Archives for April 2012

Improving your Time Management

Time management is the ultimate art which once mastered can prove to do wonders for any human being. For busy workers and managers, effective time management can be very fruitful and healthy. Of course the art is not easy to master and is even more difficult to maintain. The key is to manage and divide your time effectively allowing yourself time to breath and rest. A busy schedule with no time to rest is bound to lead you to fall behind. We are not always energetic and the body as well as the brain needs breaks to perform at its maximum potential. Effective time management is a primary means to a less stressful life and is most profitable. Here are some tips and means to effective management.

Create A Plan

Always have a scheduled plan for your daily routine. Get up early in the morning and sleep on time in the night. Rest is a must part of the schedule and you cannot cheap out on it. The daily body requirement for sleep is 6-8 hours a day and hence, on your 24 hours day plan, this time is booked for rest. You can take it in breaks like 6 hours in the night and 2 hours of sleep in the evening. Also allow time for nutritious diet. Three meals a day is mandatory for healthy living.

Create Information Centers

Where is your plan written or scheduled? What determines your daily activities? Usually we gather our daily assignments from work, then from home and then what ever we want to do for ourselves. These assignments are collected from information centers like an e-mail, your mom leaving a post stamp on the fridge or your phone messages. Hence, the lesser the information centers, the more easy it is for you to look for assignments or chores to do. If you have multiple e-mail ids, forward them to all to one so you know where to look, write down all the things to do (from post stamps, phone texts, messages, family, etc.) in one source, maybe a notepad or the to-do-list app on your phone (task manager).

Prioritize Your Tasks

Figure out what tasks must be done first and what must be done later. Leave the important once to be done first and the less significant tasks for a later time.

Strike Down Work When Complete

Once you’ve completed the task, strike it off your work list so you don’t get confused. Keep yourself updated, as in make sure your e-mail and list is updating because sometimes some work might need to be delayed and that saves you time for other important work to be done.

Target To Be Early

If you can, then keep your watch clock five-ten minutes ahead. This way you’ll always be 5-10 minutes ahead of schedule and your work will always be on time.

Focus

All work can be completed easily, early and effectively if you keep focusing on the job. Worrying if you’re on time can be distracting and reduces the quality of your work despite you being early, so focus on quality rather than on time otherwise you’ll mess up your entire schedule.

Delegate

If you’re a manager you probably have many subordinates working for you. Even if you’re not you have colleagues and family. Delegate to them as much work as you can if you know they can handle it. This takes a lot of burden off your shoulders and you can concentrate on your work.

Eliminate Your Time Wasters

Avoid distractions or anything that wastes your time. Standing at the electronics store watching TV is a waste and so is arguing on facts you are not completely aware of. Most time is wasted travelling. Center your location so you are equally distant to all your work.

Evaluate How You’re Spending Your Time

At the end of the day evaluate your schedule and see what improvements you can make on them for tomorrow. See where you can peg time for tasks and where you need breaks if you get tired and restless.
Time management is really an art and any well planned individual tends to gain more than any unplanned individual.

Improving Interpersonal Skills at Workplace

‘I hate my boss!’ ‘How can she even say that to me?’ ‘I am switching my job because I CANNOT tolerate my boss!’ Do these tantrums sound familiar? Have you heard people repeating them off and on? Have you ever pondered on what results in such a high degree of workplace dissatisfaction? A plausible answer is: poor interpersonal skills at work. People up there in the hierarchy might not be able to communicate satisfactorily whatever they are expecting out of their employees with the result that both of them end up in a dilemma and neither is happy with the performance of the other. Therefore, it is imperative for everyone in the organization to be able to effectively get his message across to his subordinate.

My Subordinates Aren’t Happy With Me: What Do I Do?

If you are among the bosses who are scorned and looked down upon, you might have to consider the following questions:

Do I give my employees enough space to execute freedom of choice?
Do I even listen to their comments/suggestions/feedback?
How many times do I have a one on one, face to face interaction with my colleagues?
Is my tone too soft such that no one actually takes me seriously? Or is it too harsh that people who are unclear on their agenda dread asking me for a clarification?
Most importantly: Do I treat my employees as ‘humans’?

After you have made a mind map of the above questions, move on to progressing towards improving your relationship with your employees by going on to the next level of interpersonal skills.

I Realize I Am Wrong Somewhere: What Do I Do To Make Up?

If you think you can make a happier and friendlier workplace environment by polishing your interpersonal skills, consider doing the following:

Try smiling your way through. It will help make your employees sail through the toughest of all the jobs. Add a little humor on top of it too so that the employees know that you aren’t the kind of boss they can never turn to.
Mouth your words clearly and precisely. Don’t prolong a sentence, making stories out of it- you will lose your audience!
Make sure you truly feel for what you are speaking. For if you are randomly throwing sentences at people, they have very few chances of being followed up too.
Set out a distinct line between what you want and what you don’t want- This will help you evaluate the work presented before you too
Be appreciative: try spreading around positivity. Commend people on what they have done exceptionally rather than focusing on where they had lagged behind. You will, of course, have to tell them where they need to focus, but put it in a subtle way rather than being explicit and rude
Make sure you are an active listener who does not interrupt while others speak. Give them your complete attention while they are speaking.

The bottom line is: Give respect and take respect! Unless you don’t value people working under you, it is very unlikely that you will succeed in getting the best out of them. Everyone wants to be appreciated- Give them that!

Identifying Future Leaders

The youth of today is the future of tomorrow. This simple sentence means that any adult of tomorrow, in any capacity, will be made out of the children you have in front of you today. Criminals and judges, teachers and doctors, all grow up from children. As a result, it is important to treat the children in front of you as more than simply children. They need to be treated and viewed as future adults, because if you believe them to be capable of your full attention and respect, they will feel the same.

Of course some children have these qualities built in them with or without the development of their parents. These children have innate habits and preferences which show their developed independence and free will from a very young age. It is these children that grow up to be the future leaders of tomorrow and surprisingly enough can be quiet easy to spot if the right amount of attention is paid to them.

Early Development

Studies have shown that children can be taught independence and the free will of choices from a very early age, starting from as early as 6 months. These children or toddlers not only have a strong sense of choice and preference, but they also know exactly how to get what they want. Some parents see this as disobedience or pickiness but in reality these children just have a strong sense of will and decision. These children also manage to keep themselves amused without the need for external help, whether it is from parents or other equipment and objects such as toys. This again shows a strong sense of independence and in the future, this is a trait that sticks with these children.

Situational Development

As children grow up the situations that they are put in, and how they react to them also reflects strongly on their inclination as future leaders. These situations can be developed by parents or teachers, or they can arise naturally. Some traits that are common to most future leaders are identified as a sharp sense of observation and a keen sense of curiosity. Another key feature of interest can be how the individual works on tasks assigned to him, either as an individual or as a part of a group. Children with leadership tendencies often want to take control of a task, even if it is meant to be a group task. They either take initiative, or they give directions, or they simply follow instructions with such innovation that they naturally become a leader, by acquiring a certain followership.

Children can have many innate abilities that point towards their tendencies and abilities to become leaders, but these abilities can often become muddled by bad habits, or a lack of development. Therefore, parents and teachers should do their best to inculcate in all individuals the habits that are found in good, strong leaders, so that they may either be developed into such, or they may be given the qualities that can help become such, even if they are not born with the natural tendency to be so.