nasscom hr summit 2013: creating & sustaining a high performance culture - c mahalingam

The 4 + 4 of High Performance Culture!

Mali [email protected]

NASSCOM HR SUMMIT 2013

What is up today?

What is it by the way?

4 Cultributes of High Performance

4 Pillars of High Performance

Q & (hopefully!) A

Good News!

Mali / NASSCOMHR / HPC / 24-07-13

Business Landscape

Turbulent climate / Roller-coaster ride

Psychological contract in serious trouble

Growing distrust of institutions & leaders

Decline in happiness / Hedonistic treadmill!

Status anxiety, shame & resulting isolation

Social participation is increasing exponentially

Satisfactory Underperformance! New driver of productivity: Beyond technology to

Culture!Mali / NASSCOMHR / HPC / 24-07-13

Moon Shots for HR

Higher purpose for HR Leadership Bench High Performance Culture Unleashing organizational energy Democratizing the workplace Establishing Accountability Focusing on accountability


Source: Moon Shots for HR by C. Mahalingam in Hindu Business Line dated 9th May 2013

What is High Performance Culture?

Discovery One


What is High Performance?

Rebel or Quit

Creative excitement

Malicious Obedience

Willing Compliance

Cheerful Cooperation

Heartfelt Commitment


Cultributes of High Performance Culture


The Four Cultural Attributes

A shared sense of urgency

Strong focus on people management

Robust Dialogue

Cadence of Accountability


We are talking of urgency, not haste!


Attribute 1: A shared Sense of Urgency

Discovery Two


Only One in Seven, even when it comes to life!

Not long ago, a medical study showed that if heart doctors tell their seriously at-risk heart patients they will literally die if they do not make changes to their

personal lives-diet, exercise, smoking--- still only one in seven is actually able to make the changes!


You only find oil if you drill wells. You may think you’re finding it when you’re drawing maps

and studying logs, but you have to drill!

John Masters*

*Canadian Oil & Gas wildcatter


Reality Check!



John Kotter on “Sense of Urgency”

Thought Leadership video 1

Improving the Sense of Urgency

Set a challenging goal with a deadline

Set a challenging deadline for a goal

Make yourself accountable

Recognize the dragon and slay it

Win the Princess

Behave with urgency everyday

Identify & remove all urgency killers

Managing People is like herding Cats!

Attribute 2: Strong focus on People Management


Reality Check!


Managers Make a Difference!

5.02

3.62 3.54 3.413.17 3.16

0

3

6

Impo

rtan

ce S

core

The single most important attribute in career decisions is manager quality -- least likely to be traded away for any other attribute

Source: Corporate Leadership Council, Workforce Commitment Series, vol.3 pg.17

ManagerQuality

Recognition CoworkerQuality

Empowerment WorkChallenge

Cutting-EdgeWork


People join corporations, but leave managers!

Gallup Wisdom!


Unconscious Conspiracy?


People Management

Discovery Three


How many of you believe you have a robust people management process in your

organizations?


Oh.. Really?

Documented process for selection of people managers “First 30 day as people manager” document Well designed learning journey for people managers People management goals and their audit Performance score-card for people managers Overall rating subjected to people management

scorecard 360 degree feedback mechanism Elevator pitches on key themes Formally trained for difficult conversations Reverting bottom 10% as Individual Contributors


Shaping Good People Managers

Celebrate rolemodels

Raise the bar

Equip Skills ProvideOpportunity

Feedback

Reinforce

Why & How

Start here

ClarifyExpectations

Revert as IC Exit politely


People Manager Scorecard

1.0 Hiring & On-boarding

1.1 Approved head counts are hired on time

1.2 All hires come within the budgeted costs

1.3 New joiners are placed against billable positions

2.0 Induction & Orientation2.1 All new employees covered in NEO within 4 weeks

2.2 Buddy program for new ee’s implemented effectively

2.3 Feedback from ‘pulse-check’ acted upon promptly

3.0 Performance Management3.1 Goal-setting completed for new ee’s within 30 days of joining

3.2 Goal-setting completed for existing ee’s within 30 days closing previous year’s appraisal

3.2 Appraisals closed out well and within the appraisal cycle and timelines Mali / NASSCOMHR / HPC / 24-07-13

People Manager Scorecard… contd

5.0 Employee Communication & Delight 5.1 Regular & Periodic one-on-ones and skip levels are held

5.2 Employee delight survey action plans are well implemented

6.0 Retention Management 6.1 Employee Attrition is contained within agreed to limits

6.2 HR policies and programs are implemented effectively

4.0 Training & Career Development 4.1 Quarterly Training plan for teams finalized 4.2 Training nominations are realized (zero drop-outs) 4.3 Career plans are in place for all identified top talent 4.4 Top talent are assigned with identified mentors


Attribute 3: Robust Dialogue

Openness

Candor

Informality

ClosureSource: “Conquering a Culture of Indecision” by Ram Charan – HBR- April 2001


Robust Dialogue

Discovery Four



Case for telecommuting Case of mid-term across the board correction Case of performance challenge Case of competency roadmap for HR team

Pick one for real play

5 + 5 for play & 1 + 1 for feedback


A working definition of integrity Well defined goals and milestones Regular reviews Holding each other accountable



Discovery Five


Traps of Non-action

Overwhelming Demands

InsurmountableConstraints

Unexplored Choices


Pillars of High Performance Culture


The Four Pillars

Manager Mindset

Strength-based Conversations

Deep differentiation

Feed forward as reinforcement


Manager Mindset

Pygmalion

NIGYSOB


How did Pygmalion effect come about?

Pygmalion was a sculptor & king of Cyprus Galatea was the beautiful ivory statue of a

woman Pygmalion sculpted and fell in with love Galatea comes to life and marries Pygmalion The powerful influence of one person’s

expectations on another’s behaviour has long been recognized by physicians and behavioural scientists and more recently by teachers

Enthusiasm and apathy- both are infectious!


Pygmalion Mindset

• Trust people and their capabilities• Coach and develop• Set high expectations and communicate them• Build support systems• Do not focus on weakness• Do not waste too much time on failures• Provide genuine & valuable feedback



Dr Rosenthal on Pygmalion Effect


Pygmalion Effect

What managers expect of their subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance and career progress

A unique characteristic of superior managers is the ability to set high performance expectations that subordinates fulfill

Less effective managers fail to develop similar expectations and as a consequence, the productivity of their subordinates suffers

Subordinates, more often than not, appear to do what they believe they are expected to do

Source: Pygmalion in Management – HBR (July-Aug, 1969) by J. Sterling LivingstonMali / NASSCOMHR / HPC / 24-07-13

Key messages

Common Illusions: Managers are more effective in communicating low expectations to their junior than their high expectations, though managers believe exactly the opposite!

Impossible Dreams: Managerial expectations must pass the reality test before they translate into performance

Key to Future performance: The early years in an organization, when young people can be strongly influenced by expectations are critical to determining future performance and career progress


Key Messages

Most Influential Boss: A young person’s first manager is likely to be the most influential in that person’s career

Astute Selection: While success in business sometimes appears to depend on the luck of the draw, more than luck is involved when a younger person is selected by a superior person

Disillusion & Turnover: While high level of economic activity & shortage of skilled people have made job-hopping easier, the underlying cause are underdevelopment & underutilization of a workforce that high career aspirations


Strength-based conversations

Strengths

Weaknesses


Gallup survey reveals….

Globally, only 20% of employees working in the large organizations surveyed feel that their

strengths are in play every day


Martin Seligman

40,000 studies on depression, but only 40 on the subject of joy, happiness and fulfillment

“Psychology is half-baked, literally half-baked. We have baked the part about mental illness. We have baked the part about repair and damage. But the other side is unbaked. The side of strengths, the side of what we are good at, the side….. of what makes life worth living.”


The irony!

Doctors have studied diseases to understand health

Psychologists have investigated sadness to learn about joy

Therapists have looked into causes of divorce in order to learn about happy marriage

Schools & workplaces around the world have encouraged us to identify, analyze and correct our weaknesses in order to become strong


Flawed assumptions about people

Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything

Each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weaknesses

Organizations focus the performance of its employees by legislating the work style

Organizations spend most of their precious money on trying to plug the gaps in employee skills or competence

As long as organizations operate under these assumptions, they will never capitalize on the strengths of their employees! (Gallup)


Peter Drucker on Managing Strengths

Effective executives fill positions & promote on the basis of what people can do

The idea of ‘well-rounded’ people is a prescription for mediocrity

To staff from what there is not and to focus on weakness is wasteful- a misuse, if not abuse, of human resource

To try to build against weakness frustrates the purpose of organization


Peter Drucker’s 4 golden rules

Jobs are not created by God! Any job that has defeated 2 or 3 men in succession must be assumed unfit for human beings; it must be redesigned

Make each job demanding & big. It should have challenge to bring out whatever strength a man may have

Start with what a man can do rather than what a job requires

To get strength, one has to put up with weaknesses


Benjamin Franklin

Wasted strengths are “sundials in shade”



Marcus Buckingham on “focusing on strengths”


Pillar 3: Strong differentiation

Darwin

Gresham


Rewards & Recognition

Differentiate

Decay


Concerns with differentiation

• It may be misused• Differentiation is mean and bullying!• Differentiation pits people against one another &

destroys team work• Differentiation is culture dependent• Differentiation demotivates the massive middle (70%)• Differentiation favours people who are energetic and

extroverted and undervalues people who are shy and introverted!


Development

Chess

Checkers


Pillar 4: Practice Feed Forward

Feedback

Feed-forward


Feed Forward

Discovery Six



Marshall Goldsmith on “Feed Forward”


Problem with Feedback

• Successful people do not enjoy feedback• We accept feedback that is consistent with our self-

image and reject feedback that is inconsistent• Feedback focuses on the past• Feedback reinforces the feelings of failure• People who receive negative feedback close ranks,

turn into their shells and shut the world down• Feedback only tells us where we are and not where

we need to go


Feed Forward (FF)

We can change the future It is more productive to help people be right than to prove they

were wrong FF is suited to successful people It can come from anyone who knows about the task People do not take FF as personally as feedback FF reinforces the possibility of change Most of us hate negative feedback FF can cover almost all the same material as feedback FF tends to be much faster and more efficient FF can be applied with managers, peers and team members


Shaping High Performance Culture

Clarify

Communicate

Model

Align

Engage


End Note!

“Great managing is not about transformation-if you dedicate yourself to transforming each employee into some predetermined perfect version of the role, you will wind up frustrating yourself and annoying the employee.

Great managing is about release!”

Source: Marcus Buckingham in “One thing you need to know”


Thank You

[email protected]


nasscom hr summit 2013: creating & sustaining a high performance culture - c mahalingam

Business

high performance culture

high performance

setting completed

moon shots

reality check

great managing

people managers

pygmalion effect