Reflections: the stoic way!

Book Review: Reality Bytes - The Role of HR in Today’s World Author: Aparna Sharma Good read as the first book in HR. Remains focused on the HR topics as a text book but falls hugely short of a text book, if compared with best HR text books. As a reference book, it again disappoints when the book has remained in a teaching mode and hardly has any place for developing any connect with the reader. No jargon makes it easy for anyone to read.  Being author’s first book with a disclaimer that it is primarily for the HR students at undergrads and masters and still good enough for the new HR Managers sets the expectations right. At times it is difficult to find out, if this is a text book or a reference book. Ideally looking at very little touch of reality into the book, be it caselets or the stray examples, book travels mostly into the past. None of the caselets have any close significance or resonance with recent corporate examples. Not sure why author did not pick up any...

Why is HR in most places getting so casual? What is troubling them? Is there a systemic failure or it is a design/conspiracy against HR? Why HR is running HR like their fiefdom? Why they think no one is watching them for their being so whimsical, casual, careless? I see most HR guys seriously stressed despite their high levels of commitment, they perform much below expectations. One HR President wrote on LinkedIn post: HR IS DEAD, LONG LIVE HR. Reasons are many but the biggest , some suggest are the following: Culture and profile mis-fit for many who are parked or harbored in HR. No wonder Richard Rekhi , MD, KPMG India chose a non-HR background/education (read degree/certificate) person to head India HR. Many found the most arrogant and selfish folks in HR, Most incompetent often land in there as it is thought as an easy job, ‘coz, decisions are actually made by others in business. Hiring decisions to promotions to training to bonuses to transfers are all dictated by bus...

      How have things changed from when you started to now? If you talk about HR or Recruiting (considerably a sub function of HR) it is an evolving function and lots of thought leadership and experiments have been done to identify/spot talent. Tools galore and interviewing and assessment techniques are getting used to make hiring very objective process. We have certainly moved from the ‘pigeonholing’ hiring time and now are the time we see war for talent in India evident in face of start up revolution we are witnessing . Word ‘talent’ has got its meaning in true sense as hiring has traveled from bean counter mind-set to focusing on building sustainable (and predictable) stellar performance, that only talent can deliver. Skills and past achievements on which previous day hiring was based is losing sheen as skills and past achievements are outcomes not the real hidden prime factor (talent) that interviewers are trying to find. Strengths based tools used for assessing ...

Unfortunate incident in the Parramatta park, Sydney at 9.30 pm on a Saturday, 7th March 2015 night, , a woman worker returning home after double shift at a 'desi' company, Mindtree, gets stabbed, dies.. IGNORING WARNINGS AND OBVIOUS SIGNS OF DANGER: WE ARE DESI! Report says, her roommate had warned her several times not to take the isolated Parramatta park route to home but she did not listen. How come a lady dares to cross isolated park at 9.30 pm on a holiday (Saturday)? Does just being on mobile phone and talking all through help one save life and attack? No, it is just a psychological "hiding the fear" tool. It does not avert the danger.  MY MOBILE: MY PERSONAL BODYGUARD? I see many girls and women on phone when they travel in public transport..This gives them a feeling that they are with someone they know, maybe virtually.  BUT that is the biggest risk that it becomes. You ignore the danger near and around you as you are so inwardly looking...

If you have to get results, better results, you need to be creative! Be it marketing, where we see the ultimate rendezvous with imagination or the much obvious food and fashion, creativity is the largest play! Creativity is spontaneous! Memory kills creativity as it distracts to draw information from memory, that is the 'learned skills'. Creativity may not be incremental. Not necessarily disruptive at the same time. "Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You simply must ... Do things."—Ray Bradbury What's creative about hiring today? Social media? Hackathon?, Not sure what is creative that we are doing in hiring. The best I hear is multiple rounds of interviews, 10, 12 , may be more. Is there anything creative there? Offers made: Anything creative there? Do we think of what can be done to make the offer creatively intriguing and engaging? You declined offer: Any thing creative you heard back?...

High IQ, High on analytical thinking and problem solving, conditioned to manage responsibilities with strategic intent, smart worker, better degrees, better education, are competitive, have seen better teachers, colleagues and are comfortable understanding and managing high level stake holders with ease and poise, have higher aspirations and thus take up challenges, prove themselves faster, better, lead, challenge, create, produce better results, create value and enhance customer's satisfaction and over experience. Anything else, I am missing here, please add! Now, when I see how many important and critical positions in HR are filled by folks from premier B school backgrounds, I see only 20% at max. Check LinkedIn and you will find this.  Does that mean, many companies do not want all that what a premier B school guy can produce? Probably yes!  Look at many LinkedIn job postings and you will see, many a places , there is not mention of education and premier college b...

Whether you are in a place that promotes creativity or passivity, you need to align and work through the culture. Leaders either push ideas or influence us to follow. Either which way , idea is good and leaders fail less and succeed more. Ideas are important but we don't feel great about the greatest gift it is smeared with disrespect/care/passion/prestige. Research conducted on 2000 scientists proved that those scientists who were respected and recognized produced much more success and failures than others! They just produced. Period! Intelligence/IQ level helps us grab a grade, a job and emotional intelligence/emotional smartness helps us grow in the position/job/role. More than emotional skills of knowing own and others emotions and leveraging and making adjustments (includes curbing own emotions, gulping a bitter pill, ignoring being ignored, forgiving like a saint, even accepting unjust decisions on self and for people, we are responsible for). Why do we adjustments? Be...