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| Sunday, May 9, 2004 |
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| Sunday, May 9, 2004 |
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Leadership & Talent In Asia
So, what’s wrong here? Are we looking at employees who have become complacent and demotivated? Or have employers failed to provide the right kind of leadership? These are just some of the issues that the authors of Leadership & Talent in Asia hope to address. The book has been inspired by Hewitt’s studies as well as similar studies undertaken in Australia and India. Hewitt is a leading global management firm specialising in human resources. A key point that the book makes is that one out of every two employees in the Asia-Pacific region isn’t excited about getting out of bed in the morning and heading off to work. The main reason for this boils down to a lack of leadership and the inability to pass key management decisions made at the top to employees who are in the middle and lower rungs of management. The authors conclude that the best employers are focused and share their message effectively with their employees, relentlessly develop the best talent to maintain the leading edge, promote loyalty among employees and shape a high performance culture. These measures attract the best talent In fact, the key factor that distinguishes a successful company from one that is its ability to trust its people. The subtitle of the book reads How The Best Employers Deliver Extraordinary Performance. Case studies show that employees are driven to perform when employers realise that people are their best asset and then treat them accordingly are people driven to perform. Companies can bring out the best in people only when leaders have a clear set of values, create a meritocracy, encourage information sharing, and put in place an incentive-and-recognition system. In addition, communication holds the key to performance in large organisations, especially during lean times. When a company is going through pay freezes and cost cuts, open communication channels can go a long way in boosting people’s morale. All of this may be easier said than done. In theory, developing people power may sound like the perfect thing to do but in practice self-motivation counts too. It may be tough but it isn’t impossible. Several employers who make it to the top-20 list in Asia-Pacific have more than amply proven this. Key among these companies are The Portman Ritz Carlton, Shanghai, The Ritz-Carlton Millenia, Singapore, Microsoft in China and the JW Marriott Hotel, Bangkok. Readers might want to pick up the book for solutions of this nature: "Keep things simple. Communicate with passion, maintain consistency and transparency in all processes." You could also do well to consider this analogy: "Think for a moment about a botanical garden. Great gardens take years of care and attention to build. You can’t build a botanical garden in a weekend makeover of frenzied activity. So it is with the Best Employers. Their achievements are based on years of effort. There are no short cuts. You have to make a long-term investment in the development of your organisation, while balancing the short-term needs of your shareholders." |
WHAT does it take for a company to keep its employees
motivated and excited about heading to work each day? It is definitely a
whole lot more than getting the right people. Every organisation wants
the people it picks to deliver, but this doesn’t always happen.