Saturday, September 30, 2017

"Apply in Confidence" the last line of a recruitment ad gets hilarious responses, But these are the one who deliver better than others.






APPLY IN CONFIDENCE TO......


We often see this line at the bottom of a recruitment ad. Different candidates interpret this sentence differently. And this sends in guffaws through the HR personnel. I have seen many such cases, but I will give just one example.


The cover letter read thus…..


“Sir, you ask me to apply in confidence,


I apply in full confidence.


I have full confidence in my abilities sir.


I also have full confidence in success in your organization.


Sir, you also have confidence in me please.


Sir, your full confidence in me will make me work with full confidence to fulfill your task with full confidence.


Sir, I need your full confidence, and encouragement.


Please have confidence in me and give me a chance.


Thank you sir in anticipation, for your confidence.


Yours obediently


Mr. XYZ


Now has the candidate applied in confidence ….


But these are the same people, who become success stories in the organization afterwards.
I used to get such funny applications, when I used to recruit people for the position of Medical Representative. I used to wave of the requirement of basic English proficiency for the candidates of Hindi speaking states like MP, UP, Bihar, and others.


What I found surprising was, these people performed better than the ones with English proficiency. The less proficient ones used to ‘by heart’ the text of the presentation and then practice the sync with the visual aid. The sync used to be so perfect, that tone and the tenor used to be the same as thought by the trainers. they obeyed all the instructions sincerely. They even followed minute instructions like, when it was written in the text words like "Take a deep breath", "A long sigh", " pause for five seconds" they mimicked that too.


They used to present flawlessly to the medical professional, and it was difficult to believe, that they were the same, that made the mistakes in their written English text.


Contrary to this, those very proficient in English used to perform lesser, on account of their overconfidence, they never bothered to read and learn the text seriously. And when it came to presentation before the doctor. They used get stuck in their presentation and used to use the words and phrases which came to their mind at that time. By the time they completed their presentation, they strayed so much from their text that, purpose of the presentation was defeated. The hours of labour the Product Management team spent on designing gets totally defeated. And they repeated this call after call, day after day, month after month.


The purpose of the presentation in pharmaceuticals, is to link the pharmacology of the product to the physiology of the human being, and tell the doctor, how the product helps in correcting the disorder or curing the disease and restoring normal human physiology. A very correct and accurate presentation of facts with the support of relevant case studies usually gives the doctor the confidence to prescribe the product. Medical Profession has its own inherent risks. One wrong prescription can cause permanent damage to the reputation. That is the reason, that they show lot of diffidence to accept a new product.


The same is true is about a technical product, an engineering product, A software application. The precision in product presentation helps the customer or buyer to understand the precision of the product accompanied by the relevant case studies or the laboratory test reports. These act as testimony for the quality and suitability of the product. Adherence to company narrative is an essential pre-requisite. The executive need not even clear the technical doubts of the product himself. He can refer it to the technical department, or the product development. They can address the doubts of the customer through an online technical demonstration.


The most interesting thing is, for the same product, the narratives change from organization to organization depending on the technical positioning of the same product by different organizations. A person who has sold the same product in a previous organization, finds it very difficult to shrug of culture and the narratives of the previous organization. He ends mixing both the narratives, which cause more harm to the product than good. While a candidate who has not sold that product previously is like a clean slate.


The adoption and adaption process becomes all the easier. Of course an experienced person may have better customer and market knowledge, but all these come to a naught if the product is not presented with required technical precision.

This is also true of the Manufacturing, production processes, Distribution and Warehousing and across other supply chains. Most of the conversations in the shop floors take place in the native regional language. Sometimes there are managers who have excellent English conversation skills but poor native language knowledge, they find it difficult to interact with team members.


So when the technical head asks for English proficiency in the prospective candidates, the HR department should ask the person as to how much this adds to the job efficiency, or how much lack of it take away from it. HR on its own cannot make an assessment in this respect. Hence the HR also needs to keep this factor also in mind along with so many others they usually consider during the recruitment process.


The gist of what I have written in this article is that the communication is too specific an attribute to be treated in a generic sense. To effectively and efficiently communicate, we need domain specific skills.


We need domain specific communication experts to impart domain specific skills. Responsible communication skills emanate only out of the underlying domain expertise.
We must evolve ourselves to a stage where the communication skills are re-segmented under technical skills, not just Soft Skills.


Even people aspiring for leadership, need a performance, that speaks, based on robust domain Knowledge.


Here the technical linguistics, work better than the language linguistics, and convey a more impactful message. Even a silent demonstration of work, results in better imbibing of skills by the trainees. This also results in better and more impactful sharing of knowledge and intellect.


I am not against the imparting of communication skills. I want it to be upgraded to technical perquisite for the trainees.


Finally, I do not want the communication skills to be identified with the language proficiency, ability to gesticulate, outwardly visible buoyance, a forced extrovert outlook.


I feel articulation is more important than gesticulation.


Sedate seriousness can deliver better than outwardly visible buoyance.


An introvert need not wear a mask of extrovert behavior to communicate better.


Don’t we have the need to redefine, what actually communication skills are?????


Your insights please, I am all prepared to learn from you, the young guns, and the experienced missiles.


Best Wishes,


Shyam







Sunday, September 24, 2017

One miss and South korea gets demolished, South Korea has right to dignified existence, especially when it has done no wrong. 09-24

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One miss and South korea gets demolished, South Korea has right to dignified existence, especially when it has done no wrong.


This is about the show of force by the US jets in the demilitarised zone in the Korean peninsula.

This won't work with North Korea.

You can't continuously provoke a person, who has no value for scruples and ethics. of course the jets are still in the demilitarised zone.

However,

A small slip by the jets and the retaliation by North Korea will demolish South Korea.

South Korea has a right to dignified existence, more so because it has done no wrong. You can't be the reason for the destruction of a thriving and vibrant economy. Seoul is just 35 miles from North Korean border

You cannot impose another war on the people of Korea.

You just can't make Asia, again the battle ground to test your weaponry.
Asia and Africa have continuously borne the brunt of the misdemeanour of consecutive US presidents. This needs to end. The world community has a right to peaceful existence.

United States should now take backstage and allow China and Russia to engage with North Korea for diffusing the situation.

As international community, we need to continuously throw carrots at Kim Jong-in instead of sanctions.

Considering his desperate position and the pathetic condition of the people there, there are chances of his picking up one of the carrots. We can promise him food, medicine and development aid in return for peace and some nuclear activity rollbacks.
This was done earlier, with some amount of success, when his father was ruling. 

Hope, solace comes to the people of Korean Peninsula in the form of another such package.



Please also read on North Korea  



North Korean doomsday weapon could kill up to 90% of Americans, experts warn experts


North Korea 'could kill almost four million people in Seoul and Tokyo with retaliatory nuclear attack'



Time to Accept Reality and Manage a Nuclear-Armed North Korea  



Creative diplomacy is vital to defuse Korean crisis 


Thursday, September 21, 2017

Compensation package, that factor's retention and growth ( 8 components) 09-21

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When a we recruit a management professional. We generally base our evaluation and suitability for the job on the basis of history, which factors most of our decision making process. The history may also include the type of organizations their brand equity and their positioning and performance in the related market segment. The performance of the individual and the factors, the environment and the entire ecosystem.

The best evaluation based on the above and the other factors is also, at the best a notional evaluation, may be or may not be close to the actual performance and deliverables.

However, after the employee successfully completes the period of probation and is ready for absorption in the organization, an appraisal is made of the person’s performance to decide his compensation package. After taking into account all the statutory additions and deductions, We decide on a package for the performance.

I have a suggestion on the breakup of this package on the basis of various contributing factors, both long and short term.

Please go through it and suggest an alternative or a better combination. I thank you in anticipation of high value insights.

At the time of performance appraisal, the suggested breakup of the salary with a long time employee retention and growth perspective are as follows in my opinion.

You can pay a management professional for simply being on the rolls of the company, but let it not be more than 10 % of his salary 

He needs to be paid for the sincere efforts he is making in the right direction, which may or may be, as of now producing results, but most probably precursors for extra ordinary deliveries in the future. 10% of the salary.

How much his work and behavior at the work place is creating positive environment, and encouraging and motivating his colleagues at the workplace to upgrade their performance levels. 5% of the salary.

Dress sense presentably, how much of it goes with the company culture, how much of it adds to the corporate equity of the organization.2% of the salary. 

How does the person manage the work life balance? How much the either of the two impact the other? 5% of the salary. 

If the professional is successful in all the above attributes, how much do these abilities help in replication of successful professionals like him from his team. 5% of the salary

How well he is picking up management skills and improving on them constantly (Growth rate.), and making himself a likely for future succession management. 3% of the salary.

Pay him for his deliverables that directly contribute to the turnover and bottom lines. 60%

Now how to evaluate a person on these traits or attributes. It may not be possible for one person to evaluate a person on all the traits. You can have a team of experts on individual traits. A person can be evaluated once every three months by way of questionnaire, personal formal informal interactions, and through performance evaluation reports from the concerned managers.

We can design related metrics with well-defined parameters.

Before we evaluate the person, it is necessary to orient the person about the skillsets the organization is going to evaluate.

It also helps to be transparent  about the configuration of the package, and after the valuation the scores the professional has attained in various parameters. He will be able to know about his strengths and weaknesses and will try to improve on his weak links before the next evaluation.

THIS AMOUNTS TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY POLICY BEING IN ACTION.

This article deals only with the components of the compensation package. The dispersal method, methodology and components are a subject of another article some other day.

Your views are very important, please contribute.

Best wishes,

Shyam


Friday, September 1, 2017

Technology advance and Humanism 09-01

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Image credit : Shyam's Imagination Library

From the time the  human being was created, humanism also came into being, in some form or other. Even when he did not know how to cover his body, or create fire to cook his food, he knew how to live in cohesion with his fellow human beings. He lived in kind of loosely knit social collaboration with his fellow human beings.

The advent of technology has sort of alienated the human being from his/her inner self. The ways, modes, quantum, the technology has increased is just mind blowing, and it keeps on increasing by leaps. And on account of that, the conversation between the soul and the self  has become lesser and lesser over the period. The distance between the countries, continents, and planets has come down to a level that there is nothing inaccessible in the cosmos today.

Your Telescopes can locate any planet in the cosmos, but your being cannot locate and interact with the inner self. The most advanced Telescope will not be able to help locate the inner self. It is the crude and undeniable truth of the human existence.

Large internet companies in an indirect admission of  lack of humanism and lack of time or opportunities to explore humanism have created artificial facilities in the work place, the music room, billiards table, painting walls, food shacks, artificial or natural gardens. This they feel will relax the body and the soul. No it is nothing more than superficial convenience. They do not in any way energise or recharge the tired soul. The urge to innovate the inner longing to be creative, or the desire to be different have almost vanished from the professionals thought process.

If we travel back in time, when these companies were still in the garage or spare bedroom stage, we will immediately find the difference.

Just go back to your garage days and you will realise that, what you think as technology evolution are in fact great retards in Humanism.

Most of the creativity in the great internet companies of today have happened during their garage or spare bedroom stage. That is where they made mistakes unwittingly, unhesitatingly. Every mistake they made gave birth to creativity in the form of the fix for the problem. Every time they made mistakes and fixed it, they had created something new. Budget constraint often made to innovate things in an ingénue manner in an indigenous manner. Sometimes the Jugaads were put into place to substitute for the costly material and spare parts.

But the same organizations moved from the Garage and spare bedrooms to own corporate offices the nonchalance to make mistakes, learn from them, and be creative vanished. Each executive became an island unto himself lost in the pile of vast business information and intelligence in the form of data. The surfeit of information and the need to deal with it, made him almost robotic in nature.

With every advance in technology, we have seen that, there was an equal retard in Humanism (a collective term to describe the human feelings, emotions, and human chivalry.) at the work place.

Every new technological advance creates an avatar, and human being has unwittingly, but quite willingly agreed to compress himself within the avatar given by the Technology advance.

Humanism has to wait till Christmas vacations to manifest itself. Or to put it more aptly, Humanism manifests itself only during the Christmas vacations.

In this new services economy, we want the latest and greatest for the best possible value, and we only want to pay for what we actually use. In a world where we own less and less and yet have access to so much more. Adapting to the relentless pace of change in business and customer expectations will be critical to the success of tomorrow’s global leaders.

Multiple revenue models, dynamic pricing, and service-based business plans will become mainstream for every organization, and the ability to quickly adapt on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis will be essential to their viability. This will hardly leave any time or opportunity for a professional to be a human being for at least some part of the day.

There’s a decent amount of evidence indicating that creative expression keeps our brains younger and makes us live longer. When you’re bogged down at the job with 60 hours of work to squeeze into 50 hours because you want to have a life goddamn it, when do you think you’re going to make it to that studio? The studio organisation has created for you to unplug and be yourself at least for sometime.

I have not one, but two examples of how activities that make you human and bring out the inner humanism in you can be practiced as part of your work schedule.

I have had the good fortune of having worked with and for Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He used to tell us. Two hours in twenty four hours he would earmark to do things that he liked to do. Things that did not in any way give him any fruits. physical or ethereal. Sometimes he would do things that would surprise many. There would not be anything constructive in the work he would do, except to construct, reconstruct the inner self  to recharge it to take the grueling work pressure of the next 24 hrs.

The second example I have seen is in a Japanese work culture in a Japanese corporate giant. This must have been a good 25 years back. This organization had global projects, that entailed international travel for the executives. Their tour itinerary of 45 days included 30 days of tour of various countries where the projects were in execution and last 15 days at home with family. They had to complete the full itinerary of 45 days to be eligible for the next tour.

After completing their 30 days tour and submitting the report, next 15 days they were not required to come to office. They were required to spend that time with their families with absolutely no tension.. During their tour. the salary used to be sent to the family by a messenger by cheque. Online transactions were not there those days. A company person used to come and pay their utility bills. Everything used to be done so that the family did not feel the inconvenience during the person's absence.

Things must have changed  with the advance in technology, but there definitely must be some way  or to allow the humanism in the employee to come out and celebrate.

Finally, I would like to suggest that, even if the wherewithal to make the humanism to come and unwind itself is offered as an outreach, it is ok. It will at least put the professional on the path to reconquer the lost territory in his pursuit to acclimatise himself with his inner self.

How did you like this article???

Please come out with your insights, and suggestions. You can email you views  to me at fouresspanchavati@hotmail.com

Best Wishes,

Shyam


Is this Japanese concept the secret to a long, happy, meaningful life?
























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Read more about this here HERE



Please also read Shyam's another well read article