success

HR Consulting

World should have treated me better!

Leave a Comment / Career, Growth, Personal And Professional / /

“During my stint in that organization, I brought in many systems and processes; there was nothing when I joined” – -this conversation goes on endlessly unless one makes a conscious effort to stop it!  “I helped them a lot when they were in crisis. Of course, now they have grown big” – -The disappointment is more palpable as the conversation progresses.  “This organization does not understand my value. There are so many other people who want me to join their organization”  -Frustration on lack of respect cannot be hidden.  We often come across such people and regularly hear such comments. It all perhaps comes from several unfulfilled needs. Such people end up boasting about their contributions in an out-of-context manner with irrelevant people. Perhaps such people keep telling themselves “world should have treated me better”!  “I should have been respected more” “I should have been recognized more” “I should have been acknowledged more” “I should have been celebrated more” “World should have understood me more” “Organizations should have utilized more”  More one feels this way, the bigger the sense of disappointment and regret. Primarily because all these expected responses are from others and one has no control over others’ responses towards you. The urge to have others acknowledging you leaves you at the mercy of others. It hurts your ego more when they ignore you more. That is certainly not an empowering feeling!  Instead, a more pragmatic – though it might sound philosophical – approach would be to learn to celebrate internally. Do you know when you truly made a difference to someone or some organization? If you are true to yourself, then celebrate internally and respect yourself. Tell yourself that you are successful in making a difference and your contribution has been meaningful. To acknowledge your contribution or not….let’s leave it to the maturity and wisdom of others. That makes you more self-fulfilled and doesn’t wait for validation from others!  Look forward to hearing from you on your experiences or your approach towards managing yourself in these types of situations. Author Dr raj, CEO, HR Footprints Management Services Pvt Ltd

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Talent Management

7-Tips for People Development

Leave a Comment / Blog, Leaders Vs Bosses / /

During the growth journey, a stage comes in career where you need to go through a transition period. Most important transition is when you move from being an individual contributor to becoming a manager of a team. While there are many newly added responsibilities, developing team members is one of the most important responsibilities of managers. In our previous blog published on 5th of May, we came across an abridged version of tips for effective people development and management. Let us look at them in detail now. How to develop team members:  1.  Genuine interest in people development:  Firstly, ask yourself – are you genuinely interested in developing people? Doing it as a compulsion of your job is unlikely to give you best results.  We come across some managers who are very comfortable with team members who are ready to perform; they do not like to spend time grooming them; such managers will not be genuine in their attempts in developing team members. They may simply do the talking about development but they do not demonstrate in their behavior. 2.  Believe and inculcate belief:  Have belief in your team members’ potential; More importantly, inculcate self-belief in them too; “Don’t you know even this much?” is a sure way of killing their confidence. It is only when you demonstrate a belief that your team members are capable of much more that they challenge themselves and discover their potential. I have seen managers who genuinely believe that their team members have more capability and push them into taking up higher responsibilities. In due course, the team members develop self-confidence.  3. Risk-taking: Take risks by assigning tasks that are beyond their immediate competence; they need to learn and discover themselves. Your team members need to understand that by discussing about swimming on the poolside, they can never learn swimming. They need to plunge in and test the waters. For them to take a plunge, you need to own the risk and give them an assurance that you are there for them to fall back. Otherwise, the fear of failure and the consequences attached to it will hold the team members back. 4.  Be realistic: Be patient; they may not take off instantly. Can you grow the plant in your garden by pouring more and more water? It has its natural cycle of development. There is no point in losing cool and getting restless. Demand more, yet be realistic that they need time to learn and come up to speed. If you are hassled about their development, it will only result in stress at both ends. 5.  Coaching style of working: Correct their mistakes through discussion than review; correcting them without affecting their confidence is the key. I have seen managers who wait for team members to make a mistake, highlight it and tell them how better they are than their team members. It is a sure path to kill the confidence. Managers must remember that they are in the process of enhancing the capability and not highlighting how incapable the team member is.  6. Visibility & Credit: Give credit for good work done – however small it is; it simply reinforces “I can do” attitude. Early success will only create greater confidence. Be on the look out and openly tell the world how your team member has enhanced his or her performance. It will be very inspiring to the team member and the speed of development will increase! Do not be greedy to share the credit; make it their moment of celebration. You will be surprised to see how you get the credit – not for finishing a task, but for developing your people.  7.  Help them to help you: It is true that you are helping your team members to learn and grow; it is also true that it is a time consuming effort before you actually see any gains. However, remember that your success is when your team members succeed! You will be able to scale up when your team members are able to scale up. It is therefore important to note that managers are also the beneficiaries in the long run. Those managers who deliver higher productivity are surely rewarded; however, those managers who focus on people development are remembered! They grow into becoming inspiring leaders in their careers! This Article was published in HR MirrorHans India.Follow Dr.Raj on Twitter @drraj29 

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Three things that can make New Year resolutions work!

Leave a Comment / Personal And Professional / /

We have just stepped in to the New Year and the one topic that finds its way into most conversations these days is “New Year Resolutions”!!!. Having been a witness to many such conversations, have had the opportunity to hear some classic quotes over the years: Resolutions are for the irresolute My resolution is to have no resolution Why bother – every year we make & then break them While we ponder the above opinions, New Year resolutions still subtly find their way into our lives, reinforcing my personal belief that it is an innate human need to transform & welcome new beginnings with freshness! Yet with the best of intent….most of us seem to fail in keeping up the resolve. Some research into the lives of successful people have led me to believe that the below three things will help us in gaining that elusive self-discipline. Choose to be “choice- less”. The first forty days One step at a time Habit of being choice less:  An often read statement – “Man is the only living creature designed with facility of choice by nature”. This privilege is both a boon and a bane to humanity. It helps us choose resolutions and also ensures we choose to go back to our old ways. It is to be understood that it is the property of the mind to opt for the easier choice. For example: As the alarm goes off, you will notice the “mind talk” starts and between choosing to wake up to read and going back to sleep. Mind typically chooses the easier option…shuts the knob and sleeps! Mind is always in a state of conflict between the two choices. So generally we resist the conflict and forcefully go ahead and read for a few days, the very resistance to conflict itself becomes a form of conflict and we give up. The best way to overcome this is to become choice less in the aspect of the resolution that we have taken. So if the resolve is to get up early..the moment the alarm goes off even before the mind processes the choice to sleep or wake up…jump off that bed! Ensure you do this for….. The first forty days… It is scientifically proven that any resolution or task that is followed for forty days continuously will automatically turn into a habit. Someone who wakes up every morning, pours a cup of coffee and goes for a morning walk, in that order, has that pattern built in to his or her brain. So if we can exercise choice-less-ness for forty days first, we form a habit and chances are that the resolves taken become a part of our persona. One step at a time:  Research proves that having too many tasks to achieve diminishes productivity, leading to loss of focus and increase in stress. The solution for this is to put a significant number of tasks on hold and use focus and increased productivity to speed up the open task that is in hand. The result will be increased rate of success and self satisfaction. So the tip is not to have a long list of resolutions. Just pick one change – become choice-less about it – practice it for 40 days- make it a part of your persona and you are on your way to lead a disciplined life. Happy New Year resolutions! By: Mrs. Jaya Lakshmi, Sr. Consultant at HR Footprints &  Ms. Divya Shalini, Member at HR Footprints   Follow us on Twitter @hrfootprints

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What are the career options in HR?

Leave a Comment / HR Views & News / /

“The irony is that businesses are not able to find many good HR professionals coming from premier institutes. The result is demand supply gap of HR professionals!” Follow Dr. Raj on Twitter @drraj29 Recently, I was talking to the director of a top management institute. We were discussing about various specializations like finance, marketing that students are opting. He expressed his concern on the poor turnout for HR specialization. Same was the case at another global institute which withdrew the HR specialization due to poor enrollment of students. On the other hand, there are specialized institutes in India like XLRI, Jamshedpur and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai who offer HR stream in their management education. Overall, the scenario in premier institutes is short supply of graduates with HR specializations. There are many companies which require efficient HR hands as a part of their scale up. They believe in HR function to add value to their employee satisfaction and retention. As the business grows, they need more HR professionals to handle the needs of employees. The irony is that they don’t find so many good HR professionals coming from premier institutes. The result is demand-supply gap of students who want career options in HR! A quick look at the above aspects might help in better understanding of HR function. Is HR truly a soft, non-business function? The general perception is that people in HR are soft, mild mannered, courteous and generally subservient to other business functions. While it is partly true that HR professionals are expected to demonstrate greater restraint during their interactions of employees, it is not true that they are mild. On the other hand, it is also true that HR is viewed as a staff function or support function, which is generally not involved in direct business operations. They may not have concrete revenues or profits to show as their contribution! However, the enablement role of HR is too vital for business success. HR department is expected to support and enable other revenue generating functions to perform. Many organisations do recognize the value of HR! HR managers may not be kings, but they are kingmakers! Pay and growth prospects:  It is baseless to think that pay in support function like HR is lower and not valued at par with others! Over the past 15 years, the salaries of HR have been revised drastically. They are now at par with some of the other business functions or sometimes even higher! Moreover, the entry level salaries for Management Trainees are not usually differentiated based on the areas of specialization. Vertical growth in terms of designations and hikes in pay are dependent on the performance (like in any other function). The only caveat is the lack of sufficient examples of growing into a business head or CEO role. In India, we do see a limitation of HR people growing into head business. Alternatively, seasoned professionals can grow into becoming business consultants. Reward and Recognition:  Is HR’s contribution valued, recognized and rewarded in organisations? In my view, the answer is YES! However, the recognition does not necessarily come because it is HR function, but it comes because of your competence and contribution. If you carry yourself as a highly-value adding individual, recognition is going to be yours! In future columns, we will discuss more about competencies required to become a respected HR professional, and the several career options in HR! If HR is required in organisations, valued by business leaders and offers decent pay checks, then what else is required for you to take a plunge into HR career? You must have a deep understanding of what is expected of the HR function and what are the competencies required to perform those roles. Such understanding will address the apprehensions if any and enhance your preparedness for deciding among career options in HR. Watch out this column for continued discussion on the above aspects! This article was published in:  HR Mirror Hans India Follow us on Twitter @hrfootprints

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Is your work tiring you?

Leave a Comment / Personal And Professional / /

Are you stressed at work? Is your work tiring you? Best way to deal with work related stress or fatigue is to understand what is causing the stress or strain in the first place. Some of the often found reasons that I could think of are: When we are overworked or physically strained: This reason is very reasonable and is understandable. There could be occasions when we go through sudden spurts of work load or intense travel. The remedy is fairly simple: a good night rest, healthy food and some relaxation. When we are bored: when we continue to perform a job or role that we don’t enjoy, it tires us! We are either not convinced about what we are doing or we experience a sense of monotony without any stimuli. In such occasions, we experience a different type of stress. Solution to this may not be easy. We need to think a little out of the box and self motivate; alternatively, we may have to dialogue with seniors or stakeholders and express or discuss. Carrying on with the work without conviction can be perpetually tiring! When we are not successful: Think of all those occasions where we experienced success (though it involved a lot of hard work); it would not be tiring. Whenever success eludes us, work starts tiring us. A few quick wins and a sense of hope is what could help us in such situations. When we are not appreciated: Whenever our work is acknowledged or appreciated by our stakeholders, it can keep us going. If there is a feeling that we are performing a thankless job, then we experience fatigue. It needs a high degree of internal motivation to reenergize. Figure out why you are doing what you are doing. If you could spot a good reason, then that could provide the necessary stimulation. When we postpone and thereby carry sense of guilt: This is a very common reason, but seldom understood reason for stress. Piling up work due to procrastination and ‘thinking’ of work all the time, but not ‘completing’ the work can cause mental stress. It feels as if we are always at work. What can be done this evening, if we put off for tomorrow morning, we will end up thinking of it through the night. Simple formula to deal with such work stress is to finish the work! When we are struggling to perform due to incompetence: This too is a reason that may be difficult to accept for an individual. We go through stress when we are struggling to perform due to incompetence. It can be frustrating inside and at the same cannot be openly discussed. We therefore end up carrying the internal stress. Best in this situation is to seek help and collaborate. When we are experiencing stress at work, it is important to reflect and search for an answer inside. Several times, avoiding work or going on a holiday may not be the solution to become stress-free. It is ironical but real that more work can free us from work related stress – as long as we love or learn to love what we do! Blog Author : Dr Raj

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