It is by now generally recognized that diversity in workforce fosters an ideal condition for the churning of business innovations. However, diversity does not only mean the natural ones but also acquired stuff. The former would include ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation while the latter implies diversity in experiences. Thus, organizations must recruit personnel from different sectors, rival firms or those from a non-typical domain. It is important that while developing a genuinely functioning team, a common purpose needs to be established. The skills of the team members must complement one another. For specific domains, there must be uniformity in leadership as otherwise there will be chaos. Also, in such cases the leader will bring due expertise of his/her experience in the subject matter. The entire team’s performance must be measured mutually, as it will foster collaboration. It will lead to accountability towards work. Before meetings at management consulting giant PwC, team members are expected to outline in case they have any personal issues for which they may get distracted earlier. This mutual trust allows the team to work as one.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/How-to-Unlock-the-Full-Potential-of-Diverse-Teams?gko=af9de

Uploaded Date:14 February 2018

When employees run into each other in office space, they exchange pleasantries in order to build trust. But this situation gets complicated in the modern workplace which is often geographically distributed across international boundaries. In such situations, two different kinds of trust and similar two types of knowledge are needed. The first two are swift and passable trust, with the last two being direct and reflected knowledge. Swift trust is the condition where colleagues can connect with each other from the word go. Passable trust though develops with time where no one expects any deeper relations to blossom. Neither are perfect relations, but any leader truly good at the art of talent management will combine them with the kinds of knowledge mentioned. Direct knowledge involves understanding the behavioral patterns and personal attributes of remote co-workers. The reflected kind of knowledge on the other hand occurs when one can view one’s own work site from the point-of-view of foreign collaborators.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-to-build-trust-with-colleagues-you-rarely-see?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert&referral=00563&spMailingID=18921171&spUserID=OTY0OTMwNTk5NwS2&spJobID=1182008306&spReportId=MTE4MjAwODMwNgS2

Uploaded Date:13 February 2018

Collaboration has long been touted as a maxim to be followed in business. Great business leaders such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Virgin’s Richard Branson and Larry Ellison of Oracle make up a small part of those advocating for this policy. Yet, the modern business scenario is struggling as a result of excessive collaboration. While earlier, a professional could grudge working under a single boss, now one receives work requests from different verticals, often with very limited relation. These requests may even be from overseas territory with different time zones. Matrix based organizations were begun to encourage innovations as opposed to hierarchical ones, but have instead forged dual lines of reporting with professionals answerable to both functional and product managers. A statistic claims that knowledge workers are now spending a staggering eighty-five percent of their office hours performing unproductive tasks such as attending meetings, responding to emails or spending time on the work phone. This “collective overload” also undoes all talent management initiatives as inevitably it is the top tier of employees who are the most in demand thus their time gets most stretched. In order to survive these tendencies, such employees must start strategically calendaring to ensure they have blocked time towards top priorities. Source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/much-togetherness-downside-workplace-collaboration/

Uploaded Date:28 November 2017

Due to changing business circumstances, the hiring of remote workers or freelancers is growing by the day. Talent management of such remote workers requires a separate skill. Certain steps have been identified for a start which must be adopted. First of all, a smooth onboarding process must be created specifically for freelancers. This is often ignored as most onboarding and management training programmes tend to be exclusively for fulltime staff. Freelancers can occasionally be erratic, so the company must remain proactive in order to help them establish routines. The company must also reman adequately sensitive to time-zone differentials. Before any such recruitment, due diligence must be paid on tax laws of each country and subsequent compliance. Unlike with full-time staff, constant monitoring on minute issues is never possible. Thus, the focus must be on the bigger goals and targets, while micromanaging needs to be avoided at all cost. However, track must be maintained on authenticity of work as on occasion, freelancers have been known to outsource without informing. Remote workers must also feel part of the bigger picture, so they must be included in daily conversations. While emails will remain the backbone of any communication between the parties, over-reliance must be avoided and replaced by the frequent calls, especially those over video.A weekly meeting must be held on virtual space. Another aspect the management needs to take care of is the diversity of cultures, which must be celebrated and in order to foster cross-cultural collaboration. A proper career path must be put in place for freelancers to grow with the company. Care must be taken to ensure that the relationship remains formal, and does not get too casual. Ultimately, due care needs to be taken to understand that the system won’t work with so the hybrid model involving a mix between permanent staff and gig workers is ideal.

Source:https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/10/20/15-mistakes-avoid-when-managing-remote-team/

Uploaded Date:15 November 2017