Karen Zong, Director for People and Organisational Capability, Greater China Region for Microsoft spoke frankly to HR Magazine about the challenges facing HR in Microsoft and how she is championing team development to overcome them.
Zong opened one of HR Magazine’s HR conferences with a frank account of Microsoft’s outlook in the current economic situation. “We are in a very challenging time…and like others, we have real P&L and headcount pressures,” she said. This sentiment was echoed by many nodding heads among the audience of HR Directors. The reaction from the leadership team at Microsoft in the midst of the economic downturn was to develop a strategy of change both internally and externally. This was in order to help the way that the organisation works with its customers and partners, to move forward and prepare for the future. In an earlier interview with HR Magazine, Zong explained that at the end of the day leadership within an organisation is key and is the ‘silver bullet’ that can make or break organisations. The kind of culture leaders build within an organisation is also critical—to enable changes, transformations and alignment.
Zong pointed out that, “Talents right now have a different psychological contract with organisations than their parents did.” Nowadays, new staff are more proactive in driving their own career development, including taking the driving seat in terms of what they want as the next career steps and specific development experiences. However, key talents are the future leaders of the organisations, so they must be understood and nurtured in order to ensure sustained company success in the long term.
The new Gen-Y joining organisations now require more involvement in problem solving and decision-making, and managers need to adopt a more motivating style in providing performance feedback than with Gen-X.
Zong also points out that good managers and leaders must be good at conflict resolution and facilitate team collaborations, as these are essential to team engagement, especially critical during these challenging times. A great believer in the application of positive psychology in the workplace, Zong then explained how exploring different ways of implementing positive interventions in the organisation can have a dramatic effect on helping both yourself and your staff become more fulfilled and motivated in their roles.
Development interventions
Talking about specific development interventions that have been very helpful in fostering positive individuals and positive institution, Zong went on to cite two examples.
The first exercise staff can engage in is reflecting on one experience that they were at their best and felt very proud of, and then sharing the experience and its impact on them with others in the group.
This exercise helps people appreciate each other at a different level, clarify and reinforce personal values, and foster alignment and teamwork.
A second training intervention that Zong found successful was the practice of positive imagery added into presentation skill training. Usual presentation courses teach staff how to prepare the slides, basic presentation skills, how to handle questions and so on.
But when staff were asked to learn to use positive visualization to prepare for a five-minute presentation, specifically to close their eyes and visualize themselves overcoming the personal challenge identified earlier, and presenting with confidence and success, their progress accelerated quickly and steadily.
Zong recounts that when staff engaged in this kind of positive visualisation exercise, they found it really helped them to be more confident and effective when it came to giving their actual presentation.
The changing role of HR
Finding the right balance of disciplined cost cutting and focused capability development is the right way to go. Zong talked about the importance of building a strong and cohesive leadership team and the efforts that Microsoft has taken towards this. “A strong team at the top helps to create lateral connections to connect knowledge, build synergy and reduce the costs of coordination.”
Also, a sense of ‘one team’ enables the development of the capabilities to rapidly share knowledge across the company, about opportunities, challenges, innovations, and best approaches.
These are HR’s new opportunities, Zong explained, to facilitate the enhancement of how the top leadership team works together, as well as to develop processes and platforms that support the cross-team collaborations and communications.
Leadership team development
Zong shared the research done by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, which was the foundation of the leadership team development framework in Microsoft. She highlighted the importance of business leaders making a clear differentiation between team performance and working group performance.
Working group performance is a function of what individuals do, whereas team performance is a function of both individual performance and collective work product (i.e. what two or more team members do jointly, and reflects the joint team contribution).
Team is a word and concept so familiar to everyone. But people use the word ‘team’ so loosely that it gets in the way of learning and applying the discipline that leads to good performance.
Zong said, “Therefore we have made intentional efforts to bring the senior leadership team together to build trust and understanding, to identify and focus on key priorities, and to align plans and activities.”
For HR professionals, this represents unique opportunities to partner with business clients and make real organisational impact. “Therefore we need to prepare ourselves with the understanding of organisational challenges and needs at different levels, to partner with business leaders in developing tailored approaches to address challenges through team approaches. It is one thing to develop team approaches in tackling the unprecedented challenges, it is another to keep teams on the right track.”
Zong cited the need to facilitate follow up meetings and put in place necessary measurement to provide feedback and execute new changes. “HR has a strategic role to play in supporting the organisation, its people and strategy, and leadership development in this economy. We need to equip ourselves with the necessary mindset, skill set, tool kits, and resources to make things happen.”
HR Magazine provides regular forums for HR practitioners from respected companies to share ideas on talent acquisition, retention and leadership development within Hong Kong companies. Never has it been more important for industry leaders to look inwards within their organisations, and start leveraging the talent that already exists there.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
