Human Resource

25 ways to reward

2009-09-30T17:48:00.000+05:30

1. Flex those hours. If there's one free reward that rises above the rest, it's flexible work schedules. Nearly every expert we contacted suggested flex time as a perk that offers the most gain with the least pain.

“Give a little latitude in determining work schedules and to take time for family or personal issues (such as doctor’s appointment and banking errands),” advised Richard Martin, president of Alcera Consulting Inc. “As long as the employee is deserving and doesn’t abuse the privilege, this can go a long way to building trusting and mature relationships with key workers.”

2. Send a handwritten note. Supervisors should ask top brass to write a personal note to employees who deserve recognition, advised Cindy Ventrice, author of "Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works." For example, AdvancedMD CEO Jim Pack handwrites his thank-you notes to employees on a $2 bill. “In three years of doing this, only one employee has asked if he could spend it,” said company spokesman John Pilmer.

3. Make work fun. “During a business coaching engagement, I found employee morale to be way down,” said Terri Levine, president of The Coaching Institute. “We created a weekly event to boost morale. One week we asked everyone to bring in a baby picture, post it on a wall, then pick which person matched each picture. Everyone was having fun and socializing while productivity went from 58 percent to 72 percent — all in the same week.”

4. Help them connect. Introducing employees to key suppliers, customers or someone in senior management can help make an employee's career, says Ventrice — and it won't cost you a thing.

5. Lose the shoes. Kaerie Ray, an account executive with the Echo Media Group public relations firm, said implementing a “no-shoes policy” can make employees feel right at home with each other, which translates into increased productivity. (But she suggests keeping the footwear handy in case clients come in.) “It's great to be in an office where employees are more concerned about doing quality work than what shoes or jewelry they have on,” she said. “We get so much done.”

6. Send them to the showers. (As in parties, not lathering and rinsing.) “Every birth and wedding deserves a shower,” said Ray. “Echo employees always leave early on shower days, and the food is on the house. No need to make up the time.”

7. Reward effort as well as success. Even if their ideas sometimes fail, you want employees to keep producing them, said Alan Weiss, president of the Summit Consulting Group Inc. “When I consulted with the CEO of Calgon, we created an annual award for 'the best idea that didn't work' and presented a loving cup at the annual awards dinner. This stimulated innovation and positive behavior, not 'winning.'”

8. Give them a free pass. Levine suggests giving out a certain number of free days off to employees to use as they see fit. “Employees get a few of these a year and can use them as they like,” she said. “They don't have to pretend to be sick. They can go to the beach, read a book, play with their kids ... it doesn't matter.”

9. Dole out cream and sugar. During the busiest times of the year, executives at the Cigna Group push coffee carts around the office, serving drinks and refreshments to their colleagues, noted Steve Harrison, author of "The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies." As they serve, executives coach and encourage colleagues and hear about real consumer issues.

10. Blow out the candles. Cisco Systems Inc.'s CEO John Chambers hosts a monthly hour-long birthday breakfast for any employee with a birthday that month, says Harrison. “Employees are invited to ask him anything. They feel recognized, and he gains loyal employees who share their ideas.”

11. Spread the love. Ask co-workers to write something they truly like or admire about an employee on a scrap of paper, then frame them along with a photograph of the employee, suggested David Russell, author of "Success With People – A Complete System for Effectively Managing People in Any Organization."

12. Offer a swap. Giving your best employees a chance to pick their own projects or trade tasks with a colleague empowers and rewards them at the same time, said Harrison.

13. Applaud their efforts — literally. If someone has done something really worthwhile, have your entire staff give them a standing ovation at the next meeting, suggested Sharlyn Lauby, president of HR consulting firm ITM Group Inc.

14. Say it with flowers. Professor Linda M. Lopeke, principal of SmartStartCoach.com, sayid she used to reward top employees by bringing in flowers from her garden and arranging them in a spectacular crystal vase on their desks. “Everybody knew what having the custody of the flowers meant,” she said. “Surprisingly, even the men competed fiercely for custody of the flowers.” In the winter, she'd substitute a showpiece display of floating glass fish.

15. Walk it as you talk it. The City of Dallas sponsored a walkathon where employees set goals for walking a certain number of steps each day, offering a free gym membership to those who walked the farthest. Not only did they get more fit, they turned their daily walks into traveling staff meetings, says city spokeswoman Danielle McCelland.

“Group members were able to update one another on projects, solicit team input and improve their fitness,” she said. “The organized program ended after three weeks, but the work group still holds their traveling staff meetings two months later.”

16. Pass the bucks. Handing out monopoly money that can be redeemed for gifts and other goodies may not be strictly free, but it pays off handsomely in the long run. For example, associates at BankAtlantic can pass out “WOW! Bucks” to colleagues who've done something outstanding, said bank vice president Gregory Dalmotte. The bucks can eventually be traded in for real goods. “There's a clear correlation that words of encouragement have created associates who perform at a higher level,” he says.

17. Share the memories. “My team created a scrapbook chronicling the impact I'd had on their company and gave it to me on my last day in the office,” said Lopeke. “People who’d worked on my teams wrote testimonials and creative graphics highlighting some our team successes. It's the best gift I ever received in my 40-year career.”

18. Elect them to the Wall of Fame. Several experts suggested setting aside a public space inside your firm and placing photos of employees who've accomplished something truly special, along with the details of what they did to earn their place on the wall.

19. Create your own "Club Med." Set aside a quiet space or unused office in your building where employees can meditate, chill out, nap or otherwise re-center themselves, said John Putzier, author of "Get Weird! 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work."

20. Stoke their passion. “Great employees are not mercenaries,” said Dr. Richard Chang, CEO of Richard Chang Associates Inc., a performance-improvement consultancy. “They don’t just want to enjoy their work, they want to be passionate about it ... if you want your employees to feel valued and inspire their passion on your behalf, encourage them to make their own decisions. You can have systems in place to control the implementation of ideas, but you must be certain not to compromise the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work that make them possible in the first place.”

21. Give them a place to park it. Reserve the best parking spot for employees who've done something truly worthwhile, said Lopeke. And if it's next to the CEO's Lexus so the employee can chat him or her up on the way into work, so much the better.

22. Remember the spouses. Independent management consultant Nan Amish recalled one time when she had 16 employees trapped in a hotel lobby on a Sunday night, waiting for the ballroom to open so they could set up a trade-show booth. “I bought flowers at a farmers market, a nice $6 bouquet of roses for each person,” she said. “I told them to take them home to their significant others, apologizing for me taking them away from their families on a Sunday. The next day I got thank-yous from most of them. One wife sent a letter saying I could keep her husband until Friday.”

23. Publicize their successes. “We like to publicly recognize employees so the whole company can share in their accomplishments,” noted Scott Ragusa, president of contract businesses for staffing firm The Winter, Wyman Companies. “Each week, nominations for our quarterly 'Clutch' award are shared with the whole company. The Clutch nominations are a way to recognize our administrative and nonmanagerial professional staff members who have come through in the clutch in supporting their departments or the firm.”

24. Let them phone it in. Telecommuting programs can relieve stress and make workers feel more appreciated, as well as more productive. “Reward the employee by starting with one day of telecommuting, then add additional days as performance heightens,” suggested Brian Margarita, president of IT staffing firm TalentFuse Inc. “Having the option to cart the kids to soccer practice, visit the beach during the afternoon or cut out early to avoid traffic congestion is becoming more important than working an 80-hour week for a larger paycheck.”

25. Remember the secret words. “The two most underused words in corporate America that get the highest ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on your time) are the simple words 'thank you,'” noted Michael Guld, president of the Guld Resource Group author of "The Million Dollar Media Rep: How to Become a Television and Radio Sales Superstar."

While telling your employees you appreciate them should be obvious, added Amish, no one does it enough or is specific enough about what the employee did. “So when you share your appreciation, be specific about what you really liked, so they not only feel appreciated but can do it again.”

Who Controls Your Fate?

2009-07-10T10:22:00.000+05:30

THE PERSONAL

BEHAVIOR INVENTORY

The following statements describe how people feel about themselves and other people. Read each statement carefully, then mark how much you agree or disagree with it, using the scale below:

5 = Strongly agree
4 = Agree
3 = Neither agree nor disagree
2 = Disagree
1 = Strongly disagree

1. I live too much by other people’s standards.
2. In order to get along and be liked, I tend to be what
people expect me to be rather than anything else.
3. I guess I put on a show to impress people. I know I’m
not the person I pretend to be.
4. I change my opinion (or the way I do things) in order to
please someone else.
5. I have to be careful at parties and social gatherings for
fear I will do or say things that others won’t like.
6. In class, or in a group, I am unlikely to express my opinion
because I fear that others may not think well of it or
of me.
7. I keep still or tell “little white lies” in the company of my
friends so as not to reveal to them that I am different (or
think differently) from them.
8. There are many aspects of my behavior over which I
have very little control.
9. I often find that my own inclinations have little to do
with what I actually do or say.
10. I have trouble taking orders because they often conflict
with my own inclinations.
11. I always practice what I preach.
12. I am basically good at following through with my plans.
13. I never say anything I don’t mean.
14. I have my own code of behavior and I follow it to the
letter.
15. All one’s behavior should be directed toward a certain
small number of definite personal goals.
16. ”Tell it like it is” is always the best policy.
17. I can make impromptu speeches even on topics about
which I have almost no information.
18. I would probably make a good actor because I can play
any role.
19. I have very little trouble changing my behavior to suit
different people and different situations.
20. In informal discussions I often speak in favor of an unpopular
position in order to cause people to think more
carefully about what they are saying.
21. I can only argue for ideas to which I am strongly committed.
22. I think that it is very hard to predict how people are going
to behave.
23. Most behavior can’t be predicted in advance.
24. Some of the things my friends decide to do often come
as a great surprise to me.
25. Once you get to know a person well, even then his behavior
will often surprise you.
26. I usually have a pretty good idea how I’m going to behave
in a particular situation.
27. I usually know what my friends are going to do.
28. I think that most people are very predictable.
29. Once you get to know a person well, you can usually
tell what he/she is going to do.

SCORING

The first step is to reverse score (5 = 1, 4 = 2, 3 = 3, 2 = 4, and 1 = 5) the following items: 10, 21, 26, 27, 28, and 29. After reverse scoring, you can find your scores on four subscales.
Other-Direction (OD) is comprised of items 1 through 10;
Inner-Direction (ID) consists of items 11 through 16;
Lack of Constraints on Behavior (LC) is comprised of items 17 through 21;
and Predictability of Behavior (Pr) is comprised of items 22 through 29.

NORMS
.................SCORES............................PERCENTILE
....OD.......ID......LC......Pr
....28........24........17.....26.......................85
....25........22........15.....24.......................70
....22........20........13.....21.......................50
....19........18........11.....18.........................30
....16........16.........9......16.........................15

About the Personal Behavior Inventory

Philosophers, poets, novelists, and of course psychologists have
engaged in a lively debate about the determinants of human behavior.
On the one hand, there are those who argue that people
are prisoners of social forces that they cannot resist. This view
suggests that we all, to varying degrees, conform to the expectations
that others have for us. On the other hand, there are those
who believe that every person has a unique configuration that
evolves from biological predispositions and early childhood experiences.
This view suggests that behavior is determined by
forces that lie within each individual.

Psychologist Julian Rotter entered this fray in the 1960s when
he proposed a personality dimension called internal-external locus
of control. Rotter argued that people varied in terms of how
they perceived the world. Those who scored at the internal end
of his scale believed that they were in control, that their efforts
made a difference in how their lives unfolded. Those who scored
at the external end of the scale believed that luck or powerful
others controlled their fate. Rotter’s scale inspired thousands of
research studies, and it became clear that this internal-external
dimension had important implications for a variety of situations.
People with an internal locus of control generally seemed to
have a higher level of psychological adjustment. Because they believed
their efforts made a difference, they were more active in
taking steps to increase the odds that they got what they wanted
from life. People with an external locus of control tended to experience
more depression and anxiety and viewed the world as a
frightening, hostile place.

UCLA psychologist Barry Collins and his colleagues were intrigued
by this conceptualization but argued that the internalexternal
dimension was more complex than Rotter had
suggested. Their test, the Personal Behavior Inventory, was developed
to explore their ideas further. As you can see from their
test and the scoring system, they concluded that there were four
dimensions relevant to how we view the world, the first of which
they called Other-Direction. People with high scores on this scale
feel pressured to conform to the expectations of others. Their
low self-esteem causes them to experience anxiety should they
think about saying or doing something that might displease
those around them. Consequently, they feel rather powerless to
control the direction of their lives.

The second dimension is called Inner-Direction, and as the
items suggest, people with high scores on this scale have an inner
plan or a psychological gyroscope, to use Collins’s term,
which guides their behavior. These people, similar to Rotter’s
internals, have a clear sense of the direction they want their
lives to take, and they believe they have the resources to get
there.

Lack of Constraints is the third dimension. People with high
scores on this scale may be characterized as being creative and
free spirits. Collins and his colleagues speculated that such
people may be self-actualized in that they have the flexibility to
be spontaneous and to adapt to a wide variety of situations. A
skeptic, however, could argue that high scorers are chameleons
with little sense or little concern about what is appropriate or inappropriate.
I suspect a score in the 50th to the 70th percentile
range is the best place to be. It is desirable to have the flexibility
to adapt to different situations, but I believe a psychological gyroscope
is important as well.

Finally, the fourth dimension is Predictability of Behavior,
which includes the behavior of oneself as well as the behavior of
others. People with high scores on this scale have more confidence
in their ability to make sense of the world. Regardless of
whether they are outer- or inner-directed, they believe their lives
are understandable and hence, safe. People with low scores on
this scale tend to view life as more chaotic and hence, dangerous.
They have difficulty feeling confidence in the consequences of
their actions.

I found the Personal Behavior Inventory especially fascinating
because Collins demonstrated that the four dimensions on
his scale were independent. Unlike Rotter, whose test suggested
that one was either internal or external, Collins found that one
could have high scores on both the Inner- and Other-Direction
subscales of his test. It was also the case that the Lack of Constraints
and Predictability of Behavior subscales were independent
of the other subscales as well. This means that one person
could have any number of combination of scores on the various
scales. Further research is needed before we have a clear sense
of the implications of the potential profiles, but I would guess
that the profile indicating the highest degree of adjustment
would be a low score on the Other-Direction subscale, high
scores on the Inner-Direction and Predictability of Behavior
subscales, and as I indicated earlier, a moderately high score on
the Lack of Constraints subscale. I suspect that such people
would not be unduly influenced by the expectations of others;
they would have confidence that their efforts made a difference
and that the world was a safe, predictable place. They would also
be sufficiently free from either external or internal constraints
so that they could be spontaneous and creative when the situation
was appropriate. I only wish I fit that ideal profile a little
more closely.

Piecework

2009-07-09T11:54:00.000+05:30

A system of pay based on the number of items processed by each

individual worker in a unit of time, such as items per hour or items

per day.

Straight Piecework Plan

2009-07-09T11:52:00.001+05:30

Under this pay system each worker receives a set payment for

each piece produced or processed in a factory or shop.

Guaranteed Piecework Plan

2009-07-09T11:51:00.000+05:30

The minimum hourly wage plus an incentive for each piece

produced above a set number of pieces per hour.

Team or Group Incentive Plan

2009-07-09T11:47:00.000+05:30

A plan in which a production standard is set for a specific

work group, and its members are paid incentives if the group

exceed the production standard.

Annual Bonus

2009-07-09T11:46:00.000+05:30

Plans that are designed to motivate short-term performance of

managers and are tied to company profitability.

Capital Accumulation

2009-07-09T11:38:00.000+05:30

Long-term incentives most often reserved for senior executives.

Programs

2009-07-09T11:36:00.000+05:30

Six popular plans include stock options, stock appreciation rights,

performance achievement plans, restricted stock plans, phantom

stock plans, and book value plans.

Stock Option

2009-07-09T11:21:00.000+05:30

The right to purchase a stated number of shares of a company

stock at today's price at some time in the future.

Merit Pay (Merit Raise)

2009-07-08T10:41:00.002+05:30

Any salary increase awarded to an employee based on his or her

individual performance.

Profit-Sharing Plan

2009-07-08T10:41:00.001+05:30

A plan whereby most employees share in the company's profits.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

2009-07-08T10:40:00.000+05:30

A corporation contributes shares of its own stock to a trust in

which additional contributions are made annually. The trust

distributes the stock to employees on retirement or separation

from service.

Scanlon Plan

2009-07-08T10:39:00.000+05:30

An incentive plan developed in 1937 by Joseph Scanlon and

designed to encourage cooperation, involvement, and sharing of

benefits.

Gainsharing Plan

2009-07-08T10:38:00.000+05:30

An incentive plan that engages employees in a common effort to

achieve productivity objectives and share the gains.

How Depressed Are You?

2009-07-08T08:40:00.002+05:30

Just try this questionnaire to know how depressed are you

THE AUTOMATIC

THOUGHTS QUESTIONNAIRE

Listed below are a variety of thoughts that pop into people’s

heads. Please read each thought and indicate how frequently, if

at all, the thought occurred to you over the last week. Please read

each item carefully and indicate the appropriate response, using

the scale below.

5 = All the time

4 = Often

3 = Moderately often

2 = Sometimes

1 = Not at all

1. I feel like I’m up against the world.

2. I’m no good.

3. Why can’t I ever succeed?

4. No one understands me.

5. I’ve let people down.

6. I don’t think I can go on.

7. I wish I were a better person.

8. I’m so weak.

9. My life’s not going the way I want it to.

10. I’m so disappointed in myself.

11. Nothing feels good anymore.

12. I can’t stand this anymore.

13. I can’t get started.

14. What’s wrong with me?

15. I wish I were somewhere else.

16. I can’t get things together.

17. I hate myself.

18. I’m worthless.

19. I wish I could just disappear.

20. What’s the matter with me?

21. I’m a loser.

22. My life is a mess.

23. I’m a failure.

24. I’ll never make it.

25. I feel so helpless.

26. Something has to change.

27. There must be something wrong with me.

28. My future is bleak.

29. It’s just not worth it.

30. I can’t finish anything.

SCORING

To find your score, simply add together your responses for the 30

items.

NORMS

SCORE...........PERCENTILE

..60......................85

..55......................70

..49......................50

..43......................30

..38......................15

About the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire

We have learned a great deal about depression over the past few

decades. Much of this research has focused on the biological underpinnings

of depression, and this work has led to a number of

new and effective medications. And while these advances have

undoubtedly helped to improve the quality of life for countless

people, a number of people, including yours truly, are concerned

that the biological view of depression has been oversold.

We are living in a time when Prozac is one of the medications

most widely prescribed not only by psychiatrists but by family

practitioners as well. Although it seems like a simple solution to

life’s problems, there is good reason to believe that taking a pill

is not always the best solution for depression.

Among those with a healthy dose of skepticism about drugs always

being the best answer are the authors of the Automatic

Thoughts Questionnaire, Drs. Steven Hollon and Philip Kendall.

They argue that thoughts play a critical role. A number of investigators

have collected convincing evidence that certain

thoughts, or cognitions, can both initiate and maintain a depressive

episode. Hollon and Kendall developed the Automatic

Thoughts Questionnaire to assess the sorts of cognitions that are

associated with depression. Their goal was to develop a test that

would be useful in gauging the progress of psychotherapy, but it

can also be useful for those of you who are prone to experiencing

these feelings. If you do have such episodes and you had a

high score on this test, the odds are excellent that by changing

your automatic thoughts you could feel considerably better.

Please note that the norms were based on nondepressed college

students. So even if your score was above the 85th percentile, it

does not necessarily mean that you are seriously depressed. As always,

if you suspect that you are, you should consult a mental

health professional.

I know all too well that changing one’s thoughts is easier said

than done, but it can be accomplished with a concerted effort.

The first step is to recognize that the types of thoughts reflected

in the items in this test are indeed irrational—but recognizing

this is often difficult for depressed people to do. I had a client a

few years ago, for instance, who came to therapy for help with

her depression. This young woman was about to graduate from a

prestigious university and had been accepted to an equally prestigious

graduate school where she planned to obtain her Ph.D.

Sounds impressive, right? Well, she was depressed because she

was “such a failure.” As evidence, she pointed to her rejection

from her first choice of a graduate school and to two classmates

who had higher grade point averages than her own.

What seems so obvious to an outside observer can be impossible

for the depressed person to believe. I’m not sure I ever completely

convinced this young woman that her assessment of

herself as a failure was irrational. She was saying the right things

by the end of our brief therapy and she reported feeling better,

but I suspect that she continued to harbor the belief that she was

a failure because she did not graduate number one in her class

and was not accepted to the most prestigious graduate school.

The truth is that the sorts of thoughts people have can be, and

often are, independent of what they are doing with their lives.

We have all known people who seem to make a mess of everything

they try, yet they remain convinced that their only problem

is that others fail to recognize their greatness. The important

point is that even when we experience disappointments, we are

not justified in concluding that we are worthless or doomed to a

life of failure.

The first step in modifying the automatic thoughts that are

contributing to your feelings of depression is to go through the

list of items and find a more realistic view for those that you endorsed.

Most depressed people, for instance, endorse item 21,

“I’m a loser.” They may even cite a failure or two as examples of

what losers they are. But we’ve all heard stories of people who

have had countless failures before they reached their goals. Having

a failure experience is just that—a failure experience. It does

not make one a loser.

The next step is to make a concerted effort to substitute a

more realistic, positive thought every time you experience the

negative thought. If you have the persistent thought, for instance,

that you are a loser, have a substitute thought ready. Perhaps

it would be, “Yes, I failed at that project, but the next time

around I’ll be ready and I’ll do better.” Another good thought

would be, “Yes, I failed at that project, but let me review all the

successes that I’ve had.” Thoughts can be habits the same way

that behaviors are. So just as one can conquer the bad habit of

biting one’s fingernails by engaging in a substitute behavior

whenever the urge to bite strikes, one can modify negative automatic

thoughts with a sustained effort to substitute more positive,

realistic thoughts for the negative automatic thoughts.

This approach to treating depression is called cognitive therapy.

Aaron Beck is responsible for articulating this theory, and he

has suggested that depressed people tend to make several types

of logical errors in their thinking. Magnification and minimization

are two common such errors—errors that my young client

described above was guilty of making. She magnified her failures—

namely, her “failure” to graduate at the top of her class

and her failure to gain admission to her first choice of graduate

school. That she was unable to take pride in her graduating third

in her class and being admitted to one of the top graduate programs

in the country was a result of her tendency toward minimization.

Another common error described by Beck is arbitrary

inference. An example of this is the person who believes that a

flat tire is evidence that he or she is a loser. Depressed people often

interpret impersonal events as evidence of their failures as

human beings.

The belief of researchers such as Hollon, Kendall, and Beck

that cognitions are crucial is supported by evidence that cognitive

therapy may be as effective as medication in the treatment of

depression. This debate has not been settled, but after treatment

has been concluded there is good reason to believe that people

who receive cognitive therapy are less likely to have a relapse

than people receiving medication. I suspect the debate as to

which form of treatment is best will not be resolved anytime

soon, but the evidence is clear that modifying cognitions can

play a very important role in alleviating depression for many

people. It is hard work, but I urge you to give it a try if depression

is one of your barriers to a happier, more satisfying life.

Are You an Angry Person?

2009-07-04T14:13:00.003+05:30

Do this analysis by yourself to understand how angry are you?

Everybody gets angry from time to time. A number of statements

that people have used to describe the times they get angry are

included below. Use the guidelines below to indicate how well

each of the following statements describes you. Please answer

every item.

5 = Completely true

4 = Mostly true

3 = Partly false/partly true

2 = Mostly false

1 = Completely false

1. I tend to get angry more frequently than most people.

2. Other people seem to get angrier than I do in similar

circumstances.

3. I harbor grudges that I don’t tell anyone about.

4. I try to get even when I’m angry with someone.

5. I am secretly quite critical of others.

6. It is easy to make me angry.

7. When I am angry with someone, I let that person know.

8. I have met many people who are supposed to be experts

who are no better than I.

9. Something makes me angry almost every day.

10. I often feel angrier than I think I should.

11. I feel guilty about expressing my anger.

12. When I am angry with someone, I take it out on whoever

is around.

13. Some of my friends have habits that annoy and bother

me very much.

14. I am surprised at how often I feel angry.

15. Once I let people know I’m angry, I can put it out of my

mind.

16. People talk about me behind my back.

17. At times, I feel angry for no specific reason.

18. I can make myself angry about something in the past

just by thinking about it.

19. Even after I have expressed my anger, I have trouble forgetting

about it.

20. When I hide my anger from others, I think about it for a

long time.

21. People can bother me just by being around.

22. When I get angry, I stay angry for hours.

23. When I hide my anger from others, I forget about it

pretty quickly.

24. I try to talk over problems with people without letting

them know I’m angry.

25. When I get angry, I calm down faster than most people.

26. I get so angry, I feel like I might lose control.

27. If I let people see the way I feel, I’d be considered a hard

person to get along with.

28. I am on my guard with people who are friendlier than I

expected.

29. It’s difficult for me to let people know I’m angry.

30. I get angry when:

_____ a. Someone lets me down.

_____ b. People are unfair.

_____ c. Something blocks my plans.

_____ d. I am delayed.

_____ e. Someone embarrasses me.

_____ f. I have to take orders from someone less capable than I.

_____ g. I have to work with incompetent people.

_____ h. I do something stupid.

_____ i. I am not given credit for something I have done.

NORMS

........................SCORES...........................................PERCENTILE

......AA......RAS.....HO...... AO......AI......Total

......47......33.........44.........14.......22.......160................85

......42......29.........39.........13......20.......142................70

......36......25.........34.........11......17.......123.................50

......30......21.........29.........9........14.......104................30

......25......17.........24.........8.........12.......86..................15

SCORING

The first step in scoring is to reverse (5 = 1, 4 = 2, 3 = 3, 2 = 4, and

1 = 5) the following items: 2, 23, and 25. Next, you can find your

score on five subscales. Please note that some items appear on

more than one subscale. The first is Anger Arousal and consists of

items 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25, and 26. The second dimension

is Range of Anger-Eliciting Situations and includes items

30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, 30e, 30f, 30g, 30h, and 30i. The third dimension

is Hostile Outlook and consists of items 8, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22,

28, 30a, 30b, 30f, 30g, and 30i. The fourth dimension is Anger-

Out and consists of items 7, 23, 24, and 29. And the fifth dimension

is Anger-In and consists of items 3, 4, 11, 19, 20, and 27.

About the Multidimensional Anger Inventory

As is the case with all sciences, psychology has been guilty of its

share of mistakes. One interesting example of this concerns the

emotion of anger. For many years, the common wisdom was that

people should express their anger, that it was unhealthy to suppress

it. Freud, one of the first proponents of this view, argued

that depression is anger turned inward, so clearly, it would be

better to express one’s anger outward to avoid the negative consequences

of repressing it. This belief was strengthened in the

1950s when psychoanalyst Franz Alexander wrote that pent-up

anger would intensify, resulting in a chronic emotional state that

caused hypertension. Alexander’s theory received some support

in the 1960s when a group of researchers brought people into

the laboratory and deliberately made them angry, which caused

their blood pressure to increase. Half of these research participants

were subsequently allowed to retaliate against the person

who made them angry, and for these people, there was a decrease

in their blood pressure. So, it seemed clear: expressing

anger could lower one’s blood pressure and possibly preclude

the risk of coronary heart disease.

Now, nearly 40 years later, researchers have a very different

view of anger, and it appears as if there is very little that is good

about it. As is always the case, the situation is extremely complex

and the interplay of a number of variables must be considered,

but it does appear that anger poses serious health and social

risks. Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of the health risks

was presented by a group of researchers from the University of

North Carolina who gave a group of medical students a test measuring

their hostility. Twenty-five years later, physicians who had

been high in hostility as students were significantly more likely

not only to have suffered coronary disease but also to have died!

The social risks of anger have been well publicized over the

past several years. Who has not heard of ugly and tragic incidents

stemming from road rage? Both spouse and child abuse are almost

always preceded by the perpetrator experiencing anger.

Over the past half century, we psychologists have gone from

teaching people how to express their anger to leading anger

management seminars. Anger is something that is best controlled.

UCLA psychologist Judith Siegel developed the Multidimensional

Anger Inventory to reflect the complexity of the emotion

of anger. After reviewing the scientific literature dealing with the

relationship between anger and coronary heart disease, she

noted that there are a number of dimensions associated with this

dangerous emotion. As the scales on her test suggest, some

people may become angry often, but a relatively narrow range of

situations elicit their anger. Other people may have a generally

hostile outlook on the world, even though they may not experience

a great deal of emotional intensity when they feel angry.

Siegel’s goal was to develop a test that would help researchers

better understand exactly what components of anger contribute

to coronary heart disease.

While we still have much to learn about the precise nature of

anger, it is clear that if you received high scores on this test then

you would benefit from modifying your anger level. It is never

easy to change lifelong patterns, but the evidence is clear that

anger management programs work. It is true that some of us are

predisposed by our biological makeup to respond more strongly

than others, but the experience of anger is strongly influenced

by learning. If we observed our parents becoming angry frequently,

we learned that anger is an expected reaction in such

situations. And remember, patterns that are learned can be unlearned.

Perhaps the most important step in modifying your anger is to

recognize that it is under your control. Too many angry people

blame the target of their emotions. The abusive husband blames

his wife for provoking him. The woman who experiences road

rage blames stupid and incompetent drivers. If you want to

change, you have to accept responsibility for your reactions. You

cannot blame others for the emotions you experience. You are in

charge, and it is up to you to do something about your anger.

One important step in modifying your anger is to learn a more

appropriate, healthier response to situations that make you angry.

Most anger management programs use relaxation training

to help people with this step. A good source of additional information

about the benefits of relaxation and detailed instructions

to help you learn this response is Harvard psychiatrist Herbert

Benson’s book, The Relaxation Response. Even if you do not spend

the time to thoroughly master these techniques, you can accomplish

a great deal with very simple breathing exercises. Suppose

you are stuck in traffic and know you will be late to an important

meeting. Rather than feel angry at all the “idiots” who are making

life difficult for you, simply lean back in your seat, take several

slow, deep breaths, and repeat the word relax to yourself.

This will not work miracles the first time you try it, but if you consistently

practice relaxing in situations that typically make you

angry, you will be surprised by the change in yourself over a few

weeks’ time.

Along with learning to relax, you must change your thoughts.

I do not have much of a problem with anger but there is one situation

that I have had to make a conscious effort to work on—

the express line in the grocery store. I would find myself

becoming increasingly angry when the people in front of me did

not do everything they could to make the line move quickly. Especially

infuriating was the person who would wait until the

checker announced the total before digging through her purse

to find her pocketbook. Then, this especially annoying person

would dig through her change pocket to preserve as many of her

precious dollar bills as possible (see, I’m getting worked up just

writing about it). I decided I had to change when I realized I

would still be angry by the time I got home from the store. So I

would take the deep breaths and then tell myself that at most, it

was adding a minute to my delay and that the woman was not intentionally

doing this to make my life miserable. And rather than

stare at her in a futile attempt to speed her up, I would amuse

myself by reading the headlines of the tabloid newspapers that

are always adjacent to the checkout line.

It has been several years since I vowed to work on this, and

there are still times when I am in a hurry and I have to remind

myself to practice what I preach. It is almost impossible to completely

change our reactions, but it is also true that I almost

never walk out of the store feeling angry at the people who were

ahead of me in line. With persistence, you too can overcome

most anything.

How Rational Are You?

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Check how rational are you with this simple survey by yourself

THE SURVEY OF
PERSONAL BELIEFS

People have different ideas and beliefs. We are interested in your
opinion about the following statements. Using the scale below,
select the number that best reflects your belief about each statement.

1 = Totally agree
2 = Mostly agree
3 = Slightly agree
4 = Slightly disagree
5 = Mostly disagree
6 = Totally disagree

1. Dealing with some people can be very unpleasant, but
it can never be awful or horrible.
2. When I make a mistake, I often tell myself, “I shouldn’t
have done that.”
3. Absolutely, people must obey the law.
4. There is nothing that I “can’t stand.”
5. Being ignored, or being socially awkward at a party,
would reduce my sense of self-worth.
6. Some situations in life are truly terrible.
7. In some areas I absolutely should be more competent.
8. My parents should be reasonable in what they ask
of me.
9. There are some things that I just can’t stand.
10. My self-worth is not higher because of my successes in
school or on the job.
11. The way some children behave is just awful.
12. I absolutely should not have made certain obvious mistakes
in my life.
13. Even if they had promised, and it was important to me,
there is no reason why my friends have to do what I
want.
14. I can’t deal with it when my friends (or my children) behave
immaturely, wildly, or improperly.
15. There are good people and bad people, as can be seen
by watching what they do.
16. There are times when awful things happen.
17. There is nothing that I must do in life.
18. Children must eventually learn to live up to their obligations.
19. Sometimes I just can’t tolerate my poor achievement in
school or at work.
20. Even when I make serious or costly mistakes, or hurt
others, my self-worth does not change.
21. It would be terrible if I could not succeed at pleasing
the people I love.
22. I would like to do better at school (or at work) but there
is no reason why I absolutely must do better.
23. I believe that people definitely should not behave
poorly in public.
24. I just can’t take a lot of pressure and stress.
25. The approval or disapproval of my friends or family
does not affect my self-worth.
26. It would be unfortunate, but certainly not terrible, if
someone in my family had serious medical problems.
27. I definitely have to do a good job on all things that I decide
to do.
28. It’s generally okay for teenagers to act differently by eating
pizza for breakfast and leaving clothing and books
all over the floor in their room.
29. I can’t stand some of the things that have been done by
my friends or members of my family.
30. A person who sins or harms others repeatedly is a “bad
person.”
31. It would be awful if someone I loved developed serious
mental problems and had to be hospitalized.
32. I have to make absolutely sure that everything is going
well in important areas of my life.
33. If it’s important to me, close friends should want to do
the favors that I ask of them.
34. I can easily tolerate very unpleasant situations and uncomfortable,
awkward interactions with friends.
35. The way others evaluate me (friends, supervisors, teachers)
is very important in determining the way I rate myself.
36. It’s terrible when my friends behave poorly and inappropriately
in public.
37. I clearly should not make some of the mistakes I make.
38. There is no reason why my family members must act the
way I want them to.
39. It’s unbearable when lots and lots of things go wrong.
40. I often rate myself based upon my success at work or
school, or upon my social achievements.
41. It would be terrible if I totally failed in school or at
work.
42. There is no reason why I should be a better person than
I am.
43. There are clearly some things that other people must
not do.
44. There are some things about people at work (or in
school) that I just can’t stand.
45. Serious emotional or legal problems would lower my
sense of self-worth.
46. Even very bad and distasteful situations like failing, or
losing a lot of money or a job, are not terrible.
47. There are some good reasons why I must not make errors
at school or at work.
48. Absolutely, my friends and family should treat me better
than they sometimes do.
49. I can easily accept it when my friends don’t behave the
way I expect them to.
50. It is important to teach children that they can become
“good boys” and “good girls” by performing well in
school and earning the approval of their parents.

SCORING

First, you must reverse the score (1 = 6, 2 = 5, 3 = 4, 4 = 3, 5 = 2,
and 6 = 1) for the following items: 1, 4, 10, 13, 17, 20, 22, 25, 26,
28, 34, 38, 42, 46, and 49.
Next, you can find scores on five subscales.
The names of the subscales and the items on each subscale
are as follows:
Awfulizing (Aw) 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36, 41, and 46;
Self-Directed Shoulds (SDS) 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37, 42, and 47;
Other-Directed Shoulds (ODS) 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, 38, 43, and 48;
Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT) 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 39, 44, and 49; and
Self-Worth (SW) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50.
Your grand total is obtained by adding together the five subscale scores.

NORMS
......................SCORES...............................PERCENTILE
.Aw.....SDS....ODS....LFT....SW.........Total
....30......31.....34.......35.....35...........165.............85
....28......29.....32.......33.....33...........153.............70
....25......26.....29.......30.....30...........140.............50
....22......23.....26.......27.....27...........127.............30
....20......21.....24.......25.....25...........115..............15

About the Survey of Personal Beliefs

The Survey of Personal Beliefs reflects an approach to psychotherapy
called rational emotive therapy, developed by psychologist
Albert Ellis. Ellis argued that while people tend to
believe they are anxious, depressed, or otherwise unhappy because
of the things that happen to them, they are really distressed by the things they say to themselves about the things that happen
to them. To illustrate this distinction, suppose you go to work
one morning and your boss greets you with the news that you are
fired. While it may make sense to you that your bad feelings are
a result of your termination and uncertain future, Ellis’s response
would be, “You’re not depressed because you lost your
job, you’re depressed because of what you are saying to yourself
about losing your job. You’re probably telling yourself that losing
your job is a tragedy, that it proves what a loser you are, and that
you will never find suitable work again.” Ellis would go on to tell
you that it was too bad you lost your job, but it is not the end of
the world. You should use the experience to learn something
about yourself that will increase the odds of success on your next
job. And it is doubtful that you were actually happy in a job from
which you were fired, so this experience offers you the opportunity
to find work that will be more satisfying. Ellis argues that to
tell yourself that losing your job is a tragedy is irrational and that
to feel better, you must adopt more rational, logical ways of viewing
the world.
Ellis outlined numerous irrational beliefs that were especially
prevalent among unhappy, distressed people, and the Survey of
Personal Beliefs was developed by Howard Kassinove and Andrew
Berger to reflect these common, irrational beliefs. As you
can see from reading the items on this test, Ellis’s list of irrational
beliefs reflects a handful of common themes. One of these is that
to feel worthwhile, we must be loved and approved of by virtually
everyone. While most of us would agree that it is impossible for
everyone to like or approve of us, many people feel genuinely
devastated when they learn that a colleague or acquaintance harbors
negative feelings about them. Many others will make poor
decisions with the hope that it will inspire liking and approval
from others. (Do the names of any politicians come to mind?)
Healthy people can accept that they are disliked by others, and
they are able to make the right decision even when they know it
will anger some people.
A second, and in my mind an especially common irrational belief,
is that all problems have good solutions. In my experience as
a therapist, I have seen many clients who seek help, believing the
perfect answer to their dilemma is just waiting to be found. The
truth is that many problems simply do not have “good” solutions
and we must settle for the least onerous alternative. The middleaged
woman married to a philanderer who is a good father and
a kind companion must decide which alternative, none of which
are good, works best for her. And then she must remind herself
that while it is unfortunate that her husband is a womanizer, it is
not the end of the world. By making the best of whatever alternative
she does select, she has an excellent chance of experiencing
joy and happiness again.
As you can see from the norms, we can all be a little irrational
at times. While Ellis would have us believe that it is irrational to
think it terrible if we failed at school or work (item 41), the average
person does “Slightly Agree” with this statement. Only those
people who “Totally Agree” or “Mostly Agree” are likely to end
up with a score that results in their being labeled as irrational. I
do like Ellis’s approach to psychotherapy, but I believe there are
times when he is guilty of overstating his case. I suspect the difference
between people who function at a high level and others
is a matter of degree. Even the best-adjusted person could be expected
to feel devastated by losing a job, but they can also recover
relatively quickly. They realize they have no choice but to
move on and to make the best of the situation.
If you did score below the 30th percentile on this test, the
odds are good that you could have a more satisfying life by modifying
the things you say to yourself. The first step is to use your
responses to the individual items to identify your trouble spots.
Do you believe you have to be successful at everything you try in
order to be worthwhile? Are you too concerned with the approval
of others? Do you feel your past makes it impossible for
you to find happiness? As always, the place to start is to know
thine enemy.
Ellis’s classic book, A Guide to Rational Living, is an excellent
guide to help in your effort to think more rationally and logically,
but the essence of this technique is to articulate these rational
statements when you find you are feeling bad. So, if you
feel depressed when you learn a coworker has said something
nasty about you, tell yourself, “I can’t please everyone. I would be
a rather bland person if no one disliked me.” If you feel anxious
while thinking about some small problem, remind yourself that
it is beyond your control and that your life is not going to be
much different no matter what happens. As always, keep in mind
that the key to success in making these changes is persistence
and consistency.

Supplemental Pay Benefits

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Benefits for time not worked such as unemployment
insurance, vacation and holiday pay and sick pay.

Unemployment Insurance

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Provides weekly benefits if a person is unable to work through
some fault other than his or her own.

Sick Leave

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Provides pay to an employee when he or she is out of work
because of illness.

Severance Pay

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A one-time payment some employers provide when terminating
an employee.

Supplemental Unemployment Benefits

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Provide for a guaranteed annual income in certain industries
where employers must shut down to change machinery or due to
reduced work. These benefits are paid by the company and
supplement unemployment benefits.

Keep this matras to retain people

2009-07-02T18:47:00.004+05:30

1. Take a Direct Personal Interest in All Your Team Members
This can be done by following these simple guidelines:

(i) Know Everyone by Name

Incredible, but true. I have met too many managers who do not even know the names of their team members. Any corporate structure is like a pyramid. No matter what part of the pyramid you occupy, the strength of the pyramid depends on the bottommost layer and it becomes imperative that you know all the people who report to you directly or indirectly. At least, the best managers have an uncanny knack of remembering peoples’ names and making casual personal enquiries about the well being of anyone they meet. Since this kind of behavior is not always experienced, it makes the people realize that they are being given personal attention and builds loyalty in the team. It satisfies the basic human craving of being noticed.

In his classic book “Strategies for success”, Jim Dornan mentions this very principle in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, and I quote “An excellent example of this from history can be seen in the way Napoleon Bonaparte interacted with his men, he knew every officer of his army by name. He liked to wander through his camp, meet an officer, greet him by name, and talk about a battle or maneuver in which he knew this officer had been involved. He never missed an opportunity to inquire about a soldier’s home town, wife and family. When he did, it always amazed the man to see how much detailed personal information about him his Emperor knew.
Since every officer felt Napoleon’s personal interest in him – proved by his statements and questions- it is easy to understand the devotion they all felt for him.”

(ii) Connect with Everyone

Tough one to explain but let’s consider an example. Archimedes discovered the lever concept wherein let’s say you wanted to move a heavy rock you would be better advised to use a long rod rather than trying to move it with your bare hands.

Similarly, when it comes to people, you are better advised to build relationships first and then steer people in the direction you want them to move. Moreover, in this case, people will follow you willingly. Learn to persuade, not dominate. There is a vast difference between the two phrases ‘Can you please ensure that this is done?’ and ‘You need to complete this work by EOD today.’ One is a slight nudge or a request while the other is a kick. No one likes to be kicked.

Unfortunately, most managers are guilty of using “positional authority” to achieve their ends. John Maxwell talks about the various levels of leadership in his book “Developing the leader within you” and it is clear that positional authority is the worst form of leadership.

One way to measure where you stand on the leadership scale is to check how many juniors come to you for career advice and advice in other areas of their life. If people do not approach you, it means that you are not approachable which is a sorry state of affairs. You simply cannot progress if you are unable to connect with people and you can connect with people only when you take a genuine interest in them, their careers, lives, etc.

(iii) Protect Your Team at all Costs

Protect your team from:

Overenthusiastic sales personnel who try to impose their sales targets on developers
Powerful stakeholders who impose deadline pressure
Prima donna developers who start dominating juniors
Have genuine concern and take true care of your team – the best leaders are the ones who go to extreme lengths to protect the interests of their team. Sometimes, this may mean that you need to lock horns with your immediate superiors and higher management.
Remember, your team is your 1st concern.

Address all team concerns proactively - a concern, like a bomb can be handled if detected early. The greater the delay, the worse it becomes.

The result – people will start recognizing you as a person in whom they can put their faith and trust and become fiercely loyal.

(iv) Solve Problems Even If it is Outside the Scope of the Project

One of your key responsibilities as a Project Manager is to clear all the obstacles which come in the way of your team members and prevent them from performing at the optimum level. While most PMs do handle all the nagging problems faced within the office premises, very few actually look beyond that.

Onsite projects, for example, are always plagued with problems. Adjusting to the local food, travelling and place of residence, are basic requirements which should be taken care of at the very outset. I recall an onsite project wherein I had to visit a foreign country where the employer provided some excellent facilities like:

1 free telephone call every week to keep in touch with the family
A video conference with family members once in 6 months
Occasional weekend trips to famous spots in the city
The buddy concept wherein one local staff whom the onsite person had to interact with regularly was also asked to help him during his stay for other nagging problems – in fact, this was a KRA for the year.
Small acts like these ensured that the employees were happy and there was negligible attrition in the project for almost 3 years. Funny, but treating every team member as if he is your biggest customer yields rich dividends in the long run.

(v) Be Absolutely Honest and Transparent

Trust is the foundation stone of all relationships. Break trust and invite disaster. Be it organizational changes, cost cutting, layoffs, or any other news which impacts the team, always be the first one to inform the team openly and accurately.

In “The 7 habits of highly effective people”, Stephen Covey mentions the ‘Emotional Bank account’ and I quote “An Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust that’s been built up in a relationship. It’s the feeling of safeness you have with another human being.”

Do all your team members feel safe when it concerns you – if not, you need to work towards building up the deposits in that emotional bank account with everyone.

2. Identify your Best People

Suppose you have access to a pool of 10 developers and need to identify the best candidate to commence work on a difficult module. If you fail to identify the right person, you will face problems later on with unfinished, substandard work and compromised deadlines. I usually use what I would like to call the POC – "Proof of Concept" strategy. Assign the task of developing the POC for a project related problem to the entire pool of available developers. The advantages are:

The proposed solution will tell you a lot about the individual’s capability
Usually, the turnaround time for any POC is a couple of days – effectively, you do not lose too much time in trying to determine who the right candidate is.
Over a period of time, you will be able to determine what the strengths and weaknesses of each individual in your team are, but the POC method always works at the initial stage.

3. Practice the 80/20 Rule

The Pareto principle, in the project management context would mean that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the team. This means that once you have identified your core 20%, make sure you are spending 80% of your time with them.

Sometimes, the weakest developers in your team can end up eating up your entire time and bring down the entire project over a period of time. The same applies to your core team as well – remember, your team is only as strong as its weakest link. Sometimes, the best developers end up spending most of their time in resolving problems faced by their weakest colleagues. Never allow this to happen.

The Pareto principle is beautifully illustrated in the book “Developing the Leader within you” by Dr. John Maxwell.

4. Place the Right People in the Right Areas

Over a period of about 3-6 months, you will be able to pinpoint people’s strengths and weaknesses if you are always involved at the ground level and not just living on updates like average project managers. At this point of time, it is important to strengthen the roles for the core 20% as all high-fliers eventually get restless. The following strategy can be used:

Excellent at analysis, design and finding solutions – needs to be in product development, should be assigned the most difficult modules. It’s a win-win situation, on the one hand, the module gets delivered and on the other, it also provides enough challenge for the developer and keeps him motivated.
Excellent at customer interaction and trouble-shooting. Understands the business impact well – needs to be in production support and over a period of time can occupy the team leader’s position in production support.
Excellent at co-ordination and customer interaction – can be assigned the role of an implementation expert. This role mainly involves interacting with other teams like DBAs, change managers, business users, testers, etc. It also demands that the person has the capability to understand an implemented solution entirely. Such a person may not necessarily be good at finding solutions but remember, his role as an implementer does not demand the same most of the time.
Make sure expectations and responsibilities of the assigned roles are made clear to everyone involved. This tells the top performers that their careers are being taken care of. At the same time, it also ensures that the right responsibilities are being delegated to the right people and will eventually result in the project manager having greater control over his time. Designations are limited but roles can always be created.

Sometimes, people may require counselling to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. More often than not, developers are only interested in coding new modules and do not realize where they can excel. This is where your powers of persuasion will be tested.

Delegation is a two-edged sword, do it right and it will allow you to take up more work and lead to an increase in responsibility, do it badly and you will end up answering escalation emails and attending damage-control meetings.

5. Create Career Development Plans for all your Key People

Most project managers never quite get down to working this step, yet, this is the key step to stem attrition and hold on to your best team members. The best people are usually interested in the following aspects of a job:

Career growth, i.e. growth in responsibility
Growth in income
Better role
Overall, the best people are mainly interested in knowing if the current job provides them enough opportunities to advance towards their long term career goals which might be of becoming an enterprise software architect, project manager, etc.

The following steps can be followed:

(i) Identify the Long Term Career Goals for Each Individual

Use one to one meetings to identify the long term goals of each individual. This will be possible only if you have connected well with each individual as detailed in the earlier steps – if not, you may not even be able to initiate this meeting. The key here is to identify what aspects of the job the individual likes and where he would eventually like to end up in the field. At the end of this discussion, both the individual and you should be clear about the following things about the individual:

Long term career goal, for e.g. becoming an enterprise architect
Current strengths – technical and personal
Current gaps – technical and personal
What should be the next step towards moving towards the role of enterprise architect?
What technology has the candidate not worked on till date and needs exposure?
What are his training needs which will help him move faster towards his goal?
Make sure all these points are documented well and kept confidential. This discussion becomes the basis of future discussions.

The candidate should start getting a vision and game plan as to what is required to achieve his long term goal and what is the next step. For example, a software engineer should first aspire to become a Senior Software Engineer followed by Tech lead and so on.

(ii) Map Individual Goals to Project Goals
This is an extremely powerful concept. If you have followed project management practices at some level and have a clear idea of the project deliverables and the different technologies which will be used, you will be in a position to do work allocation correctly. Before allocating any task, ask yourself:

Is the individual capable of completing this task?
Does it provide him “controlled stretch” which means whether the task will force the person to stretch his abilities and grow in the process?
Does it help him advance towards his long term goal?
Do this right and you will end up having a high-performing team which is also highly motivated.

Every assignment you allocate to an individual should help him move toward his next career goal. Between the decision to quit and the next job lies the quality of assignments given – it is the project manager who decides the team’s attrition rate to a great extent.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

- Zig Ziglar

(iii) Create a Leadership Incubator

If you have done the earlier steps right, you will soon reach a point wherein you will have high-performing team members who will continuously take up new challenges. Over a period of time, the entire team environment will start reflecting the same.

(iv) Some Will Still Move On

Despite the best of opportunities, some people will still choose to move on due to various reasons.

Some will outgrow their immediate environment, i.e. your project and will move on – thank them for their contribution. They will always remember you for the role you played in mentoring them.

This is the point where the leadership incubator you have created will be put to good use – others will be ready to occupy the position of the person who has moved on. Succession planning needs to happen at all levels and not just at the topmost management levels.

(v) Believe in Everybody – Wait for Nobody

One word of caution – you can only help someone to rise higher if he himself is interested and committed towards the same. People can be divided into 2 types – types A are the moving cars (ambitious, career oriented people) which only need to be steered in the right direction. Type B are the parked cars (comfortable, stagnating people) which need to be started off or even pushed in some cases. Do not spend too much time on Type B – remember the 80/20 rule.

(vi) Replace Yourself Eventually

Remember, your influence as a person will grow only when your people grow. You cannot rise unless you replace yourself first. For insecure people, this will be hard to digest. You cannot occupy a new chair unless you vacate the chair which you currently occupy.

This principle is beautifully brought out in the book “The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership” by Dr. John Maxwell. 3 laws mentioned in the book are relevant in this context.

The Law of Empowerment – only secure leaders give power to others
The Law of Reproduction – it takes a leader to raise up a leader
The Law of Explosive growth – To add growth, add followers – to multiple, lead leaders
While it goes without saying that reaching this point will take time and effort – this is the only way to go forward and rise higher. The transformation happens within you first and the eventual handing over of higher responsibility to you is only an acknowledgement of what you have already become on the inside.

6. Praise Publicly and Criticize Privately

Never miss spotting someone doing the right thing – and always acknowledge and reward the same. People literally crave for a kind word and will eventually repeat their best performance when they are recognized for the same.

On the contrary, if a situation demands that some harsh words need to be spoken, then always ensure that this happens in a closed door meeting and never in public. Also, take particular care that you do not violate someone’s sense of self-respect but at the same time you make a person realize the gravity of his mistake.

7. Show Empathy, Not Sympathy

Empathize with people when they miss project deadlines due to personal problems, but do not sympathize.

The dictionary meaning of sympathy is “the feeling of being sorry for someone”,” support for or approval of something” and that of empathy is “understand and share the feelings of another”. There is a qualitative difference between both. When you show sympathy, you will allow a person to drag you into his well of woe whereas when you show empathy you will help or empower him to solve his problem or move on and find someone else to do the job.

Let’s face it, any real project will throw up countless problems at the project and at the individual level. Having empathy will ensure that you give everyone a fair chance but overdoing the same will only lead to a bad situation. This is a key factor to consider when a team member’s personal problems lead to failed deliverables or compromised deadlines.

8. Share Successes with the Team, but Take Responsibility for Failures

Always ensure that the top performers get public recognition for their efforts. This is easy in organizations where you have a quarterly rewards and recognition program. In organizations where this is not the case, the project manager needs to be creative. One way to do this is to be a good promoter of people, this leads to people becoming more and more motivated and striving to consistently meet the high standards they themselves have set.

On the other hand, all failures need to be handled internally. Never reprimand the team members responsible for any mistakes in public. Failure makes a person feel miserable anyway – and highlighting the same too much only adds to his woes. The Project Manager needs to play a key role here in shielding his people.

This is the hallmark of all great leaders. In “Wings of Fire: Autobiography of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam” an incident is mentioned wherein Dr. Kalam took total responsibility for the SLV-3 (Satellite Launch Vehicle) failure in front of a big group of scientists. The book also mentions another incident when he asked his team members to present their individual reports on the areas they were working on rather than he doing it himself thus giving the team an opportunity for recognition in front of the scientific community. No wonder he is considered one of the most successful scientists to have led India’s space and missile program.

9. Organize Trainings

The training budget is a powerful tool in your hands, use it wisely. Create the training calendar in the beginning of the year keeping in mind the following requirements:

Technical requirements of the project
Individual training requirements to boost career growth
Any gap in skills that needs to be addressed
Quite often it happens that a year passes by without the organizing of any proper training programs and the last quarter is packed with training programs of little value to the individuals involved and the organization itself. Never allow this to happen.

Internal training programs can also be conducted by the various individuals involved in the project on technologies used in the project itself or otherwise. This is an opportunity for personal growth for many individuals.

Trainings always give individuals a good release from project pressure and also helps to reinforce the conviction that the organization is serious about their future and increasing their skills.

10. Celebrate Phase Completion

Whenever a major project phase is over, celebrate. Put the staff welfare budget to good use. Nine pin bowling matches, group movie outings are opportunities which allow people to recharge their batteries. It also provides ample opportunities to build team spirit and strengthen relationships.

11. Balance the Workload Well

Ensure that no single individual is getting overburdened. This also calls for proactive leave management of the entire team. On occasions, you may also need to force some workaholics to take leave.

It is small acts such as these which help you make small deposits in the emotional bank account which we talked about earlier. And these deposits reap rich dividends when the time comes.

12. Do Not Ask for Too Many Updates

Do not be a status update maniac – trust your people to be responsible and deliver results. Ask for an update only when necessary – the best people will usually themselves keep you apprised of the status of the tasks they are working on.

13. Lead by Example

Always be a person worthy of emulation. Set high standards for yourself and do not impose any rule on the team which you do not follow yourself. People automatically follow what they see you do on a daily basis and not what you tell them to do. If you cannot be the first person to enter office, at least be the last person to leave after a hard day’s work and do this only after personally ensuring that your entire team has left for the day. Always walk the extra mile for the team – always come to the forefront when required, be it project problems, technical problems, any problem which hampers progress. When people observe you walking the extra mile consistently, a wonderful chain reaction happens. Some of your elite team members start following your example and this leads to a multiplication of efforts and results.

Consider the equation:
1 person = 1 extra mile
10 persons = 10 extra miles

Do you think this will have a big project impact, you bet !

As John Maxwell says, “The right to lead is earned, not given.” In his classic book “Right to lead” Dr. Maxwell mentions an incident wherein Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf stepped into a mine field to save an injured soldier and the ripple effect it had on all the people in his division. No wonder he was called upon to lead the critical operation during the Gulf war.

True leaders always emerge out of nowhere when a major crisis develops.

14. Motivate the Maintenance Team

Quite often, you will be faced with a situation wherein the production support team starts to feel that they are a group of 2nd class citizens and will develop an inferiority complex and get demotivated which can have a serious impact on the service delivery function. Motivating the maintenance team is a tough task but I have used the following techniques to good effect:

Emphasize the fact to the maintenance team that since they interact with the business users on a daily basis, they are the custodians of the image of IT more than anybody else, including you. The responsibility of the development team ends with project success, but the maintenance team is mainly responsible for ensuring that operations run smoothly and ongoing business success.
The job, contrary to the traditional belief is tough. More often than not, the maintenance team is at the receiving end of bad design decisions taken during development and has to put in quite a lot of performance enhancing fixes in place as the usage of the system increases.
Only maintenance engineers understand a system and the business domain in totality. This is due to the sheer nature of the work. Development engineers never usually seek to understand modules outside the scope of what has been allocated to them.
The crucial life skill of crisis management – taking decisions under mounting pressure can only be learnt in production support. This can never be learnt in development where someone senior will shield you.
When maintenance engineers understand the above points, they gradually begin to understand the value of the work which they do on a daily basis and where it fits in the bigger picture. And once people realize that their work is being valued, they usually stop complaining.

The same point is beautifully brought out in Sir Winston Churchill’s life during the Second World War. Dr. John Maxwell calls this the Law of the Big Picture in his book “The 17 indispensable laws of teamwork.” The book mentions how Sir Churchill managed to motivate coal miners to continue working on the inglorious task of working in the mines against opting to fight in the war on the frontline. A must read account if you are serious about going up on the leadership scale.

Moreover, there are ample career options in production support as well. With most organizations embracing ITIL and standards such as ValIT gaining ground, the service delivery function is being seen as a key provider of ongoing business value. Once maintenance engineers realize that they are not in a dead-end situation and career growth options are available they will not display negative attitude. This is where the project manager plays a key role. Organize ITIL trainings and watch how the maintenance team starts enjoying their role.

15. Sack Non-performers Tactfully

If you have recruited the person after proper evaluation, you will never be faced with this option. However, on occasions you will be called upon to do the inevitable. How do you still retain trust and loyalty in the team? The following strategies have helped me:

Ensure that you give the non-performer a fair chance – try to place him in an area which involves routine work and which does not involve much thinking. Many routine maintenance tasks involve only log monitoring – poor performers can be accommodated in such areas.

Use counselling to good effect – give the person a chance to close gaps and raise his performance to an acceptable level.

Ensure that all the other team members are well aware that the guy is failing to meet the minimum requirements of the job. This needs to be done in a subtle manner – it should not be too obvious.

Exercise all options before giving the final notice – and ensure that all the other team members are well aware that there really was no other option available.
Maintaining transparency in such matters ensures that there is no loss of trust and loyalty in the team. People realize that no one can be continuously paid for doing nothing.

In an interview on CNBC, Mr. Narayan Murthy, the chief mentor of Infosys mentioned that the best leaders have the ability to cast vision and the best people need to see themselves growing into important roles and achieving bigger goals in that vision.

Job Description

2009-06-30T20:02:00.002+05:30

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