It is imperative that a diagnostic be done and shared ownership created across the spectrum of the organisation, writes Debabrata MukherjeeWhen life thorws you lemons, make yourself a glass of lemonade. However, if you feel like being in the crusher yourself, how does one squeeze out any juice at all? The question is: who put Janki in the crusher?Apologies, if I hurt anyone’s feelings, but I have to put Teffer Worldwide in the dock. It has a super resource in Janki and while continuing to load her with responsibilities, it has hijacked her life.Janki, however, is suffering from the classical Stockholm Syndrome and has a high level of empathy towards her hijackers. A dedicated employee, Janki has continued to put her professional chores ahead of her personal ones. This can last a season but not a lifetime.Can the organisation help? It can, both in the short as well as in the long term.First, it must do a thorough evaluation of the role that Janki is performing and assess whether it is too much for her. Multiple stakeholders working across time zones on a diverse set of projects is not unique to an employee but I wonder if Janki has got too much on her plate.After assessment, either re-distribute her role into more manageable verticals and appoint more people or ensure that they help Janki create a set of capable direct reports who can take appropriate business calls. This will require a huge amount of focus and capability building as today Janki is managing a wide span of authority and it won’t be easy to replicate the skill set. It is evident, if for any reason, Janki is unable to attend to her duties for an extended period of time, there is a clear lack of succession planning. It is therefore imperative that the organisation actively creates a succession roadmap so that Janki can further her career.Second, evaluate the current processes in the organisation and look for opportunities to drive further efficiency. Currently, all the meetings, training programmes et al have a tonality of “the organisation will come to a stop if it does not happen’’. This has to change. There has to be a better planning process and higher level of respect for individual time slots. Although stringent audit processes have been put in place to check whether the planned programmes have been carried out or not as borne out by the call that Janki had with Hector at 10 p.m. IST, there is no one auditing how she lives her life. She is up till 4 a.m.speaking with the Australian team and then is expected to check out 100 e-mails after a two-hour nap. My humble question is: Who is in charge of analysing whether there are processes in place to drive people efficiency so that they do not feel like they are being driven up the wall? A case in point is the security and safety training that was aligned with her, that did not happen and there were no checks or alerts until audit raised the issue and all hell broke loose. This is a clear case of process breakdown.Third, commission an engagement survey to test for the level of ownership that exists in the company. It seems the high level of commitment that Janki shows is not shared by the wider organisation. The CIO cannot change his schedule, Hector cannot take a call at an inconvenient hour but Janki continues to put the professional before personal. She misses out on a prayer meeting of someone who was very dear to her, gets annoyed with her Mom who dotes on her selflessly, forgets to book personal air tickets — all for the cause of the company. The facts of the case clearly bear out the fact that most of her colleagues are operating at a much lower level of engagement and lack of a sense of responsibility. It is imperative that a diagnostic be done and shared ownership created across the spectrum of the organisation.As the organisation does the medium to long term diagnostics, for the short term, they need to exhibit a singular trait, which is sorely lacking in the organisation — Empathy.When Hector says, “Who doesn’t have a tough day?” he is exhibiting a huge culture issue that exists in the organisation — lack of empathy. Janki would feel far more enthused despite her punishing schedule if the organisation showed her a caring face. An occasional “How is your mother doing?” or “Are you too stretched, can we help?” can go a long way in re-energising the superstar performer.It is time for some serious soul searching, Teffer Worldwide.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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Pay attention to our own needs and don’t keep putting them on the back burner, writes Kaushik GopalThe sheryl sandberg quote brought back the memory of how her husband, Dave Goldberg, died recently after collapsing on a treadmill. Ms Sandberg said, in an interview, how the secret to being able to manage all the pressures from work and the needs of family life was to equally divide the requirements of home, between the couple. And then, he just died. Time refuses to stand still. Sooner or later, you have to deal with change.I found my own attention racing rapidly as though on ‘speed’. When that happens you know you have to slow down quickly. Most of us need ‘processing time’ to absorb and digest, very much like one of the groups Janki was training in New Zealand, when they requested for more time in the session to absorb and process.Kaushik GopalClearly, there is a huge impact on our personal relationships — family and friends. We begin to be helplessly ‘enslaved’ by calendars and to-dos, leaving precious little time for those that matter. Janki’s diary appointments force attention in multiple directions, across several time zones and cultural-political nuances. And inadequate infrastructure or endemic traffic snarls, only add to the chronic shortening of time.A global role that requires interfaces with others across time zones could invade our lives like some vicious virus that leaves one depleted and spent if not carefully managed. The absence of rest leads quickly to burnout and the inability to manage one’s inner ‘attentional space’. There are western colleagues who are sensitive to this and manage to share the ‘burden’ of taking late night calls. Not everyone thinks this way, though.Consequence: The danger of imminent personal burnout and severe damage to family and other relationships. Janki feels progressively more worn-out and her family (mother) neglected. The fact is this punishing pace of work is unlikely to change. There are very good reasons for organisations to look into this silent epidemic that destroys relationships and takes a huge toll on personal life. Of course, it is also the responsibility of each of us to pay attention to this tornado of expectations and to find ways of slowing it down. Those responsible for attending to the human resource could soon be forced to look at the hidden costs of this phenomena. Not paying attention will only compound the problem and result in a continuing loss of valuable people.What can we do? First, become aware of what is happening. Awareness brings with it the need to drive change. Second, relook one’s role and what it is that one is aiming to achieve. Often times, we may not have the requisite resources to carry out all that is part of one’s role and hence may need to request for resources or appropriately queue things to be able to do justice to them. Sure, resources are always in short supply, but we do need to be realistic unless there is a life and death situation.Teams need to have frank discussions on ways of approaching this quantum of work. We need to move our teams to be adequately prepared and to pay attention to the state of its members and find ways of supporting each other in such challenging environments. The stage needs to be set for frank discussions between colleagues such that it is not taken in unintended ways.Pay attention to our own needs and don’t keep putting them on the back burner: if people in the West can protect their personal time, why aren’t we able to? The continuous sacrificing of one’s own time leads to a progressive erosion of one’s relationships as well as the minds we carry around with us.Organisations and team leaders too need to be mindful of the pressures on its constituents and the consequences they are likely to have. They need to start exploring internal support systems that can assuage impending burnouts. Stress and its consequences cannot be dealt with purely from a personal point of view. It is necessary to have a multi-pronged approach. For one thing, organisations can start paying attention to the 50 hours-plus work weeks and invite personnel to explore ways to be able to deal with it.While the building of resilience in the face of work pressures is a productive thing, we must be sharply aware that the critical relationships around us need attention and sustenance, which, in turn, becomes the source of our very own overall wellbeing. The writer is based in Singapore and looks after the coaching practice for the Center for Creative Leadership in the Asia Pac region (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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“I don’t believe we have a professional self from Mondays through Fridays and a real self for the rest of the time” — Sheryl SandbergJanki vallabh raced to the door calling out instructions to the housekeeper, to her mother, to the dhobhi — as her heels went clickety-clack and her driver carrying a pile of folders and whatnot preceded her into the lift ... her mother glided noiselessly behind her with a long list, gently muttering, “And Nikki, have you bought the tickets for Shankar Mahadevan’s show? Now you promised you would...”Mom was 81 and had a parallel to-do list for Janki as she was convinced that otherwise nothing would ever get done. Daily, she would run through her long list and ask, “What can I strike off this list today?”Janki: Ma, you forget your list, I have mine and I am working according to that....and for God’s sake Ma, Mercy is my assistant, not my handy maid. She does not cut fruit for me, please don’t ask her to cut fruit for me ... it is so embarrassing... Ok, Ma, sorry, Ma, love you, Ma...The lift shut and Ma walked back to the apartment muttering, ‘She has not done anything even today....’It was 8.30 a.m. and Janki prayed the snarl points would be easy today. She had a training session with New Zealand at 10:00 a.m. IST and needed to get to her desk by 9.30.Even as she got into the car, Mercy was on the phone. Janki cut her short and said, “Drop everything and call Genelia at ITC. There is a Shankar Mahadevan show next weekend. Tell her she has to send me two passes for the show, no matter what. My sanity depends on getting those tickets.”Janki’s life had been turned upside down the previous day consequent to which she was to have an unscheduled, hastily put together online workshop with her New Zealand team.Last year, Janki’s role as HR director had been broadened. But as her role unfolded she was beginning to see what they meant by ‘infinity’.A global role was what everyone aspired to. Very broad, very wide, very far reaching ... What fired her spirit was a feeling that she could influence the broader organisation with improvements in performance. While it was a role of a lifetime, she did not realise it would be a life without time. Janki had been so furiously busy with training and mediating and arbitrating and talking and monitoring and... that the quality of her life had changed to something she did not even find easy to describe.As the traffic choked ahead of her, Janki found herself inching closer to her seat’s edge till she was practically leaning over her driver Ahmed’s shoulder saying, “Jaldi karo, Ahmed bhai, der ho rahi hai....” And Ahmed said, “Ji Madam, bas pahunch gaye....”Janki was restless. She needed to get to the office 30 minutes before the workshop began as she would have to do a sound check, make sure the bandwidth is ok, and because there were 3-4 different locations in NZ from where people would log in, hence she would need to be there before they arrive. On this occasion, she had a co-facilitator from the UK. And this is how it all came to be so chaotic.The New Zealand business had gone through a lot of transformation and providing them with coaching skills was identified as a critical need, so that line managers could effectively manage the change and enable the transformation. What was meant to be a two-day face-to-face programme had to be reworked, rescheduled and rehashed overnight. As dynamism goes, Janki was to fly that same morning to Sydney via Airline Exx which had developed bad press since some repeated technical snags had resulted in two of their flights crashing. The previous evening, three hours before she could leave for the airport, the management of Teffer Worldwide sent out a red alert saying managers should not fly Airline Exx.Janki groaned. This programme was so critical to not just Teffer as a whole but it was crucial to Asia Pacific which had been trying to build skills to win a new project from Europe and she had promised Derek Banner, HR for Asia, that she would prepare his region. Using technology, she decided to convert the same session into an online one and move on seamlessly with her goals. So, when the circular went out last evening, it was 7 p.m. IST and, of course, 1 a.m. the next day in Sydney and Auckland.At 10 p.m. last night, she had to first call and wake up her HR counterpart in Auckland, Abid Latif, apologise and explain that she was not coming but the session would happen at 10 a.m. IST or 4 p.m. Sydney/Auckland time. Abid, in turn, called his assistant Lynn Burke and asked her to call Janki and take instructions. So, at her 4 a.m., Lynn was talking with great clarity to Janki. You would if it was the HR director you were talking to.Lynn would thus have time to prepare the teams for an online session, but she, in turn, would have to organise for the six of them to sit in the conference room and hook up the big screen for them to jointly be in session with Janki, but, she would also now speak with Cora in Melbourne to have her three HR personnel to dial in and Darwin would be told in the morning.Janki had been exhausted. Managing the detail was going to be far more exhausting than anything else. She had been up until 3 a.m. sorting, rearranging, rescheduling...On the other side, NZ had to post haste rearrange a lot. The teams would now meet four days at 4 p.m. their time and reallocate their other meetings differently.Janki also had to rearrange with Jeff, her UK co-facilitator. At 2 a.m. last night (UK time 10 p.m.) she had messaged him frantically: “Jeff! The NZ trip has been called off owing to some internal ruling on some airlines. But the session has to happen and I will need your help to facilitate this since the dynamics of the session will now change. Can you be online UK time 6 a.m?Jeff who was to facilitate at NZ, was also caught in the travel rule and had to go back. Now, he needed to be with her at an ungodly 6 a.m. Jeff hated early mornings.Janki was quickly calculating her day that had been derailed rather badly. At 11.30, while the session would conclude, there would follow a debrief. She would need to work with Abid in NZ to evaluate how the new format went, and if the teams got what they needed.So, when the teams logged off and their HR head Latif took over, it was 5.30 p.m. in NZ.Janki: What worked for you Abid? Is there anything we need to do differently tomorrow?”Abid: I think it was grand that everything happened seamlessly and without any hiccup despite such a huge change! The teams were already sympathetic to the change, and it is laudable that they adjusted their schedule really cheerfully.But one thing Janki, tomorrow you will need to spend more time as people have not read up.What happened was, after her chat with Lynn, she had hastily sent some reading references for the teams overnight, to catch up as she would now have to do less online than she would have face to face. So, she had sent page numbers of some work manual and told them to read up and be ready. But the people were not prepared for a sudden change of plans and thus a demand to also read up. As a result, many were unable to read.Even as Abid said that, Janki realised that at the end of today’s session, she had also given them 2-3 videos to watch and make notes.Janki tossed the time zones around her head. Teffer Worldwide worked seamlessly but moments like these did challenge the senior managers and put them under a lot of strain. For example. Janki realised that when she finished at 11.30 a.m., it was 4.30 or 5 in Auckland. If now they had to read pages and watch videos, that would impinge their family time. Some managers also had kids in day care and out there these timings were non-negotiable unlike in India where you said, ‘Please aunty, keep her till 8 p.m.’ and aunty did so for an extra Rs 500. In most countries, respect for family time was paramount because people also valued family time.The next day, one of the team suggested to her to put a gap between sessions... “Why don’t we have these sessions every alternate day?”Janki’s HR manager in India, Aman Bakshi, who assisted her, said, “Doing a two-day continuous session has a certain synergy and ends up being more productive than a five-day, 90-minute deal. Because everyday has a set up time and a debrief time and a recap time and there is a certain exiting from one mode and entering the workshop mode then exiting that to enter the local India mode.... We will lose more than gain, so, please say ‘No’ to gaps between sessions.”But Auckland was keen to get the most out of this. Abid messaged her, “The teams are very clear that 90 minutes is not helping. They want to take it up to 150 minutes for it to make sense. Let us start at 9 a.m. IST.”There were nine line managers across Sydney and Auckland on this session. And the NZ business was critical business. Janki looked at her clock and thought about it. How was this going to work?If she started one hour earlier at 9 a.m. IST — then that meant Jeff in the UK would have to come online at 4.30 a.m.; or she extends it until 12.30 IST, which meant the teams in ANZ would work till 6.30 p.m. which would not be doable. And even if Jeff agreed, the IT guy in India Sudip Rao would have to come in advance to set up her IT environment.Sudip now stood before her listening to her and checking his phone notebook to see what time slot suited him. If Auckland wanted 9 a.m. IST, Sudip would have to reach the office at 8 a.m. “I live very far away, at Badlapur,” he said to Janki. That meant he would have to leave home at 5.30 a.m.This was not looking good. Even Janki disliked the idea. Amiable as he was, Sudip said, “Actually family problems... ,” rather eloquently. When Janki encouraged him to elaborate, he said, “ I have to pack my kids lunch boxes and drop them at school as my wife works the night shift at an IT firm. And I have to drop my daughter to school myself.Janki could not understand at all. Either she was tired or dull after the day. She looked at him quizzically and said, “Can’t she go with someone else for a week?”Sudip: Oh, no, not anymore. Times have changed, girls, why even boys are unsafe. That is why my wife chose a night shift job so that she is available to pick them up from school at 2 p.m. In fact, her working night shift actually helps keep the kids safe. We don’t use maids, we mind the kids ourselves....janki realised she was behind the times. The difficulties of the younger folk these days was far different she mused.The more she thought about it, the worse it seemed because creating chaos in her own life was one thing but she saw that every change will have a ripple effect on many more lives. This cross country marathon that she ran everyday was beginning to get to her.Janki verily lived a 24-hour day without a break, available to the phone when it beeped, to the computer when it delivered mail, to the world clock for any of her constituents to call and confer with her as they wished.Janki slept on an average three hours in every 24-hour cycle. It usually got to her when she could see everything falling apart. As long as everything went on fine, she did not notice the difficulties.There will be more lives that will get affected, she mused thinking about Auckland. Thinking over it through lunch, Janki told Abid in Auckland, “We can do three more days if you wish to give your teams more time.”Just as Abid said he would check his diary and see if that worked,and signed off, Peter Fowler from the Succession Academy in Singapore, called.The Succession Academy was another of Teffer’s HR initiative located out of Singapore, which helped plan successions, leadership issues and related workshops. Janki was yet eating her lunch and cursed the mobile phone for the intrusion.“Hey, Jan, we need to have a call to discuss a leadership survey in North America. And we need to do this soon. “ Janki flipped the pages of her diary even as he rattled choices of dates. Oh, but the time slots and the dates were terribly inconvenient! The dates he was giving her were precisely when her session with ANZ would get over. So, he wanted 1 p.m. IST when it will be 3.30 p.m. in Singapore. Janki: Peter, that time slot does not work. We have just had a reschedule of NZ’s coaching skills module. And we are doing it as a series of webinars.And Janki explained to him that she was just about to confirm to them three extra days.Peter: I don’t see why. The four you are doing is just right. They should learn to extrapolate. Did you get a sign off from the head of the function?Janki: I don’t care about all that, Peter. This is about the learning.Peter: I thought you were completing on Monday but now you have no time! Ok, why don’t we work during your afternoon? 3 p.m. IST? My 5.30? I just need 90 min on two days.Janki: That is not ‘just 90 min’, but 90 min over and above all else. I think if you must get value as I must give value, then we must move this to September.Janki was exhausted juggling time, she couldn’t say a ‘no’ to Peter because he too needed that session. She couldn’t say a ‘yes’ to him either because there seemed to be no time to do anything else. And that was the most inopportune moment she remembered Shankar Mahadevan and the passes.Tearing out of her room she caught Mercy eating fruit. “You are eating fruit? Get me those tickets from Genelia, my dear! The fruit must wait!” And Mercy nodded vigorously through her fruit-filled mouth.Back at her window, Janki thought, but a 24-hour day cannot be made into 40 hours nor can 3 p.m. be shifted to pre-lunch, just as Shankar Mahadevan cannot perform on a different day for Ma.When she got a chance to look up, Janki went to the washroom to escape. Taking the green and mauve sofa, she curled up and shut her eyes. The cleaning lady who was shining the mirrors was alarmed at what the mirror showed her. Rushing to Janki she said, “Is madam ok?’Janki smiled, “Thank you, Latha. Just need to hide for 10 minutes. Very tired.”Meanwhile, the rest of Janki’s life was gathering girth. The foods business had gone through a leadership transition. Rahul Khurana, the HR head for foods, had called Janki last week just as her Auckland trip was in the throes of being cancelled. He wanted Janki to come up with a design for a one-and-a-half day workshop. He also said that the head of that business, CEO Joydeep Basu had it all planned out.Basu wanted a transition programme for his 18 managers. Most were assuming new roles and some had their responsibilities widened. But their direct reports remained the same which meant those teams also needed to be helped with assuming newer responsibilities and managing their bosses.HR also had a Transformation Director who had already e-mailed Janki saying, ‘ I need to talk to you and figure out what is possible.’Janki found there was no space between events. In a distant way, you could say they were all business related or people related, but a pause would help wrap up events, put a label on them, assess if what was sought was being accomplished...So, line managers had a vision and they were asking Janki to deliver it for their teams , even as other teams sent SOS messages — And oh, btw, several members of the leadership team are going off on a holiday and therefore if there is any pre-work that you need to do, you got to tell me fast. And oh, btw, I will have to source an external facilitator because I can’t go anywhere, he will have to do all this....Troubleshooting, handholding — all that happened. But more than that what happened was people development, which she completely enjoyed — imparting skills, reassuring them, showing them the way, pointing out the goal to them, encouraging people, giving them everything they needed to evolve. Some days when she dozed off in the car, in her half awake state, she felt happy to have got this role.As for Ma who she doted on, Ma got her joys seeing her return from work early in order to beat the traffic so that she could get on to a conference call or a telepresence. Ma had her little measuring device and she slipped in portions of protein on to the table in the study, which she would then slide into vantage point using a long handled ladle, to avoid being spotted on the screen by the caller from Hong Kong or wherever!Other times, it would be a bowl of ragi mousse as Ma tried to call porridge, to make it look attractive, but Janki called it Ragi mess, because of how it behaved. “Calcium calcium... good for those bones that you overwork...” Ma would whisper pushing the bowl closer to her computer, and Janki, armed for these intrusions with flash cards, pulled any one at random and waved it at her away from the screen. Usually her flash cards read, “Leave the room, Ma!”To be continued...casestudymeera@gmail.com(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)
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Leaders need to think carefully about how they address issues around inclusion and relatedness in an ever increasing virtual worldBy Matangi GowrishankarIt is yet another feather in india’s cap — big regional and global roles based out of the country give our leaders opportunities for growth that were not always possible without living overseas. This is a good thing, specially for professionals who balance family responsibilities with their career aspirations. The broad remit, the opportunity to work on the global playing field and the drive for achievement seem to attract us. The unprecedented growth of Indian leaders in a wide array of global firms is encouraging many of us to step into these sometimes uncharted waters.Yet, many of us have not thought through what doing these global roles out of India truly entails. Most of us romanticise the roles to such an extent that we are unable to see the sacrifices we need to make until it is almost too late. I am certain that Janki’s situation resonates with many of us in the corporate world — and her dilemmas a bitter sweet story of triumph and despair.There are many dichotomies that we can discuss in this case and I will focus on three that resonate with me.Heroes or victims? We are driven by a very strong urge to achieve, to succeed against all odds and in the end to say “I did it”. We take the oft-repeated advice of elders — “Hard work never killed anyone” — to such extremes that we lose the benefit of choice. We bend over backwards to prove to ourselves that we are capable of achieving anything we want, and end up being taken for granted by the organisation. While everyone speaks the “right words” about not taking on too much and pacing oneself, the reality is that the willing horse is flogged — and before long, the hero is indeed a victim. A victim of their own making, and a prison that they cannot get out of for fear of being seen to fail.Tightrope act or juggling? There is a fine divide between being able to prioritise versus taking pride in multi - tasking. While there is a thrill in being able to juggle several balls simultaneously, but there is also a point at which the whole act becomes dysfunctional. We really are not able to say no and find it difficult to make that judgement call about the risks involved in taking on too much. The reality is that the risk of multi tasking is as much for the individual as it is for the organisation. If not consciously addressed, the risks for the individual range from total burn out to a crisis of self confidence. While Janki is doing her best to juggle everything, she obviously has no time for herself . It is as if her identity is defined by her work and her role as a caring daughter …Who is Janki? We must accept the fact that we are responsible for managing the risks associated with stretching ourselves so thin. Do not hope that the boss will see what is happening and will somehow let up on the pressure. This is not going to happen. The Jankis (and Janaks, since this is a malady across genders) of India need to get real clear about priorities and deciding not to be all things to all people. They need to work out the consequences of the real risk that they might not be able to meet all the demands of the somewhat unrealistic standards they have set for themselves. How then will they cope with the disappointment of the loss in credibility, reputation and self confidence?Organisations face the risk of attrition and disengagement. Disengagement is slow poison! Leaders need to think carefully about how they address issues around inclusion and relatedness in an ever increasing virtual world.Technology a boon or curse? It is clear from the case and the stories of many similar leaders that the continuously connected organisation has made a world of “leaders constantly on the move”. I am convinced that the “busyness” of technology is taking away our ability to pause between breaths and take stock of the real contribution we are making. Should we not be thinking about how we really make technology our ally, instead of adding more to the already taut tight rope act?Global organisations are hungry for action and their ask of individuals is growing exponentially. Yet, there must be a real pause between acts for both parties to evaluate and ensure that effectiveness is winning over efficiency. This is a joint responsibility, of the individuals in these roles and their manager. Organisations need to foster an environment where the real conversations need to be had. It requires both the individual and the manager to have the courage to call out when enough is enough. The writer is the Head of Capability Development for the Downstream Businesses of BP plc. She is passion-ate about organisation and leadership development(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)
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If our thoughts are right, our actions would be right and would benefit allBy Achal BhagatPerhaps a day in the life of Janki Vallabh, Peter Fowler, Lynn Burke, Abid Latif, Sudip Rao, Rao’s wife is no different than a day in your life. The word stress looms large.No, stress is not some demon around the corner. Stress runs parallel to all that we do in our life. There is stress in being the director HR, there is stress in being a daughter to a demanding mother and there is stress in being an IT expert in India. There is perhaps stress in being Genelia distributing passes for the Shankar Mahadevan show as there is in being Shankar Mahadevan being ‘breathless’.One person’s experience of stress has a ripple effect on all others in the interaction. An airline gets rated low on safety; it is stressful for the communication manager of that company and for Sudip Rao’s daughter whose father cannot drop her to school.It is not the situation that is stressful. It is the way we think that makes it stressful. So, one of Janki’s stressful situation: Trip to Auckland cancelled. The way of thinking: Predominance of ‘shoulds’. “I should be able to replace the session with a few 90-minute sessions.” “I should ensure the quality of these sessions is better than the face-to-face session.” “I should use the saved travel time to brainstorm the foods division’s workshop.” “I should also use this time to ensure that I am able to squeeze in getting the passes for the Shankar Mahadevan show.”I could go on with the list of Janki’s ‘shoulds’. Janki’s ‘shoulds’ are tiresome for her. Here is the one that makes it worse for her, “I am tired but I should only take a 10-minute curl on the mauve sofa.” My experience is that our shoulds are addictive. We crave for them. Our ‘shoulds’, if not heeded to, leave us restless and critical of ourselves. We justify our ‘shoulds’ as a need of the others. We justify our ‘shoulds’. We cannot understand those who do not understand our compulsions. We are afraid of the vacuum that we will create in our lives if we were without our shoulds. We believe without shoulds, life would be without goals. We believe that without rules life would be anarchy.We spend a lifetime chasing our shoulds and, one day, suddenly the costs of our shoulds stare us back and we realise that we have lived a life where we forgot that we had choices. Choice not to do some things. Choices to view people and their actions in tones of grey and not the dichotomous. Choices to allow oneself the space not to pursue, not to fulfill, not to reward or be rewarded, the choice to be and not to do. We overlooked our choices because we were governed by our ‘shoulds’.No, I am not advocating an aimless life without rules. I think that there will be stress even if we pursued a life beyond our social contracts, employment contracts or our love affairs or our children. I am not advocating that we should not have any ‘shoulds’. But I do hope we are able to question and let go of our ‘shoulds’ consistently. Longer than the 10-minute curl on the sofa and longer than the length of a weekend holiday. Life would still be stressful in a ‘no shoulds’ world but perhaps it will not be as overwhelming. Perhaps, it will not be as incomplete. When it comes to life, perfection and completeness are not synonyms.Stress is in the way we define who we are. It is how we define time and how we define success. The way we define achievements, relationships, contracts and all our interactions and experiences. We have a bull’s eye approach to life. Everything is a bull’s eye and if we do not hit it and do not hit the first time all is devalued if not lost. We gave this loss over and over again. With each loss we disempower ourselves and this disempowerment is called stress. We have a choice not to devalue ourselves. When the only reason we run is to hit the bull’s eye and to hit it before all the others are able to score that is the beginning of stress. The challenge is not hitting the bull’s eye each time but allowing oneself the space not to pursue it sometimes.It is fun to not play sometime and it is also fun to try something that we are sure to make a mess of. The bull’s eye man ain’t a happy man, Superman may get Lois Lane but Clarke Kent has a right to live too. And so do you, Janki. Let yourself be ordinary, for once. It is all right! The writer is Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Apollo Hospital and Chairperson, Saarthak, a mental health organisation(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)
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The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down — Stephen RichardsArvind warrier was in tears. His EMI was due at the end of the month. Rumours of ‘No salary’ combined with the lending bank’s fame for using debt collecting thugs had cost him his sleep.Arvind worked at Beta Advertising. As a busybody in the media buying department, there never was time to think. Going to work also meant not being able to even remember home — that was how intense work was. And now he had heard that only 40 per cent of the salaries were being paid and to rein in costs, the company was also retrenching staff. Arvind lost all concentration as his heart thudded and mind broke into chaos.Beta was a fairly successful agency for over 40 years until the owner Vidyadhar Desai decided to shift his business to film making and, thus, to sell the agency. The buyer was an ex-creative director, Arth Munim.Arth’s return to the agency after eight years was received with mixed feelings. He had been a good creative director but could he run an agency? Management was different from writing copy, some felt.With the coming of Arth, a major facelift was expected at Beta. Arth was well known in advertising circles hence the feeling was he would be good for business.The first year was business as usual. In fact, it was a year of hope as Beta, which had struggled with some creditors and poor collections in the previous two years, began to see a systematic cleansing and tidying up. Arth was very sincere in putting a new system in place. He hired a consulting firm at a huge price to revamp payroll and accounting, create more dependable debtors’ warning systems, collection systems and even an incentive system for faster collections.Only one major change was visibly felt: Beta was in a leased office and the lease was in the personal name of the previous chairman-owner. Arth decided to give up a part of the lease that was on the 7th floor and keep only the office on the 8th. Consequently, all departments moved to the same floor. But for this, Year One was as if nothing had changed. There was an air of freshness, but there was also doubt.Then the inevitable began as the new broom swept. A deo spray client wanted a new campaign and Arth clashed with creative director Omana George who went for the intellectual while Arth wanted a competitive (hence provocative) appeal.Something snapped rather badly and no one could tell what it was. Omana who was always known for her poise and grace and intelligence clashed rather sonorously with Arth: “It is my client and I know what their brand needs. I will appreciate it if you kept out.”Arth said, “It is my agency and I know what we need for our revenue and bottom line.” Daksh Vaidya, the Account Group Head, shook his head. Omana who also directed the creative for his client Noryk, an online fashion store, was growing increasingly bristly and defensive at client meetings.Daksh did not know about her flare-up with Arth until someone else told him. But sadly, when they were presenting to Noryk, Omana told the client that they needed to be clear as to her directorship on the account.Daksh was alarmed. He did not wish to ask her anything just then.But later, Omana said to him, “I saw your stricken look. Arth has been messing with my clients and this is the best way to ensure purity of purpose by talking to the client directly.”Within days, Daksh began to see a slow crumbling of the dependable edifice at Beta. The first was Sabari Dalal, the payroll accountant. When he went to settle some allowances, she said in a whisper, “All hell is breaking loose. Not enough money in the payroll account.”Arth had not been transferring money, she said. “I went to him twice in the last 24 hours, as salaries have to be credited and he told me to come later. This is serious. Naik (production head) also spoke to me. The artists have not been paid. I believe four have stopped work — but they are freelancers and they don’t care. But who will do their work?”Was the edifice cracking? But he tried to comfort Sabari saying it was just a phase, and she said, “No, no phase-wayz. Dinoo Daftary has not been paid for his film — Rs 48 lakh. Arth told him he had over charged — something nobody tells Dinoo... there was a messy yelling match I believe.”One story unravelled more stories. One after another, the dark stories came out from different people who each believed in a variation of: “we thought it was temporary, we thought he was joking, we thought, new management... he must have changed systems....”. The sorrow was spreading.Daksh picked up his mug of coffee and went to meet Nana Naik as they called him. Nana was a consultant art director and much loved at Beta. Last year, he had been made the production head. He was in his mid-60s and retained by Beta because they loved his work far too much. Nana looked at Daksh and said, “Kay re bala, there is a storm brewing on your face?Daksh said, “I hear not very encouraging talk around the office....”Nana Naik: One person is having a bad time which he piles onto another fellow. That fellow on another fellow. Soon the whole home has too much tension. Find the culprit.Daksh: Nana! Not joking, yaar. Serious stuff....Arth is not paying... he is interfering as well. Yesterday Omana gave the client a bad time. Dinoo has not been paid, he is refusing to part with the film...Nana, it is my client finally! If Omana gives Arobindo (another of Daksh’s star clients) a bad time, he will walk out. I cannot afford it.Naik: I think, Omana also cannot afford it. But she is reacting to her immediate feelings.... Omana bai changli bai aahe... but stressed. Too much on her plate. Bubble Khanna, her counterpart, is in hospital, she is handling his work as well. Her day has become very, very long and she has a father-in-law who is unwell...Daksh: Nana, we all have some difficulty or the other, yaar. It can’t become an excuse.As Daksh stood at the door talking to Nana, looking grim and worried, Ajay Soman, one of the senior group heads was walking past. Seeing Daksh, he said, “Yaar, you are here? And I have been looking for you. Bad news. Omana just quit, we are up the sewers without a paddle...!”Daksh went white. No Bubbles, now, no Omana... He cursed under his breath as Ajay said to Nana, “I too would not say die, but now I see we are far gone. Arth has told Omana, Beta can work without her and thereby driven the last nail into the coffin. And here is worse news: Arth says he will work on all the accounts! How can he?”Daksh: He can if he chooses to, but question is do we want him to be interfering? I don’t!Nana: Omana going is sad. But she has made a choice. Nobody asked her to leave...Ajay: No, Nana, that is wrong. She has been pushed to the wall...Nana: Then, you push the wall, don’t cave in. If you cave in, it is again a choice you make to not fight. To not negotiate. To not arbitrate. Socho zara, we cannot go about using our emotions like bird feed. If she has chosen to quit, we are still holding on to theorganisation and its clients. We have to find solutions. But look at your condition, Ajay! You are senior. Where isyour kshatriya sense? In a war, if a soldier falls or is felled, do the others stop the fight and grieve or get on with the battle? A soldier may fall for various reasons including for having made the wrong move. Grief has no place in life. Omana has breached the battle rules for her reasons. What is your battle? Or just warming up to rumours?I fear the bitterness of the news channels has gotten to everyone. Being angry all the time, blaming anyone, blaming without researching facts ... why do you believe the worst?And that was when Arvind appeared at Nana’s door looking unsure. Seeing Daksh and an extreme senior like Ajay, he withdrew his steps gingerly, when Nana called out, “ Arvinda! ye re bala...! You want something?”Arvind: Sir, I will come later, I just remembered something..Nana: Come come, I also remembered something, to make my tulsi tea for everyone, help me with the cups, can you?Arvind smiled as Ajay put an arm around him and teased, “Come, bala, I need that tea..” Then as Arvind helped out, Nana said, “Arvind, are you sensing there is trouble in the organisation? Any problem?”Arvind was embarrassed. He said, “Nana my work in media buying is small. I actually have a different problem ... maybe we can talk later, I also have a presentation to work on ...And then, as if fearful of letting the moment go, all too suddenly Arvind said, “Nana, salary has not come last month. EMI ...” and without warning Arvind began to sob. Everyone in the room was taken aback. Nana seated Arvind and said, “Arre, did you ask Sabari?”No, Arvind had not. He was scared to find out a truth that he would not be able to hear.Daksh: I told you, Nana, there is no money and Arth is not transferring anything.Nana: But you got your salary last month? Ajay did, and I too got my fees. Then the real question is: Why Arvind?Arvind: If my EMI does not go on the 24th they will harass my parents. That bank is known to do unscrupulous things. They use debt collectors.Nana: We will sort out your EMI and your salary in a second. But tell me, when you knew that bank was of questionable character, why did you take a loan from them?Arvind: I needed to buy a treadmill for my dad and mom. They needed to exercise and they cannot go out for walks, because the building compound is filled with cars and outside the building all the pavements are dug up and have remained like that for two years. So many problems....Nana: You did a very good thing for them. But my question remains. If the lender was a known crook why did you engage with him? Bala, there is an old saying, ‘He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon...’ you shouldn’t have engaged with the devilish bank! Now see your condition!Has anyone asked Arth about all this? Ajay, you are senior; meet Arth, tell him there are doubts filling the air. If he does not address them more people will believe the rumours. Morale is getting affected.Ajay: And what if he does not wish to talk to me?Daksh: I know... he has not taken Sabari’s calls either! He does not speak to vendors. He rarely comes to work and when he does he stays in his room.Arvind: There has been a huge default on paying Doordarshan. This is what has scared me more. You think when he has not paid DD, he is going to pay my salary? Or even keep me in the job?Ajay was stunned. He did not know about the DD default. As he made a few quick calls, Nana pondered. Sure Arth was a year old at Beta. But he had an industry history which did not look bad. Yes, all through that Arth had been an employee, not an entrepreneur. Nana bought the peace of the men for the time being, but he also now connected all this with a piece of conversation he was privy to: Nana had been with Arth last month in his vast office. Arth was talking to Bharatbhai, the chief accountant who had come in to show him a statement he was sending the banks. At one stage, Arth had taken his pen and cancelled a whole line from the ‘statement of revenue and profits’ and said, “No bonus this year. We will have to sacrifice that. That will release Rs 1.5 crore.”Nana knew there was difficulty. The year-end bonus was a practise that had been in place for last 12 years. Taking that away would hack at the root of faith and trust. But he could not mention this to Arth without also telling him, ‘I overheard you.’ If he added the facts they did speak of a financial difficulty. But he had thought that with the giving up of one of the offices, revenue was better.Now when he heard about Arvind’s EMI and that he was borrowing from friends, Nana went to Sabari’s office and said, “I am wondering who should shoulder a part of this responsibility to ensure that salaries are paid in time. These are days of EMIs, young boys and girls sincerely trying to look after family and giving them the best... I am wondering if there is not a responsibility devolving on us as employers to pay employees on time?”Sabari: Nana, where am I stopping the payment?Nana: Ah... now we can ask that question differently. ‘How may I ensure that payment does not stop?’ Sabari, bosses sometimes get very immersed in the complexities of business and their minds can slip, leading to neglect. Payroll being with you, you must point out these issues to Arth.Sabari: Is that my job?Nana met Arth that week. “A lot of people are thinking a lot of confused thoughts about this organisation and their career. People are anxious and worried. When a workplace is filled with restlessness, it will affect the product it produces, Arth. And the workplace is a part of the total society. Grief here will impact the society.“I am sure you as the MD are dealing with a lot. But you also owe it to the people to tell them some things they need to know, some things they need to do, some things they need not worry about. I quote the Ramayan to you Arth, ‘A servant depends on his master for his needs and a child on its mother and both remain free from anxiety; for a master needs must take care of his servant....’ And these words are spoken by the servant of the Lord beseeching Him to not forsake him. As an employer, there is upon us a moral responsibility to ensure that the faith the employee vests in us is respected and honored.”Arth: I understand you are trying to be the old Beta company. I have nothing to say right now, save this: I am trying very hard to make sense out of a bad acquisition. A lot of mess lay under the woodwork, so to say. I expect to do a good job of managing this organisation. I have nothing to say to those living in fear. As for what God says or does not say, the workplace is no place for spirituality, religion, God and such like. So, I would urge you to not waste my time.Nana did not report what Arth said. Or if Arth responded at all. When Ajay asked him, “Nana, I hear you met Arth ... did you talk?” Nana only shook his head.casestudymeera@gmail.com(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)
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If our thoughts are right, our actions would be right and would benefit all, says Rohit DasIn my career, I have been associated with five corporate takeovers. In all of them, I have observed five classic phases of emotions through which most employees go through. The first is uncertainty and skepticism. What will happen to me?The next phase is of euphoria. “Oh things will improve for us” — better pay and perks, better working condition — gains of personal nature. But not much thought go into what the new management expects from them. This is also the period where the new management starts noticing unpleasant things which they had missed during due diligence. And then, the inevitable process of change management sets in.The third phase lasts till the new company kick-starts the process of change management. This is a time the employees get ruffled. Their comfort zones are questioned and shaken. This is the crib, cry and gossip period. And it ends with some people leaving by choice and some people made to leave.The fourth phase is being alert and putting the best foot forward. Caution prevails as not to make any wrong move.And then, finally, the team gels with the new ethos and it is time for business as usual. From the people point of view, the second and third phase is critical. Some companies handle it well by better communication and behaving humanely, while others handle it rather ruthlessly.Beta is a small agency, which is moving through the second and third phase. Let us observe the behaviour of each charac-ter and see if they could have acted differently for a better outcome. This alternate reaction is what I call ‘The Other Me’, a ‘Me’, which strives for a better out-come for all. DesaiDesai decision to sell his 40-year-old baby to get into a new business clearly indicates that things were not well at Beta. He should have communicated the issues to his long associated team members. He owed that much to them.ArthA successful professional with a big ambition. After taking over Beta, he realised that ‘collections’ needed to be tackled and that a ‘new positioning’ was required in tune with the times. He started the process of streamlining the system, and put up a collection incentive scheme for his staff. For ‘new positioning’, he spoke to Omana, but not as a suggestion but as an order. Actions are the culmination of thoughts. If our thoughts are right, our actions would be right and would benefit all. Arth’s thoughts appear to be that of an arrogant person who does not believe in inclusiveness. Even while his money and reputation was at stake he did not take his team into confidence for setting the right agenda. He chose to remain aloof. He should have known that if going into a shell was a perfect solution, then the whole world would be an oyster.NanaNana, because of his age and experience, was perceived to be a friendly, spiritual guide. And he appears to enjoy this position. How one projects himself is not as important as how others perceive him. But if how you project yourself is also how others perceive you, then you have to fulfil the responsibility that goes with it.Nana was aware of some of the problems (a month ago, he came to know the bonus had been cancelled.) at Beta much before the others. But he chose not to share or do anything about it. Finally, when he approached Arth and didn’t get the required ‘importance’, he chose to abandon the team.It appears he is more interested in his superannuation from Beta. (Some of the simile he used also shows his not-so spiritual mindset. The war simile — war creates destruction on both sides. Peace is desirable. The master-servant simile is misplaced in an employer-employee context. In the Ramayana, the context is that of a bhakt and aaradhya.)EmployeesThey have to take a call whether to confront, compromise or construct. But they need a leader. Can Omana be that?This, in a nutshell, is the story of me-first. Alas the other me (Beta) is lost.Two souls alas, dwell within my breast, Each wants to separate from the other; One in the Hearty lovelust, Clings to the heart with clutching organs;The other lifts itself mightily from the dust;To high ancestral regions– Goethe, Faust I, 1112 The writer is director, Intrim Business Associates. A corporate consultant, he is a start up and turnaround specialist and also a life coach and mentor(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)
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In the spiritual workplace, the culture is one of patience, caring and ownership, says Susheela VenkataramanWhen we deal with objects and people for what they are and who they are, while being true to ourselves, we respect them for their strengths, at the same time, we also respect their differences and seeming frailties. Such is the attitude of the spiritual person.It is well known that spirituality helps us be calm, think clearly, take better decisions and be more efficient. Because being spiritual (as defined above) also results in an agitation-free mind. Only such a mind responds well to crisis. An environment of spirituality provides individuals with meaning and feelings of understanding, support and inner wholeness (From the International Centre for Spirit at Work). While survey statistics vary, they all show that globally, workplace stress has risen to alarming proportions. Stress lowers productivity and mars relationships in work and social situations. A dash of spirituality would certainly reduce stress. Often, organisations do not pay heed to the symptoms of stress beginning to unfold and thus, wait until the situation gets out of hand. This certainly seems to have been the case at Beta Advertising, as seen from the behaviour of Arvind Warrier, Omana George and Arth Munim and the high level of anxiety in an organisation that had done well for 40 years.Bad news comes in torrents:When bad news starts to emerge, it quickly turns into a torrent. We see this at Beta Advertising. Ajay Soman recognises that things are too “far gone”. To what extent did senior managers ignore the signs that must have been visible to them all? When should everyone rally round to resolve the issues, especially someone as well-respected as Nana Naik?Irish philosopher Charles Handy, who specialised in organisational behaviour and management, in the 1980s described the future of the organisation as a ‘Shamrock Organisation’, with temporary workers bringing in essential skills – thereby being an integral part of it; we see this model all around us today.In this context, treating contractors such as Dinoo Daftary and the artists as expendable would be a big mistake. Maybe, Arth was finding that nobody had questioned the status quo, with the result that a comfortable relationship between Beta Advertising and Dinoo turned into an expensive one as well.Arth’s response to Omana’s resignation, to work on all the accounts himself, seems almost irresponsible. This would result in utter chaos, not only failing to take advantage of all the obviously good people in the firm, but also alienating them. But most importantly, he will lose sight of strategic issues as he gets caught up in day to day operations.Implementing change:Beta Advertising had been struggling before and after Arth took it over, gave good results in the first year. However, further due diligence before making the acquisition might have revealed the extent of the problems sooner. He started with revamping the processes and systems, and using a good consultant would surely help. But all such initiatives fail without focus and prioritisation – both missing at Beta Advertising.While Arth got very involved with the revamp, it seems that he lost sight of strategic direction and got swamped by detail. He should have picked the critical areas first, and paced the rest. Surely, a payroll system could not have done much for an ailing company.One could question how well the changes were implemented. It looks as if there has not been any attention to systematic change management. In particular, did he and his implementation team recognise the level of change the employees were being subjected to? Did they understand how the changes were sinking in? Was he too caught up in the systems to notice the crumbling, and the people breaking down? In short, was Arth trying to do too much too soon?Trust:Given the extent of the problems Arth and Beta Advertising were facing, Arth has taken on much more than he can single-handedly manage. Why would he not have taken the staff, particularly the senior ones, into confidence and sought their help in finding solutions? After all, as Nana points out, no one can afford a failure. Arth’s interference in the day-to-day running of the company could point to a lack of trust, (when he knew that the company had a good reputation for 40 years) or to a huge ego, thinking he can fix it all by himself.Did Arth spend adequate time with the staff and with clients, so that the most appropriate solutions could be proposed? Did he articulate what he wanted Beta to stand for? His statement that “It is my agency” is rather surprising and points to Arth being as stressed as everyone else! It is hard to find statements more provocative than this, especially when used with long-standing employees. Omana’s resignation could be the start of an exodus, unless Arth takes immediate steps.Daksh Vaidya seems to be brushing Omana’s personal and work issues away too lightly. Today, when there is a blurring of the boundary between work and personal time, it is more important than ever to be sensitive to the personal situation of employees.During transitions, people need support and assistance. We do not see much of Beta Advertising’s HR department here, but if Nana as agony uncle is the best support staff can get, there certainly is a problem. For example, his criticism of Omana on hearing of her resignation is rather disquieting. Did she breach rules as Nana suggests? Or did she simply choose a different battle, one in which she felt she had a better chance of winning? And do organisations expect more from employees than is fair?Communications:This case study clearly demonstrates a complete lack of communications, the most important element in any kind of major transformation. Was Arth so involved in fixing things, that communicating the situation was the last thing on his mind? His refusal to take calls from his own staff, as well as vendors is extremely surprising, given that the solutions probably lay in their minds.What sort of CEO is Arth if he refuses to deal with issues? Is he overwhelmed? Or, were his critics right, that he does not have what it takes to run an agency? But let us also ask when the despair started: was it when Arth took over, or did it start earlier, when Vidyadhar Desai decided to sell Beta Advertising? Did Vidyadhar bother to communicate with the staff at that time, to allow for a smooth transition?Arvind had heard about salary cuts and retrenchment – and is so sick with worry that he cannot possibly focus on his work. The trick in any change is to catch the ‘sorrow ‘early. If left until too late, the bad news can take a life of its own and turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Additional interpretations come into the chatter and patterns suspected where perhaps there are none.When he decided not to pay the bonuses that year, Arth certainly had a duty to communicate that to his team. In high-strung situations, language has to be chosen vary carefully and therefore, Arth’s choice of words seems rather unfortunate. The comments made by Arth to Nana are rather telling: “nothing to say” – Really? Does he not have to provide direction, tell his team what he expects them to do until he sorts out the issues? If he does not give them clear targets to achieve, he should expect only disarray. He believes that he can turn the company around but if he does not share that confidence, there won’t be much of a company left for him to turn around.SpiritualityFinally, let us also ask what responsibility the employees have to see that Beta Advertising does not collapse. Do they not see it as their job? What kind of culture would have helped smooth such a painful transition?The Chandogyopanishad says: “yadeva vidyaya karoti sraddhayopanishada, tadeva veeryavatharam bhavati”. That work, which is done with understanding, alertness, sincerity and deep analysis, alone becomes effective.In the spiritual workplace, the culture is one of patience, caring and ownership. Apart from salary, people also need an enabling environment to work in, where they can all collectively succeed – and a safe one. There is an emotional commitment to the organisation, vastly greater than a contractual one. People go farther than doing their defined work alone, spreading positive energy and ideas throughout the company. There is then no place for hatred, anger or retribution.Arth must pause, step back, and think about purpose: his, Beta’s and that of his people. He has to rally his people together for this common purpose so that they together create a meaningful workplace. The writer is Principal Director, Office of Information Systems and Technology at Asian Development Bank. The views expressed here are those of the author in her private capacity(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)
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