#TrinitySeries — LSD principle of employee retention ..a must read for people managers and HR Personals
Towards the end of the first quarter board meeting, they had the last agenda item of ‘portfolio assignment’. Brahma took production portfolio (creation) voluntarily, Vishnu with operations (protection) and Shiva with the destruction (winding up). When the Hindu Trinity was about to move on, its Shiva who has asked the question — “Gents are we going to do this all alone; rather what kind of support and aid we may need to run this?”. “Yeah, we do not want to end up again in bad meeting at the end of Q2”, Vishnu resonated. Brahma was clueless as expected.
“What do you want in order to perform creation?, creation of the land, creation of ocean, creation of rains, creation of animals, creation of plants and whatever you want to create? — Shiva questioned. “I don't know, what i need” — answer from Brahma”; He asked another question to Shiva in addition to the above answer . “Lets for time being assume that I have created everything, I don't know how, but once its created; do you have enough powers to destroy it?”. “Well, it depends on what you intend to create, if its more powerful than me, I might need more Shakti (Power)” — Shiva uttered.
Vishnu stopped Garuda and jumped out and said — “Gents, one of you need Knowledge and another need Shakti; and to my understanding both of your area is more or like a self driven stuff; you do not need permission from the object that you work-on (either to create or destroy) to meet your numbers; But running operations is not everyone piece of cake (not even mine); I might need something that i can use to please the ecosystem so that they would listen to me.Something really materialistic”.
Shiva concluded the discussion saying “We shall posses these three basic resources with ourselves — knowledge, wealth and power’. Brahma said — ‘my creations shall, want these three all the time’.
LSD principle — and employee retention
When started writing this post, i wrote it as ‘LSD theory’ — you can still see the URL in the address bar as ‘theory’, later i realized its a principle not a theory and hence reworded the title. I believe its a principle because, it qualifies for all the 3 traits of a principle — 1) this is universal i.e. applicable every where— 2)this is not time bound i.e. it was true in the past and will be true in the future as well — 3) this works if you believe it or not.
Saraswathi — ‘S’ of LSD theory, Saraswathi was created by Brahma with plentiful knowledge, so that he will never be short of ‘know how’. You can read my other story on TrinitySeries to find how mother Saraswathi was created here. Brahma of the trinity posses her. Saraswathi represents endless knowledge, she carries a veena and vedas in her hand.
One of the important incentive, any employee look for in an organization is ‘learning’. Employees leaves, when their life is monotonous and learning stops. As a people manager or an HR managers you should have set enough learning opportunists for your employees. If there is systems avialable to self learn, then the best. If you are a manager motivating employees to learn-very good.
Laxmi — ‘L’ of LSD theory, Laxmi (a.k.a Lakshmi) is emerged out when the Gods and Daemons churned the ocean in search of Nectar. Of the three trinity gods, Vishnu posses Laxmi. Laxmi is synonymous to all materialistic things one can posses. She is represented as a goddess with a pot full of gold coins. In simple corporate terms its translates to incentives (salary) and benefits. As an HR manager, this needs to be taken care at the very first step of recruitment. An employee should be given the correct salary package based on his/her experience and education qualifications. Disparity in salary is one thing that any employee hate. As a people manager, we need to take care what else can be done for an employee, if there is an inherited disparity — may be in the form of rewards and recognition. Please note that — i do not want to suggest to implement socialism here. Below is a conversation in which you do not want to be in as a people manager.
Manager: See dear, as per policy and code of conduct, you are not supposed to discuss the hike and salary details with your colleges
Team Member: Yes, sir — i am equally embarrassed to discuss the salary hike with my colleges sir.
Durga — ‘D’ of LSD theory, Durga or Shakti is created by lord Shiva. It believed that she has embodies the collective power of Vishnu, Brahma and Maheshwara. She is always represented with weapon in hand and rides on a lion — shown as extremity of power. In corporate terms, its all about empowerment. We need to ensure that we are giving enough empowerment for our employees performing at different levels. Micro-managing bosses are one of the least accepted ones. As people managers, allow them do what they want to do to achieve their goals and targets. Basic difference between a ‘doctor-patient’ conversation and ‘manager-subordinate’ conversation is that, in the former one patient absolutely have no idea of how to treat his/her disease — in which case, the doctor prescribes. In the second case, subordinate most of the time have an idea how to do it, (s)he needs just a support not a prescription. This does it mean that you should leave everything on employees hand — you must hold the thread; The best manager is the one find the check and balance of this trade-off.
That summaries the LSD theory, give 2 out of these 3 LSD to the employees, 99% chances that employee will stay. Its a common notion that if you get 2, you can acquire/build the the third. To be more clear on this — If you have knowledge and power > you can make money; If you have money and power > you can acquire knowledge — If you have knowledge and money > you can become powerful.
#TrinitySeries — is the genre, that I have created for stories from mythology — this is 3rd story of this series — previous article on this series click here
Best Regards — Anu Sadasivan
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