Christmas 2007

Christmas Evening with Friends & Family...

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Arz kiya hai kisi employee ne...

Appraisal hote hain.........
Disappointment ka sama hota hai... ....
Aise mausam mein hi to ATTRITION jawan hota hai.......
Dil ki khunnas HUM jabaan se nahi kehte... ....
Ye fasana to resignation se bayan hota hai........

Forwarded by a friend: Nishant Verma

(The content above may be published earlier in other works. Please report objectionable content to: manohr@gmail.com)

Waqt Nahin!

Waqt Nahi!

This is just superb.  Every line of it speaks tons of truth about our present condition.  Can we not attempt to come out of this terrible situation.

" WAQT NAHI "

Har khushi Hai Logon Ke Daman Mein,
Par Ek Hansi Ke Liye Waqt Nahi.
Din Raat Daudti Duniya Mein,
Zindagi Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Maa Ki Loree Ka Ehsaas To Hai,
Par Maa Ko Maa Kehne Ka Waqt Nahi.
Saare Rishton Ko To Hum Maar Chuke,
Ab Unhe Dafnane Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.

Saare Naam Mobile Mein Hain,
Par Dosti Ke Liye Waqt Nahi.
Gairon Ki Kya Baat Karen,
Jab Apno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Aankhon Me Hai Neend Badee,
Par Sone Ka Waqt Nahi.
Dil Hai Ghamon Se Bhara Hua,
Par Rone Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.

Paison ki Daud Me Aise Daude,
Ki Thakne ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.
Paraye Ehsason Ki Kya Kadr Karein,
Jab Apane Sapno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Tu Hi Bata E Zindagi,
Iss Zindagi Ka Kya Hoga,
Ki Har Pal Marne Walon Ko,
Jeene Ke Liye Bhi Waqt Nahi.......

 

"Always keep smiling and be happy. Life is too small to complain."    An e-mail forward on a HR e-Group by MAYUR MARU

Hello, is this a bloody sport?

Team dynamics can make team work a bloody sport when individual successes become more important than team success.

Joining for dinner with her colleagues, Ashmita wasn’t at all excited for any chat. She’s been thinking all day that her colleagues were playing a spoil sport. She couldn’t understand why?

Soon, her team leader picked up the conversation to give and take feedback about team members. To her surprise, Ashmita realized that all the time she was upset about her colleagues, she was the one at fault. Though she immediately apologized and requested feedback, she couldn’t help recollecting all the things she did against the team because she thought the others were wrong.

It’s something that we would call a bloody sport. If you must’ve seen a bull-fighting game (pic attached), you know what a bloody sport is. Either the bull gores the matador, or the matador jabs the bull with his sword. There’s only one survivor in the game. Look at the contrasting picture of the Rugby game. It’s a team of people enabling a single person to make the goal.

Does that make you say, “That’s a team!” Yes, from the bottom of our heart, we all know that a team has to have a single objective, work as one body, and complement each others’ weaknesses. But, we fail miserably. Reasons, if we have to analyze are more personal than interpersonal.

This is no thesis about teamwork, but, here are some useful tips for each of us to remember.

1. Team success means Individual success, not vice-versa
2. The least of designated member is as fundamental as the most skilled member for the team’s success
3. Before forming any opinion about another, talk it out with them.
4. Uphold team spirit at all times, If you can contribute in any way, contribute positive energy only
5. Working in a team is not a bloody sport, it’s a healing game.
6. Don’t compete with each other, join hands to compete against another
7. Say it often to each other, “You are a good thing,”

As much a rotten apple can spoil the whole basket, a medicine pill can heal a body too.

Choose your role!

With inputs from Deepak Mehra.

Everybody needs an ear

"A spark of light for your interest... gives you many reasons to work hard..."

This was a 'status of mind' message a colleague of mine had put up after a 10 minute of talk last evening. Given that this colleague-friend was experiencing turbulent times in his career, all he needed was an ear to hear him out at the least.

As an HR professional, I always remind myself what Prof. A. Venkat Raman (Reader, FMS) used to emphasize during college days... HR stands for Human Relations. As a Christian ethic, I was always taught that we need to have a burden for others (primarily for salvation, not limiting to that, of course). Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people" further reinforced the concept of using the principle even in business and work-lives too. That's a contradictory statement I made, cos when we talk of HR (human relations) it surpasses work and business to touch lives, and they actually do. The effort while initiated for business purposes, yields mutual benefits, to both the company and the executive.

But there are perils of this HR practice of getting genuinely interested in people. As Carnegie warns too... when you get genuinely interested in others, you'll be welcome anywhere, BUT, do not expect ANYTHING in return. That's where the catch is -- you're not supposed to expect anything. In raw terms, it means, you aren't gonna get anything for your efforts.

Among the 6 points listed by Dale, the First is - Become Genuinely interested in other people; which becomes a foundation for the other five... without this, I believe, any relationship is an empty exercise of hypocrisy over one another.

Status messages or State of mind messages?

"A little spark of light for your interest... gives you many reasons to work hard"

That's what one of my junior colleagues had put as his status message on Google talk! It's interesting to observe that these messages convey more than status and are more widely and increasingly used to convey one's 'state of mind' or some 'life messages' which are useful to everyone. Another contact on my Gtalk! list uses the status message to communicate his location, 'Oxford, UK' for example.

Given that many people do not merely copy quotes from internet and in fact write personal learnings from experiences, it becomes a very good channel to share life lessons, and what's more, people intently read status messages. The status messages are often so interesting, that in my company, I've started a column "Status message of the week" in our official newsletter.

But then what conveys the status of availability? Ah! leave it to those green, orange and red buttons!

Lagaan Vasooli

India loves 'superfluous stirring of emotions'

I woke up to this news headline yesterday on a Hindi news channel 'Lagaan Vasooli', and no, it was not about Income tax department. The channel was covering the story of Indian cricket team's flickering victory in the 20-20 World cup series against England. Given that 'lagaan' was a term used during the British reign in India for taxes, I felt the usage of term was very conspicuous and egregious.

Not the first time though, that something like this is being done, such incitement can be very often observed in the speeches of the species called Indian politicians, who incite religious and cultural sentiments over rational and economical issues to muster strength for personal reasons and vested interests. Consider for example the latest 'Setusamudram project', which for all non-issue based reasons has drawn attention at the hoo-ha of some protesters and the eventually admitted mistake of government officials. Papers have the drama that followed.

So long as we live in the past, its shame and glory, guess we have a little future to envision.

Ganesha wasn't destined to Glory

How would you like to have a god lie at your feet hapless, helpless?

You sure can see vivid images of a god lying desecrated and helpless at the mercy of 'his' creation on this blog. It brings back to my mind the age-old question over which perhaps many people gave life and also took lives. Should idol worship be banned?

Ganesha Chaturthi comes every year, and every year, and the markets are pullulating with idols, small ones, medium-sized, and humongous ones which make news. All of them are gods, being readied for worship and eventually drowned (I'd rather say desecrated). Though it creates a lot of pollution in our water bodies, a more poorer sight emerges after that when the desecrated (handicapped) idols are taken out and thrown as garbage.

And then, there are those religious policemen, who call for mass-destruction of public property when they find some idol brought down or desecrated by some miscreant which break into full-fledged riots.

Well, if those idols are gods, people better take care, and if they're not, they better not take notice, period.

Is the Cross too Heavy???

Oh.. Before you go through, please note that these graphics may / may not be copyrighted. The use of these on my blog is purely for non-commercial purposes and intended not to misuse. Pl report if this is illegal at manohr@gmail.com Don't miss the poem at the end. Whatever your cross, whatever your pain, there will always be sunshine, after the rain .... Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall, But God's always ready, To answer your call ... He knows every heartache, sees every tear, A word from His lips, can calm every fear ... Your sorrows may linger, throughout the night, But suddenly vanish, in dawn's early light ... The Savior is waiting, somewhere above, To give you His grace, and send you His love... Whatever your cross, whatever your pain, "God always sends rainbows .... after the rain ... " To get out of difficulty, one must usually go through it !

Forwarded by my friend: Vikram Singh Parmar

Longing to break free!

Breaking free is not a one time act at all! Guess it's a repeatable process, cos the moment you're free from something, another one/issue is ready to get you!

It was India's independence on the August 15, and I remember wishing a colleague, "Hope you'll enjoy freedom personally from all of life's tensions and weariness." And, right now, when I am in a fix, longing to break free, I can't help remembering that I've felt like this many times before, and there has been some sorta solution always. While I do understand that this moment, too, shall pass away, guess its a reaffirmation to myself that that every dark cloud has a silver lining, and every night makes way for the light.

Hmm... but, what I can think of, right now, is actress Konkana Sen, how in the movie Life in a Metro, she shouts/ screams at the top of her voice to let out her anger/ frustration at the top of her voice on that building.

But, pity! There's no such buildings around my place in Delhi... and I can't afford to do that!

(This was written before 2 days of actual posting...)

When someone else controls your life...

Eevrybody likes to control... but, have you ever been controlled? Have an idea of what it's like?


Picture this: You're sitting in the driver seat of your car, but you realize that the steering wheel just doesn't respond to your directions, but it is controlled externally by someonelse. You're trying hard to take it to a direction you want to, but, it's just not possible... How would you feel?


Well, it's really very tiring mentally when you lose control over whatever's happening in your life. Cos, you just indulge in investigating petty details of life trying to find the missing clue, or what went wrong. Isn't it? That's when ambiguity strikes your life... and it's like a high-intensity earthquake which shatters and scatters everything around... It's in those moments that life issues do not let you take control of them, and demand absolute conformity... makes your head go absolute bonkers.


I remember writing "So, who's managing you now-a-days," a month or two ago, but that's only about career. I guess all working executives will concur with it when I say, that in the current lifestyles there's a very very very thin line dividing personal & work life, and in fact, for both the sides fall into each others premises leaving no distinction at all.


Right now, I'm just talking out... to this computer screen, on this blog... cos I seem to have a fascination for this friend without a face and odd little name...

Trainee's attitude alone can result in learning

There are no bad students, there are only bad teachers...

It's like saying that there are no bad bosses, only incompetent employees. Sounds ridiculous, eh? Given my bounded rationality and the recent experiences with a few students, I believe, the person who made that statement that there are no bad students was either not exposed to modern education, didn't have the slightest idea of what the education system might become, or how the student-relations might evolve to be.

I firmly believe that when it comes to training or teaching to a certain group of individuals, the two critical factors that can render the training dysfunctional or make it achieve it's objectives are--

• Trainee / Student Attitudes
• Readiness of Students / Trainee to learn (Conscious learning to overcome knowledge/skill gap or enhance one's knowledge)

A very recent instance, while teaching about Issues in Training & Development, I found that I could make example of the very students who were part of some crowd of 50 BBA Students at one of the private business schools. It was because the students were not sitting in the classroom (after rescheduling of the class post four-month break) to get some learning, but for a variety of reasons which include--

1. It's hot outside the classroom, so to get some cool air-conditioning,
   
2. Less attendance leads to penalties
   
3. Need to, pass exams, so we'll get some questions to be answered from the teacher (Bottomline, get Questions & Answers basically)
4. They're waiting for someone, so, classroom is a better place to wait.
   

Though these few are not the only reasons, they're worth mentioning cos they're the most common ones. It is really disturbing to witness the attitudes of students when they claim that they're not here to learn nothing, but to just vomit the text book and lecture content without any understanding in their answer sheets. And a few, just do the course so as to be branded as MBA for marriage purposes, phew!

Given the consistency of these experiences over the past 3-4 years, I don't see this picture of student attitudes getting any better given the thought bombs that are exploding in the current Indian society. It's just a hope that there are only bad teachers, and no bad students... (Personally, I do believe that there are the worst category of teachers too...)

PS: This little piece of writing was with no intention to blame students alone... This is just one side of the story, there are many threads attached to this...

Is your company breeding incompetence?

Process leaders are not being trained well enough in the fast growing sectors like IT, ITeS, Retail, Banking among others...

It’s the same talk again, that India Inc. is hiring big-time. And, to train and manage the new recruits, there are the process leaders, who either have inadequate experience and expertise – or are just plain incompetent. As the bottom of the organizational pyramid continues to broaden its base, the woes of bottom-line executives too have risen… but this time, it is a question of their immediate process leaders’ competence in managing work. Ashish, a new recruit with a multinational bank in India is disgruntled and constantly bitches about his branch manager who keeps shirking his responsibilities on to him and adding to his burden. On top of it, he is also discontented with his process leader who keeps pestering him with requests of assistance over conceptual matters related to processes, or with complaints of his non-cooperation.

The company, which says that passion to perform is one of its core values, probably hasn’t got its performance managers trained enough. That’s not the case with just one organization. All you have to do is have a casual talk with any executive of a (xyz) company – as a customer or as an acquaintance – and you’ll get know it all.

But why is it all happening in the first place? The reason: intense restructuring due to market demands have led companies to go on a frenzied expansion (and recruitment) drive. To balance the organizational structure, companies need to create proportionate senior positions as well. “What’s happening now is that companies are filling these positions up on an ad-hoc basis. So executives with certain experience (regardless of training and managerial abilities) are randomly being picked up for promotions (internal or designated),” says an HR manager with a technology MNC. These newly promoted seniors take up higher responsibilities with new personnel coming in and mentor them.

Such practices, a blasphemy to management philosophies, cannot earn companies any respect in the business world, and such issues can only be resolved if organizations give enough time to plan, allocate and train personnel to meet the market demands. If that’s too much, here’s the classic excuse and most workable solution: Discount it as yet another common problem with organizations on a robust growth path…