Introspect

We all know that communication plays a very important role in today's business environment. Its not just spoken language, but written as well as non-verbal communication plays equally important role. More so, when the business and their functions have gone global and you have global workforce. Today, working with diverse cultural groups is fast becoming the norm. More so, the usual face to face meetings are being replaced by virtual meetings and teleconferences. Hence, it is even more important to make sure communication is effective and the message has been understood. Whether the company is transitioning to overseas expansion, or hiring from abroad, it is becoming important for professionals to work effectively with colleagues from widely diverse cultures. This also extends to developing a strong team spirit. It is, therefore, important to connect well to foster a positive work environment and have greater levels of productivity and efficiency. Are there any specific rules t...

I am going to share my experience on a spiritual tour to Mathura, the land of Sri Krishna. Our journey started from Delhi. We were seven of us; two of them were my close friends and classmates. We studied together in school (11th and 12th Standard) and completed our graduation as well, together. We started our journey on 9th Dec 2011 at 6 AM in the morning. It was beautiful to see the sun-rise early morning. Mathura is about 150 kms from Delhi, about 3 hours drive. The route is Delhi – Faridabad – Ballabgarh – Palwal – Hodal – Mathura. We had tea and breakfast on the way. One good thing of highways in North India is you have plenty of options for food and the highways are full of Dhabas, the so called Indian roadside restaurants. We completed our trip on the same day and reached back home at 10 pm. Vrindavan Parikrama is a spiritual walk undertaken by devotees around Vrindavan town in Uttar Pradesh. Parikrama meant walk around the sacred Vrindavan by foot, feeling the Braj raja...

What is Delegation and How important it is in corporate environment? Are there any rules to be followed for delegation? If the delegation is not effective, does it make any difference? Delegation is one of the most important management skills. According to Wikipedia, “Delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. However the person who delegated the work remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated work”. Delegation empowers a subordinate to make decisions i.e. it is a shift of decision-making authority from one organizational level to lower one. Delegation is good, can save money and time, help in building skills and motivate people. As I mentioned earlier, delegation is one of the most important skills and one of the top ten qualities of a good leader/manager. Delegation is a two process. Good delegation saves time, develops people, grooms a successor and m...

After watching the movie (Saturday 5.30 PM show at Inox Theatre in Garuda Mall), my first response was Ra-One needs a G-One (Jeevan in Hindi). I would say it was much hyped and over ambitious. The humor in Indian cinema today is nothing but sexual innuendo. First I thought the movie could have been good for kids, but as I said earlier the first 30 minutes itself shows how much fascinated our Indian cinema is today with sexual attractions. Definitely not worth watching with the family, even though it was a sponsored show I felt it to be waste of time. To me it looked like Shekhar was a tamilian in the movie, though I don’t know tamil but I could feel that he or his dialect were close to being tamilian. Just because someone wears a lungi doesn’t mean he is a tamilian. SRK has been propagating his movie about the special effects, flying in the sky? Chinese have been doing that since ages, what’s so special about it? And remember, every Chinese is not a Jackie Chan. The only special e...

In today’s economy, biggest task in front of the managers is to motivate and retain their team members. In initial days, motivation was considered to be an HR function, however over a period of time the concept of motivation has undergone lot of changes and today, it is not just HR function but it is more of a responsibility of a manager, and some believes it’s an individual’s responsibility to keep himself/herself motivated and I am sure you would have seen “Self Motivated People” as one of the skills required for the job. Keeping people motivated is a big challenge, more so in knowledge based industries like IT, BPO etc. How do you motivate the people is one of the difficult questions every manager faces, especially during the annual appraisal. All the attempts made in the direction of employee motivation, I would say are a big failure. Every organization attempts to implement lot of strategies around employee motivation, but most of them are either unsuccessful or do not ma...

OFFICE POLITICS How do you describe office politics? Backbiting, rear-licking, jealousy is often the words you use within the confines of office cubicles, while discussing the politics of your workplace. As per Wikipedia, office politics is “the use of one’s individual or assigned power within an employing organization for the purpose of obtaining advantages beyond one’s legitimate authority. Those advantages may include access to tangible assets, or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influences the behaviors of others. Both individuals and groups may engage in office politics”, or to put it simply “how power gets worked out on a practical, day to day basis”. I would rather say, it’s a game, some play or some just watch it being played. So, doesn’t just be a viewer, rather be a player. I call it “Smart ways to manage your management”. Politics is a reality and you cannot avoid it. It is there to stay, whether you like it or not. People like backbiti...

 To be able to take initative in your job you first need to see how you and your position relate to the larger scheme of things at work. In most jobs this role is not explicitly explained, so you need to investigate how you fit into your organization's overall operation. Ask yourself: Why was my job created? Most jobs are created to help with some pressing need of the organization. It could be better or faster service, could be to lower costs, could be to reduce the problems and issues, could be due to improved opportunities. If you can understand the initial needs for your position, you will be better able to consistently address those needs and go beyond them. How does my job relateto others in the organization? Whom do you interact with everyday? Whom do you support, and who are the people who support you? how can you make your manager's job easier? Qestions like these help you to see the contribution you make in your position and how you can expand it. Wha...

We all struggle when it comes to convincing management for our promotion. I think this is same even for annual appraisal, which more or less defines and creates your path to success and promotions. How do we ask for a promotion? I think it is not enough to just ask for a promotion, but rather build a platform and make your managers/management see that you are ready for the next level. Here are some pointers to help you:  You can never get a promotion by threatening your manager, who himself is insecure. Rather, it would be good to help them get what they want.  The worst thing to do is to threaten to leave. You will lose all chances that you may have and it might work against you.  Never say you are better than your superiors, it might insult your management.  It is not a good idea to make negative comparisons with your colleagues. It would be difficult to manage them if they become your team members and even more difficult if they become your superior.  Just becaus...

Three friends or shall we say three musketeers, set out to take the challenge and complete the trek from Tirupati to Tirumala. In the past one year, we had been to Tirupati 3 or 4 times. Whenever we want to go, we just pick up our car and drive to Tirupati. It is 250 kms from Bangalore and takes about 4 hours to drive. The route is pretty straight and the roads also good except for a small patch which is in bad state and some part of it is a single lane highway. We started our journey on Thursday i.e. 22 Sep 2011 at night 10.00 pm from Marathalli. I went to my friends place and picked up his Etios and started driving towards Whitefield where we had to pick up another friend. At around 10.40 we started from Whitefield and headed straight towards Hoskote. The road from Hoskote is a national highway and is four lanes. You will see number of RTO check-posts on the way. Though, they are meant for commercial vehicles, sometimes they may stop you and try to make some money for chai...