Recently, I with my team organized a Leadership meet “IGLT – 2010″ for the top management of the company in the suburbs of Bangalore, which turned out to be a success in everyone’s view.

This meet was all about getting the key team to banish their egos, pull them out of their guarded selves, introduce each of them well on personal grounds and lastly but most importantly to bring them all on the same thinking pad as that of the BODs.

Before I could organize this, the entire concept made me brood over ‘how important the key team is!’ We talk of bottom-top approach but leadership could be effective only when it is Top-Bottom. And for healthy, strong leadership the key team/ top management must be well-bonded. The leader must walk the talk, then we can see the team to follow the principles of their leader and go extra mile.

A true leader is someone who does not go by one leadership style but is adaptable to switch over his personality from Dictator to Authoritative to Participative to Laissez-Faire. Every team needs a leader who is armed with all these styles and with the skill of dissecting the situation to apply the appropriate style to it.

The meet went on with the snap-shot of failures and high points of the year gone by and planning for the coming year keeping in mind the budget for the new financial year. Coming year looks good and I look forward to better leadership and growth.

How can niche’ and luxury brands like Apple have such a poor service!?

These brands MUST understand that the customers who buy these products look for timely assistance in terms of service and correct, precise information; not ‘washing off hands’ attitude. Brands must also understand that these purchases are not just purchases but INVESTMENTS in view of customers.

Apple and all the other brands must be assured of apropos solutions and customer support system before rolling their products in market.

I was lucky enough to get my iPhone back to normal battery life. Though it was extremely poor experience for me, as a customer!!

WAKE UP BRANDS!!! All of you have to spruce up their customer support functions to survive in this competitive world.

5 Wooshes mentioned speak about how twittering employees could be better than others. I believe every Human Resources professional would want her team to be more productive, together, efficient and effective. According to Jay Shepherd -

1. Tworkers are usually extroverts. They don’t shy away from attention and they like showing off. They understand their roles as performers.

2. Tworkers are interested in being part of a community, one they help build. They care about people, and they’re sharing and compassionate.

3. Tworkers are unafraid of trying new things, but not because something is a fad. They are always looking for a better way of doing things.

4. Tworkers have the ability to quickly make friends with strangers. They also know that what they say reflects upon them and their company.

5. Tworkers know how to express themselves concisely in plain English. They say what they mean. They get to the point without wasting words.

I have always been active at Social Networking and even second the thought of freedom at work (in this aspect). But, there are some important questions which need to be answered.

1. Do the extrovert, daring, outgoing and great communications  hamper work?

2. Does the serious work hour get diluted, repling, responding and updating the Tweets/ posts?

3. Does any Tworker have control over what their contacts writes?

4. Do the tweets, at any point of time, become SPAMS!!?

5. Does the focus from sensible Microblogging get lost?

6. Is your team job hunting during work?

Keep Thinking, keep growing!

As of now, Google Voice can be used only by invite; Same as GMail when launched.

Read more on Google Voice here.

The tax rates go as under:

Male taxpayers
0 to 160,000   0
160,001 to 300,000  10%
300,001 to 500,000 20%

Above 500,000  30%

Female taxpayers
0 to 190,000   0
190,001 to 300,000  10%
300,001 to 500,000 20%
Above 500,000  30%

Senior citizens

0 to 240000   0
240001 to 300000  10%
300001 to 500000 20%
Above 500000  30%

In addition to these rates an education cess of 3% to be added.

Good news for the employers and employees is that the budget has also abolished the Fringe Benefit Tax which was introduced in the Finance Act, 2005 on the value of certain fringe benefits provided by employers to their employees.

Now employers can save the amount paid as tax and employees can renegotiate for those fringe benefits which made a part of their cost basket.

You may come across job opportunities and potential recruiters anywhere, anytime…at parties, at networking events or while traveling. But forwarding your CV immediately is not always feasible. Do you wish there was a way to make your resume ‘mobile’ so that it reaches anywhere, anytime instantly?

Now, Naukri.com does it for you. With our Naukri ExpressCV service, forwarding your CV is just an SMS away. All you need to do is send us an SMS and we will deliver your CV to the desired e-mail ID provided in the SMS by you. What’s more, the service is absolutely Free*.

How to use this service:
Just SMS FWD destination email ID to 56070
Ex: FWD recruiterID@xyz.com. Here, recruiterID@xyz.com is the recruiter’s email ID.
Naukri.com would then email your CV to the destination address and the recipient would receive the email from your registered email ID.

Very Innovative. This facility has increased mobility and instantaneity.

Fact: Branding goes beyond marketing. Brand can not build unless one of the most important assets of the organization i.e. your workforce thinks brand, articulates brand and delivers brand. This is how internal branding comes into effective play.

Brand is not the logo, punchline or glistening pricey brochure of the company BUT, an impregnable brand has very important constituents of great customer service, crystal clear employee  communication, effective employee engagement, impeccable training, corporate philosophy and most importantly ‘No Limit to Service’ attitude. Brand reaches out on 360 degree level. It does not only extend to your customers and media but also your employees and the general public. ‘Word of mouth’ know it, right!?

Consistent Brand not only helps to grow & prosper organization but also helps to attract and retain the best people of the industry, provide value to vendors, valuable brand equity to your investors and the brand loyal customers.

Internal branding can stop talent erosion to a great extent. It will create an exclusive identity for employees. It creates passion among them to stay together as a family or community. It will encourage inclusive growth — for the people and company. This is a bottom-up approach, against a meaningless top-down treatment,”

-Harish Bijoor.

Steps to build successful Internal Branding in your organization:

1. Make sure that the employees follow the brand strategy
Human Resources to get through the fence and into the game, by helping ensure that all of the large and small actions that people take every day, throughout the organization, fall in line with the brand strategy. This needs knowledge about the brands, branding, company’s branding strategy and external communications like advertising
2. Design a Brand Strategy which is lynch pin of HR strategy.
To do this first convert brand promise into brand behavior and then redesigning of training & development, performance management system, compensation programs and reward strategies  to transform the promise into behavior.
3. Create a Brand Culture.
“I am a Brand” must drive employees’ thought process and attitude.
4. Operate cross function.
5. Think long term.

Keep growing!

Adam Smith saw human capital as skills, dexterity (physical, intellectual, psychological, etc) and judgment.

Human Capital can even be termed as Intellectual Capital and hence human resources. It is the ability to work together for a common purpose of creating wealth.

Management theories are sheering round to re-evaluate the    invaluable human factor and its critical contribution to creation of wealth. In fact, theorists have even stressed that people are the wealth. Experts assert that while the other forms of capital, including tools, equipment, materials and technology, only represent the inert potentials, it is the human capital that converts this potential and facilitates the creation of wealth.

But, there are not many organizations which identify human capital to be as important & critical as other forms of capital. Physical assets, capital  go on companies’ balance sheet however human resource does not.

On the other hand people driven organizations like, consulting firms and accounting firms deem to have better understanding of human resource than manufacturing firms.

Talent is the strategic differentiator to utilize human capital optimally. Ability to scale talent will give HR a dramatic shift from Business Support entity to a Business Partner on the table. Infosys is one of the very few organizations where human capital figures on the balance sheet affirming their asset value.

What should business leaders do in the face of current economic crisis, focus on maintaining cash or people? What should be their top priority? This question has been raised in Deloitte debates.

What is your take?

When there are tough times, it is better to take it as it comes! Take a break from ‘TENSED’ feel of layoff and enjoy few funniest cartoon and webcomics about layoffs.

A sense of forebodingEasiest round of layoffs ever

Bee layoffs at the hive.

Even the crash test dummies have to go!

Empowerment refers to enlargement of an employee’s job responsibility by giving him the authority of decision making about his own job without approval of his immediate supervisor.

However. today empowerment includes most importantly Effective Communication. Giving more people the ability to talk to the organization at large rather than having out-of-date newsletters and announcements pinned on the notice boards.

In this new environment, glossy magazines and PR-style communication campaigns are no longer sufficient. Employees seek greater transparency and involvement. Introducing the new ways of communication, many of which are already be familiar to employees especially to those from ‘Generation Y’ who are just starting to enter the workplace.

New wave of communication is essential to empower employees in a true sense.