Winning Attitude Sanjay Tiwari s Presentation Managing Director/CEO Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC Mr. Tiwari expanded on the common phrase Win-Win and mentioned it is not that but rather Win- Win-Win in the context of employee first then stakeholders and then employers.. Topics Covered in Mr. Tiwari s presentation consist of: Attitude: Attitude Components of Attitude Winning Attitude Outcome of Winning Attitude Winning Team Winning Attributes Grooming to be a winner Human Resources in general Strength Human Resources Gap System Barrier Best Practices Organization Culture Transformation Is nothing but a favor or disfavor towards a person. It can positive, negative or neutral. Components of Attitude: Cogitative Attitude that is a description or Belief in the way things are Affective The way we express our emotions or Beliefs Behavioral Outcome of our intention to behave in a certain way. The above three components are intertwined. The Iceberg example highlights that our Attitude, Knowledge and Skills might be known to others, however, items such as Ethics and Beliefs might be unknown to others. Winning Attitude: Is one that exhibits the desire, commitment, determination, discipline, focus, and willingness to better one s self or to become the best one can be. A winning attitude is made up of: Non-judgmental Thinking positive Being creative ( thinking out of the box ) Clear vision and planning Practical approach Self believe Able to communicate effectively Decisive
As an example of an incident where a Winning Attitude assisted him and his company Mr. Tiwari highlighted the following: Before coming to Sri Lanka he was the group CFO. His company targeted a company in USA going through Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for acquisition, and the bid offer was rejected by the Union, Debtors and Creditors and the court ruled against the acquisition. He was disheartened by this, and pondered the rational behind this and requested from his Chairman that they retry the acquisition of this company. Mr. Tiwari s vision was to have a presence in the United States and through discussions with his lawyer s and finally an appeal was submitted. From his perseverance, right strategy, right communication and right vision he was able to convince the judge and they have now acquired this company. Outcome of a Winning Attitude: Winning Team: Can be an increase in productivity, fostering of teamwork, improvement in work quality, breeds loyalty amongst self and others, etc. The moment you start thinking positive you can reach a peak ( you are already there ) Are made up of the following: Right Coach Right Leadership Right players selection of employees/recruitment of employees Caring attitude The big picture vision is shared Right position Good preparation Communication if the big picture is not communicated effectively to the team the company cannot win Commitment High moral Consistency Winning Attributes: Are made up of the following: Leadership and managerial skills Communication skills Emotion capacity Team work Interpersonal and problem solving skills. Should have right knowledge and experience And other key personal attributes like initiate Creative thinking As stated by Mr. Tiwari the above mentioned are attributes an employer should be looking for from their current pool of human capital and also should be looking for in potential hires to their respective company.
Grooming to be a winner: Grooming your employees correctly is a must for any organization, and proper grooming of employees should consist of the following: Proper induction and employee orientation Training and capability building Job involvement and employee engagement programs Performance Management System Rewards, recognition and promotion Knowledge sharing techniques Involvement in cross function team Coaching, career counseling and proper feedback sessions Providing opportunity for experiential learning Celebrating milestones Career and succession planning When an organization hires people it is the expectation that they groom the person for success. To further examine the effectiveness of a proper Performance Management System on employee motivation Mr. Tiwari suggested reading of the book Employees First, Customers Second, written by the CEO of HCL Technologies. It illustrates how any employee can change the game. Human Resources in general Strength: Assess the dimensions of employee engagement that consistently drive business outcomes Determine organizational intervention areas where senior management/hr support is required. Provide team feedback reports to managers across levels for action planning to improve workplace quality. Review process of manager education, team feedback and action planning. Strengths present in Sri Lanka with regarding to human resources: Team Players Work Life Balancing High percentage of Literate Workforce Changing and Adopting to the market environment effectively Sri Lankan workforce exhibit emotional and spiritual values The Sri Lankan workforce is easily trainable and flexible Loyalty and integrity Friendly, easy going and fun loving Human Resources Gap: Gaps present in the Sri Lankan (and also other countries) Human Resource: Migration of Skills
System Barrier: Flexible work attitude in overseas employment, however, in Sri Lanka that same flexible work attitude is not the same Lack of entrepreneurship Preference for public sector employment Slow decision making Preference of relationship over profession Avoidance of individual accountability Barriers to an effective HR system: Best Practices: Complex and old labor laws which take lengthy processes Past Privileges No provision for performance pay Unions Constraints on termination Best practices that should be employed for an effective human resource process: Organization Culture: People strategy linked to business strategy Effective career progression Employee engagement Earning sharing scheme Aligning compensation and incentives with the success of the organization, etc. It is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs, practices and habits Transformation: What can an accountant do to encourage effective winning attitudes and thus HR Go from Micro thinking to Macro Thinking Change the mindset from a debit and credit view to a holistic view Be part of a solution aimed at organizational change Become a team member and not work in isolation To win, we need to change ourselves first Panel Mr. Shakthi Ranatunga Group Human Resource Director MAS Holdings (Private) Limited Three aspects that Mr. Ranatunga believes are very relevant to organizations in not only a local context but a global context: To win an organization has to create the right environment, and in order to do that you need good leadership that can provide clarity and vision and the direction that the organization needs to go to. In this context very few people can work in uncertainty and an organization cannot prosper until this ambiguity is clear.
Most people have the skills and knowledge they just lack the leadership and direction. Having a can-do attitude is very good but an organization s workforce needs to have the skills and be able to constantly refresh this (as change is coming in rapid pace). Winning should be an obsessive habit of organizations and their workforce. Winning is an always thing. Panel Dilrukshi Kurukulasuriya General Manager of Human Resources Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC When it comes to winning there is no one winner in this whole game, its about excelling yourself and remind oneself to have a positive attitude in order to get positive results. Understanding the Attitude of her workforce in key for her company, therefore, before any key decision is made an understanding of an individual s attitude is paramount. When you look at a high commitment individual you see that they go beyond their work scope and more often than not they change their organization context to good.