The Perils of An Early Sign-Off

Show up at the morning meeting in jeans? No biggie.

Tweet about your nasty neighbor from your cubicle? Social networking is part of the job!

Get up to go home before it’s dark out? No way.
Last week Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg stunned the working world by saying she makes a point of leaving the office at 5:30 every day in order to eat dinner at home with her family.

As she told an interviewer on Makers.com: “I walk out of this office every day at 5:30 so I’m home for dinner with my kids at 6:00, and interestingly, I’ve been doing that since I had kids. I did that when I was at Google, I did that here, and I would say it’s not until the last year, two years that I’m brave enough to talk about it publicly. Now I certainly wouldn’t lie, but I wasn’t running around giving speeches on it.”

It’s not surprising that Ms. Sandberg wanted to keep her secret under wraps. In an era of job uncertainty, when most people are too scared to be seen anywhere other than in their cubicles (even if they’re shopping on diapers.com), an early signoff is the ultimate corporate taboo. Leaving early signifies that you don’t care, that you’re not getting the job done—or that you don’t love your work.

Yet we all know that’s silly. When everybody has Blackberrys and cell phones and is essentially always on-call, is it really necessary to keep up appearances—and keep your chair warm for ten straight hours?

Most of us send and receive work emails from the moment we wake up until we can’t keep our eyes open at night. We can read and write and conduct phone calls anytime, anywhere. But it’s still seen as incredibly ballsy to stake a claim to evening family time.

Ever since returning from maternity leave, I’ve left the office at 5:10, so I can be home for my son’s dinner and put him to sleep.

The hour we spend together every evening keeps me going. My heart cramps up a little bit on the rare days when I’m not able to see him before his 7 o’clock bedtime. I am very fortunate to have a boss who understands that my babysitter needs to leave by 6:00 and I need to connect with my baby at the end of the day. I get my job done and I’m reachable should any last-minute questions arise. We both know I get just as much work done now as I did when I had unlimited time in the office.

But I’d be lying if I said that being the first person in my group to head home was entirely easy. There is always the lingering sense that I “should” remain seated, the urge to look at the carpet as I walk toward the elevator.

I’m thrilled that Ms. Sandberg opened up this discussion. But I have a feeling it’s a little bit easier to do things according to your own schedule when you are one of the highest paid executives in Silicon Valley than if you’re a mere mortal in the officeworld, and you’re hoping to get a raise or a promotion.

What is the atmosphere like at your office? What time do you go home? Do you find making it back in time for family dinner realistic or are the consequences too severe?

Content From: blogs.wsj.com
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Micromanaging

Is your boss a micromanager?

These are managers who want to be involved in every step of each assignment they give to their employees. They ask for more frequent reports than are needed, and generally want to exercise as much control as possible over what their subordinates do.

With few exceptions, micromanagement is terrible for the employees as well as the organization.

By controlling everything that an employee does, these managers sap away the confidence of younger employees, who may end up feeling that nothing they can do is right. Older employees may get frustrated if they find their style of working and ideas are not welcome.

While it’s important to guide your team, you should be wary of micromanagement.

“Creativity and discretionary contribution…goes out the window,” says Anuraag Maini, head of human resources and training at Delhi-based DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Co.

Ultimately, the output of the team suffers.

Here are a few tips from human resources experts on how employees can deal with their micromanagers, and a few words of advice for micromanagers.

If you are being micromanaged:

This is a frustrating place to be in, as micromanagers can stymie your growth. Address the reasons why your boss is micromanaging.

Typically, it’s because the manager is insecure or anxious about whether you can do the job right. Of course, he may just be a control freak.

To deal with this, you need to build confidence in your abilities. One approach is to initially give the manager what he or she wants – the control – but on your terms.

“Offer to be micromanaged and then negotiate from a position (where you can) minimize that,” says Manish Sinha, director of human resources at Becton Dickinson India Pvt., a medical technology company in Gurgaon.

For instance, when the manager assigns you a project, ask for a specific deadline and initiate a discussion about how the project will be monitored.

Offer to update the manager at specific intervals, say once a week, or when specific milestones are reached. Give the manager an outline of how you will proceed on the project. Let the manger know that you will come to him or her in case you hit any roadblocks or major problem.

All this will let the manager feel that he or she is very much in control, and thus hopefully get the manager off your back on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully, over time, as you deliver good results on project after project, the manager will trust your ability to do a good job.

“Once you build that confidence, then I think the micromanagement will come down,” says Mrityunjay Srivastava, head of management development group at Wipro Ltd.

Some experts suggest a different approach: Have a frank discussion with the manager explaining that his or her day-to-day interference is hurting your ability to deliver performance. This can be tricky, and may not work if your manager is not open to feedback or has a big ego.

If you decide to try this approach, instead of being angry or aggressive, give the manager a solution. For instance, tell the manager that you need a certain period of time to complete a project, and if the result is not up to the manager’s standards, then you are willing to be reviewed more frequently.

Also, prove to your manager that his or her growth is dependent on how well you do your job.

If you are a micromanager:

In general, you are hurting your team’s growth and ultimately your own career prospects.

To be sure, there are some cases where micromanagement may be warranted. If it’s a high-impact project or an ambiguous situation like crisis-management where the situation changes often, then perhaps you need to be more hands on. Or, if you are dealing with very young or inexperienced employees, they may need a lot of handholding.

Other than that, micromanaging can be suffocating for the employee.

“Suffocation leads to an employee feeling that I’m not trusted or that the manager doesn’t see my capability or my manager is very insecure,” says Mr. Maini of DLF Pramerica.

This affects team morale, output and innovation dries up. That’s a sure way to disaster. In addition, once you’ve built a reputation in the company of being a micromanager, smart employees will not want to work with you.

As soon as you realize that you have been micromanaging, stop. Step back and assess whether everyone in your team needs to be micromanaged. The answer is that they most likely don’t.

If there are employees in whom you don’t have total confidence, start by setting up more frequent progress-review sessions with them for their first few assignments. Maybe team up the inexperienced employee with one that you trust.

With more experienced employees who have done a good job in the past, it’s a good idea to let them know that you plan to be more hands-off. Ask them what resources and help they need from you.

Set up a review mechanism, but at “a frequency which the employee is very comfortable with,” says Mr. Maini of DLF Pramerica.

The review should be of the result or progress, not of each and every thing the employee did to get the results.

Old habits die hard, so watch out for your tendency to check in every so often. If needed, stick a large piece of paper on your notice board as a reminder on this.

Content from:blog.wsj.com
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Extraordinary Bosses

The best managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics. what they get right ?

"Best of the Best" bosses tend to share some common principles.

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.

Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops" to order about, demonize competitors as "enemies," and treat customers as "territory" to be conquered.

Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with other companies, customers ... and even competitors.

2. A company is a community, not a machine.

Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try to maintain control by "pulling levers" and "steering the ship."

Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.

3. Management is service, not control.

Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. They're hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create environments where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see what the boss says" mentality.

Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.

4. My employees are my peers, not my children.

Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering their behinds.

Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.

5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.

Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people.  As a result, employees and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky decisions.

Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they'll be a part of it.  As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.

6. Change equals growth, not pain.

Average bosses see change as both complicated and threatening, something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape. They subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late.

Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if employees and organization embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business.

7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation.

Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that technology is primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase predictability. They install centralized computer systems that dehumanize and antagonize employees.

Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human beings to be creative and to build better relationships. They adapt their back-office systems to the tools, like smartphones and tablets, that people actually want to use.

8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.

Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at best, a necessary evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work, and therefore tend to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their employees as victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly.

Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.

Content From : Inc.com
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan