Workplace Dynamics with Kamal Karanth

The dilemma of whether to tell our colleagues 'as is' or to give the cliched version? But our colleagues know we are being economical with the truth! #CorporateLies

You know your boss isn't tenable to you, your peers, and maybe to the organisation. You escalate, but still nothing changes.

How we fail the leaders we hire/promote? Some confessions!

What if you say in a job interview that the reason to leave the previous company is a "relationship breakdown with your ex-boss/team"?

Why isn't the women CXO needle moving beyond CHROs? How about CFOs?

Having a retention conversation after someone resigns... is it a waste of time? What's the enterprise philosophy of retention, if there's one. The best opportunity for a Supervisor is to do the right things for their people when they are working with them, not after they resign.

Large enterprises announcing layoffs often add-in severance packages to soften the situation at both sides of the table. This episode discusses if there's a severance package that's generous enough to reduce the sting of the sense of rejection that layoff comes with.

What motivates you the most at work? Is it Money? Affiliation? Achievement or Power? If it's Affiliation and Connection... what are you more connected to...? The Enterprise or Brand? Your Manager? Your team or peer group? Or your role?

What's your definition of Freedom at the workplace? Choice of work time, space, location, colleagues, bosses, tasks... and beyond.

Are company dinners with bosses and colleagues the time to connect with them or enjoy the meal? Are there official DOs and DONTs for informal lunch or dinner meetings with super bosses and colleagues? Should HRs also set out guidelines for the same?

If you know your colleague's salary and use it, is it a breach of confidentiality terms signed with your employer? What do you do if you get to know your colleague's salary or increment percentage or bonus amount? How can we get caught up with others' pay information?

A top reason for candidates dropping out of a recruitment funnel is the time taken for the hiring process. Is it the system or the process of meeting multiple candidates or unusually high number of rounds or something? Irrespective of the technicalities, isnt it the Hiring Manager who is to be blamed for inordinate delays causing candidates to dropout? Can Hiring Managers step forward and own up the control they have in the velocity of a hiring process?

If you send an acknowledgment note to an interviewer, after your interaction... would that look like desperation or seen as someone who takes the initiative or being participative? Has the lack of participation in enterprise initiatives become a common occurence? If yes, why so? Why dont we participate in events, ritual and processes of the enterprise? Why and when do we give things a cold shoulder in the work context? Is there a hack for genuine participation versus the tick-in-the-box participation?

What do you do if your peer or counterpart is out of line? Do you let it pass or confront them? What's the forum of expressions of our views or opinions against our peers? Take it up with the boss or share with peers or in a public forum or a one-to-one setup? Is one-to-one the most potent or challenging setting? With no authority over peers does this become complicated?

Have you complained to your super bosses, about your immediate boss? What are the consequences of taking on the bosses? Did you have the resilience to handle the consequences of taking on your boss head-on? Can performance be the shield... always? Without performance can one get away with just logical arguments? How can one balance standing up for oneself versus switching jobs eternally?

Have you heard of leaders being let go because they had high attrition in their team? What matters... is it WHO left or HOW MANY left? If performing leaders have high attrition, would you punish them? Is there a balance between high performance and talent retention? Is it prudent to look away, if high attrition teams are also the best performing ones?

How safe should one feel at workplaces, especially when it comes to being candid with your colleagues? Is hyper-caution increasingly needed in a highly digitally intruded space? Is it a thin line between the within and without of the organization? How safe is your internal townhall video from being posted on a public social media platform? Are we heading towards paranoid organizations asking employees to leave phones outside the meeting room? Don't be surprised... as walls dont just have ears, but also eyes now.

If you are not the top performer this year, what would you do? Play victim, quit or fight back? Have you experienced lean patches of performance and the connected feeling of irrelevance at work? What did the organization do to make you or your team feel irrelevant? How did you or would you fight the situation?

Do you want to work with larger than life promoters, but dont want the downside of working with the eccentric or scrappy side of them? Have you worked with founders or leaders with the unique balance of being classy when they have to be and agile enough to switch to be scrappy without feeling uncomfortable about it? I've seen this unique trait mostly among promoters... do you think otherwise? If you answered yes to any of the questions, this episode is for you!

How many things have you learnt at work by getting a rap on the knuckle? Were you reprimanded at work for some instinctive behaviour of yours? Have you tried texting your boss at 11a.m saying you took an unplanned leave? If yes... how was your boss' response the next time you wanted a leave? Workplaces have many unsaid things that college didnt teach us. What are these various unsaid nuances of organisations or industry or roles that you need to work with? Can every single nuance be put on a policy? On the other hand, can enterprises wait it out for situations or outages to arise where a particular nuance is declared in the open?

Have you ever told anyone they weren't as good as they used to be? ...Or... if you are unable to do certain things you seamlessly did in the past, what does it tell about you? When do you know you've lost touch? Or your reportee or boss has lost that skill or touch? Is it performance, feedback from colleagues or showing up with zeal & energy? When was the last time you genuinely felt you've lost touch? And if you did... check out this episode on the context of feeling irrelevant.

Do you struggle with some of your team members who don't scale up? Do you constantly wonder if they fit in? Can you spot your reportees who have great intent? Join in as we look at some of our reportees who are capable but dont intent, and vice versa.

Is your organization asking you to report to a new boss every year? Is it because they like to change or because the bosses don't stay? If your answer is YES... this episode is for you.

Do you work hard without feeling tired or checking your watch, does it mean you are enjoying work? What kind of policies, practices or functions create stressful workplaces? Or is it on the leaders and context of the organization that make its working toxic and stress inducing? Catch up... the closing part of the trilogy on toxic workplaces.

Is it easy to determine if you are surrounded by a toxic team? How do toxic teams look like? Is there a team that you dreaded working with in the past? This episode is not to bring back memories of some not so good past... but to share my experiences with team level toxicities and discuss if there are signs to spot a toxic team?

If you've been blessed to work at great companies with inspirational bosses and teams with great vibes... this episode is not for you! In this 3 part series, this one is about Bosses... yes the ones that stress us out with their toxic ways!

Is your current salary directly propotional to the number of job changes you've had? How many times have you quit as the new employer accelerated your CTC by a few years? Have you been a rolling stone to reach your current compensation? Are you at below market level salary because you stayed too long on a job? Listen on...

Is it double standards when we go out to hire talent from competition, but belittle the same competition when a colleague joins them? Is there a classier way to raise our brand without putting down a competitor? When competition hires talent from our teams, can we consider it a compliment rather than feeling betrayed?

This sequel to Episode 11 is all about things we get wrong in carrying out successions. The fault-lines, heartburns and conflicts behind how we end up choosing successors. Failed succession plans are not a rarity, and its these failures that have driven the whole Executive Search industry.

If your successor does better than you, would you claim the credit and give the successor the credit? Who would you credit or blame for a succession gone bad? The management, or the outgoing leader or the new incumbent?

Are there roles you would like to just for the thrills of it? Or because you want to be a Hero? Have you felt used for stretch roles at work? Have you been lucky to bask in the glory of a role because someone else laid the foundation? If you answered Yes to one or more of the questions... then this episode is just for you!

No two C-Suite interviews are the same... even if it's the same candidate and at times even if it's the same interviewer! There are no playbooks for these high-stake exchanges where the company and the candidate are courting each other. Should one be aggressive or cautious about promises to deliver? If things do not work out, should the engagement always end bitter or sour? Is there a way to be prepared for the seesaws that C-Suite interviews are?

Getting fired from work is unfortunate irrespective of how and when it happens? No one has immunity against it, when the need and conditions for it arise in an enterprise. Is there a way to spot the signs of a firing or layoff coming up? Warning signals that one can pick up? In today's uncertain economic conditions, to have a playbook for responding to a layoff?

How do our skills and persona make a deadly combination? We all have that one Achilles' Heel that acts up at the wrong moment and creates unexpected tripping moments and undesirable outcome. All that skill and experience built over a career-span comes down to that point where our persona takes over. Which is your most irritating trait of yours that trips your colleagues, bosses and peers? Can it be fixed?

Do we go all out to Celebrate at work? Or do we underplay and always keep it a shade lower than personal celebrations? Does celebrating at work create a bond or set wrong precedence? Why should we celebrate and what's the sustainable guilt-free way to Celebrate at Work?

When do you feel the most frustrated with your boss, colleagues or team at work? Would it make a difference if all of us were more responsive and no one had to ever follow-up with anyone for anything? Imagine if responses to emails, messages and calls were immediate across the organization... would your workplace be different? If not anything else, all that time that we collectively spend on follow-ups can be put to better use.

Do we like to glorify the stretches we had in our past lives and previous jobs? And do it to an extent that it loses relevance? With long tenure in a company does entitlement also come along and do we expect to be treated Special? Does tenure along become a qualifier to deserve special treatment?

Have you been in the middle of Meltdown Moments at work? You would agree that they are not entirely avoidable... but are they signs or signals to spot one coming? Warning signs of a meltdown approaching you or a colleague or boss or peer? Catchup this episode as I explore this topic.

Have you been in situations where you recommended someone for a job and felt the person should be indebted to you for life? Do these patronising beliefs fade or increase with age and experience? Why do we build this strange sense of entitlement? Listen in and lets discuss.

Are you the one to ask the uncomfortable but pertinent question in meetings? If you are that Rebel, what drives you to be one? And are you just a Rebel or a Rebel Star?