Organizational Culture

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A Step A Day, organizational culture

Carter McNamara called organizational culture the personality of your organization. By itself, it may be difficult to define but everyone can sense it. Not only those who are part of the organization but even people viewing it from the outside. For example, I have found waiting in the reception highly educative and informative. I am convinced that a few minutes of waiting at the reception, tells me more about that organization than the formal presentation I am given by their executives when we meet shortly after.

The spring in the steps of employees as they go about their work, the smiles , the cheerful banter tells you something about the organization. On the contrary in some receptions, I also see grouchy faces, tense and ready to snap; people dragging themselves from place to place and an overall image of sloth and disinterest.

7 Steps to Retaining Talent

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A Step A Day, Retaining talent

“Despite a recent hike, we continue to lose people” said the worried senior executive. It transpired that his organization had made the mistake that many make. In an attempt to increase retention, they had implemented a pay hike ( which honestly they could ill afford) to hang on to their “people assets”.

In reality, they had increased their costs without getting anything in return. Many took the hike and asked the organization in turn to take a hike! The organization had, in effect, let loose in an already crowded market, highly priced people, many of whom did not really deserve the amounts they earned.

7 Characteristics of Ineffective Team Members

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A Step A Day, ineffective team members

Some days ago, I wrote of “ 7 Characteristics of Bad Bosses”. What about their subordinates? Aren’t some of them ineffective too? In our day to day work, we come across all kinds of team members. Some are excellent to have in our team. Many may not be excellent but do contribute and are willing to learn and change. Some, I am afraid, are just ineffective. What are their characteristics?

Gallup’s Q 12

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A Step A Day, employee engagement, Gallup's Q 12

Just how effective is your mechanism for collecting feedback on the engagement levels of your workforce?

After hundreds of focus groups and thousands of interviews with employees in a variety of industries, Gallup came up with the Q12, a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement. 12 key employee expectations that, when satisfied, form the foundation of strong feelings of engagement.

What Bugs You?

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A Step A Day, causes and effects, coaching

In coaching , we get the coachee thinking of specific incidents and talking about specific feelings to understand how they feel and why they feel the way they do. However, as we experience so many feelings all through the day, it is not practical or even desirable to attempt to capture them all.

Yet, it is easier to analyze specific situations which have caused the coachee frustration. Have coachees record or recall incidents when they felt frustrated, hurt, angry or down at work. Get them to relate what actually happened and help them see possible causes.

Motivation in Coaching

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A Step A Day, coaching, motivation

As the old adage goes : “It needs two hands to clap”. One cannot discount the importance of the motivation to learn and perform better on the part of the person being coached. However brilliant the coach may be, at the end of the day, results come from those being coached. These results are based on their motivation.

Both the fear of being left behind and the desire for greater rewards are potential motivators. Here are a few cases that come to mind:

Ineffective & Effective Learning

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A Step A Day, learning Effectiveness

We were doing an audit of People processes in an organization and the talk turned to training effectiveness. Talking to an experienced training person that day, I was struck by the lack of insight she had regarding the very process of learning. Particularly with respect to behavioural training.

Are You Prepared For That Change?

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A Step A Day, change, mergers & acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions seem to have become a part of today’s world. This trend is not restricted to any particular industry or geography .Have a look at the M & A page at Livemint.com to scan the sheer number and magnitude of such deals.

Common among all mergers and acquisitions are factors relating to due diligence, the financials, the potential synergies etc between the acquirer and the acquired. While all of these are undoubtedly important, often neglected -because of the more visible and easy to grapple numbers and figures- is the human element captured as the organization’s culture.

Is That All I am Worth?

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A Step A Day, Performance improvement

I watched the young manager reach my table at the restaurant where we usually met for a chat. Even from a distance I could see he was looking rather downcast. My observation was confirmed the moment he sat down.

Almost ignoring my preliminary remarks, he said with some emotion ” I have got a measly raise. Is that all I am worth”? He went on to say that he had expected much more. How much he had contributed to the organization etc etc.

Going, Going, Gone! IPL Auction

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Indian Premier League, IPL Auction

Today must go down as the day of the IPL auction at Mumbai. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was by far the biggest catch. Chennai Super Kings paying $ 1.5 million for him. Here are some of the others.

MS Dhoni	Chennai	1.5 million
Adam Gilchrist	Hyderabad	700,000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Chennai	600,000
Mahela Jayawardene	Mohali	475,000
Shane Warne	Jaipur	450,000
Shoaib Akhtar	Kolkata	425,000
Anil Kumble	Bangalore	500,000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	850,000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	975,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Mohali	700,000

Andrew Symonds is the highest paid overseas cricketer @ $ 1.35 million. The squads so far make interesting reading.

Ponting must be sore that he could get only $ 400,000 while Brett Lee gets $ 900,000. Mathew Hayden gets even less at $ 375,000.

Things will hot up as the days go by. As always, people see things in different perspectives. Micheal Clarke’s staying away from the IPL has been headlined that he put family and Australia duties ahead of the IPL ( the other Aussies don’t?). The Australian tour of Pakistan clashes with the IPL dates ( which may explain why some in Australia are reluctant to tour Pakistan citing security threats).

The timing of this auction comes at an interesting stage in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank ODIs between Australia, India and Sri Lanka. Yuvraj, captain of Mohali has Bret Lee, Sangakkara and Jayawardane under him ! Murali is to play under Dhoni for Chennai.!

All in all, much to watch out for before the IPL tournament gets off with Bangalore playing Kolkatta in the first match at Bangalore on April 18. The schedule is here.