Find what is the most valuable resource in the current world scenario? – New Age thinking (Part 7)

On a Monday morning my daughter came running towards me with a query. She had a question from her teacher which she remembered at the spur of the moment. The question was “What would be the most valuable resource in the current world scenario?” I promised to give her an answer by evening as I was getting ready to leave to my office.

I could have googled out but for once I thought of finding an answer on my own. My wife was having a tough time handling by younger daughter who was distracted with her toys as my wife was trying to feed her. It was a typical scene in any toddler’s house which I was enjoying before I left for office. On the railway station the train was approaching the platform with the driver continuously honking. He was doing that, as a middle aged man with his headsets on, was trying to cross the railway tracks. My heart skipped a beat as the train narrowly missed him, else he would have been under the wheels.

I navigated my way through the crowd and managed to get a seat in the train. As the journey commenced everybody was busy with their phones or daily news papers and few where chit chatting as a group. I then spotted a hawker in my compartment yelling at the top of his voice in order to lure customers to sell his products and he was successful enough to find a couple of buyers as well

Later I reached office and I had a training scheduled on that day. It was a soft skills training and my faculty was nice enough to explain the relevant concepts. When I reached home, I saw my family glued to the television as it was a prime time and one of the channels was airing a serial which had the highest TRP and considered to be No.1 in its genre. After me freshening up, I went into my room to get myself relaxed. My daughter’s query in the morning strikes me and I tried to recollect the trail of events happened since morning to answer my daughter.

• What a mother tried to get from her baby?
• What a loco pilot tried to get from a jay walker crossing the tracks?
• What a hawker tried to get from the passengers?
• What a trainer tried to get from his students?
• What a serial director tried to get from his audience?

When I tried to string a cord with the line of events, I could find a correlation amongst all of these. My daughter appeared in front of me and her eyes were filled with anxiety expecting an answer from me. I replied her stating the most Sparse, Scarce and Sacred resource in the current world scenario is

“Human Attention”

Image courtesy : trueactivist.com

Everybody in this world is now chasing human beings to gather their attention. These days the distractions are more and everybody finds it difficult to stay focused on one thing for long. A survey results denote that an average individual browse their gadget for more than 180 minutes a day but their attention in a particular screen doesn’t stay for more than 8 seconds. This signifies the quantum of information available and how much we humans are distracted as well.

As everybody tries to gather our attention, it has become the most valuable resource of this century. Try to use this judiciously. Thanks for spending your most valuable resource in reading this article for the past few minutes and thanks in advance, if you spend that additional time on sharing this valuable information amongst your groups.

5 “Must to do” things at work for success…

Do you belong to that tribe of workers who keeps wondering “What else can I do at work” in order to have a better appraisal? Are you the one who completes the task assigned to you at ease and still see your Manager writing comments - “Could have done more”? Whether you are puzzled on how to meet your manager’s expectations? Then you are the one amongst most men and women who got caught into the 3D syndrome called “Do, Deliver & Depart”

Image courtesy : changingplaces.com.au

You may wonder what else I can do at work when there are preset goals assigned to me. You would have been happy with the job on hand and continue to focus only on those goals diligently and keep delivering it on time. If you belong to that breed of worker then you are termed as an employee who “Just Meet Expectations”. In this world of high competitiveness everybody is expected to walk the extra mile, think out of the box and deliver at lightning speed. All of these will come with a change in attitude. By following the below guidelines you not only surprise yourself but also “sweep your manager off their feet”

Understand the larger picture: Any work assigned, you need to understand the relevance of your work in the bigger context. This will make you feel how important is your work in the larger scheme of things. Also you can connect the dots from end to end which will help you improve the process knowledge. Enhanced process knowledge will make you an SME in a shorter span of time.

Think about your client’s customer: In this era of outsourcing, things have evolved a lot to an extent you should not stop with worrying about your clients. Rather go one step ahead and start thinking about your client’s customer. You need to imagine how your errors will impact them. This will not only help you to prevent from doing mistakes but you will also take the job on hand more seriously and come with fool proof concepts which will ensure flawless delivery.

Be innovative: Never do your work the same way it has been assigned. You need to start thinking “Out of the box”. You need to find smarter ways of completing your work faster with far superior accuracy. It’s ok to be lazy as long as you are innovative. It reminds me a famous quote “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it – Steve Jobs”. 

Don’t be afraid about failure. In this world of lightning speed even if you have to fail do it faster, rather than slogging it out to do it first time right. Before taking your chances take your manager into consensus on your risk appetite, so that they can back you up.

Practise Multitasking: World travels at such a fast phase everything has become instant. All the expected deliverables in the service delivery comes with a deadline of “Yesterday”. This indicates the speed at which work to be delivered. Proper prioritization and planning will only help you to deliver the work at defined deadlines. In order to meet out these requirements you have to equip yourselves with multi tasking talent. Gone are those days when work can wait for us. Now everybody is waiting for work. So make yourself a part of the elite group of multi talented folks to stay in the hunt.

Ask for More: This is the most important thing one has to do at work. Never be self contented. As long as you are happy with the job on hand your knowledge will be restricted. Only a crying baby gets the milk, so keep pestering your manager for more challenging assignments. Before doing that ensure that whatever has been assigned to you, either has been completed or has been stabilized and handed over to the person who backs you up. This appetite to ask more, showcase your hunger for knowledge and urge for growth.

Image Courtesy : thinkmoxie.com

The past decade has seen a lot of changes when it comes to client expectations and service deliverables. Keeping abreast with these changes is a challenging task but you have to evolve yourself to crawl up the corporate ladder. Those who don’t understand the change consider themselves as a loser.

REMEMBER

"You’re never a loser until you quit trying"

Appraisals are not aircraft journey for elite. Everyone can easily navigate it – Find it how….

Employee always imagines the appraisal process as an international flight trip which is filled with complication. The fact of the matter being, it is an easy process to undergo provided the employee understand the requirements and goes through one step at a time until they successfully complete their journey.

There is always a disconnect between the views of the managers versus the expectations of the employee in an appraisal. Employees keep complaining about their appraisals and curse their managers for ratings. Managers try to put the blame on the bell curve and hide behind it. In order to have a healthy appraisal, one may need to start the pre-work as early, at the start of the year when the goals are announced. The article helps the reader understand the ways to get prepared for the year end appraisal.

Image Courtesy : 3quarksdaily.com

Know your destiny: The destiny refers to the goals to be achieved by the end of the year. Most goal settings even skip one on one discussion. If one such meeting happens, the employee blindly accepts the given goals without any introspection. Having unclear goals is like starting your journey when you are unsure about your destination.

It is the duty of every employee to spend time with their manager to clearly understand the goals. The employee should assess whether the targets set are SMART goals and any ambiguity to be cleared during the goal setting process. This gives a head start to the journey undertaken for the year.

Maintain Check list: A checklist on the documents and things to carry, is a good to have for an international travel.  As one gets prepared for the travel it is a good practice to take stock of the situation midway through the process. Whether the current pace of work will give them enough time to get ready for the travel is to be ascertained. This is exactly done during the midyear review as well. The employee is accessed against each set goals.

The employee should maintain a record of their achievements. A clear track of goals achieved against the set goals to be known by the employee. Self assessment is very important during a review process. It is bad on an employee to expect their manager to access them, when they themselves cannot do a proper assessment of their own self. The better way to start the review process would be to:

•   Narrate their own assessment
•   Targets achieved till date against each goals
•   Plans for the second half of the year
•   Positives in first half of the year and areas of improvement for second half
•   Summary of assessment

Such meticulous update given by an employee will make their managers dumb stuck. You have effectively done your manager’s job easier during the review process. Any Manager will appreciate such a detailed analysis and narrating the positives and areas of improvement will fetch you a thumbs up from your manager.

Carry your documents for the travel: A passenger role does not end with preparing the check list. They should ensure that they carry all the required documents on the day of the travel. This ensures a smooth passage to the international travel. Any lack of proof will lead to rejection or delay in your travel.

The “D” day will finally arrive. It is the day of your performance appraisal. A normal tendency is to go the year end appraisal with empty hand and clogged mind. This results in a tug of war, where both parties want to hold the same end.

The best approach for an appraisal to have documented evidence of the achieved goals. It is better to email these evidences to your manager. If all the achievements are archived into one single email and given as a summary then you would be amongst the few who would be doing that. You may also consider preparing a power point presentation with each slide speaking about every goal set for you. This will make you stand out in the crowd.

An employee who is confident about his achievement will never hesitate to document it. As your Manager handles many employees like you, rather than expecting them to remember your achievements, a neat documentation of your performance will refresh their memories. It will serve as a documentary evidence for your manager to project yourself to the top management.

Instead of whining, start acting smart. You take the first step rather than expecting your manager to do it. After all, it is your appraisal. The above highlighted steps will ensure that you have safe clearance at all counters and you get your boarding pass on time for your journey called “Career”. No more your manager’s can complain on the bell curve when you have such a professional approach. 

These steps assure you that, “You can bend even the bell curve”.

Use this article as Vade Mecum, Even you can “Bend It Like Beckham”

Un- riddle the Interview Puzzle – To get the best out of the candidate

Internet is flooded with host of articles which guides the candidates on how to get through an interview but there are very few articles for the interviewer.  As a certified Interviewer, I thought of sharing my views in this article on how to get the best out of the candidate during an interview process. The pointers listed below helps in making the Jigsaw Puzzle called “Interview” a seamless one for the candidate.

Courtesy : Slideshare.net

Perfect Ambience:  Any candidate who walks in for the interview comes with a jumbled mind. Ensure the ambience in the reception, waiting hall and the interview room are good enough. This can be achieved by maintaining the surroundings neat and clean. The colors of the room should be pleasing to eyes. Good lighting should be made available. Furniture to be uncluttered and it is preferred to have a couple of news papers or magazines in the waiting hall. All of these set a right tone in the mind of the candidate for the interview.

Warm Reception: The candidate to be warmly welcomed either by the Receptionist or by the Talent Management staff. Offer the candidate water or beverages, else direct them to the pantry. Allow few minutes for them to settle down before handing over any forms to take in their details. Give a briefing about the interview process. This helps the candidate to get prepared mentally for the interview.

Do your home work: "These days even high school kids don’t skip home work, can Interviewer’s afford to?" The profile of the candidate should be browsed through, before stepping into the interview room. It is a wrong practice to stare at the profile of the candidate while they talk. It is a signal of unpreparedness. A proper home work will help the interviewer pick the key points. It will be easier to frame up the questions for the interview

Respect Time: Ensure that you be on time for the interview. Don’t pretend to be busy during the time slot allotted. As matured professionals we need to better manage our time before expecting the same from the candidate. A good interviewer is one who knows to respect and value the time of the candidate. State your apologies to the candidate, even if you are late by few minutes. Any unprecedented delays foreseen ensure that it is duly informed to the candidate well in advance. Making the candidate wait for long will only add up to their anxiety and it creates “brain drain”.

Self introduction: Greet the candidate and offer them a comfortable seat. Sit in a position wherein you have a direct eye contact with the candidate. Exchange pleasantries to initiate the conversation. "Don’t jump into your first question, as if there is no tomorrow". Even before getting started make a self introduction. It is good to say the name and the capacity at which you work for the company. Also give a quick brief about the role for which the interview is being conducted. This introduction not only helps the candidate to get familiarized with you but it also provides the candidate to gather some breath and allow their heart beats to calm down.

Eye contact: Throughout the meeting ensure you share a good eye contact with the candidate. This helps to gauge the candidate easily. Do not keep flipping through the resume papers which resembles either you are unprepared or disinterested. Don’t be keen in taking notes, “Remember, you are not writing an exam”. Note making also distracts and you may lose on any important point as the candidate speaks.

Last but not the least:

“You are not Hitler out there to hire forces for WWII; a pleasing face does the interviewee a world of good” – SMILE  J J J !!!!!! ……