Simple tips for Effortless Success

• Gain confidence, let go of your limiting doubts, and begin to achieve your goals.

• Changing yourself from the inside out will improve your relationships with those you value most.

• Letting go of all the fear, anger, anxiety and stress will result in a vastly improved health and quality of life.

• Learn to reclaim your decision-making ability from your limiting emotions

• Develop the ability to make stronger and clearer choices

• Achieve your goals and aspirations as opposed to sabotaging them

• Learn to change yourself from the inside out and make those changes permanent

• Learn techniques for dissolving resistance

• Experience peace, harmony and unqualified happiness

• Greater ease, effectiveness, and joy in daily activities

• Communicate more open and effectively

• Understand the nine emotional states and how to uncover and live as “peace”Recognize how resistance is slowing your progress and what to do about it

• Understand the most powerful goal crafting and creation process

Research has proven that employee satisfaction is directly associated to customer satisfaction, and, of course, customer satisfaction is directly associated to return on investment.

Human resources cannot be a function for hiring, firing and appraisals. They are the gatekeepers for employees and have to be concerned with the overall development of the individual.

HR managers need to work with marketing research and learn techniques to find employee needs, similar to the way marketers find customer needs. Then they should cluster employees with similar needs into groups and develop specific employee engagement programmes for each group. They should then market the programmes to employees through the marketing department.

Finally, HR should evaluate the results of these initiatives by thoroughly measuring employee satisfaction, looking at how it impacts productivity and return on investment.

Because employees should like the company more than customers do. That’s because the employee’s livelihood depends on the company. Customers always have a choice. How many customer satisfaction surveys do companies do in a year? And importantly, do they undertake the same number of employee satisfaction surveys?

Companies can definitely make good profits. But profits are better if they do it through employee marketing.

As economies get stronger and people have more choices, loyalty to companies is going to go down the tube. On the other hand, customers are going to demand more and more sophisticated services. That’s because with the kind of branding we see today, consumer expectations need to be matched with what the communication promises.

As a result, employee training becomes more expensive. Hence when you cannot retain employees, it’s a real drain of resources on the company. A new employee needs to be exactly the same, if not better, than the person before. If you do not take care of them, the company stands to lose.

By the time employees are 30-32 years old, they have changed jobs six-seven times. The new generation is not about “am I successful?” They are interested in “do I like it?”

It’s similar to marketing research. We go to customers and find their needs and identify barriers. Then we cluster customers according to the lowest price, best services and so on.

Similarly, when you segment your employee base you can develop programmes for each group and brand and deliver it differently. Some employees have weight-related problems, others have diabetes. Some have very good savings but don’t know how to invest. Others don’t know how to save.

Men think differently than women in terms of savings. For example, women don’t want to depend on children when they grow old and are too concerned about future health problems. Men feel they will never stop working. Sixty per cent of men covered in research had retired without planning for retirement.

Women are anxious about retirement and men are more emotional about retirement. When women are sad, they take more risks than men. When men are sad, they discount it and try to distract themselves from sadness. Since they manage emotions differently, you need completely different employee programmes.

Across the world, employees are all the same. Companies are going to realise that employees do not have just financial needs. They have spiritual, health and financial needs. They have long-term needs. People always want to be valued and respected for what they like to do.

In India, there’s always been this sense of the company being a family and that companies will take care of their family members. As companies grow rapidly, they will lose that family connection. The culture that the US and European companies are artificially trying to develop is naturally present in Indian companies.

But as they are growing, Indian companies have no option but to start focusing on customized programmes for employees. They should then test it by finding out what employees think about the programme and measure effectiveness like “did the programme change employee behaviour?” and so on. Over a 1-2 year timeframe companies should analyse if there was any change in employee attitude, teamwork and productivity. The data will make companies more interested in increasing investments on employee programmes.

Globally, among the Fortune 500 companies, we are analysing what employee programmes these companies run and co-relate that with their rankings. We want companies to realise that with better programmes they have better rankings.

Then companies can afford to pay lesser salaries because they have the reputation of being a big company to work for. So employees feel that in the long-term they are better off in this company even if they have to take a hit in the short term.

Apart from what you say, what makes a big impression on most interviewers is the way you say it, or the way you carry yourself — whether you can overcome your nerves enough to project a confident, personable individual.

Tackling just these issues is the Body Language book by Carolyn Boyes, part of the need to know? series published by HarperCollins. Here’s an excerpt:

An interview is, in effect, a sales meeting in which you are selling the product — ‘you’ — to a purchaser — ‘the interviewer’. Creating the right kind of chemistry with the interviewer through body language could clinch the interview for you.

Making your entrance

As soon as you are seen walking through the door, you are making an impression, so make sure it is the right one. Slowing down or dipping your head as you enter will look anxious and tentative. Rushing in can also seem nervous. Keeping an erect posture with your head held high in contrast looks confident.

Pause at the door, smile at the interviewer and walk through decisively. You are aiming to appear personable and warm, as well as business-like.

Transfer any coat, briefcase or handbag into your left hand to leave your right hand free ready to shake hands confidently with the interviewer.

Handshakes

Be aware of your handshake. Avoid bone crusher or limp/dead-fish handshakes. If you have a tendency to sweat or have cold hands, make sure you have wiped your hands or warmed them up before you enter the room. Use a firm handshake. Hold out your hand horizontally so that your palm meets the other person’s at the same angle.

Remember that a handshake can give you a lot of information about someone. Notice how the interviewer offers their hand. When they clasp it, do they turn your hand so that their palm is facing down, putting themselves in the dominant position? Do you both walk towards each other into each other’s personal space equally or do they pull you towards them? Do they release your hand first and push it away? Are they relaxed or nervous? Is their hand warm, cold, dry or damp? Is their arm fully extended or relaxed? Do they touch you with their other hand?

Eye contact

Make eye contact with your interviewer(s) when listening. If there is more than one interviewer, make sure you make equal eye contact with both. Remember that too much eye contact can seem aggressive, so scan the upper triangle of the face (from the eyes to the forehead), rather than stare directly into the other person’s eyes without interruption. Break your eye contact when you are thinking of an answer. It looks natural.

Sitting

Keep your posture confident and relaxed. A good trick is to take a deep breath when you sit down and lower your shoulders. It will make the interviewer response positively to you. Make sure you do not slump down in your chair or lean back away from the interviewer. It will look as if you are not interested. Instead, sit back into the chair so that you are well supported and, if you can, rest your elbows on the chair arms.

Personal space

Be aware of rules on personal space. Make sure your chair is positioned so that you can chat easily without invading the interviewer’s territory. If you break the unwritten space rules, you could scupper your chances of success.

Open body language

Avoid leg and arm barriers and closed body language — you will just look defensive or submissive. Keep your gestures open and relaxed.

If there is a desk between you and the interviewer, sit back slightly so you have room to move freely. If you want to emphasize a point, keep your palms open and towards the interviewer to look friendly.

At the same time, be aware of how relaxed or formal their interviewer is. Stay in tune with them and let them set the tone for the interview. If you relax too much and are far more laid-back than they are, you will appear either sloppy or overconfident. If, on the other hand, you are too formal, they will find it hard to relate to you.

Matching

Get into rapport with the interviewer as quickly as possible. If you are not mimicking each other’s body positions naturally, do it consciously. Match the angle of their back and position in the chair. Notice how they are breathing. If they talk quickly, they are probably breathing high in the chest. If they talk slowly, they are probably taking deep breaths. Get into their rhythm for a few minutes. After a while this will become automatic.

Watch while you speak

Be aware not only of your own body language but also the body language of the interviewer. Let their body language signals be your guide as to the level of their interest. Are they bored? Interested? Defensive? In agreement? Disagreement? When you make a point or give an answer, how do they respond? Notice if their body language suddenly changes. Interviewees frequently speak for too long, so be aware if the interviewer starts to nod more rapidly or tap their fingers. They may want to interrupt you.

Show interest

Vary your facial expressions to show enthusiasm and interest. When they speak, lean forwards, nod, or rest your forefinger to your chin to show your full attention. Lower your eyebrows, even frown slightly, to show concentration. Part your lips slightly. Also, make sure you avoid arm barriers when you are listening, as well as when you are speaking.

Be definite

Use your hands to emphasise points when you are speaking, but be careful not to use aggressive gestures such as making a fist or punching the air. Keep the conversation free of interruptions.

Leakage

Be aware of any possible leakage in your gestures when you are being interviewed. Prepare for the interview and rehearse answers to any difficult questions that you expect to be asked. This will allow you to feel relaxed during the interview, which will come across positively in your body language. Otherwise your body language could inadvertently make you appear deceitful or cause you to look as if you are avoiding an issue.

Saying goodbye

When you say goodbye, allow the interviewer to instigate a handshake. Return it with a firm handshake and then be aware that they will probably usher you from the room, as they are the dominant person in the situation. Finally, make sure you end the interview with a smile and eye contact.

A serious problem is staring India’s higher education in the face. It’s about the misalignment between education and employment.

We proudly claim to have the largest pool of engineers. This is the source which forms the backbone of India’s rapidly growing IT industry along with the other sectors. But, India’s HUGE pool of young graduates actually has fewer numbers of apt candidates employable by MNCs and their off shoring arms. In fact, only 25% of India’s engineering graduates are considered employable material by MNCs. The quality of education in India varies widely and while IITs and NITs are world class, other engineering colleges are nowhere close. Many factors contribute to melancholy: outdated curriculum, obsolete equipments, teachers who don’t update their knowledge base, management that lacks commitment to academic excellence, rote learning, exam oriented teaching, lack of activity-based learning through team effort and lack of practical training.

The Most Valuable Employee

The principal failure of our University system is that students are not taught “soft skills”- the competency to discuss, analyze, innovate and communicate. The findings of the committee set up by University of Mumbai found 42 affiliated engineering colleges falling way below the standards set by AICTE, and it even included reasonably well known colleges such as Rizvi College and KJ Somaiya, Sion.

Below are the few measures from a student’s viewpoint which can make him a better graduate:-

1.        Opportunities for students to do short term or certificate courses along with the degree courses. These courses should be linked to areas in which employment opportunities are opening.

2.       A common curriculum and syllabus throughout the country along the guidelines of the IITs.

3.       Emphasis on practical training rather than theoretical.

4.       A semester dedicated for Industrial training and honing technical skills under the guidance of the experts, which is absent in many major universities & colleges.

5.      Since the university system is not making the graduates compatible, many companies             have to spend substantial resources to train fresh recruits. An “Industry based” syllabi is         the need of the hour to produce “Industry ready Engineers”.

The government currently spends only 0.1% of GDP on technical Education, which is a very miniscule number.

This apart, only 4% of India’s graduates are engineers whereas this figure is as high as 20% in Germany and 30% in China. Consequently, as recommended by Moily Oversight Committee, new IITs and NITs should be setup every year all over the country, in order to counter the shortage of quality engineers. In India most of the top Engineering graduates emigrate.

NASSCOM estimates deficit of about 5 lakh employable graduates by 2010. Hence, it is important to ensure steady supply of young graduates so that India does not lose the advantage of having a large population.

India has a long way to go, both in terms of quality and quantity in higher education. An urgent reform in education has become a necessity. Since our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh himself has once served as the chairman of UGC, we hope he will push for the reforms in the education system which will propel us in achieving the status of a developed nation.

With the advent of so many new modes of entertainment, things like good reading habits seem to be passé. If you want your child to develop this wonderful habit you need to serve it in front of him not as a compulsion but as an entertainment.

You can try the following points to inculcate good reading habits in your children.

• Rather than forcing them to read what you think is right, initially let them choose what they want to read and eventually introduce the books you think are right also.
• Reading along with them or aloud to them can be another good idea.
• Starting as early as your baby would start recognizing the pictures in the book is another helpful idea.
• There are a lot of baby books available in the market. Choose the one for your baby which is brightly colored, has big, attractive pictures and is easy to hold.
• At this age, choosing books with lesser words and more of pictures is better. Just hand it over to him and let him explore it whichever way he wants to.
• Kids get fascinated by fairytale books which have pop-ups, different textured pictures and flaps to be lifted. .
• Once your child starts pre-school and learns to recognize some words, you can introduce him to books with very short stories written in bold letters and illustrated with pictures.
• To little older children, you can get books which have games that teach numbers, alphabets, dates, knowing the clock.
• Remember that all such things should be very colorful and illustrated with a lot of diagrams and pictures to keep your child’s interest.
• Once your child begins to read properly, you can start taking him to the library or the bookstore.
• Let him decide what level of books is he comfortable in reading alone. You can also make him read aloud to his younger sibling.
• If you feel that your child gets easily bored of his books you can make out games out of the book, like enacting the title, narrating an incidence of the story and finding the related picture etc.
• If you child wants to go back to his old books there’s no harm in it. Remember, even some grown ups love reading their childhood comic books.
• To a little grown up kids between the age group of 8-11, you can give story books that have a mix of longer imaginative stories.
• You can also try non-fiction for children who do not like stories. You can introduce him to encyclopedias with photographs and illustrations and other such knowledge books.
• You can also find out books that suit his interest. For instance, if he likes sports, then you can get him books on that. For girls, you can get books like Nancy Drew and for boys something like Hardy Boys. You can also try imaginative books of magic and horror.

This way, slowly you can lead your child to the path of making reading a hobby. They will soon discover that they are loving it and it is much better than spending time on useless play stations and video games!