Just like our apps and devices require regular upgrades to work efficiently, Ramakrishna Rao believes in regular upgradation of his and his team’s skills and performance. He takes pride in the fact that many of his team members have grown and gone on to take up larger roles in the current and other leading organisations. Several managers possess the potential to perform well and reach the top, but how many help their team members reach the top? Well, Ramakrishna Rao is one such leader. He is the Chief Learning Officer of Page Industries and is one of the Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 by Great Manager Institute®, published in Forbes India. Continue reading to understand how he made it to the top!
“I assign work according to the strength and interest of my employees; it’s a win-win for all.”
Assigning tasks according to an employee’s strengths and interests is an excellent way to ensure productivity and goals are achieved on time. Ramakrishna Rao makes sure to find out the individual strengths and aspirations of his team members. Roles and duties are assigned accordingly. This ensures the role is helping them move forward in the direction they aspire to go in.
“I encourage team members to share their preferences and values.”
Ramakrishna Rao’s way of working is employee-oriented. They indulge in clear and quick communication. Besides paying attention to professional skills, attention is directed towards employees’ personal priorities and values. It helps in creating boundaries and being aware of what the employees are comfortable with. This initiative breaks the ice within the team and encourages team bonding. After that, getting work done is relatively less stressful.
Third-Eye Collaboration
This activity requires team members and Ramakrishna Rao to review work done by another team member. The work is reviewed by a third party, essentially someone who wasn’t involved in the planning of the project. It improves the quality of work and builds better team camaraderie.
Great Managers Institute® is on a mission to bring out the best in industry leaders. In our series “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast and Everything Else for Lunch ”, we are sharing the best workplace practices of India’s Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021.
According to GMI, this is what we can learn from Ramakrishna Rao’s story:
Enabling your team to reach the top is as important as you make it to the top
Quick and clear communication regarding anything and everything is crucial if one wants to succeed
Team members giving and receiving feedback improves the quality of work and ensures the completion of tasks on time
If you believe your leadership skills are at par with the best practices shared in this story, participate in Great People Manager Study 2022 and get a chance to feature in India’s Top 100 Great People Managers list. We are eager to hear your story. Register here!
What does being a leader mean? Is it about giving orders and having them obeyed? Is it about establishing a distinct hierarchy or blending with your team, treating them as equals and empowering them to succeed? Great Manager Institute® feels delighted to present the story of an empowering leader Nilay Bhargava. He is the Business Head – South of Godrej Housing Finance and a part of the list of the Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 by Great Manager Institute® published in Forbes India. Find out with us how Nilay creates a healthy and productive environment at Godrej Housing Finance.
“We, as an organization, have a culture of showing respect; it is the basis of our foundation.”
The practices followed by Nilay and his team ensure that there is less interdepartmental friction and excellent work culture. Important decisions are made after everyone’s opinion has been heard, and all department heads come together for the same. This is done to ensure that everyone is aware of what the common goal is and what an individual is responsible for.
One-on-One Sessions
There is a young team working at Godrej Housing Finance. And Nilay makes sure to spend time with them at least once every month. In his experience, it has helped the company lower their attrition rate. These sessions allow him to connect with his team members personally and help him understand the challenges in their personal and professional lives. Through this practice, Nilay is able to guide them and help them achieve their personal goals.
“I gift books to people so that they can learn and improve their management skills.”
Nilay believes in acquiring knowledge on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter which position you’ve secured at your workplace or how high you’ve reached in your career, one must always strive to learn new, different skills. He gifts books to his team members as a reward and also discusses the things which were learnt or could be learned through the book. It encourages and motivates the team to improve and strive for excellence.
“Instead of giving annual or half-yearly feedback the best way to improve people’s performance is to provide them with continuous feedback.”
A common trait in excellent leaders is the practice of giving regular feedback. Constructive criticism at the right time for the exact task shows that a leader is aware of what their employee is working on and ensures smooth functioning and completion of tasks on time.
“As a leader, I am ready to go the extra mile when it comes to helping my team.”
While there are confident and capable employees in Nilay’s team, he still makes it a point to help those who are stuck and are finding it difficult to complete a task. As a leader, he believes that it is his job to challenge and push his team to do better, but he also believes in giving them the full support they need.
Great Managers Institute® aims to bring out the best in industry leaders. Our series “Your Business is Built by People You Nurture” shares the best employee engagement practices that India’s Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 follow to achieve business growth.
According to GMI, this is what we can learn from Nilay Bhargava’s story:
Showing respect to all employees irrespective of their post is crucial for the smooth functioning of a workplace
Leaders themselves must learn new skills and encourage their employees to do the same
It is very important to give constructive and regular feedback
If you believe your leadership skills are at par with the best practices shared in this story, participate in Great People Manager Study 2022 and get a chance to feature in India’s Top 100 Great People Managers list. We are eager to hear your story. Register here!
The spread of COVID-19 and the complete lockdown imposed all over the world saw the downfall of several systems and the shutting down of various businesses, but it also happened to bring out the strength in people – the strength to keep businesses initiatives and endeavours together while caring for human lives. Their ability to safeguard the lives of their employees and make sure their business prospers has set new standards for all. One such leader is Amit Ramani, Founder and CEO at Awfis, and one of the Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 by Great Manager Institute ® published in Forbes India. We are delighted to share the practices that brought Amit Ramani and his company to the top!
Teammate Engagement & Development
At Awfis, the aim is to ensure that employees grow with the company. Amit Ramani believes that teammates are their strength.
One such initiative targeted towards employee growth and engagement launched during the COVID times was the competition – share your ideas and get rewarded for revenue generation. All ideas, big or small, were encouraged by all teammates along the impact areas of customer revenue generation, and new innovations that drive revenue. This initiative saw super success with teammates exploring the business side and working in teams to make their ideas successful. All teammates involved were recognised at a national platform and monetary rewards were also given. They were given larger responsibilities to drive these businesses and ensure their professional development with us.
Create Opportunity in Adversity
When COVID struck, Amit and his team went into a firefighting mode, putting the challenges of the business in front of them, and as a team, they hunkered down and realigned the existing objectives and key results and looked at the business with a renewed outlook.
They took up 4 key tasks: Survival – making hard decisions on immediate challenges; Resilience – making hard choices for the long term with extreme speed; Renewal – charting out the course for the next 1-2 years keeping in mind the new reality; Reimagine – innovating and pivoting the business based on a new reality. The result of these 4 principles was that 85% of the customers were retained, business expenses were reduced by 35% with discounts and waivers, and teammates are fully engaged with reduced attrition.
Employee Well-being
During the pandemic, Awfis’s first priority was their teammates’ health and safety. They began working from home. They provided a smart desk and ergonomic chair to all teammates with all the tech tools to enable them to be fully productive from home. During the second wave, they decided to provide a 24/7 emergency hotline service for their employees. It included online consultations with doctors, door delivery assistance for medicines and essentials, free RT–PCR tests at home and assistance with ICUs, and ambulances and oxygen cylinders. They bore the cost of the vaccination for the teammates and gave them a day off post-vaccination.
As the Founder and CEO of his company, Amit Ramani made sure to take care of his blue-collared workers as well. They made a decision to in-source 1% of the blue-collar staff to safeguard their interest and it gave them extremely loyal staff members. A decision taken to do the right thing has now turned into a significant business opportunity with 12+ blue-collar staff now being part of the Awfis family, driving Rs. 2 crores monthly revenue and contributing to their topline.
Great Managers Institute® aims to bring out the best in industry leaders. Our series “Your Business is Built by People You Nurture” shares the best employee engagement practices that India’s Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 follow to achieve business growth.
According to GMI, this is what we can learn from Amit Ramani’s story
A positive attitude towards failure goes a long way in keeping employees motivated
Approachability will create a result-oriented mindset
It is necessary to resolve worries while celebrating the wins
If you believe your leadership skills are at par with the best practices shared in this story, participate in Great People Manager Study 2022 and get a chance to feature in India’s Top 100 Great People Managers list. We are eager to hear your story. Register here!
According to him, one of the most important things is his ability to be one with the team. He shares a great camaraderie with the entire team, and they look up to him for advice. He enjoys taking a backseat so much that current teammates and even some of his ex-colleagues also reach out to ask for professional advice.
“I never like to pull a team member aside and give them the task 1-1. it creates back talking in the team, and it’s not a good feeling to have in a team.”
He has created a well-organised Task Distribution System (TDS) wherein each task is assigned to all teammates during team meetings only. This ensures that no one feels sidelined and each one knows why they have been assigned a particular task. It creates an environment of transparency and trust amongst each other and in Joy as the team leader.
“We have days when we all get together just to talk or do icebreaker activities.”
One such activity is Drawize. It is a fun game wherein each teammate has to draw something, and the 1st person to figure it out gets instant recognition. Such activities help unite the team and become a force to reckon with.
Great Managers Institute® aims to bring out the best in industry leaders. In our series “Your Employees Are Leaving Because of You”, we are sharing exclusive ways in which India’s Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 by Great Manager Institute® are reducing attrition.
If you believe your leadership skills are at par with the best practices shared in this story, participate in Great People Manager Study 2022 and get a chance to feature in India’s Top 100 Great People Managers list. We are eager to hear your story. Register here!
As we continue our series “Is Your Work Family Happy”, Great Manager Institute® is proud to present Keshav Goyal’s story with you all. Find out how Keshav Goyal, Executive Director at Shakun Industries, helped his employees enhance their technical and people skills.
“Seeing happy and content faces working towards a common goal is gold for any organisation.”
Under Keshav Goyal’s leadership, the company carries out skill development workshops, activities focused on the development of the employees not just on the professional front but also in any area of life in which they require some guidance. This is done to bring the workers from the bottom of the organisational hierarchy to the top, alongside the management. His leadership skills got him recognised in the list of the Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021 Great Manager Institute®, published in Forbes India.
“Making sure my team’s voices are heard.”
Every 2 months, an employee gets a chance to research and practice a new area of knowledge related to their business and share their thoughts and learnings with the team leader or supervisor. This practice is carried out to encourage employees and build their confidence as well as blur the barriers lying between them and the top management.
“Whenever I see that an employee has gone above and beyond what was asked of them and performs exceptionally well, I make sure to appreciate them in front of everyone else.”
This initiative serves two purposes; acknowledgement of the efforts of those who worked hard and motivation for others to work harder. This is done by instantly giving the well-performed a day off and that’s how they make their own Sunday!
Great Managers Institute® aims to bring out the best in industry leaders. Our series “Is Your Work Family Happy” shares the best workplace practices of India’s Top 100 Great People Managers of 2021.
According to GMI, this is what we can learn from Keshav Goyal’s story:
Your attitude plays a great role in determining the quality of the work you do.
Employee’s personal growth is as important as your company’s growth.
If you believe your leadership skills are at par with the best practices shared in this story, participate in Great People Manager Study 2022 and get a chance to feature in India’s Top 100 Great People Managers list. We are eager to hear your story. Register here!
