This fortnight I would like to share some thoughts on building personal brands. There’s a wonderful human being I know. His name is Subroto Ghosal. He was a trainer with Air India and a former National president of Indian Jaycees. Subroto is one the best examples I know of how a personal brand can be built.
My first lessons in training were enshrined in his words, “Everybody who can afford a briefcase and a hundred visiting cards is a trainer, Ramesh. What will you do to stand out from the herd ?” “Forget the text books, Creativity is YOU and how you can present yourself to an audience” I was fortunate to attend some of his workshops and I still remember once, he just used a newspaper as a prop to hold us spellbound for hours. This was before the PowerPoints and the Multimedias !
He did not have the baritone of an Amitabh but used his modulation superbly. A great sense of wry humour. He could make you laugh in a minute and cry the next with his powerful speeches.
And the amount of reading he did! I have rarely seen him without a book. And he used the knowledge so judiciously. He never showed off.
I still remember the time he was the chief coach of the National Train the Trainers Seminar and I was one of his assistants. On the first day, he was completely off tangent and that evening, rather tremulously, I told him so. His reaction took me by surprise. He asked me to point out everything that had gone wrong and how it could be corrected. He prepared himself throughout the night and the next three days were absolutely delightful for his participants and for us on the faculty. His willingness, nay his eagerness, to learn even from lowly assistants truly made him outstanding.
When he stood for national presidency-those were the days when elections were aggressively fought – he was bucking the already powerful “Family” and he had no support group of his own. His entire electioneering was a lesson in creative brand building.
Those were the days when emails were non-existent. And Subroto endeared himself to 35000 Jaycees as the “small” man by not using the capital letter at all in all his letters. He must have sent out thousands of letters that year and all of them were in small caps ! Even his inland letters and covers were different. He had an image of a bare foot in place of the sender’s address and a message. Was it “Come, Walk with me”, Subroto ?
He personalized his campaign by sending individually addressed letters remembering small personal details of his addressees. And all this before mail merging !
He told a few of us at the beginning of his campaign year, “This year, the better dressed man will win” I bet, even today, none of his contemporaries can fault Subroto for being badly dressed. And, of course, his wife, Hootoxi, charming and graceful, a thorough professional in her right, was the perfect companion.
“I know that you have been asked not to vote for me by your seniors. But I know you so well. Just do me a favor. Just give me only YOUR vote. I don’t want to lose with a heavy margin” is what he told EVERY voter and sure enough most of them voted for Subroto !
The evening of the candidates platform was when Subroto won the hearts of everyone in the 2000 plus audience. Observing his arch rival coughing when he was delivering his speech, Subroto snatched the glass of water in front of him, walked across the stage and smiling gave it to his rival. The audience burst into spontaneous applause. And a day later, Subroto brought the house down when he was declared the upset winner.
Subroto's personal brand bulding formula comprised Being different, Positioning Yourself, Localizing and Personalizing Communication, Appealing to the heart, Creative Packaging and Converting Adversity to Opportunity.
I haven’t met Subroto for quite some time now. But I bet, even today, I could carry on conversing with him as if we keep meeting every day. Such is his charisma.
Subroto is on Face Book. Get to know him and you will be richer. Every time you interact with him !
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Elusive Employee
The Elusive Employee
Many of us who are in small businesses dread one kind of turnover. The employee turnover ! We spend thousands of rupees training employees to adapt themselves to our way and when they are sufficiently trained, they run away to our competitors !
Do they run away or do we drive them away ?
Let’s face it. Many of us have to change our thinking. From generation to generation, getting employees has become more and more difficult. And retaining them has become even more so. Yet, our unconscious philosophy seems to be, “so what if he goes away, I can always get another one. “ Sure you can. But, as many of us have discovered, the replacement is costlier. And, not as good as the original.
Human beings are all creatures of comfort and once they establish a comfort zone, they find it very difficult to change it. Yet employees do it. Lots of reasons. Some of them silly. But they do leave.
When you analyse the reasons, you will find they are emotional rather than rational. It is not just the money. Very often we do not respect our employees. We use them as punching bags to work off our frustrations. We leave them insecure most of the time. Therein lies the root cause.
Management experts will give you various strategies to retain your employees but I could summarise them into just three factors:
Clarity. When you take on someone, you should be clear on what exactly is he expected from him. You should be able to explain to him in a language that he understands, what your expectations are. You should be able to tell him his specific role in your business and what his growth path would be. He should know the performance parameters that will bring him bigger rewards. He should know the extent of his authority, responsibility and most important his accountability.
Empowerment: An employee develops a feeling of belonging only when he has certain responsibilities and is accountable for them. A clear cut policy would tell an employee what his powers are, the extent they can be utilized and the consequences of misuse. A certain degree of independence is a plus factor is binding the employee to us
Satisfying Emotional Needs: Human beings are ruled by sentiment to a large extent. Often, emotional needs are not rational. Yet, satisfying them is critical. Positive strokes, appreciation when deserved given as publicly as possible, constructive criticism being given one on one only, a designation that looks imposing on a visiting card, friendliness at the workplace, social occasions for binding are vital factors that prevent an employee from leaving.
Despite all this, employee attrition is a fact of life. There are just three ways of ensuring that our work does not suffer:
Systems: A work manual for each position in your office which a new employee can read will save you valuable hours of training. Access to a good recruitment agency will give you quick replacements and openness in communication during the recruitment process will prevent expensive attrition.
Cloning of vital functions: Ensure that there are two employees who are abreast of all key functions. An accountant should have an assistant who can take over at short notice.
Outsourcing: Try and outsource as much of your work as you can. The slightly higher costs will be offset by continuity and the worry of getting replacements.
Business can still be fun if the ingredients are mixed well !
With every good wish
Ramesh Batavia
Many of us who are in small businesses dread one kind of turnover. The employee turnover ! We spend thousands of rupees training employees to adapt themselves to our way and when they are sufficiently trained, they run away to our competitors !
Do they run away or do we drive them away ?
Let’s face it. Many of us have to change our thinking. From generation to generation, getting employees has become more and more difficult. And retaining them has become even more so. Yet, our unconscious philosophy seems to be, “so what if he goes away, I can always get another one. “ Sure you can. But, as many of us have discovered, the replacement is costlier. And, not as good as the original.
Human beings are all creatures of comfort and once they establish a comfort zone, they find it very difficult to change it. Yet employees do it. Lots of reasons. Some of them silly. But they do leave.
When you analyse the reasons, you will find they are emotional rather than rational. It is not just the money. Very often we do not respect our employees. We use them as punching bags to work off our frustrations. We leave them insecure most of the time. Therein lies the root cause.
Management experts will give you various strategies to retain your employees but I could summarise them into just three factors:
Clarity. When you take on someone, you should be clear on what exactly is he expected from him. You should be able to explain to him in a language that he understands, what your expectations are. You should be able to tell him his specific role in your business and what his growth path would be. He should know the performance parameters that will bring him bigger rewards. He should know the extent of his authority, responsibility and most important his accountability.
Empowerment: An employee develops a feeling of belonging only when he has certain responsibilities and is accountable for them. A clear cut policy would tell an employee what his powers are, the extent they can be utilized and the consequences of misuse. A certain degree of independence is a plus factor is binding the employee to us
Satisfying Emotional Needs: Human beings are ruled by sentiment to a large extent. Often, emotional needs are not rational. Yet, satisfying them is critical. Positive strokes, appreciation when deserved given as publicly as possible, constructive criticism being given one on one only, a designation that looks imposing on a visiting card, friendliness at the workplace, social occasions for binding are vital factors that prevent an employee from leaving.
Despite all this, employee attrition is a fact of life. There are just three ways of ensuring that our work does not suffer:
Systems: A work manual for each position in your office which a new employee can read will save you valuable hours of training. Access to a good recruitment agency will give you quick replacements and openness in communication during the recruitment process will prevent expensive attrition.
Cloning of vital functions: Ensure that there are two employees who are abreast of all key functions. An accountant should have an assistant who can take over at short notice.
Outsourcing: Try and outsource as much of your work as you can. The slightly higher costs will be offset by continuity and the worry of getting replacements.
Business can still be fun if the ingredients are mixed well !
With every good wish
Ramesh Batavia
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