NO matter what else you do as a manager, there are three things that can guarantee increased sales, profits and improved employee performance and effectiveness.
They are: focus, clear direction and effective communication. There are other areas you need to pay close attention to as well, but most of them will fall directly or indirectly under these three. Let us look at each of them briefly.
1 Focus
There is a psychological concept which basically says that what you tend to focus on in your life, business, career or relationships tends to grow.
In other words, if your concentration and awareness are always on what is wrong or negative, the results you get will continue to be wrong and negative.
As a manager, if your focus is on what is not working somewhere in your organisation, then it will be difficult to change it for the better.
This does not mean that you should stick your head in the sand and ignore it or act like problems don’t exist. What this implies is that it is difficult to create positive outcomes if you are focused on the negative.
There is a great old saying attributed to Yogi Berra that “expecting different results from repeated behaviour is a mild form of insanity”.
Ask yourself where is your and your employees’ focus. Is the focus on what you do right and your successes, or on everything that is wrong?
2 Clear direction
One of the great challenges today for many managers is to see the future clearly. In many cases, it is impossible.
But you still have to grow your business, make money and take a lot of risks that you can’t guarantee will pay off in the long run.
From your perspective as a manager, this poses a problem that can cause stress, frustration, fear and insecurity. Imagine what it is doing to your employees who do not have the vantage point or ability to see past their next assignment?
A few of the common questions I hear from employees during my interviews in preparation for an in-house training assignment is: Who are we? Where are we going? How are we going to get there? How do I fit into the future of this organisation?
Imagine for a minute that you are an employee of your organisation and not a manager, and you are not privy to some senior-level information, goals or strategies.
What can you do? You can do your job, but with little or no creativity, imagination, innovation or ownership in the ultimate outcome.
Now what if every employee had this attitude? You will get the labour of their hands but not their hearts. It’s tough to grow and compete with this culture or corporate mindset.
3 Communication
The movement of information in any organisation is top-down, bottom-up or department-to-department. You would be amazed at how much redundancy takes place in many organisations because the primary method of communication is:
You have to be in the right place at the right time.
You have to be high enough on the food chain.
You have to be in the “in group” or you have to fight for every scrap of information that you need to do your job right or better.
How well can an employee do his job if he does not have the information he needs to be effective?
If you can effectively address these three issues, you will be amazed at how much more profitable and competitive your company can be in the marketplace.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Wanted: Workers who can think
THE other day I was talking to a CEO about the educational and development needs of his corporation, and he remarked: “You know, leadership isn’t what it used to be. I used to think I knew what to look for in leaders. Now I’m not so sure.”
He continued: “When I first went into business, a strong leader could say ‘Follow me,’ and people would follow. Now when you say that, your employees want to know where you’re going, what you expect to find when you get there, and what’s in it for them if they follow you.”
His comments were very perceptive. Today’s business climate requires a different type of leader, because we’re dealing with a different type of workplace and a different breed of followers.
The old-style leadership was well-suited to the mechanical type of organisation in which employees were regarded as cogs in a machine and only management did the thinking.
When only managers were allowed to think, you needed leaders who could give orders with authority and employees who were willing to follow without question.
But smart executives nowadays realise that you can’t remain competitive while running a mechanical organisation. You must have a thinking organisation, which means that people at every level must be able to think and must be free to think.
Traits of successful leaders
As cooperation becomes the norm from the senior management team to the self-managed teams on the work floor, we need to take a careful look at the types of leadership necessary to mobilise this new-style work force.
Here are the characteristics I see in successful leaders of thinking organisations:
They help people decide for themselves what to do; they don’t tell people what to do.
They lead in the creation of corporate visions. They align their personal visions with the corporate vision and help others in the company to do the same.
They expect excellence in those around them, and they make those expectations known. The people on their teams usually live up to these expectations.
They invite people to speak up, and they listen and respond to those who do. They welcome good news and bad news from their associates, knowing that they can’t lead wisely unless they are fully informed.
They don’t bark orders. They use positive reinforcement to influence people toward the behaviour they desire.
They don’t isolate themselves from the people they lead. They mingle with them, ask about their problems and concerns, and look for ways to help them. They promote a sense of “family”.
They don’t pretend to have all the answers. They ask for information and advice before making decisions.
They don’t try to do it all themselves. They make full use of the talents of those around them.
They don’t lord it over others. They treat employees, clients, customers and associates with respect. They are not condescending toward any of the corporate stakeholders, but regard them all as members of the team.
They encourage a constant search for improvement and a constant quest for excellence. They provide the educational and developmental programmes needed to achieve these goals.
Everyone can learn
Today’s leaders cannot be guardians of the status quo. They must foster a climate in which the search for higher quality and better methods becomes a way of life. This calls for creative thinkers.
Obviously, if you want your organisation to think creatively at every level, you need creative-thinking leaders at every level.
Some people think leaders are born, not made. It is an old idea. It gave rise to the traditional leaders – tribal chieftains and later kings and emperors who passed their authority on to their descendants.
This gave rise to the theory that good leaders had to have certain inborn traits, such as physical strength, high intelligence, commanding voices, and aggressive personalities.
They led others, it was believed, by performing leadership functions such as organising, controlling, staffing, and coordinating.
Then, in the early part of this century, it was discovered that workers, left to themselves, will develop their own informal group processes, guided by their own informal but powerful customs and traditions.
What’s more, when workers were allowed to follow these informal procedures, they became more productive than when they followed the rules and regulations laid down by appointed bosses.
This has led to the modern concept of leadership: a process by which management creates an environment in which people voluntarily align their efforts toward common objectives.
The good news is that one doesn’t have to be born with certain “traits” to exercise this type of leadership. Leadership skills can be taught to your staff, your associates and your employees, and they can be used by people with a wide variety of temperaments.
So when my friend observed that “leadership isn’t what it used to be”, I responded: “Yes, and thank goodness for that.”
A team educated in this new style of leadership pays handsome dividends in the competitive global marketplace.
He continued: “When I first went into business, a strong leader could say ‘Follow me,’ and people would follow. Now when you say that, your employees want to know where you’re going, what you expect to find when you get there, and what’s in it for them if they follow you.”
His comments were very perceptive. Today’s business climate requires a different type of leader, because we’re dealing with a different type of workplace and a different breed of followers.
The old-style leadership was well-suited to the mechanical type of organisation in which employees were regarded as cogs in a machine and only management did the thinking.
When only managers were allowed to think, you needed leaders who could give orders with authority and employees who were willing to follow without question.
But smart executives nowadays realise that you can’t remain competitive while running a mechanical organisation. You must have a thinking organisation, which means that people at every level must be able to think and must be free to think.
Traits of successful leaders
As cooperation becomes the norm from the senior management team to the self-managed teams on the work floor, we need to take a careful look at the types of leadership necessary to mobilise this new-style work force.
Here are the characteristics I see in successful leaders of thinking organisations:
They help people decide for themselves what to do; they don’t tell people what to do.
They lead in the creation of corporate visions. They align their personal visions with the corporate vision and help others in the company to do the same.
They expect excellence in those around them, and they make those expectations known. The people on their teams usually live up to these expectations.
They invite people to speak up, and they listen and respond to those who do. They welcome good news and bad news from their associates, knowing that they can’t lead wisely unless they are fully informed.
They don’t bark orders. They use positive reinforcement to influence people toward the behaviour they desire.
They don’t isolate themselves from the people they lead. They mingle with them, ask about their problems and concerns, and look for ways to help them. They promote a sense of “family”.
They don’t pretend to have all the answers. They ask for information and advice before making decisions.
They don’t try to do it all themselves. They make full use of the talents of those around them.
They don’t lord it over others. They treat employees, clients, customers and associates with respect. They are not condescending toward any of the corporate stakeholders, but regard them all as members of the team.
They encourage a constant search for improvement and a constant quest for excellence. They provide the educational and developmental programmes needed to achieve these goals.
Everyone can learn
Today’s leaders cannot be guardians of the status quo. They must foster a climate in which the search for higher quality and better methods becomes a way of life. This calls for creative thinkers.
Obviously, if you want your organisation to think creatively at every level, you need creative-thinking leaders at every level.
Some people think leaders are born, not made. It is an old idea. It gave rise to the traditional leaders – tribal chieftains and later kings and emperors who passed their authority on to their descendants.
This gave rise to the theory that good leaders had to have certain inborn traits, such as physical strength, high intelligence, commanding voices, and aggressive personalities.
They led others, it was believed, by performing leadership functions such as organising, controlling, staffing, and coordinating.
Then, in the early part of this century, it was discovered that workers, left to themselves, will develop their own informal group processes, guided by their own informal but powerful customs and traditions.
What’s more, when workers were allowed to follow these informal procedures, they became more productive than when they followed the rules and regulations laid down by appointed bosses.
This has led to the modern concept of leadership: a process by which management creates an environment in which people voluntarily align their efforts toward common objectives.
The good news is that one doesn’t have to be born with certain “traits” to exercise this type of leadership. Leadership skills can be taught to your staff, your associates and your employees, and they can be used by people with a wide variety of temperaments.
So when my friend observed that “leadership isn’t what it used to be”, I responded: “Yes, and thank goodness for that.”
A team educated in this new style of leadership pays handsome dividends in the competitive global marketplace.
Six easy steps to make plans
HOW much time do you spend during a typical day, week or month planning? If you carefully review your activities, you will see that planning fails to get its fair share of your time and energy.
Why is this? Well, planning in general can take courage, insight, time and persistence. One of the biggest shortcomings of many managers and business owners is the lack of ability, willingness or time required to plan.
In the long run, my experience tells me that managers who spend quality time planning an activity, project, strategy, campaign or any business event will save money, time, and energy and will contribute greatly to their bottom line, competitive position and overall reputation and success.
Managers, business owners and executives do not plan because:
They don’t know how;
They do not like the idea of accountability;
They say they are too busy doing something that was not previously planned;
They don’t see the short- or long-term benefits of planning as a management responsibility;
They are waiting for someone higher in the organisation to tell them what to do, when and how;
They delegate it to someone else, who usually doesn’t plan things either. In not planning, they miss out on these benefits:
Saving money
Saving time
Save energy
Saving resources
Reducing stress
Reducing downtime/loss
Improving employee/organisation productivity;
Increasing sales;
Improving market share;
Dealing better with competition, shifts in the economy and changes in consumer attitude.
Now that you are determined to start planning, here are six easy steps to follow:
1 Set aside a regular time to plan. Do it once a day, week, month or year, and let nothing interfere with this business activity.
2 Decide how much time you will devote to each planning session. It could be 10 minutes every day, an hour once a week or a day once a month.
3 Write out a list of outcomes you want from your planning session, for example, an accurate budget, new employee profile, marketing strategy for a new product, or a list of what you want to accomplish that day, the agenda for the next meeting or speakers to hire for your next training session.
4 Evaluate the necessary resources available during your planning session to complete your plan: people, information, money, time, and resources.
5 Resist the tendency to end the planning session without meeting its objectives.
6 Include a follow-up process for each plan. This is to make sure you integrate/apply what you did during your planning session – even for a list of what you will do today.
One of the key things to remember when it comes to planning routines and skills is that outcomes are driven by goals.
Without clearly defined and written goals and objectives, it will be very difficult to plan and ensure that you get favourable results.
Many managers do not have clear goals and objectives on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Their days are driven by interruptions, crises, uncertainty and a “wait and see” attitude. This is no way to improve your performance, that of your team or your organisation.
Let me give you an example. A company representative called me after New Year’s Day and said he wanted me to facilitate his company’s yearly strategic planning meeting on Jan 30.
I replied that I thought the company ran on a calendar year and that their new year started on Jan 1. He said that was indeed the case, but they had been too busy to have this meeting earlier.
My response was that it was too late to plan for the new year – that should have been done three or four months ago. I added: “Call me in October and we can have the 2009 planning session then.”
The company found someone else to facilitate the meeting but it is likely that it won’t achieve its goals or targets for this year, no matter how aggressive its plans.
So what are you waiting for? A recent study indicated that for every minute spent in planning, you will save 10 minutes in execution.
Why is this? Well, planning in general can take courage, insight, time and persistence. One of the biggest shortcomings of many managers and business owners is the lack of ability, willingness or time required to plan.
In the long run, my experience tells me that managers who spend quality time planning an activity, project, strategy, campaign or any business event will save money, time, and energy and will contribute greatly to their bottom line, competitive position and overall reputation and success.
Managers, business owners and executives do not plan because:
They don’t know how;
They do not like the idea of accountability;
They say they are too busy doing something that was not previously planned;
They don’t see the short- or long-term benefits of planning as a management responsibility;
They are waiting for someone higher in the organisation to tell them what to do, when and how;
They delegate it to someone else, who usually doesn’t plan things either. In not planning, they miss out on these benefits:
Saving money
Saving time
Save energy
Saving resources
Reducing stress
Reducing downtime/loss
Improving employee/organisation productivity;
Increasing sales;
Improving market share;
Dealing better with competition, shifts in the economy and changes in consumer attitude.
Now that you are determined to start planning, here are six easy steps to follow:
1 Set aside a regular time to plan. Do it once a day, week, month or year, and let nothing interfere with this business activity.
2 Decide how much time you will devote to each planning session. It could be 10 minutes every day, an hour once a week or a day once a month.
3 Write out a list of outcomes you want from your planning session, for example, an accurate budget, new employee profile, marketing strategy for a new product, or a list of what you want to accomplish that day, the agenda for the next meeting or speakers to hire for your next training session.
4 Evaluate the necessary resources available during your planning session to complete your plan: people, information, money, time, and resources.
5 Resist the tendency to end the planning session without meeting its objectives.
6 Include a follow-up process for each plan. This is to make sure you integrate/apply what you did during your planning session – even for a list of what you will do today.
One of the key things to remember when it comes to planning routines and skills is that outcomes are driven by goals.
Without clearly defined and written goals and objectives, it will be very difficult to plan and ensure that you get favourable results.
Many managers do not have clear goals and objectives on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Their days are driven by interruptions, crises, uncertainty and a “wait and see” attitude. This is no way to improve your performance, that of your team or your organisation.
Let me give you an example. A company representative called me after New Year’s Day and said he wanted me to facilitate his company’s yearly strategic planning meeting on Jan 30.
I replied that I thought the company ran on a calendar year and that their new year started on Jan 1. He said that was indeed the case, but they had been too busy to have this meeting earlier.
My response was that it was too late to plan for the new year – that should have been done three or four months ago. I added: “Call me in October and we can have the 2009 planning session then.”
The company found someone else to facilitate the meeting but it is likely that it won’t achieve its goals or targets for this year, no matter how aggressive its plans.
So what are you waiting for? A recent study indicated that for every minute spent in planning, you will save 10 minutes in execution.
Working across borders
THE modern workplace is a borderless one. Globalisation has opened up vistas of potential partnerships and collaborations around the world.
Supply chains span entire continents and project management teams comprise members of diverse nationalities and backgrounds.
Managers find themselves with a tough mandate as they have to deal with a variety of behavioural patterns, communication styles and decision-making processes.
Indeed, multicultural teams often pose frustrating managerial dilemmas. Cultural differences create hurdles that hamper effective teamwork, but these are often subtle and difficult to recognise. By then, significant damage may already have been done.
These ostensibly mundane working problems among team members prevent them from realising the very gains they were set up to harvest, such as familiarity with different product markets and culturally sensitive customer service.
The challenge in managing multicultural teams effectively is to recognise underlying cultural causes of conflict and to intervene in ways that set strategic objectives for the team and empower its members to deal with future challenges.
1 Communication
The most prominent challenge posed by multicultural teams is ambiguity and murkiness in communications. Different cultures have differing styles of communication.
In general, westernised cultures favour direct and explicit means of communication. Crucial information about the other party’s preferences and priorities can be gleaned by asking direct questions.
Other cultures may not be as vocal and forward in expressing their opinions. These cultures favour an indirect means of communication where meaning is embedded in the way the message is presented.
Negotiators will then have to infer preferences and priorities from changes — or the lack of these — in the other party’s business proposal.
Such uncertainty is detrimental to the health of any business. When team projects run into trouble, a member’s unwitting approach to the problem may violate the other’s norms for uncovering and fixing glitches in the programme.
This can cause serious damage to relationships, resulting in isolation and alienation of key team members, restricted information access and the generation of interpersonal conflicts.
2 Language
The most obvious and practical means would be to implement a highly selective evaluation process. If you are going to have people from different countries working together, it is appropriate that a criterion for selection should be proficiency in the language.
Suppliers and partners need to be impeccable in their command of the language, since this serves as a direct gauge to the standards of translations they are able to provide.
Linguistic competence should be considered when settling on a partner organisation or a supplier. Having this criterion will help reduce misunderstandings that result from incomprehension and misinterpretation.
3 Openness
The culture of open communication should be fostered. Project managers need to value and be receptive to the output of individual members.
Team members also need to be receptive to each other’s perspectives and viewpoints so that members do not have misgivings about vocalising their opinions. Misinterpretations can then be addressed before they develop into full-fledged disasters.
4 Feedback
To rein in divergent segments of the business cycle, project managers need to consolidate and centralise core processes while receiving rigorous feedback from the periphery.
Follow-up supervisory feedback from managers overseeing global outsourced teams is instrumental in evaluating and determining the efficiency and rapport of team members.
Members should be given clear guidelines on how they will be assessed on their ability to act upon initiatives and deliver relevant and profitable solutions.
Such collaborative experiences will allow managers and team members alike to familiarise themselves with cultural issues while adhering to neutral and objective operational procedures.
5 Adaptation
For a team to be effective, team members must acknowledge cultural gaps openly and work around them.
One of the projects handled by my company involved the translation and typesetting of marketing corollaries into Arabic, a language widely known and studied in the Middle East.
The contents of the materials had been designed for a beach resort, and several photographs depicted women clad in bikinis.
Several of the team members in the Middle East were unwilling to be involved in the project because it went against the conservative tenets of their religion.
The opposition was mainly in the typesetting process where the translated text had to be integrated with the photographs.
Under such circumstances, project managers had to act promptly and appropriately, conducting research and evaluation sessions so that cultural concerns could be identified and acknowledged. Team members participated in solving the problems, learning from each other in the process.
A satisfactory compromise was then reached by deferring to the religious beliefs of our Muslim partners. Project managers outsourced typesetting operations to China and negotiated with the original Arabic translators to review and approve the end-product before final delivery to the client.
With the correct mindset, members can be creative about protecting their own substantial differences while acceding to the processes of others.
With the advent of globalisation, businesses can adroitly capitalise on worldwide opportunities to reduce costs and enhance productivity. Nevertheless, they need to possess the sensitivity and expertise to weather the potential complications that might arise from such collaborations.
Supply chains span entire continents and project management teams comprise members of diverse nationalities and backgrounds.
Managers find themselves with a tough mandate as they have to deal with a variety of behavioural patterns, communication styles and decision-making processes.
Indeed, multicultural teams often pose frustrating managerial dilemmas. Cultural differences create hurdles that hamper effective teamwork, but these are often subtle and difficult to recognise. By then, significant damage may already have been done.
These ostensibly mundane working problems among team members prevent them from realising the very gains they were set up to harvest, such as familiarity with different product markets and culturally sensitive customer service.
The challenge in managing multicultural teams effectively is to recognise underlying cultural causes of conflict and to intervene in ways that set strategic objectives for the team and empower its members to deal with future challenges.
1 Communication
The most prominent challenge posed by multicultural teams is ambiguity and murkiness in communications. Different cultures have differing styles of communication.
In general, westernised cultures favour direct and explicit means of communication. Crucial information about the other party’s preferences and priorities can be gleaned by asking direct questions.
Other cultures may not be as vocal and forward in expressing their opinions. These cultures favour an indirect means of communication where meaning is embedded in the way the message is presented.
Negotiators will then have to infer preferences and priorities from changes — or the lack of these — in the other party’s business proposal.
Such uncertainty is detrimental to the health of any business. When team projects run into trouble, a member’s unwitting approach to the problem may violate the other’s norms for uncovering and fixing glitches in the programme.
This can cause serious damage to relationships, resulting in isolation and alienation of key team members, restricted information access and the generation of interpersonal conflicts.
2 Language
The most obvious and practical means would be to implement a highly selective evaluation process. If you are going to have people from different countries working together, it is appropriate that a criterion for selection should be proficiency in the language.
Suppliers and partners need to be impeccable in their command of the language, since this serves as a direct gauge to the standards of translations they are able to provide.
Linguistic competence should be considered when settling on a partner organisation or a supplier. Having this criterion will help reduce misunderstandings that result from incomprehension and misinterpretation.
3 Openness
The culture of open communication should be fostered. Project managers need to value and be receptive to the output of individual members.
Team members also need to be receptive to each other’s perspectives and viewpoints so that members do not have misgivings about vocalising their opinions. Misinterpretations can then be addressed before they develop into full-fledged disasters.
4 Feedback
To rein in divergent segments of the business cycle, project managers need to consolidate and centralise core processes while receiving rigorous feedback from the periphery.
Follow-up supervisory feedback from managers overseeing global outsourced teams is instrumental in evaluating and determining the efficiency and rapport of team members.
Members should be given clear guidelines on how they will be assessed on their ability to act upon initiatives and deliver relevant and profitable solutions.
Such collaborative experiences will allow managers and team members alike to familiarise themselves with cultural issues while adhering to neutral and objective operational procedures.
5 Adaptation
For a team to be effective, team members must acknowledge cultural gaps openly and work around them.
One of the projects handled by my company involved the translation and typesetting of marketing corollaries into Arabic, a language widely known and studied in the Middle East.
The contents of the materials had been designed for a beach resort, and several photographs depicted women clad in bikinis.
Several of the team members in the Middle East were unwilling to be involved in the project because it went against the conservative tenets of their religion.
The opposition was mainly in the typesetting process where the translated text had to be integrated with the photographs.
Under such circumstances, project managers had to act promptly and appropriately, conducting research and evaluation sessions so that cultural concerns could be identified and acknowledged. Team members participated in solving the problems, learning from each other in the process.
A satisfactory compromise was then reached by deferring to the religious beliefs of our Muslim partners. Project managers outsourced typesetting operations to China and negotiated with the original Arabic translators to review and approve the end-product before final delivery to the client.
With the correct mindset, members can be creative about protecting their own substantial differences while acceding to the processes of others.
With the advent of globalisation, businesses can adroitly capitalise on worldwide opportunities to reduce costs and enhance productivity. Nevertheless, they need to possess the sensitivity and expertise to weather the potential complications that might arise from such collaborations.
Been there, done that
WHEN working with groups, I love to impress upon them the importance of the old phrase, “Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting”. This means that no one can have a realistic expectation of success if they don’t make some kind of a change.
Business owners who sit back and say, “My sales will pick up, I just have to be patient,” are deluding themselves. They need to make sales happen through a change in their marketing plan, networking, referrals, promotions, communication with their clients, and so on.
If they haven’t been getting sales by doing what they are doing, why should they expect people to magically come streaming through the door?
The same is true in all walks of life: if you are unfit now and you don’t change your lifestyle, you’ll be unfit tomorrow; if you’ve always shot over 90 on the golf course and you never work on your game, you’ll continue to shoot over 90; if all you ever do is talk about writing a book but never sit down to write it, it will never be written.
For good things to happen, life will have to change.
People are afraid of change, even if change can bring them good things. Often times, “I don’t want things to change” is an excuse that people use to put their goals off.
The reality is that most changes are for the better, even if moving towards your goal takes time out of your schedule or taxes you mentally or physically.
If your goal is to get in shape, your lifestyle will change – your diet, your schedule and the time spent working out will have to be altered accordingly.
If you are looking to become self-employed, your life will change – your schedule, your free time, your income, your capacity for risk and your stress levels may require you to look at your lifestyle and realise that things will not be the same.
If you are shooting for a personal best in sales this year, your life will change – perhaps you need to spend more time on the road or work towards building stronger networks.
If you are building the world’s largest ball of twine, your life will change – finding the space for all that twine could be a full-time job in itself, and let’s not even go down the risk-management road.
The obvious point is that anything worth doing will require a change on your part, whether that change is in your schedule, effort given, money spent, or otherwise.
The trick is to realise that change does not have to be a negative thing; it certainly doesn’t need to feel like sacrifice.
The anticipation is often far worse than the change itself; in fact, once you adopt your new outine you will very likely prefer it to the way you were living your life in the past.
So go ahead and make a positive change now and reap the rewards
Business owners who sit back and say, “My sales will pick up, I just have to be patient,” are deluding themselves. They need to make sales happen through a change in their marketing plan, networking, referrals, promotions, communication with their clients, and so on.
If they haven’t been getting sales by doing what they are doing, why should they expect people to magically come streaming through the door?
The same is true in all walks of life: if you are unfit now and you don’t change your lifestyle, you’ll be unfit tomorrow; if you’ve always shot over 90 on the golf course and you never work on your game, you’ll continue to shoot over 90; if all you ever do is talk about writing a book but never sit down to write it, it will never be written.
For good things to happen, life will have to change.
People are afraid of change, even if change can bring them good things. Often times, “I don’t want things to change” is an excuse that people use to put their goals off.
The reality is that most changes are for the better, even if moving towards your goal takes time out of your schedule or taxes you mentally or physically.
If your goal is to get in shape, your lifestyle will change – your diet, your schedule and the time spent working out will have to be altered accordingly.
If you are looking to become self-employed, your life will change – your schedule, your free time, your income, your capacity for risk and your stress levels may require you to look at your lifestyle and realise that things will not be the same.
If you are shooting for a personal best in sales this year, your life will change – perhaps you need to spend more time on the road or work towards building stronger networks.
If you are building the world’s largest ball of twine, your life will change – finding the space for all that twine could be a full-time job in itself, and let’s not even go down the risk-management road.
The obvious point is that anything worth doing will require a change on your part, whether that change is in your schedule, effort given, money spent, or otherwise.
The trick is to realise that change does not have to be a negative thing; it certainly doesn’t need to feel like sacrifice.
The anticipation is often far worse than the change itself; in fact, once you adopt your new outine you will very likely prefer it to the way you were living your life in the past.
So go ahead and make a positive change now and reap the rewards
worth at work
LONG hours. Tight deadlines. Pressure-cooker lifestyle. In this picture of working life as most of us know it today, don’t you feel that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things you need to do? Like the handphone, computer or the Internet that we (mistakenly) believe keeps us “plugged-in” to life, there is this gnawing feeling that the more we are technologically connected, the more “disconnected” or “unplugged” we feel.
When we talk of balance, the image that comes to mind is that of two weighing scales. But a well-rounded life isn’t made up of the sum of only two parts. It is made up of family, work, spirituality, health, adventure and so on. Some people may have more parts to their circle of life than others. But for the purpose of this article, we will just focus on work. The question you need to ask yourself is – is work dominating your life to the erosion or even exclusion of other parts?
As with most anything in life, you need to be willing to ask the questions to get clarity. With clarity, comes focus. Only when you are clear about what isn’t working for you, can you take action to adjust or correct it. Clarity helps you to prioritise what’s important and what’s not, what demands on your time you will accept and what you won’t.
The key is not about striving for equal balance, but rather fair balance, keeping in mind that your priorities will change at different times in your life. When you first start to work, you are likely to spend a big amount of time on your career. When you get older and get married, then it is likely that you will somewhat reduce the long hours and want to have more time to build a family. As you get older, you may want to slow down and spend more time doing what you love, with the people you love. Just like work feeds intellectual stimulation, we all need ‘down time’ doing things unrelated to work – often these are activities that feed our creative or spiritual needs.
Finding balance at work
Work is an essential part of our lives. For some it is just a job that pays the bills. For others, it might be a passion or the pursuit of a lifelong dream. Whatever it may be, work gives us dignity and independence, and makes us feel productive. But over the last 20 years, work culture has transformed dramatically due to technological innovation and globalisation.
Technology was supposed to make us more efficient, and whilst it has done that, it can sometimes feel like we’re permanently “on call”. When you are “turned on” 24/7 via your handphone, sms or email, the line between work and private time can easily get blurred if you allow it to.
Staying relevant and productive
Many companies do business globally, which means they operate in a 24/7 environment. With these changes, the whole concept of job security has become obsolete. From five-day workweeks and eight-hour days, work has extended into weekends and eight-hour days now are often the exception rather than the rule – with many people putting in much longer hours to avoid becoming “obsolete” themselves.
In the ongoing debate about how to have work-life balance in a 24- hour business cycle the underlying point, however, is hardly breaking news. Rather it is stating the obvious – that working long hours everyday is unlikely to make you the best or most productive employee. Numerous studies confirm this. In fact, even the most motivated or energetic employee will burn out if there is no break in the work stress.
According to the American Psychological Association, burnout is emotional exhaustion resulting from overwhelming stress at work. It may be caused by a hostile work environment or fears about job security, but it often results from long hours, stressful deadlines, high expectations, worrying about a project or taking on more work than you can handle – in other words, working too hard. It can also lead to depression and a host of other medical problems.
But what happens if you consistently go the extra mile to do exceptional work ahead of schedule? The irony is that many companies “reward” their hardest working employees with … more work! If this happens to you, it’s no wonder you’re not feeling motivated to work hard.
Is it just a woman’s issue
The notion that work-life balance is a woman’s issue is a myth. The fact is that it is a human issue. There is a phrase that says: “We are human beings, not human doings” which I believe encapsulates this wisdom. I also believe that employees with work-life balance in their lives are more likely to be happy and more motivated at work.
The sum of happiness in various parts of one’s life makes up a whole that comes through in the way a person behaves and performs at work. Malaysia, like all countries in the world, is having an increasingly younger workforce for whom the notion of 12-hour days everyday is not acceptable. This new generation that is called Gen Y wants more flexibility in work time, and wants to have more control over their time.
As companies want to compete more effectively, they want to attract the best talent. The best talent is attracted to work for companies that provide work-life balance and opportunities not just for career growth, but for personal growth as well.
Ultimately, however, no policies or legislation will make a difference until you take control of your time to become more productive, as well as make time for the variety that makes up the spice of life!
When we talk of balance, the image that comes to mind is that of two weighing scales. But a well-rounded life isn’t made up of the sum of only two parts. It is made up of family, work, spirituality, health, adventure and so on. Some people may have more parts to their circle of life than others. But for the purpose of this article, we will just focus on work. The question you need to ask yourself is – is work dominating your life to the erosion or even exclusion of other parts?
As with most anything in life, you need to be willing to ask the questions to get clarity. With clarity, comes focus. Only when you are clear about what isn’t working for you, can you take action to adjust or correct it. Clarity helps you to prioritise what’s important and what’s not, what demands on your time you will accept and what you won’t.
The key is not about striving for equal balance, but rather fair balance, keeping in mind that your priorities will change at different times in your life. When you first start to work, you are likely to spend a big amount of time on your career. When you get older and get married, then it is likely that you will somewhat reduce the long hours and want to have more time to build a family. As you get older, you may want to slow down and spend more time doing what you love, with the people you love. Just like work feeds intellectual stimulation, we all need ‘down time’ doing things unrelated to work – often these are activities that feed our creative or spiritual needs.
Finding balance at work
Work is an essential part of our lives. For some it is just a job that pays the bills. For others, it might be a passion or the pursuit of a lifelong dream. Whatever it may be, work gives us dignity and independence, and makes us feel productive. But over the last 20 years, work culture has transformed dramatically due to technological innovation and globalisation.
Technology was supposed to make us more efficient, and whilst it has done that, it can sometimes feel like we’re permanently “on call”. When you are “turned on” 24/7 via your handphone, sms or email, the line between work and private time can easily get blurred if you allow it to.
Staying relevant and productive
Many companies do business globally, which means they operate in a 24/7 environment. With these changes, the whole concept of job security has become obsolete. From five-day workweeks and eight-hour days, work has extended into weekends and eight-hour days now are often the exception rather than the rule – with many people putting in much longer hours to avoid becoming “obsolete” themselves.
In the ongoing debate about how to have work-life balance in a 24- hour business cycle the underlying point, however, is hardly breaking news. Rather it is stating the obvious – that working long hours everyday is unlikely to make you the best or most productive employee. Numerous studies confirm this. In fact, even the most motivated or energetic employee will burn out if there is no break in the work stress.
According to the American Psychological Association, burnout is emotional exhaustion resulting from overwhelming stress at work. It may be caused by a hostile work environment or fears about job security, but it often results from long hours, stressful deadlines, high expectations, worrying about a project or taking on more work than you can handle – in other words, working too hard. It can also lead to depression and a host of other medical problems.
But what happens if you consistently go the extra mile to do exceptional work ahead of schedule? The irony is that many companies “reward” their hardest working employees with … more work! If this happens to you, it’s no wonder you’re not feeling motivated to work hard.
Is it just a woman’s issue
The notion that work-life balance is a woman’s issue is a myth. The fact is that it is a human issue. There is a phrase that says: “We are human beings, not human doings” which I believe encapsulates this wisdom. I also believe that employees with work-life balance in their lives are more likely to be happy and more motivated at work.
The sum of happiness in various parts of one’s life makes up a whole that comes through in the way a person behaves and performs at work. Malaysia, like all countries in the world, is having an increasingly younger workforce for whom the notion of 12-hour days everyday is not acceptable. This new generation that is called Gen Y wants more flexibility in work time, and wants to have more control over their time.
As companies want to compete more effectively, they want to attract the best talent. The best talent is attracted to work for companies that provide work-life balance and opportunities not just for career growth, but for personal growth as well.
Ultimately, however, no policies or legislation will make a difference until you take control of your time to become more productive, as well as make time for the variety that makes up the spice of life!
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