Why People Managers Also Need to Focus on Technical Competencies and How Can They Keep Their Technical Competencies Fit and Fine?

Successful managers are good both at technical direction-setting and people management. One reason for this could be the fact that a manager who can handle both technical and people side well would have a balanced perspective.

People or Soft Skills

On one hand, people managers need competencies that are related to people management or the “soft skills” as they might be referred to as. Knowing how to deal with subordinates, peers and superiors is absolutely essential to get the work done.  People management or team management requires a very fine balancing act. All work is eventually performed by people and hence knowing how to manage people is an essential skill for a manager of people.

Technical or Hard Skills

On the other hand, however, managers also need competencies that are quite technical in nature or the “hard skills” as they might be referred to as. Knowing the "stuff" is indeed important so that the team has confidence on the manager as a problem solver or direction provider. In fact, this is that one single skill which is critical for managers so that they remain relevant as their career progresses.

Acquiring and Retaining Technical Skills

Learning the technical or the hard aspects is surely possible provided the manager consciously makes efforts in that direction. Here are some ways to enable this:

• Performing regular technical review of the team's work (this essentially involves asking right questions to the team, interpreting the responses correctly and asking good follow-up questions)
• Attending industry forums and conferences (this essentially involves getting to know the state of the art, emerging trends, newer concepts and methodologies and learning from experts)
• Investing time into self-study (this essentially involves learning through books, journals and these days through Internet also)
• Taking up speaking and writing opportunities (this essentially involves speaking at industry forums, writing papers and articles)

Why Technical Skills Need to be Focused On?

In general the people manager should have a broad-based understanding of all or most of the relevant technical skills. At the same time there should be a few relevant technical skills in which the people manager possesses strong vertical expertise (this is important to gain "technical" respect of the people being managed). This allows the people manager to know, to a certain extent of course, that the team is in the right direction at the right pace. This assumes high significance as the successes and the failures of the team are ultimately owned by the manager.

In addition, focusing only on people skills and ignoring technical skills completely is not a good career management strategy. Possessing certain technical skills means that it is easy to slide into a consultant, speaker, advisor or auditor roles at any point in one’s career, should the need arise (remember these are individual contributor roles and require technical competencies unlike typical managerial roles).

When A Promotion Doesn't Really Make One Happy

Strange title for a blog post as promotion in one's career is supposed to make one very very happy. Well the point is does one really feel happy on being promoted?

When one looks at the jobs in the government and public services sector then one may probably be really happy on getting a promotion.

This might be due to the reason that the roles and responsibilities in government and public services sector are generally very well defined and it can be said that as a general rule the responsibilities generally rise along with the role in the organizational hierarchy.

In private sector though this may not be the case and the question in this post is very pertinent, "does one feel happy on a promotion?".

In private sector organizations, hire and fire is far easier compared to that in government and public sector organizations. And similar is the case with promotions.

Handing someone a promotion at times has nothing to do with a real vacancy at the higher level or individual performance. There are many other factors that drive who gets promoted.

Some of the them are listed below:

• Loyalty factor - since XYZ has completed "n" years with the organization she must be promoted now
• Attrition factor - if we don't promote employee XYZ this year she may leave
• Salary factor - XYZ is already getting a salary which is halfway through the salary range of the next level so there is no choice than to promote her otherwise by next increment her salary will reach the salary range of the level above next
• Getting Acquired factor - since the company is about to get acquired by another some select few should be promoted to gain advantage in the post-acquisition organizational structure (this is generally done for the senior management positions and, at times, may backfire badly for the select few)
• Acquirer factor - since the company is about to acquire another some select few should be promoted to gain advantage in the post-acquisition organizational structure (this is generally done for the senior management positions and, in case of acquirer, does offer good advantage to the select few)
• Good boss factor - if a happy boss presents a strong case for promoting XYZ and persists in pushing it then the promotion will happen sooner than later
• Management whims factor - the senior management thinks that someone should be promoted, just like that (the reasons would be clear to the senior management but not to the lesser mortals and that doesn't matter)

Interestingly in the case of many promotions no real advantage may come the way of the promoted other than compensation benefits . And if that is so, should one really be happy on a promotion?

After a few days of the promotion the novelty factor will die down and one would realize nothing has changed in terms of one's responsibilities and authorities. What will not change in any manner whatsoever would be the day-in and day-out activities one was doing before the promotion and after.

So, at times, a promotion may not necessarily be a promotion in the real sense. And this would be the situation "When A Promotion Doesn't Really Make One Happy".

Managing Job and Career

Everyone - those having their own business (self employed professionals or business owners) or those who work for others (employees) or those who stay back at home (homemakers) - must analyze their job and career and try to determine how to manage it effectively. Even those who stay at home, have a job to do. Homemakers and housewives are actually in a 24x7 job, even if it is traditionally not viewed to be a job.

For Self Employed Professionals or Business Owners

Those having their own business must invest their effort on following:

• Learning ways to expand the business
• Establishing contacts and leads to grow the customer base
• Be on the lookout for opportunities to increase revenues and reduce expenses

For Employees

Those who work as an employee must invest their effort on following:

• Keeping skills and competencies current so that one can remain employable
• Developing generic soft skills like communication skills, presentation skills so that changing companies is easy
• Keeping current with new technical and managerial development in the line of one's job
• Constantly be on the lookout so that one can spot career growth opportunities not only inside the organization but more importantly in another organization

For Homemakers

Those who stay back as homemakers must invest their effort on following:

• Finding bargain deals
• Maintaining household items and equipments properly so that they serve a longer useful life
• Ensuring healthy diet and lifestyle for all family members (resulting in lowered medical expenses)

Job Market and 'Sabzi' Market

'Sabzi' is a Hindi/Urdu word which means vegetables. In a wider sense it includes fruits also. The job and sabzi market are similar in many ways and different in many other ways. While thinking about this some days back, I came up with the following similarities and differences. I thought it is something interesting enough for sharing with others so here it goes...

First, the similarities:
1. Bargaining is the name of the game
2. The seller (job-seller or the company, sabzi-seller or sabzi-wala) always has more information about the market prices than the poor buyer (prospective employee, customer)
3. The seller always gets to set the base price for effecting the sale

Now, the differences:
1. The job-seller always operates with an upper bound on the sale price (the salary). Any buyer (prospective employee) demanding for more than this price won't get the job. On the other hand, the sabzi-seller always operates with a lower bound on the sale price. The buyer (customer) willing to pay lesser than than this price won't get the sabzi.
2. The job-seller doesn't need to compete with other job-sellers in open (though generally the job-seller has the required information - or they easily find it out by calling the candidates themselves).On the other hand, the sabzi-seller has to compete with other sabzi-sellers openly (and loudly).
3. The job-seller is selling a non-perishable product (a job not sold on a given day could be easily sold the next day or a week after or even later).On the other hand, the sabzi-seller has to sell the product within its shelf life otherwise he would incur complete loss.

The funny reality is that all of us need sabzi... and all of us need job as well to buy the sabzi!

Job Search Sites in India

Are you looking for a job in India? Are you searching for better career opportunities? Do you want to use the Internet for getting to know about the jobs available in your skill area?

Well I went through an intensive job search exercise myself sometime back. And while searching for jobs in my skill area I came across many job sites. After spending considerable time on many of these job sites I came to a simple conclusion - everyone is looking for a list that provides names of the "top" job sites. Such a list will help save time and effort in reaching to one's dream job. I thought it will be helpful to the job-seekers if I create such a list based on my experience. So here's my list of the "top" job sites that you can use as you search jobs in India:

Multi-site Job Search (my preferred method - these job sites don't have any job data of their own and search sites which have actual job data. One would need to create account in almost all the sites that appear in the job search results.)
http://www.indeed.co.in/
http://www.bixee.com/
http://www.careerjet.com/
http://www.oneclickjob.com/

Major Job Sites (these sites have actual job data - one can apply directly for a job from these websites)
http://www.naukri.com/
http://www.timesjobs.com/
http://www.monsterindia.com/

You Get Hired for Business Need not for Career Growth

When you get hired by a company it is not because they are interested in your career growth but because they have a business need. It can be said that you get hired for the company's business need not for your career growth.

What is the key implication of the above for a salaried professional? It means you have to take charge of your career. It also means that when you decide to join an organization it should be based purely on your assessment of career growth for yourself in that particular job opportunity. Following are some strategies for you as an individual to ensure career growth for yourself:

Assess Your Career Progress Regularly

Assess periodically (at least once in a quarter) what's happening in your career and based on that decide whether to continue or quit.

Analogy with what companies do:
Companies take decisions like which product line to continue or discontinue based on quarterly results.

Remain Updated on Changes in Demand Pattern of Relevant Competencies

Always know what's hot and happening in the market in respect of your core and related skills, competencies and qualifications.

Analogy with what companies do:
Companies are always evaluating the current and emerging market trends for the products and services they sell in the market.

Analyze Whether to Stay Put or Move On at Each Career Milestone

Never shy from taking hard career decisions which could even mean leaving a company if you joined it but later on realized that it was a wrong decision.

Analogy with what companies do:
Companies take hard decisions like discontinuing certain products and services, laying off employees, etc. if they make wrong decisions on these fronts

Always Keep the Search On for Interesting Career Opportunities

Keep your resume updated and floating around with consultants and your professional network, also let it be known that you are always available to consider interesting career opportunities.

Analogy with what companies do:
Companies are always on the hunt for exciting and interesting business opportunities to grow further.

Why an Employee Changes Job?

This is an over-discussed question so the following reasons may not sound original or new. However, this question is really an important one and hence merits additional insight. The reasons why an employee changes his or her job has to do with the following:  

Poor Job Definition and Lack of Clarity on Career Direction

Poorly defined role which doesn't satisfy the employee's aspirations and offers no growth opportunity. For any employee the aspects of any job - what one is currently doing and how it could grow up matter more than anything else. Lack of clarity with respect to these aspects from those to whom the employee reports into (both direct and functional managers) has a significant impact on whether the employee will stay for long or not.

"Closed" Organizational Culture and Corporate Legacies

Organizational culture which promotes and rewards certain behaviour patterns that makes an employee uncomfortable. The personalities, legacies and self-images created in the organization fuel this further and eventually it appears to the employee that the organization is 'closed' as far as taking suggestions to change are concerned.   

Reporting Into Superiors Who Have Neither Interest Nor Time

Those to whom the employee reports into (both direct and functional managers) have no time for the employee and show least interest in proactively knowing about what the employee is doing. It appears to the employee that what he or she is doing is not important or strategic for the managers, which is quite demotivating.   

Lack of Opportunities and Growth

Those to whom the employee reports into (both direct and functional managers) don't create opportunities for the employee to grow further in line with organizational needs and the employee's aspirations. If there are opportunities available but they are not provided to the employee it is highly frustrating for him or her.   

Uninspiring Leadership

The management or leadership team is not considered by the employee to be worthy enough of the positions they hold. This might arise due to negative statements and actions of the management or leadership team.

Do You Stand a Chance to Become CEO?

Career progression is an upward journey on a “pyramid with a single top” which means at any given point in time only one employee in the whole organization stands the chance to become CEO. Understanding the “pyramid with a single top” concept of career progression is quite important for guessing the answer to this all important question for any employee – “do you stand a chance to become CEO?”

Progressing to the top of corporate hierarchy - do you stand a chance?

The likelihood that one employee amongst those who have direct reporting to the current CEO will succeed her is probably the highest, though not guaranteed. However, it is possible to guess the answer to thequestion “do you stand a chance to become CEO?” for every employee at various points in her professional career.

So how to tell whether you stand a chance to become CEO or not? There is some likelihood of your becoming CEO one day in the following cases:

You can become CEO if you are working in the core business function and not in the support groups

Those who work in support groups like Quality, HR, and Administration stand virtually no chance. Those who work in support groups like Finance, Sales & Marketing, and Business Development are exception to this rule. The employees in Quality, HR, and Administration do stand a chance to become CEO but only in those organizations which specialize in providing such services.

You can become CEO if you are in the right chain of reporting

This is where “Mother Luck” works for or against an employee. If the reporting manager of an employee is not considered as a top performer then her team gets labeled in a similar manner. This phenomenon starts with the CEO, passes through all employees in particular chains of reporting and goes all the way down to the junior-mostemployee. Being in the wrong chain of reporting is detrimental to the career progression of an employee. Unfortunately, an employee generally will not get to choose her manager; it’s always the other way round.

You can become CEO if you are liked by the people higher up in your chain of reporting

Performance does matter but is not enough. The people higher up in an employee’s chain of reporting should like her. The key point is that an employee should be seen as “ready for promotion” and hence fit to take bigger and more challenging assignments. Being liked is unfortunately based mostly on perceptions and is very subjective. An employee should always attempt to build good relations with people higher up in her chain of reporting and with the others as well.

You can become CEO if you are not caught amidst office politics and ego issues

An employee despite playing the ‘corporate game’ in an adept manner can at times get caught in office politics and ego issues for no fault of hers. Some of such incidents can prove to be fatal for that employee’s career. In another scenario, an acquisition or organizational restructuring can abruptly make an employee’s career bite the dust in no time. An employee cannot do much in certain situations which are beyond control and at best can only pray silently.

Learning and Growing Professionally

For an individual it is important that he or she gets opportunities for learning and growing professionally in the place of work. It ensures that the individual improves upon existing competencies and acquires additional, related competencies. This helps an individual realize his or her full potential. 

Learning and Career Growth

Learning is not only essential for an individual to keep his or her career fit and healthy but it also enables career growth. Learning is a constant process and generally happens in one or more of the following ways:

• Taking up higher responsibilities in certain work assignments and projects
• Acquiring knowledge (through various modes like self-learning, classroom training, knowledge sharing sessions, seminars, etc.) and applying the knowledge gained in the work being performed
• Becoming a trainer, coach or mentor for others

Performance, Career Growth and Role Enhancement

Performing to the desired expectations (and usually exceeding them) is needed for growing professionally. The most essential element of career progression is do with role enhancement. In many organizations, the practice of promotion is focused on changes to the salary band and/or the designation or title. This may or may not mean a role enhancement in the true sense. Though it may appear that the individual being promoted would taken up additional responsibilities, it is more on the papers and may not be the case in reality.

Career Growth Needs More than Performance

Opportunities to learn are easy to get in most organizations but opportunities to grow are limited in all organizations. More than actual performance on the job, growth has to do more with other factors like the following:

• There is a vacant position available (can you get promoted to your manager's role if he seems to have got cemented to that forever)
• Person's fitment and suitability for higher position as perceived by those who are supposed to award promotions (despite all the HR theories around this, personal egos and working relationships do matter a lot here)
• Labeling of an individual as non-performer or poor performer due to the way the performance appraisal system is designed (it is however common to find a non-performer shifting into another company and becoming a top performer in no time - remember Amitabh Bachchan, the legendary Hindi cinema actor, was rejected by All India Radio with the reason that his voice is not good!)

Taking Career Growth Heads On

 So what should an individual do in a situation where he or she feels that a promotion (strictly in terms of role change) to them is deserved? There are basically two options. First, stay and sulk. Second, move to another organization with a role change. For an individual the following question should always be at the top of the mind - does my current role and / or organization fit into my career vision? One must be honest enough to admit that his or her current organization doesn't fit in with what they want to achieve in their professional career and move out of it at the earliest to contain the adverse impact on their professional growth.

Individual Aspirations and Organizational Expectations

When a business organization ("Company XYZ, Inc.") hires an individual it is concerned only about its interests. The decision to hire an individual is based on need of the business and fitment of the individual to the role, title and budgeted CTC. It's a process where individuals are considered to be a business commodity which need to be purchased like any other commodity. The significance of "Me, Inc." is limited to the business context in which "Company XYZ, Inc." operates.

Going by the above elaboration, it is clear that "Company XYZ, Inc." from time to time would not need certain individuals. Right-sizing, down-sizing, organizational restructuring, lay-offs, closures, etc., is the name of the game for an organization to retain its market relevance. If an individual, a project, a product line, a location or a plant is not performing to the organization's expectations, there is a danger of it being 'shut down'.

Understanding the Me, Inc.

There's a second side to it, the organization loosing its relevance for the "Me, Inc.". If the aspirations of "Me, Inc.". are not aligned to or at direct clash with the expectations of the "Company XYZ, Inc.", an individual should analyze and decide his or career path accordingly.

For an individual, the way his or her career shapes up is the most important concern more than anything else in his or her professional life. For each month, if not week or day, spent in the organization, an individual must analyze how his or her career is progressing. Everyone should do a "Monthly Career Progress Review" against the short-term and long-term career aspirations.

When Me, Inc. Should Part Ways with Company XYZ, Inc.

It may not be advisable for an individual to cling on to an organization in the following situations:

• The individual's competencies are either under-utilized or not utilized or his or her aspirations are not duly recognized and addressed
• The individual's role doesn't offer the possibility for any further growth into increasingly senior positions
• The individual's role is designed from a 'job' perspective and not a 'career' perspective
• The individual is not in agreement with the organizational expectations from his or her role and finds it difficult to accept certain aspects of the role
• The individual is not able to or willing to adjust with the overall working culture which makes him or her to work in a style not natural to the individual (like an organization where one is not supposed to question or challenge the persons higher up in the organizational hierarchy, or an organization where the legacy element is so strong that the very suggestion to change anything is considered to be 'revolt', or an organization where there's excessive bureaucracy in getting job title change, getting a laptop, getting administrative tasks done, etc.)

What should an individual do if his or her aspirations are not supported by the organization's expectations from "Me, Inc." as highlighted in the points above?

Putting Parting Ways into Action

Here's a suggested step-wise strategy to handle such situations:

• Step 0 : Bring out that rusted resume, update it and float it to know one's marketability. And in fact, one should attend some interviews as well to know precisely where one stands w.r.t. one's market value.
• Step 1 : Give oneself a specified time for correcting the situation in one's current organization. This requires making 'right noise' about one's aspirations. One must be careful but this needs to be done if one wants to determine whether he or she has any 'future' with the organization one is working with. Having a mature and understanding boss is crucial for this to be even attempted. Otherwise, this is akin to committing professional suicide.
• Step 2: If Step 1 fails, one must be ready to move out. This is the time when Step 0 would come to one's rescue. One shouldn't wait beyond the specified time and must exit as fast as possible.

The above strategy is similar to "Me, Inc." shutting down the "Company, Inc.", figuratively speaking. Again, one must ensure that before joining an organization, one has researched about the organization thoroughly. Frequent job change is not good for an individual, organizations, the economy and the society as a whole. And in fact, it impacts individuals more than anyone else. After all, individuals have lesser resources and lesser power than organizations.

The Young CEOs

Almost everyone who joins the corporate world starts with the dream of becoming a CEO one day, sooner than later, in their professional career.

It is, however, a harsh reality that majority of those who enter the corporate world will never reach the CEO position.

For becoming CEO, one must start on the “CEO Track” and more importantly, stay on the CEO Track during one’s career.

A CEO Track is one that connects an entry-level position to the CEO position eventually.

There are many who join in an entry-level position which is not on the CEO Track and hence will stand virtually no chance of ever reaching the CEO position barring a helpful intervention by mother luck.

The entry-level positions which are not on the CEO Track are generally in support functions like HR, Administration, etc.

There are many who join in an entry-level position which is on the CEO Track and hence stand a good chance of reaching the CEO position.

However, being on the CEO Track doesn’t guarantee that one will reach the CEO position since the corporate world is like a pyramid and the CEO positions are in perpetual scarcity.

Most of those who are on the CEO Track will generally meet the following fate as they will lack “CEO Material”:

• Stagnate at a certain position and retire well before becoming CEO
• Move out as CEO of another organization (which will generally be a smaller organization)
• And at worst, linger on and get laid off one fine day (all positions in an organization are subject to redundancy due to the uncertain business climate that envelops the corporate world – recession, acquisition, restructuring, facilities shutdown or relocation, product or service discontinuation, etc.)

Finally, there are those who by virtue of being “CEO Material” will eventually get promoted to the CEO position. Those who eventually become CEO become part of an exclusive club.

Many of those who become CEOs will take time to reach the CEO position and will generally be of a ripe age by the time they become CEO.

However, there are those also who will manage to become CEOs at a young age.

They may be self-made, successful, young entrepreneurs-turned-CEOs like Bill Gates of Microsoft or professional managers like Jack Welch of GE (who get on to the fast track career path and end up becoming CEO at an early age).

The young CEOs are a class apart.

They are the chosen ones who not only realize their dream of becoming a CEO one day in their professional career but also realize that dream at an early age so that they have sufficient time to enjoy the fruits of their accomplishments in the corporate world.