Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
Richard Branson: Decoding His Charisma
It really boils down to what an "experience maker" is. They make you feel stronger. They make you feel optimistic. They make you feel safe because you trust them. Charismatic leaders have the ability to make people feel optimistic and hopeful. They make success look within reach. Just what Branson does. I heard him live at The #AdobeSummit in Vegas. Read on ...
360 Degree Review: Does It Help
Rate yourself and four friends on emotional stability, generosity, intelligence, creativity and assertiveness. Then ask your spouse and friends to rate you on the same traits. What you discover may surprise you.Find out which traits are you better off getting feedback from others. Are there some traits you know about yourself better than others? Read this to find out.
How to Build Rapport with Your Team When You’re a New Manager
People advise you to spend time understanding the key challenges of the role. What they forget to tell you is how important it is to first build a rapport with the team that you will lead. This becomes all the more important when you’re managing a team you haven’t worked with before. How do you break the ice and get the relationship going? Here are some ideas ...
Storytelling tips from a wedding photographer
Does the world’s number one photographer get bored? Erika must have read my mind. She opens her talk by saying that, “weddings are boring…” and then goes on to qualify it. “That happens if you have a format in mind and every wedding has to fit into that format. Rituals are the scripted part. The real wedding takes place between the scripted parts.”Read about what I learned from the world's no 1 wedding photographer ...
Threat Intelligence
Human beings are irrational. When it comes to choosing convenience over data security, we inevitably ask for convenience. So we save our passwords in our browsers, credit card information on our phone and do much worse. We click on irresistible offers from unknown sources and share bank details on the phone with strangers who claim to have the last four digits of your credit card. When that information gets hacked, it rapidly changes hands just like currency note. There is a high chance that your email and password is doing the rounds of the Dark Web.Threat Intelligence can tell you if your hacked email and password is floating around on the surface web, deep web or dark web. Read on ...
Turn Employees into Brand Ambassadors
Saying "All tweets are personal" and "retweets do not imply endorsement" may sound impressive but it does not prevent the reader from assuming that the organization shares the same belief as the employee. So employees are representing your brand 24x7 with their social media presence. They are leaving behind digital footprints of your brand anyway. How can organizations leverage the employees to be brand ambassadors?
Thriving In The Gig Economy
Gig economy is a one-sided contract. The employers pay for the time the skills used. But staying updated costs time and money since gig-economy workers do not have access to the Learning & Development departments the way regular employees do, nor do they have the opportunity to build pension funds, medical insurance leave alone wealth creation opportunities like ESOPs. This is where the government needs to create laws that govern gig-workers.The gig economy works great if you have a financial cushion built in. Then it is a great way to explore the hidden talents you never knew you had. But being a gig worker is also full of insecurity, loneliness and income volatility. The unorganized blue collar workers have always lived without the safety net regular work provides. As 30-40 percent of the workforce of our country is joining this new world of work, it is time to rethink the labor laws. Read more ...
Blockchain in HR
Learning patterns have changed. The shelf life of degrees is reducing and people are taking on informal ways of keeping themselves updated. Tracking formal courses, online certifications, badges and digital credentials, and projects done for the employer could be automatically tracked and updated on the resume of the employee using blockchain tech. Imagine a verified version of LinkedIn available without the lies and garnishing rampant today! Blockchain could do all that and revolutionize HR.
4 Skills Social Sciences Teach
Algorithms work with clear defined logic - just what human behavior does not adhere to. You agree with a colleague about a plan and at the last minute, the colleague changes his/her mind. The only way to accomplish that task would be that you try to persuade and convince the colleague. Humanities and social sciences teaches just that.
HR Brand Evangelist
Jason Levine is an evangelist for Adobe. His tutorials make it easy for users to learn tips and tricks of the range of products that Adobe has. His tutorials on YouTube unlock mysterious features of different products. He is known to his followers as Adobe Jesus. He makes technical training so cool. Imagine if you had someone like him to evangelize your latest L&D offering. We have no problem when companies spend big bucks marketing a soap that costs fifty rupees. But we shy away from evangelizing our training programs that could make the company stay on the cutting edge.
If You Want to Ace Your Group Discussion, Don’t Forget to Listen
While most people will elbow each other out to get more airtime, the one who listens to others, evaluates what they say carefully, and then speaks is often the one chosen for a follow-up interview.Here are four tips on how listening can benefit you in a group discussion:
Employment & employability: India's dual challenges
98.6% of non-farm businesses have fewer than 10 workers. Entrepreneurs create jobs for themselves and for others. We have to encourage them to scale up. Here are some ideas for Budget 2018:Expand the definition of MSME to be Rs 50 crores.Tax agricultural income beyond Rs 20 lakhs per annum. This can form the fund that can be given to entrepreneurs.21% Indian companies with over $1billion in value have given more than 15% returns on capital. When companies have scaled up they have provided good returns. Getting our entrepreneurs to not just start-up but scale up may be the answer to employment and employability.
CES 2018 was like a sequel
Last year Alexa created a stir with its novelty factor. Since then voice has become bigger and continues to grow. Google has the advantage of passing on its AI power through all its Android devices. But Alexa has had a two-year head start in the market. Plus, Alexa offers 10,000+ “skills”. Google’s marketing department was the clear winner having plastered Google Now everywhere. But this is the space to watch. My take on why CES 2018 was just lukewarm... not hot.
Can you thrive in 2018
In 2016 I made resolutions that would help me improve my storytelling skills. Innovations that get implemented and go viral are the ones that have stories that capture our imagination. Ideas travel faster when they ride on the wings of stories. Here’s what I resolved to do:a) Take notes when innovators and entrepreneurs tell their storiesb) Improve my visual storytelling skills by drawing something every dayc) Listen to podcasts of storytellers & screen writersThis year I turned to Arianna Huffington's philosophy of how to thrive. I am going to adopt some of them.
What Do We Want From Tech Creators in 2018
Tech 2018 must pause and look at its impact - not from the lens of Silicon Valley but from the eyes of the third world. The creators of the technology must be held accountable for the damage they can unleash. There is no doubt that tech improves our lives immensely. Yet, there is no escaping the rising inequalities that tech automatically creates. The value of bitcoins has been rising. Whether it is a bubble or just a new form of banking is still being debated.
Equations will change in 2018
The new products and service will create new roles and new work opportunities. But they will need people to learn new skills. While talent is fairly uniformly distributed, opportunities are not. The impact of job redundancies impacts people at the bottom of the pyramid far more sharply than those who are well cushioned. Where do we begin to prepare ourselves for the future? Education is a good place to start. This time, education will have to be far more than a way to land a job. It has to prepare us to think of others and not just ourselves. The future of work has to be designed not just as a tech solution but also as an ethical choice.
