Managerial Excellence and Development of Agile Leaders (M.E.D.A.L)

Objective:

When it comes down to hiring people for leadership or senior roles, Crownstack, as an organization, would like to offer first priority to our in-house team members who have the potential to become team leaders rather than looking for talent outside the organization. Therefore, it becomes imperative that we build a system where leaders are trained in house and are prepared for upcoming challenges and how to tackle responsibilities of senior or leadership roles. To serve this purpose, we have created the M.E.D.A.L program, which is acronym for Managerial Excellence and Development of Agile Leaders.

A lot of times, individuals are excellent at performing their own tasks but when they are promoted to senior roles, especially team management roles, they generally struggle to manage both individual and team responsibilities. M.E.D.A.L program is designed to address this issue where people are trained to manage the additional duties of team lead along with their individual tasks.

The purpose of this program is to create LEADERS who are agile and exude managerial excellence.

Coverage:

The program currently covers those members who are aspiring to become team leaders or are scaling up to the next Level. This program covers all departments in Crownstack. Some examples of the roles covered in this program are:

• When Senior Engineers or team members are trained for Associate Team Lead positions
• When Associate Team Leads are trained for Team Lead positions
• When Junior team members are trained for Senior positions

Selection Process:

Selection for this program is via nominations only and the following members can nominate candidates based on their past performance and future potential to become leaders:

• Team Leads
• Manager (Head of departments - Delivery Head, CEO, CTO, Head HR)
• OR, anyone keen on the next level position and wanting to nominate himself/herself can do so by reaching out to HR directly. However, in this case, the decision to put the person in the program will be taken by the management.

Guidelines to shortlist members:

Following things are considered when selecting a person for MEDAL program:

• Person needs to be an Excellent Individual Contributor to begin with and have the person shown such traits in the past?
• As an individual contributor, has the member demonstrated a willingness to step outside of his job description to serve others and thereby support the organization’s mission?
• Has the member shown commitment and discipline toward the Crownstack policies and culture?
• Has the person shown commitment to his learning and development in the past by completing the COMET Goals?
• Person is consistenly being rewarded with good feedback or KPIs from his team members and other stakeholders.
• When a crisis strikes, does the member take appropriate ownership or point the finger of blame? Conversely, when good things happen, does the member appropriately recognise others who contributed to the success?
• Does the candidate show a desire to move up in the organization and take on more responsibilities?
• Candidate has a high level of discipline and integrity in his work and has shown commitment to the organization.

Announcement: We will announce the shortlisted candidates during a performance review in every Quarter.

On-Job Training - One (or more) Quarter:

Shortlisted Members will be assigned to new roles along with a Team Lead/Buddy to help them perform their duties. After completing one quarter, members will be confirmed for the same role depending on their performance in the program or if management feels they are ready for the next level. Mentors will be assigned to each member to help them in their journey who will coach them one-on-one. These mentors are generally Team Leads or Senior Managers in the organization. Although training duration can be extended based on the performance of the candidate and this prgram can last for more than one quarter.

Important Points:

• Members in the M.E.D.A.L program whose appraisal date is due this quarter will have their appraisal taken care of based on their past performance.
• The Crownstack Squad structure will followed while promoting to the next level and the teams will be restructured accordingly. No one needs to follow up on candidate’s work or progress; it is primarily candidates’ responsibility to be on top of their new responsibility.
• Members in the M.E.D.A.L program have to be proactive and disciplined to complete the provided guidelines in the time given.
• While in this program, the rest of the existing work remains the same.

Process to execute:

• Whenever a member is selected for the M.E.D.A.L program, he/she will be informed via email by TL/Department Heads/HR.
• The program will be updated accordingly in the Quick Team.
• Feedback will be tracked over Quick Team, where individuals will update the status of the work.
• Bi-weekly meetings with your TL/Buddy/Mentor will discuss your challenges and progress related to the program.
• TL/Buddy/Mentor will share his final assessment and inputs at the end of the program.
• HR will confirm the candidate role based on the candidate’s performance in the M.E.D.A.L program.

Assessment Criteria:

• Skills acquired respective to your function (Tech, QA or PM)
• Follow processes on tools like Quick Team and have meetings with the team lead regularly.
• The team Lead will collect feedback from cross-functional team members or anyone he/she worked with.
• Individual Interest level.

Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)— The Team Lead/Buddy/Mentor (Reporting Manager) leads the program and manages the members promoted to the next level. They also track employee progress and ensure documentation on Quick Team.

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