The Kulcha & Cricket!

A few years ago I saw a small portion of a test match between the West Indies & England, played at the Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. England opened with its obdurate Geoff Boycott and the West Indies had Colin Croft bowling. Croft was fearsome, in size and demeanour.He snarled at batsmen from 6ft 4in and was mean, as far as batsmen were concerned.

Every ball had Boycott fending off his throat or head and at the sixth ball, he got a nick to the wicket keeper, and Boycott walked even before the bowler appealed. He later said that he was never more afraid for his life than that particular over.The fear of a cricket ball hurtling at you at speeds of 14-150 km/hr can be daunting.

Fast forward to the Feroz Shah Kotla, where a couple of days ago last SL/India one dayer was called off after the two captains deemed the pitch to be 'unsafe' for batting where the ball behaved erratically after bouncing on an ill prepared Kotla pitch. A pitch on which crores have been spent over the last few years!

While the entire sordid episode is a cricketing disaster, it is more of a national shame, that a cricketing powerhouse like India, can only manage a sub standard pitch in the nation's capital.

When the dust has settled & finger pointing ended, we will have to see who will be held accountable for the negligence.Delhi has also jeopardized its chances of holding a World Cup fixture in the following year.

A couple of days ago I read a rather interesting article as to how Mr.Arun Jaitley, former Union Minister, introduced the 'kulcha' to uninitiated Delhites and so vastly improved their sense of gourmet. Mr.Jaitly appears to be very well informed of the Punjabi cuisine and takes immense pride in talking about it. I wish he was as erudite in cricketing matters as head of the DDCA and not let the just discussed debacle occur.

Can we expect a modicum of accountability from Jaitley and will he take the cake or in this case the kulcha?

Pup & The Pauper!

Two events over the last month or so have prompted this piece...............

Event # 1:

Yesterday over dinner, a friend of mine ( He holds a senior position at an IT American MNC ) was describing how people are fired in his establishment. Apparently the sacked employee receives an e mail from the HR that he need not turn up for work the following day & would he be so kind as to deposit his id card, lap top & associated paraphernalia at the front desk.He/She is told that they would receive their dues by post in the near future. Excellent I said, very simple and uncomplicated.

Event # 2:

On my morning walks ( my wife says it's more of a stroll ), I bump into a vegetable seller, with his cart. The guy is there, come sun, rain or cold. No casual leave, earned leaves & so on for the bloke. On occasion when time permits & vegetables are required at short notice I stop over & a desultory conversation ensues.About a month ago the grocer looked disturbed and unhappy. With some prodding he told me that he had lost a close family member and missed the person.He continued to be morose as the days passed.

Yesterday morning he hailed me from across the road. He looked pleased as a punch and very happy. Why? He gestured to three pups that were nipping at his ankles and were full of fun. He offered me one of them, for free, as the mother had taken off & he had become the surrogate mom, a responsibility that he wanted to lighten.It was obvious that he loved the pup's and felt responsible for them. The guy looked positively radiant.He empathized. While politely declining his offer ( how could I look after this mongrel pup, who has the time, I'm moving home shortly ) I went on my way............

The point I'm trying to make ( in a rather ham handed way ) is why do we lose our ability to empathize, with education and progress? I think, one reason being that culturally we are very individualistic. Indian's are quite individualistic but with exposure to western culture ( read American ) we have become even more so. Individualism has its own set of advantages, primary one being, the ability to generate rapid material progress.You do not get held back by stragglers!Why waste time in surrogating roadside pups? Also, once in the rat race insecurities grow and it is extremely difficult to pull oneself back.

One city, similar people but different cultures & behavior. The vegetable vendor does not talk about bottom lines ( as in a P & L account ) and share holder value but for me made a point.

A fundemental trait for the HR is empathy & if the HR professional cannot empathize with people around them and feel their pain then it would be prudent to park themselves elsewhere..................................

Today morning I found one pup missing. 'Where's the pup I queried?' He tersely told me that it was run over by a speeding vehicle. While turning away, I suspect, he hid a look of disgust.

Are you a Protean!

If you ever thought that management was a project,then I'm afraid you are mistaken. Management is one long road with little or no time to stop and rest on your oars. A good story to substantiate this is Homer's Odyssey.I'm amazed as to why history is not taught as a course in management, because we can laern a good deal from folk who preceeded us.But then that's not what holds my attention right now.

Post the pillage of Troy the victorious Greeks, would have probably heaved a sigh of relief, and look forward to returning home. Not the case for Hercules. The heroes of the 'Iliad'- rebellious Achilles, brave Hector and the bossy Menelaus are all gone and the Odyssey is the story of Hercules and his labors.

This short blog is not a piece on Greek history but on one of the characters of the Odyssey- Proteus. Proteus, supposedly son of Poseidon was a sea god. He was special because he could tell the future but avoided doing so by changing shape and form. He was versatile and quick. He bought time, in decision making and eventually made a commitment only when captured.

Plato, Euthyphro 15d (trans. Fowler) (Greek philosopher C4Th B.C.) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the reluctant speaker :]

Like Proteus, you must be held until you speak."

Plato, Ion 541e (trans. Lamb) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the twisting arguments of a debate :]

You are a perfect Proteus in the way you take on every kind of shape, twisting about this way and that, until at last you elude my grasp."



While I do not subscribe to the evasive tactics of Proteus, I do like his ability to change shape and appearance at will. Drawing a parallel with our world today, I think managers should draw a leaf from his book and develop the ability to adapt to and change depending upon the situation.

One area where managers falter regularly is in their Cultural Intelligence. Like other forms of intelligence, CI is fundamental to success in a globalized world. Stories of deals that have failed due to a lack of cultural sensitivity abound but we still refuse to learn that culture and cultural practices are various and different across the world.

In my last organization, we had a gent from a pacific Island. The guy was very polite, but behaved strangely- avoided eye contact, sat before he was offered a seat & generally did not shake hands. He was summarily labelled as uncouth.

Was this the truth................. no!

In his part of the world, you avoided eye contact with a person you respected and did not appear bigger than a superior so he sat uninvited.

Culture can be complicated and you need a high Culture Quotient, to avoid pitfalls in a world that is increasingly turning flat.More importantly a high CQ would preclude us from being judgemental.

Proteus, or as Homer called him, 'The Old Man of the Sea' would be a great example in cultural adaptability!

The hypocrisy of it all!

The other day while reading the Sunday news paper, I suddenly stopped chuckling to myself, as I caught my wife's enquiring look.She was a little alarmed when I told her that I was reading an article on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, an event that left many thousands maimed or dead, twenty five years ago to this day.

Why laugh at at the horrible tragedy was her logical question? I had to hastily explain that I wasn't laughing at the tragedy per se, but at a bit of history.............

While at school, we would be hauled off to an industry every month, for an 'Industry Visit'. For thirteen year old's, it was a novelty and fun, except that, we would have to write a report post the event.

One such visit took us to Union Carbide. The American subsidiary, exported shrimps & prawns and after looking at various very very dead prawns of different shapes and sizes, a chappie drifted along and directed us to a room, where he said we would be served refreshments.

About forty of us ( boys & girls ) got to this room in pretty good time, when all hell broke loose . A table loaded with 'cookies' and coke was attacked & there was a general free for all ( Coke was not as freely available as it is today & we had not heard of cookies). The girls had no chance. I in my defense can say, that I was a fraction late off the blocks, as there was a twinge on conscience, but then who can resist freebies?

When the melee ended, the sight was a sorry one and we were admonished first by the manager & then by the girls who were the only ones to have retained a modicum of dignity. The scene haunted me for many years, particularly the UC Manager ticking us off on our lack of manners.The eventual fall out was that our trips were cancelled after we were chastised by our Principal in front of the school.

What's the connection you might well ask?

Well, the irony is that we as thirteen year old's were ticked off for being unruly in a firm which indulged in mass murder at Bhopal a few years hence and where their head honcho, scooted from this country and refused to stand trial, while many of those who suffered continue to cry out to a nation that has forgotten.

Maybe I should have wept.....................at the hypocrisy!

How anxious are you?

A week ago the following story appeared in the press, which made interesting reading:

The United States Coast Guard has located a cruise ship crew member who reportedly jumped overboard near Miami.

A Thirty-one-year-old crew member was found treading water off Cutler Bay about two hours after the the Captain of the cruise shipissued a distress call, citing imminent danger to the sailor.

The company which owns the liner says that four witnesses reported watching the sailor jump overboard. Officials said he was recovering and in good condition.

Undoubtedly a full scale enquiry would be put in place at the very earliest and both the sailor and the company will have much to answer for.

Interestingly, the cruise ship would have offered great living conditions in terms of food & entertainment as well as working environment. So why did the member of the crew take the extreme step in jumping overboard, as reported, putting not only himself, but his ship in danger?

The only conclusion, that I can draw, from the episode is that the member of the crew in question was neurotic, which is a personality trait, that manifests itself fairly regularly these days.

Who is a neurotic?

Neurotics feel anxiety, and worry often.Anxiety can make them emotionally unstable, and they are more likely to struggle with depression and sadness. This Big Five Personality Trait can lead to physical ill health and extreme mood swings. Neurotic people behave irrationally on the job and can be a source of distraction to their team in the least. In extreme cases they are dangerous.More often than not neurotic workers need sympathy and counselling and its the manager's job to identify a problem and suggest corrective action.

Neurotics are the last people you want on ships, where sound physical & mental health is a priority ( not that it is not elsewhere).While this is an extreme case, having emotionally stable people at the workplace is a requirement that recruiters would have to keep uppermost in their minds while selecting a person.The tragedy is that, a persons mental state can take a beating while working in high risk/high stress areas such as ships that constant monitoring would be a called for.Many employees and organizations are guilty of not taking care and pay a heavy price in time.

A few organisations are incorporating personality testing in their selection processes and those who do not test are doing so at their own peril!

There are high rises on land........................!

Morale!

I've said it earlier & will say it again. Losing a job is akin to death in India & must be dealt with sensitively by HR. Layoffs are the order of the day & a fact of corporate life. No organization worth its salt is going to tolerate poor competence & sloth and will get rid of employees who do not contribute, particularly in recessionary times. However, the process requires a great deal of empathy and tact.

More than anything it requires the 'Human Touch'.

Here are afew tips:

1. Be transparent. The first thing you need to do is to be more open with your employees. Start by exposing your employees to all of your major business and financial metrics, because laying everything out on the table builds employee trust. Not only will exposing employees to this information give them some warning about downturns, but it might also spur them to come up with some approaches to solve your business problems.

2. Over-communicate. Not knowing what’s happening always breeds fear.The best approach to minimize fear and speculation is to over-communicate—saturating people with information. Keep rumour mongers at bay. They can destroy morale.

3. Focus your retention efforts. Generally, rather than low morale, the biggest negative business impact comes from increased turnover. The best retention approach begins by identifying and prioritizing the most critical segments of your employee population that are at risk of leaving (i.e., top performers and individuals in revenue-producing and mission-critical positions).

4. Educate them about the consequences. Educate your current employees so that they realize that losing a job isn’t the end of the world. Start by letting all employees know what help they will receive from the firm if they are laid off. In addition, if a significant percentage of your previously laid-off employees have successfully found jobs, make your employees aware of it.

5. When I've laid off people, I take the responsibility of informing the concerned person that it was a decision that was made by me & why it was made. I also offer to help the person find another job if he/she allows me to.I also insist that the persons department head and HR are around. The occasion is a serious one and is not to be dealt with flippantly.


It’s important to realize that having no layoffs can actually backfire, because it can cause employees to develop the expectation of permanent job security getting them to rest their oars and drift. This isn’t a good result, because a reasonable fear of business downturns actually tends to keep your employees from becoming complacent.

Interviews & Romance!

Yesterday amidst my HR class, a lively discussion on interviews ensued. I was stressing on the importance of impressing the interviewer on one hand and the ills of impression management on the other.

One can impress an interviewer in many ways, paramount amongst them being ability to cozy up to the interviewer, for the duration of the interview. In this age of hyperbole, people who do not play the game, will lose out and while you do not have to overdo the act of being agreeable during an interview you may be always be pleasant.

I liken an interview to a romance before marriage. Prior to marriage most couples are at their very best, in terms of behavior, dress and are generally exceedingly accommodating. It is post marriage that you get to see the warts and all, but then it is a little late in the day to repent. Job interviews are similar. The candidate is all sugar & honey and very agreeable at the interview. An interviewer who is ill prepared, generally misses vital clues to a potential candidate’s personality or attitude and could rue the selection later. It is quite easy to teach a person a new skill, but to alter his/ her attitude can be a herculean task.

Always listen carefully to the candidate. You can often pick up a word or a phrase in an answer which you can play back to the interviewee. This is one of the ways by which you can get something much more interesting or honest than expected. Interviews are not scripted questions and answers, they are serious professional conversations and hence you need to concentrate.

Getting rid of an unwanted employee can be a traumatic experience to all concerned so it is a good idea to get the right people on board in the first place and retain them. It is always judicious to prepare and research in advance. Whatever questions you wish to ask the respective candidate you must have substantial knowledge on that subject. You don’t need to prepare a list of questions but you must be sure of all that you want to cover in the interview session.

It is also good to remember that smart folk take charge of an interview and have you as an interviewer eating out of their hand. Be polite & firm, regarding the direction that you want an interview to take and do not waffle.

Divorces at home or at work are messy and needless. Much of the misery can be avoided if you interview well and get yourself up to speed in judging people.

A Tiger in the Circus!

Zeta Interactive, a New York company that monitors message boards, blogs and social media posts, said the buzz around Tiger Woods as measured by its technology became overwhelmingly negative in the past two weeks. His positive rating, once higher than Oprah Winfrey’s, has plummeted. The company’s chief executive, Al DiGuido, said the turnabout was “the quickest fall from positive to negative we’ve ever seen” in the approximately five years his company has measured what computer users are saying. As the Tiger watches his ratings plummet & sponsors, taking him off their boards, he would rue his escapades or should we say sexcapades. From being a role model for kids around the world Tiger Woods, is now associated with sleaze and poor character. The last few months has been a tragicomic series of events for the Tiger as skeletons or should we say damsels of all hues & color tumble out of the proverbial closet.Thus far, amidst the mayhem his wife has held her counsel and maintained a dignified calm. Fortunately for Wood's he has taken good advise & has broken from golf, on what he calls as a sabbatical. Time to put balm on bruised relationships. On this entire circus, I have a few points to make: 1. The arrogance of the man, in thinking that he could get away with the kind of reckless behavior that he was indulging in or was it a severe lack of emotional stability. 2.His idea of impression management which turns out to be abysmal.Maybe fame lowers the levels of inhibition? 3.His sponsors who seem to want to cut him adrift cast him away in a hurry and seem to have little idea, as to how to manage him as a brand, which has gone sour. Amidst all the brouhaha, the only person, who in my opinion, stands out for some kind of integrity is Wood's wife, whose stated concern seems to be her children. Generally, with kind of golfing skills that Tiger Woods has, you would credit him with some intelligence, but I would not bet my last rupee on the contents of his occiput or are our primordial urges so strong that we are ready to throw caution to the winds! During his sabbatical Wood's would be well advised to do some serious introspection on his life and maybe would be better advised to take a few tips from the old charmer Bill Clinton.Bill should know, he got out of the wood's, despite Monica Lewinsky. Watch a cute Tiger ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wHkA_983_s )

Challenge & bliss!

There is a frenetic routine to our lives everyday.

A rush to the office & back home in the evening, and I was surprised to hear my wife say that it's been a year since we have been watching 'Jyoti' on the tube. The serial, in Hindi, is about a lower middle class families, struggle to keep its nose just above water, lead of course by - Jyoti the heroine, as they stagger from one crisis to another.

Jyoti just about governs our evening schedule & I can say that we have been snared by the petite girl (Jyoti), hook, line and sinker.

Not disregarding the fact that the main protagonist is very pretty, should an inane soap, have taken charge of our evenings? It is a just cause for reflection and since taking to academics and supposedly turning cerebral, I do reflect. My now burgeoning knowledge of Organization Behavior also helps, in these reflections.

I have deduced that we watch the inane serial for the very reason- its innaneness! There is great deal of comfort in the the common, the ordinary and the routine. We cherish the comfort zone that commonality creates and its inability to challenge us.

It is said that in Confucian China, you could consider yourself rather unlucky if an elder blessed you with ' May you live in changing times'. Changing times was anathema to the Chinese who as a culture have deep roots in being oriented for the long term.

While being in a comfort zone and being somnolent could prevent hyper tension, it is not what corporates are looking for in an employee and most do check out levels of flexibility and openness to learning either during the interview or as a personality test.

A friend of mine who runs a tiny soft ware firm quizzed me the other day on an issue that he had. He needed an engineer with a good understanding of 'JAVA' and had two potential aspirants, one a steady type with deep understanding of JAVA, while the other having a good understanding, but came across as a flexible guy with wide interests. Whom should he take? I plumbed for the latter. The reason being that when JAVA turns obsolete, and a new language is to be learnt, whom would I fancy ? My friend thought me Quixotic but seems to have gone with my recommendation.

Being ready to take risks and keeping yourself open to learning is a factor that would determine both intrinsic & extrinsic success in a career and is a mark of high achievers.Ability to take up and learn new facets at work is fundamental to progress.The next time you find yourself refusing a challenge, rap yourself on the butt and change course pronto!

If you are a manager then look to create a 'Learning Organization' and challenge old ideas, where enquiry and feedback are inbuilt tenets of work life.If you wondered, why kids learn, at an exponential pace, then you have only to look at their curiosity and ability to challenge themselves at every turn.

As for me......................I'm waiting with bated breath to see how Jyoti puts her mother-in-law in place, come Monday.

# 1

The year 2009 will go down as a high point in India’s cricket history, with the team being ranked at # 1 by the ICC. This, not withstanding the fact that we have not won a series in either Australia or South Africa. It was way back in 1971 that the Indian team got itself the label as the ‘unofficial’ world champs, following some convoluted logic, which went as follows: India defeated the West Indies & England. England had just beaten Australia and Pakistan. South Africa was out of the circuit due to apartheid and New Zealand the other test playing nation were minnows, so India were champs. We held on to the tag for a very short time. This time around, let us see how Dhoni and his boys perform.
While the pleased as a punch Indian team was gathering for their post match photo shoot, after soundly trashing the Sri Lankan’s at Mumbai, I noticed Rahul Dravid, standing beside Sachin Tendulkar, looking as always a little remote. There are certain guys who are just not part of the bonhomie. While Viru (Sehwag) is the hero of the moment, I was a little sad that the contribution of Dravid went unnoticed in the joy of winning.
Hark back to Motera, Ahmadabad, and the first test. India tottering at 32/4 on a seaming track and all that stood between the Sri Lankan pacers and certain defeat for us was the ‘Wall’ who came up with a classy 177. Had India gone down 1-0 in the series, the outcome may have been a little different and we may not have been rejoicing at all leave alone patting ourselves on the back that we are the # 1 Test playing nation.
The reason why Dravid rarely receives the accolades that he deserves is quite obvious. He is not a swashbuckling, gung ho swisher of the willow, a la Sehwag, who is every adolescents dream player ( not to be forgotten that Sehwag can play the way he does because he knows that Dravid & Tendulkar follow). However Dravid is around when the chips are down (poetic), but then who wants to talk about the bad times. Do we even want to talk about the fact that India’s best (Sehwag/Gambhir/Tendulkar/Laxman) were knocked over by a Lankan rookie pacer ?
It is this seeming inability in moments of triumph, to introspect that has been our cause of downfall earlier. Remember 1983, Kapil’s boys winners of the 1983 Prudential World Cup, were thrashed at home (5-0) by a ruthless West Indies. The result might have been a little better for the Indians had they planned better.
As a cricket watcher, to me, there seem to be troubling hollow areas with the Indian team. The fast bowlers are not in place and the spinners are quite ordinary. We continue our search for an all rounder. While I do not enjoy the role of a party pooper I think our stay at the summit is likely to be short lived.
There is also a raging debate as to which of the teams, 1971 or 2009 is better. In my opinion, the 1971 team had better bowlers while the 2009 team have great batters. Both had charismatic captain’s in Ajit Wadekar & Dhoni, so a draw would be in place…………………
Where does my heart lie? With the 1971 team, of course. Who can forget, Bishen Bedi, in his colorful patka and Chandrasekhar making great batsmen look foolish with their spin & guile.The solid defense of Gavaskar and the Vishwanath's grace & style. Those were the days when pajama (one day) cricket had not made an entry and cricket was still cricket ( as I played it ).
And so, thank God for small mercies, we are # 1 where it matters, in the real form of cricket where brain rules brawn and watching cricket requires one to use their mental faculties and the game is not reduced to a cama de una noche.

It's a man world!

A few years ago, while making port at Mumbai, I had a very nervous harbor pilot board my craft. He was jumpy and restless and the last straw was when one of my officers on the navigation bridge, fished a mobile phone from his pocket and was checking if there was a signal.

The pilot told me quite curtly that he found mobile phones distracting while he was navigating, in the dense traffic of Mumbai harbor & would I be kind enough to get the officer to put the instrument back into his pocket. I found the request logical and sound so the offending phone disappeared.

A few days prior to my arrival at Mumbai, I'd read about a collision between, a submarine and a ship.The whole case was rather intriguing as most ships are very careful in navigating within the limits of a port as accidents can be catastrophic.

How did the accident occur?

Apparently, the naval submarine was outbound on an exercise at sunset and the ship was making harbor. As soon as the ship closed in and was within cell phone coverage, the officers on the bridge, got their mobiles out to make calls to their wives/girl friends & so on. What followed was the bizarre accident. Human error & sheer negligence.

What would have followed the accident, would have been torture for captains of both ships and huge repair costs.

Having now moved to Bangalore, I see the malice of the cell phone on a daily basis. From vehicle drivers to pedestrians, no body cares & in fidgeting with their phones, if they cause an accident, then so be it.Accidents have been caused by careless drivers conversing on their mobile phones.

After moving to Bangalore, I too was sucked into the habit on occasion and had a couple of close misses. The latest was when I nearly hit a startled cow, on a busy road causing it to run into a two wheeler, who was also on a mobile phone.

Several surveys have actually concluded that using a phone behind the wheel is more dangerous than drink-driving and more likely to cause a car accident. It can be seen, therefore, that the seemingly harmless act of talking on a phone really can put lives at risk.

There is no doubt that having a mobile with you in the car can provide security and help in the case of a breakdown or an emergency but the temptation to answer it if it rings or to reply when a text message arrives should be avoided at all costs.

Hands-free devices and dashboard cradles are better than actually holding the phone but their use can still cause a lapse in concentration and so increase the risk of a vehicle accident. Driving a car requires your full attention at all times and, although it might seem like something that comes as second nature, even a couple of seconds of not watching the road or thinking about something else is enough to cause death or serious personal injury.

Rules are never meant for us, so why bother is the credo that most adopt.Though the police do act, in the event that they catch a person breaking the 'mobile rule', the fine of Rs 100 is so minuscule that most are not concerned if they are caught.

I found the following case quite interesting...

Going Back for a Mobile Phone.

Apparently this problem of going back to get a mobile phone and then ending up in a car accident is neither rare nor new. Back in 2003, there was a man in Austria who managed to get run over by his own car as a result of needing to go get his mobile phone. He had left the phone inside the house so he exited his car, went in and got it. When he came back, he saw his car rolling down the driveway where he’d left it running. His solution was to throw himself at the car and the result was a series of broken limbs. But at least he had his cell phone to call for help.

As for me, I find rules on land can be broken with far greater impunity than at sea and shudder to think of the effects of a growing urban population.Being smart I have found the perfect solution:

Get my wife to drive! It allows me talk on my mobile phone while sitting in the car.

Its a mans world you see..........

Has Atlas Shrugged?

Dubai Poised for Massive Financial Crash, is the talk of the town. The proverbial 'Atlas' has shrugged bringing down much of Dubai's over priced real estate.The price for unbridled capitalism, as taught by Ayn Rand and practised by her chela Alan Greenspan.

Asset prices in Dubai are forecast to plummet up to 70 percent from to last year's high within the next six months. Moody's estimates that Dubai's debt totals around US$100 billion, with around $25 billion insolvent. State-owned investment firm Dubai World has said it will not sell off its assets at rock-bottom prices simply to repay its debts, but if the financial situation worsens, it may have no other choice. Bloomberg on Monday forecast that Dubai will have to abandon its dream of becoming the financial hub of the Middle East if neighbor Abu Dhabi ends up saving the cash-strapped sheikdom. Not only has Dubai suffered tremendous damage to its financial credibility, but Abu Dhabi will seek to have a significant say in financial matters as a precondition to aid. The Times of London reports that Abu Dhabi already demanded a stake in Emirates Airlines, Dubai's state-owned carrier, in return for financial support years ago. Ian Hay Davison, former chief of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, said, "Dubai will keep its role as a regional center of services in the Middle East, but has come very far from its goal of becoming a financial center like New York."

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 01, 2009 13:12 KST

I follow the fortunes of Dubai rather closely because I helped build, the Palm Islands & The World off Dubai.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXclgws7n8) The tragedy is that these amazing feats of marine engineering now flounder as the real estate bubble has burst in Dubai. To me the case of Dubai,is the classic case of hype & hoopla over substance. We see it time and again but never seem to learn. Dubai, not many years ago was a camel herders den, with little or no resources to boast about. As the oil economy boomed it became the play ground for the rich Arab from oil rich countries.Then came the real estate boom, which had no foundation. During my stay at Dubai, I rarely saw an Arab work, except in the immigration, custom's and police. The real work came from expats from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and UK.Much of the time expats, particularly from South Asian countries were treated very poorly.Arabs would venture out in their swanky cars, post sunset & head straight for the air conditioned shopping malls. Economies are not built by other people's sweat. They are built by in house skill and hard work, consistently over years. Sustainability comes from solid foundations and careful planning. I think this applies to both the material as well as the living world and is not a flash in the pan.This would be the case with careers too. Career building is an art and not something that happens overnight.If you are looking for a great future it is imperative that your hands get grubby today. No short cuts my friends. So when the going gets tough, hang in there and ride the wave. That is what is character. What about the Arab's? Like a friend of mine said, they can always sell 'Camel burgers'............... As for Ayn Rand and her Atlas Shrugged, trash them.( Watch the video http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/02/dubai-real-estate-crash.html )

Breasting the tape.....

Placement season is around the corner & with news trickling in that corporates may be looking to hire again, the interview is back in business.It is the culmination of their studies for many and in my view the part where a person breasts the tape at the close of a race. You want to do this part very well.

In an imperfect world the interview seems to be the best bet for a person to land a job, so it makes sense to give it your best shot.

The following may be some pointers......

1. Dress appropriately.A business suit is appropriate. If you're a man, wear a tie.For women it is not fashion day, unless of course you are looking for a job in the fashion industry.( being shabby is not being cool and most interviewers would show you the door for being poorly dressed)

2. Shut up. Did I tell you about the time someone came and told me his life story for 45 minutes and then allowed me 10 minutes to explain the job? I think you know how that story ends.

3. Listen. The most useful skill in sales is listening — and in an interview, you're selling yourself. If you say, "I think the best computers in the world are PCs and people who use Macs have more style than substance" after the interviewer mentions his iPhone, you could be left with your opinion and no paycheck.

4. Ask questions. You can avoid the problem above by responding to the question, "Do you think we should scrap all the PCs here and buy Macs?" by saying, "That depends on lots of factors. What would your requirements be?"

5. Show interest. This could also be called "sucking up." When an interviewee doesn't ask me anything about myself, she's not just saying "I've got pride in my accomplishments and don't need to pander to you." She's also showing me that she isn't good at showing interest in other people. Which means she's going to have a hard time politically in the company. And since that's going to reflect badly on me...no job for her.

6. Do your research about the company and the people who are going to interview you.

7. Answer the question you wish they'd asked.
How many times have you left an interview thinking, "I never got a chance to tell them about my achievements.So tell them............( however if your interviewer suffers from low confidence- God help you )

8. Be clear about what the interviewer want's. Do not assume anything.


One way of acing an interview is by correctly answering a very risky question that many interviewers ask and interviewees dance around: “If we hired you, what would you do to help us do ‘X”’. X can be anything from creating a new production process to slicing customer support time in half. This is your chance to show your experience, knowledge of the company, and its competitive challenges.

Most interviewers are not looking for a specific or right answer. They are looking to see how you would approach and solve the problem or the logical procedure you would adopt in getting there or there abouts.

Doesn't it make sense? As a manager you would spend the better part of the day problem solving rather than handing out SODEXHO booklets, unless that us what you are being hired to do.

What if I asked you, how many trees would there be in Bangalore's Lal Bagh ( a huge 600 acre park )?

Take a shot..............and tell me.

Power Corrupts!

When Lord Acton said- Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely- the old gent knew what he was talking about.
Does a position of great responsibility and power vest you with the right to take law into your own hands, even when you feel, your actions are for the larger good? Names like Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat scream out in anguish the follies and ethical failures of their top brass. In all instances, top executives from these organizations, while lining their own pockets, had little remorse for what they had done. Why ? Hadn't they slogged & sweated blood to set up the organization? Who was the law to interfere if they took a few short cuts. Arrogance of the powerful and an inability to see right from wrong are dangerous habits, when they reside in the powerful and decision makers.
Look at the following story.... With the curtains rapidly dropping on World War 2, the Nazi's were desperate to clear their concentration camps ( to hide evidence) where all anti socials ( as deemed by Adolf Hitler ), including Jews, Gypsies, Communists and Homosexual's were held prisoner. One such infamous camp was Auschwitz, in Poland. In clearing the camp, a group of women prisoners, on a long march, were sheltered in an old church for the night.As luck would have it, the church was bombed in the night and caught fire. What do you think happened to the 300women prisoners, in the church? Two hundred and ninety nine perished in the inferno ! Why could their guards, not let them out? A guard later said, that they were 'guards' and could not let the prisoners 'escape' from the church by letting them out, so they allowed them to burn! It is this kind of perverse logic that is dangerous and demonic. The top brass of Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat, are either dead or cooling their heels in prison. Just reward for their sins, but what about the innocent share holders and employees whose lives that they have destroyed, in pursuit of their greed.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY )

Follow the link to see an enthralling courtroom drama where....... Col. Nathan Jessop,is commander, of an elite group of marines, on Guantanamo Bay,off Cuba. He orders a banned disciplinary procedure, called the 'Code Red' on one of his marines ( Private Santiago ) to punish him, for slackness and breaking the chain of command. In the process, the marine dies ( a rag is stuffed down his throat & he is gagged, causing him to suffocate) & the marines buddies who were part of the 'Code Red' are charged with murder as the powerful and well connected Colonel, denies that he gave the order.The Colonel is finally cornered ( by a brilliant Lt. Kafee, played by a young Tom Cruise, who knows that the egoistic Colonel will self destruct if provoked), his arrogance gives him away and he faces a court martial.

Why does the Colonel order the 'Code Red'? Because he believes that he is the man on the spot and reserves the right to bend rules as he does a job more important than those that others do. Sheer arrogance! What about the troopers who are accused of murder, for following orders? Plain bad luck.........

When Ramalinga Raju was jailed, there was a school of thought which said that he should be treated 'kindly' as he had done a lot of good work, by providing jobs for many Indian's. Hitler provided a great many jobs in Germany, by mobilizing his nation for war and building the autobahns. Does that cut any ice with the six million Jews he murdered or people of the nations that he destroyed by following the diktat's of a crazed mind? I do not think so............

Ethics and morality are not words that exist only for the powerless and poor.It would do us good to remember that every day at work and if you find your ethical values being tested I suggest you find another place to work before the corrupt, corrupt you.

I know what my young friends would say...............discipline & rules are stifling.......maybe, but they provide the bedrock for a just society & keep us from descending into chaos.

It would also do us good, on occassion, to pause & reflect where we are heading......

And never the twain shall meet.....

The East & West, will they ever meet, is a question that has occupied many a thinker from way back in the past. I'm not sure it is something that is going to have a ready answer in the future, too.

The unstoppable Alexander, in 326 BC ran into his first real resistance on the banks of the Indus, from where we in India draw our name - India.

While camping here he was intrigued by a holy men. In fact both were intrigued by the other. Alexander, the busybody, a Greek God felt that he had conquered the world, while the mendicants, felt that they had too, just by sitting on the banks of the river and meditating.

Their leader, Dandamis, tried to show his guest that his conquests were futile: 'You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this earth as will suffice to bury you.' Although these comments were not very encouraging, Alexander insisted that one of them should come with him, and so it happened. Calanus (Indian Kalyana), became Alexander's adviser and must have played an important role in his dealings with the Indians.

Alexander, was so irritated by Dandamis,at the outset, that he threatened him with death, to which the seer laughed at his face.What are you going to kill, me or my soul he asked?

Alexander later, probably met his first military defeat, in India and died on his way back home. His wife and child were murdered by his Generals and he slipped into history.Dandamis too slipped into the sands of time, nary a footprint.So much for the impermanence of the permanence that Alexander was striving for.

The short story would indicate why it is likely that the East & West may never meet. Culturally we are poles apart and our perception of time and space are at the greatest variance.

Now look at the following story.......

To help retain new employees in India, software firm Sierra Atlantic uses a variation on the American "take your children to work" tradition.

The company invites parents of new hires to visit and learn about the company. There’s an introduction from company executives, lunch is provided, and guests--primarily fathers thus far--have a chance to ask questions about the firm and the workplace. Typical questions include: What are the career prospects for their children? What are the company’s plans for growth? And how does Sierra Atlantic support their children’s pursuit of higher education?

The company is based in Fremont, California, and has about 800 employees at offices in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. The quarterly "take your parents to work" events are an attempt to recognize the importance of family and parental guidance in Indian culture--and to make Sierra Atlantic stand out in the competition for technical talent there.

In India, parents have a major say in the career moves of their children.If Sierra Atlantic is able to convince parents about our values, work culture and growth prospects for employees, (it can) increase company loyalty among their children. Since the initiative began last year, the annual attrition rate for new college graduates hired in India has dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent.The program also marks an attempt to ease the cultural strains of tech work in India. With the growth in technology and back-office operations, young Indians are at times required to work at night because of the time difference with the U.S., alter their accents to sound American and even take on Western names when handling customer calls.

East is East & West Is West, never the twain shall meet- said Rudyard Kipling, the British author, many a year ago. Maybe they won't, but that does not mean that we cannot be more accommodating and understanding of each other's cultural nuances in a flat world.Letting perception cloud decision making is disastrous for business.

Should we take our children to work or our parents? What is the answer ? Like always, I will leave it open for debate, because that is the spice of life!

Not all employees have equal value.......

A while ago a young friend of mine told me that she was petrified of facing interviews and selection processes.I was taken aback because this particular girl has a wonderful presence, a calm demeanour, is very articulate and to top it has a wonderful smile ! ( the strengths far outweigh the weaknessess )We are generally ( except for narcissists ) are our worst critics and my advise is to look at your strengths while managing your weaknesses and not to get bogged down by what we are not endowed with.

This is a debate which has gone back and forth for quite a while and as far as I'm concerned the truly successful ( not necessarily rich ) are those who leverage their strenghts, not those who keep trying to buttress their weaknesses.

Continuing in the same vein, I'm amazed at many an organization's inability to recognize its best people and work with them.Most organization's generally ponder upon their laggards and furiously debate as to either how they may be improved or jettisoned, even while ignoring their best performers ( who are expected to perform anyway).This to me is inherently flawed, because most high performers look for constant feedback and appreciation.

It would be prudent for organization's to identify their best people and closely monitor the loads that they carry.You do not want them to go up in flames and burn out or look for other pastures, as the job market for high performers is very competitive and alluring.

As a manager you do not want to be left holding the can and your under performers while the better ones have moved on. It is fundamental that you 're recruit' your top performers at regular intervals, by incentivizing them, not necessarily with money but by recognizing them and showing them that you care.

As a manager show your high performer that you value him/her. Many a time a pat on the back and an informal thank you will have the job done.Ignoring your best talent is done at your own peril because remember, your competitor is just around the corner waiting to snare your numero uno employee.

The 'Hawthorne Studies' are an example of this phenomenon. Just by creating a special group scientists found that employee productivity went up and sustained itself.

Hiring great employees is one part of the story, keeping folk motivated and gung ho is the tougher act to follow........

Recruitment Culture!

It has been widely recognized that some of the most important decision to be made in the corporate world centre on recruitment and selection. Even with the best intentions one generally lands up with guys who do not measure up to the task and when firing decisions are to be made it is a sad day with much soul searching and breast beating. As a culture we do not fire easily in India.

Why fire if you can hire wisely, is the point of discussion. Poor manpower planning and recruitment and selection procedure land many a new employee on the ‘bench’ only to be told that they have warmed the bench sufficiently long and may now look for other pastures. This message generally comes from the junior most HR executive while the senior line managers and HR managers are either in a meeting or out playing golf. (It is little wonder that HR is feared and many an employee runs for cover when they see the HR)
Apparently one American company has adopted a method wherein the recruiters watch how a person crosses a street dense with traffic and then conclusions are drawn on the suitability of the candidate for various profiles & whether he/she should be on board or not.

While the method may raise a few eyebrows, I think it is well worth a try, because who knows………………………..what may succeed !

As an example, an owner of a large firm hired his SCUBA diving instructor as the CEO of his firm, as the man impressed him. Did the diver succeed? You bet he did……..much to the amazement of all and sundry.

Why did he succeed? It’s all about attitude, chum………………………………………………

The street crosser:

1. Matador. Fearless, the Matador thinks nothing of daring the cars and taxis with his elegant dance through traffic. Crosswalks are just paint to a Matador. Red lights are mere suggestions. Nor does the Matador care whether the oncoming traffic shows no sign of stopping. After all, what’s a little glancing blow? Best Positions: Entrepreneurs, super salesmen, and financial mavericks.
2. Wader. Bold but not fearless, the Wader is eager to cross, demonstrating ample initiative but a little more common sense. Waders may phone and text while on the move…but not when venturing into traffic. They recognize that getting struck by any part of a car is a bad thing. That’s why they let the Matadors run interference. While the hotshots are busy tempting fate, the Wader is getting to the other side first. Best Positions: Excellent CEOs, vice presidents, software designers, project leaders and design heads.
3. Text Walker. Having mastered typing, talking and walking at once, the Text Walker tends to forget that crossing a car-clotted street is real life while tapping keys on a little plastic box is not. Text Walkers may appear on the surface to be Waders or even Matadors, but with one critical distinction—progress in their case is often an illusion. The Text walker tends to meander, drift, and even pause midway. They lack the presence of mind to stay on task. Best Positions: Creative’s and lower-level programmers. They exhibit flashes of talent but are ill-suited for management or higher-level responsibilities.
4. Light Jumper. Though a Light Jumper starts out determined to follow the letter of the law, when the crosswalk light turns yellow he can’t help but jump the curb. Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde. A Light Jumper is not above shouting and glaring at motorists who narrowly miss him even though they still legally have the right of way. Best Positions: Dependable but ballsy attorneys, independent CPAs and trusty managers with hidden tattoos.
5. Curb Huggers. No matter how empty the street, Curb Huggers would never dream of leaving the sidewalk for the crosswalk a second earlier than the law (or the “Walk” sign) allows. Ironically, Curb Huggers rarely make it across before the light turns and, by playing it safe, are often sitting ducks for signal-jumping taxis. Best Positions: Accountants, statisticians, or rules-based occupations. Excellent at scheduling and attending meetings, especially when the purpose is to schedule new meetings.

I'm thinking of introducing this concept to my students, next month, when I launch into a course on HRM.

The way you learn is crucial................

Soon after my marriage in 1992, my wife & I were on board a ship with some pretty smart officers who played Table Tennis very well. TT is a sport that I love & I would head down to the TT room to play a few games every day. At first, my wife, would keep away as she did not play the sport. However, soon she was a spectator and after a few days, wanted to play. I was skeptical and tried to fob her off, as I was afraid of being embarrassed. My wife can be bull headed at times and play she did. The funny thing was that she was amazingly good & even more peculiar was that she had my style. The speed at which she had mastered the game puzzled me till I heard of vicarious learning.
Kirk uses very offensive language in talking back to Mr. Winters. Mr. Winters realizes that Kirk is just trying to get his attention, and so he calmly ignores Kirk and attempts to go on with the class. Soon, other students start using offensive language.

Vicarious Learning" (VL) is the notion that people can and will learn through being given access to the learning experiences of others.

There are four separate types of vicarious learning.
• Modeling Effect occurs when a person almost directly duplicates a behavior he has seen someone else perform and which the observer has not previously suppressed. The observer displays new behaviors that prior to the modeling had a zero probability of occurring. For example, my son bats the way he does because Rahul Dravid is successful with that batting stance.
• The Eliciting Effect occurs when the observer performs a behavior to the model's, but still somewhat different. For example, if I hear that a famous celebrity has donated Rs 50,000 to charity, I would be demonstrating the Eliciting Effect if this generosity prompted me to volunteer to umpire in the local cricket games.
• The Disinhibitory Effect occurs when a person who has previously refrained from a behavior goes ahead and performs that behavior after seeing a model perform the behavior without receiving any negative consequences. For example, if I already knew how to speed in my automobile but refrained from doing so out of fear of a speeding ticket, I could demonstrate the Disinhibitory Effect by driving more quickly after several cars passed me on the expressway with no apparent negative consequences.
• The Inhibitory Effect occurs when a person refrains from a behavior after seeing a model punished for engaging in that behavior. For example, I once stopped asking questions in a high school class after I saw several students receive assignments to write reports on topics about which they asked questions.

Vicarious learning as an OB concept is crucial in organizations, because it can determine the culture that an organization has.

As a senior manager, if you allow subordinates to be harassed and bullied, you may be sure that others in the organization will learn and repeat the behavior, unless punitive measures are adopted and the dysfunctional behavior is stamped out.

Similarly if you allow incompetence and sloth you are encouraging people to learn the behavior and mimic it, which eventually will pull the plug on your boat and sink it.
Organization learning is crucial to organization culture and it is important what employees learn and from whom……………………………..it is more important that managers understand learning concepts, well...............

I think it the reason why psychologists talk about the environment at home.

The Expatriate

An aspect that many HR practitioners ignore is the way they deal with Expatriate workers- their own or from another nation working for their organization.

Expatriate workers are a different kettle of fish, as dealing with them transcends normal HR activity that a firm would undertake.

A case in point is the recent brouhaha that has been created by the diktat that the MEA has issued, regarding Chinese workers, in India working on business visas.

The Chinese have been working on major power projects all over North India and this step has resulted in all of them leaving India jeopardizing the project, leaving the project contractors scratching their collective heads. The projects are in critical stages of construction using Chinese equipment, extensively and replacing these workers is difficult and expensive.

While the political situation in a country does not effect normal HR activity it does impinge upon International HR and if you as a manager deals with expats then it would be prudent to keep your ear to the ground.

Another example, is the police in Ahmadabad, asking people on business visas, who have overstayed, to leave the country. This has hit many of the upmarket hotels in the city.

"This is rather rude and a very short notice. We are not sure what to do now," said a US national, who has been living in Ahmadabad for the past two years.

According to sources, the Centre has decided to stop misuse of business visas by expats for employment. "Employment visa applications are examined thoroughly while business

"Employment visa has a limit of six months and requires constant monitoring by the employer. Business visas have much relaxed norms and can be issued for up to one year and can be extended by another six months," said an immigration official.

The impact of the notice has also been felt in other cities as well. Foreign nationals were vacating hotels in Surat.I can imagine the confusion, because when at Van Oord, I would put up with colleagues from Holland at the Taj and travel to Hazira Port not too far way. Three, four and five-star hotels have been instructed to ask such foreign nationals to vacate rooms at the earliest.

While that may the case in India, on occasions Indian workers live and work abroad in terrible conditions, particularly in many middle eastern nations as well as nations like the Maldives, where the schism between expats and locals is widening and at times resulting in violence.

Unfortunately as HR Managers, many of us miss out the International part and we do so at our own peril, in what is a globalized world................

What is right?

I don’t know if Charlie’s silence here today is right or wrong; I’m not a judge or jury. But I can tell you this: he won’t sell anybody out to buy his future!

One of the most interesting, movies that I've seen undoubtedly is 'Scent of a Woman'. The movie primarily deals with Charles Simms, a poor student on a scholarship, with an upmarket school. While the rich kids head off to Switzerland to ski, Charlie takes a job attending to an irascible blind Colonel ( rtd ) Slade who makes his life tough, amidst trying to commit suicide on an out of town visit. The run up to the story is that Cahrlie's class fellows have played a prank on the school's headmaster Mr.Trax & the HM is desperate to find the culprits and bring them to book.His honor is at stake!
His ACE! Charlie Simms who has seen the pranksters, while putting in overtime at the library. Even when Charlie is offered a bribe ( scholarship to Harvard )bullied, coerced and threatened with expulsion he refuses to divulge the names of his classmates and is eventually saved by an inspiring speech by the blind Colonel, who turns up to save the boy acting as his 'in loco parentis'or local guardian, which is a lie.The Colonel labels Charlie to have great integrity!

The question however remains......
1.Was the HM right in offering to buy the truth?
2.Was Charlie right in protecting the guilty?
3.Was the Colonel right in defending Charlie's right in remaining silent?
4.The poor HM received no support from his faculty. Did they make a right decision is exonerating the whole crowd?
5. Why was the enquiry held in the slipshod manner that it was?

These are ethical questions that each one of us must answer for ourselves..... Unfortunately like much of life they fall in a twilight zone where interpretation is the key and definite answers are difficult to zero in upon.

It’s actually somewhat ironic that Colonel Slade, a military man, praises Charlie’s decision to stay quiet. Slade is presumably a graduate of West Point, where the famous Honor Code says: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.” In other words, if you know one of your fellow students has done something wrong, you have a duty to snitch. If you don’t, you’re just as guilty as they are.

The Colonel like most military men goes for the jugular straight away and leaves poor TRax devastated. The HM does not stand a chance in weathering the kind of oratory that is unleashed at the scool by the Colonel.He gets Charlie off the hook, but was he right, in doing so? Does he send the right message to young students?

Colonel Slade is inspiring and I had a faculty who spoke much like him.....biting sarcasm amidst brilliant English.........who was a little like Slade, brilliant, burnt out and frustrated.The Colonel is frustrated as his career has been stymied by blindness. The burntout man now hits out blindly at everyone that he meets and leaves a trail of broken relationships in his wake. Whom does he hurt most? Those who love him most, just like many of us!

Why is the movie called 'Scent of a Woman'. Apparently, the Colonel ( a ladies man ) can identify the Scent that a woman wears from a distance, with accuracy.( Does it help- I'm in the dark!)

While that is an amazing feat, what do you guys feel about the ethics of the piece?

Speech
Prank

Wandering Hazards............

A new term that I chanced upon a few day's ago was 'depersonalization'.
What does it mean?
It means that depersonalized people are people who view the world through grey foggy lenses and nothing, absolutely nothing can satisfy them. These folk have burnt themselves out in course of their lives and are wandering hazards ( a term coined by me ).
They are a threat to an organizations well being and will destroy much of what is there around them, unless treated with care. You may be more likely to have job burnout if:
You identify so strongly with work that you lack a reasonable balance between work and your personal life.
You try to be everything to everyone.
Your job is monotonous.
You feel you have little or no control over your work.
You work in a helping profession, such as health care, counseling, teaching or law enforcement.
Many Hr practitioners would fall under this category, so watch your step...... Ask yourself these questions to see if you're experiencing job burnout signs or symptoms:
Do you find yourself being more cynical, critical and sarcastic at work? Have you lost the ability to experience joy?
Do you drag yourself into work and have trouble getting started once you arrive? Have you become more irritable and less patient with co-workers, customers or clients? Do you feel that you face insurmountable barriers at work?
Do you feel that you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
Do you no longer feel satisfaction from your achievements?
Do you have a hard time laughing at yourself?
Are you tired of your co-workers asking if you're OK?
Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
Are you self-medicating — using food, drugs or alcohol — to feel better or to simply not feel?
Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, neck pain or lower back pain?

Many burn out victims try and combat burnout by compulsive drinking or turn workaholics. This can be particularly dangerous in high risk jobs, where rational decisions have to be taken under great pressure.
The attached video is a case in point where the Captain of a Nuclear armed submarine wants to launch nuclear missiles without adequate reason and forces subordinates to accept his point of view, subverting regulations........Unfortunately to many burnouts & their maverick behavior looks appealing because they can be a very persuasive.( see the opening speech )
Organizations neglect this aspect of Organization Behavior at their dire peril, because Burnouts are a disaster to themselves & the people that they lead......
More often than not burnouts need empathy and understanding, do not deny them the human touch.....

j accuse......................a trial that tore a nation apart.

Yesterday, after a long day at the office, I flopped down on my favourite chair in front of the TV and was audience to the most bizarre talk show, that I've been privy to in recent times. This was a talk show with the following, on Times News.....
.Rahul, the anchor.
.Mahesh Bhat- Movie Mogul and known to sympathize with minorities.
.Pooja Bhat- Mahesh Bhat's daughter.
.Oza- Head of some kind of fringe group operating in Gujarat.
.Naveen/Nikhil ( ? )- Spokesperson for the BJP, in Gujarat.

The talk show was about, yesterday's vandal attacks on movie houses across Gujarat, screening Bhat's new release 'Tum Mile'. The vandals apparently are encouraged by the likes of Mr.Oza, who appeared to be a top level functionary in the group.
Why? Because Bhat's son Rahul ( Not the anchor )is in some way connected to a Headley who is connected to the LET which carried out the attack on the Hotel Taj, at Mumbai, last November. Everybody had their say. Mahesh, alternatively called Oza, a joker, a badmash, a gentleman, a scourge on the collective conscience of India and rounded it off by calling him Oza Saab. Pooja, kept referring to some mirror & was very verbose. Much of her talk went above my head and frankly she looked a wee bit tipsy. Mr.Oza, was amazing. He kept referring to the Mahabharat & Dritrashtra in particular.Left me flumoxxed. The anchor, Rahul, was pretty aggressive himself and had his share.
The crux of the story is that Rahul Bhat is being condemned even before he is proven to be guilty much to the sorrow of his family............I lost track after a while because dinner was served & I had to leave.... ( No TV while eating )
The sad story remind me of another amazing one, played out in France about a 100 years ago....... Capt. Dreyfus, a young, military officer in the French Army was accused of spying for the German's and sentenced to prison.........at Devil's Island French Guiana. Dreyfus was innocent, but the problem was that he was a JEW & at the height of anti Semitism, you did not want to be a Jew in Europe, in the 19th Century. Before being sentenced to prison, Capt.Dreyfus was cashiered and court martial led in public.
The drill...
His cap was removed & thrown on the ground. His eapulets ( badges ) were torn off & thrown. His decorations removed. His regimental stripes stripped off. His sword broken in two. All this in full view of his regiment. It leaves an officer naked. The tragedy of the episode was that there was mounting evidence that Dreyfus was innocent but French counter intelligence refused to look at it and in term fabricated fresh evidence to prove that Capt.Dreyfus was guilty. This is called escalation of commitment. An interesting OB theory, wherein you make a commitment, realize, it is wrong but continue on the course, because you cannot admit that you were wrong and cut your losses.
The Dreyfus affair grew steadily worse.................. Two years later, in 1896, evidence came to light identifying a French Army major named Esterhazy as the real culprit. However, high-ranking military officials suppressed this new evidence and Esterhazy was unanimously acquitted after the second day of his trial in military court. Instead of being exonerated, Alfred Dreyfus was further accused by the Army on the basis of false documents fabricated by a French counter-intelligence officer, Hubert-Joseph Henry, seeking to re-confirm Dreyfus's conviction, and uncritically accepted by Henry's superiors. Finally....... Word of the military court's framing of Alfred Dreyfus and of an attendant cover-up began to spread largely due to a vehement public protestation in a Paris newspaper by writer Émile Zola, in January, 1898. The case had to be re-opened and Alfred Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried again. Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.He was an old & tired man. The spirit in him was gone for ever.......
I hope Rahul Bhat, fares better & the larger point that I'm attempting to make is that as a manager, if you have made a mistake, own up & correct course. Do not escalate commitment.....................
As for Gujarat, the mind boggles...............

A literary romance!

Escape me? Never Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And baffled, get up to begin again, So the chase takes up one's life, that's all. While, look but once from your farthest bound,
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope drops to ground
Than a new one,
straight to the selfsame mark,
I shape me Ever Removed!

As I sift through my fairly large collection of books in preparation of my shifting home in the not too distant future, I chanced upon a book of collected poems that had been suggested to us in high school. Leafing through the book I stopped at the above poem, by Robert Browning. Browning was an enigma. A struggling writer, he was fortunate to have had a supportive family who stayed with him till he tasted success.Browning turned out to be hugely successful, but strangely, what endures today is not Browning's works, but his almost surreal romance with Elizabeth Barret, which started in 1844.
Barret an invalid and recluse, a prisoner in her home, was under the thumb of a selfish father and a suffocating family who encouraged her being a recluse. That is till, Browning appeared in her life & kindled a romance that has fascinated the literary world over generations. Their romance is recorded in 573 letters that went back and forth between their two homes, till finally Barret and Browning quietly eloped to Italy and thereon lived a wonderful life, till Elizabeth died twelve years later.They met 91 times at Elizabeth's house, The only time that they met outside was when they were married, in 1846. What mazes me, is the romance. When it started, Browning was 32 and Barret 38. No spring chickens.Browning was in love even before he met Barret. In Barret's poetry he was quite immersed and had fallen in love with the spirit of the writings.The romance was barely physical and mostly spiritual. One poet to another.Barret the shy, invalid responded like a caged bird set free and much of the correspondence, though coached in Victorian English is full of ardour.

My English teacher of the day was amazingly good at bringing out the nuances of poetry and made us see the softer side of life.I think as we grow, our hard skills take precedence and when we embark on a journey of a career, family and money we lose that tenuous link that keeps us anchored to humanity. In school reading poetry was as important as cracking the next geometry theorem and for that I must thank the people who taught me, because they taught us not just math & literature but a good deal of life as well.

Barret wrote in her Sonnets from the Portugese:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
What wonderful stuff!

Why do you go to work?

A friend sent this piece to me a short while ago..............I thought it must be shared........
Ready for the root cause of most of your work issues? Here it is:

You (or the people you work with) forget why you go to work.
This may sound overly simplistic but let me share a story that will illustrate how powerful this really can be.
Tim, an old friend of mine has a long history of short stints at work. That frustrates me. He is a super-qualified, high-profile media guy. He’s personable, intelligent and……can’t keep a job.
He’s been married for 2 years. His wife Patti is working her tail off trying to keep them afloat and she’s just about had enough. She sees how qualified Tim is but thinks he gets himself fired (on purpose or subconsciously) because he’s lazy. She doesn’t want another 40 years of this kind of life. She’s threatened to leave if Tim doesn’t get it together. If that wasn’t enough pressure, the couple is just about to lose their home to foreclosure.
You can imagine that Tim was really relieved two weeks ago when he got hired at one of the most prestigious media companies in the world.
I asked him how it was going when we spoke a few days ago. His answer knocked me out of my chair.
He told me that his boss made a slight “remark” and it really made Tim angry. He was already complaining about his new boss and was “re-thinking” his decision to take the job.
Tim may have had a justifiable gripe but I didn’t think it mattered. I just couldn’t believe he was complaining. Here he had an opportunity to work again – and the alternative was foreclosure and divorce.
It occurred to me that Tim was either completely insane or he was going to work for the wrong reasons.

I asked him to tell me why he goes work and this is what he came up with:
a. To support his family.
b. To be of service to the company he works for.
c. To contribute to the world.
Intellectually…very nice. But to me, his answer wasn’t complete.

I asked him if there were other reasons. He couldn’t come up with any so I suggested he also goes to work to be:

a. Important
b. Right
c. Liked
d. Looked up to
e. Taken care of
f. Powerful and strong
I gave him examples of how he sought out those payoffs time and time again.
For example, I asked why he reacted so strongly to the remark his boss made.
I suggested that it was because we wasn’t getting what he wanted – which was to be important, strong, looked up to etc..


If all he wanted to do was to take care of his family and contribute to his new firm and the world, he would have let that remark made by the employer roll off his back…right?
Tim takes what other people do and say personally – especially at his job. As a result, work… doesn’t work. That’s why he usually finds himself unemployed shortly after he lands a job.
I suggested that he has a real opportunity to turn this situation around once and for all.
If you struggle with the people at work, this exercise can help you too:
1. Write down why you think you go to work.
Like Tim, this list probably includes paying your bills, taking care of your family, doing a good job for your employer, advancement etc.
2. Write down all the social and psychological payoffs that you don’t want to admit to.
This is show time. You have to be honest. Part of the reason you go to work is because you have social and personal needs that have nothing to do with money. Nothing wrong with that.
You probably want to enjoy yourself. Why not? You spend more of your waking time at work than any other place….right? You want to be liked and respected…..who doesn’t?
In moderation, these are all just human needs and they won’t get you into trouble. The real rough water starts when you want to be “important”.
This is something you may not want to admit to – I certainly don’t. But if you find yourself at odds with others, it may be something you need to look at.
This is all about ego. It has nothing to do with why you are really go to work. If you allow your ego to call the shots at work – always looking for a way to be revered by your co-workers or employer, you’ll alienate everyone around you. Just don’t be surprised when you don’t have a job.
Even if you are the smart one, it doesn’t matter.
If you go looking for worshipers at work, you’re going to tick people off.
You may not realize what you are doing but other people do. Need proof?
When the guy in the next office is positioning….you see what he’s up to…right?
Well…guess what……he knows it when you are doing the same thing.

3. Keep this list on your desk at all times.
You’re only human. You aren’t perfect. You have character flaws; everyone does. Review this list often and it will help you remain aware and “awake”.
Don’t beat yourself up – but it’s time to put a leash on your ego.
When you catch yourself trying to flex your muscles for all the wrong reasons, call it out. Laugh at yourself and tell your co-workers that your ego must have gotten the better of you – then get back on track. Don’t have a 3-day seminar on the subject but don’t try to cover it up either. If you make a mistake, be honest about it and then move on. Believe me, the people you work with will be amazed and appreciate your honesty.
4. Don’t expect the world to be perfect.
Believe it or not, not everyone is going to read this post. Your boss might be a huge ego freak and you can’t change it.
Realize that it’s not about you. If she’s looking for ego strokes and by so doing, puts you down, she probably does that to other people too. Don’t take it personally. I know that’s easy to say and hard to do.
If it gets to be too much, you’ll need to look for a different boss somehow. I’ll leave that part to you. Just don’t allow someone else to push your buttons if you can.
What make me such an expert on this subject?
I spent years trying to make sure everyone know how smart I was. When I didn’t get what I wanted, I went ballistic. I had to do a lot of work on myself in order to stop doing that. I’m not perfect…but I do it considerably less now.
That old behavior cost me so much time, life and love. It almost cost me everything.
That’s why this is such a hot button for me.
I still blow it from time to time. When I do, I try to call it out and move on. When people at work try to prove how important they are, I just try to remember that I have the same character flaw and it helps me stay calm.
Pardon me.
After all the years I spent making this mistake, I just think it’s really dumb to struggle when you don’t have to. If you are clear about why you go to work and get back on track when you forget……..most of your work challenges will disappear.

How about you. What do you think is the main cause of trouble at work? How does it impact you? What have you done about it?

Conscientiousness!

A conscientious person is a manager's dream and conscientiousness is a personality trait that many interviewers look for in a candidate? What is it? Conscientiousness is the trait of being painstaking and careful, or the quality of acting according to the dictates of one's conscience. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting), and need for achievement. It is an aspect of what has traditionally been called character. Conscientious individuals are generally hard working and reliable. When taken to an extreme, they may also be workaholics, perfectionists, and compulsive in their behavior. People who are low on conscientiousness are not necessarily lazy or immoral, but they tend to be more laid back, less goal oriented, and less driven by success.
During my time I have seen, interacted and read about some amazingly conscientious people but to my mind, Ernst Shackleton would easily walk away with all the prizes. Shackleton was the explorers explorer & attempted to reach the final frontier, the South Pole by sea. The expedition was doomed and his ship the 'Endurance' was crushed between ice floes, but amidst desperately trying circumstances, Shackleton brought each of his 27 men back home alive, after being stranded on pack ice for over a couple of years. His men trusted him with their lives because they knew that he would never cut them loose to save his own skin.Shackleton's crew subsisted on penguin and seal blubber, for months together in biting cold but the team never lost its morale.
In 1914, Shackleton made his third trip to the Antarctic with the ship 'Endurance', planning to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Early in 1915, 'Endurance' became trapped in the ice, and ten months later sank. Shackleton's crew had already abandoned the ship to live on the floating ice. In April 1916, they set off in three small boats, eventually reaching Elephant Island. Taking five crew members, Shackleton went to find help. In a small boat, the six men spent 16 days crossing 1,300 km of ocean to reach South Georgia and then trekked across the island to a whaling station. The remaining men from the 'Endurance' were rescued in August 1916. Not one member of the expedition died.
The story of Shackleton & his ship ( a wood hull one at that ) captured the collective imagination of the world and today Ernst Shackleton is celebrated as a great leader,and many a management school has run leadership courses on his expedition to the South Pole. Shackleton failed in his endeavour and lost his ship the Endurance, but in doing so became legend and to me remains the epitome of conscientiousness. In my book a conscientious person would stand taller than a brilliant one and I guess most HR Managers would agree!

Are you self centred?

A concept from Organization Behavior that I find very interesting is 'narcissism'.All of us are self centred to an extent & rightly so because you need to survive this tough and competitive world. You need to get by and do that by protecting your interests.
Being a Narcissist, is another cup of tea. Narcissists are so self centred that they firmly believe that the world revolves around them and people exist to make their life easier. They take help and move on. They pretend that you do not exist anymore if they feel that you may not be of any future assistance.
Narcissism is an important concept, at the workplace, because, if your boss is one such person, then you either accept it as fate or run for cover. I would suggest the latter because working with narcissists can be very damaging to one's psyche.
Over the last few months I've followed the case of Maria Susairaj, with a fair amount of interest. The starlet from Mysore, connived with her fiance to murder her boyfriend!All very confusing, but then who said life is simple & straight.
Maria's fiance an officer with the Navy, apparently saw red when he caught Maria's colleague at her house, assumed it was a coup d’un soir & killed him. What followed was even more bizarre!
The lady saw which side of the bread was buttered and helped the fiance cut the corpse into small pieces with a kitchen knife and helped in disposing the body. What a bloody mess!
On being caught she sang like a Canary & implicated her fiance in toto.No qualms for this lady.Maria now cools her heels in jail but if you thought that that was the end of this sad story then you are mistaken.
Apparently she took time off last month to have her pretty face treated for acne!
Narcissism is a personality trait which can cause devastation at the workplace, if you let folk like this run amok.
Henry Ford was one and the only person who could control the man was his wife. Ford once had a banquet where the guest list ran into thousands. He then commissioned a painting of the banquet & much to the painter's chagrin would have people who had fallen foul of him removed from the painting. The harassed painter all but retained his sanity.

How do you recognize a narcissist?

Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:

1. Believing that you're better than others
2. Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
3. Exaggerating your achievements or talents
4. Expecting constant praise and admiration
5. Believing that you're special
6. Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings
7. Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
8. Taking advantage of others
9. Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
10.Being jealous of others
11.Believing that others are jealous of you
12.Trouble keeping healthy relationships
13.Setting unrealistic goals
14.Being easily hurt and rejected
15.Having a fragile self-esteem
16.Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence or strong self-esteem, it's not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence and self-esteem into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal. In contrast, people who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don't value themselves more than they value others.Most narcissists have a high sense of entitlement which hides a very very fragile ego and they border on going over the edge at the slightest provocation. Unfortunately most of them live in a unreal world but hurt real people and therein lies the rub.........

I know I'm sticking my neck out here...... but I find the youngster's sense of entitlement disturbing and I hope they grow into well adjusted individuals and steer clear of being self centred.

Folk, anybody less than thirty I'm looking for a reaction!

What the Dickens?

My first memories of the British Broadcasting Corporation was the 2030 news which would ping into our home on our German Radio, with my father anxiously waiting for news of our ongoing war over Bangladesh, with Pakistan ( 1971 ). When India was giving the enemy a pasting in East Pakistan, there would be an easy smile on his face, but if we were taking a few body blows in the West, his mood would be somber.
Amidst all the action, the enduring mystery to me was why we had to get news of our war from far away Britain. Anyway, it was from that time, that I’ve been hooked to the BBC & have always marveled at British English and the wonderful diction that the news readers have.
So the other day, when the BBC channel, suddenly popped up on my TV (It wasn’t offered for quite a while by my cable operator) I was thrilled and as the clear Brit accent floated through our living room, I summarily summoned my son, to enjoy the BBC news. My son who apparently was playing a game of soccer between Liverpool & Chelsea on our PC was a reluctant visitor and a little annoyed as to what the fuss was all about. His rather lukewarm response to BBC did nothing to dampen my spirits and BBC has been the order of the day over the last week or so.
I have grown up on a staple diet of Sir Conon Doyle, Shakespeare and Wodehouse and have not been a great fan of American authors and keep a safe distance from the nasal twang that our friends from the Americas adopt. This also is a common theme around the dining table as my son has firmly set his sights on the US of A. To cut a long story short, I was a little surprised to see my son waving the main paper of the TOI at me. Surprised because he normally restricts himself to the Bangalore Times section which lists the latest gossip, movies and such other news of critical importance. He was drawing my attention to a small column, which talks about a letter the Prime Minister of Britain, had written to the mother of a soldier who had died fighting in Afghanistan. Not only was the lady’s name misspelled but there were other mistakes in spelling, causing the lady to throw the letter in disgust compounding her grief. (as reported). Gordon Brown has since apologized for the brouhaha and has promised to send a correctly worded letter.
My son had a twinkle in his eye & a smirk on his face even as I was left speechless. Are the Brits losing the last vestiges of their days of glory? Thus far they had at least clung on to the English language. Is that going down the tube as well?
My favorite fictional character Bertie Wooster would have screwed his monocle tighter into his eye socket and exclaimed ‘What the Dickens?’, while sadly shaking his head in disappointment.
What effect has the episode had on me? I have decided that as legitimate legatees of the Brits and their language, my correspondence, henceforth will be sans compare and in keeping with that have hidden my son's dog eared copy of 'Eragon' and have replaced it with, 'The Sign of Four', where Sherlock Holmes grapples with a few Aborigines from the Andamans!
As for the grieving lady my heart goes out to her...................

Self appraisal.........

Appraisal is critical part of a HR's work & unless adequately done leads to much sorrow.

Self Appraisal is even more difficult & problematic because it is very difficult to judge ourselves objectively.

The following story is an eye opener................

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone.
He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits (phone number).

The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation :
Boy : "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn?
Woman : (at the other end of the phone line) "I already have someone to cut my lawn."
Boy : "Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now."
Woman : I'm very satisfied with the person who is presently cutting my lawn.
Boy : (with more perseverance) "Lady, I'll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk, so, on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach."
Woman : No, thank you.

With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver.

The store-owner, who was listening to all this, walked over to the boy.
Store Owner : "Son... I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job."
Boy : "No thanks,
Store Owner : But you were really pleading for one.
Boy : No Sir, I was just checking my performance at the job I already have. I am the one who is working for that lady I was talking to!"
This is what we call "Self-appraisal" .

The boy,I'm sure is poised for bigger things............and will be a manager's dream!