Management by Follow-ups.

Dear Readers.. 

Pls. check out the new post and share your thoughts and feedback..

Management by Follow-ups- Boon or Bane..

 

We all know what follow-ups are and it does not require any explanation at all. In fact, we do it on a daily basis to remind people and to get things done. I am sure, sometimes, we would have felt as if things are literally moving on “Follow-ups”. But do you know there is a country where people do not even know what follow-ups are..? Yes. There is!!

That’s Japan!

I was really surprised when I heard this from Sharu Rangnekar, one of the well-known Management consultant and speaker. It was almost 12-13 years ago in a Management workshop organized by our HR for all the Executives. He was narrating his experience in Japan where he went for a Management Program and he wanted to carry few things along while returning. He chose to have it shipped and gave the responsibility of doing it to an Executive Secretary there. Looks like he asked a colleague working along with the executive Secretary to do a follow-up. Unable to understand, he asked him, “What does it mean..? Am not able to understand.. Can you pls. explain..? 

Astonished at the questions, Sharu Rangnekar explained that Follow-up means reminding people and ensuring that the entrusted job is done. Having understood the meaning, the colleague felt very strange and said that he can’t do that. He added that the secretary will get offended if he does that and moreover things are never followed up in Japan. He assured him that it will be shipped as committed and it does not require any follow-up at all.

I am not sure if any study has been done on this topic, however, I can say that we all do it and we do plan for follow-ups and spend quite some time on it. Even if it’s just 10%, it means lot in the Business context. 

For instance, a recruitment team doing 100 closures per month could do another 10 closures additionally. A Production Team doing 100 units per day could increase its productivity by 10%.   I could mean increased customer satisfaction by another 10%. It may also transfer into additional Revenue for the Business organization. 

In a nutshell, it improves the efficiency levels further across the Organization.

Time spent on follow-ups can be better utilized much more productively. When we don’t learn to work without follow-ups, sometimes, we might find ourselves working in first quadrant (Important and Urgent) instead of Quadrant - 2 (Important but Not Urgent) as things become urgent calling for immediate attention. Working from Quadrant-1 is a crisis situation and it’s not healthy.  It would show us in poor light in front of others too and is a sure recipe to lose one’s professional credibility.

(Quadrant-1 includes tasks that are important and urgent, Q-2 includes important but not urgent tasks, Q-3 has Not important and urgent tasks and  Q-4 has Not important and Not Urgent tasks)

Learning to work without a follow-up is a habit and it can be very much acquired by any one.  It’s a matter of mind set and it requires some amount of unlearning and discipline.  It needs to be nurtured as a culture across the teams and Organization. 

One basic and fundamental thing that I can suggest is simple planning and prioritizing in terms of noting down all action items and keeping track of it on an on-going basis.  One may do it in a simple diary or in an Apple I Pad. 

While MBO (Management by Objectives) is effective, Management by Follow-ups is certainly not an effective way of working.

Remember..When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  

Pygmalion Effect

Dear Readers,

In the first posting, I’ve posted my write up on Pygmalion Effect which was published in HR Republic, Malaysia too. Hope you would enjoy reading it.

Pygmalion effect – Right people Management by right perception

It’s really amazing that how we perceive others could have a huge impact on their behavioral pattern and performance.  When the perception is positive, even a poor performer will respond positively and it’ll have a positive influence on his performance.

Here goes an interesting study that was conducted on how perception could influence the behavioral pattern and performance either positively or negatively.

This study was conducted to find out the impact of teachers’ perception towards students’ performance.  Two groups of students, one group consisting of all bright students and another group of average students were identified by the researchers.  These two groups were then handed over to their teachers stating the facts otherwise, viz.  the group consisting of bright students were told as average group and average students’ group as a bright group.  When the students’ performance was measured during their academic year, it was found that the average group consisting of bright students has not performed well and the bright group consisting of average students has really performed well. 

The researcher were surprised and found out that the change in performance level of the students was primarily due to teachers’ perceptions towards their students and students’ positive response towards teachers’ perceptions.  The Teachers that had the bright group consisting of average students perceived the students as bright students though they are average ones and related to them in a very positive way, encouraging them to be confident and perform better without any doubtful pessimistic attitude.  Their quality of interaction was good.  The students were also better adjusted and very receptive. Whereas in the other group, average group consisting of bright students, the teachers have perceived the students as average ones, related to them without much encouragement in a negative way and the students also, though they were bright, responded in the same fashion, thus, could not perform well in their studies. 

This study confirms the direction correlation between perception and performance.  Consciously or unconsciously, we hint people about what we think of them, either good or bad.  This is exhibited through our body language, how we communicate etc., Though it could be in subtle ways many times (sometimes in most obvious ways), people do pick up these cues and tend to respond in a similar manner. This theory is called Pygmalion effect. 

It has few key principles as given below:

1)     We form certain expectations about people, either good or bad.

2)     We express these expectations through lots of ways, either consciously or unconsciously

3)     Others do understand these cues and adjust their behavior and tend to respond in a similar fashion matching the expectation.

4)     The final outcome, the original expectations become true.

In the workplace context, the Pygmalion effect in terms of leaders and managers’ perception play a massive role in motivating the teams and employees across the organization.  It all the more confirms the Gallup findings that the onus of motivation lies with the boss.

It means that the performance of your team depends less on them than it does on their Managers. The performance you get from people is no more or less than what you expect: which means you must always expect the best. “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.” 

We would’ve seen in our experience the so-called performance-challenged employees becoming good performers when they work in different teams or when their supervisors are changed.  Though the reasons can not be entirely attributed to supervisors in all the scenarios, the perception factor in terms of how the employee is perceived does matter a lot in most of the cases. 

Like the teacher with the student, the trainer with the trainee, the supervisor has a profound impact on the success or failure of the team members. 

To conclude, it’s always the Great Managers who can produce Great performers and Great Teams.