Tips – How to Focus and be Productive

Tips – How to Focus and be Productive

By Pankaj Kumar Shah

http://skoolcafe.blogspot.in/2013/11/tips-how-to-focus-and-be-productive.html

 

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Pankaj Kumar Shah

Pankaj is a Human Resource Professional with 15+ years experience in IT Industry. He has strong business acumen coupled with capability to connect People – Business – Process for creating lasting HR solutions. He is an Innovator / Early adopter, willing to take lead and responsibility for new Organization initiatives.

He has worked in areas of Performance Management, Compensation and Benefit, Learning & Development, Recruitment and Staffing ,Process Improvement and HRMS Implementation (customized and Oracle HRMS). He is Green Belt Certified in Six Sigma and has PMP Certification from PMI, USA. He is well versed with People Management processes at GE and leading IT Companies.

LinkedIn Profile: http://in.linkedin.com/in/pankajkshah

“ RETURN OF THE GREY HAIR – SENIOR PROFESSIONALS IN DEMAND – AGAIN ”

“ RETURN OF THE GREY HAIR – SENIOR PROFESSIONALS IN DEMAND – AGAIN ”

  By Deependra (Dipy) Nigam

In the last decade or so, over 45-50 years of age was considered to be OLD. Everyone wanted a 35-40 year old CEO.

Last 2 / 3 years however has seen a resurgence in demand for senior / specialist talent to act as Advisors, Interim / Non Exec Directors, Independent Director , Operating Consultants, Mentors, Coaches .
The common thread here is the requirement of experienced professionals on a PART TIME basis to  support the management team – headed often by young CEOs in the 35 -40 year range – by advising, guiding and coaching them on specific challenges faced by the company.

Though the level of compensation may not have been what one can earned in a full time position– the earnings are pretty decent specially when coupled with better quality of work-life balance and other such gains .This demand is fueled by different type of organizations for differing reasons

1. Startups / Scaleups / SMEs – require specialist talent / skills / experience – but are unable to or afford top notch talent on a full time basis.

2. International companies setting up / expanding in India and Indian companies diversifying / expanding need Top talent for specific objective bound mandates .

3. JVs / M&As … need special skills / experience for a limited period of time .

The demand is for people to wear the mantle of

a. Interim Directors to handle specific assignments

b. Independent Directors – mandated under clause 49. With increased focus on

c. Non Exec Directors / Advisory board

d. Mentors & Coaches to the young CEOs / CXOs

The people who are in demand are senior professionals who have retired or are just retiring – CEOs , MDs , functional heads of large companies, bureaucrats etc. “Young Retirees” – people retiring at 45- 50 , to pursue their dreams & personal passions and are also keen on taking up such assignments for intellectual satisfaction , flexible working and decent earnings.

Horton International which focuses on Board. & CXO positions is well positioned and increasingly active in this space sourcing Senior industry Professionals and ex BUREAUCRATS (IAS /IPS /IRS) as

i. Interim / Independent / Non Exec directors for Corporates / MSMEs/ SMEs

ii. Coaches / Mentors for CEO / CXOs individually & on behalf of Corporates

Corporate Governance there is a large demand for Independent Directors.

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Deependra (Dipy) Nigam

Deependra (Dipy) Nigam is managing Partner ( India & Area)  in Horton International and has been in the recruitment business for 21 yrs.
Earlier he was COO – Sinclus a leading overseas recruitment co – and then CEO & now Advisor to M/s Zodiaac Group of Consultants – who are ERA members
Prior to this he has spent 12 years in hands on Sales and Marketing at stellar companies such as
a) Blow Plast /VIP – Consumer Durables
b) American Express TRS – as Head Sales and Key Accounts – India and Area
Deependra is one of the most respected Head Hunters in business. He also has an interest in Numismatics and Cricket.

Handwriting Analysis – A powerful Personality Assessment science

Handwriting Analysis – A powerful Personality Assessment science

By Deependra (Dipy) Nigam & Dr.Parag Khatri

They say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, well it would seems that a hand-written paragraph is worth even more!

Graphology, more simply known as Handwriting Analysis, is becoming a popular and accepted means of assessing applicant personality prior to employment.

Handwriting is as unique to each individual as their fingerprints and a reliable indicator of personality and behavior.

As an emerging science, Graphology is gaining the attention of academics the world over as this science develops into a reliable and valid measuring instrument for a variety of applications, e.g. personnel selection, career coaching, team building and more.

Graphology, like conventional personality tests is utilized to measure personality constructs of the individual. So, what makes handwriting analysis so unique- as personality measurement tool?

Graphology can be applied in various fields, including

Inquiry into Yourself Who You Are – Graphology helps an individual to know their strengths, weaknesses, innermost fears and your defense mechanisms, and see himself in new light. Graphology can help in understanding and removing the mental blocks to achieve greater personal and professional success and self-growth.

Know Your Relationships – Know the every aspect and the hidden aspect of personality so that you will understand them much better with reasons and improve relationship.

Child Development – From child’s handwriting or by parents knowing handwriting analysis they will know about the child much more than he is showing and behaving.

Career Selection for Child – Graphology can help you and your child in selecting the right career. Is he artistic, is he creative, is he very mechanically oriented, is he a fast thinker, is he a analytical person, is he expressive, is he outgoing.

Selecting a Life Partner – Even though you have selected your partner, graphology can help you to improve your relationships and compatibility by knowing each other’s needs and requirements and how they behave in a particular situation.

Selecting a Business Partner – Graphology can help give you to select right business partner who can take right decision at the right time.

Employee Selection / Recruitments – Graphology can help in selecting right people for the job. Who’s titled for which job, will he give maximum output in that area.

Criminology – Graphology can speed up investigation via writing and signature of a suspect and solve cases.

Graphology – provides some unique features / advantages for recruitment

1) The candidate can write in any language. The analysis can be done whether the graphologist understands the language of the writer or not. Handwriting Analysis cannot determine: age, race, religion or gender and is not influenced by appearance, positive self reporting or attempts to portray a positive image, which therefore reduces the subjectivity factor of the technique.

2) Faking is almost impossible with graphology as the applicant is unable to control the brain impulses which are projected on paper. Nor is the applicant aware of how to manipulate the writing. Any attempt to change the writer’s normal handwriting would be easily identified by a technically trained and experienced graphologist.

3) For job seekers handwriting analysis provides an added bonus in that it requires no painful or embarrassing interviews which a sensitive candidate is likely to see as an invasion of privacy. Because of nervousness, an otherwise perfectly qualified applicant may not be able to do justice to an interview.

4) As a result, the employer may end up with a completely incorrect assessment of the applicant’s suitability for the post. Such analysis can identify, among other things, motivation, drive, strengths, weaknesses, emotional stability, flexibility, creativity, communication styles, work style, sales style and management style

5) Strict code of ethics Professional graphologists adhere to a strict code of ethics and reports are balanced and impartial. The professional graphologist would also not attempt an analysis without the consent

At Horton International ( India & Area) we use Handwriting analysis as a very reliable and cost effective in our selection process both for our team members – as also our clients .

For further details on Handwriting Assessment please contact Ms.Rupali Karekar (rupali.karekar@zodiaac.com)
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Deependra (Dipy) Nigam
Deependra (Dipy) Nigam is managing Partner ( India & Area)  in Horton International and has been in the recruitment business for 21 yrs.
Earlier he was COO – Sinclus a leading overseas recruitment co – and then CEO & now Advisor to M/s Zodiaac Group of Consultants – who are ERA members
Prior to this he has spent 12 years in hands on Sales and Marketing at stellar companies such as
a) Blow Plast /VIP – Consumer Durables
b) American Express TRS – as Head Sales and Key Accounts – India and Area
Deependra is one of the most respected Head Hunters in business. He also has an interest in Numismatics and Cricket.

Dr. Parag M. Khatri
Dr. Parag M. Khatri ,M.D.S.is Certified Handwriting Expert, Analyst & Trainer (USA).He is Forensic Document Examiner and director of World School of Grapho Education and Therapy.

What stops any Top Business House from doubling their business tomorrow???

By Ratnesh K Jain

 

What  stops any Top Business House from doubling their business tomorrow???

Money?? Business ideas?? Willingness??  Resources??

NO – that they have plenty – Then what is it that is stopping them???

RIGHT PEOPLE – they need right people – across levels, functions, businesses….

What stops a CEO from doubling his income tomorrow???

Knowledge?? Experience?? Willingness??

NO – that he has plenty – Then what is it that is stopping him???

RIGHT OPPORTUNITY – he needs right opportunity – to increase his market value & satisfaction….
and who will make this available????

WE – Friends – we all are in a noble profession of providing RIGHT PEOPLE to our clients and RIGHT OPPORTUNITIES to our candidates.

We are in a profession

–         where there is no upper limit to earning

–         where there is no limit to learning

–         where there is no retirement age (in fact the lesser you have the better)

–         where we get a chance to apply the knowledge and experience that we have acquired

–         where quality is valued more than quantity

–         where we get a chance to work with the best professionals as colleagues, clients or candidates

–         where our decision can make or break revenues and goals for client and candidate

Lets be proud of saying – I’m Happy to be a Recruiter!!! 🙂

About Author

Ratnesh K Jain

CEO & Owner, Blue Genes Research ( HYPERLINK ” http://www.bluegenesresearch.com “)

Ratnesh currently owns and manages a unique firm that offers very exciting High Speed, High Quality, Low Cost – Executive Search and Business Consulting solutions – that’s very hard to find.

He has about 7 years of exciting experience in recruitment industry in which he has championed Mass Recruitment, Contingency Selection & Executive Search. Before this, he has over 27 years of Senior level Professional and Entrepreneurial experience with companies like Bank of America, Hindustan Lever, Birla, Reliance Telecom, Good Health, Horton International etc.

Recruitment is not the job of the HR department

By Deependra (Dipy) Nigam

The success of every team, every unit, every division, every company and every group depends on mainly one thing – its PEOPLE.

Right people at right time in right members are critical.

The quality of team members and their cohesion and motivation are key determinants of success.

It is thus imperative that every team leader – first level supervisory upwards pays utmost attention to getting the right people to his team.

Thus it is critical that he / she takes very active interest in recruitment right from start through till on boarding.

The HR department sure has a role that of a facilitator.

Manpower planning, JD’s & person specs ; having right recruiters (whether internal or external) ; employee branding to attract and retain talent ; proper on boarding ; competitive compensation & benefit strategies ; robust performance management systems ; effective training, career planning ; organization culture etc. are all the job of the HR department.

Recruitment however, to my mind , is the job of every live manager from first level supervisor to CEO.

Yes the CEO too!!!

In today’s competitive world, with quality resources increasingly scarce – proper recruitment and retention / people strategies first have to be amongst any proactive CEO’s top 5 items on agenda / KRA’s.

Thus recruitment is NOT the job of HR department – its the job of every team leader.

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Deependra (Dipy) Nigam

Deependra (Dipy) Nigam is  managing Partner ( India & Area)  in Horton International and has been in the recruitment business for 21 yrs.

Earlier he was COO – Sinclus a leading overseas recruitment co – and then CEO & now Advisor to M/s Zodiaac Group of Consultants – who are ERA members

Prior to this he has spent 12 years in hands on Sales and Marketing at stellar companies such as
a) Blow Plast /VIP – Consumer Durables
b) American Express TRS – as Head Sales and Key Accounts – India and Area

Deependra is one of the most respected Head Hunters in business. He also has an interest in Numismatics and Cricket.

Linkedin Profile:  http://in.linkedin.com/in/dipynigam

Knowledge Sharing and Forums

By T Sreedhar

The challenge for the recruiters have become intense given the status of our economy, the  widening gap between what our stakeholders want and what we provide ( leading to constant conflicts which erodes the value systems of all stake holders) and more importantly ,the lack of unity within the recruitment fraternity.

Business by all means is good but by any means is not good.

Why do we have a conflict between the two?

Because we are insecure

When do we have the conflict?

When we are insecure!

Why are we insecure?

Because we are adhoc in the way we conduct our business.

Instead of doing the same things differently, we do different things the same way!

Then how are we different?

We are not

Do we want to be different?

Yes, but I am always different .I make my clients perceive me to be different.

Anyway, how can I be different?

Unless we have unity in diversity.

How do we achieve it?

By knowledge sharing

How do you get that?

You must be part of a forum or association .Also knowledge sharing is two ways. You give to take and not the other way around.

I am small .How do I give?  Will anyone accept it?

Small is beautiful. Your confidence must be BIG. Look at the diamond and its luster.

There are 2 principles that we must follow to succeed in anything that we do.

1. Unity in diversity is better than diversity in unity. Be part of a forum that helps you share what you have.

2. Ask what not the forum/fraternity has done to you, ask what you have done to your fraternity

We may be able to do different things very differently.

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T Sreedhar

Mr. T Sreedhar is the Managing Director of TMI NETWORK since1994 and and also plays the role of Operations Head for the companies within the TMI group (C&K limited and TMI e2E Academy limited) and has recruitment experience of  9 years. He is also well respected in the professional community & his now having his third stint as the chairman of Executive Search association (ERA) (www.era.org.in)

Mr. Sreedhar was formerly a Director in C&K Management and prior to that has worked in Johnson and Johnson for over 10 years – first as Sales Manager and then as a Regional Head.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/sreedhar-t/0/474/273

How to have your Employees and Eat them too

By Amit Tandon

 

Everyday millions of words are wasted on this topic. Today, I also decided to contribute to this lost cause.

There are almost as many theories to this as the number of employees globally. The answers range from plain “Emotional Satisfaction” and “Clarity of vision” to more complicated things like “Money” and “Recognition”.

All these things have already been tried with equal amount of success and failure across sectors. In the last few years, employees have become more finicky and have even started coming up with outrageous demands like Respect, Recognition and Coffee makers.

Business Owners are shocked that just like them, the goal of employees is also to make money only. Other things like professional satisfaction, sense of fulfillment and additional responsibilities are no more considered motivating enough.

Here are some of my suggestions on employee engagement:

1. Add small quantities of coke (cocaine) to the coffee vending machine. As people get addicted to the coffee, they will start turning up for work even over weekends!
2. Announce huge retention bonuses and issue them bonus certificates (remember only certificates!). The certificate can say “You have earned yourself a million rupees this year for staying with company”. Keep on postponing their encashment dates. It will be 3-4 years before they discover that the money is never coming. Some companies avoid spending on certificates and instead and give out equity stake that is non-saleable.
3. Employ couples. Even better, encourage people to find partners within the office. You can try organizing orgies under the name of “open house meetings”. Nobody can anyway make out the difference.
4. Hire people in a metro town and then move them to a completely isolated place. This works well for all IT/ITES professionals. Which company would hire people who are currently working in Andaman & Nicobar Islands?
5. Create a bad image for your employees. Plant decoys who pose as your company employees and apply to other companies. Let them misbehave and fail miserably in interviews. Let your competitors believe that your people are “no good”. Very soon, they will stop calling your employees for interviews.

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Amit Tandon

Amit Tandon is, Managing Director of Empyrean Partners, a leading recruitment firm; Partner at Mind Cafe, first Board Games cafe of India and has been in the Recruitment Business from the past 7 years. Amit has worked with Start-Ups as well as Global organizations across sectors varying from Telecom, Petrochemicals and IT Enabled Services for over 10 years in operations and business development roles. He was AVP – GSK WNS Research in India and was also the Engagement Manager for the Amit is also a well known Humorist & Professional Stand Up Comedian, with over 250 shows between India and Singapore. He is an avid blogger and his views have been quoted a number of times in ET and Singaporean HR Magazines.

 

The Magic of Processes!

By Amit Tandon

I bet half the employed in the universe feel their organization is a complete mess. Some of them are also wondering how the hell this company has survived so far?

General feeling is that nobody knows what is happening. HR does not understand the business. Finance is always tightening the noose. Marketing does not understand the challenges or Operations and Vice-Versa. Still, the organizations survive!

Most of the time this feeling is there in larger companies who have grown year after year, recession after recession and so on. The basic reason for their survival is well defined Processes. The very same processes that are blamed for all the bureaucracy, inefficiencies and politics are normally responsible for the growth of the companies.

The processes bring order to all the chaos. Processes define responsibilities clearly and quantify every delivery. So, every performance can be measured and the CEO can review company’s progress through a dashboard and spend time on planning future strategies.

We look down upon processes as procrastinators and most project managers take pride in not following the processes and getting the work done by hook or crook. This can work in some cases, but imagine a flyover project where the Project manager decided to meet the deadline, and did not wait for the safety dept’s approval that was delayed because the approving authority was on a sick leave for a month!

I have myself looked down upon large companies earlier, thinking that they do not know how many things are going wrong at the bottom. But looking back, most of those things are so small that their monitoring will burn more executive time that is far more valuable.

In this era of Entrepreneur worshiping and flexi-organizations, we tend to berate process/policy driven environments, but try to imagine a government being run without processes. Can we build great nations without that?

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Amit Tandon

Amit Tandon is, Managing Director of Empyrean Partners, a leading recruitment firm; Partner at Mind Cafe, first Board Games cafe of India and has been in the Recruitment Business from the past 7 years. Amit has worked with Start-Ups as well as Global organizations across sectors varying from Telecom, Petrochemicals and IT Enabled Services for over 10 years in operations and business development roles. He was AVP – GSK WNS Research in India and was also the Engagement Manager for the Amit is also a well known Humorist & Professional Stand Up Comedian, with over 250 shows between India and Singapore. He is an avid blogger and his views have been quoted a number of times in ET and Singaporean HR Magazines.

Writing a Resume? Spend a week on it.

By Amit Tandon

Resume is your marketing brochure, so work on it extensively. Candidates are sometimes rejected for spelling mistakes also because it shows they are not detail oriented.

Follow the Half Page Rule: – No one reads the complete resume. The most important part of your CV is the first half of the first page because that is what opens on the computer screen.

Think like an Interviewer: For an experienced professional, an interviewer looks for

Relevant experience

Where all have you worked?

How long?

What did you do there?

Education

Professional qualifications

Any Gaps or Anomalies

Step 1:- Insert your Name in a larger font in the Resume Header

Step 2:- Remove all Non-work, Non-Qualification info to the end. This includes family, marital status, contact address etc. Once a manager is interested in your profile, he can find your contact details from the CV.

Step 3: Write an objective summary about your experience. Avoid using qualitative phrases like visionary, excellent, outstanding etc.

Example:

Senior Marketing Professional with 12 years of experience across HLL, Proctor & gamble and ICICI Credit Cards in channel management and direct sales. Currently managing a team 150 marketing and sales professionals across North India.

Vs Top performing Marketing professional with an outstanding track record of12 years across leading FMCG and Financial Services companies. Handling large teams across multiple regions in sales.

Step 4:- I have not met anyone in an interview who is interested in my Aim in life. However, this is a matter of personal choice. In some cases, you can use this to drive your interview. But my personal opinion is “drop it”

Step5:- If you say “I am a good athlete”, people will be skeptical. If you say “I am national record holder for 100 m race”, people will take you seriously.

Use facts and figures to illustrate your skills

Mention key projects or projects that you are most comfortable talking about

Achievements:

Professional Achievements

Academic Achievements (Only High School onwards)

Extraordinary achievements in sports and extra-curricular and that too only High School onwards

Formatting: Ensure consistency of fonts and text alignments.

Hobbies: Only write those Hobbies that are passions or are pursued keenly. Timepass activity is not a hobby. Listening to music is NOT A HOBBY

Family Info:-Avoidable, but if really keen then insert one liner on immediate family i.e. Kids and Spouse.

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Amit Tandon

Amit Tandon is, Managing Director of Empyrean Partners, a leading recruitment firm; Partner at Mind Cafe, first Board Games cafe of India and has been in the Recruitment Business from the past 7 years. Amit has worked with Start-Ups as well as Global organizations across sectors varying from Telecom, Petrochemicals and IT Enabled Services for over 10 years in operations and business development roles. He was AVP – GSK WNS Research in India and was also the Engagement Manager for the Amit is also a well known Humorist & Professional Stand Up Comedian, with over 250 shows between India and Singapore. He is an avid blogger and his views have been quoted a number of times in ET and Singaporean HR Magazines

HR – The New Marketing Department

By Amit Tandon

Ajay went for an Interview with a Fortune 500 banking company. He was made to wait for three hours at the reception while nobody attended him except for an HR Executive, who was also missing for the last two hours. Ajay walked off, swearing never to apply in that company again.

There are recruitments drives that happen all the time with IT and ITES companies, where half the candidates are sent back without any interaction. Then there are numerous cases where candidates are not replied to, or called multiple times for interactions for a position and later on offered a junior role.

Now, imagine a client walking into your office:

1. Can you make him wait for an three hours at the reception?

2. Will you not offer him coffee / tea?

3. In case he has to wait, will you not keep him informed?

4. Even if he doesn’t buy, you will send him a thank you note and look forward to meeting him again

5. You will send him a feedback form or even give him a feedback call

6. If he mails you or calls you, you will promptly reply

Now, are we doing any of these things with our candidates?

This happens in an era when HCL says “Employees Come First, Customers second”, Marico has print ADs selling a career with the company. Every company is focusing on employer branding.

HR team is the first to interact with a candidate. Very often, a candidate’s decision to join an employer is influenced strongly by his interactions with HR. Imagine, you could lose a potential start performer for the company, just because the sourcing team did not clarify his doubts on Job Description.

The challenge is that we do not train our talent management teams as marketing professionals. How about training them on Customer service orientation, Customer delight, Client engagement and Negotiations?

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Amit Tandon

Amit Tandon is, Managing Director of Empyrean Partners, a leading recruitment firm; Partner at Mind Cafe, first Board Games cafe of India and has been in the Recruitment Business from the past 7 years. Amit has worked with Start-Ups as well as Global organizations across sectors varying from Telecom, Petrochemicals and IT Enabled Services for over 10 years in operations and business development roles. He was AVP – GSK WNS Research in India and was also the Engagement Manager for the Amit is also a well known Humorist & Professional Stand Up Comedian, with over 250 shows between India and Singapore. He is an avid blogger and his views have been quoted a number of times in ET and Singaporean HR Magazines.