The corporate dynamics today has taken a complete new turn. Companies are spending huge amounts of money and resources on employee engagement and training, largely focusing on employee retention and efficiency enhancement. Overall spending by businesses on workplace training and development has increased by 12% last year, according to a new study by a leading consulting firm. In spite of these efforts taken by the management to attain one common goal- growth, business owners are still finding it difficult to chug the engine and the workforce bogies faster towards the envisaged destination.

Blessed are the businesses that do not need to constantly face the following "chicken first or egg first" scenario.

Business Owner: "I am more than willing to give what my people want, if they deliver what they have promised."

Employee: "I am more than willing to perform if I get what's promised and all the resources I need to do the job."

Take the recent case of a French video game offering players the chance to become a virtual employee of steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal and fight against a giant robot representing the owner, the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. While one could argue that this is the extreme representation of the gulf (and resulting resentment) between a company's leadership and its employees, it's also true that more and more businesses are dealing with the challenge of making these two forces focus in one direction.

Where lies the challenge?

A business caters to the following needs of its owner and the employees when it is a progressive small firm. (i.e. owner is synonymous with the business he runs)

Then this business grows and becomes big in terms of scale of operations and geographies start expanding, the needs it caters to the owner and employees also change.

This may seem like a natural change. Notice the possibility of the common needs that get catered to drastically reducing i.e. the common purpose the business serves is only as a source of income. If this expanding gulf between the employees and the owner is not attended to the chances of realizing the envisaged goals become further bleak.

Can you imagine what would happen to a chariot where each horse pulls in a different direction driven by its own set of motivations?

Why this challenge?
As a parent, they say, one of the most challenging relationships to manage is the one between a teenage child and the parent. Why is that?

Frictions start developing when the needs that get catered to through this relationship have a minimum level of overlap. Similarly, when a small boutique company progresses and evolves into an SME and eventually to a corporate, the purpose it serves to these two sets of stakeholders also starts to differ drastically. And the last thing the chariot of business needs is these horses applying forces in different directions.

What are the common assumptions that must be avoided?

"Can't they see the numbers? It's common sense that we must be as frugal as possible at this hour!"
No, they can't see it. And what's common sense to you is business acumen to others. Instead focus on how you could be a story teller who can inspire them to rally behind you and help overcome the tough times.

"They are not operating at 100% of their efficiency. If they did I would be in a different orbit."
Even a F1 driver cannot give his best if the environment is not competitive and the car he drives has glitches. The owner's job is to make the environment competitive and to put in a system that doesn't allow mediocrity.

"Management seems to be totally divided or confused about certain strategies. I wish they knew better."
Running a business is more like sailing a ship from one continent to another. Ambiguity is the name of the game. Trust the captain to do his job at the deck. Diligently do your work at the belly of the ship.

So what needs to be done?
How effectively a leader can manage these situations is directly proportional to the number of opportunities he/she creates for the involved parties to get into each others' shoes. Some businesses believe that this is the role of the HR function. However, successful organizations recognize that while the HR function plays the role of facilitators of such opportunities, it's the leaders who take the accountability of tapping on these opportunities. The opportunity could be a town hall, storytelling sessions, skip level discussions, anonymous surveys, one-on-one discussions, or any other form of engagement activity. The key is to make this a part of the system and put in enough measures to ensure that mediocrity doesn't creep in to the execution of the same.

*The author of the article is Rajesh Shetty, Senior Consultant, Acumen Business Consulting.
*The views expressed by the author in this article are his/ her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.