If you are wondering how anger can boost your career, then you are at the right place. Read on to know how.

Negative emotions such as fear and anger are inborn and are of tremendous importance. Negative emotions are often crucial for survival: careful experiments such as ours have documented that negative emotions narrow and focus attention so we can concentrate on the trees instead of the forest.

This is what Professor George Vaillant, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School had to say.

Anger can be both constructive and destructive. It is anybody’s guess as to which type of anger can help you boost your career – It indeed is constructive anger.

In a previous post we discussed about the importance of controlled aggression. In contrast to it, one does not need to suppress or, control his anger. Instead  what is required is to channelize it properly.

What is anger?

Anger is a reaction to the feeling of helplessness, when you realize that you want to do something, but you are not able to do it.

Professor George Valliant, further has to say that,

“People think of anger as a terribly dangerous emotion and are encouraged to practice ‘positive thinking’, but we find that approach is self-defeating and ultimately a damaging denial of dreadful reality. Negative emotions such as fear and anger are inborn and are of tremendous importance. Negative emotions are often crucial for survival: negative emotions narrow and focus attention so we can concentrate on the trees instead of the forest.”

So what is required is controlled and constructive anger. But how will you ensure that your anger is constructive?

Ways of channelizing anger into constructive forms:-

• Whenever you feel angry, try not to exhibit that in public. The best way to control the exhibition of anger is to tell yourself, “Relax, relax”. Keep saying it to yourself until you start to feel that your temper is lowering down.
• Sit down and think, as to whose fault was it, that gave rise to the situation. Think logically for about 5-10 minutes and you will start to realize that your too were partially at fault.
• We described anger as an emotion against in-capability to do something. The solution hence lies in the statement. Find what capability is it that you are found wanting for. Work towards attaining that capability – if you cannot gain it yourselves, network with people who have power and capability.

How can anger help you at work?

Most often, you get angry at work because of increasing dissatisfaction. Other reasons could be strained relationships with your superiors, excessive work pressure, inability to control certain decisions etc.

Each of these reasons can trun out to work in your favor if you learn the art of channelizing your anger in a constructive way. You will learn to network better and would be able to build stronger realtionships with your superiors, peers and subordinates. You will also learn to better manage your time and delegate work. You will start to find reasons of being satisfied, or you will look for better opportunities that provide you satisfaction. You will also be in a better situation to bifurcate professional and personal things and will learn not to bring work to home, thus bringing harmony and peace to your home.

What is your thoughts on constructive anger? What are your choices of channelizing anger in a constructive way?

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Is aggression good for your career?

Many a times I have seen people in the top management being a bit too much aggressive. I have also come across quite a few employees in the lower management levels also who have exhibited excessive aggression. How good is aggression and what level of management does it benefit?

It is good to be aggressive, especially if you are into sales and marketing. It is said that the most aggressive of salesman are the ones who are the most successful. Aggression helps a salesman in pitching for his product with full confidence. In a way he overwhelms the customer’s thought process and induces him to think the way he wants him to think, thus creating an urge for the product that he is selling. And because the customer does not have too much time to think, the salesman is able to sell his product.

Does the story end there?

It would have ended there if the customer (consumer or, market) in question was that of the 1950s. The markets have changed now to become a buyers’ market and so the story does not end there. Customers have options these days and every company knows that if they do not keep their customers happy, they will loose then to their competitors. In such a situation, aggressive selling only helps meet the goal for the moment. When the customer finally gets time to think, he will realize that it was a forced sale and he will return the product or, decide not to buy from the company anymore.

Let’s ask the question again. Is aggression good for sales? The answer would be – Controlled aggression is good for sales.

Aggression in Management -

I was attending a workshop being conducted by one the top management personnel in my organization, when suddenly a participant stood up and questioned a logic that the speaker gave. The question was valid and would have made any speaker think. The speaker in question here, got irritated, probably because the questioner was a lower level manager and was a new entrant into the organization. His response did not provide a rebuttal to the questioner, but he indirectly meant to tell the participant that he should not be questioning somebody in the top management. He, in a way wanted to make the participant realize that he was in command.

The workshop turned out to be a flop with not too much of attention from any of the participant and even a few quitting the workshop in between. Later we got to know that the feedback that the participants gave the speaker was very poor. It is worthy of mention here that the speaker was an extremely intelligent person, with immense experience in the field that he was in and was the subject of the workshop, had good knowledge about the subject, was an extremely good orator and a public speaker.

Aggression can be extremely harmful, irrespective of what position you are in, or what level of management you belong to.

“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.

Control your aggression. Think of a situation in your organization where both parties take to aggression. There would be no solution. Logical thinking and a logical explanation is what can help you succeed.

People Managers, especially should bear in mind that you cannot lead your people by being aggressive with them. You need to understand them, their needs and their thoughts and evaluate things logically instead of taking to aggression. A composed discussion can provide you a resolution or, a solution rather than an aggressive discussion.

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How can you enhance performance within a team? Businesses in BPOs and Call-centers are more of team-work and less of individual efforts. So when it comes to the success of the business, the focus is more on TEAM BUILDING. Why is team-building important?

It is said that TEAM means “Together Everyone Achieves More”. The most important word in this sentence is the word “Together” and this is the most difficult thing to do. Teams often fail in their objective just because the team members are busy working individually and the togetherness is nowhere to be seen.

I cannot forget the day when one of our colleagues got so angry with the term “together” being used in a forum discussing team-work that he stood up and said, “So do you mean that I should tie myself up to one of my team members who doesn’t know anything about me or, whom I don’t know, with the expectation that I would then be able to achieve my targets”.

The benefits that team-work can bring in is undefinable. One has to experience it to know it. The intimacy that comes with team-work helps each other in learning new things and finding new and better ways of doing things. It increases your efficiency and knowledge. There are different kind of people in a team – people with different skill sets, different expertise, different view points etc. When this varied knowledge and skills are exchanged within the team members in a team, each of the team members stand to gain thus improving your productivity and efficiency.

Bonding and engagement is an integral part of a team. The more the team members engage within the team, the more the bonding and the better the bonding, the better the results. Various team building activities can help improve the team bonding. There are a variety of team building games that can improve the bonding within the team members. In order to improve interaction and involvement of the team members in a team, it is important to plan these team buidling activities from time to time.

Modern day organizations know the importance of team building and hence corporates have set-aside specific budgets for various corporate events to be organized. I have seen a sea-change in the mentality of the team members after a corporate event. Team outings, treasure hunts, themed reviews etc. have proved to improve the inter-relations between team members. Hence, recession or, no-recession, organizations that are serious towards team-building and understand its importance do not touch finances set aside for such corporate events. Consequently they always stay ahead of the competition.

Photograph courtesy Budslife “busy” used under Creatives Common License

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In this part of the interviewing tips series, we are going to touch upon the most important part in any interview. This aspect is what plays a major role in deciding your fate in an interview. This aspect is the “Non-verbal Communication” in an interview.

Many a times we ignore this part and focus so much on the other aspects of an interview that we feel so confident that we are going to make it, that we actually become over-confident. This over-confidence influences this aspect to an extent that the interviewer gets to know that we are over-confident and then the result is a rejection.

The first contact that a candidate has with the interviewer is when he enters the room and shakes hands with the interviewer. This is the beginning of the non-verbal communication that the interviewee will have with the interviewer. If your handshake is not appropriate then you have lost the first battle and the interviewer gets a chance to make an impression about you. Throughout the remaining part of the interview, the questions that are being put to you and the way your responses are being judged is decided primarily by this first impression.

What are the few things that you should keep in mind when you shake hands?

• Ensure that you lock your palms with that of the other person and then shake your hands. This shows that you are confident and positive.
• Do not just catch the other persons hands by your fingers and then leave it quickly as if in a hurry. This is the sign of an under-confident and pessimistic person.
• Always lock your palms with the other person in a straight position., i.e. the inside of your palm should be facing your left side and should be in a 90° position to the ground. This posture is a sign of your attitude.

Follow these basic rules when you shake hands with the interviewer and you have set the tone for a smooth interview.

Photograph courtesy g-hat used under Creatives Common license.

I have come across many people who would run for their life when they get to know that they have to sell something in a job. There are numerous others who come to me asking for tips to make money and when I say that they will have to sell something, they raise their hands and say, “I cannot sell”.
This is where a conversation becomes interesting. Once I was with a mentor of mine who was talking to a couple of people, telling them how easy it is to sell something on the internet and make money. He was explaining to them that how salemen were the highest paid people and how selling can help them make good money. As he ended his dialogue, an accountant amongst the them said, “But Mr.Dixit, I cannot sell. I am not good at selling and I do not possess selling skill. It requires convincing power”. Mr.Dixit said a sentence or, two in favor of selling and stopped with an open ended question prompting the accountant to speak on reasons why he felt he cannot sell. The accountant then started off on a “convince him” pitch, trying to convince my mentor of the fact that he cannot sell and the reasons why he cannot, including a detailed description of the skills required to sell something which he apparently did not possess.
After about 2 minutes when he stopped, Mr.Dixit asked him a question, “What is it that you did right now? My friend, what you did is selling. You just sold me an idea that you cannot sell. Wasn’t this selling?”
This is how easy selling is.
An interview is all about selling yourself to the interviewer. Your success will depend upon how well you sell yourself. Just keep a couple of things in mind and you would never face failure in interviews.

• Be confident of what you are saying. But at the same time be cautious to not be overconfident. Maintain a normal pace and tone of speech.
• Use examples and instances wherever required, to add value to your responses.
• Don’t interrupt the interviewer because this shows you are either under-confident or, over-confident.
• Don’t just start off immediately as the interviewer finishes his question. Take a few seconds to think and decide on your response. About 3 seconds is an ideal pause before you answer.
• Never start your responses with “Okay”.
• Be enthusiastic and maintain appropriate posture. If you are sitting in a chair with arms (which you would be) rest your hands on the arms of the chair.
• Do not play with your fingers.
• Do not tie your arms in front of you if you are sitting in a chair without arms.

Succeeding in an interview does not entirely depend upon the responses that you give. Though there would be questions where the response is of prime importance, I should say that your success has much more to do with the way you have responded to your questions.

A career is only successful if it is planned well. Planning in your career would obviously start with setting goals and targets and then running for it. But it is here that almost all planning fails and most of the plans just don’t take off at all.
I have never heard of any person setting off on a trip without knowing where to go. Similarly you need to know where you want to go to in your career. But the confusion is in the kind of goals that one should set for himself. Should you set a realistic goal or, an ambitioous goal?

Realistic Goals:-
There are quite a few who profess setting realistic goals. If I ask you to set a realistic goal, the responses that I get from each of you would be different. Some would be a starter in his career and would want to play safe. He would be of the opinion that since he is in the pre-mature stage of his career he would set a goal that he thinks can be achieved. There would be some others who would be veterans in their career but they too would want to set a goal that they think they will be a able to achieve in the set time frame. It is human pyschology to play safe. I am not one of those genuises who would be just in deciding what my achievable goal would be. Hence everytime I set a goal it is bound to be something less that what I can achieve, so that I do not miss it and I am encouraged to run after my next goal.

Advantage -
You would not be de-motivated because you would for sure achieve your goals.
You won’t give up at the beginning itself just because you lost your first race.

Disadvantage -
In this highly competitive world, you might just be too much behind your competitors who are setting aggressive goals and are consequently achieving more than what you have achieved.
Your realistic goals would actually be unrealistic, because you would have a tendency to play safe.

Ambitious goals:-
I have always preferred setting an ambitious goal for my self and I would always profess the same. The reason is quite simple – “Aim for the stars, even if you don’t achieve it you will have the satisfaction that you have at least touched the sky”.
My potential might not be to touch the sky, but because I kept on trying to touch the stars, I was able to touch the sky. If I had aimed to touch teh sky, I would probably not even have crossed the earth’s atmosphere.
Setting ambitious targets have always helped me to stretch myself and stretching has helped me achieve more than what I could have achieved, had I set a realistic goal.
But the key here is to stay motivated even if you fail. There is also a tendency to set an ambitious goal and just stop trying to achieve it, because you know that you have set a difficult to achieve goal and that you might not be able to make it.

Advantage -
You would always stay ahead of your competition because you would achieve more in less time.
Ideal for people who look for fast-track career growths.

Disadvantage -
Tendency of giving up even before trying.
You might get de-motivated if you are not able to achieve your goals.

Having said this, I would also say that, it entirely depends upon you frame of mind and will-power, as to what kind of goals you should set for yourself.

The key to success in any organization is working together as a team. It is same with a BPO as well. But what does it mean to work in a team?
The geese has a certain way of flying. When they fly they form a particular formation. There is a definite reason why they do that. Understanding this concept teaches us what “Team work” is all about.

Fact 1: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson we can learn : People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
Lesson we can learn: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Fact 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.
Lesson we can learn: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each others skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

Fact 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson we can learn: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

Fact 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.
Lesson we can learn: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

~Based on the work by Milton Olson

What can we learn from this?

• We need to assist one another.
• It is our duty to take turn to lead.
• Learn the importance of encouraging one another in the right direction.
• It is necessary to stand by one another in difficult times.

Photograph courtesy Toivo Lagerweij

One of my team members came to me a couple of days back with a query. He wanted a suggestion from me. His sister was working in a company who was reeling under the economic crisis and was going through a cost-cutting spree. There were cost reduction initiatives everywhere. Incentives that were offered earlier were no more being given. Salary appraisals were also being put on hold. Recognitions were not coming, just because recognition involved costs. No employee was happy with just a pat on his back. It had to be accompanied with some kind of reward which meant monetary considerations. Giving the kind of situation that the organization was going through, employees were bound to be unhappy. Add to this the lack of communication from the organization’s leaders to its employee, and the matters were worse.
Now this employee was looking for a change very desperately. She had spent close to 3 years in the organization and was in for a promotion when all this happened. So growth was what she was looking for. She got an opportunity with another company which was into the financial domain and there were news in the leading dailies that they were cutting jobs and that the financial situation was bad. The organization was offering a good enough package to this employee and a position jump as well.
She was caught in a dilemma now. Should she opt for the change or, not?
There are quite a few employees caught in this dilemma. They are scared of the financial situation and at the same time are so dissatisfied that they desperately want to change. So what is the correct decision at this point in time.
The decision would depend upon a comparative evaluation. One should keep in mind that there is always a risk at changing a job during tough financial conditions. Any organization that goes on an employee reduction initiative would first look to lay-off the ones who have just been hired. They would certainly not want to let go off their seasoned employees unless they are absolute non-contributors and non-performers. So the risk remains. But at the same time, if your organization is a sinking ship and if you have a better opportunity it is always better to grab it and jump out of the sinking ship. So consider the following and then take a call.

• Which organization is financially strong – your current organization or, the prospective one? – If both are non-comparisons, then evaluate the following.
• Has your organization in the past offered growth and appreciable pay-hikes?
• Has your organization taken care of its employees in the past?
• Is there a definite communication from your senior leader’s to the employees.
• Are you okay to be without a job in the worst case scenario for about a couple of months?
• Even if your organization is taking extreme steps of cost-reduction right now, how strong is it financially? Is it cash-rich? Does it have enough liquidity reserves?

The last point would be a difficult to gather information, but with internet and Google, you should be able to do so. Answer all of the above questions and you would be able to find an answer.

Photograph courtesy Rose Ann

BPOs have always been character assasinated. It is in the news for all the wrong reasons, rather BPOs are made the reason for all the wrong news.

When I joined the BPOs, I was told that one cannot work in a call center without smoking. You have to smoke to cope up with the stress you encounter in a BPO. But its has been 8 years now and I have never smoked. Is it that the BPO is the one who brought the smnoking culture? I do no think it is, but a lot of people have their own reasons to believe that it is.

So how would the smoking ban impact the BPOs? I do not think it would make much of a difference. For that matter, no-smoking in any company would not make much of a difference, because the ones who still feel the urge to smoke would go out and smoke and the ones who can avoid will avoid it. But can smokers quit smoking all of a sudden. No, not really.

So will the smoking ban be effective. I have my reason to believe that it is not. I am of the opinion that if the government is so committed towards prevention of smoking, why don’t they stop the production of cigarrettes.

What is your opinion? Post a comment and lets start a discussion.

Photograph courtesy ilker

In the interview process series I would be discussing the various rounds of interviews that normally recruiters to BPOs follow. The rounds could vary according to company, but the purpose of each of these rounds would remain the same. Hence the discussion would be more generic than being specific.

In the first of my multi part series on the interview process, I would be discussing on the first round interview that is more often than not the same in almost all companies. We call it the PI round or, the Personal Introduction round.
What is this round and what is the purpose of this round?

As the name itself suggests this round is about introducing yourself to the interviewer. One may wonder as to why is this round so important and necessary when everything about myself is mentioned in my CV. You might have mentioned everything about yourself in the CV, but there are much more to it that it appears in the CV. When the interviewer asks you about you and your family and your work experience and educational qualifications, he is looking for things beyond what is written in your CV. This round is basically, an analysis of your temperament, attitude and approach towards things. When you talk about your family or, your colleagues in your organization, I am looking for cues to check how good a team player are you and how well do you gel with others. I am also looking for answers to questions like, are you understanding enough and how comfortable are you in a team?

In addition to this, the interviewer is also looking for information from you. Information that you have not mentioned in your CV. What is this information? At times you miss out on lot of things that you might well have been handling in your previous organization, in terms of responsibilities. You might also want to elaborate on the kind of role that you were into in your organization, the kind of process that you were working for, how simple or, how difficult it was and so on. These are information that helps the interviewer in deciding if you fit the bill.

Last but the most important, the interviewer is looking for answers. Answers to questions that he would have framed after scrutinizing and analyzing your CV. These questions are based on “misses” in your CV that go unnoticed. A break in employment, a contradicting depiction of your responsibilities, all these are some of these misses. The interviewer would be looking for genuine and appropriate responses to his questions so that he can consider you for the employment.

The PI round is more or, less the same for any levels of recruitments, entry level or, middle management. Preparing for this round can be a later discussion.

Photograph courtesy Faakhir Rizvi