People Management - The Individual, The Team & The Goal

[rakesh_nayak]

This is in continuation to Sachin's thought, with which I fully agree.

We, as managers, must realise one thing: we are dealing with people. When it comes to People Management, there are three factors that are involved viz, The Individual, The Team and The Goal. It becomes our responsibility to coordinate between the three and align them to harmony.

Let us take a look at them one by one.

INDIVIDUAL:
We cannot have an organization without people... and every person in the organization is an INDIVIDUAL. Let us accept this fundamental fact first. Every individual is unique and requires to be treated differently. We cannot apply the same yardstick to all. To manage an individual better, one must get into the depth of his or her mental make-up. Now, this requires a bit of time, patience and skill. Remember: No one accepts anyone readily - it takes time.

During process of learning about the individual, we must, essentially, try and find out his/her goal. Get an insight into the purpose behind his or her joining the call centerÂ… or, for that matter, the purpose of his/her very existence. Why is he/she there? What is he/she working for? What makes him/her happy/sad? There are various ways by which we can find this out. Conduct a group or an individual goal-setting exercise, for exampleÂ… or have an informal chat. Bear in mind one thing: the individuals we are dealing with in the call center industry are young, impulsive, highly energetic and mostly without proper focus in life. It becomes our prime responsibility, as managers, to provide them focus and channelize their energy. Lead them towards achieving their lifeÂ’s objective by making them realise and accept the fact that their objectives are dependent on the CompanyÂ’sÂ… that they will be achieved only if the company's goals are achievedÂ… that their growth is directly proportional to the CompanyÂ’s growth! Once this is conveyed, unfold the Centers objective/goal. See how they are able to correlate and associate with it. Help them, if they find it difficult to understand. NEVER GIVE UP!

TEAM:
The day we will have succeeded in helping our Individuals correlate their goals with the Company's Objective, we will have created a TEAM! A team is nothing but a group of individuals with a common objective. Unlike in the case of individuals, Teams are governed by common yardsticks to quite an extent. We must now realise that we are still dealing with Individuals, but Collectively this time. As I mentioned earlier, in a call center kind of an environment, we are dealing with youth. And youth means "Hight voltage"! Collectively, their energy levels touch great heights. It is this energy that we have to manage. Most of the times, instead of managing these high power pockets, we end up manipulating them. That's when things go wrong. An invariably fatal imbalance comes into being. That's the reason, I always say: the leader should always be very strong; only then will he be able to lead his heard to the waterhole when the days are dry and rough!

GOAL:
The most important thing in any organisation is the GOAL. It is of paramount importance that every manager must have crystal clear understanding of the CentreÂ’s goals. Only when the Vision and Mission is clear will he/she be able to impress the same upon his/her team. When there is overall clarity about the goal, and the team works towards achieving it, positive results come about invariably. Positive results like: sense of achievement, awards and incentives, promotions, salary rise... and most importantly, realization of individual goals!

Now, let us address our problem in question: "How can we curtail absenteeism?" Follow the above steps in People Management one-by-one.

1. Take the individual into confidence and address him/her in person. Ensure that there is no third person around when you do so. You will see the barriers breaking away sooner than you will have expected! Never ever make the mistake of addressing an IndividualÂ’s problem publicly!!

2. Give the Individual a patient listening. Don't interrupt or jump into conclusions. Just be a good listener. Encourage the other person to talk about the problem. The person might be having a genuine problem. Or, the problem might be of a perceived nature, based on some assumptions. The person might be refraining from work due to a relationship problem (may be internal or external); I would rate relationship problems as major culprits - they are the most common and jeopardize even best of the work practices. On the other hand, the person's goals might be different; there might have developed an inner feeling that he/she is a misfit... or is in the wrong kind of a job, hence there may be a lack of sense of belongingness.

3. Acknowledge the Individual's problem. Don't criticise, condemn or complain. Talk about your own mistakes or give real life examples about how you or the subject overcame a similar problem at work or in life.

4. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. Make the Individual happy about doing the thing you suggest. Give them a fine reputation to live up to.

Termination is not the solution to absenteeism. It should be the very last resort and should be implemented if and only if the individual refuses to change. Even if termination has to be made, let the other person save his/her face. Give him/her a graceful exit, without hampering the individual's future prospects.

ALL THE BEST!!

- Rakesh Nayak