Culture is a high-sounding word in any enterprise. It is used as a marketing tool, to impress the customers, both internal as well as external. It is also repeated on the company’s raising day and other ceremonial occasions. In most enterprises, it has no other use. It is referred to in the times of glorification of the enterprises. More than half of grade 3 employees may not have any idea as to what this culture means.
I have personally seen even the HRD managers of the company ignorant about its culture, at times. Focus in HR is more on employee’s training, welfare, salary, allowances, leave, insurance, and whatnot. It leaves me with surprise that rarely does anyone talk about the most essential thing that every person needs to have, to live a satisfying life – DIGNITY.
HRD of companies across the world is mostly silent on the “dignity” of the employees. It is assumed that since the company is giving the employees salary, allowances, and resources needed for meeting their basic needs of life, they can be treated the way the management feels correct.
It is my personal finding that if we let people have their dignity, they put their best for the organizational benefit. I have been in the armed forces a long time back, and I observed that all those rough and tough people are also essentially human beings, yearning for love, respect, recognition, and keeping their dignity intact. I was lucky to have served with the people, both in armed forces and private enterprises, who would do anything that I, as a leader, asked them to. And the only concession that I gave them was that I treated them like I want to be treated. I gave them dignity, I treated them as my equal.
The only thing to be kept in mind is how we talk to them? Is it empowering them or is it making them feel small? We usually allow our voices to be controlled by the emotions of the moment, not realizing that it is not the best voice for the situation. If we want the company to have a good productive culture, we will have to be more mindful. We need to be more aware of the present moment in our actions, behavior, and talks.
The same observation I had even in my entrepreneurial days when I set up my company after leaving the armed forces. For 25 years, I saw people ready to work without any interruption to meet the goals, if they are treated with respect and if their dignity is kept intact. The hype about a highly skilled person’s necessity at the shop floor or for project execution loses its meaning when we have motivated people, who learn and complete the work, even with a bit lesser degree of professional competence. Skill is hyped and the keen desire to do something for the organization that treats people like human beings is underrated. I have seen people burning midnight oils without anyone telling them to learn things that are needed to complete the project tomorrow. And if you can have a team of people like the ones I am describing above, you can consider yourself the luckiest executive on earth. And I have experienced that – being the luckiest executive on earth.
We were an SME, but we treated people as people, not as robots. My only responsibility as a CEO was to make sure that no one has any unaddressed issue, both in their professional and personal life. For me, the culture of my company was simply to give the dignity of labor to my team and rest everything was always taken care of, automatically.
I am still exploring the same path of happy employees and high productivity in my new venture as a consultant. Join me if it sounds fun to you on www.rajeevaranjan.com to read more of my blogs.
Sooner, I plan to conduct online courses for people desirous in learning about company culture and its implementation in their workplaces.
Would be grateful, if you could leave a comment below :)
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