Today I will share the three key aspects of success in the corporate world. Everyone wants a pay hike, running after that elusive promotion, the extra bonus etc. Often we come across people being over loaded, over worked, stressed, tensed etc about succeeding in the corporate world. All these negative emotions can be overcome if only three simple tasks are performed at the work place.
These are:-
Team Management
Task Management
Boss Management
I would now delve into details of each of the above aspects:-
Team Management
Nothing can be truer than this saying in the corporate world
“Talent wins games, but teamwork win championships”- Michael Jordon
There is a huge difference between being a manager and a leader. Team management means understanding the needs of the organisation, needs of the team members and align them together. They have to be completely in sync for the organization to achieve its goal. If the goals of the organization and individuals are in sync, then each success of the organization will be treated as own success by the team. This will lead to increase in satisfaction and hence productivity. If this feeling can be incorporated in the team then the manager can be truly recognized as a leader. This can be achieved if the manager has following key qualities:-
Approach ability: As a team leader you have to be open to ideas of your employee. They have a very different perspective of work as they are actually working on the ground. Receptiveness is the single most basic requirement of building confidence in your team.
Giving credit: A good leader always gives credit to the team wherever it is due instead of hogging the limelight. The success of the manager always is in the success of the team.
Being responsible for failure: You may also come across scenarios in the corporate journey where results may not be to your liking. In such scenarios the true character of a leader is tested. He should stick his neck out and take responsibility for things that might have gone wrong. After this SWOT analysis should be performed with the team and necessary changes should be made. At such a time the worst that a manger can do is to blame the team for failures.
Support: As a leader team always looks up to you for support. Each employee in your team is separate from others and hence should be treated separately. There will always be general rules that apply to all like timings, discipline, TAT monitoring etc. but there will always be some aspects where employees have to be treated separately. For e.g. someone may be a quick learner but does not believe in perfection whereas someone may be a slow learner but once he gets into the groove may finish a task with utmost perfection. Also if you support an employee in times of his personal needs/exigencies he will always be there when you require him professionally.
Task Management
“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed” -- Peter Drucker
Now let’s discuss about task management. At the organization level a task will be assigned to the manager that needs to be completed. Tasks may be of various types like recurring/regular in nature like daily basis operational or sales work or one time project/development. It is up to the manager to do task management by taking the below steps:-
Planning in a time bound manner: Timelines for task completion has to be defined very clearly. We often see that tasks are assigned but without timelines then it seems like a never ending task. If clear timelines are defined at the outset then each employee knows his TAT (Turn around time) in which the task to be completed. Timeline has to be defined at planning stage itself in which requirement analysis and Man days allocation has to be done.
Breaking down tasks into milestones: Task should almost always be broken down into smaller milestones which help us to track it in a better way. We can easily gauge what needs to be done to attain our goals.
Reviewing at regular intervals: The achievement of task must be reviewed at regular milestones which were defined in the above point. Regular reviewing ensures that we don’t get any sudden surprises even if we are falling short of our timelines. We can speed up the activity if we are lagging behind.
Documenting: All reviews have to be documented and minutes should be published. This maintains record of all activities being done at regular intervals and this log will be very useful to look back once the task is completed.
Boss Management
I would say that Boss Management is the most important aspect on which your success depends in any organization. As the old adage goes:
“Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far”
The work done by the manger must be noticed by his supervisor. If it is not being noticed then the ugly truth is that you will not go very far no matter how well you are doing your job. Following steps will help in Boss Management:-
Alignment of thinking: Either you need to align to thinking of your supervisor or get your supervisor aligned to your way of doing it. There may be various ways to complete any particular task. None of the ways may be right or wrong but just may be different ways of doing it. You need to sit and brainstorm with your boss and work out the best way to do it. Either the manger needs to convince his supervisor or get convinced by him. But once the way forward is decided both should be on the same page.
Regular updates: The supervisor should be regularly updated with the progress of the task. This builds confidence between the manager and his supervisor and also gives a sense of involvement to the supervisor. This will also help in avoiding in unnecessary escalations as boss is always updated on the progress.
Adherence to timelines: Timelines committed to ones supervisor must always be adhered to. Even if the manager feels that timelines might be violated this should be informed to the supervisor well in advance so that more time allocation can be done by the supervisor.
Thanks for reading and your time!