Today I received a call from a car salesperson. I decided to play along. Sometimes salespeople are looking for a small break. Something to give them hope of a better tomorrow. Your words may make or break their careers. We need to learn to be diplomatic in the way we reject offers. As a consultant, I am a salesperson. When I write a proposal and fail to get a response, I feel bad. However, when the prospect calls or writes back explaining why your proposal was not successful this time, it shows professional courtesy but we improve a lot from…

Your last impression is as important as your first.  The two critical questions you must expect are a) Tell us about yourself, and b) Do you have any question or questions for the interview panel? I help many candidates prepare for executive panel job interviews. During my experience on the Interview panel, candidates who fail the two questions are generally ranked poorly. In these Coronavirus times, many executives are conducting virtual interviews. You must avoid the temptation to read your answers off the screen as you appear unnatural with poor delivery. Great answers speak to the heart other than the…

Any enthusiast of the game of Chess understands the power of the queen. And indeed, in the real world, women have too much power which many rarely recognize and optimize. When it comes to organizational transformation through change, Marshak suggests four key ideas – which I have called the queens of change. Fix and maintain Move and relocate Build and develop Liberate and recreate Fix and maintain. When a car part breaks down, you examine the options. Can the part be fixed and maintained to continue performing or it is beyond repair? Any car part beyond repair is replaced! Take…

If you want to enjoy beautiful scenarios, see people enjoying life, go to the beach. The waterfront has a way of calming nerves, relieving stress, and freeing up one’s mind to think. One of the great stories by the clever Paulo Coelho is about the fisherman and the businessman. It is a story about what success is. Below goes the story: “There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach. As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite a few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the…

Freedom of speech is like regular exercises, good feeding, and regular health checks, if people do not have it, they die slowly. There is a thin line between speech that causes a clear and present danger to the national security and society and the one that does not. Because it is more harmful to suppress freedom of expression — laws and courts generally promote rather than curtail it. One of the interesting case references is  here Clarence BRANDENBURG, Appellant, v. State of OHIO, where “in 1969, the court declared that even inflammatory speech, such as racist language by a leader…

What is the cost to the Ugandan economy for just an hour of Internet shutdown? In my company, it is proving catastrophic. The government should come in to help us settle the ever-increasing losses, costs, and legal cases because of the Internet shutdown, which caused on-line service outages. Many providers of online services are experiencing penalties for failure to fulfill service level agreements (SLAs). And others have lost business to competitors. In this virtual working economy, our business models are cooked every time the Internet connection becomes unstable! In case of unstable Internet connectivity, we must restore services within at…