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HRidayWHERE PEOPLE MATTER

EXCLUSIVEInterview with Dr. Ashis Sen on the importance of EQ

SPOTLIGHTAn exclusive Article on Positive Psychology by Mr. Vithal Acharya, Chief People Officer, Sterlite Power

ADVISORY BOARDIntroducing our advisory board, a panel of seasoned industry experts

Advisory Board

In a career spanning 42 years, Mr. VJ Rao has been an OperatingHR, L&D and Business Excellence head across a wide range ofindustries such as Engineering and Projects, FMCG, IT, ITES andFinancial Services. For over 30 years, he has held significantleadership positions in Hindustan Lever Ltd., Cadbury India Ltd,Godrej GE Appliances Ltd, the Tata Group and Suzlon Energy Ltd.Currently, he is a freelance consultant working in the areas ofLeadership Assessments and Coaching. He has co-authored abest-seller book on contemporary HR practices-HR HERE ANDNOW.

In his role as Group HR Leader, Sterlite Power, Mr. Vithal Acharyais charged with directing and enabling organisationalimperatives and people plans, towards meeting their 3-5-yearbusiness road map. He has spent over 8 years with GeneralElectric with his last role was an HR BP for the Digital Business ofGE, India. He stared with GE Aviation as an HR Manager. BeforeGE, he served as HR Head for SE Asia & HK region with HCLSingapore Pte Ltd and before that with HCL technologies’ R&DLine of business in various HR functional roles.

Mr. Adarsh Shetty is a Talent Acquisition professional with morethan 10 years of experience. He is currently associated with AtriaConvergence Technologies Ltd (ACT) as Deputy Manager – TalentAcquisition. He has an in-depth recruitment life-cycle experienceacross industry verticals and geographies with an expertise inleadership hiring, campus recruitment, vendor management,process improvement, stakeholder management and HRMSimplementation.

CONTENTS

Human Resources function and HR professionalsperform a variety of roles, as they go abouttranslating the business agenda throughorganisational and people plans. In doing so, theydeploy a variety of methods: conceptual, proceduraland cultural to execute and affect changes. Andmany a times, the effort is iterative and involvesdecision-making under limited information, testinghypothesis, trial and error experiments whileexecuting programs and plans. In doing so, theydevelop their own unique ways to gather data andinformation, interpret this data and propose line ofactions based on such data.

As Dave Ulrich would put it, just like accountantscreate and refer to financial data, salesprofessionals generate and refer to market andcustomer data and so on, HR professionals mustdevelop and form their own unique perspectives forpeople and organisation data relevant fororganisational decision- making …

"HR professionals need a perspective that iscompatible with and distinct from other businessperspectives. That is, they must be able tounderstand and value the finance and salesperspectives, but they must also add their ownpoint of view. Without such a unique and powerfulperspective, they are redundant and fail in theiraspirations as full business contributors.

Expert’s View

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Positive Psychology and itsapplications in Organisations forHuman Resources practitionersand other organisational leaders

For example, an HR perspective that is both uniqueand powerful is one that establishes the linkagesbetween employee commitment, customer attitudes,and investor returns... " (HR Value Proposition, byUlrich and Brockbank). Often, this data is from thesubjective realm (employee perceptions, culturalelements, behaviours patterns and so on) and is asauthentic and valid as financial, business and marketdata. Interventions based on such data need evenmore care to test and validate for cause and effect.Hence, defining the problem statement in the humanresources function is more often “critical” and“difficult” than the actual resolution of the givenproblem at hand.In order to build capability and approach to gatheringinsights, testing hypothesis, validating a course ofaction, the role of HR Professionals and managementconsultants (as “Organisational doctors”) is verysimilar to that of a medical doctor whose key skill is“diagnosis” or “diagnosing” the phenomena at work.These “Organisational doctors”, much like theirmedical counterparts, work with symptoms, establishsome standard categorisations such as problems oforganisational design, core capability, strategy and soon (much like doctors who identify “flu” like symptomsand so on...), then build some testable hypothesis,suggest a course of action, validate and test foreffectiveness and then course correct based on actualimpact. More complex the phenomena at work, (e.g.,organisational restructuring to a possible merger andacquisition scenario to issues of growth, issues ofsurvival, and so on) more emphasis on diagnosing thephenomena at work. At times, the diagnosis could beat an individual level, a group or team level, at anorganisational level and sometimes at an industrylevel.Given the complexity of the phenomena at work andthe demands it places on human resourcesprofessionals and other management consultants, thefunction draws its strength from many rich disciplinessuch as Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology,Economics, Law and Regulation.

Mr. Vithal Acharya, Chief People Officer, Sterlite Power

In addition, this entire set has been made richerwith newer disciplines and specialisations such asNeuro-science (underpinning brain research tohuman behaviour), recent advances in Behaviouraleconomics, Positive psychology and so on. Many ofthese disciplines are less than three decades oldand have made the entire realm of defining andaddressing organisational and people contexts veryrich and meaningful. In this article, we shall brieflylook at a few fascinating concepts from PositivePsychology that have very remarkable applicationsfor organisations.

Background on Positive Psychology’s influence inthe last 2 decades…

Building on “Humanistic Traditions” (Maslow,Rogers, Fromm and so on) of individuals realisingand fulfilling their true potential with a more holisticapproach to development and growth, MartinSeligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ChristopherPeterson, Barbara Fredrickson and many othersdeveloped a “serious” and scientific study on“happiness” and factors related to well-being andgrowth.

“Positive Psychology is the study of the conditionsand processes that contribute to the flourishing oroptimal functioning of people, groups, andinstitutions” (Gable Shelly. L., Haidt Jonathan, 2005)

This discipline grew from a recognition of theimbalance of Clinical Psychology’s focus on mentalillness, negative relationships and not so much ongood or positive relationships. This shift of focuscame from researchers in their current psychologyfields using the same scientific rigor to studypositive emotions, events and relationships. What is“positive” in Positive Psychology that gets studied orresearched may not be as straightforward as itseems. The “three bases” of what is “positive” or“good” are (Gable, Haidt ,2005 and Diener and Suh,1997):

a) The choices people make indicate a value.Repeated choices signify a value to the chooser.

Expert’s View

b) People can judge if something is satisfying. That it ispleasant to the receiver.c) Judgment about what is good or positive can bemade with reference to a value system or a set ofcultural norms.E.g. “addiction/s” to any kind (say gambling ordrinking) may fulfil one or two of the above threebases but not the third. “Paying one’s taxes” fulfils thethird base but for some it may not fulfil one of theother two bases. In organisations, “reporting on safetyand quality incidents” (very relevant for organisation’slong run survival), which means reporting about fellowcolleagues fulfils the third but need not always satisfythe first or second. One can use this test to identifysituations, both at the workplace and otherwise, tofocus on, to make it relevant to quality of life.However, researchers in this field recognise that whatis “good” or “positive” is complex and multi-dimensional and the pursuit of this study through thelens of an evidence-based research can lead tomeaningful and impactful contributions inorganisations and otherwise.

Areas of focus and Some examples of applications inorganisations and for HR professionalsOne important construct from the initial work ofSeligman (1991) has been the constructs of Learnedhelplessness, Optimism-Pessimism scale (ASQ), andthe concept of “Explanatory style”. His greatest insightwas that “Learning to be helpless” can be unlearnt.Some examples of frameworks, methods from thisfield used in organisational context:a) Seligman’s (1991) research, documents some of hisexperiments with industry in business situationsneeding attention. In one example of the role ofinsurance salesman: Given the nature of the rolewhere not more than one of ten customers evenentertain sales call leave alone, buying such productscan take a heavy toll on the well-being of the salesmanand costs associated with hiring and training and thetime lost for the insurance companies. This wasaddressed by an appropriate intervention aroundhiring (using Attributional Style Questionnaire - ASQ),

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staffing (placing people more able to withstand suchstresses) and training (training to enhance doses ofoptimism to cope with the demands of this role) toaddress the situation for this industry.

b) In another research, early college studentstrained on optimism techniques showed bettercoping with the rigors of college curriculum,enhanced academic performance and reduceddrop-outs.

c) Frameworks that have been developed: LearnedOptimism, Attributional Style Questionnaire havefound applications in selection and placement ofpeople in roles.

d) Methods like ABCDE (Adversity, Beliefs,Consequences, Disputation), PERMA (PositiveEmotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning andAchievement) has found lots of application incoaching interventions to help build resilience andconstructive coping mechanisms.

e) Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and the concept ofExplanatory style. Structured methods used asimportant techniques for leaders, for use in teamreviews, giving and receiving feedback all of whichenhances team effectiveness.

“…In one study, researchers observed 60 businessteams, coding each interaction in meetings aspositive (supportive, encouraging or appreciative),negative (insulting, sarcastic or cynical), focussed onothers, focussed on the speaker, advocating, orinquiring. When the observations were latermatched with performance data about each team, itwas discovered that the high-performing teams had5.6 times more positive that negative comments,were inquiring, and achieved a balance betweencomments about themselves and comments aboutothers. (The first finding closely coincides with a 5:1ratio found in successful marriages by anotherresearcher). The low performing teams had 2.8negative comments for every positive comment,and 29 self-referencing comments for every other-referencing comment…” (from Wagner, Rod., Harter,James K, 2006).

Expert’s View

f) Applications of the construct of “Flow” byCsikszentmihalyi have been used in studies to identifyfactors that enhance productivity at the workplace.g) “Strengths finder” and “Q-12” both constructs fromGallup have made significant impact in organisationslinking employee engagement and organisationperformance. It also provides for a very practicaldiagnosis to enhance engagement of employees inorganisations, tool-kit for team leaders to becomeeffective in their team leadership roles. Strengthsfinders, finds very important application for careerrelated interventions.h) Many other applications and practices aredocumented in Lewis, Sarah (2011) around creation ofeffective and inspiring organisations.Extensive use of technology (digital platforms, appsand big data/data mining methods ...) have madeaccess to “Operant” (rather than just self-report) datapossible. This has enabled more comprehensive datato be collected in both individual and group contextsfor appropriate and focussed action (much like“surgical strikes”).

FutureGood doctors have their core strength in “diagnosing”and they keep honing this ability by continuousexperimentation and by seeking diverse situations toexperiment. They make use of multiple lenses todiagnose the problem at hand. Similar could be theapproach undertaken by HR professionals in theirjourney to make their organisations and work contextseffective. Concepts, methods and techniques from thefield of Positive psychology can serve the humanresources practitioners in enhancing their role asorganisational doctors.

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IQ vs EQ: How to find the right balance

Technologies like Artificial Intelligence and MachineLearning have made our lives easier but at the sametime, reduced the human touch in the legacyassessment tools. The accurate, fair and efficientresults given out by AI are its biggest advantage. Thisenables recruiters to focus on other importantfactors like preparing interview questions to evaluatethe technical know-how as well as the emotionalintelligence of the interviewees.What is it that the recruiters are looking in acandidate? The current trend seen is that therecruiters choose a candidate with the right attitudetowards their career over someone who has just gotgood technical knowledge which was the traditionalmodel. Candidates are now also assessed on theirmental abilities, collaboration, communication, andemotional intelligence. These should match with theorganization’s needs.

Source-https://www.peoplematters.in/article/recruitment/skills-vs-aptitude-how-to-find-the-right-balance-

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Office Space: Why HR should dabble in color theory

Colors define the settings of a workplace and at thesame time can help change the workers’ moods.Every color has something to say, like red has energyand passion, and yellow is for happiness. This isexplained by the concept of Color Theory. The colorcombinations used in a certain place can have apositive or negative impact on a person’s mood, itcan create a balance or imbalance depending onhow it is used. HR professionals must consider how

What’s Up In HR

these color choices can have an effect on theworkers. The colors chosen must ensure that itsupports the company’s mission and culture. Colorscan be used to brand a particular company, at thesame time various colors can be used in a workplaceto differentiate one department from the other.

Source-https://www.hrdive.com/news/office-space-why-hr-should-dabble-in-color-theory/552066/

AI-powered video interviews are transforming thefuture of HRInterviewing is intrinsic to hiring, but can be a verytime consuming and expensive process with a scopefor human error. With the advent of technology,interviews can happen over the phone or an app.Some benefits of the video interviewing include:reduced scheduling, lesser costs, and lesser travelfor both the interviewer and interviewee. AI can helpin analysing the video to evaluate the candidate’sengagement to make the final hiring decision.

Online test models and AI-powered automatedvideo interview tools can be used to pick the bestavailable talent from the pool by hosting customquestions, recording answers for evaluation using astandard AI based scoring for candidate’sexpressions. Investment in AI is very important forhiring and managing the talent while concentratingin the business profits.

Source-https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/ai-powered-video-interviews-are-transforming-the-future-of-hr/articleshow/68153982.cms

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Answering to the nationwide shortage of truck drivers and hoping to attract hundreds of

drivers to run its fleet, Walmart will be raising the average salaries of the truck drivers to

$87,000 per year.

When companies like Amazon and Microsoft are doing away with the stacked ranking

method due to the decreasing morale of the employees in the company, Facebook

employees feel that it is a ruthless review process where they must feign happiness in a

desperate attempt to form friendship with colleagues, because the review system relies

heavily on the feedback of the colleagues.

In an attempt to align itself to the new generationand position the organisation for the next 5 to 6years, ICICI bank is moving from level/grade baseddesignations to role-based designations for thesenior management positions.

Apple Inc. has laid-off at least 200 employees whowere working on the TITAN, which is apple’s electriccar project. Apple is trying to deploy some of theseemployees to other divisions within Apple.

What’s Trending

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Bringing disruptive innovations to the existing marketis emerging as an effective business strategy. Onesuch name to bring in revolutionary vicissitudes in thelodging & rental industry, is ‘Airbnb’. It began with anovel business idea of transforming the way travelersall around the world, stay. Then, it expanded toserving its brand campaign of fostering a world whereone can “belong anywhere”. It is continuing toenlarge its business operations on myriad facets ofhospitality business today. Joe Gebbia, co-founder &chief product officer of Airbnb, has time and againexpounded on how Airbnb’s philosophy of “trust bydesign”, is critical to its success and has attributed itto its innovative and pioneering HR practices:

1) “Workplace as an experience”-

Airbnb is the forerunner in transitioning from thetraditional HR function to ‘Employee Experience’(EX). It is a pioneer in transforming the role of a CHROto a Chief Experience Officer. Through this changethey are focusing on the entire employee journey atAirbnb. Mark Levy, Airbnb’s global head of employeeexperience has emphasized on their vision of creatinga place that reinforces belongingness amongst theemployees. Airbnb has formulated a special purposeteam called “Ground control”, tasked with workingacross functional silos to create a seamless servicedelivery model or support for employees. Apart fromthe traditional HR functional responsibilities such astalent acquisition, performance management,compensation etc., these extended responsibilitiesbecame part of the newly constituted EX function.The engagement scores show the impact ofthe Airbnb’s culture which now relies on employeeexperience, with 90% of its employeesrecommending Airbnb as a “Great place to work!".Moreover, Glassdoor too, recognized Airbnb as the #1Place to Work in the year 2016.

Success MantraAirbnb: Building success bybuilding trust

2) “Sharing economy”-A sharing economy is based on the concept ofcollaborative consumption among peers. Airbnb, anaccommodation-sharing platform is often considered asharing economy exemplar. It facilitates consumer-to-consumer lodging rentals, appropriately fitting thecriteria of a sharing economy. It enables individuals tomonetize the lodging assets that are not being fullyutilized. To enable this, the HR at Airbnb had built arobust framework for networking, compliance andsupport. Airbnb is dedicated towards assisting middle-class residents to gain and retain a foothold inexpensive housing markets across the globe. Thisnarrative is particularly salient in “global cities”, wherehigh tourist demand and inevitably poor housingaffordability, coexist.

3) “Design innovation”-Airbnb envisaged and adopted the “trust by design”business model to cater to the needs of safe andaffordable rental options. The biggest challenge in theway of Airbnb, was to militate against the “stranger-danger bias” that exists in the leasing business. Airbnbhas designed a four-step process and used that as alaunchpad for itself. The four steps are- creating aprofile, reviews & feedback, promoting moreinteraction and ensuring precautions at the rentedplace. They have enforced a requirement of detailedprofiles of hosts and guests which contain theirpictures, social media links and identification details tobring down the “strangeness” factor among the users.People foster trust by sharing feedback with each otherafter exchanging the services. The more and betterreviews attract a greater number of guests. Airbnb haslong back predicted the significance of virtual‘reputation’ which is created by the transactions basedon an amalgamation of the feedback that one receivesonline from different sources. They have consistentlyencouraged people to have meaningful interactionswith each other to strengthen the ties of trust between

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them. Most importantly, to consolidate a sense oftrust, Airbnb acts as a guarantor for all thetransactions. The company reserves all paymentsuntil 24 hours after the guest has checked in, toensure that there are no problems from either side.This helps in adding an extra layer of confidence,giving both parties somewhere to turn if one sidedoes not follow through on their agreement.

4) “Technology inclusion”-

Airbnb has since its inception pursued a digitalstrategy. It is on a mission to develop detailed virtualand augmented reality features, to support theguests find and navigate rental listings. 360-degreephotos and three-dimensional scans of the listingswould allow users to get a better understanding ofthe listing, and augmented reality overlays wouldhelp the guests to get a better sense of the place on asmaller scale, once they are in it. The company hasbeen making evident advancements into VR to helpbuild trust between guests and hosts.

5) “Business sustainability”-

Currently, close to 5 million homes are shared onAirbnb’s platform and since its inception more than300 million guests have checked in at their listingsacross the world. Home and accommodation sharinghas a great potential as a sustainable choice fortravel. Around 88% of Airbnb hosts incorporate greenpractices into their hosting, such as by using greencleaning products, encouraging guests to use publictransportation, providing recycling or composting,installing solar panels or providing bicycles. A 2018analysis performed by harnessing the Cleantechmodel found that when guests stay at the Airbnb,remarkably less water and energy are used, waste isreduced and fewer greenhouse gases are emitted. Bychoosing to stay in Airbnb listings rather than hotelsin 2017, Airbnb guests in Europe reduced waterusage equal to 13,000 Olympic-sized swimming poolsand achieved energy savings equal to that of 826,000homes.

Success Mantra

Since Airbnb’s founding in 2008, it has witnessedimmense and fast-paced growth. With its constantinnovative offerings and business continuity approach,expansion is the most prospective way ahead, till thefoundation of “trust by design” stays strong.

By- Prachi Dalal, PGDM-HR (2018-20)

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Since the #Metoo wave is hitting all the industries,many people holding positions of responsibility had tostep down in this phase. How should the organisationsdeal with this situation specially to keep the co-workersof such employees motivated during this phase?

First, we know that gender diversity brings hugebenefits to the top and the bottom line of thecompany and the image of the organisation. It alsohelps future employees to make a decision onwhether to join the organization. Prompt and decisiveaction helps us decide if a company is a good or a bademployer. Harassment as per provisions of lawextends beyond the workplace.

Companies have internal committees to address theissues. Importantly, the process should be swift anddecisive to set an example that inappropriatebehaviour shall not be tolerated. It also helps theorganization to be fair to all its employees.

We have witnessed numerous me-too complaintsfrom one gender i.e. women. This is indicative of thefact that they face the brunt of these acts. Inaction ordelayed action can send an adverse signal to themiscreants and could in fact embolden them. Theimage of the company gets tarnished and createunsafe places to work. Employees contribute farbetter when psychological safety is available. Thismovement proves that in many workplaces bothphysical and psychological safety are compromised.

Chat Over Coffee

In the age where AI has become such an importantpart in all the functions of HR, do you think that theemotional quotient is getting lost? And if the answeris yes, how is it affecting the HR function in anorganisation?

I don’t think AI and Emotional quotient are opposites.Today, one of the dominant aims that we see amongscientists and others, who are working on AI andmachine learning, is that they want to integrateemotions into AI. We know that human beings can takesubjective decisions, which on the face of it issubjective, but makes a lot of common sense.Machines and computers could calculate the futurecash-flows from available data and decide to closedown a business unit or organization. Analytically adlogically, that may make sense. Yet human beings andexecutives may consider because of the emotionalfactors, the upheaval that the employees would gothrough, their grit and commitment to give the best inthe face of adversity and decide to continue to run theloss making unit. In course of time, despite allmathematical calculations to the contrary theemployees by their positive motivation and energy mayfirst help the organization survive and then flourish. Wehave hundreds of examples. Leaders therefore, onmany occasions take counter-intuitive decisions whichis not merely on data but also on sentiments that areemotional and defy easy quantification.

Dr. Ashis Sen is an executive coach & consultant andis a visiting faculty at several premier institutesincluding TAPMI. He has led several workshops onLeadership, Emotional Intelligence, Organizationalvision and Mission building, Systems Thinking,Strategy building for the primary SBUs, andconducted dialogues covering hundreds of teams. Hehas received myriad awards like Lakshya, short listedin BM Munjal Awards for Learning, received the firstprize on Innovative HR practices during Dave Ulrich’svisit, the Learning organization award from Dr. PeterSenge and a host of other awards. His articles havebeen published in International Magazines likeReflections and Systems Thinker, Balanced ScorecardCollaborative (Harvard Business Publishing). He hasalso co-authored two books: “Fueling Success” and“Professional Coaching”

Dr. Ashis Sen, Executive coach & Consultant

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So, if AI is the only factor, there will be no emotiveunderstanding of emotions from a patient andtherefore the care that would be given would bemechanical. History has seen that even while younurture children and just fulfil their physical needs i.e. ifthey are not given attention, care, love which goesbeyond mere mechanical addressing of issues withthem, they don’t develop resilience or grow well. Welearn from reading another person’s emotion, how tointeract effectively and adapt or respond accurately in agiven context. Emotional Intelligence course abound inSchool, college and executive education curriculumstoday. You can see this happening in the top institutesand hence it is not utopian anymore. We of coursewould also need to be analytical. Therefore, we are nottalking about opposites, we are talking aboutintegrating them. The more we integrate, the moreeffective it will become.

You have played a major role in designing andexecuting leadership development interventions inwide array of organisations like the ministry of heavyindustries, Government of India, HindustanPetroleum. We would like to know how did youchange your approach in implementing different kindsof programs in such varied sectors?

There are certain skills of a leader that are contextualand others that go beyond the context. Let’sunderstand this because we often think of everything ascontextual. There are some skills that are transportablelike inspiring people, financial acumen, empathy, selfand social awareness, developing subordinates etc.These skills and abilities or competencies are learnable.What I mean is they develop these qualities and theyare transportable across departments and industries.When we facilitate people learn these leadershipcompetencies, we adopt some of the best practicesfrom round the world, check up a lot of theories onleadership and we create templates for action. Thetemplates are designed with the principal ofaspirational change which is what we term intentionalchange In the interventions we have carried out, Irequested the nominated people to visualizethemselves as leaders and the qualities they need todevelop to succeed in that role.

Chat Over Coffee

This process helps them to think of their future andassociated leadership capabilities as intrinsic to theirvision objectives.Then with the help of a 360-degree feedback they learnthe gap between desired and actual levels in thenecessary competencies and work to develop them. Iwas called by Harvard Business school where we helpedthem build a case study on “Managing Change byInternal Communication”. The lesson I have learnt overthe decades of organization work is that leadershipskills not inborn in people but more often developed inpeople by structured processes of knowledge inputs,coaching and assignments. Organizations are the onlybody who can ensure all three well. They are thereforethe bed-rock of leadership building and development.The result of such leadership interventions, whether inprivate, public sector or government, is that you havemore energised, motivated and self-directed peoplewith higher self-efficacy.

When it comes to emotional leadership, it may sohappen that the managers may make some unethicaldecisions by getting caught up in feelings like revenge,frustration etc rather than taking decisions that aremore logical. How can we reduce this bias when itcomes to organisations?I believe all decisions are emotional and justifiedrationally because emotions give you the preferences ofactions and enables you to decide on a particularchoice of action. What we are probably talking about ishow do we regulate disruptive emotions that make usineffective. When we have constructive emotions likecommitment to a noble goal instead of disgust for anactivity our performance is awe-inspiring. The first steptowards regulating these emotions is to be aware ofhow disruptive emotions and temptations can lead tounethical and erroneous decisions. The moment youbecome aware you become aware of your choices aswell. “How am I feeling?” is the question you should askyourself. So a feeling of jealousy or anger or disgust canmake you choose a course of decision which may beinappropriate. Analysing the emotion and beingconscious of it reasons and consequences, can help usthink differently of the situation to change our emotion.

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For example, working on a Saturday at office, I mayinstead of thinking of it as a punishment can view it asan opportunity to influence my boss positively or as anopportunity to learn and progress. That’s how actuallyyou change your mood and then think what I should doto be more affective.

Working for so many years, you’ve dealt withpeople from multiple generations: baby boomers, GenX and Gen Y. Is there any variation in their ability toadapt to various changes that happen in the marketwith respect to processes, policies, technologies etc?

Change has always been hectic, change has alwaysbeen disheartening for some and delightful to someothers, yet change has always been accelerating. Threeto four decades back the business environments hadhigher stability than today. People like me worked fordecades in the same organization, we worked in astable (comparatively so) environment, for a longertime in a company. That trend is changing with themillennials. They have to learn to be more adaptable,flexible and enhance their skills continually. They are infact doing that. That is why learning is a priority withthe millennials.

There have been some criticisms about EI’sinterpretation as intelligence or type of intelligence.The criticism is that it should be called a skill ratherthan intelligence. What is your take on this?

What is intelligence? It is something that youpossess, an ability or skill that helps you to adapt, dobetter than others. While traditional IQ will help yousolve a maths problem faster or memorize a poetry, butpeople with high IQ are not guaranteed to succeed inlife more than others. They need social skills andemotional intelligence skills to manage self and othersto succeed in this world. No man is an island. Withoutsocial skills they would find it difficult to lead,understand and empathize with people. They wouldfind it stressful to navigate change. EI Skills help us todo this and therefore contribute to our success. Thus EIis justified to be called a member of the intelligenceclub.

Chat Over Coffee

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Test Your HRQ

1I assess everyone, based on a criterion,I also help in deciding the compensation,I occur regularly and establish equity,But you cannot control me.

It is very important to find the person-job fit,I match the personnel characteristics with that of thejob requirement,I am the KASO you need for superior performance

I help in getting a holistic perspective,I am a performance management tool,I take into account both financial and non-financialindicators,You can use me to get a strategic view

I am a practice to familiarize you with your workplace,I begin as soon as you are selectedI want to help you get acclimatised,You will know everything, before you are even there

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2I am a service, a benefit to employees,Unfortunately, I am provided to peopleWho are not wanted anymore,But I will make sure you are not unemployed

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Test your HR knowledge through riddles

Test Your HRQ

6I decide how things will be done or undoneI set the organization apart on many frontsI can change, but that’s unlikely, I am the beliefs, values and assumptions, people flash.

I am sent to a foreign country, Often for working,The time-period of my stay is fixed,But while I’m there I face a lot of adjustment issues

I am the capacity, the capacity to be aware,Aware of own emotions and that of others,Capacity to regulate and control it,And to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously

Alone you are weak, but together you are all powerfulI help in negotiating the wages and conditionsof employment,When all of you come together as an organized group

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7I help in restructuring the organization,Make it reach the optimal level,Neither more, nor less,I help you get the exact number of people you need

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Answers on page 17

It is 11 am on a Monday morning. It is your first dayat work. As you make your way to the shop floor ofthe heavy engineering department of ABC Corp.,you replay the task that your Boss, the Shop FloorManager, gave you. He simply wants you to tell theworkers to finish welding 5 pipes by lunch-time sothat the internal inspector can come and audit thepipes. As you step into the welding room, younotice 6 workers, all of whom are sitting cross-legged and talking about how they spent theirweekend. As you cross the room to deliver themessage to them, you replay the message in yourhead one last time. All eyes are on you. Who is thisguy? What does he want? Why is he dressed like anofficer? As you blurt out the message, you see theirsmiles fade away and soon enough, you walk awayfrom the cohort and out of the room, completelyoblivious of what just happened. Job well done? Notnearly. Because at 2 pm, when the inspector arrivesto take a look at the pipes, she discovers that thewelding has not even started! ‘Why didn’t theylisten?’, you think to yourself. ‘Did they notunderstand?’ A bad first impression and what’smore, you don’t even know where you went wrong!

Students Speak

If you have ever worked in an environment where youare required to manage a team, you have probablyhad a similar experience and you most certainly knowthe remedy - Emotional Quotient (EQ). A term that isoften compared to its twin – Intelligence Quotient(IQ). While IQ measures a person’s analyticalintelligence, EQ, also known as emotional intelligence,is the ability to identify, evaluate, control and expressemotions. While the former is overrated in terms ofrelative importance, the latter is highly underrated.However, in order to be a successful employee,manager or leader, one needs to balance the IQ andthe EQ. IQ with no EQ is like sugarless tea. You can livewith it but you wouldn’t enjoy it as much.The concept of emotional intelligence originates fromthe idea of emotional awareness – the act of beingaware of your emotions at all times. Such a practicewould not only help you keep your emotions undercontrol (which would inevitably make you a betterdecision-maker since you would not let your emotionscloud your judgment) but would also help you betterjudge others’ emotions. And this right here, is whatseparates a leader from a manager, a team-playerfrom the herd, and perhaps a hero from a king. Onceyou get into the habit of constantly noticing whatemotions you are experiencing, you begin tounderstand the factors that led to that state-of-mind inthe first place. And once you get a grasp on that, youbecome better at the game of empathy.Teams are made up of an inter-twined tangle ofemotions, rather than simply people. The success ofsuch a team depends on how each member perceivesthe other’s emotions and acts accordingly.A possible sign of good team chemistry could be teammembers paying more attention listening to eachother’s points rather than trying to dominate thediscussion with their ideas, although a delicatebalance of both would be most welcome. The Forbesmagazine recently voted emotional intelligence as thenext sign of great leadership.

The importance of emotionalintelligence in teams

By- Shomit Sengupta, PGDM-BKFS (2018-20)

14

That being said, emotional intelligence can befurther broken down into five categories –

1) Self-awareness – The ability to understand youreffect on others, play to your strengths andadmit your weaknesses

2) Self-management – The ability to control yourimpulses and avoid acting rashly

3) Motivation – Having the innate passion tochallenge yourself and remain optimistic whenthe going gets tough

4) Empathy – Not just listening to those aroundyou, but really trying to understand their point-of-view

5) Social-communication – The ability to managerelationships and productively express youremotions

So, would the possession of the above five traitsguarantee a higher degree of emotionalintelligence? Most certainly. And what if onedoesn’t inherently possess these skills? Noproblem! Thankfully, we are the most advancedspecies on the planet in terms of intelligence andthis certainly gives us an edge over our hairyrelatives when it comes to acquiring new skills. All itwould take is some practice, a little disappointmentat first, followed by a strong resolve to master alesser known art. Thus, emotional intelligence is ahighly relevant skill in today’s fast-paced corporateworld. Whether you’re speaking to your Supervisor,your Subordinate or even your office chai-wala, it issomething that would differentiate you from theherd. Emotional intelligence is somewhat like theemojis we so commonly use while chatting withothers; it helps us express ourselves better as wellas understand the other person’s intention in aseamless and accurate manner. Can you imagineWhatsApp without emojis?

Just lines and lines of dry text without any hint ofemotion? That’s precisely how emotionalintelligence fits into team dynamics.

Students Speak

15

“15 runs needed off last 6 balls”- a nail-biting matchisn’t it? A debutant batsman facing an experiencedbowler with over 25,000 people in the stands andover a million spectators watching him. If he faces asimilar situation at the nets, he would not realizethe importance or rather would not use hispotential to take the team home. However, in a real-time scenario, he would use his all his capabilitiesand might play an unconventional shot to keep thescoreboard ticking. In a nutshell, whether the teamwins or loses, the batsman understands thesituation and there is a sense of self-analysis whichboosts his learning abilities of the game.

Training in any field is required to enhance yourskills, however, it is essential to give your employeesa reference to the working environment and thechallenges so that they can deliver the desiredresults. On-the-job training is a hands-on method oftraining the employees with the skills, knowledge,and competencies required, to accomplish a specificjob within the workplace. Employees learn in anenvironment where they will need to exercise theknowledge and skills obtained during training.

On-the-job training is practicing the existing workplacetools, machines, documents, equipment, andknowledge to teach an employee how to effectively dothe job and historically, skills have been acquiredmainly by experiences on the job.Similarly, when a cricketer who is given the role offinishing the game, would not understand the pressureunless and until he faces similar situations. Havingfaced similar situations, the cricketer learns andadapts accordingly and understands the roles andresponsibilities he has been offered. This also helpsthe cricketer to be aware of the team and its strengthsand improve his game according to varied situations.Mahendra Singh Dhoni who used to finish the gamesfor the team single-handedly, now plays the role of ananchor and guides the other team members to provetheir mettle.He has also changed his batting style from beingaggressive to now being an anchor towards theinnings. While the other batsmen understand thecredibility and importance of him in the team, and tothe particular run chase, he allows them to play freely.Similarly, when a new employee joins an organizationand is undergoing an On-the-job Training, it helps theemployee to understand and realize the value of thejob in the value chain and thereby increases thecredibility and motivation to perform the job.With the similar instance, wherein a batsman has toscore 15 runs off the 6 balls, a bowler who is on thebench observes the entire proceedings and mightdevelop an action plan in his mind and then analyze itwith the present situation. If the observing bowlerdecides to bowl a slower length delivery incontradiction to what actual bowler who bowls aYorker, can substantially improve the understanding ofthe game. In addition, the observing bowler on thebench, understands the situation and what is expectedof him during the game, and accordingly he can investtime in gaining those essential skills which would behelpful for him as well as the team to sail through.

HR Through A Lens

By- Kedar Dattatray Bhosale, PGDM-HR (2018-20)

On-the-Job training

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The goal of any organization is to build a skilledemployee base of employees who are competentenough to tackle the existing organizationalchallenges. Organizations cannot rely only on theconventional methods of training their employees,considering the resources, rate of return on theinvestment or the current business needs.Understanding of the business or in the context ofcricket, understanding the game, is the key criteriafor the success of any employee/entity/cricketer. Togain the experience and understand thebusiness/game, every employee/cricketer needs tohave those experiences and those experiences areachieved through routine games maybe at domesticor national level.

To summarize designing the On-the-job Trainingconsidering all the above mentioned instancesfosters the learning of an employee, therebyimproving the effectiveness index for the program.

HR Through a lens

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The Future Of Work: Airbnb CHRO Becomes Chief Employee Experience Officer. Available athttps://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2015/07/21/the-future-of-work-airbnb-chro-becomes-chief-employee-experinece-officer/#498cbe6b4232

How Airbnb designs for trust | Joe Gebbia. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cM-RFid9U

Airbnb Business Model: What makes Airbnb so successful? Available athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGhFmiB9G0

Building Trust In The Workplace: How HR Can Learn From Airbnb. Available athttps://blog.impraise.com/360-feedback/how-airbnb-builds-trust-lessons-for-hr-managers-performance-review

Airbnb wants to offer virtual reality previews of rental spots. Available athttps://www.theverge.com/2017/12/11/16762046/airbnb-virtual-reality-previews-listings

How the Airbnb Community Supports Environmentally-Friendly Travel Worldwide. Available athttps://press.airbnb.com/how-the-airbnb-community-supports-environmentally-friendly-travel-worldwide/

Imran Tariq (2019). Why more emotional intelligence means more money for entrepreneurs. Available atwww.entrepreneur.com

Senior management at ICICI Bank to have no titles. Available at:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/senior-management-at-icici-bank-to-have-no-titles/articleshow/67765816.cms

Walmart is now paying truck drivers $90,000 in addition to new benefits. Available athttps://www.thehrdigest.com/walmart-is-now-paying-truck-drivers-90000-in-addition-to-new-benefits/

Apple lays-off 200 titan project employees. Available at https://www.thehrdigest.com/apple-lays-off-200-titan-project-employees/

Employees speak out against facebook’s ‘hunger games’ employee review process. Available athttps://www.thehrdigest.com/employees-speak-out-against-facebooks-hunger-games-employee-review-process/

Bakar et al (2018). Emotionally intelligent teams: can emotional intelligence enhance performance.Available at Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 26-29.

Appendix

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Dr. Relly Nadler Psy.D., M.C.C. 10 Reasons why teams need emotional intelligence. Available at

Psychology Today.

Gable Shelly. L., Haidt Jonathan (2005), What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology? Review of GeneralPsychology, Vol 9, No 2, 103-110.

Diener, E., & Suh E (1997), Measuring quality of life: Economic, Social and Subjective indicators, SocialIndicators research, 40, 189-216.

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Knopf, Seligman, Martin E. P. (1991).

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment.New York: Free Press, Seligman, Martin E. P. (2002).

The Owner's Manual for Happiness--Essential Elements of a Meaningful Life, CentACS Press, Howard, PierceJ (2013)

The Elements of Great Managing, Gallup Press, NY, Wagner, Rod., Harter, James K (2006), 12:

The Psychology of Happiness, Rider, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Flow

Positive Psychology at work: How Positive Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry create InspiringOrganisations, Wiley-Blackwell, Lewis, Sarah (2011)

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Basic Books, Haidt, Jonathan (2006)

Discover your strengths, Gallup Press, Buckingham and Clifton (2002)

The HR Value Proposition, Harvard Business School Press, David Ulrich, Wayne Brockbank (2005)

"What Is Positive Psychology, and What Is It Not?". Psychology Today, Peterson, Christopher (2008)

Exploratory longitudinal study of correlation between workload. “flow” and other states among nurses at aperinatal hospital in India, SDIMD International Conference paper, Siddharth, S. N., Sharma Y (2014)

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, Simon & Schuster,Buckingham, Marcus & Coffman, Curt (1999)

Building Resilience, Harvard Business Review, HBR Publication, Seligman, Martin (2011)

Appendix

19

“If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are

not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and

have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not

going to get very far”

-Daniel Goleman

T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal

www.tapmi.edu.in

HR FORUM: hrfor@tapmi.edu.in