Introspect

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...