Diversity, reward and career management -By Seni Adetu

Seni Adetu

I offered my thoughts on the importance of talent management and the 3B’s concept last week. To further this discussion, I want to share on the need to embed a strong culture of gender diversity and inclusion as it relates to growing female talent; as well as reward and career management.

Somehow, several organisations are still off the mark with respect to the general global best practice of minimum one-third female representation in management. Most hiring managers have some negative “files” and “drifts” about women in the corporate environment. We say they are not hard enough in taking decisions (whoever says being hard a leader is good); they are unable to work till late (but why should they, if there’s good structure and time discipline in place?); they take three months off every other year to go have babies (so what?) etc.

As men, we give all sorts of excuses why we think it is sub-optimal, performance-wise, to hire women. I employed 10 management trainees one time, four of whom were females. Shortly after, three got married and had to start their families, and a few people pointed at me saying “didn’t we tell you?” Should we stop employing and unlocking the potential of women because of our own negative mind-set? We have even made up our minds there are certain jobs that women can’t do — one example being manufacturing.

I recall that when I got into role as CEO in a manufacturing company years ago, there were several toilets located on the site, all labelled “male” such that when we employed our first female engineer, we struggled to find a place for her “convenience” – how weird?

Similarly in several FMCG’s there is the notion that women cannot be successful in the sales function. Interestingly, last time I checked, in general, half the consumers are females (our population mix suggests this): From my experience, perhaps 60 per cent of FMCG distributors are females, may be 70 per cent retailers are females and I guess about 80 per cent of purchasers (on behalf of our families) are females. How do we conclude these women are better understood by a salesman as against a sales-lady. It is time we began to discard of the “alpha male” kind of leadership that has crept into our DNA.

As it relates to reward, I believe in equity not equality.  The age-long principle of what you sow is what you reap holds true in business. Everyone must be rewarded according to their contribution. The practice of having flat salary increases or bonus payments (everyone gets x % at the end of the year) is the worst way to manage motivation and performance. As a leader, don’t give an employee a salary he does not deserve and that you can’t defend. It is a mirage that employees don’t see their colleagues’ salaries — they see, they know unfortunately. If others perceive someone is being unduly favoured by the leader, they generally switch off. Reward is a strong element in sustaining employee engagement. A team must be motivated to perform. As PM Sheik Mohammed of UAE once said “an army’s success depends on more than weapons and supplies; high morale can be the key to victory.” You want your employees saying “I am inspired; I want to finish my career here; I buy into the values of this great company and I would recommend this company to other people.”

An inspirational leader must know how to lead line managers to show up as amazing people-managers committed to exceptional performance coaching for their staff. The periodic (e.g bi-annually) appraisal process is a fantastic way to manage people’s careers, but the appraisal tool should not be used to settle scores, as often done. A 360 degree leadership evaluation of the employees can be helpful in objectively providing insights into the development gaps of the employees. This eases the calibration process when determining which employee is ready now (RN) for the next role, and which one needs two years or five years to get there, and then road-mapping the career path. The challenge is that when a manager or function head is changed, the successor does his own calibration which will not necessarily be consistent with that of his predecessor and you discover a RN person never gets converted.  The journey starts all over.

Finally, the employees also need to free themselves from self-created bondages. When they own their jobs, they free themselves from the idea that they are somehow under the thumb of the company. The work they do is in their control and is a reflection of their ability to get results through their own energies. I see some employees leave their jobs because of their bosses. How naïve? If it’s not an owner boss, my submission is that his stay in the company, like any other employee’s, is time-bound. Employees should learn to manage upward, stay and ride the storm. Some would say “chemistry does not work.” What chemistry? With your boss?  I remember at Guinness Ghana a few years ago, a mid-level manager told me he was leaving the company as he could not stand his boss. He was one of my best guys in that function. I pleaded with him to stay. His boss, my direct report, also assured me he would adjust in some areas to make it work, but this employee would not bulge. He wanted to go and he left. Unfortunately for him, the same company that poached him came for his boss about a month after to be his director in the new company. How sad for him?

In the corporate world, I sometimes hear people say to expect that eight of 10 managers/leaders assuming new roles would always say their predecessors are crap! Hopefully, if you have left the successor with a strong team, he could then acknowledge you did one good thing!

Have a fantastic June!