Social Corporate Responsibility

Few weeks back I attended an event that talked about the top 3 qualities that candidates are looking in last 5 years candidates in a company. One of the quality that stood out was a strong commitment for social corporate responsibility, which followed salary and career development.

So I did a little more research and found Initiatives such as philanthropy, support for community-building initiatives and environmental awareness can add significant value to the company, and if the program is well designed the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Benefits

1) It makes the employee more enthusiastic and opportunity to develop their leadership and project management skills through a well-designed corporate social responsibility program.

2) Socially responsible companies report increased employee commitment, performance and job satisfaction

3) An easy way for your company to build its brand, reputation and public profile- Currently I am part of a program for Boys and Girls Club where I am promoting my company's non-profit initiatives (first in this club) and that has enhanced my companies positive image and broaden their influence.

4) Branding the business as ‘socially responsible’ differentiates you from your competitors- One of the living example of this is Walmart-with their multiple social initiatives they have connected with people at a very personal level.

So what should you do next?

It is a highly competitive world out there. If you want people to buy from you, work for you and invest in you – look seriously at corporate social responsibility.

If your company does not have one then start one yourself at a smaller scale and be the person to influence the culture of the company

Lie and Fake to get in!! Is it worth it?

Last night I was just surfacing the net when I came across a website careerexcuse.com that helps people to get fake a reference or even a company just to get a job.

The founder said that all he is doing is trying to give someone a second chance so that he/she can provide for their families. Well if you see from his perspective it is a blessing and a good-will for people stuck in this situation and a chance to improve themselves.

While if you see this situation from a spectators perspective (almost 80% of the readers) it is unethical (because you are lying on your application) and it will put legitimate references at an unfair disadvantage.

This website made me think why does someone need to lie and use this route. The answer is simple we all make mistakes big or small but we are never forgiven for it. Our mistakes are like bad credit scores it always haunts us and follows us everywhere.

Even if someone wants to genuinely improve our society is not structured to give them a second chance. However I won't blame the society completely for it because there are examples that we all know personally that has burnt us in past by giving people a second chance. I remember 5-6 years back we had a house help that had stolen some money first from my brothers room and few months later from my parents room. He had been at our place for a over 10 years so initially my parents gave him a second chance but he did it again and next time they fired him. His brother and he came back and said he did this only to get some extra money for his wedding , he was extremely sorry and it wont happen again. I asked my parents why didn't you forgive him, he probably learned his lesson. My father said that the trust was broken, today he stole money for one reason tomorrow he may kill us for another.

So what drives people to behave in this fashion; DESPERATION. This could be result of bad economy, pressure to be exclusive, no job, financial needs, family pressure..and the list goes on.

Now the question arises, is it worth it? I personally feel NO. I have met people in my walk of life who have lied and faked their resume or admission application just to get a competitive edge or admission or job. I have seen that these people may have got their foot in the door easily but haven't climbed the ladder successfully. Liars are always going to use lies to try and put themselves at an advantage over honest people. Although they may not get caught but they will forever worry about getting caught.

I personally feel honesty can set you free, however the people or the society needs to be more acceptable and stop dreaming that the world is perfect because they themselves are not.

Should one lie or fake to get a second chance or should our society be more accommodating to ignore mistakes?

Social and Moral Calling be part of it!!!!

After a hectic 7 hrs of travel and flight cancellation, I finally reached my destination. Wasn't all this enough for my day that I had to read this extremely disturbing news in USA today. This made me feel that today instead of my usual blog I would write about social and moral responsibility.

I think most of you have been reading this news since last friday on the Olympic Luge's death. It was extremely heartbreaking news for me. This talented athlete died just under the pressure to prove everyone that he is the fastest Luger. The investigation agencies said that it was luger's fault as he was not well verse and didn't have sufficient runs on Whistler. I mean are you serious; just so that the governing bodies come out clean with this incident we blame everything on the person who died. Do we have any moral responsibility?

I agree that atheltes need to be responsible for their safety, however its the society/coaches that create the pressure to be swifter, higher and stronger. This reminded me of one of the shows that I was watching with my husband while his car was getting fixed; "World's strongest man." It literally shocked me of how we are pushing the laws of human body just to win a title; pulling 22000 ton truck with your body; man this babbles me.

More and more of such titles have emerged these days, "most number of hot-dog eater", "fastest eater" and many more..In this we are not only messing up with our bodies but also fast-tracking our death.

Please don't get me wrong I really admire and commend the athletes (that take part in such competitions) and their dedication. BUT I think we are going beyond the laws of nature and physics.

As I was writing this blog, my brain took this incident a step ahead, which I guess most readers can relate to; "Pushing their children/students beyond their limits to be the best in everything." One of my college mate committed suicide after he could not handle the constant pressure from his parents and professor to be the top in his class. I was completely shattered and his parents have still not forgiven themselves for their act.

As a human its our responsibility to step up and draw a line for these activities, or else one day we will find our own loved ones succumbed to death in-process of achieving such fancy titles. Do you think all this is worth it? If your answer is no then all you need is to influence one person and rest will be history....

Be yourself is the new success mantra!!!!

Today has been a very crazy day for me, however I wanted to make sure I am writing out to my readers everyday as I have promised my self.

As I was heading out to work today, I came across a very interesting article by John Maxwell "Be impressed, not impressive. The article was very interesting, and it talked about how in the process of impressing others we push them further away, we develop pride and become a complete different individual. One should not work on impressing others but be impressed by others acts.

I pondered on this article for a while and concluded that the reason this article is so true because lie and know-it-all attitude does not last for long. One day or the other as my grandfather said "the pot of lies and the hoax that your are perfect will break and who will have no place to hide." The people that are true to themselves and as John Maxwell said charismatic personality are always focused on being honest and helping/listening to others

Networking is the name of the game

This week I attended a networking event which was full of wine and cheese, can you go wrong with it? Never, and to top that there were chocolates too...

All evening I was sipping on my favorite wine Moscato d'asti and enjoying Brie with crackers. The amazing part of this event was that the team that was hosting the wine part of the event met few years back at a similar event and came up with this idea.

Brilliant isn't it? I mean could you imagine, meeting a like minded person in these casual networking events and that leads to your own million dollar business. I got a chance to rendezvous with these entrepreneurs and learned how crucial networking is. They said they were discussing how one can make networking event more fun and then one thing led to another. One of the entrepreneur was a Sommelier and the other was a Oenophilist. They started pairing up with chocolate and cheese connoisseurs to host more networking events.

This helped them to grow their business and today they are one of the top wine party host in fairfield county. Isn't this amazing!!!!

Do you have any life changing experience through networking that you want to share with other readers?

Moments that Mattered...................

In today's busy cut throat life, how many times do we sit-back and enjoy the moments that matters to us.

Recently I met a very successful women, she is a CEO of one of the consumer products division in America. She has one of the highest number of fan followers in my opinion, because she is so inspirational and human. I use the word human because in this rat race of life we all have become robotic clones.

She shared a presentation with us that talked about the moments that mattered to her most. She said that though she is a CEO she is an individual first and she has never forgotten to enjoy the moments that mattered to her. She said one can not have it all but they can have what matters to them the most. This truly inspired me, because as a working individual I would always think how can these successful people be happy and HAVE it all. The truth is they don't have it all, they just enjoy what matters to them and work it around.

That 30 mins of presentation inspired me and the concept got so deep rooted that I right away became her true fan. I think she now has a million and one fan follower :). This made me think the moments that mattered to me most and have I enjoyed them. The truth is I have been trying to get it all. So for last 3 days I have made sure that I do things and be the moment that matters to me the most; such as spending time with family, giving back to the community, my work and hanging with friends. These have now become myfour virtual babes that are most important to me.

She inspired me to the think the moments that mattered to me. Hope you can do the same :)

Individualism vs Fitting In

How many of us face this fitting in culture issue?, can we be ourselves at work? how much of expressing individual characteristic is ok before we can get fired? Well all of us face these questions every day, and many more specially these days because we have such a diverse work force, in terms of age, gender, culture and region.

Recently I attended the Women conference at HBS, and trust me readers this blog is not about bashing up men at all. However this blog is about; should we be someone else at work (as someone said to me once a different compartment) or just be who we are as a person. I was very impressed with the facts that were presented during the conference, though they were more focused on gender difference at the work world. But one of the CEO that I met in the conference made me start thinking in a little different direction.

She was dressed not in a conventional suit or outfit that corporate environment wants us to wear. She was dressed in the style that she was comfortable in- prada shoes, short purple skirt and hair extensions. She has been a very successful women, she run 75 companies and has an asset over $7billion. Her thoughts were very unconventional and she had no BS, she was a straight shooter which no one wants to hear or be these days.

What moved me most was that she was not afraid to be herself wherever she goes or works. She worked for one of the biggest financial firm before she started her own business.

Can we all be like her or we are scared to be outcast by the team? If we are like her who is not afraid to be herself/himself can we be successful in the corporate world.

I know someone who is very dear to me is changing himself just to fit in to the banking and finance world? Is this right are we creating clones? where is the true diversity that we all talk about? Can we become successful without being clones? These are the answers I am still trying to figure out, let me know your thoughts

Make an IMPACT - Power of Presentation Part 1

In today's big "R" environment, it is very crucial to be at your best ball game in front of your customer. The market is retrieving and getting new or even retaining old customers is getting tougher. I attended one of the trainings by the guru and coach of presentation "Jerry Weissman" who has spend 20 years teaching CEOs and other executives how to deliver successful, profitable IPO road shows.

I wanted to share with my readers the take away from that insightful wisdom and inspiring training and get feedback from you on how you have enhanced your presentation skills to be the next Tim Koogle.

Weissman offers a seven-step plan for crafting your content into a compelling story as well as advice on how to conquer your fear of public speaking and to present naturally with force and conviction using the art of body language.

Presentation is a pathway to get into a new market, sell your product, present you capability, IPO launch and many more. This is your opportunity to make the first impression, whether you are a businessman or businesswoman or an ordinary citizen, your challenge is to be “well-received” by your audience.

We all have heard the most common mantra - "YOUR ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN YOUR WORDS." This is the key mantra in your presentation. The presenter needs to be the advocate of the audience and the transmitter. One needs to put oneself into their audience’s place and think about their hopes, fears and passions. When the presenter is a transmitter they need to always remember the three V's that are the key elements of expressing through body language; Visual, Vocal and Verbal. These 3 dynamics affect your audience in varying degrees in their respective order.

Isn't this simple, we all may think that this is common sense, however I have sat through over 100 presentations in my professional career and except few all presentations focused on verbal communication, which has the lowest impact on the audience among the 3 V's. The training showed me how through body language one can deliver the message more effectively by using hand gestures, moving around, interacting with the audience and changing your vocals to emphasize key messages.

In addition to the Visual, Vocal, and Verbal forces that influence your audience, they are also impacted by another dynamic: empathy. In the presentation environment, the empathy is the shared feelings between the audience and the presenter, but the sharing on the audience’s part
is involuntary. I have great respect for President Barack Obama and have been following his political career since 2004. One of the presentation that I was truly impressed by his was when he presented at the Democratic National Convention. He gave a 16 minute presentation that showed energy, urgency and passion in his voice and body which resulted in similar vicarious feeling among the audience and 4 years later he is the 44th President of the United States.

Avoid these few rolling actions that may impact audience perception
* Rapid eye movement makes you as the presenter appear shifty-eyed or furtive.
* Sweeping your head back and forth makes you appear harried.
* Wrapping your body with your hands and arms appears defensive.

These action immobilizes your features, make you look fearful and impacts your voice creating low volume and at the end delivering a weak and monotonous presentation full of "um" or "ah".

Has your eyes sweep the room frantically in search of escape routes? How many of us get butterflies in our stomach when we present? To be honest, I do get butterflies in my stomach every single time I am presenting whether it to coworkers, clients, customers or even senior leadership team. As the clock starts ticking down to D-day, I think, “How will I ever find the time to get it done?” and the anxiety level keeps mounting till the Moment of Truth. One thing that has helped me by reading through Weismman's "The power presenter" book is diminish the anxiety and take charge of your content in its preparation; "PREPARATION IS KEY."

Part 2 of this will follow soon..........................

Content for this blog is taken from Jerry Weissman's training, The Power Presenter book and Soundview

New Rules to do get job done in difficult times

I got to read a wonderful book "Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty" by one of my favorite author "Ram Charan." The book was very inspiring so I wanted to share it with my readers my thoughts, brief summary of the book and my take on it, please do leave your feedback.

As leaders today, we all are faced with an unprecedented challenge: the world-wide economic downturn. Cash and credit crunches, sales forecast sinking and huge long tunnel of darkness that is leading to demoralized employees. These are the times when leadership is at it's true test. Specially for ones like me that are running small scale businesses. One needs to stare in the face of uncertainty and accept the changes that are coming to you. You need survive the storm and position your business to thrive in the aftermath. The golden rule is accept the reality and fight through these uncertain and difficult time with your star players.

In today's environment protecting your cash flow has become the most important challange for all the companies. Here are few steps as per the book one should vigorously pursue so one can fight back the ever-present lethal threat of lack of liquidity.
1) Shift your focus from viewing an income statement to viewing a balance sheet
2) Three internal sources of cas - earings from operations, workign capital and the sales of assets
3) Manage conservatively and lower your cash breakeven point
4) Cost reduction activities based on cash-breakeven point - Reducing work force and choosing the real change agents that will stay with the company (weaker players are replaced with high skilled people from outside), capacity

I am sure most of you know all these things, they are definitely bitter and painful, however the reality is "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST"

One needs to be even more hands-on and closer to their operational process than ever before, every leader in this volatile market should have a "grond-level intelligence" of his/her business. However still has the ability to see the big picture that is emerging after this monsterous downturn.

Leaders need to increase the frequency of control that they use to measure their companies progress and success. As current economic challenges shortens the life span of a business model and strategy. One should have real-time company finances to share with all level of employees in the company.

Sales and marketing forces are the eyes and ears of the company, they have become even more instrumental in these turbulent times. Brand value and identity has become even more valuable for the company to be a long-term differentiator. One needs to make sure that the customer's experience lives up to the promise of the brand. Here are few ways that Ram Charan's book suggests:

* First bring your focus to front line- evaluate the sales and marketing team restructure them if necessary and reinstate the goals, objectives and values of the company.
* Second scrub through the customers list and assign a customer value for them to effectively decide the long-term customers. This will help you to narrow the customers that you want to grow and get you biggest bank for your buck.
* Third assign some aggressive and business-savy salespeople to a business development role.

Refocusing on Innovation is a key for a company to hold its strong standing in future. Leaders need to re-think the R&D budget and not completly cut it. One should not solely focus on improving existing products. R&D is the fuel that will keep the company running in future.

Quick Summary for Today's Leaders
1) Recognize and accept reality
2) Be hands-on/ground-level intelligence
3) Be bold and transparent
4) Deterime strategic changes and watch your risk
5) Protect your core - people, asset, projects
6) Listen to people at all levels
7) Be honest about the company's future and financial health
8) Be constructive and specific in your actions
9) Trainee your people to communicate cross-functionally
10) Focus on synchronization

6 Essential Leadership Traits in Hard Times
1) Honesty and Credibility
2) The ability to Inspire
3) Real-time connection with reality
4) Realism tempered with optimisim
5) Managing with Intensity
6) Boldness in building for the future.

Beyond Corporate Bullsh*t with Straight-talk

I just entered a new venture in my career as a senior consultant, and my new project manager gave me this awesome book to read, "Beyond Bullsh*t", i was so impressed by the book that i wanted to write my experience and some key highlights from the book for my readers.


The book starts with "Management Politics is like a sea gull" it will glide by you so smoothly that you won't even notice when you go trapped in it. Bullsh*t has become a second nature in professional work environment. A simple concept is coated with petals and color using high-tech features in presentation to make it look attractive. A cake is a cake, you can spend 1 hr or 10 hrs to make it; it will still be a cake.


A "positivistic" work culture makes it even more difficult to keep track of bullsh*t directed your way. Truth-finding contrast sharply with what gets accomplished with bullsh*t. Bullsh*t entails on-sided, buyer-beware advocacy.

All of us have personal motives and aspiration each day, however we bullsh*t it and twist it to the organization benefit to promote our future growth. Because stating your true goal will lead you to "Hell's Kitchen."

Why not one follows "straight talk" culture, i can bet 90% of us don't even know what it means. So here is my two cents on what "straight talk" is all about? Inner integrity is important to straight-talk. One cannot preach the gospel if they don't believe in it. Straight-talk relationships are concerned with the self-interested pursuits and well-being for the people they want to persuade. Straight-talk has a moral/ethical non-conspirational nature.

Straight-talk is more rigorous than truth-telling. While there are many reasons to tell the truth, there's only one underlying reason for straight-talk: self-and other-integrity. Truth-telling entails power-taking; in contrast Straight-talk entails power-sharing.
As my project manager says "So you done talking, where's the action," the next section talks about the techniques that one can use to master straight-talk.

The technique of “I-SPEAK,” it sounds so easy and natural but little more practice to master. “I-speak” is remarkable in its ability to let other know that what you are saying reflects what you, idiosyncratically, think. At the same time, it clearly implies that they may think something quite differently-and have every right to do so.

I-speak implies that your thoughts are the product of personal experiences, life lessons learned, and acquired wisdom. My mother has always be a straight shooter, she lays the facts directly which correlates to TRUTH-telling in this blog. Though she is right, it has always had a very minimal positive response from my side, and has always been one-sided accountability. In contrast my father uses the “I-SPEAK” technique to get this point across and that had tremendous impact on me as it would always leave room for me to express my opinion and avoid the win-lose right-wrong argument. It implied a relationship of equality and a commitment to fair play.

Mr. Samuel Culbert summarized “straight-talk,” in his book Beyond Bulls*t as communication, in word and action, on a variety of agendas, in which self-interested parties seek to truthfully represent their views, with genuine concern for the agendas and well-being of others and collateral concern for the impact on the organization. Straight-talk is not on-time conversation. It’s not simply a candid spontaneous discussion. Rather it is a candid encounter in the context of a reciprocally supportive and caring relationship.

When it comes to straight-talk relationship is king. People live dynamic lives, people change as circumstances changes, to keep the straight-talk intact you need to keep yourself current and invest your energy in it. If you want to know what you said, you need to ask the other person what he or she heard. Straight-talk can be either a blunt and factual statement or it could be political correct statement. It all depends on the relationships that exist between the two parties. Timing is a key in straight-talk, when you communicate the message to person make have a positive or a negative impact to their self-esteem.

A positive relationship with the boss is way more important that pay, assignment, creative opportunities, even better is a mentoring relationship and to add icing on the cake would be a straight-talk relationship. Interpersonal chemistry, trust, and loyalty that determine the level of candor possible in a boss-subordinate relationship.

Never expect people to say the absolute truth in straight-talk as they are not required to. Straight-talk relationships have an efficiency everyone finds attractive. Operating with minimal need to hide self-interests allows you to get quickly to the point.

Straight-talk is only recommended with people who have the capacity and inclination to follow through and reciprocate. In many ways this is the mirror image of what is required of you. The easiest and least risky time for straight-talk is when someone else initiates it.

Three aesthetic qualities that will enhance the ability to engage straight talk relationship are: genuine interest in knowing about the personal lives of people you meet, greeting people with an open heart, non-collusive style of loyalty.

On a closing note, I wanted to share with you all the new buzzword in the industry “mokita”- it means the truth everyone knows but no one speaks.