Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers in the AI Economy and about the world of work. The sketchnotes are my own.
Uncertain Times Need Routines
Comfort-food is a stress reliever. We throw caution to the winds and indulge in a routine that brings back memories of happy times and nostalgia. Friends and loved ones renew our faith. For some turning to religion is reassuring. Routines build a sequence that we know and have done before. Routines are necessary for mental health during times of stress and uncertainty. 5 Ideas you can use
Freelancers - the hot trend in talent management
Every freelancer has to be their own C-Suite. If they do not understand the complexity of the taxes they have to pay, they can work with an accounting firm or a tax lawyer. In an organization, the Learning and Development team will assess the gaps in soft skills (along with the technical knowledge and domain knowledge) that are there for each employee and create a plan to bridge the gap. That option goes away for freelancers. They can’t assess their own skill gap in this area.
What if there were no rewards at work?
In the workplace, there is a special team of people who manage “total rewards” that does everything with the belief that periodic rewards make the employee feel appreciated and a little more engaged. Could it be that our system of rewards is just what is making them disengaged? Could it be that rewarding high performance is precisely what is making people not collaborate with colleagues? Could it be that offering rewards for innovation is stopping the employees from taking on complex problems? What does the science say?
New Career Options in 2020
The highest growth will be in jobs that require tech skills and understanding of human emotions. They are called Hybrid Jobs. A Marketing manager with fluency in a database program, or a Data Scientist who knows data visualization or an Engineer who knows Sales qualifies as a Hybrid Job. These jobs will grow at twice the pace of any other job and are less likely to get automated. If you are a Techie, adding social or creative skills can make you a “purple squirrel” – a term recruiters use to describe people with these rare combinations.
The Digital Mindset: Aquarium to Ocean
The organization is no longer like an aquarium that has a solid defined boundary wall. The organization is part of an ecosystem. Leading the fish in an aquarium is different from navigating the ocean. The digital organizations are as different from the legacy organizations as the butterfly is to the caterpillar. Leading these organizations needs not just new set of skills and competencies but also a different mindset. The hyperconnected customer is more aware and makes decisions and choices differently. The power balance has tilted in favor of the employees and consumers. They own the brand. The leaders role is now about helping the organization go from the aquarium to become part of ocean.
Genpact: Reskilling at Scale
Very often organizations launch an initiative with great fanfare. When the dust settles, people move on to their desk and carry on doing their work as usual. Genpact seems to have found a way to sustain this massive exercise. The leadership team has taken it upon themselves to celebrate learning and the people driving the agenda - the employees.The CEO of Genpact recognizes the gurus and experts in every town hall. He celebrates the guru who has done the maximum amount of skill building. The clients are told about this. The CHRO and the Chief Innovation Officer talk about Genome to the clients and the employees at every possible opportunity. The result is that skill building is not a metric tracked by the L&D team, the agenda is part of the business conversation every day.
Talent Acquisition in the Gig Economy
Working with open-talent system of gig workers will need specialized talent acquisition teams. New processes in every department from legal contracts to accounts payable will be needed. New technology that makes it possible for the gig worker to give his or her best need to be created. Experts already find that they make more money through gig work while having the flexibility of hours and the freedom to choose the projects they wish to work on.
Building India as a talent-hub
Automation may require an estimated 375 million workers to reskill for new jobs by 2030. New jobs are being created that have never existed before. Being a standup comedian is a thing now. As is the role of a ‘Tweeter-in-Chief’ that Twitter it looking for to run its Twitter account. The position requires a “fun, creative person with story-telling skills”.
What is the best use of your mentor's time
Knowing what you want will help you to articulate what you’re seeking advice on. Going in to meet your mentor without knowing what you want to meet for can be a waste of time for you and your mentor. Think of the meeting like a conversation—not a question-and-answer session. Make it a free-flowing and spontaneous dialogue. If you have a doubt or apprehension, or if you wish to seek a clarification, do it in the moment.
Work-Life Balance: Putting It In Perspective
A time strapped brain on a treadmill may improve the hours logged but does not generate better ideas. Innovation needs time for us to join the dots that were previously not connected. As the Monster tagline suggests, “Find Better Faster”. Are the employers listening?
Courage and Inspiration: The New Leadership Standard
The most inspiring name on the 2019 list of leaders is Greta Thunberg. She is a 16 year old student activist who is campaigning for climate change. On Twitter page she describes herself as "a 16-year-old climate activist with Asperger [syndrome]". Her work on climate change earned her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Making her a year younger than Malala who won it at the age of seventeen.
Creating Compelling Content - The New Leadership Requirement
Video and voice are engaging the new learner. Businesses have to create content that is interesting. If it is not interesting, the content is not consumed. There is a 270% growth in voice queries (YoY) in India. Nine out of every 10 new internet users in the country will likely be an Indian language speaker. These trends have three sharp implications for organizations...
HR-Tech Stories: Bankbazaar.com
Most organizations aim to get the implementation right. That takes up the customers mindshare. What is often missed is the employees’ adoption. What can the company do to get the employee to log in? Some employers hold training sessions to get users comfortable with the new software. There is another reason that drives adoption by the employees. The flaw I believe lies in the assumption that underlies the design. Most HR systems get designed keeping the employer’s needs in mind. The employee is never the kept at the center. This is when you must ask a question...
Book Review: Demystifying Digital Transformation
The 5 E model begins with Exploration. This is where businesses must re-evaluate their value-proposition in view of the recent technology trends and shifts in the consumer’s behavior. This where the organization must generate options to deliver the value-proposition in the new world. Phase 2 is called Experimentation with all possible ways to deliver the new value-proposition. Evaluate its potential to develop and scale. Check if the new options cannibalize the existing product lines or augment it. Read more ...
Performance Management - beyond count and comparison
Advertising agencies are judged on two parameters. The clients evaluate them on the impact they had on the additional sales and trust in the brand. The peers compete on the number of awards won. The industry judges the agency on the thought leadership and breakthrough thinking. The senior leaders are judged on the number of awards the team members have won under their leadership. If work is going to be all about creative output, maybe it is time for performance management to be designed along with people who have figured out how to evaluate and nurture creativity – the mad men.
Book Review: Great at Work
The way to do this is to redesign your work so as to focus on value, not goals. Looking at your work in terms of the impact you are creating for others helps you discover your passion and purpose. Spending just 15 minutes a day of “deliberate practice”. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance – like Jiro crafting each piece of sushi.
Trust in a hyperconnected world
When people put up videos that are slickly edited to leave out flaws and pauses, they convince us that they are not being authentic. It is your flaws – not your perfect self that makes you trustworthy.