This is not my job!!!

Oops... yet again. This is something that pinched and inches me deep... Why do people define what they have to do and what they dont have to? Ideally speaking this is not an attitude its a mentality that creates a huge drift in making better workplaces suck ;). Today I was surprised to hear this from the leader (Bet another toxic one) when he/she said that its not my job to get employees together... honestly been a employee representative how could you say that?

After this note going back to the basics of my nature I thought I would gather my thoughts on what they actually mean when they say "This is not my Job"

This is what the crude form of team members think

1. There is someone who can do this, and he is supposed to do it.. so why should I even bother to look at it.

2. Oops another responsibility and that too without enough compensation?

3. The last time I did something of this sort they did not even bother to Thank or appreciate my effort.

4. I think its a waste

The toxic form of members who are also smart A** think

1. No authorities , No responsibilities.

2. Why should I do something that someone else is going to get credit for?

3. Where the hell does this come from... I am paid for what I am supposed to do and this is what I am not paid for.. Am I?

4. Will my failure doing this job affect my performnace elsewhere?

Now come the fine group of tremendously talented teamies who just dont want to do it

1. This is not the right way to do it

2. I dont think this can be ever done.

3. Do you think I am smart enough to do this?

4. I could have done had I had time available from my existing bullshit.

So next time when someone says that this is not my Job slice him vertical into one of the 3 categories and then you will know what he actually means ;)

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The 5 F's of Appraisal

So back to the Appraisals, the yearly appraisals in our organisation are finally over... and with no approvals or KRA's on my head I thought would be worth writing a short complain email....when 9 yrs ago my first appraisal happened I was shocked, surprised and confused... with several questions in mind and in brains, lot of emotions in heart and soul. Over a period of time my view and reactions about appraisals changed from a 0 to 360 degree vertical.... its fun been on both sides of the table... however one thing I realised had always been a problem is many times the appraiser and apraisee both dont know why appraisals are really held, why waste 3 hrs documenting what you have done in the last year and then listen from your reviewer on what you havent done and how good you are NOT. To subsidize this find a letter of appraisal saying that you ahve received a 2% hike in your salaries due to appraisals as Motivation... Boy what a Motivation ;)

There are a few things that Managers need to understand and mind it they need to understand this well and right...if the 4 F's of appriasal are handled well they wont lead to the 5th one ...

F for Fair :- The first appraisal of my life taught me that if the Appraisal is not fair it may lead to distress and dissolution of teams.. Culture, Team, Spirit, bonding all will be lost and most importantly TRUST. I spent some time analysing the mentality of any person Jr. or Sr. after he comes out of appraisal... believe me not many come happy out of this... A developer thinks that his Manager never spoke to him for all year and now he says that I was not doing well. To the matter of fact many of the times clear allegations are made that the following person is biased and thus my appraisal is bad, several times personal conflicts are allegated to play a role in negative appraisals and some times they are true ;).
So how to make the Appraisal fair?
It's easy if you follow it ;). The Appraiser needs to appraise and the employee needs to review if the appraisal is done correctly ;). It has to be clear and finite with definately Positive and Negative comments that are comprised from the events and incidents that had taken place in the past few days... A simple example for the Managers is maintaining a sheet that speaks about every resource's incident diary for all the good and "wana improve" elements covered...


F for Fulsome :- "Today I had 3 " sounds so incomplete, just imagine if the feedback is incomplete what will it cause? Every single person on the earth needs complete information.. so why are the appraisals incomplete? Just mentioning you did not deliver on time doesnt make sense... however it makes sense when you mention that the following day of the following release is one example where we could have done XXX things better to make the delivery XXX in time might probably give more effect. In one of my previous organisations I tried a very different approach when I had to make it more complete... I channelised a few activities that included seminars, games and debate sessions and discussed all of the persons KRA's, the fact that appraisal lasted for 5 days ensured that the appraisal process in its entire was appreciated and ended happily...

Another problems with appraisals are that most of the appraisals are meant to consider only the sliding down parts of a persons work year... meaning only positive climbs are considered in the appraisal and not the Negative climbs(For those who dont understand Negative climbs these climbs are those steps that you took which lead to failure but gave you a good experience).

F for Feedback :- The misery of appraisals is that it is reverse in action then what it means... the Feedback part of the appraisal is not really treated to feed back the actions for the last season or feed with inputs for the next season, instead it has become a formal way of communicating the displeasure ;). The feedback has to be clear and sound and should be given with the right state of mind in a right state of mind to ensure that it is treated as feedback..

F for frequent :- Once a year appraisal is like once a year Sex.... Now because my blog talks about sex quite often I think no one here would be wanting to have it this late? Well honestly the more of this you have frequently the more healthier the relationship is... A every month feedback is the best approach for a bigger team while a weekly or bi-weekly for a smaller Team... Feedback has to come from all ends and frequently to get someone accelerate fast in the careers...

I asked one toxic and one Alpha Manager to expand the 4 F's with whatever words they can recollect instantly in relation to appraisal and the answer they gave themselves can tell you what would be the appraisal like:

Toxic Leader / Manager
F - Flexible
F - Formal
F - Framed
F - Faded

Alpha Leader / Manager
F - Full
F - Follow up
F - Factual
F - Fanatical

When I derive the context to the words they re-collected I spell them like this:
Flexible :- The Appraiser can decide what it means ;)
Formal :- It is just for the sake and more formal than casual.
Framed :- Because it is framed it is also flexible and formal ;)
Faded :- Nothing comes out of the process

while for the other part:
Full - Says everything in the most positive manner possible
Follw up :- Appraisal is complimented with a pre and post follow up and continous feedback.
Factual :- Real , Completely real.
Fanatical :- The appraisal returns in a fantastic outcome of successfull future ;)

Many a times and Many of we Managers fail to follow up on one or all of these F's that surely leads to the next F of appraisal and that is FUCKED UP Appraisal. Yes if any or all of these 4 F's are missed your appraisal is the 5th F.. now dont hesitate to tell your Boss that if he is up for your appraisal he ensures that he is prepared with the 4 F's ;)

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Time to Retrospect?

Its time to Retrospect... Yes. After my June 6 post over my Misery of blogging.. I tried retrospecting the blog for the last few days and here is a brief version of what I thought....

1. Write atleast 100 Quality posts.
I completely failed here... Think the simple reason is my bad timing with blogging all over.

2. Earn atleast 10 Guest posts
Failed badly. I got in touch with some bloggy biggies but could not get them write on a highlight post topic yet. The plan is to better up this time.

3. Enable the comment postings so that a wide audience can put up their views (atleast 100 comments , 1 per post).
Enabled, however because of lack of publicising the blog it went un-noticed.

4. Earn atleast 10$ from this blog.
Earned 2$. Not good but I am happy 6 months 2 dollars not bad.

5. Get 5 Blogs on My Roll
I Suck here. This is just something I am lazy with.

6. Get Listed on atleast 5 Blog Rolls
Bad Blog Management. Still to be my priority.

7. Breakup the Posts in terms of topics (Dont you think these just comes randomly?)

Ufff.... missed this completely.

So finally the retrospective has a clear NO EFFORT SPENT remark. I definitely need to carry on with this for the first quarter.

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I would rather build Toilet Paper than an Enterprise Tool ;)

Yes and I mean it. The Best experience I had was when working on the content website that Aaron called as Me-Media ;) Yes content of the people,by the people and for the people... did you just call it Democracy? Yeah I would call it Contocracy :D. So back to what I would like to do, today when discussing on the Business Modal for my upcoming venture one of my friend and potential partner said that he would like to work over something that big companies can easily use, I said I would rather like to create Toilet papers than Enterprise softwares that have a vary wague future just becuase every Tom, Dick and Harry are in competition.... Well I really mean that the Tom, Dick and Harry of the internet business aka Google, Microsoft and Zoho are in the race ;)

Back to why I think something like Toilet papers can be the great market is just becuase every single human would like to use it , atleast once a day ;) and upon requirement more than once... though I dont refer to iToliet(Shit on Internet?) as of now, I really mean that coming up with a software that can just be used commonly as much or as much more than a toilet paper ;). Something that a person does everyday and would do everyday that too without fail?

Now let me go back to brains and ask what it is? Would you ind doing the same and share?

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Its Bad but I am gonna fight it... Yes another toxic Leadership!!!

Well My call today to get convinced to stay on what I am doing was not very fruitful. I am pretty upset over a few things told to me and it seems that I really got into the toxic company(partnership) where things were shown in a different way. Anyways though this post and platform is not to discuss on who I am upset about... I would really like to bring a few points about Toxic Leadership that can cause major breakdowns...though I dont think I will be able to put up the tackle techniques.... I would ask/request you to do it here....

1. Trust :- Toxic leadership betrays trusts for self goals. How do you trust leadership?
a. When you know the leadership had been going wrong?
b. When the leadership has betrayed?
c. When Leadership really meant decision making?

Ok.. I am haltin off here and want to take some time to think about a few things and come back with a bang later this week....

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Not much Blogging as I am on MARS these days

Dont get surprised.... I still havent won the trip to NASA from Aamir Khan its just that I have moved to a new place called MARS. I am sure your eyebrows are stretched but if you havent met me or spoke to me since last week its OK I can answer you. After our company got acquired a few months ago I happened to move to a new workplace where the acquiring company works from and this place gives me a feel of MARS or rather a Alien nation. Luckily I had some not good experiences lately and saw 2 movies concerning Aliens and I am sure I am in a Alien nation.

To justify this I read a few qualities of Alien's and am just trying to match them up here:

1. Who George Bush?
Means that Aliens dont know who is with them and who is around... Either no one cares about no one or No one want to care about no one.

2. Everyone is scared of Everyone?
Well last when I was in US a friend of mine told me that since the 9/11 everyone is afraid of everyone... cause you dont know who will do what to you.... the same thing applies to aliens and the same I feel out here.... I see many worried faces from the Aliens as if they are going to be killed.

3. Yada yada yada lada mada kada ...Did you understand ? No? I just used Marsisi
Well Aliens dont care whether you understand their language or not, they just want to be themselves and talk what they and no one else understand. Well it was better in Germany when people were talking in German but made sure that the eyes speak in English.... Veda and Kari I understand what you must have been feeling ;)

4. General -> Kernel -> Major -> Leiutinant -> Soldier -> Ardali -> Sweeper... its all about hirarchy
Aliens only know that the one with a gun in hads is their boss... so when they dont see guns they run crazy chickens... and ask whos got the gun ;)

So what to do when you come in the land of Aliens?

I will make up some points and meanwhile revise myself over the weekend... you be ready to read what you can do to make'em humans...

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