Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
Trend Spotting and CI
The best trendspotters are people who have this insatiable curiosity. It is not about age, background or education. You could have older people who possess a sharp curious mind and younger people who don't. Prof Henry Mintzberg (at McGill University), Klaus Schwab (at the World Economic Forum) and Paulo Coelho in my mind are great examples and inspiration of people who continue to be curious and have an innate ability to tap into trends. Paulo Coelho for example, is one of the first to have used twitter to interact with his readers (over 300,000 followers @paulocoelho), or to identify and promote pirate sites that offer his books illegally electronically on the Internet (http://paulocoelhoblog.com/pirate-coelho/ ) a great example about how you can have the courage and the vision to question your own industry…
Nurturing the Golden Few
When you think of Manchester United, you think of high voltage soccer, but do you think of “Man U” as the people who do great Talent Management? When you think of Storm Model Agency, you think haute couture and glamorous fashion models. Do you think of them as an organization that should be benchmarked for studying Talent Management practices? When you think of the BBC, Royal College of Music or Wimbledon, the top of the mind recall is not about their ability to coach high potential talent. That is exactly what the London based specialist consulting and executive search firm Jackson Samuel did. They delved into the Talent Management Practices of eight such firms (referred to as “Enterprise Organizations” here) and tried to glean out some insights on identifying and nurturing talent. The result was The Golden Few: Lessons in talent management from the worlds of entertainment, sport, arts and academia.
Mass Career Customization
Mass Customization may seem like an oxymoron. When you think of something as individualistic as career choices, it begs the question how far such a thing is possible. Organizations have long defined successful careers to represent a ladder. Ladders were for lads and too bad if the ladies chose to opt out of it. With the changing demographics, all that is changing at a reasonable pace.
Interesting Intersection Points
Business and opportunities will all lie at intersection points. By that I mean opportunities will be at the intersection of mutiple sectors. Intersect telecom and entertainment and you have the next big wave of opportunities and emerging careers. The ability to devise entertainment on the mobile platform will be where business lies and the best opportunities too. Intersect Healthcare and Engineering or for that matter Healthcare and Information - you have a mega opportunity.
Learning Agility
How do companies identify high potential employees? Different organizations use different approaches. There are a host of assessments that can provide data on various competencies that makes leaders successful. There are competencies that leaders need to translate their vision of the future into a strategy. They need to have the competencies to communicate and inspire the stakeholders to buy into that vision. They also need to be able to cobble together a team that will execute that plan.
The Art of Woo
If you think people need to listen to your ideas just because they are bright, then go away and read this book that I just finished reading. The real world needs to be persuaded. In fact, you need to woo people to succeed in selling your ideas. Having smart ideas is necessary but not sufficient. Wharton Profs Shell and Moussa have tried to turn wooing into a science by giving those step by step instructions that people just LOVE! The picture of the two parakeets should become the mnemonic for you everytime you want to woo someone. Notice there is no club being used by the parakeet while wooing. Yeah, it is always about understanding the others needs and point of view before you start your spiel.
Making Meaning
We all know that the role of the manager is to assign tasks and matching resources, crack the whip (or cajole the team) to ensure it is on track for the deadline. What would a leader do differently if entrusted with the same task? After all, leaders too, have to run organizations, meet customer expectations and create value for all the stakeholders. So what is this new element called 'making meaning' doing in an already crowded task list? For long we have considered things like 'meaning in the workplace' in the same category as candyfloss and not taken it seriously. That I am afraid is changing. The leader helps people see meaning beyond the limits of the mundane tasks and chores.
Leadership Development Dilemmas
Leadership Development involves “identifying and measuring leadership qualities, screening potential leaders from non-leaders, then training those with potential.” The definition makes it sounds like a simple recipe with which to keep cooking up a steady flow of leaders. I wish it were.The Leadership Development function exists to help the organization gauge the future, create the model of leadership that will be needed to be successful today as well as to create a benchmark of what the future will demand of leaders. Once the benchmark is set, it is all about identifying potential talent that can be groomed to take on the mantle of leadership in future and then deciding what will develop those leaders to build the competencies that will make them successful in navigating the organization in a world we do not know yet. It is about preparing for a world we do not know, for skills we do not know about yet and using methods we do not always understand.
Inclusion Not Just Diversity
Several organizations have launched initiatives to promote Diversity. Why do we need to build diversity in the workforce? If the consumer group is diverse, having the same diversity represented in the employee groups makes it easy to develop the product which is aligned to the consumers. This makes sense for consumer goods but how does his pan out in case of industrial goods. Taking the argument further, if the buyer group is not diverse, does it still make business sense to drive diversity in the organization?In my opinion, the single reason to drive diversity is about providing a non discriminatory employment experience. Equal opportunity is the strongest reason. To be denied employment based on any criteria other than merit is discriminatory and illegal in many countries.How do we implement this in the workplace?
What to Assess While Hiring
Two economists will never agree on what will yank the world out of recession. Two psychologists will also give you a simple answer on how to measure personality. What is personality? How you describe yourself is the inside view of personality (also called identity). It is all about your dreams, hopes and fears and how you wish to achieve your dreams and avoid the fear factor.
Meet Cartoonist Ajit Ninan
The morning newspaper and a cuppa chai is a ritual that is common to a large part of the human race. But people read it in their own manner. Some glance at the headlines and head straight for the sports page. So open the editorial page and shake their head disapprovingly at the affairs of the world. I head for the cartoons. I grab the newspaper and head straight for Ajit Ninan's cartoon. I look for two elements of wit in a cartoon - the visual and verbal. Ninan excels in both. Usually one lands up choosing between the two. Ajit worked for many years with the India Today group as cartoonist and illustrator, before moving to the Indian Express newspaper in 1992 eventually switching to Outlook one of India's top news magazines. He is now with The Times of India as their Chief Graphics Consultant. Ajit used to run a cartoon strip called Detective Moochhwala (and his tail-less dog called Poochh, which means tail in Hindi) for the childrens magazine Target. That comic strip had cult status amongst readers and it was amazing to see Ajit pack in a tight storyline and brilliant graphics in about 35-40 frames.
How to Manage Short Term Asignments
You are the rising star of the corporation. You are working at building a resume that will qualify you for the corner office in the next few years. You want to set the world record for being the youngest head of the corporation. In anticipation, you have started looking up models of corporate jets you could buy and the power suits you will need to order for the swearing in ceremony. In the midst of all this comes the email on the blackberry that your manager wants to know if you would be interested in a short term assignment to New Widgetovia, the country where your company has struck gold. You would need to be there for three months... maybe six... ummm ... a little bit more perhaps but hopefully not.
Interview Questions for HR Applicants
Many moons back when I started off my career as a HR person, I had a chance to attend a training program. All the HR folks used to have this once a year get together and just bond. I was briefed by my boos that being the lowest in the food chain, I had to just take the opportunity to get to know the big fish in HR. Being a really obedient kind of person I took that advice to heart. I spent the next tea break running around that huge hall like a headless chicken collecting names and faces. I will tell you upfront that I have difficulty remembering zillions of names with matching faces. Within fifteen minutes of this maniacal pursuit of perfection, I discovered that the names and faces were all a big jumbled up noodle soup. I gave up.
Should You Self Publish
It is truly a magical moment when you read the manuscript and suddenly feel that there is nothing more left to add or to take away. If you add stuff you will feel the need to trim the fat and you cannot take away a single word without leaving gaps in the mind of the reader. It is that moment when you feel the most self-confident. You are ready to take the book to a publisher.
Who Should Pay for You to Learn
You started as a small fish with dreams of being a biggie. You routinely practiced your moves. You tried to learn new tricks to please those who held power to hand out generous changes in S&B (Salary and Bonus). You regularly preened yourself as you passed the mirror, admiring the lean mean fighting machine that you continued to be ... at least for the initial few years. When you met the other alum from your college or B School, you traded notes to see if anyone had learnt a trick that you had no clue about. There were usually a few who always had something clever to share. You read professional journals. The names were all familiar. The Professors would keep egging you on to read more and more and yet would sneer at your term paper before labeling it a B+. That just built in you the grim determination to keep slaving away at sharpening your skills until you could extract an A+ from the hard-to-please faculty. That was then.
Join the Talent Revolution
How did you decide on what career to pursue? Did you think it through or was it just a happy accident, a matter of chance or a choice that you have now learnt to tolerate because it pays for your current lifestyle. Are you the person who now believes, that everyone doesn't HAVE to just absolutely jump up with joy at going to work on a Monday morning. Let us face it - most people don't. Not unless you are wildly in love with your work and can't stop thinking about the ten different things to do at work that will give you a high. Even if the honest answer to your career lifestyle is "serendipity", remember you are spending several years of your life pursuing what may have been a chance outcome. You hope like hell you will like it. As an HR person, ever so often I meet people who are stuck in a job that they hate with all they have. Imagine what it would do to pursue a career designed around what they are passionate about. Careers and lives need to be in synch with each other. Else you are wasting your life and your talent just to earn a living to fund your lifestyle.
The Charm of Raga Malgunji
Malgunji is a complex Raga of the Khamaj Thaat. John Campana describes Malgunji as having elements of Rageshri, Bageshri and a few subtle touches of Jaijaiwanti. It is popularly described as being a combination of Raga Rageshri (in the ascent) and Raga Bageshri ( in the descent). If traditionally Raga Bageshri evokes feelings of separation from the lover, and Raga Rageshri represents reunion, Raga Malgunji depicts the initial realization of the reunion.
Do You Have Any Questions?
You have been called for an interview for your dream job. You have subjected yourself to being deep fried at the interviewer's mercy. Finally, you see signs of the interview coming to a close. They all look ready to call it a day. After you have finished answering the entire range of questions that the potential employers have asked, you are ready to run too. You silently wipe the invisible sweat off your brow and are getting ready to get up from the chair when the hiring manager asks you, "Do you have any questions?" That is an opportunity you could use to your advantage to help gather information that will help you decide whether or not this is the right role or organization for you.