Month: July 2020

Have you thought about what you want to be doing in five years’ time? Are you clear about what your main objective at work is at the moment? Do you know what you want to have achieved by the end of today?

If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life’s direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Think about it: having a million dollars in the bank is only proof of success if one of your goals is to amass riches. If your goal is to practice acts of charity, then keeping the money for yourself is suddenly contrary to how you would define success.

To accomplish your goals, however, you need to know how to set them. You can’t simply say, “I want” and expect it to happen. Goal setting is a process that starts with careful consideration of what you want to achieve, and ends with a lot of hard work to actually do it. In between, there are some very well-defined steps that transcend the specifics of each goal. Knowing these steps will allow you to formulate goals that you can accomplish.

The Five Golden Rules

1. Set Goals That Motivate You

When you set goals for yourself, it is important that they motivate you: this means making sure that they are important to you, and that there is value in achieving them. If you have little interest in the outcome, or they are irrelevant given the larger picture, then the chances of you putting in the work to make them happen are slim. Motivation is key to achieving goals.

Set goals that relate to the high priorities in your life. Without this type of focus, you can end up with far too many goals, leaving you too little time to devote to each one. Goal achievement requires commitment, so to maximize the likelihood of success, you need to feel a sense of urgency and have an “I must do this” attitude. When you don’t have this, you risk putting off what you need to do to make the goal a reality. This in turn leaves you feeling disappointed and frustrated with yourself, both of which are de-motivating. And you can end up in a very destructive “I can’t do anything or be successful at anything” frame of mind.\

2. Set SMART Goals

You have probably heard of SMART goals  already. But do you always apply the rule? The simple fact is that for goals to be powerful, they should be designed to be SMART. There are many variations of what SMART stands for, but the essence is this – goals should be:

• S
• M
• A
• R
• Time Bound.

Set Specific Goals

Your goal must be clear and well defined. Vague or generalized goals are unhelpful because they don’t provide sufficient direction. Remember, you need goals to show you the way. Make it as easy as you can to get where you want to go by defining precisely where you want to end up.

Set Measurable Goals

Include precise amounts, dates, and so on in your goals so you can measure your degree of success. If your goal is simply defined as “To reduce expenses” how will you know when you have been successful? In one month’s time if you have a 1 percent reduction or in two years’ time when you have a 10 percent reduction? Without a way to measure your success you miss out on the celebration that comes with knowing you have actually achieved something.

Set Attainable Goals

Make sure that it’s possible to achieve the goals you set. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence.

However, resist the urge to set goals that are too easy. Accomplishing a goal that you didn’t have to work hard for can be anticlimactic at best, and can also make you fear setting future goals that carry a risk of non-achievement. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, you hit the balance you need. These are the types of goals that require you to “raise the bar” and they bring the greatest personal satisfaction.

Set Relevant Goals

Goals should be relevant to the direction you want your life and career to take. By keeping goals aligned with this, you’ll develop the focus you need to get ahead and do what you want. Set widely scattered and inconsistent goals, and you’ll fritter your time and your life away.

Set Time-Bound Goals

Your goals must have a deadline. Again, this means that you know when you can celebrate success. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will come that much quicker.

3. Set Goals in Writing

The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real and tangible. You have no excuse for forgetting about it. As you write, use the word “will” instead of “would like to” or “might.” For example, “I will reduce my operating expenses by 10 percent this year,” not “I would like to reduce my operating expenses by 10 percent this year.” The first goal statement has power and you can “see” yourself reducing expenses, the second lacks passion and gives you an excuse if you get sidetracked.

4. Make an Action Plan

This step is often missed in the process of goal setting. You get so focused on the outcome that you forget to plan all of the steps that are needed along the way. By writing out the individual steps, and then crossing each one off as you complete it, you’ll realize that you are making progress towards your ultimate goal. This is especially important if your goal is big and demanding, or long-term. Read our article on Action Plans  for more on how to do this.

5. Stick With It!

Remember, goal setting is an ongoing activity, not just a means to an end. Build in reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular time-slots available to review your goals. Your end destination may remain quite similar over the long term, but the action plan you set for yourself along the way can change significantly. Make sure the relevance, value, and necessity remain high.

Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves a juggling act of various demands upon a person relating to work, social life, family, hobbies, personal interests and commitments with the finiteness of time. Using time effectively gives the person “choice” on spending/managing activities at their own time and expediency. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals complying with a due date. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Time management is usually a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope. It is also important to understand that both technical and structural differences in time management exist due to variations in cultural concepts of time.

The major themes arising from the literature on time management include the following:

• Creating an environment conducive to effectiveness
• Setting of priorities
• The related process of reduction of time spent on non-priorities
• Implementation of goals

Time management is related to different concepts such as:

• Project management: Time management can be considered to be a project management subset and is more commonly known as project planning and project scheduling. Time management has also been identified as one of the core functions identified in project management.
• Attention management relates to the management of cognitive resources, and in particular the time that humans allocate their mind (and organize the minds of their employees) to conduct some activities.

Organizational time management is the science of identifying, valuing and reducing time cost wastage within organizations. It identifies, reports and financially values sustainable time, wasted time and effective time within an organization and develops the business case to convert wasted time into productive time through the funding of products, services, projects or initiatives at a positive return on investment.

Analysis

ABCD analysis

A technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities are ranked by these general criteria:

A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important,

B – Tasks that are important but not urgent,

C – Tasks that are unimportant but urgent,

D – Tasks that are unimportant and not urgent.

Each group is then rank-ordered by priority. To further refine the prioritization, some individuals choose to then force-rank all “B” items as either “A” or “C”. ABC analysis can incorporate more than three groups.

ABC analysis is frequently combined with Pareto analysis.

Pareto analysis

The Pareto Principle is the idea that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the given time, and the remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time. This principle is used to sort tasks into two parts. According to this form of Pareto analysis it is recommended that tasks that fall into the first category be assigned a higher priority

The 80-20-rule can also be applied to increase productivity: it is assumed that 80% of the productivity can be achieved by doing 20% of the tasks. Similarly, 80% of results can be attributed to 20% of activity. If productivity is the aim of time management, then these tasks should be prioritized higher.

The 7 Principles of Time Management

1. Have a clear vision

• Ask yourself “What am I actually trying to achieve?”

• The clearer you are about your vision, the more likely you are to achieve it.

• It’s as much about what you’re not going to to do as it is about what you are, you are establishing limits. For example, “I will process my emails for no more than 20 minutes.”

2. Do one thing at a time

• Successful people don’t take on too much. They concentrate on doing and finishing one thing at a time as far as possible.

• Little and often: The human mind works best when we apply this principle.

3. Define your limits

• The best way to be creative is not to try to think without limits, but to carefully define what those limits should be. Limitations actually encourage creativity.

• If you feel you can’t get going or you’re getting nowhere, it’s probably due to poorly defined limits. For instance, if you have a limited amount of time you will be able to concentrate your efforts better than if you have unlimited time.

• In the early stages of high resistance tasks, try short limited time bursts for overcoming procrastination.

4. Use closed lists

• Any list that has a line drawn at the end of it can’t be added to. This enables you to deal with all the items on it without the distraction of new work being added. 

• Once defined, it can only stay the same or get smaller. 

• It doesn’t matter which order you do things, provided you are going to clear the whole list.  

• If you have a backlog of work to deal with, use the closed list principle.

5. Isolate your backlog don’t add to it

• Get the system for new stuff right. You need to be able to process a day’s work.

• Get rid of the backlog if you’ve got steps 1 and 2 right you can chip away at the backlog. It will only get smaller, until it disappears altogether.

6. Reduced random factors

• These are things that stop us from completing our planned actions and can never be eliminated. Your day starts to run you rather than you running it.

• We tend to react to random elements; that is, we use the reactive part of our brain to react to who, or whatever, makes the most ‘noise’. 
• We tend to prioritize by this noise.

7. Commitment v Interest

• Compare ‘I’m interested in writing’ to ‘I’m committed to getting a regular column into the local newspaper’. Nothing is likely to come of it unless interest is turned into commitment.

• What are you prepared to commit to? Commitments are limited. Knowing your commitments is an essential part of making decisions and therefore one of the key principles of time management that can be called effective. They are what make the real difference in your life and work.

• Often, our rational and reactive minds pull in opposite directions. For example, “I want to be slim, but I also want some cake”. The question to ask is “How will you feel when you’ve done it?” This is where commitment counts.
• If you’re considering a commitment, ask yourself three questions: (1) What would I need to start doing in order to commit myself fully to this? (2) What would I need to stop doing in order to commit myself fully to this? (3) Would I be prepared to pay the price for full commitment to this?

Creativity is something that you can turn on at will just like a light switch.

All you need are the four essential elements of Creativity: Focus, People, Tools and Time.

• Focus: Find an area of general or specific focus finish this sentence: “I want to generate ideas in the that will help me”
• People: The number of people only depends on who is around you can do it with Numero Uno, 15, 50 or more. Try to get a few mavericks to attend more formal planning sessions to help you see a different picture.
• Tools: Thinking tools are essential you can use simple tools such as SCAMPER to generate ideas (divergent thinking) and harvest those ideas (convergent thinking) are easily grasped and applied.
• Time: Taking time out to think in a deliberate manner will allow you to have creativity on demand. Use that time to take walks, meditate, muse over things will give you those.

Creative thinkers try to play with the fundamental concepts of all established facts using different analogies and metaphors and through the usage of unique symbolisms. They try to find as much similarity of their idea with the present situation so that the listeners do not get alienated and then pitch in their individual thoughts. This saves them from premature judgement and filtering.

Creative thinkers take caution that they don’t sound too extreme in their ideas. They always opt for the intermediate approach while building imaginative and ideal situations. They also share techniques in which their vision can become a feasible reality and they do it by relating their ideas with previously mentioned processes and find links with them, which makes the listeners think about the idea in a different light.

The most effective methods to increase creativity in a team are:

• To be happy and cheerful
• Encourage transparent communication
• Trust people and accept failures
• Be in contact with external information
• Be independent of apprehensions
• Support participation in decision making
• Encourage new ideas

While innate creativity doesn’t need to be particularly nurtured, training the management staff in creativity should be done by experts on how to stimulate creativity in their team members and how to provide motivation. The management should also encourage people for the use of creative techniques and initiate their team mates towards them.

Application of Creativity

Creativity uses a generation of ideas with value to combine various features from them and create a new path to solve concrete problems. This helps people in adapting to change, while still improving the performance of the organization. Creative thinking encourages participation in crucial decisions which immediately changes the attitude of the staff of the organization in a positive direction.

Some expected results of the creativity process are as follows:

• Innovation through new product and processes
• Improvement of existing products or services
• Increase in employee productivity
• Increase in work efficiency
• Increase in flexibility
• Increase in quality

Characteristics of Providers

The implementation of creative techniques in an organization needs the assistance of external consultants and experts who undertake such projects and are well acquainted with the implementation of such processes within the boundaries of the organization.

Their job description revolves around presenting different techniques, teaching their application, profiling people based on their job requirements and providing them with focused training methods. They also define the problems and initiate the changes as per the needs of the process.

Creativity is something which cannot be taught as well as not something you are born with either. But it certainly is the most important part of any brilliant innovators success. When talking about creativity the conversation can’t be constrained to artists like musicians, dancers, painters, etc. It is a broader term under which multiple segments flow and it includes everyone from a school student trying to embellish his school project to an entrepreneur with his budding brilliant idea. But why some turn out to be amazing while some fail? Well there are several factors that influence one’s creativity, have a look at them and find out why you are so creative or why you are not. It also includes the reason why one’s creativity levels fluctuate.

• Experiences: Experiences are a key player in creative thinking, the more you experience more influenced you get. These experiences define your ideas and creativity which are presented through your work.
• Fearlessness: Fearlessness is a major factor having impact on one’s creativity. A person who thinks that he is not creative can never be. Having doubts is ok, but being worried about the success of an idea clearly shows that you lack faith in your ideology. Experts say ‘Be fearless with your creativity and you’ll open more doors for new ideas.’
• Desire: Desire is factor of creativity which is often overlooked but it is as vital as any other criterion for growing as a creative individual. Science bluntly states that, if you simply don’t want to change things (or solve problems or inspire others or do new things) then you won’t.
• Atmosphere and Environment: Yes! It all about the world around us. Atmosphere and environment both go hand in hand to influence an individual’s creativity levels. ‘Environmental Factors Affecting Creativity and Innovation’ says: Although innovation and creativity can emerge in a variety of settings and situations, some environments are more conducive to the creative process. In one large study, it was found that having a vision, being task-oriented, and engaging in external communication had a strong relationship to creativity and innovation.
• Space and Time: Productivity may increase under pressure but creativity has no positive influence if the undisturbed space and right amount of time is not provided. John Cleese’s talk on creativity states: That having a start and end time to keep your creative space open is essential. Without a dedicated time block, it is easy to leave a creative mindset to focus on trivial matters that are easier to deal with than to take the time to do things that are important. It also takes time to get into your creative mode.He says that you must realize that it will take time to achieve something truly original and creative. There is a sense of discomfort.

Creativity can be enhanced through many creative techniques. In fact, creativity can not only be enhanced but also directed and focused on a branch of study or craft. For example, people in sales and marketing may utilize a different set of creative techniques, as compared to those in quality management.

Attempts to enhance the creativity in the minds of people can be put under two important classifications:

Techniques suited to enhance creativity in individuals, and

Creativity enhancing techniques for a group of individuals, which suits the needs of the working force.

Improving creativity for individuals is the act of enhancing the powers of intuition and removing mental blocks, such as fear of criticism and ridicule. At the basic level, enhancing creativity in work circles is not possible without first enhancing team building. This will bring a change in group dynamics and will pave the way for creative thoughts and innovation.

All group creativity techniques can be applied to individuals successfully. That is because Creativity is an attribute of an individual person, however it can be developed more efficiently in a group or a team because individuals need to interact with other individuals to express their creative ideas and make a practical working model based on it.

Creativity

There are many computer-based creativity supporting tools, such as artificial intelligence models, information systems, etc. which can be used to enhance creativity, explore alternatives to fixed ideas and to encourage imagination.

Analytical Techniques

Analytical Techniques involve a linear approach to thoughts as in a sequence of steps to follow. A prime examples of this technique will be the “Wh-question” technique, where the participant is encouraged to carry his thought forward by asking him leading questions such as, “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How). These questions are known to stimulate different directions of thought and help in organizing all the points of these thoughts under one context or narrative.

Intuitive Techniques

In comparison, Intuitive Techniques are less structured techniques, where the instructor has the option to skip a few steps and allow the participant to give a whole answer at the end, as per his narrative. It is often compared with the “Wishful Thinking” technique.

Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Thinking

A third classification of creativity, apart from the Analytical Approach and the Intuitive Approach, is dependent on Divergent Thinking and Convergent Thinking.

Divergent Thinking is the process of encouraging generation of free-flowing ideas, which are then channelized in different directions depending on the requirements of the process.

In contrast, Convergent Thinking is all about filtering all the free-flowing thoughts generated during the Divergent Process and subjecting them to further filtration to single out those ideas that have a truly innovative and practical value.

Both these thinking processes are complementary and help people find numerous alternatives to seeing the same situation and finalizing the one that can be implemented. Caution must be observed in comparing divergent thinking with combination thinking, which may sound the same but are different.

In combination thinking, the conflicting ideas of people are put in a coherent context, so that everyone agrees to the final suggestion without feeling that his/her idea has been stifled or compromised with.

An individual needs to possess certain skills for effective managerial communication.

• Body Language and overall personality of an individual play an essential role in effective communication. It is essential for managers to express their thoughts in a positive way. Remember shouting at team members and quarrelling with them lead to no solution; instead make the situation all the more worse. There are several other ways of expressing your displeasure. Make sure you do not lose your temper while communicating. Take care of your pitch and tone. Speak in a convincing way for people to understand what you intend to communicate.
• People generally like to communicate with someone who is nicely dressed and presentable. No employee would ever like to communicate with a shabbily dressed manager. Be an idol for your team members. It is really important for managers to dress well for co workers to look up to them. Clothes must be clean and ironed properly and you really need to create that much needed first impression.
• Take care of your facial expressions and gestures. A smile on your face will attract employees and they would readily come to you to discuss their problems.
• Be Honest. Pass on information to your team members in its correct form. Playing with information and data tampering lead to ineffective communication. Communicate directly with your team members rather than appointing middle men.
• Speak Relevant. The choice of words is really very important in verbal communication. Do not use slangs and abusive words in your speech. Loose talks must be avoided at the workplace.
• Be Focussed. Know what you intend to communicate. Managers must prepare their speech well in advance before addressing their team members. Do not communicate just for the sake of communicating. Deviating from the topic only confuses recipients. Managers must ensure their team members are able to understand them well.
• Be Confident. You must believe in yourself for others to believe you. Learn to stick to your words. It is really important for effective managerial communication. Never be low on self belief.
• The pitch and the tone need to be taken care of. Do not be too loud or too soft. A manager must know how to keep a control on his anger. Stay calm and composed. Do not overreact.
• As a good manager, you ought to be impartial towards all your team members. Giving special attention to one of your team members just because he is your friend is something which is not at all expected out of a good manager. As a manager you are responsible for all your team members and you need to interact with them on a regular basis. It is your duty to address their grievances and problems. Be available to them and let them express themselves.
• Know when to communicate. Avoid calling your team members at late evenings or early mornings. They would never pay attention to your communication and the message gets diluted. Prefer not to interact with them during lunch hours unless there is an emergency.

Tips for Effective Managerial Communication

It is essential for employees to communicate effectively with each other for better understanding as well as increased productivity at workplace. Employees doing everything on their own are generally overburdened and eventually fail to deliver their best.

Effective managerial communication enables the flow of information and knowledge among employees in its desired form. Managers need to interact with their team members to extract the best out of them. Problems remain unsolved if employees do not communicate with each other. Discussions go a long way in reducing confusions and also improve the relations among employees.

• Remember a manager’s task is not only to sit in closed cabins and shout at subordinates. He needs to interact with his team members on a regular basis. Speak to your colleagues more often. Find out what they are upto? Treat all your team members as one. There is absolutely no harm in taking lunch with your team members. This way you tend to discuss lot many things apart from routine work.
• Promote the concept of morning meetings at workplace. Morning meetings help you interact with your team members on an open platform where everyone has the liberty to express his/her views. Communicate with your team members and help them plan their day. Let them come out with their problems. Walk up to their workstations once or twice in a day.
• Increase your listening skills. A good listener is always a good communicator. It is really important to listen to the other person carefully before speaking. Interrupting a conversation breaks the momentum and the message loses its impact.
• Working in a team leads to effective managerial communication. Employees working in isolation hardly interact with their fellow workers and superiors. Make sure your team members discuss things amongst themselves and work together. Instruct them to keep you in the loop as well. The employees must mark a cc to their immediate reporting managers to keep them updated of the latest developments at the workplace.
• Master the art of writing emails. Also train your team members how to write an official mail. There is a huge difference between a personal and official mail. The subject line needs to be relevant for people to open the mail.
• Do not call your team embers one by one for any kind of communication. Address them together.
• Think before you speak. Make sure whatever you communicate is relevant. Avoid using complicated words and terminologies in your speech. The message has to be clear and precise for effective managerial communication. Be straightforward and communicate clearly as to what you expect out of your team members.
• No communication is complete unless the message is understood clearly by the recipients. There should be absolutely no room for confusion in effective communication. Once you are through with your speech, give some time to your team members for them to ask whatever they have not understood.
• Never communicate at a noisy place. Choose conference room, meeting rooms or any noise free zone for communication.

Communication is an essential skill in business and in life. It’s important for employees to be able to clearly send and receive messages with one another to work efficiently, reduce misunderstandings and meet business goals. Businesses should diagnose communication problems, reduce the barriers to effective communication and create an environment where open communication is valued.

Identify the Barrier to Effective Communication

If your employees are having issues communicating with one another, it’s important to figure out the root cause of the problem. By doing so, you will be better equipped to outline the solution and prevent such miscommunication from taking place.

There are several different kinds of barriers that lead to a communication gap in an organization:

• Physical barriers. Cubicle walls, closed doors and geographic distance can make it difficult for employees to communicate.
• Perceptual barriers. People’s experiences frame the way they perceive the world, which means employees may perceive certain elements differently. This can lead to misunderstandings.
• Emotional barriers. Employees may be fearful, nervous or distrusting of other employees, and as a result may not communicate clearly.
• Language barriers. Language applies to both the language spoken in the workplace, as well as to the terminology used by certain groups of people. Technical terminology may sound like jargon to someone who is not familiar with that industry.
• Cultural barriers. Cultural norms of behavior affect the way people speak, both verbally and with body language. Employees may not be familiar with other cultural norms.
• Interpersonal barriers. The way an employee feels about herself may affect how she interacts and communicates with colleagues.

Set Employees Up to Communicate Successfully

After identifying the cause of the communication breakdown between your employees, it’s important to set up infrastructure within your organization that enables them to succeed. In many organizations, communication training can help employees to work better with each other and with customers. If the marketing department and the product development department are having communication issues because of the use of jargon, for example, communication training can show employees how to use words that both groups will understand.

A communication gap in the organization may exist because employees don’t know which communication method is right for the task at hand. An employee might set up a face-to-face meeting when the message could be sent via email, for example. Or an employee may send an instant message when a phone call would have been a better choice. It’s critical for the organization to coach employees to use the right communication method for the messages they want to send. This way, employees can reduce miscommunication and increase productivity.

Prevent the Communication Gap in Your Organization

To reduce the number of communication gaps in the organization, it’s important for employers to create and enforce communication policies. These guidelines help employees understand what is expected of them in the workplace. Communication policies should cover how to use the various methods of communication available, what kind of language to use in the workplace, how often to communicate on specific kinds of projects and who to communicate with.

Your workplace culture can help to reduce the communication gap in the organization as well. If the company invites open and honest communication between employees, and the leadership team leads by example, then the front-line employees may feel more comfortable and empowered to communicate effectively with each other.

Employers should consistently monitor the effectiveness of employee communication and develop strategies to improve upon it. For example, if the sales department often has issues with people missing targets because they weren’t aware of the specific goals, it could be there is a gap in communication. As a result, the management team should sit down with the department members to assess their communication protocols and channels and provide processes to improve the situation.