Reflections: the stoic way!

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations are nothing else than personal reflection. A journal to himself. What did he do well? Where could he improve? Who does he want to be in this world? That is Stoicism. To look at yourself, to take responsibility for your life, to look after yourself so you can be your best version, moment to moment to moment. We need to reflect. And catch ourselves where we went wrong, so we can correct it. And aim up. https://modernstoicism.com/on-taking-responsibility-the-stoics-in-exile-by-jonas-salzgeber/ “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca  "Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself." The Alchemist “Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well.” - Epictetus Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Philippe De Champaigne Painting below on Stoic nature of life --------------------------------------------...

Employer branding begins but does not end till the time you have taken a good merry go round of the available   digital media   platforms that gives you visibility as a credible employer. Unfortunately employer branding if crafted for marketing success, it may miss the purpose of inspiring top talent to consider a job opportunity and visualize career growth and fulfillment! I have my takes on the platforms that companies use; their importance vs impact! Interfaces Platform Importance/Impact- Career page of the Company website  "Importance-Talent marketing hinges on to career page, every other campaign in hiring revolves around it.  It is the  centerpiece !  Impact- If you are able to pull talent on career page from all other open market media, you have very high possibility of converting that candidate. Here you feed him with company vision, products, people and culture. Battle won!" LinkedIn Professional media  "Importance- LinkedIn is undisputed...

  Many XL's PM&IR guys are looking for cerebral and meaty roles but they are surprisingly occupied by their step brothers from XL's PGCHRM program. These CHRMs are now Talent Management Heads at MNCs, managing TM programs in 11 countries in APAC. This is called XL's self-goal!  SCDL  makes 10X more money than flagship full-time MBA programs of Symbiosis University. This is what I heard from a senior SCDL official some years back.. Cash cows started eating the lion's share! Though SCDL is certainly not a threat to the Symbiosis Univ's MBAs, XL's PGCHRM certainly has pushed lots of illegal migrants (some deliberately sheltered for vote bank politics), thus making PM&IR grads feel the heat in the course of time.  What is  PGCHRM  of XLRI? 12 months distance education program, virtual classroom..Cost?-Rs.225,000/- If you want international tadka, try this for 85K+taxes,  SHRM+XLRI  certificate in HR.  Few exclusive tags in HR can be ...

  I have kept something I once heard very close to heart. When I met the CEO of a large consulting firm in New York some time ago, he said something that just stayed with me – “Pick your highest performing business partner and make that person the Head of HR”. People are the most critical asset in a consulting firm, so you need to put your best person in charge of your people. It made absolute sense. ------ Richard Rekhy , CEO, KPMG India ---- I personally believe that if we care for people the result will be high performance. So, when I became the CEO, I took the opportunity to ask one of our best performing partners –  Shalini Pillay  - to take on the reins of managing HR and ensure that we give our people the best. I chose her because I wanted someone who was a high performer as well as passionate about people. In fact, I’ve had such a keen interest in people that I had offered myself for this role to my earlier CEO, so that I could make a difference and transform...

  We all have heard of "fake it till you make it"! Lot inspiring and fills us with indefatigable self-belief! I heard, the best home for us is actually our body! We all have heard, 'I was made to feel so uncomfortable in my own skin!Not a sexist statement! Irrespective of gender affiliations or leanings, this statement shakes us! All due to external factors intruding, invading, ripping-off, at times just trashed! Painful! Such feeling do occur at workplace to all of us at some point in time! We feel so ordinary, so useless and almost a liability and burden to the system! People in great 'looking' jobs feel so miserable, so helpless and ignored! Prabir's  quote above in pic, has shaken me to think about the moment that visits people in their career and profession; from glory to gloom, spotlight to dark lanes! History is replete with stories of fade-outs, greatest empires where sun never set, greatest of businessmen, kings of good times, world-class players, gre...

NRN offers you a role to build the nation, you can't say No!  It is just not him, but every greedy owner has a dream like this! 😆 You are an employee! You are often asked to think like an owner, behave and work like one.  Sooner you realize it was a well-played mirage.  He has the power! Everything else remains with others, expect your time but no more. They want to own and dictate terms on that.  This is why labor laws exist!  Can you own anything without being allowed to make decisions on them? Even delegation means, do as I asked you, when I asked you to and do not do unless I asked you to do it!  I know this sounds harsh and we are trying to find the fallacy, so we correct the dangle. TAKE THE HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD ROUTE?  Reward is what anyone looks for in any job done well!  What if we are all moved to incentive compensation model for salaries and the ratio of fixed to variable (performance linked) hinges heavily on the variable ...

  Some nostalgia is not bad! This is how MBAs are baptized at MBA schools! Watch Herb talk.. Deccan air may get dumped, model SW airlines survives! Model is not faulty...leaders are ! Business of Business is People: Herb Kelleher For business leaders, people focus is pivot of their business; here people means both employees and customers! Some said,  employees first, customers second!  How is HR today, dealing with this dilemma vs priority setting! Most CHROs find it easy; they look at the CEO and get into the Wind Chimes mode! Back to business: what shall HR leader do when rules of the game get murkier! and what shall HR leader do when ethics get compromised for business! For business? Really! Sample this---- EARLIER-Jio  has called out existing operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea, for not providing enough points of interconnect – which allow users from one network to speak to users on the other networks – and its Chairman, Mukesh Ambani described the situa...

  Your phone rings...you reluctantly pick the call... Person on the other side....Are you looking for a job? We are hiring! You work on python? How good are you at an R? What's your CTC? Can you come for interview on Monday? Call usually ends around this semantic. Does this style sound familiar? ....................Now tell me, do you need a rocket scientist to do this call? No wonder... Commonly, the bottom rung of HR folks (Are they really HR folks? What is that HR into them? Some non HR, non-grad Customer services execs, or, any half educated telecaller can get there!) We usually find such people in TA, these days! This is such a low intellect job! Who made this so demeaning and non-glamorous? Body-shoppers? In early 2004, an HR manager at Wipro told me that he worked for the largest body-shopping company. He is currently heading HR at a Semi Conductor company, based at Delhi- NCR. Remember, all this recruiter 'dhandha' started with a hot headhunter kind of a role, who w...

  HR awards are crucial marketing strategy tools! HR magazines, Assessment companies, other consulting companies have mined and minted this Bitcoin very well!   @people matters , now   @jombay   (Jan 17th Mumbai),   @SHRM ,   @DDI   etc have all played it well to the HR gallery! Great job by all these players in making HR a boardroom discussion topic! R&R matters and matters much more to the deprived sections like HR, the much critiqued function. People like  @Ram Charan  and now  @Vinit Nayar with @Richard Rekhy  pronounced its demise by 2020. Awards may save this function, at-least this is what the Kodak Moment of HR may be believing in!  The Oscar of HR awards as the compere and some mafia HR leaders on stage on  People Matters AYIL 2017  award show called these awards for Emerging HR Leaders below the age of 35 yrs. Leaders on and off stage took pride in calling themselves HR mafia! Wel...

If humans can teach machines to think and act like them, why not humans be behaving the way they think they should rather than they would? Is this AI thing not a creative intelligence to behave the way, that are manipulated and fixed? Even if we can't act any behavior for long, we can at-least beat it at that personality test, right? I was reading a blog post by an accomplished ex-Chief Learning Officer of Wipro technologies ,  and I was very amused to see the pertinent question that was asked by the author on whether university hires should get tested on Emotional Intelligence, also called EQ (emotional quotient). I have been wondering on the efficacy of the personality or trait-based tests, the psychometric tests as they are called, and being advocated for decades now. What are these psychometric tests? Are they not the questions that an interviewer can ask face to face and read emotions, watch for body language, observe anxiety or feel enthusiasm, discomfort or excite...