Understanding the Indian Manager

A company is as good as its people. and it is also said that an employee leaves the organization because of the manager. In my tenure, I have had several managers and learned, at least, a few lessons of #managingpeople from all of them.

• What does it take for a company in India to retain employees for a long time?
• How do Indian managers respond to complex, volatile business problems?
• We have several MNCs outsourcing their operations to India. however, the approach towards #peoplemanagement for an Indian company is completely different from its western counterparts.
• Can we apply the same HR policies, here in India, that are practiced in the US, UK, etc.? What will it take Indian companies to go global in the true sense?

Below are some questions that I am trying to explore through this article. Readers! I would like to hear your thoughts as well. I am sharing my friends' responses verbatim.

Response #1

What motivates the employee - how should we gauge that? Salary, work-life balance, benefits - health, dental, vision. Listening to employees when they want to change or pose a problem. Appreciating employees with something of value rather than a token cup. Making them a part of the company's win.

English communication at the workplace- Maybe they don't feel comfortable in English. Give them English-speaking classes. Tell other employees to be kind if someone speaks wrong/broken English and correct them with compassion instead of making fun of it. Explain to them that to global, there is no choice but to get comfortable with English. Otherwise, they will have to carry (and pay) a translator all the time :)

Response #2

What are the basic lacunae in Indian managers? I think transparency. A lot of (in fact most) things are beyond the control of Managers; it comes from the leadership and its benefits, especially, are a company-wide standard.

I don't think Indian employees are special. I used to think we are more conservative and don't raise hands often. Over the years, I changed my opinion after working with global teams. I realized that not everyone in the West is outspoken. Yes, as experience grows, employees develop a knack for picking up "nonsense" and "jargon" e.g. thrown as a part of policy change or any such slide-ware and gas-ware. I already know what's a waste of time and just sounds "COOL" in the All-Hands Meeting. So, leads should stop sugarcoating things and acknowledge the problem, and of course, celebrate tangible wins.

Politics gets exposed when we promote/celebrate without data points.

What is the gap in understanding the mindset of an Indian employee? IMO, an employee feels comfortable when basic benefits and culture are sorted - challenging work and tangible feedback(which includes appreciation even in 1:1)

English communication at work? It is a real problem. People get called out politely (i.e. say some of us won't be able to understand). I won't correct people in a group setting as they will get discouraged. I just repeat the same so that they listen and learn.

Project Aristotle mentions the importance of psychological safety. I guess Indian managers should be trained in this aspect. Totally. It creates a ripple effect of not being vocal. Otherwise, by nature, it is not correct to generalize that Indian people are shy. This brings me to the topic of "Blameless post mortem". When something goes terribly wrong (in Tech e.g. services were down). In retrospect, how should we avoid blaming specific people? rather, why don't we blame the process and point out its flaws? Why was someone present in an environment where this mistake/mishap occurred? e.g. why weren't there any guardrails and frequent tracking before the project went downhill? How can it be improved so that the next time this issue will show up as an early warning?

Most of the respondents also believe that micromanagement is very annoying and especially, this habit is practiced by new managers. Not only micromanagement, but a lack of direction can also add to the problem sometimes and result in the team's ineffectiveness. Often, HR policies change in the organization but it lacks effectiveness as the employees do not understand the objective behind this change.

To conclude, I will say that the conventional style of Indian management is hierarchical and the Indians may have the mindset of "jugaad", employees will definitely perform at their best level when they are effectively managed. Keep in mind that inexperience is not equal to incompetence.

What is your secret sauce for managing your team effectively?

#people #humanresources #employees #employeeengagement #worksatisfaction #teammanegment #teamwork #emotionalintelligence