How do you deal with ungrateful people?

Asked by Dr. Earl R. Smith II

Earl,

The great Epic Bhagwat Gita, states, "Do good to people but do not expect results. Do your duty and leave the rest unto God. Do not expect anything in return. That is the theory of Karma". When you expect results, and it is not favorable, then it just hurts you. Moreover, I believe we do something good for other, since we want to do good and not to gain popularity. I can share the beautiful poem by Mother Teresa, which seems to be very apt here:

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, at it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway"

Best Regards,
Sujatha Das

Does anyone know how to lead an icebreaker for a meeting where people make the different rhythmic sounds of a rainstorm?

Asked by Dr. Shaun Jamison

Dr. Shaun,

I have not done this myself anywhere, but remember reading it somewhere. Not sure where I read it, but had written down on my notes on Ice Breakers. "Follow these actions (when put together, they sound like a rainstorm): Rub hands together, snap fingers, clap hands, slap thighs, stomp feet, slap thighs, clap hands, snap fingers, rub hands, rest hands on lap." Not sure whether this is exactly what you are looking for, but thought it may help.

Best Regards,
Sujatha Das

What do you do to get unstuck?

Asked by Dr. Shaun Jamison

Dr. Shaun,

These are some of the things I practice, when I get stuck: a) Take a short break and do not think of it. May be have a cup of coffee and then return with a clear mind, sometimes it helps. b) Talk to a friend who may be an expert. c) Research on the Internet or Consult some books, which may spark and idea.

Regards,
Sujatha Das

What will make you feel Successful? If you aim to be as great as I do everyone will know you either by name or the work you have done. Do you agree wi

Asked by C J Deguara

Good Day!

I think if I am able to help someone or provide support mentally or at work or in some way make a person happy, I would truly feel satisfied. Recognition need not come from others. If one feels within oneself, that " I have done something good today or achieved something today", that in itself is a biggest achievement. The self-confidence, the positive energies to do more good, and the drive to be more happier comes from within.

Regards,
Sujatha

Which "secret" lesson has had the greatest impact on your life?

Asked by Terry Bean

Terry,

"Think positive and do good, God will take care of the rest" - this has been the secret lesson taught to me while I was young and it has helped me all though!

Regards,
Sujatha

Competency model: how does it work in your organization?

Asked by Sergey Karandin

Sergey,

To answer your queries by points:

1. Organizations may choose to derive from various Competency Models that may be in the Industry.
   The best way to go about will be (a) to identify the different roles within the organization and the possible career paths (eg., defining of a Competency Landscape for units). (b) Then draw up a Competency Matrix (details on the role, responsibilities - Primary / Secondary, The Skills and Knowledge Required, be it Domain, Technical, Behavioral, Management, the Qualifications, Experience and a Competency Rating that the organization would deem fit. This should also cover details such as Basic, Advanced, Expert or Role Model for instance within the Skills and Knowledge for addressing various Levels within a role.
2. After developing the Competency Matrix, Validation can be done based on the existing information being filled in by employees and identifying the gaps to enable training or performance enhancements.
3. It is a good practice to perform informal appraisals every quarter (to enable the monitoring and growth of an individual based on Goals defined) and conducting a formal appraisal at the end of the year. I hope this helps.

Regards,
Sujatha Das

What are (or have been) the biggest obstacles for change initiatives in your organization and why?

Asked by Eric Knauf

Eric,

The major challenges I personally feel from my past experience are:
a) Support & Commitment from the Senior Management
b) Tools, Infrastructure and Resource Constraints
c) Communication For any change initiative, it is of prime importance to have pro-activeness, commitment and a drive from all towards achieving the goals.

When a change is proposed, if the buy-in and commitment is set in, a lot can be achieved in terms of constraints. Once the commitment is there, the next thing is Resources and Tools, which enable in supporting the change initiative. But most importantly, Communication if not done well, makes the worst impact. The best of communicators can also be misunderstood and this is the key factor to be addressed in the right manner. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Sujatha

What would you say are the best ways for researching Customer Experience? How useful is the customer experience strategy?

Asked by C J Deguara

CJ,

I think many members have provided valuable suggestions here. I do agree with all those who have mentioned about asking the Customer about their experiences. But before this one additional step I can think of is also researching on the competitors of the Customer. The industry wide experiences and the competitors of the Customer will enable you to probe more into specific areas that you may wish to know about. You may also come across some points that they would not have thought through well, which can come of aid to you in your selection of candidate profile that you are looking for. Some of the research sites like Forrester will also provide you good articles on how well the customer is perceived or even about the industry. Hope this helps,

Regards,
Sujatha

What role do you think risk and risk management plays in the modern enterprise?

Asked by Brook Walker

Brook,

According to me, risks are to be viewed in a holistic manner and not separately as Strategic and Operational. Risk Management involves recognition of risks, Risk Assessment, Developing strategies to Manage Risks, and Mitigation using resources. The increase in cost of risk and compliance activities are leading enterprises to integrate compliance and risk management into a comprehensive risk management function, which addresses all sort of risks, and which will enable organization to increase their business efficiency. Integrating Strategic and Operational risks brings forth a large potential synergy in terms of risk identification and assessment and also with respect to adopting appropriate responses, aligned to business strategy in addressing them. Therefore I would not separate this into two.

Best Regards,
Sujatha

Who is the most committed person you know?

Asked by Steven Howard

Steven,

The most committed person I have known in my professional life has been one of the Leaders I worked with in my early years of career, well known as G N Mathur (fondly called as GNM). His patience, perseverance, ability to connect to all regardless of their age or experience, the smiling face who had an answer to every one's problem and his organized way of working (complete balance of personal and professional work), the timely results and follow-ups and information sharing....I could just go on and on....were all factors, which made me see his commitment levels so high. All around him, always saw him as a true leader who, "Walked the Talk". Ever encouraging and creating a high self-esteem in all the employees, the way every person looked and spoke high of him, through out his career and even today (after his retirement) speaks volumes about him. I guess the only reason I can see what made him commit so much was probably his good nature to "Do good for people and do your work well". The effect that people had for him can be summarised in statements like, "We are here in this organization, since he is there", "I wish I could be like him", "Where does he get the answers for all queries and his patience to resolve conflicts?" et al... I sincerely admire him and wish I could imbibe some of the things that he did for us, to make us believe that we can do wonders and we had the capability to grow high. Several lessons taught through subtle experiences and observing his own way of working has brought major impacts in my own perspectives as it stands today and I am happy about it. I have seen him very balanced and therefore I think it is in the mind and control of one's own self that we are able to provide time for all activities. We on our own should be able to draw a line of what we can do, what we want to do and what we are doing. Hope this helped.

Best Regards,
Sujatha

In the next decade, the most powerful way for companies to train their employees would be?

Asked by Shweta Kapoor

Shweta,

I will not choose one from the options, since I strongly believe there are many factors like content, the audience, the depth of the topic, et al, which actually makes one decide the methodology of delivery. Each of them have their pros and cons and mostly a blended mode provides us with better options. For example, for learning of tools or product, we may use an e-learning methodology, but a complete effectiveness will be made only if this is supplemented with a facilitator's presence to pre-brief this before the commencement, and de-brief on doubts, clarifications etc at the end. I have practically implemented some of these and has seen that many a times one particular delivery does not give the results we really aim for. I often used to say, it is easy to teach driving via simulations, but after learning if you provide the person a car and ask him/her to drive, the results may not be what we look forward for. Therefore, depending on the competency, skills and knowledge that needs to be acquired organizations may choose multiple, or all of these but deliver them in a blended manner. Each one of the methodology mentioned by you have its advantages and disadvantages. This is my personal view, so it is difficult for me to opt one. I am sure you will get a lot of response to this interesting query!

Good Luck,
Sujatha

How do you deal with people who are chronically unprepared?

Asked by Dr. Earl R. Smith II

Earl,
I agree with Robert that this is un-excusable. If the are people who are chronically unprepared, and are not changing after providing coaching, then it is best to re look whether it is worth having them in a team, since it affects team work and morale. This behavior to me arises from the fact that they do not want to accept responsibility or be accountable of what they do. Probably coming out of an environment where they never had to do it. These people probably, do not understand the value of time, work or are not serious about what they do. If the situation is that, the person(s) cannot be removed but have to be managed, then one of the best way to handle is providing them tasks and direction and expectations around the deliverable with timelines, rather than looking forward for their participation. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Sujatha

Corporate Meetings: What needs to happen after the event?

Asked by Andrew Wilcox

Andrew,
My view would be the following:

1. To post information on Intranet or relevant space (both a high level summary and details) wherein all the people can go back and refer.
2. To have a common email address or facility for people to post their further queries, clarifications, doubts if they have any.
3. Frequent follow-ups to check for queries and answer them
4. Depending on the action item and the time frame decided, another follow-up meeting to discuss the results or status of action points.

Even if there are no specific action items, it is still good to do a pulse check after a specific time period to see the reactions or seek views and suggestions from the people.

Regards,

Sujatha

What is Enlightenment?

Asked by Bjorn Martinoff

Bjorn,

Enlightenment is one's natural state of being when the mind is not clinging to anything. It is our emergence from our self-imposed immaturity. A spiritual awakening, which transforms our lives and perceptions. To site the meaning from the famous The Bhagavad Gita, "Fundamentally, the Bhagavad Gita proposes that true enlightenment comes from growing beyond identification with the ego, the little self, and that one must identify with the truth of the immortal Self, the soul or Atman, the ultimate divine consciousness. Through detaching from the personal ego, the yogi, or follower of a particular path of yoga, is able to transcend his mortality and attachment for the material world and see the infinite." To gain the ability of what our life is really all about is always bigger than what our mind can imagine. Something inside us is awake and is continuously motivated, inspired, and realizing we are a magical being who is manifesting the life that we visualize. Enlightenment is a dramatic shift in our everyday paradigm. It is about empowering others and ourselves to discover that inner peace is our most natural state. This inner peace breeds the greatest self-confidence and transformation in our energies and perspectives. It is the most effortless, easy, and essential core of who we are. Enlightenment is about reaching out to others with a great compassion and acceptance, no matter how negative they are. It may sound very difficult, but with constant practice, patience and perseverance, we can achieve this.

Regards,
Sujatha

Using LinkedIn: Why answer questions, and should every question have a "Best Answer"?

Asked by Dan Ogden

Dan,

A Good question! This is my perspective on your query. To answer the first part of the question, as to "Why answer questions", I look at it as sharing my perspective to a query, which I feel I can address. There are many which I would have liked to address and may not have an answer, which to me is a take away for more reading and learning about it. It enriches my knowledge to learn from others perspectives too. So I do not answer a question thinking will my answer be chosen as a Good answer or a Best Answer. My motivation of answering comes from the fact that I am able to address a query. To address the second part, "Should every question have a Best Answer",- why not? It is good to know how best your answer has helped the questioner to either get an answer which he/she is looking forward for, or trying to deliberate and understand views. I must say that many of the questions I have asked till date, I have wonderful answers from all respondents and it is a tough task to even choose or vote Best answers. Sometimes, the respondent may be in total disagreement with what you may have asked, but it is really good to see another perspective, that one may have not even thought about. But personally I do not view it as a caveat for gauging just the knowledge of a person, since I believe it is not easy to respond many times and I respect each person's ideas, thoughts, suggestions, views and experiences. The choice to me is from how best the respondent has been able to address the points to a given query with clarity and rationale. In all, I really enjoy asking queries and answering since I view this as an enrichment to my brain and knowledge. Topics and deliberations done well just enables one to see various perceptions, which in turn helps one to decide very clearly on critical occasions.

Regards,

Sujatha

Can human lives have noble purpose?

Asked by Arjan Haring

I have not done any study of the theories you have mentioned, but here is my perspective: When a person is truly happy and fulfilled, it is shown in his expressions, ways of dealing with people et al. Mostly the signs of happiness that we get to see in others are the results and not the cause for the happiness. If we learn to live every day as it comes, every moment with gratitude, wonder, love and kindness, we would be happy with actually looking for a reason to be happy. This makes it more meaningful since happiness comes from within. Smile, and there will be much to smile about. Be thankful, and there will be plenty of reasons for being thankful. Once we make happiness conditional, then we are limiting it and driving it away from us. I believe in the statement, "Do good to the world and the Good will come back to you". We actually feel more happy at the end of the day, when we see our customers or colleagues being happy at the small things we do. It is the smile that they return that makes us feel satisfied. If the good times never ended, they would cease to be so good. Without change, without growth, without challenge, life would become stale and empty. So we should also take care in life not to feel sad or apprehensive that the good will come to an end. So fear of loss of happiness will never make us happy, rather we should learn to live the moment. When we learn to be happy at all times, we understand that the essence of happiness is always with us. Life changes every moment and change is the only constant thing and blessing. It teaches us a lot. Set aside the complaints, excuses, conditions and demands, and make a place for happiness in your world. Be happy, and you'll discover a whole new level of life's richness. So I feel that humans can live noble and with all positive intent, which makes their life more fulfilled and satisfied. Positive energies only spread goodness and it always helps in making this world a better place to live!

Regards,
Sujatha

Relationship of KM with other functions in an organization

Asked by Shahnawaz Khan

Hi Shahnawaz,

Great question! I am in full agreement to the last sentence you have written on Knowledge Management being a cross-functional discipline and needs to focused separately and with due importance. The fact that KM has a lot of integral points of coordination with other functions does make the judgement of whether it is to be aligned or viewed separately a difficult proposition to organizations. Let us look at Knowledge Management in stages: The first stage is ensuring creation of repositories, classification of artifacts for ease of people looking for information and therefore many look at Information Technology as one place where it should reside. The second stage mainly focuses on Knowledge sharing - creation of COI's - Communities of Interest and COP's Communities of Practices, Competency Development et al, which essentially means that Learning & Development plays a key focus and importance. So Training, Research and HR are possible places of alignment for few organizations. Stage 3 and 4 becomes more critical where in there is the "Re-Use of Knowledge that is captured and Virtual Teaming, respectively. Since all these require processes to ensure everything runs smooth, a natural way of looking at it is alignment with Quality, which most organizations follow. Ideally, to me, this should be viewed separately and given its due importance looking at the facts that Competency development, Processes for ensuring smooth functioning, Tools for enabling Information Mining, Storage and reuse, virtual team work, et al, are all critical components of KM, it is good to partner with other functions and work independently as a function towards building a good flow of information and subject matter experts within the organization.

Regards,

Sujatha

What is the difference between being a "workaholic" and being passionately in love with what you do?

Asked by Yvette Dubel

A Workaholic is someone who is addicted to work. These people do not have time for anything else. Even if they have the intent to spent time with near and dear ones, they can easily be influenced and taken away by the work. Whereas, those who are passionately in love with what they do, can also draw a line in what they deliver. Their focus will be to do whatever they do in the best possible manner. They take time out in breaks, may even try to gain knowledge and expertise or be innovative or becreative with things around...have keen observation and looking for something new and better options. This is my personal view.

Regards,

Sujatha

What is the difference between customer and client?

Asked by Betrand Yella

Betrand,

In Quality parlance, a Customer is someone you interact with very closely -may be an Internal customer (same team members, inter groups, intra groups) etc or External customer (who may be even a business colleague or partner from different geography with whom you work with a sometimes deliver results). Client is normally referred to the end-use who actually uses the product or services. When there is no intermediate delivery that we do, we may just have an internal customer and an external customer alone.

Hope this helps,

Sujatha

I have a leadership question.

I have a leadership question. Is there a conflict between your role as a manager to deliver, today vs. your role as a team leader, with responsibilities to coach your team? What do you do if they cannot deliver today? Do you do it yourself, or what?

Asked by Michael Mocatta

Michael, In my personal opinion there should not be a conflict if one is aware and prepared for the scenario. For example, when I had to develop groups in some of the organizations which were start up, I was expected to deliver and also coach my team, as and when they joined. We probably need to strategize well and make preparations well ahead which are necessary to ensure that our time and priorities do not fall apart and we are able to balance this dual roles. It may involve a lot of stretching and pressure initially, but it is well paid off very soon, once the team is ready to take charge of activities on their own.
Regards,
Sujatha