A Lesson in Ethics by an Army Officer

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/2010/08/a-lesson-in-ethics-by-an-army-officer.html

By Maj Gen Dhruv C Katoch
________________________________

It was the summer of 67. I was all of sixteen years old, had just finished my schooling from a prestigious boarding school and was on a sabbatical working out what to do with my life.

My father was a colonel in the army and had a year to go before retirement. We were living in a comfortable government bungalow in Ajmer but as far as material luxuries go, we didn’t have much; no car, no scooter and no refrigerator either – the status symbols of those days. Television had not yet spread its wings in the country and a small transistor radio was our means of keeping in touch with the rest of the world. We however, felt no sense of deprivation and the lack of amenities perhaps spurred our innate abilities to keep ourselves occupied in more meaningful ways.

During those days, it always upset me that father never let us use the office jeep for visiting friends, going to the market or seeing the various attractions which the town had to offer. My brothers, my sister and I would either cycle or walk to where ever we had to go and my mother would take a rickshaw for her occasional trips to the market. Father was the head of his department and could so easily have used service transport for his family had he been so inclined. Many government officials routinely did so but for father such an act was unthinkable. It was also unthinkable for us to question him about it. One evening however, I mustered up the courage and did the unthinkable.

‘Why don’t you let us use the office jeep sometimes, Dad?’ I asked. We were sitting in the drawing room and father had just poured himself a stiff tot of rum. Mom looked at me quizzically, wondering where such a conversation would lead but refrained from saying anything. Dad turned, took a sip from his drink, looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘I would son, but the pear would not go down my throat’.

‘What pear?’ I asked.

Father waited awhile and then narrated this most amazing tale. ‘When I was a kid your age, or perhaps a shade younger than you are now’, he said, ‘I had gone out to play with my friends. On the farther side of the village there was a beautiful orchard where the first lot of pears had ripened on the trees. Which young bunch of kids could resist such a temptation? Well, we crawled under the fence and with an intrepidity that would have done a cat burglar proud, took all we could carry before scampering back to safety. I took my share of the loot home, as proud as a warrior returning home with conquests from a famous victory’.

‘Your grandfather was sitting on his favourite chair on the verandah smoking his hookah. It was over a decade since your grandfather had retired from the army, but he was as fit as a fiddle, still had the strength of an ox and his back was ramrod straight. I still remember the scene so vividly; the dusk settling in, the shadows lengthening and the snow clad mountains jutting out in pristine purity over a pale blue sky that was gradually darkening.

The stillness of the evening was broken only by the murmur of the breeze and the occasional gurgling rattle like sound emanating from your grandfather’s hookah’. Father paused, as if reliving those days and then continued with his tale. ‘I ambled over to him’ he said ‘and offered him a plate with the freshly cut fruit. I don’t know what I expected to get from him; praise maybe, appreciation perhaps or possibly just an acknowledgement of my boyish skill? What I got, however, was something totally different. Your grandfather instantly divined the source of the offering and its method of procurement, but he didn’t say anything about that to me. He simply said that the pear would not go down his throat as he found it impossible to eat anything that had not been honestly obtained. There was no admonishment in his tone, no raising of the voice in anger, just a quiet statement of fact. And then your grandfather let the matter rest’.

Dad paused again, looked at me and continued, ‘I took the plate back with an overriding sense of pain and guilt. Away from your grandfather’s eyes, I took a bite of the pear to see if there was any truth in the assumption. Well, the pear wouldn’t go down my throat either. So next morning, I confessed all to the owner of the orchard. I was feeling a bit wretched but atonement was called for if I was ever to live down the sense of shame I felt. The owner, a distant relative, gave me a stern look all through my sorry narrative, but once again there was no outrage, no admonishment. Putting his hand over my shoulder, he took me inside his house and to my utter surprise, presented me with a basket of fresh ripe pears.’ There was silence for some time, then dad continued, ‘life offers many temptations, son, but some of us cannot get the pear down our throats’.

It’s a lesson I never forgot. Life offers so many temptations, so many pears. Having retired now after having served with honour as a third generation officer in the Indian Army, I hope this is a legacy which my children will carry to the future.

Maj Gen Dhruv C Katoch, Additional Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

August 5th, 2010 .

Excerpt from The 100/0 Principle, by Al Ritter

What is the most effective way to create and sustain great relationships with others? It's The 100/0 Principle: You take full responsibility (the 100) for the relationship, expecting nothing (the 0) in return.

Implementing The 100/0 Principle is not natural for most of us. It takes real commitment to the relationship and a good dose of self-discipline to think, act and give 100 percent.

The 100/0 Principle applies to those people in your life where the relationships are too important to react automatically or judgmentally. Each of us must determine the relationships to which this principle should apply. For most of us, it applies to work associates, customers, suppliers, family and friends.

STEP 1 - Determine what you can do to make the relationship work...then do it. Demonstrate respect and kindness to the other person, whether he/she deserves it or not.

STEP 2 - Do not expect anything in return. Zero, zip, nada.

STEP 3 - Do not allow anything the other person says or does (no matter how annoying!) to affect you. In other words, don't take the bait.

STEP 4 - Be persistent with your graciousness and kindness. Often we give up too soon, especially when others don't respond in kind. Remember to expect nothing in return.

At times (usually few), the relationship can remain challenging, even toxic, despite your 100 percent commitment and self-discipline. When this occurs, you need to avoid being the "Knower" and shift to being the "Learner." Avoid Knower statements/ thoughts like "that won't work," "I'm right, you are wrong," "I know it and you don't," "I'll teach you," "that's just the way it is," "I need to tell you what I know," etc.

Instead use Learner statements/thoughts like "Let me find out what is going on and try to understand the situation," "I could be wrong," "I wonder if there is anything of value here," "I wonder if..." etc. In other words, as a Learner, be curious!

Principle Paradox

This may strike you as strange, but here's the paradox: When you take authentic responsibility for a relationship, more often than not the other person quickly chooses to take responsibility as well. Consequently, the 100/0 relationship quickly transforms into something approaching 100/100. When that occurs, true breakthroughs happen for the individuals involved, their teams, their organizations and their families.

Love Of The Common People 2: The reality of Swine Flu testing in Bangalore

Ever heard a doctor tell you how Swine Flu is actually good for you?

If you read my last post on my 'near-death experience' at Hyderabad, then you have the background information for this post. This post starts off the next morning (that is, this morning), when I arrived at Bangalore's Yeshwanthpur Railway Station.

After the usual fight with the auto drivers (as usual, meters are unheard of at railway stations, and the only benefit of arriving at 10.30 AM at a station is that you pay 30 rupees for a 2 kilometer ride instead of 80 rupees if you arrived at 7.30 AM), I got home at about 11. Of course, I was still quite weak from my ordeal of the previous night, and to make matters worse, wifey and the kids were also at varying stages of recovery from different illnesses. And so (with a healthy dose of advice from wifey) I decided to get myself tested for Swine Flu - or AH1N1, as every Tom/Dick/Harry and his uncle and his pet will tell you in Bangalore nowadays.

So after a cuppa at home, I dutifully checked the newspapers for the places where testing is being done in Bangalore. Today's update was that 16 hospitals in the city, including the M S Ramaiah Hospital, Mallya Hospital, Manipal Hospital and others were empaneled to conduct tests. Furthermore, some of them were said to be conducting the tests from today.

And so off I went to the MS Ramaiah Hospital. The ladies at the reception were very gracious, though I couldn't see their smile because of the surgical mask that they, like every other staff member of the hospital, were wearing. They told me in all grace, that Swine Flu testing was being done in only two places in Bangalore City - the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (oppposite Nimhans Hospital) and Victoria Hospital (near City Market). What about the news report, I asked them. "All false news, saar" was what they could offer.

As Superstar Rajni would say, I said to myself, "Kanna, what to do? Aah? Hmm." 

So off I went to my parents' place at Cox Town, to refill my inbuilt coffee keg and draft one of my poor parents into the task of chaperoning me safely to the Swine Flu testing centre and back.

At home, my dad, being the eternal optimist, decided that the newspaper required another chance, and so he called TV 9 (the news channel). The response from them was the same - "only two places in all of Bangalore, Saar." The TV 9 man then went on to add (rather comically): "What to do, saar? This is how seriously our Government is taking Swine Flu." Dad's calls to Lakeside Hospital ("no testing, all isolation ward beds full"), Mallya Hospital (ditto) and Manipal Hospital (no response on the phone) proved equally fruitless. 

By now we decided to give up the phone hunt and decided to have lunch. And so it was 3.30 PM by the time we left home in the direction of RGICD.

For the uninitiated, the RGICD is a vast complex opposite Nimhans. You need to approach Nimhans from the direction of Dairy Circle, and swing a left at the next traffic signal. Keep on going straight-o-straight till you hit the dead end (I mean the Indian dead end) and right there in front of you is a large gate with a sign board that advertises RGICD. Drive in. Go some more straight-o-straight. when you can go no more, take a right and park by the side. Then ask people where Swine Flu testing is going on (in case you need the Kannada translation of Swine Flu, my maid tells me it is 'Handi Jwara'.) They will point you to the SARS Isolation Ward. Ironically the Swine Flu testing is taking place at the same place where Bird Flu patients are kept in isolation.

We finally reached this place after a lot of trials and tribulations, at about 4.30 PM. Imagine our shock, when the security people there grandiosely announced: "Yella Aaghoithu!" (translation: testing is finished for the day." They then pointed to a small computer printout stuck on one of the fence posts of a garden there. The notice announced the following: 

"

Swine Flu testing will be done from 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM only.

Registration closes at 4.00 PM.

Inconvenience is regretted.

Please cooperate.

"

Now I wasn't going to get tested, because I didn't have an Out Patient Department Card (OPD Card). Of course it didn't matter that I had nearly fainted in a public place the previous day, or that I had two young children at home who were at great risk if turned out AH1N1 positive.

And so the drama began. Over the next half-an-hour, I played the part of the very sick patient while my mom played herself. Some hussling and many tears later, we located the duty doctor who gave my mother and me a rather motivating talk about how we shouldn't take H1N1 so seriously, because we are all developing resistance to it (to transliterate his Kannada words into English, "Some some country's ghost we are putting colour on".) 

That he managed to get the point across and calmed mother down, speaks tomes about his experience. 

He then asked us to go back to the testing centre and wait for him. If anyone asked, he said, "Tell them I only want to test for the symptoms, and if necessary I will come back for a throat swab tomorrow." So we went back to the testing centre, and to a barrage of "no OPD Card, no treatment", "How many times to tell you", "Whether you listen to us or not, is your choice" and similar assorted comments from attendants and security who were well-intentioned but totally out of touch with reality.

My mother finally pushed her way through to a doctor, and I limped in, coughing and playing the sick patient. When I sat down I told this young Mallu doctor the whole story. He patiently listened to me, checked my breathing with the stethescope and finally told me I did not have the necessary symptoms of swine flu. It looked to him that I had a viral fever. No throat swab needed. Simple prescription of antibiotics and dolo-650 in case the fever returns, and we were out of there.

So to summarise, for those of you who plan to get yourself tested for Swine Flu:

• As of today, only RGICD and Victoria Hospital are taking Throat Swabs for Swine Flu. I understand that the other hospitals only doing these tests on critical patients who take a turn for the worse.
• If you need to get yourself tested at either of these places, please make sure you go there between 9 am and 4 pm and get registered. Then sit in the queue.
• Make sure you carry your own handkerchief or mask. The N95 mask has all but become extinct in Bangalore pharmacies, and even the common surgical mask has become an endangered species. They will not provide masks at the testing centres.
• Not everyone who goes to the testing centre gets a swab. Swine Flu testing kits are expensive (about Rs. 3,800/- per kit according to a newspaper report today) and the test will only be administered to you if a doctor at the testing centre feels you need to undergo the test.
• Go to your local doctor and get their opinion before going to a testing centre. The doctor at the testing centre seems to take you more seriously if you have been recommended by another doctor. In fact I overheard a doctor giving this advice to a patient there.
• Your throat swab will be sent to Pune for analysis, according to the support staff at the venue. i.e. the results will take 24 - 72 hours, or longer.
• And if you have symptoms of a cold, first get yourself a mask. Even a kerchief is better than nothing.

Hope this post helps many others who like me are struggling with a potential Swine Flu infection.

Love Of The Common People: My tryst with the anonymous agents of love

It all started two days ago, on Tuesday, when I was to leave to Hyderabad for a training program. There was a mild irritation in my nose and throat, a symptom I knew from countless previous occasions, indicated the onset of a cold. 

By the time I reached Hyderabad in the evening after the short flight, I had a bad headache, fever, runny nose, throat irritation, body pain and general weakness.

Of course it didn't help, that I stayed up till 1 AM preparing for the workshop the next day, and effectively slept only for about 5 hours that night. Wednesday morning was even worse - the guest house that I was in had a water problem and I was stuck without bath water for some time. Breakfast of a few loaves of bread with jam was insubstantial. All this time, the fever was steadily getting worse.

And then I started the training program.

A reality every professional deals with, is that people can sympathise if you are not feeling well on a day, but will not compromise on their results; in our world, results are all that matter. I couldn't let my participants suffer due to my ill health, and so put in every ounce of the little remaining energy that I had into the program, taking quick, brief breaks replenish my energy levels.

By evening, the program was a success, my participants were touched that I managed the show despite being ill, and I was even more ill than I had been that morning.

My journey back to Bangalore had been booked by train because of cost cutting measures. I don't remember much of the commute from the venue to the train station; only that the cab stopped once, and I went to the ATM to draw some money. I was semi-conscious the rest of the time.

The train was to leave at 9.15 PM. I reached the station at 7.30 PM, hoping that after about an hour, the train would roll in to the platform, and I could comfortably lie down. That was not to be. By about 8.30 PM, as I was sitting on a bench on the platform with my luggage, the fever peaked. I could no longer sit straight, and had to lie down. I was sweating profusely and there was a loud buzzing in my ears. The pain in my body became unbearable. In the next five minutes, I nearly lost consciousness.

With great effort, I managed to get the attention of a couple of fellow passengers waiting near me, and asked for some water. I have tremendous faith in the 'love of the common people' - and my faith was not belied. My co-passengers took charge of the situation and brought me a bottle of water and some apples. I felt better the instant food and water touched my stomach. An apple and some water brought me back to sanity. By the time I had had four apples, my energy and focus had returned, and the look of worry on my co-passengers' faces had disappeared.


Those kind people spent the next twenty minutes or so talking to me, so as to make sure that everything was alright. I offered to book a taxi for them back at Bangalore, as some small gesture of thanks. They smiled at each other like I was mad, and quietly refused any reward. When the train finally came to the platform, they simply left.

Waylon Jennings recorded the song "Love of the common people" for the first time in 1967, and I've been a fan of the song ever since I heard it for a the first time, a few years ago. Now you know why.

Love Of The Common People

Living on free food tickets,
water in the milk from a hole in the roof
where the rain came through.
What can you do?
Tears from your little sister,
crying 'cause she doesn't have a dress without a patch
for the party to go.
But you know she'll get by

'cause she's living in the love of the common people,
smile's from the heart of a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can
and she can.

It's a good thing you don't have a busfare,
it would fall thru' the hole in your pocket and you'd lose it
in the snow on the ground.
You got to walk into town to find a job.
Tryin' to keep your hands warm
when the hole in your shoe lets the snow come thru'
and chills you to the bone.
Now you'd better go home where it's warm,
where you can live in a love of the common people,
smile from the heart of a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can
and she can.

Living on a dream ain't easy
but the closer the knit the tighter the fit
and the chills stay away.
Keeping 'em in stride for family pride.
You know that faith is in your foundation
and with a whole lot of love and a warm conversation
but don't forget to pray.
Making you strong were you belong
and we're living in the love of the common people,
smile's from the heart of a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can
and she can.

Living in the love of the common people,
smile's from the heart of a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can.
Living in the love of the common people,
smile's from the heart of a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can.
Living in the love of the common people,
smile's really hard on a family man.
Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can
and she can.

(Written by Ronnie Wilkins/John Hurley and performed by Weylon Jennings, 1967)

The Chief Learning Officer is also the 'Chief Storytelling Officer'!

 

The Story Whisperer

by Dan Heath

It was an off-site training program for the new hires of a major software firm. The young employees were in their seats early - they were excited to hear from the opening speaker, an executive who held a position of astonishing power. But that wasn't why the audience was excited. They were excited because he was young - mid-30s, not too much older than them.

Everyone knew the man's career trajectory, which was characterized by short stints and cross-organizational zigzags, as if he'd taken a Southwest flight to the corner office. Needless to say, they all wanted to live that flight plan.

But the excitement in the room quickly fizzled. The young exec spoke as if he were being paid by the cliche. He urged the employees to "work hard" and to "pursue their passion." (Presumably this was intended for employees who were chasing work that didn't interest them - and doing so lazily.)It was frankly a miracle that he didn't challenge the crowd to "give 110 percent."

There are two lessons here for CLOs. First, stories have enormous power in organizations. Every young employee at the software company knew this executive's tale. It inspired them because it seemed to say, "In this company, youth is no barrier to success."

The second lesson is that, while stories have great power, storytelling doesn't come naturally to executives. Executives are taught to be concise, to get to the point, to summarize. But stories thrive on detail and depth.

That's where you come in. A CLO must also be a CSO: chief storytelling officer. To see how, consider the work of the psychologist Gary Klein, who writes, in his insightful book Sources of Power, "If you ask experts what makes them so good, they are likely to give general answers that do not reveal much. But if you can get them to tell you about tough cases, nonroutine events where their skills made the difference, then you have a pathway into their perspective, into the way they are seeing the world."

In other words, to reap the benefits of stories, first you have to coax them out of executives. You must be the Story Whisperer. Imagine that you'd scheduled a mandatory prep session with the cliche-spouting software executive in advance of his speech. You could have interviewed him and coached him to tell the right story: How did he deal with different bosses? How did he know when it was time to shift roles? What mistakes did he make? How did he make sure his work got recognized? By the time he took the stage, he'd know to tell the epic version of his story, not the headline-only version.

As a CSO, you also need to be a Story Spotter. For every major strategic objective of your organization, there's a story to match. After all, if the strategy doesn't manifest itself in behavior, it's not accomplishing anything.

At FedEx, for instance, stories circulate about employees who've gone the extra mile for customers. One story concerns a driver in Manhattan whose truck broke down in the middle of her route. She called for a replacement van, but it was running late, so she started jogging around the city, trying to deliver the remaining packages on foot. Her progress was too slow, though - she wasn't going to get her packages delivered on time. So she improvised. She flagged down a competitive firm's delivery can and managed to persuade the driver to take her on her last few deliveries.

This story is entertaining, but it's also a workhorse. It does two jobs for you as a CLO: It educates and it inspires. The tale helps employees see how seriously FedEx takes its promise of reliability, and it shows them that if they do extraordinary work, their work will be recognized and appreciated.

The FedEx story is a sticky idea that serves as a teacher, sharing a lesson in strategy. Even better, given our times, it's a teacher that works cheap. It's free no matter how widely it circulates. But stories don't spread themselves; someone has to be the first to spot them and share them. Unfortunately, there's no one in your organization who has that responsibility in their job description. What if you seized it?

The right stories can carry the weight of organizational learning, so it's worth your time to excavate them, spot them and spread them. As a matter of fact, you should make it your passion - and give it 110 percent.

[About the Author: Dan Heath is the co-author of the best-seller Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been translated into 27 languages.]

Walking Your Talk

An Excerpt from: You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School
Mac Anderson / Founder, Simple Truths

A few years ago I was invited to spend some time with Ken Blanchard at his lake home in upstate New York. Over the last 20 years Ken has probably sold more books than any other business author. His classic, The One Minute Manager, has sold over 10 million copies. He has also built a large training company with the focus on servant leadership and customer service.

I've had the good fortune to meet many successful businessmen, authors, and speakers during my career, but I've never met anyone that "walked the talk" more than Ken. He gets it. The first night of my visit to Ken's lake home, we were sitting on the deck with Humberto, his son-in-law, talking about some ways we could work together. It was about 10 p.m., when all of a sudden Ken jumped up and asked to be excused. He returned about 10:20 and Humberto asked "What happened?" Ken said, "I can't believe it; I forgot to call Dorothy on her birthday."

Later that night, after Ken had gone to bed, Humberto told me that Dorothy is an 85 year old part time employee for the company. It then dawned on me that at 10 p.m. Ken left to spend almost 20 minutes talking to Dorothy and inquiring about how she had spent her special day. However, after spending more time with Ken over the next year, I came to realize that this was no fluke. This is who he is. The last time while visiting him at his San Diego office, I learned that one of his employees who worked in the warehouse had recently passed away. On that day, Ken had invited the employee's wife to come to his office. When she arrived, he spent an hour walking around with her carrying a tape recorder to record all of the wonderful memories that other employees had of her husband. When the wife left she said it was a day she'd never forget.

You see, what many leaders would have considered a waste of time, Ken saw it as an opportunity to serve and to thank his people. He doesn't do it because it's expected of him, he does it because he truly cares. It comes from his heart, and his people love him for being the servant leader that he is.

This is an old Chinese poem that offers wonderful advice for any leader:

GO to the people
LIVE among the people
LEARN from them
LOVE them.
START with what they know,
BUILD on what they have.
But of the BEST leaders,
When their TASK is accomplished,
Their WORK is done,
The PEOPLE will remark,

"WE HAVE DONE IT OURSELVES."

Is there a catch here?

It is August. In a small town on the South coast of France, holiday season is in full swing.  But it is raining so there isn’t too much business happening.

Everyone is heavily in debt.

Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks to see a room and puts a Euro100 note on the reception counter, takes a key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the second floor.

The hotel owner takes the note in hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes E100.

The butcher takes the money and races to his wholesaler to pay his debt.

The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay E100 for pigs he purchased some time ago.

The farmer triumphantly gives the E100 note to a local prostitute who gave him her services on credit.

The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owes the hotel for her room use to entertain clients.  She pays the hotel owner.

At that moment, the rich Russian comes down to the reception and informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is unsatisfactory and takes his E100 back and departs.

There was no profit or income. But everyone no longer has any debt and the small town people look optimistically towards their future.

COULD THIS BE THE SOLUTION TO THE Global Financial Crisis? Or, is there a catch here?

-Author: unknown

(please contact me if you believe this article is written by you ... I would be glad to acknowledge the original author through full attribution.)

A MUCH-NEEDED INJECTION OF POSITIVITY

Sometimes we underestimate ourselves. It takes a foreigner to put into perspective what a great people we really are and our tremendous achievement in the face of what appear to be insurmountable odds. Let us hope we can continue to remain the peaceful and tolerant people we
have been through history. When fanaticism and fundamentalism rear their ugly heads in our country we must realize that they are the exception and not the rule. If we stop to compare ourselves with our neighbors and the rising intolerance and xenophobia in even developed nations such as the U.S..A., we should be truly grateful to be living in India.

New York Times reader comment on India going to the polls, "The world's biggest exercise in democracy" April 15, 2009 It is truly the greatest show on Earth, an ode to a diverse and democratic ethos, where 700 million + of humanity vote, providing their small part in directing their ancient civilization into the future. It is no less impressive when done in a neighborhood which includes de-stabilizing and violent Pakistan, China, and Burma. Its challenges are immense, more so probably than anywhere else, particularly in development and fending off terrorism -- but considering these challenges and its neighbors, it is even more astounding that the most diverse nation on Earth, with hundreds of languages, all religions and cultures, is not only surviving, but thriving.

The nation where Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were born, which is the second largest Muslim nation on Earth; where Christianity has existed for 2000 years; where the oldest Jewish synagogues and Jewish communities have resided since the Romans burnt their 2nd temple; where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile reside; where the Zoroastrians from Persia have thrived since being thrown out of their ancient homeland; where Armenians and Syrians and many others have to come live; where the Paris-based OECD said was the largest economy on Earth 1,500 of the last 2,000 years, including the 2nd largest only 200 years ago; where 3 Muslim Presidents have been elected, where a Sikh is Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party a Catholic Italian woman, where the President is also a woman, succeeding a Muslim President who as a rocket scientist was a hero in the nation; where a booming economy is lifting 40 million out of poverty each year and is expected to have the majority of its population in the middle class, already equal to the entire US population, by 2025; where its optimism and vibrancy is manifested in its movies, arts, economic growth, and voting, despite all the incredible challenges and hardships; where all the great powers are vying for influence, as it itself finds its place in the world.

Where all of this is happening, is India, and as greater than 1/10 of humanity gets ready to vote, it is an inspiration to all the World.

- V Mitchell, New York, NY

Teach Business Basics to First-Time-Bosses by Agatha Gilmore

It seemed like a natural progression: Cheryl was an ace employee, a high potential, a top performer. When a management position opened up at XYZ Corp., Cheryl was promoted without a second thought. But the organization didn't consider that it was relying on Cheryl's personal success as a top performer to enable her skill as a successful manager. Further, many organizations make this same mistake.

A new survey by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) found nearly one-third of employers don't teach business basics such as budgeting, time management and project management to first-time bosses. Another 26 percent don't offer training on diversity awareness.

"There are two [issues here]," said Mary Ann Downey, talent pillar director for i4cp. "One, for a lot of first-time managers, they're at the lowest level of the organization. They may not have budgeting authority yet. It may be that organizations don't feel that those are needed skills. [But] if you don't understand how the budgeting process works, and you're in a management potion, you're really at a disadvantage.

"On the time management and project management point, in lot of organizations, the folks that are promoted may not necessarily have the best people skills, supervisory skills, but they were top performers. They probably already had good time management and project management skills. That may be the reason why companies are not focusing on those items."

However, just because new bosses exhibit these skills doesn't mean they can teach them effectively, nor does it mean their personal styles will mesh with their new management roles.

"Style is such an important element of time management and project management: You may have a personal style that works for you, but is it going to work in a team environment?" Downey said.

What are rookie managers being taught? According to the i4cp survey, employers instruct new bosses to a high or very high extent on harassment (39 percent), coaching skills (40.9 percent) and performance management (47.6 percent).

While coaching skills are crucial for managers to learn and fall on the softer side of training, harassment and performance management training could be considered standard risk management on the part of the organization, with the purpose of avoiding conflicts in the workplace.

"[These areas] are procedural and so probably a little easier to teach in an in-class format," Downey explained.

The i4cp study also found that 41 percent of those promoted to a first-time manager position end up supervising a group of peers. Downey said this statistic reveals just one of the reasons why new bosses must be taught the business basics.

"There are two pieces of it. First, there are the personal relationships - how you may have interacted with each other on a peer level may not be appropriate any longer. The reverse side of that is how are the folks that you're now supervising going to accept your new authority?" she said.
"If you're a first-time manager and you don't have these skills, and there are no other interventions being done - either an on-boarding or an assimilation - then organizations are really at a risk of both setting the supervisor up for failure and having the team productivity go down. That's the big risk for organizations: burning out a potential star or risking their overall organization's productivity."

[About the Author: Agatha Gilmore is a senior editor for Talent Management magazine.]

Relocation: A Balancing Act by Saskia Meckman

In 2009, companies will be forced to juggle expatriates and their families worldwide, while balancing the decisions involved in finding and retaining globally competent employees.

When taking the pulse of the global relocation field, it is apparent that there is a lot to think about. Will companies around the world be able to find the ideal globally competent employee? Once found, what will it take to retain this employee? And finally, how have expatriate-family dynamics and needs changed from the classic model?

Balancing these three key issues is on the minds of HR executives worldwide today and will continue for a long time to come. The trends of a global talent shortage, the need to retain talent and the demand for work/life balance are the main factors that have a direct bearing on this "balancing act."

While the phrase the "War for Talent" continues to be overused, it is clear that this trend shows no sign of abating. Evidence of this is the beginning exodus of the baby-boomer generation from the workforce, mostly through retirement. The result is a growing need to improve employee satisfaction and this, ensure retention. This is particularly important for expatriates repatriating back "home" after an international assignment.

Currently, the global demand for skilled labor has exceeded the supply, resulting in shortages in many pockets of the world, according to news articles. For the past 20 years, the U.S. workforce has grown by 50 percent; however it is predicted to grow by only 3 percent over the next 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. Demand in the United States continues to be high for skilled non-U.S. citizens (especially from India and China).

This year alone, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received more than 163,000 applications for just 65,000 H-1B visas, which were distributed within the first 24 hours. Debate over increasing the cap is ongoing. Since L-1 visas are not subject to a cap, non-U.S. employees are now entering with an "Intra-company Transferee Visa," whenever eligible. An additional advantage of this visa is that the accompanying spouse is allowed to work in the United States.

Across the Atlantic, the European Union will need 20 million skilled workers over the next two decades. They have a plan to make it easier for skilled foreign workers to get jobs in the E.U.'s 27 member states. The Blue Card is a combined residence permit and work visa that would allow holders and their families to live, work and travel anywhere within the European Union. If agreed upon by member governments, the proposal, introduced by the European Commission in 2007, will pass in 2009.

Currently, 55 percent of skilled non-U.S. citizens head for the United States and only 5 percent to the European Union. With the Blue Card, the European Union hopes to reduce this imbalance, which will be to the detriment of American employers.

According to GMAC Global Relocation Service's 2008 Global Relocation Trends Survey, the three emerging destinations for many expatriates are China, India and Russia -- countries with rapidly growing economies. These countries also happen to be the three most challenging locations for expatriates and their families to successfully complete assignments and for international-assignment-program managers to set up, according to the survey.

With 25 percent of international assignments now in emerging markets, this is no small challenge. With security issues, rising housing costs, insurance prices, natural disasters, education for kids, work permits and visa issues, the list of worries for expatriates goes on and on. Additionally, potential employees and their families are often reluctant to head to a part of the world they may have heard little about until recently.

How do HR executives balance the needs of the company with those of the potential expatriates employees and their families?

Often the secret ingredient, forgotten in most recipes, is the expatriate spouse. While discussions between the employee and company may happen months ahead of an upcoming international assignment, the spouse is often left out of the equation until the last minute or, more often than not, altogether. The employee and spouse may have spoken countless times about the possible assignment, yet the company may offer little to no support regarding the spouse's career or other needs.

For most companies, it is becoming increasingly hard to fill certain positions without providing comprehensive and lucrative compensation packages. Including career-support services and any other additional support for the spouse may make a difference in whether an employee accepts or declines an international assignment.

Retaining Talent

There is no arguing that the most valuable and sought after commodity in any company is talent. In order to attract and keep this talent, all aspects of a relocation package need to be appealing. The challenge then becomes, how do companies keep these packages frequently updated in order to offset the declining purchasing power of the dollar, while at the same time addressing the needs of the employees and their families?

According to Martin Foxwell, West Coast director of the New York-based consulting firm ORC Worldwide, "The implications for global and expatriate pay packages include a classic conflict: Expatriate pay packages are renowned for their high cost to the company -- often three or four times an employee's base salary.

On one hand, companies are continually challenged to reduce costs wherever they can, and expatriate packages are an obvious place to start. On the other hand, the fierce competition for the best talent is putting upward pressure on the cash, perquisites and benefits needed to incentivize potential expatriates [and their families] to undertake international assignments. This dilemma is a delicate balance and an extremely important strategic issue."

This statement should be given considerable thought in light of the fact that, in 2008, 58 percent of companies surveyed by GRTS said they were reducing expenses for international assignments in response to economic conditions.

Once companies have found talented employees, the main goal is to retain them. One way of doing this is by making sure that there is a job offer of equal or greater interest for them once they repatriate "home" or head off on another international assignment. Companies are often still losing their best talent by not taking advantage of the cultural understanding and global competence the employees acquired while on assignment.

Natalie Richter, principal of Natalie Richter and Associates states, "An organization's greatest resource is its globally competent employees. They enable companies to be nimble and respond quickly to changes in the international environment, which in turn makes them more globally competitive."

HR executives are crucial in providing an employee with a seamless international-assignment transition and ensuring that there is communication between home and host country.

As the war for talent continues, it is apparent that practices such as flexible hours, remote work, intercultural training, executive coaching and spousal-career services, are now essential. Even areas such as more effective use of virtual teams and greater utilization of communication alternatives such as instant messaging, voice over IP and Web conferences -- once regarded as optional -- are now crucial.

Companies that are spending more time and effort focusing on work/life balance as a strategy for talent management will be the winners of this war!

Work/Life Balance

How are HR executives going to address work/life balance issues, which are particularly challenging for expatriates on international assignments? In some cases, the "norm" is often for the employee to arrive months ahead of the rest of the family and then travel extensively throughout the assignment. It is no wonder that finding balance is imperative. This is particularly true when many expatriate families juggle the demands of needing to be in two or more places at the same time, while preparing for the final move to a new country.

One of the areas that creates great challenges for HR executives and companies, not to mention the expatriate families in question, is when the accompanying spouse or partner must give up his or her career. The dual-career issue continues to be one of the main reasons employees turn down international assignments. When families are accustomed to two working parents' salaries, it becomes very hard to scale down to one income, even if the expatriate-compensation package comes with additional perks and added benefits.

According to the GRTS, 54 percent of accompanying spouses were employed before their relocation. During the assignment, however, only 20 percent found employment. This dramatic drop may be due to a variety of factors. It is clear that these spouses have to be very creative in finding work that matches their skill set, as each country offers new challenges and opportunities.

This is particularly true for "serial expatriates," who move every few years. For some spouses, having a portable career -- a profession that they can "carry in a suitcase" and keep with them from one host country to the next -- is the ideal situation. A few lucky and strategic individuals are able to continue working with their same employers, either remotely or at an office in the host country.
For most spouses, however, the visa restrictions, time constraints and difficulties of finding a job make seeking meaningful, financially stable employment close to impossible. This may suit the needs of some families, when the spouse is eager to be a full-time parent, but for younger couples just starting their careers, this may cause unexpected stress. Finally, the needs of the single expatriate employee (and parent!) relocating alone must not be forgotten, as this population is slowly growing and the dynamics of the expatriate family are changing.

When looking at the demographics of the current expatriate population -- 50 percent are between the ages of 20 and 39, according to the GRTS -- the needs of Generations X and Y are becoming more apparent. These populations have an increasing interest in greater flexibility at work, more meaningful jobs, further professional freedom and ultimately more work/life balance. Their outlook on life has been shaped by, among other things, the Internet, information overload and overzealous parents. Many of their overworked parents spent most of their lives working for the same company and not as much time as they would have liked with their families. These new generations are ready to change that.

The classic model of an expatriate employee willing to work 75 or more hours per week with a demanding travel schedule is slowly shifting, as there is ample evidence of the stress caused by the work/life time crunch of international assignments. Companies are becoming more and more aware that family adjustment, partner resistance and children's education are the three most critical challenges faced by expatriates.

Since the inception of the GRTS 15 years ago, these same challenges have continued to be critical, so it should come as no surprise that family concerns, including dual-career issues, are the most common reasons potential expatriate employees and their families turn down international assignments.

Finding a balance for these work/life matters will be a challenge for HR executives as the changing generations will continue to affect the global workforce.

In order for companies to remain globally competitive and win the war for talent, they must be able to juggle expatriate family needs as well as company demands and economic hurdles in order to find and retain the ideal globally competent employee and be successful in this global market.

[About the Author: Saskia Meckman is founder of Soleil Intercultural and offers intercultural training and consulting to organizations with employees on global assignments. She has been working in the global relocation field since 1998, based out of New York, Boston, and currently Boca Raton, Fla. U.S.-born, with Ecuadorian and Dutch-Austrian-Danish parents, she grew up in France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, and has traveled extensively around the world.]