How to work with People in non-defensive way!

Greatness of any organization is largely depends on how great their people are. Is there any recipe to identify, assess and onboard such great people? It's almost next to impossible and may be one in millions. Much easier way could be to build an internal mechanism to;

• Provide learning and growth opportunities
• Disseminate organization challenges
• Highlight what organization REALLY REALLY want to be
• Share customer feedback
• Bring Competitor moves

Creating a real great person in the team can be similar to alchemy. The process would require great patience, allowing people to make mistakes, have mentors who could spot the brights and enable them to succeed. At times this can be seen as cost by the organization however it must be seen as an INVESTMENT.

I think every organization should have a policy on how does it see people within the organization. It could help to unify middle management thought process on people in particular. Otherwise it could lead to inconsistent sub-cultures across the organization. Unfortunately, most of the policies are focussed on what people should do and should not.

One such harmful behavior is an 'Excessive control' over people, This can lead to 'YES Boss' culture where people will just satisfy the Boss than doing what is right for the organization. In such environment, people try to avoid investing the most important discretionary time. The value of people's discretionary time can be invaluable and largely decides the success of the organization. Simply put, it decides people going beyond the ask.

There is a common phenomena in parenting wherein child start lying if parent is less patient towards them. If we instill fear in the child the only way he respond is with lies which is short term solution for him. We could look back towards our own past and notice such instances in life.

Working with People is similar to looking in to the mirror. By virtue of your place in the hierarchy of organization, you may have a certain level freedom to take decisions over people and its more of a responsibility than a power.

Showing anger, providing opportunities to only few, judging people early, stamping people as poor performers without proper handholding leads to defensive culture within the team. At times some of middle level managers get confused between AGGRESSIVENESS and ANGER. There is a subtle difference, the anger is directed towards people and aggressiveness is directed at work. Anger takes away people from you first and damages the organization's long term interest.

Building high performing, successful and happy teams is an art. There are lakhs of chefs out there in the world but very few are 'Master Chefs'. Even all of them use same ingredients, the taste vary drastically. The best comes out from the Master. This would mean problem is not with ingredients(read People) but chef(read Boss).

It will be a Herculean task to build a team with all STARS and great leaders don't try to scout for stars but creates them. The leader should know how to mix the people than bidding each other. A genuine interest towards people coupled with great understanding on business can help in creating STAR team.