A HR Professional should be an Invertor

19.07.2010

I was invited by the Madras School of Social Work to conduct sessions on Team Building at the Skill Lab for the MA in Social Work group. I did a couple of activities on Team Skills.

I made the point that a HR professional should be like an Invertor. When a person comes fully charged up we should reduce the charge by absorbing the surplus energy so that he cools down. Then he would be ready for rational debate on the issue.

When someone is emotionally drained or negative we should in turn pass on a bit of our energy so that he will be charged up again and ready for dedicating himself to his personal growth and the organizational good.

It was a satisfying day and the interaction of the students was very high as also the quality of their participation and eagerness for content absorption.

While going through the Machine Game, one set of participants demonstrated a Direction Finder. The coordination was superb although they had made the directions go around while the needle remained firm. Normally it’s the needle that moves to point to the True North.

There were two girls from Nagaland. They were a bit poor on the communication side but quite friendly. One of them comes from Woka, which is on the way to Mokukchung.

Human resource (HR) Skills

14.07.2010

I delivered a special guest lecture today at the Madras School of Social Work on HR Skills. The audience was a group of more than forty young students starting a two-year post graduate program on Human Resources Management.

The enthusiastic and energetic youngsters were quite articulate and interactive. I stressed the difference between Skill and Knowledge. I took them through an activity on communication gap. Two of the groups got the message exactly right. The group as a whole learnt the need for clarity and articulation. Another key learning was active listening.

Participants who caught my attention were Sindhuri, Monica, Sandhya Srinivasan, Peri, Karthik and a few others who asked many questions and also shared their views clearly. But Karthik, who seems to have many leadership attributes surprised me with his comment that he never reads books! Similarly, while I appreciated his confidence when he claimed that he is a great orator already I could not help but wonder whether this confidence may block his ability to learn and grow.

I gave them three “L” Words….Listen…..Learn…..Love.

After talking about Active Listening I suggested two instances where they might use it…Recruitment Interviews and Exit Interviews. Thereafter the session became an interactive discussion on Exit Interviews, Confidentiality, Purpose and retention through properly conducted Exit Interviews.

On the whole an Enjoyable and, I hope a mutually enriching afternoon.