In the quest for organisational excellence, willpower, spirituality and ethical behaviour play a massive role, says SK Dutt, President & Head Corporate HR, Praj Industries. He also spoke on the challenges of a dynamic business environment
A I would quote the book ‘In search of Excellence’ by Waterman and Tom Peters. The high-light of the book was, while explaining organisational excellence, what struck the authors as significant was the ability of some organisations to harmonise apparently contradictory and conflicting issues within the organisation. The issue of work-life balance is a similar contradiction, and each context is different. Anna Huffington of the Huffington Post made a wry observation lately that it is considered a hallmark of machismo to say one has slept for no more than three or four hours the previous night, and that the resulting physical problems from such a lifestyle have acquired a glamour about them!
This is absurd, because we have certain physiological limitations, and we can only stretch ourselves within a certain logic—and not beyond. When you are overstretched, naturally your decision making ability would suffer.
Also, while some fatigue is apparent, the other kind is fatal. A case in point being that of the Wall Street whizz-kid who died of overwork at 22! The challenge is to find an optimum point between work-life balance.
Jack Welch once said: “I may tolerate low performers who are in sync with the values at General Electric (GE) and give them time to come up to speed; but I will extend no such benefit to a high performer whose values are questionable.”
Today, the emphasis on spirituality and correct behaviour, in management training programmes is more than ever before. I do believe that if the younger generation is trained from the outset to believe in the right way of doing things, it will stay with them. I cite the example of a parent who would hire private detectives to keep an eye on his son during the garba season of Gujarat. With each report, he grew more and more worried about what his child was up to. When he shared this with a friend and asked him how he kept a watch on his child’s behaviour, his friend averred that he needed to do no such thing, as he had brought up his son with the right values and now trusted him to do the right thing.
Sure, we are living in very technologically advanced times. But let me add that even cutting edge physicists at NASA have acknowledged the presence of a higher power that keeps the world in balance. Spirituality, to my mind, has little to do with religion, but that is another story. Let me just say that in our HR practices today humanitarianism plays a huge role.
You need to create an Employee Value Proposition within the context of your own organisation—one that is in sync with your corporate values both mid-term and long-term. Do a reality check to see how it compares with what others are doing--and then communicate the same effectively to everyone. Once you have the EVP in place, you need to develop an internal value system. There’s no harm in doing things differently from your competitors. As long as your plans are realistic, fair and sensible, they should work.
Well, I am an avid reader. I would like to once again emphasise the importance of reading and knowledge, as there is a tendency to dismiss theory in favour of practice. You need a balance of both. You cannot be too colloquial and expect to succeed. Apart from reading, I love to listen to country music and blues and RD Burman. People also say I sing well. In any case, it helps me unwind.
To begin with are the general qualities of the person—and whether or not they are in sync with organisational values. Their level of learnability and adaptability and achievement orientation are important. The second important criterion is whether they match the specific requirements of the job.
By KALYANI SARDESAI
