Do we really pay attention to #educatingeducators? When I was in school and college, I often wished that someone would educate our educators. I regularly thought about how the same lecture/topic could be made more interesting. That’s part of the reason I gravitated towards the learning and development domain.

I’m glad to see there’s serious thought going into this area now. On #InternationalWomen’sDay, we ran a webinar series for 1500 Women educators from a large Education Technology company. The theme was “Move Up”: helping women break their self-imposed constraints and boundaries, brand themselves more effectively and stand up to be counted.

One of our favorite themes at Shradha HRD: #Womensupportingwomen!!!!!

The feedback for the session came through a rather interesting route. A colleague has a daughter that takes classes with the same company. She logged into her regular session 10 min late and apologized for the delay. Our colleague asked, “You were attending the Move Up program?”. She explained she knew about the program because her company,#ShradhaHRD was conducting the webinar. The educator said, “Maam I just could not leave the session, it was so good” !!!

Comments like this lend more meaning to our work.

Why do 85% Indian Women miss out on raises, promotions? Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook said that women are unlikely to get to CXO level positions. The reason she gave, took my breath away; ITS BECAUSE THEY DON’T ASK FOR IT!!!

Seryl spoke of an interesting incident while she was at college that explained this phenomenon. Sheryl, her friend Carry (research scholar) and her brother (sportsman) took a class on European Intellectual History. The girls read all the books and attended most lectures, while her brother hardly attended any classes and read 1 book. 3 days before the exam he walked upto the 2 ladies and asked for help.

Walking out of the exam, Sheryl and Carry were stressed about the finer points they had left out in the exam and her brother said..”I got top grade”; this is without knowing about the paper !!!!

Research shows that Women systematically underestimate their abilities.

Even in the US, 57% men will negotiate salaries on their first job and only 7% women. This explains to a large extent why women don’t get the salary hikes, the promotions and the designations they deserve.

To all the beautiful talented women I know….Choose your priorities based on your values. All women don’t need to aspire for the top job…but don’t sell yourself short.

Taiwan, Iceland, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark currently have 2 things in common: a woman Head of State & an outstanding response to the pandemic.

1. Angela Merkel-Germany: stood up early & told her countrymen that this was a serious bug that would infect up to 70% of the population.

2. Tsai Ing-wen-Taiwan. In Jan 2020 she introduced 124 measures to block the spread without having to resort to lockdowns

3. Jacinda Ardern-New Zealand: imposed self-isolation on people entering New Zealand, when there were just 6 cases in the whole country&banned foreigners from entering soon after

4. KatrínJakobsdóttir-Iceland: offered free corona virus testing and instituted a thorough tracking system that means they haven’t had to lock down or shut schools.

5. Sanna Marin-Finland: world’s youngest head of state elected. She used social media influencers as key agents in battling the coronavirus crisis.

6. Erna Solberg-Norway: used television to talk directly to children. She held a dedicated press conference & responded to kids’ questions, taking time to explain why it was OK to feel scared.

Women are told to behave more like their male counterparts to be effective leaders. I feel by being authentic & playing to their strength, these women leaders have come out ahead and been trailblazers.

A powerful lesson for us !!!

Why does the last biscuit in the jar make your mouth water? While helping a friend find a house, I witnessed an interesting technique to “close the sale”. On 3 different occasions when my friend showed interest in a house, the real estate agent called her within 2 days & said, “someone else put an offer for the house. If we don’t make an offer now, we might lose it”.

What intrigued me was my friend’s reaction. Each time the real estate agent called, her interest in the aforementioned property went up a couple notches. As an objective bystander, I remained unaffected after the 1st call (I must admit, I was taken in the 1st time too) but it worked on my friend (who was more involved)

All of us fall for the “scarcity syndrome” at some point. When we are deprived of an option, we suddenly deem it more attractive.

1. Children fight over trivial objects viz marbles when they are in short supply

2. At a crowded sale, we buy things that we wouldn’t normally buy because it’s the last set

3. Ask game enthusiasts how much more valuable PS-5 has become because its in short supply

A typical response to scarcity is a lapse in clear thinking!!

The solution:

Assess products &services, only on their price&benefits. Not on if they are fast disappearing

When did you fall for the scarcity syndrome?

Do you think it is important to grieve? I felt grieving kept us chained to the past& could even be self-indulgent at times. A recent conversation gave me a different perspective. A friend lost someone very dear, completely unexpectedly. She was grappling with the emotions of loss, pain, anger & sadness.

Those around her were encouraging her to get back on her feet, telling her she needed to focus on others around her &she must spring back to her normal self.

And she said, “I know my duties, my responsibilities,but the others don’t know what I have lost. I cannot go back to life as though nothing has happened. I need to come to terms with this.”

I view myself as a pragmatic person. My mantra for dealing with pain is to forget the past & focus on the task at hand.

Somewhere during the conversation, a realization dawned; while trying to comfort those closest to us, we tell them to forget what’s happened, focus on the present&move on. The advice is well intentioned but may not be the best way to deal with this situation.

Grieving is part of the healing process. The mind needs to process what’s happened, work through it & then it will automatically move on.

Listening to someone, helping them talk through their feelings, just being there, might be a more effective way to help heal.

What determines the actual price paid during a transaction? The answer might surprise you. Professional negotiators are well aware of the #anchorbias and use it very effectively while negotiating

An experiment…

Students and Professional real estate agents were given the tour of a house and asked to estimate its value. Beforehand, they were given a randomly generated price. The students valued the house, around the price that was initially given to them.

And the professionals???? Did they value the house objectively. No…they followed exactly the same behavior. This is the #anchoreffect at work.

I recall a colleague that was a pro at “dropping anchors”. Before sending out a quote to a client, she always called them beforehand to set the stage. Her conversation normally was along the theme of…”we just completed a similar project for a competitor of yours and the price was XYZ.”

The anchor was dropped and the negotiation started exactly at XYZ price!!!!!

Why do expatriates find #workinginIndia challenging? We recently conducted a learning journey to help a group of senior executives, moving into India, understand the subtle nuances of “India”.

Culture can be likened to an iceberg: what is visible (language, customs,dress..) is the tip of the iceberg. (Attitudes, beliefs, thought process…) is what is beneath the water and not immediately visible.

3 top #challenges that emerged while integrating into the Indian work ecosystem were:

1. Our indirect approach to communication

2. Meetings stretching way beyond the slotted time

3. Our inability to “say no” to those in authority

It was an interesting experience for us…looking at “ourselves” through the eyes of “others” !!!!

#culturalassimilation #Indianculturesensitization #shradhahrd #softskillstraining

Research shows that we apply different standards when we compare men and women. This info graphic shows the bias extends to performance appraisals as well.

What is the #solution?

The #firststep (short-term) is to build awareness around #unconsciousbiases. Most of us are not even aware that we apply different yardsticks while dealing with both genders. Once this insight dawns, we can then work on how to deal with these biases

The #secondstep (medium term)is to put in a structured process for reviewing appraisals. This helps mitigate biases, favoritism etc.

The #thirdstep (long-term) is to create an ecosystem where #diversity in thought is celebrated and encouraged.

If we make a beginning, it will go a long way towards ensuring that both genders are #appraised for the work they do, the value they create and not because they conform to narrow ideas on how men and women should function.

How an organization was able to substantially reduce their #genderbias in their hiring process through a simple cost-effective method

Till the 1970’s, the top five orchestras in the U.S. had fewer than 5% women. By 1997 they were up to 25% and today some of them are well into the 30s.

How did this happen?

A simple change in the procedure…

Candidates are situated on a stage behind a screen to play for a jury that cannot see them. In some orchestras, blind auditions are used just for the preliminary selection while others use it all the way to the end, until a hiring decision is made.

Even when the screen is only used for the preliminary round, it has a powerful impact; researchers have determined that this step alone makes it 50% more likely that a woman will advance to the finals.

It may not always be possible to have a completely gender blind interview. If we think out-of-the-box, towards this objective, we are likely to definitely make an impact!!!!

40 Years of Stanford Research Found That People with This One Quality Are More Likely to Succeed

In the 1960s, a Stanford professor named Walter Mischel conducted the Marshmallow Experiment. It went like this.

Children (aged 4-9) were left in a room with 1 Marshmallow. The researcher said, if they waited 15 minutes, they would receive 2 Marshmallows. The researcher left the children alone in the room for 15 minutes.
Some children waited for 15 minutes to receive the 2 Marshmallows, some did not.

The interesting part of the study came several years later, when these children grew up as adults. The researchers conducted follow up studies for over 40 years and tracked each child’s progress in a number of areas.

The results showed that the children who were willing to delay gratification and waited to receive the second marshmallow ended up having

1.higher academic scores,

2.lower levels of substance abuse,

3.lesser marriages ending in divorce,

4.better responses to stress,

5.more job stability and higher career trajectories

6.generally better scores in a range of other life measures.

Resilience is defined by the ability to remain patient, stay the course & continue working, even

when the going is tough.

Important question to ask ourselves:

1.Are we able to resist the first Marshmallow and reap the rewards of delayed gratification?

2.Do we have the patience to stay the course for the grand prize?

3.Are we resilient to the pressures of instant gratification that will often tempt us?

Taking a cue from #Harsha Bhogle. I was the only girl in my group that actively watched cricket. I went to the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium for my first cricket match when I was 3. I woke up at 4 AM, got ready for school and sat in front of the TV when India won the world series in Australia.

Over the years I have heard Harsha Bhogle’s commentary. After India’s win at Brisbane, I was listening to Harsha again. Something he said, stuck with me and instantly #resonated.

Harsha said “I felt like I was 200 years old and felt the weight of a generation on my shoulders”. I felt like constantly telling the young Indian team “Just Block, Don’t Lose”. The young team did not have any of the baggage that Harsha carried. They had no fear and played without a script. The result was for all of us to see.

#Lesson for me:

As senior managers/leaders, we often impose our views, fears, #mindconditioning on the younger members of the team. The intent is to guide but the result is curtailing natural instincts and enthusiasm.

Youth brings fresh thought, exuberance, enthusiasm that needs to be #channelized, not curtailed.

Hindsight is always 20-20. Are you often left with the feeling: “I had predicted this outcome, I wish the others had listened to me”. You might be a victim of the #hindsightbias.

If we look at the cause of the 2008 crash, several analysts will now say “the reasons were obvious“(in hindsight). However, very few people actually predicted the crash.

Experts claim today that the world was ripe for a #pandemic, given the way we live. NO one that I know of really thought anything like this was likely.

If someone unlikely cleared a set of competitive exams or didn’t clear them; there will be a host of people that will stake claim to the #prediction:

1. “I always knew he would make it” or 

2. “I knew he was a loser”

depending on which way the final outcome went.

This is dangerous. You feel you are a better predictor than you actually are. That can #distortdecision making.

How do we avoid the #hindsightbias?

Keep a diary. Write down which way you feel things are likely to go. Then compare it to the actual outcome!!!!!

Most of us see ourselves as good people without biases. The reality however, is very different. People are good but have biases

Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Which is more probable?

1. Linda is a bank teller.

2. Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.

#AmosTversky & #DanielKahneman in their landmark work in 1983 asked participants to solve this problem. More than 80% participants chose option 2, regardless of whether they were novice, intermediate or expert statisticians, even though the mathematical probability of Linda being both a bank teller and a feminist activist is much lower than the probability of her being a bank teller alone.

This example demonstrates how our brain makes connections where none exist: the #conjunctionfallacy.

We also have an #inherentbias that detailed statements are more likely than general ones.

There has been criticism on this problem. It remains one of the earliest & most well-known examples of the way our brain interprets information, makes connections & deduces things about people.

We automatically assume that technology can’t possibly have biases. Only humans have biases. Let’s examine this proposition.

In 2017 Google announced their speech recognition had a 95% accuracy rate. However, voice-activated searches still carry gender biases.

Meredith Whit taker,director of the AI Now Institute at New York University, noted that voice-recognition tools that rely on AI often don’t recognize higher-pitched voices. These mainly belong to women. The systems are not as well equipped to interact with women as with men.

Research by Rachael Tatman from the University of Washington indicated that Google’s speech recognition is 13% more accurate for men than it is for women.

Why do we see these results?

Tech is very male-dominated. Recent studies found:

             1. 18% of authors at leading AI conferences are women

            2. 80% of AI professors are men, globally.

            3. Women comprise only 15% of AI research staff at Facebook &10% at Google.

Technologies often reflect the gender biases in society& the lack of diversity in the design teams

Designers and software architects have their own biases & these are reflected in the way they create & train the technologies they work on

Source: “Sway” by Pragya Agarwal

Are you a habitual procrastinator? Did you know your brain is designed to help you #procrastinate…its not all your fault?

We often experience time having “run-away”, especially as we approach a deadline. Simultaneously, an internal voice tells us, we had enough time to comfortably finish the task, had we stuck to the plan.

Even though our #rationalmind swears, this is the last time this will happen…the story repeats itself. Why?

#neurosciencestudies have shown, the brain doesn’t like unpleasant tasks. It will take the easier option whenever possible. When faced with such situations, it sends out #painsignals to the body, just like when you are physically injured. This signal persuades you to #procrastinate and put off unpleasant/difficult tasks/

So what is #the solution: make your brain a friend.

How?

#Discipline yourself to take the start difficult tasks. Once the 1st step is completed, the brain stops sending the pain signal. This will ease #internalresistance. Additionally there is a “high” generated after #task completion. This energy helps to complete remainder tasks.

#learning: schedule the most difficult/unpleasant tasks in the morning. Your brain will let you finish the rest as per plan.

What #competencies do organizations look for when #hiringleaders? I recently read an article which quoted statistics based on a survey done across 2500 executives in leadership positions.

70% of leaders surveyed rated collaboration&high #EQ as highly as strategy when hiring leaders for their teams.

Recently a senior executive being considered for the position of a CEO was turned down because he was running late & was very rude to the driver that had come to pick him up for the job interview.

Organizations are increasingly looking for traits like #empathy & # humility. Gone are the days when organizations looked for the Archetype A leader that was aggressive. More than even skills&experience, organizations are looking for leaders that are collaborative, accept their #weaknesses & look to #leveragingteammembers strengths

In the drive to achieve results in the short term, some organizations may overlook senior leaders riding roughshod over the emotions of team members, however this trend definitely changing.

Confirming this trend is the increasing number of programs we conduct on #emotionalintelligence and #collaboration

Slowly the value of controlling one’s emotions, demonstrating #emotionalintelligence & being #empathetic are emerging as competencies that companies prefer in their leaders.

When the 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: #Selfawareness.

The mind is the instrument through which we view the world. Paradoxically, it also stops us from viewing ourselves objectively & discovering our #blindspots.

I came across this #interestinganecdote about David Pottruck, ex-CEO of Charles Schwab. Always a high achiever, David completing his MBA at Wharton, worked with the Citi group & joined Charles Schwab as head of marketing.

An extremely hard worker, David couldn’t understand why his new colleagues resented the long hours he put in & his aggressiveness in pushing for results. It never occurred to him that his level of energy would intimidate &offend other people. In his mind he was trying to help the company.

David was shocked when his boss told him, that his colleagues didn’t #trust him.The#feedback hit him hard. He didn’t see himself as others saw him, as self-serving. On reflection, the feedback resonated as true.

David realized that he couldn’t succeed unless he identified & overcame his blind spots.

It takes tremendous courage&constant effort to increase #selfawareness. It is however the hallmark of a #leader!!!

Some results of the survey conducted by #Fortune surveying 500 CEO’s are shown on this infographic. It throws up some #interestingconclusions and #possibleinsights.

1. Just over 50% felt that #economicactivity will be restored only by Q1 2022

2. Around 50% felt that #businesstravel will never come back to pre-pandemic levels

3. 75% feel the pandemic will accelerate #technologicaltransformation

4. A quarter of CEO’s felt that 90% of the workforce will never come back to their #originalplaceofwork

5. Slightly less than 50% had no #layoffs

6. 50% have agreed to a cut in #compensation

7. One-third felt that #capitalspending would return to 2019 levels by 2021

Our world is currently experiencing unprecedented turmoil, which looks set to continue for the next couple of years.

We often can’t control the external environment, what we can control is the way we respond to the environment, internally.

My personal experiences have shown me, whenever I approach a situation with #hope and #optimism, the external environment mirrors the same!!!!!!!

#shradhahrd #learningandevelopment #softskillstraining

Are we losing the #empathy and #patience to listen and respond? A recent incident which plays out regularly at the workplace got me thinking.

An elderly uncle who is nearing 80 was on a call with the customer care of his bank to change his net banking password. He works on the computer but takes longer than most of us would to perform routine functions.

The process to change the password was a complicated one. The executive online was constantly proddingmy uncle to work faster. He was very politely telling him to be patient. Seeing my uncle getting upset, my daughter took over the operation and completed it.

This incident set me thinking. We see similar situations all around us. How can we #makeit easier?

My learnings from the interaction

1.Recognize there is another perspective beyond your own: The executive had an SLA and wanted to finish the call quickly. It stopped him from viewing the situation objectively

2. Seek to understand, then be understood: If the executive had enquiredabout why the process was slow, he would have been able to deal with the situation better

3.Think about your actions: Our systems are often highly competitive and leave little room for the disadvantaged. We often blindly follow