Showing posts with label 9-Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9-Lessons. Show all posts

Monday, March 03, 2014

The What When Where How and Why of Decisions

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Welcome to another article. This time I'll be talking about “The What, When, Where, How, and Why of Decision Making.”


Decision-making is like a two-pronged fork and it generally involves either being against or for a particular line of thought, idea, or concept.

What?

To give you a little perspective, a decision is something that you make or take when you are given with more than one choices or opportunities. It involves you looking at the pros and the cons of a situation or opportunity and go with either one based on what you have inferred and how you have inferred it. To put it crudely, it basically involves taking sides and being on one side or the other.

When?

Taking a decision generally involves the element of thought and being able to review the pros and the cons. Taking as a decision can happen at any time in your life and as many times as there are choices to be made. Every single day, you are provided with numerous opportunities and situations (be it small or big) where you have to make a decision. There are no set rules as to when you will make or take decisions.

Where?

There are so many opportunities and situations in your life that you make or take decisions consciously or unconsciously. You may even make or take decisions in your sleep. There is no specific place where you can, may, or will take decisions. As there are many stars in the night sky, there are numerous possibilities on the locations where you will take them.

How?

Taking a decision is a thought-provoking process. You have to know both the pros and the cons of your decisions to make a decision. You have to be well versed with the content matter in which you are taking the decision. You apply your mental prowess to the various and numerous thoughts, opportunities, possibilities that are in front of you and choose the best one based on their respective pluses and minuses and go with the one that you feel is the best one. It is basically thinking about what would be the best outcome of your decision and how you would plan on going ahead with it after you have taken it.

Why?

You basically take a decision so as to satisfy the parties to their respective thought processes. It is basically like saying I will be with you or with you for this reason, and this is the reason why I am doing this. You are basically telling them why you have chosen one over the other and why you have done so. It is like giving an explanation to a question.

Conclusion

No matter in what stage in life you are, where you are, how you are, or what you’re you will always have to make decisions that influence you and your surroundings and the ripple effects will go a long way in shaping your life. Whenever you make or take decisions, make sure that you think thoroughly and effectively on how, why, what, where is it that you’re making the decision.

You do not want to be in a situation later, where the decision that you have taken or made comes back to haunt you and you regret making that decision. Always try and look at both sides of the coin and choose whether you want heads or tails.






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[ABOUT: Devesh Prabhu is an avid blogger and has been blogging posts and rants on many subjects through his various blogs. He has been associated with the blogosphere for the past 8/9 years and inadvertently left the blogging scene albeit to concentrate on his personal life, but his desire to be among his readers brought him back.]

[NOTE: The article "The What When Where How and Why of Decisions" first appeared on the "All About Profession Blog."

[DISCLAIMER: All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at anytime and without notice.]

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Learn to Admit Your Mistakes, Errors, and/or Shortcomings

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Many of us are individually guilty of error. We do not like to admit to ourselves our mistakes, errors, shortcomings, or ever admit we have been in the wrong. And because we will not see the truth, we cannot act appropriately.

Someone has said that it is a good exercise to daily admit one painful fact about ourselves to ourselves.

Look for and seek out true information concerning yourself, your problems, other people, or situation, whether it is good news or bad news.

Adopt the motto - “It doesn’t matter who’s right, but what’s right.

Admit your mistakes and errors but don’t cry over them. Correct them and go forward. In dealing with other people try to see the situation from their point of view as well as your own.




VIA EMAIL: Chumma
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Office Politics - to participate or not?

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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors," said the great Greek philosopher Plato. 

One may call it the art of diplomacy, buttering, backbiting, earning brownie points etc. But if you want to survive and excel in this highly competitive and complex corporate world, you can't ignore office politics. However, it's an indisputable truth that office politics is in other words a sacrifice of self esteem and many argues that people involved in this contribute very little to the organization. But there are some simple ways to deal with it to remain unhurt.

  • Be a team player: Being a good team player is attained at the point of realization that the company and the team come before you. Outperforming in a team project lifts your morale, which obviously increases your chances of being promoted. Personal attitude matters a lot here. Not everyone in the team can be your good friends, never a possibility. What counts is your professional maturity of not voicing your difference against another while at work.
  • Be a good observer: There is no excuse if you miss to observe what is happening around you and how things are done in your organization. Observation means involvement too, rather an indirect participation. Here you should try to find out what are the values of the company and how are they enacted? What is the process of decision making? What is the risk tolerance level? You will get an accurate idea about the culture of your organization by finding out the answers for the above questions and thus you can design your style of work in your organization.
  • Be a good communicator: Communication doesn't only mean that you talk and develop a good rapport with everyone around you. Rather, it's how you let everyone know what you have achieved in a con vincible manner. But at the same time, a fallacy of exaggerating your success or taking undeserved credit for your role in teamwork will land you to neck-deep office politics. A good communicator creates friends and a makes even enemies talk good about him - he is the master of diplomacy.
  • Respect all: Respecting your subordinates is as important as your superiors. While you shower your boss with countless salaams and behave with people working under you or co-workers in an autocratic manner with the wrong notion of positional hierarchy, you can never expect respect from anyone. In the heavily complex professional and personal relationship web in an organization, you never know to whom someone might be connected.
  • Manage your own behavior: You got to be calm and cool at times of tensions. Refrain from gossiping, questionable judgments and spreading rumors. Grow beyond interpersonal conflicts. You should never compromise on your integrity. Professionalism and work ethics should be the basis of your actions. Above all, you should be extremely careful when revealing things to others - never blindly rely on confidentiality.





Image source: @freepik

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Difference: C.V,, Resume, & Biodata

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People use the words RESUME, C.V., & BIO-DATA interchangeably for the document highlighting skills, education, & experience that a candidate submits when applying for a job. On the surface level, all the three mean the same. However, there are intricate differences.

RESUME:
Resume Is a French word meaning "summary", and true to the word meaning, signifies a summary of one's employment, education, and other skills, used in applying for a new position. A resume seldom exceeds one side of an A4 sheet, and at the most two sides. They do not list out all the education and qualifications, but only highlight specific skills customized to target the job profile in question.

A resume is usually broken into bullets and written in the third person to appear objective and formal. A good resume starts with a brief Summary of Qualifications, followed by Areas of Strength or Industry Expertise in keywords, followed by Professional Experience in reverse chronological order. Focus is on the most recent experiences, & prior experiences summarized. The content aims at providing the reader a balance of responsibilities and accomplishments for each position. After
Work experience come Professional Affiliations, Computer Skills, & Education

C. V.: CURRICULUM VITAE:
C. V. Is a Latin word meaning "course of life". Curriculum Vitae (C. V.) is therefore a regular or particular course of study pertaining to education and life. A C.V. is more detailed than a resume, usually 2 to 3 pages, but can run even longer as per the requirement. A C. V. generally lists out every skills, jobs, degrees, & professional affiliations the applicant has acquired, usually in chronological order. A C. V. displays general talent rather than specific skills for any specific positions.

BIO-DATA:
Bio Data the short form for Biographical Data, is the old-fashioned terminology for Resume or C.V. The emphasis in a bio data is on personal particulars like date of birth, religion, sex, race, nationality, residence, martial status, & the like. Next comes a chronological listing of education and experience. The things normally found in a resume, that is specific skills for the job in question comes last, & are seldom included. Bio-data also includes applications made in specified formats as required by the company.

A resume is ideally suited when applying for middle and senior level positions, where experience and specific skills rather than education is important. A C.V., on the other hand is the preferred option for fresh graduates, people looking for a career change, and those applying for academic positions. The term bio-data is mostly used in India while applying to government jobs, or when applying for research grants and other situations where one has to submit descriptive essays.

Resumes present a summary of highlights and allow the prospective employer to scan through the document visually or electronically, to see if your skills match their available positions. A good resume can do that very effectively, while a C.V. cannot. A bio-data could still perform this role, especially if the format happens to be the one recommended by the employer.

Personal information such as age, sex, religion and others, and hobbies are never mentioned in a resume. Many people include such particulars in the C.V. However, this is neither required nor considered in the US market. A Bio-data, on the other hand always include such personal particulars.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Things To Do If You Lose Your IT Job

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As the financial crisis plays itself out across global markets, pink slips are flowing like Mountain Dew at a WOW tournament. And while it's only natural to feel apprehension about IT job security, some are discovering opportunity in the wake of unemployment.

When Robert Fleming was laid off from his job as an IT administrator for an Ottawa software firm two months ago, he went through a period of three weeks doing nothing but trying to cope emotionally to his situation. Then he followed the time-honored advice of experts. "I made looking for a job my job," he said. Even so, he found he had plenty of time left over to spend with friends and family.

Good thing, too. In the end, he got his current job -- working the help desk at a government agency -- from his mother's hairdresser's son. "I was visiting my mother, and she came home from the salon and said, 'I think I have something for you,'" he said. "It's six degrees of separation out there, and your opportunities can come from unlikely places."

Laid off. Downsized. Words that are heard often these days. That you would devote a significant amount of your time to finding another job -- as Fleming did -- is a given. But even the most aggressive job hunt won't take all your waking hours. There are only so many jobs ads to answer on Monster.com and Craigslist. Only so many recruiters who will take your calls. So to ward off what Fleming calls "the utter crazies," most unemployed IT workers are finding other outlets for their physical, intellectual, and emotional energy.

1. Get Smart: Learn New Skills:
David Christiansen wasn't technically laid off, but the writing was on the wall. Christiansen, who writes the TechDarkIT.com blog -- which he calls a "corporate IT survival guide" -- had an IT position at a Portland, Ore., company that was struggling.

Budgets were being cut, projects canceled, and little by little his department was getting chiseled away. For reasons he still can't figure out, he was allowed to stay. But there was -- literally -- nothing to do.

Having had a deep-seated ambition to work for a startup, he decided to learn more leading-edge technologies. "I'd literally show up in the morning with a book and study all day," he said. Among other things, he taught himself Ruby on Rails, which helped him land his current job as senior software developer at the Collaborative Software Initiative, in Portland. "There are so many opportunities to pick up new skills -- classes, books, Web sites -- no one has any excuse for not refreshing their capabilities," he said. In fact, he wrote "Slacking Off During A Recession" for his blog, in which he recommended that IT workers take a little time during their current workday to learn new skills that will actively advance their ability to survive should there be a layoff.

Marketing guru and author Seth Godin also recommends slacking. "Become an expert. For free, using nothing but time, you can become a master of CSS or HTML or learn Python," he recently wrote on his blog.

2. Jump-Start A New Venture:
Hyatt. Burger King. FedEx. And, of course, Microsoft. What do these companies have in common? They were all started during recessions. Which illustrates the point that for Type A people, there's probably just one way to fill up those days: Keep working. Although there's less seed money, and venture capitalists are being tight with the purse strings, opportunities with Web 2.0 technologies, new handheld devices, and other innovations are bountiful.

The tools you'll need to build your empire are plentiful, and many of them are FREE. Investing time and earning sweat equity could be the path to your next job -- or even independence.

3. Get In Shape:
Long hours behind a desk can lead to flab, fatigue, and mounting stress. The best remedy is physical activity, but who's got the time when deadlines loom and the BlackBerry never stops blinking?

After being laid off from his long-time job at Liz Claiborne, Tom Reeve -- who had been a senior IT manager in charge of planning and implementing new technologies and business processes -- decided to put an emphasis on his health. "I'm in the habit now, if I don't go to the gym every day, that I really feel it," Reeve said. "I've focused on changing my lifestyle, so hopefully when I go back into the workforce I will have gotten into a much healthier daily routine."

Although he's also spending more time with family, his sons are well into the teenage years, "and progressively want less of my time," he said. Still, they've taken small family trips and engaged in activities of mutual interest, like history.

Reeve is looking for an executive-level IT position, and, "fortunately for me, I can still wait it out a little bit more. So I've enjoyed the stress-free time." Reeve said he looks younger, feels younger, "more like 35 than 49," as well as rejuvenated. "I'm ready to go back to work when I find the right situation," he said.

4. Spend More Time With Friends, Family:
Mike Boyarski has a much more relaxed attitude toward his now-free days. He received a generous pension when downsized from his job as director of partner relationships for a large Silicon Valley company. He's taking his time looking for work. "I'm not going to jump at the first thing that comes my way," he said. "I have the time to wait for the right opportunity." In the meantime, he has lots to keep him busy: two small children, aged two years, and four months, respectively.

"I'm spending a lot of time hanging out with them, going to the park, really enjoying myself," he said. Because he and his wife have always been conservative with money, they were prepared for such an eventuality. Boyarski estimates he has six to nine months he can spend in this fashion "before worrying."

5. Volunteer To Help Others:
Phil Freeman was a quality assurance manager at NetApp when reorganization forced him out in early February. He's currently doing all the right things to dig up opportunities. Networking. Answering ads. Talking to recruiters. But to fill what would otherwise be empty days, he's also doing a lot of volunteering.

He goes down to the senior center at the City of Sunnyvale, in California, where he lives, and helps organize and supervise activities, serve meals, and otherwise do what he can to help. "It's energizing," he said. "Helping other people is the best way to keep your mind off your own problems."

It's also a good way to put your new skills into practice. If you're learning a new programming language, or honing your MySQL abilities, taking on a project that forces you to apply what you're learning in a real world way might look good on your updated resume. It will almost certainly feel good to have acquired new knowledge, and to have helped someone else in the process.

3 serious MISTAKES to avoid in your CAREER

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Employee turnover hurts not only those receiving their “walking papers,” but employers as well. It’s a costly, though avoidable, problem. I often see the same detrimental effects that some actions repeatedly have on different individuals. If you want to have a long and successful career, here are three mistakes to avoid.

1. Failing to have a Personal Action Plan:
Like companies, the very successful career managers know where they’re headed. They have a clear plan, whether it’s memorized or actually written down; after they create it, they continually massage it, and refer to it often. That said, I am constantly amazed that many managers who would never think of trying to run their department or organization without an annual plan and regular reviews somehow think they can do a great job of running their life without one.

When I am brought in to an organization to work with someone who is on the brink of being let go; I always start by asking him or her what they want out of their professional life. Invariably, these folks don’t know.

And, of course, if you don’t know where you’re going, how can you expect to get there?

Ask any really successful individual if they have a plan for their career, their personal life and or their financial status and you’ll find that over 85% of them have a plan. They may not have it written down; but they can tell you what they intend to do.

2. Failing to Deliver Results:
Winners in business know that it’s all about accountability. Those who harbor a sense of entitlement for simply having put forth effort, irrespective of the results of those efforts, are guaranteed to fall by the wayside.

In many companies, it seems like promotions and raises are often granted based more on who one knows, or one’s appearance and not being a competent manager. Many companies appear to make promotion decisions about based on seniority without much weight on results. In such environments it’s easy to become complacent; believing that results don’t matter, or worse that you are bulletproof.

Surprise! In today’s job market, no one is bulletproof forever. And nobody survives forever without delivering the goods at least some of the time. Take a hard look at what you’re giving the company with your efforts – can your performance being quantifiably shown as making a difference? If all you can report are soft and squishy contributions that don’t make an impact of the company’s key objectives or financial targets – you’re at risk.

Also, don’t be one of those losers who inappropriately take full credit for positive results despite the help or input received by others. Winners give credit where credit is due. Losers inevitably reap what they sow.

3. Failing to Self Promote:
Bragging is one thing, but ensuring that others throughout your company are aware of what you’re contributing is simply a smart practice. Losers often fail to recognize the importance of letting others know about their successes or go about it in entirely the wrong way.

Relying on others to look after you is a quaint idea at best. I’m pretty certain it was naïve even in the good old days when everyone drove a Ford or Chevy; while Mom stayed home to look after the house while Dad went about five miles to his job; and no one doubted that the USA would be the dominant leader in technology and management practice.

In today’s world, decisions affecting one’s career are made very quickly. I know execs in startups who thought that they’d just joined a new company that was going to make them wealthy with a long-term career, but then saw the company bought out by a competitor. I’ve also known people who had enjoyed a good career but their employer couldn’t succeed due to industry evolvement. They found themselves talking to a new supervisor about why they should be kept in the new entity. A bad place to be.

Make certain that people in your company & elsewhere in your industry know of your success through whatever means available. Don’t put your future in the hands of others who are going to be preoccupied with their own long-term success.

10 Business Words to Ban

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10 Business Words to Ban

By - DAVID SILVERMAN

10. As well as:

The three word version of "and," which should always be replaced by it, unless you are MacGyver trying to delay a mad scientist from blowing up the world by speaking as much as possible.

9. And/Or:
An editor once told me, "And-slash-or means 'and' or 'or,' so pick one, unless you have no idea what you're trying to say, in which case, by all means use it."

8. People Manager:
As opposed to "Goldfish supervisor?" Seriously, this is a "try not to offend anyone term," that makes managers of people and non-people (whatever that is) feel less like managers or people and more like guppies.

7. Value, Valued, Valuing:
Like "bad" in the '70s, "value" now seems to connote its opposite. When someone says, "You and your ideas are valued," you know both you and your ideas are a step closer to the door.

6. Value Add:
Like value, "value add" doesn't mean "value" or "add." It is a substitute for the potentially embarrassing, "I don't understand." As in, "Yes, but what's the value add to take away from your presentation?"

5. Take Away:
You take away food in a paper bag with a clown on it. Period.

4. Net-Net:
Like "irregardless," this phrase is meaningful when chopped in half, and meaningless in whole -- except to indicate that the speaker doesn't know what "net" means.

3. At the End of the Day:
It's omnipresent. Google shows 15+ million hits. One source says it was the most written cliché of 2006. Otherwise respectable people use it like Sarah Palin used "ya know," and chances are you'll hear it several times per meeting -- if you don't just run away to get to the end of your day without screaming.

2. Out of Pocket:
This means you were on company business and using your own funds. But people increasingly use it when they are unreachable, on vacation, or even just in the restroom and away from their Blackberry you don't email from there, right?. Instead, just say "away." Otherwise I will keep imagining a giant pocket somewhere that you couldn't get yourself back into.

1. Individual:
The five-syllable "Individual" reduces us to police speak, "The individual exited the vehicle" instead of "He got out of the car." Like the word "troop" for "soldier," it's a way to distance the speaker from actual people, which is potentially useful if you want to say "30,000 troops were lost," which sounds far less bloody than "30,000 soldiers died." In business, "individual" gives me a similar chill. Especially in the phrase that unites two words from this list: "We value the individual." We all know what that means.

What about you? What words and phrases make you want to lunge at the throat of the co-worker who utters them? Or do you think this is all too nitpicky, and that it is folks like me who make you crazy?


Excellence is not a Destination but a Continuous Journey that Never Ends.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Self Management

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You are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Learn to accept total responsibility for yourself. If you do not manage yourself, then you are letting others have control of your Life. These tips will help "you" manage "you."

Here is a list of things that help you in self management and which will in turn lead you to the path of success:

-) Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.

-) Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in your potential to complete any task.

-) Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude toward the upcoming task.

-) Frequently ask, "Is what I am doing right now moving me toward my goals?"

-) Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time later to fix it.

-) Accept responsibility for your job successes and failures. Do not look for a scapegoat.

-) Do not view things you do as a "job." View all activities as a challenge.

-) Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you do want. Instead of telling yourself, "I can't do that very well," say, "I can do this very well."-) Give yourself points for completing tasks on your "to-do" list in priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.

-) Practice your personal beliefs. It may be helpful each morning to take 15 minutes to gather your thoughts and say a prayer.

-) Make a commitment to show someone a specific accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel motivated to have it done.

-) Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.

-) Believe that you can be what you want to be.

-) Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill or part of yourself that if you so chose, you can change. You do not have any weakness, only untapped potential.

-) Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation.

-) Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have in the past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.

-) Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that they can accomplish their goals.

-) Create your own "motivation board" by putting up notes of things you need to do on a bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what you need to work on. When an item is done, remove the note. Also keep your goals listed and pictured on your board.

-) Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is interesting in your work. Change your perspective and look at it as someone outside your job would,

-) Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your own high enthusiasm and performance level.

Management Traps and How to Avoid Them

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Weak managers set weak goals
As a manager your role is to get specific jobs completed by employees in the most optimal, efficient and innovative manner and in order to do that, you need to set clear objectives. Successful managers set SMART goals - goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based. They are able to communicate these goals clearly, simply and concisely to their employees so that none are vague or uncertain about expectations. By all means reach for the stars in your objectives but to do so without supplying employees with the training, resources, flexibility and freedom they need to accomplish their goals and a schedule of regular supervision and feedback is to set them (and yourself) up for failure.


Weak managers micro-manage - effective leaders inspire
The days of command and control organizations are long over - today's managers recognize that in order to leverage their skills and maximize their team's output they need to adopt a flexible approach and 'lead' their teams to excellence rather than closely supervise, instruct and control them. The best leaders communicate to their employees a vision and ignite in them the fire, motivation and desire to work towards making this vision a reality. Good leaders unleash their employees to innovate and achieve optimal solutions by communicating top-level goals and objectives and a suggested blueprint for success then leaving the employees to determine how to get there most optimally while ensuring they have the aptitudes, training, resources and work environment necessary to achieve superior results. While a program of regular feedback and supervision is essential, managers should ensure that their management style is not repressive, meddling or overly overbearing. The golden rule is to communicate the 'what' and the 'why' of the work that needs to be done and leave the employees to determine the 'how' without burdening them with strict instruction manuals or prescribed rules and patterns that are largely redundant and inconducive to speed, creativity, progress and innovation.


Weak managers are afraid of hiring/cultivating strong leaders
Strong leaders/managers have the self-confidence to hire the best people, take them to new levels and cultivate in them all the qualities needed to make them in turn effective leaders of the future. Weak leaders replicate themselves in their hiring decisions and hire mediocre players, mistakenly believing that an employee with more skills, acumen or industry knowledge than themselves will ultimately undermine them or make them look bad. The best managers are characterized by an ability to stimulate their employees to superior performance and through coaching, training, feedback as well as by example, inspire in them all the qualities needed to make effective managers. A good manager helps employees achieve their full potential and constantly raises the bar so that employees never stop learning, innovating and growing. Coaching, training, career planning and programs for ongoing growth and development of key staff are high on the priority lists of the best managers.


Weak managers belittle their employees
Bosses who favor the archaic 'tough' management style where employees are singled out for public reprimand and negative feedback is plentiful while recognition and positive reinforcement are scarce will fail to win the loyalty, respect and commitment of their teams over the long run. Without an inspired, fired up, self-confident employee base these managers set themselves and their teams up for failure. Effective leaders by contrast, respect their employees and give them regular feedback with intelligent constructive criticism and loudly laud special accomplishments in both public and private, while communicating any negative feedback ONLY in private and focusing such criticism strictly on the job performance, not the person's character. Strong leaders recognize and reward a job well done. These leaders inspire their teams to perform at their best and are able to elicit from them a high degree of loyalty and a 'hunger' to raise the bar and continuously excel. In such organisations, employees are not afraid to challenge their boss's ideas or upset the status quo in the interest of innovation and excellence and are encouraged to take risks to elevate the business to a new level. The autocrats and bureaucrats on the other hand sap their employees' self-confidence, drive and energy with their overbearing management style and fail to induce in them any motivation to raise the bar or excel.



Weak managers have obsolete skills-strong leaders constantly reinvent themselves


In today's knowledge-driven economies and highly competitive environment, skills, training and education rapidly become obsolete and effective managers know that they must constantly re-educate themselves and update their skills to maintain an edge. While over-confident managers with an inertia to further education fall by the wayside, good managers regularly take an honest inventory of their skills and abilities and upgrade their technical knowledge and soft skills wherever appropriate. They encourage their teams to do likewise with sound career planning and performance appraisal programs and an emphasis on training and self-education.

Weak managers have poor communication skills
Good communication includes cultivating and maintaining open channels of communication with the team and others in the organisation, giving constructive, intelligent feedback, eliciting ideas through brainstorming sessions or otherwise, articulating the company vision and mission in no uncertain terms, setting clear objectives and listening attentively with an open-mind to employees grievances, suggestions and any other issues. Effective leaders have an open-door policy that welcomes input, suggestions and feedback from employees and recognize that good ideas and the next best idea/process/innovation can come from anywhere. Strong leaders listen; weak leaders talk. Strong leaders pay attention to their employees and encourage them to express professional opinions and ask for more responsibility; weak leaders think they are above such open-door policies. Employees who are not listened to and are not made to feel important or respected as professionals or individuals are unlikely to innovate or express any exciting new ideas that can move a company forward.


Weak managers blame
Everybody makes mistakes and strong leaders protect their good people from taking the fall when they err. Good bosses recognize that the occasional slip-ups are inevitable and can be learning opportunities and are ready to take personal responsibility when the team makes a misstep. A good boss realizes that his most promising employees want to succeed, will grow as a result of their mistakes and are unlikely to repeat the same mistakes. They do no set their people up as a negative example for the rest of the organization nor point fingers when the going gets tough. Good bosses are personably accountable for their actions as well as the actions of their subordinates and do not allow a culture of blame to permeate the organisation.


Weak managers take full credit for their team's accomplishments
While weak leaders usurp all the credit for a job well done by their teams, the strongest leaders will give the full credit to the team as a whole or the team member responsible for the project. Strong leaders motivate, energize and inspire by giving credit where credit is due and being generous with reward and recognition wherever appropriate. Strong leaders publicly thank their employees for a job well done and recognize that a motivated, successful, energized team will reflect directly on the boss.


Weak managers thrive on bureaucracy
Weak leaders are fond of, augment and live well with the layers and bureaucratic shackles that tie an organisation down; strong leaders remove them. Today's effective leaders recognize that in order to compete they must operate like a small company with a high level of speed, responsiveness and flexibility. They realize that to maintain their edge in today's marketplace their organization needs to be responsive to changing market conditions and remove the shackles, boundaries, layers, clutter and obsolete policies, procedures and routines that get in the way of the freedom and free flow of people, resources and ideas.


Weak managers are divorced from their teams
Effective managers genuinely care about their employees and take the time to get to know them and to understand their strengths, weaknesses, what makes them tick and their goals and ambitions. They also take the time to learn something about their personal life. While weak managers will maintain an outdated aloofness and a formal distance from their teams, exceptional managers are able to bring out the best in every employee and win their loyalty and respect by understanding their unique needs, motivations and abilities and showing the team that they are important and personally significant. Strong managers are team players and through their constant involvement with their teams communicate to them that they are there for them and supportive of them. Effective managers by building a supportive work environment, build a camaraderie and team spirit that enthuses and excites the team to new levels of performance.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Public Speaking Tips

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Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Establish rapport with your audience. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Persuade your audience effectively. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.

Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.

Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.

Here are just a few hints, public speaking tips and techniques to help you develop your skills and become far more effective as a public speaker.

  • Mistakes
    Mistakes are all right.
    Recovering from mistakes makes you appear more human.
    Good recovery puts your audience at ease - they identify with you more.
  • How to use the public speaking environment
    Try not to get stuck in one place.
    Use all the space that's available to you.
    Move around.
    One way to do this is to leave your notes in one place and move to another.
    If your space is confined (say a meeting room or even presenting at a table) use stronger body language to convey your message.
  • Tell stories
    Stories make you a real person not just a deliverer of information.
    Use personal experiences to bring your material to life.
    No matter how dry your material is, you can always find a way to humanise it.
  • Technology
    Speak to your audience not your slides.
    Your slides are there to support you not the other way around.
    Ideally, slides should be graphics and not words (people read faster than they hear and will be impatient for you to get to the next point).
    If all the technology on offer fails, it's still you they've come to hear.
  • Humor
    Tell jokes if you're good at telling jokes.
    If you aren't good, best to leave the jokes behind.
    There's nothing worse than a punch line that has no punch.
    Gentle humor is good in place of jokes.
    Self-deprecation is good, but try not to lay it on too thick.


You can learn to enjoy public speaking and become far more effective at standing in front of a group of people and delivering a potent message.

And remember to keep practicing!

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Self Management

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You are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Learn to accept total responsibility for yourself. If you do not manage yourself, then you are letting others have control of your Life. These tips will help "you" manage "you."

Here is a list of things that help you in self management and which will in turn lead you to the path of success: -

-) Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.

-) Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in your potential to complete any task.

-) Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude toward the upcoming task.

-) Frequently ask, "Is what I am doing right now moving me toward my goals?"

-) Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time later to fix it.

-) Accept responsibility for your job successes and failures. Do not look for a scapegoat.

-) Do not view things you do as a "job." View all activities as a challenge.

-) Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you do want. Instead of telling yourself, "I can't do that very well," say, "I can do this very well."-) Give yourself points for completing tasks on your "to-do" list in priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.

-) Practice your personal beliefs. It may be helpful each morning to take 15 minutes to gather your thoughts and say a prayer.

-) Make a commitment to show someone a specific accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel motivated to have it done.

-) Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.

-) Believe that you can be what you want to be.

-) Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill or part of yourself that if you so chose, you can change. You do not have any weakness, only untapped potential.

-) Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation.

-) Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have in the past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.

-) Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that they can accomplish their goals.

-) Create your own "motivation board" by putting up notes of things you need to do on a bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what you need to work on. When an item is done, remove the note. Also keep your goals listed and pictured on your board.

-) Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is interesting in your work. Change your perspective and look at it as someone outside your job would,

-) Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your own high enthusiasm and performance level.

Improve your Communication Skills

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Here are 6 great tips you can use!

1. Awareness of your own interaction with other people is the first step in improving your communication skills. Learn to identify which types of situations make you uncomfortable and then modify your behavior to achieve positive results is a critical step in improving your communication skills. You can learn to become aware of behaviors in other people that prompt you to respond in negative ways and modify your own behavior to turn the situation into a positive experience.

2. You must accept responsibility for your own behavior and do not fear apologizing for errors in judgment or insensitive actions. Asking others for honest feedback about the way you interact with others can be very helpful. Accept the negative feedback along with the positive and make changes accordingly.

3. Your non-verbal communication is equally as important as the things that you say. Positive body language is extremely important in your interactions with other people. If your words and your actions do not match, you will have a difficult time succeeding in social situations.

4. In order to learn how to improve your communication skills, you must become a great listener. You must fight the urge to respond immediately and really listen to what the other person is trying to communicate.Offering suggestions or criticism before you are certain of the other person's intent can only lead to frustration for both parties.

5. Improving your communication skills is a process and cannot be accomplished overnight. Trying to improve or change too many things at once will be counter-productive. You will become discouraged and overwhelmed if you attempt to change your entire personality all at once. Choose one or two traits at a time and work on those over a period of time. Learn to take advantage of your personal strengths and make a positive impact on others.

6. Maximize your positive personality traits and use them in your interactions with others. Good communication and great listening skills are the most important tools you can use in improving your communication skills.

You can learn how to improve your communication skills by developing excellent listening skills, learning to resolve problems and conflicts, understanding body language, and accepting responsibility for your own negative behavior.

Determination and self-awareness will make your desire to improve your communication skills a reality. You can change your life and now is the time to start.

Exceptional communication skills can be Learned...and Mastered!!!

Lesson 9: Don't let 'em see you sweat

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One of the sillier controversies in the campaign broke in the middle of a heat wave last summer: Did Barack Obama sweat? Ever?

An AP Wire story went out, accompanied by head scratching from members of the press, about people being unable to recall a single instance of campaign-trail perspiration. One day, his dry demeanor was even cited as evidence that he was using the cover of a workout to interview veep candidates in a Chicago gym. Nobody seemed to consider that he sweats less because he's in such good shape. It's obvious he's an athlete from his physical grace alone.

The way a guy carries himself can tell you a lot about him. For instance, Ronald Reagan brought about morning in America by having a demeanor sunny enough to dispel the early 80s gloom all by himself. As for Obama, he does move like a silky small forward, which is part of his appeal. I witnessed a showcase of his physical skills upon our arrival in Lansing, as he executed the perfect plane dismount while waving at the Secret Service guys.

Robert Putnam wrote a book called Bowling Alone in which he built a case that Americans have become isolated and American society fractured. For me, the book title conjures an image of the weird, haunted, solitary Richard Nixon repairing to the White House bowling alley at midnight to chase his demons and roll a few lonely frames. But bowling, alone or otherwise, isn't Obama's game.

When I first met the candidate, I observed to him that the White House grounds are equipped for basketball, but it's only a half-court setup, too cramped for the full-court game he possesses, and in any case, unavailable in rough weather.

Lesson 8: If you want to avoid disappointing others, don't disappoint yourself

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No surprise here. It's something he's thought about a lot: "I always try to make sure that my expectations are higher than those of the people around me," he says. "A lot of people have a lot at stake in this election. The American people are having a tough time. And I never want people to feel as if I've over-promised to them. I try to explain in a real honest way how difficult some of the changes I'm talking about will be. But I never want the effect to be that I'm not working as hard as I can on their behalf . . . that I'm not continually trying to improve. I'm actually glad for the high expectations. One of the interesting things about a campaign like this is that it really does push you to the limit and then some. And it turns out that you have more in your reservoir than you expected."

And at the beginning of August, he has plenty more testing to go through.

"I do," he replies. "I've got 3 more months, and then it gets harder."

Lesson 7: Show others the way to common ground

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When you're a Kenya-Kansas hybrid, you either drive yourself nuts trying to sort out your identity or you find common ground among opposites. By all accounts, that nose for synthesis is why Obama's classmates selected him to be President of the Harvard Law Review. Neither the liberals nor the conservatives had the votes to elect their chosen candidate. But in Obama, both groups saw a guy who would give their side a fair shake. And he did.

Years later, Robert Putnam, a social scientist and political theorist, hosted seminars at Harvard's Kennedy School on how to rebuild the country's broken sense of community. He recruited an obscure Illinois state Senator named Barack Obama to participate, along with bank presidents, entrepreneurs, and such better-known figures as religious-right strategist Ralph Reed and former Clintonista George Stephanopoulos.

"Barack Obama was one of the youngest in the group," Putnam told me. "At the beginning of our sessions, he stood back a little bit, listening to the others. But often around noon, you'd hear him say, 'Well I hear Jane saying this, and Joe saying that, but both Jane and Joe would probably agree on this more fundamental point.' Now, these were big-ego people he was dealing with, but he made his mark. It's a skill the country needs now: An emphasis on synthesis, not divisiveness."

Lesson 6: Quit smoking (as often as you need to)

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For all of Obama's physical credentials, he's carried around the ultimate health taboo, smoking, for most of his adult life. And he inhaled, all right. Then word came that he'd quit smoking.

"There wasn't some dramatic moment," he says. "Michelle had been putting pressure on me for a while. I was never really a heavy smoker. Probably at my peak I was smoking 7 or 8 a day. More typical was 3. So it wasn't a huge challenge with huge withdrawal symptoms. There have been a couple of times during the campaign when I fell off the wagon and bummed one, and I had to kick it again. But I figure, seeing as I'm running for President, I need to cut myself a little slack."

He does have advice for people, like him, who are wrestling with the dependency. "Eliminate certain key connections -- that first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink. If you can eliminate those triggers, that should help."

Lesson 5: The government isn't your nursemaid

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The organization theme comes up again when I raise a pet peeve of this magazine: That the U.S. Government maintains at least 7 offices devoted to woman's health, but no office of men's health. This despite the fact that men die earlier than women due of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. I'm hoping to enlist him in the battle.

Nothing doing.

"I'm not sure we need an office," he says. "We need to have an awareness built in throughout various agencies charged with improving health. I'll give you a specific example. My Grandfather died of prostate cancer. As men age, regular checkups are critical. But it's hard to get them to go in for that mildly unpleasant checkup. Increasing awareness of the difference it could make shouldn't just be the activity of the Department of Health and Human Services."

And then he launches into a story involving a friend of his. It's a theme he returns to again and again as we talk: a world peopled with friends who taught him lessons, reminded him of what was important, reproached him in a useful way.

"A good friend of mine who was the head of the Illinois department of public health designed this wonderful program targeting black men, where health information was provided through barbershops. The idea was that a lot of black men under utilize doctors and don't talk about health much. But they go to the barbershop, and that's where they, kind of, let loose. The department designed programs where clinics at different barbershops would provide various health screenings, talk about prevention. Those kinds of strategies have to be developed and targeted, perhaps, because a lot of the time we're more resistant to going to doctors. That kind of thinking should be embedded in a lot of the work we're doing."

Lesson 4: Turn early lessons into big successes

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Sarah Palin might not be too impressed with Obama's days as a community organizer, but he built that modest beginning -- putting together coalitions of voters across Chicago -- into the current grass-roots organization that's unlike anything our electoral process has ever seen. It's a classic example of applying a lesson learned on a small scale to the biggest challenge of a lifetime.

Clearly, he knows how to manage groups. By the time your outfit has its own plane, it'd better have a solid pilot.

"I'm part of an organization," he says, "and one of the things I really try to push in the organization is to make sure that everybody is focused on the two or three things that are really going to be game changers. I ask them to design my schedule in a way that focuses not just on what's coming at us, but on being active instead of reactive. I think we've been pretty successful. I don't spend a lot of time returning phone calls or Emails. If somebody needs something, most of the time there's somebody else who can handle it. Eliminating TV has been helpful." Wait, a confession: "I'm still a ****er for SportsCenter," he notes.

The goal of his organization, he says, is to clear time for job Number 1: "The most difficult thing is to carve out time to think, which is probably the most important time for somebody who's trying to shift an organization, or in this case, the country, as opposed to doing the same things that have been done before. And I find that time slips away."

Lesson 3: Make the future your focus

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Another loss in the Obama family: the way a child's life changes in the glare of campaign lights. The Senator notes that his daughters were young, 5 and 8, when he had to explain the upheaval that was about to shake their family. He may as well have been talking about his plans to file income taxes. The kids cut to the really important stuff: "Their main concern was, 'When are we going to get a dog?' They did ask about what they called 'secret people,' which were the Secret Service folks. 'Are we going to have to have these people with sunglasses and earpieces following us around all the time?' And I told them, well, not right away. They've adjusted wonderfully. And I've tried to make sure that they haven't had to participate too much in the political process.

"The pledge is" -- he can't help making campaign promises, even to his kids -- "they'll get their dog, win or lose."

Lesson 2: Be there for your family, even if you're not around

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We wondered if his wife, Michelle, and their two children, Malia and Sasha, might join him on the day's trip, to participate in the blow-out-the-candles moment. But Obama had boarded the plane with Secret Service and campaign staffers, not family members. So he himself is something of an absentee father on his big day.

"Yesterday was the birthday celebration," he tells. "We get everything in, just not always on schedule when it's supposed to happen. Yesterday I sat on a lounge chair in a friend's backyard, watching my girls and Michelle dance. It was as nice a moment as I've had in a long time."

"I don't miss the important things. I haven't missed a dance recital. I haven't missed a parent-teacher conference. But there are some things I do miss, and those are some of the tradeoffs you make."

"But, look, there's no question there are sacrifices involved here. I'd like to say that quality time replaces quantity, but sometimes it doesn't. You know, a lot of the best moments of family life happen spontaneously. If you have less time to devote to them, there are fewer of those moments. What I've been able to do is create a zone of normalcy for my kids. Michelle's been wonderful about that. I have been able to transmit to them my absolute interest in them and my absolute love for them."