This document discusses strategies for developing high-performing teams. It outlines several types of individuals whose behaviors could hinder team performance, such as pessimists, overconfident people, and workaholics. It also describes desired behaviors like imagination, customer-centric thinking, and experimentation. The document advocates for personalized development plans to transform behaviors and enable teams to work effectively together. By focusing on addressing undesirable behaviors and fostering positive attitudes, managers can improve both individual and team productivity and success.

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STRATEGY I Rishikesha T Krishnan
MARKETING I Ambi Parameswaran I Rishi Jaitly
ANALYSIS I Sushil Saluja
RESOURCES I Aadesh Goyal I Lynda Gratton
DR MARKO SARAVANJA on
the need to develop
emotional intelligence.
[ PAGE-56 ]
MEHERNOSH PITHAWALLA
on why customer care is
key to success at Godrej
Security Solutions.
[ PAGE-18 ]
MAY-JUN 14 VOL 13 ISSUE 3
IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
ON MANAGEMENT

2. www.thesmartmanager.com60 The Smart Manager May-Jun 2014
illustrationbynileshjuvalekar
For an organization to succeed, it is important for its employees to work as a team and help achieve common goals.

3. The Smart Manager May-Jun 2014 www.thesmartmanager.com 61
team building Rathnakumar, Saxena
the art of
people development
Leading firms in India—HCL Technologies, Reliance Industries, Yes Bank, and
Infosys, to name just a few—view managing people as an integral part of their business
strategies. ‘The India way,’ which stands in striking contrast to the business practices of
Western countries, recognizes that strategy is based on internal competencies, and these
ultimately come from the actions and efforts of employees1
.
The manager has a difficult task at hand—herding a clutch of individuals whose
behavioral patterns could affect the productivity of his team.
PRANAV SAXENA
IS PROJECT MANAGER,
SAP LABS INDIA.
RATHNAKUMAR G
IS PROGRAM DIRECTOR,
SAP LABS INDIA.
ompanies often assume that training their
staff in a new process is enough for them to
get organized and [perform well], but teams
underperform even when they comprise highly
skilled and trained individuals. It’s not easy to work as a
team as those who are part of it could end up focusing on
their individual goals; people’s behavior and team dynamics
play a critical role in the overall performance of a team.
Non-agile behavior can substantially affect teamwork
and functioning, which may diminish the organization’s
success as it creates negative emotions among team
members. Since every individual has unique attributes,
C

4. www.thesmartmanager.com62 The Smart Manager May-Jun 2014
pessimism: Pessimists dislike almost everything about the
organization, the team, and the company; they are highly
critical, and do not take ownership of any issue. Over a
period of time, they become convinced of their being right
and the rest of the team being wrong; as a result, their
constructive contribution to the team starts decreasing.
They demotivate others, and can restrain the team’s
capability to take on new challenges and make bold
decisions.
Transforming the pessimist is a tough task. Managers
need to seek reasons for their pessimism; they can point
out instances of such conduct and provide optimistic
advice. It’s essential to have regular personal interactions
with such team members, and to appreciate their
performance.
overconfidence: Those who are overconfident tend to
take on most critical and complex tasks, and overstate their
efforts. They often fail to realize that they are not able to
deliver as promised.
The team might feel stressed because of their
showing too much commitment, and get demotivated
when they fail to deliver expected results.
Managers should provide honest inputs on what was
committed and what has been delivered. Education on
planning will help in realistic effort estimation.
arrogance: Insecurity is often camouflaged by arrogance.
Arrogant people are generally proactive, self-promoting,
and may not perform up to the mark. They affect the
team’s motivation and performance by constantly finding
fault with others, and promoting themselves as better
performers.
Such people are a source of conflict. Their behavior and
action may be a hurdle in achieving team unity.
There is need to coach them on active listening,
empathy, and on how to work in a team. They also need
to be given collaborative assignments so that they
understand the challenges others face, and why criticism
is not worthy.
unknown: They are hardworking, intelligent,
well-planned, and stick to timelines; they are moderately
introvert and hence may not have a huge network. There is
no lack of confidence in them, but they are not proactive.
attitudes, and behaviors, personalized development is
key to improving the performance of the individuals as
well as that of the team. The art of people development
involves transforming a ‘group’ into a high-performing
‘team,’ and this can be achieved only with the help of a
good manager.
Here are a few types of individuals who may be good,
but their behavior might stand in the way of the team
achieving its goal. Let us see how they can be transformed
into ideal team members.
non-agile behaviors
reluctance: It is characteristic of certain people to avoid
conflicts by not participating in discussions, and avoid
active participation in a task; they are indecisive and
risk-averse, and the reason for this in most cases is lack
of self-confidence.
These kind of people could affect the overall delivery of
the team, and topics that require a decision by the reluctant
team member will remain open.
Reluctant individuals can be transformed into high
performers by identifying the reason for their low self-
confidence, and offering them technical training so that
they perform better. Guided mastery, as recommended
by psychologist Albert Bandura, is the way to build
self-efficacy in smaller steps over a period of time.
They should be assigned smaller projects so that the
outcome can be measured. The manager has to work
with them in building arguments; they can be made more
participative by asking them questions or seeking their
opinion in meetings.
The art of people
development involves
transforming a ‘group’
into a high-performing
‘team’, and this can
be achieved only with
the help of a good
manager.

5. the art of people development Rathnakumar, Saxena
The Smart Manager May-Jun 2014 www.thesmartmanager.com 63
Personalized
development focusing
on the undesired or
non-agile behaviors of
an individual can quickly
improve productivity of
the team.
01 Managing People: Holistic Engagement of Employees-And How Your
Company Can Profit by India’s Example by Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh,
Jitendra V. Singh, Michael Useem. Source: Harvard Business Press Chapters.
Some colleagues may feel that they are not contributing
even though they might be more productive than others.
They should be brought to the forefront by assigning
tasks that involve communicating with others—for
example, a dependent task or a planning task. They can also
be assigned tasks that require interaction with new people,
and should be consistently coached and monitored.
workaholism: Workaholics work late hours, never
complain about work-life balance, and shoulder additional
responsibilities. They are always anxious about deliverables
and keep creating work for the team. Managers are
generally comfortable with them as the team’s overall
deliverable enhances. They generally think of medium- to
short-term solutions to problems as they do not have time
to think long term.
The team may feel that work is unequally distributed;
many may feel stressed out as their working hours too get
stretched.
Such team members should be transformed into
well-balanced individuals who have to consider various
aspects of work and life. They need to be told about
prioritization and assertively saying ‘no.’
desired behaviors
imagination: One of the most challenging things to do
in a large system and any process-driven organization is
to get the team to see the future. Since imagination is a
creative act, individuals and groups create an interpretation
of reality, the future, and different scenarios; changing that
shared view can be quite challenging. A manager needs to
work on regaining the confidence of the team members on
creative thinking, encouraging them to come up with ideas
and discuss them openly.
customer-centric thinking: Companies have done a lot to
enable customer interactions. However, individuals need
to observe and learn from these interactions and think
about how to enrich customer experience. Managers need
to encourage them to improve their observation skills and
to change their mindset so that the customer is the focal
point. They have to be educated also on the importance of
customer feedback.
experimentation: There are individuals who come
up with good ideas, but expect others to take them up.
They are the idea bank of a team, but [tangible] outcome
from them is zero. Most often, they lose confidence in
themselves and in their imaginative capability. It is for
the manager to coach them to take up one idea at a time,
execute (prototype and experiment) it, and validate it with
the end user. This will help in building confidence as well
as being recognized by the team members.
Through personalized development plans, managers
can enable a team of superstars to play together and win.
Personalized development focusing on the undesired
or non-agile behaviors of an individual can quickly improve
the productivity of the team. Similarly, every individual
should not only hone his or her skills on new technologies
and concepts, but also imbibe an imaginative,
customer-centric, and experiment-oriented attitude.
Managers have to dedicate time for facilitating the
transformational journey of every individual in a team. 