Hiring of Right Person ...

Last week I was a Guest Speaker at a renowned university and during the session one student asked me what is one main trait that you usually explore, is in the right candidate while interviewing?  

And we usually hear that right person on the right job but who is the right person? At that time I could not answer her satisfactorily because there are so many factors which influence the decision for right person while on interview. So I started to research on that & figured out the following traits of the right person. 

Integrity

It is the core strength of any right person, it comes before anything like education, Personality, soft skills etc. Well to judge integrity of a person, it’s easy if you are going to hire employee internally as you must have his/ her employment records with you .But if you are going to hire a person from outside then you have to conduct his reference check , Social media checks & his views about his previous employers in personal interview. 

Trust worthiness

Trust worthiness is encompassing on competence & responsibility, if any one factor will be missing then person will not remain trust worthy. For instance someone is very competent & knowledgeable in his domain but s/he is irregular so such person can’t be a trustworthy because s/he is not responsible .It is the trustworthiness which make you inimitable from others .So while hiring a person one should focus on trustworthiness of candidate & judge from both scenarios s  i.e. Competence & responsibility .

Intelligence

Intelligence does not mean to solve some mathematical problems or high marks in IQ test. Here we relate intelligence with quality of questions asked by the candidate. In other words how much interview was interactive with candidate or it were only a straight interview in which interviewer asks questions & candidate only answer to these questions. If a candidate is showing interest in your organization & asking that what sort of challenges are prevailing for the position?  What is your expectation form the new incumbent?  What are future plans of organization for further growth? etc.

Maturity & resilience

Maturity can be attained, by the way, in any age. An 18 year old person can be immature and a seven year child can be matured. It is the circumstances, decisions and hardships which make a person matured & develop the quality of resilience against odds. Maturity will be showing from one’s sense of humor & family back ground. So must asked about one’s life hardships of life & how one overcomes against these odds.

Positive Energy & Enthusiasm

Again the most crucial thing which should be taken into account while hiring; it is positive energy & enthusiasm shown by the candidate. It is the positive energy & one’s enthusiasm which boosts the whole team energy into positivity. 

Gut Feeling

We can’t take it for granted, may be all of the above mentioned points  have been fulfilling the requirements but if you have any unusual or unrest feeling deep down then don’t hire the person. If you have “something still missing feeling” about any candidate then don’t hire the person.  And it should be clear to you that your decision is not based on any biases. Because if you were to hire a person against your feeling, your future working relationship may not be healthy and the decision making in any sense will get affected.

By : Syed Shahzad Ali 

HR Expert

Triumph Over The Bad Habits

My one of best friend use to be a chained smoker but I always enticed him hard to leave it . Ever time  he told me that "whenever he thinks about leaving the smoking , he feels so much pain associated with it ". So I started working on it as I did with myself , but now Alhamdulliah , I am not a smoker anymore. Yes he is absolutely correct ,it is a matter of pain & pleasure which is associated with over all habits, as long as you will be associated pleasure with your any bad habit , you can’t exonerate it . Habits take a single moment to change but it is up to you whether you are committed with to let off it or not . When you want to start a habit, don’t tell yourself you are doing it for life, tell yourself (your conscious brain) that you are going to try it for 21 days , because habit is a unconscious frequent repetition of behavior. For example if you want to start the habit of Exercise tell your conscious self that you are trying it for 21 days only . Now, when you have completed this for 21 days your conscious mind has the choice of stopping it or carrying on, or so it thinks. Now it’s up to you what sort of order will you give to your brain to do, now your commitment with that habit will emerge and you will be very near to acquire a new habit for another 90 days then it will become a permanent part of your personality or behavior as a Habit after 365 days . There are following stages one has to go through to emerge new habit/ pattern and letting off the old one.

What do u want And why ?

If you want to quit smoking you have to affirm your unconscious that you want to quit smoking& why you want to quit relate some pain with it, you have to correlate the solid reasoning with that otherwise after sometime you will resume your quit habit again . You have to repeat these affirmation whenever you have a free time specially at the bed time or in the morning while brushing or bathing.

Get the leverage yourself

Once you have affirmed your unconscious that what so you want with solid reasoning now get the leverage of yourself & show your control over you . Make a public commitment for quitting smoking , tell everyone you know specially to those who are very hooked up with smoking . Enjoy your leverage by denying the offer to have a Cigarettes.

Interrupt the pattern

Don’t like a bee , who hitting the window pane again and again for escaping, do different things if one thing is not working like don’t go there for a week or couple of weeks where smokers will have been gathered or quit the company of smokers. Just interrupt your past pattern it is just like that you made a lot of scratches on DVD & it not able to play again likewise interrupt your unconscious in that manner , it should not have single thought about the smoking. Associate a great pain with smoking or your any habit which you would like to quit.

Figure out some Alternatives

Associate pleasure with some other alternative which provide you the more pleasure that smoking . it is not meaning that you started chew Tobacco. You have interrupted your pattern so this sort of thought will not be emerged in your mind but do some constructive alternatives , It can be a jogging , mediation , cooking , reading etc.

Repetition of alternatives

Repetition is the mother of Skill , so repeat you new pattern/ alternative and then it will become your habit, then practice it and have pride on your self that you have an extreme control over your behavior.

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By : Syed Shahzad Ali 

HR Expert in Pakistan

Harness The Power Of Decision Making Within Yourself

Last week one of my colleagues resigned from the job.

But prior to submission & even after tendering his resignation, he seemed quite perplexed and ultimately on the pressure by his Manager, he had taken back his decision & now again he is in search of a new opportunity. Though I had been through him this period but it kept bothering me that Why we are not committed to our decisions or don’t we possess the power of decision making?

I have been thinking on these grounds & after dedicating a good number of hours to this, I have summed up the following points;

Use the power of decision.

We have the ultimate power within ourselves i.e. power of decision making.  We make lot of decisions in our daily life by choosing that which clothes we are going to wear for the party or to the office to what we will have in dinner. There is a need to use this power in the right & effective manner.

Whatever you do or can’t do, you are right. Henry ford.

Acquire the hardest step towards achieving your goal i.e. true commitment or true decision.

It is the most difficult task to build an honest & true commitment with your goal. Commitment is like a fuel to any decision, once you will develop a true commitment then decision making would have been ease down. Without having a firm commitment you can’t take any decisions because decisions firstly are affirmed by our commitment in our brain, then we roll out it into action.

Take Frequent Decisions.

Decision making is a prime skill which is inherent in one person. Like we do exercise to build our muscles similarly we have to harness the power of decision making by taking frequent decisions. Repetition is the mother of skill, so take quick & frequent decisions. Initially it might be that you may take some immature decisions but just believe that they are not wrong decisions because decision making is an art and art could not be wrong but it might be immature. Recurrence of decisions will make you perfect in that skill.

Learn from Decision.

It is your decisions not your conditions, which drive your destiny. So every time when you make a mature or immature decision, sometimes it gives you a feeling of an achievement & sometimes it learning experience or lesson. Whether there is an achievement or experience, you must evaluate your lesson, you got from your decision .Success truly is the result of good Judgment. Good Judgment comes from experiences and experiences are often the result of bad judgment.

 

Stays committed to your decisions & stay flexible to your approach.

Studies shows mostly successful people make frequent decisions & remain flexible in their approach to get their goal. Conversely unsuccessful people make rare decisions  but they frequently change their goal i.e. lack of persistency .Successful people focus on long term outcomes where as unsuccessful people focuses on short term results. It is like that we have goal to reach on some destination & we have planned route as well on map but don’t have a plan B in case our original plan will not work, so we must have an alternate route to reach our destination but we should not change our destination.

Enjoy your decisions

Share the outcome of your decisions with others & enjoy your decisions, what you have taken in any situation. When you will enjoy your all decisions, it will enhance your commitment & self confidence as well .Whether you had got achievement or  it was a learning experience , we should equally enjoy our decisions .Never be influenced by anyone in your decision, whatever decision you have made just stick to it  & enjoy it , Because it is your own decision.

And finally, my advice and slogan would be “Practice, Practice & Practice until you master this art of decision making perfectly.

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Syed Shahzad Ali 

HR Expert in Pakistan

An Ultimate Success By Developing A Strong Self-Image

  A simple definition of a person's self-image is their answer to this question - "What do you believe people think about you?".There are chronic tips to get an ultimate success by developing a strong self image .

No More Excuses :

Stop furnish excuses for failures , blame others & Bad Luck etc. Well there is no failure or success but results are there . For unsatisfactory results we get experiences & from satisfactory / expected results we get  Achievements. We usually figure out reasons from unsatisfactory results for the outer world in the shape of lame excuses but it really  hurts our self image badly. There are result no failure or success , this is we who interpret results as Success or  Failure.

Pride in Yourself:

Self pride is the sense of your worth & value as a person in your own eyes. It is about how much do you like  yourself? Because until & Unless you will not have pride in yourself then nobody will have proud on you . Value yourself as much high much you can . You should have a pride at your family , on your school , College  university , Organization because if you will not value your institution or organization then nobody else will value it , develop an extreme  pride for yourself  .

Take care of your Appearance :

Especial care should be given to you appearance & wardrobe . You should  adopt your appearance as you would like to be as a Successful Person i.e. visualize your attire what you will put on once you will achieve your goal and become successful  , there is saying that you should wear clothes at your current job which is requirement of your next job – dressed yourself for next job or role .

Keep Yourself in Good Shape:

You must do some physical exercises to keep yourself in a good shape & remain physically fit , because if you will be doing physical exercises then  your brain will be getting more oxygen & blood circulation . You will not only enjoy your  dressing  but also you will feel good about yourself & feel more confident , which will ultimately emerge a positive self image which is a key for success.

Select what you  allow to go into your brain:  

You have a most precious asset with you “The Brain” ; use it in  proper manner & positive manner for that you have to set filter over the things i.e. only positive things should be allowed to go into your brain. What happen, when you throw garbage in a empty box ,eventually  it will become a trash box  and only rubbish & nonsense things would be coming out of it. Same is the case with Brain if negative & cynical things would be placing into brain , it will depict on yourself image and it is an impossible thing to get an ultimate success with negative self-image.  

Believe in yourself – you Can:

You can do anything but not everything , you must have a definitive confidence on yourself that you can do anything. If you will be hesitated or if you will not believe in yourself  then believe me you can’t accomplished your desire task as you want . Have you ever observed the Horse who jumps over the Obstacles very easily . How does he Jump ? actually he builds  a telepathic relationship with rider’s  brain & heart,  due to the self believe of rider ,he catches the signal of can do attitude, if rider will hesitate & doubtful  , horse will never going to  jump over the obstacle ,. It is necessary to have a firm believe in yourself & can do attitude to get an ultimate success.

No fear to Mistake :

The person who does nothing  , he does not make mistakes and eventually does not get success. We should not have any sort of fear about mistake and errors , we just keep on working towards our goal of success. Research shows when its been asked to successful entrepreneurs that “what is a Key to success? Nearly all replied in a same manner , they just keep forward & taking steps towards their destiny , most of the time they made lot of faults and mistakes but the credence of right step supersede the all effects of such mistakes . Just keep moving ahead , mistake is nothing its a experience and another way of doing the right thing


Positive Statements:

It is very vital for emerging a positive & strong self image that you must be making positive statements and using it in your daily life . There are some definite tips hat say to yourself “ you can do” , “ Do it now” , “ I am master of this thing” , I have all the potential to get success” before starting any task . “I am the most confident & successful person on the universe” paste it on your car’s dash board , on your motor bike speed meter , in your wash room where you usually brush your teeth & wash your face. Daily in the morning & in night when you go to bed for sleep , just repeat those words which is your weakness i.e. “I am good at English” or “I can face the audience very easily” etc. It will boost your confidence & you can overcome your weaknesses.



Check your Environment:

There is very famous saying that “ the person is been knowing by his friends’ company” , if you want to build your positive self image then you must join the company of those people who would be full of enthusiasm , Positivity , energy , Zeal. Check your environment before joining any company and avoid negative & pessimistic environment .



Do Some Charity Work:

It is very necessary for emerging a positive self image, self respect & self esteem that you must do some sort of charity work . Help others to accomplished their tasks . It will emerge the sense of achievement which will reflect on yourself image .


Compile a Success Record:

Maintain a file or scrap book to compile success record it may include you school report cards , certification of achievement , your first offer letter , appointment letter , confirmation letter, Snaps , anything which you value most include it . Go though it periodically & get the sense of success & achievement , share it with your family members , friends & colleagues etc.

Craft of Delegation

One of my friends is working on a managerial position with a team of 4 people who are reporting to him. But I have never found him free, calm or in leadership role. He always seems to be occupied with messy desk, working at different tasks. He is not doing a job from 9 am – 5 pm but rather 9 am – 9 pm. 

When I asked him “why don’t you delegate some tasks to your team & then you could be free to dedicate some time to your personal development as well”; he replied “they will not do it as good as I do” and I don’t have time to train people and then to check the whole task again. So I rather prefer to do it myself to save time.

Replying to his rather shoddy answer, “yes initially it will be time consuming but as the time will pass on, maturity will emerge in the subordinates to whom you have delegated.

Actually, delegation is the best possible use of time & talent of the employees - matching the right talent with the right job to accomplish the mutual organization objective and being a delegator, we add value. One thing is very vital that what tasks are being delegated, before delegation of task here are some questions which should be answered;

• Can this task be done by some other person?

• Can I contribute towards some other strategic and worthwhile objectives?

• What value will I add once the delegated task will be completed?

Delegation enhances empowerment and synergy among the employees which results in higher motivation, professional growth , successor grooming, Trust Building , Effective Span of Control & reduce the bureaucracy in terms of approvals & minor decision making. 

One manager by delegating his routine operational task to his / her subordinates can stay more focused towards strategic and worthwhile objectives. S/He can add value in delegated task on completion. It flourishes the abundance mentality – there is lot more for others and every one get the pie of cake equally. Effective delegation is a crucial tool for effective succession, it is a two way process in the real sense. It is the craft of delegation that it is Effective for Successor & Manager too. The main task of the Manager to grow his/ her subordinates and once people grow, the organization grow. When organization grows everybody moves on higher positions and when it fails to happen the succession and progression becomes dependent on bringing in new people from outside. Individual success will derive the team success & ultimately team success will drive the Organization’s success. 

Delegation is not happen for freeing up the boss’s time from his task or from worthwhile objects but it is an effective management tool to make one more responsible for his/ her delegated tasks.

Following are the Steps for Effective delegation;

Win/ win Agreement : It is the most important phase of delegation , first we have to seek the willingness of recipient - to whom we are about to delegate any task or responsibility and create the win/win situation because it is a two way process ,it will lose its effectiveness if we impose it to any one without getting others agreement. Mostly delegated task fails due to win / lose situation and to make it effective we have to create a win/ win agreement. Delegation should be done with the purpose to merely delegate the task but it should be done for matching the right talent for delegated task.

Desire Results: Once you get the Win/ win agreement on delegated task, then specify them the desire result / outcome – why the task has been delegated to them /someone? In this phase we should focus/ discuss on desire results and outcome rather than the method/ process for accomplishing a task.

Set Goals & time lines: After producing a win/win agreement & intimation of the desired results, we should ask recipient about his plan, goals & time lines – Start & finished dates. Kick of meeting should be done after having a win/win agreement on desire results .It is the responsibility of the delegator that he has to track the set goals & time line periodically & mentor him if recipient of task is being deviating from his agreed track.

Utilization of Available resources: It is not limited to the human resources utilization only - match the right talent with the right job, but also about the utilization of finances, environment, opportunities etc. we should provide all the available resources to the recipient to make him successful because best utilization of available resources is the key to success in delegated task.

Authority: Balanced authority is a must for the success of the delegated task. This means that the person whom you have delegated a task must have corresponding authority to the task, so that he/she does not refer back to you on petty matters and can make decisions on the spot, if required. This will boost the level of confidence for taking up even higher responsibilities next time by the individual and save so much time.

Accountability : Time to time updates on delegated task make the recipient accountable , we should not intervene in the method/ process of work which is being followed by the recipient rather effectiveness of desire outcome and results, otherwise recipient’s ownership will be hurt. Delegator should communicate him clearly; what is expected from him? And what is his actual performance against the delegated task?

“Supervision” the way you receive and agree to do delegated tasks is one of the central skills of 'Managing upwards'. Therefore while this page is written from the manager's standpoint, the principles are just as useful for people being managed.

Defeat your Mattress & Appetite

Yesterday my junior colleague came late & on my enquiry, he told me that "last night he could not have deep sleep that’s why he had been late…."

Can we not defeat our mattress ? if our day starts with defeat on mattress by sleep, then our whole day will be through in the same manner. We will be gulping up in hurry the breakfast – it may harm our digestive system; we will be speeding up in driving to reach at our destiny – it may lead us towards road accidents etc, we will be getting defeated everywhere and the most harmful thing is that we will be crushing our self esteem & self respect as well with all these defeats .

Imagine what if , we start our day with a victory on our sleep & mattress, we will feel proud on our self , it will boost or self confidence & commitment , It will increase our trust on others – Remember trust is the name of character & competence , if one element will be missing then we will not remain trust worthy any more . When we sign our appointment/ contract letter , we make a promise with our employer that we will come on time and through this we create our trust on our employer , if we fail to do so then we lose our trust-worthiness first then our trust .

I remember those days when my brother was dong his PhD. & Alhamdulillah at last he got it and why he shouldn’t get it? He is a master of his will ,he has a extreme command over his mattress.

He used to sleep 5 hours a day because his sleep or mattress was his subordinate rather he would become his mattress prison. In my entire 7 years of professional career , my salary has never been deducted on account t of late comings.

Mattress reformatory is not limited to sleep only but there are some other ways as well where we defeated by our mattress. One of my Uncle has been a mattress prisoned for long time , it is his daily routine that when he comes back from office he does nothing except lying on a comfortable mattress watching Programmes like “ Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath where the ( Langra , Loola , Doobta , Girta Pakistan )” is always the focus, HUH how very constructive and full of enthusiasm program about Pakistan for Pakistanis. Definitely the level of motivation can be ascertained when you watch such types of programmmes.

Some time People limit themselves to their mattresses for no reason ( aenwey ) .

Triumph over mattress means you have attained a self victory . Until & unless you don’t have a self victory's attitude, you cannot get victory on others , you can’t make any positive influence on others. So start your day victorious - as a champion, get extensive self control to get the things done. And if you don’t put yourself in pain – the pain of not having long sleeps .

Getting up early in the morning, offering the morning prayer , going for exercise & having fresh air- a person can achieve any mile stone if he has committed himself and has command over his mattress & appetite.

Patient: The problem is that obesity runs in my family.

Doctor: No, the problem is that no one runs in your family.

I saw people die not due to hunger but due to over eating. They are subordinate to their appetites . We should have limited healthy food AND we should eat for living rather living for eating .

If we can’t resist against our favirite but  high cholesterol & junk food, so how can we possibly resist against any wrong doing .

Make the mattress & appetitesubordinate to you ,instead of you becoming subordinate to them.

Employee Engagement Activities for Managing High Performance

Research shows that Employee Engagement is directly proportional to the Organizational growth i.e. the maximum an employee will be engaged with the organization the more that Organization will grow.

Employee engagement is more than satisfaction & motivation but once engagement will bring in , satisfaction & motivation will emerge automatically by itself, in fact , these two will be a bi-product of employee engagement. Effusive Engaged employees work for the success & vision of the organization . It is all about development of Disciplined people, Disciplined Thought & Disciplined action by the inception of employee engagement activities. Because once you have disciplined People ,you don’t need “Hierarchies” ; when You have Disciplined thought in your engaged employees , you don’t need “Bureaucracy” and when you have a disciplined action people , you don’t need “Excessive Controls” on the engaged employees.

Employee engagement can’t be developed with money factor for that reason employer has to cover an extra mile & develop empathy not only with the employee but also with their families as well . Followings are some innovative & effective employee engagement activities for managing high performances .

• Appreciation Letter/ shield for Mother / Family Members for employee High performance.

• Birthday Cake & Gift on employee & his dependants.

• Half day on employee Marriage Anniversary with Dinner vouchers.

• Specified Fund for Team Dinner Dept Wise.

• Extra Holiday on Eid by company other than Gazette Holidays

• HR Manager / HOD visit on Child Birth at Home.

• Movie of the Month .

• Professional Trainings without any bond .

• Family Get –to- Gather .

• Ramzan Gift Packs .

• Flexi Hours inception.

• Indulge domestic benefits like Monthly Water Supply.

• Lunch with CEO .

• In-house recreational Activities like Swimming Pool, Table Tennis, Snooker ETC

• Parents Health Coverage.

As a result of the above innovative & effective employee engagement activities, the growth of the Organization will be self apparent and no will have to pin point the success that the organization will enjoy as a combined unit.