Interview with Executive Excellence
Written by Federico Fdez Santos and Barrientos Aldara
Jorge Cagigas, balance and insight in managing people
Interviews - English
Management
Law degree from the University of Valladolid , has studied Political Science at the Complutense and part of the Top Ten HRS. She currently combines his consulting Epicteles address dedicated to strategic support in the management of people with his position as chairman of Fundipe. We chatted with him at the Business School CEU San Pablo, where he also teaches. FEDERICO FERNÁNDEZ
ALDARA BARRIENTOS SANTOS AND: The crisis has accentuated the differences between organizations with a robust HR management and those that do not. What major mistakes have been uncovered? JORGE
Cagigas: I think humans have a tendency to look for lessons learned that are not there. It is still too early to know the impact it is having this crisis, in fact, there are organizations during times of growth management policies were of very admirable and that, however, this structure will have collapsed. That makes one wonder. Companies have also appeared that were not particularly admired for his policies people management and, in this crisis, have proven models and make decisions based on the situation of persons within the organization.
Normally, when one makes judgments of value it is too late to correct, but I am convinced that those companies with models of people management and balanced leadership have many more opportunities to better address the crisis, just as in good times get better results. The great difficulty here is not to rationalize the concept, but putting it into practice.
errors are always the same, except that in the crisis are much more dramatic consequences, and it is very difficult to convince a company if its management of people would have been optimal, the situation is different because it is very difficult to deal with a hypothetical successfully accomplished and successful, however, easier to deal from a failure to hypothetical success, because from there all the people are much more receptive.
FFS / AB .: Why people management is always a complex issue?
JC: A good friend of mine says that managing people or too easy or impossible, and I think not without reason. The human being is a contradiction, a paradox in itself. I read a book saying that man is amphibious and has a part that looks like animals and another that differentiates you from them, that's the spirit. Generally, our behaviors are connected in these two areas and depending on what prevails at all times, make decisions one way or another, in fact, until recently, it appeared that the rational and emotional were fully demarcated and today we decisions that we make more emotional then rationalize.
If you look at the everyday human behavior, you realize that most of the decisions we have much to do with the behavior of our ancestors, based on instinct, mainly that of survival. The tribes were hierarchical, sexist behaviors ... and that's part of us and even our genetic evolution. If we add that our decisions affect others having the same component complex tangle things even more, because ultimately lead or manage people is right or wrong in the perception of others, ie all have a high opinion of ourselves, we think we are the best leaders, but to ask the other we realize that it is not. This does not mean they have more reason, but the success is reconciliation between the two positions to be valuable for both parties. The
dichotomy, the association, to be with me or against me is a complication of Western societies, more in the case of Spain. The opposition taken to extremes does not create good working environments. It does not help that we do not teach people to lead. All our life is full of transmission of ideas and experiences, but do little training.
FFS / AB: What is expected of the leader in this situation?
JC: It is important to review the behavior and ask for help, because it seems that the leader is beyond good and evil, and we forget that it is also a person with their flaws and virtues.
One of the things that seduce me lately is the "servant leadership" to migrate from an omnipotent and all-embracing leadership to a more service, not helpful. There is a book by Jim Collins, Good to Great (in Castilian was translated as Good to Great), which talks about Level 5 leaders, who demonstrated that they were people who could get different results and they looked out the window when there was a success and looked in the mirror when there was an error / failure. Another characteristic I remember is they were incredibly humble and generous in their personal, but very ambitious now to get the results of the organization with others.
FFS / AB: This idea of \u200b\u200bservant leadership is the same that underlies the mission of his consultant, Epicteles, which defines its goal as that of "strategic support in the direction of people." "The key is to" go with "?
JC: When we started this business project, chose his words carefully. It is the customer who decides how long and how far you want to accompany him.
There is a story anonymously, entitled "Footprints in the sand," explaining that when a person reaches the end of his life, talks to Jesus and he watches in a continuous flash images from your history and being observed footprints of two pairs of feet in the sand, which sometimes becomes a single pair. When this happens, Jesus says something like "I'm seeing all my life and it appears that in those difficult times were only my footsteps." The story ends with Jesus' answer: "My son, the pair of tracks that you see were not yours, but mine because I was carrying you." That is, it is almost not notice that we are, but at some point even "carry in arms" to the organization or the people who need help. Hence the accompaniment, which can range from a diagnosis or analysis, assuming almost at one time a role of responsibility within the organization, as far as we define that the project deserves. What sets us apart from the interim management is that the period of our intervention we define connected to the project, and not to the organization or the specific circumstances of it, which also influence. It is strategic, because we believe that great opportunity for organizations is to link HR plans the strategy of the company.
One of our principles is the value for money, ie, the value is important and the second is money, and that permeates all of our intervention, which is very close and we demand a great involvement, so we celebrate together success, but we are also there in the failure to learn.
FFS / AB: Sustainability has been, and remains, one of the main objectives of the companies. In this sense, Alex Rovira says that only "born of the soul that creates sustainable prosperity." What does a manager do to get to the soul of your team?
JC: I quite agree with him. A manager has to build trust, it is an attribute that can not be produced artificially. During the first 30 seconds you see a person, are capable of doing a pretty good idea of \u200b\u200bwhether we build trust, if we have a relationship personal with it or be able to initiate projects together ... Sometimes we were wrong. The author Malcolm Gladwell calls this the intuitive intelligence which is what we define as the sixth sense of intuition, and I particularly call the Google of the brain, that is, if you enter a lot of information into your brain and you are able to link , you face certain problems with a visionary solutions. Trust is a key element that goes inside and can not be generated artificially.
those who say that build confidence in their teams, often offer a pose that does not correspond with reality, because it depends on just one. It happens that, on the contrary, in organizations is managed by distrust, according to two models: that of those who choose to manage the employee giving 100% of confidence the first day, to be deducted points as it will fail, until you consider a point that is intolerable and decide to dispense with the person, and of those, first, do not give any confidence, but they offer the employee the opportunity to earn it and go get some points. Either of the two models is just as pernicious, because the trust fund is based on reciprocity and not be defined from a position of dominance.
If there is no trust, there is no space of freedom for creativity and innovation and, without this, there development. Research needs material resources to transform them into knowledge, while innovation requires spaces of freedom and confidence in those who make use of knowledge to turn them into resources.
FFS / AB: Mulder and José Enrique Medina said in an interview in this issue that the crisis and globalization are changing the concept of the CEO and make in the future, have to be a person working in a coordinated and close to the customer. Within the HR sector, how do you assess the changes that are being imposed and that, according to many people, no turning back? Do you agree with the profile of the CEO has be renewed?
JC: If the future will be different or not, depends on each one of us. Human beings have a tremendous tendency to want to predict the future, since time immemorial, and also try to control. When we in the West talk about the future, we usually act with which we look forward to the hand, and when we speak of the past back, in Asia they do the reverse, the future is behind it is that you do not see and the past is that in front of you, because you can visualize.
Our Western culture continues to sin excessively trying to define a future too rooted in the precedents of the past and present that we live. In Fundipe we developed a think tank to discuss the management of people in 2020 (http://fundipe2020.wordpress.com) and start from a premise: we all went to 2020 and we forget where we were, trying to throw off such hindrances and this easement.
I think the evolution of CEOs, and managers in general, is constant and dynamic, and it is difficult to generalize because it depends on society, economy, business in which you, the moment of own company ... What is important is not to forget any of the stakeholders and try to correlate at all times. The CEO has to make decisions for all these interactions are balanced and focused on the business needs of clients and their own company.
What has happened in modern Western society is that for a long time there has been an excessive influence of financial aspects in the daily life of organizations. Peter Drucker said it have all the facilities and companies know very well, but we are forgetting how to handle them. We need people who are able to understand the complexity of organizations and focus where appropriate.
FFS / AB: How will the technology in HR management?
JC: Technology is a tool more, but I have not been encouraging anyone with a blackberry or do team work through a computer. It is true that perhaps now the physical contact is less important, but we must continue to keep alive the common idea of \u200b\u200bthe project. Organizations are made up of people that have to be interrelated, and that's irreplaceable.
FFS / AB: The e-learning is emerging as a model for training in companies and it appears that investment is growing.
JC: When you have a complicated situation like the present, we must invest more in developing teams to achieve better results. The easy solution is reduce costs. Training is a budget that easily transforms from investment spending.
A training someone who does not need or do not want to receive a direct expenditure, which does not generate any residual value. This requires very careful in defining projects and training budgets, to ensure that the majority of the shares are investments, not expenditures.
The e-learning is a tool that is settling. My question is if we are not diverting investment in training budget should be in other sources, for the simple fact that this method is cheaper. A dollar spent on e-learning no return transform is an investment in expenditure, although more expensive, but training must be compensation.
FFS / AB: digital generation calls begin to live in working with more experienced talent. The fact that two groups are so different, are obliged to adopt different management models?
JC: On this subject, there is a structural part and a more cyclical. Since different generations have always coexisted, but the fact remains that the speed of events, we now live together more and that they, together, are more distinct.
Logically, the generations closer to retirement will have to prolong our stay in the labor market. It seems normal that if life expectancy has grown, so make working life, though not all share. On the other hand, generational changes and do not occur every 20-30 years, but every 10 years the mentality of people varies greatly. That will create more complexity and key management is how to combine the strengths of each to achieve coexistence and positive results.
is shown that organizations that normally perform better are those that are open to the ideas of others, or from other countries or other cultures. Generations same thing happens. We must create spaces for interaction between people who think differently and take the best of each to set up an optimal environment. If we do poorly, we will create serious conflicts, but I do not happen.
FFS / AB: In a statement criticized the deficient performance evaluation systems of Spain and the little concern shown for a proper assessment and ongoing work. The absence of these criteria, has fostered injustice in our organizations?
JC: I am convinced of the performance management systems as a whole, to assess the performance, objectives, skills and values \u200b\u200bfor a target point on which to rely.
In the case of Spain, we feel very uncomfortable being assessed and evaluated, and that makes it look very protective systems in organizations. All our laws and regulations is based on what will happen when you and I get worse, in the workplace, instead of thinking how are we going to get along.
One of the great debates is the severance pay, instead of creating measuring elements that make it easier when someone is going to be fired is done in a proper manner, having given the opportunity to rectify and with absolute confidence that no surprise for anything. Just as when an employee or a manager decides to leave. From that perspective, having a formal process of evaluation helps, if not cause excessive rigidity and is an integrated system. Another distinctive cultural
has to do with the error, which for us is a failure, so we try to hide it. By contrast, Anglo-Saxon culture in the error is an opportunity. I think as far as possible, we should move towards a less punitive model of failure. There is nothing that encroach more creativity, innovation and commitment of people to do new things that the fear of making mistakes.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, author of Life Lessons, was many years with terminally ill and that one of the things they told him before he died was that if they could live again, I would risk more. Having a good performance management system helps people feel more confident to take risks and bring greater value to the organization.
FFS / AB: you Fundipe chairs, a private foundation established by AEDIPE for the development of human resources function, which began operations in 1995. After almost 15 years of history, what are the prospects and challenges of the foundation?
JC: The fruit of a reflection of the Board, we decided to focus on some important aspects that we believe may be the trends in HR. Our activities are focused in delivering value-added and focused on a number of issues that have defined and are: creativity, innovation, diversity, internationalization, the integration of disadvantaged groups, conciliation and, above all, development of talent, commitment and motivation.
Among the initiatives to address these issues we will use different channels such as the creation of the library Fundipe, which we are currently editing a book of Fons Trompenaars, Innovating in times of crisis (LID Editorial), from the perspective people and their relationship to creativity, innovation and diversity. Fundipe library will be our figurehead, with which we become more visible and deepen certain aspects. Apart from the think tanks, and in 2020 we talked about before, we will edit a quarterly white papers with authors worldwide who have an unprecedented and important to tell. This is to add value, not just the world of HR departments, but also affect all those who have to do with management and team management. The goal is to understand that people are the essential part in organizations.
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interview published by Executive Excellence # 66 ene10
