3 Invaluable Abilities

When you hear the word “work”, you probably imagine sitting in front of computer, or cutting grass in the front yard. In fact, there are three important aspects that lots of people don’t realize

1. Ability to Pay Attention

Paying a good attention requires a lot of efforts, To do it right, you have to listen, and maintain proper eye contact. That’s not all, you will also need to think and digest about those things you are hearing at that moment. On another note, even you have this urge to cut the conversation and speak, you may not. You have to wait your turn for giving comments or to ask something back.

2. Ability to Admit

Admitting that you don’t understand is a way to gain additional information or knowledge. We can have this by asking, but admitting that you need help to finish a job or project that you run is even more important.

Many people do not want to admit they have messed up. They worry that it will ruin their perfect images, result in more works for them, or being blamed by others. Nevertheless, keeping on pretending as the perfect one makes us incapable of learning and growing.

3. Ability to Show Gratitude

Thanking someone for helping us should not be something that has to be told. It should be spontaneous. They just helped us and they will know the sincere-ness in our gratitude. There’s been a lot of stories about decent people that return lost wallet, saving lives, didn’t get any gratitude at all.

Sometimes, however funny it sounds, people feel embarrassed that they need help or have just lost something, but that should not block their way to show their form of appreciation.

Take Monkeys Off Their Shoulders

One of the primary duty of leaders is to develop their people, that includes sharpen their competence in problem solving and decision making. So you have to realize that the danger from load of tasks that will occur if you take over their works. But what if you are being held on a deadline and somebody ask you to handle ‘one or more monkeys’ – problems that should be dealt by sub-ordinates, popular terminology that was introduced by William Oncken Jr. and Donald L. Wass in their article “Management Time: Who’s Got The Monkey?” from Harvard Business Review 1974.

Here are few tips that you can possibly do.

1. Let Them Work

To many people, the pathway to effective delegation starts with studying two basic assumption of their roles. First, a lot of managers believe that handling their people’s problems is a faster and more effective than teach them to handle it themselves. Second, they also believe that they know more from their people.

These assumptions, will only raise the need of managers to break the problem and make decisions, instead of delegating and empowering their men. To deal with this problem, you have to position yourself as a leader, not a manager. Managers deal with details, while leaders, on the contrary, raise sense of belonging and responsibilities in their people.

2. Ask, Don’t Tell

Professional delegator choose to ask their men, rather than dictate the solution to them.

The question “What is it that you think should be done?” stimulates people to come with solutions when they approach you. Another additional questions like “What is the effect of this action?” or “What is it that we need to pay attention to if we are to go your way?” could also reveal how far have they think about the solution to the problem.

3. Match Person With The Job

Avoid adding your current jobs with handling your people’s problem. This can only happen if managers delegate the right job to the right people, according to each competence and potential.

Steven R. Covey stressed about delegation based on interest. “Find out the best outcome and the most preferred job of your people” he said “Then combine their unique talents and interests with job needs. When people work with interest and desire, they don’t need guidance. They will eventually create creative solutions independently.”

4. Cultivate Independent Thinking

If someone manages to think independently and feel that he own his job, then he will definitely bring less problem to his boss.

Shane Pliska, Business Development Director of Planterra, a landscape interior company, uses “monkey rating”, a method extracted from Oncken and Wass’ article. “We ask the workers to self assess their problems with numbers,” she said. “One means your manager solved it for you. Two means your manager told you the solution and you follow the solution, three means you proposed a solution and seek approval from your manager, while four means you took action, solve the problem, and let you manager know afterwards.”

When people came to their boss’s chamber, managers will ask “what number is on your current problem?” To raise the sense of belonging, Planterra managers encourages their people to have number four on every problem as much as possible.

5. Connect Them With Resources

Connecting your people with resources will also help you reduce your load. Think about the term “resource” in wider perspective, like human, tools, information, and opportunities that can help your men to work independently. Being the matchmaker between your people to the resources is actually not hard at all, like “You can talk to Mr X in marketing division.”

 

So, take that monkey of their shoulders immediately, let them deal with their own monkeys, because you already have your own, right?

Charisma – The Invisible Power That Gives You The Edge

Most people think of charisma as something mystical, almost undefinable. They think it’s a quality that comes at birth or not at all. But that’s not true.

Charisma plainly stated, is the ability to draw people near you. And like any other traits, it can be developed.

To make yourself the kind of person who attracts others, you need to personify these pointers:

1. Love Life

People enjoy leaders who enjoy life. Think of people you want to spend time with. How would you describe them? Grumpy? Bitter? Depressed? Of course not. They’re celebrators, not complainers. They’re passionate about life. If you want to attract people, you need to be like the people you enjoy being with.

2. Put a “10″ on Every Person’s Head

One of the best things you can do for people which also attracts them to you is to expect the best of them. I call it putting a “10″ on everyone’s head. It helps others think more highly of themselves, and at the same time, it also helps you. If you appreciate others, encourage them, and help them reach their potential, they will love you for it.

3. Give People Hope

French General Napoleon Bonaparte characterized leaders as “dealers in hope.” Like all great leaders, he knew that hope is the greatest of all possessions. If you can be the person who bestows that gift on others, they will be attracted to you, and they will be forever grateful.

4. Share Yourself

People love leaders who share themselves and their life journeys. As you lead people, give of yourself. Share wisdom, resources, and even special occasions.

When it comes to charisma, the bottom line is otherminded-ness. Leader who think about others and their concerns before thinking of themselves exhibit charisma.

Now, to improve your charisma, do the following:

1. Change your Focus. Observe your interaction with people during the next few years. As you talk to others, determine how much of your conversation is concentrated on yourself. Determine to tip the balance in favor of focusing on others.

2. Play the first impression game. Try an experiment. The next time you meet someone for the first time, try your best to make good impression. Learn the person’s name. Focus on his interests. Be positive. And most important, treat him as a “10″. If you can do this for a day, you can do this everyday. And it will increase your charisma overnight.

3. Share yourself. Make it your long term goal to share your resources with others. Think about how you can add value to five people in your life this year. They can be family members, colleagues, employees, or friends. Provide resources to help them grow personally and professionally, and share your personal journey with them.

Listen To The Ideas Of Others

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen”
(Ernest Hemingway)

If you think you know it all, chances are you will be too busy listening to yourself and how great you are to have time to listen to anyone else.  Listen to your people in your team.  They are the ones who knows to work with the resources and the products. They are the ones at the cutting edge and they may well have ideas, good ideas.  Talk to them.  Get their feedback, their ideas, their creativity.

But you obviously have to be careful to make sure that although you are listening to them, that doesn’t mean that you are going to act on every one of their ideas.  Listen, assimilate and then decide based on what you’ve heard, your own experience and ideas and what is practical.

You have to listen without always giving the signal that you will necessary use their ideas, so then they won’t be disappointed when you do something completely different.  But you can make them think their ideas were incorporated into your overall strategy.

If you regularly doing this, ask good questions and listen without prejudice, you’re immediately in a different class to most leaders.

source : The Rules of Management – Richard Templar

Why Most Of The Time We Are WRONG

What do you see from the picture above? Is it rabbit? Or Duck? Or something else perhaps? (please tell me what you think). Now I’m sure someone smart like you could already relate the picture with my post title.

 

Many of us, husbands, wifes, parents, and leaders, have their own judgment towards situations and other people. The life long lesson about being self confident and decisive, however, must be reviewed once again. Because in fact, most of the time, whatever we do or decide could probably be wrong.

 

This is a matter of being objective. If we pull ourselves far enough to see things clearly, we will be surprised that human are just selfish and generally always think that he/she’s right. We feel so confident that we feel that we don’t need to consult on others of what good or bad the outcome would be from the other side.

 

Many people fail to see this as something important and not surprisingly, especially for leaders, they lost their influence.

 

Here are … tips on how to make a good call without stepping on other’s feet

 

1. Listen more, don’t talk so much, even if you feel like talking, don’t do that, because when you start to talk, people listen, and you will not capture their thoughts this way.
2. After done listening, don’t start by making statements immediately, instead, make questions and dig more.
3. You may want to hear from more related people if there’re any.
4. Then you can formulate a wise call that accomodate their needs and last but not least, your need also.
5. After you make the call, see it through, because it shows your commitment and you will win other’s respect instantly by doing so.

So, being decisive is not a matter of how fast a decision is made. But how a decision is formulated is much more important. A slow, but correct decision is worth many times rather that a quick but wrong one.

Think Strategically

“To think strategically is to think with discipline and make informed decisions
about the direction you want to go” – John Wood

Thinking strategically is a learned skill. You develop strategic savvy by asking smart questions, digging for answers and looking past assumptions or “truths” that limit your perspective.

You’ve probably never given much thought to your strategic thinking process. It’s non an easy-to-evaluate skill, like typing or writing memos. But now that you’re a leader, you must demonstrate your ability to think outside the box and attack challenges with intellectual vigor. Get in the habit of asking penetrating questions to your team and giving them the time to research the answers. The more you ask, the more you and they will learn.

Running a SWOT analysis helps you think strategically. Identifying the pros and cons, along with the opportunities and dangers that might arise, enables you to assess how to proceed. Involve your team in this exercise. Welcome their input and brainstorm freely. This gives everyone a change to make each other smarter.

The following are some tips to improve your strategic thinking :
Dig down at leas three layers : look deeper than just the surface of the problem. Keep asking “why” until you find the root cause.
Perform triage : focus only on the most compelling, revealing strands of information to avoid getting buried in a dumping ground of data.
Weigh all sides – and all consequences : think ahead to identify the repercussions of a strategic decision.

source : The Manager’s Handbook – McGraw Hills

The Pygmalion Effect – Principles Of Positive Thinking

“Whether you think you can or can not, you are usually right” – Henry Ford

Pygmalion – (Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it; Aphrodite brought the sculpture to life as Galatea

Pygmalion was a young man who has awesome talent in sculpture. His work was second to none. However, his ability is not the one that called friends and neighbours to worship him.

 

- If the center atrium in town is full of dirt and people are complaining, he would say “We’re blessed, the other atrium is not this dirty”

 

- When a sculpture buyer drives a hard bargain and Pygmalion’s friend whispered around about how cheap that person is, he would say “Perhaps that person have another important needs, so he has to spend wisely”

 

- When kids stole apples in his yard, he did not swear. Instead, he felt pity “Unfortunate for them for not having enough food and education in their homes”

 

That’s how Pygmalion thinks. He never sees thing from the bad side, instead his mind automatically search for the positive side in everything.

 

—————

 

One day, he is sculpturing a very smooth wooden statue of a woman. The statue has a dimension that is similar to that of real human. When the work is done, it really resembles a human being. It smiles attractively and it has body curves to die for.

 

His friends commented “No matter how good your statue is…it will always remain a statue. It is not your wife”

 

Despite those comments, Pygmalion treated the wooden statue as a real human. Countless time that he stared and touched it.

 

God in Mount Olympus finally noticed and somehow pay great deal of respect upon Pygmalion’s efforts and decided to turn the statue into real human. Then, he lived happily ever after with his summoned wife, which legend has her as the most beautiful women in Greece.

 

His name is still remembered until now to represent the effect of positive thinking. When we think positively, many times the results will also end up positive.

 

For example.

 

1. If we are polite to other people, then that person will also be polite toward us.
2. If we treat our children as smart ones, then they will turn into smart kids.
3. If we are sure that our efforts will bring results, there’s big chance that results will follow

Those positive effect is called the “Pygmalion Effect”

Our minds has a strange “prophecy fulflling” function, whether positive or negative.

1. When we think our neighbour is not a friend to keep, then they will act as one.
2. If we regard our children dishonest, they will lie to us
3. If we are desperate and think that whatever we do will be in vain, then we are not going to make it

Pygmalion’s way is to think, perceive, and to hope only good things from a situation or someone.

The colour of our life is dependant to the colour of the “glasses” we put on. Life will get better if we see it better. Think positive about ourself, others, situations, and God.

 

Good family relationship, more trustable friends and neighbours, working becomes fun, the world is friendlier, life is more beautiful are some of many more positive results if we implant this Pygmalion factor in our mind.

 

So, make sure you have a Pygmalion inside.

 

Have a nice day!

 

Image by thefreedictionary

Focus On Contribution

The great majority of executives tend to focus downward.  They are occupied with efforts rather than with results.  They worry over what the organization and their supervisors “owe” them and should do for them.  And they are conscious above all of the authority they “should have.” As a result, they tender themselves ineffectual.  

The effective executive focuses on contribution.  He looks up from his work and outward toward goals.  He asks:  “ What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?” His stress on responsibility.

The focus on contribution is the key to effectiveness: in a person’s own work – its content, its level, its  standard, and its impact,
in his relations with others – his superiors, his associates, his subordinates, in his use of the tools of the executive such as meeting or reports.  

The focus on contribution turns the executive’s attention away from his own specialty, his own narrow skills, his own department, and toward the performance of the whole.  It turns his attention to the outside, the only place where there are results.

source : The Daily Drucker  - Peter. F. Drucker

Bring Enthusiasm To The Job

 

Without enthusiasm, work is just work – tedious, boring and grindingly slow.  
Somehow, we fall into the trap of thinking that since we don’t really like our jobs or don’t like being there, we need
to demonstrate that to the people around us. So, we create our own hell.

Enthusiasm infuses energy into every task and into our jobs as a whole.  We get the work done faster and it seems easier.
Plus, enthusiasm creates its own  momentum.  Acting enthusiastic is the first step to really feeling enthusiastic.

In addition, when we are enthusiastic, other people around us often catch the same attitude.  They become more enthusiastic,
and their makes it more fun for us. The key to find a way to look at the task or job that allows us to focus on an aspect that
we are interested in.  Even if it’s task that isn’t much fun, maybe we can become enthusiastic about getting it finished.

Enthusiasm creates some pride.  We feel better and enjoy our work more.

source : Reflections for the Workplace – Bruce Hyland & Merle Yost

Walk The Talk

“Walk the Talk” is a basic leadership concept.  When leaders are trying to lead in their organizations, they become beacons of attention.  Their personal behavior becomes a model for others. When managers engage in new behaviors that are driven by changes, their entire team is watching.

What are they watching for? They are observing not only if you are doing what you say has to be done but also what your attitude is about doing it.  They are asking with their eyes: ”You are asking us to change.  Are you changing, too?”

Leaders are the engine of change within the organizations.  If the leaders walk the talk, keeps behavior consistent with the messages, keep commitments and promises, and demonstrates some energy and enthusiasm about what is happening, then team members will feel they can take the next step of commitment.

So, please remember to  : watch your behavior; show some enthusiasm & energy; be the first, take on the most.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”