Category: HRD

Self-serving bias is a situation wherein, the failures in an organization are credited to external factors rather than focusing on the failures in the organization itself. It is a complex caused mainly because of self-esteem, in a bid to protect or enhance it. This situation is psychological in nature and if left unattended can cause severe harm to your business. There are motivational and cognitive processes that affect self-serving bias. The factors and variables causing self-serving bias are: 1.  Motivation There are two types of motivation: self-enhancement and self-presentation. Self-enhancement upholds own self-worth and credits successes internally and failures externally, whereas self-presentation is an act done to manage impressions. Self-serving bias caused by self-enhancement can be conveyed to the uninitiated via this analogy: If in a school, a kid’s performance becomes considerably low or poor, such as the kid failing in a number of subjects, the doting parents put the blame on the school’s administration or facilities by branding them ill-equipped. They refuse to believe that their child lacks cognitive abilities, which in most cases, is the right direction to put their efforts in, in order to make the most out of their school’s services and resources. Instead, they keep changing the schools in the hope of their child excelling in studies and the real problem hampering the intellectual development of their child is left unattended. This is a cause for grave concern and it compromises on the holistic development of the child too. 2.  Locus of control- There are external and internal loci of control. In internal locus of control, individuals believe that they have complete personal control over situations and that their actions matter. Those with an external locus of control believe that outside forces, chance and luck determine the outcome and they don’t have a say in anything. The best example of self-serving bias caused by internal locus of control is the one that follows: The US Government is the best example of how an administration exhibiting signs of believing too much in its staff and turning a blind eye to the areas that need improvement and attention, can affect the end result. This also showcased the perils of underestimation. The US military establishment made nearly a score and a half attempts to assassinate the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, but never succeeded in this operation. This happened as the administration developed a kind of complication by overtly and profusely justifying itself in overthrowing the leadership in Cuba. They were led to believe that they were fighting the bad guys and were blinded too much to keep an eye on the areas that needed improvement and were lacking. They underestimated the military capabilities of Cuba and were running in blind to attack them. This was a result of the above mentioned complex of profusely justifying itself. This operation left an irreparable dent on the reputation of the establishment and a lot of lessons to be learnt from the glaring mistakes. It still is used as a case study of what not to be done in the successful management of a large company. As they failed miserably in a number of attempts, this example is of utmost importance to your deemed business, in your quest for the right prerequisites for success. How companies can be affected by self-serving bias? Self-serving bias needs to be avoided in order to make way for the success of your deemed business, as the imperfections within your business are overlooked and this surely poses great risks to your business. Companies adhering to this bias can result in sluggish growth or arrested development in their success graph, which if avoided, can keep it from posting great losses to their businesses, which otherwise, can exhibit promising growth. Clearly, this is detrimental to the growth of your business and is worth every bit of your money to be looked into. After all, the huge capital that you have invested in your business is very dear to you and you should strive very hard in order to achieve the goal of making your business a success. A prosperous business is worth every bit of your penny and the tireless efforts you have reined in to make it a successful one should be brought to fruition.

While working in Sydney as a Software Developer about 12 years ago, I came across Yoga and stress management techniques. Getting exposed to those techniques was a life changing experience for me. Yoga benefited me physically, mentally and emotionally, which created a lot of difference in my personal and professional life. Stress is quite a common thing for all of us who are a part of the corporate sector. This silent killer, if not controlled at proper time, can lead to depression and other physical ailments like acidity, diabetes, hypertension, heart and skin diseases and etc. Eliminating the causes of stress is an impossible thing to do. The more we try to avoid the factors, the more frustrated we become and hence, increase our stress level further. So, let’s learn how to immune ourselves to these situations and environment to control stress; and Yoga is very good at managing stress. However, there are certain other effective stress management techniques as well. Let me discuss one by one: Yoga After getting benefited, I got more and more involved in Yoga and learned different forms of Yoga like Therapeutic Yoga at the World Yoga Society. I feel Yoga and stress management techniques help me perform my job role better. Let me explain how. Yoga considerably boosts my confidence and brings clarity in identifying what I want from my personal as well as professional life. Think about those situations where we, as managers, need to decide on some critical issues. We often tend to lose patience while doing so. Practising Yoga has helped me keep myself relaxed even in the most stressful situations which in turn helped me immensely in taking correct decisions. Doing Yoga regularly resulted in the clarification of my thought process. Now, with improvised problem solving ability, I can analyze problems from different perspectives and solve them in a better manner. Learning Yoga helped me connect more with my team members at a deeper level. As a result, I could build the element of mutual trust with my team members. After all, corporate sector necessitates building a good team and creating an excellent work environment. This makes the team members feel more relaxed and perform well. Now, our busy schedule often doesn’t allow us to join Yoga classes. No worries! We can always try few basic techniques on our own. Changing behavioural pattern Making minor adjustments to our behavioural pattern can actually help us get rid of about 70 to 80% of our daily stress. All what we need to do is learn how to flush the stress out of our body, and most importantly, our mind. Slow and deep breathing It’s so simple; all what it necessitates is inhaling through nostrils in the count of 5 and exhaling out through the same in the count of 5. Progressive muscular relaxation PMR (Progressive Muscular Relaxation) technique is great at reducing overall body tension. To know more about different stress busters, feel free to get in touch with me. I would be happy to help you manage your stress in a positive manner. =============================================================================== This Article is part of the employee experience sharing & content contribution initiative for Indus Net Technologies’ Blog site Content Credit : Amit Kumar Shaha =============================================================================== Looking for a comprehensive guide on Workplace Stress Management? Download this FREE eBook authored by Indus Net Technologies.

I have mostly been on the “hiring” side of the table. Based on that experience, I am listing down few career tips – mostly around soft skills. Again, the tips are directed towards professionals in IT industry, but it should be applicable in every industry with some modifications. I am happy to hear (or read) your perspective and learn from the same. 1 Pace out your career! There is no rush. You do not need to achieve the pinnacle of your career by the age of 30. It is not important to simply scale the peak. The journey is more important than the destination. It is equally important to stay put or at least climb down gracefully when your capabilities are not in line with the ever changing and growing demand of your professional career. It is okay to push yourself and improve your capacity and capability in a sustainable way. But do not be reckless. 2 What is your ROI? Think over it. Calculate it. Ensure that you calculate it before your boss does. Are you able to deliver what is expected at your level? You can only grow if your value proposition is high, distinct and visible. Set clear and high goals and milestones. Make sure that you only work with a company that has alignment with your personal goals. Align your goals with your organization’s. Take help from your management team to do so. Without clear ROI, you can never have a satisfying and rewarding career. 3 Stay well oiled If your job is to carry heavy machinery on your shoulder, make sure that you exercise and keep your body in top shape. If your job is to write software code, ensure that you exercise your brain. You can do so by learning new technologies (with self initiative), having intellectual discussions around your subject to add to your knowledge. Observe how people make decisions, ask questions, understand the decision making processes – this will make you sharper and valuable. 4 Love your work Do not take up a profession that you do not LOVE. If you do not love unearthing accounting frauds, do not get into Audit as a profession. If you do not like writing software, do not get into a programming job. It will be an ordeal – for you and your employer. If you are doing so – change it today. It is said “Do what you love, and you will never have to work ever”. 5 Work for excellence You must be proud of your work. Not for the sake of it, but because you are confident that your work is best in its class. It needs a lot of passion, hard work and self criticism to achieve this. To be excellent, you need to have laser sharp focus – to learn, to observe and to absorb from your peers and ones who have excelled. 6 Love your company Yeah, I know – its being idealistic. But, honestly if you do not respect your organization, you should not belong there. It is important to have a feeling of ownership, a sense of mission and a state of belongingness to be able to achieve and deliver. Every organization (and people) will have their strength and weakness. We need to understand, adjust and improve them ,if we can. Criticizing them wont help anyone. If the weaknesses far out-weights the strengths, and you cannot love your organization, its time to move on. But, as long you are associated, there has to be 100% commitment. 7 Surround yourself with good people In every organization you will find different kind of people. It depends upon you, whom you choose to spend your time. Spending time with the right people will help you acquire the desired skills (soft and hard) that you need to achieve your goals. Indulge in healthy debates and discussions. Avoid smalltalk and gossips. Remain positive. Have your own perspective that you must derive from your own logical thinking instead of simply adopting conclusions from people around you. Share your opinion and thoughts – not only with your colleagues, but also with your seniors and take feedback. Keep your mind open. Every coin / thought has two (or more) aspects. 8 Create value for clients You work for a company, but your salary bills are paid by the clients that the company has. Think about them. Benefit them with your skills. I call it top-down value creation. If the client benefits, your company benefits. If your company benefits, you have better ROI (see point #2). And if you have clear ROI, you move up the chain. 9 Let go the ego The higher you need to rise, you need to shed the weight of your ego. Some learn it the difficult way, and some adopts humility as the way of life. The higher you move, the more you need to get things done from your team members AND the more you need to align up with clients. If you want to take them along, you need to respect their ego more than yours. 10 Ethics – the real #1 My definition of morals and ethics is: Do to others as you would have them do to you.(Luke 6:31).  I have seen many people justify their acts as “ethical” and “legal” because that benefit them. But the best way to judge that is – will you like your friend to do it to you? or will you like your employee do it to you? This is the real #1 tip! Remember: The journey is more important than the destination. I am sure you all know of 100 more tips and feel free to add to this list..