CASE STUDY: YOUNG MANAGERS Where Have All the Shepherds Gone?

Youth is the time of rising energy, hence expressive; what is expressive cannot be receptive at the same time. Hazrat Inayat Khan (adapted) MEERA SETH 06 March 2009 Karan Rao continued to stare at his computer screen and not at Probhot Sen who stood there holding a contract for his signature. An old hand at Brissit India, Sen was in his late 40s; Sir is off colour, it appears, Sen said lightly. Karan signed the contract with a smile, and said, You should be a sleuth, Probhot-da! Yes, I am a bit annoyed. I was walking into the office and heard one of the younger lady managers outside yell at Willy (cashier), Its your **** job to make sure we have change! Willy is 60, it just rankled that she would use expletives for him! I have written her a mail telling her why she needs to be polite but not sure if I should send it. Sen smiled sadly, Is it your mission in life to correct impolite people? Then do it. Did that happen to you? Then correct her. If (Illustrations by Satkar J. Yonzon) not, Jaane do (let it go). Karan looked up, Why do you say it is not my duty? I feel that it is. Because the older people do not take time to correct the young, we have a young community that is going off the handle. Sen shook his head: Maybe, but this is not that occasion, I feel. In principle, what you say is right; but sir, correct by example only. Nowadays, everyone is like a phooljhadi. They flare up at the drop of a hat. In the workplace, people will tell you to mind your own business! Karan agreed, Her friends say she is a good person except for her anger: she is like that; she cannot deal with mediocrity, they say. Probhot-da found that strange. But then anger is mediocre, no? he said to no one in particular. Deeply affected, Probhot-da left Karans room, and absentmindedly collided into an open drawer of Mamta Dhirs filing cabinet. Mamta was a senior finance executive, and was looking for a piece of paper for her boss. She was telling a colleague, Did you hear what happened to Puneet? Terrible. While B-schools have done enormous good, the one major setback has been the easy availability of managers, who are too young join jobs not to get their hands dirty and learn, but to command others to do it. They are eloquent and the B-school degrees certainly give them a lot of confidence. But the problem is we do not demand work experience. We should insist. These are very often kids who join an MBA programme straight after school no gap year working or exploring, no involvement in household work, doting protective parents, no EQ, or the maturity to handle others leave alone themselves! What can you expect when they have been told they are the cream of talent and will drive future business? Probhot-da was alarmed. Now what had Puneet done? But Mamta was saying, Senior management (SM) hires them thinking they have hired thinking minds and know their aspirations are sky high and rush to woo them. Once hired, they treat them with kid gloves and often rush to appease them and buy their loyalty by offering them hefty incentives prematurely, thus lowering the bar for talent. Here, Taran Valia, all of 27, he covers his mistakes in a lot of jazz, believes he must confuse if he cannot convince. He just asked me for promotion since he has met his KRAs (key result areas). Now, how do I tell him that his KRAs are the basic threshold for performance? As a result, these young managers (YMs) window dress everything. Today is the era of visuals, so PPTs, xls, falanadimkana... they are dressing up surveys, research, ideas What has happened to investment banking? All a product of visual and verbal dressing up and no content!

Today you have moved up Probhot-da was confused. She had said something about Puneet. But people too fast at a very she was angry with Taran. Probhot-da walked on quietly. He never young age. Besides, many understood all this business talk anyway. But Maya Tripathi, head of seniors haven't learnt to Management Reporting, who taught at a business college in the deal with this... the evenings, seemed to have understood. I agree. The melt-down and the generation gap shows up Satyam scam has created some ripples among YMs. With fewer and the easy way out is to companies coming to campus for placements, YMs are anxious. They are willing to look at ethics differently. But who is to be blamed? How is debunk the juniors. it that they have come to acquire these values? There are many answers, and most are embarrassing! When Probhot-da returned to his cubicle, he heard raised voices coming from Meenaxis room. People around him stood up to listen to the voices. Oh! This was about Puneet again. Meenaxi was head of Media, and had been getting ready for a major presentation to Zee TV at 12 noon. Apparently, Puneet, her assistant on whom a lot depended, had texted her: Sry Mxi, cant make it; in police lock up, pls manage. Unjustified arrogance! Meenaxi was saying on the phone to HR. It is no longer a matter of shame if you are arrested by the cops, dont you see? He was driving with three pegs inside! All this, thanks to a highly inflated view of self! Of course, it is that. You forget that these youngsters live in an environment that supports a compromised morality and ethics! In fact, what ethics? Meenaxi came out of the room to brief Jatin, a management trainee, so that the meeting could happen at 12. Everyone was sympathetic and tense; cops and the law had trickled inside Brissit India. The very idea made stomachs churn. Kailash Kar, a manager, tried to calm her with, They are confident, but. Meenaxi said, Rubbish! An experienced SM knows that the bravado hides ignorance. I find this a big problem when seniors start to get shaky in the presence of these young turks! Kailash now changed his tune. Today, there is no premium being placed on hard work by media. Who are their ideals? Typically those with great packaging and almost no content. The other day I was watching a dance reality show what abusive language they use on air! One of the judges was using dressed up four-letter words. Baap re! Incredible India, hanh! What do you expect then? Probhot-da was sad. He could not understand why Kailashji was talking about a judge on television. This was about Puneet, no? Everyone was talking about Puneet. He went to Madhukar Dayal, vicepresident, Communications, to hand over the contract signed by Karan Rao. He had to wait as Madhukar was talking to Anirudh Chari feverishly about Puneet. Today, it is more about what the organisation can do for them rather than what they can do for it. They dont come lean and hungry any more. They want power, designations and roles. Even organisation behaviour is aiding this. One, there is a continuous pressure to move people up fast, we need talent, we need young minds. Then there is a constant fear of losing people retain him somehow!; arre what retain? Senior management jobs are not only about talent and skills but of maturity too. And todays world is losing sight of that. Experience matters, yes it does. Today you have moved up people so fast at so young an age, that they do not know how to manage EQs of subordinates and are not able to take a long term view of situations. Besides, many seniors havent learnt to deal with this... the generation gap shows up and the easy way out is to debunk the juniors and sniggering at their speed and lack of maturity. Doesnt help, does it? And yes, there are seniors who are equally immature and not trained to manage the speedy and ambitious junior. So we are quite badly messed up, I say, quite badly! Anirudh Chari, the head of IT, was listening to Madhukar, leaning on his glass wall. He said, Age and experience have lost much of their sheen, Madhukar, because in new industries those who have adapted to the changing trends have prospered quickly. But then all experienced people have not shown this agility to adapt as easily or

at all. That is why youth has gained a premium. Add to that an explosion in opportunities. This has led people to believe that success is about grabbing and capitalising on the right opportunity at the right time and less about working hard and being consistent. IT industry is seen like that. There is a steady erosion in values in all spheres of society and you cannot but see it being reflected in business too! Madhukar rocked his chair as he added, I am thinking of me at 25-28 things were so different! Anirudh shook his head, Were they? It is easy to think values were high or better, but in an environment where opportunities were few and growth very slow, I am not sure people behaved well and worked hard because they believed in that route or because that was the only way possible. And I dont think it is about ethics or values either. If you list the top 20 scams in last 20 years, my guess is all the scamsters would be people who are 40+ in age; so I doubt if you can club the young with lack of values. In my opinion, the bug lies with the western model of giving more importance to profit here and now than to building structures that create lasting value. As a consequence, what is being heard is it is important to keep growing in size and profit. A compulsion for high share price and high market share essentially means how I am perceived is more important than what I actually am, and that is where the gap starts getting created. Everyone crowded around Anirudh as he spoke, for he was seen as the magic man who made things happen at Brissit, and made them happen in record time. I think the failure lies in our intelligentsia and business community not creating home grown models of growth which are rooted in reality and human values, but instead aping US/Europe/IMF. Look, the young will only follow what they see, correct? When we were young there were no high profile industry events in India until liberalisation happened and made it show time. And our role models were growth engineers like Ashok Soota, Muktesh Pant, Jay Raja, Naina Lal, who put India on the map of relevance with their ingenuity. We saw them and wanted to be like them. These transition engineers created gold from nothing. After that I think, we lost stamina and wanted gold without the effort. And that is what we are seeing in the young today.

I think the failure lies in Mamta, who had come in with some documents, said, Truth is Chari, our intelligentsia and those people you mention allowed their seniors to correct them, and business community not learnt from them. Todays young are not open to correction! Anirudh creating homegrown examined his nails and said, Fundamentally, human beings are not models of growth which open to criticism and feedback, Mamta. They take it and change are rooted in reality and themselves only if it comes from a person they admire or if they had no human values, but instead choice. The earlier generation did not have a choice, and so they aping US/-Europe/IMF. listened to their superiors. In hindsight, they might be thankful for all the mentoring, but I am not sure if that is how they felt at that moment. Todays YM has choices, so he will be open to correction only if it comes from the right role models and there arent too many of those. At Wipro, where I trained, a lot of my ex-bosses and their superiors (most of whom are today CEOs of companies) were unconsciously role models for me and many of my peers. So you have to choose your role model. Probhot-da felt better. He turned to pick up his tea, mulling over Charis words, when he heard Kuldeep Singh, What we do not realise is that YM identifies with the fancy designations and assumes he is senior and mature, but his behaviour is more like misbehaviour. Manoj Mallay, head of CSR, said, This must be true for MNCs like us where we reward with huge designations. In the old days, blue chip companies became blue chip because of blue chip values and approaches. Jaggi Sreeniwas clucked with annoyance; Where is the real SM these days guru? Nowadays, promotions are happening so fast that a person at 33-35 is in top management. Manoj shook his head, Phir bhi, once they assume leadership roles, they must correct the YMs. Instead we see that SM is chasing monetary and career gains with a vengeance. As a result, we have a SM who is too myopic to desire correction of YM because they are physically and intellectually exhausted. What is really lacking is that sense of organisation loyalty... a dedication; this may be one of the most important reasons for the callous attitude of the middle-level and senior managers. So blame them, not the YMs. Just then Kevin Moraes, the new business head, came in on a quick trot; he needed some stamp papers, but Meenaxi stopped him with Puneets story. Kevin was intrigued. He said, There is something more going on here, Meenaxi. The first and foremost reason is time. Consider the days when we started our careers. Jobs were available but not overflowing. We were careful and respectful. But today, jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurship are available in plenty and, therefore, job hopping is common. Why should YMs, unlike you/me yesterday, take the pain as we took? However, history repeats itself the first time as a tragedy, and the second as a farce markets have tanked, job opportunities reduced, and fear of losing jobs eating away at the YMs. The arrogance of youth will evaporate soon if such a situation continues. Therefore, YMs today (in literal sense) will try to use correction as a learning tool, yes Probhot-da? Probhot-da was happiest. He liked Kevin. Optimistic. Yes. But now Kevin was saying, Over a period of time, the situation altered into an employees market from an employers standpoint. Therefore, with possibilities of not getting the right candidate for specified assignments, employers started retention policies and schemes. Simultaneously, the YMs started getting the most royal treatment from their organisations. The seniors were criticised for antagonising the YMs, the brightest stars of tomorrow. Criticised and ridiculed, these seniors got back into their shells and started cursing their fortunes for not being able to sprint like the YMs. Frustration is not an ideal emotion to deal with when you want to be a mentor. Probhot-da was alarmed. What was this! Meenaxi looked up from her work. She was stunned too. That observation is a surprise, Kevin. Why would an SM get rapped on the knuckles for being tough on the YM? And you are saying that in the face of all the berating, the SM loses the desire to mentor? Why so? Or does he feels compared? Kevin smiled, Change, he said simply. More

often it is the SM who fails to adapt to change or shows reluctance to embrace change. Under such circumstances, it has often been observed that a good bunch of seniors, as they resist change, initiate activities either to cut out the YM, or somehow to dampen the spirit of these young change agents creating or inspiring situations where they start getting ridiculed or criticised. The world today is not only getting younger, but also taking the corporate world along and motivating it to bring in a younger look. Therefore, not only you find younger Dream Merchants all over but also the corporate mantra has changed to youth. It is obvious that such conversions have pushed the older lot or the seniors, who show resistance to change, to some destined corners of the corporate sector. Puneet was being discussed in various pockets on the 7th floor of Brissit India. And that was when Mohan, the HR head, came to discuss the way forward on Puneets case. He saw the people congregating and said, I think many senior management members are caught up in too many issues and, hence, not getting the time to focus. The business dynamics have grown huge. Also, the definition of success has undergone lot of change, that it is rather complex on motives. We must x The seniors were Pranav Raj, the trainer at Brissit, was a little surprised over Puneets criticised for antagonising accident with life. Everyone thumped him on the back for they knew he the YMs, the brightest stars worked very closely with the YMs. I would like to call it a shift in of tomorrow. Criticised values towards being more self-centric. I agree with Mohan, the and ridiculed, these seniors changing definition of success, changing structure of families, a wider got back into their shells set of values available to choose from since globalisation, etc, these and started cursing their are the influencers. Correction is a weeding process today, for health later. But the young fortunes. do feel why should I wait for long term and get diluted returns when I can get immediate benefits, just for myself? The risk-return payoff is far higher, within the scope of the values that he cherishes! Probhot-da nodded happily, and put his cup on the collections tray at the end of the hall. Snigdha, the HR consultant, who was doing the Prudence during recession workshop, was telling Pia her story at the coffee machine. Probhot-da stopped. He liked stories and this lady was narrating it with a lot of drama. Probhot-da wanted drama. That Puneet had caused a fat label to be put on young managers. Yaar, meri zindagi mein to sab aise hi hein... began Snigdha, My cook, my hubby, my boss. Nobody likes correction. The other day, I very lightly scolded the 21-year-old cook; she gave it back to me. I tried to correct her and she raised her voice. I left the kitchen. The next day, I went to her and in a false calm voice did an HR act on her. And told her that her behaviour the previous day was unacceptable. She tried to resist, and I said, Yesterday, you spoke and I listened, today you keep quiet and listen to me. I also gathered enough courage to tell her that she needs to conduct herself properly in future, this kind of behaviour will not be accepted. And then? asked Pia, her eyes growing big. Then I came to my room and wiped the sweat off my face. Yaar, kahin baai bhag jayegi to kitni mushkil hogi! Probhot-da smiled. Finally, there was humour after all any kind of ending was a good ending, he mused. Classroom/syndicate discussion Have we shifted goodness from within to without? So that a good looking balance sheet is preferred to a good accountant?