In India at least, all rounders mean Cricket all rounders – One who can bowl, bat and even wicket keep sometimes. Not kidding. Seriously! When you ask a kid who is carrying a cricket bag to nets in the month of April and May – “What are you? What do you want to be?”. The kid has an affirmative answer: “All rounder”. What do you want to be? “An opening batsman and opening bowler!” Whether they become one or not is secondary. But, if a kid feels being an “All rounder” is cool why don’t the adults feel it’s not cool?!
I really love the way “end of the year performance review meetings” are conducted in IT industry. Sorry folks I comment on this because I know about this industry and been here and spent enough time to share the awesome experience (Awesome? Well.. ) Face it people. Ratings follow the bell curve. There is a limited amount of money (M) to be shared as hikes and perks or whatever. Magnitude of M is a different topic for another day and another blog post.
Every company follows there own metrics and measurements. You can even ask an MBA intern to go and find if it has bounded fairness in the probabilistic distribution algorithm they use to conduct this yearly ritual. He can clearly write a big thesis and even defend this for his PhD!
Typically, the resource (yes we are human resources in IT) has to write down: ” How he felt his year went? What were his/her contributions in that year? Anything notable? Anything published? Anything clients found amazing? Any new metrics? Any patents? blah blah.. “. Some even copy paste this because they would have done absolutely nothing or wouldn’t have got anything to do! There is no metric in the higher ups to recognize this gap! But still this exercise starts with such a HIGH SPIRITED one that people start doing this dutifully. Some even suggest juniors like “you know what, for next year at least, you should maintain notes to capture what all you have done! Like ME!”. The submission has to end on a Friday 1800 Hrs. Everybody submit it at 17:59Hrs. It will be such a great relief! Server team will be scared to death because they know every year people submit at the nth minute and crash the company server and they have to answer their family and friends for missing on commitments over the weekend.
Now, after a week or so, The managers will need to fix a one-to-one meeting with every resource (Do you like to be called a RESOURCE?). You meet your manager everyday. You have lunch with him. You chat and laugh but that is one MEETING REQUEST you are bloody anxious about. It’s like your results. Some or most would already know what the feedback would be. Only those few who worked closely with the manager and interacted with him and shared his personal life during late night burn outs to touch the finish line will be hoping for a better rating than normal aam admi resources who went home at 1800Hrs. They are like toppers in the class who are worried one or two marks here and there. Rest of them are like panicking.
Manager calls the resource into a meeting room and asks “How are you!”. You will be like “Didn’t we meet just an hour back ?!” Manager asks some more obvious questions to start the conversation like “How is everything at office?” you will be thinking : “Wish you had the power to fix them;) ” but you keep quiet. Finally, The manager comes to the point the very moment you start talking. He will ask you “Where did you go wrong!” You will be like “Wasn’t this a feedback meeting? Didn’t I pour my heart out last Friday?? Didn’t you even bother to read it?” You will start to talk but then the manager starts “Fine! Don’t feel bad. You could have been better but you are better than others. Although you could have been better but then there is always another year. Life is not short you see” and laughs and expects you to take it lightly and laugh with him. Then, the manager continues.. “As you are aware.. we didn’t do well as a company. There is a huge loss reported in the previous quarter. The organization has decided to let go off lot of people. But, don’t worry, my team is secure. We didn’t do well too but one more bad year; Even I can’t save you all. You better pull your socks up and start performing.. Fortunate for us, there is no firing but there won’t be any hikes this year!”.. The aam admi resource comes out of the meeting comes out gutted and feel nauseated.
Then goes the topper of the team. He is all puffed up. Looked down upon the aam admi resource and thinks: “Serves you right for going home early. Look at me and learn..” Manager asks the usual questions but this time he will allow this person to talk. Manager resumes in between and says: “Look. We all know you were best among the rest. You did contribute to a certain extent. But, you see your skills are specific. You need to broaden your horizons. Our organization looks for self-starters, all-rounders, who takes ownership and delivers them. We need people with leadership qualities. Just doing your work is not enough. Also, you should try to finish the work by 1800 hrs and keep some time for innovation. Don’t worry. You will learn it over time. Like for example, ME, I was like you but I did display leadership qualities early and you know my story. You know the organization is not doing well due to market and also bad performance of freshers and juniors. We need people like you to continue to take the ship forward. I will be with you. Whatever issues you have I will take care. Don’t expect any hikes this time. Next year, when there are hikes you will be the first of those to get it” The topper comes out gutted!
Then goes in another resource another senior topper who missed hike and promotion last year and already would have applied rule of elimination. He is sure like hell he is getting hike and promotion. Manager speaks the usual stuff. The resource is now bold. After 3 years of performance reviews he knows what to expect and he asks directly “what about my promotion and hike”. Manager now replies with a rigid face “Well, You did really well. your contribution is really worth a mention. But, what was missing is the FOCUS. You were doing everything. Your contribution never stood out. You were here and there. But, not in one place. We need you to recognize a role and become a specialist. We need leaders. Specialists”.
This is the story of IT review meetings my friends. Nobody really enjoys this or understands this. Now, who wants to be a specialist or an all rounder? Will the kid know about all this? No. Sachin was a specialist batsman who could bowl. McGrath was a specialist bowler. Kallis was the greatest all rounder. AB Devilliers can play multiple sports and even more versatile. There is no answer to my own question! It’s a life’s quest and one needs to answer only themselves. Nobody else can for you!
Vasanth Vallabh's muse!! 