Productivity Archives - Page 8 of 13

Five Must-Dos to Improve Employee Engagement – Transform the Zombies into Humans

by sincera | Jun 30, 2013 | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

Did anyone watch any good zombie movies or shows lately? I did unfortunately and the thought running through my mind watching the zombies in there was that we have our own version of zombies in the corporate world. Think about it – some people leave their minds and hearts out the moment they check in at office – put in the hours, do what they are told to do, do their best not to get “committed” and definitely not care…and then there are some for whom work is personal, they care, they come to work to learn and grow, they build relationships at work and in general just have fun.. Employee engagement, also called worker engagement, is a business management concept. An “engaged employee” is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests. The opposite of employee engagement is a zombie employee. A zombie employee is a disengaged employee that will stumble around the office, lower morale and cost the company money. (Wiki). Valid analogy there, don’t you think? And that brings me to the topic of today’s post – Employee Engagement – Transforming the zombies into humans.

Concentrating on employee engagement can help companies withstand, and possibly even thrive, in tough economic times. Gallup researchers in 2012 studied the differences in performance between engaged and actively disengaged work units and found that those scoring in the top half on employee engagement nearly doubled their odds of success compared with those in the bottom half. Take a look at the table below from Gallup that clearly establishes the connection between employee engagement and critical performance metrics:

So what surprises me is why senior leadership often times just pays lip service to such an important aspect of business performance and growth. One annual engagement survey, a bit of brouhaha over the survey results if they are not good enough against benchmarks, a few actions handed over to the HR teams and then business as usual till the next survey results which of course will not be any different from last year or the previous year.

Employee Engagement initiatives must be enmeshed into the day-to-day operations of the company – I firmly believe that if you take care of the people, the company results take care of themselves. And when I think of the “people” factor of operational excellence, Tom Peters always come to mind. His “Excellence Now” philosophy is centred on People First and I will be quoting him liberally in the must-dos below. He says that an organization is first and foremost a “CATHEDRAL” dedicated to human development. So how do you build and sustain this cathedral on a day-to-day basis? Here are five principles that I have seen work:

**Must Do #1: Hire for attitude and culture “fit” –**

Adaptive organizations will have workforces which are hired for attitude and character and proven teamwork as much or more than for skill. In all my years of managing people, I have never had to give up on a team member for lack of skills. Skills can be developed, attitudes is another story. Your hiring process needs to build this focus into sourcing profiles; conducting interviews and doing reference checks (get tips in this post). Trust me, one talented terror in an influential position can throw cold water over all the good work done by other engagement initiatives. So, you have done a mistake in hiring or promoting a talented terror (a high performer with lousy attitudes), quick – go undo it fast!

Must Do #2: Be Transparent –

This ties in with trusting people and giving them respect. Build an environment of information sharing and transparency at all levels. Problems – share it across and enlist support. Mistakes – Admit it and gain credibility. Successes – Celebrate sooner rather than later, big or small doesn’t matter as long as everyone’s invited. Ask people the “What DO You Think” question often and then act on the feedback (while letting people know that you are on it) – simple way to show that you respect your team and the greatest source of wisdom for you. Senior leadership should share a workable plan to support their vision and ALWAYs back up words with actions to inspire confidence and trust. Employees who don’t feel significant rarely make significant contributions.

Must Do #3: Create Policies and Processes with People First philosophy in mind –

If you want to WOW your customers then you must first WOW those who WOW the customers! There are so many ways to provide the best employee experience and not all of them will cost money (though your return on investment here would be much higher than say. capex investments) Offer competitive base salaries linked to value creation (ever heard the idiom, throw peanuts and you will get monkeys?), link variables to achievable business goals, have a great rewards programs that includes both cash and perks, provide tools and technology environment that help and not hamper employee productivity, take feedback from all employee levels when designing pay and benefits programs. CARE and be FAIR, in short.

Must Do #4: Help People Succeed –

Boss Job #1 is serving employees, helping employees not just “do good work”—but helping them succeed and grow. This one is about people and leadership development and training – about providing career advancement and growth opportunities. Give self- assessment tools and self career management training for all employees so they move to becoming the CEOs of “YOU Inc.” Build the ABSOLUTE BEST Cadre of 1st LINE MANAGERS … or BUST! Provide alternatives to job growth ladders and create and maintain an effective and widely accessible internal job posting process. Create a strong mentoring/buddy culture. Design training programs as a game and fun for everyone. An organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to the extent that the people who drive that organization are striving to become better-versions-of-themselves.

Must Do #5: Connect, Get Personal and Make Work Fun –

This is part of my company’s vision statement and something that I strongly believe in. Each one of us can get this right – it is simple. As Dee Hock, founder, Visa said – “Ph.D. in leadership. Short course: Make a short list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others. Always.” Need I say more? We just need to keep this in mind in every interaction, every meeting, every communication that we have in the workplace. Give before you get. Appreciate people who do this always and encourage and participate in fun at the workplace. And the more of us who do this, the more this culture spreads getting engagement levels up slowly and surely.

To sum up, here is the leadership/management manifesto for Employee Engagement from Tom Peters himself: our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly serve the ultimate customer.

So what do you think? Do you think Employee engagement initiatives are a waste of time ? How have you transformed zombies into humans in your organization or in your teams? What do you think I have missed in the points above? I would love to hear back and learn from you.

Five Tips to Navigate your Way Successfully through Matrix Organizations

by sincera | Jun 3, 2013 | Career, Managing Yourself, Office Etiquette, Productivity, World of Work

If you are an employee in a large organization, a freelancer or a consultant, you have probably worked in the matrix structure without being fully aware about it. A matrix structure is usually a combination of a vertical (product/service P&L Unit) and a horizontal function (Finance, Marketing, HR, IT, etc) and is implemented to facilitate balanced decision-making and flexibility. In other words – welcome to working in complexity where you may have all the responsibility but without the necessary authority.

More and more companies are gravitating towards matrix organizations to deal with the increasingly dynamic and chaotic work environments. Gartner highlighted these changes in their predictions for the world of work in this decade:

“Work will become less routine, characterized by increased volatility, hyper connectedness, ‘swarming‘ and more,” said Tom Austin, vice president and Gartner fellow. By 2015, 40 percent or more of an organization’s work will be ‘non-routine’, up from 25 percent in 2010. “People will swarm more often and work solo less. They’ll work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organization,” he added. “In addition, simulation, visualisation and unification technologies, working across yottabytes of data per second, will demand an emphasis on new perceptual skills.”

Sounds familiar? If you are in the business management/operations role like me, this style of working is the norm and not the exception and it needs some special skills and abilities to successfully navigate your way through the organization. Based on what has worked for me and what hasn’t, I have put together my five working tips that help in adapting and being effective (and happy) in working in roles that give you responsibility without immediately clear authority:

Working Tip #1 – Know what you need to achieve:

This is rule number one – Knowing what you need to achieve before you embark on an initiative involving different teams helps you to keep your eyes on your goal and not get blind-sided by the priorities of the other teams. Of course the ultimate goal would be the one that the organisation has set and has necessitated the working in the matrix structure and you need to be aligned to that but you also are solely responsible for your part of the whole and that is why in every meeting or interaction, it is necessary for you to remember that. This helps you to ensure that the working plan is moving towards that goal at all times and give your inputs with that clarity when it is time for group decision-making (helps combat “groupitis” or death by committee scenarios).

Working Tip #2 – Let go of the need to be liked:

The desire to be liked, to be popular is a very strong human driver and this is quite normal. But be careful that this does not become a “need” that drives the way you operate at work. It leads to making compromises that you are not comfortable with because they are not aligned to your internal ethical compass. Don’t go with the herd mentality because you are afraid that speaking up or standing up for something will make you unpopular. Not everyone everywhere will like you and that’s okay – you are not at work to win a popularity contest. Just treat everyone with respect (the way you would want to be treated by others) and focus on the work. You will get more done and be happier too.

Working Tip #3 – Sharpen your conflict-management skills:

You have to be comfortable with conflict as it is a given in situations where people from different functions or roles need to work together. Understanding conflict management techniques is important to reach a resolution quickly (and with the least amount of blood-bath). To quote of one of my favourite leadership bloggers, Mike Myatt, from his post on workplace conflicts –

“Don’t fear conflict; embrace it – it’s your job. While you can try and avoid conflict (bad idea), you cannot escape conflict. The fact of the matter is conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. It will find you whether you look for it (good idea – more later) or not. The ability to recognize conflict, understand the nature of conflict, and to be able to bring swift and just resolution to conflict will serve you well as a leader – the inability to do so may well be your downfall.”

And also, you need to be wise enough to pick your battles with care.

Working Tip #4 – Escalation is not the best solution:

Don’t be trigger happy with hitting the escalation button. This should be your last option when working in a matrix organization and there are many reasons for this – the main one being that trust and teamwork is the foundation for a successful matrix organization. And a blame-game attitude poisons the foundation pretty fast. (Pardon me for all the “killing” analogies – it is a side-effect of working in the corporate world for so long :)).

Moreover an escalation may not work as the final decision-making authority would not be your immediate superior – in a matrix org, it is usually the CEO or a level lower than her and do you really want to go whining all the way there when you have other options to make things work ? Also by escalating, you let go of all the influence that you have managed to build so far – and influence trumps authority to get things done in complex organizations.

Working Tip #5 – Communication is key:

I have saved this for the last as it is a common thread for all the earlier tips. For you to be successful in a matrix organization – you have to get personal. You have to take the time to know every person that you are working with directly or indirectly – their strengths and weakness, their goals and needs. Strive to understand before being understood. And for that you have to communicate. Be open and transparent about yourself. Listen. Interact. Absorb. Empathize. Thank often. Criticize less. Give credit often. Build relationships. Pick up the phone when emails seem to be getting shorter and cc lists getting longer. Meet up/Video when you think phone conversations and calls seems to be getting you nowhere. Communication helps break down the vertical and horizontal silos, improves relationships and creates an effective “groupthink” environment that further promotes teamwork and trust.

I believe that these are skills that can be developed and honed and really help in leading and working in a matrix operating environment. And ALWAYS in your work, as Seth Godin says – Be open, generous and connected:

Open to new ideas, leaning forward, exploring the edges, impatient with the status quo… In a hurry to make something worth making.

Generous when given the opportunity (or restless to find the opportunity when not). Focused on giving people dignity, respect and the chance to speak up. Aware that the single most effective way to move forward is to help others move forward as well.

and connected. Part of the community, not apart from it. Hooked into the realities and dreams of the tribe. Able and interested in not only cheering people on, but shining a light on how they can accomplish their goals.

What do you think? Have you come across any challenges while working in matrix organizations ? What makes you lose your cool and what helps you get your “balance” back? Have these tips worked for you ? I would love to hear and learn from you.

Pic Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecorey/7281531296/

Five Key Considerations for Efficient Knowledge Management – Business Operations Performance Management

by sincera | Apr 27, 2013 | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest ~ Benjamin Franklin

What is knowledge? Is it the information we gather from various sources available in today’s always-on and seamlessly connected world? Is it the data we deal with in our daily life?

Well, not really! Data is the raw material used to create information. Information is just data in context. Information and Data are not Knowledge until we know how to extract value out of it. Knowledge is the understanding the significance of Information, filtered through people’s skills acquired through experience, and trends and patterns.

How we extract value out of available data and information, and how we club this with lessons learnt through experiences, ideas and competencies, is where knowledge management comes into play.

Knowledge management is the disciplined approach to achieve organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, sharing of lessons learnt and continuous improvement by managing knowledge as a strategic asset. It focuses on processes such as identifying, creating, representing, sharing knowledge and enabling adoption of insights and experiences. It is a dynamic approach as Knowledge depends on how, when, and from where it is acquired.

Organizations now clearly believe that Intellectual capital is a strategic and valuable asset that can be managed as effectively as physical assets which will set them apart from their competitors and drive their success.

So, how do we establish Knowledge Management and its underlying philosophies within an organization? The key is in bringing cultural change within the organization by making it knowledge based, working with people to increase their ability in the organization to influence others with their knowledge and encouraging free flow of ideas.

Here are five key considerations to take into account to set up an efficient Knowledge management framework in the organization:

Consideration #1 : Identify the Key drivers for KM

Key drivers for KM are:

Mergers/ Acquisitions/ Downsizing
Employee Attrition
Globalization

According to data from Deallogic, U.S. companies have spent $219 billion on mergers and acquisitions so far (February) in 2013, a sharp increase from 2012, when firms spent just $85 billion during the same period. And U.S. firms are slated to have the biggest year in M&A activity since 2000.

In such an environment, it becomes highly important to manage different knowledge models of two organizations getting merged or involved in acquisition. And if the merger is between the companies who were formerly competitors, the strategic alliances that are formed between competitors to pursue an opportunity, the workforce, the changes in technology, global teams and diverse stakeholders, are just a few of challenges we face without a proper KM framework in place.

Employees who leave the organization take their knowledge with them which actually results in Knowledge attrition for the organization. And there a challenge is to establish a system for knowledge transfer or transition before employee exit to avoid the cost of ramping up new employees. In absence of knowledge assets, learning curve for new employees becomes even more difficult.

Global culture and global environments necessitate virtual teams – this demands knowledge sharing and seamless accessibility to the stored knowledge irrespective of location. E-learning is one of the effective mediums for managing knowledge across the globe.

Identifying the key drivers for KM in the organization helps in arriving at the mission and the appropriate frameworks that best fit the organization.

Consideration #2 : Focus on What Values KM can add

Many successful organizations fail to realize full value from their investments in projects by not learning lessons in the process. This further means that organizations then fail to continue those processes that were successful in the process and fail to discontinue those that resulted in errors and rework ~Ernst & Young (2007)

Every project/process offers several learning opportunities to generate knowledge and increase both individual competencies and organizational assets. A creative approach to KM can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenue. Structured knowledge management provides the following business benefits:

Improved customer satisfaction with fastest response times
Ideas can be shared and innovation encouraged
Decision making is improved with access to facts and past experiences
Enhanced Cross team communication and inter functional problem solving
Redundant processes and process handling are reduced, hence business operations becomes more effective and margins improve
Ultimately revenues increase by getting services and products faster to the market

Business operations performance improvement and revenue gains as a result of KM are indicated by numerous organizations, for e.g. Ford Motor accelerated its concept-to-production time from 36 months to 24 months and the flow on value of this has been estimated at US $1.25 billion, The Dow Chemical Company saved $40 million a year in the re-use of patents, Chase Manhattan, one of the largest banks in the US, used Customer relationship management KM initiatives to increase its annual revenue by 15%, and Pfizer credits KM practices for discovering the hidden benefits of the Viagra drug.

Look at the processes in your organization and identify the specific benefits in the short and long-term that knowledge management could bring in to the business. It is important to tie in the knowledge management initiative to measurable impact to gain agreement and support from key stakeholders in the organization.

Consideration #3 : Define clear objectives of KM

Before you jump into KM, you must first gain clarity on what you are doing and why and then spread the awareness around the objectives. The message should be absolutely clear without any ambiguities which will help in building strong trust and credibility. Creating a successful brand around a KM initiative takes a lot of effort – the cultural immune system of any organization is highly volatile when it comes to knowledge sharing and collaboration. The main factor that contributes to the volatility is the fact that technology is breaking the barriers and conventional hierarchy is losing its influence. People take the “knowledge is power” adage too seriously and hoard the knowledge sometimes – thinking that sharing the knowledge would result in loss of their control or influence. KM is all about bringing cultural change. Hence it is important to define the objectives and build the awareness and enthusiasm around these to make people more comfortable to become active participants of the KM initiative. Motivating people by recognizing the value of employee’s knowledge and by rewarding them for it not only benefits KM but also improves employee retention rates.

As per International Data Corp (IDC), following are the top objectives for knowledge management initiatives:

Capture and share best practices
Enhance internal collaboration
Improve Customer relationship management
Better Competitive intelligence
Build Intellectual capital

Consideration #4 : Ensure data accuracy and completeness

Data quality is a critical aspect of knowledge management, source and accessibility of data to KM should happen in a defined and structured manner. If the quality of data is questionable, the value of data goes down and if major decisions are made based on this data, these actions may wrongly influence organization’s objectives. Data is a valuable organizational asset and should be managed carefully by ensuring adequate quality, integrity, security, availability and effective usage.

Assess the current state at each stage of the Process and define guidelines for right data, right time and right tools and infrastructure to arrive at high quality and accurate data for your KM initiative.

Consideration #5 : Earn a strong Fan Base to drive KM acceptance

Buy in from people at all levels is required for knowledge management to be a success. Creating a strong case study on the benefits of using KM helps – Identify a willing group and implement a set of initiatives around KM (e.g. Knowledge Map, Build taxonomy to capture the K- Map, Identify SMEs, and scout for content and disseminate the same) and build a story around the same. This will be like a story board where the user narrates a live example of a crisis or some critical situation and how KM has intervened and helped. Also create a picture of current state and the desired state and how this gap is narrowed down by implementing a structured KM. For example the project can be an application maintenance services for a client. The kind of skills required (L1, L2 etc) in terms of managing the applications, number of tickets generated around each of the technology area within the application and resolving the customer issues can noted down. Now bring in the KM system and process and observe the change like reduction in number of tickets, L1 person handling L2 tickets etc. Map the same to productivity numbers. This has a high impact as people can relate to their own situation and will be open to try KM out.

Use Metrics wisely. A perfect blend of qualitative and quantitative metrics should be available to the management to assess the current level of improvement – either top line (revenue) or bottom-line (customer satisfaction through higher productivity). This justifies the investment that an organization is making in terms of resources and technology infrastructure that supports the KM framework. Theorizing the intangible nature and value of Knowledge Management will not convince the leaders as much as measurable indicators that prove the business benefits will.

In summary, every organization wants to perform at its best in delivering products and services with enhanced gross margins, reduced cycle times and in maintaining consistently delighted, satisfied customers. Knowledge Management can act as one of the catalysts in speeding up the process of achieving these organizational objectives.

The value of Knowledge Management relates directly to the effectiveness with which the managed knowledge enables the members of the organization to deal with today’s situations and effectively envision and create their future – Gene Bellinger

What are your experiences with KM setup in your organizations? What challenges have you faced in KM establishment? Would love to hear and learn from you.

T0day’s post is a collaborative effort with Kavita Verma and Ramprakash L – both of whom are SMEs in this area. Thank you, Kavita and Ram for your inputs.

Five Steps that help me be Here and Now – Being Mindful and Happy In The Now

by sincera | Mar 31, 2013 | Motivation, Productivity

RIGHT NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME!

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness~James Thurber

There are two things that the human mind loves indulging in – reminiscence (about the past) or planning (for the future). I often find myself thinking of what was or what could be. To reflect better, I write down my thoughts – a roadblock or problem I encountered, and possible ways of avoiding the same problem in the future or effective ways of dealing with it ahead. Not to say that there is anything wrong with that. In all probability this writing trend will continue because it is cathartic and insightful in action. But of late, what I’ve been finding increasingly refreshing and extremely perceptive, is being alive to the present. Being here and now.

I mainly have a thinking personality, and often get myself into a vicious cycle, where all my thoughts, feelings, memories and actions get into one big cluster. Needless to say, it ends up causing unnecessary distress. And from them on it’s a spiral of doing and undoing, coloured with hues of helplessness. Wanting to get out of this pattern, I decided to give in to the continuing wisdom of ‘being mindful’. Six months and still going strong, this decision has actually changed the way I am and continues to affect it positively. Now I know why it’s a fad!

How did I start my journey towards being more mindful and aware?

Here is my Modus Operandi to take control of my life and truly be Happy In the Now :

Step #1: Refrain from complaining. Block the negativity– When we find ourselves in situations which do not turn out the way we want them to be, the most common behaviour we resort to is complaining about people, about life, about the world, about self! And all this does is feed the frustration and spread vibes of discontent, unhappiness and growing negativity. Little do we realize that we always have more constructive choices to exercise in such situations. What can we do?

Change the situation – If you know you can do something to change the situation or make it better, do it! Channelize the energy from complaining to action. Talk to someone who can turn it around for you – a friend, a colleague, your boss or a therapist! Speak out and act.
Accept it – Many a times some events are really beyond our control, or for that matter, anybody else. Like the loss of a loved one, a heartbreak or even a natural calamity. Yes, it is painful, distressing and it is difficult. But how is resistance and struggling to make this any better? Here acceptance is the way to finding inner peace. Accept your feelings, the turmoil and surrender to the moment. Let it wash over you like a wave, and slowly yet gradually watch yourself gain your footing back. As I always say, let life unfold.
Remove yourself from the situation – In our quest to support others, be with someone or for our own good, we walk into situations which later turn out to be unfavourable. If you find yourself in such a state and you know you can extract yourself from this cluster, do so. Exercise the choice of getting out of a scene if you know you can. This will give you breathing space and also time to think straight. Be assertive.

Step #2: Observe yourself. Look within – Thinking of the past or the future, we all are bound to experience a myriad of emotions. Some which we may favour and some we may not. When you find yourself getting into a pattern of nostalgia or self-blame/doubt, step back from the thought. When I say step back, I mean stop engaging yourself in first person for the given situation. Look at the thought, understand what emotions and feelings you experience due to this. Is it a knot in the chest? Dry throat? Feel physically angry or drained? Notice all these happenings. See why this is happening. Don’t judge yourself. Don’t label the emotions as bad or good. Be objective. Understand. Observe yourself as a bystander and detach yourself from the experience. Easier said than done, this requires practice. But gradually you’ll see your past affecting you lesser each day. This is a very potent form of meditation as well. Watch this TED Talk to understand this better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzR62JJCMBQ

Step #3: Count your blessings – We usually use our present as a means to get to our future. We rarely understand that what we have right now is much more powerful than what could be. To enjoy the present, to enjoy what you have, count your blessings for the day or the week or even for the moment. Make a list of things that you are thankful for. Feel the gratitude. Really appreciate each and everything that is working for you. You can even put up this list at a place where you can glance at it frequently and feel good about it. You don’t need to be in significant distress to do this exercise. Do it just to feel good, feel blessed. And remember, that your list can change with time. Keep it short, to about 6-7 things which you can recall anywhere, anytime.

Step #4: Pick up positive vibes – When you feel yourself slumping, and are unable to pull yourself out of it, connect with people who induce an instant dose of positivity in you. I am not talking about a motivational speech here. Talk to people who appreciate you and are thankful for what they have. Or watch inspiring TED Talks, read your favourite piece of literature. My favourite reading piece is ‘Oh! The places you’ll go by Dr. Seuss.’ Find anything that reinforces your zest for life. Never believe that misery needs company. If you can’t think of anything, come back and read this post! Make the moment you have, shine.

Step #5: Have a Mantra – Being mindful is not easy. Changing ourselves is not easy. And it’s perfectly alright to fall back on these techniques. I always believe that failing once in a while is good. That way you’ll know what you shouldn’t do. To be present in the moment, have one or two mantras which can constantly remind you of your initiatives. Something that can get you back on track if you happen to derail. The couple I use are,

“Keep Calm and Be Patient. It’ll be just Fine.”
“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes,
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose”

These give me an instant dose of energy and brings me back to my present, when my mind gets caught in the past or the future. Stick your mantra in a place where you can see it, and watch the magic unfold.

Why to make ‘right now’ the best time of your life?
Well, what you do right now is what defines what happens next. Sow well now, to reap beautifully soon after.

As Lao Tzu says,

Wisdom For the Journey

Always we hope
someone else has the answer.
some other place will be better,
some other time it will all turn out.

This is it.
no one else has the answer.
no other place will be better,
and it has already turned out.

At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.

There is no need
to run outside
for better seeing.

Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being;
for the more you leave it, the less you learn.

Search your heart
and see
the way to do
is to be.

– Lao Tzu

After the last few work-related posts, it was time to bring back the “Happy In the Now” theme and I invited Nilisha Mohapatra to write today’s wonderful piece. Nilisha is a Post Graduate in Applied Psychology, and is a trainer for Transformational Programming and Life Skills development.

We would love to hear back from you – what steps do you use to be mindful ? What helps you de-stress ? Please share your secrets and stories.

Pic Courtesy by Bill Watterson – http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/

Five Ways to Ride the Waves of Change – Make the Best of Every Situation to be Happy In The Now

Five Strategies to be Happy in the Face of All Odds

Five Mood-Killers that Stop you from being Happy in the Now

Five Strategies for Staying Ahead and Aware – Happy In The Now

Five Hidden Blessings in Adversity

Five Life Lessons from the past year – and here is hoping that I learned them well – Happy in The Now

Five Strategies for Staying Ahead and Aware – Happy In The Now

by sincera | Dec 2, 2012 | Career, Life, Managing Yourself, Productivity

Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude toward us ~ Earl Nightingale

Snooze or dismiss…? We wake up mechanically each morning and let the alarm clocks and our calendars govern and rule our lives without realizing the immense influence these things have come to have on us…. and not the vice-versa? In the early ages – we started by inventions and discoveries to make our lives easier and simpler, but now in this day and age, we have reached a precipice ….and it seems that these have instead controlled and engulfed us. I remember an incident just last month when my son asked me if I could attend his Award Function at school for achieving a Straight ‘A’ report card, instead of having an elated instantaneous response, I heard myself saying “sure I’d love to… please can you tell me what date / day it is so I can confirm after checking my calls and appointments for the day”. The sheer possibility that I may not be able to join him in his celebration wiped out the look of joy from his eyes.

That moment was enough to jolt me out of my trance and carve out some guiding principles for Staying Ahead and Aware to prevent such a recurrence. Hope these resonate with you as well :

Staying Ahead and Aware Strategy #1 : Look towards the Future:

Dwelling in the past or crying over split milk has never paved the way for anyone. Only when we are ‘pushed to the wall’ at a point of no return, do our eyes finally open and we see paths that never seemed to have existed before and we are able to STOP mulling over ‘why’ and ‘what ifs’ of past happenings and take reins of ‘how’ and ‘who’ can hold our hand from this point in our life to keep on moving forward. Watching the movie ‘Zookeeper’ with my lil’ one, I was reminded anew of a profound life’s lesson: ‘We have to stop living in the past and look towards the future’. So simple and so right!

**Staying Ahead and Aware Strategy #2 : *Learn from around you:***

Learn each day from your peers, your boss, your spouse or even your child. Yearning for learning…. can lead to earning and I don’t mean just $$$! Any person who feels “I know it all”, has no craving or passion and hunger for more knowledge each day from every facet of life, is living with blinders in a fool’s paradise. So keep your eyes and ears open – watch, absorb and tread on …..smarter and wiser.

Staying Ahead and Aware Strategy #3 : See the Rainbow:

Though everyone around me warns me that Life is ‘Black ’and ‘White’ or at the most a pale shade of “Gray”, I suggest to them to not miss the exuberant hues associated with each day. While driving back from work, maybe your favorite song comes up on the Radio and lightens up your day. Unanticipated joys can add color to a seemingly boring day.

Staying Ahead and Aware Strategy #4 : S…mile..S:

The longest word in English dictionary – with a ‘Mile’ between the two “S” and the only curve that can set the hardest things Straight…. Even in the worst of days, simply your child’s smile can be just enough to forget the tussle with your boss earlier in the day. Or gifting your team member with one can motivate them to take on the toughest of challenges. Easy, hassle free, inexpensive yet much underused tool.

**Staying Ahead and Aware Strategy #5 : *Stop Nitpicking***:

Instead of always finding faults and errors, take a moment to appreciate the hard work and enthusiasm of the person(s) completing assigned task(s). To ensure that criticism is accepted without resentment – make it a positive one, as that always – nurtures. A good leader feels pride watching their teams being successful – having triumphantly and safely led the team like the Pied Piper even in turbulent times of immense competition.

Don’t stop, don’t let anyone stop you. The ladder of your life, of your success or failure is in your hands. As they say… ‘thrill is in the chase’, so make your journey and that of those accompanying you on the path, a memorable one for Staying Ahead and Aware in the crowd and reach your destination with joy.

Today’s post is written by Toshina Sethi – a special friend and an amazing woman. This is her very first blog post and both of us would love your opinion, encouragement and thoughts. What strategies do you use to stay ahead? What insights have you recently gained in the middle of your busy life ? What has worked for you and what hasn’t? We would love to know!

Picture courtesy : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweedledeedesigns/4932424821/

Five Strategies to shift from a Cost Cutting to a Business Growth mindset through Operational Excellence – Business Operations

by sincera | Nov 20, 2012 | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Do more with less is a common refrain in any margin focused organization. But this management guidance should come with a big “Handle with Care” sticker. In the enthusiasm to meet cost cutting targets, sometimes organizations forget the “doing more” part and only focus on the “with less” part. By the time, the realization sets in that the growth engine has stalled, it is too late. And most likely, you are left with an organizational culture where “fear” rules supreme and “fun” is a word that belongs outside the work-place. Result – Bottom line improves in the short-term but starts declining after reaching a threshold. With stagnant or diminishing top-line, no amount of cost cutting can help improve profits dramatically after a certain point.

High performance is multi-dimensional – putting the entire organization’s focus on just costs is counter-productive. While margin improvement is crucial, good solid revenue growth is even more important to build a sustainable, profitable business. And these two goals should not be in conflict with each other. With some discipline and mindset changes enforced in day-to-day business operations, one can successfully do the balancing act so that the organization does not lose its focus on growing revenues while keeping a tight control on costs.

The entire business framework that you work in can be used to influence changes in the right direction. Here are five strategies that I have seen business leaders use successfully to shift the organization to a revenue growth mindset in no particular order:

Strategy 1: Budgeting – Put your money where growth is – The key to building a high-performance and growth focused culture is to make sure you consider “‘what“ and “how“ you will get to your destination – the clear guidelines of what you need to do now to reach where you want to be in a specific timeline. And, what better place to define this than in your annual business budget. For example what are the core competencies that you need to develop in the current year so that the growth for the next two-three years are secured? What investments of the previous year have not achieved desired results and needs a change in strategy? What partners and channels needed to be cultivated in current year to be able to stay competitive in the market? While a lot of attention is given on the cost items to achieve the top line for the current year, not much attention is given to the few investments that are needed to accelerate the growth for the longer term. Budgeting is a great tool to ensure that the organization is well prepared and aligned for growth.

Strategy 2: Granularity of Growth – Identify the Growth Drivers – Research shows that having multiple avenues to growth pays off during good times and bad. In the book – Granularity of Growth (Wiley, April 2008), the authors identified that increased market-share is seldom a driver of growth. They contend, instead, that growth is driven by where a company chooses to compete: which market segments it participates in and how much merger-and-acquisition activity it pursues in these markets. The key is to focus on granularity, to breakdown big-picture strategy into its smallest relevant components. To uncover pockets of opportunity, executives need to dig down to deeper levels of their businesses and organizations. And of course, get the execution plan in place for the opportunities identified.

Strategy 3: Clarion Call – Aligning the Organization to the Vision – It is critical that every employee knows and understands the vision of the organization and the strategy for growth. Re-orienting people is not an easy job but it can be done if the leadership can clearly articulate the problem statement behind the vision and the urgent changes that are needed to get everyone on the board. The idea here is to get people really involved and committed to growth – logic and reason have their place, but in initiatives like this the emotions of people have to be tapped. Hence the need for a clarion call (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clarion_call – Appeal, urgent call to action). And also the need for a re-organization too – to move your best people (sales, operations, delivery) from low growth or stagnant business areas to high growth areas to leverage your talent and shake off the inertia.

Strategy 4: Platform for Ideas – Make Innovation more than a buzz word – Innovation is the Petri dish for exponential growth. But without a specific team accountable for innovation (which could be new product ideas, new business models, new markets, new acquisitions or new competencies) the focus on exponential growth is lost in the day-to-day block and tackle for meeting the short-term business targets. One person in the senior leadership should have the mandate to lead this team and the authority to champion and approve initiatives that are separate from the company’s core business and to execute on these initiatives. This provides an ecosystem of a structure, time and resources for a “start-up” within the larger organization to help move beyond the comfort zone and also future-proof the business against risks to existing business.

Strategy 5: Metrics and Rewards –Targets breed Performance – Coming to my favorite topic, setting metrics and commensurate rewards is an important lever to quickly drive and arrive at the behavior needed to go beyond just incremental growth. For example – setting a target of 5% revenue growth year on year with a slightly higher target for profits is quite acceptable but this can be achieved by a little more push on existing services or products. There is no compelling need to look for completely new sources of revenue or new business models. What is needed here is BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), metrics that can be used to track and measure not only the results but the investments, resources and behaviors that are needed to achieve the goals and of course, equally Big rewards to excite and enthuse the teams to think differently, get out of their comfort zone and act like entrepreneurs.

Profitable double-digit growth can become a possibility and not just a fluke. By thinking proactively and building growth into day-to-day business operations, the cost cutting trap can be avoided. A growth oriented mindset can indeed become part of the organization culture when the management plans and puts in place the systems to ensure that growth opportunities are identified and pursued as diligently as costs are controlled.

What have I missed? What growth strategies have you seen work? How and what have you factored in your plans for next year to enable double-digit growth? I would love to hear back and learn from you.

Picture courtesy : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ytueresburroyyomemonto/2687124044/

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Must Do #1: Hire for attitude and culture “fit” –