Decisions That Waste Time and Money

Many managers rely on gut instinct to make important decisions, which often leads to poor results. On the contrary, when managers insist on incorporating logic and evidence, they make better choices and their companies benefit. Here are three ways to introduce evidence-based management at your company:

• Demand evidence. Whenever anyone makes a compelling claim, ask for supporting data. Don't take someone's word for it.
• Examine logic. Look closely at the evidence and be sure the logic holds up. Be on the lookout for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning.
• Encourage experimentation. If you don't have evidence, create some. Invite managers to conduct small experiments to test the viability of proposed strategies and use the resulting data to guide decisions.

Startup Mentor is a place for all the Startups to find their virtual mentors. The forum is dedicated to giving ideas to the aspiring entrepreneurs and the first generation entrepreneurs. If you fee that you can contribute to the community of entrepreneurs by providing your articles, opinions, analysis and case studies, please send an email to startupmentor@gmail.com

Seven Steps to Superstar Employees

Many employers sit their workers down once a year for a review. At that time, the employee finds out what they've been doing right or if there are areas in need of improvement. But what happens the other 364 days of the year?

Coaching is a different approach to developing employees' potential. With coaching, you provide your staff the opportunity to grow and achieve optimal performance through consistent feedback, counseling and mentoring. Rather than relying solely on a review schedule, you can support employees along the path to meeting their goals. Done in the right way, coaching is perceived as a roadmap for success and a benefit. Done incorrectly and employees may feel berated, unappreciated, even punished.

These seven steps, when followed, can help create a positive environment for providing feedback.

Step 1: Build a Relationship of Mutual Trust
The foundation of any coaching relationship is rooted in the manager's day-to-day relationship with the employee. Without some degree of trust, conducting an effective coaching meeting is impossible.

Step 2: Open the Meeting
In opening a coaching meeting, it's important for the manager to clarify, in a nonevaluative, nonaccusatory way, the specific reason the meeting was arranged. The key to this step is to restate -- in a friendly, nonjudgmental manner -- the meeting purpose that was first set when the appointment was scheduled.

Step 3: Get Agreement
Probably the most critical step in the coaching meeting process is getting the employee to agree verbally that a performance issue exists. Overlooking or avoiding the performance issue because you assume the employee understands its significance is a typical mistake of managers. To persuade an employee a performance issue exists, a manager must be able to define the nature of the issue and get the employee to recognize the consequences of not changing his or her behavior. To do this, you must specify the behavior and clarify the consequences.

The skill of specifying the behavior consists of three parts.

• Cite specific examples of the performance issue.
• Clarify your performance expectations in the situation.
• Asks the employee for agreement on the issue.

The skill of clarifying consequences has two parts.

• Probe to get the employee to articulate his or her understanding of the consequences associated with the performance issue.
• Ask the employee for agreement on the issue.

Step 4: Explore Alternatives
Next, explore ways the issue can be improved or corrected by encouraging the employee to identify alternative solutions. Avoid jumping in with your own alternatives, unless the employee is unable to think of any. Push for specific alternatives and not generalizations. Your goal in this step is not to choose an alternative, which is the next step, but to maximize the number of choices for the employee to consider and to discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

This requires the skill of reacting and expanding. You should acknowledge the employee's suggestion, discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the suggestion, ask for and offer additional suggestions, and ask the employee to explain how to resolve the issue under discussion.

Step 5: Get a Commitment to Act
The next step is to help the employee choose an alternative. Don't make the choice for the employee. To accomplish this step, the manager must be sure to get a verbal commitment from the employee regarding what action will be taken and when it will be taken. Be sure to support the employee's choice and offer praise.

Step 6: Handle Excuses
Employee excuses may occur at any point during the coaching meeting. To handle excuses, rephrase the point by taking a comment or statement that was perceived by the employee to be blaming or accusatory and recast it as an encouragement for the employee to examine his or her behavior. Respond empathically to show support for the employee's situation and communicate an understanding of both the content and feeling of the employee's comment.

Step 7: Provide Feedback
Effective coaches understand the value and importance of giving continual performance feedback to their people, both positive and corrective.

There are a few critical things to remember when giving feedback to others. Feedback should:

Be timely. It should occur as soon as practical after the interaction, completion of the deliverable, or observation is made.
Be specific. Statements like "You did a great job" or "You didn't take care of the clients' concerns very well" are too vague and don't give enough insight into the behavior you would like to see repeated or changed.
Focus on the "what," not the "why." Avoid making the feedback seem as if it is a judgment. Begin with "I have observed..." or "I have seen..." and then refer to the behavior. Focus on behavior and not the person. Describe what you heard and saw and how those behaviors impact the team, client, etc.
Use a sincere tone of voice. Avoid a tone that exhibits anger, frustration, disappointment or sarcasm.
Positive feedback strengthens performance. People will naturally go the extra mile when they feel recognized and appreciated. When corrective feedback is handled poorly, it will be a significant source of friction and conflict. When it is handled well, people will experience the positive effects and performance is strengthened.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Analysis

The Achievement: Transformed a team which had delivered its worst performance in a World Cup-knocked out in the group stage in 2007-into world champions with minimal changes. Demonstrated success in just six months

He is not the best batsman. He is probably not the best wicketkeeper India can have. Yet he turned out to be better than all of these - MS Dhoni is the best team builder and hence the most effective leader in the cricketing world. He transformed a team of champions into a champion team.

Even in April 2007 - the lowest point of Indian cricket in the recent times-the team was packed with individual stellar performers. Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag, Kumble.... But collectively, the team wasn't firing. It had ignobly exited the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006 and was thrashed by South Africa in the same year. It was like an office team that had the most experienced and the best-paid professionals, but was not able to perform collectively. What do you do when you are either a part or head of such a team?

According to Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail, the biggest career lesson from Dhoni's conduct is the art of reposing faith in youngsters. "Dhoni has picked up his team and backed them over a long period. This is a remarkable quality I saw in KV Kamath too," says K Ram Kumar, executive director, ICICI Bank .

Dhoni will not pick and drop you without giving you a decent run. The lesson: talent and temperament do not always come together, but a great leader can help nurture one of the two.

Dhoni also brings an unusually high degree of composure-in contrast to, say, Shahid Afridi. Think of a lost opportunity like a dropped catch. Dhoni would react to it saying the catch is gone, focus on the next ball. "This kind of emotional balance is critical to command loyalty and draw extraordinary performance from your colleagues," says Ram Kumar.

The best thing to learn from Dhoni is to remain in control of a situation. One seldom finds him panicking, says Vishal Bali, CEO of Fortis Healthcare Global. "People look at the body language of the leader. Dhoni is always in charge of the situation-whether he is winning or losing," says Mohan Das Pai, member of the board, Infosys. Leadership trainers don't tire extolling the virtues of emotional quotient (EQ ) over intelligence quotient (IQ). Dhoni exemplifies EQ.

"A leader like him lets people finish and be responsible for their part; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging. This was evident all through the tournament and contributed the most to their win," says Nina Chatrath, principal (leadership & talent consulting) at executive search firm Korn/Ferry.

The fact that Dhoni came from a small town and was put in charge of a team full of seniors helped him rely more on EQ. D Shivakumar, MD of Nokia India, says that Dhoni has proved that irrespective of where you come from, you can conquer the world if you believe in yourself.

The greatest learning from the World Cup is that business is not the only source of management and career lessons, says ISB professor Kavil Ramachandran. To start with, the Indian team had a clear goal that is shared and owned by the entire team. The players were prepared to develop the necessary attitudes and skills to beat the competition at every stage, particularly from the quarter-final onwards.

"The team, led by Dhoni, was able to mix and match its resources basket according to contextual requirements," he says.

PS: This article is an extract from ET with some modification.