WhatsApp Forwards

 Are humans altruist by nature ?

Many of us get a lot of messages on WhatsApp and other social media. Other then direct messages, some are philosophical messages. We choose to skip or read it. If we read & understand the message, we try to relate it, to ourself or to someone we know of. In this process, we may forward it to a select set of people in good faith.  Why do we share?

At heart we believe that, our forwards will be useful and help the reciepient. Here the reciepient is an individual in a direct forward rather than forwards in a group. The other qualifiers are :

Think of those birthday,anniversary wishes & condolence messages that are posted in a groups or on social media pages. More than sincerely wishing or conveying to the concerned , these are the ultimate forms of unintended insults bestowed on the reciepient !

Think before you forward & post 

Nonprofessional traits of Executives

Most Managers & Executives in India are not trained or do not realize how unprofessional they are while interacting with outsiders. Interactions with outsiders is not limited to only the Sales & Customer support people, but most other internal functions as well, like HR, Staffing, Facilities, Administration etc.

• When it comes to scheduled meetings, many have no sense of timing. Their planning is so pathetic, that they seldom arrive or join for meetings on time. This is true for face to face meetings and today’s fad is “Conference calls”. 80 % of these calls are a waste of time for all attendees. These are mostly rituals.

• If it is a first time meeting, they do not make proper introductions.  Many are so stingy that they either do not carry their business card or often say “I am running short of cards”. Companies must realize that this is the worst branding act by an employee of the company. They do not realize that there is a lot of word-of-mouth branding. If one does not want to be disturbed by unsolicited calls on their mobiles, they can refrain from putting their number on the card.  The Japanese & Singaporeans have a very respectful way of presenting their business card. This act does not only, takes less than 10 seconds but also leaves an impression on the recipient. Actually the humility and character of the person get exposed during this act of sharing the card.
• The meetings may not have a set agenda and the company folks who meet the visitors rely too much on their memory.  Taking notes, during the meeting is considered a less intelligent activity and many do not take any notes. The result is that the meeting is a sheer waste of time, as only a fraction of what transpired get actioned.
•  Most of them are explicitly clear about their roles & responsibilities, but do not have a clue of what the corollary of this is. They are never aware of their authority and hence do not take decisions. While companies find it easier to explain the roles and responsibilities and expect compliance, seldom do they spell out what the individual is authorized to do. This “Parental control” does not produce leaders and independent thinkers, but command-executors. Then Organizations spend a lot of money to become innovative. Innovation is a direct by-product of how much authority is delegated downwards.

Therefore, most meetings conclude with the remark – “We will discuss internally and revert. “  If at all an internal discussion happens, all the participants do not have the complete picture, as all the actors of the initial meeting are not present and thus there is a transmission loss.

Who is a loser in all this? The Organization

Change the traits and the organization changes from bureaucracy to an agile and effective group of professionals 

Evolution from Collaboration to Competition

Long ago, in the village of Karmapatna, life was peaceful. It was an agricultural community.  Men would return from the fields before sundown.  Before supper the young boys who had some energy left would love to play the game of Corbat.  Corbat was a game similar to the modern game of table tennis or badminton.  Instead of the sophisticated racket and the ball/ shuttle cock, this was played using a light wooden spatula type bat and a light cork ball. The court was similar to the badminton court. There was one player on each side and both had to keep the ball in the air as long as possible. They continued to play as long as they are able to keep the ball in the air and 5 set of games are allowed, before another pair takes over the court to play. Sometimes, there were more pairs of players waiting in the stands before they got a chance to play.

Let us draw a comparison between the modern game of badminton and the game of Corbat.  In the game of Badminton, each player tries to hit / place the shuttle in such a way that the player on the other side is not able to return the shot. Points are given for every such successful hit and the game comes to end after one of the players has scored 21 points. The player who reaches the target of 21 points is declared the winner. In this game the player’s compete to beat the other one down as soon as possible. In the game of Corbat, the players collaborate to keep the ball in the air as long as possible. In both games, the players enjoy and burn enough calories!

So how have we moved from collaboration to competition? For this we need to thank the Industrial Engineer and the Management Accountant.  They felt that there should be improvement in each of the sub process and that there must be stretch goals, individual performance and incentives. They believe that the total performance will be more, if all the individual performances are improved. After all “The total is the sum of the parts”.  The rational thinker will agree that to achieve total optimization, each of the components must be fully optimized.   So these scientific managers came up with the idea of a fair reward system.  The players should not drop the ball at their end to keep the game continuing. So they rewarded the opponent with a point, if you missed and failed to keep the ball in the air. What the other player understood was that he should hit the shuttle in such a way that you are not able to pick the serve. The ultimate result was that the rallies became shorter and the game ended sooner.  Everyone cheered, as now we have a faster game and an efficient one, supposedly. 

Our frame of measurement and evaluation has thus changed over the years. Whether it is the game of test cricket or the old 3 hour movie, we have moved to things like the T20 or the shorter versions of cinemas or TV serials. In education, we have moved to the semester system from the annual examination system, where the focus is to clear the semester and never to look back again. The priority is on scores and credits rather than overall concepts and knowledge.  Everything is so modular, that ignorance in one area can still ensure a good overall rank. The emphasis has been on specialization rather than on overall problem solving.

In industry,cost accountants have been able to assign a cost to every activity. Isn't this very important?  We can certainly eliminate those activities where we see no value. Historically, when an activity was carried out, there would have been some value derived, but the activity might have become a ritual because of improper implementation. Since the frame of reference has changed, we would not be able to see value in some activities now.  A typical example is training.  We may not be able to see immediate value and hence it is a cost in the short term and not good for the bottom line, but then it has immense value, provided it is properly implemented. Because of these costing systems, departments within organizations move from collaboration to competition to prove their self-worth and fight for resources. Organizations exist to serve customers, but then these benchmarks and metrics of efficiency do not enhance in achieving the overall vision and mission of the organization.

Collaboration ensures that mutual weakness is addressed, lacunae covered up and there is overall good. Competition tries to exploit the inherent weakness, foster jealousy and weakens the overall system. Different organs in the human body do not compete, but collaborate. There is no superior or inferior organ – The ear lobe is as important as the brain!

How should you hire?

Why is it that talent is difficult to find? We always hear that there is always a shortage of good talent. This comment is like talking about the economy, inflation or weather! This is the only area, where no license is required to pass a judgement.

We want to be specific, but aim to create everything generic. This mentality gets ingrained right from school days. If you want to teach history of India, you tend to cover everything from Mohenjo-daro to Modern India. Everything has to be crammed. If you do not remember some portions, and unfortunately if you get questions from that section, you will be judged as “No good". The emphasis is mostly on testing what you do not know, rather than what you know. Let us now shift to the corporate scene.

It begins from the "Job Description & Skills". Someone in the past must have written a verbose piece about the job and subsequently generations have copied and modified from a historical piece. Why so? Let's take a standard line that can be seen in most job descriptions: “Must have good communication skills” - Is this not to be taken for granted? Will any applicant concede that he has poor communication skills? What is meant here is that, the potential incumbent must be able to effectively communicate his thoughts & ideas. However what are mostly assessed is the accent and style and a judgement passed on the incumbent. Most of the statements in – a typical job description are - generally vague (“Cover Your Ass” types) and not objective and measurable. Another example of a job description could be : “The incumbent will be responsible for all sales for the state of Karnataka”. What should the interviewer assess here ? He would have to get himself convinced, if the incumbent has covered a similar territory and handled similar type of customers. What was the incumbent’s person contribution and achievements? What metrics did the incumbent use to show that he had done a good job. Did he do anything creative in this role or was it just a supervisory role.  Many sales guys have good gift of the garb, so the interviewer must ensure that he is able to see through.

 The next step is the interview process. In the guise of involving the "team” in the hiring process, and to ensure that there is acceptability of the incumbent, the number of interviewers invariably is large. The interviewers nominated have, in many instances, just a little more experience than the interviewee. What happens is the inexperienced (experience in the assessment process) interviewer, instead spends time in trying to impress the candidate, with a display of his own knowledge in his limited areas. For this, he would pose questions from his domain of strength. If the quality of answers does not match with his knowledge, the candidate is judged as not suitable. How will the interviewer ask something that he himself does not know?  After all, the interviewer has also learnt many things, in course of his work. So this is like the Johari window – (I know, you do not know quadrant - the facade)  From my experience over the last 25 years and more, I have seen that 95 % of the organizations do not have a proper framework for assessment. Even though the interviewing process is classified as Technical interview / HR interview, these are mostly skewed. Hardly any one understands the concept of “Fitment”. Assessment of fitment can be done only at the level of a Business Manager or higher.

Since doing a post-mortem for rejection is seldom done and not worth doing, it is safer from the interviewer's perspective to “fail" a candidate rather than “pass". The fear of the interviewer is that if an incompetent candidate is judged as “good" the interviewer would have to morally and even maybe personally accept the blame for the wrong selection. Why should he take the risk? Will a junior interviewer have the maturity to hire or acknowledge someone who is smarter than himself?  So the result will always be to hire someone less competent and thus a giant builds a team of pygmies.  After all in today's fast changing environment, where the "average engagement span" of an employee in a company is just about 3 years, how can the impact on contribution be assessed?

In Public sectors / government organization, how many times does a junior officer have a say in the selection process? Never - and the result is far lower attrition. Most of the employees in a public sector are generally competent and fundamentally strong (skill wise), but then the problem of performance (in most cases) is not on account of the individual ability, but the working environment.

Conclusion:  

Always hire for Attitude, Sincerity and Core Values.  Check out the motivation level of the candidate. What is it that he is really looking for? You have to go behind the veil to see the driving factor. There will always be a mismatch between what the candidate says and what the candidate really wants to do. What is really frustrating the candidate in his current role? For the initial hires, please have multiple meetings in different settings. The 2^nd or the 3^rd meeting will uncover a lot of things, which would have gone unnoticed in the earlier meetings. Now days, because of traffic and internet, face to face meetings are reduced and some are telephonic. Please understand that you will miss out the body language if there are no face to face meetings. As a thumb rule, at least the first 25 employees must be met and screened thoroughly. If you get this right, skill can always be built and anyway, one needs to re-skill on a regular basis to meet the market needs. Attitude is very important. There are people who work only for money or monetary rewards; some require a lot of ego massage. In the start-up phase stay clear of hiring such people. Their ethos attitude percolates in the system and integrates with the DNA of the company, which is the foundation of company culture. No doubt, not hiring may delay the company in their product launches or take off phase, but it is worth it.  Focusing only on performance at this stage might look rational, but is the seed for tempting the founders to bend the rules or negotiate on values. Once these are negotiated, you will lose the moral high ground to preach to employees- especially during all hands meetings.

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(A slightly different version was published in Yourstory.in, with a focus on hiring for start-ups)

The Human Factor - Employer Brandbuilding

The Human Factor

I had recently shared my experience in Employer Brand building for the job seekers. Word of mouth ,sharing  of pleasant experiences are the most credible initiatives, and it has a snowballing effect.

Top 10 Tips To Handle Interview

This was originally published here: Top Tips to Ace the Interview for a Beginner

These few tips are mostly for those, who are entering the corporate world for the first time. You would have applied for various jobs and would be expecting an interview call. These are some tips, over and above what you would already know about “How to ace the interview”

1. Carry a couple of hard copies of your resume and a few photographs. Proactively offer one copy, with your photo pasted to the interviewer. Many times, the interviewers meet many candidates and therefore miss out remembering all the faces at the end of the day, when they compile their remarks. A photo would help them remember you distinctly over others.
2. Organize the contents of your resume well.  Do not try to hide facts. Avoid some of the high sounding words in the summary section. Mention all personal details in the end, including your place of stay, some amount of family details, references etc.  Take time and put in effort to update your CV regularly.  Avoid using the standard templates as some of them are not suited for our environment. At no cost should there be spelling mistakes. Please understand the spell checkers do not distinguish between words “Career” and “Carrier”. Please understand that the former is the correct word and not the latter. Most resumes have the latter!
3. Carry copies of all your certificates and any reference letters. It is advisable to carry all these in a zipped folder, and organized in flaps or dockets. Many times, candidates fumble and drop papers on the interview table.
4. Find out the directions to the venue a day in advance and never be late for the interview. Reaching about 5-10 minutes earlier is perfect. Reaching too early is not also good.
5. Do some research about the prospective employer (go through their web site) and do a Google search to see if they have been in the news recently. Try to know what the company mainly does. If the company has a website, check out their career openings. This will give you an idea of the type of hiring’s the company does. Check out who are in the top Management etc.
6. If you are asked questions on your career plans, or where you see yourself after, say 10 years, don’t say standard things like – you would like to be a Manager etc.  Be creative and say- that you would like to master and do well in your first 2 years and then realistically evaluate your strengths vis a vis the organizational need. This reply will impress upon the interviewer, about how mature you are and that you do not day dream.
7. If you have a subject question, for which you do not have any clue of the answer, admit frankly your ignorance. Do not bluff or beat around the bush and expose your ignorance in other areas as well! Ask the interviewer guidance on where you can learn more about the topic, thus showing your curiosity.
8. After the interview, if you are given a chance to ask questions, ask intelligent questions, like your role and learning opportunity. Show inquisitiveness, and enthusiasm. Do not ask stupid questions like compensation, travel allowances, leave etc.
9. After the interview, send a simple “Thank you” note to the interviewer, if you can manage to get their email id.
10. Do Not pester to know the outcome of the interview, but ask, if they want to share any feedback with you. If you do not receive any reply within a couple of days, you can conclude that the result is not positive. If the employer is considering you even in the shortlist, they will keep you engaged.

Author

The author, B Mohan Kumar, is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Trusted Technology Solutions and can also be reached at bmk@ttspl.com.

Autobiography of a Red Blood Cell

(Readers are advised to read the complete article, as the key message  conveyed in the end can be appreciated only after going through the initial paragraphs)

I was born from the realms of the bone marrow. I keep moving and every few minutes, I reach the lungs, where all the carbon dioxide that I carry, goes away from my body and fresh oxygen molecules cling to me. From here I start my journey but I do not decide where to go. The pressure on me increases, after I reach the heart. Like faithful soldiers, we are sent off to different parts of the body to deliver oxygen to the cells. Sometimes I have to go long distances and sometimes not too far. When we are going with the flow, our surrounding temperature is regulated by the liver, which also gives sugars and other chemicals, which are our comrades, till we reach our destination. As soon as we reach a starving cell, the sugar which traveled with us is taken by the cell and oxygen from us. When we give away Oxygen, the cells give us carbon dioxide to us to take back to the lungs. We complete our mission in less than a minute. Sometimes we have seen that our friends go away from the body. This happens, if there is a cut and then some of us are knocked out.

I tirelessly carry oxygen from the lungs to different parts of the body and return to the lungs with carbon dioxide. In each leg of the journey, I travel through the heart twice. After doing this for about 120 days, I breakdown and part of my remains get converted as bile and stored in the gall bladder. My friends and I do not fight over on who is doing a better job. We do not ask the destination, where we want to carry oxygen or say that one of us like to travel to the brain or do not want to go the the skin on the foot, where it is very cold.

During my life span, I encounter many environments. I never decide, what i should do, but what ever i am made to do, i do it. Let me also tell you that all of us do not end as bile in the gall bladder. Some of us come out of the body, if there is a cut we die when we dry up. Some of us are taken out and stored and then used in other bodies. They call that blood bank.

I am very small compared  to the whole you, but you are not too different, compared to the cosmos.Just as I am , but a small component of your living body, so are you a very small part of the cosmos. Our similarities are many, but there is a lot of difference in the way we think.

You think, you are master of your destiny and you can plan, control many things. I live my life and go with the flow. I do what I am supposed to do. Both of us do not decide, when we are born, nor do we know, when, how and where our end will be.

So learn a simple lesson from us- Go with the flow and your creator will take care of you