the members of a team formed to undertake a serious and important task must certainly have exactly the same understanding of the problem to be solved, and the solution/strategy they choose to implement. So, the time taken on effective communication of this kind is well spent. To me, effective communication skill is an essential attribute for all leaders, and for leaders on strategic roles in particular.