HR Strange:- Glancing with the Stars

Ever wondered what celebrities' passport photos look like? Do the celebrities look as good as they do in magazines and on the movie screen? Well, one employee of the U.S. Department of State must have been curious, because he accessed passport records for hundreds of famous people. Now Lawrence Yontz, 48, of Arlington, Virginia, is facing 1 year in prison for his curiosity.

The now-former State Department employee recently pleaded guilty to illegally accessing hundreds of confidential passport application files.

The Department of Justice said the list of about 200 individuals' files Yontz accessed included those of celebrities, athletes, actors, politicians, musicians, game show contestants (huh?), members of the media corps, prominent business professionals, colleagues, and neighbors.

When questioned, Yontz admitted that he had no official government reason to access and view these passport applications, and that his sole purpose in accessing and viewing these passport applications was idle curiosity, the Justice Department said.

Yontz was a contract employee working as an intelligence analyst within the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The position gave him access to official State Department computer databases, including the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS), which contains all imaged passport applications dating back to 1994.

At sentencing, Yontz faces a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Thanks to BLR

HR Humor:- Some Logical Thoughts

Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
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To Err is human; to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.
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The road to success? Is always under construction.
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In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.
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All the desirable things in life are illegal, expensive, or fattening.

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Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak.

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Everyone has a scheme of getting rich? This never works.
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If at first you don't succeed? Destroy all evidence that you ever tried.
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You can never determine which side of the bread to butter. If it falls down, it will always land on the buttered side.
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Anything dropped on the floor will roll over to the most inaccessible corner.
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***** 42.7% of all statistics is made on the spot. *****
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As soon as you mention something? If it is good, it is taken. If it is bad, it happens.
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He, who has the gold, makes the rules ---- Murphy's golden rule.
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If you come early, the bus is late. If you come late? The bus is still late.
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Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold somewhere else at a cheaper rate.
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When in a queue, the other line always moves faster and the person in front of you will always have the most complex of transactions.
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If you have paper, you don't have a pen. If you have a pen, you don't have paper. If you have both, no one calls.
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Especially for Engineering Students----
If you have bunked the class, the professor has taken attendance.
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You will pick up maximum wrong numbers when on roaming.
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The doorbell or your mobile will always ring when you are in the bathroom.
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After a long wait for bus no.20, two 20 number buses will always pull in together and the bus which you get in will be crowded than the other.
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If your exam is tomorrow, there will be a power cut tonight.
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Irrespective of the direction of the wind, the smoke from the cigarette will always tend to go to the non-smoker.

HR Listening:- 6 Ways To Be A Great Listener

Here are 6 basic listening tips from U.S. News & World Report columnist Michael Wade:

1. Listen for a theme. Rather than getting distracted by trivia, listen for the main message. It may be hidden amid unrelated facts but your job is to determine what the person is trying to say.
   
2. Recognize that the speaker might not know the real message. Some powerful expressions of pain or frustration may be wrapped in clichés. Listen for hesitations, anger, and fear, and watch for nonverbal signs of each.
   
3. Look through a window, not a mirror. Don't assume that the person means what you would have meant under similar circumstances.
   
4. Subdue your ego. Stop thinking about how wise you look, the eloquence of your reply, or whether the speaker is indirectly talking about you. Each time you do that, you've stopped listening.
   
5. Really listen with your whole body. Let your body language declare, "I'm paying close attention to you." If it isn't, you can count on the person giving a condensed message in order to bring the conversation to a close.
   
6. Use an old investigator's trick. If the speaker is describing an event, sit tight and don't interrupt. When you seek further details, go over the story in reverse chronological order. By reversing the order of recollection, you'll jar the person's memory and get more information.

    

HR Humor:- One liners - Definations

1. Cigarette: A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.

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2. Love Affairs: Something like cricket where one-day internationals are more popular than a 5 day test match.

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3. Marriage: It's an agreement in which the man loses his bachelor's degree and the woman gains her master's.

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4. Divorce: Future tense of marriage.

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5. Lecture: An art of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through 'the minds of either'.

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6. Conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.

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7. Compromise: The art of dividing a cake in? Such a way that everybody believes, she got the biggest piece.

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8. Tears: The hydraulic force by which the masculine will-power is defeated by feminine water-power.

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9. Dictionary: A place where divorce comes before marriage and success before work.

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10. Conference Room: A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everyone disagrees later on.

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11. Ecstasy: A feeling when you feel you are going to feel a feeling you have never felt before.

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12. Classic: A book which people praise but do not read.

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13. Smile: A curve that can set a lot of things straight.

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14. Office: A place where you can relax from the strenuous home life.

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15. Yawn: The only time some married men get to open their mouth.

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16. Etc. : A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.

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17. Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.

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18. Experience: The name men give to their mistakes.

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19. Atom Bomb: An invention to end all inventions.

HR Leadership:- Low-Confidence Leadership

You're not sure what it is—maybe it's that what they've told you would happen hasn't come true for about the 10th time, or maybe it's just their poor choice of ties and accessories—but, whatever it is, you and your workforce don't have faith in your leaders. You're not alone. Confidence in leaders is at a 10-year-low, according to the 2008-2009 Global Leadership Forecast, a bi-annual study conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resource consulting firm. Here's what DDI has noted about the way many of you feel about your company's leadership:

• Since 1999, when the Leadership Forecast first measured organizations' perceptions of their leaders, HR confidence in leaders has declined steadily, with only 35 percent citing high confidence in the most recent survey. "This deterioration of confidence is a sign leaders aren't meeting the needs of the organization." says Rich Wellins, senior vice president at DDI. "Business leaders need to take note of this if they want to grow their organization."

• Leaders are Dissatisfied with their Development. Two out of five leaders don't feel they're getting the development they need, which is a key obstacle to leadership confidence. Leaders want more opportunities to learn on the job, but senior management seldom takes responsibility for making this happen. "Great leadership doesn't happen by accident," says Wellins. "Organizations need to start listening to their leaders and make the right development investments if they want different results than they're getting now."

• CEOs Aren't Sending the Right Messages to Leaders. Innovation and global acumen represent two large gaps in leaders' and CEOs' priorities, according to research from the Global Leadership Forecast and a recent DDI/Economist Intelligence Unit study. Leaders don't feel they're respected for innovation or the ability to work across cultures—while CEOs rated these high on their list of what is needed. "The message isn't clear if CEOs think these are the traits they need in the next five years, but leaders don't think these are respected," says Wellins. "Leaders are focused on the bottom line because that is the message they are hearing loud and clear."

• The U.S. Lags Behind Most of the World In Succession Planning. Globally, only half of organizations have succession plans for their leadership team, and U.S. organizations were lower than the global sample. "This is scary, considering the high rate of retirements we're expecting over the next 5 to 10 years," Wellins says. "Organizations will have empty seats in key leadership roles if they don't begin planning for their future leadership."

• Leaders Who Cross Borders are Unprepared. As organizations expand their global footprint, 20 percent of all leaders have some multinational responsibilities. But these leaders are ill-prepared for the roles ahead of them, as three in five multinational leaders consider their development for this role poor or fair. "We're sending leaders into key roles in rapidly growing industries and geographies without the tools they need," Wellins says. "They're facing new cultures and ambiguous environments without much preparation."

Thanks to Inside Training Newsletter

HR - Conflict Management:- Dealing with Difficult People!

Who are the "difficult people" in your life? You may have noticed that your "difficult person" is not the same as your neighbor's "difficult person." In other words, you may be irritated, annoyed, and frustrated by the actions of certain individuals. Yet these same individuals may not irritate others the same way.

 

Why? The secret here is conflict management styles. Conflict management styles are the way we approach or deal with tension, disagreement, and differences. You have a certain approach. So does everyone else. They're just not all the same approach. When your style clashes with another persons' style, differences are intensified. Frequently, you will find that certain people seem to be "difficult" because their conflict management styles collide with your own.

 

We all have a most preferred conflict management style and a least preferred conflict management style. So let's say, for example, your conflict management style is Owl (you're the one who wants to discuss and analyze everything) and your least preferred conflict management style is Ostrich (who wants to ignore the whole thing and get away from any tense or hostile situation as quickly as possible). Chances are that you'll find Ostriches to be the most difficult kind of people to deal with.

 

If you're an Ostrich (you want to ignore conflict and pretend it doesn't exist) and your least preferred conflict management style is Woodpecker (who insists on their way and will not back down) you will probably find Woodpeckers to be your "difficult" people.

 

The reason this is true is simple – it is much easier to understand people who operate the same way we do. If someone tends to deal with conflict in a way that is completely unlike what we would do, we find their behavior irritating, annoying, even irrational.

 

And, when it comes to dealing with these people we don't know what to do. We know how we'd like to be dealt with, how we would prefer to handle the situation. But, because of the differences, these people don't respond in the same way, they don't appreciate our approach, they may not even understand what we're trying to do.

 

When you find yourself dealing with a difficult person, here are a few things to consider:

1. What is it about this person that irritates you? The more you can identify particular behaviors or events that you find annoying, the more you will understand your own triggers or "buttons", and the better equipped you will be to avoid potentially frustrating or difficult situations.

2. Focus on the behavior rather than the person. If you're having a hard time identifying particular difficult behaviors because, as far as you're concerned, everything about that other person is difficult, you are escalating the situation to a point where it will become nearly impossible to address in any constructive way. If, however, you identify particular behaviors or events that are irritating, you are more likely to be able to talk to the other person, tell them what is bothering you, and find a solution.

3. Be curious. Why is the other person doing what they're doing? Chances are, they aren't being difficult on purpose. So what are they trying to accomplish with their behavior? When it comes to behavior, people tend to follow certain behavioral patterns out of habit and because it works for them. And, so long as it works and no one complains, why would they change? In our experience, 9 times out of 10 the "difficult" person has never been told that others find them difficult, so they've never had reason to change their behavior.

4. Consider your own approach. How can you adjust your behavior to change the patterns of your interactions with the other person? Yes, the other person may be the "difficult" one, and you're the reasonable one, but you only have control over your own actions, not theirs, and you're the one that is getting annoyed.

Motivational:- "Needing Each Other"

Have you had the desire to isolate yourself recently? As conflicts arise in the workplace and remain unresolved, we may become convinced that we could work better alone. At times, we may also become convinced that we do not need others in our lives. The following story demonstrates why the exact opposite is true.

A boy was extended an invitation to visit his uncle who was a lumberjack up in the Northwest... His uncle met him at the depot. As the two pursued their way to the lumber camp, the boy was impressed by the enormous size of the trees on every hand. There was a gigantic tree, which he observed standing all alone on top of a small hill. The boy, full of awe, called out excitedly, "Uncle George, look at that big tree! It will make a lot of good lumber, won't it?"

Uncle George slowly shook his head, then replied, "No, son, that tree will not make a lot of good lumber. It might make a lot of lumber, but not a lot of good lumber. When a tree grows off by itself, too many branches grow on it. Those branches produce knots when the tree is cut into lumber. The best lumber comes when they grow together in groves. The trees also grow taller and straighter when they grow together." It is so with people. We become better individuals, more useful timber, when we grow together.    Author unknown

It takes more than one tree to make a forest. When there is a storm, the surrounding trees share the punishing winds, rains, and snow, sometimes affording protection to the trees in the middle. Such is the case with the people with whom we work and live. Their presence can help us grow tall and strong as we grow personally and spiritually.

While there is beauty in the many branches that a solitary tree may spawn, the knotholes may weaken the fiber of the tree just as isolating ourselves from others may weaken us.

Affirmation for the Week:
"I stand tall and strong, secure in the knowledge that the presence of other trees around me makes me even stronge"

By Mary Rau-Foster