Body Language: An Important Communication Tool

Body Language: An Important Communication Tool

(Adapted from an unknown source)

"The art of communication is the language of leadership."

Body language can make a big difference in your people skills, attractiveness and general mood. It is important for one to understand the etiquettes of using body language as it may be interpreted in several ways by the significant other.

Here are a few tips on how effective body language:

DO NOT CROSS YOUR ARMS

You must have read or heard earlier too that you should never cross your arms when at an interview or when communicating with seniors. Crossing arms are interpreted as being defensive or guarded. Keep your arms open.

HAVE EYE CONTACT, BUT DO NOT STARE

If you are among a group of people, you must try maintaining eye contact with them to create a better connection and see if they are listening. Staring or keeping too much of eye contact while communicating might creep people out. On the other hand, having no eye contact might make you seem insecure.

RELAX

When you feel tense it easily winds up as tension in your shoulders. They might move up and forward a bit. Try to relax. Try to loosen up by shaking the shoulders a bit and move them back slightly. Do not slouch, sit up straight. Lean but not too much. If you want to show that you are interested in what is being said and are confident in yourself, just relax and lean back a bit. But do not lean back much. It might give impression of being arrogant. Similarly, don’t lean in too much as it might give an impression of being needy or desperate. While standing, don’t stand too close. Give people their personal space.

NOD EVERY NOW AND THEN

Nod once in a while to signal that you are listening, but don't overdo it.

KEEP YOUR HEAD UP, SMILE AND LAUGH

Don't keep your eyes on the ground, it might make you seem insecure and a bit lost. Keep your head up straight and your eyes towards the horizon. Lighten up, don't take yourself too seriously. Relax a bit, smile and laugh when someone says something funny. People will be a lot more inclined to listen to you if you seem to be a positive person. But don't be the first to laugh at your own jokes, it makes you seem nervous and needy. Smile when you are introduced to someone but don't keep a smile plastered on your face, it will give impression of being insecure.

DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR FIDGET

It might make you seem nervous and can be distracting for the listeners or the people in the conversation. Try to avoid showing nervousness such as shaking your leg or tapping your fingers against the table rapidly. You will seem nervous and fidgeting can be a distracting when you try to get something across. Try to relax, slow down and focus your movements. Use your hands more confidently instead. Use your hands to describe something or to add weight to a point you are trying to make. But don't use them too much or it might become distracting.

MIRROR THE IMAGE

Often when you get along with a person, when the two of you get a good connection, you will start to mirror each other unconsciously. To make the connection better you can try a bit of proactive mirroring. If he leans forward, you might lean forward. If he puts hands in pocket, you might do the same. But don't react instantly and don't mirror every change in body language. Keep a balance.

TRY MAINTAINING A GOOD ATTITUDE

Keep a positive, open and relaxed attitude. How you feel will come through in your body language and can make a major difference.

Take a couple of these body languages into consideration when communicating next time. You will definitely create a positive impact on others leading your way to a successful relation with them.

© The blogger is an independent writer and works with Aga Khan Development Network

The Anatomy of Leading a Successful Life

‘Good things rarely come quick and easy’.

As the lifestyle of human being is becoming increasingly competitive, it is becoming more important for them to accelerate themselves by being open to change, to be willing to learn, to come out of their comfort zone and to adapt.

While at a career counseling session, I recently met one of the participants who was desperate in need of job but was not willing to work at a location not nearby his home; his absolute reason defined as that he has been used to of working near his vicinity as it saves him time that is required for commuting.

There is a well-known Chinese proverb that says that wise adapt themselves to the circumstances. Having a mind-set to be comfortable with one’s own comfort zone fosters an attitude of helplessness, making it harder for them to progress. You can only grow when you step outside your fortress and venture into the wilderness. It is imperative for one to explore out of their discomfort, being adaptable to change and to understand the importance of learning.

Being willing to give up the familiarity of the known and able to adapt the behavior increases the ability to communicate and build relationships with other people.

I would like to present the example of a Chief Operating Officer of the Procter & Gamble Company, who spent much of the past two decades in various overseas postings. In his recent interview, he stated "I did not expect to live outside US for 15 years. The world has changed, so I had to change too. When you look at my biodata, foreign languages are not my best subjects. But when you move out of your culture, you have no option but to learn their culture and their language."

Such kind of willingness to get out of one’s comfort zone and learn continuously without complaining is a way of adapting to the change and definitely marks a key difference between a successful and unsuccessful human being.

© The blogger is an independent writer and works with Aga Khan Development Network

Superman in the Organization

We all have seen people complaining about the workload and the management’s reluctance to hire new staff to manage that workload. So what is the reason behind management’s decision of not hiring new staff? There are many reasons one of which is the presence of an employee who by multitasking and other ways tries to perform all tasks on time. This employee portrays himself as a Superman, and becomes a Cost Saving Agent in the eyes of management. The management, instead of hiring a new employee, which requires more cost, provides him with a handsome amount of raise in his monthly salary, boosting his motivation level and enabling him to work with more enthusiasm.

In the above scenario, nothing seems to be wrong. But if we look at the other side of the picture, we find that unfortunately this is not true. This employee (referred to as Superman) is harming not only himself but the job market and the organization as well in the following ways:

• Eliminating job vacancies. Organizations usually appoint new employees to minimize the greater workload. But in an organization, where an employee does majority of the work all alone, the organization finds no good reason to appoint new staff, and this is where the problem starts. A problem like closing doors for new entrants. In today’s world where the unemployment level is already high, such employees should not be allowed to eat others’ jobs.

• Putting health at risk. For a healthy life, proper sleep is an important factor. An employee performing all tasks single-handedly needs more than office hours to accomplish tasks. Therefore, he has to work after office hours and often skip holidays. Due to such tiring efforts and continuous working he doesn't get at least 6 hours of proper sleep which affects his health and causes depression, stress etc.

• Losing productivity by multitasking. People often say that doing more than one thing at a time makes you less productive. This is almost true especially in the above scenario. In order to complete tasks on time, the employee multitasks which may be harmful because human brain cannot concentrate on more than one task at a time. And this lack of concentration results in errors, which affects the quality of work.

• Behaving rudely with co-workers. It is human nature that he gets irritated if he works constantly for hours. This is why the office timings always accommodate a break of an hour or two so that employees get fresh. Same thing if we put in this employee’s scenario, we see that after working continuously in order to meet unrealistic deadlines, he gets irritated resulting in an indecent behavior with peers, which may call for a disciplinary action against him.

• Jealousy and Demotivation. In recognition of his efforts, management blesses him with a handsome salary increment, increases his perks and benefits or promote him, which creates jealousy among his co-workers. They see him as a ‘flatterer’ who, for the sake of his own benefits, does all these efforts and pleases management, which becomes the reason of their demotivation. It also ignites the fire of professional jealousy within them which sometimes causes the organization to loose skilled and experienced employees.

The Roadmap to the Career of your Dreams...

The Roadmap to the Career of your Dreams

by Raza Abbas

If you could get 01 day or 01 month off from your routine life, what would you do with your time? Did you know that professionals excel when they combine attitude and skills with their personal passions. Sounds like luxury doesn’t it but why not just for a few minutes think about what your dream job is.  Start with yourself first. What do you like to do? What are you personally drawn to?

Based on my global and local experience there are 08 steps to achieve your career passion:

1. Identify your passion or what could be your passion- that’s your nucleus. List down one area that you really enjoy, even if you aren’t paid for it.

2. Identify the kinds of organizations that support your passion- those are your electrons. Aim for at least 05 organizations that cater to your interests.

3. Research what those kind of organizations do.  How do they function, who do they recruit?

4. Deliberate on each kind of organization which feels the best for you. Look at their values, mission statement, leadership team, annual reports, etc. 

5. Expand your existing social and professional network to find people that work in those organizations. If you don’t have one start building it: For example create a profile on Linkedin.com where 120 million professionals are on it! Start a blog, create your Facebook page, or launch your twitter profile. For those of you who are introverts this might seem like a daunting task, but don’t worry there are plenty of tutorials online. You can also get help from a career counselor.

6. When you find some of the people who are a part of these organizations, send them an email, a LinkedIn request or a Facebook message to find out about their reasons for choosing the organizations they are in. 

7. Set up informational interviews with the professionals you‘ve contacted. Make it clear to them that you are not asking for a job interview.

8. Start your job search after your informational interview, not before. Start drafting a plan on how you are going to work on your skills and tailor your expertise so that you can become an ideal candidate for the organization of your choice.

And with these eight steps Excellence begins!  People believe that once they are part of an organization, the passion for their work will just appear; often it’s the other way around. Follow your passion, even if it takes a while, never give up on the pursuit of your dream job. After life is too short for the wrong job.

About the Author: Mr. Raza Abbas, a dual degree graduate from The University of Arizona, USA and trained in Career Counseling from its Career Services Dept is a pioneer in the field of career counseling in Pakistan. This article was first published in the 12th Issue - Print Edition - of the TimeTrax HR Professionals NewsBeat in January 2012.

ATTENTION: Young Pakistani HR Professionals

Thinking of opting for Human Resources Management as a career? Great, but before making this career decision, you need a crash course in the real HR practices prevailing in our local business scenario. All those case studies in your books will now have to take a back seat.

Here's what you need to do to start off as an HR professional:
Intern for at least a month in a two or more different organizations and industries. The more DIVERSE organizations, the better exposure you get. Try observing all the HR functions within these organization to figure out what interests you the most. Get hold of any relevant project/assignment that you can get your hands upon.

Interact with HR people from all levels (from junior management to department heads) and ASK all the questions that come to your mind regarding working in the HR arena, especially their personal experiences.

After getting a little taste of HRM, decide whether you can spend the major remaining portion of your life doing this.

Once you join the league, keep your eyes on the challenges that may come your way from day one. The challenges range from ethical dilemmas, balancing the employer's and employees' interests to MANAGING our own emotional labor. Keep in mind that any entry level position in HR here in Pakistan can pose you with repetitive, clerical/data-entry sort of work. BE PATIENT as this phase will pass out eventually and you will get to do a lot of analysis and decision-making tasks as you gain expertise and exposure.

Acquiring the RIGHT skills and keeping them up-to-date is vital in these times. Your key characteristics & skill-set to be a successful HR professional should include an excellent customer service attitude, a high emotional quotient (EQ), clear ethical values, ability to learn, UNLEARN and re-learn, analytical skills and most importantly a tech-savvy mindset so that you can implement the latest technologies to AUTOMATE HR processes. Always be on the lookout for the latest industry developments that can help your department achieve higher standards.

Welcome to the club!

About the Author: Moqaddas Abbas, an Islamabad based HR Generalist was working in a middle management position in the country's largest R&D organization at the time of first publication of this article in the 11th TimeTrax HR Professionals NewsBeat in December 2011. He has been educated at renowned institutes in three different countries.

Yeah! Little Strokes of Encouragement Can Do Wonders

Keep encouraging your talented workforce. Award and reward them. If some task seems to be challenging to them, stand by their side to get along with it successfully. You must have many employees in your organizations who would shirk to take up a new task no matter how simple it is!

The reason being they are mostly undergoing the fear of the unknown- assuming the outcome to be definitely other way round.

Don't let their fears grow rather help them to add another skill to their professional portfolio. Encourage them to have a start and be there to handle any unexpected issue. Let them experience a new world and explore their talents themselves. Let them get ready for taking the next step towards their professional prosperity and yours too.

Yeah! Motivate them and rise and shine together!

Reviewing Performance - Dos and Donts

Appraisal, performance reviews and employee evaluations are the least favorite of most of the workforce that is on its receiving end. The bosses enjoy the prospect of giving their feedback and/or analysis of your work ethics, behavior, achievements (or lack thereof). What to say? How to hear what they have to say? What to do and what NEVER to attempt? Here’s a run down:

Filling in the Details
The best habit that I observed from one of my ex bosses was to keep a record of all tasks done on Google drive. This practice helped when at the end of the day (or fiscal year), one had to describe the inaccuracies or give justification for non-performance or why a certain task was abandoned or sidelined. OR how you managed to achieve daunting tasks in spite of numerous obstacles. Things happen, POAs change; it’s a dynamic work environment with volatile conditions is economies and commerce globally. Having a routinely updated journal of tasks will be helpful in building a case for your objective appraisal.

Attitude not Aptitude
The attitude of the employee and how he performs his work is more important than the fact that he does achieve his goals or even exceeds them. The behavioral competencies across the board for people matter a lot more than their technical know how. Today, the focus of management and HR is on a well rounded individual with grooming and acumen to move ahead in the corporate world. An exceptional performer, with a lack of tact and candor, needs to stop and take a good look at him before arguing on his performance rating.

The appraisal process now, is not in isolation. It is a 360 degree view from all stakeholders of the firm. Each move you make, each email you send (or don’t), serves as basis for your evaluation. Following up on and completing tasks in a timely fashion is commendable. Even better is doing it all with a can do attitude, persistence and the resilience to bring improvement in your field of

Nope. I don’t!
Most of the evaluations are not very off the mark. Being honest and reflecting on yourself will help you see what your review is all about. If you have a grievance or do not accept your work evaluation, you have the right to contest it. Try discussing with your manager, and if that doesn't work, move up the hierarchy. As a last resort, set up a meeting with your HR and settle matters cordially. No one likes sour grapes, but in the event that you are right, you will be supported by HR as it cant be a one off incident and a bad manager is like a daisy in a mustard field, conspicuous and easily identifiable.