Why People Lie at Work — and What to Do About It

Summary.   

Being faced with an employee who bends the truth or lies outright is a tough managerial situation to be in. It can stir up the expected reactions of hurt and anger and cause you to lose faith in your team. If an employee is being dishonest with you, start by trying to figure out why. Once you can see what the employee is trying to accomplish by lying, you can move to action. The author describes the three most typical motivations for employee lying based on decades of consulting — and tips for what to do about them. First, a dishonest employee might be afraid to upset someone or trigger conflict. Second, they may not want to expose their own inadequacies. Third, they may just be looking to serve themselves.

When you’re a leader, you rely on your team members to tell you the truth so you can make thoughtful decisions and feel confident that you know what’s going on. Most of them repay your trust with truthfulness (marked, on occasion, with a bit of self-serving spin). But sometimes, you’re faced with an employee who bends the truth too far, or who lies to you outright. This is one of the toughest managerial situations to face, because it’s hard to be sure what’s really happening, or because you tell yourself that you must be mistaken.

Source: HBR

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8 ways to understand your boss

It's really easy to call names behind your boss's back, but what if you can strategize your way to be on the same page as him? After all, he is also a human being.

All of us have heard the saying – people don’t leave organizations, they leave bosses. True to an extent but is it the absolute truth? No. One of the skills I think each one of us needs to pick up is how we manage our bosses. In my work spanning 25 years I have worked with 9 bosses, 3 male and the rest female. I am not heading to a gender discussion here. To me a boss is a boss irrespective of gender. There could be gender nuances in your experience and that’s also valid. Here, I am sticking to the subject called boss. 

I have been very keen on this subject for a long time now and felt the need to put pen to paper and write about it. Like any of you reading this relationship would understand that it has not been a very easy one for me. If I have to describe it, I would call it a roller coaster ride with its own jerks and ease. And, in this ride, there are a few strategies that I have very effectively used and they served me well. I want to share those with you and you could in turn share yours with me or critique any of mine. That’s also fine.

Here are the 8 strategies (not in any order though): 

Observe your boss for common ground: To check what matters to him (I am using ‘him’ as a general terminology). What does he stand for? What drives him? What is he good at? This strategy gave me enough information relating to my bosses. I got a common ground to build a sound work relationship. This has not been easy for me. I would observe my boss in every meeting, email communication and saw that the larger vision and mission of the organization was important to him. And that mattered to me as well. So, a common ground was met to tread.

Source: People matters

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Words and Phrases to Avoid in a Difficult Conversation

Summary.   

When you’re in the middle of a difficult conversation, it’s common to focus solely on yourself: your ideas, your viewpoint, your feelings. But a “me-centric” approach can backfire. To achieve your goal, you need to think beyond yourself. While crafting your message, you must keep the other person’s feelings and opinions in mind, too. To do so, avoid these common mistakes: don’t assume your viewpoint is obvious; don’t exaggerate; don’t challenge someone’s character or integrity; don’t blame others for your feelings; don’t tell others what they should do; and don’t say “It’s not personal.”

Difficult conversations are difficult for a reason, and when you’re anxious or stressed out, it’s easy to say the wrong thing. And it doesn’t matter how prepared you are. Your best laid plans will go to waste if you offend or anger the other person.

Over twenty years of teaching and research, which I describe in my new book Choosing Courage, I’ve found that people often forget a critical point: When navigating a difficult conversation, you need to craft your message while keeping the other person’s feelings and opinions in mind.

Below are some of the most common mistakes I’ve observed — words and phrases that can slip into our vocabulary — and explanations for why they often cause trouble.

Source: HBR

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The Limits of the “Sustainable” Economy

Summary.   

Faced with compelling evidence that the world is approaching climate and ecologic tipping points, urgent solutions and actions are a priority. Transitioning to a so-called Circular Economy (CE) has been put forward as a possible solution, and enthusiastically seized upon by both industry and policy makers. CE presents an enticing idea based on three core principles: to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems by using renewable materials and energy. But CE is not without its critics. While praising the objectives promoted by CE, many question its practicability.  In particular, the ability of recycling, designing for durability, use of renewable production inputs, and adoption of alternative usage models to limit society’s consumption of raw materials and energy is not guaranteed, given practical and environmental constraints and people’s economic and quality-of-life expectations.

Faced with compelling evidence that the world is approaching climate and ecologic tipping points, urgent solutions and actions are a priority. Transitioning to a so-called “circular economy” (CE) has been put forward as a possible solution, and enthusiastically seized upon by both industry and policy makers.

The concept gained attention in the late eighties, after researchers at General Motors first envisioned a “closed loop” approach to production processes. In 2009, Dame Ellen MacArthur (the famous round-the-world solo sailor) launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has very successfully popularized the CE manifesto. Today the foundation has an impressive list of around 180 partner and member organizations, and regulators in some regions of the world, particularly the EU, are actively implementing CE agendas.

Source: HBR

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Talent retention: A key element of a company’s long-term success

Job seekers are becoming savvier at navigating the complex world of hiring.

Despite the challenges that COVID-19 has brought, high potential talented professionals remain in demand. While this fluctuates from market to market, and sector to sector, these individuals require significant incentive to move from their existing companies with ongoing concerns around job security. Many organizations are choosing to consolidate while protecting the shape of their business in the short term, yet many are also focused on attracting talented people to allow for future growth.

While many businesses focus on sales and marketing strategies that generate immediate revenue, many fail to consider candidate attraction strategies as a key component that undoubtedly impacts the growth and health of the company in the long term. Job seekers are becoming savvier at navigating the complex world of hiring. Their improved access to knowledge of available job openings makes it easier than ever to make the switch to greener pastures when the opportunity arises. As such, companies need to work even harder to attract proven and upcoming high potential talent. After all, you can’t exceed any ambitious business goals without having the right people in place.

A few ways to ensure retention of talent are: offering standout benefits, ensuring employees have growth opportunities, and establishing a well-defined company brand. With information becoming increasingly available online, job seekers no longer focus solely on compensation packages. Flexibility on work arrangements, alternative benefits like birthday leave can indicate to candidates that your company cares about employee welfare as much as you do benefits. And this can be the deciding factor in convincing a potential hire to accept the offer. 

Source: People matters

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Monster Employment Index: 56% of industries exceed online hiring demand in May 2021

Job postings for Top Management level professionals, with 16 or more years of experience, witnessed a significant growth of 66% year-on-year.

Monster Employment Index, the most reliable and comprehensive job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess Company, has published its findings for May 2021, providing insights into the job market across industries, cities, and functions.  

May has been promising showing growth despite the second wave and lockdowns. Compared to April 2021, May showed a growth of 1%, whereas May 2021 grew 4% compared to May 2020.

Overall job postings have also increased by 4% year-on-year (May 2021 vs. May 2020). When it comes to hiring for the Top Management level professionals, with 16 or more years of work experience, witnessed a growth of 66% year-on-year (May 2021 vs. May 2020). 

While April 2021 witnessed a dip in job postings given the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, May 2021 showed green shoots of recovery. IT - Hardware, Software hiring witnessed a year-on-year growth of 67% in Bangalore and 49% in Hyderabad. Industries that indicate the highest year-on-year growth in hiring across the key cities are Banking/ Financial Services, Insurance and IT - Hardware, Software. 

Source: People matters

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Why My Motto Is ‘Do It Anyway’

I’ve practiced judo for more than 27 years. What separates a white belt from a black belt is that the black belt shows up every day for practice. They show up every day even when they don’t want to. They show up on the good and the bad days. They don’t make excuses. They show up for themselves and others because they made a commitment. They work at their dreams every day.

Athletics is such a good paradigm for business. Think about all of the famous entrepreneurs—Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates—they all showed up every single day. Through recessions and setbacks and failed ideas and even more failed ideas. They continued showing up.

Passion is the spark; discipline is the fuel. Together, they make a recipe for perseverance. It’s this combination that not only made these entrepreneurs successful, but unforgettable.

Discipline comes first. The discipline portion has a pretty short learning curve—some argue as few as 27 days. But once you’ve learned the discipline portion, you can trust that any time you want to make something happen in the future, you know what it takes to show up every single day. When passion and motivation wane, discipline pulls through to keep you going.

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How to create a safe work environment

The pandemic has drastically changed how companies think about safety and security. Here are some key factors that you need to consider.

The journey to the future of work was always fraught with challenges and disruptions, but the years 2020 and 2021 could prove to be a watershed moment. After a period of abrupt chaos and rapid transitions, organizations are beginning to consider the long-term implications of how we should work. 

To build a better, sustainable, and inclusive future of work, we must reassess the needs, risks, requirements, and processes that act as the foundation of the modern workplace (as we have known it) and strive to make it safer for all stakeholders. Let us look at some pressing challenges to building a safe workplace and work environment in today’s world.

Provide safe working conditions  

Organizations need to provide a safe and secure workplace for their employees, not just as a matter of legal compliance but also to ensure that they are at their productive best. The protocols of what constitutes a ‘safe and secure’ workplace naturally vary across industries and depend on local laws, location, unions, and even cultural factors. It is essential to recognize that safety in the workplace is not just limited to its physical aspect but also includes intangible concepts like harassment, bullying, extreme pressure, or unrealistic expectations (more on that in the next point).

Source: People matters

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Three elements of an experience that makes people want to come to work

Culture, technology, and physical space: companies can use these three things to create an experience where people actually want to show up to work. Famous futurist Jacob Morgan explains how at People Matters EX India 2021,

In today's world of work, what it means to be an employee has changed. Candidates for a job are looking not just at the work and the pay, but at the entire experience of working for the organisation: the leadership style, the growth and development opportunities. But are companies matching these expectations? Not quite, according to futurist Jacob Morgan. 

Delivering the keynote address at People Matters EX India Conference today, he said: “Traditionally, organisations have approached this by simply focusing on employee engagement programs. And the challenge with employee engagement programs in most organisations around the world is that they fundamentally they operate like an adrenaline shot.”

In other words, he pointed out, organisations are offering perks that act as short-term fixes, making 

employees temporarily happy—but the contentment does not last into the long term.

Source: People matters

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What’s the most important thing you learned in 2020?

The Most Important Thing I Learned in 2020

I learned that relationships matter more than anything. During the pandemic, you see who is really important in your life. I am thankful to have spent much of my time building friendships that have blossomed into weekly calls of encouragement during this tough time.

—Robert De Los Santos, CEO of Sky High Party Rentals

Instead of focusing on the negatives, I’ve learned to focus on the positives. I’ve seen an acceleration of innovation happening on a global scale to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Companies all over the world, including ours, have accelerated their pace of change—it’s survival of the fittest. Carpe diem!

—Bo Cheng, president and co-founder of Altovista Technology

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My Fixation on Time Management Almost Broke Me

Summary.   

It can be easy to absorb messages in our society that time is a limited resource — a commodity to be managed rather than squandered. And certainly, the various hacks to manage time more efficiently are necessary if you need more discipline and structure. But for some people, time management is a barrier to true effectiveness and productivity. The author, a lifelong proponent of efficient time management, found that her meticulous planning had negative impacts on her health. After researching and then shifting toward subjective — rather than objective — time management, she found more joy in her work, and her health began to improve. She offers three lessons that reveal why our traditional time-management methods can hold us back.

In 2019, I hit a wall. To the outside observer, my career was successful, my family was happy, and I seemed to be living the dream. What people didn’t know, however, was that I was struggling with chronic insomnia, malnourishment, a pinched nerve in my neck, and a wicked hormonal imbalance. I would later discover that, ironically, time management was to blame.

Source: HBR 

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upGrad aims hire over 1000 employees in next 3 months

 

upGrad, South Asia’s largest higher edtech company, announces big hiring plans for the upcoming quarter as it aims to onboard over 1000 employees in the next 3 months, generating employment in a COVID-impacted job market. The opportunities are available across departments like Learning Experience, Delivery, Marketing, and Program, along with Sales which will remain predominant. The edtech leader will be hiring from its own learners’ talent pool through upGrad Rekrut  (the recruitment and staffing solutions firm is a 100% subsidiary of upGrad) hiring drive.

The fresh Sales recruits will be working out of the specially created ‘Temporary Safe Workplace Bubbles’ across 5-star hotel properties in Mumbai and Bangalore, and the brand is further extending to include cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, and Kolkata.

This move comes at a time where over 15 Million jobs were lost in the country just in May, this year due to the second wave of the pandemic, which has led the urban joblessness to hit 18% in the week ending May 30th - the highest in the past one year, as per the data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

While the upGrad Rekrut hiring drive will include upGrad learners from multiple courses, the edtech leader will also have fresh campus recruits from 100+ campuses across the country.

Source: People matters

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How to Improve Your Listening Skills?

Having effective listening skills means being able to display interest in the topic discussed and understand the information provided. In today’s society, the ability to communicate effectively is becoming increasingly important. Although the ability to speak effectively is a highly sought-after skill, developing effective listening skills is often not regarded in the same respect.

In fact, listening is just as important as speaking. Being a good listener helps solve problems, resolve conflicts, and improve relationships. In the workplace, effective listening contributes to fewer errors, less wasted time, and improved accuracy. Effective listening helps build friendships and careers.

Five ways to improve your listening skills

1. Face the speaker and give them your attention

It is difficult to talk to someone who is constantly looking around. Make sure to face the speaker, maintain eye contact, and give them your undivided attention. In Western cultures, eye contact is necessary for effective communication. Although shyness, uncertainty, or cultural taboos may inhibit eye contact, try your best to make sure the speaker knows that they have your full attention.

2. Keep an open mind

Do not judge or mentally criticize what the speaker is telling you. Doing so can compromise your ability to take in what is being said. Never exhibit judgmental behavior, as it compromises your effectiveness as a listener. You can evaluate what was said after the speaker is finished talking, but don’t do so while you are still listening to them.

Let the speaker finish what they are saying and don’t be a sentence-grabber. Interrupting the speaker or prohibiting them from finishing what they are saying can indicate disrespect to the speaker. Often, interrupting the speaker mid-sentence interrupts their train of thought and can easily destroy a productive conversation.

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5 Models for the Post-Pandemic Workplace

Summary.   

Since late 2020, Australians have been going back into the office with numbers approaching pre-pandemic levels in some regions. A new survey of Australian workers identifies five workplace models being used: as it was, clubhouse, activity-based working, hub and spoke, and fully virtual. The author explores how companies might weigh this decision now that vaccines are increasingly available and restrictions are being relaxed in many countries.

In March of 2020, most companies would have seen their offices as essential to their business. But as the pandemic dragged on, leaders have been surprised to learn that people often work just as productively from home.

Now that vaccines are becoming available and social distancing restrictions are being relaxed in some regions, leaders need to decide whether to bring employees back to the office, remain at home, or use this as an opportunity to adopt a new, possibly more beneficial workplace model.

Where employees work has significant implications, not only for the design of workplaces, but for how corporations allocate capital and manage staff. Experts are divided on what is likely to happen next. Some argue that our experiment with working from home has been so successful that remote work is here to stay. Others speculate that people are starving for face-to-face interaction, and that central business districts are primed to come roaring back. Splitting the difference, another group believes that the future of work won’t be either of these two extremes, but a hybrid solution between home and the office.

We’ve already seen these dynamics play out in Australia, where companies have grappled with returning to the workplace after a largely successful effort to control the virus, providing an early indication of how businesses in other countries are likely to adjust their workplaces after the pandemic.

The Future is Already Here

To help get a clearer picture of the future of the office, I recently surveyed 1,600 Australian office workers and interviewed a number of business leaders and workplace experts in the country. 

Source: HBR

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How to Talk to Employees About Reopening

Summary.   

According to Gartner data, 94% of midsize businesses will have some mix of in-office, remote, and hybrid employees when they reopen their offices. While the desire is to return to “normal” as quickly as possible, the reality is that the workplaces employees return to in 2021 will not look like the ones they left in 2020. Encouraging employees to get vaccinated is good, but it’s not enough. The companies that are thoughtful about safety, flexibility, and clear communication will have the most success as we enter another period of profound change. The authors present four ways for midsize business leaders to maximize employee safety and productivity when reopening their workplaces.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was rampant speculation that one of the long-term implications would be the end of the office. While the workplace will undoubtedly become a hybrid environment with more employees working remotely at least part of the time, the reality is that companies will still have offices. In fact, according to a poll of more than 200 respondents conducted during a recent Gartner webinar, only 1% of midsize companies are planning on becoming fully remote organizations. On the other end of the spectrum, only 5% of midsize companies are planning on having all employees come back to the physical workplace. The remaining 94% will have some mix of in-office, remote, and hybrid employees.

As more individuals are getting vaccinated, business leaders need to shift their thinking from the abstract question of where employees will work to the reality that there is a specific day on the calendar that some kind of return to the office will actually occur. That day appears to be approaching quickly, as the same Gartner poll found that 69% of midsize companies are planning on reopening their workplaces in the second half of 2021. The question of how to return to the office will be more challenging than the abrupt shift to remote work was in March of 2020, given the variability of rules, regulations, and people’s vaccination status.

Source: HBR

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Facebook’s new game plan for India

Facebook earned its chops by connecting people. Its next big bets are on content creators and small businesses. And aiding it are Whatsapp and Instagram.

Ajit Mohan started following Lily Collins after watching her on Netflix’s Emily in Paris. He found on Instagram that the actor had recently invested in Beekeeper’s Naturals, a Canadian natural health product company that makes bee by-products like raw honey and bee pollen. The brand has quite a star following, from Drew Barrymore to Kourtney Kardashian. After discovering the brand on Collins’ post, Mohan, 46, is all set to order its products.

Like many users, he has bought everything from shoes to alphonso mangoes off Instagram (he didn’t like the shoes), says Mohan, who is vice president and managing director, Facebook India. Globally, influencers are convincing people to buy products they recommend, and small businesses are using Facebook platforms to reach consumers everywhere while keeping their spending in check. The trend, says Mohan, has been accelerated by Covid-19 as more people went online and shopped as they were forced to stay indoors during the pandemic.

“While recognising the disruption to life, I think it was a bit of a second coming for social media because it reminded people of its core purpose,” Mohan tells Fortune India. Meanwhile, during the pandemic, businesses discovered that the only way to survive was to find customers and sell to them online. Besides Facebook, the ecosystem has two other platforms: WhatsApp, which in India has over 15 million businesses; and Instagram, on which 90% of consumers follow brands. Globally, the ecosystem has more than 200 million businesses on it.

With consumers moving to these platforms during the pandemic, so did advertising. That’s music to Facebook’s ears, as most of its revenue still comes from ads. In India, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies, Facebook’s gross ad revenue for FY20 was ₹6,613 crore.

According to Sandeep Bhushan, director and head, global marketing solutions, Facebook India, by 2023, digital advertising will be bigger than TV advertising. In fact, according to media investment company GroupM’s latest TYNY (This Year, Next Year) report, digital advertising was one of the few categories which grew globally last year. (See graphic).

No wonder that Facebook, from being a platform for connections, is focussing on content creators and small businesses to make them its growth drivers for the future.

Source: Fortune India

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Recruitment- 8 out of 10 employers are actively hiring now: CareerNet Market Study

Hiring numbers in sectors like Banking, e-Commerce, IT/ITeS, Insurance, and Financial Services to be higher as compared to other sectors.

The corporate workforce has seen its fair share of chaos attributing to the COVID-19 crisis that has altered the traditional ways of doing business across different sectors. A recent study by CareerNet, titled Present Hiring Outlook in India and the Future of Work, cites that 8 out of 10 employers are actively hiring, while only 6% of the employers haven’t re-started hiring yet.

The report suggests that 61% of large enterprises anticipate filling more than 500 positions, 45% of mid-sized companies expect to fill between 100 and 500 positions, and 61% of small businesses forecast to fill less than 50 positions in the year 2021.

Employers in the Banking, eCommerce, Insurance & Financial Services, and IT/ITeS sectors expect their hiring numbers to be higher as compared with those in other sectors. Among cities, Hyderabad tops the list of employment, with 100% of respondents saying that they are actively hiring. 80% of employers in Bangalore are considering hiring, whereas 5% have not started hiring yet.  

The culture of remote working has instigated the significance of functional skills over soft skills while evaluating candidates. 3 out of 4 employers consider functional skills to be extremely important, less than a half of them consider soft skills to be extremely important. Additionally, across industry verticals, there’s a significant demand for technology-based talent. The rapid adoption of digitization by companies and growing consumption of technology amid the pandemic has led to a growth in the demand for coders, programmers, and software developers, with 69% of recruiters looking for technology-based talent.

2 out of 3 employers are seeking candidates with good communication skills and 50% of them rate interpersonal skills on top while assessing candidates. Other in-demand soft skills are self-discipline, multi-tasking, time management, and work-life balance.

“A few months into 2021 got us thinking about the present hiring outlook of employers in India. We did this study to gather market insights about the present hiring trends and the evolving work model,” said Anshuman Das, CEO and Co-Founder, CareerNet. “The study witnessed participation from over 80 leaders in the Human Resources and Talent Acquisition space and over 1,600 employees from various organizations. The report reveals some interesting insights. The hiring momentum has accelerated and companies are actively hiring. For colleges and universities, virtual hiring is going to be the norm. There is a positive outlook towards gig/contractual/freelance hiring” he added. 

Campus hiring:

While 43% of small companies (up to 500 employees) are not planning to hire from campuses this year, 59% of mid-sized companies (501-5,000 employees) and 64% of the large enterprises (5,001+ employees) are planning to recruit campus talent. 16% of small companies, 18% of mid-sized ones and 36% of the large enterprises are not sure about campus hiring this year. IT/ITES, Banking, and Pharmaceuticals are some of the sectors that are going to move ahead with virtual campus hiring this year. Among the organisations that are planning to lead with campus hiring, 47% expect hiring for less than 50 positions while 12% predict between 51 and 100 positions.

Source: People matters

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To Retain Women, U.S. Companies Need Better Childcare Policies

Summary.   

Research has shown that the pandemic set women in the workforce back half a decade. Caregiving responsibilities at home threaten women’s ability to remain and progress in the workplace, with women of color feeling the brunt of this challenge. While the U.S. government lags behind on policies to help working families, companies can and should be acting sooner. Employees value flexible work arrangements, and companies need to get serious about offering them. Create an environment that acknowledges the role of parents to reduce the need for parents to have to hide their childcare challenges from work. In order to be successful at keeping more women in the workforce, companies need to make women a central part of the team — from the C-suite on down. Include women in strategic management conversations, and make changes together. The success of women, families, future generations, and our global economy depend upon our corporate executives choosing to take on this kind of bold leadership.

Buckling under the burden of childcare during the pandemic, more than 800,000 women left the work force between August and September 2020, according to The New York Times. According to McKinsey, the pandemic has set women back half a decade. At its peak, women’s unemployment had risen by 2.9 percentage points more than men’s unemployment. Not only does this matter for gender equality, it will also reduce families’ abilities to offset income losses, resulting in a deeper and more persistent economic recession as a whole. Leaders of all genders need to not only empathize, but also step up and actively find ways to keep women in the workforce.

Caregiving responsibilities at home and work could threaten women’s ability to remain and progress in the workplace: Up to 2 million women are considering leaving the workforce, according to the 2020 Women in the Workplace study from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org. Women of color are particularly challenged and are also trying to maintain career progression. Women could suffer the most in the 2021 recovery, too, according to McKinsey and Oxford Economics. The return to pre-pandemic employment levels for women will take 18 months longer than it will for men. This is why investing in caregiving is investing in women, and in the future of our global economy.

Source: HBR 

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