Are you ignoring high performer?

 

'Low performers are more engaged than the high performers?'

Read one of the tweets recently…trust me I was more shocked than you though reading it further, only made me wonder about the gap in expectation and performance . Even more, the entire HR metrics around it.

However if I myself look back during peak attrition times, the entire bell curve goes for a toss when high performers leave voluntarily saving low performers as an option to be retained back. This is called need of hour or some are born lucky!!

Exit Interviews does give a feedback where high performers leave due to work load, managing high employer expectation, work life balance and above all working with a team members who without much efforts are paid at par with them. We can’t blame the system, for it’s human nature to look for the best resource while assigning any task and in most circumstances this become a repetition.Initally such delegations are appreciated but we tend to forget that an individual has a capability which would not withstand pressure beyond a certain elasticity .Once we cross the said threshold, frustration is inevitable. ? High performers are not easy to recruit but retaining and engaging them with the organization is a challenge for all. What fun would be to lose cash cows over a problem child?

It’s true every employee has different expectation but we should try to understand that such situations might solve problems in short run but going further will complicate issues. Many times high performers are unable to cope up with additional pressures and work load and overnight the category changes. What is expected other than an exit!!Timely cognizance will not just make the employee feel cared but also re affirm his/her trust in the HR processes and also help him/her stay engaged.

We would only flaunt those engagement rings when we are happily married!!

Do you Bake Cookies @ Work?

I am a “Workflex” mom and typically am running short on patience with kids getting extra enthusiastic about working around the house during my “working” hours.

Today was one such day. Early on in the day, my 10 year old decided that he needed to hone his baking skills, and TODAY was THE day he wanted to do it, and of course, now was the only time!

So we got into this argument about how it’s not such a great idea to do it at 9:30 in the morning on a working day and how it was wiser to wait until the maid got in and was around to assist, trouble shoot, clean up, etc.

Arnie (the aforementioned 10 year old), was of course having none of that and he resolved that he would brave on and do it all on his own…… So far so good! Promptly, out came the recipe book, pans, ingredients, weighing scale, spatulas, gloves, blender et al. I could feel my blood-pressure rise but decided, for the sake of my peace of mind, to allow this transgression!

And so it was that Arnie, who knew nothing about baking, had never baked alone ever in his 10 year life, had only rudimentary knowledge of kitchen implements, but who was never short on purpose, enthusiasm and chutzpah, baked the most delicious, gorgeous cookies I had ever eaten. And here I was, berating him for the mess he had made, the countless interruptions he had added to my work, the general chaos in the house with the dog getting frisky on all the food smells and a kitchen that was getting increasingly buttery and floury!

When I look back at this, what exactly did he learn?? Hopefully, he learnt that when you want to do something badly, just go ahead and do it, doesn’t matter if mom thinks of it as a good idea; And not – “Mom never appreciates that I am doing something Awesome!”

What did I learn? Well, there is short-term pain when there’s an enthusiastic hand around. But with some nurturing, how that hand can create AWESOMENESS!

Ok, now let’s extrapolate this to your organization… Do you have Arnies around? What do you do with them? Do you allow the overwhelming urge of playing it safe and keeping everything clean and perfect to dominate? OR Do you allow them to bake their cookies despite the mess they will surely make? In short, are you experiencing AWESOMENESS?

Would be keen to know!

My Tryst with Distance Running

It’s 5am on a Sunday morning, a God forsaken hour for most of Mumbai.. What am I doing? Donning my running gear to hit NCPA for a 15km run. Not a jog… a run.

Who am I? Entrepreneur, Head of User Experience at plugHR, mother of 2, artist.. What the hell am I doing, you wonder? I am training for the Mumbai Marathon, due in January 2013. And… I run with a 300+ strong group, all in their mid-40s (I am not necessarily talking about myself here!); all running enthusiasts, not sportspersons.

My initiation into distance running was a freak accident. However, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought of it as such a life changer.

Distance running, in as much as it's a physical sport, is also a mind game. It is a play of mind over body, a willing mind over an unwilling body if you will. The mind is setting a seemingly unrealistic goal for the body to deliver.

What does it take for the mind and body to deliver on this goal? To break it down simply, I will say:

BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more

BELIEVE you are upto the task, believe in the training you are putting in.

Then ACHIEVE intermediate goals, win some mind battles,

Hence BELIEVE some more that you will achieve the bigger goal too.

So, when you smoothly run 5km without major heartburn, you convince yourself that another 3k is not such a big deal, so on and so forth.

Its not all smooth sailing mind you. There is the occasional calf pain, knee pain, twist in the ankle, there are bad running days, there is bad weather, there are shoe bites, there are late nights, and there are bad terrains.  At times, the body simply refuses to take direction. Be kind it says!

Therein lies another lesson… very early on, it is amply clear to any runner, that a good run is just that - ONE good run. You understand that “Past performance is no guarantee of future return”. If and when you begin to become smug in your achievements, nature very quickly deals a sobering effect. So, you learn to take each day as it comes. Each run is “the” run, each run has its own outcome. There is no time to celebrate one good run, and no time to gloat over a bad one. You just basically get on with it!

Of course, this also takes other kinds of preps:

1.    There are the groaning and back breaking stomach crunches, knee exercises,  pushups – yes, those too!
2.      .    Don’t forget, the carbohydrate loading, throwing all weight loss dietary habits to the winds
3.     And then, and this is the tough part, no partying late into the night, watching the booze intake, watching meal times (all the boring stuff)

The focus always being on conditioning the mind and body to endure the rigors of training and the mental and physical strain you are about to inflict on them.

Why endure all of this you ask? Well, the buzz and the adrenalin rush that you experience on crossing the finish line, with breaths to spare, are altogether something else!

So - and here is where I get philosophical - are there lessons here to use in a corporate setting? The lesson, to my mind, is in the area of performance management, goal setting, motivation.

·      How do we create an environment where people are able to experience and live out the cycle of BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more?

·      How can rewards and recognition be fine-tuned to not only pat a good run on a bad day but also support a bad run of an otherwise smart runner?

·      How do we put enough stress on fortification while all the hype is on the run?

Would love to hear view on some of these.. 

Writer is Entrepreneur, running enthusiast, artist.