Sanjiv on success.: January 2022

Monday, January 24, 2022

Target vs Achievement : Targets not met is a Leadership issue.

Targets should be aspirational and realistic. There is nothing more frustrating than failing.

Setting targets is not pure mathematics in a competitive multi-dimensional environment. It has many factors which determine its success. A Leader has to be aware of all the key factors that influence the performance. These factors have to be built-in while setting up the targets.

Leaders need to be aware of team members who do not give their 100%. Some don't even try. Want to know why?

In my various assignments, this had been a challenge initially. Here is what I did and, it worked.

I firmly believed in aligning the team with their targets. Alignment gives ownership. 100% of team members will go all out to achieve their targets.

There can be various bases of setting targets among the team members, past geography performance, special events, shortfalls in the earlier period and, seasonal influence. It actually does not matter much if the targets are accepted by every team member. There can be reasons for the target not being accepted and, it primarily hovers around trust. Some ways that worked for me are :

1. Target setting logics being built bottoms up. Here the team member could question the logic but, no individual discussions would be allowed. Usually, a top-down approach does not create excitement in the team. A bottoms-up model hardly fails.

2. At times, as a Leader, if we see a major favorable factor coming in, we must discuss the same with the team. Use it to motivate the team. Share your views and ask team members to huddle and list actionable. Provide additional logistics and resources and genuinely trust your team to deliver.

( A telecom operator closed down in 2015 in India and, the Haryana team got aligned to do 100 X of their regular Mobile Number Portability achievements, 100% of team members did their ever best. The smallest circle in the country had the maximum share gain. Awards and accolades followed)

The key is alignment and, ownership. Do try. Have a dialogue, have a stretch. Listen and be heard.

An aligned team always surprises with their performance.

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Expectations - Do your team members miss their targets?

Often during the annual performance discussions, we see gaps. While the team member feels they had a great year, the manager does not feel so. It leads to an uncomfortable discussion and, both want it to end soon. Trust is lost. The team perceives the manager as “Not fair”. Performance suffers in the following periods.

During some of my turnaround assignments, I have seen the same non-performing team deliver exceptional results by a simple change. Interested, READ ON.

Most Managers e-mail a table with targets and feel satisfied to have set the expectations for the team and its members. The team members acknowledge the same on the portal and, that's the end of expectation, setting exercise. The e-mail is archived for records and only opened during the annual performance discussions. Both the Manager and the team member have thus short-circuited the process of managing performance.

As a Leader, many of us struggle with this challenge. I tried something different and, it worked.

I set frequent expectation discussions as my 1'st priority. Built it into my calendar every quarter to have a One o One discussion with my team members. As a ritual, I blocked a window for each member in the 1'st week of every quarter. I used to do my preparations well in advance. E-mail the targets and achievements for the last quarter and mention any outstanding effort put in by the team member.

The team member was aligned even before they came for the meeting. During the meeting, I listened to what the team member had to say. What were their challenges and, what worked for them? They also discussed what they would do differently in the next quarter. As a leader, it also gave me insights on support required by the team member. These discussions also led to determining their future training needs. The team member used to leave with a lot of self-confidence, complete alignment on how his performance is measured and, OWNERSHIP.

Four such discussions in a year made a difference and, it had no scope for surprises during these discussions. There is nothing more important than having a happy, engaged team member.

Results are bound to follow.

Do make these discussions a ritual. Believe me, it works.