'Employability Quotient' will decide H1B Visa!

'Ask today as you consider the many choices in your view -

what is the highest and best use

of your talents, skills and abilities?

When you answer that, seize the opportunity

to sharpen those qualities even more sharply

by applying your focused effort'.

- Mary Anne Radmacher

At last the position regarding the US Visa regulation is very clear now. Read the following words carefully.....

'My legislation refocuses the H-1B programme to its original intent - to seek out and find the best and brightest from around the world, and to supplement the US workforce with talented, highly-paid, and highly-skilled workers who help create jobs here in America, not replace them," 

"It offers a market-based solution that gives priority to those companies willing to pay the most. This ensures American employers have access to the talent they need, while removing incentives for companies to undercut American wages and outsource jobs'

Let us understand implications of this regulation. There is no ban on H-1B visa. The new regulation stipulates a price tag of 1.3 l to qualify for the same. Anyone who deserves this price tag will be paid and will still get the employment visa. 

We have to learn some lessons form the recent developments. 

One important lesson is: only those who have the 'employability quotient' and who can 'demand a 1.3 l salary' can claim H-1B status. 'Employment' is different from 'employability' ('employ + ability'). The 'ability' to be 'employed' will decide the visa status and not merely the 'employment' opportunity. 

Notice the words and they have a lot to say regarding career building. One has to qualify if he belongs to the special category of: 'the best and brightest (talent) from around the world, ... to supplement the US workforce with talented, highly-paid, and highly-skilled workers who help create jobs here in America. If the answer is 'yes' he gets the 'employability Visa' of H-1B. 

The new regulation will adversely affect, but not all. It will affect only those who do not have a 'marketable talent and skill' to demand and deserve 1.3 l. The Indian IT professionals who are likely to be most affected should not forget that in India this kind of regulation is already there. The Minimum Wages Act stipulates that the employers should pay a minimum wage to their employees. 

If one understands some simple principles in career planning it will be easy to manage such employment crises: 

• a 'job' is different from 'career'. A 'job' is what others give us to meet their organisational needs; a 'career' is what we make out of our job by adding value to us by acquiring relevant knowledge and skill set which will stand the test of time.
• if one does not add value to himself by acquiring such knowledge and skill, he will not be a human 'resource' but will be a human 'liability' and in times of cost cutting, liabilities will have to give way to assets.
• one has to improve and enhance his worth and the 'price tag' to remain relevant to the changes taking place in the market. Else, he will not be required.
• one has to improve his 'transfer value' and 'replacement cost'. A transfer value is the salary you get while seeking a new employment with a new employer. If you cannot demand more than what you are currently drawing, you run the risk of redundancy. 'Replacement cost' is, if you resign your current job, will your present employer get a cheaper replacement or will it cost him more? One has to increase his transfer value and replacement cost to remain in his current job.

If the above simple principles are kept in mind, no visa rule can upset our career!

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 50 - Your 'Thought Factory'!

You and Your ‘Thought Factory’.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes;

– Mohandas Gandhi

What are you producing in your ‘thought factory’? If your mind is occupied by lofty thoughts, your actions will be noble. If your mind is occupied by petty thoughts, you will end up with doing ordinary things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the ancestor of every action is thought.

You may be sidetracked by some happenings, which are not to your liking or may be someone will hurt your feelings and ego. You may be emotionally hijacked. Someone may irritate you touching your hot buttons. Or, a temporary failure may derail your strategic thinking and inspiration.

Get back to your normal self by saying ‘cancel, cancel’ internally and refocus all your thoughts on your empowering goal. It is something like a road block to your destination. If your destination is exciting, you will find out how to overcome the road block. On the other hand, if your destination is not so exciting, you will use the road block as an excuse to give up your travel! Resolve to bring back all your thoughts on your empowering goal! Fix your goal ten times tougher than your past achievement and notice how your thoughts work wonders for you!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 49 - Benchmark Your Skill Level

Benchmark Your Skill Level

Some people don't like competition because it makes them work harder, better.

– Drew Carey

If you are an instrument player or a racer, will you not compare your instrument or the vehicle with that of your competitors? These are mere external comparisons of the hardware we use to make our living or to pursue our profession and hobby.  

We should also compare and evaluate the basic skill set which we have, in order to be the best in our chosen field. In the era of global competition, anything which is not internationally marketable cannot exist. In order to be internationally competitive, we should have international skill level. If you are a golfer, you should have the skill an international golfer has. If you are a writer, you should have the writing skill, which an international writer has. The same applies if you are a marketing manager or a finance manager.

Today, list three basic skills, which will decide your edge over others in your chosen field. Benchmark your skill with that of the legend and assess the gap. Then chalk out an action plan and strategy to narrow the gap.

Do it sincerely and watch your expertise grow!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

Handicapped? Where? In body or mind?

Disability is a state of mind. In many people is an excuse or an escape mechanism...It gives a reason which will be accepted by others and so you have a reason not to stress yourself. Read the following quote and the video clipping.
NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

Robert Michael Hensel was born with Spina bifida. He is also a Guinness World Records holder for the longest non-stop wheelie in a wheelchair, covering a total distance of 6.178 miles.
• Limitations only go so far.
• Know me for my abilities, not my disability.
• I don't have a dis-ability, I have a different-ability.
• Go ahead and label me, cause labels are made for gifts.
• My disability has opened my eye's to see my true abilities.
• When everyone else says you can't, determination says,"YES YOU CAN."
• There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more
• I have a Disability yes that's true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you.
• As a disabled man, let my life be a reflection of the endless amount of ability that exists in each and everyone of us.
• We, the one's who are challenged, need to be heard. To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has and will continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being.
• It takes an open minded individual to look beyond a disability, and see, that ability has so much more to offer, than the limitations society tries to place upon them. - Robert M. Hensel

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 48 - Fight Procrastination

Fight Procrastination

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.

– Victor Kiam

If there is one most dangerous virus which destroys success in spite of infinite potential and hard work, it is ‘procrastination’. Procrastination is the habit of delaying action on a pending project for no reason at all. It is the mindset of ‘I can, I have to, but I will not do it now’! The other day, one of my friends came to me and said, ‘They said that procrastination is the cause of all my failure. I don’t know what that big word means. I will look it up tomorrow’!

There can be many reasons for your procrastination such as hopelessness, helplessness, unpleasant activities, overwhelming tasks, fear of failure and perfectionism. One way to overcome procrastination is to visualise the consequences of anymore delay. If the task is overwhelming, try breaking it up into small managerial sub-tasks and do one small activity everyday. It may even be a very small activity. Make a public announcement to your friends that you will complete the task, which you have been procrastinating so far, within the next few weeks.

Resolve today to fight procrastination. Do it today and not tomorrow!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 47 - Make Everyday an Exciting Day!

Make Everyday an Exciting Day

I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

– Thomas Carlyle

All of us have a goal. But achievers have a great and ambitious goal, which boosts their mental stamina and energy to work hard. Ensure that every day you have something interesting to do, every week you have a big task to complete, every month you have a big project to complete and every year you have a big goal to achieve!  If the result you have to achieve is something very ordinary, it may not excite your mind and will not drive you to be at your best.

Your mind is very intelligent and will release only such energy, which is required. If the job at hand is simple, it will allow you to engage only to that much effort. An ordinary task will make us to operate from our comfort zone.

Today, before going to bed ask yourself the following simple questions: Did I accomplish something very challenging and difficult? Did I stretch my skill and talents? Did I challenge my faculties in some way to make this day meaningful?

If every day is interesting and exciting, we will end up with an exciting year of accomplishment!
(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 46 : Fine Tune Your Everyday Focus!

The Everyday Focus

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you know that you have only thirty minutes to live, and if you have the time to do only one most important thing, what will you do?

This hypothetical question will make you to invest your time on the most vital activity on hand to the exclusion of anything else. We should cultivate such a focus and priority. Today write down the following question on a sheet of paper, laminate and fix it at a conspicuous place:

‘What is that one thing that I should do every day, which if I do well, will make a tremendous positive difference in my life? Have I done it today?’

Keep reading this question all through the day. Don’t go to sleep unless you’ve answered this question positively.

During a busy day, we may be tempted to fill up our day doing the easiest things and say ‘no time’ for the most important things.  Everyday choose one important critical value adding activity and invest your ‘prime time’ doing that activity.

Follow this principle for one full month and notice what happens to the quality of your life!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 45 - Improve Your ‘Creativity Quotient’

Improve Your ‘Creativity Quotient’.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

– Edward de Bono

These days we hear about Intelligent Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ) etc. Have you thought about ‘Creativity Quotient’?  Lot of researchers and scholars across the world are trying to do some research on this subject. Leave out all those jargons! Are you a creative person? Do you want to be thinking differently?

A few days ago, in one of my ‘IGNITE’ seminars, a participant asked me how to improve his creativity. Here is my answer: Creativity is a function of the Right Side of our brain. We can trigger the Right Hemisphere through ‘Brain Gym’ exercises. Log on to any search engines and you can get simple Brain Gym exercises. Spend 10 to 15 minutes a day doing simple Brain Gym exercises.

Become inquisitive to think creatively. Instead of following a beaten track, ask yourself: ‘why should I not think in this way’? Try to find an alternative solution to simple everyday problems. Read books written by Edward De Bono, who came out with the breakthrough concept called ‘lateral thinking’.

From today, spend at least 45 minutes per day to think differently! Let your creativity sprout and grow!

(From my book '365 Excitement Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 44 : Check Your Personal Integrity Account

Check Your Personal Integrity Account

Rather fall with honor than succeed by fraud.

– Sophocles

A person’s financial creditworthiness is evaluated by analysing his bank account. The more you credit and the less you debit your account, the more will be your creditworthiness. If you are creditworthy, people will respect you.

Similarly, you are also building up your ‘personal integrity account’. Every time you promise something and keep up your promise, your personal integrity account is credited; every time you promise something and you don’t keep up your promise, your personal integrity account is debited. Finally, your credit and debit will be balanced to evaluate your creditworthiness as a person, in terms of integrity.

People evaluate you by what you say and what you do. Check for these following traits in you:

·         Do you over-promise and under deliver?

·         Are you late to appointments?

·         Do you tell lies?

·         Do you fail in your commitments?

The list is only illustrative and not exhaustive. If the answer to such questions is ‘yes’, you run the risk of damaging your personal integrity account and image!

Audit your personal integrity account periodically and take remedial action before it is too late!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 43 - Know Your Unknown Side.

Know Your Unknown Side.

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

– Lao Tzu

There is a difference between an isolated behaviour and a behavioural pattern, which is a style. For example, you may get angry and shout at people. You may say something harsh to people. You need to know whether these are isolated behaviours or it is your nature to get angry and shout at people with harsh words.

Unconsciously you are building your personality and projecting your image. Two American psychologists by name Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham developed a tool called Johari Window. According to their theory, there are areas about ourselves which are not known to us, but known to others. For example, we may not know that we have a pattern of using harsh words and hurt others’ feelings.

Self awareness is an important trait. People may not be comfortable to give you a feedback, which you may not like. From today, spend ten minutes every day to understand you, before you understand others. Check if you have any negative traits spoiling your personality and image. Try to work on one negative trait every month to eliminate the same and watch your pleasant personality grow!

(From my Book '365 Exciting Ways to Live)

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 16: Carry a Book of Learning!

Carry a Book of Learning!

Learning never exhausts the mind.

– Leonardo da Vinci

Some time back I wrote about an idea book, which I suggested that you carry it wherever you go and jot down every idea that pops up in your mind.

How about a ‘learning book’? The other day I met a very important person, who showed me a book in which he writes every day, what new thing he learns on that day.  A learning book registers something you learn every day.

Suppose you miss a flight, write down one new thing you learnt while you went through the tension of missing the flight. If you meet with a minor accident, jot down what you learnt out of that experience. If you mess up something in the office and your boss shouts at you, jot down one learning point.

Once in every month read all the learning points that you’ve registered and you will be stunned at the richness of the experience!

It’s a simple, yet powerful self-improvement plan.

Do it from today! 

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live'

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 42 - Avoid Emotional Hijacking.

Avoid Emotional Hijacking.

The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control their emotions by the application of their reason.

– Marya Mannes

Are you a victim of ‘emotional hijack’?   As human beings, we have our emotions and feelings, which decide our external behaviour. We have basic emotions such as happiness, sorrow, anger, jealousy and irritation. Our mind triggers these emotions and activates the brain to give certain commands to our five senses and we say or do something; we don’t listen to certain things; we ignore certain things; our emotions may make us to ignore the consequences of our actions. We may regret for our actions.  We should ensure that we don’t fall into the emotional traps laid by someone.

Watch for the following in you when your emotions are tickled:

·         How do you respond when you are praised, sometimes much more than what you deserve?

·         How do you feel and what do you do when you don’t receive the praise and appreciation you deserve?

·         How do you respond when someone irritates you and makes you feel angry?

·         What words do you use and how is your facial expression when your negative emotions are tickled?

Resolve not to get emotionally hijacked!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live : Excitement # 41 : Model Your Role Model.

Model Your Role Model.

My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

– Clarence Buddington Kelland

Do you have a role model? You should have someone to benchmark your performance. Every field has its legends. Beethoven, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Walt Disney and Martin Luther King are some legends, who walked this earth. There are living examples like Bill Gates, Viswanathan Anand and Sachin Tendulkar, who are icons in their chosen fields.

You can improve your performance by modelling the mindset of your role model. The more you think about your role model, the more you will unconsciously imbibe his qualities. At the same time, you don’t have to lose your originality. Try the following:

·         Decide your role model and read more and more about him/her.

·         Read their autobiography.

·         Meet them – it may be difficult, but do it.

·         Have their picture in front of your work table and in your bed room. You should look at their picture first in the morning and before going to bed. You should be looking at them as you work through the day.

Notice what happens to your internal personality! Do it from today!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 40 : Concentrate on Your Concentration

Concentrate on Your Concentration.

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.

Serena Williams

We all know that concentration is important. Without focus and concentration, we cannot achieve great things in life. What is even more important is the quality of our concentration. It is something like the component quality. Components, assembled properly, will make a product. But if the product is to be a good product, then the quality of the components should be good.

Try the following parameters to enrich your concentration:

• What is the duration of your uninterrupted concentration? How long can you concentrate on a single subject?
• What is the consistency of your concentration? Can you concentrate on the same subject the same way every day?
• How strong is your concentration? Are you disturbed very easily?
• Do you have a strategy to handle interruptions?
• Can you anticipate the type of interruptions, so that you can handle them tactfully?

The most critical factor, which decides the world-class performance is the quality of concentration. Today, you resolve to improve the quality of your concentration by asking yourself the above questions. 

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000