How to do proper people management

One of the most important components of a business operation, some say THE most important component, is how you manage your people. All in all, it is your people that run the daily chores of your business. More importantly, it is the people that carry on the relationships with your customers and that bring in important business innovations. In spite of the importance of proper people management, why does it remain so elusive in most organizations and why so many organizations have yet to develop and retain a powerful talent pool? Below are some tips:

• Devise an objective evaluation system. Promote people based on objective results. Isolate as much as possible the subjective components.
• Identify your talents and give them opportunities to grow professionally. Have your best people on a fast-track.
• Don’t forget that people management is the responsibility of top management. Don’t leave promotions to HR alone. Thoroughly observe your taskforce and give them periodic feedback and coaching. On-the-job performance should take precedence over group dynamics simulations.
• Establish some sort of peer coaching procedures, whereby your people may get independent stress-free feedback from their peers.
• Promotion is important business; it does shake your people’s emotions. Be prepared to defend your promotion criteria convincingly.

It is the culture, stupid!

Much has been said that some world-class companies have a distinctive culture that gives them an edge over their competitors. Statements related to the culture of a particular company are often found in business publications. For example, a lot is said about the Toyota culture and values. Even though many researchers and practitioners acknowledge the importance of the business culture for the long-term success of an organization, few can describe the unique distinctive characteristics of a given company and, more important, how where these characteristics were generated in the first place. What is the source of these values that give the organization an edge and where the people that exercise them are sourced?

Having worked for Nokia for about 4 years, a company that took the world by storm by quickly becoming the worldwide leader in such technologies as mobile telephony, telecommunication equipment and software, it is actually easy to trace the sudden success of this company to the values of the country where this company was founded. These are some the characteristics of the Finnish culture, from where Nokia sources many of its managers and engineers:

• Excellence. No matter the activity, Finns always strive for excellence when doing it. This holds for engineers, scientists, lawyers and business managers but also for clerks, plumbers, cleaners and tax drivers.
• Transparency. Finns like to describe themselves as honest people. Since honesty is a term that may be subject to complex interpretations, I prefer to use the term transparent. Finns are very straightforward telling always what is the most accurate and truthful statement from their point of view, even in situations where they are the agents themselves.
• Knowledge. Finland always scores very high in international competitions where their students’ knowledge is measured against other countries’ students. Finland is considered the nation that read the most in the world. Per capita sales of books are sky-high, so is the circulation of newspapers and magazines.

What is the advice for the recruiting leaders, managers and executives? First of all, develop a strong culture in your company or division. Screen candidates thoroughly for a strong fit with the high-performance culture that you developed. See what values they bring from their families and how they exercise them. Do not forget to ask what their upbringing has taught them about work relations and work performance. It is very important to know what they have been raised to believe. Look for their innermost beliefs about people. The way they think about others tells a lot about how they are. Look also for familial relations. If they act transparently towards their closest relatives, they are likely to behave the same way at work. The advice boils down to: it is the culture, and don’t forget it!

Why should IT executives know about contract law

IT executives are often demised as too technical, thus unable to understand the business environment and undeserving of actively participating in discussions with the other business executives where the directions of the business are established. IT is often criticized as self-centered and concerned only with its own performance indicators. As exaggerated this claim may be, there is still something to it. As Information Systems become more and more pervasive in the enterprise, information systems become more and more subject to external compliance and that includes not only regulations and laws but also the general doctrine. Maybe the most important task of an IT executive is to negotiate contractual agreements with suppliers and sometimes with external customers. The law unaware IT executive is severely curtailed when he does not know the terms that carry more risks, which unstated obligations exist and which terms can actually never be exercised. Leave the negotiations to lawyers alone and the organization probably won’t get the most optimal deal. The IT executive must also at times file claims against suppliers and be ready to seek indemnization to cover various kinds of damage when the terms are not followed. The suppliers are more likely to observe contractual obligations when they perceive that consequences of their breach are certain and swift. They will also be careful when making promises. Furthermore, in Brazil the civil code has been revised thoroughly recently. The protection to consumers and workers has been expanded significantly. The IT executive often does not know the extent of the liabilities that can result from his operations and how many of these can be effectively transferred to or negotiated with suppliers.

IT can help the business align

Know thyself said the Oracle of Delphi. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese military man, went even further: “know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories”.
Ever since the work of great authors, such as Peter Drucker and others, organizations around the world have reaped great benefits from thoroughly planning and adjusting their strategies. These are organizations that know themselves. They know their goals, their business environment and their strategies for various business scenarios. The strategic planning process is also beneficial to the IT shops, that can create similar plans. An IT strategic plan provides stability and facilitates the best use of resources.
In spite of all the accumulated wisdom and practices there are some organizations that don’t know themselves and can survive in spite of these inefficiencies, through, for example, government and donor funding. In such organizations, priorities shift at any moment. The leaders are often at odds with one another, seeking political power, instead of results that are not clearly expressed and thus can’t be properly measured.
What is the advice for IT shops, if they are to operate in such circumstances? The only solution is that IT should push maturity to the business, if it is survive. IT should do its strategic planning at the time that it tries to explicit the measurable goals of the business. Not only this practice will avoid the wasteful use of resources, like resources spent in projects that are later cancelled, but also it will serve to strengthen the business awareness of the IT shop and the bonds with the rest of the organization. Business leaders feel a lot more comfortable dealing with an IT shop that understands the business, even as much as they do, than with one that one cares about its own indicators and metrics. Next time around, once the business sees the benefits of strategic planning, they will consider improving the strategic planning of the business!

Do not give your customer just a little help

The customer had a big headache that stemmed from flaws in the services he had contracted from other suppliers. We were viewed as a fast responsive team, that was very efficient not only in the services we had been contracted to perform but actually as an organization as a whole. The customer asked for help, which would entail us performing the duties of the other firms, in order for his headaches to be alleviated. We could just never say no!
After some months, the results have been far from brilliant. The lagging firms soon went into a permanent comfort zone. They’ve assumed they could not perform the contracted services at the agreed-upon levels. Besides, they’ve grown less and less willing to collaborate. The customer has acknowledged some improvement but not to point of utter satisfaction. He does not show high gratitude. Instead, our team is held accountable for the problems that once belonged to other parties. Morale in the team is everything but improving. There has been even some friction among team members, as they are asked to do unexciting activities not related to their core competencies and professional interests. We proactively sought to help this important customer, but did not reap great benefits. What are the lessons?

• Do not be so naive as to believe the customer will think of these additional duties as a mere help. He sees them as services that are being billed indirectly from your current offer.
• If you take up additional duties in order to satisfy a strategic customer, make sure that these additional activities align well with your competencies and especially that they fit well in your service offerings.
• Make sure that these additional services are strategically sound. Are there longer term advantages to be gained, besides the customer acknowledging your willingness to help?
  See if these additional duties could present and opportunity for partnership with other firms. See if there are complementary competencies that could be exploited profitably. Do not allow you to become yet another scapegoat.
• Give consulting before taking the activities. Have a clear diagnosis of the issues and a vision on how to fix it.
• If none of the above is ever possible, it is important to set a firm deadline for the operational help to end, leaving some contribution behind and a history of accomplishment. It is a lot better to become a go-to team, that the customer seeks when facing problems that to be criticized for a problematic process, whose ownership had not been assigned to you.