Month: June 2020

COVID has changed the basic premises of Employee Engagement. I consider the term Human Resources as a misnomer. There!! I have said it and have created angst among many of my esteemed colleagues in the HR fraternity.  Let us face it. What does the term “resource” remind us about? Raw materials used in production? Money used in procuring assets? Machines that convert raw materials into finished product? Do we want to be counted similar to those “resources”? Would you be happy if your organisation treated you as one of the “means” to get the results?  You get the drift. That is probably why many people are switching to the term Human Capital Management.

Considering employees as “resources” is not more an option in the post COVID world. I am not getting pedantic about the terminology. The fact is that the pandemic has taught employees to value themselves. The pandemic has taught employers to value their employees more.

But what does valuing an employee really mean? Let me explain this using VALUE as an acronym.

V is for Vision. Employers need to give the employees a string vision , a vision that is not limited by the day-to-day realities of this pandemic stricken world. Servant Leaders create and communicate a strong Vision for the employees. Servant Leaders also persuade followers to buy into the vision and make it their own.  Vision that a Servant Leader creates and communicates is one that I would like to call as Higher Purpose Vision. This gives the employees a greater purpose in life than mere profit. It gives them a cause. This connects them with the organisation in a much stronger way, than when they are a “resource”.

A is for Appreciation. Servant Leaders appreciate the value that each team member brings to the table, irrespective of their position or title or level in the organisation. As Ken Blanchard puts it, they “catch people doing the right things”. They recognize and reward people for their achievements. Even when there are failures, they are able to deal with it without devaluing the individual, appreciating their strengths rather than focusing on their limitations. Servant Leaders believe in the saying “It is not what you don’t have that matters most. What you do with what you have that matters most.”

L is for Love. Don’t beat me up on this. This is not mushy soft stuff. And yes, it is a verb. What has leadership got to do with Love; you ask? “Everything” is the answer of a Servant Leader. Servant Leaders love their people. And in a selfless way. It is not about what they can (or have) done for you, but is about what you can do for them.

U is for Uplifting. Servant Leaders truly lift their people up. This is how I define a Servant Leader, “He/she is someone who invests in another person to the extent that the other person becomes better, wiser, richer, healthier, wealthier, more famous that yourselves”. I am reminded of an analogy that a friend of mine narrates to illustrate this. Imagine you have taken your child to a fair/fete. The place is crowded and you are enjoying the sights, there are lights everywhere, there are fireworks going off, people are cheering and smiling. You are enjoying the scene and hope that your child is having a great time. But then you realise that your child is not happy, she is constantly tugging at your hands, your trousers, and trying to get your attention. Finally when you feel pestered enough, you reluctantly lift the child up and put her on your shoulders. Suddenly the child’s face lights up. She starts enjoying the fete/fair as much as you do. Then you realise that when the child was down there, from her point of view,  all that she was able to see was a crowd of feet, dirty shoes, jeans, trousers, skirts, whatever came at her eye level. When you lift her up, you enable her to see the world from your point of view.  Servant Leaders lift other people up so that they can be better.

E is for Emotional Connect with people. Servant Leaders connect with people not just at a transactional level. They connect at an emotional level. They are empathetic. They can sense the feelings behind actions and words. They listen to the people for what is being said and what is not being said too. They can heal relationships by forgiving themselves as well as others for mistakes (intentional or otherwise). They have the courage to apologise for wrongs that they have committed.

So there you have it.  VALUE are the five string pillars of Employee Engagement in the New Normal. Several organisations spent enormous efforts to measure and improve Employee Engagement. I offer Servant Leadership as the sure shot solution for this problem. My own research that I did for my Doctoral thesis establishes a very strong and significant positive correlation on the Organisational Commitment of employees when Leaders demonstrate Servant Leadership behaviour.

So , do join the Servant Leadership movement and enhance the Employee Engagement in your teams.

As we prepare to return to the “New Normal” after the COVID 19 pandemic and the associated lockdown side-effects, one question that is being asked by everyone is  “How it is going impact our social life?”. After all, social distancing was the mantra during the COVID lockdown, right? Will the society become more individualistic? Will we be more inclined to “look  after our own safety”? To me, a larger question that we need to address is, what has COVID 19 taught us about the purpose of our lives? Has it helped us to discover our “Why” as Simon Sinek would ask? Has it helped us to realise that there are always choices, lockdown or not? Choices for us to seek Success or to seek Significance?

Several experts will agree that pursuit of Success brings Happiness, but pursuit of Significance brings Fulfilment, and it is a no-brainer as to which is better. Happiness is fleeting, it is temporary, it will fade away soon. Fulfilment on the other hand, is lasting (sometime for a life time). One of the lessons I would request all us to consider when we reach the “New Normal” is to ditch the temptation to chase success and to pursue significance. This is an essential trait for Servant Leaders.

But pursuing Significance is not easy. It takes effort. It has to be  developed like a Habit, consciously first and then it will come to us in an unconscious manner. That is why we recommend four personal Habits for Servant Leaders. Let us take a look at the four personal Habits, that will help us to lead a Significant Life. These four are by no means exhaustive. To be significant you have to go further than this, but this will lay a great foundation.   

Habit 1: Take a Pause and Recharge Yourselves. As all of us are aware, our gadgets require recharging very often. However when it comes to ourselves, we ignore that need. Our task oriented life makes us so busy that we keep jumping from one task to another. That  is why we recommend a 15 to 45 minutes of Pause and Recharge time every day for Servant Leaders. Take a break from your tasks and find that 15 to 45 minutes of time to reconnect with yourselves (or a higher power if you are spiritual). It will change the way you see the world, and deal with what the world throws at you.

Habit 2: Apologise: Noe of us are perfect and we will mess up things. When we make mistakes (and most of the times it impacts someone else), let us pick up the courage to go and apologise for what we have done. But remember a good apology starts with honesty , and ends with integrity. Because if an apology is not honest or we lack integrity while apologizing, we are likely to make this into a “bad habit”.

Habit 3: Forgive: Who among us hasn’t been let down or hurt by someone else? Those who are able to get over it and get going are those who have mastered the power of forgiveness. There are always a thousand reasons for us “not to forgive”. But there is one reason why we should. “Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison yourselves and hoping that the other person will die”. So do it for yourselves, so that you are rid of the bitterness and anger related with the person and/or incident.

Habit 4: Self-Healing: Let me repeat again, none of us are perfect and we will mess up. Self-healing is the ability to forgive ourselves and bounce back from our failures. Inability to self-heal will only make us live in guilt for a longer time than required. Let the baggage go, and move on.

So those are the four habits that can help us lead Significant Lives. Start practicing them now, so that when we start the “new normal” we are well on our way to becoming Servant Leaders and Significant Leaders. Note that two of the Habits are purely for self, and the other two involve others. That is the beauty of Significance.  Significance in a practical sense is when we add value to ourselves , with the intention of adding value to others.

Let us get started. Come Join the Servant Leadership Movement