Insight through Interviews
Telephonic interviews were conducted with a few willing respondents to validate the findings on aspirations and gaps as well as understand some possible reasons behind these responses.
In the gaps area, interviewees concurred with the results in 3 gaps areas viz. ‘health & fitness’, ‘career satisfaction’ and ‘leadership skills’.
Possible reasons for gaps in ‘health & fitness’ (and also for gaps in ‘work life balance’) are:
For gaps in Career Satisfaction, possible reasons discussed are:
“Leadership skills” was third area of gap. Possible reasons for this could be that it’s a young industry and there is probably a dearth of experienced leaders in the organizations. The average age of the staff in most companies is in late 20s and COOs being in early 40s and thus there is possible dearth of leadership skills in the industry
Gaps in networking skills was a surprise inclusion in this list to a few interviewees as they felt this is very important requirement in their jobs and most of the staff strive hard to network with each other and with their clients.
In the attributes listed under highest aspiration, there was a general agreement on the 5 attributes that were identified. Reference to ‘listening skills’ echoed their sentiments as they often are told by their overseas clients that they (IT Service staff) need to listen more (to their users/clients).
There was a good response to the question
What key areas would you use an Executive Coach for?
Most of the responses echoed the attributes mentioned in the questionnaire.
A few new ones are:
References:
- NASSCOM Report FY 2012 on Indian IT Industry - Internet
- ICA Reading Material
- ICA Class Notes
- Dempbary tools on coaching assessment - Internet