Mantras to Mentor Employees

“Innovation is not about money. It’s about the people you have, and how you’re led.” – Steve Jobs

Introduction

A manager bears significant responsibility, accountability, and authority within an organization. Gallup has established, based on its elaborate survey few years back, beyond doubt that outstanding performance of the organization depends on outstanding performance of its people which in turn depends on how strong and vibrant work environment is in the organization. And manager plays a key role in creating such strong and vibrant work environment where employees would like to give their best. The importance of manager can be gauged from the fact that, as per the latest Gallup study managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.

What do Managers do?

Late Peter Drucker, father of modern management, divided the job of the manager into five basic tasks:

• Sets objectives.
• Organizes. He divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.
• Motivates and communicates.
• Measures. He establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and interprets performance.
• Develops people.

Given manager’s role and importance in the organization the following two mantras would enable them to succeed:

Two Important Management Mantras

A) Pygmalion Effect

Greek mythology talks about Pygmalion– a sculptor and prince of Cyprus. Pygmalion created an ivory statue of his ideal women and named it 'Galatea'. Galatea was so beautiful that he immediately fell in love with her and begged the goddess Aphrodite to breathe life into the statue and make it alive. Aphrodite granted Pygmalion his wish. The statue came to life and the couple married and lived happily ever after. The Pygmalion effect, Rosenthal effect, or more commonly known as the “teacher-expectancy effect” refers to situations in which students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so. So by setting clear expectations with overt deliverables and metrics that are both time-bound and quality-specific, you give them the parameters to succeed. The second management mantra is more important to be effective than to be right.

b) Galatea effect is a compelling factor in employee performance. The manager, who can assist employees to believe in them and in their efficacy, harnesses a powerful performance improvement tool. Individual’s opinion about his ability and his self-expectations about his performance largely determine his performance. If an employee thinks she can succeed, she will likely succeed. Consequently, any actions the supervisor can take that increase the employee’s feelings of positive self-worth; will help the employee’s performance improve. Jambavan, as an advisor to Sugreeva, was instrumental in making young Hanuman realize his immense capabilities and encouraged him to fly across the ocean to search for Sita in SriLanka.

Conclusion

As rightly said by Goethe, "Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will become as he can be and should be." To get the outstanding results from his people, a manager has to create an environ of positive expectations, which works wonders for them, and take actions that would increase the employee’s feelings of positive self-worth.

By Dr A Jagan Mohan Reddy

Senior Faculty (HR),Institute of Public Enterprise.