Sunday 22 March 2015

Challenges faced by transformational leaders

The interconnected economies today demands new and innovative ways to approach to a particular problem. This in turn requires lot of out-of-the-box thinking and inclusion of such ideas that are not already common.

Today's transforming world emphasizes more on providing all, a platform to succeed. This it turn requires political, economic, social and technological reform to ensure that more people come forward and exchange new ideas and help in decision making to ensure a better standard of living of the people and overall success of a nation.

People should be made more responsive to the global concern by encouraging their active participation in decision making, this in turn requires good leaders who shall look beyond the immediate horizon, motivate people, inspire them and help come up with new ideas and improve their job performance. Apart from making decisions leaders should be able to recognise the impact of the decisions to ensure a successful outcome.

There are several challenges that are faced by the transformational leaders in day-to-day life such as identifying change that is most needed, creating long term vision and taking necessary steps needed to implement the changes this in turn requires lot of people who are self-motivated, have strong will power to participate and succeed, are open to new ideas and changes and are ready to follow the foot-steps of the leaders.

The most challenging task among all, of transformational leaders is to transform the followers into future leaders by clarifying their vision and help them identifying the problems that are existing; and also the ones that might pop up in future and taking necessary steps to channelize the activities that are required to implement the change with success.

  

Friday 20 March 2015

What matters more at work place? Emotional Quotient or Intelligence Quotient

Has emotion anything to do at work place?
IQ alone cannot ensure a successful career and well being of an individual or organization as a whole.

To ensure a better career and an efficient workforce management with high productivity there exist another parameter which play a vital role to ensure overall success that is emotional intelligence.

Emotion play an important role in one's life, these are complex state of feelings that results in psychological changes that influences one's behaviour. When people attend to their feelings, they may be directed away from a problem that exists, to a new one of greater immediate importance.
For example, if an employee is having some personal problem he may be directed away from his day-to-day work-related problems and towards the troubles that is surrounding him in personal front.

The sort of troubles that people identify and the way in which they frame them will probably be more related to internal emotional experiences than will be the problems addressed by others.
It is found that individuals with positive attitude towards life construct better interpersonal experiences and are more creative and flexible in arriving at better alternatives to problems.

Emotions can be used to motivate persistence at more challenging tasks.

The way in which people appraises or communicates emotions or uses them to guide thinking and behaviour or solve the real life problems vary largely. The effective regulation of emotion is very important in self and others since it helps to understand people in a better manner, improves job performance and generates leadership skills in an individual.

From organisation perspective it is very important to identify problems and conflicts at the root level else in near future it will create discomfort in the workplace and will result in poor performance of the workforce which in turn will result in low productivity, high attrition rate, etc. Hence not IQ alone can solve this problem, it requires constructive utilization of the vital information that is available and creative thinking to remove the root causes that creates conflicts between individuals in an organization and in turn interferes with their performance or team work.





 

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Top Interview Mistakes

1. Not being yourself
In an interview it is very important to stay focussed and alert throughout the interview process. Try not to stretch the weak areas and avoid too much customization of your answers based on the interviewer's approach. It is a good attempt to analyse the interviewer and answer the questions but beware of committing mistakes since the interviewer may not reveal every aspect that is important for the winning candidate to possess.
Try to give an accurate portrayal of your interests and skill set so that the interviewer gets the right person during the process.

2. No preparation
It is very important to have preliminary preparation before walking into an interviewer's office, especially for the established brands. Try to learn as much as possible before attending an interview this not only helps you to answer to the questions of the interview in a satisfactory manner but also shows your willingness to work in the company. The hiring manager expects that you have at least went through some literatures about the company.

Example (From a real interview process for a leading brand)

Hiring Manager  :  "Hello Mr. Abc"
Candidate  : "Good Morning Sir"
Hiring Manager  :  "Good Morning. Mr. Abc. So have you went through our company website?"
Candidate  :  "Yes Sir. I went through your website and I think your brand is doing great in the market and the products posses every quality to bid the competitors"
Hiring Manager  :  "Ok. Can you name some of our products and competitors?"
Candidate  :  "Oh. Missed this out Sir."

3. Lack of confidence/over confident
The interviewer should be convinced that you are willing to do the job. Being too much nervous creates negative impression and the interviewer feels you are not prepared and may not fit to the position. On the other hand being overconfident will make them feel that you wont fit into the team. So it is very important to maintain a balance and behave in a professional manner so as to showcase your skills and qualities in a right manner.

4. Talking too little/too much
Both the extremes can create a negative impression even if you are saying all good things about yourself. Saying too little in an interview will not allow you to showcase your skills in the desired manner and the hiring manager may wonder if you are hiding something; if your responses are too lengthy, can lead to a monologue and  people may tune you out.

 5. Criticise your current employer
Beware since the interviewer might be thinking while listening to your answers, what it would be working with you. You might not be satisfied with the current employer and would do anything to get rid of the management who had been rude to you. The hiring manager may ask you many questions related to your current or previous employer and try to judge you by your answers, in such case try not to lose your mind or start blaming your current employer/boss because nobody wants to work with a person who unceasingly criticises others. This will only make them feel that this might be your regular way of thinking and may be repeated if you are absorbed!