Hard Work Vs Smart Work...

It’s always a big question in the Industry where I am working, or is it a common phenomenon? People, who do work as a duty, or rather as an obligation try to drag it till the end and end up in the swirl of procrastination. That embarks a journey of crib club..

If you work for what you believe, its not hard work! You will consider it hard work when it becomes an obligation. Alas, we don’t find entrepreneurs in every day of life, at least to the nonobservant eye. Probably they are the same people whom we tease as hard workers or the one who don’t find time to take for themselves. What we may not realize is that their enjoyment lies in work. A typical phenomenon I observe is that people believe that they work for their ends and there exists a fine line between personal enjoyment and professional work. Ask what effects personal enjoyment? I have strong objection to people who resign themselves to 12 hours of long work the moment they enter office campus. Neither do I have respect for canteen mongers, or the shirkers who pretend to work only when their boss lands at their cubicle.

One should have a balanced approach to work. Even if I love my job, there are certain finer aspects for which I pay attention to. Probably it’s my fav music, a book by bed side, a morning workout at the local gym or a walk by the wild side. That’s where smart work comes in. Engaging mind and body in what we love to do every moment. As my boss quotes often, “if you got no mood to work, don’t work lady. Coz U will spend 8 hours miserably doing what you can finish off in a couple of hours!” Quite true indeed! In this high tension world, where struggle for life is quite evident in every walk of life, one should realize oneself to the full potential. Being smart, managing priorities in the deliverables, intelligently balancing different aspects of life, being focused on career and emotional balance helps in a big way! Keeping a sense of humour about oneself and wearing heart on sleeve helps too.

Even in a recession, some companies are hiring

Even in a painful recession, some companies are hiring, but competition for jobs is fierce.

Help wanted: pharmacists, engineers and nurses. Believe it or not, even some banks are hiring, at least for their technology teams.

While the recession has claimed 4.4 million jobs, the economy has created others, many of them for highly trained and specialized professionals. More than 2 million jobs openings now exist across a range of industries, according to government data.

Job seekers beware, though. An average of nearly five people are competing for each opening. That's up sharply from a ratio of less than 2-to-1 in December 2007, when the recession was just starting and nearly 4 million openings existed.

Human resources executives say companies that are hiring are benefiting from a top-notch talent pool as applications pour in from a larger base of job seekers. The number of unemployed Americans has soared, to 12.5 million last month, from 7 million when the recession began.

Broadly, jobs are being added in education, health care and the federal government, the Labor Department said, with the government adding 9,000 new jobs last month alone.

But beyond those areas, jobs can be found in a variety of sectors. Some places that are hiring, such as companies that make nuclear power equipment, haven't been hit that hard by the recession. Others, such as discount retailers, are actually benefiting from the downturn as shoppers turn thriftier.

Even some businesses at the center of the economic meltdown are managing to add a few employees. Banks involved in recent mergers, for example, are hiring information technology specialists to help integrate companies, said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of the Adecco Group North America, a human resources firm.

Some mortgage lending companies, notably those never involved in subprime or other exotic loans, are actually growing and hiring as larger competitors have folded.

"We've been busy," said Terry Schmidt, chief financial officer of Guild Mortgage Co. in California, whose company has doubled in size, from around 450 to close to 900 employees, in the past year and a half.

The new hires originate home loans and process them, among other duties.

"We're finding that the talent pool -- the level of talent and experience -- is much better than we've ever had," Schmidt said.

Mortgage servicing companies -- those that collect payments for the lenders that originated them -- are also hiring as lower mortgage rates fuel mortgage refinance applications.

Marina Walsh, associate vice president of industry analysis at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said servicers "are just scrambling for workers."

The nuclear power industry, meanwhile, doesn't seem to have noticed the economic downturn. It is adding thousands of jobs as it gears up to build as many as 26 new nuclear power plants in the next decade.

Corporations such as Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Company and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy are hiring engineers and adding other workers as they expand manufacturing facilities, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group. (GE Hitachi is a partnership between General Electric Co. and Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd.)

Engineers of all kinds are in demand and are facing a rock-bottom jobless rate of about 3 percent, according to Gilliam of the Adecco Group North America. That compares with a nationwide unemployment rate of 8.1 percent last month.

Adecco is trying to fill about 1,200 engineering jobs, Gilliam said. They include product engineers who test the next generation of computer equipment, he said.

Other bright spots in an otherwise dismal labor market:

-- Pharmacists: An aging U.S. population is taking more medicine and pharmacists are taking more time helping patients with chronic diseases manage their dosages, said Douglas Scheckelhoff of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists.

There is a 6 percent shortage of hospital pharmacists, Scheckelhoff said, while many drug stores are also looking to hire new pharmacists and pharmacist technicians, he said.

-- Nurses: Hospitals also need more nurses to care for the aging population and to replace those nearing retirement, said Cheryl Peterson, director of nursing practice and policy at the American Nurses Association. Hospitals added 7,000 jobs of all kinds last month, even as the economy overall shed 651,000.

-- Veterinarians: "There's a tremendous demand" for veterinarians, particularly to serve livestock growers in rural areas, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief executive officer of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The government is also short of veterinarians needed to inspect slaughterhouses and undertake other food safety measures, he said. The Labor Department projects that the number of veterinary jobs will grow by 35 percent by 2016, DeHaven said.

Some companies are benefiting from the recession as shoppers shift to lower-priced stores. The economy has lost more than 600,000 retail jobs since the slowdown began, but discount retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. is hiring.

The company plans to hire new workers for 200 stores it expects to open this year, said spokesman Josh Braverman, and will also add employees at some of its nine distribution centers. Family Dollar saw its sales at stores open at least a year rise by 6.4 percent in the three months ending in February.

Other companies prospering amid the economic gloom include liquidators -- firms that sell the assets of troubled businesses.

Bill Angrick, chief executive of Washington, D.C.-based Liquidity Services Inc., which operates the Web site Liquidation.com, said his company expects record profits for the first quarter. Among the items his company liquidates are vehicles and networking and communications equipment.

Julie Davis, a spokeswoman for the firm, said it has openings for at least 10 people in its sales, marketing, operations and finance departments.

"We are absolutely in hiring mode," she said. The company employs about 700 people worldwide.

AP Business Writers Jeannine Aversa and Daniel Lovering contributed to this report.

(Source: Yahoo Finance!)

Why Money Isn't a Motivator

To make today's unpopular government bailouts more palatable, the Obama administration has mandated caps on executive compensation. But given what science tells us about the way the mind works, proposed limits on pay--even if merited--risk being self-defeating.

Studies have shown that our level of satisfaction depends not on our absolute salaries, but on how much we're paid relative to our peers, and so salary increases are judged relative to what we've become accustomed to. Using salary as a motivator ensures only that financial incentives grow exponentially to obscene levels while they, at the same time, become less and less effective.

It's also been well established that such external motivators decrease our internal motivation. Working for the carrot displaces the human need for purposeful achievement, and it comes at a huge cost--both in results and in satisfaction. When people are totally engaged in their work, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released, which sharpens focus and increases performance while creating a profound sense of wellbeing. We are motivated by the work itself, not the reward.

By holding out a big compensation package as a motivator, we attract less-than-stellar performers and inevitably run out of money to motivate them. But when we cap their salaries, we not only focus attention on compensation, we virtually ensure we end up with executives that can't get jobs elsewhere.

Besides, most Americans still see a half-million dollars as excessive relative to their own incomes. We need to move away from the issue of money altogether, and the way to do that is to change the story we tell ourselves; a story that focuses on monetary rewards as the primary goal of work decreases both our motivation and performance.

But scientists have shown that our stories can be fundamentally changed by a crisis. The current financial meltdown gives us a chance to create a better narrative, one that's not just about the accumulation of wealth, but about community and public service.

If we replace the emphasis on financial rewards, capped or otherwise, with the significance of the work to be done and its importance to our country, we would see the American spirit of service rise to levels not seen since World War II. Back then, "dollar-a-year" men took government jobs because it was the right thing to do and our country was in need. Today, this same spirit is needed to get us back on track.

As studies of transformational leadership have shown, the example should start at the top. Think of the impact it would have if President Obama announced he would take a salary of a dollar a year until the economy turned around. The rest of the White House staff and perhaps even well-heeled members of Congress could join in. CEOs of bailed-out companies would quickly fall in line.

Studies of the brain show that when leaders seize the opportunity of a crisis to tell a new story that's a better fit with the times, it can change the way the rest of us think and behave. We eagerly claim the message as our own and willingly make whatever sacrifices are needed. During the Great Depression and World War II, our leaders told new stories powerful enough to recharge the can-do spirit America is known for.

The times may have changed, but our brains will respond to the same stimuli now as they did then. Forcing executives or citizens to blindly accept certain circumstances is not going to work, because neither extremely high salaries nor salary caps will properly motivate us to work ourselves out of the recession.

(Source: Charles S. Jacobs, Forbes.com, Mon, Mar 9 09:30 AM)

The seven characteristics of a powerful visions

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet." - Theodore Hesburgh

Vision is central to effective leadership. A leader’s vision is his passion. Leaders are constantly striving for the achievement of their vision. Leaders adopt challenging visions, driven by passion… this inspires others to commit to the journey… they inspire others to volunteer their energies to make it happen. Consider the following…

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If a leader is to inspire and enlist others to their cause, they will need an effective vision. This means leaders must be clear about “What is a vision?” and “What makes a vision effective?” Burt Nanus in his book “Visionary Leadership” defines vision as:

“… a realistic, credible, attractive future for your organization. It is your articulation of a destination toward which your organization should aim, a future that in important ways is better, more successful, or more desirable for your organization than is the present.”

So how do you know if your vision is effective? Burt Nanus provides the following characteristics of powerful visions:

Appropriateness: “They are appropriate for the organization and the times. They fit in terms of the organization’s history, culture and values, are consistent with the organization’s present situation, and provide a realistic and informed a assessment of what is attainable in the future.”

Challenging: “They set standards of excellence and reflect high ideals.”

Set Direction: “They clarify purpose and direction. They are persuasive and credible in defining what the organization wants to make happen… They provide agendas that create focus and hold out hope and promise of a better tomorrow.”

Inspirational: “They inspire enthusiasm and encourage commitment. They widen the leader’s support base by reflecting the needs and aspirations of many stakeholders…”

Understandable: “They are well articulated and easily understood. They are unambiguous enough to serve as a guide to strategy and action and to be internalized by those whose efforts are needed to turn the vision into reality”

Unique: “They reflect the uniqueness of the organization, its distinctive competence, what it stands for, and what it is able to achieve”

Ambitious: “They are ambitious. The represent undisputed progress and expand the organizations horizons.”

Review your company and team vision:

1. Does your vision exhibit the characteristics of a powerful vision as described above?
2. What change do you need to make to ensure your vision is more powerful?

How much time are you investing in developing a shared vision?

The January 2009 edition of the Harvard Business Review has a piece titled “To Lead, Create a Shared Vision” by James Kouzes and Barry Posner discussing the importance of a shared vision for effective leadership…

“Being forward-looking—envisioning exciting possibilities and enlisting others in a shared view of the future—is the attribute that most distinguishes leaders from non-leaders.”

It seems that organisations with a true sense of purpose, vision and passion are few and far between… The article goes on to point out that:

“… researchers who study executives’ work activities estimate that only 3% of the typical business leader’s time is spent envisioning and enlisting.”

The process of creating a shared vision requires significantly more effort that 3% of an executive or senior managers time! A shared vision is not something that can happen with just a 3% investment by executives.

When it comes to vision their is no miracle moment, rather it’s a daily journey. A journey that requires constant investment in modeling the right behaviours - daily, in communication - daily and the management of people’s expectations - daily.

• Are you investing time in developing a shared vision?
• What percentage of your time are you investing in developing a shared vision?
• How much time are you spending in enlisting others?

10 Questions Never to Ask in Job Interviews

You know enough to bring a list of questions to a job interview. When the interviewer asks you, "So, do you have any questions for me?" the last thing? You want to say is "No." But that could be the best option if you're at a loss for words, because some interview questions are better left unasked.

Here are 10 highly unsuitable interview questions that should never make an appearance, unless you don't want the job:

1. "What does your company do?"
This was a reasonable interview question in 1950 or in 1980, before the Internet existed. Today, it's your job to research any company you're interviewing with before setting foot in the door. We need to show up for a job interview knowing what the employer does, who its competitors are, and which of its accomplishments (or challenges) have made the news lately.

2. "Are you going to do a background check?"
It is amazing how many job candidates ask this question, which provokes alarm on the part of the interviewer, instead of the more general, "Can you please tell me a little about your selection process, from this point on?" Lots of people have credit issues that cause them worry during a job search, or aren't sure how solid their references from a previous job might be. If you're invited for a second interview, you can broach any sensitive topics from your past then. Asking "Will you do a background check?" makes you look like a person with something to hide.

3. "When will I be eligible for a raise?"
Companies fear underpaying people almost as much as they fear overpaying them, because a person who's underpaid vis-a-vis his counterparts in the job market is a person with one eye on the career sites. Instead of asking about your first raise before you've got the job, you can ask (at a second interview) "Does your organization do a conventional one-year performance and salary review?"

4. "Do you have any other jobs available?"
A job search requires quick thinking about straight talk, and if a job is far below your abilities, you're better off saying so than beating around the bush with this question. You don't have to take yourself out of the running; you can say, "The job sounds interesting, but frankly I was earning 30% more and supervising people in my last job. Could you help me understand the career path for this role?" That's the cue for the interviewer, if he or she is on the ball, to highlight another job opening that might exist.

5. "How soon can I transfer to another position?"
You're broadcasting "I'm outta here at the first chance" when you ask this question. If you like the job, take the job. If it's not for you, wait for the right opportunity. Almost every employer will keep you in your seat for at least one year before approving an internal transfer, so a job-search bait-and-switch probably won't work out the way you'd hoped.

6. "Can you tell me about bus lines to your facility?"
Get online and research this yourself. It's not your employer's problem to figure out how you get to work.

7. "Do you have smoking breaks?"
If you're working in retail or in a call center, you could ask about breaks. Everyone else, keep mum; if your need to smoke intrudes so much on your work life that you feel the need to ask about it, ask your best friend or significant other for smoking-cessation help as a new-job present. Lots of companies don't permit smoking anywhere on the premises, and some don't like to hire smokers at all. Why give an employer a reason to turn you down?

8. "Is [my medical condition] covered under your insurance?"
This is a bad question on two counts. You don't want to tell a perfect stranger about your medical issues, especially one who's deciding whether or not to hire you. Ask to see a copy of the company's benefits booklet when an offer has been extended. This is also a bad question from a judgment standpoint; no department managers and only a tiny percentage of HR people could be expected to know on a condition-by-condition basis what's covered under the health plan. Anyway, your pre-existing condition won't be covered under most corporate plans for at least a year.

9. "Do you do a drug test?"
If you have a philosophical objection to drug tests, wait until they ask you to take a drug test and tell them about your objection. Otherwise, your question sounds like, "I'd fail a drug test," so don't ask.

10. "If you hire me, can I wait until [more than three weeks from now] to start the job?"
Employers expect you to give two weeks' notice. If you're not working, they'd love to see you more quickly. If you ask for tons of time off before you start working -- unless you have a very good reason -- the employer may think, "How serious is this candidate about working?" In any case, a start-date extension is something to request after you've got the offer in hand, not before.