APPOLINE GLOBAL HRD CONSULTING GROUP

Kuwait City of Harmony

2011-02-10T00:03:00.000-08:00

Kuwait City of Harmony

I heard Song of Unity in the streets

Of harmony in the Boubyan island!

Ancient island of Failaka

I walked and walked every step,

People of Kuwait, Muslims, Chinese, Christians, Hindus

Together walked with me,

With Pride and peace.

The calling of prayers from Mosques,

Gave the glad tidings with a message,

Forgive the human failings

Give and give the hope of success.

I entered the Cathedral Church

With fragrance, the message radiating,

Remove “I” and “Me”!

That will eliminate human ego.

In the great mosque participated in prayer

With a Quranic recitation

“Oh Almighty lead us the path of righteousness”

The welcome song “eliminate hatred,

Violence will disappear.

In another mosque in Salmiya led us to the path

Remove the violence in mind, peace in life will be filled with.

The Central Mosque gave us the message

Message of removing the pain

of fellow human beings!

This is Almighty’s Command!

When I completed my pilgrimage

The streets of Harmony of Kuwait.

Presented an integrated spiritual centre

With message to the Universe.

Every human being will give and give

The best of human societies will be born.

Life is a river and it flows with a mind of its own over which we assume we have control but in reality we just float along and comment like Aesop’s fly on the chariot wheel “What a lot of dust I do raise” I have captured some of the moments in a poetry “Verses from Inner Space”

THANKSGIVING TO YOU...

2010-11-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

T is for the trust the pilgrims had so many years ago

H is for the harvest the settlers learnt to grow

A is for Appoline, my mother who gave me new vision

N is for nurture and beauty which she gives

K is for kindness, gentle words, thoughtful deeds

S is for smiles, the sunshine everyone needs

G is for gratitude... our blessings big and small

I is for ideas, letting wisdom grow tall

V is for voices, singing, laughing, always caring

I is for Islam, who taught me about sharing

N is for neighbors, across the street, over the sea

G is for giving of myself to make a better me.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I wish to say that I am honored to have you in my primary network.

Thanks for loving and caring for me.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” Brian Tracy"

Thank you.

Who Are Your "Next Generation" Leaders?

2010-11-21T04:25:00.000-08:00

Research by Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global workforce and leadership training, staffing and assessment firm based in Bridgeville, Penn., indicates that companies are at risk to lose a substantial number of their executives within the next five years.

Companies are faced not only with the challenge of replacing existing managers, but the need to add new managerial staff. According to a recent hiring survey conducted by Management Recruiters International, Inc., mid-managers, executives and professionals are in great demand. More than half of the companies surveyed indicated that they are planning increases in their mid-management and professional staffs.

As the population continues to age and baby boomers begin leaving the job market, experts predict that there will be serious shortages of employees to fill high-level professional, managerial and technical spots.

Whether your replacement needs are the result of tragedy, transition or trial and error, considering the issue of succession now can help you accomplish these staffing changes smoothly, with minimal disruption to your internal processes and a seamless transition for your customers.

What can you do? You can implement a formal, well-organized succession-planning program designed to identify potential gaps and develop tactics for filling those gaps.

Succession planning is one of those "proactive" initiatives that many companies simply don’t have the time to undertake. After all, HR professionals are working as hard as they can to simply maintain a fully staffed and functioning workforce today. The problem is that, if organizations dont make the time now to address this issue, they will be hit with it head-on in the not-too-distant future. The burden will fall upon the HR staff to deal with vacancies and to recruit skilled employees from an ever-shrinking labor pool.

HR professionals are faced with a tough choice: "pay now or pay later."

Building a Successful Succession Plan

What does it take to build an effective succession plan? There are a number of keys to success:

1. Commitment from top management. Few HR professionals would argue that they could embark upon a successful succession-planning program in a vacuum. To be successful, top management must be committed to the need to have a formal succession plan in place and willing to commit the resources needed. How can you convince upper management that a formal succession plan is necessary? By developing and presenting a solid business case based on external and internal data. Numerous surveys have been done that clearly identify the impending shortage of talent. Data is available through national organizations like the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This data, accompanied by internal data, can help build a case for succession planning.

2. A vision. What skills will your organization need 5, 10, 15even 20years from now? Your vision can be well focused if you take the time to examine workplace trends, projections for graduates in various fields, etc. Take time, as well, to speak with the leaders of your organization about where it is heading and the skills employees will need in the future.

3. An accurate understanding of your existing workforce. Do you know how many of your employees will be eligible for retirement within the next five years? How many of your managers? Do you have any idea how many mid-level staff people might be ready, willing and able to step into those positions? When you look at the technical gaps that your organization will face, can you identify existing staff with the existing knowledge, or the potential, to fill those gaps? Do you have this information "in your head" or in a database that can be accessed at will by anyone with the "need to know"?

4. Objectivity. As you examine your workforce, focus on key positions, regardless of the traits of the incumbents. For example, if one of the key positions for your organization is that of product development manager, and the incumbent is a very loyal 30-something who you feel "will be with the company forever," you may feel that slot is "safe." That’s a dangerous assumption. As difficult as it may be, you need to realize that your loyal employee could always be lured to another job, could decide that corporate life is no longer what s/he wants or, even more tragically, could die or become disabled and unable to fulfill the requirements of the position.

5. An open mind. Too often succession planning focuses on "the cream of the crop" those employees who, for whatever reasons, can clearly and readily be identified as "up and comers." Youre limiting your potential if you stop with these employees, however. Sometimes hidden talents can be found in the most retiring or "invisible" workers. Some employees may self-identify; others may need some encouragement. Your succession plan should include education of existing staff so they understand where the gaps will be and are in a better position to step forward and say: "I would be interested in doing that."

6. A solid plan and strong organization. Succession planning is, in many respects, a numbers game. It is an analytical process that requires good organizational skills, attention to detail and the ability to project into the future. Your plan should be designed to capture the information you need, store that information and allow for the ability to manipulate the information so that you can generate reports, develop "what if" scenarios and make changes as your workforce and your projected organizational needs change.

7. Teeth. One of the primary barriers to successful succession planning is your existing managerial and professional staff. Managers may feel threatened when asked to participate in identifying the leaders of the future. This is just one of the reasons that the succession plan must belong to the organization and not to the HR department. Upper management must hold all managers accountable for identifying talent among their staff members even to the extent that their individual pay and promotion opportunities are tied to their success in identifying and developing future talent.

8. A well-coordinated training and development program. If your organization determines that it will need employees who are skilled in e-commerce and determines that this talent does not currently exist, you are left with two choices: recruit talent from outside or develop opportunities for interested existing staff with identified potential to learn the skills they will need. Once gaps have been identified, the next step is to determine how those gaps will be filled either through recruitment or development of existing staff. That development might involve in-house training, special project assignments, outside coursework, etc.

9. On-going attention. As we’ve already seen, it can be tempting to overlook the need for succession planning in the face of more immediate needs. Again, the involvement and ownership of this issue by top management can help keep it at the forefront of the organization and ensure that it has the ongoing attention and action that it deserves.

Mistakes that Companies Make

There are a number of mistakes that organizations may make as they embark on a succession planning program. Following are some key areas that can create problems and hamper succession planning efforts:

Keeping the plan a secret. How many promising employees do you think you’ve lost to competitors because they had no idea you had them in your sights as "promising"? The more you can involve the entire organization in your efforts, the more successful you will be.

Underestimating the talent within. Why is it that we frequently overlook the talent that we have within our organization in favor of recruiting from a vast pool of unknowns? An old management credo says, "An expert is someone who lives 50 miles away and carries a briefcase." Consider how many of your employees may be considered expert by the competition in the next town (or on the next block). Do you really want to risk losing them?

Narrow-minded thinking. Overlooking employees who are thought to be too old, too young, too rough around the edges or too different.

Focusing exclusively on hard skills. Organizations are finding that soft skills (popularly referred to as emotional intelligence) are often more important in determining an employees success than the more traditional hard skills or technical abilities that we tend to value. Consider organizational culture and teamwork needs in addition to technical requirements when building your plan.

Not offering appropriate training and developmental opportunities. Don’t leave employees and their managers to fend for themselves in building their skills. Make sure that training is part of your program and that the appropriate resources are available.

Expecting employees to self-identify. Identification of employees with potential to fill future needs is a joint responsibility between the organization and its employees.

Not holding managers accountable for succession planning. Don’t let managers thwart organizational succession-planning efforts because of their own insecurities and biases.

Considering only upward succession. Lateral succession may be a need in your organization as well. In fact, many companies have dual career paths. The hierarchy gets decidedly smaller at the top. But that shouldn’t hinder the ability of employees to grow and develop or your organizations ability to attract and retain employees with growth opportunities.

Developing a one-size-fits-all program. Offering generic leadership development programs is an ineffective way to deal with succession planning. Individual succession plans should be developed based on specific organizational needs and specific individual skill and training gaps.

The Intelligent Entrepreneur Vs Job-seeker

2010-10-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

In "The Intelligent Entrepreneur", a new book out from author Bill Murphy, Jr., Bill distills 10 rules of successful entrepreneurship from the stories of several Harvard Business School graduates from the Class of 1998, including yours truly.

As I read through the stories, and looked at Bill's rules, it struck me that there are similarities between the successful entrepreneur and the successful job-seeker. You're both trying to create something new — a new company or a new position for yourself. You're both faced with the emotional challenges that go with any new endeavor. There are plenty of setbacks along the way in starting a company and getting a job. And success is dependent on sticking to it and seeing it through.

So with that in mind, I thought I'd share five of Bill's 10 rules with you and show how they apply to your job search.

#2 Find a problem, then solve it.

It's not enough in the 21st century to simply describe yourself to future employers as "I'm a finance guy" or "I'm a saleswoman." Particularly in this difficult economic environment, you need to let your future boss know what kind of problem you can solve for him or her. So be specific about what you bring to the table: "I'm a finance professional who specializes in Sarbanes-Oxley and really enjoys working with internationally headquartered companies to meet American regulatory requirements" or "I'm a sales professional who loves working with biotech start-ups as they go from pre-revenue to $10 mm in sales."

Find a problem, and then let your future boss know how you will solve it.

#4 You can't do it alone.

The job search can be a lonely endeavor and you can't possibly make it alone. You'll need the support of your family and friends, and being honest with them about the trials and tribulations you're experiencing is an important part of your emotional well-being during the search. You'll also need to rely on your colleagues and contacts, and have them on the lookout for you during your job search.

Enlisting the aid of the people you know for support, advice, and connections is the way to your next great job.

#5 You must do it alone.

But as much as you'll need to rely on family, friends and colleagues, it is ultimately going to depend on you. You'll need to make the calls, you'll need to do the follow-up, and you'll need to be prepared for the interviews. When it's 10:17 a.m. on Tuesday morning and you're staring at the phone thinking about making that follow-up call, it's up to you, and you alone, to pick up the phone and dial the digits. Nobody else can do it for you.

Understanding that you'll need to make the commitment, set aside the appropriate amount of time, and then fight through our natural tendency to procrastination, is key to your success.

#8 Learn to sell.

Take your annual earnings and multiply by five. That's the value of the product you are selling — the next five years of your labor. It's the most important sales job you're going to have, and you need to learn how to sell. You need to qualify the buyer — make sure they need an expensive product like you — and then explain to them the benefits they'll get by purchasing — how you'll help solve the problems they're facing in their business.

Too often we can allow ourselves to slip into focusing on what I need out of the job hunt. You have to remember that it's not about you, it's about what your future employer needs. And you need to sell them on how you fulfill those needs better than any other candidate.

#9 Persist, persevere, prevail.

The job hunt is filled with twists and turns — moments of hope and days of despair. That's normal.

It's all part of the job-seeking process, and in order to be successful, you'll need to overcome those difficulties. It is only persistence and perseverance that will see you through the bad days and the tough interviews. Anybody who has started a company, and everybody who goes through the job search, experience tough times. Stick to it, know that you are valuable, and you will make it through to success!

Teamwork in tough times

2010-10-14T00:25:00.001-07:00

At the center of every high performance team is a common purpose-a mission that rises above and beyond each of the individual team members. To be successful, the team's interests and needs come first. This requires "we-opic" vision (What's in it for we?), a challenging step up from the common "me-opic" mindset.

Effective team players understand that personal issues and personality differences are secondary to team demands. This does not mean abandoning who you are or giving up your individuality. On the contrary, it means sharing your unique strengths and differences to move the team forward. It is this "we-opic" focus and vision-this cooperation of collective capability-that empowers a team and generates synergy, the power of teamwork.

Cooperation means working together for mutual gain-sharing responsibility for success and failure and covering for one another on a moment's notice. It does not mean competing with one another at the team's expense, withholding important data or information to "one-up" your peers, or submitting to groupthink by going along, so as not to make waves. These are rule breakers that are direct contradictions to the team-first mindset.

High performance teams recognize that it takes a joint effort to synergize, generating power above and beyond the collected individuals. It is with this spirit of cooperation that effective teams learn to capitalize on individual strengths and offset individual weaknesses, using diversity as an advantage.

Effective teams also understand the importance of establishing cooperative systems, structures, metrics, incentives and rewards. We get what we inspect, not what we expect. Think about it. Do you have team job descriptions, team performance reviews and team reward systems? Do you recognize people by pitting them against standards of excellence, or one another? What are you doing to cultivate a team-first, cooperative environment in this competitive, "me-opic" world?

Balance Global Strategy with Local Differences

2010-09-23T03:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most significant challenge to the creation of a global compensation and benefits strategy is the conflict between the need for a unified global strategy and the need to address local differences, particularly those that are legally mandated. Maintaining the appropriate balance is a constant dilemma for most HR functions, but it seems particularly acute for compensation and benefits.

Of all the global HR practices, compensation and benefits is the most localized (mainly due to economics, tax laws, and labor requirements).

Wait to Worry

2010-09-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've been in business for over 12 years, and I've come to realize the difference in success, or failure, is not how you look, not how you dress and not even how you're educated. It's how you think. I can't overstate the importance of being able to maintain a positive attitude but I'm the first one to admit...it's not easy.

I used to worry. A lot. The more I fretted, the more proficient I became at it. Anxiety begets anxiety. I even worried that I worried too much! Ulcers might develop. My health could fail. My finances could deplete to pay the hospital bills.

A comedian once said, "I tried to drown my worries with gin, but my worries are equipped with flotation devices." While not a drinker, I certainly could identify! My worries could swim, jump and pole vault!

To get some perspective, I visited a well known, Dallas businessman, Fred Smith. Fred mentored such luminaries as motivational whiz Zig Ziglar, business guru Ken Blanchard and leadership expert John Maxwell. Fred listened as I poured out my concerns and then said, "Vicki, you need to learn to wait to worry."

As the words sank in, I asked Fred if he ever spent time fretting. (I was quite certain he wouldn't admit it if he did. He was pretty full of testosterone-even at age 90.) To my surprise, he confessed that in years gone by he had been a top-notch worrier!

"I decided that I would wait to worry!" he explained. "I decided that I'd wait until I actually had a reason to worry-something that was happening, not just something that might happen-before I worried."

"When I'm tempted to get alarmed," he confided, "I tell myself, 'Francis, you've got to wait to worry! Until you know differently, don't worry.' And I don't. Waiting to worry helps me develop the habit of not worrying and that helps me not be tempted to worry."

Fred possessed a quick mind and a gift for gab. As such, he became a captivating public speaker. "I frequently ask audiences what they were worried about this time last year. I get a lot of laughs," he said, "because most people can't remember. Then I ask if they have a current worry - you see nods from everybody. Then I remind them that the average worrier is 92% inefficient - only 8% of what we worry about ever comes true."

Charles Spurgeon said it best. "Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength."

Most of us want to be positive. It's advantageous to possess a sunny outlook. Doors open to optimists. They make friends, earn respect, close sales, produce loyal clients, and others enjoy and want to be like them. The question is how can we do that consistently?

That's what Attitude is Everything is all about!

What gives someone the Right to Lead?

2010-09-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

How do you define leadership? What gives a man or woman the right to lead?

What gives a man or woman the right to lead? It certainly isn't gained by election or appointment. Having position, title, rank or degrees doesn't qualify anyone to lead other people. And the ability doesn't come automatically from age or experience, either.

No, it would be accurate to say that no one can be given the right to lead. The right to lead can only be earned. And that takes time.

The Kind of Leader Others Want to Follow

The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go.

As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help you grow:

Let go of your ego.

The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead in order to serve other people. Perhaps that is why Lawrence D. Bell remarked, "Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things."

Become a good follower first.

Rare is the effective leader who didn't learn to become a good follower first. That is why a leadership institution such as the United States Military Academy teaches its officers to become effective followers first - and why West Point has produced more leaders than the Harvard Business School.

Build positive relationships.

Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That means it is by nature relational. Today's generation of leaders seem particularly aware of this because title and position mean so little to them. They know intuitively that people go along with people they get along with.

Work with excellence.

No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work. They perform on the highest level of which they are capable.

Rely on discipline, not emotion.

Leadership is often easy during the good times. It's when everything seems to be against you - when you're out of energy, and you don't want to lead - that you earn your place as a leader. During every season of life, leaders face crucial moments when they must choose between gearing up or giving up. To make it through those times, rely on the rock of discipline, not the shifting sand of emotion.

Make adding value your goal.

When you look at the leaders whose names are revered long after they have finished leading, you find that they were men and women who helped people to live better lives and reach their potential. That is the highest calling of leadership - and its highest value.

Give your power away.

One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You're meant to be a river, not a reservoir. If you use your power to empower others, your leadership will extend far beyond your grasp.

In The Right to Lead, you will hear from and read about people who have done these same things and earned the right to lead others. Because of the courage they found and the character they displayed, other people recognized their admirable qualities and felt compelled to follow them.

The followers who looked to these leaders learned from them, and so can we. As you explore their worlds and words, remember that it takes time to become worthy of followers. Leadership isn't learned or earned in a moment.

The Interview That'll Bag a Job

2009-04-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks, I have seen job candidates arrive up to an hour early for interviews. Other candidates have alluded to financial hardships while in the hot seat, and one person even distributed bound copies of documents describing projects he completed for past employers.

These sorts of tactics aren't exactly winners.

In today's ultracompetitive job market, even getting an interview is a feat. Yet recruiters and hiring managers say many unemployed candidates blow the opportunity by appearing desperate or bitter about their situations — often without realizing it.

"People are becoming a lot more aggressive," says Julie Loubaton, director of recruiting and talent management for Atlanta-based Consolidated Container. "They often wind up hurting themselves."

At an interview, you want to stand out for the right reasons. To do so, you'll need to leave your baggage and anxiety at the door. For starters, wait until 10 minutes before your scheduled interview time to announce yourself. Arriving any sooner "shows that you're not respectful of the time the hiring manager put aside for you," says Ms. Loubaton, adding that a candidate who arrived an hour early made workers uncomfortable. "Companies really don't want someone camped out in their lobby."

Signal confidence by offering a firm handshake, adds Wendy Alfus Rothman, president of Wenroth Consulting Inc., an executive coaching firm in New York. Focus your attention on the interviewer. Avoid looking around the room, tapping your fingers, or other nervous movements.

No matter how you're feeling, keep your personal woes out of the interview process, asserts Ms. Alfus Rothman. Instead, always exude an upbeat attitude. For example, if you were laid off, instead of lamenting the situation, you might say the experience prompted you to reassess your skills, and that's what led you here. "You want to demonstrate resilience in the face of unpredictable obstacles," she says.

Meanwhile, show you've done your homework on the company by explaining how your background and track record relates to its current needs, adds Deborah Markus, founder of Columbus Advisors LLC, an executive-search firm in New York. This is particularly important if the firm is in a different industry than the one you worked in before. To stand out, you'll need to look up more than just basics on company leadership and core businesses. You'll also need to find out — and understand — how recent changes in the marketplace have affected the firm, its competitors and industry overall. Read recent company press releases, annual reports, media coverage and industry blogs, and consult with trusted members of your network. "Companies that may have been performing well just a few months ago might be in survival mode now," says Ms. Markus. "You want to understand how [they're] positioned today."

Also, be sure to show you're a strong fit for the particular position you're seeking, adds Kathy Marsico, senior vice president of human resources at PDI Inc., a Saddle River, N.J., provider of sales and marketing services for pharmaceutical companies. Offer examples of past accomplishments — not just responsibilities you've held — and describe how they're relevant to the opportunity. "You must differentiate yourself like never before," she says. "You need to customize yourself and make yourself memorable."

Sherry R. Brickman, a partner at executive-search firm Martin Partners LLC, says a candidate recently impressed her with this sort of preparation. "He knew the company's product line and what markets it was already in," she says of the man, who was interviewing for an executive post at a midsize industrial manufacturer. "He clearly and effectively explained how he could cut costs, increase sales and expand market share based on what he'd done in his current job." The candidate was hired.

Be careful not to go too far, though, in your quest to stand out. For example, it may be tempting to offer to work temporarily for free or to take a lesser salary than what a job pays. But experts say such bold moves often backfire on candidates. "Employers want value," says Lee Miller, author of Get More Money on Your Next Job ... In Any Economy. "They don't want cheap."
Your best bet is to wait until you're extended a job offer before talking pay. "In a recession, employers are going to be very price sensitive," says Mr. Miller. "The salary you ask for may impact their decision to move forward." Come prepared having researched the average pay range for a position in case you're pressured to name your price, he adds. You might say, for example, that money isn't a primary concern for you and that you're just looking for something fair, suggests Mr. Miller. You can try turning the tables by asking interviewers what the company has budgeted for the position.

In some cases, you may be looking just for a job to get you through so you might consider a less-than-perfect fit. But if you aren't really excited about an opportunity, keep it to yourself, warns David Gaspin, director of human resources at 5W Public Relations in New York. "I've had times where people come in and it's clear that if they really had their preference, they'd be doing something different," he says. "You don't want to put that out on the table. Nobody wants to hire someone who's going to run for the door when times get better."

After an interview, take caution with your follow-up. If you're in the running for multiple jobs at once, make sure to address thank-yous to the right people, career experts advise. Also look closely for spelling and grammatical errors. In a competitive job market, employers have the luxury of choice, and even a minor faux pas can hurt your chances.

If all has gone well, don't stalk the interviewer. Wait at least a week before checking on your candidacy, adds Jose Tamez, managing partner at Austin-Michael LP, an executive-search firm in Golden, Colo. Call recruiters only at their office, even if their business card lists a home or cell number. Leave a message if you get voicemail. These days, recruiters typically have caller ID and can tell if you've tried reaching them multiple times without leaving a voicemail. "There's a fine line between enthusiasm and overenthusiasm," he says.

AppolineOnline.com Team

Job Search Strategies for Mid-Career Transitions

2009-03-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

Are you getting ready to launch an executive job search for the first time in more than 10 years?

If you’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy a long, consistent career with the same company, an unexpected thrust into unemployment or a career transition can cause some panic.Even if you’re Internet savvy, it can be easy to get lost in a maze of job boards and company databases without a clear direction. It’s important to note that while it’s critical to engage in online job search activities, it should only be a portion of your strategic plan. Here are several strategies that you can engage in right now to re–brand yourself, revive your network, and reposition your experience for top–paying career opportunities.

Know Where You Want To Go. Before burying yourself in a frenzy of resume and cover letter drafts, determine your target. Do you want to stay in the same field, are you using this opportunity to pursue your dream job or are you only interested in a lateral move until retirement? Maximize resources like hoovers.com, wetfeet.com, and vault.com to find critical insider information on companies in your target industries.

Promote Your Personal Brand. Your job search is not worth the effort unless you have clearly identified your personal brand (or unique value proposition) for potential employers. You must be able to articulate why a company should hire you and highlight the consistent theme of achievements from your overall career. Are you the cost savings guru, have you been repeatedly called upon to lead high–profile initiatives or can you be classified as the turnaround agent?For example, a manufacturing executive’s personal brand could be focused on his use of cutting–edge technologies to increase productivity.

Produce an Achievement–Driven Resume. Your executive resume should be a strategic career marketing document not a career obituary. Focus on relevant content supported by career–defining, “WOW” achievements throughout the resume. Use the Situation–Task–Action–Results formula to develop achievement statements.

For example: Situation: Synthesized finance and operations departments following the merger of two manufacturing companies. Task: Eliminated duplication of resources, increased operational efficiency, work productivity and results. Action: Developed a short–term strategy and execution plan by developing a team of key representatives for technology, finance, and operations divisions. Results: Reduced company’s overhead costs by $5 million in six months and improved efficiency 25%. Achievement statement for resume: Shrunk annual overhead costs by $5 million in six months by assembling a core operations team that further eliminated duplication of resources and increased operational efficiency by 25%.Aim to have at least five achievements for each position listed on your resume. Develop a Brand–Focused Portfolio. In order to generate success in today’s job market, you have to go beyond a standard executive resume. Invest in an entire portfolio of career marketing documents including a networking resume, career biography, leadership profile, and cover letters for both employers and recruiters. The networking resume works well for quick introductions to executive recruiters and personal contacts and the leadership profile is a powerful leave–behind document for interviews. Rehearse a Memorable 30–Second Commercial. Once you get to the networking phase of your job search, you need to display confidence in your verbal presentation. Build upon your personal brand to create a unique, 30 second commercial that speaks volumes about what you can bring to the table.

For example: “Hi, my name is Carl Brown. As an experienced Manufacturing Executive, I have enjoyed a progressive career with top companies like ABC Plastics, Newform Manufacturing, and TechNec Corporation. With a reputation for engaging cutting–edge technologies that help global manufacturing companies achieve aggressive revenue growth and improve operating cost objectives, I am seeking new executive opportunities at global companies that would benefit from my strengths in P&L management, product innovation and turnaround operations.” Start Networking. Join professional and industry–related associations, alumni groups, and Chamber of Commerce committees. Identify key industry leaders you want to meet, schedule informational meetings/interviews, and start building your own team of alliances.Don’t forget to use online social networks like LinkedIn.com, E–cademy.com, Zoominfo.com, and Ziggs.com to connect with former associates and friends. These sources can also be used to search for industry experts and top people in your target companies. Use Niche Boards & Specialty Sites. Huge commercial career sites have over hundreds of thousands of candidates in their database and are usually geared for entry–level to mid–management positions. To avoid feeling discouraged and frustrated, subscribe to specialized online job boards that focus on a particular occupation, industry, job function or type of jobseeker like CEO, Sales Executives, or MBAs. Work with Specialty Recruiters. Similar to niche job boards, there are executive recruiters and executive search firms that specialize by industry and job function. Sources like AppolineOnline.com provide online databases for recruiters that may specialize in your area.

You've Accepted the Offer - Now What?

2009-03-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Time and time again I see the top candidate accept an offer, and arrive on their first day with the drive and passion to change the company. Yet, in many cases, this gets them off to a very rocky start.The six guidelines below will help you identify a strategic approach for your first 30 days of employment. This will help you define how to demonstrate your value and build effective alliances.Be PreparedRemember that you were not hired to warm a chair. You are being hired to address and correct certain pain–points that the company may be experiencing, and you will likely be stepping into a situation that needs to be fixed. Don’t be shocked by the reality of the challenges that you face. Embrace every challenge as an opportunity to succeed. They need you. Develop a Strategic PlanBe a self–starter who takes initiative by making introductions. Meet the company’s team leaders to gather their perspective on the company, the products and their services. If done properly, this will allow you an opportunity to create long–term value and stability in the company. Take this initiative internally and externally. If necessary, travel to meet existing clientele to facilitate and manage any transition or knowledge transfer that may be necessary. With this, you’ll become a leading and respected authority who helps drive the goals and aspirations of the company. Establish Trust with Your Peers, Colleagues and ClientsUnderstand the executive team’s vision for the future and embrace their immediate expectations to create synergy in goal setting and objective management. This includes even basic financial goals. Investigate and fully understand the revenue goals as determined by the executive leadership team.To meet these goals, develop best practices and understand the current customer needs, expectations and service level agreements. Identify existing client relationships within the management team to create a plan for maximizing ongoing, trusted referrals. Examine the existing opportunities within the company and its client base and uncover the client’s expectations for the future.Keep Your Mouth Closed and Your Ears OpenSpend time with your new boss, but don’t camp out in his/her office! It’s critical that you use this person as a resource, not a crutch. Use the transitory time to stay informed, but as a rule never get involved in petty corporate politics. If you have a respectable title, you will suddenly become everyone’s best friend and people will want to talk to you.Further, consider some sort of effective networking or continuing education in order to remain on the front lines as a valuable resource to the company and your market discipline. Always be mindful of how your learnings can affect the direction of the company and its product line. Don’t Swing for the Fences on Your First DayPartner with the management team to create attainable goals and targets for success. This will create buy–in and set priorities. Start at a high level by memorizing and fully understanding the company’s mission. Embrace this to create a shared vision and focus for the future. Take the next step of filtering these goals down by prioritizing existing projects and activity based on profitability and resources. Be transparent with your team about these shared goals and reiterate management’s vision for the future to create solid partnerships with in the organization.Keep it Simple – Get it Done.

Be yourself and don’t try to over–impress anyone. Engage with clients naturally and develop a philosophy and expectation of being their premier, cost-effective solution provider. Ensure that your team also embraces the vision and translates this to their clients and vendors.

Remember that you were hired because you are the right person to help drive the company towards success in revenues and market share. Being able to "do the job" is easiest if you are the right person to fit within their corporate culture and professional environment.

Enjoy your job, embrace change, and remember that a challenge is nothing more than an opportunity to succeed!

Evaluate Workforces in Emerging Economies

2009-03-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

Think strategically about where to locate international facilities by comparing quality of workforces.

The term “emerging economies” first appeared some 25 years ago as a means of distinguishing third-world countries that exhibit economic potential. While that remains a useful distinction for investors, HR professionals need to hire, train and retain workers with more than just potential. They need workers who can get jobs done.

What countries among emerging economies fill the bill in a hypercompetitive global market? The obvious answers may not be the best ones, for in a rush to tap human resources of rapidly growing “BRIC” countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—business leaders may be shortsighted. Long-range planning requires a bifocal view on human capital. While the talent, opportunities and challenges of BRIC countries may be in the foreground today, talent pools of other countries are rapidly gaining relevance.

Other countries—Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland and Slovakia, for instance—already meet many business goals and are attracting corporations seeking less competitive environments than the BRIC countries provide.

But before committing to development of a facility in an emerging economy, HR professionals should make sure they work with the right standards and measures to match workforce strengths with their organizations’ needs. This requires evaluating workforce quality with readily available international standards as well as the qualitative yardsticks applied to domestic workers.

“The emerging economies can be an important solution for companies, depending on their industry sector,” says John R. Wilson, president of national immigration law firm GoffWilson, based in Nashua, N.H. For high-tech manufacturing, for example, he recommends Vietnam, Thailand and Poland because of their well-educated workers.

What’s ‘Emerging’?
From an HR perspective, emerging economies feature growing numbers of workers who demonstrate an ability to function effectively in business—specifically, your business—and a recent increase in the pool of college graduates. But these two indices provide too narrow a perspective.

A more useful, HR-centric definition of emergence may be applied to countries that demonstrate sustained growth in the knowledge, skills and abilities of their people. Emerging countries typically progress through three stages of development as workers, on average, achieve academically and spend more time in the workforce:

Stage 1 countries feature predominately young, trainable workers and low labor costs.
As countries and industries grow into these stages over time, they present opportunities to different companies. First-stage countries such as India and Vietnam have had a recent influx of young people, particularly college graduates, in the workforce. Other countries—such as Poland and Slovakia—entered that stage years ago, and they have kept up the pace of academic and work-experience growth. Other countries have built solid workforces and now see increasing numbers of workers with specialty skills and refined industrial experience in their workforces—examples include Singapore and South Korea.

Stage 2 countries supplement the Stage 1 workforce with workers who leverage prior experience toward value-added applications, such as troubleshooting or oversight, records processing, design of software solutions, or supervision of others.

Stage 3 countries have also developed a sizable contingent of workers with world-class specialty knowledge in a variety of industries, such as biotechnology and hedge funds.

While all three stages exist in every country and some industries develop faster than others, the third stage takes years to develop on a large scale. For example, India, with pockets of specialized workers in computer technology, health care and other categories, and with continually growing pools of new talent, has yet to develop a large contingent with specialized skills or the long-term industry experience that many businesses require.

Different stages of emergence are, logically, suited to different businesses. Call centers or other functions where workers require little experience—and can be trained in a few weeks or months—are best-suited for a first-stage country, as are compartmentalized groups that rely less on constant communication with other parts of their organizations. Many back-office financial or digital-processing operations take advantage of current wage differentials by moving into countries entering the second stage of development, such as Mexico or the Philippines.

For organizations that require a well-stocked talent pipeline with years of industry experience or highly specialized skills, HR professionals should investigate third-stage countries such as South Korea or Singapore.

Labor Quality
Educational attainment and foreign direct investment serve as readily available measures to gauge, compare and contrast countries’ stages of emergence. These blunt and relatively easy-to-find measures distinguish countries with labor quality compatible with your needs. Specifically:

Educational attainment measures people age 25 and older with a post-secondary education. As this segment of the population grows and gets work experience, there are more people with a base level of knowledge to support the knowledge economy.

Foreign direct investment creates a starting point for gauging the volume of other organizations that have already entered the marketplace, as larger investment suggests that the workforce has more opportunities to gain expertise.

In addition to the education of entry-level workers, look at the attainment of experienced workers. For emerging economies such as Poland, even experienced workers age 35 and older generally have a post-secondary education attainment rate of higher than 20 percent, indicating established knowledge and skills compared with other emerging economies. On the other hand, more-developed countries such as Singapore and South Korea for the most part have witnessed steady growth of educational attainment over time, resulting in a large proportion of the workforce, spanning many age groups, with post-secondary education. This could be a path emerging economies take to reach the third stage of development.

Next Steps
Understanding a country’s developmental stage provides an idea of the quality of the labor pool. The next step in a location decision requires assessing quality measures inherent in your present workforce. Investigate graduation rates of workers in the disciplines your organization recruits and employs.Then, keep an eye on where suppliers and customers move to. If they are present in a country, you should be there. Ask business partners who have operations abroad how new plants or offices compare with their other operations.

For example:
Do they offer additional training for new hires?
Do they hire five people with the expectation that only one will still be employed in a year?
How long did it take to get operations running compared with their other locations?
Ultimately, each manager’s definition of quality will be different. For some, cutting-edge computer skills benchmark quality. For others, a command of English with a Midwestern accent will be required. Still others demand adherence to the supervisor’s point of view. Generally, labor quality speaks to how efficiently individuals can perform the jobs.Often, analysts must get creative in assessing labor quality. If your business requires workers with prior experience, investigate what jobs are being filled or check out government statistics on occupations.

If only a handful of workers qualify for the jobs you need to fill, look elsewhere or brace your organization for a substantial investment in training. Many organizations undertake novel data collection by conducting market research—not for customers but for workers—or infer labor-market patterns where data do not exist.Organizations that already have footprints in emerging markets and now face decisions on where to expand actively mine data collected through recruiting and HR systems to gauge the quality of workers from local universities. By further linking such data to how those hires perform in their first few years, managers can compare those workers’ performance to that of employees in other locations.

Consider:
How many applications pass an initial screening?
What percentage of offers are accepted?
What percentage of hires stay with the organization for more than six months?
What percentage of hires receive a promotion or higher ratings in the first few years?
As an alternative, ask your finance department to review what, if any, companies would be viable acquisitions. Even if you do not bid on the companies, you will uncover organizations that perform similar work in the area and gain an overview of competitors for talent. Perhaps you may even find places to recruit.

“You have to fight for managerial talent in finance, purchasing or IT in some of these countries,”

“As Poland joined the European community, for example, there was a lot of mobility among its skilled workers, with about 2 million of them going to Great Britain, Ireland and Spain for work. And so the people with the right education in emerging economies are often looking for status, company cars, better health plans, guarantees of promotion written into their contracts—and yet hiring them is still less expensive, overall, than the typical expatriate scenario where you are importing people into these countries.”

Set Realistic Quality Bars
In addition to being informed about the types of workers in different countries, be realistic about the training your organization will provide new hires. Be careful of imposing artificial barriers on the types of employees who could work for your organization. While call center representatives may need functional English, do they need college degrees? Do clerks need polished client skills if they never interact with customers?

If your organization invests in training, your tolerance for lower-quality workers could serve you well. In many cases, being first to move into a country offers cost advantages that do not disappear with training expenses. For some managers with the luxury of slower startup times, the savings overshadow the option of tapping an experienced and expensive workforce. For other leaders, the extra costs and hassle of filtering through candidates, coping with turnover and facing potential customer losses persuade them to seek experienced workers.

Similarly, not every branch has to work seamlessly with other branches. Consider how operations coordinate with existing ones.

Ask:
Will this location substantially feed our executive pipeline in five years?
How soon will this workforce realistically be integrated with existing operations?
Do all hires need to directly communicate and interact with colleagues and customers around the world?

Identify Cultural Differences
Culture covers aspects ranging from hiring and firing regulations to how individuals accomplish their jobs. There’s no good or bad, just different approaches—such as a workplace culture that requires more direction from managers, or one where workers talk through the issues.

Overall, Latin America has some of the most rigid employment regulations, followed by Eastern Europe. In contrast, Asia has more-flexible labor-market legislation, with the exception of Indonesia.

Once you select a site, opening an office abroad requires an understanding of how business gets accomplished there and how that differs from your style. Sometimes, it is better to keep functions separate rather than make everyone work together. Many successful offshore operations compartmentalize and allow the existing culture to dominate.

Two dimensions of management differences across countries highlight the point. Workers in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southern Asia tend to be more team-oriented, according to research in “In the Eye of the Beholder: Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from the Project GLOBE,” published in the February 2006 issue of the Academy of Management Perspectives. Managers in those regions emphasize effective team building, defining common purposes, and goals among team members more than in Anglo areas such as Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, and in Confucian Asian areas such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Workers in Latin American, Southern Asian and Anglo countries are also value-based.

Leaders in these areas like to inspire and motivate, and they expect high-performance outcomes from others based on firmly held core beliefs, more so than Eastern European or Confucian Asian leaders.

Consideration of the methods used to accomplish work may alleviate the need to either adjust organizations’ current work arrangements or limit the “qualified” pool of workers in emerging countries.Ultimately, a careful assessment of the different stages of emergence—and how well they align with your business needs—will focus efforts on countries with the right mixture of quality and cost advantage. --

Consultants Learn to Weather Bad Economic Times

2009-03-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

“In recent weeks, several of my long-term subcontractors have contacted me to learn of any new contract work that’s available for them to do,” says Regan of APPSYS.

“Quite simply, they need work and don’t have any”. “They’re considering returning to full-time job employment because their business is nonexistent right now,”

“I think a lot of sole practitioners are hurting in this economy,”

The declining economy is certain to impact the livelihoods of HR consultants. But, will that impact be good or bad? On the one hand, companies might be looking to outsource activities to control internal staffing costs. On the other hand, they might be cutting back on expenses.

While employers are cutting back and closely monitoring operations, there is a strong trend toward companies investing in programs that assist in hiring/retention efforts.

Many are turning to experts who can provide counsel and assistance in hiring, on boarding and retention to help ensure that new hires will be capable, dedicated employees.

Roberta Chinksy Matuson, an HR consultant in the Boston area, agrees. “In any economy there are opportunities,” she says. In the past three months she notes that she has had more phone calls for business than over the entire year. “I see this as an opportunity to really propel my organization forward, while others are pulling back,” she says.

Kevin Nussbaum, SPHR, is president of CBIZ Human Capital Services. “We’ve been doing well this year, but I would say our product mix has changed and our focus has changed,” he says.

“Downtimes for business do not correlate to downtimes for HR consultants,” says Jonathan Kroner, J.D., MBA, a Miami-based attorney that works with HR professionals to help avoid litigation. “Opportunities arise to plan and administer layoffs, buyouts, staff reductions, benefit modifications—these all involve HR functions,” he notes.

Individual HR consultants will have different experiences, agrees Regan. “It depends upon what the HR consultant’s area of expertise is. If it’s outsourcing or downsizing, business is booming. For most independent HR consultants, though, their business will decline as businesses reel in their expenses. Many companies still need to have the work done—they’re simply postponing projects until the economy begins to rebound,” he says. “And, it will in time,” he notes.

Outsourcing More Viable than Ever

Despite the slowing economy, outsourcing remains a viable option for many organizations, representing opportunities for HR consultants.

“If you stop and think about what is affected in companies the most right now, it’s the people,” Carvin points out. “So, in an economic change of any kind, whether we go into a huge boom or a huge bust, people are affected. And, who is responsible for the people function of a company— that’s HR, whether internal or external,” says Carvin. “HR people, in my opinion, become more critical at this stage of the game than ever,” she says.

In today’s culture of do more with less, firms are still outsourcing for three reasons,
—time, money and retention:

Time. The recent turn of the economy has not only been shown by the number of layoffs, but also with the increased workload burden for employees who made the cut. In a department of 60 where 20 were laid off there are simply not enough hours in the day for the remaining 40 to pick up the slack, says Espuga.
Money. It is more economical to hire professionals temporarily than to spend the firm’s dollars on salaried employees with benefits, who are not contractually obligated to finish projects, she says.
Retention. Since uncertain times send employees’ morale plummeting, now more than ever it is critical to keep turnover low by keepng current employees satisfied, says Espuga. HR consultants can certainly play a role here.

Carvin agrees. “We’re seeing that a lot of HR departments are running with shorter staffs and are swamped with work so they often need to turn to some outside expertise,” she says.

Capitalizing on Environmental Opportunities

HR consultants that can carve out a special niche that represents value for their clients will also survive—even thrive—in this economy.

“It is my professional opinion that this is an excellent time for HR consultants—just not the traditional kind,” says Jim VanNest, a consultant who recently made the switch from being an HR director inside an organization to starting his own HR consultants/staffing group. VanNest is hoping to ride that wave through the services provided by his company, Second Watch Associations. He says he sees some key dynamics in the environment that are driving new demand:

The decentralization of work task assignments into separate organizations that form working units on a project basis. This was foretold in 1991 by Robert Reich in The Work of Nations, VanNest points out.
The decline in participation and the eventual exit of Baby Boomers from the full-time workforce, leaving behind tasks for which there are no replacements, or untrained or lightly trained replacements even when available.
The movement from bricks and mortar companies to virtual companies.

“When we add the latest dynamic that shows that many currently operating medium and larger businesses are in debt or bordering on bankruptcy, the opportunities for smaller companies that do not have as much expensive overhead or as extensive debts expand even more,”

Emphasizing Value

A tight economy in which many HR consultants are competing for the same clients makes bidding competition more intense. “Because of fewer contracts being offered in the marketplace, HR consultants will need to become more competitive in pricing proposals and add extra value as a bonus,”

“You have to prove cost/benefit these days whether that involves an eligibility audit on their health plan to providing proven sales-force effectiveness or top-grading the sales force—these are all issues that people are struggling with and you’re going to sell those projects at the CEO/CFO level, typically,”

In fact, the area of evaluating and improving sales-force effectiveness is one that Nussbaum says he is surprised has not become more prevalent among HR consultants.

“There’s no better way for HR to demonstrate return on investment than to improve the sales force,” he says.

To conclude there are three pieces of advice to HR consultants in this economy:

Accelerate your marketing.
Continue to network.
Turn off all of the gloom and doom.

“You can use the economy as an excuse for everything and you can be paralyzed and just sit in front of your computer all day watching your portfolio—or you can take action,” she says. “This is the time for HR consultants to really show organizations the value they bring.”

Francis Jeyaraj
Appoline Global HRD Consulting Group

Can you sleep when the wind blows?

2009-03-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.
He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were
reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the
awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received
A steady stream of refusals.Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached
the farmer. "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him.
"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help,
Hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from
dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.
Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.
Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed
next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the
little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming!
Tie things down before they blow away!"
The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No
sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on
the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.
To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had
been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens
were in the coops, and the doors were barred.
The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.
Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his
hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while
the wind blew.
When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically,
you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the
wind blows through your life?
The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he
had secured the farm against the storm.
We secure ourselves against the storms of life by
grounding ourselves in the Word of God.
We don't need to understand, we just need to hold
His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.
A friend of mine sent this to me today,
and I enjoyed it so much, that I wanted to send it to you.
I hope you enjoy your day and you sleep well.

Let me sleep for a while....

Francis Jeyaraj

Dissolving the Bitterness of Life

2009-03-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Once a young man came to a revered teacher, who was seated under a
tree near a beautiful lake, and asked for the solution for his unhappiness.
After some minutes of conversation the old master kindly instructed the
visitor to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink a few
mouthfuls.
“How does it taste?” the teacher asked. “Awful,” said the apprentice after
he had spat out the revolting liquid a few paces away.

The teacher chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of
salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake
and when the youngster swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old
man told him, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked him
again, “How does it taste?” “Good!” he replied. “Do you taste the salt?”
asked the Master. “No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside the
troubled youth, took his hands, and said :
“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in
life remains the same, exactly the same. But the level of ‘pain we taste’
depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the
only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a
glass. Become a lake. And you can become a lake when you broaden
your outlook; when you stop looking only at yourself and your own
miseries. Look at life as a whole and the many things without which
you would not be what you are today – your friends, family, hobbies,
nature around you.
When you are confronted with a problem, you see only the problem
and ruminate over it endlessly which only makes the situation more
tragic. Think of previous instances when things were better. Look at
all the blessings that God has filled your life with about which you never
give a thought.
Never compare yourself negatively with others. You are a unique person
and if you have the faith, God will provide what you need. When you have
a pain in your life, put it in front of GOD - then it will surely lessen.
Do not put it in front of yourself – as you cannot see beyond it.
God is Infinite. Tap this source, with confidence.
The young man left, and his viewpoint on his problems had totally
changed.
As the saying goes:
Tell your problems : "HOW BIG YOUR GOD IS!!”

Have a great day,

Francis Jeyaraj

Appoline Blogging !

2009-03-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

I have started blogging in my Mother's name APPOLINE !

"Add People Profile Overall Life Improvement & Nurture Empowerment"

Hope you will find this b-log so useful. Please actively participate to make it more interactive and lively.

Profound Thanks & Regards,
Francis