18 Tuesday Aug 2009
Posted in Executive Effectiveness
Terms like “engaged employees “and ” psychological contract” are frequently used by HR practitioners when they speak of successful people at work. Some believe that intrinsic motivators like a sense of achievement and the challenges that go with the job really influence performance. Others argue that there is nothing like a rich pay packet to make the employee set aside everything else to perform well at work.
04 Wednesday Feb 2009
Posted in Organisations, People
A year fraught with economic turmoil. A year which could be the beginning of a new epoch. Most organizations have faced tough times – some more than others. Big names have vanished and most others wonder how to sustain themselves in uncertain times. Yet, there are a few organizations that are considered The Best Companies To Work For in 2009 as per Fortune.
08 Thursday Jan 2009
Posted in HR Function, Organisations
Paul Sykes, Prinicipal Presentation Coach at The Speakers Friend Ltd recently asked a thought provoking question in LinkedIn. He asked: What should the HR function be re-named? There were many suggestions in this debate. I recommended it be called the “Organizational Effectiveness” function. Let me explain why.
01 Monday Sep 2008
Posted in A Step A Day
My friend, Mike Chitty has an interesting post titled ” Why Do Managers Duck People Management ?”.
He starts with a quote from research from IBM and the Human Capital Institute which says that 84 % of organisations know that workforce effectiveness is important to achieving business results but only 42 % of those surveyed say managers devote sufficient time for people management.
To me the best managers have been those who are “good with people”. I clarify that being ” good with people” is not the same as being ” good to people”. Effective managers know when to be tough and demanding at the same time know when to be sensitive and understanding. Being good with people does not mean pampering to their every whim.
As is often said, management at the end of the day is not a popularity contest. We should seek to be effective managers rather than popular managers. If you can be effective and popular, you have the best of both worlds.
You can subscribe to the A-Step-A-Day series using RSS at https://bprao.wordpress.com/category/a-step-a-day/feed
This is Post No: 273 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
25 Monday Aug 2008
Posted in A Step A Day
Inflation is hitting the Indian economy and hitting it hard. Recent reports suggest that the rate of inflation has gone up even further and touched 12.63 % for the week ended August 9. This is the highest in the last 13 years. What is amazing is that inflation was only around 4.3 % a year ago! We are speaking of a three fold increase in such a short period.
With this kind of increase, somethings had to be hit- one of them is salary hikes in corporate India for 2009.
07 Saturday Jun 2008
Posted in A Step A Day
Marketing pundits have always advocated that the buying behaviours of people vary as they move through the different stages of the family life cycle. This is reflected in their tastes, their needs, their state of health and well being, the extent of their responsibilities, the level of their disposable income etc.
Why don’t we in the business of people management use this age old knowledge profitably?
The family life cycle, typically has 6 stages:
31 Saturday May 2008
Posted in A Step A Day
Read T T Ram Mohan’s interesting article in the Economic Times. It’s called ” Can Management Gurus Manage?”.
Its amusing to think that the Professor of Organizational Behaviour is going through a major crisis in his personal life and that the Professor of Economics is virtually broke. This reminds me of a story.
Many years ago when I was studying at the XLRI, Jamshedpur, the construction workers carrying out building work on campus went on strike.
People at Work & Play 