BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
1 MAR 2022
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
17 MAR 2022
Mr P Jayadevan, Executive Director & State Head ‐ TN & Puducherry Indian Oil Corporation Ltd ﴾IOCL﴿, touches upon the importance of grooming leaders by assessing their strengths and weaknesses. He also sheds light on how they managed to coach and mentor 14 of them, through a very systematic process at IOCL.
C
oaching is a noble act of changing individuals
foot in all the boats and whichever goes faster, we get
and developing them to take on new roles.
onto that. IOCL is the energy security keeper of India
There are many factors in production and
and we cannot afford energy poverty in our country. It
any
is therefore a much complex situation that we face
organisational or production set-up. We may feel that
today. Compared to all these challenges, transforming
changing human beings is the most difficult thing to
individuals is easier. In public sectors, transforming
do. But, I don't think so, based on my own experiences
individuals and coaching are required. We join public
in the oil and gas industry which is undergoing major
sectors at a lower cadre, grow and retire and thus have
transitions today.
a long term relationship. Any positive change that
human
beings
are
the
most
flexible
in
The big transition Our PM has addressed COP26 and talked about India's energy transition plans from conventional to
We are all generalists in public
renewable energy. We have a big challenge in IOCL
sector and not much of
handling our portfolios, being in an oil and gas
specialists. We keep on shifting
industry. We are now into solar, wind, hydrogen, biofuel
from one department to
and electricity as well. We are going to produce
another and there is very little
batteries. All these energy forms need much higher
prominence or value given to a
infrastructural needs. We need to prepare ourselves to
specialist in public sector.
handle these new forms of energy, any of which might proliferate in the next five to ten years. We keep our 18
MAR 2022
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fountainhead of excellence
happens to an individual, will contribute much more
there
to the organisation in the public sector than in a private
development. We have a Learning and Development
sector where people keep on changing. In public sector,
Department and Training Department, but they focus
we do have a long and heavy tail. We need to transform
on programs for a group of people.
them as well. All these factors favour a coaching system in the organisation. We are all generalists in public sector and not much of specialists. We keep on shifting from one department to another and there is very little prominence or value given to a specialist in public sector. So if you have to become a leader, you need to have better qualities, deep
has
to
be
some
system
for
individual
Tweaking the appraisal system In the early part of 2000, I was heading a small unit and I had 14 officers and 50 workmen under me. We have an annual performance appraisal system in order to rate them for giving promotions or rewards. When this appraisal was happening, I did a small exercise.
inside you. In spite of all this, my experience says that
I asked every officer to write down two strengths
in public sector, human resource development is yet to
and two areas of improvement for every other officer
mature, though there are initiatives happening. We have
including me, naming the officer who is being evaluated
industrial relations, employee relations and human
but without writing the name of the officer who
resources department. We have not gone deeper into
evaluated. All these were put in my in-tray. I compiled
human resource development.
all comments received for every officer, put them on a
I have had some experiences during my last 20 years in coaching, though I am in this organization for more than 34 years. It has given me some insights that
single sheet and gave them back to the concerned officer. I asked them to ponder over the comments and called them for a discussion after two days.
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All the officers, naturally, accepted their strengths but
not
all
of
them
accepted
their
areas
of
We had some structured way of mentoring but I found that the
improvement. Some officers concurred with the areas
experiment did not go well
of improvement pointed out to them and promised me that next year, I would not see those comments. To my
because the officers who were
surprise, those officers really worked on those areas
supposed to get mentored,
and vastly improved. Another set of officers accepted
never asked their mentors for
their areas of improvement but expressed their lack of
any help...
knowledge and tools to overcome it and wanted handholding. I was totally at dark as to how to help them to improve, as I was not a psychologist nor a certified coach. I did this assessment of strengths and
Selecting the directors
weakness exercise for four years and completed it in
My third experience though was different. Recently,
2006, at the end of which, I had a clear picture of all
I was heading the Secretariat of our Chairman. We have
the officers assigned to me during those four years and
a process of selection of Directors in the public sector.
understood them thoroughly.
We have six internal and six external candidates and
Mentoring that didn’t take off
they go for interview by the Public Sector Selection Committee.
Subsequently, we introduced a mentoring system in our organization. The young officers who joined us,
We had to appoint a Director for Marketing. In the
were given mentoring. They had mentors within the
list of shortlisted candidates for the position, six names
organization.
the
appeared. I went through those six names and I
controlling officers or the officers to whom they report
discussed with our Chairman. I found that almost all
to. I thought this was not correct, as a controlling
of them had leadership qualities. But they had gaps in
officer might impose certain things onto the officer
some areas like listening skills, communication skills,
reporting to him. It could be handled better.
self-awareness and integrity as well. So, probably we
Initially,
these
mentors
were
were not able to get the best of the leaders for the I brought in three retired officers to do mentoring. I had 17 officers with me. I made them into three batches, connected them with the three retired officers —six in each batch—and then allowed them to do the
organization. Had we initiated coaching and course correction for them four or five years back, we would have got six excellent candidates for the directorship. That was the inference or learning which I got.
mentoring process. We had some structured way of mentoring but I found that the experiment did not go
I tried to have a coaching process at the Chairman's
well because the officers who were supposed to get
level, but unfortunately, it did not really materialise. I
mentored, never asked their mentors for any help,
came back and got a posting in Chennai as Head of
except one officer who met with an accident, sought
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and approached a
some help when he was in the hospital bed. That was
professional coaching organisation. They helped me to
my second experience.
set up a coaching process. In fact, I was very
20
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apprehensive when I started it, because, in Public
After three months, when the coachee and coach
Sector, coaching had rarely happened as a process of
came to an understanding on the three areas they
leadership development. So I had to start afresh.
needed to improve, they came back to me. We sat again, to validate if these goals would serve the interests of
Coaching the coachables
the organization and not just cater to the individual’s
Initially, I took two officers for the coaching
personal development goal. I had to differentiate them,
process. I was totally involved right from day one, on
depending on the capability of the officer to become a
which we had an initial meeting. Here, the coaching
leader tomorrow.
philosophy and the value proposition was detailed to the officers. In that three-way meeting, the consultants assessed the officers if they were coachable or not, whether they had the willingness to come forward, understand their own areas of improvement and then work on them.
Finally, we arrived at the three goals. They sat through again for next 3 months and worked on those goals. We had a dipstick to check if the development actually happened and then closed it. That's how the whole
coaching
process
went
through,
on
an
individualistic and one-to-one basis. The coach and the
Then the other processes that were implemented
coachee sat together and improved upon the areas,
included psychometric tests, asking the officer to
which we had identified. It was an extremely satisfying
narrate a story, getting 360-degree feedback and then
experience for me. Since then, we coached another six
consolidating the feedback as one story about the
officers. We are doing another 10 now. So overall, in
officer. Both the coach and the coachee sat together to
my small set up that I have in Tamil Nadu, we have
identify three smart goals they needed to achieve. This
done coaching for 18 officers by now.
was a three-month long process. 22
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Lessons from coaching
This is my experience with coaching. There are
It's a great journey forward and during this journey. I also picked up some inferences. • We need to have the developmental process almost error free. While this process is on,
some shortcomings which I would throw open to the coaches to really work upon. I do have a couple of suggestions related to coaching as well. One, recently I have seen team coaching which is
an
being propagated. That's a good concept. It's for a
apprehension if the information they share
limited period for a group. There is a coaching process
would be kept confidential. If confidential
which is to be instituted. I have not experienced it but
information gets leaked out, it can go against
I feel, it will do good for some project based
the officer. So as a sponsor of this program,
assignments.
many
the
of
head
the
of
coaches
the
would
organization
have
has
the
responsibility to see to it that the information shared
remains
confidential.
That
is
extremely important in a coaching process. • Second, the sustainability of this program matters a lot. What happens after six months? Will the coached officers go back to old ways, due to their job pressure?
To take care of
this, we introduced a sustainability tracker. The coaches were available for some more
The next point is related to young lady officers. During our annual performance appraisal last year, in a specific grade, we had 98 officers—28 lady officers and 70 male officers. When I rated them, I found that 21 out of 28 lady officers were outstanding while only 15 out of 70 male officers were outstanding. I was reflecting upon my organization and I don't find these young officers getting into a management role. Something or the other happens to the lady officers over a period of time.
time and were hand-holding the trainees subsequently as well. I was also tracking many
These officers were in the 25-30 age group, either
of the officers and if there was any remark
married, or about to get married.
against them by any of their superiors, I
married and have their first child, they try to take a call
would take it forward for improving them.
whether the family is important or the career is
• Third, in Public Sectors, every process has to be a little more democratic and transparent.
When they get
important. Many of them tend to go towards the family and sacrifice their career.
There are people who would come back and
I think there is a great opportunity of coaching
question why somebody was selected for
them at this juncture. If we could do a one-to-one
coaching and ask, “Why not me?’ So one has
coaching of those young officers at that point, giving
to be very mindful about the selection of the
them opportunities and looking at their individual
people for coaching as well.
issues, I am sure that lady officers can get into much
• Lastly, can we have internal coaches? In huge
bigger leadership roles.
organisations, an internal coach can one day become the superior or subordinate. That's a big setback for the process. So I decided myself not to encourage any internal coaches.
Leadership
Coaching
will
lead
to
Coaching
Leadership, and, Coaching Leadership will be the trend of tomorrow.
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fountainhead of excellence
23 MAR 2022