WORKING WOMEN AND THE EXAM SEASON

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/article3325873.ece

Published on April 18, 2012

Picture this: It is almost 7 p.m. by the time working mothers reach home after a full day's work.

There is an exam the next day but the children are sleepy with rapidly waning attention. Not to mention that dinner is yet to be cooked.

Time is in short supply; stress levels are at all-time highs; tears, tantrums and anxiety reign all around. What's more, the examination stress carries over to the next day, spilling into the work day as well.

Managing everything and still keeping your sanity intact is a tough balancing act indeed.

As Ms. Chitra Shyam, Group Manager-Diversity, HCL Technologies articulates, “For a working mother, managing the kid's homework and work itself can sometimes be really tricky; exam times may seem really testing!”

Then there is the overriding guilt of not being able to do justice to any of the demands!

To add to the prevailing apprehension, surveys place the blame of poor academics squarely on the working mothers' shoulders asserting that their children fare worse in various assessments and examinations!

Getting it as right as possible

For starters, keep those guilt pangs at bay as other studies reveal diametrically contrary results – they state that working mothers have positive effects on the social development, educational progress and intelligence of children (especially on girls)!

The key to the examination quandary is to ‘prepare in advance'. Instil good studying habits in the children so that they do their lessons regularly.

Keep a methodical track of their studies (use weekends) and clear their doubts as and when they arise.

As Mrs. Vandana Khosla, Founder, Director of Elvy Lifestyle elucidates, “When you get lesser time for your kids after work, all you need to do is set up a routine for your child and yourself.

The 3-4 hours you get after office should be utilised for your child. Have daily chat about his day while he drinks his milk and has his snacks after he comes back from school.

This helps you chalk out the evening accordingly.”

Armed with adequate advance preparation, children will only need to revise the day before the exam, putting paid to last minute burdens and tension.

When examinations are coming up, work out an appropriate study schedule along with the child (discuss syllabus and invite suggestions).

Show that you are always there to help and focus on ways to escalate your involvement in a sustainable manner.

Ms. Chitra Shyam explains, “Every night I ensure that I am well versed with her day/school routine, check her homework and the tests. This way I am much updated about her strengths and weaknesses in different subject areas.

Therefore during the exam time, in order to make the study schedule more predictable, I discuss with my daughter and freeze the study time and cartoon show timings.”

Mrs. Neha Singhal, DLF School, reiterates, “Always keep communication open with your child no matter how old he or she is.

Make a habit of leaving notes for your children, which they can read when they return home from school or tuition classes, discuss things with them and ask them how they feel about things.

During exams if proper care is not taken or if the small problems are not discussed then it may create chaos and frustration to a child.”

Apart from this, working mothers should accept that their work schedules may come in the way of studies.

Create a support system accordingly - split the responsibility with the husbands or seek the help of other family members. Else, opt for private tuitions if needed. Seek flexi-time work options if possible – work from home or come back home early. One working mother rationalises, “Try to work from home and follow the same routine but finish your work in the child's absence so that you will be able to spend more time with their studies once they are home…”

Prioritise very firmly; for instance the mopping can take a backseat for a while or cooking chores relegated to paid help.

Mrs. Neha Singhal, DLF School elaborates, “When the exams are approaching, a mother must give adequate time, love and attention to their kids.

A little rearrangement of schedule and a change in perspective will help”.

Above all, remember that the mother being stressed, nervous or unsure is extremely detrimental for the children and their performance.

What they need is peaceful care, support, guidance and encouragement at this crucial juncture.

No anxiety and definitely no nagging! And don't forget to celebrate once the exams are done!

What's more, the manner in which you handle examination time will set a precedent for shaping the children's own attitude to challenges in life! As Ms. Chitra Shyam continues, “The baseline is not to scare the kid with the term ‘exam time' but to try and keep it as normal as always and work to leverage on the child's strengths. As children of this generation face too much of peer pressure, so as parents, the least one could do is to not build any extra pressure in the name of exams!”

Payal Chanania

CORE STANDARDS OF TEACHING

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/article3325872.ece

Published on April 18, 2012

All teaching is designed towards preparing students for success in such a way that they emerge as responsible and grounded adults of tomorrow.

Teachers are the guideposts that show them the way for achieving high-quality paths ahead. But attaining such meaningful development requires educators to hold themselves up to certain definitive standards.

This comprises of the basic philosophy underlying their teaching and governing their conduct in the classroom.

What standards do you expect of yourself?

The personal vision or critical rationale that a teacher is committed to achieving is quite difficult to define. The challenge lies in carefully reflecting on and conceiving what you are really committed to (and how).

Most teachers echo that they see themselves as more of facilitators. Mr. Rajiv Sethi (Retd.), PhD Registrar and Professor of Finance, TERI University voices the sentiment, “The first thing I look at is to move away from the traditional role of a teacher - which was to ‘teach', and move into a slot where I as a teacher, ‘facilitates' learning.”

Ms. Joy Puvana, Faculty, Business Communication, TalentSprint expands, “The role of a teacher doesn't consist primarily of lecturing about a specific subject to students who sit in rows at desks, dutifully listening and recording what they hear, but, rather, offer every student a rich, rewarding, and unique learning experience!”

This will prompt a true love for learning in the hearts and minds of the students. But encouraging active learning requires the educator to be equally passionate and committed to the subject, as it proportionately influences student motivation.

Students will then be willing to push themselves, explore new dimensions and seek new possibilities. Promoting critical thinking and problem-solving is considered imperative as well.

Helping students identify and explore their passions so as to find what they truly love doing is next on the list.

In the words of Mr. R. Srinivasan, Co-Founder, CL Educate Ltd. and Director - Indus World School of Business, “It is all about enabling an individual to set goals for oneself and chasing them. Once that happens, everything else will fall in place!”

Imparting true understanding of the subject is an important teaching standard. Prof. R. Dheenadayalu, Dean (ICT), Saveetha Engineering College, says, “My personal vision is that every student understands the topic clearly and should be able to apply that when he encounters a problem.”

Even Mr. Ishan Gupta, Founder and CEO, Edukart.com agrees, “We aspire to make our participants understand the concepts of the subject and also imbibe experiential learning.”

Mr. Sethi especially mentions, “I should be able to connect new knowledge to today's context, so as to be able to pass-on a better understanding to the students.

I must be able to foster cross-disciplinary learning, so that the students can understand the nuances of every aspect of a problem and can then approach the problem in a holistic manner.”

Teachers also wish to build an engaging and joyful classroom atmosphere as it helps students truly understand and learn. Accordingly, they should draw on their expertise and aspire to make their subject matter as meaningful as possible.

Developing good ethics and values is considered important as well. This calls on teachers to highlight the importance of hard work, perseverance, honesty, integrity, courage in the face of adversity and so on as the ultimate path leading to true success.

The importance of fostering a collaborative, interactive and supportive environment is not overlooked either.

Incorporating a variety of instructional strategies deserves a special mention as it enables teachers to easily adapt to diverse learning styles of the students.

“Although there is no ‘right' method for teaching a particular lesson, but a teacher should be efficient enough to choose the right instructional method depending upon concept, context, topic and needs of learner”, so says Mrs. Meenal Arora, Executive Director, Shemrock & Shemford Group of Schools.

Putting the standards to work

To achieve these teaching standards, educators have to model the expectations.

Mr. Srinivasan explains, “I create experiences in the learning environment that enables learners to realise and comprehend the concepts through experiential learning, more than the theoretical lectures of the concepts.

So, for me, learning is bottom-up.” Even for Ms. Puvana, “Constructivism approach to teaching is best - activities that encourage students to construct pieces of learning by themselves.”

Mr. Sethi feels, “By moving away from just classroom lectures, to much more of classroom discussions and assignments which stimulate critical thinking.

By moving away from rote learning to learning from role-plays where one gets a chance to explore one's own knowledge, what one lacks, and what needs to be learnt to be able to meet the challenges ahead.” Believing in the students' abilities while providing due support and encouragement is also important.

When it comes to evaluating whether one has really accomplished the standards, Ms. Puvana offers, “I would like to evaluate my success not only by the student's scores, but also by their progress in their lives and careers!”

For Mrs. Arora, “The result of a teacher's efforts is visible in the accomplishment of her students.

If a child has understood and inculcated the subject and values being taught by the teacher, she would surely demonstrate a positive change in thinking and behaviour.”

To sum up, teachers play a very strong influence in students' lives.

But the core effectiveness of the teaching community does not rest only in their knowledge of the subject but also encompasses the overall standards, characteristics and behaviour when they actually teach!

Payal Chanania

EMOTIONAL SKILLS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN TECHNICAL SKILLS

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/article3325871.ece

Published on April 18, 2012

It goes without saying that team leaders need to be highly intelligent, skilled, knowledgeable and experienced as well as energetic, determined, forceful and charismatic. Analytical reasoning, big-picture thinking, visionary mindset and inherent charisma form a crucial part of the success equation. But is that all? Is the premium on technical and cognitive skills really justified? What about the emotional aspect?

Fact is that a high degree of emotional intelligence is the differentiating factor that can transform good team leaders into truly outstanding and successful ones. Little wonder then that people with high IQ levels still seem to struggle in their jobs and their analytical skills can hardly predict leadership abilities. Even extraordinary talent is often rendered useless sans the key ingredient of emotional perspicacity.

What is emotional intelligence and how it helps

EQ (Emotional Quotient) is a broad term encompassing awareness of one's own emotions and their effect on others as well as how to manage and restrain those emotions in a healthy and productive manner. In addition, it helps to intuitively read people's reactions and treat people accordingly which enables to build good rapport, trust, relationships and networks.

Emotionally mature team leaders are also intensely motivated and have a driving passion for their work. They are optimistic, resilient, adaptable, trustworthy and persuasive. Not only are they open to change, but can also lead change pretty triumphantly. The people skills help them to understand what makes team members tick and thus build, lead and inspire efficient teams towards success. Members depend on them for consistency, good judgment and the ability to do the right thing at the right time.

Emotionally intelligent leaders are often blamed as being too soft, nice and emotional.

But they can confront sticky situations with extreme self-confidence and behave assertively when necessary. This enables them to keep the team in an engaged, participative and collaborative mode while subtly moving them in the right direction. By successfully connecting with the entire team, they directly affect team morale, performance and efficiency.

Tipping the balance

This is not to say that good, old-fashioned intelligence or technical skills are rendered any less relevant.

They are essential drivers of a team leader's success but never as important as the emotional skills factor.

As Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence and co-author of Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence highlights, “They do matter, but mainly as ‘threshold capabilities'; that is, they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. But my research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won't make a great leader!”

According to Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader, “In those fields I have studied, emotional intelligence is much more powerful than IQ in determining who emerges as a leader. IQ is a threshold competence. You need it, but it doesn't make you a star. Emotional intelligence can.”

Daniel Goleman further adds, “When I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels!”

Putting emotional intelligence to work

Powered with the compassion and understanding of human nature, team leaders can successfully manage emotional issues of their teams, deal with contentious members, respond genuinely to members' frustrations/concerns, handle unexpected disappointments and also accept rapid changes in the workplace, all with a level head and strong sense of self.

This is not to say that one has to be born emotionally astute per se. It can be strengthened and even learned with the right attitude, commitment to change and willingness to face one's own flaws. A combination of careful listening, observing and seeking feedback can help eliminate old behaviours and imbibe new approaches. But it is not easy and takes lot of persistence, practice and dedication to truly change for the better.

Even big organisations have taken to building competency models to help identify, train and promote emotionally intelligent employees for future leadership positions. To sum up, technical and emotional skills form two parts of the whole for a successful team leader. A right blend of both is what makes a team leader gifted and complete.

Payal Chanania

DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IS THE FUTURE TREND

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/article3325875.ece

Published on April 18, 2012

Traditional bureaucratic structures have clearly given way to new, flatter forms in hierarchies, team-based structures and permeable boundaries in today's organisations. There is no longer a ‘great man at the top' as such.

Yet, most work teams are still frozen in the traditional authoritative leadership model with the team leader at the top of the hierarchical pyramid. The top-down format makes team leadership an extremely tough task today, given the rapidly changing financial, social, political, technological and environmental forces at play. Things are moving just too quickly and complex challenges cropping up everywhere, to rely on the efficacy of one sole team leader!

Given this situation, the next frontier for leadership is to spread it across multiple team members. And this paradigm shift is what distributed leadership is all about. This democratic format neutralises rank to an extent and calls on the collective efficacy of the entire team. With the liberating spread of influence and authority, unexpected people are bound to spring up and take charge of complex situations in the most unexpected of ways and thus successfully handle the complexities of today's business environments. They no longer need a formal leadership role but simply leap up and assume responsibility depending on the need, opportunity, expertise and personal desire to lead.

Collaborative or shared leadership signifies the end of team hierarchy and heralds the days of networks – both formal and informal. Even the team leader's responsibilities shift radically from the command and control approach to a more subtle cultivating and coordinating of the team members. And that spells true empowerment for the team. As top management expert, Ken Blanchard pronounces, “None of us is as smart as all of us!”

The consequences: Not only does distributed leadership mitigate risks and improve performance, it also enables the team to innovate and respond successfully to new opportunities. It proves especially valuable for virtual, globally-dispersed teams.

Instituting distributed leadership

Its true that we all need to lead and any team member who feels they can make a contribution should be able to do so by donning a leadership role. But actually instituting such distributed leadership is not as easy as it sounds. Powering teams is often done in a very non-effective way leading to further chaos, not to mention gross misuse of power.

Distributing leadership is a complicated process and requires organisations to craft a corresponding culture that truly shares real and effective leadership across the team. Effectiveness depends on the quality of people. As the head of the organisation, begin with fostering leadership ability at every level through adequate training and coaching to deal with the conflicts, dilemmas and challenges on one's own. Encourage them to look within for leadership rather than outside and willingly rise to take initiative whenever possible. Factor in sufficient ownership and accountability as well.

Shared values, responsibility, purpose and priorities are critical for success. Provide team members with access to necessary information to be able to act effectively and even take decisions on their own. Enable them to the extent that they can even redesign their jobs, yet keep them aligned to the objectives of the team and organisation.

The team as a whole has to take steps to protect the distributed culture with guiding principles and right mindset. Possessing an ‘I can' attitude goes without saying. Team leaders on their part have to be willing to let go a bit, boost innovation and accept ideas/initiative of others.

Yet, for all the collaborative leadership, there is still a need for maintaining a sense of centralised leadership when it comes to making key decisions and accountability. This has to be a strong visionary who serves as a clear and decisive authority in keeping the team aligned with the big picture.

To sum up, leadership exists throughout teams and organisations. Team leaders just have to recognise and accept the fact to be able to tap into the overflowing intellectual, interpersonal, rational, intuitive, conceptual and creative capacities of their team members. People are hungry for leadership and desperate for opportunities to shine. So, why not power them to play such key roles!

Payal Chanania