Today was an interesting day at the NASSCOM HR Summit 2008 in Chennai.
There was a session on HR Leadership: Paradigm shift from process recruiters to business leaders. When the Chairperson of the panel, Mr. Pratik Kumar (EVP HR, Wipro) asked the speakers as what would they like to request from their business leaders, we had some *really cool* answers (read: CEO bashing)!
Nandita Gurjar (VP & Group Head, Infosys) would like to see a recession, so that things cool-off a little bit, giving her the most deserved respite from managing change and pushing growth initiative at the same time - definitely not an easy job by any standards. I understand that she said it on a lighter note, but if you have a serious thought on this issue, it is actually not a bad idea!
Elango R (Chief HR Officer, Mphasis) in his witty style wants CEOs to stop reading books and attending conferences. He feels that there is a new "clone it" idea brought in by the CEO everyday, which makes life really difficult for the guy. I know he does not mean it. But does it really matter. It is not going to change anytime soon.
CEO’s: Are you listening?
It just resonated in my own ears! After all, I am also one of the culprits.
Just wanted to share some light moments (read: CEO bashing).
Filed under India, Lighter Moments, HRM, HR demands, confession, CEO, top management, burn out, growth, india, It industry, nasscom, hr summit, 2008, chennai, elango, nandita, infosys, mphasis, hr management, challenges by Abhishek Rungta
I was trying to think out - What is the most important soft skill in life?
Some options I came across:
Communication? Public speaking? Problem solving? Team management? Time management?
The list was getting too long!
I tried to find a common thread which underlines several soft skills which came to my mind. I zeroed upon something which can be described as - "ability to take neutral view-points" to be the most important of all. Communication is an integral part of our personal and professional life. To interact and understand the communication and to respond in an appropriate way, it is most important for a person to be able to see things from various viewpoints and understand the reason behind an action. Only when we understand the reason behind someone’s action, we can modify our approach to get the desired result from the person we are dealing with.
A person should be able to put himself in place of the other person and see how will he feel or how will he react to a given situation. This skill can be very important for people who work in communication-centric jobs like sales and marketing, public relations, teaching, project management.
The root cause of all problems and disappointments is that we see things the way we want to see it. We all do this mistake conciously or unconciously. However whenever we interact, we can try to remind ourself - "Step in his (the other person’s) shoes".
Happy changing shoes!
Filed under Usability, Personal, soft skill, step in the other shoe, understand person, HR management, managing relationships, understand people, improve presentation, be heard, get importance, solve problems, solve disputes, resolve, get commitment by Abhishek Rungta
