Delving Deeper

Sometimes, a deadline may end up being a blessing in disguise. That sort of thing happened to me last month when a former student from a local management school where I had taught Performance Management (who goes as @Ximekochi on Twitter) reached out to me and sought my help to answer some questions the class had come up with as they were preparing for the Final Placement season. Last month had seen me taking up a new retained HCM Leadership role for a Thiruvananthapuram based IT SME client which meant that I'd be traveling from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram every week - so finding time to respond to their 'deadline' was going to be tough. Thankfully the train journey allowed me to take some time out to respond to them. I'm pasting the responses as a blog post below: 1. How can one identify and approach a mentor in the initial stages of a management career in the organization ? My answer was in two parts: A. Identification of a Mentor: Keep your eyes and ears ope...

How many of us can list out the activities that he/she has done during the past 7 days which can be listed under the category- Investment towards Self development? This investment can be easily measured in any unit of Time. I found that even full time students whom I get a chance to interact across my country (in person, online or IM's) miss this aspect. Mulling over the 'Why' behind this, I was glad I chanced upon a Linkedin post by a good friend and mentor or mine (who is @jgblr on twitter) which took me to this article by Ethan Dunwill on http://www.pickthebrain.com Pasting this for my readers. Ethan Dunwill is young entrepreneur from Hong Kong, his main goal in life is to inspire and motivate others, so  people can make themselves a little happier. Connect with Ethan at Facebook , Twitter , Google+ or visit his blog at Medium . Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-reasons-self-development-key-success/#MmC12fAw6cd5o9HD.99 Self-Development or person...

So what does it take to be a successful manager in 'X' company / Role / Context? The question which most HR team members keep mulling over as most of their Business leaders would surely be reaching out to them for answers to this question ! This week this question did come during some of my interaction as a retainer providing HR stuff to IT SME firms. I've been loving this role of mine for the past 8 months - The experience itself is topic for another blog :-) Thankfully for me, there was no googling required this time. My online / Virtual network of Senior HR professionals have written about a connected topic this week itself.  The first post I chanced upon was by a former Colleague who lead the Psychometric Assessments thought process. Here is the www.linkedin.com post  I had commented on this post as well. Later in the day, while catching up on by Blog subscriptions, another online pal whom I met IRL at this year's shrm Annual (shrm15) in Vegas has posed a simil...

Following up on my  Linkedin Post from Gurgaon just before #TechHR15 , as promised, I am ready for an update after the two day event.  First and foremost a big applause to the entire People Matters team for curating one of the best Tech + HR conferences I've attended in India so far. 1. Although there is a feeling that Technology and HR cannot be separated, there exists lack of clarity about a clear approach within the HR community (for majority), that's required to traverse journey to digital journey. 2. The basics required for #DrivingonDigital, i.e the #Internet itself - is still at a  #elephantToBlindMen stage to majority of professionals across industry segments - hence generating Happiness from Internet by weaving solutions for HR problems that exists in co's looks to be beyond many teams. They say 'Seeing is believing' - so this site is worth checking out. 3. Following up point no. 2 above - the ease and speed at which SocialMedia is spreading Internet...

My third SHRM Annual (yeah, a hatric) has been very very special from the word go.. things were looking pretty good moments after i registered (yeah.. good to plan early) around Feb this year when I received confirmation of myself being an official #shrm15Blogger.  What made it very special was also the fact that I happen to be the only blogger from India in the list of over 45 bloggers. Look at the full list here . Then came news that there is a possibility of catching up in person with a person whose work I've been following from 2001 after reading a book he co-authored - let me call it FBATR .  Bye the way, a Lot of strange connections (about which I should blog later) were nudging me towards the Subject / Study of Performance management. I'm writing this from the Bloggers Lounge where there's too much excitement preventing me to get any further.. Let me use this post to connect readers to the public Facebook Album which I've created . I shall be uploading pics...

20 Birdlists - each list being a minimum of 15 minutes should have been child's play for someone who has done over 100 lists just the previous month...Well that's what I thought read about the June Challenge put to my country's birders by @Birdcountindia Consortium on it's facebook page. As it turned out, June had many surprises (pleasant ones) in store for me on the professional front and finding time to do birding, even if it's on my terrace got tougher as the week one progressed.  I knew i had to meet or beat the target by 26th June as I will need to fly out to Vegas for #SHRM15 on 27th. The Monsoons took their time reaching my home state this year and that lull gave me some opportunity to get some birding in. Then came the big weekend which had me attending two major birding events or birder community meetups (Annual ones) at the College of Forestry, Thrissur.  The need to get more visibility around impact of birding and documentation was felt at both the ...

Ever since I've began posting pics (mostly of birds) on facebook groups and other communities on social media, I've noticed that I keep getting a particular type or request to my facebook Inbox - I'm pasting a body of text below to have readers connect with the pattern: Thanks for ...Please have a look on my wildlife photography page, if u pleased by my photography, then please like/comment /suggest to inspire my photography work Thanks… So it's been about two years since I've been posting pics and I did oblige some of these requests for 'Likes' and that gave me opportunity to track some of these pages at will.  I found that in majority of cases, the interest in photography reduced over time and so did the engagement ability.  I have now started to ask a simple - why photography?- question to when such requests reach my inbox.  Yes, Simon Sinek's TED Talk (watch video) has been an influencing factor for my interest in 'why' question. T...

HR Folks in India - it's high time you bookmark  The People Matters site. Here are just some reasons why I recommend this as a Must do for any HR person who wants to keep Learning and keep making an difference to things that they attempt to impact as a Catalyst ... aka - Change Catalyst? 1. Today at 7PM hope to know your views on #StateOfTheCHRO @vik_2 @anindya0909 @ankurnow @vaaniverse @monpensees pic.twitter.com/fpTuUzfTxy — People Matters (@PeopleMatters2) June 12, 2015 2. Come August this year and watch out for #TechHR15  to catch up on what Top HR professional have curated to evolve under the Theme 'Driving on Digital' - I happen to bump into an investor of @PeopleMatters2 at #shrm12 when shrm was attempting frantically to connect HR folks to Technology and to better realize the power that lay dormant in this area. I've been following the energetic team from then on and vouch for their interest in this domain. 3. I see them attempting a lot of Connect...

My avtaar as an HCM and OE Consultant with SS Consulting (From Jan 2015) gave me the opportunity to get a 'From the Horse's Mouth' coverage of the Startup ecosystem as it exists in South India. I will get into specifics of my views on trends etc at another time... This post is to pay tribute to this (watch video)... Thanks to the clarity of expression and use of data (however sketchy) I could relate to a lot of stuff I heard from first time entrepreneurs as they explain about their 'stories' to me. The stories they narrate help me to reconstruct the context with which they expect me to help them weave / repair people practices to support them. How I wish I got this video about 6 months back :-) TEAM - the second important determinant to success as per the data presented by Mr. Bill Gross.  After watching this video and connecting with it - I'm more confident to place my views to my present and probable clients about the need to establish a '...

Today I chanced upon an July 2014 thread of mails in which I had shared my thoughts about an approach for the local NIPM chapter (www.nipmkerala.org) This discussion was initiated by Mr. A S Girish the Kerala HR leader for Apollo Tyres after he got elected as the National Vice-President of NIPM - India's oldest professional body of HR professionals. Text which follows (red colour font) is an edited version so that my readers can connect to context: I’m trying to chip-in on a discussion thread (pasted below for reference) which Jayaraj started couple of days back. As always, Girish Sir (Mr. A. S Girish) has been the catalyst of this thread as well :-) Have to say I’m glad about that as well. Strengths of NIPM Kerala Chapter: Special branding within NIPM due to consistent performance for past decade or so – culminating in NCON2012 and raring to better everything we do :-) Location – Kochi is of strategic importance for Centuries, which no one can take away from us. Unity oriented ...

A fellow member of NIPM Kerala Chapter (www.nipmkerala.org) texted me to seek my views on how the profile of a new age HR professional would look like. That set me thinking and also got some material for this blog :-) So here's my take about the context for this whole piece: 1. Role of Data in driving / supporting people decisions have been taking centre stage in the new millennium  - this has given a new meaning to Analytical skills. 2. Understanding of neo Media – As Communication skills is an important need for any HR person, understanding of the current tools / ways by which employees seek and consume information is a prerequisite. Hence making solutions using Social media,  Real time IM tools like Whatsapp/Snapchat 3. Employee Engagement – With GenY employees being major focus for engagement activities, there is a need to revisit the age old practices (annual picnic / events being an example) and come up with tailor made, frequent and more connected activities which end...

On May 9th 2015 my birding partner Premchand and I drove to Thattekad Bird Sanctuary. We were excited to be taking part in the first ever Global Big Day - an attempt by Citizen Science enthusiasts led by Cornel Lab's Team Ebird to list an audacious 5000 species of birds from across the world on a single day. We met our good friend and bird guide Rejeev at the usual spot near the bird sanctuary gate and proceeded towards Urulanthanni sector of the bird Sanctuary. This was my third visit to Thattekad after the birding bug bit me about couple of years back while on a wildlife photography workshop with ILCP Fellow and Conservation photographer Mr. Balan Madhavan. Thattekad is a special habitat, an evergreen forest which is surrounded by Human inhabited areas and also home to about 14 species which are endemic to Western Ghats. You can find the full list here . Here are some of the birds we saw and could take a pic without disturbing the subjects.  Sri Lanka Frogmouth Brown...

I have been associated with NIPM Kerala Chapter from early 2008 - about a few months after I took up the role as first employee in India (Yeah, prouder to be an HR guy) for Arbitron Inc's (now Nielsen Audio and part of Nielsen , the Leading Market Research company. The current Chairman of the chapter Mr. Thomas Kadavan was one of the Seniors who had invited me to the think-tank then and I've thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity.  The activities which I got exposed at the chapter which was being ranked consistently among the top chapters of the National body of HR professionals was beyond the realm of stuff which I could have explored in my full time day job. Yes, that meant that I had to 'find time' / volunteer my time (post office hours and mostly wknds when it's not my personal day off / PDO's from work. So what made me keep up this interest ? Looking back, I feel the opportunity this gave to remain connected with Labour Laws and it's ramifications from ...

June 2012 was my first look at the SHRM National conferene. I've been very lucky to have the schedule coincide (with a lil bit of effort ofcourse) with the re-initiation of sorts of my annual trip to my then employer parent company. I had blogged about that  experience at #shrm12 from Atlanta here... I missed attending #shrm13 as my Dad was not keeping well that May-June and that made me miss my annual trip to US of A as well. The next year, I was lucky again as I got another need to be in US, inside a tumultuous time for myself and the company. I thought I was lucky as I did not have to take up steps explained in this article :-) seeking permission... Wonder if I'd ever get myself to do such a thing at work for any particular conference. So come #shrm15 and I'm in a very different situation - I'm now part of a energetic and committed team at SS Consulting whose founder who happens to be a Rocket Scientist (no kidding...) has taken it upon himself to see that IT S...

This week saw my country miss another opportunity. An opportunity to re-invent / re-position a nation's mindset or at least start-off on a course towards that exploration.  The events (refer links to get context) to me confirmed another dangerous and potentially contagious aspect of my country's downfall - the inability to unite for any #Cause. I am wondering if its patriotic to defend one's country from external knowledge based attack (Knowlede being the power in this Global Economy!) if that knowledge can help build a cause which will make a positive impact to the society. In this connected world, isn't  it akin to a 'I'm OK, You're NOT OK' stand? I was mulling over about this missed opportunity today morning when I received the following message from a Whatsapp group about #India. 1) We'd rather spend more on daughters wedding than on her education.👰 2) We live in a country where seeing a policeman makes us nervous rather than feeling sa...