Five Ways To... Bridge the Generation Divide (22-02-11, Mumbai, Economic Times)

For a 40-something boss, watching the new kid in the workplace coming up with ideas every few seconds can be tiresome. And for the 20-something, being treated as an imbecile who gets indulged but not heard in meetings can be frustrating. For the company to get both the age groups working together can be tough, but is the only way forward, says Devina Sengupta. 


The Godfather Way Just because Don Corleone was an ace, does not mean a young Michael will not have a trick or two up his sleeve. There are companies who use the reverse mentoring technique to ensure both sects can learn from one another that ultimately benefits the company. Deepak Shetty, director HR for Philips Innovation recounted one such reverse mentoring session which helped stem attrition. One of the newly-recruited employees pointed out that many leave the company in a few years to study further. Realising their folly, the firm tied up Maastricht University in Holland and Manipal University this year for PhD programmes. The programme allows employees to get their degrees on projects they are working on in the company. 


Watch Them Work Watching different age groups at work is a sure shot way to learn from them. Amitabh Das, CEO of Vati Consulting, realised the benefits of a straightforward approach when he observed younger employees grill candidates. Often, distance is cited as reason for leaving a job. Not many pay attention to this, but a young recruiter spotted this and asked the candidate how he applied for a job, that required more travelling than the previous one. “The direct question caught the candidate off-guard and helped our screening process,” Das said. 


Change the Leaders In meetings, the boss takes the role of a family patriarch. Delegations are done from one end and suggestions are accepted from the elite circle. The younger lot are the sponges who absorb what the Oracle says. But companies should overhaul this system, says Dayanad Allapur, HR head for Tesco. For Allapur, the younger lot have a larger risk appetite. “This brings in the innovative spirit,” he says. 


Boss goes online Although companies have guidelines regarding the use of social networking, blogs, office intranet and social networking sites are a way to keep their ear to the ground. “To go online, is the only way to engage the new lot,” says James Thomas, country manager for Kronos. Companies can pick up cues from the response they receive on the intranet to various policies.


Open-door policy An environment that encourages questions brings out the best in both generations. Informal interactions with seniors, where the thought behind strategic moves is discussed, ensures knowledge transfer. Srinivas Nanduri, from Maxima International, cites the example of telecom companies where the operations are often looked after by senior employees while youngsters come up with ideas for value-added services. “They work in tandem, which brings out better and more competitive products,” he says.

Five Ways to Keep the Obsessive Boss at Bay (11-02-11, Mumbai, Economic Times)

IF YOU’RE A BOSS, YOU’RE LIKELY TOWORRY about whether your team is performing. And before you know it, you may start obsessing about your team members and their work habits. Monika Tejpal, a 22-year-old media planner, knows what this is like. Her boss wanted to know where she was all the time. He would call her early in the morning and through the day to find out what she was working on. Soon, it was getting on her nerves and she had no option but to look for another job. “It felt like I was being stalked. He would shout on the phone if I was unable to take his call during a meeting. Nobody can work under such conditions,” she says. At some point, every boss has the tendency to become obsessed, although the degree may vary. Here’s how you can deal with the obsessive boss, says Mahima Puri.

Create distance
If such a situation does arise at the workplace, the first things one should do is make the boss and subordinate sit far from each other, says LG Electronics COO YV Verma. This will give the subordinate a little space, and may work over a period of time.

Increase the boss’s responsibilities
Another way to handle the situation is to increase the span of responsibilities of the senior manager. "Sometimes, bosses are too obsessed to delegate work properly. Either they do it themselves or prefer chasing the subordinate to make sure it’s done right. This is likely to create problems between the two," says Verma. It is best to allot more work to the senior and keep him busy so that he doesn’t nag.

Introduce a 360-degree appraisal
HR experts believe a 360-degree performance appraisal helps in identifying problems like these at the early stages and thus, it becomes easier to handle them. Early identification of problems can alert the management regarding the boss-subordinate relationship, and steps can be taken accordingly. This, in turn, helps in arresting attrition and avoiding conflicts in teams.

Make sure he doesn’t get personal
It is important for the seniors to not get into their subordinates’ personal lives after a point. Consider this: 24-yearold Krithika, who works in a BPO in Delhi started getting uncomfortable around her team leader when he started asking her about places where she hangs around with friends or parties. “If he would get to know that I went to a certain party, he would mention it to me the next day. If that was not enough, he would have all the details of what I wore and who was with me. I thought that was cunning. He had the right to ask about my work, but not my whereabouts outside the office."

Provide counselling
Many people don’t realise that their obsession has gone beyond control, till the management starts getting hints on account of higher attrition or low productivity. If the situation has spun out of control, it is better to provide counselling. Companies such as LG India has a team of 10 counsellors for its 4,500-strong workforce. "This is the last corrective step one can take and it helps in many ways," says Verma. Counsellors can hear the senior employee’s problems and offer guidance.

Five Ways To Draw up Goals With Your Team (15-02-11, Economic Times, Mumbai)

It’s that time of the year when departments and divisions start finalising their annual budgets, yearly targets and goals. And it is here that bosses should ideally build engagement with subordinates and employees to ensure success, says Writankar Mukherjee

Focus on goal, not cost
A successful budget starts from the premise of what to achieve rather than what it will cost. Once this approach is adopted, bosses will have to involve other team members and subordinates to draw up the budget. “When a budget is drawn from the point of goals, a boss will be forced to sense the pulse of the employees, their needs and requirements,” says Hinduja Global Solutions global HR head Anthony Joseph.

Involve those at the bottom
In most companies, the top 6 to 10 people define the budget and targets. Such a process never involves the employees who remain alienated and often feel pressurised. Some companies like Hinduja Global Solutions have started to involve their top 100 leaders in budgeting and goal-setting. “This way, the budget belongs to the people who will actually work towards achieving it,” says Joseph.

Meet team members
It pays to conduct sessions with team members before the budgeting actually starts. This could also include one or two sessions by management experts on how to draw a budget and set targets, followed by meetings with team members. “This way, the budget does not overestimate inflows and underestimate expenses. It also brings about a sense of loyalty and ownership amongst employees and ensures the budget immediately moves beyond the stage of planning to execution,” says MphasiS chief HR officer Elango R.

Do a SWOT analysis
While the starting point of a budget or yearly plan is an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), it pays to take inputs from all employees. “The potential of the employees is rightly assessed and they have an ownership over the goals set. Employees would then be much more enthused to draw specific strategies to achieve goals,” says Sunil Goel, director of Delhi-based HR firm GlobalHunt.

Make it a year-round affair
Bosses should engage employees on the budget, achievements against goals and progress throughout the year. The best way to do it is by engaging an employee’s rational, assertive, emotive and cognitive faculties. The cognitive level can be targeted by telling employees about their ability to use knowledge to perform better, says KPMG partner and head (human capital) Ganesh Shermon. “At the rational level, bosses can set benchmarks. Assertiveness can be achieved by holding up the best performers as examples and the emotive level, there is fair reward and recognition. Once these are met, employees will naturally be interested in budgets and targets,” says Shermon.

Five Ways To Ways to Build Your Self Esteem

To build self esteem and eliminate all anxieties and self-limiting beliefs about yourself, it is best to focus on the things you can do and affirm your capabilities. You can get over fears and doubts you may have and gain more confidence with the mind-power techniques below:

1. Acknowledge your talents, good qualities and achievements.
Many times, we tend to be too hard on ourselves and fail to give enough credit to our accomplishments. You do have some accomplishments; and despite what you may think, everyone has a fair share of good qualities and fine talents. You can build self esteem by reminding yourself of these positive aspects about you. This helps to shore up your self-image and self-confidence. Remember, you did it before, and you still have the capabilities you had, so you can also do it this time!

2. Affirm that you already have the qualities you want to develop, and continue affirming them as you are developing these qualities.
You must be familiar with the principle, "You are what you think you are." If you think you're happy, you'll feel happy. If you think you possess particular talents and qualities, you'll have them. This will boost your self-esteem. Even if you don't have them right now, you will develop them if you keep thinking you have them and keep working on them. If you truly and firmly believe in what you want to get, you will get what you want.

3. See yourself as having successfully achieved a goal or being recognised for an achievement.
Successes build self esteem, so seeing yourself as successful increases you self-assurance. This attitude will make you more acutely aware of opportunities for success. More than that, seeing yourself as already successful tends to make you experience what it feels like. You'll feel more capable, dynamic and directed, and these positive feeling make you more confident. This is an effective way to use mental imagery, and your feelings and actions will surely react positively to reinforce the mental image.

4. Visualise yourself as having everything you want.
This exercise is for you to visualise being abundant and prosperous. In the previous exercise you see yourself as have achieved a goal; in this exercise you visualise the rewards that come with that achievement. And just as in the previous exercise the result was to sharpen your sensitivity to opportunities to be successful, in this exercise concentrating on abundance in your life prepares your mind to receive and attract these rewards to you. And, as you visualise all this abundance surrounding you, your feelings of confidence and personal power to accomplish things will increase, helping you to build self esteem.

5. Believe you are in full control and in charge.
The knowledge that you are in control of your situation is a powerful motivator that will build self esteem. This feeling will come after you have gone through the first four exercises. You can reinforce these being-in-charge feelings by using mental imagery to remind yourself that you are in control.
All of these exercises will convince you that whatever your situation may be right now, it will all change because you have the power to make things happen. Knowing that you have that power will really build self esteem.

about the author Evelyn Lim is a life coach and an intuitive consultant, with a passion for helping her clients and readers raise their vibrational state of being for attracting abundance. She is an author of self help topics such as positive thinking, attracting abundance, spirituality and becoming more happy. Her newsletter is currently read by thousands of subscribers. For free bonuses on manifesting secrets, mp3 downloads and fresh weekly tips, please sign up to her Abundance Tapestry newsletter. Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Evelyn_Lim

Five Ways to Build Confidence and Happiness (By Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D. , the Official Guide To Positive Thinking)

It seems our culture is ridden with negativity from the media, old parental messages, or even advertising that tells us we not good, smart, or fast enough. Even outdated ideas we carry from our own past that we’ve generated all on our own can derail us off the positive thought track and send us into a fit of negativity. How can we quickly change our energy around and build more confidence and happiness?

Recognize non-empowering thoughts
If we believe everything that is put in front of us, we are not exercising our creativity and the power of our own mind. We are taking the easy road, and subscribing to mainstream thought which often does not have the equivalent of goodness. It’s easier to let someone else do your thinking, isn’t it? To shift away from negative, self-defeating thoughts you must first recognize them. Here are a few classics: “I am not beautiful nor talented. I can’t be happy. Life is hard. The world is a terrible place. I will probably fail. I’ll never make any money.” Awareness of what we are thinking is the first step, so learn to listen to your words, whether mental or spoken.

Set a new mental equivalent
What we think, and how we set our mental equivalent on any given day, sets the tone for what the universe will provide for us. If we want success, prosperity, better relationships, more self-confidence or love, then that’s where our mind needs to be – not once in awhile but all the time. Substitute the disasters on the morning news with a sense of positive expectation for your day. Rise out of negativity in as many ways as you can identify. Think great thoughts about everyone. See yourself as a success, and that you’ve come to the planet with a gift. Practice verbal harmlessness (no swearing!) and know you are a worthy individual. Switch on the positive thought channel the minute you arise each day and consciously invite abundance and opportunity into your experience.

Know that thoughts create reality
In today’s merge of mysticism, psychology, religion, science, and philosophy, western thinking is moving away from hard data and proof. Our culture is interested in illustrating the concept that thoughts create reality. Logical positivism had its field day, and people are beginning to embrace the power of the mind at the intuitive and spiritual level.

To turn negative self-talk around, you must discover where your mind is ingrained with patterns of negative expectation. This was discussed in the movie “What The Bleep Do We Know.” Our neuro networks become ingrained in patterns that make us search for a chemical “hit” in our interpretation of reality. In a nutshell, when we continue to stay in negative thought patterns that do not serve our higher purpose we are destined to keep repeating the same life experiences over and over again because we will never view reality any differently. Our lives will never improve and living with joy seems unattainable because we are generating more of what we don’t want.

Negative thoughts have a physical effect on our bodies. Our thoughts, memories, and emotions are not only part of our mental programming, but have a physiological effect on our bodies. Scientists have determined that we hard-wire our own brains by our associative memory: our associations with people, events, times, places, and things. We assign emotions to the memories recorded in complex strings of nerve cells wired together. The strings become networks of information we can access automatically at any time.

Connections between our nerve cells are strengthened when repeated stimulated in a process called “long term potentiation.” Through associative learning, our brains are not only programmed by ordinary experiences but by extreme circumstances. Trauma actually changes the structure and function of the brain.
We rely upon many automatic programs to function. Neural networks give us an opportunity to shift into “cruise control.” We don’t have to think about making every keystroke when typing, we just do. We’ve established the network by repetition.

Thoughts affect our bodies, especially any thoughts that have become patterns that don’t serve us well. For example, putting yourself down is based upon old information and not the powerful, present moment. Old experiences like despair, low self-esteem, and self-pity are emotions that give us a chemical boost of neuropeptides, which guide our perception of our current day choices. Cancel old thoughts and substitute powerful ideas

Want to feel better and stop negative self-talk? Prune your old negative programming and take charge of your current circumstances. New positive thoughts create new systems in the brain, which produce new chemistry associated with new emotional change. Break your “put down” habit neuron-by-neuron and learn to react differently to life! The next time you catch yourself in a put-down, say out loud, “I cancel that” and instantly substitute a new and powerful thought about you.

It’s vital to remember your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and physicality are intertwined. Negative self-talk down can make you feel unmotivated and physically ill. Move your mind to a new way of being is a healthy habit you need to cultivate. Here are 5 quick ways to shift to the positive self-talk channel:

1. Check your state of mind. Choose your own attitude and emotions, not another person’s outlook on life. Focus your intentions in the present moment. Because we have a choice, life originates in the mind first. As within, so without. Be consciously aware of what you want to create – and claim it as your unique mantra.

2. Focus on today. Step away from old memories, past relationships, and hurts. Attend to the present. Find joy in what you bring to the table today. Take a deep breath, stay centered, and remind yourself you are a gift to the world!

3. See the big picture. In the universal equation, today is but a blink in time. Move gracefully through difficult moments with ease because you are not stuck there permanently – you are going “through it!” You can do this with out depleting your energy reserves by making a commitment to doing so. Remember, life goes all too quickly. Make each day count and quit wasting your energy on negative thoughts, unproductive thinking, and who said what to whom 10 years ago.

4. Release negative expectation. Focus on what YOU can do to contribute to a better world and not what others expect you to do. Pace yourself. As you practice positive expectation, you’ll find that better circumstances will be attracted to you naturally. Have faith in the process!

5. Be Thankful. There is no better way to change your energy then to turn up the volume on thankfulness. If you are thankful for what makes you happy, by the Law of Attraction, the universe will provide you with MORE to be thankful for. Be generous with gratitude – to those in your life who care, to your Higher Power, and to yourself for begin an individual spark of Divine Power. Your natural state is unlimited abundance, so be thankful for all you are and your journey.


Dr. Charlene M. Proctor is the founder of The Goddess Network, Inc. an on-line educational resource for topics on spirituality, relationships, and women's studies. Author of Let Your Goddess Grow! she is a researcher and educator in the field of women's empowerment and develops self-empowerment strategies for women in all walks of life. She is a subject matter expert for Beliefnet.com, the world's largest self-help and personal growth website. Her affirmations from The Women's Book of Empowerment reach 2.7 million web visitors daily. She currently facilitates the PATH to Empowerment program for Lighthouse Path in Michigan, a residential women's shelter for homeless mothers, teaching them how to cope with life and increase self-esteem and confidence. To learn more, visit http://www.thegoddessnetwork.net

Five Ways To Give Your Employees More Room (09-02-11, Mumbai, Economic Times)

THEY ARE THE CONTROL FREAKS, AND invariably have a presence in every organisation. You know the type — taking charge all the time, micromanaging every situation. As leaders, they are not very popular, for one simple reason: Taking care of every detail is great till you are a team member. The moment you graduate to being a team leader, it can derail performance both for the team and the leader, which is the last thing any organisation wants. Here is how you can learn to delegate better, says Shreya Biswas.

Accept you are a leader
Rohit Pattanaik, a Delhi-based senior banker, has always been a hands-on individual. The last 15 years of his professional life has been about taking control of every situation and delivering. Ironically, this habit of micromanaging is taking him down in his role as a leader, feel his peers and seniors. The main objective of a leader is to get the work done. By all means, help subordinates with ideas, inputs and suggestions when needed. A leader does not work on his subordinate’s behalf. Accept this and stop taking over everything, each time.

Control isn’t always good
Don’t feel insecure in letting go. You have proved yourself all these years, you don’t need to do that every time you have a project at hand. "If you were not technically sound you wouldn’t be appointed a leader. To succeed as a leader, leave the worker attitude behind," says Daljit Singh, president strategy and organisational development, Fortis Healthcare.

You’re not the only one
Stop being obsessed with your self. The way you do things is the not the only way to do it. “There might be people in your team who can do a job equally well or even better than you. Have faith in them,” says Sanjay Gupta, global head, HR, EXL Services. Figure out their strengths and delegate work accordingly. This will take the extra burden off you and ensure maximum utilisation of resources.

Build your team’s confidence
Create an environment that allows your juniors to talk about problems and solutions openly. They can offer suggestions that can better both individual and team performance. “A good leader is able to generate enthusiasm among people,” says Fortis’ Singh.

Remember the common cause
Whatever you do, you should always keep in mind the common goal — the organisation’s growth. If your team meets deadlines and performs well, it will be your success and ultimately the organisation’s. You have to see every action in that light.