Manager must focus on facilitating performance and reducing friction

June 1, 2022

Now the challenge for HR is to recruit worker-specialists in adept in use of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, genetic engineering, 3D printing, robotics, virtual reality and the like in their jobs. Skill cycles are getting shorter. Talent acquisition itself may become a specialist job manned by people at the cusp of technology and HR.

Do you think that Business Organisations now look for certain new competencies for managers? If so, what is your perspective in this respect?

RS One of the most critical competencies for managers in post-pandemic era is managing continuous change. Control is a phenomenon related to bygone era. Talent, consumer behaviour, supply chains, inflation- every aspect of running an organisation is changing like quicksand and managers must improvise, steady, and again improvise. Not once but all the time.

World is also changing from being tech-enabled to tech-dependent. Only philosophers can afford to remain tech-agnostic. Managers not only have to be tech-literate but tech-wise, being able to dance between adopting between the latest and scalable technologies with the sole objective of reducing friction points at interfaces. I will talk about this a little later.

In their book, Four Critical Skills for Tomorrow’s Innovation Workforce, Tucker J. Marion, Sebastian K. Fixson and Greg Brown also use the word...

Rajan Sinha

is Chief Executive Officer, Mantrana Consulting, an integrated HR solutions group, and also Managing Partner, Asia Coaching Network LLP.
A former Head, Human Resources with many organisations like HMT, Escorts, Denso India, Hindustan Zinc etc., Rajan is an advisor, trainer and coach to many corporates and NGOs. He has been in Governing Council of Mobile Creches and HR advisor for organisations like OCM.
He has co-authored a book on Alchemy of Change: Managing Transition through Value-Based Leadership, published by Sage Publications.

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