The Unsaid Words!!

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 Personal habits, likes and dislikes are always superseded by national identities.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.

Pukh Theory.... A new beginning of a lost Culture

For a long time Pakistan was familiar with a culture of reading and many public and private libraries were made available by our elders to fulfill the need of that time. People used to wait for books and journals and there used to be fights among siblings for having a first go. The flood of media and Internet changed the moods and dimension of this area a lot. Libraries started serving some social gathering points only. In a population of 180 million people the book of which 500 or 1000 copies sold is being considered successful now. Multiple editions became rare as people are simply not interested. Cost of books also got increased as publishers have no more liberty to enjoy economy of scale so the small portion of book loyalists is also struggling.

Despite all this people still write and many still read but mostly work in Pakistan is being done in literature area and people are still getting poetry, fiction and other stuff. When it comes to have any consultation or expert opinion to business and professional areas we are mostly confined to Western and Indian authors only. Many good professionals are trying to fill the gap in this area but their efforts are facing huge resistance due to quality, cost and sometime by common domination of western mindset.

Some days back heard about a book named “Pukh Thoery” and almost all Social Medias were having this word which is normally used in language for Mockery. People were speculating what it can be in this book, a website was launched to tell reviews and all those who know Farhad Karamally were sure that something good is on its way and at last its launched and when made available and read it was not less than a treat to read.

At times some words, no matter how weird their use is, are decorated by some trendsetters and Farhad Karamally and Faraz Khan did the same to this misused word “Pukh”.  Pukh Theory, a wonderful creation of both the trendsetters is a major breakthrough for Pakistani business world. It not only addresses one of the biggest leadership challenges i.e. succession planning in a very interesting and effective manner but also made the readers think of the solution themselves.  I have never read a business parable in this much simple language and all the phrases, characters, situations and terminologies are very much Pakistani and easily understandable.

The way the book is presented and made available is also very unique. A country which is used to the sights of huge billboards of cellular companies, cosmetic industry and beverages etc. it was one remarkable achievement to have huge bill boards of a Book launch in Karachi. Two thumps up to this wonderful achievement and” Pukh Theory” is highly recommended to all those who want to read good as they will not be disappointed for sure. It should be on every CEO’s book shelf and if they don’t have any bookshelf it still remain a wonderful option for a gift as after reading this they will feel the need for one.

Having Female Team Members

An interesting debate is always alive in corporate world whether to have female colleagues in a team or not. Being manager it is really not easy to manage this specially in Pakistani Market.

A funny fact is that informally (not in writing though) most of the people believe that having females in a team creates biasness in the team and Managers of such teams or departments are never just in making any distribution of work or delegation of authority.

Pakistani society in general thinks females as incapable, weak or always at receiving end like they can’t sit late, can’t travel for long or can’t go outstation etc. although the situation is not much different for males yet for the sake of argument they quote the issues that I just mentioned.

So having a lady in your team is certainly not an easy decision by any means and even female managers don’t get ready that easily to have a female in their teams to avoid any controversies. 

For some managers it can be no problem and for some it may be a nightmare. For all those who are having issues and they are in a dilemma to leave a capable candidate just because of the gender should realize that at the end of the day only results are the yardstick to measure any performance. Having a female in a male dominated society with very less education is indeed a challenge and challenges if handled sensibly are a great source of respect. And not to mention every manager get paid for “just managing the things” JJ.

Give priority to talent not gender and do not hide your inability to handle situations by blaming society. It is directly a manager’s responsibility to keep things aligned within team and having headache of managing talent is far better than having pain of managing inabilities.

Such decisions from any management directly affect overall nation’s standing and no Nation can achieve success by keeping more than half of the population out of the race of practical life and neither can fight with the nations whose more than 90 percent population contributes in their growth and works equally well.

Be a Responsible Manager!!!!