The Most Important Measure of Success
Being respected by others is very important to each of us. A survey done by the Gallup organization found that the most prominent living Americans rated the respect of others as the most important measure of success in life. They worked very hard to earn the respect of their parents, the respect of their spouses and children, the respect of their peers and colleagues, and the respect of mankind at large.
Why You Respect Yourself
It seems that we truly respect ourselves only when we feel that we are respected by others, and we will go to great lengths to earn and keep that respect. When we feel that someone respects us for who we are and what we have accomplished, we tend to be more open to that person's influence.
Two Things You Can Do
We can do two things to put ourselves in a position to be respected by others. The first is to develop our knowledge of our field. The more people perceive you know about your subject, the more they will respect you. The highest-paid people in almost every field are those who know more than the average people. They are recognized as experts, and they develop what is called "expert power." Because of their superior knowledge, they are looked up to and listened to, and they are much more capable of influencing others to act in a particular way than they would be if their knowledge level were just average
Develop Your Expertise
Another way to put ourselves in a position of being respected by others is to develop your expertise. Expertise is closely tied to knowledge, but it is a little different. Expertise is the ability to do, the ability to perform well in your chosen field. Men and women with expertise are those who practice over and over in whatever they do until they become known far and wide as the very best in their field.
Action Ex ercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:
First, study your field in detail. Dedicate at least one hour per day to reading, listening to audio programs, studying to become more and more knowledgeable about what you do.
Second, continually upgrade your knowledge and skills in your field. Identify your weakest important skill and go to work on that.
Knowledge and know-how are the keys to the 21st century
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The Key to Charisma
There is a close association between personal charisma and success in life. Probably 85 percent of your success and happiness will come from your relationships and interactions with others. The more positively others respond to you, the easier it will be for you to get the things you want.
The Law of Attraction
In essence, when we discuss charisma, we are talking about the law of attraction. This law has been stated in many different ways down through the centuries, but it basically says that you inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.
You Are A Living Magnet
In a sense, you are a living magnet, and you are constantly radiating thought waves, like a radio station radiates sound waves, that are picked up by other people. Your thoughts, intensified by your emotions, as radio waves are intensified by electric impulses, go out from you and are picked up by anyone who is tuned in to a similar wavelength. You then attract into your life people, ideas, opportunities, resources, circumstances and anything else that is consistent with your dominant frame of mind.
The law of attraction also explains how you can build up your levels of charisma so that you can have a greater and more positive impact on the people whose cooperation, support and affection you desire.
Perception is Everything
The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for you.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
One of the most charismatic people in the world was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a physical sense, she was a quiet, elderly, frail woman in poor health, and she wore a modest nun's habit. She might have been ignored by a person passing her on the street, were it not for the tremendous charisma she developed and for the fact that her appearance was so well-known to so many people as a result.
How Would You Feel?
If someone told you that he was going to introduce you to a brilliant, self-made millionaire who was very quiet and unassuming about his success, you would almost naturally imbue that person with charisma, and in his presence, you would not act the same as you would if you had been told nothing at all. Charisma begins largely in the mind of the beholder.
Lasting charisma depends more upon the person you really are than upon just the things you do.
Continually look for ways to improve other's perceptions of you so that you can be more influential with them. Be a living magnet.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, be clear about the messages you are sending and the perceptions you are creating in others. Are these perceptions consistent with the impressions you want to make?
Second, see yourself and imagine yourself every day as an important powerful and charming person. Treat others as you would if you were already strong, famous and influential.
Fake it until you make it!
The Law of Attraction
In essence, when we discuss charisma, we are talking about the law of attraction. This law has been stated in many different ways down through the centuries, but it basically says that you inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.
You Are A Living Magnet
In a sense, you are a living magnet, and you are constantly radiating thought waves, like a radio station radiates sound waves, that are picked up by other people. Your thoughts, intensified by your emotions, as radio waves are intensified by electric impulses, go out from you and are picked up by anyone who is tuned in to a similar wavelength. You then attract into your life people, ideas, opportunities, resources, circumstances and anything else that is consistent with your dominant frame of mind.
The law of attraction also explains how you can build up your levels of charisma so that you can have a greater and more positive impact on the people whose cooperation, support and affection you desire.
Perception is Everything
The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for you.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
One of the most charismatic people in the world was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a physical sense, she was a quiet, elderly, frail woman in poor health, and she wore a modest nun's habit. She might have been ignored by a person passing her on the street, were it not for the tremendous charisma she developed and for the fact that her appearance was so well-known to so many people as a result.
How Would You Feel?
If someone told you that he was going to introduce you to a brilliant, self-made millionaire who was very quiet and unassuming about his success, you would almost naturally imbue that person with charisma, and in his presence, you would not act the same as you would if you had been told nothing at all. Charisma begins largely in the mind of the beholder.
Lasting charisma depends more upon the person you really are than upon just the things you do.
Continually look for ways to improve other's perceptions of you so that you can be more influential with them. Be a living magnet.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, be clear about the messages you are sending and the perceptions you are creating in others. Are these perceptions consistent with the impressions you want to make?
Second, see yourself and imagine yourself every day as an important powerful and charming person. Treat others as you would if you were already strong, famous and influential.
Fake it until you make it!
Everyone is Important
Everyone has critical skills and knowledge that are important to many other people in the company.
Use Better Titles for Each Person
Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however, her job is far more complicated and, therefore, more important. Since she is the first contact that most customers have with our business, her personality and temperament are extremely important.
Think About Your Customers
The prospective client who telephones begins forming an impression of us the instant that the telephone is answered. Then, because our companies are doing so many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how the caller may be best served and who is the best person in the company to direct the telephone call to.
One Person Can Make the Difference
In many cases, there are requests for further information, and follow-up telephone calls go through our front-office manager. Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages, and to act as the core person in a network of communications makes her job so important that it is essential that she sit in on all staff meetings and be aware of everything that is going on.
Keep Yourself Informed
Your job in your company also requires that you know a lot about what is going on everywhere else, as well as being thoroughly conversant with what you do. And the fastest and most accurate way of keeping current with what is going on is to develop and maintain a network of contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.
Encourage Participation and Involvement
The old methods of command and control now exist only at the old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their very survival. Today, men and women want a high degree of participation and involvement in their work. They want an opportunity to discuss and thoroughly understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated in setting in the first place.
Build a Top Team
Being a team player is no longer something that is optional. Today, it is mandatory. If you want to achieve anything of consequence, you will need the help and cooperation of lots of people. Your main objective is to structure everything you do in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating and working well with others, they are continually open to helping you achieve your goals.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, recognize that every person in the company is essential to the smooth functioning of the organization. Take time regularly to discuss their jobs with them and understand what they do.
Second, identify the things that you do that can really affect the work of others. Then, look for ways to do your job so that you help others in every way possible.
Use Better Titles for Each Person
Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however, her job is far more complicated and, therefore, more important. Since she is the first contact that most customers have with our business, her personality and temperament are extremely important.
Think About Your Customers
The prospective client who telephones begins forming an impression of us the instant that the telephone is answered. Then, because our companies are doing so many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how the caller may be best served and who is the best person in the company to direct the telephone call to.
One Person Can Make the Difference
In many cases, there are requests for further information, and follow-up telephone calls go through our front-office manager. Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages, and to act as the core person in a network of communications makes her job so important that it is essential that she sit in on all staff meetings and be aware of everything that is going on.
Keep Yourself Informed
Your job in your company also requires that you know a lot about what is going on everywhere else, as well as being thoroughly conversant with what you do. And the fastest and most accurate way of keeping current with what is going on is to develop and maintain a network of contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.
Encourage Participation and Involvement
The old methods of command and control now exist only at the old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their very survival. Today, men and women want a high degree of participation and involvement in their work. They want an opportunity to discuss and thoroughly understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated in setting in the first place.
Build a Top Team
Being a team player is no longer something that is optional. Today, it is mandatory. If you want to achieve anything of consequence, you will need the help and cooperation of lots of people. Your main objective is to structure everything you do in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating and working well with others, they are continually open to helping you achieve your goals.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, recognize that every person in the company is essential to the smooth functioning of the organization. Take time regularly to discuss their jobs with them and understand what they do.
Second, identify the things that you do that can really affect the work of others. Then, look for ways to do your job so that you help others in every way possible.
The Principle of the Objective
Learn from the Lessons of History
The concepts of military strategy have been studied and written about for more than 4,000 years, going back to the early works of General Sun-Tzu in China more than 2,000 years BC. These principles of strategy that have been developed and perfected over the centuries have direct applications and implications for strategic thinking, both personally and corporately.
Decide In Advance What You Want
The most important military principle is the Principle of the Objective. This principle requires that you decide in advance exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish. What exactly is your objective? In my experience, fully 80% of all problems in personal and corporate life come from a lack of clarity with regard to objectives and goals.
Clarity Is Critical
Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in strategic thinking. Here are some questions that you can use over and over again to focus and clarify your objectives. The first question is, "What am I trying to do?" The second question is, "How am I trying to do it?" The third question is, "What are my assumptions?" And the fourth question is, "What if my assumptions were wrong?"
Question Your Assumptions
Having the courage to ask these questions, and to question your assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, is a key mark of the superior person. Sometimes individuals avoid questioning their assumptions for fear that they will have to change their minds or do something other than what they started out to do. However, false assumptions lie at the root of almost every failure. The only way that you can root out these wrong assumptions is by carefully analyzing them and discussing them, and then by demanding proof or evidence that these assumptions are still valid.
Project Forward In Your Mind
Another method for clarifying your objectives is for you to project forward and look backward. In other words, imagine that you have already achieved the objective that you are working toward. Project yourself forward in your mind and then look back to the present day, to the present moment. What do you see? What changes could you make looking back from this imaginary perspective of hindsight? This is a key peak performance thinking technique.
Determine Why You Want It
The final part of clarifying your objectives revolves around your identifying the reasons why you want to achieve this objective in the first place. Why is it important? Is it still as important as when you started off? Is this objective more important than any other objective that you could be working on? It is essential that you be clear about the answers to these questions.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to apply the principle of the objective to your personal and business life:
First, take out a piece of paper and answer the question: "What am I trying to do?" What are your goals? What are your objectives? Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? Is this the very best use of your time and energy?
Second, question your assumptions. What things are you assuming are true about yourself, the people around you and the situation? What if one of these assumptions turned out to be false? What changes would you have to make if you found that your most cherished assumptions were not based on reality, or were contradicted by facts?
The concepts of military strategy have been studied and written about for more than 4,000 years, going back to the early works of General Sun-Tzu in China more than 2,000 years BC. These principles of strategy that have been developed and perfected over the centuries have direct applications and implications for strategic thinking, both personally and corporately.
Decide In Advance What You Want
The most important military principle is the Principle of the Objective. This principle requires that you decide in advance exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish. What exactly is your objective? In my experience, fully 80% of all problems in personal and corporate life come from a lack of clarity with regard to objectives and goals.
Clarity Is Critical
Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in strategic thinking. Here are some questions that you can use over and over again to focus and clarify your objectives. The first question is, "What am I trying to do?" The second question is, "How am I trying to do it?" The third question is, "What are my assumptions?" And the fourth question is, "What if my assumptions were wrong?"
Question Your Assumptions
Having the courage to ask these questions, and to question your assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, is a key mark of the superior person. Sometimes individuals avoid questioning their assumptions for fear that they will have to change their minds or do something other than what they started out to do. However, false assumptions lie at the root of almost every failure. The only way that you can root out these wrong assumptions is by carefully analyzing them and discussing them, and then by demanding proof or evidence that these assumptions are still valid.
Project Forward In Your Mind
Another method for clarifying your objectives is for you to project forward and look backward. In other words, imagine that you have already achieved the objective that you are working toward. Project yourself forward in your mind and then look back to the present day, to the present moment. What do you see? What changes could you make looking back from this imaginary perspective of hindsight? This is a key peak performance thinking technique.
Determine Why You Want It
The final part of clarifying your objectives revolves around your identifying the reasons why you want to achieve this objective in the first place. Why is it important? Is it still as important as when you started off? Is this objective more important than any other objective that you could be working on? It is essential that you be clear about the answers to these questions.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to apply the principle of the objective to your personal and business life:
First, take out a piece of paper and answer the question: "What am I trying to do?" What are your goals? What are your objectives? Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? Is this the very best use of your time and energy?
Second, question your assumptions. What things are you assuming are true about yourself, the people around you and the situation? What if one of these assumptions turned out to be false? What changes would you have to make if you found that your most cherished assumptions were not based on reality, or were contradicted by facts?
Moving Upward and Onward
Don't Sell Yourself Short
It's not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of. Many people are spinning their wheels in careers where they should be moving rapidly onward and upward. Here's how you can put your career on the fast track.
Choose Your Parents Carefully
Someone once said that the key to success was to choose your parents carefully. That may be partially true but it is even more important to choose your job or career with great care. The choice of a job or occupation for which you are ideally suited comes before anything else. If you try to work at something you don't enjoy or don't believe in, you'll never be happy, and you'll never be successful.
Be the Best At What You Do
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to "be the best." Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here's a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you're worth - no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others
The Key to Motivation
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you're doing, you can't move ahead.
The Key to Peak Performance
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to be more successful in your career.
First, set high standards for yourself and recognize that anything that someone else has achieved, you can probably achieve as well. There are no limits.
Second, select one key skill area that is important in your job and resolve to become absolutely excellent in that area. Start today to get better and better
It's not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of. Many people are spinning their wheels in careers where they should be moving rapidly onward and upward. Here's how you can put your career on the fast track.
Choose Your Parents Carefully
Someone once said that the key to success was to choose your parents carefully. That may be partially true but it is even more important to choose your job or career with great care. The choice of a job or occupation for which you are ideally suited comes before anything else. If you try to work at something you don't enjoy or don't believe in, you'll never be happy, and you'll never be successful.
Be the Best At What You Do
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to "be the best." Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here's a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you're worth - no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others
The Key to Motivation
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you're doing, you can't move ahead.
The Key to Peak Performance
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to be more successful in your career.
First, set high standards for yourself and recognize that anything that someone else has achieved, you can probably achieve as well. There are no limits.
Second, select one key skill area that is important in your job and resolve to become absolutely excellent in that area. Start today to get better and better
Afraid To Decide On Your Career?
Fear can paralyze us and prevent us from making good decisions. The unknown scares us and stands in our way of success. As an employment counsellor, I saw many people afraid to take the risk of making a career change and remained in unsatisfying jobs as a result of their fears.
Risks are something we take every day, sometimes without noticing. When you get in your car, do you determine the risk of getting involved in an accident? When you go for a winter walk, do you worry about falling on the ice? If we let fear rule our lives, we would never enjoy a summer drive, or be invigorated by a stroll on a crisp day. Most of us realize that we have the confidence to do things because the risk is limited. How can we have the same confidence when we decide to change careers?
1. Gather Information: The more you know about something, the easier to determine the degree of risk in the venture.
Fortunately, we live in the Information Age where we can access data quickly. Conduct research on the Internet, at your local library, from government-sponsored institutions, and by talking to experts.
Always be aware that there are going to be negatives as well as positive feedback, and you need to analyze the info carefully. Where is the data coming from? Is the source reliable? What is the person's expertise? It amazes me when I hear people discount excellent opportunities just because a friend said not to get involved, when that friend had no actual knowledge about the thing in question!
Weigh opinions carefully and make a decision only after you have enough information gathered to make a sound judgement.
2. Financial Risk: Consider how much you are willing to invest. I have seen many people keep throwing good money after bad, when they need to have a limit set on how much they can afford to put into a project. Other people refuse to invest a dime, with the mindset they can get something for nothing. Chances are if you buy a diamond ring for a dime, you get a piece of glass worth 10 cents! Sound business management nearly always involves some investment of time, energy and money. Do not believe the promises of quick schemes without investigating the product and determining if you can afford it!
3. Does It Suit Your Interest: In the book, "What Color Is Your Parachute" by Richard Nelson Bolles, I read about a study of careers. One group entered a career based on the idea that they would become rich because of it, while the other study group pursued their passion. Years later it was determined that the ones who had done what they loved were nearly 100% successful in that field, while only 10% of those who were seeking wealth had actually attained it. The moral of the story is to do what interests you and what you enjoy and the rewards are more likely to follow. I chose my home business selling travel memberships, because I love to travel and people I talk with usually respond to my enthusiasm. Your success should be measured as much in happiness as it is in wealth.
4. Determine How the Decision Will Affect Your Life: How is the decision going to affect your time, energy, finances and family time? Make a list of all the benefits as well as the disadvantages. Is this a long term commitment, or short-term? What sorts of things will you need to account for before the idea will work for you?
5. Finally, Plan: Set goals, save ahead if necessary, and plan how to meet targets.
Fear can be overcome when a person looks at keeping the risks minimal. Do not lose out on a chance to change your life just because it is new or challenging. Weigh the risks, and become one of the successful people who seeks to find something more than ordinary for their life.
Risks are something we take every day, sometimes without noticing. When you get in your car, do you determine the risk of getting involved in an accident? When you go for a winter walk, do you worry about falling on the ice? If we let fear rule our lives, we would never enjoy a summer drive, or be invigorated by a stroll on a crisp day. Most of us realize that we have the confidence to do things because the risk is limited. How can we have the same confidence when we decide to change careers?
1. Gather Information: The more you know about something, the easier to determine the degree of risk in the venture.
Fortunately, we live in the Information Age where we can access data quickly. Conduct research on the Internet, at your local library, from government-sponsored institutions, and by talking to experts.
Always be aware that there are going to be negatives as well as positive feedback, and you need to analyze the info carefully. Where is the data coming from? Is the source reliable? What is the person's expertise? It amazes me when I hear people discount excellent opportunities just because a friend said not to get involved, when that friend had no actual knowledge about the thing in question!
Weigh opinions carefully and make a decision only after you have enough information gathered to make a sound judgement.
2. Financial Risk: Consider how much you are willing to invest. I have seen many people keep throwing good money after bad, when they need to have a limit set on how much they can afford to put into a project. Other people refuse to invest a dime, with the mindset they can get something for nothing. Chances are if you buy a diamond ring for a dime, you get a piece of glass worth 10 cents! Sound business management nearly always involves some investment of time, energy and money. Do not believe the promises of quick schemes without investigating the product and determining if you can afford it!
3. Does It Suit Your Interest: In the book, "What Color Is Your Parachute" by Richard Nelson Bolles, I read about a study of careers. One group entered a career based on the idea that they would become rich because of it, while the other study group pursued their passion. Years later it was determined that the ones who had done what they loved were nearly 100% successful in that field, while only 10% of those who were seeking wealth had actually attained it. The moral of the story is to do what interests you and what you enjoy and the rewards are more likely to follow. I chose my home business selling travel memberships, because I love to travel and people I talk with usually respond to my enthusiasm. Your success should be measured as much in happiness as it is in wealth.
4. Determine How the Decision Will Affect Your Life: How is the decision going to affect your time, energy, finances and family time? Make a list of all the benefits as well as the disadvantages. Is this a long term commitment, or short-term? What sorts of things will you need to account for before the idea will work for you?
5. Finally, Plan: Set goals, save ahead if necessary, and plan how to meet targets.
Fear can be overcome when a person looks at keeping the risks minimal. Do not lose out on a chance to change your life just because it is new or challenging. Weigh the risks, and become one of the successful people who seeks to find something more than ordinary for their life.
Don't Lose Money!
Throughout the history of American enterprise, you've heard the words, "work hard and save your money." Work hard and save your money. It is the oldest rule for success in America. It's so important, as a matter of fact, that W. Clement Stone once said, "if you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you."
Saving Is a Discipline
Why is it that saving money is so important? Because saving money is a discipline and any discipline affects all other disciplines in your life. If you do not have the discipline to refrain from spending all the money that you earn, then you are not qualified to become wealthy and if you do become wealthy, you'll not be capable of holding on to it.
The Law of Attraction
A principle with regard to saving your money is the law of attraction. The law of attraction is activated by saved money. Even one dollar saved will start to attract more money. Here's what I suggest that you do. If you're really serious about your future, go down and open a savings account. Put as much money as you can into it, even if it's only ten dollars. And then begin to collect little bits of money, and every week go down and put something into that account.
Attract More Money Into Your Life
You will find that the more you put in that account, the more you will attract from sources that you cannot now predict. But if you do not begin the savings process, if you don't begin putting something away towards your financial independence, then nothing will happen to you. The law of attraction just simply won't work.
Invest Your Money Conservatively
Once you begin to accumulate money, here's another rule. Invest the money conservatively. Marvin Davis, self-made billionaire, was asked by Forbes Magazine, "How do you account for your financial success?" And he said, "Well, I have two rules for financial investing." He said, "Rule number one is, don't lose money." He said, whenever I'm tempted, whenever I see an opportunity to invest where there's a possibility I could lose it all, I just simply refrain from putting the money in. Rule number two is, whenever I get tempted, I refer back to rule number one. Don't lose money.
Get Rich Slowly
George Classon says, in The Richest Man In Babylon, that the key is to accumulate your funds and then invest them very conservatively. One of the characteristics of self-made millionaires, one of the characteristics of old money in America is that it's very cautiously, conservatively and prudently invested.
Don't try to get rich quickly. Concentrate rather on getting rich slowly. If all you do is save ten percent of your earnings, put it away, and let it accumulate at compound interest, that alone will make you wealthy.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply these lessons to your financial life:
First, open a separate savings and investing account today. From this day forward, put every single dollar you can spare into this account and resolve to never touch it or spend it for any reason.
Second, whenever you consider any investment of your savings, remember the rule, "Don't lose money!" It is better to keep the money working at a low rate of interest than to take the chance of losing it. Be careful. A fool and his money are soon parted.
Saving Is a Discipline
Why is it that saving money is so important? Because saving money is a discipline and any discipline affects all other disciplines in your life. If you do not have the discipline to refrain from spending all the money that you earn, then you are not qualified to become wealthy and if you do become wealthy, you'll not be capable of holding on to it.
The Law of Attraction
A principle with regard to saving your money is the law of attraction. The law of attraction is activated by saved money. Even one dollar saved will start to attract more money. Here's what I suggest that you do. If you're really serious about your future, go down and open a savings account. Put as much money as you can into it, even if it's only ten dollars. And then begin to collect little bits of money, and every week go down and put something into that account.
Attract More Money Into Your Life
You will find that the more you put in that account, the more you will attract from sources that you cannot now predict. But if you do not begin the savings process, if you don't begin putting something away towards your financial independence, then nothing will happen to you. The law of attraction just simply won't work.
Invest Your Money Conservatively
Once you begin to accumulate money, here's another rule. Invest the money conservatively. Marvin Davis, self-made billionaire, was asked by Forbes Magazine, "How do you account for your financial success?" And he said, "Well, I have two rules for financial investing." He said, "Rule number one is, don't lose money." He said, whenever I'm tempted, whenever I see an opportunity to invest where there's a possibility I could lose it all, I just simply refrain from putting the money in. Rule number two is, whenever I get tempted, I refer back to rule number one. Don't lose money.
Get Rich Slowly
George Classon says, in The Richest Man In Babylon, that the key is to accumulate your funds and then invest them very conservatively. One of the characteristics of self-made millionaires, one of the characteristics of old money in America is that it's very cautiously, conservatively and prudently invested.
Don't try to get rich quickly. Concentrate rather on getting rich slowly. If all you do is save ten percent of your earnings, put it away, and let it accumulate at compound interest, that alone will make you wealthy.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply these lessons to your financial life:
First, open a separate savings and investing account today. From this day forward, put every single dollar you can spare into this account and resolve to never touch it or spend it for any reason.
Second, whenever you consider any investment of your savings, remember the rule, "Don't lose money!" It is better to keep the money working at a low rate of interest than to take the chance of losing it. Be careful. A fool and his money are soon parted.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Staying power
EMPLOYERS worldwide are frantically trying to hold on to their best employees even as they try to find and recruit the best available talent in the marketplace.
What is the cause of this challenging problem and is it a new phenomenon or a recurring circumstance?
Why the crunch
As a trainer and professional speaker who has conducted programmes worldwide for many years, I know of a variety of causes or contributors to this current talent crunch.
Here are a few of the more obvious ones:
The relentless march and increasing speed of technology and its impact on society and individuals;
The increasing cost of living in developed and progressive countries;
An ageing population in many countries;
An increasing lack of employee loyalty
The desire for control over one’s life and destiny;
The desire of many organisations to increase their offerings of products and services;
The desire of people to go wherever there is opportunity;
The increasing unwillingness of people to take on entry-level positions; and
The desire of many organisations to have an increasing presence either locally or internationally or both.
I don’t see any of these circumstances changing in the near future.
So if you are an employer – regardless of your organisation’s size, history or growth plans – or if you are considering starting a new business or enterprise, it is important to develop and maintain a clear, workable and effective strategy and process for keeping your best talent and finding new employees.
This will help you to continue to grow your business profitably and consistently.
What employees want
What people want has not changed in hundreds of years. However, finding it is becoming increasingly difficult.
People around the world all want the same things, regardless of their country, religion, gender, age, career and/or marital status.
They want inner peace, happiness and to maintain control of their lives and outcomes. Many feel that these wants are gradually being eroded in the workplace, so it should be no surprise that employees everywhere are:
starting their own businesses;
looking for better financial opportunities;
retiring earlier;
staying with their current employer but losing productivity and effectiveness;
losing loyalty and commitment to their current employer;
developing a more self-centred approach or personal agendas and concerns about their futures; or
becoming more independent in their thinking and behaviour.
What employers can do
If you are an employer, what is the answer to this ongoing and growing problem? I would like to share my thoughts on a few fundamentals:
1 Corporate culture
It is critical that your organisation become an “employer of choice”.
This involves developing, fostering and maintaining a positive corporate culture.
To do this, you must be willing to empower employees at every level of the organisation.
Learn to give more positive recognition and appreciation to each employee regardless of his status or position.
Treat all employees fairly, regardless of their gender, cultural background, age or experience.
Create an environment of inclusion not exclusion.
2 Decisions
Drive decision-making further down the corporate ladder.
Stay in touch with the reality of your business, your markets and your customers’ needs and expectations.
Your managers must keep their egos out of critical decisions, actions and behaviours. They must learn to validate their subordinates.
If you want employees to trust and respect you, do the same to them first. Keep the lines of communication open in all directions throughout your organisation.
3 Vision
Share your vision with all your employees and encourage the bottom-up flow of information.
Senior managers must get out from behind their desks and talk to employees.
As an employer of choice, you must listen without prejudice and clouded perceptions.
Put as many resources in developing your people as you do in upgrading your furniture and other supplies.
Set a clear direction for your organisation and share this with your employees.
Create a culture that blends the right amounts of accountability and responsibility.
If you want to be one of the survivors during the coming decade or decades, you will have to embrace these changes willingly and diligently.
What is the cause of this challenging problem and is it a new phenomenon or a recurring circumstance?
Why the crunch
As a trainer and professional speaker who has conducted programmes worldwide for many years, I know of a variety of causes or contributors to this current talent crunch.
Here are a few of the more obvious ones:
The relentless march and increasing speed of technology and its impact on society and individuals;
The increasing cost of living in developed and progressive countries;
An ageing population in many countries;
An increasing lack of employee loyalty
The desire for control over one’s life and destiny;
The desire of many organisations to increase their offerings of products and services;
The desire of people to go wherever there is opportunity;
The increasing unwillingness of people to take on entry-level positions; and
The desire of many organisations to have an increasing presence either locally or internationally or both.
I don’t see any of these circumstances changing in the near future.
So if you are an employer – regardless of your organisation’s size, history or growth plans – or if you are considering starting a new business or enterprise, it is important to develop and maintain a clear, workable and effective strategy and process for keeping your best talent and finding new employees.
This will help you to continue to grow your business profitably and consistently.
What employees want
What people want has not changed in hundreds of years. However, finding it is becoming increasingly difficult.
People around the world all want the same things, regardless of their country, religion, gender, age, career and/or marital status.
They want inner peace, happiness and to maintain control of their lives and outcomes. Many feel that these wants are gradually being eroded in the workplace, so it should be no surprise that employees everywhere are:
starting their own businesses;
looking for better financial opportunities;
retiring earlier;
staying with their current employer but losing productivity and effectiveness;
losing loyalty and commitment to their current employer;
developing a more self-centred approach or personal agendas and concerns about their futures; or
becoming more independent in their thinking and behaviour.
What employers can do
If you are an employer, what is the answer to this ongoing and growing problem? I would like to share my thoughts on a few fundamentals:
1 Corporate culture
It is critical that your organisation become an “employer of choice”.
This involves developing, fostering and maintaining a positive corporate culture.
To do this, you must be willing to empower employees at every level of the organisation.
Learn to give more positive recognition and appreciation to each employee regardless of his status or position.
Treat all employees fairly, regardless of their gender, cultural background, age or experience.
Create an environment of inclusion not exclusion.
2 Decisions
Drive decision-making further down the corporate ladder.
Stay in touch with the reality of your business, your markets and your customers’ needs and expectations.
Your managers must keep their egos out of critical decisions, actions and behaviours. They must learn to validate their subordinates.
If you want employees to trust and respect you, do the same to them first. Keep the lines of communication open in all directions throughout your organisation.
3 Vision
Share your vision with all your employees and encourage the bottom-up flow of information.
Senior managers must get out from behind their desks and talk to employees.
As an employer of choice, you must listen without prejudice and clouded perceptions.
Put as many resources in developing your people as you do in upgrading your furniture and other supplies.
Set a clear direction for your organisation and share this with your employees.
Create a culture that blends the right amounts of accountability and responsibility.
If you want to be one of the survivors during the coming decade or decades, you will have to embrace these changes willingly and diligently.
Make innovation work for you
EVERY five years or so, each managerial generation discovers the mantra of innovation as a basic way of generating new growth, motivating an organisation and creating new streams of revenue.
As Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE (General Electric), says: “The only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies in the future is their ability to innovate and their ability to differentiate.”
However, these innovation programmes, exciting though they are, always seem to founder on the organisational rocks of bureaucratic inertia, risk avoidance, lack of leadership, lack of skills to manage change and the oldest trap of all, resistance to change. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” is the common cry from these resisters.
Here are five great enablers to help your organisation nurture innovation.
1 Leadership that leads
Walk the talk. Be an innovator yourself in the way you work, act and think. But above all, remove the barriers to innovation in your company.
Create an environment where problems are addressed without blaming or scapegoating, some decisions are decentralised and there is flexibility.
Sony used to have a policy where 25 per cent of their researchers’ time was spent on their own personal projects. It led to the Walkman.
2 Steal a good idea
In Proctor and Gamble, it is called “search and re-apply”. This is the simple technique of using a process or idea developed in one part of the organisation and applying it in a different country or with a different product.
As Thomas Edison said: “Most of my ideas belonged to other people who never bothered to develop them.” So go and connect the seemingly unconnected.
People with a narrow span of search are thinking within the tramlines and boundaries of their own industry. Look outside your own company. Look outside your own field. There are connections between every other industry in the world and yours. All you have to do is look hard enough.
3 Sacred cows make the best hamburgers
One of the greatest barriers to innovation is our own assumptions, those false conclusions and beliefs that tell us what is possible and what is not.
It’s why the professors at Fred Smith’s college only gave him a ‘C’ on a paper describing the idea for an overnight package delivery service. He went on to found FedEx and the rest is history.
Examine your assumptions about your business. What business are you in? Could you do something different? What’s your biggest business challenge? What assumptions have you made about it? Brainstorm some answers by questioning yourself, your own beliefs and your best people.
4 Make a difference
Schedule regular thinking times for creative thinking. Don’t muddle around hoping for a great idea to strike like a bolt of lightning. Work at it.
Get your best people together to brainstorm regularly. Get out of the office. Study the habits of great creative thinkers like Edison or Einstein.
Above all, acquire the habit of thinking creatively. We all know that a habit can be acquired through repetition. Why not make creative thinking a habit in your organisation?
5 Explore every idea
Innovation doesn’t have to be about completely big ideas, new inventions or dazzling new products. Little improvements can make a big difference. And these small ideas usually lie in the people of a company.
It could be a small change in the production line. For example, a chocolate manufacturer spent thousands of hours working out how to design a machine to move a bar of chocolate from a vertical to a horizontal plane.
One day, a designer was walking along the line. He watched one of the workers holding a pencil that hit the bar in exactly the right place and the bar toppled over. Problem solved.
Stay the course
Implement these tips correctly and your organisation is on the road to creating a truly innovative company. But remember, it’s just a start. The road is long and winding, and there are many divergent paths and obstacles that will tempt you from your goal.
Stay the course, though. If you or your organisation just stands still, you are going to fall behind the competition.
Remember the typewriter, black and white televisions, Wang computers? Where are they now? On the scrapheap of innovation. Make sure innovation works to grow your company — not kill it.
As Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE (General Electric), says: “The only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies in the future is their ability to innovate and their ability to differentiate.”
However, these innovation programmes, exciting though they are, always seem to founder on the organisational rocks of bureaucratic inertia, risk avoidance, lack of leadership, lack of skills to manage change and the oldest trap of all, resistance to change. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” is the common cry from these resisters.
Here are five great enablers to help your organisation nurture innovation.
1 Leadership that leads
Walk the talk. Be an innovator yourself in the way you work, act and think. But above all, remove the barriers to innovation in your company.
Create an environment where problems are addressed without blaming or scapegoating, some decisions are decentralised and there is flexibility.
Sony used to have a policy where 25 per cent of their researchers’ time was spent on their own personal projects. It led to the Walkman.
2 Steal a good idea
In Proctor and Gamble, it is called “search and re-apply”. This is the simple technique of using a process or idea developed in one part of the organisation and applying it in a different country or with a different product.
As Thomas Edison said: “Most of my ideas belonged to other people who never bothered to develop them.” So go and connect the seemingly unconnected.
People with a narrow span of search are thinking within the tramlines and boundaries of their own industry. Look outside your own company. Look outside your own field. There are connections between every other industry in the world and yours. All you have to do is look hard enough.
3 Sacred cows make the best hamburgers
One of the greatest barriers to innovation is our own assumptions, those false conclusions and beliefs that tell us what is possible and what is not.
It’s why the professors at Fred Smith’s college only gave him a ‘C’ on a paper describing the idea for an overnight package delivery service. He went on to found FedEx and the rest is history.
Examine your assumptions about your business. What business are you in? Could you do something different? What’s your biggest business challenge? What assumptions have you made about it? Brainstorm some answers by questioning yourself, your own beliefs and your best people.
4 Make a difference
Schedule regular thinking times for creative thinking. Don’t muddle around hoping for a great idea to strike like a bolt of lightning. Work at it.
Get your best people together to brainstorm regularly. Get out of the office. Study the habits of great creative thinkers like Edison or Einstein.
Above all, acquire the habit of thinking creatively. We all know that a habit can be acquired through repetition. Why not make creative thinking a habit in your organisation?
5 Explore every idea
Innovation doesn’t have to be about completely big ideas, new inventions or dazzling new products. Little improvements can make a big difference. And these small ideas usually lie in the people of a company.
It could be a small change in the production line. For example, a chocolate manufacturer spent thousands of hours working out how to design a machine to move a bar of chocolate from a vertical to a horizontal plane.
One day, a designer was walking along the line. He watched one of the workers holding a pencil that hit the bar in exactly the right place and the bar toppled over. Problem solved.
Stay the course
Implement these tips correctly and your organisation is on the road to creating a truly innovative company. But remember, it’s just a start. The road is long and winding, and there are many divergent paths and obstacles that will tempt you from your goal.
Stay the course, though. If you or your organisation just stands still, you are going to fall behind the competition.
Remember the typewriter, black and white televisions, Wang computers? Where are they now? On the scrapheap of innovation. Make sure innovation works to grow your company — not kill it.
One Thing You Can't Hide
One of the most important traits of all motivators at work is consideration. Employees report that the best managers they ever had were people who cared about them as people and as friends. These managers took the time to ask them questions about their lives, and to listen patiently while they talked about the dilemmas and problems and situations in their families. The more that the employees felt that the boss liked them and respected them, the more empowered and motivated they felt.
Caring is the Key
The flip side of this motivator is the de-motivating feeling that the boss doesn't care. This is almost invariably expressed in a lack of recognition, a lack of approval, a lack of appreciation and a general failure to pay attention to the employee over time.
Spend Time Listening
Remember, the amount of time that you spend talking to and listening to an employee is a signal to that employee that he or she is important to you and to the company. This is why the very best bosses spend a lot of time walking around and chatting with their employees. They sit with them for lunch and coffee. They invite their comments and encourage open discussion and disagreements about work. They create an environment where people feel that the work belongs to them as well as to the company. In that environment, employees feel good about themselves and more fully committed to doing the job and doing it well
Become A Positive Person
To empower and motivate your customers, your suppliers, your bankers and so on, you simply need to be a genuine, positive and cheerful person. You develop a positive mental attitude. You be the kind of person from whom, "never is heard a discouraging word." You are easygoing, genial, friendly, patient, tolerant and open minded. You make people feel comfortable being around you.
Emotions Determine Everything
Remember, everyone is primarily emotional. Everything that people do, or refrain from doing, is triggered by their deeper emotions. Your job is to connect with their higher and more positive emotions so they feel so good about you they want to help you and please you in some way.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, get out of your office and go among your friends and coworkers. Ask them about their personal lives and concerns, and then listen carefully to the answer.
Second, resolve to be a genuinely positive person under all circumstances. Be the kind of person people feel happy being around and working for
Caring is the Key
The flip side of this motivator is the de-motivating feeling that the boss doesn't care. This is almost invariably expressed in a lack of recognition, a lack of approval, a lack of appreciation and a general failure to pay attention to the employee over time.
Spend Time Listening
Remember, the amount of time that you spend talking to and listening to an employee is a signal to that employee that he or she is important to you and to the company. This is why the very best bosses spend a lot of time walking around and chatting with their employees. They sit with them for lunch and coffee. They invite their comments and encourage open discussion and disagreements about work. They create an environment where people feel that the work belongs to them as well as to the company. In that environment, employees feel good about themselves and more fully committed to doing the job and doing it well
Become A Positive Person
To empower and motivate your customers, your suppliers, your bankers and so on, you simply need to be a genuine, positive and cheerful person. You develop a positive mental attitude. You be the kind of person from whom, "never is heard a discouraging word." You are easygoing, genial, friendly, patient, tolerant and open minded. You make people feel comfortable being around you.
Emotions Determine Everything
Remember, everyone is primarily emotional. Everything that people do, or refrain from doing, is triggered by their deeper emotions. Your job is to connect with their higher and more positive emotions so they feel so good about you they want to help you and please you in some way.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, get out of your office and go among your friends and coworkers. Ask them about their personal lives and concerns, and then listen carefully to the answer.
Second, resolve to be a genuinely positive person under all circumstances. Be the kind of person people feel happy being around and working for
Increasing Your Value
Your goal is to organize your life in such a way that you enjoy a good income, a high standard of living, and that you are the master of your economic destiny rather than a victim of changing economic times.
Contribution is the Key
Your job is an opportunity to contribute a value to your company in excess of your cost. In its simplest terms, your job is as secure as your ability to render value in excess of what it costs to keep you on the payroll. If you want to earn more money at your current job, you have to increase your value, your contribution to the enterprise.
Add Value Every Day
If you want to get a new job, you have to find a way to contribute value to that enterprise. If you want any kind of job security, you must continually work at maintaining and increasing your value in the competitive marketplace.
And here's a key point. Your education, knowledge, skills and experience all are investments in your ability to contribute a value for which you can be paid. But they are like any other investments. They are highly speculative.
Knowledge and Education Are Sunk Costs
Once you have learned a subject or developed a skill, it is a sunk cost. It is time and money spent that you cannot get back. No employer in the marketplace has any obligation to pay you for it, unless he can use your skill to produce a product or service that people are ready to buy, today.
Prepare For Your Next Job
Whatever job you are doing, you should be preparing for your next job. And the key question is always: Where are the customers? Which businesses and industries are growing in this economy, and which ones are declining?
Where is the Future?
I continually meet people who ask me how they can increase their income when their entire industry is shrinking. I tell them that there are jobs with futures and there are jobs without futures, and they need to get into a field that is expanding, not contracting.
Never Be Without A Job
There are three forms of unemployment in America: voluntary, involuntary, and frictional. Voluntary employment exists when a person decides not to work for a certain period of time, or not to accept a particular type of job, hoping that something better will come along. Involuntary unemployment exists when a person is willing and able to work but cannot find a job anywhere. Frictional unemployment is the natural level; this includes the approximately 4 or 5 percent of the working population who are between jobs at any given time.
Three Keys to Lifelong Employment
However, there are always jobs for the creative minority. You never have to be unemployed if you will do one of three things: change the work that you are offering to do, change the place where you are offering to work, or change the amount that you are asking for your services. You should consider one or more of these three strategies whenever you are dissatisfied with your current work situation.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, look around you at your current job and find ways to create added value every day. There's always something more you can do.
Second, identify the kind of work you want to be doing in the future and then make a plan to develop the knowledge and skills you will require to do it well
Contribution is the Key
Your job is an opportunity to contribute a value to your company in excess of your cost. In its simplest terms, your job is as secure as your ability to render value in excess of what it costs to keep you on the payroll. If you want to earn more money at your current job, you have to increase your value, your contribution to the enterprise.
Add Value Every Day
If you want to get a new job, you have to find a way to contribute value to that enterprise. If you want any kind of job security, you must continually work at maintaining and increasing your value in the competitive marketplace.
And here's a key point. Your education, knowledge, skills and experience all are investments in your ability to contribute a value for which you can be paid. But they are like any other investments. They are highly speculative.
Knowledge and Education Are Sunk Costs
Once you have learned a subject or developed a skill, it is a sunk cost. It is time and money spent that you cannot get back. No employer in the marketplace has any obligation to pay you for it, unless he can use your skill to produce a product or service that people are ready to buy, today.
Prepare For Your Next Job
Whatever job you are doing, you should be preparing for your next job. And the key question is always: Where are the customers? Which businesses and industries are growing in this economy, and which ones are declining?
Where is the Future?
I continually meet people who ask me how they can increase their income when their entire industry is shrinking. I tell them that there are jobs with futures and there are jobs without futures, and they need to get into a field that is expanding, not contracting.
Never Be Without A Job
There are three forms of unemployment in America: voluntary, involuntary, and frictional. Voluntary employment exists when a person decides not to work for a certain period of time, or not to accept a particular type of job, hoping that something better will come along. Involuntary unemployment exists when a person is willing and able to work but cannot find a job anywhere. Frictional unemployment is the natural level; this includes the approximately 4 or 5 percent of the working population who are between jobs at any given time.
Three Keys to Lifelong Employment
However, there are always jobs for the creative minority. You never have to be unemployed if you will do one of three things: change the work that you are offering to do, change the place where you are offering to work, or change the amount that you are asking for your services. You should consider one or more of these three strategies whenever you are dissatisfied with your current work situation.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, look around you at your current job and find ways to create added value every day. There's always something more you can do.
Second, identify the kind of work you want to be doing in the future and then make a plan to develop the knowledge and skills you will require to do it well
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Secrets of success
As a career management professional, I am often asked: “How can I ensure career success?”
While there is no single method to achieve this objective, here are some things you can do to get on the right path:
1 Regular activity
Successful career planning is not a one-time activity but a lifelong process. Mapping your career will help you to track your progress. Your interests, hobbies, transferable skills and past accomplishments are all clues to opportunities that may be awaiting you in the future.
Defining your career goals clearly will help you to align them to career trends. Once you regularly review and plan your career, you will be better prepared for whatever lies ahead.
2 Winning attitude
The happiest and most successful people see themselves as winners and maintain an optimistic outlook as they move toward their goals.
Unhappy and unsuccessful people often have a pessimistic outlook on life. They lack confidence and have a deep-rooted belief that they cannot do much or do it well. They do not realise they are advertising themselves as losers.
So develop a winning mindset and you will be on the path to a successful career.
3 Move on
Never become too comfortable in your current job. If you have been in the same job for three years or more and you are doing similar, if not the same, work, then ask yourself whether you are learning new skills or enhancing your competency?
To experience the best of life, seize opportunities as they arise. Never get stuck in your “comfort zone”. If opportunity comes knocking, grab it.
4 Positive values
True winners live by the virtues of fairness and decency. To succeed in the long term, you must know what’s right and wrong, and you must use these standards of behaviour every day in your business and personal life.
Adhering to a strong code of positive values will make your life productive, fulfilling and profitable. These are also traits that employers value.
5 Turn pain into gain
No life is free from suffering. When hard times cause anguish, there is no point in becoming bitter. Winners face suffering head-on and try to turn the pain into gain.
Develop your career resilience. If you are retrenched or made redundant, use the time to learn new skills while looking for a job.
Offer to do voluntary work while waiting for a job offer to come through. Don’t look at the door that was shut. Focus on opening new doors.
6 Learn to laugh
Cultivate and maintain a sense of humour. Humour cleanses the spirit, lightens your burdens and keeps you from taking yourself too seriously. Learn to smile and laugh more.
Find happiness in doing the tasks assigned to you, no matter how difficult, demanding or challenging. Developing this ability to smile will help others to see your “can do” attitude, a commodity employers treasure.
7 Help others
The most satisfied people are those who help others. Offer to mentor your juniors or new hires.
Find time to do something for the community or a voluntary organisation. By working in the community, you not only hone some of your work skills but also may be noticed by those who can influence your career advancement and success.
Career success involves many ingredients. Getting the right mix is not easy. Be positive and optimistic, diligent and dedicated at work, offer to go the extra mile and help the community, remain cheerful in the face of challenging tasks and maintain a winner’s mindset, and career success will find you.
While there is no single method to achieve this objective, here are some things you can do to get on the right path:
1 Regular activity
Successful career planning is not a one-time activity but a lifelong process. Mapping your career will help you to track your progress. Your interests, hobbies, transferable skills and past accomplishments are all clues to opportunities that may be awaiting you in the future.
Defining your career goals clearly will help you to align them to career trends. Once you regularly review and plan your career, you will be better prepared for whatever lies ahead.
2 Winning attitude
The happiest and most successful people see themselves as winners and maintain an optimistic outlook as they move toward their goals.
Unhappy and unsuccessful people often have a pessimistic outlook on life. They lack confidence and have a deep-rooted belief that they cannot do much or do it well. They do not realise they are advertising themselves as losers.
So develop a winning mindset and you will be on the path to a successful career.
3 Move on
Never become too comfortable in your current job. If you have been in the same job for three years or more and you are doing similar, if not the same, work, then ask yourself whether you are learning new skills or enhancing your competency?
To experience the best of life, seize opportunities as they arise. Never get stuck in your “comfort zone”. If opportunity comes knocking, grab it.
4 Positive values
True winners live by the virtues of fairness and decency. To succeed in the long term, you must know what’s right and wrong, and you must use these standards of behaviour every day in your business and personal life.
Adhering to a strong code of positive values will make your life productive, fulfilling and profitable. These are also traits that employers value.
5 Turn pain into gain
No life is free from suffering. When hard times cause anguish, there is no point in becoming bitter. Winners face suffering head-on and try to turn the pain into gain.
Develop your career resilience. If you are retrenched or made redundant, use the time to learn new skills while looking for a job.
Offer to do voluntary work while waiting for a job offer to come through. Don’t look at the door that was shut. Focus on opening new doors.
6 Learn to laugh
Cultivate and maintain a sense of humour. Humour cleanses the spirit, lightens your burdens and keeps you from taking yourself too seriously. Learn to smile and laugh more.
Find happiness in doing the tasks assigned to you, no matter how difficult, demanding or challenging. Developing this ability to smile will help others to see your “can do” attitude, a commodity employers treasure.
7 Help others
The most satisfied people are those who help others. Offer to mentor your juniors or new hires.
Find time to do something for the community or a voluntary organisation. By working in the community, you not only hone some of your work skills but also may be noticed by those who can influence your career advancement and success.
Career success involves many ingredients. Getting the right mix is not easy. Be positive and optimistic, diligent and dedicated at work, offer to go the extra mile and help the community, remain cheerful in the face of challenging tasks and maintain a winner’s mindset, and career success will find you.
Learn and Apply
The toughest thing about translating the theory of financial planning and investment science into practice is figuring out what concrete actions should be taken today.
So, let me share four vital strategies you should implement immediately or, if you’re already doing so, which you can easily teach others:
1. Exercise Delayed Gratification
Unless you're retired, I urge you to increasingly exercise delayed gratification. This, in essence, means suppressing your appetite for products and services so that you can set aside more money.
Succeeding here boils down to your willingness to give up what is good today in return for something far better tomorrow. Which, incidentally, is why I drive a Proton car. To many people, such behaviour is idiosyncratic, but in defence of my sanity, I admit I keep my car in near mint condition. My strategy is to use funds that could be used for a more socially acceptable car (like a BMW or a Mercedes) to, instead, build my businesses.
None of us, not even Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, can afford everything we want! We all must make choices.
So, identify your priorities. Then, reduce personal expenditure in non-critical areas so you can focus your financial resources like an industrial laser that’s sculpting your preferred future from a steel slab of uncertainty.
2. Establish An Emergency Buffer
For most people, a conscious reduction in expenditure is tolerated to allow increased investing. But before doing so, you should save aggressively.
That’s why I urge my clients to work toward achieving a 40% to 50% savings rate, even if it takes them several years of painstakingly ratcheting up their savings from perhaps just 1% or 2% of their net salary.
Your first, most important, layer of savings should be your emergency buffer. This is a cushion of cash kept primarily in bank accounts, although money market and bond funds may be used for a small portion of it.
In essence, your buffer is measured in “months of normal expenses.” If you’re employed, construct a buffer of between 3 and 6 months’ expenses. If you’re self-employed, your range should be between 6 and 12 months’. The more secure you are in your job or business, the smaller your buffer can be.
Remember: Your buffer is for emergencies! A sale at Suria KLCC is not an emergency. Your father needing surgery is.
3. Diversify Your Investments
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (or investment portfolio). Those “eggs,” are most commonly cash (in banks and in your EPF accounts), money market funds, income funds, equity funds, direct equity holdings, paper derivatives like warrants and options, and rental real estate.
Ideally, you want to stuff your portfolio with assets exhibiting negative correlations to each other, which means if some items go up in value, others should drop and vice versa.
4. Build A Virtuous Money Cycle
If you’re starting from scratch, commit at least 15 years toward the goal of achieving financial freedom – the state of having your portfolio of investments (and possibly businesses not needing your personal attention) spinning off, like a centrifuge, enough passive income to cover all expenses.
The best way to begin building your money cycle is to follow my three earlier steps. Then make a firm commitment to reject conventional wisdom that says you must always work for your money. Eventually, your money should work ceaselessly, tirelessly, and effectively for you.
So, let me share four vital strategies you should implement immediately or, if you’re already doing so, which you can easily teach others:
1. Exercise Delayed Gratification
Unless you're retired, I urge you to increasingly exercise delayed gratification. This, in essence, means suppressing your appetite for products and services so that you can set aside more money.
Succeeding here boils down to your willingness to give up what is good today in return for something far better tomorrow. Which, incidentally, is why I drive a Proton car. To many people, such behaviour is idiosyncratic, but in defence of my sanity, I admit I keep my car in near mint condition. My strategy is to use funds that could be used for a more socially acceptable car (like a BMW or a Mercedes) to, instead, build my businesses.
None of us, not even Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, can afford everything we want! We all must make choices.
So, identify your priorities. Then, reduce personal expenditure in non-critical areas so you can focus your financial resources like an industrial laser that’s sculpting your preferred future from a steel slab of uncertainty.
2. Establish An Emergency Buffer
For most people, a conscious reduction in expenditure is tolerated to allow increased investing. But before doing so, you should save aggressively.
That’s why I urge my clients to work toward achieving a 40% to 50% savings rate, even if it takes them several years of painstakingly ratcheting up their savings from perhaps just 1% or 2% of their net salary.
Your first, most important, layer of savings should be your emergency buffer. This is a cushion of cash kept primarily in bank accounts, although money market and bond funds may be used for a small portion of it.
In essence, your buffer is measured in “months of normal expenses.” If you’re employed, construct a buffer of between 3 and 6 months’ expenses. If you’re self-employed, your range should be between 6 and 12 months’. The more secure you are in your job or business, the smaller your buffer can be.
Remember: Your buffer is for emergencies! A sale at Suria KLCC is not an emergency. Your father needing surgery is.
3. Diversify Your Investments
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (or investment portfolio). Those “eggs,” are most commonly cash (in banks and in your EPF accounts), money market funds, income funds, equity funds, direct equity holdings, paper derivatives like warrants and options, and rental real estate.
Ideally, you want to stuff your portfolio with assets exhibiting negative correlations to each other, which means if some items go up in value, others should drop and vice versa.
4. Build A Virtuous Money Cycle
If you’re starting from scratch, commit at least 15 years toward the goal of achieving financial freedom – the state of having your portfolio of investments (and possibly businesses not needing your personal attention) spinning off, like a centrifuge, enough passive income to cover all expenses.
The best way to begin building your money cycle is to follow my three earlier steps. Then make a firm commitment to reject conventional wisdom that says you must always work for your money. Eventually, your money should work ceaselessly, tirelessly, and effectively for you.
DESTINATION: SUCCESS!
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
Albert Einstein
Deep inside, each of us is aware of a slumbering giant. We know we are destined to be, and to become, so much more than we are today.
Our only real problem is that we don't know how to awaken the giant inside so we begin to, at least, come close to realising our true potential... our awesome God-given capacity for greatness. Too many of us are like confused eagles scratching the ground with friendly but uninspired chickens!
Be warned: This article contains NO quick fixes, but if you're committed to paying the true, high price of success, here's a six-step blueprint that will work:
1. Take Einstein's advice and don't bother pursuing success for success's sake. Instead focus on becoming a person of value;
2. You begin to do that by waking up to the truth that the greatest investment you can make in life is in yourself;
3. Therefore, resolve today to do the two things that will most quickly accelerate you up the path of value - invest in yourself and set lofty goals;
4. Begin to invest in yourself by taking a long hard look at your budget and asking yourself if you value your life enough to stop paying everyone else ahead of yourself;
5. Then add a single new line item to your revised budget that should also include savings and investment targets. This addition should be a self-education allocation;
6. Finally, start a journal in which you list your current ambitions and in which you can constantly add fresh dreams and work out the exact wording of what it is that you want out of life.
Let's take a deeper look at each of those six steps...
1. Take Einstein's advice and don't bother pursuing success for success's sake. Instead focus on becoming a person of value - if you choose this path to greatness, you stand the best chance of not falling into the trap of achieving high-class emptiness. Success, like happiness, is not something that lends itself to being grasped by greedy fingers. Instead it sneaks up on those who live their life to the full, with a view to contributing as much as possible to making life better for others.
2. You begin to do that by waking up to the truth that the greatest investment you can make in life is in yourself - this means that if the only investments you make are into savings accounts and stock portfolios, you are doing better than many people who never even do that, but you are still in danger of missing the boat... make that the yacht! In our knowledge economy, it is really only applied knowledge that enriches us. But unless we make the effort to fill up the storehouse between our ears with information, knowledge, wisdom and ideas, we won't succeed in reaching our real potential.
3. Therefore, resolve today to do the two things that will most quickly accelerate you up the path of value - invest in yourself and set lofty goals - you invest in yourself by setting aside a fraction of your regular weekly or monthly income for self-improvement. To make progress, you should aim to reinvest between 3% and 10% of your regular net income on books, ebooks, seminars, workshops, audio programmes and mentorship arrangements that will allow you to grow beyond your current 'borders'. Remember also to set goals that inspire you. Goals that fill your heart with passion and your belly with fire.
4. Begin to invest in yourself by taking a long hard look at your budget and asking yourself if you value your life enough to stop paying everyone else ahead of yourself - it isn't hard to realise that without having a strategy to set money aside for yourself first (or at the very least second if you understand the profound power of tithing), there isn't going to be anything left over for you at the end of the month.
5. Then add a single new line item to your revised budget that should also include savings and investment targets. This addition should be a self-education allocation - even though many personal finance books say we should set aside 10% of our income, I believe that is insufficient. I shock some of my life planning mentoring clients when I challenge them to set a 12-year target to get their personal savings rate up to 50%. You don't need to be so extreme to enjoy the fruits of your own labour. But you do need to begin to take action by paying yourself first (or second). Remember point 3 and do also invest in yourself by using a small portion of what is leftover after savings and investing to improve your brain.
6. Finally, start a journal in which you list your current ambitions and in which you can constantly add fresh dreams and work out the exact wording of what it is that you want out of life - if you learn the fine art of writing down your thoughts, you will discover very quickly that the universe cooperates with you as though it were a blank canvas simply waiting for you, the artist, to impress your will upon it.
Try any of the steps for immediate improvement.
Or, better yet, try all six of them for an unbelievable turbo charging of your personal propulsion engine that will propel you toward becoming a person of value... and therefore eventually becoming a genuine success
Albert Einstein
Deep inside, each of us is aware of a slumbering giant. We know we are destined to be, and to become, so much more than we are today.
Our only real problem is that we don't know how to awaken the giant inside so we begin to, at least, come close to realising our true potential... our awesome God-given capacity for greatness. Too many of us are like confused eagles scratching the ground with friendly but uninspired chickens!
Be warned: This article contains NO quick fixes, but if you're committed to paying the true, high price of success, here's a six-step blueprint that will work:
1. Take Einstein's advice and don't bother pursuing success for success's sake. Instead focus on becoming a person of value;
2. You begin to do that by waking up to the truth that the greatest investment you can make in life is in yourself;
3. Therefore, resolve today to do the two things that will most quickly accelerate you up the path of value - invest in yourself and set lofty goals;
4. Begin to invest in yourself by taking a long hard look at your budget and asking yourself if you value your life enough to stop paying everyone else ahead of yourself;
5. Then add a single new line item to your revised budget that should also include savings and investment targets. This addition should be a self-education allocation;
6. Finally, start a journal in which you list your current ambitions and in which you can constantly add fresh dreams and work out the exact wording of what it is that you want out of life.
Let's take a deeper look at each of those six steps...
1. Take Einstein's advice and don't bother pursuing success for success's sake. Instead focus on becoming a person of value - if you choose this path to greatness, you stand the best chance of not falling into the trap of achieving high-class emptiness. Success, like happiness, is not something that lends itself to being grasped by greedy fingers. Instead it sneaks up on those who live their life to the full, with a view to contributing as much as possible to making life better for others.
2. You begin to do that by waking up to the truth that the greatest investment you can make in life is in yourself - this means that if the only investments you make are into savings accounts and stock portfolios, you are doing better than many people who never even do that, but you are still in danger of missing the boat... make that the yacht! In our knowledge economy, it is really only applied knowledge that enriches us. But unless we make the effort to fill up the storehouse between our ears with information, knowledge, wisdom and ideas, we won't succeed in reaching our real potential.
3. Therefore, resolve today to do the two things that will most quickly accelerate you up the path of value - invest in yourself and set lofty goals - you invest in yourself by setting aside a fraction of your regular weekly or monthly income for self-improvement. To make progress, you should aim to reinvest between 3% and 10% of your regular net income on books, ebooks, seminars, workshops, audio programmes and mentorship arrangements that will allow you to grow beyond your current 'borders'. Remember also to set goals that inspire you. Goals that fill your heart with passion and your belly with fire.
4. Begin to invest in yourself by taking a long hard look at your budget and asking yourself if you value your life enough to stop paying everyone else ahead of yourself - it isn't hard to realise that without having a strategy to set money aside for yourself first (or at the very least second if you understand the profound power of tithing), there isn't going to be anything left over for you at the end of the month.
5. Then add a single new line item to your revised budget that should also include savings and investment targets. This addition should be a self-education allocation - even though many personal finance books say we should set aside 10% of our income, I believe that is insufficient. I shock some of my life planning mentoring clients when I challenge them to set a 12-year target to get their personal savings rate up to 50%. You don't need to be so extreme to enjoy the fruits of your own labour. But you do need to begin to take action by paying yourself first (or second). Remember point 3 and do also invest in yourself by using a small portion of what is leftover after savings and investing to improve your brain.
6. Finally, start a journal in which you list your current ambitions and in which you can constantly add fresh dreams and work out the exact wording of what it is that you want out of life - if you learn the fine art of writing down your thoughts, you will discover very quickly that the universe cooperates with you as though it were a blank canvas simply waiting for you, the artist, to impress your will upon it.
Try any of the steps for immediate improvement.
Or, better yet, try all six of them for an unbelievable turbo charging of your personal propulsion engine that will propel you toward becoming a person of value... and therefore eventually becoming a genuine success
Five Questions That Help You Make the Most of Your Time
Questions have the power to instantly change your focus and put you into a productive frame of mind.
These five simple time management questions will immediately direct your attention, your focus, and your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions.
Just ask yourself these questions habitually throughout the day, and you will start making better use of your time.
1. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
This is a slight variation of a question developed by time management expert Alan Lakein.
The purpose of this question is to shift your focus to what is most important and valuable at this moment. It is a perfect question to ask whenever you are unsure about what to do next, whenever you face an unexpected interruption, or whenever you feel that you are not making good use of your time.
For example, let's say you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes of unscheduled time. Asking yourself "What is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will help you find an important task for the time you have available.
2. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?
The purpose of this question is to focus your thinking on your real objectives and goals -- the real reasons you are working on your projects and tasks.
Asking this question habitually will help you avoid getting sidetracked, drifting into trivia, or falling into perfectionism. You can use this powerful question for all your projects.
For example, while preparing a presentation, you can easily get sucked into less valuable work when you start playing with the formatting, or adding bells and whistles, instead of working on the content.
The work seems important because it is connected to your presentation project, but when you take a closer look, you realize that you are wasting your time on details that don't really matter.
Asking this question will help you refocus your efforts on your real objectives and away from trivial matters. If it turns out that the formatting details are important for this project, you'll recognize this as well and give them the attention they deserve.
This question can also help you find and eliminate useless tasks that don't contribute toward your ultimate goals.
3. What am I giving up to do this?
Whenever you choose to do something, you automatically reject everything else you could have done during that time.
The purpose of this question is to help you realize what you are giving up in order to undertake a task or project. Once you recognize the true cost of an activity, you may decide that it is not how you really want to spend your time.
Asking this question before you take on a new task or project will help you stay focused on what really matters. It will also help you recognize when you should be saying no to that new request.
You should also ask this question about activities that you are already doing on a regular basis. These could be things like volunteering to do some work for your trade association, chairing a committee, or serving on the board of a community organization.
While all of these things may be valuable undertakings, you may be sacrificing something even more important to do them. Asking "What am I giving up to do this?" may turn out to be a real eye opener.
You probably wouldn't consciously sacrifice time with your family in order to participate in a committee you don't care about, but you might be doing it by default if you don't examine your existing commitments on a regular basis.
4. What are my three most important projects or tasks today?
The purpose of this question is to help you make use of the 80/20 rule every day. The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the value is contained in only 20 percent of the items. The top two or three projects and tasks in any given day could account for up to 80 percent of your day's value, so give them the time and priority they deserve.
If you practice weekly planning, you can change this question to "What are the three most important projects for this week?"
5. Should I continue doing this?
This is a slight variation of the first two questions, but shifts the focus toward what to stop doing rather than what to start doing.
Deciding to stop doing something that is no longer valuable is often more important than actually deciding to start doing something else.
This is a perfect question to ask whenever you feel you may be wasting time trying to perfect something that should already be done, or when you feel stuck in a commitment that is no longer serving your long-term objectives.
Keys to Success:
* Make it a habit. At first, you'll have to keep reminding yourself to ask these questions over and over again. However, if you keep asking consistently, eventually they will become a habit that will serve you for the rest of your life.
* Use these three steps whenever you have to make a time management decision: pause to think before you react, use questions to put you in the right frame of mind, and do the right thing.
* Keep asking until you get an answer. Sometimes you won't get an answer to these questions right away; just keep asking while you review your projects and task. The right answer will come.
These five simple time management questions will immediately direct your attention, your focus, and your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions.
Just ask yourself these questions habitually throughout the day, and you will start making better use of your time.
1. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
This is a slight variation of a question developed by time management expert Alan Lakein.
The purpose of this question is to shift your focus to what is most important and valuable at this moment. It is a perfect question to ask whenever you are unsure about what to do next, whenever you face an unexpected interruption, or whenever you feel that you are not making good use of your time.
For example, let's say you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes of unscheduled time. Asking yourself "What is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will help you find an important task for the time you have available.
2. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?
The purpose of this question is to focus your thinking on your real objectives and goals -- the real reasons you are working on your projects and tasks.
Asking this question habitually will help you avoid getting sidetracked, drifting into trivia, or falling into perfectionism. You can use this powerful question for all your projects.
For example, while preparing a presentation, you can easily get sucked into less valuable work when you start playing with the formatting, or adding bells and whistles, instead of working on the content.
The work seems important because it is connected to your presentation project, but when you take a closer look, you realize that you are wasting your time on details that don't really matter.
Asking this question will help you refocus your efforts on your real objectives and away from trivial matters. If it turns out that the formatting details are important for this project, you'll recognize this as well and give them the attention they deserve.
This question can also help you find and eliminate useless tasks that don't contribute toward your ultimate goals.
3. What am I giving up to do this?
Whenever you choose to do something, you automatically reject everything else you could have done during that time.
The purpose of this question is to help you realize what you are giving up in order to undertake a task or project. Once you recognize the true cost of an activity, you may decide that it is not how you really want to spend your time.
Asking this question before you take on a new task or project will help you stay focused on what really matters. It will also help you recognize when you should be saying no to that new request.
You should also ask this question about activities that you are already doing on a regular basis. These could be things like volunteering to do some work for your trade association, chairing a committee, or serving on the board of a community organization.
While all of these things may be valuable undertakings, you may be sacrificing something even more important to do them. Asking "What am I giving up to do this?" may turn out to be a real eye opener.
You probably wouldn't consciously sacrifice time with your family in order to participate in a committee you don't care about, but you might be doing it by default if you don't examine your existing commitments on a regular basis.
4. What are my three most important projects or tasks today?
The purpose of this question is to help you make use of the 80/20 rule every day. The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the value is contained in only 20 percent of the items. The top two or three projects and tasks in any given day could account for up to 80 percent of your day's value, so give them the time and priority they deserve.
If you practice weekly planning, you can change this question to "What are the three most important projects for this week?"
5. Should I continue doing this?
This is a slight variation of the first two questions, but shifts the focus toward what to stop doing rather than what to start doing.
Deciding to stop doing something that is no longer valuable is often more important than actually deciding to start doing something else.
This is a perfect question to ask whenever you feel you may be wasting time trying to perfect something that should already be done, or when you feel stuck in a commitment that is no longer serving your long-term objectives.
Keys to Success:
* Make it a habit. At first, you'll have to keep reminding yourself to ask these questions over and over again. However, if you keep asking consistently, eventually they will become a habit that will serve you for the rest of your life.
* Use these three steps whenever you have to make a time management decision: pause to think before you react, use questions to put you in the right frame of mind, and do the right thing.
* Keep asking until you get an answer. Sometimes you won't get an answer to these questions right away; just keep asking while you review your projects and task. The right answer will come.
Strategic Speed: Getting Results Faster Than Normally Expected
Coach to the World’s Top CEOs and High Achievers, By Tony Jeary
Over the years I have had the honor and pleasure of coaching some of the world’s finest leaders, CEOs, and high achievers. The businesses they lead sport logos familiar to most of America and the world. The common thread between them is the need to execute their vision in the marketplace. However, understanding the need to execute a vision is only the first step in being able to do it. I’ve seen many leaders and their organizations flounder as they try to fulfill their vision and their dreams because they lacked a methodology capable of sustaining the effort. This article details my methodology, termed Strategic Speed, which enables fast results.
The Path From Vision to Results
Few leaders discount the importance of vision. In fact, the primary goal of every leader is the execution of their vision in the marketplace. Successful execution leads to powerful results. Therefore, having a vision without execution means very little. It’s good to have a vision, but in the end only strong execution will produce results.
The greatest change in business in recent years has been the need for speed at every level, including vision execution. Without the following three components, however, an organization will not see results, and will in fact be sluggish, indecisive, and ineffective:
1. Clarity: It recharges organizational energy
2. Focus: It enables decisiveness and reduces preparation
3. Execution: It stimulates effectiveness, results, and growth
To execute with swiftness and get desired results, a methodology that combines all three must be enabled and utilized. My methodology, Strategic Speed, combines awareness, operational practices, processes, and powerful informational resources to enable leaders and organizations to get results within time frames that exceed conventional thinking.
Strategic Speed
Strategic Speed is not just about getting things done faster. Getting things done faster happens because of Strategic Speed, which is really a proactive and anticipatory organizational mindset. It’s a mindset that tenaciously clings
to the need for results and refuses to back away from difficulty or roadblocks. It is a choice to finish a project before it’s due. It is a commitment to arrive a little early at meetings. It is a desire to help an associate get something done faster.
Strategic Speed accelerates the larger vision, which in turn accelerates results.
Strategic Speed is characterized by a desire to win, be creative and persistent, and remain committed. When a business culture embraces these qualities, accomplishment will exceed expectations. When accomplishment consistently exceeds expectations, Strategic Speed is achieved. This means that people are getting results faster than normally expected.
Let's go back to the three required components of results: Clarity, Focus, and Execution.
Clarity
Clarity is the most important factor behind results, yet it can be elusive. In fact, many individuals and organizations believe they have it when they do not. Goals supported by action steps are often mistaken for full clarity.
This error in judgment causes failed plans, marginal results, and regretful "If only I/we had…" thinking.
To develop and recognize clarity requires a new way of thinking. Once the goals and action steps, or vision, has been identified, the next task is to understand the vision's purpose (the "Why") and value (the benefit). In order for people to commit to a vision, they must believe in what they are doing. Communicating the reasoning behind the vision, as well as what they will gain from executing it, will drive them produce results. Being able to reach this point means that true clarity has been achieved, which will then manifest itself in better human performance. From there, meaningful objectives can be identified, executed, and transformed into results.
Focus
Without focus, indecisiveness flourishes and so does dreaded bureaucracy. Execution is almost impossible without focus. Focus is also a powerful engine behind producing results. But what is focus, really?
When working on executing a vision, we should have an idea of "where we want to be" and "where we are today". Between those two ideas there is a gap, populated by the actions that will move us from present to future. Once those actions are identified and understood, focus is in place. In other words, focus is simply the ability to keep the main things in sight as we work towards results.
Execution
Now that we have a vision, clarity, and focus, it's time to get things done! Execution depends on what people actually accomplish, not what they say they will accomplish. Without clear communication, however, nothing will be accomplished. In my almost two decades of studying the distinctions of great leaders and companies, I have determined that developing and mandating communication standards is the best way to energize the executional thinking of an entire organization.
Enabling Success
Success begins with vision built on the foundations of clarity, focus, and execution, is powered by speed, and culminates in results. Leadership can enable it all through Strategic Speed, which can be replicated and applied to every objective and tactic. To summarize, the three major steps to achieving Strategic Speed are:
1. Clearly explain the vision's purpose and value to stakeholders, gaining buy-in
2. Determine the main things and stay focused on those main things
3. Develop communication standards to support your team in its efforts to execute
Once the methodology is in use, organizational changes will be seen, and the desired results will be produced.
Over the years I have had the honor and pleasure of coaching some of the world’s finest leaders, CEOs, and high achievers. The businesses they lead sport logos familiar to most of America and the world. The common thread between them is the need to execute their vision in the marketplace. However, understanding the need to execute a vision is only the first step in being able to do it. I’ve seen many leaders and their organizations flounder as they try to fulfill their vision and their dreams because they lacked a methodology capable of sustaining the effort. This article details my methodology, termed Strategic Speed, which enables fast results.
The Path From Vision to Results
Few leaders discount the importance of vision. In fact, the primary goal of every leader is the execution of their vision in the marketplace. Successful execution leads to powerful results. Therefore, having a vision without execution means very little. It’s good to have a vision, but in the end only strong execution will produce results.
The greatest change in business in recent years has been the need for speed at every level, including vision execution. Without the following three components, however, an organization will not see results, and will in fact be sluggish, indecisive, and ineffective:
1. Clarity: It recharges organizational energy
2. Focus: It enables decisiveness and reduces preparation
3. Execution: It stimulates effectiveness, results, and growth
To execute with swiftness and get desired results, a methodology that combines all three must be enabled and utilized. My methodology, Strategic Speed, combines awareness, operational practices, processes, and powerful informational resources to enable leaders and organizations to get results within time frames that exceed conventional thinking.
Strategic Speed
Strategic Speed is not just about getting things done faster. Getting things done faster happens because of Strategic Speed, which is really a proactive and anticipatory organizational mindset. It’s a mindset that tenaciously clings
to the need for results and refuses to back away from difficulty or roadblocks. It is a choice to finish a project before it’s due. It is a commitment to arrive a little early at meetings. It is a desire to help an associate get something done faster.
Strategic Speed accelerates the larger vision, which in turn accelerates results.
Strategic Speed is characterized by a desire to win, be creative and persistent, and remain committed. When a business culture embraces these qualities, accomplishment will exceed expectations. When accomplishment consistently exceeds expectations, Strategic Speed is achieved. This means that people are getting results faster than normally expected.
Let's go back to the three required components of results: Clarity, Focus, and Execution.
Clarity
Clarity is the most important factor behind results, yet it can be elusive. In fact, many individuals and organizations believe they have it when they do not. Goals supported by action steps are often mistaken for full clarity.
This error in judgment causes failed plans, marginal results, and regretful "If only I/we had…" thinking.
To develop and recognize clarity requires a new way of thinking. Once the goals and action steps, or vision, has been identified, the next task is to understand the vision's purpose (the "Why") and value (the benefit). In order for people to commit to a vision, they must believe in what they are doing. Communicating the reasoning behind the vision, as well as what they will gain from executing it, will drive them produce results. Being able to reach this point means that true clarity has been achieved, which will then manifest itself in better human performance. From there, meaningful objectives can be identified, executed, and transformed into results.
Focus
Without focus, indecisiveness flourishes and so does dreaded bureaucracy. Execution is almost impossible without focus. Focus is also a powerful engine behind producing results. But what is focus, really?
When working on executing a vision, we should have an idea of "where we want to be" and "where we are today". Between those two ideas there is a gap, populated by the actions that will move us from present to future. Once those actions are identified and understood, focus is in place. In other words, focus is simply the ability to keep the main things in sight as we work towards results.
Execution
Now that we have a vision, clarity, and focus, it's time to get things done! Execution depends on what people actually accomplish, not what they say they will accomplish. Without clear communication, however, nothing will be accomplished. In my almost two decades of studying the distinctions of great leaders and companies, I have determined that developing and mandating communication standards is the best way to energize the executional thinking of an entire organization.
Enabling Success
Success begins with vision built on the foundations of clarity, focus, and execution, is powered by speed, and culminates in results. Leadership can enable it all through Strategic Speed, which can be replicated and applied to every objective and tactic. To summarize, the three major steps to achieving Strategic Speed are:
1. Clearly explain the vision's purpose and value to stakeholders, gaining buy-in
2. Determine the main things and stay focused on those main things
3. Develop communication standards to support your team in its efforts to execute
Once the methodology is in use, organizational changes will be seen, and the desired results will be produced.
Investing in properties
THERE are opportunities in good times and bad times. Patience is the key and holding power, the foundation to it all.
Azizi Ali, who wrote How to Become a Property Millionaire says whether it is good or bad times, one must manage their money well. Good times do not mean you spend as though there is no tomorrow. The strategy may differ.
“The same rule applies in investment. There are good investments all the time. While property is a solid investment, this does not mean you can buy anything. The golden rule is location. There must be demand, and this you only get in big cities or towns. If you want to buy for your own stay, you can buy anywhere.
Azizi: It is not how much you earn, but how much you save that matters.
“There are some locations like Bangsar, Bandar Utama and Subang Jaya which are popular for both. So although prices may go down in a downturn, the value can still hold up.
“It is not how much you earn, but how much you save that matters. For those who have saved or are patient and brave enough, there are opportunities always,” says Azizi.
Bolton Bhd executive director Chan Wing Kwong says generally, there is a preference to buy when the cycle is down and to sell at the peak of the cycle.
Standard Chartered Bank GM for consumer lending, global consumer group Francis Loh.
“What is a war chest? It is when you make available funds. So when the downturn comes, you buy. Inflation is always there. Unfortunately, it has picked up speed today. What is important is you need to see how the economy is going to reposition. It is a temporary market distortion.
“Anything that is able to hold its value is considered an hedge. Historically, in any country, properties are used as a tool to hedge against inflation. When a property is built, it tends to cost more than the previous one. The price of the old property will be pulled along. So when you build a new project, it is marked up. But there are factors like location, supply and demand. So keeping money in a bank will erode the value,” says Chan.
As for the type of properties, for those who can afford, the high-end ones in a good location are always a better hedge. The risk factor is much lower as high-end properties do not fluctuate much. Secondly, the high end always moves first.
Chan says the question to ask today is, while there may be demand, what is the price? “This is what we call the bottom feeders. They wait for the price to drop. The last two years, people were chasing prices and they bought thinking the price will go up further.
“There is a difference when you buy for your own needs and when you buy for investment. When it is a need, you decide on the location you want to live, based on supply and demand. When it is an investment, there are others issues to consider,” says Chan.
Bolton Bhd executive director Chan Wing Kwong.
Standared Chartered GM for consumer lending Francis Loh says they have segmentised the mortgage market into four areas: first time buyers, upgraders, refinancers and investors.
“Irrespective of the economy, or interest rates increase, first time buyers will still have to buy. The upgraders may postpone or live with what they have,” says Loh.
He says generally, all four segments are still pretty active, with investors in the Klang Valley more so.
Outside the Klang Valley, Loh is seeing more first time buyers. The bank is also seeing more foreign buyers than before, particularly in the KLCC and Bangsar area. As for Mont’Kiara, there are a lot of upgrading going on there.
“We see a lot of developments in Batu Pahat, Malacca and Ipoh. We expect mortgage loans to be maintained in the second half of this year and will consider how things unfold before we look at 2009. As to what buyers look for, besides location being the paramount factor, security is also a major factor,” Loh says.
Azizi Ali, who wrote How to Become a Property Millionaire says whether it is good or bad times, one must manage their money well. Good times do not mean you spend as though there is no tomorrow. The strategy may differ.
“The same rule applies in investment. There are good investments all the time. While property is a solid investment, this does not mean you can buy anything. The golden rule is location. There must be demand, and this you only get in big cities or towns. If you want to buy for your own stay, you can buy anywhere.
Azizi: It is not how much you earn, but how much you save that matters.
“There are some locations like Bangsar, Bandar Utama and Subang Jaya which are popular for both. So although prices may go down in a downturn, the value can still hold up.
“It is not how much you earn, but how much you save that matters. For those who have saved or are patient and brave enough, there are opportunities always,” says Azizi.
Bolton Bhd executive director Chan Wing Kwong says generally, there is a preference to buy when the cycle is down and to sell at the peak of the cycle.
Standard Chartered Bank GM for consumer lending, global consumer group Francis Loh.
“What is a war chest? It is when you make available funds. So when the downturn comes, you buy. Inflation is always there. Unfortunately, it has picked up speed today. What is important is you need to see how the economy is going to reposition. It is a temporary market distortion.
“Anything that is able to hold its value is considered an hedge. Historically, in any country, properties are used as a tool to hedge against inflation. When a property is built, it tends to cost more than the previous one. The price of the old property will be pulled along. So when you build a new project, it is marked up. But there are factors like location, supply and demand. So keeping money in a bank will erode the value,” says Chan.
As for the type of properties, for those who can afford, the high-end ones in a good location are always a better hedge. The risk factor is much lower as high-end properties do not fluctuate much. Secondly, the high end always moves first.
Chan says the question to ask today is, while there may be demand, what is the price? “This is what we call the bottom feeders. They wait for the price to drop. The last two years, people were chasing prices and they bought thinking the price will go up further.
“There is a difference when you buy for your own needs and when you buy for investment. When it is a need, you decide on the location you want to live, based on supply and demand. When it is an investment, there are others issues to consider,” says Chan.
Bolton Bhd executive director Chan Wing Kwong.
Standared Chartered GM for consumer lending Francis Loh says they have segmentised the mortgage market into four areas: first time buyers, upgraders, refinancers and investors.
“Irrespective of the economy, or interest rates increase, first time buyers will still have to buy. The upgraders may postpone or live with what they have,” says Loh.
He says generally, all four segments are still pretty active, with investors in the Klang Valley more so.
Outside the Klang Valley, Loh is seeing more first time buyers. The bank is also seeing more foreign buyers than before, particularly in the KLCC and Bangsar area. As for Mont’Kiara, there are a lot of upgrading going on there.
“We see a lot of developments in Batu Pahat, Malacca and Ipoh. We expect mortgage loans to be maintained in the second half of this year and will consider how things unfold before we look at 2009. As to what buyers look for, besides location being the paramount factor, security is also a major factor,” Loh says.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
An Accumulation of Riches
Little Things Mean A Lot
One of the greatest success principles of all is called the Law of Accumulation. This law says that everything great and worthwhile in human life is an accumulation of hundreds and sometimes thousands of tiny efforts and sacrifices that nobody ever sees or appreciates. It says that everything accumulates over time. That you have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile. It's like a snowball. A snowball starts very small, but it grows as it adds millions and millions of tiny snowflakes and continues to grow as it gathers momentum.
Learn What You Need to Learn
There are three areas where the law of accumulation is important. The first is in the area of knowledge. Your body of knowledge is a result of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small pieces of information.
Any person with a large knowledge base has spent thousands of hours building that knowledge base one piece at a time. And what you see when you meet the individual is an expert in his or her field, with that high level of knowledge that makes him very valuable in the marketplace.
Save Your Money
The second area where the Law of accumulation works is with regard to money. Every large fortune is an accumulation of hundreds and thousands of small amounts of money, and the place to start is to take any amount of money that you can right now and begin to save it. When you begin to save money, it sets up a force field of energy and it triggers the law of attraction. As a result you begin to attract to you even more bits of money to add to your savings.
Attract Riches Into Your Life
I've spoken to many, many successful people and they've told me the same story. That as soon as you start to put savings aside, it starts to attract into your life and into your work all the money that you need to achieve your goals. The reason why most people retire poor is they never put the initial savings aside to start with.
Get the Experience You Need
The third area where the law of accumulation applies is in the area of experience. You'll find that successful people in any field are those who have far more experience in that field than the average. And there is nothing that replaces experience. Whether it's in business or entrepreneurship or management or parenting or selling or anything else. Many people do not take the risks that are necessary to move out of their comfort zone because they're afraid it won't work out.
Everything Counts
But the fact is that until you move out of the comfort zone and get the experience from making the mistakes, it's not possible for you to grow and become capable of earning the kind of money that you desire. Now here's the key to the law of accumulation. It says that everything counts. Everything that you do counts. The biggest mistake that people make is they think that only what they want to count, counts. When you read a book, when you listen to an audio program, when you go to a course, when you go to bed early and you get up early and you work, it all counts. And it's all going on the plus side of your ledger.
Use Your Time Well
But when you watch television, waste time, hang out, fool around and so on, all of that counts, as well, and it's going on the negative side. A person who has a great life, by the law of accumulation, is a person who's accumulated far more credits on the credit side than debits on the debit side. And here's an important point. If what you are doing is not moving you toward your goals, then it's moving you away from your goals. Nothing is neutral. Everything that you're doing is either moving you toward the things that you want to accomplish in life, the person you want to be, the wealth you want to accumulate, or it's moving you away. Everything counts. The law of accumulation says that everything counts.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, begin today to build your knowledge base in the subject that can be most helpful to you in achieving financial independence. Whether it takes a week, a month or a year to become thoroughly knowledgeable, it doesn't matter. Just get started today.
Second, get as much experience as you can in your chosen field. Start a little earlier, work a little harder and stay a little later. Take risks and try every different way you can think of to achieve your goal. This experience is invaluable and it accumulates over time.
One of the greatest success principles of all is called the Law of Accumulation. This law says that everything great and worthwhile in human life is an accumulation of hundreds and sometimes thousands of tiny efforts and sacrifices that nobody ever sees or appreciates. It says that everything accumulates over time. That you have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile. It's like a snowball. A snowball starts very small, but it grows as it adds millions and millions of tiny snowflakes and continues to grow as it gathers momentum.
Learn What You Need to Learn
There are three areas where the law of accumulation is important. The first is in the area of knowledge. Your body of knowledge is a result of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small pieces of information.
Any person with a large knowledge base has spent thousands of hours building that knowledge base one piece at a time. And what you see when you meet the individual is an expert in his or her field, with that high level of knowledge that makes him very valuable in the marketplace.
Save Your Money
The second area where the Law of accumulation works is with regard to money. Every large fortune is an accumulation of hundreds and thousands of small amounts of money, and the place to start is to take any amount of money that you can right now and begin to save it. When you begin to save money, it sets up a force field of energy and it triggers the law of attraction. As a result you begin to attract to you even more bits of money to add to your savings.
Attract Riches Into Your Life
I've spoken to many, many successful people and they've told me the same story. That as soon as you start to put savings aside, it starts to attract into your life and into your work all the money that you need to achieve your goals. The reason why most people retire poor is they never put the initial savings aside to start with.
Get the Experience You Need
The third area where the law of accumulation applies is in the area of experience. You'll find that successful people in any field are those who have far more experience in that field than the average. And there is nothing that replaces experience. Whether it's in business or entrepreneurship or management or parenting or selling or anything else. Many people do not take the risks that are necessary to move out of their comfort zone because they're afraid it won't work out.
Everything Counts
But the fact is that until you move out of the comfort zone and get the experience from making the mistakes, it's not possible for you to grow and become capable of earning the kind of money that you desire. Now here's the key to the law of accumulation. It says that everything counts. Everything that you do counts. The biggest mistake that people make is they think that only what they want to count, counts. When you read a book, when you listen to an audio program, when you go to a course, when you go to bed early and you get up early and you work, it all counts. And it's all going on the plus side of your ledger.
Use Your Time Well
But when you watch television, waste time, hang out, fool around and so on, all of that counts, as well, and it's going on the negative side. A person who has a great life, by the law of accumulation, is a person who's accumulated far more credits on the credit side than debits on the debit side. And here's an important point. If what you are doing is not moving you toward your goals, then it's moving you away from your goals. Nothing is neutral. Everything that you're doing is either moving you toward the things that you want to accomplish in life, the person you want to be, the wealth you want to accumulate, or it's moving you away. Everything counts. The law of accumulation says that everything counts.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, begin today to build your knowledge base in the subject that can be most helpful to you in achieving financial independence. Whether it takes a week, a month or a year to become thoroughly knowledgeable, it doesn't matter. Just get started today.
Second, get as much experience as you can in your chosen field. Start a little earlier, work a little harder and stay a little later. Take risks and try every different way you can think of to achieve your goal. This experience is invaluable and it accumulates over time.
The Law of Saving
Financial freedom comes to the person who saves ten percent or more of his income throughout his lifetime.
One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck. Individuals, families and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high savings rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.
Start With Yourself
The first corollary of the Law of Saving comes from the book The Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon. It is to "Pay yourself first."
Begin today to save ten percent of your earnings, off the top, and never touch it. This is your fund for long-term financial accumulation and you never use it for any other reason except to assure your financial future.
Develop New Habits Regarding Money
The remarkable thing is that when you pay yourself first, and force yourself to live on the other ninety percent, you will soon become accustomed to it. You are a creature of habit. When you regularly put away ten percent of your earnings, you soon become comfortable living on the other ninety percent. Many people start by saving ten percent of their income and then graduate to saving fifteen percent, twenty percent, and even more. And their financial lives change dramatically as a result. So will yours.
Take Every Advantage
The second corollary of the Law of Saving says, "Take advantage of tax deferred savings and investment plans." Because of high and even multiple tax rates, money that is saved or invested without being taxed accumulates at a rate of 30% to 40% faster than money that is subject to taxation. Self-made millionaires, according to Dr Thomas Stanley's book The Millionaire Next Door, are almost obsessive about accumulating their funds in assets such as real estate, self owned businesses and equities that increase in value without triggering tax liabilities.
Invest in company pension and retirement plans, 401(k) plans, IRA's, Keough Plans, Roth IRA's, Education Investment Accounts, stock option programs and whatever else has been approved by the IRS for long term financial accumulation. Make every dollar count!
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, begin today to put away ten percent of your earnings. Set up a special account for this purpose and treat your contributions to this account with the same respect that you do your rent or mortgage payments each month.
Second, become a lifelong student of money. Read the best books, take courses and subscribe to the most helpful magazines. Know what you are doing so you can always make intelligent decisions when you invest your funds
One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck. Individuals, families and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high savings rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.
Start With Yourself
The first corollary of the Law of Saving comes from the book The Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon. It is to "Pay yourself first."
Begin today to save ten percent of your earnings, off the top, and never touch it. This is your fund for long-term financial accumulation and you never use it for any other reason except to assure your financial future.
Develop New Habits Regarding Money
The remarkable thing is that when you pay yourself first, and force yourself to live on the other ninety percent, you will soon become accustomed to it. You are a creature of habit. When you regularly put away ten percent of your earnings, you soon become comfortable living on the other ninety percent. Many people start by saving ten percent of their income and then graduate to saving fifteen percent, twenty percent, and even more. And their financial lives change dramatically as a result. So will yours.
Take Every Advantage
The second corollary of the Law of Saving says, "Take advantage of tax deferred savings and investment plans." Because of high and even multiple tax rates, money that is saved or invested without being taxed accumulates at a rate of 30% to 40% faster than money that is subject to taxation. Self-made millionaires, according to Dr Thomas Stanley's book The Millionaire Next Door, are almost obsessive about accumulating their funds in assets such as real estate, self owned businesses and equities that increase in value without triggering tax liabilities.
Invest in company pension and retirement plans, 401(k) plans, IRA's, Keough Plans, Roth IRA's, Education Investment Accounts, stock option programs and whatever else has been approved by the IRS for long term financial accumulation. Make every dollar count!
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, begin today to put away ten percent of your earnings. Set up a special account for this purpose and treat your contributions to this account with the same respect that you do your rent or mortgage payments each month.
Second, become a lifelong student of money. Read the best books, take courses and subscribe to the most helpful magazines. Know what you are doing so you can always make intelligent decisions when you invest your funds
Monday, July 07, 2008
Strategic Thinking
The Quality of Thoughtfulness
The ability to think and plan strategically is perhaps the most important single skill of the effective executive. In a longitudinal study of leaders who, in retrospect, made the best and most effective decisions, the single quality that stood out from all others was the quality of "thoughtfulness."
Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.
Your Most Powerful Tool
The most powerful tool that you as an executive have to bring to bear on your work is your mind - your thinking ability. Everything you do that sharpens and hones your ability to think with greater clarity before acting, will benefit you and help you to move upward and onward more rapidly in your career.
Use a Two Pronged Approach
The best way to approach strategic thinking is two pronged. This means to work simultaneously on the personal and the corporate.
Increase Your "Return On Energy"
In personal terms, strategic planning is an exercise in increasing "return on energy." Your greatest single asset is your earning ability. And your earning ability is nothing more than the total of the mental, emotional and physical energies that you can apply toward getting valuable results for yourself and your company.
Anything that you can do to increase your return on energy invested will increase your overall levels of effectiveness and contribution in every area of your life, especially, and most importantly in your work.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to increase your return on equity and your return on energy.
First, think about everything that you are doing in terms of its financial return to your organization. What are the things that you do that yield the highest return on equity? Whatever they are, do more of them.
Second, think in personal terms about the things you do that give you the highest return on energy. Where do you contribute the greatest value and achieve the greatest satisfaction? Whatever they are, do more of these things.
The ability to think and plan strategically is perhaps the most important single skill of the effective executive. In a longitudinal study of leaders who, in retrospect, made the best and most effective decisions, the single quality that stood out from all others was the quality of "thoughtfulness."
Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.
Your Most Powerful Tool
The most powerful tool that you as an executive have to bring to bear on your work is your mind - your thinking ability. Everything you do that sharpens and hones your ability to think with greater clarity before acting, will benefit you and help you to move upward and onward more rapidly in your career.
Use a Two Pronged Approach
The best way to approach strategic thinking is two pronged. This means to work simultaneously on the personal and the corporate.
Increase Your "Return On Energy"
In personal terms, strategic planning is an exercise in increasing "return on energy." Your greatest single asset is your earning ability. And your earning ability is nothing more than the total of the mental, emotional and physical energies that you can apply toward getting valuable results for yourself and your company.
Anything that you can do to increase your return on energy invested will increase your overall levels of effectiveness and contribution in every area of your life, especially, and most importantly in your work.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to increase your return on equity and your return on energy.
First, think about everything that you are doing in terms of its financial return to your organization. What are the things that you do that yield the highest return on equity? Whatever they are, do more of them.
Second, think in personal terms about the things you do that give you the highest return on energy. Where do you contribute the greatest value and achieve the greatest satisfaction? Whatever they are, do more of these things.
Developing A Great Character
Being the Best In Every Area
What is character? Your character is the degree to which you live your life consistent with high, life-enhancing values. A person who lacks character is one who compromises on higher order values in favor of lower order expedience, or who has no values at all. Your adherence to what you believe to be right and true is the real measure of the person you have become to this moment.
Define What "Excellence" Means to You
Let us say that one of your values is "excellence." Your definition of excellence could be, "Excellence means that I set the highest standards for myself in everything I do. I do my very best in every situation and under all circumstances. I constantly strive to be better in my work, and as a person in my relationships. I recognize that excellence is a life-long journey and I work every day to become better and better in everything I do."
Organize Your Actions
With a definition like this, you have a clear organizing principle for your actions. You have set a standard by which you can evaluate your behavior. You have created a framework within which you can make decisions. You have a measuring rod against which you can compare yourself in everything you do. You can continually grade your activities in terms of "more" or "less." You have a clear target to aim at and organize your work around
Decide What You Want for Your Family
It's the same with each of your other values. If your value is your family, you could define this as, "The needs of my family take precedence over all other concerns. Whenever I have to choose between the happiness, health and well being of a member of my family, and any other interest, my family will always come first."
Keep Focused
From that moment onward, it becomes easier for you to choose. Your family comes first. Until you have fully satisfied the needs of your family, no other time requirement will side track you into a lower value activity.
Shape Your Own Character
The wonderful thing about values clarification is that it enables you to take charge of developing and shaping your own character. When your values and goals, your inner life and your outer life, are in complete alignment, you feel terrific about yourself. You enjoy high self-esteem. Your self-confidence soars.
When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this ideas into action immediately.
First, create a clear, written description of your values and what they mean to you. From that point on, resolve to live consistent with your own definition.
Second, discipline yourself to live in complete alignment with the values, virtues and qualities that are most important to you. This is the key to character.
What is character? Your character is the degree to which you live your life consistent with high, life-enhancing values. A person who lacks character is one who compromises on higher order values in favor of lower order expedience, or who has no values at all. Your adherence to what you believe to be right and true is the real measure of the person you have become to this moment.
Define What "Excellence" Means to You
Let us say that one of your values is "excellence." Your definition of excellence could be, "Excellence means that I set the highest standards for myself in everything I do. I do my very best in every situation and under all circumstances. I constantly strive to be better in my work, and as a person in my relationships. I recognize that excellence is a life-long journey and I work every day to become better and better in everything I do."
Organize Your Actions
With a definition like this, you have a clear organizing principle for your actions. You have set a standard by which you can evaluate your behavior. You have created a framework within which you can make decisions. You have a measuring rod against which you can compare yourself in everything you do. You can continually grade your activities in terms of "more" or "less." You have a clear target to aim at and organize your work around
Decide What You Want for Your Family
It's the same with each of your other values. If your value is your family, you could define this as, "The needs of my family take precedence over all other concerns. Whenever I have to choose between the happiness, health and well being of a member of my family, and any other interest, my family will always come first."
Keep Focused
From that moment onward, it becomes easier for you to choose. Your family comes first. Until you have fully satisfied the needs of your family, no other time requirement will side track you into a lower value activity.
Shape Your Own Character
The wonderful thing about values clarification is that it enables you to take charge of developing and shaping your own character. When your values and goals, your inner life and your outer life, are in complete alignment, you feel terrific about yourself. You enjoy high self-esteem. Your self-confidence soars.
When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this ideas into action immediately.
First, create a clear, written description of your values and what they mean to you. From that point on, resolve to live consistent with your own definition.
Second, discipline yourself to live in complete alignment with the values, virtues and qualities that are most important to you. This is the key to character.
Trust Your Subordinates
The Definition of Leadership
Leadership has been called "The ability to get followers." One of the deepest cravings of human nature is the need to feel important, to have a sense of meaning and purpose in life and work. Leaders are invariably those who can tap into the deeper emotions of others and get them to rise above and beyond anything they may have accomplished in the past.
Inspiring Words Lead to Victory
Winston Churchill was able to arouse and inspire an entire nation with words like these: "Let us so carry ourselves that if the British Empire should endure a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour."
Spearhead A Turnaround
Lee Iacocca stepped into Chrysler Corporation when the company was almost bankrupt. Through the sheer force of his personality, his unshakable determination, his appeals to Congress, to Chrysler workers and to Chrysler customers on television, he spearheaded a turn-around that will go down in the history books as one of the greatest achievements in American business.
Trust Other People
The key to getting followers in every case is to "trust your subordinates." Many studies have concluded that it is the mutual bond of trust and respect that acts as the catalyst that creates high performance. Not only must you trust your subordinates, but even more important, they must trust you.
Act With Integrity
In order to "get followers," your subordinates must have an absolute belief in your integrity. They must believe that you will abide by the highest ethical standards of fairness and justice. Integrity appears over and over as the most important leadership quality. People can only put their whole hearts into their work when they feel secure and they can only feel secure when they can relax and trust you completely.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to bring out the very best from the people who look up to you.
First, make people feel important. Tell them how important and valuable they are and then give them both the responsibility and the opportunity to do their job the very best they know how.
Second, set a good example. Be an inspirational leader by being a role model for everyone else to follow. The more people look up to you, the better they will do their work and the happier they will be.
Leadership has been called "The ability to get followers." One of the deepest cravings of human nature is the need to feel important, to have a sense of meaning and purpose in life and work. Leaders are invariably those who can tap into the deeper emotions of others and get them to rise above and beyond anything they may have accomplished in the past.
Inspiring Words Lead to Victory
Winston Churchill was able to arouse and inspire an entire nation with words like these: "Let us so carry ourselves that if the British Empire should endure a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour."
Spearhead A Turnaround
Lee Iacocca stepped into Chrysler Corporation when the company was almost bankrupt. Through the sheer force of his personality, his unshakable determination, his appeals to Congress, to Chrysler workers and to Chrysler customers on television, he spearheaded a turn-around that will go down in the history books as one of the greatest achievements in American business.
Trust Other People
The key to getting followers in every case is to "trust your subordinates." Many studies have concluded that it is the mutual bond of trust and respect that acts as the catalyst that creates high performance. Not only must you trust your subordinates, but even more important, they must trust you.
Act With Integrity
In order to "get followers," your subordinates must have an absolute belief in your integrity. They must believe that you will abide by the highest ethical standards of fairness and justice. Integrity appears over and over as the most important leadership quality. People can only put their whole hearts into their work when they feel secure and they can only feel secure when they can relax and trust you completely.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to bring out the very best from the people who look up to you.
First, make people feel important. Tell them how important and valuable they are and then give them both the responsibility and the opportunity to do their job the very best they know how.
Second, set a good example. Be an inspirational leader by being a role model for everyone else to follow. The more people look up to you, the better they will do their work and the happier they will be.
Choose to be happy
WHAT makes people happy?
First, having a purpose – which means doing something in your life that has meaning for you, whether it is building a better company, raising happy children or helping to make the world a better place.
Second, having hope – which means you have something to look forward to. Even if your current circumstances are difficult, if you have hope that your effort will be rewarded and that things will improve, you can find happiness.
Happy people accept themselves as they are, so they have peace of mind.
And yes, last but not least, having someone to love.
It is your decision
Happiness is no accident – it is something we choose, says Andrew Matthews, international speaker and author of motivation and personal development classics, Being Happy! and Follow Your Heart.
He says: “Happy people make a decision to be happy in spite of their problems.
“They concentrate on what they have – not on what is missing. They count their blessings. They take maximum responsibility for their life and for their mistakes. They don’t blame others.”
Most importantly, he points out, happy people are more flexible. “They are able to say, ‘If my plane is early, I’m happy. If my plane is late, I’m happy.’
“Their state of mind is determined by their own thoughts, not by outside circumstances.”
Sounds utopian? Not if you can relate this philosophy to the corporate environment. And human resource (HR) departments can help in cultivating a happy people culture.
Says Matthews: “Encourage employees to develop life skills, not just work skills. Encourage healthy working relationships. Encourage honesty in the workplace, and encourage workers to speak openly. Make employees feel appreciated.”
HR can help to build a culture of happy people by introducing principles based on the Being Happy philosophy, he says.
"This can include helping staff to understand how their beliefs affect their experience, how attitudes impact relationships and how communication within an organisation improves as a result of improving how we see things."
Being Happy is infectious
Often, employers wonder if the Being Happy philosophy works in the corporate environment and what its effects are.
Matthews highlights the benefits: “Employees feel more fulfilled. They set personal and professional goals.
“They realise that they do their best not to please their boss, but to make themselves happier. They take responsibility and blame other people less. Companies retain their employees.”
It works by providing employees, managers and executives with the choice and skills to experience work in a happier way, he adds.
However, he admits that though it sounds fairly simple and practical, there are challenges that employers have to deal with.
He says: “One challenge HR may face while introducing the Being Happy culture within an organisation is ‘pushback’ from those who don’t understand the philosophy or value it.
“People tend to resist change. They say, ‘I’m OK. It’s my boss who needs to change.’ Some say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with my attitude.’
“Many people postpone happiness. For example, they say, ‘I’ll be happy when I get a pay rise” or ‘I’ll be happy when that stupid secretary is transferred to another department.’
“Pushback can be resistance simply to the unknown.”
If a HR practitioner experiences this when implementing the Being Happy philosophy, asking better questions will help identify the aspects of the process that are causing concern.
“Being Happy is not focused on fixing a short-term problem or issue. Being Happy is about living life and being excited about the life that we experience.”
Attitude counts
It is all in the attitude, says Matthews.
“I’ll give you an example. Two women turn 50. Mary says, ‘My life is over!’
“Julie says, ‘My life has just begun.’
“Who will be happier? Who will be more successful?”
The laws of happiness and success are like the laws of gravity. They are the same for everyone.
If you continue to see yourself as successful and keep on producing quality work, you will succeed, he concludes.
“See yourself as happy, look for good things in life and the people around you, and you will become happier.”
First, having a purpose – which means doing something in your life that has meaning for you, whether it is building a better company, raising happy children or helping to make the world a better place.
Second, having hope – which means you have something to look forward to. Even if your current circumstances are difficult, if you have hope that your effort will be rewarded and that things will improve, you can find happiness.
Happy people accept themselves as they are, so they have peace of mind.
And yes, last but not least, having someone to love.
It is your decision
Happiness is no accident – it is something we choose, says Andrew Matthews, international speaker and author of motivation and personal development classics, Being Happy! and Follow Your Heart.
He says: “Happy people make a decision to be happy in spite of their problems.
“They concentrate on what they have – not on what is missing. They count their blessings. They take maximum responsibility for their life and for their mistakes. They don’t blame others.”
Most importantly, he points out, happy people are more flexible. “They are able to say, ‘If my plane is early, I’m happy. If my plane is late, I’m happy.’
“Their state of mind is determined by their own thoughts, not by outside circumstances.”
Sounds utopian? Not if you can relate this philosophy to the corporate environment. And human resource (HR) departments can help in cultivating a happy people culture.
Says Matthews: “Encourage employees to develop life skills, not just work skills. Encourage healthy working relationships. Encourage honesty in the workplace, and encourage workers to speak openly. Make employees feel appreciated.”
HR can help to build a culture of happy people by introducing principles based on the Being Happy philosophy, he says.
"This can include helping staff to understand how their beliefs affect their experience, how attitudes impact relationships and how communication within an organisation improves as a result of improving how we see things."
Being Happy is infectious
Often, employers wonder if the Being Happy philosophy works in the corporate environment and what its effects are.
Matthews highlights the benefits: “Employees feel more fulfilled. They set personal and professional goals.
“They realise that they do their best not to please their boss, but to make themselves happier. They take responsibility and blame other people less. Companies retain their employees.”
It works by providing employees, managers and executives with the choice and skills to experience work in a happier way, he adds.
However, he admits that though it sounds fairly simple and practical, there are challenges that employers have to deal with.
He says: “One challenge HR may face while introducing the Being Happy culture within an organisation is ‘pushback’ from those who don’t understand the philosophy or value it.
“People tend to resist change. They say, ‘I’m OK. It’s my boss who needs to change.’ Some say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with my attitude.’
“Many people postpone happiness. For example, they say, ‘I’ll be happy when I get a pay rise” or ‘I’ll be happy when that stupid secretary is transferred to another department.’
“Pushback can be resistance simply to the unknown.”
If a HR practitioner experiences this when implementing the Being Happy philosophy, asking better questions will help identify the aspects of the process that are causing concern.
“Being Happy is not focused on fixing a short-term problem or issue. Being Happy is about living life and being excited about the life that we experience.”
Attitude counts
It is all in the attitude, says Matthews.
“I’ll give you an example. Two women turn 50. Mary says, ‘My life is over!’
“Julie says, ‘My life has just begun.’
“Who will be happier? Who will be more successful?”
The laws of happiness and success are like the laws of gravity. They are the same for everyone.
If you continue to see yourself as successful and keep on producing quality work, you will succeed, he concludes.
“See yourself as happy, look for good things in life and the people around you, and you will become happier.”
Show them you care
These five fundamentals can also be used in your day-to-day communication with your colleagues to build better relationships with them.
1 Words of affirmation
People often go about doing their jobs with little feedback on their performance.
In fact, unless something goes wrong and they are hauled up for it, the good they do is taken for granted.
What happens? Eventually, they lose their self-esteem, and their confidence levels start to wither.
People need constant reminders of the good work they have done.
There are some managers who might say that employees are paid to do their job.
While this is undeniable, apart from pay, people generally look for social approval to motivate them to perform better.
This form of recognition should be part of an organisation’s strategy if it wants to develop its people and, more importantly, keep them.
Words of affirmation such as, “That was a great presentation” or “You did a great job in organising the department activity, thank you” do not cost anything.
But they are very valuable to the recipient.
Words of affirmation let people know that they are doing something right. They motivate people, give them a healthy self-esteem and build a communicative relationship between colleagues.
2 Quality time
Quality time is another important aspect of building effective relationships.
Very often, you may find yourself rushing through your work and even during your lunch breaks.
Many people do not spend enough time with their bosses and vice versa. Building a great relationship means getting to know other people so that you can support one another effectively.
People are social creatures and need to spend time with one another before they can build great teams.
Organisations are realising this and are investing more in team-building programmes and wellness initiatives.
These mass activities help people to get together so that they can interact and be part of the family within the organisation.
Creating the opportunity for colleagues to spend some quality time with one another is a way that organisations can engage their people.
If employees do not have an emotional attachment to the company, they will have little desire to contribute effectively to it.
3 Giving gifts
Like affirmative words, gifts tell the recipients that they are appreciated.
In a corporate environment, it is acceptable to show your appreciation of a colleague with an inexpensive but meaningful gift, for example, a bookmark with some personal words of gratitude, or a box of chocolates accompanied by a card of thanks.
Such gifts remind people that their efforts are noticed and appreciated. They lift the spirit and are great motivators too.
4 Acts of service
People love someone doing something for them. It gives satisfaction and appreciation, especially in a time of need.
Acts of service come in many shapes and sizes – from someone offering to clear the mailbox to buying lunches or even delivering a package on your behalf.
Doing a service for your colleague means going out of your way to help him. It tells him that you are on his side.
5 Touch
In an office environment, you naturally need to be very careful about this particular love language.
Touch, in this context, means giving colleagues a pat on the back to emphasise your appreciation of something they have done or to say “thank you”.
However, some people are very conservative, and you should respect their values and refrain from any physical gestures.
A light touch on the shoulders can represent your concern, empathy, support or even approval.
Studies have shown that children who are shown a lot of affection by their parents and family members have greater self-esteem when they grow up. Your colleagues may find a pat on the back motivating and a boost to their self-esteem too.
To each his own
The five languages of love for office colleagues are basic communication techniques to help build relationships.
Out of the five, there will be at least one primary language that works better for an individual.
Everyone has different needs. Some people appreciate words of affirmation more, while others prefer quality time.
You need to understand what works better for whom to build sustainable and strong working relationships with your colleagues.
1 Words of affirmation
People often go about doing their jobs with little feedback on their performance.
In fact, unless something goes wrong and they are hauled up for it, the good they do is taken for granted.
What happens? Eventually, they lose their self-esteem, and their confidence levels start to wither.
People need constant reminders of the good work they have done.
There are some managers who might say that employees are paid to do their job.
While this is undeniable, apart from pay, people generally look for social approval to motivate them to perform better.
This form of recognition should be part of an organisation’s strategy if it wants to develop its people and, more importantly, keep them.
Words of affirmation such as, “That was a great presentation” or “You did a great job in organising the department activity, thank you” do not cost anything.
But they are very valuable to the recipient.
Words of affirmation let people know that they are doing something right. They motivate people, give them a healthy self-esteem and build a communicative relationship between colleagues.
2 Quality time
Quality time is another important aspect of building effective relationships.
Very often, you may find yourself rushing through your work and even during your lunch breaks.
Many people do not spend enough time with their bosses and vice versa. Building a great relationship means getting to know other people so that you can support one another effectively.
People are social creatures and need to spend time with one another before they can build great teams.
Organisations are realising this and are investing more in team-building programmes and wellness initiatives.
These mass activities help people to get together so that they can interact and be part of the family within the organisation.
Creating the opportunity for colleagues to spend some quality time with one another is a way that organisations can engage their people.
If employees do not have an emotional attachment to the company, they will have little desire to contribute effectively to it.
3 Giving gifts
Like affirmative words, gifts tell the recipients that they are appreciated.
In a corporate environment, it is acceptable to show your appreciation of a colleague with an inexpensive but meaningful gift, for example, a bookmark with some personal words of gratitude, or a box of chocolates accompanied by a card of thanks.
Such gifts remind people that their efforts are noticed and appreciated. They lift the spirit and are great motivators too.
4 Acts of service
People love someone doing something for them. It gives satisfaction and appreciation, especially in a time of need.
Acts of service come in many shapes and sizes – from someone offering to clear the mailbox to buying lunches or even delivering a package on your behalf.
Doing a service for your colleague means going out of your way to help him. It tells him that you are on his side.
5 Touch
In an office environment, you naturally need to be very careful about this particular love language.
Touch, in this context, means giving colleagues a pat on the back to emphasise your appreciation of something they have done or to say “thank you”.
However, some people are very conservative, and you should respect their values and refrain from any physical gestures.
A light touch on the shoulders can represent your concern, empathy, support or even approval.
Studies have shown that children who are shown a lot of affection by their parents and family members have greater self-esteem when they grow up. Your colleagues may find a pat on the back motivating and a boost to their self-esteem too.
To each his own
The five languages of love for office colleagues are basic communication techniques to help build relationships.
Out of the five, there will be at least one primary language that works better for an individual.
Everyone has different needs. Some people appreciate words of affirmation more, while others prefer quality time.
You need to understand what works better for whom to build sustainable and strong working relationships with your colleagues.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Exit like a pro
THE time has come to resign from your job. Regardless of whether you are leaving for a better opportunity, relocating to a different city or perhaps going back to school, there is only one way to leave your current position: like a professional.
Making a graceful exit is critical to your long-term career track.
The business world can be a small one, and the chances of encountering a former colleague or supervisor at another company are not remote.
Even if you do not end up working with an ex-colleague, you could become a co-worker, subordinate or manager to someone who knows people who know you.
And naturally, you would want your professional references thinking — and hearing — nothing but good things about you.
So, how do you exit like a pro? Here are some strategies to resign professionally with class and grace:
■ Write a proper letter. Set the right tone for your departure by writing a professional resignation letter.
This gives you and your employer written documentation of your resignation and states your planned last day of work.
You should present a typed letter to your supervisor personally, and also, if appropriate, forward a copy to the human resources department. Never email or text your resignation.
Keep your letter to the point: State that you are resigning, specify your last day of work and, if you wish, give a reason for your departure.
Even if you are leaving an unpleasant work situation, do not bring up anything negative.
End the letter by thanking your supervisor for opportunities that were provided to you.
■ Give ample notice. One month is usually the standard notice for resignation, but check your employee handbook to see if your employer has different expectations.
If you have to leave sooner, or would like to offer more transition time, tell your employer upfront.
However, do not be surprised if you are asked to leave the very day you tender your resignation, and are escorted from the building.
Many companies today, for security reasons, will cut ties immediately with a resigning employee. As such, when you resign, be prepared to leave right away if asked to do so.
■ Be clear about compensation. On the day you resign, talk openly with your supervisor — and if appropriate, human resources — about what your final compensation package will include.
Again, consult your employee handbook before having this important discussion, so as to know what to expect.
Do not forget to inquire about unused annual leave days. Also, make sure you know how much time you have before vital benefits, such as health insurance, run out.
■ Be ready for a counter-offer. In this competitive employment environment, more companies are extending counter-offers to valued employees who may be considering new horizons.
If a counter-offer is made to you, do not dismiss it immediately.
After all, if your employer thinks enough of you to ask you to stay, you should at least give the offer polite consideration.
Even if you know you do not want to accept it, tell your supervisor you will consider the counter-offer for a specified length of time, such as 24 hours, but keep your proposed departure date firm in the meantime.
And if you are seriously tempted by the offer, think hard about why you are leaving the company in the first place.
If the counter-offer will not resolve those issues for you, it is probably best to move on.
■ Don’t “check out” prematurely. Once you have declared your intention to leave, remain an active and engaged employee.
Complete as many projects as you can. Create a progress report for your supervisor and colleagues that shows where you are with each task.
Also, consider putting together a brief guide to help your replacement transition smoothly into the position.
This information can include details about where files are located as well as phone numbers and e-mail addresses of relevant contacts.
■ Keep things positive. On your last day, take the time to say goodbye to your colleagues and supervisors who have given you support and guidance.
Provide your contact details, and let them know they can get in touch with you if they have questions about the work you are leaving behind.
Finally, if you are offered an exit interview, use the opportunity to talk constructively about your experiences with the company.
Many employers take the process very seriously, and use it for improving corporate culture as well as employee retention and recruitment strategies.
So, do your part to help foster positive change for your former colleagues, and refrain from using the exit interview as a forum for personal venting.
While companies try very hard to retain valued employees, they also understand that people sometimes decide to leave their jobs for a variety of reasons.
Just make sure that when it is your time to leave, others will remember you best as being a consummate professional who would be a pleasure to work with again some day.
Making a graceful exit is critical to your long-term career track.
The business world can be a small one, and the chances of encountering a former colleague or supervisor at another company are not remote.
Even if you do not end up working with an ex-colleague, you could become a co-worker, subordinate or manager to someone who knows people who know you.
And naturally, you would want your professional references thinking — and hearing — nothing but good things about you.
So, how do you exit like a pro? Here are some strategies to resign professionally with class and grace:
■ Write a proper letter. Set the right tone for your departure by writing a professional resignation letter.
This gives you and your employer written documentation of your resignation and states your planned last day of work.
You should present a typed letter to your supervisor personally, and also, if appropriate, forward a copy to the human resources department. Never email or text your resignation.
Keep your letter to the point: State that you are resigning, specify your last day of work and, if you wish, give a reason for your departure.
Even if you are leaving an unpleasant work situation, do not bring up anything negative.
End the letter by thanking your supervisor for opportunities that were provided to you.
■ Give ample notice. One month is usually the standard notice for resignation, but check your employee handbook to see if your employer has different expectations.
If you have to leave sooner, or would like to offer more transition time, tell your employer upfront.
However, do not be surprised if you are asked to leave the very day you tender your resignation, and are escorted from the building.
Many companies today, for security reasons, will cut ties immediately with a resigning employee. As such, when you resign, be prepared to leave right away if asked to do so.
■ Be clear about compensation. On the day you resign, talk openly with your supervisor — and if appropriate, human resources — about what your final compensation package will include.
Again, consult your employee handbook before having this important discussion, so as to know what to expect.
Do not forget to inquire about unused annual leave days. Also, make sure you know how much time you have before vital benefits, such as health insurance, run out.
■ Be ready for a counter-offer. In this competitive employment environment, more companies are extending counter-offers to valued employees who may be considering new horizons.
If a counter-offer is made to you, do not dismiss it immediately.
After all, if your employer thinks enough of you to ask you to stay, you should at least give the offer polite consideration.
Even if you know you do not want to accept it, tell your supervisor you will consider the counter-offer for a specified length of time, such as 24 hours, but keep your proposed departure date firm in the meantime.
And if you are seriously tempted by the offer, think hard about why you are leaving the company in the first place.
If the counter-offer will not resolve those issues for you, it is probably best to move on.
■ Don’t “check out” prematurely. Once you have declared your intention to leave, remain an active and engaged employee.
Complete as many projects as you can. Create a progress report for your supervisor and colleagues that shows where you are with each task.
Also, consider putting together a brief guide to help your replacement transition smoothly into the position.
This information can include details about where files are located as well as phone numbers and e-mail addresses of relevant contacts.
■ Keep things positive. On your last day, take the time to say goodbye to your colleagues and supervisors who have given you support and guidance.
Provide your contact details, and let them know they can get in touch with you if they have questions about the work you are leaving behind.
Finally, if you are offered an exit interview, use the opportunity to talk constructively about your experiences with the company.
Many employers take the process very seriously, and use it for improving corporate culture as well as employee retention and recruitment strategies.
So, do your part to help foster positive change for your former colleagues, and refrain from using the exit interview as a forum for personal venting.
While companies try very hard to retain valued employees, they also understand that people sometimes decide to leave their jobs for a variety of reasons.
Just make sure that when it is your time to leave, others will remember you best as being a consummate professional who would be a pleasure to work with again some day.
Step into someone’s shoes
WHEN you have to deal with one of your team who is complaining to you, don’t allow negative feelings to dominate your responses.
Instead, try to see the situation from your team member’s point of view. You don’t necessarily have to agree with him but perhaps you will be able to empathise with his situation.
The successful manager thinks about the people he has to deal with, is sensitive to how they see things and knows that they might think differently than he does.
Let me give you an example. I have always been scrupulous about good timekeeping; it’s something that’s been programmed into my brain. If you agree to meet me at 8.30 in the morning, I’ll be there at 8.20; I will always do my utmost to be on time.
Naturally, I used to get angry when a member of my team would show up late for a meeting or an appointment with me. When I got angry, I would get stressed and end up saying something that I regretted later.
Therefore, I learned to start thinking about the situation and tried to see it from my colleague’s point of view. I decided not to let my programming run my brain.
That does not mean to say I ignored the lateness or did nothing about it. I thought very carefully about what I wanted to say and spoke to the team member about how we would resolve this situation.
The point I want to make is that I am not prepared to allow that team member’s behaviour to dominate my mind. Getting angry and stressed is not good for your health and it isn’t a productive way to motivate your team.
We all see the world in a different way, based on our culture and how we were brought up. It is very important to understand this, particularly when you give your people feedback, be it good or bad.
Last year, I spent several weeks in a particular hotel running seminars and I started to get to know some of the staff. One day, I noticed that Carol the conference manager had been named employee of the month and her photograph was displayed in the reception area.
When I congratulated her on this honour, I was a bit surprised at her reaction. “I hate it, I’m so embarrassed,” she complained.
Carol didn’t like the attention she was getting, and as a result, this recognition by her manager didn’t motivate her. Another member of her team could possibly react completely differently and regard it as a great honour.
If you have good rapport with your team members, then you become sensitive to how they see things. The successful business person understands each member of his team and doesn’t reward everyone in the same way.
I have often heard managers say, “I treat people the way I expect to be treated”. The successful manager says: “I treat people the way they expect to be treated.”
Instead, try to see the situation from your team member’s point of view. You don’t necessarily have to agree with him but perhaps you will be able to empathise with his situation.
The successful manager thinks about the people he has to deal with, is sensitive to how they see things and knows that they might think differently than he does.
Let me give you an example. I have always been scrupulous about good timekeeping; it’s something that’s been programmed into my brain. If you agree to meet me at 8.30 in the morning, I’ll be there at 8.20; I will always do my utmost to be on time.
Naturally, I used to get angry when a member of my team would show up late for a meeting or an appointment with me. When I got angry, I would get stressed and end up saying something that I regretted later.
Therefore, I learned to start thinking about the situation and tried to see it from my colleague’s point of view. I decided not to let my programming run my brain.
That does not mean to say I ignored the lateness or did nothing about it. I thought very carefully about what I wanted to say and spoke to the team member about how we would resolve this situation.
The point I want to make is that I am not prepared to allow that team member’s behaviour to dominate my mind. Getting angry and stressed is not good for your health and it isn’t a productive way to motivate your team.
We all see the world in a different way, based on our culture and how we were brought up. It is very important to understand this, particularly when you give your people feedback, be it good or bad.
Last year, I spent several weeks in a particular hotel running seminars and I started to get to know some of the staff. One day, I noticed that Carol the conference manager had been named employee of the month and her photograph was displayed in the reception area.
When I congratulated her on this honour, I was a bit surprised at her reaction. “I hate it, I’m so embarrassed,” she complained.
Carol didn’t like the attention she was getting, and as a result, this recognition by her manager didn’t motivate her. Another member of her team could possibly react completely differently and regard it as a great honour.
If you have good rapport with your team members, then you become sensitive to how they see things. The successful business person understands each member of his team and doesn’t reward everyone in the same way.
I have often heard managers say, “I treat people the way I expect to be treated”. The successful manager says: “I treat people the way they expect to be treated.”
Quest for perfection
MOST of us know Benjamin Franklin as the inventor of bifocals and the man who flew a kite in a storm to prove that lightning was a form of electricity.
Franklin was also a printer and newspaper publisher, postmaster, civic activist, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and drafter of the American Declaration of Independence. Where did he find the time to accomplish so much?
Franklin was also America’s first self-improvement guru. At the age of 27, he began his grand goal, loftily titled “Project of arriving at moral perfection”.
He identified a dozen virtues and developed a system to attain them. They were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity and chastity. When a friend suggested that Franklin seemed proud, he added humility to the list.
Realising that it would be difficult to focus on all of these areas at once, Franklin focused on one a week. It was quite a challenge. While he never achieved moral perfection, he benefited greatly from the exercise.
Perfection is an impossibly high standard. The perfectionist is essentially telling himself that nothing he does will ever be good enough!
Franklin recognised this and moderated his goal. He was not perfect, but he was astonishingly productive and successful throughout his life. When you examine his list and how he approached it, you begin to understand why.
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of,” Franklin wrote.
Valuing time is a no-brainer for most of us, as we seem to have too little time and struggle to make the most of it. But valuing time and actually using our time productively are two different things.
Three of Franklin’s virtues address the need to work at valuing time and using it wisely: Resolution, order and industry.
Resolution means making good on your promises, implementing and executing, and following through to completion. It requires persistence and determination.
Order means being organised and systematic, planning and prioritising your activities. Industry means working hard, focusing on your objectives and being productive. The one personal quality behind all of these is discipline.
What wisdom does Franklin offer us in terms of discipline — doing the work of valuing our time and managing our priorities?
He arranged his objectives into a system. He proceeded step by step. He broke his main objective — selfimprovement — into smaller goals. He focused on them one at a time. He measured his progress by keeping track of how many times he erred, and he reviewed his progress regularly.
By creating a system to help himself focus on his goals and measure his progress, Franklin was able to accomplish far more than his contemporaries.
Systems are critical in any time management regimen. It is not enough to return e-mail and phone calls, handle paperwork and prepare reports on an ad hoc basis.
A sporadic approach will produce sporadic results. Setting aside time for performing routine tasks, using templates for your work, and having systems in place allow you to be both effective and efficient.
Another feature of Franklin’s approach was repetition. He focused on one objective every week, completing the cycle in 13 weeks and repeating the entire cycle four times a year. He repeated the process year after year.
To use his own words, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Using time effectively is a matter of habit, and habits come from repetition.
Finally, Franklin organised and planned. The key to managing your time is organising your activities and planning strategies to complete them.
Every day should begin with a planning session. Part of this planning time should be in creating a prioritised “to do” list. In other words, you must have a system for organising and planning.
Someone once said: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” I don’t think it was Franklin, though … but it could have been!
Franklin was also a printer and newspaper publisher, postmaster, civic activist, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and drafter of the American Declaration of Independence. Where did he find the time to accomplish so much?
Franklin was also America’s first self-improvement guru. At the age of 27, he began his grand goal, loftily titled “Project of arriving at moral perfection”.
He identified a dozen virtues and developed a system to attain them. They were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity and chastity. When a friend suggested that Franklin seemed proud, he added humility to the list.
Realising that it would be difficult to focus on all of these areas at once, Franklin focused on one a week. It was quite a challenge. While he never achieved moral perfection, he benefited greatly from the exercise.
Perfection is an impossibly high standard. The perfectionist is essentially telling himself that nothing he does will ever be good enough!
Franklin recognised this and moderated his goal. He was not perfect, but he was astonishingly productive and successful throughout his life. When you examine his list and how he approached it, you begin to understand why.
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of,” Franklin wrote.
Valuing time is a no-brainer for most of us, as we seem to have too little time and struggle to make the most of it. But valuing time and actually using our time productively are two different things.
Three of Franklin’s virtues address the need to work at valuing time and using it wisely: Resolution, order and industry.
Resolution means making good on your promises, implementing and executing, and following through to completion. It requires persistence and determination.
Order means being organised and systematic, planning and prioritising your activities. Industry means working hard, focusing on your objectives and being productive. The one personal quality behind all of these is discipline.
What wisdom does Franklin offer us in terms of discipline — doing the work of valuing our time and managing our priorities?
He arranged his objectives into a system. He proceeded step by step. He broke his main objective — selfimprovement — into smaller goals. He focused on them one at a time. He measured his progress by keeping track of how many times he erred, and he reviewed his progress regularly.
By creating a system to help himself focus on his goals and measure his progress, Franklin was able to accomplish far more than his contemporaries.
Systems are critical in any time management regimen. It is not enough to return e-mail and phone calls, handle paperwork and prepare reports on an ad hoc basis.
A sporadic approach will produce sporadic results. Setting aside time for performing routine tasks, using templates for your work, and having systems in place allow you to be both effective and efficient.
Another feature of Franklin’s approach was repetition. He focused on one objective every week, completing the cycle in 13 weeks and repeating the entire cycle four times a year. He repeated the process year after year.
To use his own words, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Using time effectively is a matter of habit, and habits come from repetition.
Finally, Franklin organised and planned. The key to managing your time is organising your activities and planning strategies to complete them.
Every day should begin with a planning session. Part of this planning time should be in creating a prioritised “to do” list. In other words, you must have a system for organising and planning.
Someone once said: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” I don’t think it was Franklin, though … but it could have been!
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