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Senior management on a ‘roll’ (View Comments)
Sheetal Srivastava
Posted On Friday, January 29, 2010 at 12:38:39 PM
It is becoming more and more important for senior managers to remain calm and develop a fun quotient at the workplace, so as to be good people managers and tackle employees with care
Employees are vital assets to an organisation. An organisation can be successful if it carries the entire team with it – through good and tough times. This kind of bonding falls in place when the senior managers and leaders have a genuine sense of empathy and association with their employees. These are essential tenets of a good people manager, which can be fostered through a healthy fun quotient at the workplace. “An organisation looks up to its managers as role models and as representatives of virtues and values that the organisation expects to see in its employees. It is very important for the senior leaders to demonstrate emotional stability and maturity during turbulent times. This will go a long way in reassuring people on how adequately the organisation is equipped to handle any crisis,” says Chetan L. Shinde, VP, People Department, Aditi Technologies.
Adding further to this, Romit Dasgupta, Director, Globsyn Group says, “Leaders are most often defined by how they react during difficult times and the astuteness of their decisions during these times. Remaining calm is a fundamental virtue during all times and more crucially during turbulent times. As a senior leader if you panic and your fears show through to your team – you are not only destabilising and demoralising them but more importantly taking away from them their ability to fight back and work strategically to achieve common organisational goals.”
It is essential to maintain a fine balance between work and fun. Like any other organisational strategy, it is important to understand the human behaviour with changing situations and also strategise and include the fun element. Senior managers, with their experience and understanding, should be able to maintain that balance. “Senior managers should indulge in fun initiatives to the extent of engaging with employees and creating a light atmosphere. A considerable amount of time today is spent at the workplace and it is imperative to ensure that employees are productive and more importantly, happy working in their organisation. Fun initiatives and the involvement of senior management in a balanced way help strengthen the employer-employee bond,” notes Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Founder, Directi Group.
So, what are some of the fun activities that senior managers indulge in? Intelenet Global Services organises a Cricket Tournament- ‘Intelenet Cup’ for the senior management in which they take an active part. “Another activity which we organised for the senior managers was a competition during Independence Day. To bring in the feeling of patriotism, a theme -‘Indian Patriot’ was created in which employees dressed up their senior managers accordingly. It was a quite an entertaining experience where all the teams had put in efforts to dress their managers like our national leaders. The involvement from our senior management team was highly appreciated,” shares Manuel D’Souza, Chief Human Resource Officer, Intelenet Global Services.
“Senior leaders should lead by example, even in the context of organisation-wide fun activities. We see it as a great opportunity for the leaders to be a part of the troop and to enjoy the fun as one team. Our senior leaders participate in the various fests and events organised in the company; we never separate out a Management team v/s Employees team, even for fun,” says Shinde.
“Right from cricket and fashion shows, to poetry sessions, chess competitions, senior leaders participate in all of them. We also conduct periodic ‘TGIF’ sessions - a kind of ‘break-out’ session in which everyone participates,” adds Shinde.
“At Globsyn, apart from the run-of-the-mill activities, we organise ‘Art of Living’ sessions and other development programs in which our senior managers actively participate,” adds Dasgupta.
Managers who are empathetic and encourage a sense of camaraderie have better acceptance with the employees. “Senior managers, at times, need to go out of their way to ensure that they listen to their employees and are in tune with their emotions. One can choose any mechanism to do this – from formal polls/feedback to water-cooler conversations. Encouraging an open-door policy and active participation in fun activities go a long way in ensuring that managers get an acceptance from one and all,” states Shinde.
With increasing focus on a knowledge driven workforce it is important that senior managers develop a more humanistic approach towards their subordinates. The ability to study human behaviour, understanding reaction patterns and the art of not pushing the envelope too far are some of the critical aspects of today’s workforce management.
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