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Make Yourself Irrelevant For Higher Growth & Impact

January 14, 2016 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

We tend to believe that if we stay important, at least in perception and hold on to the things we do that normally make us feel important, we become invaluable to our business and organization. This leads to many interesting and unhealthy behaviors – including holding on to information without sharing openly, reluctance to collaborate, unwillingness to share resources, making others feel insecure, and controlling or micromanaging. We continue to move on superficially without self reflection, personal growth and reach a stage where our egos and fears prevent us from stepping out of our comfort zones – until a major change inevitably hits us and forces us to rethink.

It may be surprising to hear and sometimes hard to accept but making yourself irrelevant will make you more valuable to the business and yourself as a leader and human being.

What does ‘making yourself irrelevant’ mean?
This means empowering and enabling team members to take up some of your important responsibilities and more. This does not mean stepping away from your leadership responsibilities or not managing. This also does not mean dropping your troubles and issues on others. Rather, this is about transitioning your role to leading, developing, transitioning from being a possessive individual contributor to focusing on high impact areas for organizational success today and in the future.

Why is this important?
You create more opportunities for team members to continuously stretch, learn and grow. You create more space for yourself and the organization for reflection, insight and action.

How can you as a leader start in this journey?
Let go of few elements that you’re currently doing for your team members. Take a step back, let them own those elements and drive them. Coach, support them and provide constant feedback and recognition. Be patient through the process and reflect on the learning together. Encourage your members to take on more challenges afterward. Constantly build confidence. Invite members to join key conversations and discussions. Let them feel included. In most cases, your team members will step up, be happy and grateful for the opportunities to do more impactful work.

As a result, you’ll create more space for yourself as a leader to reflect, do more impactful work, innovate and explore untapped areas in personal and organizational effectiveness. You’ll create opportunities for others to grow and do more meaningful work. The extra space created will help stretch your thinking. During the initial phase, it is normal to feel uncomfortable and insecure as you let go of perceived important elements or activities. Self-compassion is important. You’ll become more agile and adaptable to change from both the individual and organizational perspectives. The business and organization will gain tremendously. You will be respected as someone who can build more leaders and leadership in your organization.

Doing this successfully and developing this capability as a manager or leader will bring you more (many times bigger) opportunities within your organization. More talented individuals will want to join your team. If not, there will be other great opportunities waiting outside.

Suffering In The Workplace

January 14, 2016 / Tojo Eapen / 1 Comment

Similar to life in general, it is not uncommon to see constant suffering in our workplaces. This is influenced and brought many times from our personal, social lives and also influenced by the work environment.

The word ‘suffer’ means to experience pain.

Workplaces tend to see a lot of pain for many reasons, with a feeling of constant unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

In my observations, the following topics are some of the major causes of personal suffering in the workplace.

1. Unhealthy Ego
When the “I” and “me” feeling becomes very strong, it results in inevitable pain for oneself and others. The need to prove oneself all the time blocks the action of encouraging and enabling others. This also results in skewed views and inability to listen to and understand other perspectives. The focus moves away from the key topic that needs attention from an organizational perspective. Everything becomes personal. There is also a need to control as much as possible directly.

2. Envy
This is probably one of the most common reasons for unhappiness and suffering. In organizations, some people grow disproportionately faster than others due to better capability, fit for the job/organization, specific circumstances, environment etc. Sometimes, it may seem unfair. Irrespective of the specific background, constant comparison with others leads to dissatisfaction with everything, personal pain and intense unhappiness that may seep into other areas in life.

3. Never satisfied
Many individuals are never satisfied. The focus is always on gaining more, what I don’t have and what is missing for me. There is a need for good balance in one aspect of striving for perfection and continuous improvement. The suffering that results from dissatisfaction leads to unhappiness with self and others and constant urge for more and more, without enjoying the present. There are umpteen number of examples of brilliant corporate leaders who have lost all credibility due to greed or need to be perceived as high achievers always.

As A Result…
The resulting themes noticed in organizations are anger, jealousy, frustration, stress, conflict, intense lack of trust and unhappiness. All these lead to a feeling of disconnectedness and disengagement with self, work and colleagues.

Many people also go through a feeling of helplessness or no hope, especially during changes. There is a feeling of having very limited or no alternative choices during difficulties. Hence, they decide to suffer through the situation making life worse for themselves and others around them. The negativity and helplessness seem to just grow bigger.

Extreme scenarios even lead to individual depression or mental health issues. Unfortunately, normal work environments are not very kind or supportive in such instances due to various reasons including the high pace and demands of business.

Negative emotions in the workplace are also transferred quickly among individuals and groups. ‘Emotional contagions’ spread much quicker than one may think or imagine.

Excessive unhealthy competition and lack of collaboration are other signs of a ‘sick’ work environment. The organization overall suffers and falls behind in achieving its full potential and success.

What can be done…
Approaches for improvement can be reviewed from an individual and organizational perspective. Each one of us can start by looking after our own mental and physical wellbeing, without waiting for someone else to come with a magical answer. Organizations can support with appropriate practices and environmental approaches.

Self-Awareness and Self-Management, two core pillars of emotional intelligence are fundamental for anyone to manage individually. We all can learn from our own experiences, reflection and actions.

Coming to terms with something that we may not agree with (acceptance) or finding our own ways to accept the difficult change helps tremendously. If that is not possible personally and if there is a persisting strong feeling of unfairness which cannot be addressed, finding a new stream or possibility becomes a healthy choice for everyone.

During difficult times, we need constant energy and encouragement from ourselves, our closest support groups, friends and cheerleaders. It is really important to believe that the tough times shall pass and it is up to us to start making the small steps and changes that will start a new path.

Having an individual practice to find state of peace, harmony and balance like meditation, time with nature, time out from constant interruptions, hobbies etc. can help tremendously. Constantly reflecting on the good things in our lives and focusing on gratitude (many studies indicate that maintaining a Gratitude Journal helps tremendously) can help focus on ‘what we have’, not ‘what we don’t have’. Self compassion and forgiveness are very important when we are not able to meet our own expectations. Studies seem to indicate that we are tougher and more critical of ourselves than others.

From an organizational perspective, building a community feeling and social support in the workplace can also go a long way. Social support is at the core of successfully helping individuals to rebound from difficulties and challenges. Work practices, supporting tools and environment have to be developed. Every leader and manager can also play a key role in the wellbeing of the their teams and organizations through mindful interactions and actions. If consciously and carefully managed, they could play a major role in building healthy environments and mental well-being in the workplace.

Even a minor reduction of suffering in our lives and workplaces can bring a major difference to the individuals in our lives and the world around us.

(Posted on LinkedIn)

Image Credit:
www.unsplash.com, Eutah Mizushima

Paradoxes At Work For Leaders

January 14, 2016 / Tojo Eapen / 1 Comment

A paradox is a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true (or wrong at the same time).

Figuring out and thinking through a paradox is an important and valuable exercise in any organizational environment, for individuals and teams. This also becomes valuable for leadership decision making and judgment calls.

Thinking through paradoxes is also extremely useful to stretch, question and develop our own thinking ability and approach. From personal experiences, the lack of clarity and absence of active dialogues on such topics can lead to confusion, frustration and stress within organizations. Getting caught in ‘no man’s land’ on decisions happens more frequently than we imagine.

Leaders encounter many of the following paradoxes frequently (all but one are from the book, “HR From The Outside In”).

Business & People
How do you balance the tradeoff between people and business?
Organization & Individual
How do you manage the tensions between individual talent and teamwork, individual ability and organizational capability? How do you balance differentiating top performers and rest of employees?
Outside & Inside
How do you simultaneously understand the dynamics and operate in the external and internal environments?
Strategic & Administrative
How do you balance flawless execution of administrative and operational actions with strategic adaptation to future business scenarios?
Short Term & Long Term
How do you choose between short term and long term benefits, especially in decision making?

There may also be relationships to be considered among these paradoxes. e.g., balancing the tradeoffs between business and people may need to take into consideration the balance between the future and past.

We can build clarity through a continuing, active dialogue with ourselves, our stakeholders, teams regarding our thinking, core principles and approach. This becomes fundamental for success and increased effectiveness in a constantly changing world.

It is great to see that the 2016 RBL Group/University of Michigan HR Competency model includes ‘Paradox Navigator’ and brings out many tensions commonly faced – tensions between global and local business demands, between the need for change and stability, between the internal focus on employees and external focus on customers and investors, and between high level strategic issues and operational details.

How do you think about and manage these paradoxes?

What other paradoxes do you encounter?

(Previously posted on Linkedin)

Suggested reading:

Paradox – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox
Book – “HR From The Outside In – Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources”; Dave Ulrich, Jon Younger, Wayne Brockbank, Mike Ulrich; McGraw Hill.
Paradoxes for HR – http://www.tojoeapen.com/blog/paradoxes-for-hr/
2016 HR Competency Model – The RBL Group, University of Michigan
Image Credit – Zach Stern, The Observer’s Paradox, http://foter.com,https://www.flickr.com/photos/zachstern/7532320120/

Largest HR Competency Study Results (2016) Are Out

January 14, 2016 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

2016 Round 7 of the Human Resource Competency Study (running since 1987) by The RBL Group and the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, involved over 30,000 surveys ratings, 23 regional partners and around 4,000 HR professionals around the globe.

CEO surveys increasingly point to businesses winning through differentiating themselves through organization and people. This research identified what individual HR professionals should know and do to respond to these business opportunities.

In my opinion, the latest competency model also reflects the increasing complexity and demands on the global HR professional. Here’s a quick introduction to the model and some of my selected notes from the RBL Group HRCS report. The findings have implications for who is hired into HR and the development, promotion and rewarding of HR professionals.

The report shares nine competencies through which HR professionals deliver business value.

Three Core Competencies
1. Strategic positioner – applies knowledge of business context and strategy.
2. Credible activist – builds relationships of trust and influence with key people within the organization.
3. Paradox navigator – navigates the many embedded tensions in business operations.

Six HR enablers
Three of these enablers focus on building a strategic organization:
1. Culture and change champion – makes change happen and weaves change initiatives into culture change.
2. Human capital curator – manages the flow of talent by developing people and leaders, driving individual performance, and building technical talent.
3. Total reward steward – manages employee well-being through financial and non-financial rewards.
Three enablers focus on tactical delivery:
4. Technology and media integrator – uses technology and social media to create and drive high-performing organizations.
5. Analytics designer and interpreter – uses analytics to improve decision making.
6. Compliance manager – manages the processes related to compliance by following regulatory guidelines.

According to the study, some competencies seem more critical for certain stakeholders. Creating value for internal stakeholders, such as line managers and employees, requires being a credible activist. Creating value for external stakeholders such as investors and external customers, however, requires being a strategic positioner.

The study also found that about 50 percent of the perceived performance of HR professionals comes from their competencies. About 35% of the perceived performance of HR professionals comes from their demographics and career histories.

A key overarching finding was that the activities of HR departments as a whole consistently explain more of the department’s performance than the competencies of the HR professionals within those departments.

Activities of HR departments that most impacted HR value creation for key stakeholders
1. Employee performance HR practices: HR activities that help employees develop their skills and abilities.
2. Integrated HR practices: HR activities that offer integrated and innovative solutions to business problems.
3. HR analytics practices: HR activities related to a scorecard for the HR department.
4. HR role in information management: HR role in managing information to make better business decisions.

HR professionals have more impact on key stakeholders when they work as an effective HR department. The report also notes that the old adage, “I like my HR professional, but I hate HR” needs to change because the HR department’s activities have more impact on all stakeholders than individual HR professionals.

For those interested in learning more, you can find Dr. Dave Ulrich’s videos introducing the latest model and competencies here.

(Previously posted on LinkedIn)

References
1. HRCS Round 7 – Creating HR Value From The Outside-In
https://s3.amazonaws.com/rblip/HRCS/pdf/hrcs-7-report.pdf?utm_source=RBL+Newsletter&utm_campaign=867e0e23f2-11_15_Newsletter_Test11_20_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_24fb7cc248-867e0e23f2-19097425

Another Year…Questions To Reflect On…

January 14, 2016 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

We see many people in our world every day and sometimes ourselves go through daily routines in a pre programmed, meaningless manner. At the same time, we also are reminded constantly that our lives are valuable gifts with an expiry date, at least in this realm.

The end and start of a year provide valuable opportunities and reminders for personal introspection and reflection. Great questions help us think and reflect deeply about our existence, life experiences and progress.

Few useful questions that may help with the self-review process:

How did I live my previous year, especially in the context of things I aspired to do?
How much did I live meaningfully and purposefully?
What impact did I have on the people and environment around me?
How much progress did I make in becoming the person I really aspired to be?
What have I learned from my experiences?
What are key things in life that I am grateful for?
What do I need to do more of, less of and stop doing?
When did I feel in touch with my soul? How can I do more of this?

Don’t worry if the answers are not found easily. Not having answers may hold opportunities to look inside deeper, become more aware and mindful.

Best wishes to you for a peaceful, meaningful and happy new year…

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. … The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.” – Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

References
1. Image Credit – Joshua Earle; pixabay.com
2. On The Shortness Of Life by Seneca, goodreads.com

Our Fundamental Choice

April 11, 2015 / Tojo Eapen / 1 Comment

We’ve completed a hectic first quarter in 2015. I was reflecting on how fast the new year has gone by. The demands and hectic pace of business environment are back.

To stay on course, I try to constantly reflect on my deep personal experiences in recent times, exploring new directions, on mortality, meaning of life, connects with diverse groups of wise individuals, moving back home after almost a decade of being away, and all the changes at various levels. I also try to remind myself constantly to not get caught into the typical thought process and trappings of a rat race.

When the going was tough, the one thing that I felt thankful for was my conscious choice and accountability for own actions. The key was that they were aligned to what I felt was truly important to me. That ensured commitment, engaged action and a feeling of fulfillment. Over time, it was really valuable to learn to not take failures personally and work through them as great development experiences.

My humble suggestion for those who feel caught in between decisions, or are fighting with challenges. Be aligned with what is really important for yourself, listen to your soul, forget about peer or societal pressure and expectations, and focus actions in your chosen direction – it will help you sail through both great and tough times with increasing inner strength, even if the external world judges differently. Life is and generally will continue to be a mix of ups and downs but we all hold the capability to positively influence and impact other lives.

Possibilities for change are always on the horizon. We learn a lot about ourselves in the process, especially while going through a rough patch. We have the choice in how we let our experiences define us.

Best wishes…

Posted on LinkedIn on April 4, 2015

The Rise of HR – Wisdom From 10 Thought Leaders In 20 Sentences

April 11, 2015 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

“The Rise of HR: Wisdom from 73 Thought Leaders,” is a recent anthology published by the HR Certification Institute in collaboration with Dave Ulrich, Professor, University of Michigan and Co-founder of The RBL Group, Bill Schiemann, CEO, Metrus Group, Inc. and Libby Sartain, Business Advisor and Board Member.

As I was reading through few chapters, I thought it would be worthwhile to attempt consolidating the following ten themes from leading HR voices (relevant chapters indicated under ‘References’ below).

The HR professional of today is more likely to be a talent expert, a technology expert and a consultant. They must focus on 3 categories of skills: how to recruit, develop, and manage people; how to organize, enable and improve the organization; and how to manage, leverage, and exploit data and technology.
Getting the transformational change process right in an organization means attending to the Structural, Cultural and Human elements. All change requires an expenditure of physical, emotional and cognitive resources that should be prioritized like any other organizational asset.
HR leaders need to be conductors of the organizational orchestra, by coordinating the orchestra and being comfortable balancing the various tensions (individual versus firm, star versus supporting players, timing, and flow). Three key elements underlying the new HR are talent, data and strategy, and require an ability to coordinate alignment across different levels of organizational hierarchy.
HR professionals will need to spend more time thinking about and developing strategies for operating in what has become a transparent world. More than ever before, HR professionals have to approach their role by constantly reminding their organization to consider the question: What would happen if an employee or customer saw this, or if this appeared on the front page of the newspaper?
Creation of an employer brand is as important as our corporate brand – and thus HR and marketing should be attached at the hip. In this age of transparency, employees are the media and HR is essential to marketing, as they deliver on the brand promise day in and day out.
In any business dialogue, an HR professional can proffer three unique contributions – Talent, Leadership and Organization. Three dimensions of competitive organization are organizational capabilities (what the organization is known for, good at doing, how it allocates resources), culture (pattern of how people think and act) and management actions (intellectual, behavioral and process agendas).
Culture is the catalyst that connects executive leadership goals to HR goals and creates a perpetual winning environment. Great cultures are created through everyday relationships that employees have with leaders, their work and with one another.
Success in any field is based on two characteristics: long term resilience and the ability to be centered, or “in the zone” more frequently. This resilience center spans five aspects of our lives: our emotions, our physical selves, our spirits, our finances and our relationships.
Workforce metrics is strategically important for firms because the workforce is most firms’ single largest expenditure – and the least scrutinized in assessing its impact on value creation. HR must focus on delivering outcomes that enable top-line growth through the firm’s strategic mindset and by leveraging the performance of individual roles that impact value creation and top-line growth.
Forward-thinking HR organizations choose their leadership arenas carefully, letting others take the lead when trends are new to HR, and taking a leadership role as HR becomes more involved. It means gaining credibility with functional partners from other disciplines so that they welcome the involvement of HR in their domain and are willing to help translate and apply their expertise to HR issues.

Hope these are helpful notes for valuable reflection, action and further reading for HR professionals around the world. A strong community of highly capable and committed HR professionals, leaders and organizations is fundamental for the rise of HR and its future evolution.

References
* Book Website – http://hrleadsbusiness.org/rise-of-hr-e-book
1. HR’s Role In The Digital Workplace: A Time For Reinvention, Josh Bersin
2. The Case For Change Capability: How HR Can Step Up…, Holly Burkett
3. The Reluctant HR Champion?, Robert Ployhart
4. HR And Transparency, Susan Meisinger
5. Think Like A Marketer!, Libby Sartain
6. From War For Talent To Victory Through Organization, Dave Ulrich
7. CEOs Want Better Performance. Great Culture Can Make It Happen, China Gorman
8. Finding Our Resilient Center, William G. Ingham
9. HR Analytic And Metrics: Scoring On The Business Scorecard, Richard W. Beatty
10. Avoiding The “Profession” Trap By Reaching Out And Retooling HR, John W. Boudreau

Seeing Opportunities Or Threats?

February 4, 2015 / Tojo Eapen / 2 Comments

We all go through numerous changes, people and scenarios in our work and personal life.

In every new environment or scenario, we have multitude of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Many of this are influenced by our conditioning, habits and natural tendencies.

As a result, we tend to see things in a certain manner.

The wise teachings from the past do indeed play an important role everyday in our lives — “What we see in the world is to a large extent a reflection of what lies inside us.”

We tend to see people, environments and situations from our own perspectives and world views. This can be a strength many times depending on how well we’ve developed our valuable point of view and awareness through experience, reflection and learning. This may also be a major weakness.

Neuroscience studies seem to indicate that we tend to pick up or read threats in our environment more easier than opportunities. In a threat state, our brains don’t work effectively. Fear plays tricks with our memory and our perception of reality.

Individuals and organizations may lose a lot of valuable energy focusing on threats (especially internally), rather than opportunities. This may result in turf wars, personal conflicts, lack of collaboration and stress. If we were to consciously shift our focus to the possibilities and opportunities, our intent to ‘flourishing’ increases. Dr. Martin Seligman identifies five endeavors crucial to human flourishing — positive emotion, engagement, good relationships, meaning and purpose in life, and accomplishment (PERMA). Our ability to work well with other people in a group depends on our ability to appreciate other individuals’ emotions.

When we start consciously focusing on the opportunities, the environment or people around seem to become less threatening. Our outlook and capacity to influence increases. We inspire people around us to move to a higher energy spectrum.

References
1. Fear in the brain
http://discovermagazine.com/2003/mar/cover
2. Your Brain At Work, David Rock
3. Flourish: The Father of Positive Psychology Redefines Well-Being
http://www.brainpickings.org/2011/04/05/martin-seligman-flourish/
4. Why Organizations Fail
http://fortune.com/2013/10/23/why-organizations-fail/

A Different Approach To Career Management

December 25, 2014 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

Most people tend to think about their career progression and growth in a linear manner – i.e. work my way up the ladder and end in a senior or leadership position before retirement.

In today’s evolving and constantly changing world, one needs to think about the career topic with a different perspective. Environments change quickly, business shifts happen unexpectedly, impacts are felt globally, leaders and strategies change faster than one expects.

The concept of ‘stretch’ and growth needs to be constantly on one’s agenda. Complexity in different forms ensure learning and growth. As a result, we develop learning agility and it becomes a fundamental element of our approach and way of working. As we widen our ability to think, adapt and grow, we increase our value to any organizational setting.

Here are some fundamental questions to think about in this approach. The deeper and longer term aspects have to be addressed first.

1. What do I want to achieve with my life? What is meaningful success for me? What capabilities, support and paths do i need to build?
2. Am I continuing to grow or learn new things (in an area of importance, aligned to my longer term career objective), irrespective of the position or responsibility I hold today?
3. How long have I been doing the same work (irrespective of the job or role), without changing any element? Can I think of different approaches?
4. Key elements of role changes I would want to explore:
a. Breadth of responsibility at different levels
b. People Management – direct, indirect, matrix
c. Culture – Geography, Organization
d. Organization size, background and structure
e. Business environments – startup, fast growth, mature, major changes
f. Local & Global roles
4. Have I explored experience in different types of work approaches – eg. consulting, independent, volunteer etc.?

One can explore options with current organizations to start with or externally, through encouraging leaders and systems who facilitate the right opportunities.

At the heart of it, it may be always worthwhile to ask ourselves a Tom Peters (management guru) question: “What would you like to be written on your tombstone?”

Life is a valuable gift and it is important to think about the impact we want to create and the meaning we want to achieve through our work. After all, we spend a substantial portion of our lives at work and with colleagues.

Wish you the very best and a successful New Year 2015…

To every reader who’ve followed my posts, shared feedback and encouragement, special thanks to you and best wishes.

Posted on LinkedIn on December 25, 2014.

3 Basics In Interpersonal Communication

November 18, 2014 / Tojo Eapen / 0 Comments

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to interact with people from multiple cultural and professional backgrounds, across various levels and roles. In my observation, the quality of interpersonal communication in any form varies tremendously and few fundamentals are often missed in organisations, irrespective of the roles or command over language. This may lead to frustration, misunderstanding and even conflict in organizations, internally or with partners. The less you know someone personally, the more cautious and aware you need to be. The more you know someone personally, it is important to not take them for granted. Great individual examples always stand out in our minds and memories.

Here are three basic starting points to think about.

1. When you call or connect with someone for the first time in any form, try to explain the context or background along with the introduction first. I’ve noticed many times when a customer service call comes in, the representative jumps straight to questions (with even questions that feel personal) without explaining the reason and background for the call. On social media, new LinkedIn or Facebook invites are often sent without any introductory message, leaving the receiver to figure out (especially if you haven’t met or connected in the past).

2. When someone you know tries to contact you, it is helpful to respond, even if it is a one liner saying you’re very busy currently. If you may not have clarity to respond regarding a question, it helps to say so. It is also helpful to manage expectations by referring to timeframes, if you think it will take time to respond. People should not feel that their messages went into a black hole and are left to decipher what that may mean. On the other hand, it also helps the sender to follow-up to ensure that it may not have been accidentally missed.

3. Related to the topic of givers and takers, it is not sustainable to just be a taker mostly. There are some people who seem to be happy as long as they receive help and support from others but when they receive a negative response or one that does not satisfy their needs, they miss to acknowledge and respond. It is important to acknowledge in any scenario and still thank someone for their time and interest for thinking and responding to you. It also worthwhile to ask yourself how you can as well be of help to others.

One may need to keep in mind that every action or lack of it, contributes to personal brand and reputation. Some people in positions of power unconsciously allow arrogance to creep into their communication (or lack of it). Everyone should receive the benefit of doubt, until proven otherwise through a noticeable trail of behaviors. We may be conditioned to pick up negatives faster than positives.

As we all work with so many different personalities, preferences and behaviors, it is valuable to get few consistent basic approaches in place, to avoid misunderstandings. We also live in an interconnected world where one’s personal or leadership brand image may actually travel long distances.

I still remember the time in university when I sent Daniel Goleman, author of multiple books including Emotional Intelligence (with no prior connection or influence) a note asking if he would be available and interested in joining a student event. It was a pleasant surprise and felt great to receive his assistant’s response next day and then Daniel himself in a couple of days, sharing that he would not be able to make it due to a hectic schedule. That left a strong impression. I also remember a time at work when someone I looked up to went totally missing (for probably good personal reason) during very challenging times, even when just presence and caring enquiries would have made a big difference. These experiences do leave long lasting impressions.

In any sphere of life (especially if you are a leader), how do you find opportunities in interpersonal communication to influence or impact other lives?

Would you have any notes of advice to share from your experiences?

Best wishes…

Lead-Wise

Page 5 of 10

Make Yourself Irrelevant For Higher Growth & Impact

Suffering In The Workplace

Paradoxes At Work For Leaders

Largest HR Competency Study Results (2016) Are Out

Another Year…Questions To Reflect On…

Our Fundamental Choice

The Rise of HR – Wisdom From 10 Thought Leaders In 20 Sentences

Seeing Opportunities Or Threats?

A Different Approach To Career Management

3 Basics In Interpersonal Communication

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