Zafar Ahmad

The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n

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\n\n\n\n

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Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
3. Factors causing high stress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
The above case is not one-off but a true\nreflection of the high stress, software professionals in India are facing.\nBased on a recent survey of software professionals, over 80% of the respondent\nfelt the high-stress level almost every day at work.   This is an alarming number as we all\nunderstand the impact of stress on the mind and the body. Stress on the mind\ncauses depressions, anger, irritability, mood swings, lack of self-confidence\netc., which leads to a vulnerable effect on the individual. And even if we\nconsider this high number as an aberration, we can deny that the Indian IT\nindustry is seen to be characterized by challenging conditions of\norganizational Stress. The level of stress and its impact may vary within and\nbetween organizations based on the nature of work and work culture. There is\npressure to deliver in a highly competitive market space. To meet the\ndeadlines, organizations require employees to work beyond normal hours, under\nstressful conditions of workload and a competitive environment that triggers\nperformance pressure. Employees are unable to manage work-life balance. When asked, \u2018do they feel lost or are losing\na sense of control in their life - 53% of the respondents said \u2018yes'. The high\nstress has caused a rising trend of low motivation, high attrition, sabbatical\nand premature retirement of employees due to ill health.Factors causing high stress<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Factors causing high stress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
2. Investigation of the problem   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The above case is not one-off but a true\nreflection of the high stress, software professionals in India are facing.\nBased on a recent survey of software professionals, over 80% of the respondent\nfelt the high-stress level almost every day at work.   This is an alarming number as we all\nunderstand the impact of stress on the mind and the body. Stress on the mind\ncauses depressions, anger, irritability, mood swings, lack of self-confidence\netc., which leads to a vulnerable effect on the individual. And even if we\nconsider this high number as an aberration, we can deny that the Indian IT\nindustry is seen to be characterized by challenging conditions of\norganizational Stress. The level of stress and its impact may vary within and\nbetween organizations based on the nature of work and work culture. There is\npressure to deliver in a highly competitive market space. To meet the\ndeadlines, organizations require employees to work beyond normal hours, under\nstressful conditions of workload and a competitive environment that triggers\nperformance pressure. Employees are unable to manage work-life balance. When asked, \u2018do they feel lost or are losing\na sense of control in their life - 53% of the respondents said \u2018yes'. The high\nstress has caused a rising trend of low motivation, high attrition, sabbatical\nand premature retirement of employees due to ill health.Factors causing high stress<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Factors causing high stress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
Recently, I was talking to a young and bright software engineer who works for an Analytics software company in Bangalore. This boy graduated in engineering in the year 2017 and joined this company as a fresh graduate engineer. At the time of joining, he was very excited as this company was his dream company. I observed that, in the first year, he was satisfied due to the learning opportunities he got at work. He used to push himself spending around 50 hours a week worth effort. However, during the last conversation, he sounded a bit frustrated and stressed out. I decided to have a chat with him about his situation. He revealed that the continuous work pressure and deadlines in the last six months have completely exhausted him. He is unable to cope up with the high levels of stress and contemplating quitting the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Investigation of the problem   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The above case is not one-off but a true\nreflection of the high stress, software professionals in India are facing.\nBased on a recent survey of software professionals, over 80% of the respondent\nfelt the high-stress level almost every day at work.   This is an alarming number as we all\nunderstand the impact of stress on the mind and the body. Stress on the mind\ncauses depressions, anger, irritability, mood swings, lack of self-confidence\netc., which leads to a vulnerable effect on the individual. And even if we\nconsider this high number as an aberration, we can deny that the Indian IT\nindustry is seen to be characterized by challenging conditions of\norganizational Stress. The level of stress and its impact may vary within and\nbetween organizations based on the nature of work and work culture. There is\npressure to deliver in a highly competitive market space. To meet the\ndeadlines, organizations require employees to work beyond normal hours, under\nstressful conditions of workload and a competitive environment that triggers\nperformance pressure. Employees are unable to manage work-life balance. When asked, \u2018do they feel lost or are losing\na sense of control in their life - 53% of the respondents said \u2018yes'. The high\nstress has caused a rising trend of low motivation, high attrition, sabbatical\nand premature retirement of employees due to ill health.Factors causing high stress<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Factors causing high stress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n
1. Thought trigger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, I was talking to a young and bright software engineer who works for an Analytics software company in Bangalore. This boy graduated in engineering in the year 2017 and joined this company as a fresh graduate engineer. At the time of joining, he was very excited as this company was his dream company. I observed that, in the first year, he was satisfied due to the learning opportunities he got at work. He used to push himself spending around 50 hours a week worth effort. However, during the last conversation, he sounded a bit frustrated and stressed out. I decided to have a chat with him about his situation. He revealed that the continuous work pressure and deadlines in the last six months have completely exhausted him. He is unable to cope up with the high levels of stress and contemplating quitting the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Investigation of the problem   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The above case is not one-off but a true\nreflection of the high stress, software professionals in India are facing.\nBased on a recent survey of software professionals, over 80% of the respondent\nfelt the high-stress level almost every day at work.   This is an alarming number as we all\nunderstand the impact of stress on the mind and the body. Stress on the mind\ncauses depressions, anger, irritability, mood swings, lack of self-confidence\netc., which leads to a vulnerable effect on the individual. And even if we\nconsider this high number as an aberration, we can deny that the Indian IT\nindustry is seen to be characterized by challenging conditions of\norganizational Stress. The level of stress and its impact may vary within and\nbetween organizations based on the nature of work and work culture. There is\npressure to deliver in a highly competitive market space. To meet the\ndeadlines, organizations require employees to work beyond normal hours, under\nstressful conditions of workload and a competitive environment that triggers\nperformance pressure. Employees are unable to manage work-life balance. When asked, \u2018do they feel lost or are losing\na sense of control in their life - 53% of the respondents said \u2018yes'. The high\nstress has caused a rising trend of low motivation, high attrition, sabbatical\nand premature retirement of employees due to ill health.Factors causing high stress<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Factors causing high stress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several factors that cause stress at\nthe work environment. And it is difficult to order them based on their impact.\nIn my opinion it the compounding effect of a few key factors which impact the\nstress level. Let's look at five prominent factors here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first factor, the lack of \u2018role clarity\u2019 or\nrole ambiguity, is one of key contributors to the stress. \u2018Role ambiguity is a result of the lack of\nclarity around the expectations of the work from an individual. The second key\nfactor is the management style of the immediate supervisor. Managers, who\nthemselves are subject to high-stress levels due to pressure to deliver, often\nwork as taskmasters completely ignoring the people aspects - empathy,\nmotivation, standing by the side of his team member during a difficult time and\ncelebrating both success and failure. The absence of the required support from\nthe manager impacts the self-esteem and productivity of the employee causing\nspiral effect to the stress level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third factor is the workload or overload. Over 50% of the survey respondents said that they work more than 8 hours a day to meet project deadlines. The main reason for this situation in the Indian software industry is over-commitment to its customers to win projects. The over-commitment results in unrealistic timelines which in turn puts the team under undue pressure and high levels of stress. The execution teams may pull it off if the situation or the demand is an exception. Contrary, the management seems to assume that stretching and crossing the line is the norm. Such expectations are neither sustainable nor productive as constant push creates high stress in the teams and results in de-motivated individuals that under-perform and eventually quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth factor is the feeling of insecurity\nin the organizational context. This could be manifested in different ways in a\ndifferent situation. A software engineer working on an end-of-life product may\nfeel insecure and his\/her role redundant in near future or a tester being on\nthe bench for a couple of months in a software services company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth factor is the personal inadequacy for\nthe role. This is triggered by the lack of adequate skills and the resulting\ninability to meet the demands of one\u2019s role. Within the IT industry, it is\nacknowledged that the skill requirements may vary through different projects,\nand professionals need to be re-skilled accordingly. But many a times, project\ntime pressure makes it difficult for the managers to plan and execute the\nnecessary skill development initiatives. In such situation, the general\ntendency of the managers is to throw the kid in the water and let him learn to\nsurvive. He may but think about the stress he would be going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. What can be done to manage stress?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress has two aspects, positive stress and\nnegative stress. Positive stress is also called eustress and can be defined as\npleasant or curative stress. Given the situational demands, eustress may help a\nperson to perform better. The \u2018General Adaptation Syndrome\u2019 theory in neuroscience,\nconsiders eustress as a part of the initial indication of the alarm in the\nbody, but the problem seems to arise when the alarm is ignored causing negative\nstress and the body heads towards a burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we look at the key factors relating to\nhigh stress, they all point to the work culture of the organization. By and\nlarge, the organization culture in the Indian software companies seems to be\nlacking in assisting the employees on stress management. Organizations need to\ncreate an environment that equips employees with appropriate coping mechanisms\nand programs for \u2018stress management\u2019. Another focus area should be\nstrengthening the project planning and governance wherein the organizations\nshould empower managers to do planning encompassing all aspects of project\nmanagement and NOT just time boxing. \nWhile planning the project, it is critical to allocate reasonable time\nfor the team to recharge and to indulge in stress-busting activities like\nmindfulness programs, outdoor team building activities, hackathon. In addition,\norganizations must have good rewards and recognition culture not limited to\nmonetary rewards but aligned with the interests and mindset of the employees.\nAnd above all, organizations need to have a support system that is\npeople-oriented, trustworthy, unbiased and that listens to its employees. As per Mark McDonald, founder, Appster, \n\u201cThe cheapest and most effective way to help stress is simply listening\nto staff,\u201d. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really cost us except for a little bit of time, but the\nimpact on morale is really big.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that many organizations have\nstarted focussing on this issue and are implementing different approaches to\nhelp employees better manage their stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the companies in India, having strong\npeople focus, is \u2018Happiest Mind\u2019. Their philosophy is \u2013 \u2018happiest people make\nhappiest customers\u2019. They call themselves the \"Mindful IT company\".\nTo inculcate mindfulness, Happiest Mind has set aside 60 minutes in a week for\nthe team to engage with customized techniques such as 'Mindful Meditation', 'Active\nListening' , 'Body Scan', 'Desktop Yoga'\n and 'Mindful Coaching' among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google also has inculcated mindfulness in its\nwork culture. Google has institutionalized programs such as Meditation 101,\nSearch Inside Yourself, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The company has\ncreated both virtual and in-person communities called gPause to facilitate and\nencourage meditation practice, including features like daily \u2018in-person\nmeditation sits\u2019 at more than 35 offices, and \u2018day meditation retreats\u2019 at some\nof the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress management initiatives require effort\nboth at the organizational and individual level. In addition to changes in the\norganization's work culture, individuals need to equip themselves with\nmechanisms to deal with high stress. A\nbalanced lifestyle is the first step towards self-stress-management. The key to\na balanced lifestyle is time management. Most people suffer from stress due to\npoor time management. Additionally, it is important to incorporate certain activities\nof one\u2019s interest in daily routine. It could be any sports, music, theatre or\nlight reading. In addition, walking, exercise and stress-buster mindfulness\nactivities like Yoga and meditation are immensely helpful. Last but not least,\nsharing one\u2019s feelings and thoughts with friends, family members or a counsellor\nhelps to emerge out of negative stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stress is an unavoidable and common problem at the workplace. It cannot be eliminated but can be better managed. Organizations must inculcate a work culture which values its people, respect and motivates them, provides continuous skills and behavioral coaching, and it senses and listens to the issues of the employees. Organizations must create an environment that helps their employees perform without undue stress. In addition, organizations need to enable managers in managing people and projects effectively. And, finally, the onus is on individuals to harness the support systems and manage their time effectively to achieve the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Stress level in Indian software industry","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"stress-level-in-indian-software-industry","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:49:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13494","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12963,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:53:56","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:23:56","post_content":"\n
Mark is a manager in a global software product development organization. He manages a 15-member team of software developers and testers. His team is a high-performance team and they deliver consistently meeting expectations of the management and the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex is a team lead in Mark's team. Alex has been with the organization for over 2 years and has been one of the best performers. He possesses excellent technical and inter-persona skills. Highly motivated, engaged and a go-to person with high sense of ownership and team belonging. Suddenly, Mark is observing issues with Alex's performance in the last 8-10 weeks. Alex has been missing his deadlines. He also seemed not engaged during team meetings. Mark had seen some early signs a month ago and he assumed that Alex is overworked and fatigued. He had talked Alex into taking some time off. However, the time off did not seem to help Alex's situation. He is continuing to spend long hours at work but results are not commensurate with the effort. Mark reckons that it is time to intervene and address the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been in a similar situation as a manager or a leader? How will you approach this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suggested Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a tough situation and managers need to handle it intelligently. I have been in such situation before and I will share my experience. In my opinion, the key to managing this issue is being mindful. The cause for a performance slump could be many. Therefore, it is critical to know the root cause to find the cure. I would need to peep into the mind of Alex to understand his psyche, his thought process and may be his personal situation. I would need to act more as a counsellor than a manager. So, I reached out to Alex and took him out for a dinner. I started with casual conversation around Football (I knew Alex was a keen follower of football). Then the conversation shifted to work, product release, timelines, pressure etc. I slowly led him into talking without asking any direct question. And, within\u00a0 next 20-30 minutes, I had a clear understanding of his situation and possible reasons for the recent slump in his performance. I understood that the main reason for his performance slump is lack of engagement and motivation fed by negative thoughts, anxiety and fear about the future. These negative thoughts, anxiety and fear were manifested by the fact that End-of-life was announced for the product, Alex has been working on for two years. And, the current release was last supported release. Unfortunately, the managers did not do a good job of communicating as to what is next in store for the team. Having understood this from Alex, I counselled him and talked about the near future plan of assigning the team to the new product which was awaiting budgetary approval. I told Alex as to how much we value his contribution over the years and regard him as key member of the team. And, he should not worry about his assignment, learning opportunities and career growth in the company. Alex seem quite relaxed and upbeat after the conversation. He thanked me for taking the time out and speak to him. Afterwards, I saw a big turnaround in his engagement level . This conversation was a key learning for me as I realized that Alex may not be only team member going through this. And I repeated this exercise with the entire team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"\/$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #151 - How to overcome performance slump","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow151-how-to-overcome-performance-slump","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:50:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12963","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12975,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2019-06-03 19:41:44","post_date_gmt":"2019-06-03 14:11:44","post_content":"\n
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman who ever played the game, scored 9000 runs in 105 test matches he played between 1998-2002 hitting 31 tons at an average run-rate of 57. During the Australian tour of 2003, his scores read 8, 7, 55, 1, 0, 1, 37, 0, 44 totaling 153 runs at an average of 17. It sounds like blasphemy, but Ian Chappell could not resist commenting, \"XXXX! yes, that's a slump.\" Of course, Sachin pulled himself out the slump quickly and went on to play for another 10 years for India scoring 7000 runs in 90 odd tests hitting 20 more centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can look at another example from the world of Golf. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer along with Jack Nicklaus was world number one and at the peak of his career in 2009. But it all changed in the next few days after the Thanksgiving 2009 when rumors and news about his extramarital affairs started to run rampant. He had a winless 2010 season. His ranking continued to drop and by Nov 2011, he was ranked 58. He was clearly lacking the trademark confidence that made him a routine champion. Woods undertook therapy and counseling to claw back to the number one ranking in 2013 after which his career got plagued by a back injury. It took another 5 years for Woods to regain his form and won his first tournament in September 2018 and he won his first major in eleven years at the 2019 Masters. What a comeback story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose those two examples from the Sports profession as most of us can relate to these great sportsmen. But doesn't this phenomenon sound familiar in other professions? Haven't we, as software professionals experienced a similar slump in performance in our career which at times was difficult to understand and unexplainable. This negative trend is generally called Slump - a period of decline or deterioration, during which a person performs below his \/ her own average, inefficiently, or ineffectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUSES OF\nSLUMP<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons for the deterioration of performance in sportspersons is physical injury. However, it is intriguing that experts don't view that as a reason for slump as that is too obvious and evident. Many times we have read or heard the expression - \"Lack of form<\/strong>\" associated with a sportsperson but without pinpoint reason for the same. Experts believe that most of the times slump are caused by psychological factors, which may be triggered by a poor performance. And, the pressure of recovering from that bad performance leads to increased anxiety and reduced confidence. The lack of a support system (from family, friends, coaches or the organization) further aggravates the situation and the individual gets caught in the quicksand. The downtrend continues.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychological\nfactor is also the key factor for performance slump in other professions. It\ngets triggered by one event either at work or in personal life. At work, it\ncould be a performance appraisal or negative feedback by the manager on certain\nactivities or peer recognition. Sometimes, it is the monotony of job - mundane\nactivities, routine tasks, lack of creativity, no sense of accomplishment which\nreduces your interest in your job and pulls down your performance. Company reorganization, uncertainty, and\ninsecurity of job also happen to significant factors. In personal life, it\ncould be a vacuum created by loss of a loved one or dissatisfaction caused by\nunrealistic expectations for oneself or one's children. Again, if that trigger\nis not contained in a timely fashion, the cycle of slump begins and very soon\nthe person finds himself in a spiral dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUSTING THE\nSLUMP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Be Aware, be mindful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slumps are always fed by \u201cmental time travelling.\u201d\nThat is, the individual goes back and forth between the PAST and the FUTURE. The\npast event keeps howling making you worried \"what if it happens again?\u201d Instead,\nyou need to be in present, fully aware of your situation, your strength and\nopportunities in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Stay Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to stop being pitiful and\nstart believing in yourself. Talk to yourself and remember your WOW moments. Be\na \u201cgood coach\u201d to yourself. Recognize your strengths. Read some inspirational\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Be patient and Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being patient is critical to slump\nbusting because impatience may lead to pressuring yourself. Pressure, whether\nself-imposed or coming from the manager, always works to make slumps worse. Setting\ndeadlines for yourself or threatening yourself with negative consequences for\nfailing will NOT get you unstuck.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Not to shy away from seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us have\ninhibitions to share our problems with others. Seeking counselling from a coach\nor a shrink is very common in the western world but it is almost a taboo in\nIndian culture. This inhibition is not helpful. Share your problems, situation, thoughts with\nothers and seek counselling from your manager, peer, friends and family\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Take time out for yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work-life\nimbalance is also a fuel for Slump. Slumps are signs that we are running low on\ninternal fuel and you need to pause and relax. Sometimes, we feel that if we\nare away from work then things will not move. But, that is not true. Heaven won\u2019t\nfall and the things would continue move at their own pace. On the contrary, there\nmay be lots to do, but if you aren\u2019t in your form, nothing much is going to get\ndone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking\na short break from work helps. Spend the time doing things you enjoy. Take a\nshort holiday with your loved ones to your preferred destination. Read your favourite\nbooks or watch your favourite shows. Spend time with your friends, or just\nspend time alone if you prefer that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Stop blaming others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, we accuse\nour managers to be biased. We take their feedback negatively. We blame the\norganization and its policy to be unsupportive. All these negative thoughts\nonly push us further in the quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I am troubled by these\nthoughts, I remember this quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"There is nothing outside of yourself that\ncan ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter.\nEverything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of\nyourself\".<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miyamoto Musashi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nZafar<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"slumpbusting-overcoming-performance-slumps","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-11-12 14:44:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-11-12 09:14:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=12975","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"6","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11234,"post_author":"34","post_date":"2018-11-14 11:09:55","post_date_gmt":"2018-11-14 05:39:55","post_content":"\n
The key objective of any performance management system is to identify the strengths, areas of improvements and to provide learning opportunity so the performance of the individuals and the teams and thereby of the organization is enhanced. However, it has become a tool for managing bell curve and for compensation management leaving both managers and team members equally dissatisfied with the process. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional HR practices of people management date back to the late 40s and early 50s, after world war II. Even though the core business processes have transformed significantly over the last two decades, the HR practices have not. A strong gap exists between \u2018continuously evolving organizations\u2019 and HR Practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In traditional HR systems, the goal setting is an annual exercise, while the goals and tasks are dynamic in nature for Agile teams. As a result, by year-end, there could be misalignment between the initial goals (that were set at the beginning of the year) for the individual and his\/her achievements. For example, one individual is a software developer at the time of the annual, goal-setting exercise. He\/she gets reassigned to the tech-support role after a few months but his\/her goals are not redefined accordingly. This situation is bound to create a problem at the time of year-end appraisal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge is that traditional HR practices focus on individuals - their goals, performance, and training needs. The manager assigns tasks to the individual and the manager conducts the review on those assigned tasks. Contrary to this, Agile methods are about self-organized teams that plan, assign and execute their tasks. In addition, the team is responsible for tracking own progress, identify bottlenecks, and retrospect what went wrong and chalk out an action plan to improve on those. In nutshell, the traditional performance review is not in line with Agile principles. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agile methods advocate aligning goal setting for teams with the planning cadence. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) recommends setting quantifiable objectives during Program Increment (PI) planning event, a cycle of 2 or 3 months to set collaborative objectives, team goals, and expectations. Agile ceremonies, iteration, and program retrospective serve as a mechanism for providing feedback and measurements on the performance of both the individuals and teams. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frequent interactions and continuous feedback between leaders, team members, and other stakeholders during Agile ceremonies help in learning and continuous improvement as it provides cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-team learning opportunities. In addition, regular structured one-on-one dialogues between the manager and the team members happen, to review goals and progress and to discuss issues and challenges. The individual\u2019s strength for the current and the future roles, development needs, and progress are key agenda of these meetings. The manager acts as a coach, listening, reflecting and helping the team member to come up with action plans. These structured dialogues replace the need for mid and end-year reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To manage the volume and complexity of feedback, a few organizations have started using tools to manage and analyze them. The tools assist all stakeholders - managers, coaches, team members and if required clients, to provide real-time feedback on one another. A global telecom OEM uses proprietary technology to collect weekly raw data called \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d from employees about their peers\u2019 performance. Such tools enable managers to see variations in individual performance over a period of time and intervene with coaching and mentoring. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of Agile methods is self-organized and self-driven teams. Thus, it is critical to measure the \u2018Team performance\u2019 against a certain benchmark and plan appropriate interventions to pull laggard teams to be at par with the best performing teams in the organization. A few companies are running pilot projects to identify the organization's best-performing teams, analyze how they operate and share the learning with other teams in the organization. A global telecom company uses an enterprise-wide platform called Team Space. This tool tracks data on teams, their projects, their developmental needs, and achievements to assess performance and improvement areas of teams within business units and across the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other interesting models experimented by a few organizations. One is the OKR (Objectives and Key results) model used by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter amongst others. Holacracy, created by <\/span>HolacracyOne<\/span><\/a>, is another interesting method for enabling organizations to be self-managed and self-organized. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business world today is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). \u201cSpeed is the new Business currency\u201d and Agility is the mantra to compete and sustain in business. The way forward is to redefine performance management as a continuous, forward-looking, improvement focussed agile process targeted to improve business results. A large number of organizations including Google, Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft are leading the way. However, even though the efforts are in the right direction, it will take time for the HR function to catch up with other functions on the Agile maturity curve. The onus is on executive leadership and HR to transform themselves into a function that facilitates leading and coaching as opposed to managing and provide just-in-time support for learning and development.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zafar Ahmad.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Performance Management of Agile Teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"performance-management-agile-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 15:51:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=11234","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

Zafar Ahmad

Personal Growth

Stress level in Indian software industry

by Zafar Ahmad
October 14, 2019

Chow

Chow #151 – How to overcome performance slump

by Zafar Ahmad
June 3, 2019

Agile

SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps

by Zafar Ahmad
June 3, 2019

Agile

Performance Management of Agile Teams

by Zafar Ahmad
November 14, 2018

Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 2

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Stress level in Indian software industry

Chow #151 – How to overcome performance slump

SlumpBusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps

Performance Management of Agile Teams

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