On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Nikunj Sharma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Mercy For Animals India Foundation. He shares his journey from working as a campaign coordinator in an animal welfare NGO to running his own.
With more than 14 years of working in the animal welfare sector, Nikunj knows the ins and outs of animal rights and an NGO’s working functions. With a background that extensive, it’s no surprise this episode covers a lot of ground:
‘Tight-loose-tight’ leadership:
Communication is the most important ingredient to being a good leader. Nikunj encourages integrating teams by organizing interdepartmental meetings, check-ins at regular intervals, and making them work together.
They follow the concept of ‘tight-loose-tight’ leadership. It indicates being tight on expectations, loose on the delivery method, and again tight on evaluation of the work. This concept is especially good for remote work. Even the non-profit teams work better if they share ideas. They conduct weekly meetings where employees come together and discuss these ideas, appreciate each other’s work, and suggest other options. This turned out fruitful for their teams and generated new ideas.
This is how they went about inspiring ideas and leadership in the team.
The feedback procedure of MFA:
Nikunj explains the importance of recognizing each other in the workplace. Feedback is taken seriously by everyone. Being a global organization, Mercy for Animals has a centralized system that helps with project management. Anyone who joins the teams is trained on these software. It helps them perform better.
The organization sincerely believes in giving and receiving feedback. Their People Ops team in the US has a 360-degree feedback system where anyone can give feedback to their colleague, supervisor, or anyone else.
It helps in understanding any issues that employees might be facing and building trust in the employees. Moreover, they are a strong proponent of teamwork.
For effective performance management, they have quarterly conversations. They set up goals and evaluate them at the end of each quarter. Here, team members can give their feedback to coworkers or supervisors and vice versa. The strong feedback mechanism has helped develop a good relationship among employees.
Regular vulnerability checks for keeping a check on the mental state of the employees is a regular practice they perform.
Eligibility criteria for working in MFA:
Working for the cause of saving animals has been a relatively new concept. Hence finding people willing to make a difference is a difficult task. Thus the company needs to have good eligibility criteria while hiring. They need people who are compassionate and committed. But, at the same time, they should be well-educated and skilled as well. The candidates need to have some sort of experience within the area of animal rights. MFA has an elaborate recruiting process.
Listen to the full episode for a litany of tactical insights.
Follow Nikunj Sharma on LinkedIn
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Rohan Mankad
BONUS: Giving feedback is directly associated with employee recognition. Here are Employee Rewards and Recognition Ideas [2021 Guide] for ensuring effective response to the employees for their hardwork and dedication.