In search of gold, we are losing the diamond

After the pandemic, few skills are in full demand, especially IT skills in India. Digitalization was always one of the agenda in companies’ strategy documents, however it is accelerated because of the pandemic. It means that these skills became crucial in view of organizations fast tracking their digital agenda. 

Does this mean that the situation will remain the same after 3-5 years? Definitely not. Another issue is about the artificial scarcity created by the talent itself. Imagine, you have one offer in hand, and you have resigned from your current company. You are on a notice period. As you are not committed to the current organization now, you start further exploring opportunities in spite of having the offer in hand. You get another offer during the notice period. Now your current organization wishes to retain you and matches your salary with a second offer which is almost double of the current salary. As you have enough time in hand and you get another offer with a triple salary. Because of the notice period and your delayed joining, you start shopping. Ideally it is the only one talent, but because of the insane behaviour of the market and pressure from the business you get multiple offers. Ready-made skills are always attractive for certain periods. 

During the process other organizations could have seen other talent but the assumption is that having multiple offers means great talent. Instead of searching, the talent organizations are only focusing on particular people who are active on job portals and LinkedIn.  

Because of short term focus, organizations and candidates are missing the long-term actions. They want to save the present, but they lose the future. Organizations need to think of “the dual strategy” which means, you build a strategy not based on one outcome, but you also consider the future. For example, you don’t only focus on the short term (hiring the skills from the market) but also start to build up the current and future skills within an organization for the future. Of course, organizations should have done this at least a year back. 

While doing this, there should be some assumptions. Even in the past everybody knew that certain skills are in demand and will be in demand. This is the game of supply & demand but sometimes business leaders are so desperate for short term gain given the reason of cost competitiveness while missing the long-term actions. 

Two years back, the software engineer and IT skills were right sized and fired. The reason mentioned by those companies was performance but actually it was slimming the organizations. This resulted in the formation of unions in certain areas. There were complaints filed against those companies in the labour office and labour courts. Now same talent has become crucial for those organizations. All assumptions were fragile.

A well-known author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, “Anti Fragile” writes, “there are three distinctions when describing systems, organizations etc, i.e.  Fragile, Robust and Anti-Fragile. Fragile systems and organizations are vulnerable to all kinds of unforeseen events or pushes, like the situation we are seeing now. Robust ones can withstand them. Anti-fragile ones even benefit from potentially unforeseen events. The key is to build your system, organization or company as much as possible in a robust or even anti-fragile way.”

I understand the panic situation of those organizations because of the business pressures but they had a great opportunity in the past to build the robust talent management systems in their organizations. They are looking for the gold but lost the diamonds which could have been perhaps more beneficial. 

The problem is not with that talent who is shopping the job from one company to another company, the problem is with the organizations who are allowing them to do this. unfortunately. Building a robust organization and system is still far away.  

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga 

Coping with the anxiety due to Covid19

Covid19 situation is very bad in India. The second wave is more dangerous but more dangerous are that news about unavailability of beds, oxygen supply, medicine, and vaccines. The invisible virus has spoiled the fun in our lives. Every family is affected by the virus. People lost their beloved ones. We still don’t have the solutions to handle the situation. People are scared and are worried about their families.

This is bringing anxiety, panic attacks. Few deaths are not because of the infection but because of the panic attacks. The negative information is flowing like a fire on social media. Because of the illogical and irrational thoughts anxieties are magnified. Most of the people are so sure that something bad will happen to them and their families. In nuclear families, this fear is prominent. The fear of losing something is creating panic and people are becoming anxious.          

We need to understand that we can’t change this situation, but we can help to improve the situation by taking enough care and following the guidelines given by the health ministry from time to time. At least this time we have the vaccine to fight with the virus and eventually it will be available for everybody as the government is scaling up the production of different vaccines. We need to fight with the covid but along with it we need to fight with our anxiety.

Our thoughts have the power to change how we feel. If you think something sad would happen, it’s likely you’ll start to feel sad about the situation. The beauty of the mind and thought is you feel what you think. Yes, when you think of something positive and calming, you feel relaxed. 

If you want to be relaxed and free from anxiety then, 

Challenge irrational thoughts: To overcome the anxiety, start challenging your thoughts, which you will realise, are irrational. You can do it by examining the evidence and challenging those thoughts, you can reduce anxiety. Stop watching negative news, reading forwards on social media and start investing your time in value added activities. When you encounter any negative thoughts about Covid, put thoughts on trial. Choose a thought that has contributed to your anxiety. Gather evidence in support of your thought (verifiable facts only), and against your thought. Compare the evidence and determine whether your thought is accurate or not. Most of the time, you will realise that the negative news, and forwards are politically motivated, faked, or with distorted facts. Sometimes those are based on the narratives created to frame you by the so called political analysts, urban naxals, corrupt journalists and agents of political parties.

When you are anxious and in a panic mode, please question the thoughts that contribute to your anxiety. Ask yourself, below questions and affirmations as explained in brackets. 

“Is my thought based on facts or feelings? Are the news I am reading are opinions of somebody or based on the factual data?

(Most of the time, the news will be based on opinions and not the facts. There are different narratives which I should not think about much.)   

“How would my best friend, beloved one see this situation? What precautions I should take”

“How likely is it that my fear will come true?” Do I have any solution to handle this? Like if Covid is infected, what support do I need?

(However, after the research you will find that the recovery rate is almost 90%-95% and those who are suffering are those who ignored early symptoms, you will also find that people died because of the secondary infection or panic attack.)

“What’s most likely to happen?” If I am following all safety protocols, why do I need to worry?

(But in case if it happens, I am sure I will recover. And now most of the cases are home quarantine, it means those are not that serious. Check around you, in your colony and you will find that almost all people are recovered from the infection.)

“If my fear comes true, will it still matter in a week? A month? A year?”   

(I am taking all precautions; I am safe and yes vaccination is already there. The situation is just a matter of time. Everything will be fine. In both cases I will gain something. If infected, antibodies and experience, however, I don’t want to be infected, hence I should take all precautions and enroll for the vaccine if it is available for all.)

Create your own narrative for you and get free from the anxiety. You will be happy.

Be safe, be happy!

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga 

Vitality in Human Resource is now available in paperback edition. Please click here to buy

Buy Industrial Relations Strategy Framework For Every Manager on amazon. Click IR Strategy Framework.

My three leadership lessons in 2020

HRTales asked me my top three leadership lessons during 2020 and I responded as follows. 

Year 2020 was a learning year for everybody. VUCA was the most abused and used jargon in the corporate world.  However, we all learnt the actual meaning of VUCA in 2020. In fact, it was a great leadership lesson.

My first lesson is 

In a crisis situation, leaders are in the line of fire from various key people in the ecosystem, customers, government, employees, stakeholders, society and political leaders. These all people may have unrealistic expectations from the leaders. This brings tremendous stress and possibly the leader may make mistakes. In such a situation, leaders need to be courageous and confident. When your employees and customers are watching you, you need to demonstrate the behaviour where they should feel comfortable working with you. By demonstrating courage and confidence, you drive the right behaviours in your team too. This includes taking a calculated risk, saying no at appropriate time, taking care of employees and simultaneously focusing on the business continuity.

Second Learning is

Leaders too have their weaknesses and blind spots. The maturity is when we recognise those weaknesses and blind spots and be vulnerable. During the pandemic we all were struggling to find the solutions to different aspects like, converting the office into home offices, motivating employees, handling infections and health issues of family and teams, customers not honouring the contracts, loss of revenue and poor cash flows. The situation was so unique that there was not one fit all solutions. In this process, i learnt that as a leader, we also have vulnerability and it is okay to admit our blind spots and lack of knowledge in certain areas.

My third leadership lesson is

Purpose, values and creating the trust capital is crucial. We understood the value of relations, human interactions, social life and also understood that we have very little needs, if we manage it properly as we did during the pandemic. Such feeling takes you to the purpose in life. As a leader, one of the imperative is to give the larger “purpose” to the team, work on the values essential for survival in business or in personal life and create the trust capital in the organization. Build the trust during good times, so that you are not alone during a crisis situation. As a leader continuously invest in building meaningful relations with employees, customers and other stakeholders in the ecosystem. You can use this trust capital to set the directions, get the alignment and commitment from employees and other stakeholders. 

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga 

Vitality in Human Resource is now available in paperback edition. Please click here to buy

Buy Industrial Relations Strategy Framework For Every Manager on amazon. Click IR Strategy Framework.

Let's welcome the year 2021 with an inspiring experience of the year 2020

Year 2020 has given us a unique experience. It started with an uncertain and unpredictable situation resulting in fear, triggered emotional threat. Everybody was not sure what to do? Leaders were disoriented. People were at stress. Nobody expected what life would be. It was a human crisis, economic crisis, medical crisis and you name it, the world was in all types of crisis. However, we learn to deal with the crisis. We overcame all fear, uncertainties, ambiguities. Millions lost their job, but they started something different to earn their livelihood. This pandemic also surfaced the good side of humanity. People came together without any leadership to support the needy people. This is the beauty of humanhood in India. Few organizations rightsized the organization and laid off employees, but many organizations took care of their employees, paid their salaries on time and supported employees and their families during this crucial period. Employees reciprocated by volunteering for salary reduction and supported organizations. People learnt new skills, worked in a different environment, stretched themselves and proved that human beings can overcome any odds in life.

There is a famous statement Dag Hammerskjold, “Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was.'' When we reflect and see the pandemic attack, it is the same. Pandemic was like a mountain and when it started, we never thought how strong it would be. When we entered, we realised it was a really life threatening year. But when we look back, we see that there is a silver lining. 2020 was a great teacher, mentor and coach, a difficult year but gave us a unique experience.

What we learnt? We learnt that traditional thinking has to be challenged. We never thought that remote working is possible fully. We never thought that in spite of all odds, people come together and collaborate very well.  We realised that everything is possible, what we used to think was impossible.

There is great learning for everybody, government organizations, private organizations, education institutions etc. However, the Government has to work on creating a meaningful ecosystem for different strata in society. Different departments need to work in sync and collaborate for delivering services. It should be for Awareness and Education, Medical, Incentives, Assistance Programme etc. The central government has done it at some extent; however, politicians have seen the opportunity to run their agenda. We need matured society, matured citizens and sensible politicians to make democracy strong.
Private organizations are more successful in collaboration and bringing new ideas to bounce back. Organizations came with such ecosystems like task force, crisis management team, etc.

Scenario planning is another area where our government has planned the medical facilities; however they could have done better on an economic side. Private organizations have done exceptionally good on this front.

During the pandemic, we learnt many things,
We learnt to push our boundaries,
We learnt to think out of the box,
We learnt that we have minimum needs,
We learnt that wealth and money is not everything,
We learnt that relationships always matter; we learnt who are ours.
We learnt sometimes we need “me time”
We learnt that if we try something, we can get it done, 
We learnt that we can’t fully predict the future and all plans may not work,
We learnt that life is on hopes and hopes keep us surviving,
We learnt to learn which we had stopped in the past.

We learnt so many things during just one year. We should keep this spirit of reinventing ourselves and take this journey forward even in 2021. Let’s welcome in 2021 in true spirit. 

I would like to quote of author, Har Borland, “Year end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on with all the wisdom, that experience can instill in us.”

The year 2020 has given that moments and experience which will inspire us to live and perform better in 2021. Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. Stay safe and stay healthy.  

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle, Vitality in Human Resource: Adding human dimensions in HR processes

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)    

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart and BookGanga 

(Income from books is donated to the Janseva foundation which works for orphans, street children & abandoned elders)

Covid19 and new normal

Few years back when the central government amended the company law for CSR spend, there were a lot of NGOs started mushrooming to support corporate & help them to manage the CSR fund. Everybody wanted to support organizations without much having any competencies to manage projects under CSR. Few of the NGOs even didn’t have any knowledge about the spend. On the other side, few suppliers and consultants were trying to relate everything with CSR and approaching companies. I remember when one of the English language training institutes approached me about English speaking courses for villagers and people in rural areas. In another case, Children story book publisher approached me about selling books for kids in the school. These people were not aware about priorities of the societies and companies. There is another set of NGOs who are managed by designer social workers. Unfortunately, this is a social engineering business model. Somebody’s donation is somebody’s business. During the Covid19 situation, today those people on the ground supporting the poor are small foundations or social workers in a true sense. I have not seen any designer NGO working at ground level.

I remember this because of Covid19 situation. The Covid19 situation is the same, where everybody is trying to relate their actions with Covid19 situations. I have seen some products which are proposed to en-cash the moment. I get marketing mails where they are trying to relate everything to Covid19 situation. They are assuming that everything is because of Covid19, from payroll to training and health & wellness. Very few are adding value to our business and knowledge. 

Take an example of digitalization. We have been speaking about the digitilization & the new ways of working for the last few year. We already knew that automation, digitalization, artificial intelligence is part of life. Covid19 has given us the opportunity to test where we stand and how much we are prepared for this. There are companies which have already been working from home for the last few years. Surprisingly, companies which call themselves modern companies (IT) don’t have enough IT hardware to manage this situation. There are a lot of companies where employees are working from home either with their personal desktop or laptops are shared among them. But there are organizations who have all infrastructure ready & they were forced, they started to work from home with few hiccups and now it is well settled. 

But does it mean that in future everybody would like to work from home? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. totally depend upon the personal choice and organizational needs. Human beings are social animals; they have their psychological needs. Employees and organizations need to find ways to keep them engaged. Working from home for a few days is ok but working from home permanently has its own consequences. It is very fancy to say about it, but organizations need to devise futuristic policy how they will ensure engagement, productivity and also have right controls.

There is another fad nowadays and it is about expert comments on the consequences of Covid19. Do we really need to tell us that Covid19 will have a bad impact on the economy? It is common sense. Few years back, when MS office was launched, people were fascinated by making fancy presentations. There is one presentation on the SlideShare which speaks about “Death by PowerPoints''. It was too much. Slowly people got it habituated and matured enough to make sensible presentations for the audiences and they realized that presentations are just to compliment the speaker while presenting something to the audience. In extreme conditions if you face technical issues and your ppt doesn’t work, you should be able to speak without that. Today, it is the similar fad of using apps like Zoom for webinar. I will say that people will die because of webinars. There should be some sensible topics. I fully understand that such webinars are good to keep engaging people. It is also assumed that people don’t have anything to do hence it is a good opportunity to connect. But the problem is relating everybody as a consequence of Covid19. Few topics and of course I am also the culprit of speaking on one or two forums. Initially for a few days, it was OK to have some sessions, but I have seen few people speaking and giving their opinion which is not an expert opinion and doesn’t make any sense. They are not giving any new knowledge about the “how” part.  Covid19 will have a new normal which will be different from normal. That’s it. 

One thing which I like about this situation is that organizations are challenged and without much discussion everybody accepted the change of working from home & new way of working. In a normal situation, there would have been a lot of excuses for not doing it. Another change is mindset change. In a normal situation, it would have been the change management project with a big team and perhaps 1-2 years project. In this situation, it is just fast. What I feel is that this situation is extraordinary, a once in a decade event. We should enjoy this and find out some positives from this but don’t be carried away with what it means. Is it perfect? No. Still employees have a lot of challenges & organizations have to work on this. 

My take about this situation is as under:

Create an urgency & Just do it: During normal situations, we tend to discuss a lot and delay a lot of projects, ideas & decisions just because we are not sure about the same. Most of the time, it is just courage and confidence which lacks. Ideas are discussed, but not implemented because management doesn’t create the sense of urgency. During Covid19, this urgency is created by the situation and of course by the government.      

Digitalization is not because of Covid19. Covid19 just forced you to use this. Organizations can spend more on the infrastructure now.

Work from home is again not because of Covid19, most of the companies have their work from home policy. Companies like yahoo withdrew work from home policy in 2003. However, Covid19 just forced it and challenged organizations. It is a high time to invest into infrastructure to make it effective.

Work from home does not mean work life balance. Few employees tend to work more, and supervisors may take you for granted. Your availability is always expected.  In fact, work from home needs more professionalism and discipline. Organizations need to work on how to manage this.

Work from home is not always productive. Manufacturing companies can’t work from home and neither do their supervisors & managers. Lot of things happen on the shop floor.

Till we get the vaccine to fight the Covid19, we need to work on developing our immune system. We also need to change our habits and need to be more hygienic. Social distancing will be the new norm and naturally this will have the impact on few businesses. Possibly this will also increase the consumption of foods & consumables at home. People may use their own vehicles and it may help the economy to grow in 2021.

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource