It is an early week of a wet August in 2009 as I board a flight to Manila. As the Singapore Airline flight taxies down the rain soaked Ninoy Aquino International airport’s tarmac, I look around into the gathering dusk at the hazy silhouette of the adequately lit airport terminal – nothing much has changed since the ten years I have been travelling to this country! As I disembark, I literally zip thru immigration and customs, I thank my lucky stars that it is early week or is it that the efficiency of the airport has just got better! I had to find out. Frankly, I have had my trysts with destiny while trudging through the crowd at this airport during previous visits and they have indeed been a challenge! My last visit was a year ago - I half expectedly start peering out of the window of the hotel car that whisks me from the kerbside lounge as I am chauffeured down the well lit streets by a chauffer whose infectious exuberance that characterizes every Filipino has thankfully not altered one bit!
Manila did surprise me! The streets are cleaner, the traffic more orderly and as I discovered in the two days I spent there - a tremendous focus on urbanization, infrastructure development and employment. Singapore has always been an influence on the ASEAN. A visit to the Fort Bonifacio, an office, entertainment and residential district a stone’s throw from Makati Manila is a great example of this influence. I was at the Fort to meet a business contact ten years ago and all there was at that time was rolling, dusty & barren land left behind by an army garrison! What I see today is a spanking metropolis, tree lined boulevards, commercial and residential city scrapers with glittering glass facades and enough dining & wining options to keep a social animal spoilt for choice and occupied for a year! The place does reflect the orderliness, completeness and structure of a very modern metropolis! Well done Philippines!
During the couple days in Manila, my agenda was peppered with speaking assignments with customers and business partners and in getting seduced by the lucrative infrastructure development opportunities that the country presents that our organization with its technology can address. I took the time to meet some business associates who I have learned to trust as friends over the ten years that I have known them. It is great to be humbled by their progress and more importantly it was great to see them and share a drink or a meal with them and take a moment to talk about the nostalgic past and the exciting future. Absolutely fantastic!
Manuel Bobiles, Chairman & CEO of NetConnect Technologies (not the real names to retain privacy), a leading network system integrator is a man I have known and respected for long. Manuel came to Philippines years ago as a student, started NetConnect and grew it over the years into a multi million dollar technology corporation. One of the corner stones of Manuel and his organization’s progress is the way the organization hires, trains, grooms and evolves employees while preparing them to take on the challenges and opportunities that the ‘ever changing’ contemporary world presents. What Manuel does within his organization is also a subject very close to my heart!
I have been lately preaching the need to bring our workforce up to speed on workplace readiness and leadership development. I do believe that this is the single largest impediment that we face as a society to tackle the challenges that an increasingly complex workplace is incessantly throwing at us! As I travel around and ask any business leader what their primary challenge at work is, they do not blink an eyelash before saying – ‘people’. Well Asia has no problem with ‘quantity’ – it is the ‘quality’ that is the major concern! I am not downplaying the credentials or the capabilities of our educational institutions – there are many good ones and a few outstanding establishments in Asia. It is just that there is a very large divide between the environment that the typical Asian educational institution provides that an average student grows up in and the ‘work world’ environment that they face the first day they start at work. While the specialized tertiary institutes arm the employee with the hard skills to pursue the careers that they seek, the real gaps are in the soft skills department. Unfortunately, these soft skills or the lack of it within the new employees become glaringly visible as they start work and get them off on the wrong foot in the workplace. Many never recover from this less than desirable start while others pick up some steam as they go along but never attain their full potential!
The trick to get the best out of the people we hire is to choose the ones with the best hard skills needed for the roles that they are hired for - academic accomplishment and documented grades are good measures of these skills. In addition to these ‘hard’ attributes look out for at least some soft skills. Attitude, passion and communication are some that I rate very highly. I will double down and take on an outsider with unproven skill set in my team as long as they come with a ‘first class’ attitude – trust me, everything else builds from there. I have seen many a relative ‘outsider’ make it big despite multiple shortcomings riding on that priceless attribute – their Attitude! On the contrary show me one single achiever with a lousy attitude towards her trade and I will show you polar ice caps in the midst of sub terrain Sahara!
Besides practicing the concept within my own organization, I am recommending the business leadership community to spend time and effort in getting their people workplace ready as quickly as possible and reduce their time to productivity! The exercise routine that is needed to accomplish this is split into two logical parts. One, provide every employee with an opportunity to master the soft skills that they need to excel in their chosen profession. These could be interpersonal skills, operating in a crisis, managing and delivering on expectations, communicating upward, leveraging executives, goal setting – you know there are many! I prefer an analysis on the individual based on feedback from the supervisor, coworkers and the individual herself to determine the areas that need the most development rather than taking very broad swipes and not optimally utilizing the limited time outside of the job function that the employee will normally have to hone these skills! This analysis can be followed by a courseware routine – instruction set, group activities followed by an evaluation process to determine sequential progress. The courseware and its implementation can be developed and implemented within the organization (not the best choice unless you have the breadth, total commitment and the bandwidth to do so) or help from external providers with first class content and delivery consultants can be solicited. This done, most organizations stop at this stage and conclude that they have done a great job. Hardly!
Analysis and follow up development exercises may be great buildup activities to skill building but it is like taking a budding driver thru a well documented driving manual and then throwing the car keys at them and expecting them to drive effortlessly on the rain soaked streets of Manila! Hardly the right expectation! The missing link that most organizations overlook is a stint of ‘Mentorship’. Having an experienced campaigner who has all the battle scars sitting next to the newly minted, instruction manual trained rookie driver, showing the tricks while pointing out the pitfalls seems to me what makes the real difference and effectively closes out the learning process for life. The more sincere the mentor and the mutual engagement he drives with the student, more complete the education and the skill development of the student. Mentorship is not about a single session or even one involving days and weeks – it is an ongoing commitment that the student and the teacher need to sign off on to be able to see real results – fabulously fulfilling!
Manuel and his leadership team at NetConnect are committed to the development of the people they hire. They take away elementary employee concerns around healthcare for the employee and his family, basic amenities of life, small interest free loans for life’s little joys etc. Employees free of these little concerns and consumed by the care that the organization showers on them show up for work with absolute commitment towards their roles and responsibilities. What follows is high quality projects and services for NetConnect’s customers that naturally leads to revenue and profitability! An incredible formula! As we slug our last drinks for the night, Manuel does emphasize that asking his people to read a manual and drive a car would never deliver the results that his team is producing if it was not for the ‘mentors’ in his executive team who are jumping in the car besides the drivers and passionately sharing and helping elevate the ‘young turks’ to the next level!
I am hoping that more Asian organizations are doing something similar. If so our businesses and the people within will very soon start to look as slick as the glittering business districts of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Fort Bonifacio!
.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Asking for that raise is fantastic, but are you worth it?
Getting ahead at work and taking home more money than you did the year before is all good and I see people these days very focused at this and rightly so! Other than fulfilling the material desires that today’s world presents and even using the money for philanthropic work that some are involved in, I totally understand the financial pressure that today’s cost of living presents in every cosmopolitan city. All this needs money!
So how do you go about making more money? I see, hear and read about employees being very proactive in seeking that ‘raise’ very passionately. They mostly do so without a proper plan that justifies their intent. Supervisors at work are often confronted with these demands and often do not know how to respond to them creating employee dissatisfaction and often a dip in workplace productivity. Then there is the other type of employee who will suffer in silence, they come to work every day with that miserable feeling that they are worth more than what they get paid. I have tried to understand the mindset of the people who do so – very often they are unable to articulate why they deserve more money! Many are gripped by fear at the thought of doing so and being rejected. For others, the environment, culture or norms within does not allow them to do so! Naturally, this affects their performance as they keep reaching out for their next employer even if the new job pays just a little bit more that what they currently make. They are willing to bail out and leave behind everything that they have worked for and accomplished within their current employment over the years for a few dollars more! None of this is desirable for either the employee and the employer and there must be a way to fix this .. but how?
Firstly, compensation is a topic that I do not believe needs to be approached emotionally – neither by the employee nor by the employer. Today’s businesses can use very sophisticated third party developed compensation models that classify the employee by skill type (i.e. sales, technical, marketing, administration et al), skill level (i.e. years of relevant experience), work impact bands (low, medium, high) and location of employment (i.e. country, cost of living index). These published industry standard models should be the tool that should be used to logically determine the targeted compensation for any employee and should help provide consequential guidelines for other compensation components like stock options and restricted stock units. The publishers of these models do ongoing market research and regularly update the data. Organizations and hiring managers should use this data with confidence during workforce planning, budgeting and determining employee compensations. There might still be some factors outside of this model that a supervisor might want or need to consider in determining the final outcome, but this should be more peripheral than core.
Now let us take a look at the employee, and let us get real here … if you really want to determine how your organization or even your industry rates you – just look at your paycheck, period! You have attained your paycheck specifically because of the skills and attributes that you have built over the years. Your paycheck is not higher than what it is today, not because it cannot be but because you do not posses the skills or attributes that are needed to get you there! Identify these skills, practice and perfect them with commitment and I can assure you that you will see your compensation curve zoom! So understand this very clearly, your compensation is a ‘scorecard’ – it shows your standing in your profession relative to others. There are many different causes that lead to this ‘score’. Successful professionals do not spend time and emotions on the ‘score’ other than using it to set their next goal – they focus, plan and implement their efforts around the ‘causes’ that they have previously identified that leads them to their new targeted ‘score’ – be it position or compensation!
Now, while it is absolutely fantastic to look at your paycheck then target what it needs to be in the near future and work at building the missing pieces that will take you there – greed is the biggest derailer to this process! I have seen instances where employees come across and even get considered for opportunities that are either well above their capabilities or get considered for a position that matches their skill but pays far more than what they are worth! See, both these situations are career traps that you should look out for and avoid at all costs!
The first situation happens where individuals go through an imperfect recruitment process (not uncommon at all!) or have internal influencers within the organization whereby they are found suitable for a position that they are incapable to fill. This inadequacy becomes visible very quickly and the consequences are never pleasant! In today’s connected world news travels faster than you will imagine and in the least, the credibility and integrity of people who become victims of this circumstance gets deeply dented. The second situation is more common and this is how it unfolds. An organization might be a new player in a specific market segment and might be in an urgent need to hire someone with the skill to help them go in. The easiest way in is to lure an employee from a competitor whose skill matches the new business need – a higher than market offer usually follows to get this person in quickly. The organization sees this as a short term tactical move, but to the employee the impact could be long term! The business priorities that led to the hiring of this individual at a premium sometimes stays and at other times tapers off! The employee who is hired might sometimes do well or gets moved to another position but sometimes stays and stagnates in the position which is not anymore a priority in the company! Many of these situations then lead to a termination as the position becomes redundant leaving the employee without a job but with a life style that cannot be funded by what the market is willing to pay him! What a tragedy … many a career has been destroyed by this unnecessary greed of seeking something that you are not worthy of! Some of these unfortunate victims are forced to take job openings that come along but are not able to cope with a reduction in compensation even though they try hard! The employee starts work at the new organization disillusioned, demotivated and disgruntled from day one. From there on his future in this new role is a self fulfilling prophecy!
I am forever a big fan of ambition and enterprise in all humans to reach for greater heights and larger achievements. While setting your sights high and running towards your goals, just be wary and constantly watchful of the small rocks and pot holes strewn along the way! Some of them will be very well camouflaged! Just make sure that you do not stumble and trip on any of them and kiss your bigger dreams goodbye!
So how do you go about making more money? I see, hear and read about employees being very proactive in seeking that ‘raise’ very passionately. They mostly do so without a proper plan that justifies their intent. Supervisors at work are often confronted with these demands and often do not know how to respond to them creating employee dissatisfaction and often a dip in workplace productivity. Then there is the other type of employee who will suffer in silence, they come to work every day with that miserable feeling that they are worth more than what they get paid. I have tried to understand the mindset of the people who do so – very often they are unable to articulate why they deserve more money! Many are gripped by fear at the thought of doing so and being rejected. For others, the environment, culture or norms within does not allow them to do so! Naturally, this affects their performance as they keep reaching out for their next employer even if the new job pays just a little bit more that what they currently make. They are willing to bail out and leave behind everything that they have worked for and accomplished within their current employment over the years for a few dollars more! None of this is desirable for either the employee and the employer and there must be a way to fix this .. but how?
Firstly, compensation is a topic that I do not believe needs to be approached emotionally – neither by the employee nor by the employer. Today’s businesses can use very sophisticated third party developed compensation models that classify the employee by skill type (i.e. sales, technical, marketing, administration et al), skill level (i.e. years of relevant experience), work impact bands (low, medium, high) and location of employment (i.e. country, cost of living index). These published industry standard models should be the tool that should be used to logically determine the targeted compensation for any employee and should help provide consequential guidelines for other compensation components like stock options and restricted stock units. The publishers of these models do ongoing market research and regularly update the data. Organizations and hiring managers should use this data with confidence during workforce planning, budgeting and determining employee compensations. There might still be some factors outside of this model that a supervisor might want or need to consider in determining the final outcome, but this should be more peripheral than core.
Now let us take a look at the employee, and let us get real here … if you really want to determine how your organization or even your industry rates you – just look at your paycheck, period! You have attained your paycheck specifically because of the skills and attributes that you have built over the years. Your paycheck is not higher than what it is today, not because it cannot be but because you do not posses the skills or attributes that are needed to get you there! Identify these skills, practice and perfect them with commitment and I can assure you that you will see your compensation curve zoom! So understand this very clearly, your compensation is a ‘scorecard’ – it shows your standing in your profession relative to others. There are many different causes that lead to this ‘score’. Successful professionals do not spend time and emotions on the ‘score’ other than using it to set their next goal – they focus, plan and implement their efforts around the ‘causes’ that they have previously identified that leads them to their new targeted ‘score’ – be it position or compensation!
Now, while it is absolutely fantastic to look at your paycheck then target what it needs to be in the near future and work at building the missing pieces that will take you there – greed is the biggest derailer to this process! I have seen instances where employees come across and even get considered for opportunities that are either well above their capabilities or get considered for a position that matches their skill but pays far more than what they are worth! See, both these situations are career traps that you should look out for and avoid at all costs!
The first situation happens where individuals go through an imperfect recruitment process (not uncommon at all!) or have internal influencers within the organization whereby they are found suitable for a position that they are incapable to fill. This inadequacy becomes visible very quickly and the consequences are never pleasant! In today’s connected world news travels faster than you will imagine and in the least, the credibility and integrity of people who become victims of this circumstance gets deeply dented. The second situation is more common and this is how it unfolds. An organization might be a new player in a specific market segment and might be in an urgent need to hire someone with the skill to help them go in. The easiest way in is to lure an employee from a competitor whose skill matches the new business need – a higher than market offer usually follows to get this person in quickly. The organization sees this as a short term tactical move, but to the employee the impact could be long term! The business priorities that led to the hiring of this individual at a premium sometimes stays and at other times tapers off! The employee who is hired might sometimes do well or gets moved to another position but sometimes stays and stagnates in the position which is not anymore a priority in the company! Many of these situations then lead to a termination as the position becomes redundant leaving the employee without a job but with a life style that cannot be funded by what the market is willing to pay him! What a tragedy … many a career has been destroyed by this unnecessary greed of seeking something that you are not worthy of! Some of these unfortunate victims are forced to take job openings that come along but are not able to cope with a reduction in compensation even though they try hard! The employee starts work at the new organization disillusioned, demotivated and disgruntled from day one. From there on his future in this new role is a self fulfilling prophecy!
I am forever a big fan of ambition and enterprise in all humans to reach for greater heights and larger achievements. While setting your sights high and running towards your goals, just be wary and constantly watchful of the small rocks and pot holes strewn along the way! Some of them will be very well camouflaged! Just make sure that you do not stumble and trip on any of them and kiss your bigger dreams goodbye!
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