There is no finish line.

Earlier this year my search for a good pair of running shoes took me to a Nike store. I came across this amazing poster there, and the image has stayed with me since.
 

Running is an adventure. And it can take you places you couldn’t even imagine. (Source: Nike)

What really does hiring for attitude mean?

It simply means that you hire someone who'll get the job done - in the right way, without cutting corners, and thinks about the customer before his/her own job security. Has more empathy and passion than the person next to them.

You oft hear the phrase, 'Skills/tools/domain/industry stuff can be thought", but of what use will it be if the learner isn't ready?

The readiness to learn, to fail, to risk, to succeed, to roll-up-the-sleeves and get the job done, to be the hardest worker in the room, are all traits that differentiates the candidate from the pool.

It's not a successful recruitment formula.

It just increases your chances of finding someone who'll have a whatever-it-takes skill to succeed.

Candor

It's an art.

It's easier said than done.

It's an uncomfortable place to be in.

It's not a people-friendly way to run the HR function.

Yet, candor delivers every single time.

We are tuned to not be brutally honest with each other. And the longer we practice it, we'll start implementing it on ourselves. And that's where the danger lies.

Most often the reason cited for not using candor is- culture. That's a fallacy because culture is itself formed by the very people who either use candor or not. We engage with people more than just once. We work with the same team for 10-12 hours a day. Think about all that you and the team can achieve if you were to use candor in your communication. You can start saying 'No' to an unreasonable request, speak up in team meetings, have open conversations about bad behavior, give and receive constructive feedback, the speed of execution improves drastically (suddenly everyone knows what to expect).

Candor is not an excuse to become a jerk. It's really just candid dialogue, to talk freely about insights, share observations, call out what's working or not (think about that 2-hr mindless PPT that you last sat through). The biggest disservice is NOT being candid with the person in front of the mirror or a friend/colleague/peer on what they must be told, and not what they want to hear.

Is candor easy? Nope. It's also a lot tougher to learn the art of using candor. It's painful (sometimes more for yourself than for the person in front of you). You'll learn the art, one conversation at a time. Push back on fear of perception, that nagging thought that you'll hurt someone's feeling, and the fear of consequences.

It's not easy. But, you'll never know unless you start. And that first conversation starts with the one you have with yourself.

5 Days and 4 Nights

Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement for a travel itinerary by a fly-by-night operator. Also, it's an event that happened a few years ago and this post was sitting in the 'Draft' folder for a long time.

I’m referring to 5 Days and 4 Nights that were spent in the hospital, while my mother underwent neurosurgery for an extreme case of Trigeminal Neuralgia. She’s doing fine now, but the tabs were not helping her stay active. She needed to rest for at least 15 hours a day! Anyway, my stay at the hospital (as her caretaker/attendee) was filled with loads of tension, anxiety and extremely high levels of hyper-tension, while she was undergoing surgery. I read an entire book in about 4-5hours (can't even remember the name right now) and a ton of help from my wife kept me from going into a hysterical black-hole.

So, I did eventually manage to keep calm and in fact had a lot of lessons to learn from the hospital staff. They were efficiency in motion!  

Lesson #1: Keep your cool!

The doctors, nurses and every single paramedic in the Operation Theatre, ICU and wards displayed calmness during the entire surgery. I did get to see the video of the surgery, to re-assure and also to keep me informed about the procedure. They had to keep their cool. And hold their nerve with tons of patience. After all, the patient’s life was in their hands. Literally!

Anxiety kills half your brain-cells, or atleast it dulls the senses enough to not think clearly. I’m sure your role as HR could involve hiring, firing, conducting appraisals, employee relations, HR ops and loads more. Phew!  This makes you feel swamped with work! Just imagine, if your next move involved saving a person’s life and you froze. 

Here’s what I learnt – take on one issue at a time. Multi-tasking is great, but even that needs a priority list to be prepared before you get into the task. A cool head is what helps you get that list straight and with enough room for flexibility. For example, retention of employees should be a higher priority than planning a replacement for them. Unless they are let-go for either integrity issues or poor performance. It’s a no-brainer, right?

Lesson #2: Timely Communication is MANDATORY!
 
At the hospital, I’d spent a considerable amount of time outside the Operation Theatre and ICU waiting for the doctor to come and update me on the medical situation. The waiting time was filled with anticipation and nervousness. Thankfully, he did come with an update on time.
 
I suppose it’s the same at your workplace too. Right? Honestly, there will be queries around Performance Appraisal, Employee Referral, Company Policies and Practices, Salary Structure, Employee Benefits and more (see you are swamped with work!) Hold on! Don’t panic. Either you DO know the answers to all the queries (not likely) or you DON’T know. If you do know, then you’ll answer (hopefully on time) to the query. If you know the answer and are still NOT responding to the query on time, time to re-look at your style of working.

The trouble actually starts when you don’t know the answer. You get a query from an employee via mail/call/in-person, for which you don’t know the answer. What to do next? Unable to think through it, you sit on the query for many days without doing anything about it. Meanwhile, the employee who had to fill the appraisal waited and sent an incomplete one which is going to impact the review. It’s an extreme case, but nonetheless, it did happen. If you DON’T know the answer, let the person know. Ask for time to get back (be practical in taking time) and then come back to ask your manager or other team members, but get that query answered – ON TIME. More importantly, it's perfectly okay to ask for help.

Lesson #3: Think and Act
 
More often than not, we do have a tendency to “jump-the-gun” while solving problems! It’s good, after all having a bias-for-action is appreciated. However, a little discretion never hurts, while deciding the course of action. THINK & ACT! Is it easier said than done? You bet!

Fire-fighting is a tough skill. Combine that with some strategic thinking and you’ll get yourself a killer-combo!
 

The best lessons are learnt in the most unlikeliest of places. Mine just happened to be in a hospital…

Four books that one MUST read in 2017

There are book lists and then there are books that change your life.

Here are 4 books that I'm sure will have a positive impact on the reader.

   

 P.S: I'll share my thoughts on each book, but if you've already read them, do share your takeaways as well. 

Happy New Year!

The video might be a distraction, it's also a sign that most times we are focusing on the easy targets. Like sending a mass mail to candidates, WhatsApp'ing a common wish to everyone on your contact list, or even worse not doing anything at all. Everything is a choice.

May 2017 be the year where you take the leap-of-faith to:

- develop an attitude that will get shit done
- be ever so optimistic that you'll work on an idea even if it has a 20% chance of working
- bring candor to every discussion
- keep the faith in people around you
- make 'Trust' your defacto mode in day-to-day work
- not shy away from failing
 
Everything is a choice. Make yours count!

Happy New Year!