IIPM Admission

Friday, September 26, 2008

The ‘once upon a time’ heroes are now sliders


IIPM - Admission Procedure

Temporary sliders are the exception. These former achievers enter in their descent for the long haul

Que: What do you do about an employee whose performance has declined from stellar to mediocre? Believe me, I have tried talking to this person for several times, but six months have passed with no improvement in results and he is beginning to affect the entire team. Is it time to let him go or what should I do? Please advice. (Anonymous, Nairobi, Kenya)

Ans: Six months of warning seems a little brief for a person who once turned in stellar results, but still, we’d have to answered yes to your question. But we feel you’re onto one of the incontrovertible facts of organisational life. It is very hard to reverse the course of a slider – and that’s what you have to do.

There are other problems also: A high achiever who has checked out and before they begin to suck the team into their negative energy field and drag it down with their poor example. Indeed, this we’ve seen it time and time again: Sliders pollute. We’re not suggesting, of course, that managers dismiss all their sliders at dawn. Sometimes high performers do hit a wall and need time to regroup and restart.

Consider this, they might be working through a personal crisis, like sickness or a divorce. Or they might be bored, and sincerely need your help finding more challenge or even other difficulties in their jobs.

But temporary sliders are the exception. Typically, these former achievers enter in their descent for the long haul. And the reason is not very difficult to understand from former achievers angle:

They think and strongly believe they can. That is, they perceive their previous glory protects them. And often, they’re not wrong. Many organisations do have employees that are sacred cows: the scientist who, 15 years back, discovered the breakthrough compound upon which the company is built; the art director who once won the industry’s biggest creative award and there are more.


There’s the slider whose protective armour is the company’s largest client, which loves him for a terrific idea he had five years ago, and the other side is, the slider whose claim to fame is that she was there, taking customer orders and volunteering for midnight pizza runs, when the company was first started in a garage. So, whatever is the reason, sliders usually begin their progression imperceptibly. One day, they start contributing a little less and usually start showing up a little less too. The result is that nothing happens – there may be a few hushed conversations, but no real consequences – and so the downward spiral will keep on continuing forever.

Eventually, the sliders’ under-performance and the organisation’s lack of reaction become embedded, and the sliders land in an awkward bubble of silence and acceptance. The problem with this dynamic, of course, is that sliders are often organisational heroes, especially to old-timers, and their behaviour sets the tone. For newer employees, who aren’t as familiar with a slider’s past glories, but the impact can be even more damaging and destroying.

Sliders show them that the organisation permits employees who are doing nothing. Either way, a slider’s mood and his under-performance can really change the pace and rhythm of a business. They round off the edge you need to win. It doesn’t sound like you’re there yet with your slider, but chances are high that you will be before long. So, yes, let him go now so he can find an organisation that re-energises him. And know that in doing so, you’re sending a critical message to the organisation. When it comes to performance, the past may be nice to recall, but nothing matters like the present, so focus on that.

Que: This month, after nine long years of education in the United States, I return to my family company, where my father has asked me to lead a major turnaround. It’s a major challenge as most of the upper management team remembers me as a boy of 17. What advice can you give me to change this perception? ( Alister Aranha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Ans: First and foremost, recognise that the management team that remembers you “as a boy” knows full well that you are an adult now – and you’re back to take over and lead. Indeed, they’ve been expecting your return for a long time. And most of them, if not all, are ready to fall into line and listen to you.

For that, perhaps some credit goes to your hierarchical culture. But even if you weren’t returning to the Middle East, employees at most family companies know the score. You’re the boss now.

Our advice: Do not go heavy on establishing your authority. Instead, spend your time listening to your new team, show your care, demonstrating how eager you are to hear their perspectives and engage their intellect.

Make sure they know you are truly open to new ideas. Show them you are not a know-it-all, but a learn-it-all. Look, if you’re going to turn your company around in the next few years, your new job is really very straightforward and be focused to it. You’ve got your people’s bodies. Now win their hearts and minds and that’s not difficult for you.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Back to square one!


IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Bush performs another peace ritual in Palestine towards the fag end of his presidency even while the region continues to burn

President Bush wrapped up his Israel trip last week, visiting the Mt. of Beatitudes in Jerusalem where Jesus is believed to have said “blessed are the peace-makers” & ruins of the biblical city Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. Quite symbolical a start is for a man who has waged two ugly wars in the name of fighting terrorism. Given the past seven years in power, nobody would doubt Bush’s ability to make rhetoric on all the issues, whether it is the domestic economy, ‘war on terror’ or the West Asian peace process. Does his recent visit to the Holy Land mean anything other than a damage control exercise organised by conservatives in the White House?

Well, before the November 2007 Annapolis peace conference, observers had issued sceptical notes against Bush’s diplomatic gambling. Invariably, American presidents in their last year in power, use soft hands in dealing with the West Asian conflict. And now, it’s Bush’s turn. After holding talks with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abu Mazen in Ramalla, West Bank, Bush challenged the “sceptics” saying, “I believe it’s going to happen that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office.” Is it as easy as taking a decision to bomb a weak Saddam Hussein regime in Baghdad? Many experts would disagree. Speaking to B&E, the Director of Gulf Studies Programme at JNU, Prof. Gulshan Dietl said, “Bush’s political clout is weaning tremendously. This visit is a theatre set for his own personal history.

Not only that, the leaders who have to reach an agreement are domestically too weak to take any decision. So, this visit is not going to change anything in the ground.” Two months after Annapolis, it’s obvious that the US & Israel are unlikely to take any step beyond their conventional understanding of the national identity of Palestinians. All this is happening amid reports that Israel, with the tacit support of the PA, would attack and reoccupy the Gaza strip, which has been under the control of Hamas since last June. Hamas on the other side declared, “The only dialogue with the enemy will be with rifles & rockets.” If Israel is going to do that, the entire region would be plunged into a civil war. Even if the PA, by any chance, reaches a political agreement with Israel, as years go by, the number of “core issues” only goes up, not down.

B&E edit bureau: John Stanly

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

We’ll rein in the horses, err... as soon as we find them!


IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

When announcing Japan’s surrender in 1945, Emperor Hirohito famously explained his decision thus: “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.” There was a definite Hirohito feel to the explanation Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, gave this week for the Fed’s decision to modestly strengthen regulation of the mortgage industry: “Market discipline has in some cases broken down, and the incentives to follow prudent lending procedures have, at times, eroded.” Rather, the explosion of “innovative” home lending in the middle years of this decade was an unmitigated disaster. But maybe Bernanke was afraid to be blunt. After all, straight talk would amount to a direct rebuke of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, who ignored pleas to lock the barn door while the horse was still inside.

Apologists for the mortgage industry claim, as Greenspan does in his new book, that “the benefits of broadened home ownership” justified the risks of unregulated lending. But home ownership didn’t broaden. The great bulk of dubious subprime lending took place from 2004 to 2006 – yet home ownership rates are already back down to mid-2003 levels.

During the bubble years, the mortgage industry lured millions of people into borrowing more than they could afford, and simultaneously duped investors into investing vast sums in risky assets wrongly labelled ‘AAA.’ Regulators were blinded by ideology. “Fed shrugged as subprime crisis spread,” the headline of a New York Times report, may have been a discreet dig at Greenspan’s history as a disciple of Ayn Rand, the high priestess of unfettered capitalism. In a 1963 essay for Rand’s newsletter, Greenspan dismissed as a “collectivist” myth, the idea that businessmen left to their own devices, “would attempt to sell unsafe food & drugs, fraudulent securities & shoddy buildings.” Rather, “it’s in the self-interest of every businessman to have a reputation for honest dealings & a quality product.” No wonder he ignored warnings of deceptive lending practices.

But Greenspan wasn’t the only one. Consider the press conference on June 3, 2003 to announce a new initiative to reduce the regulatory burden on banks. Representatives of four of five government agencies responsible for financial supervision used tree shears to attack a stack of paper representing bank regulations. The fifth, James Gilleran, Office of Thrift Supervision, wielded a chainsaw. Also attending were representatives of financial industry trade associations. As far as I can tell from press reports, consumer interests weren’t represented. Two months after that event, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, one of the tree-shears-wielding agencies, moved to exempt national banks from state regulations that protect consumers against predatory lending.

The Democrats must aggressively make it an issue for the 2008 election. There’s hardly a more graphic demonstration of what’s wrong with their opponents’ economic beliefs.

Paul Krugman

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read these article :-
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs


 

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