Hard Working or Smart Working

This posting is the result of my presently ongoing utter lack of ideas and phlegmatic lethargy of what to write. Please dont read, its an article for my company magazine and is really boring.

The combination. What’s the point in always toiling hard day and night to rediscover things when you could have spent a little time to look for better available solutions and reused them? And what’s the point in always trying to work smart and evade the real implementation of the fertile resource you have been gifted with - called brains - and getting no self satisfaction at all? What the point actually is - like all things in life, there is a trade off here as well, and one needs to strike the right balance between hard and smart working – because ultimately we are working to live a certain standard of life we have chosen for ourselves, and to derive a sense of achievement and contentment from our work.

Let us consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to comprehend this further. According to this theory, human needs can be arranged in a pyramid as shown in the picture below.

The first four layers of the pyramid represent basic human needs and are called "deficiency needs" - an individual does not feel anything if they are met, but feels anxious if they are not. Needs beyond these four are "growth needs" - when fulfilled, they do not go away; rather, they motivate further. As and when a person keeps fulfilling the deficiency needs, starting with the physiological needs like food and shelter, (s)he keeps progressing to the upper tiers, ultimate goal being transcendence, at which people become aware of not only their own fullest potential, but the fullest potential of human beings at large.

The theory when applied to work indicates that smart working can help us achieve the deficiency needs speedily (to satisfy our anxiety). However, if one keeps working smart without putting much sweat and toil, his/her personal-professional growth would remain limited to the lower tiers. As far as the upper tiers of the growth needs are concerned, hard working is the only option (to understand and appreciate our true potential and caliber).

Hence, it is clearly evident that the optimal mix of these two working techniques can surely lead us to achieve success, and also help understand the meaning and significance of life. In media mogul Ted Tuner’s words, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."

Does cross-cultural communication training make better expatriate workforce?

Cross cultural communication training has become a must in today's business environment. The world is fast becoming a global village and to survive in such scenarios requires us to acquire as much knowledge about others as possible. Cross-cultural mistakes can lead to unnecessary hard feelings and may involve huge costs. Moreover, we cannot live in a secluded environment away from other peoples and their practices.

The contact between business people from other countries is becoming more frequent day by day. The more national boundaries a company crosses, the greater the scope for misunderstanding and conflict. To succeed internationally, it is essential to be able to break the barriers of culture and language. The importance of cross cultural communication training becomes more pronounced in the onsite-offshore business model, which is a very common practice not only in our company, but in the entire IT industry today. We have to interact with people from completely different, or rather, diametrically opposite realm of society, almost on daily basis. Their way of expressing themselves formally or in small talks, their gestures, etc may leave us in many an embarrassing situation if we remain ignorant of their background and behavior. People from different countries or even different states have their own idea of sense of humor, of societal norms, of work habits; and being a part of a global team, we need to know, understand and respect them.

Cultural impacts include difference in self, personal and social responsibility, regional politics, religion, manners and etiquette, gift giving protocols and the list goes on. Cross cultural training helps us realize all these diversities which in turn are useful in building our credibility with the clients, and avoiding misunderstandings. One thing that is very much acceptable in one culture may be considered extremely avoidable in the other. Lack of proper training may lead to total chaos if such situations arise. Not only verbal, but physical communication, i.e. body language can be totally different in different cultures. Understanding the exact meanings of such behavior definitely aids in effectively understanding client needs and also in conveying our thoughts to the other party.

So, all in all, in order to understand the norms of designated cultures, build good friendly relationships, communicate effectively with foreign colleagues and to successfully apply cultural protocols in business situations; cross cultural training is a must and indeed helps in making a better expatriate workforce.