Getting the best from your team: Where does one start? – I

 
One thing that I have come to realize over time is that, the team, or as I would put it, ‘The Human Capital’, plays a major part in any Organization’s success. This holds for the Corporate Powerhouse managing its many businesses under one roof,  as much as it does for the StartUp dreaming of becoming the next Corporate Powerhouse.

This, of course, brings to mind the question: How does one make the best of what one’s team has to offer?

Those who have read Jack Welch on people management might straight away utter 3 words in reverence: ‘Reward’, ‘Recognition’ and ‘Training’.

But is that all there really is to managing people, or is there more to explore when you happen to work with teams?

I have tried applying Jack’s principles whenever working with people, and found them to be quite effective… BUT… I have also realized that, as what I had been taught in Chemistry a good 7-8 years back, exceptions to the rule exist just as well.

.

Imagine this scenario, where I was working closely with a Colleague on a tight deadline:

It’s night 2:30 AM, the deliverable has to be sent in by morning; we have already exchanged quite a few drafts between us, and my colleague comes back to me and says: “Monce, I think we can improve on this just this much more”. You realize he is serious. You know that what he suggests make sense, and will add that ‘bit’ more value to the deliverable. You also realize that its one of those rare moments when you want to hug and shoot this guy at the same time!

The best part: its not just him alone; but his entire team is up and working ‘actively’ at this time of the night, and they are all in it together. Made me wonder how he manages his team and keeps them up and motivated to put in their best, all the while? This keeping in mind that it’s already Sunday morning now and we have been at work straight for the past 17 odd hours or so (excluding the days that were behind us)!

A few days later, I did get around to asking him and his partner as to how they managed their Human Capital. Theirs is a StartUp they founded in 2009.

I was of the impression that, as a StartUp, they could definitely not be paying their team salaries at par with the MNCs and bigger firms. Turns out they were doing exactly that… and then some more!

Inclusiveness: Doing well while doing Good

 
Happened to watch this video sometime back. (One of the few good things in favour of spending long hours, days… and months on FaceBook!)

 
It got me worked up enough to tweet about this the entire day that followed, ‘tweeting’ way beyond human limits!

At last count, I had managed to pull some 400+ odd tweets; and spread the video on FaceBook (FB) like fire.

Result: Some 15+ odd friends in my FB network shared it within the next day,  with approx 4-5 comments on an average, and quite a few likes on the shared link.  I could not track beyond that, but I did get this gut feeling that the message would make its way through my 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections (refer Human Web) within that week itself.

Almost a year back, I remember logging onto the ‘Zen Garden’ section by Subroto Bagchi,and reading this interview: In Conversation with Patu Keswani (Founder, Lemon Tree Hotels) – Forbes India Felt good to know about the 4% guys he had figured into his scheme of things for Lemon Tree.

If you read the article closely: “Guiding Principles: It’s very simple equation — my job is to take care of the employees, the employees’ job is to take care of the guests and guests would then take care of the returns” makes for good business sense. But does the same apply when you factor in Inclusiveness, with people with special needs forming part of your team?