Pilar Jerico

What lies in store for people management in the coming year? In this post, I’d like to share those ideas which I think will have the greatest impact on human resources management this year. Of course, some of these ideas will be more appropriate for some sectors than for others; and only time will tell if these predictions turn out to be prescient…

1. Leadership 2.0: A new style of people management, more open and less distant, is gradually making headway. The creation of this new culture is being helped by Web 2.0 applications that focus on cooperation, new ways of perceiving value in companies, and the presence of a digitally literate workforce. However, this culture change will not be achieved primarily because of technology, but because of a different conception of managing people; in particular, a more cooperative, transparent and less distant type of leadership. As happened with Internet at the beginning, some companies will be quick to embrace new styles of management facilitated by technological advances, while others will be mere passive observers. When we talk about a 2.0. approach, we do not just mean having a blog (!), but far more profound changes in management style.
2. Change and transformation management: Many companies are embarking on profound changes, and will need to implement a shift in the company culture for a variety of reasons: they are entering the 2.0 world, they will have to keep on downsizing their workforce, or they’re trying to recover after a bad 2009. No one knows what will happen in 2010, but one thing is for sure: we won’t go back to where we were before the crisis. Therefore, the need for change and transformation is inevitable.
3. A NoFear style of management: Many people are feeling dejected because of the crisis, and it will be a real challenge to manage them in such a way that they stay motivated. Unfortunately, fear is on the increase, and many managers who previously nurtured their staff’s talent are now returning to more coercive practices. However, such a management style is incompatible with creativity and with a state of mind which allows people to give the best of themselves.
4. Mentoring: Many less-experienced managers are finding the current exacting circumstances very difficult to negotiate. For this reason, companies such as Banesto are implementing talent development programmes which use more experienced members of staff as guides, or mentors.
5. Informal learning: A few years ago, one of the difficulties of e-learning was the lack of access to Internet, or people’s lack of ability to use it. This problem largely no longer exists, and we now have the opportunity, and the challenge, to provide cooperation-oriented resources which enable people to develop professionally.
6. A client-focused approach: Human resources departments need to fully understand they are at the service of external and internal clients; they should also think about using basic marketing skills in their communications with the rest of the company, as their internal image often leaves much to be desired. All of the foregoing will serve to place the human resource department more in line with the basic aims of the business.
7. 2.0 communication: Social networks are assuming increasing importance in intra-company communication. Indeed, some of the more innovative companies are now replacing intranets with this type of tool. Communication needs to be increasingly horizontal, and in all possible directions, both within the company, and externally.
8. The end of rigid demarcation: Divisions between departments will be gradually diluted thanks to technology and the need to work as a team. As complexity grows, rigidly separated departments make less sense. Detailed lists of functions that are set in stone will gradually become meaningless owing to the rapid pace of change.
9. More performance-related salaries: The percentage of total remuneration which is allocated to meeting objectives may increase, especially in times of crisis like the present. While it is true that companies cannot afford to lose talented people, it is equally true that they are not in a position to pay the salaries offered before.
10. A better work-life balance: An increasingly popular way of improving employee motivation is to implement policies that help staff meet the demands of their professional and personal lives. Such motivation-enhancing policies are all the more important in an environment where salaries may well stagnate.

Angela Mendez and Montse Mateos recently wrote an excellent article about the impact of fear in the workplace. In this post, I’ll elaborate on their ideas to help people face up to fear.

1. Don’t deny your fear. Accept it as a normal emotion which is felt by everyone. We don’t usually speak about fear because it is considered a sign of weakness; however, never experiencing fear would be highly dangerous. Fear is part of the make-up of our brains, and is the emotion which has most helped us to get to where we are as a species. So, being alive means experiencing fear from time to time. Don’t try to avoid something which is a natural part of all mammals’ brains!

2. Cushion the impact of fear by looking at each situation calmly, and rationally. Define an action plan when faced with circumstances that induce fear in you. How many of our fears actually come to pass? I once read a study carried out in the USA which said that the figure is less than 5 per cent. Whatever the exact number may be, you only have to look back at your childhood and teenage fears to realize that they were greatly exaggerated. Fear is useful, but we have a tendency to be overly affected by it. A good technique which you can use is to imagine what you would do if your worst fears were fulfilled. A manager in a company once told me that at the beginning of his career, he was afraid that he would lose his job, and end up penniless and begging on the street. He took a brave decision to face up to this fear: he went to speak to some beggars and, although he learnt about the hard life which they led, he also saw that they were able to get used to it, and to find room for friendship and small pleasures in their lives. The experience gave him the strength to unmask his fear.

3. Realize that we all have the strength to face up to the fears which beset us. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Resilience is the name given to the strength which enables us to overcome difficult situations. I think that hardly anyone is fully aware of how resilient they can be. At the current time we are in the middle of an economic crisis. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that humanity has had to face up to far more difficult situations, such as war or epidemics. We need to see things in perspective, and trust in our innate capacity to face up to difficulties, and in our basic survival instincts.

4. Seek help. Speak to friends, family, colleagues, or specialists, and tell them about your problems. You don’t need to deal with your problems all on your own. If you’re going through a bad patch, tell others about it and don’t keep it to yourself. As Iñaki Gómez told me after confiding in a friend, your unshed tears stay trapped in your body. Or, to put it more prosaically, silence and isolation make us weak and more prone to fear. So, seek the support of friends and people you trust. Speak openly about what is troubling you and about how you feel, without blowing everything out of all proportion. There are some people who seem to positively enjoy painting a completely bleak picture of their situation. If you know someone like this, don’t be sucked in by their pessimism, but try to see the opportunities and alternatives available.

5. Look to the future, and set yourself motivating goals and challenges. In the end, the best way to get rid of fear is to look at the other side of the coin: your hopes, dreams and new plans. The past never comes back, but you can create your future if you fully embrace it. Learn to enjoy your new situation and to laugh about what has happened to you. Start making new plans, whether work-related or personal. All this won’t happen overnight but, little by little, by trusting in yourself and with the help of friends or people you admire, you can build a new future. In the words of Nelson Mandela: “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”.

I have put together a Powerpoint presentation  about my new book NoFear and some ideas that I discuss in conferences.

Control for control’s sake could well be the motto of many companies. A friend of mine, who has just been appointed as the managing director of an American multinational corporation, told me about his own frustrating attempts to improve the people management in his own company. He had aimed to present his strategic plan in person at the main offices of the company around the world. However, owing to the demands of innumerable meetings and videoconferences at the company’s headquarters, he was barely able to move from his seat! I fear that his experience is very much the rule, rather than the exception.

We’ve been speaking for years about managing people from a humanistic, rather than mechanistic, perspective. However, the fact of the matter is that very few companies have been impregnated with this person-centred approach. Instead, many companies are overwhelming their staff with demands for more and more information. No one would deny that information is crucial for effective decision-making. However, how much information do we really need? What is the opportunity cost of swamping different departments with demands for all kinds of reports? Time is a very precious commodity. If people are spending their time cranking out reports, as is the case in many organizations, then they can’t be devoting it to the customer. Quantum mechanics tells us that the observer affects what he observes. So, if as managers we are geared towards analyzing endless streams of data, we will most definitely influence the day-to-day work of our teams.

Years ago, I worked with a manager who insisted that all the purchase orders were input manually into the computer, simply because he couldn’t wait till the next working day to get the automatically generated report! His impatience meant that some poor soul had to spend three hours a day inputting duplicated information. Completely absurd, but all-too-common in many companies even today.

If we want to eliminate this control mania, we need to overcome two main obstacles. First of all, the fear experienced by many managers in these difficult economic times: the greater the crisis, the greater the need for control, which in turn leads to increased stress levels. Secondly, the large number of departments whose raison d’etre is purely to produce and analyze information.

Does control produce genuine added value for companies? We can only hope that the current crisis leads many organizations to re-think the systems which they use, and that they decide to prioritize those areas which create real added value, and not those which merely serve to sooth the anxiety of managers or to justify certain jobs.

Just a short note to tell you that my first book in English has just come out. It’s called NoFear and is published by Palgrave Macmillan. I’m very excited about this, and it’s a real honour to be associated with such a prestigious publishing house. I’m already receiving e-mails from readers in the UK!

NoFear will also be published shortly in Portuguese, and it’s already been translated into Brazilian Portuguese and Catalan. In addition, the original version in Spanish is now in its sixth reprint. The honest truth is that when I was writing the book I had no idea that it would prove to be so popular. I’d like to thank everyone who has read it and recommended it!

Over the last few years I have been looking into the role of fear in companies. I am now carrying out research into how we deal with fear in our personal and professional lives. I am very interested to hear from anyone who has successfully faced a difficult situation, and how they managed to face it.

I would be really grateful if you would be prepared to contribute something on this. If you are, then could you please answer the following questions:

1. What is the most difficult situation you think you have overcome? (For example, being fired, the loss of a loved one, changing jobs, etc.)

2. What did you do to overcome it? In other words, what steps did you take?

3. What lessons do you take away after this experience?

4. What would you say to someone who finds themselves in a similar situation to yours?

5.  Would you like your name to be mentioned when we publish the findings of the research?

If you would like to take part, please write to my personal email: info@pilarjerico.com .

I will publish the results of the research on my blog and in a book which I am writing.  I will credit all those who would like their name to appear. I will be posting regular updates on the results of the research on this blog.

Thank you very much.

What have we got in common with a snake or a donkey (without thinking of anyone in particular)? Paul MacLean gave us the answer to this riddle with his theory of the “triune brain”, popularly known as “three in one”. According to this theory, the brain comprises three interconnected neural systems which are the product of different evolutionary processes. These systems are the reptilian, the limbic and the neocortex.

It appears that we’ve all got some connection to reptiles, whether we like it or not. Our affinity is located in the oldest area of the brain, which is found in the upper part of the spinal cord at the base of the neck. The reptilian system is focused on action. It doesn’t think or analyze, but leads to action when prompted by the body. It thus forms the basis for instinctive modes of behaviour, such as certain types of aggression, the sexual instinct or the defence of our own territory. Looked at in this light, perhaps warmongers are closer to snakes than philosophers.

The second cerebral system is the limbic or the paleomammalian system. In evolutionary terms, it is younger than the reptilian system. It is located behind the face and envelops the reptilian system. According to MacLean, we share this system with all other mammals, hence its name. From the point of view of fear, the most interesting aspect of the limbic area is that it controls our emotions. So happiness, anger, love and fear, amongst other emotions, are processed in the part of our brain which most closely resembles the brains of dogs, elephants or donkeys. The limbic system can therefore justly be considered the affective part of our brain. It follows, then, that love is not the exclusive prerogative of humans, although we are the only ones who write poetry about it. Any imbalance in the limbic system leads to negative emotional conditions such as depression, loss of memory and morbid states of fear, among others.

Finally we come to the neocortex system, which is the exclusive prerogative of homo sapiens. This system enables higher-level thinking processes, such as the solution of problems or critical and artistic faculties. This neocortex contains a series of nerve cells which facilitate the production of symbolic language, which gives rise to abilities such as reading, writing and arithmetic. This explains why poetry can only be written by humans, even though many of its underlying emotions are shared by all other mammals.