Corporate Jungle and Performance Management

Its that time of the year every manager dreads. Yes,its the time for performance appraisals.

It's not about the performance itself or the whole process which is scary but the scale of expectations from staff is!

As is said always,every one thinks he/she is a super performer and every one thinks he/she deserves a solid rating at the end of the year.

What i find missing in people is acceptance that a year has not been great,he or she has not performed well . Managers are chastised for handing out poor rating, as if they got up from bed thinking X or Y should not be given good rating even if they have performed well.

Performance in my opinion is always relative and its true in an organization. Comparison has to happen on relative scale.If X has performed at a super status level with the same tools as Y has had , it is only fair to rate X higher than Y,even if Y is more experienced and senior in the role.

Expectations from people have soared,even in this economic climate that's not changed. That is what intrigues me quite a lot. When an organization is performing well , they need it to give promotions year after year and so is the case when the markets are tough. This is a sheer paradox or even a Pandora's box for me.

There are two things that i see are the problems. On the one hand not all managers are fair in their ratings , some times being in the boss's cabin or doing stuff for him/her do get things done.On the other hand people ,especially at lower levels also need to understand that not every year things remain the same and performance is relative. One more bigger head ache is that how well has the organization clarified what its goals are ,if this isn't done properly,it can be a real problem answering people at the end

Then comes the big daddy of statistics the bell-curve, i would not delve into it but this some times inhibits rewarding very good performers.

In a nutshell, organization,managers and employees need to do their bit to ensure a smooth and a transparent performance management.

The reason i called this post "Corporate Jungle" is because as in a jungle , even in a corporation only the best gets rewarded,not that average performers do not again its a question of relativity and matter what in economics is called "Bandwagon Effect" or "Network Externality" i.e. a person next to me has got a promotion or a solid rating so should "i",without thinking am i really worth it?

If people can ask themselves that question and reason it out , how much of a camaraderie would be there in organizations. Well its anybody's guess on how much better it would be.

How Much Do we Live for the Society!

I am writing this with an absolute fury in my mind. Am absolutely furious.

Just about half an hour back , i was witnessing how much our society drives what we do.

A cousin of mine had a love marriage three years ago.My family had cut all relationships with her.She had a complicated pregnancy and had a baby after battle with death.

The story unfolded today,when my cousin and her better half came to see her parents.

Rain was lashing today , my cousin and her husband had come today with the baby to get the blessings of the family. First they waited in front of her home. Not even one soul spoke to the couple and did not even call them into the house.

I just was a meek spectator trying hard to argue with my parents ,uncle and also eldest uncle,the head of the family about what was unfolding and what they were doing was incorrect.As a human we should show some courtesy was my argument.

I just could not understand why we do not forgive and why this much ego . Why don't elders understand we are in 21st century.I was shattered to hear that the reason my uncle did not want her daughter into her home is "What would the society say", i was stunned and pained to hear.

Not even my eldest uncle heeded to my pleas. How long do we intend to be driven by the society and live for the society.

I in no way am undermining the importance of the society but there are limits to every thing. What is the cost that we are paying!!!!

I am not giving up without a fight and am deeply hurt on what has happened .I am sure i am not a loner in this , sure many of you would have been a part of or witnessed a similar situation.

Two States- Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

I am no marketing manager for Rupa & co or do i have special stake in this book selling well.

What i am i going to write in this blog , the subject line could make you think its about the book and maybe you are already thinking i am going to do a review.

Well no , what i would like to focus is the subject of the book. These are my own opinions on the subject of the book.

I read this book in one shot , considering this is a very small book so the completion of the book in one go is not a great achievement by any standards but the book for sure enough was riveting.

The story is about two lovers from different community in India and the hardships that they undergo to get through to their marriage .

What are the hardships portrayed by the author , is it all fictitious ? No, the author has done justice to the subject and i guess it was also his personal story.

When i read the book , emotions ran so high in me , don't ask why but it was so vividly explained that i had no way not to accept what has been written.

The moment i was in the middle of the book, all that flashed in my mind was the dialogue from Chak De India movie,where the new coach Kabir Khan (sharuk) gets to know his new team and asks every one to introduce themselves , everyone states their name and the state but only Vidya Malvade says that she is Vidya and playing for India. Hearing this the coach Kabir is impressed and thundered to every other player that this should be their attitude as well.

Why did this dialogue flash my mind because even now in 21st century,when we want India to shine and do accept that we have the right resources and are resourceful alas only in thoughts but not in action.

Even now , when we want to marry , our parents have a say and one cannot marry a loved one from other caste or creed . What an irony!

No cross pollination , we want India to win world cups , we want India to lead the financial recovery,we need India to do every thing that we individuals dream of but we will frown at a Tamil brahmin marrying a Punjabi or even a Gujarathi marrying a Bengali.

What is wrong in some one marrying another person of their liking , where does caste , language etc come into play.So long as they are able to manage their lives and be a good son, father,daughter,mother,daughter in law , son in law what else should they do and why should they not marry. I am still not able to get my head around this.

The only reason i can come up with is that "What will the society tell?" Well,the society isn't going to do anything if the daughters and son marry some one other than whom they like. It's like doing something when one doesn't like it .

Tamil Superstar in one of the cinema says that "If you don't get what you want be happy with what you get" agreed but in this case , i don't see a reason why a boy and girl who like each other do not deserve to live together happily. Is it their sin to be born a Gujarathi or a Marwari or Bengali etc.

If india is to shine , this attitude has to change. It is changing i do not deny that but more should come .

This emotional black mailing,the nuclear weapon called crying by mom's and dad's just to stop the marriages just because either the son or the daughter is marrying some one outside their community should be a thing of the past.

Let's put India first.

The Joy of Giving

They say share your happiness and it doubles , they say share your sorrow and it halves . I say give things to people who need it and the joy knows no bound.

Yes, i mean it . I went through it personally yesterday. I have a cousin who is twenty eight years elder to me and has two kids. Their family were not doing well financially .

After a very long time ,she had been to my house yesterday. We had a good lunch together. Late in the evening my mom asked me what i wanted to do for them. I said anything but i don't

really know what they want .

It would not be wise to ask them what they want but it would be even worse to buy or give them something which is of no use to them. It was a catch-22 situation.

I just thought for a second and said to my mom how about buying them provisions for a month , it would be quite useful . It worked.

I took my bike and off i went to a super market to buy a months groceries. I had such guts that i easily assumed this was easy to do all by myself.

I had never gone to a super market without a list of what was needed and i had no clues what provisions and groceries would be required to run a family.So here i was in the super market without knowing what to buy.

I was stuck , did not know what i wanted . I stared in disbelief about my inability but trusted my common sense. I started from the basic household needs and went through them in my mind on what all could be required.

When i was finished , i just called my mom and told her what i bought believe me i was not too off the mark.

I bought everything , packed them neatly,billed it and was back home.

Just when my cousin was supposed to leave, i called her and gave all that i bought.

I stood still and smiled at her as tears rolled past her cheek , she gave me a huge hug and a kiss. That embrace said it all and how much my affection meant to her .

It was only a small token of my affection but meant a lot to her . What i learnt in this whole episode is that , it takes a very little effort to make others smile and make them feel special.

My joy was over the roof why because i took the first step in giving something . It was a magical moment for me .

It was a great joy in giving.

Time Off

I was inspired to write this blog by Stefan Sagmeister a famous Austrian born designer.

I watched a video of him speak about the value of taking "Time Off" from one's work i.e. a sabbatical and do something one is interested in. That video sent thinking waves in my mind.

Stefan says that one learns quite a lot during the so called time off aka sabbatical. How true,i cannot agree more with him.

We are all so stereotyped in our daily chores that we forget what we want to do.We are embroiled so much with work that lot of things skip our mind. Mind you i am not talking about holidays which most of us do take,this is specifically focussing on a sabbatical.

Sabbatical as dictionary defines it is a short break that is taken every seventh year . Stefan in his video says that this does lot of wonders. Lot of my friends who are going to read this blog are going to think , is this guy become 'crazy'.

Well not really . Let's understand this in the right sense. How many of us take time daily or even on a monthly basis to think first of all. Our lives are so robotized these days that it is just short of being programmed. It so happens that even some of surprises that nature throws at us on a daily basis are by-passed with precision or near precision.

Life has become so monotonous and how many times in a day we hear people say that life is so dull and has nothing new to offer .

Stefan did have an answer to this. He basically forced himself to close down his design studio for customers for a year and go to different/far off places . He said that when he was back from his break, he made more profits than ever and did things in a different way. The reason is one immerses oneself into what he or she likes during the break.

That could be true to people like us too , although i can imagine that taking a years break from work can be too much of an ask but it should be possible for us to do , if only we do careful planning.

Half way through the video Stefan gave a wonderful view of planning . The first time he took the break, he basically said to himself that he would take a break and do different things but at the end did nothing. The second time , he actually planned what he wanted to do and he stuck to the plan,it worked.He shows the example of what and how he planned.

Even for us it could be possible with a little planning. I do know some people who take a break to go and study , we can do different things all of us are different and possibilities are end less.

So let's think about it and see where and how we want to let the steam off.

If you are interested in the video - http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

Is Twenty Four Hours Enough?

I am no different from you . I keep repeating the golden verse "i have no time for it" .

No time!

I found out how foolish it is to say it . Ever since i joined my management course in IIM , its become so routine that i slogged my heart out. May it be a race to finish a project/assignment or it could be preparation for next class. All this on top of my routine day job and host of other activities.I also found time to go for my driving classes. Now i think that there is lot of time at hand and how valuable it is to put that time to good use .

What i realized is that the time at hand when put to good use benefits us immensely. That is extremely easy to realize but i wonder why i did not realize it nor do host of humble souls around me. It is a given that we should be looking at it as a matter of priority but some how eludes us .

Last four months i have been doing my management course, reading scores of books almost two a month , taking host of online quizzes ,making new friends,learning driving and feel still lots more could be done, definitely time is there . Before which it was only office and home ,life just stopped there.

How come all of a sudden availability of time has exploded? Nothing has changed it is still twenty four hours a day.

Phew! why did i realize this so late . Pondering the question , reality hits . All these years, i have been in the so called "comfortable zone" . When pushed i realized how much could have been done and how much time has been wasted.

However it is better late than never .

Is twenty four hours enough to do things which we want to? Well answer to that is "I guess yes" because people who have achieved notable things in life also had the same twenty four hours. So why should it be any different for us.

Work-LIfe Balance

Folks, don't beat me up if this doesn't go the way you want to.

Work-Life balance , this is the buzz word these days ,as the going becomes tough and the economic crisis not seem to be abating anytime in the near future, it is getting very stressful at work place as we get very emotionally drained with all negative news surrounding us.

I hear people say they are working "ridiculous" hours and its too tough for people to cope with the pressure and unable to balance work and life.

Let's ask ourselves a simple question "Who is to be blamed for the position we are in?" - Managers,Organization,Family,Colleagues,Current economic situation who should be blamed. should it not be ourselves to blame.

Why do i say so? The reasons are multi-folded. Lets analyze this in a very pragmatic way.

By definition work-life balance is prioritizing between work/career and personal life. So if that is what is defined as work-life then the one element that differentiates good work-life and probably not so good is "Priority" .

Who can do the prioritization , it can only be us and no one else. No one apart from the individual can decide what he or she wants to be the priority. So why don't we go ahead and do it.

Reasons lay in the root of our upbringing. Parents say that this world is ultra competitive and one needs to work hard to come up . We take that in literal sense , for us a sixteen hour work day is the hard work part. We think working long hours equals rewards or recognition . I know people in various organizations who being at the helm are able to balance work and their personal life .

The recent incident that comes to my mind is that of the new CEO at the ailing insurance giant AIG - Robert Benmosche. He basically took a vacation in Croatia for about two weeks,when his firm was in turmoil and so much of media coverage was been given . However he defended his position and rightly so .When a CEO of a giant corporation having offices in many countries and in such a problem can balance his work and life . Why cannot we do it?

Just take a moment to think about it ? It is a serious matter . We need to plan our work and also plan how we want to do things .

One of the strong things that iam encouraging new mom's and dad's is to teach their kids how to plan things . It is extremely important .

Although i do agree that there are other things that some times hinder proper planning but even if we get 80% planning in our work , we would be much better of in terms of work and life . Else its going to be a sad story of people being in office for those ridiculous hours and keep cribbing.

We can change the way we want to do with due respect to work . Let's also bear in mind the concept of work was certainly not defined in 20th Century . Let's appreciate the fact that people have been working for ages and in many of them in hostile/tough conditions but the work-life issue is a recent phenomena. Why would be so . Primarily due to the attitude of people. Our attitude towards work has to be slightly altered and we need to understand work is not end all . Work is just one part of life.

It's just a matter of applying ourselves and planning . Remember a time and health once lost is lost forever .

Hope with this blog iam able to change the mind set of at least few people.