Q: How important is money in evaluating your job?

There is no denying that a supportive boss or warm camaraderie can help boost the morale of employees, but work environment is not the lone factor that keeps people in their current job.

• There are tons of reasons that inspire people to keep on going but the bottom line is money. It is the money that pays the rent, puts food on the table, sends children to school and takes one to new and exciting places.
• In a survey among 3 million expatriates workers in the UAE, 67% is looking for pay rise while 47% might quit the job if promotion is not on the way.
• The superheated job market in the UAE in the recent years (inflated salaries are used to attract talents) gave way to the perception that salary is the determining factor for employee loyalty. However, when the job market cooled off, there are other factors that are impacting employee commitment and loyalty.
• The payoff of providing financial rewards to deserving and qualified staff is still worth the investment for companies.  The pay should be linked to performance and the company should have a transparent performance management system.

Why high caliber talent needs looking after?

• It is five times more expensive to rehire someone and keep them performing than to keep the “star employees” in the team.
• As hiring increases and the ability to attract high-calibre talent becomes more competitive, companies will need to look at their employee offering both in terms of remuneration and career development opportunities.
• Employers should treat their employees as fixed investments. A senior staff member, whom the boss relies to, for example, will lost feel heartbroken when he learned that a newcomer gets the same salary as he is. For him, it was like being treated unfairly and will lost interest in his job.

           

Factors lead to leaving a job

Aside from insufficient salary, there are other factors that compel workers to quit their jobs.

Fact:

Top 5 reasons for UAE Professionals to quit their job

Lack of communication and involvement by top management                51%

Lack of promotion despite good results                                                   47%

Lack of company ‘vision’                                                                          31%

Too lengthy to commute to work                                                             25%

The boss is taking credit for your own work                                            24%

• Irreconcilable differences between a worker and a manager can drive an employee away. Employees will start looking for new opportunities when they aren’t respected in the workplace.
• Company politics, lack of career development and poor leadership and management can also turn off workers.
• During times of economic instability, leadership and communication are king. Poor leadership and management result in no empowerment, direction or motivation for employees. This leads down to breakdown in trust.

Why workers stay loyal?

• Personal growth rank among the top three reasons why workers stay loyal.
• Employees are likely to stay if they feel they are growing and developing in their career. This doesn’t mean a promotion but that they are bettering themselves and their future.
• Other will stay for benefits aside from their salary.

lead or be led...

Here are a few leadership challenges to ponder…

• If you want to lead, where do you start?
  
• Are Leaders born or made?
• What are the leadership skills you need to develop?
• Are you tired of being a follower?

Want to be a leader? Here’s what it takes…

1. Maintain a positive attitude… solution oriented, action oriented, people oriented. Enthusiasm begets success.
2. Embrace change…Change is certain. Followers tend to resist change. It is the mark of a leader to embrace change and take advantage of the opportunity it presents.
3. Deploy courage…Douglas MacArthur said, “Courage is just fear that holds out a little longer.” Good advice. George Patton said, “I don’t take counsel from my fears.’ Good advice. Leaders choose courage.
4. Take a risk…The biggest risk is to never take one. Leaders are determined to win or try again.
5. Listen…Leaders listen to learn. Your prospects know their needs and they know what’s happening on the frontlines of their business. Just listen.
6. Communicate…Leaders set the example for open communication. Use their heads. Say what they feel. Speak from their heart.
7. Delegate and empower…Leaders share responsibility. They don’t dictate, they set examples for others to follow. Leaders encourage growth in others by challenging them to take new responsibility, encouraging them to succeed and supporting them if they fail. Leaders understand that the mistakes are lessons on the way to success.
8. Understand others, yourself and your situations…Leaders understand the importance of an open, inquisitive mind. A constant quest for knowledge brings greater understanding,
9. Commitment… Commitment is the catalyst that makes all the other leadership qualities a reality. Daily rededication to commitment is the difference between leaders and would-be leaders,

Start small. Lead a group or committee. Do whatever is necessary to make it a winner. Do it again until it begins to feel natural. Respect the power of leadership and the power of the people you seek to lead.

finding your peace of mind

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”
After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

A Woman and Her Birthday

Birthdays are time for fun and frolic and remind people that they are growing older.

Celebrate!

1. "Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty."
2. "Thirty five is a very attractive age; London society is full of women who have of their own free choice remained thirty-five for years."
3. "Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened."
4. "Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative."
5. "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
6. "Age is a number and mine is unlisted."
7. "A well-adjusted woman is one who not only knows what she wants for her birthday, but even knows what she's going to exchange it for."
8. "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."
9. "Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair."
10. "As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two."
11. "Thanks to modern medical advances such as antibiotics, nasal spray, and Diet Coke, it has become routine for people in the civilized world to pass the age of 40, sometimes more than once."
12. "When I have a birthday I take the day off. But when my wife has a birthday, she takes a year or two off."
13. "The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left."
14. "Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter."
15. "You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake."
16. "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
17. "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."
18. "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."
19. "A woman has the age she deserves."
20. "Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."
21. "Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act."
22. "Men grow old, pearls grow yellow, there is no cure for it."
23. "Life is one long process of getting tired."
24. "Let us respect gray hairs, especially our own."
25. "Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you have not committed."
26. "When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."
27. "Call this an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are no good at everything."
28. "Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen."
29. "Of late I appear To have reached that stage When people who look old Who are only my age"
30. "I'm sixty years of age. That's 16 Celsius."