The fine line

The Corporate Initiatives and restructuring are the phrases we keep hearing every now and then these days. Recession has taken a toll on most of the people. Corporates are no longer keeping people who do not fit in to their plans and roles. "People should allign themselves to the Corporate objectives" is the phrase that is used but, should the corporate not allign themselves to people's objectives? So when does this happen? There is a fine line here. It is mutual. Not many know about it. If a person has been promoted from X to Y then fitting in Y for a role in the company might not be possible since the company might not have enough projects to do that. More over Y should be handling atleast 25 people according to corporate policy. If a certain project does not have 25 people, not able to handle 25 is not Y's fault, moreover moving from X to Y is not his/her fault. It is due for them. Again, Dependency and Transparency are the 2 words that are used across. Before moving the person to next project if each corporate can think of such situations on where and how to fit, it would greatly help people rather than bringing in insecurity. It is such planning coupled with transparency that helps corporate on the whole, but sadly i do not see such things happening. Each person at the Management level has those classic management phrases to talk to people rather than simple honest English "We do not have work". If there are no projects then we cannot do much about it. Let's face it. Tell the facts on why it was lost. You can even ask people for suggestions if they have any ideas to improve. Trust me, you'll get thousands of suggestions. In this recession stage, people would love to contribute and make themselves visible across. Ofcourse there are people who do not want to, you cannot do much about them so, forget it. Out of a thousand you'll get ideas from atleast five hundred. Who know's atleast one would solve your problem. If all these does not solve so what, go to next thousand.

I would say, a person, can improve or go to the next level only if he/she has some free space by delegating their work to others who are in need of this. Each and every person works for a certain career to build a certain identity and also support their own family. If he/she does not share their work with others for the sake of keeping their job intact, i do not blame them as there are not enough projects available to fit them, if they move to next level. Nobody is doing a charity work here. Ideally they should be sharing the knowledge, so that they grow and let others grow as well. There is a subtle risk involved in this but on the positive note, confident people would do that, but in the time of recession where we do not have enough control over it, confidence is replaced with smartness and people tend to atleast 50% of the knowledge within themselves and work like hell. Days and nights taking in whatever comes in their way. If for some reason they are out for few days and the work goes on without their support then they are out.....

So when does a person share and when they do not. We don't have a concrete answer to that. Depends on mood, attitude and various external factors. A team might not have all quality people. It is the Leader's responsibility to give oppurtunities for each member and tap their potential. It is like a school taking students who have got more than 85% in their exams and showing results that the school is number one. Well if the people have quality and is able to do it themselves then, where is the challenge of teaching in the first place. In these cases a Leader or a Teacher do not have any role to play. Be it technical or architect or management. If he/she is not able to find out such facts about their team then he/she is not fit to be in that role. Honestly accept that and let someone else take that place rather than spoiling the environment, Now then as i had mentioned, before selfishness takes over here. Hmm .... such change over in the mind based on situation is one thing that we cannot avoid it.

These are things that we need to learn on the way and be aware of .... there are so many such situation that we come across in our journey in life, Professional or Personal. It is not that i have got it but others have not. Everyone would have been in such similar situations in their life but it is just that i have seen it and am aware of it .... let's learn the lesson and work smart and have time for other things as well ....

Cheers :-)
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The fine line

I often feel that a person who manages should know what happens technically. When we work along with the team which is slightly big we cannot expect team to know everything. In case they are stuck in their work we need to help them out of this problem, but some may argue that we are not supposed to do this at our levels. To guide them we need to know what is happening technically. It's patience and guidance that is needed as a true leader. The team should be made flexible to adapt to needs of the project.

There is a fine line. We should be aware of when we should go in detail and when we should not. For this our fundementals should be strong. It is basically management by conciousness. It is easy to delegate things to the next level but it is better to do it ourselves first for sometime and then delegate. People should learn to make the team understand on how to do it rather than just directing.

More fine line to come .......