Tag Archives: ethics

How to Manage your Former Peers After a Promotion?

  By hmteam • August 5, 2016 , ,

Being promoted to a new leadership role is a definitely a good reason to celebrate. But it is also a transition that requires adapting to a new behaviour along with other changes, especially with your former peers. It is possible that a former peer may resent you for getting the promotion that he or she wanted so badly. It is also likely that these colleagues will feel some amount of frustration and animosity as they report to you. So how do you deal with the situation without stressing yourself out? Here are some tips. • Monitor your behaviour: It’s never too early to establish credibility with your colleagues at every corporate level, including your immediate peers. That will save you lots of trouble later on because people will know what to expect from you in terms of planning, decision-making, and communication. So rather than attempting a rapid change, focus on building a character of integrity and authenticity as soon as possible. Be consistent with your work ethics and management style. For instance, don’t believe that your ex-peers will ever forget a habit of long coffee breaks or nasty gossip sessions. • Establish authority carefully: While you certainly need to specify your new role to the peers who will now be reporting to you, be careful about how you convey the information. Your tone of voice, facial expression, and body language shouldn’t portray the ‘I’m cooler than you now’ attitude. Just let them know that things have changed and that they will now be reporting to you. If it is possible, ask your company corporate communications team or a relevant senior to make an official announcement on your behalf. That could make things smoother. • Redefine relationships with friends: Some people you work with may have become close friends whom you like to spend time with outside office hours too. To handle the delicate situation, have a one-on-one chat with him or her. Be honest about how the relationship will be changing. Talk about your new responsibilities, but let the friend share his or her thoughts on it too. For example, you could ask them what kind of changes they foresee in the way they work now. Make it clear that you are there to provide support and loyalty and hope for reciprocation. Most importantly, mention that you don’t believe in giving friends special treatment at work. • Learn to detach from the old: Earlier, your daily life in the office must have been different. Other people, having regular conversations of a particular nature, and more personal with these peers, surrounded you. In fact, you may have even spoken negatively about your boss whom you will work with more closely after the promotion. Don’t be rude. Don’t ignore them. Be there for them when they need you, in case of family emergencies or illness or the like, but keep it to important things and waste less time on small talk. It’ll be hard but necessary to help you fit into your new role. • Get to know your new peers: It’s time to get better acquainted with your new peer group. Go for a lunch or coffee. Ask intelligent, pertinent questions about the department and projects. If something is completely new to you, like end of year performance reviews, ask about those. Still, keep the tone casual and include light personal conversation too such as favourite sports or hobbies. Fortunately, top business schools recognise the need to highlight these leadership role changes in their curriculum. The Nanyang Fellows MBA offers a course on Transformative Leadership that teaches you to deal with obstacles in leadership roles such as this. Check out the full list of courses here: http://www.nanyangfellows.com/about-nanyang-fellows/programme-structure/ So look at the big picture and enjoy the transition – it’s a learning process!

Being promoted to a new leadership role is a definitely a good reason to celebrate. But it is also a transition that requires adapting to a new behaviour along with other changes, especially with your former peers. It is possible that a former peer may resent you for getting the promotion that he or she wanted so badly. It is also likely that these colleagues will feel some amount of frustration and animosity as they report to you. So how do you deal with the situation without stressing yourself out?

Here are some tips.

  • Monitor your behaviour:

It’s never too early to establish credibility with your colleagues at every corporate level, including your immediate peers. That will save you lots of trouble later on because people will know what to expect from you in terms of planning, decision-making, and communication. So rather than attempting a rapid change, focus on building a character of integrity and authenticity as soon as possible. Be consistent with your work ethics and management style. For instance, don’t believe that your ex-peers will ever forget a habit of long coffee breaks or nasty gossip sessions.

  • Establish authority carefully:

While you certainly need to specify your new role to the peers who will now be reporting to you, be careful about how you convey the information. Your tone of voice, facial expression, and body language shouldn’t portray the ‘I’m cooler than you now’ attitude. Just let them know that things have changed and that they will now be reporting to you. If it is possible, ask your company corporate communications team or a relevant senior to make an official announcement on your behalf. That could make things smoother.

  • Redefine relationships with friends:

Some people you work with may have become close friends whom you like to spend time with outside office hours too. To handle the delicate situation, have a one-on-one chat with him or her. Be honest about how the relationship will be changing. Talk about your new responsibilities, but let the friend share his or her thoughts on it too. For example, you could ask them what kind of changes they foresee in the way they work now. Make it clear that you are there to provide support and loyalty and hope for reciprocation. Most importantly, mention that you don’t believe in giving friends special treatment at work.

  • Learn to detach from the old:

Earlier, your daily life in the office must have been different. Other people, having regular conversations of a particular nature, and more personal with these peers, surrounded you. In fact, you may have even spoken negatively about your boss whom you will work with more closely after the promotion. Don’t be rude. Don’t ignore them. Be there for them when they need you, in case of family emergencies or illness or the like, but keep it to important things and waste less time on small talk. It’ll be hard but necessary to help you fit into your new role.

  • Get to know your new peers:

It’s time to get better acquainted with your new peer group. Go for a lunch or coffee. Ask intelligent, pertinent questions about the department and projects. If something is completely new to you, like end of year performance reviews, ask about those. Still, keep the tone casual and include light personal conversation too such as favourite sports or hobbies.

Fortunately, top business schools recognise the need to highlight these leadership role changes in their curriculum. The Nanyang Fellows MBA offers a course on Transformative Leadership that teaches you to deal with obstacles in leadership roles such as this.

Check out the full list of courses here: http://www.nanyangfellows.com/about-nanyang-fellows/programme-structure/

So look at the big picture and enjoy the transition – it’s a learning process!

Investing in Your Employees

  By hmteam • May 16, 2016

Times have changed. Typical employee benefits no longer set apart organisations as they used to. Smart managers have realised that they need to invest more wisely to retain their employees. Continually interviewing and hiring and losing well-trained employees is not a sustainable process.

Here are some ways to keep your employees loyal and motivated.

  • Help Build Their Brands:

Every employee offers something unique to the company. As they work with your clients and build their credibility, they become more valuable. You can do your bit and educate them on using social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter effectively. Guide them on increasing their web presence. Encouraging them to invest in their personal brands is as important as investing in the organisation. If customers know and respect each employee, they will develop a relationship of trust with them and hence, the company.

  • Allot Personal Time:

Time is money. So you need to devote a sufficient amount of it to your employees if you want success for your company. A big reason why employees quit their jobs is a lack of career progression. You need to ensure that they know that it won’t be a problem with you. Take them out for casual lunches where you can get to know more about how things are going at work and what could be changed to align their roles with their goals. Keep an eye out for career development opportunities for every employee that you manage. Invest in business trips and conferences that relate to their area of work so that they can pick up new contacts and the latest information. The idea is to keep a focus on the big picture while keeping every employee’s career development needs in mind.

  • Be Flexible:

Good companies recognise the need to be flexible – especially during major life events such as pregnancy or a family crisis. Being flexible with your employees builds employee trust and commitment and helps you attract and retain talent.

  • Look After Their Well-being:

An employee who is not in a good physical or mental health will not function properly at work. How about investing in a gym or reimbursing them for their gym memberships? Allow work breaks since research has shown that most humans can concentrate for periods of 20 to 90 minutes only. If you don’t like the idea of breaks, your employees will probably take them anyway by doing things like checking their personal emails or texting. It’ll be more conducive to their health to let them walk around, stretch and have a quick chat with colleagues. Some companies even invest in group initiatives such as marathons and feel-good activities like visits to a local charity in order to boost the team spirit. And stay alert on mental health issues because anxiety, depression and other illnesses can affect performance and harm people in the long run. A lot of companies invest in counselling services. Plus, if you think somebody genuinely needs a break, give it to them.

  • Support Their Educational Goals:

Once you know your employees’ goals, you can help them get there. Sponsoring or subsidising graduate school expenses or a certification programme can result in employee happiness and more skills on your team. You’ll already be investing a lot in on-site training but educational goals can be met simultaneously if you can work out a schedule. Another perk of sponsoring employee education is that they’ll remember the favour and add new value to your business.

Did you know that the Nanyang Fellows MBA programme has an entire course dedicated to talent management? Check out details here: http://www.nanyangfellows.com/about-nanyang-fellows/programme-structure/#talent_mn

So invest well. Avoid emotional and financial damage by retaining good employees. Give them the responsibility and be there for them.

Making Sense of the Global Workplace

  By hmteam • October 25, 2015 ,

 

 

 

02_Global_Workplace

Businesses have been tackling an evolving scenario post the 2008 market crash and the subsequent economic downturns. You’ve probably confronted some of those changes yourself whilst being part of a team. The demand for sales and trading roles isn’t as high as before. Mergers & acquisitions roles have gained popularity. With the jobs market being more stable now, a lot of people are interested in financial training as a key to switch roles or move to a different kind of a company. Reflecting on the globalised nature of the industry, top business schools are welcoming more and more students from around the world. There’s clearly been a rise in internationalisation.

Ethics and responsibility

The effects of economic ups and downs have not stopped impacting world financial centres. That is why there is a big emphasis on risk management, with B-schools updating their regulations curriculum consistently. Ethics is another area of interest that scores high on importance. Sustainability doesn’t lie far behind. What started as a small module in many business schools has become a core subject for many. A good knowledge of mathematical tools, plus a confident grasp of world financial markets, and IT techniques, is your recipe for success here. In fact, your current role has certainly exposed you to these aspects in some degree already. But even if you know it all, you need to know how to use it. An MBA programme such as the Nanyang Fellows MBA aims to create managers who are able to reflect on and look at the implications of their action AND their inaction.

Internal Collaboration

Collaboration and teamwork characterise today’s professional life, regardless of your location. Businesses want their employees to work together and create results even if they are thousands of miles apart. The global workspace now demands that you work together remotely, so a greater focus is given to international teamwork. If a business has teams collaborating efficiently, problem solving and the creation of positive results will come easily.

Knowing how to effectively collaborate is a skill you can nurture every day. Just always be open to spending time with all kinds of people even if you have a language or cultural barrier. Think of the executive who had coffee with a visiting colleague and how he found out that India doesn’t allow people to find out their unborn baby’s gender. That would definitely help him when he’s working on a campaign involving pregnant women in India.

Cultural understanding and agility

Global employers value cultural awareness and agility. You need to be ready to take care of yourself and business irrespective of your surroundings. That means that you could be sent off to live in a remote country for three months and you would have to deliver results while you are sitting there with the local people, eating their local food, speaking their language, and joining them for festive occasions. You may have already spent some time outside your home country, but did you stay there as a mere tourist? Next time you go somewhere, venture to spots that are not traditionally touristy. Who knows? You could find out something that the people don’t like and never repeat it again with clients from that country.

Leadership, consulting and entrepreneurship

Everybody wants to be a leader. The evolution of business and management careers has brought entrepreneurship and consulting to the limelight. It isn’t always about creating great products – it could also be about delivering unparalleled service that impacts multiple countries and thousands of people. The business industry sees people breaking away from the corporate ladder to start their ventures every day. When you choose to do an MBA, you get the opportunity to rethink your career path. Some successful start-ups have started from a college dorm room. So what are you waiting for with your years of experience? Build your business plan and take it from there. See how it goes. If consulting is your passion, then go for it. Once you are into it, you’ll know what is going right and what is going wrong.

The Nanyang Fellows MBA is for seasoned professionals like you, who are ready to embrace these challenges head on. The evolving business world needs well-trained professionals who can combine their experience with top class knowledge. That’s how leaders are born.