The Hindu Business Line : `The road to the top, should take a turn on the way'

Think growth and the first thing that comes to mind is a ladder. It is not surprising then that career growth in an organisation is often referred to as `going up the ladder'.

But Anbu Rathinavel, Vice-President and Dean of Nalanda Corporate University, Polaris Software Lab Ltd, believes career growth can no longer be picturised vertically.

"Growth is to be seen as taking a sharp turn and entering another lane," says Rathinavel. While `climbing the ladder,' the previous step is of great comfort. Many seek refuge on it when the going gets tough at the top. But when you take a turn, you enter a new stretch of road. There is no comfort, as one cannot see or go back to the previous trail. Based on this thought, Polaris last year started a programme to groom its project leaders for higher roles — mainly project managers. It consisted of a two-day workshop followed by a post-programme assessment at intervals of three, six and nine months.

"Before the programme started, we briefed the senior management of what responsibilities they would have to let go of once the project leaders were groomed," he says. About 150 people across job roles, including developers, supervisors, project leaders and project managers, were interviewed before the Nalanda team came up with a list of responsibilities that one must let go of when one moves to a higher role.

"We went to the level of pinpointing what tasks a newly promoted manager is responsible for and what he must not do. For instance, project leaders often fix code (write or modify software), which is a developer's job. This threatens the developers in the team and eventually team spirit is eroded," says Rathinavel.

As a result, projects are not completed on time and the manager is stressed.

The programme, thus, focused on how to hand over stewardship to those waiting in the wings. It also included modules on conflict management (resolving team conflicts), inter-personal skills, how to criticise your subordinate and how to develop a plan of action.

About 1,000 of Polaris' 1,300 project leaders have gone through the programme. Buoyed by its success, the company is developing a similar programme for software developers who have spent three years in the company. In 2002, the company started its first grooming programme catering to project managers.

"All these grooming programmes have become a strong retention tool for us," says Rathinavel.

The project managers' programme led to negligible attrition in this segment over the last five years, he adds.

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