The Blue Tie & The Scarf

Someone recently asked me about my innocent thoughts on identifying, developing and nurturing high potential talent. This led me to think about the reward & recognition in my school days at 'Delhi Public School R K Puram' from where I passed out 10 years back.

Every student who passed their academic year with 80% & above were awarded a scholar badge which they could proudly display on their green colored school blazer. Winning 3 scholar badges or more meant we did not have to go to our parents to ask for a blazer as the school awarded us with a Blue Blazer. Few more years of academic excellence meant a Blue Tie and then came Gold Medal.

Going by the above Reward & Recognition model, there were three categories of students by class 12th:

1. Those who waited for Winter: These were students who wore the Scholar Badge on their Blazers or received the Blue Blazers from School. Essentially they had to wait for the winter for the same so that they could proudly display their reward.

2. Those who did not have to wait for any season: These were the students who wore the Blue Tie and Gold Medal. They could wear the same (Not the Gold medal though!) throughout the year and some of us like me aspired to be like them.

3. Those who kept waiting: These were students like me who did not achieve the academic excellence which they desired as they did not go the extra mile to achieve it.

Let me make an attempt to find two key features of this R & R model:

1.     Focus on right behavior: It focused not only on ‘excellence’ in academics but it focused on the right behavior which is ‘Consistency’, ‘Focus’ &  ‘Patience’ as the reward got better with sustained  excellence. Two consecutive years of academic excellence meant another Scholar Badge and not anything better which lead to the student to imbibe the value of ‘patience’ along with excellence to achieve better rewards like Blue Blazer/Blue Tie/Gold Medal. In this age where there is a hunger for ‘visibility’, there is a need for sustained excellence along with ‘patience’. Those who missed out on these rewards got help from School in terms of remidial classes and students could seek help from teachers to which teachers were always willing to help.

2.     Clear Criteria: The criteria were clear and specific for the rewards ie 80% & beyond. Let the criteria for superior performance be clear so that its aspiring in nature driving right behavior & not be ambiguous leading to inaction & cynicism. While we secretly desired to earn the Blue Tie but we never had any ill & jealous feeling towards the ones who wore it. The blue tie did not elude us from them, it rather brought us closer to them as inspirations who could help us in improving our academic performance. 

Identification of High Potential employees can be a futile exercise. An organization should rather focus on creating a credible & transparent Reward & Recognition model.

The High Potential employees should get drawn towards the R&R model of the organization and it would become very easy to filter the High Potential employees from the High Performing employees. High Performing associates needs to get rewarded and the High Potential associates need to get recognized.

The above bit which has been posted is about ‘Identifying’ High Potential talent ( Being better known as HIPO).

Now lets focus on the ‘Developing’ & ‘Nurturing’ bit of High Potential talent. While I worked for close to 4 years in HR and had experienced the same with depth, I am very new to Learning & Development profession so I would reserve my thoughts on ‘Development’ & ‘Nurturing’ for a future course of time.

However, I will leave you with a question.

Is there a need to ‘develop’ a talent when you can ‘nurture’ them?

A leader in my organization introduced me to a theory called ‘SCARF’ model by David Rock. Seek the help of professor google and ‘figure it out yourself’. It might help you to frame a ‘Nurturing’ model for the organization.

Also can your organization create a story which can inspire you even after 10 years the way my school inspired me?

Lessons from Prof. Pi

The first movie I watched with Sayantika post our marriage was 'Life of Pi'. Not the typical 'romantic' movie which one would ideally watch with their special one. Yet I cant stop romanticizing about this epic movie. Lets have a keen look at the lessons from Prof. Pi:

1. Sometimes your greatest fear can serve as the greatest purpose- Pi was lost in the middle of the ocean with the Tiger named 'Richard Parker'. Pi was scared of Tigers since childhood but his only living companion in the boat was his greatest fear 'Richard Parker'. Not only did he survive but he also made 'Richard Parker' his friend. He ensured that he put his constant effort to keep 'Richard Parker' alive.Taking care of 'Richard Parker' gave him the meaning to survive. It gave him purpose. Hence, dont let your greatest fear control you, allow yourself to control it and it will ensure you survive the biggest storms in your life.

2. Make sure you say 'Good Bye'- At times saying 'Good Bye' can be very difficult but if you indeed have to leave your dear ones, please look back and say 'Good Bye'. Pi was potrayed as a very strong human but the only time we found him in tears while narrating his story was when he spoke about how 'Richard Parker' left him alone in the shores and never looked back.

3. Above all, keep your hopes alive- Pi had a survival book which contained survival tips. One phrase in the book said "Above all, keep your hopes alive". This phrase deeply influenced him in all crisis moments. Had he lost all hopes even few minutes before reaching the Mexican shores, he would not have been alive to narrate his inspiring story to others.

4. Replace 'Worry' with 'Work'- At every stage of Pi's crisis moments, he did the 'right' actions in the 'right' way without wasting time. The depressing moments did not get him an inch closer to his purpose. Only focusing on the 'right' actions helped him to progress further.

5. You are not as lonely as you think- While you watch the movie, it might appear that Pi was extremely lonely in his journey. However, at every step he received support in various forms. Even in the worst times, we might feel that we are treading a lonely journey, but if our actions are righteous we would most likely receive support from unexpected corners.

6. Make that journey from Head to Heart- Towards the end of Pi’s journey in the ocean, Pi and Richard Parker felt extremely fragile and starved. This was a point where intelligence alone would not have helped. Inspite of Pi’s childhood fear for Tigers, he showed utmost compassion towards Richard Parker. At the final leg of the journey, it was not only Pi’s intelligence which kept him going, it was Pi’s compassion for Richard Parker which helped both of them to remain alive. Sometimes we have to make that journey from Head to Heart. You must know when to start that journey.

7. Be Grateful- Inspite of all the challenges, Pi never appeared to be cynical. At every step of his journey he thanked his parents, uncle and Richard Parker. As much as his strength and courage, he also appears to be endearing because of his gratefulness. Being grateful makes us happy and makes the journey tread so far really worthwhile.  Thank someone special in a special way today.

When a bit of kindness and patient listening means.......

Firoz was ready for his  internal exam in College. He seemed confident of keeping up his momentum of being a class topper. On his way towards college, he found a kid bleeding profusely near the 'traffic signal'. It seemed like  an accident.

Without any unnecessary delay, Firoz placed the kid carefully inside the car along with  the kid's father who seemed to have sustained a minor injury and rushed  his way towards the hospital's emmergency section.

Firoz's shirt had blood stains and it perplexed him for a while. Few moments from then he realized that he missed his crucial internal exam which would adversely impact his Final Grades.

Completely wavered of what his future would unfold, he reached his college in a jiffy and narrated the entire incident to Professor Mathew in a candid & lucid manner. The professor keenly listened to him and asked him if he could hug him. Firoz recieved a tight hug from his unassuming professor. Prof Mathew agreed to allow him to write the exam but with a 'condition'.

The condition was that Firoz's passing marks in the re-scheduled exam would be 60 as against 40 out of 100. Suddenly the lingering effect of that hug did not seem encouraging to Firoz anymore. Prof Mathew explained that he deserved aswell as earned this exclusive benchmark. Firoz deserved it because he got extra time to prepare for the exam and earned it because he was amongst the most promising students in the class.

Firoz found the decision unfair and wrote his exam with a heavy heart on a different date. When the results got declared, Firoz was delightfully surprised as he again topped the exam. Prof Mathew did not seem surprised at all.

Today Firoz is a career coach who helps his clients by providing  a purpose & direction to their career. Sometimes when his clients complain about slow career progression he tells them about the accident many years back near the traffic signal. Everyone in the traffic signal were busy in their race on that day. Their respective races were important to them. Even Firoz's race towards his exam was important that day but he forgot about his race on that day. Many years down the line, today he is much ahead of his batchmates because of the patient listening and kindness of Prof Mathew. Prof Mathew enamoured Firoz with the subtle message that "Sometimes there will be those priorities which will indeed seem much more important than our respective races but that momentory loss will not determine our long term fulfillment or even accomplishments in life.  'Goodness' and 'Cynicism' can never coexist. Choose 'Goodness' over 'cynicism'."

Today Firoz  gives seemingly tough advice to his clients much like Prof Mathew did many  years back.

Irrespective of whether you are playing the role of Firoz or Prof Mathew, play your role with empathy, logic & patience. There are many who will overtake you with short cuts but do not loose your goodness at any cost and do not be 'cynical' at any cost. You might be well ahead of the driver who overtook you in the next signal itself ;-)

Mentor matters!!!

"Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them"-Forrest Gump

The above statement  justifies not only because Forrest Gump was differently abled, anyone irrespective  of any factors influencing them  deserve and require to be explained things in a way they understand.

Irrespective of the power position you hold, you still need a mentor. Few days back I was in a discussion with a senior collegue  on his career lessons and he mentioned that one of the greatest lessons which he learnt was to never think too much all alone.  It's important to bounce one's ideas, thoughts and even insecurities with one's mentor. Mentor acts as a guiding force only, he doesnot play the game for you.

So the relevent question is "How can I find my right mentor?". Even though the relevance of the question cannot be challenged, the question still remains wrong. I feel there cannot be one right mentor in our lives. We need to have multiple mentors as every career has multiple aspects to it. There cannot be just one mentor who can specialize in all aspects of your career.

For example, in your office that super intelligent young lad who champions data analytics can serve as your data analytics mentor, the elderly senior collegue who speaks eloquently can serve as your communication mentor, the quite fellow who exudes maturity can be your job mentor.

Yes! finding multiple mentors might seem tedious but if it seems tedious then maybe you are not in the right place or maybe you do not have the required amount of patience or maybe you are not a keen observer.

A few checks before you choose a mentor:

1.  He  must have great work ethics- A higher designation doesnot qualify him to be your Mentor.  Its higher order of 'work ethics' which is the most basic criteria for choosing a Mentor.
2. He must be a champion in his field- Not only its important that your mentor masters his subject but has the capacity to further contribute in the growth of his area of specialization.
3. He should understand business and more importantly 'life'- He must know when to switch  a journey from heart to mind and from mind to heart.
4.  He must be a keen listener- He should listen to you till you know that you must stop :-P
5. He must have his list of failures- You need a mentor the most when the chips are down. Hence its important he must have bounced back from his failures so that he can help you.
6. He should not give the answers. He must ask the right set of questions till you give the right answers yourself.

Last but not least, he should be a friend in need and a friend indeed :-)

Happy Friendship Day!!!

Can your team celebrate mistakes?

 I remember my 'Maths Tutor' in school trying various means to teach me  how to solve  complex  maths problems. Considering my limited acumen in maths, nothing seemed to work for a considerable amount of time.

He 'seemingly' gave up any remote hope which was left. Finally, he told me about his struggling phase of dealing with maths in childhood and more importantly how he came out of it.

That was the 'inflection point'. I felt I was not being taught by a super human but an human. Maths was no more a 'Horror Show' for me since then.

On a different note, in a Team context, our pursuit 'towards'  success unites us relatively more than enjoying 'success' itself. In that pursuit of success, we make 'mistakes'.

Now keep the thoughts mentioned above in the parking lot for sometime.

How different would be the morale of the team in the below two different scenarios?

1. Your Team Leader talks about his previous success stories with a special focus on what he did 'right' and expects you to get motivated from the same.
2. Your Team Leader  talks about his previous success stories with a special focus on what he did 'wrong' and expects you to get motivated from the same.

There is no proven data points/ research available with me but I feel the later scenario mentioned above would ensure a better team morale. The reason is clear if I consider the example discussed earlier about my Maths Tutor.

It's natural for all teams to celebrate success but it takes a lot of humility, sensitivity and wherewithal for a Team Leader to celebrate his mistakes. Discussing one's mistakes with the team might  create a better bonding with the team than the overrated Pizza or Beer party. The team would feel 'comfortable' to tread beyond their 'comfort zone' yet be more 'cautious' about the possible mistakes.

Allowing yourself to celebrate and candidly discuss your mistakes would ensure each and every Team Members in your team to be  an "Idealistic Pragmatist"  (coined by Peter Senge).

However, its important that while sharing your mistakes, you adequately and more importantly do focus on the lessons you learnt from the mistakes. Finally, encourage your team members to make mistakes and keep learning but never repeat the same mistakes.

It's fine to make different mistakes and not repeat the same ones ;-)

My innocent thoughts on Ra One...

This is not a movie review. I have never felt intelligent or qualified (if needed) enough to clinically assess any movie. Also especially when it comes to a SRK starrer I struggle to remain objective as I am his die hard fan.

Let me just attempt to share a few thoughts on the movie 'Ra One' and also 'SRK'.

I feel 'Ra One' is a landmark movie.

A true entertainer right from the outset. Every frame of the movie is an ode to the paragon of entertainment in itself as I have never watched any Bollywood movie which packs so much of entertainment in varied & engaging forms like the visual delight of VFX/ 3 D, the action sequences, a few tersed & emotional poetry in the midst of kick a@# action, Kareena's thumkas, the foot tapping music, the promising kid, the hideous villian and so much more.

There are those initial scenes in the movie like the ones where Shahrukh speaks in Tamilglish (Tamil + English) which can be a bit disturbing to the extent of being amusing for someone who has stayed 7 years in Chennai. However, these scenes give me an oppurtunity to laugh at
SRK and in other instances I laugh along with him. Either ways I am left entertained.

Rajnikant's guest appearance creates an impact on the audience even in a Kolkata cinema hall. Many might argue that the timing and logic of Rajnikant's guest appearance was not sensible 'enough'. Can those critics name a single bollywood movie where a guest appearance was sensible 'enough'?

However, what caught my imagination completely was the sheer investment SRK has done in this movie. Investment in terms of money, passion, time and effort.

The movie actually personifies his core philosophy: "Even if you are not hungry, be greedy. "

The 'Greedy' bit can be a little misconstrued but he had once explained this bit many years back in an exclusive and very candid interview with Vir Sanghvi. In that interview, he very beautifully articulated that he has greed for 'life' and in his last 10 years then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had put in 20 years, in his last 1 film then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had pushed in 3 films, in his last shot then (read it as 'at that point of time') he had pushed in 18 shots.

Hence, Ra One is a very inspring spectacle for me.

It inspires to try something new with logic, intent, passion, ownership, courage and above all 'heart'.

And when you try something new then critics who are either intellectuals or pseduo intellectuals (majority) might all point their guns at you shamelessly waiting to pounce & defame you. In that case you follow SRK's recent tweet which says "New things make us uncomfortable cos they fall beyond the scope of our usual habits. Allow it to breathe & soon it becomes One with us..."

You might be 'some' 'one' or 'the' 'one' or 'any' 'one' but do not ignore 'Ra One'. Give it an innocent try, not an intelligent one. You will be left delighted.....

In conversation with my mentor....

There are few people who influence,impact and inspire your life as a student and continue to do so in your formative period as a professional. Rajesh Kamath is one such mentor I found during my final year in MSSW. He not only enriched my learning curve as a student but provided me various oppurtunities during my association with SHRM India and MTHR Global which I deeply value till date. My conversations with him has always been scintillating and invaluable. Please read on as I capture one of my recent conversation with him:

Saikat: Since the time I have known you, you have been very passionate about the student community. What fascinates you the most about 'Youngistan'?

Rajesh: Too many things fascinate me about Youngistan but I am most excited at how different they are from the earlier generation, in terms of lifestyle, work style and interpersonal characteristics. I feel that it is extremely complimentary and creates opportunity to learn and enjoy.

Saikat:What is going to be the New Age HR ethos which will be fostered by upcoming young HR leaders?

Rajesh:You’ll know better Saikat. Yet, my observation is that young HR leaders (mostly) are characterised by more openness to ideas and transparency in communication. I also find them more energetic.

Saikat:The first few years of any professionals life is very eventful? What is your advice to young professionals so that they can fully leverage their early years with greater clarity?

Rajesh:I am sure that young professionals have more advice to offer me than me to them. The principle I follow is what comes to Youngistan rather easily: “Question every Answer” (this was prominently displayed in Northpoint Learning Center years back). One advice I can offer is respect age and experience.

Saikat:You are one of the founding members of MTHRG. MTHRG has been associated with very engaging and knowledge intensive seminars where the members are not even charged a penny. How do you and your team manage it?

Rajesh:Its rather simple: It has no business or even a basic not-for-profit commercial model because its powered by passion for learning. Partners who are equally passionate about knowledge and community fund the Events. The partner benefits by way of visibility and the community and facilitators, by way of unbridled learning.

Saikat:What has been your most defining moment in professional and personal life?

Rajesh: This is an impossible question since I truly have many such moments each year. I can share that they have one common factor: the moments are always caused by great men and women, from day to day life.

Saikat:You recently went for a brief spiritual journey What were your key learning from this spiritual journey?

Rajesh:I took a short 4 day break to Rishikesh, Dehradun and Haridwar. I do this every alternate year though I wish I could do it more frequently. These are with a Spiritual (neutral to religion) Group called Ananda Sangha. Learnings were too many but I would pick two:

1. Certain places and people carry a phenomenal energy about them which rubs on you.

2. As one Swamiji at Doon shared – “There is unrest, strife and disharmony around because everyone is right”

Saikat:Please share a few quickies:

• Your life philosophy: Respect every person for what each one is, something to learn from everyone
• Blog or Twitter: Twitter
• An evening with Dalai Lama or an evening with Jack Welch: Morning with Dalai Lama
• I Phone or Blackberry: I’m a Blackberry Boy
• All rounder or specialist (Who is a more promising future talent?): Specialist

My learnings from Robin Sharma's workshop 'Leader without a title'

Last week I was fortunate to attend Robin Sharma's Live workshop on 'Leader without a Title'. Three hours of listening to Robin Sharma was incredibly enlightening. I paid Rs 3000 (the cheapest ticket available) for the ticket which I felt was an investment.

It's a privilage to share a few of my key learning from the session:

• Most of the times we get busy being 'busy'. We keep climbing the wrong mountain and realize the same much later. Do not live the life of regrets. We deserve the best and not 'mediocrity'.
• 2.1 hours are wasted on distractions and it takes 25 minutes to refocus at your work. Ensure distractions at work are completely removed.
• Three duties of a leader: Creating impact, Influencing, Inspiring.
• You double your income at triple the rate of your learning.
• The king and the begger would be buried next to each other's grave. What matters towards the end is not the car you drove or the castle you lived in. What really matters is how much value did you add in others lives.
• Ideation without lazor sharp execution is only dillusion.
• Your behavior broadcasts your values.The way you do one thing, the way you do 'everything'. Disipline is indeed the key.Get rid of silly excuses.Get addicted to results.
  
• If you lead only by the virtue of your title, then when you loose the title , you loose the people.
• Lead yourself first before leading others. Aim at being a great human being.
• When you were born, you cried and others rejoiced. Live such a life that when you die, others cry.
• Always learn and embrace change. Successful people are inspired by change.
• Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people's names and titles. Shift your focus from entertainment and gossip to education.
• Find a cause bigger than yourself and give your soul to it.
• Secret of passion is purpose.
• Leadership comes from bringing passion to the workplace by making each person realise his true potential. You can be the Lady Gaga of autodrivers or the Mick Jagger of the mailroom. Be a rockstar at work.
• Managers develop organisations, leaders develop people.
• Connecting and collaborating is what Leadership 2.0 is about. You need to remind people at your workplace that each of them has a purpose and can be a leader if they work with focus and passion.
• Consistency is the mother of mastery.
• The little acts of risk taking, authenticity and kindness REALLY matters.
• Secret to genius is specializattion. Geniuses are really good at FEW things and not everything.
• Make sure when people leave you they feel better than the time they met you. They should become the brand ambassadors of your company and not brand vampires.
• Edit + Amplify: Nothing fails like success. Ensure the growth is purposeful. Let's not grow for growth sake.
• Keep your video in sync with your audio: Walk the talk...Practice what you preach...
• Pleasing everyone and being liked by everyone is a major hinderance to innovation.
• Successful people want to make history with their work and not money. They want their work to remain alive even after their last breath.
• 8 traits of a leader without a title:

1. APR: Absolute Personal Responsibility
2. OAD: Obsessicve Attention to Details
3. LBE: Lead By Example
4. ABBOU: Always Be Delivering Outrageous Value
5. NSI: Never Stop Improving
6. BIW: Best In World
7. BRBO: Put you Best Resource in Best Oppurtunities
8. KMF: Keep Moving Forward
   

• High productivity practicees:

1. Get up early- You will have enough time to sleep when you die ;-)
2. Do not check e mails in the morning. Creativity appears best in morning. Spend some quite time in solitude.
3. Learn to say 'No' with respect.
4. No gossips and critisicm. Truly world class people talk about ideas.
5. Clarity provides focus and creativity.
6. Eat less and in a purposeful manner.
7. Drink lots of water and super hydrate yourself.
8. Be aware of your environment. The external environment inspires internal creativity.
9. Practice & preparation are the key as all of us are in show business.
10. Ensure you make 5 daily wins. They need not be revolutionary in nature, but should be evolutionary.
11. Develop 'leadership language'. Your words energise you and others.
12. Leave your ego today

Hope this helps :-)

Do you have enough HEROes (Dabanggs) in your team???

There are two places in Chennai where you can locate me on a Sunday late morning:

My room or Landmark Bookstore!!!

While surfing the books I came across 'Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business'.

A few random turning of the pages & I found an insightful matrix:



The X axis signifies 'the quantum of empowerment one feels at work' and Y axis signifies 'quantum of resourcefulness with which one acts in his workplace'.

It's depressing to know that only 20 % of US Information workers fall under the category of 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resourceful Operatives'.

So who has a greater onus in ensuring that the employees fall under the 'top right hand quadrant of the matrix'??? Employees themselves or employers???

I would not recieve any brownie point for giving the lucid answer. But the answer is 'Both'. In the age of Co-creation, it's both the employee and the employer who have to work in an ever inclusive manner to 'co-create' many Heroes.

However, the most conflicting issue is that when companies want to create more 'HEROes' and employees themselves desire to become 'HEROes' then why dont we have enough HEROes (Based on the above matrix)?

According to my ever innocent opinion, I feel the conflict often arises when it comes to paying the right price for either enabling or becoming an 'HERO-Highly Empowered Resorceful Operatives' from both the employee & employer's end.

The singlemost important attribute in creating enough 'HEROs' at workplace would be the 'mutual confidence' in 'co-creating HEROs'.

I wish everyone a Glorious & Dabangg('Fearless' in Hindi spoken in Uttar Pradesh, India) new year in the persuit of finding the 'super heroes' within & around themselves.

'Walk & talk' to resolve conflicts...

The impressive ads from Idea Cellular with the tag line 'Walk and talk' has many lessons to impart. Most of these lessons have been lucidly disseminated by Abhishek Bachan in the ad itself.

However, we can learn one more rich lesson specifically from the tagline.

Many years back, while my fascination for HR was growing, I asked an HR expert about his opinion on how to resolve conflict?

He gave a quintessential HR answer to it saying "Get both the parties to face each other and let them talk(& listen) their way to the solution".

It did sound sacrosanct then but with all due respect the HR expert, I would dare to modify his statement "Get both the parties to walk alongside and let them talk (& listen) their way to the solution".

There were a few triggers to this thought. One being the idea cellular ad with the above mentioned tagline but more importantly this TED video where William Ury, Senior Fellow, Harvard Negotiation Project speaks about 'negotiation' under the theme "the walk from 'no' to 'yes' ".

According to him one of the basics in negotiation is to identify the third party who can always remind the two parties at loggerheads about what is at stake?

It also explains how walking side by side with the two parties (symbolic) while finding the resolution is more effective instead of facing them in opposite direction.

Walking side by side is symbolic of moving in the same direction towards the persuit of finding a resolution instead of facing each other which is symbolic of confrontation.

Most certainly a simple technique which should not be overlooked.

Managing the career aspiration of Youngistan

In a recent Conference organized by MTHR Global in Bangalore , I particularly got fascinated by an interesting analogy given by Mr Sangeeth Varghese.

The panel discussion revolved around managing career expectations of freshers.

More specifically it was a discussion on the after thoughts of presentations by 3 incredible students on their 'Dream Company'.

Mr Sangeeth Varghese spoke about how he also was in a simmilar quest of finding something perfect a few years back. Just like the students were chasing their dream of finding the perfect company/job/career, he was in the quest to find the perfect life partner. He met the 'perfect' girl and had the 'perfect marriage'. The situation remained perfect for a few days after marriage but soon he felt it was far from perfect. The relationship was not perfect anymore!!!

This made him retrospect for sometime. He did realize that his wife probably did not meet his expectations but did he ever make any effort to know if he met his wife's expectation? On further retrospection he felt that he did a worse job.

His wife also had expectations which were probably overlooked. He then decided to work on the shortcomings and gaps. The relationship did improve and today he feels he is blessed with a 'perfect wife' :-)

Whatta perfect analogy!!!!!!!

Indeed, freshers (including me) often ask how much has the company done for them and how much more it can do for them. Often they measure their expectations from the company. It's equally important to reflect on how much we are able to live upto our company's expectations.

I remember Mr Sangeeth saying that 'Perfection is a frame of mind'. I feel in order to achieve that frame of mind one has to sincerely reflect on their own & others' expectations and more importantly work sincerely on meeting those expectations.

This also reminds me to share an insightful post contributed by Gautam Ghosh & written by Sunit Sinha. Here are a few excerpts from the post:

1. A job is what you make it. If you look at your function as only a job (show up, fill a desk, answer a phone, pass on a report), that’s what it will be. But if you recognize the time you spend in your early, entry or junior position as a process of career building, then that’s what you will have: a career. Always play your role with dignity, looking for ways to learn from it.
2. The real keys to success are not smarts or qualifications or belonging to a brand-name firm. Rather, success is derived from courage, drive, energy, passion, ambition, enthusiasm, excitement, initiative, discipline, a dream and enough self-confidence to keep trying.
3. Don’t be intimidated by senior people. Remember, they also started somewhere, and if they are purposely intimidating you, they can’t be very secure themselves. Don’t, however, confuse intimidation with respect. Even if you don’t agree with a senior person, they have earned and deserve their due for what they have achieved in the organization.
4. When you feel underappreciated (or undercompensated) take a deep breath. Even if you are doing better work and have more responsibility than someone earning more or being treated better, show some patience. It’s the long term that counts!!
5. Broken promises are remembered more than kept promises. Do what you say you are going to do. It’s better to have the guts to say up front, “I’m not sure I can get that done,” than to accept a task that you can’t deliver on.
6. It is important to , listen to the assignment and carry out what has been asked. Again, remember that you are the directee, not the director, at this point in your career. You may not like the assignment, but do it with the same enthusiasm that you show for those projects you do like. Pencils must be sharpened, and everyone (even the CEO) has taken his turn.
7. Remember that success is not spontaneous combustion; you have to set yourself on fire.
8. Last but not the least – remember who actually pays for your salary – the client. Never lose your connect with clients, and always put them at the centre of what you do.

More on 'Employer Branding' lessons from SHRM India Monthly meet

I am keen to share a few learnings I recieved on 'Employer Branding' from Mr P Ravishankar, Chief Human Resource Officer, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd during the last SHRM India Meeting held two weeks back.

Following are my key learnings:

• Employer Branding is essentially the reinforcement of Company's values.
• Key messages that the HR function can transmit using company's employer brand are: Redifination of leadership competencies, living your core values,redefination of performance,renewed code of conduct & governance.
• How you drive change in your organization, community and the ecosystem is also a major value lever of your 'Employer Brand'.
• In the persuit of branding one should remember to 'balance' both internal and external employer branding.
  

Game for testing your 'employer brand'?

I have been invited for the SHRM India monthly meet to be held in Chennai tomorrow evening and the theme to be discussed is 'Employer Branding'. Would like to share a few innocent pre discussion thoughts on the topic.

Here are a few questions a business leader might ask himself to test his company's 'employer brand'(Answers should not be on a likert scale. A plain 'yes' or 'no' would suffice):

• Do people join your company to 'build a career' instead of just having a mere job?
• Do they market the success of their company as if it's their own?
  
• Do your employees get riled up when the company's brand becomes a victim of unjustified critisicm?
• Does your employees always look for the next 'big or small' oppurtunity to talk about their company with great enthusiasm?
• Does your employees take a major onus in ensuring that the new recruits get fitted into the company's proud organizational fabric?
• Can your employees find a world of oppurtunities, moments & friends within the company which they can cherish?
• Is your company able to attract the talented yet passive job seekers in the market with minimum visibility?

An 'Yes' to each of the 7 (a spiritual number according to numerology) questions might make your 'employer brand' an incredible brand :-)

Collaboration in the midst of competition....

Two precursors for success in any team would be 'Competitiveness & Collaboration'. Yet if we consider them as a pair then it would definately qualify to be an oxymoron of the highest order.

So how can we ensure that a team has the right amount of competitiveness juxtaposed with the right amount of collaboration???

To answer that question we must reflect on what is the 'right' amount of competitiveness & collaboration???

The 'right' amount would be definately relative. An A R Rehman or Yanni concert would require higher amount of collaboration among the musicians & singers. However, a number chasing sales team would not mind ensuring high amount of competitiveness among it's associates at the cost of collaboration.

However, in the above context, many would associate 'competitiveness' with a sort of negativity and associate 'collaboration' with postivity. The real recipe of interwining competitiveness with collaboration lies in coating both with 'goodness'.

If there is a spirit of 'goodness' infused in 'collaboration' & 'competitiveness' then both would start complementing each other. Look around to find the best team you have ever come across and you will witness that sense of goodness in their collaboration and competitiveness.

The underlying philosophy should be that collaboration must enhance other team member's performance and one should compete with the purpose of completing the other team member's performance.

So dont let the competition kill your collaboration within the team and dont let the collaboration die down the competitiveness.

Compete with the purpose of collaborating and not vice versa :-)

G Ravindran's Blog

The latest HR leader to join the blogging universe is G Ravindran, Managing Director, SHRM India.
Have a look at his first post which is incredibly candid with a message that most Interviewers overlook. A job interview is one of the first and most credible check point in a professional's journey into a company.

Yet at times HR professionals willingly allow their ego to supersede their common sense.

One of the finest post that's simple yet immensely powerful. A post that extols a valuable lesson to shift from knowledge perspective to 'heart' perspective.

NASSCOM HR SUMMIT 2010

Let me make an innocent attempt to provide a snapshot of my learning at the NASSCOM HR SUMMIT 2010:

The knowledge summit started with the Inaugural talk by Som Mittal, President, Nasscom followed by a panel discussion called ‘Indian Townhall: CEOs in conversation’ where the conversation primarily revolved around managing the Gen Y aspirations and other emerging talent issues.

The eminent panelists for the event were R Chandrasekaran,President & MD,Cognizant; Aparup Sengupta, MD & Global CEO, Aegis Ltd, Krishna Kumar Natarajan,CEO & MD,Mindtree and Som Mittal, President,Nasscom.

Some of the key inferences that emerged from this discussion were as follows:

S Chandrasekaran: We have to create enough scope for the mavericks to perform in the best of their capacity in order to leverage their creativity. He mentioned that there is always a risk of being complacent while sustaining growth. Especially in such instances it’s very important to be open to ideas of all formats from everyone. Since the majority of the workforce today is Gen X & GenY. We must connect with them in the right manner. He explained this with an analogy. He explained how a Gen X & GenY employee experiences a seamless virtual connectivity through social networks/media like twitter & facebook where his concerns and inquisitiveness is satiated in a shortest time span on a Sunday but on the Monday morning he again gets into the rigmarole of following HR manuals and time consuming processes. The real challenge is to recognize and sincerely act on repeating that Sunday experience into the Monday experience also. He also focused on the need to collaborate seamlessly and identify enablers that can help to collaborate better. The need for infusing appreciation in the performance mgmt ecosystem, fostering an entrepreneurial climate, infusing fun in the work culture, being tech savvy and embracing the global talent were also key insinuations from his conversation with the panelists.

Abarup Sengupta: In order to witness transformation at work, we must start measuring the task in terms of the impact it creates on the solution and not the task in itself. For example, we must stop measuring the number of associates reporting at office or the number of hours invested by the associates. Rather we should measure what kind of impact their presence and task has on solutions. He also emphasized how a strong belief must be transformed into a collective behavior through repetition of the tasks firmly based on the belief in a consistent manner. While commenting on framing the right ‘vision statement’, he said that the vision statement must be simple and uncomplicated so that everyone can easily internalize it.

Krishna Kumar Natarajan: He emphasized on how the transition of Gen Y recruits from their campus to corporate happens at a very quick pace and hence it’s important to restore campus experience also at the office. The office needs to be recreated as a campus. While speaking about leadership he said that the ideal way to build leadership is not always the volumes approach but it’s about narrating the right stories and inspiring anecdotes. He also mentioned that one of the indicators to know whether HR has graduated as a business partner is to observe whether the HR associate can be prepared to make a business presentation infront of the client.

Som Mittal: Leadership must never be distanced from the people and must ensure that people release their energy in the right manner and in the right direction. He also emphasized on the need for having strong code of conduct within the industry in the midst of the turmoil [high attrition & poaching] so that there is a method in the madness.

Session II: Knee Jerk HR: Was there a better way to handle the downturn.

Speakers: Dr John Sullivan, Professor of Mgmt, San Fransisco State University & Kris Ramachandran, advisor to Chairman, Higher Education Project, Aditya Birla Group.

Chair Person: Prithvi Shergill, Lead ,Human Resources, Accenture India.

Prithvi Shergill: Whether HR played a pivotal role in handling the downturn is based on whether the HR team was having a place in the table during the strategic discussions? Did the HR team ask the right questions in the right time? Did the organization genuinely invest in HR to become more strategic? These were the few questions through which he set the platform for the discussion. Dr John Sullivian also added the question that did we call our CEO’s during the down turn and specify the areas where we should have invested in order to position ourselves better after downturn or did the CEO call the HR leader and ask him about his opinion (even better)?.

Kris Ramachandram: Two extremely contrasting examples of GE and South West airlines were given in order to explain how both the companies had completely different approach in being global leaders in their respective fields. GE was synonymous with very objective and aggressive approach of fixing, selling or even closing down their business whereas South West airlines had a much lenient approach of having no layoffs. Yet even though the approaches of the two companies did not have any convergence but both are still leaders in their respective industries. Similarly, there is no ‘one’ right way to deal with the downturn. He mentioned the 5 dimensions of the Hofstede model and how understanding the respective cultural dynamics are important in framing out the approach towards dealing with downturn. He mentioned the following points to be kept in the minds of the employees in order to deal with a future downturn:

• Realize that there are no free lunches in this world. We are never ‘entitled’ for the company benefits; we are only ‘eligible’ for the benefits.
• Keep yourself employable through superior performance, constantly improve your skills.
• Be an influencer.

As an Employer we can do the following:

· Focus on continuous productivity (Repair the roof when sun is shining J)

· Manage expectation, beliefs & values.

· Connect & communicate.

John Sulivian: He categorically mentioned that the following went wrong by HR in downturn:

· It went into a reactive mode and was not anticipatory enough.

· Did not realize the new economic reality of continuous ups & downs, with little warning.

· Being overtly optimistic

· Not having any warning precursors for identifying what occurs prior to a major problem.

· No contingency labor plan.

· Lack of prioritization.

· Cost cutting focus rather than productivity & innovation focus.

· Solutions adopted with no data on tools effectiveness.

· No midcourse feedback loop metrics.

· No accountability.

· Only ‘guessing’ when to resume talent growth.

Must do list for HR before the next downturn:

· Conduct failure analysis.

· Benchmark best practices.

· Focus on innovation/productivity.

· Establish contingent labor component.

· Do surgical layoffs based on performance.

· Substitute technology for labor (No people first approach)

· Continue to outsource ‘non core’ activities.

· Use ‘peak time & Seasonal empoyees’

· Next time do countercyclical hiring & poaching [;-) not my thoughts]

Session III: Open House- Are Indian players ready to handle a globalized workforce?

Speakers: D P Singh, Director,HR, IBM Daksh & Saurabh Govil, Senior Vice President, HR, Wipro Technologies.

Chairperson: C. Mahalingam, Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services.

C Mahalingam: ‘Money is what money does’ and similarly ‘Globalization is what globalization does’. The context for the discussion was lucidly set by putting into perspective the thoughts of Thomas Friedman where he considered that Globalization 1.0 was influenced by the government, Globalization 2.0 was influenced by major MNCs and the new age era of Globalization 3.0 requires major role from Individual companies.Mr Mahalingam gave case examples of how Mc Donalds & Coke acted as catalysts in globalization and can be considered as icons of globalization. The following ‘distance issues’ were highlighted as they are to be carefully studied in course of embracing Globalization 3.0:

Culture, Administrative, Geographic & Economic [CAGE].

He also mentioned that the key drivers for success in globalization 3.0 must recognize that global workforce will have different aspiration, ability and engagement. Hence, it will become important to constantly manage as we learn and constantly learn as we manage.

D P Singh: The key levers for success in globalized economy are going to be Shared Visions, Policies, Processes, HR system & Communication. Companies have to leverage technology, opportunities, capital & structures. The right answers to the following few questions would help us to handle the globalized economy better:

· Do you have shared values across the globe embedded & understood by all?

· Do you have processes to identify, reward & grow talent.

· Do you have processes & policies in place with effective & robust control mechanism?

· Do you encourage diverse unconventional points of views to finally integrate with business objectives?

· How will you relate the Gen Y to your business objectives?

Saurabh Govil: The apparent hard issues like labor laws & compliance are much easier to manage but the challenging issues are the perceived softer issues like building local leadership, cultural issues and communication. It also becomes very important to keep on repeating the right things so that it becomes a part of the organizational fabric. He made a major emphasis on leveraging social network as the future of communication will not be e-mails but social networks.

Session IV: Management of paradoxes

Speakers: Hari Thalapalli, Chief People Officer, Mahindra Satyam & Piyush Mehta, Senior VP,Human resources, Genpact.

Chairperson: Elango R, Chief Human Resources officer, Mphasis an HP company

Elango R: The statement ‘contradiction fuels innovation’ suffices to articulate that even though managing the paradoxes might be tough but it would be well worth it. Managing paradoxes in HR would be about being an ‘active game changer’ and not by being a mere facilitator/part of the change process. It would require HR professionals to shift their focus from their HR books to Adam Smith’s ‘The wealth of nations’ and more importantly it will require HR to work in grey shades.

Hari Thalapalli: It’s fascinating how in life’s philosophy itself so many statements & anecdotes are contradictory yet seemingly idealistic. Hence, the same replicates in business & HR too. The right answers of today’s HR paradoxes would be different tomorrow. It’s important that in HR’s pursuit to manage its paradoxes, it should focus equally on its associates, investors and final customers. Hence, investment into research, capacity building has to sharply increase.

Piyush Mehta: The focus must be on making/building talent in an organic manner through Internal promotions, moving to tier 3,4 cities and digitalizing platforms. Another important inference was that the business orientation of the HR would be good for people as in long term what is good for business would certainly be good for people.

Session V: What is your USP as an employer?

Speakers: Aparna Ballakur, Vice President, HR, Yahoo! & Sreekanth Krishnan Arimanithaya, SV, Global HR operations, HR Business Partner, CA Technologies

Chairperson: Gaurav Ahluwalia ,Senior Vice President, HR, HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Pvt Ltd.

Gaurav Ahluwalia: USP of either a product or service or even an employer is based on how it brings value to its customer and brings visibility in the market. The case example of Maruti-800 brought out the message clearly. While speaking about USP from employer perspective, he said that pay is only a part of the offer but the real USP is not pay most of the times.

Sreekanth Krishnan Arimanithaya: Six elements of creating & evaluating value proposition are Utility value, Satisfaction level, Offer alignment, Employee engagement & Employee performance. The organizational brand components are total rewards (base pay, external equity, stock options etc), work life (business level, location etc), company (risk taking, diversity etc), Work environment (job fit, promotion, empowerment project responsibility etc). Hence the USP of the company needs to leverage these elements and brand components with the purpose of managing, governing and securing the talent. A special emphasis was made on fostering an entrepreneurial culture within the company.

Aparna Ballakur: For an employer USP in the current economy stands for Unique Staying Proposition. Creating the right USP revolves around answering the three questions: What brought you here? What keeps you here? What can take you away from here?

She also explained how the focus should be increasingly on ‘stay interviews’ rather than exit interviews. The USP in Yahoo is centred around opportunity (to change the way the world uses the internet), work (scope of impact:600 million users) & workplace(company cares for every individual & shows this in every process/policy).Also it was interesting to know that ‘fun’ is a core value of Yahoo’s culture. In a nutshell, an USP must appeal to the intellect and touch the heart.

Session VI: Conquer the Mt Everest-Motivational Talk by Jamling Tenzing

Conquering the Mt Everest in the realms of thought itself is very inspiring. If we spend a few moments hallucinating about the presence of Mt Everest then we can realize the how insignificant we are infront of the mighty Everest. Yet few people conquer it through their spirit-‘the human spirit’. The human spirit is common to all of us yet only few realize it. One such man is Jamling Tenzing, son of legendary climber Tenzing Norway.

Jamling Tenzing’s presentation was themed as ‘Touching my father’s soul’. He passionately spoke on why he had a single minded focus on climbing the Mt Everest and why it meant so much to him. His childhood hero was always his father and he wanted to climb the Mt Everest the way his father did. In 1996, he climbed the Mt Everest which was later documented in the IMAX film, Everest. This journey helped him to understand himself, his father & his community (Sherpa) better.

His quest to climb the Everest was full of challenges like staying away from the family in the hope of meeting them once again to loosing friends who died on the way to climb the Mt Everest.

Like in any other team, a mountain expedition also has team members with designated roles. The leader paves the strategy to climb the mountain whereas the Sherpa provides strong support in carrying the food, goods and other essentials. Jamling Tenzing acted as the member who bridged the relationship between the leaders and the ‘sherpas’ as he himself is a Sherpa who was educated in America. HR’s role in business is also similar; he acts as a bridge between the business leaders and the associates. He is expected to be a business as well as people champion who can translate the language of business into a language which is best understood by the people.

In business also, the HR team is often confronted with huge challenges yet they are met with the right direction, team support, planning, courage & passion.

Another important life lesson learned from his presentation was that “In mountaineering, climbing up is optional but getting down is mandatory”.

Similarly, in life or business also we make the choice of being the best but we must be ready to face failures courageously too. If we cannot recognize failure and know how to deal with it then we will never know how to react when failure again strikes us in life.

He also mentioned how climbers are increasingly realizing that it’s important to respect nature and keep the surroundings clean while venturing into mountain expeditions.

Hence, it’s not only the end which matters but also the means. HR is the conscious keeper of the organization and must always adhere to ethics in its pursuit to achieve business success.

Jamling also stressed that human beings must be passion driven and not ego driven in their pursuits. He cited examples of how many rich businessmen wanted to satisfy their ego to climb the Mt Everest by risking the lives of many sherpas.

It was delightful to know that Jamling had great plans of teaching mountaineering to Indian kids in order to infuse in them the idea of sportsmanship. He has been doing a lot of work for the Sherpa community and wants to continue the good work.

Even HR has a community to take care of that transcends the associates and their families.

He concluded his presentation with his father’s quote: “Be a leader, Be a guide…Be great and make others great”.

Day 2

Session VII: Social Network: Leveraging or lamenting

Speakers: Arvind Rajan, Vice President, International, Linkedin & Nandita Gurjar,SVP, Group Head HRD, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Chairperson: Anand Pillai, Senior Vice President, Talent Transformation & Intrapreneurship Development, HCL Technologies.

Anand Pillai: Social Networking is becoming the new operating system for the new workforce which has the following characteristics:

· They want freedom.

· Customized job profile.

· They want transparency.

· They thrive on innovation.

· They love having fun.

· They want to collaborate.

It was interesting to know that HCL has a virtual ‘passion wall’ where associates are free to write about their passion and what it means to them. Adding to this practice, they also started the passion club where associates can mention their top 5 passion indicators and join the communities related to them. These communities would facilitate discussions related to their passion and keep them engaged.

Arvind Rajan: A few startling statistics on how majority of today’s workforce is either actively disengaged or not engaged. Adding to that most companies are having 1 HR associate for every 100 employees. Hence, communication between HR and the associates have sharply reduced. Social media in such a scenario helps to enable better communication. Most companies have focused on horizontal communication through social media but there should be focus on vertical communication too. A CEO’s blog is an example of effective communication that also ensures inclusiveness through the ‘comments’ feature in blogs. It also ‘personalizes’ the leadership especially when the company is large. Social media should be leveraged for recruiting (employee referrals,tweets), Reward(recognition) and retaining(through collaboration). Following are the few steps that can be taken in order to embrace social media (linkedin specifically):

· Encourage employee to be on linkedin & connect.

· Have a strategy for status updates.

· Give them guidance on how to collaborate.

· Add purpose & a fresh perspective on being networked.

Nandita Gurjar: The 3 myths surrounding social media are:

· Face to face relationships are far more valuable than virtual ones.

· The best way to control the use of social media is to block.

· There is no ROI in social media.

Many eye opening case examples of companies were given where improper use of social media backfired heavily. Hence it’s important to ensure the following are never discussed in social media:

· Client confidential.

· Policy documents.

· Misuse of code of conduct.

It was interesting to know about the ‘My voice’ initiative in Infosys where employees can voice their opinion on policies before its creation and can also comment during the probation period for which the policy is implemented before its final implementation.

Micro-blogging is also an area where companies need to progress towards.

Session VIII: Cracking the code on Business agility: lessons from high performing learning organizations

Speakers: Bob Danna, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Bersin Associates & Daniel R Bielenberg, Director, Capability Development Strategy

Bob Danna: In high intensive learning organizations the following checklist must be kept in perspective:

· Rethink the learning purpose.

· Focus a deep specialization.

· Support learning agility

· Get realigned to the business

· Manage programs like portfolios.

The two key attributes in a learning culture are as follows:

· Knowledge sharing on a frequent, encouraging & supportive basis.

· Reflection- Post success & failure, opportunities for learning at all

levels must be leveraged.

Daniel R Bielenberg: The existing talent challenge today is dealt through deep specialization, innovation, changeability, industrialization, people development, case skills & common culture (all of them have a learning & development element in it). The process of building a high performing learning organization begins from building foundational industry knowledge to leveraging high performance business and finally generating sales with industry specific offering & framework.

The biggest challenge in learning and development is that most managers treat coaching as a side job and much sincerity is lost in the coaching process.

It was interesting to know how an Accenture employee used blogs in order to persuade employees for enrolling in a learning module. She was able to sign up 5000 employees by using a free tool. It is actions like these which make the real difference in both learning development & use of social media.

Session IX: The transformed job market

Speakers: Aadesh Goyal, Executive Vice President, Global Head, HR,TATA Communications Ltd.

R V Balasubramanium Iyer ,Vice President, Reliance Retail. Chairperson: William Paul, Executive Vice President, HR, Global Shared Service Centers, Scope International, Standard Charted Bank

William Paul: The speed & quantum of change is humungous today and the customers are also becoming increasingly demanding. This has led to huge talent shortage in many industries. Hence it’s important that we do the following:

· Invent your own raw talent pipeline.

· Finding the balance between raw talent & lateral

· Day 1 readiness

· Use of metrics

· Diversity mgmt

Aadesh Goyal: Following must be done in order to deal with the highly transformed job market which seems similar to the pre slowdown phase in 2007:

· Must focus more on behavioral competencies than technical

Competencies while hiring.

· Continue to hire at lowest level.

· Build & develop the talent for middle & top management.

· Hire from outside (new competencies & new geographies) for new

areas.

In addition it must also be recognized that the market for CXOs is hot and compensation offered is also very high.

R V Balasubramanium Iyer: He had a humorous take on the dilemma of being a recruiter in the retail industry where the desperation for recruiting goes to the extent of advertising in front of the stores saying: ‘Trespasser would be recruited’. He emphasized on the importance of partnership between industry, academia & individual.

One of the good examples of such partnership is between Manipal University and ICICI (http://www.ima.manipal.edu/).

Meeting Jamling Tenzing in Nasscom HR Summit 2010

Conquering the Mt Everest in the realms of thought itself is very inspiring. If we spend a few moments hallucinating about the presence of Mt Everest then we can realize how insignificant we are infront of the mighty Everest. Yet few people conquer it through their spirit-‘the human spirit’. The human spirit is common to all of us yet only few realize it. One such man is Jamling Tenzing, son of legendary climber Tenzing Norway.

Jamling Tenzing’s presentation was themed as ‘Touching my father’s soul’. He passionately spoke on why he had a single minded focus on climbing the Mt Everest and why it meant so much to him. His childhood hero was always his father and he wanted to climb the Mt Everest the way his father did. In 1996, he climbed the Mt Everest which was later documented in the IMAX film, Everest. This journey helped him to understand himself, his father & his community (Sherpa) better.

His quest to climb the Everest was full of challenges like staying away from the family in the hope of meeting them once again to loosing friends who died on the way to climb the Mt Everest.

Like in any other team, a mountain expedition also has team members with designated roles. The leader paves the strategy to climb the mountain whereas the Sherpa provides strong support in carrying the food, goods and other essentials. Jamling Tenzing acted as the member who bridged the relationship between the leaders and the ‘sherpas’ as he himself is a Sherpa who was educated in America. HR’s role in business is also similar; he acts as a bridge between the business leaders and the associates. He is expected to be a business as well as people champion who can translate the language of business into a language which is best understood by the people.

In business also, the HR team is often confronted with huge challenges yet they are met with the right direction, team support, planning, courage & passion.

Another important life lesson learned from his presentation was that “In mountaineering, climbing up is optional but getting down is mandatory”.

Similarly, in life or business also we make the choice of being the best but we must be ready to face failures courageously too. If we cannot recognize failure and know how to deal with it then we will never know how to react when failure again strikes us in life.

He also mentioned how climbers are increasingly realizing that it’s important to respect nature and keep the surroundings clean while venturing into mountain expeditions.

Hence, it’s not only the end which matters but also the means. HR is the conscious keeper of the organization and must always adhere to ethics in its pursuit to achieve business success.

Jamling also stressed that human beings must be passion driven and not ego driven in their pursuits. He cited examples of how many rich businessmen wanted to satisfy their ego to climb the Mt Everest by risking the lives of many sherpas.

It was delightful to know that Jamling had great plans of teaching mountaineering to Indian kids in order to infuse in them the idea of sportsmanship. He has been doing a lot of work for the Sherpa community and wants to continue the good work.

Even HR has a community to take care of that transcends the associates and their families.

He concluded his presentation with his father’s quote: “Be a leader, Be a guide…Be great and make others great”.

PS: He was kind enough to autograph on my name batch :-)