Yes, the title might sound a little negative to you, but be patient to realize that getting the work done through others is not always so negative after all. It is in fact a skill that a leader or manager must possess. It is the skill of delegation. Delegation refers to the process by which authority passes from one administrative or managerial level to another. It is the entrustment of authority and responsibility to others. Didn’t we encounter this even in the smallest of sets up, for example our school itself? The head girl or boy would give certain set of responsibilities and duties to the students’ council members and the house captains, especially during annual fests, science exhibitions or sports meet. Even in college, the structure remains the same; with the President of the college delegating work to the organizing committee in times of academic meets and cultural fests. And with the growing size and complexity of organizations, delegation becomes all the more necessary, as an individual can perform only a limited amount of work, and must hence share his or her work with others. Good delegation saves time, develops confidence and skills among employees, expands the amount of work that can be delivered in a specified period of time and also grooms a successor leader or manager. Whereas bad delegation or no delegation can lead to overload of work for one person, frustration, wastage of time, non-completion of task in time etc.

Delegation involves a few basic processes; the definition of the task and determination of the results expected, assignment of tasks, delegation of authority for the accomplishment of these tasks by agreeing on deadlines, the exaction of their accomplishment and giving feedback on the results. This type of delegation is formal delegation. Delegation can also be informal, where the subordinate is willing to carry out the orders of the superior or where team members entrust others in the team with responsibilities and authority, informally. This kind of delegation works in the set ups I had mentioned earlier, like schools etc. Let me give you a quick checklist for appropriate delegation; delegated tasks must be ‘SMART’:
S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Agreed
R: Realistic
T: Time bound

But wait! What if employees show resistance, maybe due to lack of proper information on the job, lack of skills, training, self-confidence, or lack of incentive? This is where the skill of the manager needs to be put into effect. The managers should be able to motivate people to do willingly what he wants done; appreciation, promotion, rewards and a good working environment can help keep the employees motivated. The manager must have faith in the subordinates and must not doubt their potentials. He or she should also not have the fear that the subordinates might outshine them but rather be proud in their excellence. A culture of openness, trust, confidence, team work and cooperation should be enhanced in the workplace. The delegation should be complete and well informed wherein the employees have complete knowledge about what is asked of them. But the manager’s work doesn’t end with just stating the delegated tasks. He or she continues to be accountable. If someone goes wrong somewhere with the delegated set of tasks, the manager must be able to come up with corrective mechanisms. With the support of each other, the manager and the employees can successfully accomplish tasks and goals for the benefit of the organization. Someone had correctly said the following:

“Even “Super You” needs help and support. There is no shame is asking for assistance. Push aside the pride and show respect for the talent others can bring to the table. And remember there is no such thing as a single-handed success: when you include and acknowledge all those in your corner, you propel yourself, your teammates and supporters to great heights.”

So if you are overloaded with work, delegate! Because delegation can take the manager, employees and the whole organization to great heights of success by completing tasks on time with effectiveness and efficiency. So set your ego aside (in case you have any), generate trust for others and get the ball rolling with delegation!

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You are perhaps aware of the axiom “the old order changeth, yielding place to new” implying that the only certainty in the world is that there will be change. In this process of change, the Darwinian principles of adaptation and natural selection are as true for the corporate world as for the living beings. Just as any living organism needs to keep harmony with the ever changing environs for its survival, so does an organization need to respond to changes in its environment comprising of the market, the government, the economy, the technology, the community etc., and ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the radical rule of this game.
So in order to survive and grow, you want to implement change in your organization. But wait! It is not going to be that easy. You will find all kinds of resistance to change, the workers trying to block introduction of a new technology, supervisors balking at large scale projects in job redesign, and divisional heads pitching battles against realignment of corporate structure etc.; and don’t at all be surprised by all this resistance! Comfort with the ‘status quo’ is tremendously powerful, and fear of moving into an unknown future state creates awful anxiety and stress. It is extremely difficult to make people leave their comfort zones. So resistance is natural and expected, and you should work to address it and alleviate it. Here are some strategies that you can adopt for overcoming resistance to change.

Many a times your employees are not aware of why the change is needed. So communicating authentically the objective, coverage, timing, individual and organizational implications and change methods, and also the consequences of not going for the intended change and the post change benefits is the first step towards overcoming resistance to change. It makes managing change a proactive and ultimately more effective tool for mobilizing support and addressing objections, rather than a reactive mechanism.

In most cases, organizations justify changes by telling their employees all the wonderful things the change will mean for the organization. In doing this, they forget that when faced with a change, people first look at their own concerns, such as fear of increased work-load, change of habits, loss of security, fear of failure, and loss of belongingness etc. So, in addition to emphasizing on organizational benefits, employees’ personal concerns must also be addressed to. Also, people are more sensitive to loss than gain, and this ‘negativity bias’ is a longstanding survival trait that has kept human beings alive and grow throughout their development. Therefore, rather than just telling your employees what they stand to gain from a change, you may have a greater impact if you tell them what they are going to lose if they don’t accept and implement the change.
Everyone may not have the requisite knowledge, expertise and skills to implement the change. So you must train them up for the change. If you want to computerize some of the organization’s processes, you must first make the concerned employees computer-literate. Also involve the people likely to be affected by the change right from the initial stage; this will not only lessen the anxiety out of uncertainty about the consequences of change, but will also inculcate a sense of ownership in them leading to a commitment to see the change effectively implemented.

There are, in every organization and at every level, some people, whom the employees admire and listen to. Get these individuals on board with your idea of change, and co-opt them as change agents. With their influencing power, these change agents will be able to motivate others to adopt the desired change. Resistance to change can also be reduced if feedback is taken from the affected persons, and they are apprised of the steps to be taken.

In some extreme cases, application of threats or force on those who resist change may also be necessary, but this is the ultimate step, and should only be applied in crisis situations.
To win your employees’ commitment towards change, you must engage them on both a rational level and emotional level. It is only by doing so that you can overcome the resistance to change.

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We all make decisions about various things in our daily lives, be it the most trivial things like eating either rice or roti for lunch or more important things like, taking up a professional job or giving our passion a chance after graduation. What we must notice in both the cases is that, a choice has to be made between two alternatives. Decision-making, thus, is a process which involves making a choice between alternatives to achieve a goal. The choice is made after rationally considering the pros and cons of all the alternatives. And it counts as a vital function in the process of management.

Although decision making is at the core of the process of planning, it is an all pervasive process since it is used in all domains of management. Decision making involves making a choice among alternatives which best meets the requirements and objectives of the organization. The manager, along with him team, first recognizes and defines a problem or issue on which the decision has to be made. He or she then brainstorms to generate the possible alternatives to handle the issue, which are then well evaluated to choose the best. After implementing this alternative, feedback and follow up to the decision complete the process. The feedback is necessary as it guards one from taking wrong decisions in the future.

Many mathematical tools and theories have been developed to facilitate the decision making process, such as linear programming, probability, game theory, risk analysis, decision trees etc. But since there is never complete information and certainty about the alternatives, there is always a risk in choosing a particular alternative. It is the task of the manager to minimize the risk and generate as much effectiveness and efficiency as possible, which would lead to the development of the firm. A critical evaluation of all alternatives, and encouraging opinions, criticisms and questions from the employees can lead to an effective decision-making. Decisions taken in haste and without gathering proper information about the alternatives can only deteriorate the quality of the decision, leading to the fall of the organization. Whereas a good decision can take save time, enhance efficiency and effectiveness and lead an organization to great heights.

It is important that enough facts are gathered about the choices available at one’s disposal, so that one does not regret later (You should never regret in life anyway! You are human only and can make a few mistakes here and there). Another important aspect is focusing on the decision by giving it an assigned time and not delaying the process. Although managers should possess decision making skills themselves, but in times of crisis, they could seek the help of entrepreneurs as they are inborn problem solvers. Innovation is another critical element to good decision making. When one can think creatively, they can come up with novel answers to questions and unique alternative solutions to problems. Asking a question is important; only then can the mind think and come up with new choices to decide upon. The example of Google very well stresses on this point. In Google the aim is that all decisions are based on data, analytics and scientific experimentation. Their aim is to start with questions and be very clear about the information needs at the very beginning. Their executive chairman Eric Schmidt says: “We run the company by questions, not by answers. So in the strategy process we’ve so far formulated 30 questions that we have to answer […] You ask it as a question, rather than a pithy answer, and that stimulates conversation. Out of the conversation comes innovation. Innovation is not something that I just wake up one day and say ‘I want to innovate.’ I think you get a better innovative culture if you ask it as a question.”

Nonetheless I agree that decision making is hard, esp. in times of crisis. And making a decision and accepting its consequences are harder. But Peter F. Drucker’s words correctly emphasize on the importance of taking a fearless decision. “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Good decisions can only benefit people and organisations and never be detrimental to them.

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Survival and growth of any organization depends greatly on the performance of its employees, which, in turn, depends on two factors, the first- one’s ability to work, and the second- one’s willingness to work. While the first is determined by the education, training and experience that one has acquired, the second entails attitude of a person towards work. Whereas it is easier to make good any deficiency in the first factor by imparting further training and enabling one to get more experience, it is rather difficult to manage the second as it involves a change in behavior, which is only possible by motivating the person to work in a desired manner.

Motivation is what drives someone to do something. It is an inner or environmental stimulus to action, forces or factors that are responsible for initiation and sustaining behavior. There are two theories of motivation, incentive theory and needs theory. According to incentive theory, one is motivated to do something because one gets a reward- tangible or intangible for doing that or behaving in that manner. On the other hand, according to needs theory, a person’s needs make him or her do things.

Have you noticed the difference between working on something you like and working on something you don’t like? When you’re motivated about something, you can work on it effortlessly. If your employees are motivated about something, they will voluntarily do more about it than what is required of them, since they enjoy doing it. Motivation is the spark that sets the fire and gets one started, it provides fuel to keep one going, it helps one do more than others. No wonder then, a motivated workforce plays a pivotal role in the success of any enterprise.

So how to keep your employees motivated? Before that, you should know what de-motivates an employee. Under-assignment- wherein a skilled person is assigned a job that does not require that skill; over-assignment- wherein a worker is overloaded to the extent that he feels exploited; buck-mastership- wherein the superiors, not doing anything themselves, pass on everything to their subordinates; manipulative behavior of the management- wherein the management engages in divide and rule policy or making false promises, and improper work environment – all these factors de-motivate the employees, and they either cease to work or lose interest in the same. So you should try to wipe these out from your organization. Of course, there is no single magic wand to do this as the needs and aspirations of employees differ greatly. However, there are some general guidelines which you can follow to promote work motivation in your organization.
A well-defined humanistic personal policy, wherein the workforce is regarded as a valuable asset of the organization and sufficient care is taken to satisfy its basic needs and aspirations, definitely boosts the morale of the employees. At Googleplex, the silicon valley headquarters of Google, the Googlers, as the company’s employees are known, get their foods free at any of the micro-kitchens of the company, can do their laundry while they work using the washing machines of the office, can shed their extra fats in the company’s six free gyms, and can move around the sprawling Googleplex using one of the company’s hundreds of bicycles left around the campus for employees to use. At Facebook, no employee is required to have an insurance policy as the company provides insurance to its employees and their families. This kind of care lets the employees leave their worries behind, and they can work freely and with more zeal to achieve organization’s objective.

In order to increase work motivation, stress should be given on increasing the effort of the employees towards performance. For this, good performance should be rewarded adequately and promotion should be based on merit and competence. Also jobs should be designed in such a manner that the new jobs have newer responsibilities and challenges. At Google, they use a novel concept of ’20 per cent time’ in which all Googlers devote 20 per cent of their time to work on any project they are interested in. Some of the Google’s wildly successful products, such as Gmail and Google News were developed during Googlers’ 20 percent time!

Employees must be made to feel that what they do in the job helps them to learn new things and move higher on the hierarchical ladder, their motivation will definitely be high. Hence, jobs should be analyzed and designed keeping this in mind. Also an employee should be helped to see how his or her job is useful for the department, for the organization, for a larger section of the community, for the society or for the nation. This will inculcate a sense of accomplishment in the employee, and motivate him/her to do more.

And last but not the least important, self-motivation by top-management, senior managers and supervisors is essential if the people working under them are to be motivated. The dictum “before you motivate others, you must first motivate yourself” should not be lost sight of!

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The article could very well also be called ‘superwoman skills’ for that matter. But to avoid confusion for readers who might, after reading super‘woman,’ think that I am going to talk about women empowerment (which I am not), I decided to stick to super’man’ unfortunately.

Along with every position comes a set of responsibilities; and to do justice to that position, one must possess specific skills in order to fulfill the responsibilities with perfection; and the position of a manager (who is the superman here by the way) is no exception to it. A manager must possess a unique set of skills to achieve effectiveness and efficiency in his work. A manager needs the skills to plan, control, organize, lead and finally take decisions. These are considered as the five primary managerial skills that each manager must possess. Let us know about them a little more.

As the phrase goes ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’, PLANNING is a very important process of management. An effective manager must be able to foresee the future, and accordingly, set the organizational objectives. He or she must be able to choose strategies to attain these objectives with respect to future trends keeping the organizational resources in mind, and create standards to monitor the implementation of these strategies.

Just as the superman takes charge of a situation and handles it with efficiency, the manager must possess the skill of CONTROLLING. This skill encompasses actions and decisions taken by the manager to ensure that everything goes according to the plan. It involves measuring performances, comparing them against standards or targets, and take corrective actions in case of deviation.

A manager must also possess ORGANISING skills, which is all about who will do what and how. He or she must be able to describe various jobs and their contents, and select, train and induct people in these jobs. The manager must define authority and the span of control amongst people/employees, and exert flexibility for change in these working links as and when required.

A manager is a leader as he has to get the work done by his people. LEADING skills require a manager to influence people to strive willingly for group objectives. He or she must recognize and understand the values, personality, perception and attitude of his or her team members/employees, and accordingly, motivate them towards achieving the organizational goals.

DECISION MAKING skills although considered a part of the planning process, pervade all functions and processes of management. A manager must be able to take decisions which are good in quality and satisfactory in producing desired results and solutions to problems. The manager should possess the creativity to solve novel and complex problems by taking decisions which are effective for the situation concerned.

Although these are the five basic skills, which define the various roles a manager has to play, there are some other specific skills that managers at various levels must possess in order to play their roles successfully. The requirement and use of these skills differs for various levels of managers.
Technical skill denotes the ability to work in a particular area of expertise. A financial manager must know the nitty-gritty of various financial statements, a production manager must have a good idea about the raw materials required, the production process, the machineries used etc. in the production, and so on. Vocational training and on-the job or hands-on-training can improve one’s technical skills.
Human skill is the manager’s ability to work effectively with his/her subordinates and superiors. The superman collaborates with his teammates of the Justice League because he has good human skills! These skills are required at all managerial levels too, as every manager has to interact with people, like the superman. This includes skills such as building interpersonal relations, communication, motivating, problem-solving etc.
Conceptual skill is the ability to see the ‘big picture’ of the organization, that is, seeing the organization as a whole. A manager must be able to visualize the relationship between various factors, both within and outside the organization, which may affect the organization. This enables him/her to analyze the effects of a particular activity, or change in policy of a particular component of the organization on other activities/components of the organization, and implement the activity/change effectively.

Thus we can see that there are a host of skills required of a manger, and to develop all these skills is definitely a herculean task. In view of this, isn’t the manager a superman after all?

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We all go shopping once in a while, be it for our daily necessities or luxury items and services, and many a times we end up buying such products or services, which we had not thought of buying or would rarely use. Like the other day, when I had gone to buy noodles and biscuits from the departmental store, a lady in the store advertised a brand of serum by applying it on my hair and talking about its brilliant qualities. I actually ended up buying it. Have you ever thought why these kind of instances happen? This is because we, as consumers, are nothing but puppets to a wide array of variables, which affect our purchase behavior. We buy products or services to satisfy our needs, desires, ego, and what not. A host of factors are at work, which affect our consumer behavior, many of which we are not consciously aware of. Before going to these factors, let us first try to briefly understand what consumer behavior means.

Consumer behavior refers to those acts of individuals (consumers) directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts. It is the study of why, how, what, when, where, and how often do consumers buy and consume different goods and services. Consumers are differently affected by a large number of factors, which lead to different purchase behaviors, and a study of consumer behavior helps to understand these differences.

We often think that we buy things, which we need or like and can afford. But we are unconsciously using a lot of other factors to determine our decisions, the broad categories of which are, psychological, personal, social and cultural factors. Psychological factors, such as needs and motivations, perceptions, attitudes, the learning process, beliefs, attitudes, all operate across different types of people differently, and affect their purchase behaviors. Some people are very impulsive buyers, whereas others are not. It all depends on one’s psychological construct. Apart from these psychological factors, personal factors such as age, sex, education, occupation, income, lifestyle and personality also play their roles. An 80- year old gentleman will most likely not be lured by the same kind of food or clothing as a young chap of 20 years. People also often buy products and services not because they are in need of them, but to showcase their status. So you may be buying an AUDI or BMW not because you really need such an expensive car, but to showcase your status; products thus becoming status symbols. Social groups to which we belong, such as family, friend circle etc. also influence what we buy. ‘They have it and so we should have it too’- kind of mentality also entices buying many a times. Another set of factors at work are cultural factors which encompass one’s learned beliefs, values and customs.

Why is the study of consumer behavior so important? This is because the knowledge of consumer behavior enables the marketer to understand the needs and aspirations of different consumers and this helps in developing appropriate marketing strategies to influence their purchase decisions. It is because of the widespread use of this study that we see newer and newer modes of promotion or marketing now-a- days. Advertisements try to hit the areas or themes which will majorly positively influence a person into buying something. For example, Cadbury celebrations tries to target the festive related sentiments of the Indian crowd by advertising the product is association with Indian festivals like Diwali etc. This attracts people to buy and gift the package of celebrations during the festival, sometimes instead of sweets. This is an example of cultural specific factors affecting consumer behavior.

Thus, if the marketer can identify the factors which evoke consumers towards buying, he or she can design effective marketing strategies using these factors, and make the consumers buy the products or services. So aren’t we puppets in the hands of so many factors which influence our purchase behavior without us even realizing them?

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The human resource of any organisation holds utter importance, and keeping them in check is a task every organisation engages in. Performance appraisal is one such process which involves a systematic evaluation of the accomplishments and performance of an employee and assessment of his or her potential for the future improvement. Its functions are

• to asses the worth or ability of an employee in performing the tasks
• justify rewards given to employees
• differentiate between low and high level performance

Gathering and analysing information about an employee leads to efficient administration of the organisation, and also helps in improving the performance of the employee. There are various methods of performance appraisal. Most methods include a few basic steps  that include explanation of the purpose of the appraisal to both the supervisors and the subordinates, filling of appraisal forms by the managers, submission of the same to the personnel, and finally using it for employment decisions and employee improvement. It is important that the appraisal process is unbiased, and the results are discussed with the subordinate by the managers.

But there are a few limitations encountered during performance appraisal, which hamper the validity and reliability of the assessment. A few of them are, the halo effect, personal bias, inflation of ratings, central tendency, leniency tendency and strictness tendency.

Interestingly, for the first time, all the directors of listed companies of India were subjected to formal appraisal recently. This was in accordance with the Companies Act, 2013 and the amendments to the Listing Agreement; the objective of it being an improved and better corporate governance and management.

Performance appraisal is a crucial human resource activity which strengthens the human resource of an organisation. It motivates the ones who do well in the assessment to do even better, and gives the much needed feedback to the ones who do not, so that they refine their efforts too. Thus performance appraisal is an integral part of the management of any organisation.

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