This course of Organisational behavior is a life-changing one and is of utmost importance to develop the people skills or soft skills. Soft Skills are considered to be more important as managers than technical or hard skills. You are not only responsible for your own work but you have to own up and take the responsibility of the entire team under you. Some managers even go on to become great leaders. Only these soft skills differentiate great leaders from the average ones. How to treat your employees, how well can you motivate them to do the job and connect your employees to the organization’s mission and vision, are important functions of managers. You also got to have employees who are satisfied with their job- with the profile they have, with the team they are in, with the manager they work under, and with the compensation, they are paid. To set the tone for the organization’s behavior and work culture, we need to have a sound recruitment process. Not just testing the candidates for technical aspects but also for the behavioral side is important. Thus the recruitment process and policies are very important.
How to check the soft skills? Yes, the communication skills, command over language(particularly English) is very important but the content is equally important. What you speak is as important as how you deliver it! And to judge the person, understanding his perception on various issues is important. One’s perception is how one sees the world, what are his/her views on different issues. Halo’s effect also comes into play here. Whether you see one quality or aspect of someone’s personality and judge him or her overall also speaks a lot about you. I have learned to see more to someone’s personality than what appears in the first impression. Yes, the first impression is important but it may not be the last impression. You must be patient with people, and be polite with them.
As managers, one of the major challenges is stereotypes. A lot of people, women basically, do not even step up the ladder at the workforce because they aren’t considered fit to be managers and lead a group of men. Gender Bias is a major challenge the corporate world faces now. “It’s a girl”, announces the doctor and triggers the social, emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females. Shakespeare’s described the seven ages of a man in ‘All the world’s a stage’. The seven stages of a woman would be: an infant, whose birth is regretted and mourned ; a teen, who should go to school but her education is compromised with; an adolescent, with safety, health and sanitization concerns; youth, with no freedom to choose her career path or life partner ; a married woman, who gets ridiculed for the dowry her parents couldn’t afford; mid-age woman, a housewife, a mother now who sacrificed her career and ambitions, works tirelessly for her family and kids but is still not respected; old age, she spends her entire life making compromises and sacrifices and dies praying she doesn’t become a woman in her next birth too. The famous English writer,Mary Astell asked the most apt question “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?”
Whenever I tell anyone that I want to take up marketing as my major the most common suggestion is “marketing involves a lot of travel; take HR instead- it’s better for women.” As ridiculous and sexist this argument may sound but the society isn’t fair towards men either. I can go back from Great Lakes with a petty job, I might even quit my job after some time and be a ‘homemaker’ for the rest of my life and the society would be absolutely fine with it but men don’t have that option. Career is a compulsion for men but only a choice for women. And so my deepest sympathy to all the men out there. Jokes apart, this is an extremely serious issue. India ranks 120 among 130 countries in terms of women participation in the workforce. In 2018 IMF, claimed that if Indian women start participating in the workforce as much as men do, India’s GDP will grow by another 27%, which by the way for US is just 0.5%. That’s pathetic.
So to conclude, there cannot be any room for gender roles stereotyping in a modern India and it is our responsibility to rise above the primitive social norms. Be it a career or family, both men and women must have equal say and equal responsibilities because if development is not engendered, it is endangered.
After overcoming the stereotyping and the gender bias, the next challenge is pretty generic Job Satisfaction! Job satisfaction comes when your personal goals align with those of the organization commitment and you are motivated to work. Sometimes people do not mind working extra or working overtime if they are well motivated. The role of managers is key here. An employee’s attitude is determined by the attitude of the manager also. Particularly from your first job and your first manager. Job involvement and motivation is guided by the manager.
You can draw inspiration from the great personalities of your country or world leaders, from sportspeople, or from the next person beside you! It’s all about your perception. There is something to learn from each individual. I personally am inspired by Arsene Wenger, ex-manager of Arsenal football club who brought young, unknown football players to a big club like Arsenal and then backed them till the end. I am a huge fan of Obama, Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Late Dr. Abdul Kalam, among the politicians as they were very humble, they connected with the common masses and led very simple, corruptionless tenures. I am also very inspired by own family members. For example, my father once took his employee to Jaipur and got him treated with his personal money when the employee had lost his hand in the factory. The company had no policy to help the employee but as his manager and as he had created a personal rapport with his employees, he went that extra mile to help his employees. I am hugely motivated by the Sodexo workers here at the campus as well. They will always pass a good smile to you, wish you the greetings of the day, work tirelessly for your food, hygiene needs, etc. All the Teaching Assistants at the college, for example, Rammyaa ma’am. She is immensely qualified and extremely dedicated. She would be present in all the four lectures of different sections on the same topic of discussions.