Complimenting your Reputation

Use of Social Media has reached to such heights that were never thought of before. Billions of users of different social media platforms are spending a lot of time on these for various reasons. People try to have a look at the social media presence of the employers and even employers now look at the profiles and social media activities of people attached to them.

I don't want to debate on the benefits or adverse effects of social medias as its just a matter of choice to me. On the basis of my more than 6 years experience of using different social media I can say it very confidently that people who follow you on social media will certainly try to sync your online personality with real you. One can never enjoy different reputation at Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or Blogger as compared to real life. For professionals its really critical specially people at the positions of authority.

Many people just try to post things or comment so unethically, which does not suit to their position, age or personality. Mind you, by deciding to use any social media platform as professional is same as sitting in a glass room at the corner of a market. People will come and notice your every move. So set your priorities and make your own theme to and identity at social media.

In an IBM research they quoted social media presence as digital identity and according to them, it take years to build digital identity and just a moment to ruin it.

Don't ruin your reputation compliment it online!!

Reference: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/zz/en/securesocialsmart/index.html?content=3

Thanks God!.... 

Shukar Hay!!

Service Excellence redefined!!  

On theory, in the booklets or in advertisements Customer Service remains the focal point of all businesses specially service industry. Managers, coaches, trainers and consultants share various remarkable experiences of customer services where individuals representing different companies sets exemplary standards of customer services. The phrases "Thinking out of the box", "Going the Extra Mile", "Customer is the king", "everything for the customer" are used, practiced and encouraged almost everywhere. 

When it comes to service industry of Pakistan, There are certain similarities among all those service providers which are somewhat enjoying monopoly in their areas of operations. They have created another class of service excellence. In this class customer experience is different than all bookish and theoretical experiences. I termed it as "Thanks God!" or in Urdu  "Shukar Hay!".

They have done some unmatched work in their service areas to achieve this. Let me quote some customer experiences that will elaborate the spirit of the title of this write up:

"Thanks God! Today it was only 5 hour Load shading, thanks WAPDA"

"Shukar hay!  My flight is only 1 hour late, thanks to the lady at counter of PIA"

"Thanks God!!! Got the CNG right before it went offline"

"Shukar hay!!! I was not travelling on rail"

It needs some serious courage to get these satisfying statements from highly satisfied customers in any service industry of the world. The tragedy is that less suffering has become another definition of good service to the mass user base of all these services. This is why Monopoly is discouraged all over the world in any industry. PIA has competitors in most of the destinations now but still enjoys monopoly in various domestic destinations and unless the market is opened to other investors. International and local investors should be encouraged to invest and state intervention is eliminated from corporate structure. Otherwise it will remain same and we will keep on thanking for providing less bad services.

Why not Part Time Jobs for Students?

Pakistan is a very different country in many dimensions. Some of these dimensions are really great and some are quite questionable. No matter how different we are, we are learning things quickly and adapt things way too quickly than many other countries. 

Pakistani HR professionals, working in leading corporate firms are doing a great job for the talented lot in Pakistan by introducing various opportunities for talented youth in Pakistan. But one area that still need attention from people responsible for creating jobs that almost all of giants in the industry do not offer part time jobs to students in the universities and colleges. 

There is some good deal of work available, for those responsible for job profiling to find simple job units and break them in part-time units. Students can also be offered full time work in summer breaks or other vacations.

There can be various reasons for not doing this at this stage however this is the way forward to strengthen the economy in the long run and encourage students to earn and spend and stop dependency on parents. 

This exposure will enable students to taste the challenges of practical life and also may encourage to start their own firms. The responsibility also lies equally on universities and colleges that they should make it mandatory for students to find Part Time jobs. There must be a  placement office in every education institution.

By making this change only the society as a whole will stop classifying work as good or bad and will start moving in right direction.

You can only win a game by staying in the game!!

Its a common practice now a days by our career starters that they get impatient with their career growth. I agree that one should try to grow as much and as quick, no question about it, the problem is that they end up frustrating themselves and switch career without any need and make themselves more frustrated in most of the cases. Access to social media has enabled them to see a lot more success stories and thriving people than ever before. I have seen a lot of people to change jobs on getting demotivated for growth chances at the very start of their career without realizing that couple of years are just a milestone or maybe base for the rest of their career. I would like to request all of those who wanted to get growth quickly that the only way to win a game is to stay in the game, if you keep on changing games you will end up as jack of all. Pick the game you enjoy and then don't leave until you prove yourself. US open or Wimbledon can only be won by one individual every year rest all keep on trying and are still regarded as wonderful players. 

Don't get demotivated too quickly!!!

The unsaid words:

It is commonly said that a picture can describe thousands of words and quite rightly too. I was watching the picture of two foreign ministers of Pakistan and India. They were posing for media before their meeting in India. The foreign affairs experts and media has already done enough surgery on the issues discussed and non-issues like Ms. Khar's dressing, bags and scarf. I want to discuss something different related to this picture and many other pictures where Pakistani Politicians shaking hands with female statespersons on various international events and meetings.

As a matter of unsaid moral standards statespersons have to portray their country's image and culture in such a way that their country is represented in all possible ways. Chinese only use their own language at any international gathering, many African men and women wear their traditional cloths and many use all products of their own country while travelling. All this is to create an image and give impression of their belief and love to their country, language and culture.

I personally like Ms. Khar in many regards like her confidence, her dressing and the scarf or dopatta thing. Because she portrays a true Pakistani women's image. I am sure Pakistan's 90% plus educated ladies or to be more precise educated working ladies have somehow same appearance as Ms. Khar is presenting.

However, as a matter of fact Pakistani women do not shake hands normally and it is considered very bad normally in masses. When people from other countries visit Pakistan they normally do not try to offer a shake hand for same reasons. I simply do not want to touch religious issues attached to this sensitive topic however I simply cannot digest a Pakistani statesperson giving a false message to the world that its ok to shake hand with me. In reality it is not ok for some 100 million people in this country. Even if it is considered a personal choice thing, statesmanship has nothing to do with personal lives. Personal habits, likes and dislikes are always superseded by national identities.

Interestingly before such meetings all tiny details are discussed by both countries, God knows why our responsible persons are always proved as so irresponsible.

If anyone of you get a chance to reperesent country in any capacity do take care of any trivial thing which can hurt the identity of the country. If representing a profession at any forum do ensure that you are justifying the image of same profession and so on.

We live in a world of brands now and people are brand concious.

Workplace Burnout

If you are facing problem of disliking your workplace, thought of going at work disturbs your mood. You face upset stomach, headache, and anxiety at work without any disorder in eating habits.  Then you are for sure a victim of work place burnout. Workplace burnout is one of the most common corporate diseases and if not handled carefully it may lead to some serious consequences.

Courtesy to alive family units and joint family systems in Pakistan many people avoid side effects of workplace burnout but not all are so lucky. Instances are on the rise where people getting strokes, heart attacks, ulcers and paralysis attacks due to tough routines or failing to counter work place pressures.

Workplace burnout once identified can easily be managed by taking some simple steps and sometimes change in work place location helps the cause. Human centric organizations try not to let it happen as workplace burnout lead to losing good resource and ultimately revenues the basic existence of business.

Now the question arises how we can avoid it once identified. There are some things that can help reducing it by line management, HR and peers. However, again not all are lucky to have such line management, HR or peers.  So whether you have this liberty to have someone thinking for you or not, actual onus falls on YOU. Only YOU can do things differently for you. Try these 10 simple things and you will feel a lot better:

1.       Try to create some moments of enjoyment in your work every day, a funny mail, a joke, an unusual thing, a cup of tea with team, forcing your team to have a 5 minutes sudden break for a joke you can name it Joke Break J

2.       Go for a dinner/lunch or even for tea with friends/team. Don’t wait for any of your friends to make this plan, there is no harm in initiating a plan.

3.       Exercise, Play a game or try to go for a walk every now and then, it’s relaxing not only physically but mentally impacts very positively.

4.       Spend time with children and old people. Try to enjoy the innocence and experiences.

5.       Try to find new ways of doing same tasks to avoid boredom or monotony.

6.       Try to read books and something relevant to your field every now and then. Also try to figure out how people are doing same things in other parts of the world.

7.       Look to wish people around you on their big days and try to surprise them and feel the enjoyment.

8.       Try to have interesting competitions at work like who can do a certain task in least time and have some funny celebrations for winners and don’t try to win all the times if you are the best in that particular skill J

9.       Try to pre-empt busy days and divide work in advance.

10.   Plan your day-offs (leaves) every 6 months and ensure that you have no access to mails, office tasks and matters in your day offs. If possible go to some hill station or at place where you feel comfortable to do something refreshing or exciting. Watch movies, play with children, read some good things or do some community-work.

The list can go long or can contract for some but at least these can change your work style and make you a happy person at work and you will start enjoying work and will add value not only to your organization but to your own life.

Who should attend a Training Program…??

 Every organization in the current corporate world arranges a number of training programs for its employees. These programs range from Technical to soft skill development.

As per theory these programs are designed to enhance employees’ skill set and make them ready for future needs. However a large majority of the participants of these programs have some different mindset and they attend these programs primarily for change, just a time off or just for funJ. For many organizations even this is acceptable and they encourage employees to attend even for fun.

Such participants still add a lot of value to training programs specially the soft skill ones because they attend all such sessions with very fresh mind and generate very good ideas and learning.

But the question mark “?” remains on the special segment of forced attendees who took training programs as “Burden” and its quite unlikely that they use any of the key learning of the session in their routine work/personal life. Every management needs to address this issue very tactfully as training outcomes may work as fuel for any organization's future journeys. 

There is some handsome cost involved in arranging a training program in terms of efforts and money so in order to have better rate of return on investment organizations should arrange some quality trainings and encourage their people managers to create a competitive environment in their respective domains and people win nomination as a privilege or as a token of appreciation for their performance. Also there must be a loop closure after the sessions by giving them some extra responsibilities or projects in which they should apply the learning and share the benefit with the rest.

There should be an internal audit of all such programs as to what value was added for organization. This exercise not only will help in enhancing the program but also will create an obligation for all the people managers to nominate those persons who really deserve to attend these trainings.