The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

“What’s the first syllable in the word routine?” That’s right… it’s rut. Being in a rut can be a very emotionally frustrating period, we all have a drop in motivation levels every once in a while, but if left unchecked, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy – if you think you can’t get out of it, you can’t! As an employer, if you are observing a drop in the engagement levels and enthusiasm of your employees, by default it becomes your concern to provide support in some form because it is now your problem too. You have to understand that someone yawning in the office, or the star performer in your office acting like Jughead after declaring him his role model is not a problem per se, it is only a symptom of a problem.

Signs of clear and present danger! Something might be wrong if:

1. Everyone is laughing and pushing each other around until they realize its Monday and not Friday, silence ensues.
2. The main project that everyone is working on is the ‘staring game’, no one wins.
3. The last time your team celebrated the successful completion of a project was – oh snap; now you have memory loss.
4. Your organization has a revolutionary motto, it is – “We don’t even smile for free”.
5. Conversations go something like that – Q. “Was that work that you gave to him/her done?” A. “Yes, that was done and the other was done too”. No objectivity.
6. New ideas are met with an enthusiastic, almost frenzied cheer and then a “what was that?” a little later.
7. After a lot of failed attempts, your employees finally started a YouTube podcast; it’s called “Lessons in time mismanagement”.
8. You observe violent reactions every time someone mentions “work-life balance”, sometimes people just read it somewhere and then run and scream.
9. The most generous compliment the boss gave this month was actually an insult in disguise.
10. When you approach people at their workstations, you can swear you saw them making wish-lists at eBay, and later frantically hitting Alt+ Esc.

Now that you know something is wrong (thank god for that!), next time we’ll cover the actions you can take to salvage the situation an turn it around if you witness such absurdities at work…

It is said that you start your work life with black and white – mutually exclusive, clear cut choices or instructions that are passed on to you by your manager. There is little that you impact, and little that impacts you, relative to what lies ahead. The stakes are low, the people touched by your work are few, and lapses can be ‘managed’ by a small cover-up operation.

As you move up the ladder, however, ambiguity starts making its presence felt. Increasingly, your canvas is painted by shades of grey, reaching a stage where all that you can see and perceive is grey. Guess what, before you realize it, there is no black left, and no white either.

So what does it mean to you? Some people excel in ambiguous settings, some detest them – most lie in between. As it were, the same action takes on a diametrically opposite hue as the complexity and scale increase. What smaller organisations can get away with easily, raises a few eyebrows in slightly larger organisations, and as the size of the organisation grows, the reaction may be a national uproar. Why would this be so? The simple answer is, in the realm of the ambiguous, the same decision or action will impact a whole lot of stakeholders, will probably have much more far reaching consequences than an environment made up of only a few people.

As you grow in your career, your actions will increasingly have such far reaching consequences. What you do, or what you don’t do, will have to be carefully weighed. You will need to factor in a lot more data and be cognizant of all the feathers that you will ruffle and applecarts you will…. And so on, but you get the gist.

At the same time, complexity, and therefore ambiguity, is growing on other fronts too – your family needs attention, the number of your contacts and friends has exploded, your health is not what it used to be twenty years back, and hey – you need some time to yourself too, right?

The CEO of Coke, Bryan Dyson once in a speech, more commonly know as the ‘30 second speech’, said –

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, Friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.”

While all of us might not agree with what is written because everyone has different priorities, most of which are rigidly reaffirmed in the way they lead their lives everyday – that’s why some of us are called ‘workaholics’ and the others ‘family oriented’. One thing that we can all agree to is that while juggling all these balls you need to keep a margin for error, and with that crawls in ambiguity.

Are you faced with questions, the answers of which are not very apparent or clear at the moment, but which have a big ‘perceived’ impact on your life nevertheless?

1. What if you took some time off to do that MBA, would it help you move along in your career faster or leave you behind a couple of years?
2. Why does your boss want you to do something he clearly knows you are not good at? Will it do you good or crush your confidence?
3. Should you make a change of careers to pursue something you are really passionate about? Will you be able to bounce back to what you are currently doing if case the change does not work as expected?
4. What if you are not being given the right information, how does it impact your decision making ability as a professional and an individual?

These are just some of the questions a majority of people are facing, or have faced while trying to find a balance between all the contradictory and conflicting forces that dominate our lives.

Why does ambiguity increase as one travels up the corporate ladder?

Jason Seiden, through his firm, SeidenLeadership, turns capable people into savvy managers and leaders. He thinks that the ability to handle ambiguity is a combination of problem solving and initiative that encompasses:

1. The ability to tell the difference between things that should be dealt with literally and other things that require interpretation,
2. The ability to conduct the interpretation, and
3. The initiative to act on your conclusions. (The ability to handle uncertainty is the same, but with less emphasis on the first part.)

Ambiguity increases as you move "up" in an organization because as your span of control increases, the number of potential interpretations for any given action increase.

Does it pay to keep ambiguity in check?

The best person to answer this question is you. Some people thrive in ambiguity, it brings out the best in them. Others, and there are more of these, would prefer that life had at least a semblance of structure to it. The reality is, ambiguity has its own perils – once you are in an ambiguous situation, there is little that you can do to manage the extent of ambiguity – and like the proverbial glass ceiling, sooner or later, the extent of ambiguity has a chance of crossing your ‘I-can-handle-this-too’ Rubicon. Remember, like e-mails and a tidal wave, ambiguity has the potential to develop a life of its own.

As a matter of fact, it does pay to keep ambiguity in check – here are 4 big reasons why:

1. It helps you plan more effectively – the less ambiguous the big picture, the more you are likely to plan effectively. The trick is to anticipate the problems and the pitfalls (yes, the opportunities too), and build in enough safety hatches in your plan to take care of eventualities that you did not (or could not) see.
2. It helps you stay in control – who wouldn’t like to stay on top of things, especially when the stakes are high. The Chief Executives who feign ignorance about the ‘mistakes’ their organisation have made fell prey to not removing ambiguity. One does not need to emphasize that there is potential for ambiguity all over, and the thought that only external ambiguity needs to be managed belongs to the ‘famous-last-words’ legion.
3. It enables you to focus – focus where you will add more value. Building processes, stronger go-to-market strategies, tackling the inorganic and organic growth dilemma, making those ‘build-or-buy’ decisions, ensuring customers are happy, empowering employees – rather than worry where the next landmine has been laid.
4. It makes you live longer – need we say more? However much you enjoy ambiguity, and the adrenalin that pumps through your system when the going gets tough, there is merit in understanding that the human body (ever since man stopped living in jungles and hunting to feed himself) has increasingly grown accustomed to being more comfortable in the ‘known’. Don’t invite ambiguity, you’re just playing with fire.

Do different personality types react differently to ambiguity?

The answer to this can only be given at a very subjective level, but the answer is yes. If you consider two major employee profiling theories – The Jungian Type Inventory and Belbin Team Theory, you will realize that some of the profiles have an inherent tendency to react in a certain manner to ambiguity – this is of course in theory though, but because they have been validated and accepted worldwide, the generalizations can be applied.

If you consider The Jungian Type Inventory and MBTI (The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory) test based on it, it has eight opposing personality traits – for sake of explanation, let’s consider four of them:

1. Judging vs. Perceiving – It’s pretty clear that Perceivers will generally be more comfortable being in a state of ambiguity or handling an ambiguous situation than Judgers. Judgers have a need to keep everything in their life structured – they have difficulty dealing with things if they go out of their set order, on the other hand perceivers like to keep their options open and are more adept at adapting themselves to situations as opposed to mould the situation to themselves.
2. Thinking vs. Feeling – The Thinkers make most of their decisions based on logic, they like to see the world in black and white, and dislike fuzziness. No prizes here for guessing who would be uncomfortable in a state of ambiguity; yes, definitely not the Feelers – who base their decisions based on social considerations and are more people-oriented.

Stating such opinions on the profiles in Belbin® Team Roles* get a little tricky because instead of individual characteristics, we have profiles that point towards ‘types’ of individuals and the ‘role’ they play in teams. But again, because it has been very widely used and applied – it stands the test of numbers. Let’s again consider two profiles out of a total of nine:

1. Team Worker – Can have problem making difficult decisions, especially decisions regarding people; and hence have difficulty when dealing with uncertainty associated with handling people problems.
2. Monitor Evaluator – Are used to seeing both the negative and positive aspects of situations, weighing the pros and cons of various options. It stands to logic that they would be more comfortable and rather thrive in ambiguity, because it gives their minds something to work on.

*Our extrapolation of the Belbin® Team Roles is our interpretation and may not be supported by the propounders of this theory.

You’re in the ambiguous zone, and you don’t like it – what now?

1. Learn something from it – Ambiguity is everywhere, and it has been there from the start, from the time you had to make a choice between science or arts, engineering college or medical college, startup or big organization – acknowledge that and be comfortable with it. Strive to find meaning in ambiguity without letting it overpower you.
2. Find a mentor – Find someone who challenges your thoughts and does not necessarily agree with them, someone who give you tough love advice when it is needed… and don’t be defensive and close yourself. It could be a boss, a friend, a colleague, even your mother – anyone who’s not afraid to make you aware of your shortcomings and provide guidance.
3. Give up control where necessary – This is more important when you are leading/managing a team, to lead means to be in a perpetual zone of conflicts and doubts, instead of trying to control the situation or people – find out how it is impacting you and other around you, direct your efforts in getting a grip on the situation instead of trying to mould it your way.
4. Focus on what’s really important – When you have a multitude of things needing your attention and time in finding the optimal work life balance, prioritize them and devote more time on the ones that directly impact your growth and success. And yes, there are some that have more impact than the others… remember the Pareto’s Principle (also know as the law of vital few and trivial many)? It says that only 20% of all the activities you do bring about 80% of your success.

And lastly, keep an eye on your stress levels, stress can decrease your ability to cope with ambiguous situations – read this article on what stress is, it’s symptoms and causes, or if you want to dig a little deeper, find out what you should do when you are stressed and what precautions should you take to avoid it altogether.

It is said that adversity brings out the best in some – well, far from the truth for the only viable alternative that the people of India had to the ruling coalition. Just the beginning of the second term out of power and the house of BJP is in shambles like never before. It seems every bad wolf in the neighbourhood can huff and puff and bring it all down. Not only this, they are squabbling over petty issues that the country does not even care about. Reminds me of Ponting and his men, but that’s another story. So, back to the BJP and the disaster – the links with the right wing RSS are now clearly out in the open – something that everyone knew all the while, but something that they have been try to keep a tight lid on by ignoring, refuting and what have you. It is not a nice scene – they have some great leaders. Maybe life will come a full circle for them one day – seems pretty far away as of now.


The other house that is a little shaky right now is that of the TATAs – humungous losses in the steel business, the price to pay for taking over Corus, and they’ve got to keep the Jaguars and the Land Rovers floating too. They’ll pull a trick out of their bag still, but cautious times ahead for them, I’m sure. The bigger you are, the bigger your problems – thank God Benifys is lean and hungry and manageable. We’re looking at some good things to happen to us in this month. And we’re raring to go.


Something else to cheer about – lots. India’s in a Grand Slam main draw after 7 long years. While this statement has a depressing side to it, we prefer to look at the brighter side – we’re there, right? So what if it does not happen every year. What about Force India and the F1 stupendous achievement – shows that victory does not always come to the big and the strong and deep pockets – it is guts and determination and the zeal to win that gets you there. Missed the top spot by a whisker, but this is just the beginning. We stock all of this in plenty at Benifys. Our team is well equipped to provide a solution to any HR issue that you might be facing right now. All it takes is a click or a call – try it.


No rains still, and time’s running out – some people happy not to have to experience the tragic consequences that rain brings in any city of consequence in the country. But that does not mean that people are celebrating – we know at what price we’re reaching home in time. This is like the many dilemmas that we face all the time – build or buy, retained services or outsourced, trust someone else with my data or not, have HR run by an external agency or drain my bandwidth all the while and hang on to something that I don’t have to do – ah, what we’d give to find an answer to these. Well, all that you have to give is an hour to us – we’ll be happy to show you what’ll work best for your set-up.


Till that time, keep smiling – it’s not all that bad

Ajay has converted his zeal for people development into his career. An alumnus of Modern School and Hindu College, and equipped with a University Masters in Sociology from JNU, and an MBA from FMS, University of Delhi – from the very outset, he decided that people were his passion.

He has held leadership positions in HR in blue chip organizations cutting across industry verticals and domains within the HR function.

In the business world, the term “micromanagement” has assumed massive proportions, with almost everyone of us having witnessed this phenomenon at work. Whether you have experienced it first-hand, or observed it from close quarters, or heard it discussed around the office vending tea machine, you can never claim to be oblivious to the existence of this menace.

And then again, there is a possibility that you’re a typical Type A micromanager yourself! Although most people like being managed, one can hardly say the same about micromanagement. So what is it that compels people to act like frenzied control freaks? How do you deal with ‘them’? Are you one of ‘them’? Let’s tackle the last one first. You have to know whether you’re a micromanager before you can do something about it. Here’s how you do a dipstick check.

How to tell if you are a micromanager

1. You feel compelled to keep telling people the ‘right’ way to do it, since they can obviously never do the work as well as you can.
2. You get personally offended and aggravated if you find a worker inefficient in their work.
3. Even if the work is done to satisfaction, you still want to fiddle with it before you let it pass your hands.
4. You need constant updates about the progress of work that is assigned to sub-ordinates, and here, constant can mean as little as 6 minutes.
5. You resist delegating work and immerse yourself in tasks that other people are supposed to carry out.
6. You keep nit-picking about small details and discourage people from making independent decisions.

Micromanaging is mostly associated with either Type A personalities or Theory X Leaders, but the need to micromanage could arise from good intentions as well. For example, if you ask a micromanager why they do it, they’ll tell you that they have a heightened sense of responsibility and ownership. This is true, people who micromanage are seen to have a greater sense of ownership, and fear of things going wrong, or working to the detriment of their organisation. What this means at the ground level, however is two important things – one, the fact that they will not allow their subordinates to grow because they want to do everything themselves, and have all decisions, big or small, pass through them, and two, the fact that they make life literally unbearable for the folks below who actually know their job and are good at it.

Also, most of the times, they will not let ownership build amongst their team because the team feels that whatever they do, will finally pass through their boss anyway, this leads to complacency. The fact that micromanagers often end up being bottlenecks is another negative fallout. However efficient one may be, it is physically impossible to handle every little nitty-gritty of business by oneself – there will be times where the overall efficiency is compromised because something (which might otherwise be perfectly done in the first place) is waiting for the attention of the micromanager.

So, if you are a micromanager, the chances are that sooner or later you will realize that the employees are spending an increasing amount of time thinking how to deal with their supervisor rather than actually working. If you wait long enough, most of the good self respecting people would have left and you would be left with a team of mediocre employees who just know one thing, follow orders, no questions asked. Good luck with that!

So what’s wrong with micromanagement?
Sure you’ve read articles that say “micromanage and get things done”, and in all likelihood, at some point of time you have caught yourself thinking – “what’s wrong with these guys, it’s so simple, what’s taking them so long”, or “let me do this myself, it’ll be faster that way”. Well, there are two problems with this – first, by constantly barging into people, you take away their power to make any decisions on their own, this is how you are effectively disempowering them. A disempowered employee is an ineffective one – one who requires a lot of time and energy from his supervisor.

The other thing that micromanagement has going against it is that it is subject to the law of diminishing returns. In simple terms, what this means is that the first time you micromanage is the time you get the most return from it. This is because people will usually comply with you the first time even if they find something odd about your behavior, but over a period of time they develop a learned response to it, which usually is to not pay much attention or worse, respond aggressively.

Need we remind people that micromanaging is just not a healthy attitude; it shows the supervisor’s general mistrust with his peers and sub-ordinates.

How to stop your micromanaging tendencies

1. Acknowledge – Acknowledge that there is a problem. If you find that your team no longer offers suggestions or tells you outright that you have a controlling nature, that’s as big a sign you are going to get. Not acknowledging a problem is like a man who goes drunk into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and declares “but I don’t have a drinking problem”. Fat chance of HIM getting off alcohol!
2. Manage Expectations – Decide and mutually agree on expectations from both parties, i.e., what you expect from your sub-ordinates and also what they expect from you as their manager. It may be a revelation to you that they may want you to “give them a little freedom of work” or “control your constant need to be updated”. Talk about the task at hand as much as you want to in the first go, let them know your requirements before they actually start working and then control the urge to continuously check on them. If people know that you’re counting on them, they’ll surprise you with good results.
3. Encourage Participation – “How do you plan to approach this?” “How are you planning to get buy- in on this?” “What are you going to do to get Marketing involved?” “Do you have any ideas for solving this problem?”, are just some things you can ask to increase the level of interaction and cohesiveness in a team. Let the employees know that their thoughts and opinions are valued, don’t ever snub someone just because you don’t agree with what they have to say.
4. Don’t over criticize – You have to make sure that you are not the only one criticizing your team all the time – people will form a negative opinion about you. At least half of the criticism should come from the team itself – create a culture of self evaluation, where people talk about their improvement areas, real or perceived. Other than self critique being more accurate, it takes the heat off you so you don’t always have to be the bad guy. Remember the 70/30 rule, 70% praise and 30% criticism, and 0% criticism in front of other team members.

Are you being micromanaged? Oh dear!
Okay, let’s move on to a situation where you are the one being micromanaged. We know how painful it can be to have someone breathing down your neck all the time. I remember a time when one of my pathologically micromanaging manager asked about the status of something before he sent out a mail telling me what has to be done in the first place! Needless to say, he wasn’t my manager for long. It is not only nagging, it comes in the way of your professional growth and development. The fact that you don’t feel like coming to work every single day because you know that it’s going to be the same story all over again is stating the obvious, but there are deeper ramifications of this phenomenon. You’re constantly under stress, you are unconsciously wishing that your manager is on leave that (every) day, you want to break free, you want to move jobs, you may end up making wrong career choices under duress – worse, you want to physically assault the manager to make him see sense. He won’t, of course, but there are certain things that you CAN try. Here’s what to do to tackle the problem.

1. Simplest things – Arrive 10 minutes early before your boss and leave 10 minutes late, take a shorter lunch break if possible. Produce quality work. Check with him and update him about work before he has a chance to check on you, preferably once in the morning, afternoon and once before you leave. You might ask why do you have to do all this when the problem is with the supervisor’s attitude, but hey… who’s feeling the heat? Escalating the problem might also seem a simple step if you really think the pressure is to much to take, but think of all the possible repercussions first, do you have sufficient facts to back your case?
2. Dissociate – This is probably the most effective thing if you can do it, understand that micromanagers are generally type A people with high expectation, more often than not they don’t do it because they like to trouble you, but rather because they are compelled to. They have problems with delegating out tasks without retaining control, because they feel like their job will be axed for any failure. They may fear losing their job or worse taking the Company down if they are an owner. All you have to really do is to avoid taking it personally. Don’t act indifferent, just unperturbed, curt and professional. Think that you’re trying to help someone who needs help.
3. Stay aware and informed – Ask them all the details required to perform a particular job or task upfront before starting on it. Predict things that make them micromanage you and counter them before they get a chance. In order to do this you need to maintain a weekly journal highlighting the reason they tend to bother you with the most, and based on that information, build their confidence by giving them a dose of the updates they are usually looking for themselves. This way they will see in you an employee who know exactly what he is doing and he will begin to then, leave you to your work.
4. Help your boss – It’s a habit, don’t retaliate too hard and too fast. Help your boss change one micromanagement habit at a time. If you wish to communicate your unease, do not do so without highlighting your own strengths and accomplishments, it is very easy for a micromanager to jump from one task to another without realizing how much efforts you have put in, therefore make sure you both agree that you have done well. Anticipate potential problems and find solutions before they become a problem for him. Ask your boss what is missing or what would they like to see happen on the work front.
5. Break the task down into smaller tasks – a combined activity that the micromanager and the micromanaged can do is to device a communication plan for themselves wherein the task is divided into smaller sub tasks and the timelines for each sub-task are decided and shared on their calendars so the micromanager would think twice before barging in onto the employee and also, the employee can set his own pace at the beginning of the task.

Like with everything else in life, there are some incurable micromanagers stalking the corporate corridors, and nothing will make them come out of this compulsion. Let us know your stories, and the times you have had to struggle with a micromanager, how did or would you manage the micromanager? And above all, for people at both ends of the micromanagement stick – GOOD LUCK!

What is it?

To quote Hans Selye, who is universally recognized as the founding father of stress research, “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.”

Some consider this to be a very optimistic way to look at stress, an ally of sorts that gives you a timely push to achieve something that seems difficult. At the same time, one fact that we all know and have perhaps experienced personally is that stress can very quickly turn into misery if not handled properly. The modern view of stress is that it is a ‘bad thing’, which is also supported by scientific studies claiming stress as a major factor contributing to long term negative health impacts.

So is stress a good or a bad thing? As it turns out, there is no right answer – it all depends on the situation. The same stress that helps athletes to achieve the unachievable can have significant adverse effects on the overall well-being of a working professional. There is a difference, though – you would perhaps have noticed that a short burst of stress helped you achieve a deadline that you thought was otherwise impossible, that stress helped you think of a creative way out of the problem. While there are natural advantages that some enjoy over others in terms of handling stress, an overwhelming specialist opinion now emphasizes on the fact that there are techniques that can be deployed to handle stress and come out on top. There is no denying, however, that the best of us crack in moments of extreme or periods of sustained stress.

Today, we’ll demystify the phenomenon of stress, and in the next issue of our monthly Newsletter, we’ll look at some techniques that we can utilize to manage stress better, in fact, utilize stress to become more effective and creative. Let’s look at some of the more common symptoms and causes of stress.


Symptoms

The degree of intensity with which the symptoms are manifested may vary based on factors like the duration to which the individual has been exposed to the stressors (yes, there is a word like this – stressors are stress inducers), the intensity of the stressors itself, the type of stressor, but since here we are concerned only about job related stressors – here is a list of the most typical symptoms:

Mental and behavioral symptoms

• Aggression
• Irritability
• Depression
• Absenteeism
• Insomnia
• Emotional instability
• Loss of concentration

Physical symptoms

• Diseases related to the heart
• Migraine/Headache
• Neck and back problems
• Perpetual exhaustion
• Digestive problems

If you display any or more of the above symptoms, there is a good chance that it’s induced by stress, and a good chance on top that it’s work related. How do you find out whether it’s a work related issue or something else that’s manifesting itself through the above symptoms?

Here’s an easy checklist – introspect deeply (be true to yourself), and see if you’re currently undergoing, or have been exposed to any of this for some time in the recent past. These are the most common causes of work related stress.


Causes

Job Insecurity – Some people are naturally more insecure about their jobs as compared to others, this puts them in a higher danger bracket of contracting stress related problems. Add to this the current economic scenario and mass layoffs, and the rumor mills that spare no-one, and you have the single biggest stress trigger for a working professional.

Work-life balance – It is often not easy to strike a good balance between one’s professional and personal life, and is again something that some people manage better than others naturally. For those who can’t, and if there is, unfortunately, a problem at home that’s always back-of-mind, it becomes difficult to concentrate on work, which inevitably leads to stress.

Work Culture – Moving into a new organization brings its own set of challenges of understanding and adapting to the corporate culture of the organization, e.g., communication, hierarchy, even behavioral patterns of the new boss. Sometimes the transition is not as smooth as it could be. Also, today’s work culture is extremely competitive and performance-centric with stiff deadlines and increased workload thrown in for good measure.

Feeling of losing control – Human beings have an inherent need to be in control of situations, most of us dislike being in a state of doubt or uncertainty. It makes people feel inadequate and vulnerable, this mostly happens when an individual has to deal with something which requires more knowledge or skills than the person possesses.

Difficult people – Regardless of how smart, knowledgeable or nice you are – there will always be people who will give you a hard time. Unfortunately, you can’t choose the people that you work with, or come in contact with, at the workplace, and we have the last of the most common causes of work related stress – people that you don’t like at the workplace.


Burnout

If a person is in a state of stress for a sustained period of time, it invariably leads to burnout. Burnout is the state of complete physical and/or emotional rundown where a person feels completely drained of energy. Needless to say this is a very serious disorder and you should be aware if you’re headed in this direction. Take this quick quiz to find out if you are at risk.