January - 2009 issue > People Manager

By C Mahalingam (Mali)

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to address a large group of Executive MBA students at IIM, Bangalore. I chose to interact with them on the subject of “Making a difference for the people.” Managers make a difference for the organizations through the people they manage. As a result, making a difference for the people leads to making a difference for the organizations we are a part of.

The discussions and interactions were held in four parts. Part one focused on ‘what does it mean to make a difference’. This covered ‘why managers need to make a difference for their people’ and even more importantly why ‘difference’ means ‘many different things’ for different people! Part two focused on understanding ‘what today’s managers are accountable for in an organization’. The third part related to ‘understanding today’s employees, their expectations and mindset and how managers can relate to them’. The final and most important part was related to various zones of ‘differences that managers can make’.

The significant learning for the participants and me during this session was the power of conversations that managers can unleash on a daily basis. The quality, frequency, and depth of conversations managers can practice with their team members can be far beyond anyone’s imagination. It has to be practiced, experienced, and realized. I will try and share some perspectives on this through this column.

Conversations at Work

Conversations at work, when handled with care, prove to be a powerful change agent. Theodore Zeldin has the following to say about conversations: “Conversation is not just about conveying information or sharing emotions, nor just a way of putting ideas into people’s heads….when minds meet, people don’t just exchange facts- they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, and engage in new trains of thought. Conversations just don’t reshuffle the cards – they create new cards!” Such is the power of conversations and so much is the difference managers can make for their people if they understand this well.

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