Act Your Dream

I have been quite intrigued by how some people are able to achieve success in life while others pursuing the same goal under similar circumstances are not. It becomes more interesting when both groups of people have similar potential to achieve success. A couple of months back, I decided to look at the whole cause and effect pandemonium in light of the control system theory. I figured we are like electronic devices with our own built-in closed circuits taking input and producing output. Think of us as amplifiers or oscillators if you will. The output we produce is directly or inversely proportionate to the input. For instance, if you reprimand a child for doing something undesirable, he would either stop or stay on doing it with greater zeal and vigour. One way or the other, our influence will impact his action. This is the simple cause and effect relationship where the output depends on the input. We see it all around us, all the time. Now let’s get a bit more creative and thi...

When I read the news this morning about the 17-year-old activist from Pakistan,  Malala Yousafzai  winning the ultra-prestigious  Nobel Peace Prize , I couldn't but recall the hundreds of nauseatingly clichéd discussions I read and heard as a student on whether leadership is inborn or acquired. What constitutes true nature of leadership? I wondered why it is that people coming right out of a leadership training would hardly ever have a coherent definition of leadership? None of them seem to agree on one definition. Despite decades of research, we have never quite laid to rest the question of whether it is inborn or acquired. As a student, I couldn't care less about that question; all I knew was that leadership is an attitude. Whether you are a good leader or not has hardly anything to do with your genetics and everything to do with the attitudes you develop along the way. Bear with me on that thought! Inborn or Acquired When you see so many examples of indivi...

I had the distinct honour of presenting the "2014 Employer of Distinction Award" to CIBC on behalf of the management and board of directors of ACCES Employment in ACCES’ 28 th Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2014. The event was attended by Hon. Michael Chan, Minister of Immigration, Citizenship and International Trade for the province of Ontario as the guest of honour, senior executives and board members of ACCES, as well as by members of the sponsoring organizations, prominent government institutions and the community at large. ACCES is a non-profit agency supported by the United Way. ACCES is a leader in connecting employers with qualified job seekers from diverse backgrounds who are primarily newcomers to Canada.  CIBC received this award for over 50 ACCES-sourced hirings through events such as ACCES Speed Networking and occupation specific programs like the Financial Services Connections Program. ACCES is an excellent example of an organizat...

I spoke as part of the "Sales, Marketing and Communications" sector hub in the 11th Internationally Educated Professionals (IEP) Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto on Friday, April 11, 2014, attended by over 800 delegates. Please refer to the conference report for details. The focus of the IEP Conference is to bring IEPs from the five diverse sectors together with stakeholders to get career advice, discuss labour market information, and provide an orientation to Canadian job search practices and workplace culture. Conference stakeholders include: government, business professionals, educators, professional associations, regulatory, accreditation and credentialing bodies, and community-based organizations. The theme of this year’s IEP Conference was innovation, collaboration and cultural intelligence, building on the new IEP Conference format introduced last year. As always, networking is one of the pillars of the conference and the need f...