Blog: Retain talented resources with agile work-styles

Culture

Retain talented resources with agile work-styles

There can be many kinds of talent in your team. How do you approach each is the key to retain them.
Retain talented resources with agile work-styles

The story revolves around a manager, Disha and her team member Ayush. Disha and Ayush work for a multinational pharmaceutical company ABC Ltd. based out of Mumbai. They are part of the Corporate Strategy team and Disha reports into Head of Strategy at ABC Ltd.

Ayush is a fresh graduate from IIMA with no prior work experience. He is a tall, thin millennial in his early 20s. Ayush is very excited for his first corporate stint just after his post-graduation with ABC Ltd. and looks forward for his contribution towards the company with his fresh and innovative ideas.

Disha is a post-graduate from IIMC, 1995 batch and has around 20 years of experience in ABC Ltd. She joined ABC Ltd. as a Management trainee in 1995 and has grown significantly within the company over the years. She is considered as a good performer and has got several opportunities to work across divisions in different roles at ABC Ltd.

Disha and Ayush are entrusted with a very important strategy execution for their new product and they need to design the roadmap for the marketing and advertisement of the product across the country. Ayush is very enthusiastic for the project and is gearing up for sharing plethora of ideas for the execution.

Disha and Ayush meet for a small conversation and the excerpts are as below:

Disha: So Ayush you must be excited for the new project. How are you feeling?
Ayush: I am very excited and thrilled for this project. Would like to share several ideas which I have in mind. I will share as and when it comes.
Disha: That is fine Ayush. But make sure we follow the project timelines. Let’s do one thing. Make a project plan with all the small activities captured in that. We will review that every evening before leaving.
Ayush: Project Plan? (With an astonishing and bewildered look!) Don’t you think we should do a brainstorming first and then make a project plan? Just thinking aloud.
Disha: No. I have handled similar kind of projects before as well. Project plan is always important. We can keep adding or deleting things as and when it comes. Sounds Good?
Ayush: As you say Disha. However, I still feel that we should not be so confined in our approach.
Disha: OK then. Please make a project plan and let’s discuss tomorrow.
Ayush: OK.

Ayush certainly is not very happy with the approach as he is not used to of working under these circumstances. Whereas, Disha could not accept Ayush’s approach as she has adopted a certain way of handling projects and does not want to unlearn and learn now methodology.

Since Ayush is not OK with the approach, it got reflected in the output of the project plan as well. He could not capture all the intricacies of the project and hence Disha scolded her for not giving the best possible output.

The story continued for quite a few days and eventually led to de-motivation in Ayush. He could not perform well and did not meet Disha’s expectations. This in turn led to a bitter relationship between Disha and Ayush. During appraisals, Disha rated Ayush “LOW” because of his low performance and Ayush got very de-motivated and shattered because of the series of incidences. Finally, for the betterment of his career and prospects, he decides to leave the company!

What went wrong in this entire scenario? I leave it to the readers for their interpretation and share comments.

As per my understanding, the main issue rests on the working style and brain-behavior of the two individuals. It is clearly visible from the series of events and incidences that Ayush is a right-brained guy whereas Disha is a left-brained person.

A right-brained individual generally is creative, innovative, thinks out of the box, loves to generate new ideas, likes freedom in his approach, hates stringent rules, dislikes processes etc. Whereas, a left-brained individual follows an analytic approach. They would like to evaluate all pros and cons before taking any decisions. Right-brained individuals likes to think in one direction and are practical in their approach. They tend not to take very hasty decisions and hence are risk averse.

In the case of Disha and Ayush, they both were working for a common goal but the working style was exactly opposite. Ayush wanted to think out-of-the-box whereas Disha wanted to work with stringent project plans. Ayush wanted to generate new ideas whereas Disha wanted to implement ideas through her experience.

I am not passing any judgment on who is right and who is wrong, but it is very evident that in this entire scenario company lost a talented resource!

I am not sure whether opposites always attract or not. In this case they DON’T!

(The characters portrayed are fictional in nature, and have no resemblance to real persons)

 

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Topics: Culture, #Retention

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