7 Ways to ReWire Your Brain and Become a Better Leader

The good news is we are capable of over-riding our primitive reactions that don’t serve us well, and creating new neural pathways that reduce stress and irritability and generate more happiness and wisdom in our lives.

These 7 practices create incremental, accumulative changes in the neural structure of your brain and can improve the effectiveness of your leadership and the quality of your life.

1. If someone on your team disappoints you or lets the team down, allow your feelings to dissipate before you say or do anything.

Pay attention to what you are feeling, without reacting further until it dissipates to limit the amount of epinephrine and cortisol stress hormones released by your brain. Acting out when you are upset creates a temporary discharge, but ultimately prolongs your stress because eventually you will need to deal with the fall-out from your behavior. Some people think the solution is to cut off their feelings. However, this is also only a temporary solution as your feelings go underground and continue to drive you unconsciously.

2. If you feel angry, hurt or annoyed, don’t overlay meaning onto it.

We don’t think rationally when feeling a strong negative emotion. Instead we draw conclusions that reinforce our negative views. Sweeping generalizations like “He can’t be trusted because he always let us down” or “She really doesn’’t really care about our team and our work” reinforce the current neural pathways.

Rational thought will be more quickly available if you allow yourself to stay with the feeling without making assumptions about what the event means. Wait until the feeling has passed before you analyze what it means or decide what you will do.

3. If you are in a tense meeting, check your breathing.

When feeling tense, notice if your breathing is shallow. Activate your calming parasympathetic nervous system by taking a few long breaths, inhaling deeply and slowly exhaling.

4. If you find yourself replaying an upsetting scenario in your mind, stop.

If reviewing a scenario does not bring insight or resolution, don’t keep replaying it in your mind. You are reinforcing negative neural pathways. Instead, create a new pathway by associating it with a positive memory. When the unpleasant memory arises, recall a similar experience where you experienced success or recall an experience with someone who appreciated you. This will gradually infuse the disturbing memory with a positive feeling. The memory won’t go away, but the strong bite will.

5. Choose words and actions that benefit others.

The more you consciously choose actions and words that benefit others, the further your prefrontal cortex develops. This is the part of your brain that sets goals, makes plans, shapes emotions and that enables you to over-ride your primitive instincts. Compassion for others, and for yourself, is the motivating force that drives the desire to benefit others. When you are having difficulty feeling compassionate, remember someone for whom you do feel compassion, perhaps a child or someone you love. This memory will increase your ocytocin (associated with blissful closeness and love) and your ability to access compassion more fully.

6. Savor your positive experiences.

Positive things are happening all the time, but our brain is wired to focus on the negative. We notice something positive and then our attention quickly shifts away. Counteract that by consciously paying attention to the small things like the smile of someone who passes you, the taste of your breakfast, or the beauty of a sunset. Extending your attention on pleasant experiences increases your level of the neurotransmitter dopamine and your ability to control your attention.

7. Focus your attention on what is happening in the present moment.

Your brain learns from what you attend to. The best way to shape new neural circuits is to stay present with whatever is arising in your awareness. It is only in the present moment that we experience real happiness, love and wisdom.

By Jesse Lyn Stoner

The 6 Personalities Every Startup Needs To Thrive

Most startups come with a caveat: the agile, fast-paced nature of a newborn business isn't for everyone. The risk-adverse, status quo, complacent-types need not apply. Yet, hiring a bunch of go-getters is not the sole solution to creating a successful team. Big egos and arrogance can turn the office into a battlefield--a killer for a small company.

Instead, strive for balance as you hire. Here are the six personalities every startup needs:

1. The Dreamer

Every startup needs a dreamer. It's a motivating force in creating the company from day one and a sustaining force every day after. Most CEOs and founders have this characteristic, but it's not exclusive to management. The dreamer inspires, excites, and leads the company from a sky-high view.

Don't rely solely on your own leadership. Hiring other dreamers will help sustain momentum when your energy lags. Cultivate this quality in your employees by sharing your big, scary ideas and encourage them to do the same. Consistently communicating your vision to the team empowers them to help you build it (or come up with angles you missed entirely).

2. The Manager

The manager takes a dream and makes it happen. He or she is pragmatic, reliable, and has the initiative to turn ideas in action items. Charisma is less important here, it's all about being approachable, trust-worthy, and forward thinking. The manager understands that while the team needs a vision, it also needs tangible tasks to execute. The manager defines roles, outlines goals, and ensures that each individual is hitting the mark.

Most articles about hiring for startups don't talk about structure--it's not sexy, but it's the most crucial ingredient to achieving the things you envision. The manager will get you there.

3. The Builder

The builder thinks like an architect and acts like a tradesman. He or she has a clear understanding of the company vision and knows how to create it. The builder knows when to seek counsel and when to make an executive decision. He or she is intuitive, bright, and inventive. Ever worked with someone who, with little direction, seems to understand and create exactly what you want? That's the builder at work. I can't emphasize the value of this person enough.

4. The Workhorse

The workhorse is happy to step up and do whatever it takes to make the company engine purr. You will never hear the words: "It's not my job" come out of this person's mouth, and as a result, they will become your rock. The workhorse gets things done behind the scenes, be it ordering office furniture, assisting other team members, or following up on a suggestion you once made in a meeting. In all honesty, chances are most people in a startup will have the workhorse personality trait. Their egos don't need to be stroked, but a little recognition goes a long way.

5. The Penny Pincher

Anyone who's been part of a founding team will empathize with the experience of boot strapping. Funding (if and when it comes) is sweet, but you can never quite shake intolerance for wastefulness and the joy that comes from frugality. I respect team members that understand the importance of being efficient with budgets. The penny pincher questions every purchase and never commits to a cost without first considering the alternative options. He or she is creative with budgets, doesn't spend unnecessarily and understands the difference between need and want (and is accepting of the difference). The penny pincher personality trait speaks volumes to me--it means he or she cares about the long-term health of my company and is committed to getting me there.

6. The Social Butterfly

When there's work to be done it's tempting to create a vacuum. The earphones go on, the chat is switched off, and the body language shouts, "do not disturb." Removing distraction is a vital strategy in getting meaningful work done. Yet, what happens when there's always work to be done? These individual cells of silence can kill company morale when repeated over the long term. Never underestimate the importance of creating strong morale and a fun culture. The person with the ability to create connections among team members, laugh at themselves and others, and shift perspective at the right time, is an essential ingredient to a happy team.

 by Jon Stein 

5 Truths: Insourced Leaders Promote from Within

Here are five ideas to make the next rung of the corporate ladder easier to reach:

1. Reinstate employee referral bonuses. A staple of fast-growth startups, referral bonuses give employees an incentive to stay – and to bring their talented friends onboard. It might seem risky or profligate in a time of slow job growth, but your top talent wants to work with other talented people, and their networksmay be better than yours.

2. Create an internal talent scouting network. Many managers fear losing their best people. Recognize managers whopush talented employees to the next step in the organization. You might not be able to promote them right now, but they are demonstrating their commitment to the company, so find a way to acknowledge and reward them. Why not a 10 or 20 percent finders’ fee for bosses who nurture great employees?

3. Cultivate fast-start work groups. You know who your best managers are. Select the best from each department or business unit – especially in traditionally rapid-turnoverareas, e.g. sales – and give them a management task: identifying and fast-tracking talent. Make it an MBO goal.

4. Invest as much in management training next year as you spent on job ads last year. Fortune 500 companies appear to be headed in this direction – a new study by HR research firm Bersin & Associatesclaims leadership development will grow 14 percent in 2012 – but smaller companies may not have the leeway to send star performers to Harvard or Wharton for executive training.  So look to other sources for courseware and build your own programs. Start with the recently -announced Harvard – MIT edX online offerings and work up and in.

5. Institute a management and executive book club. Not all business-themed books are a bore; talk to the manager who’s most effective, or consult with someone from your Board. Find out what they’re reading and distribute copies to your managers. Pop quiz in 15 minutes.

by Meghan M. Biro

5 Shrewd Ways to Attract Top Talent

Everyone knows that it's difficult to attract top talent, especially if your company is relatively new and unknown.  Here are some strategic ways to help you build buzz around your company's recruiting efforts.

1.  Start with your employees.

Your current employees are the best advertising for your company.  Of course, that means you have to set a high bar of hiring the best, and build a culture where people love working, and are passionate about seeing it succeed.

Since great people know other great people, your employees can advocate on your behalf and create a spider-web effect.  Make sure you effectively communicate the vision and mission of your company so that your message is disseminated to prospective employees in a consistent way.  You can also speed up the process by incentivizing employees; dole out referral bonuses or other perks for introducing awesome candidates who are successfully hired.

2.  Expose yourself.

Get your company message out there and give prospective employees an inside look.  You can do this by adding an informative careers section to your website and distributing updates on social media. 

In addition to job listings, your job page should have a description of your company, including why a job seeker would want to work for you: how you're disrupting an industry, growing fast, or helping people, for instance. Twitter's jobs section does an excellent job of showcasing why it is a great place to build a career.  Shoot and post a fun video to help candidates learn about your company and meet some of the people who already work there. 

3.  Be creative, have fun!

Think about your product or the personality of your company and then use it to your advantage.

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4.  Post the job.

Wait, you thought job boards were passé and so Web 1.0?  That's not true!  Job boards can be very effective if you are spending your time and money in the right spots.  Avoid broad sites like Monster and Craigslist; instead use highly specialized job boards where your target audience is spending time. 

5.  Do good!

Give back to the community.  Sponsoring an industry event or having your employees volunteer some time locally will get a positive vibe out there about your company.  This type of goodwill goes a long way in terms attracting top people.

by Keith Cline

5 Things Conquerors Do That You Should Do Better

As business leaders we want to conquer goals like company growth, higher profitability, and industry recognition. As people, we all have personal goals that we want to conquer, like being happy and healthy and feeling like what we do matters.

When we have a vice in our life that controls our behavior ,we often say that we need to “beat that bad habit”. In other words, something else to conquer.

So it’s about time we started acting like it. Started acting like conquerors.

1. Stop asking for permission to be amazing.Doing anything you first need other people permission to do isn’t big enough to really change your life. It’s just not bold enough. Instead of sitting in a committee or asking focus groups or mentors what is best for you, just pick something amazing and go do it. Make it happen. You might make some people angry in the process. You might step on toes. But that’s okay. You’ll never do anything amazing if you stop and ask permission first. Apologize later. Conquer now.
2. Destroy anything that gets in your way.
   You have to get belligerent with obstacles. Sometimes you are the biggest obstacle in your way. Your fear. Your doubts. Your bad habits. And you have to crush yourself into submission. You have to doggedly pursue solutions. It is trial and error. It’s not a joke. It is you on a mission to achieve the audacious goals you have picked out for yourself. You can pick up the pieces later. Go crush something now.
3. Stay focused on the big picture.
   You are going to lose a battle along the way. People are going to get hurt that you care about. You are going to be challenged by enemies bigger than you could have ever imagined. Don’t forget what you’re here to do. Don’t let the day-to-day grind distract you from your conquest. Sometimes a giant step back is the best way to take three steps forward. Be willing to do what it takes to achieve overall success. Avoid being petty or passive aggressive. Get what you want. Start now.
4. Fight to the death rather than surrender. Don’t let up. Don’t let down. Be “all in” committed to your own success. Burn the ships when you come to a new island. Don’t look back. Don’t make it easy to retreat. Lay it all on the line and then cross that line. When you remove the option to look back, you somehow find a solution for moving forward. Fighting to the death isn’t about dying, it’s about a way of living. Living fully committed to your goals. Right now.
1. 
   
5. Enlist those around you in your warrior ways.  Build an army to help you conquer. You can conquer on your own, but you will conquer faster with a passionate group of warriors behind you banging their swords and spears and jeering violently at the enemy. Your army starts with just one person. One more person beside you. Find that person. Empower them to conquer. And then go find another one. Do it right now.
   
   by Daniel Waldschmidt

6 Tips to Increase Your Visibility at Work Without Self-Promoting

Increasing your visibility doesn’t require constant bragging and acting like you’re “self-promoting.”

Here are six tips to make yourself more visible without being overbearing.

1. Share your accomplishments through writing. With the ubiquity of email, it’s easy to write a message updating your team members on a project, including how your work is affecting its progress. Be sure to copy a supervisor on the message. Also, thank people in writing by explaining how their work or suggestions have helped you do your job better. It makes them feel good about their work and reflects well on you.
2.  Write out notes of what you want to say before meetings. If you know that you’ll be speaking at a meeting or event, take the time to write out what you want to say beforehand. When you have something prepared, it makes it more likely that you will speak, and that you say what you mean.
3.  Think before you speak. When you can’t prepare remarks ahead of time, always give yourself time to think before you speak at meetings. People listen to and respect others who can clearly articulate their ideas. If you don’t want to miss an opportunity to say something, ask a question first and then think through your statement while listening to the response.
4.  Master the art of small talk. Some people shy away from small talk, but it’s the glue that binds an office together. Chatting with others gives you the opportunity to build stronger relationships and discuss what you’ve been doing. If small talk is difficult, prepare a number of open-ended, work-related questions that you can use to start conversations.
5.  Schedule one-on-one meetings. Especially if you have a difficult time being yourself in group meetings, ask colleagues and supervisors if you can schedule private meetings with them. One-on-ones are a great opportunity to talk about your work and how it affects the company.
6.  Volunteer for committees and events. Many professionals are rightfully concerned about being productive, but committees and events have their place. Participating in a committee or helping to host a conference or charity event translates to an abundance of networking opportunities. Committees and events give you the opportunity to meet new people, talk about your work, and put your name and face in front of people who wouldn’t normally notice you.
   
   by Joel Garfinkle

8 Not-So-Obvious Lessons From Steve Jobs

• “Own” Design: Best known for his position that design is not about how something looks but how it works, Jobs took design very seriously and every product that he put in the market had a distinctive look, feel and experience. While not all businesses design computer hardware or even a tangible good, few do anything to “Truly” standout. Nonetheless, The more we do to create a distinctive design (differentiation), the better we serve our customers and ourselves.


• Embrace Simplicity: It is tough to find someone that will tell you they would rather have a Droid than an iPhone, a PC than a Mac, or a Zune over an iPod. Consumers seek simplicity. We will pay for a higher-quality, less-intrusive experience, especially with our Internet-enabled devices. This holds true among clients in many industries. They want the newest and coolest of everything, but that doesn’t mean they want the most complex. Does your offering make life for your customer simpler?


• Be Willing to Fail: At one point Jobs was pushed out of the business because he wasn’t seen fit to lead Apple. It wasn’t until much later and after the company nearly lost its identity that Jobs was brought back and he pioneered the original iMac. All entrpreneurs can learn from Jobs’ rags to riches, up and down struggles before achieving permanent success.


• Customers Don’t Always Know Best: Customers also have a tough time deciding what they want. By over-simplifying the offerings and making the best features available to all, Jobs ultimately went against the prevailing “have it your way” philosophy.


• Cash IS King: Over the years, since Apple has re-emerged, it did things different. It stayed lean when other global companies got bloated; it protected its margins with innovation and more than anything else it kept its wallet fat with cash rather than debt and equity. For so many businesses, resources (cash or other) are often the missing piece in rapid adaptation and transformation. It never hurts to put aside such resources to be able to jump on a great opportunity or absorb a tough period.


• Cost ISN’T King: I hear sales people in every industry complain that price is the reason that they can’t, don’t or won’t succeed. If you and your competitors are identical, this is probably the case. However, nearly all businesses have inherently different value propositions (although not always well defined). Apple has set the price in the market for its products, no matter how much cheaper other laptops, MP3 players or tablets are.
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• Re-Invent: Apple has changed with the times and adapted to each trend — personal computing, laptops, mobile content, mobile phones and the cloud. With business changing at warp speed, I am sometimes surprised how little some organizations change each year.


• Be Passionate: With every new product launch and every success you could feel how passionate Jobs was. He wasn’t the most charismatic person, but when he was done speaking you wanted to buy whatever he was selling. It is too common that I meet business owners and executives that leave me yearning for more. If we believe what we do makes a difference, we need our customers to know it .

by Daniel L. Newman,

The Nine Strategy Elements

Sun Tzu the Art of War

The Nine strategy elements highlighted here, are what we must consider and analyse before plunging into costly fight or flight actions with people and organisations; Sun Tzu Explained in the opening of his great treaty The Art of War.

The whole Sun Tzu Art of War strategy can be summed up in two sentences:

• What is your strategic position?
• How to Advance that position?

The first five strategy elements deals with one's strategic position and the four remaining strategy elements are the actions and skills required to advance that position.

The five strategy elements that make up a Strategic Position are:

The Mission

Is what uniting us with all the people in the organisation and the customer that cause them to share in your goals and objectives i.e "putting a man on the moon."

The Climate

Is the timing and the changes that happens around us and provide the opportunities to advance our position. It is the trends that change your situation from moment to moment.

The Ground

The Ground is where the contest for such a position takes place. The ground provides the prize you seek to win. It defines the game you are playing, and each game with its own unique rules.

The Leadership

The Leadership is the unique quality of character and leadership that you bring to your Situation. Leadership is also the realm of decision-making and personality.

The Methods

The Method describes the skills that you master to work with other people. They are the realm of methods and techniques. By definition, strategy is itself a system.

Until we equal or exceed our opponent's score in this five elements, we do not challenge or begin our venture or even respond to our opponent.

Advancing our position comes from applying specific strategies with the aim of strengthening the five strategy elements of our position to match or exceed that of the opponent. Thus securing our success in the challenge before the challenge even begins.

Sun Tzu Strategic system starts with the idea of position, and goes onto make this idea easy to advance in every aspect of life.

The framework of a strategic position is framework for a machine. You might say that this machine manufactures luck. We complete this machine by adding its four moving parts. These four parts (strategy elements) are designed to advance the position and to find and exploit opportunities:

• Information to uncover new opportunities
• Focus to aim on the best possible opportunity
• Action to take advantage of that opportunity
• Position to get the rewarded and begin a new advance

In this section, we will analyse the five strategy elements and how to advance them to win over life challenges.

We will also give examples so that strategy as a tool become clearer and ready for your use to advance your position in life.

Before delving into the five strategy elements and the strategies to advance them in depth, I would like you to consider a “conscious”thinking attitude to understanding and using strategy.

Easier said than done

Our instinct when facing challenges in life is almost always a reaction driven by our “fight or flight” response.

We either attack or run away from challenges.

The ability to control one’s emotions and instinct, while at the same time “introspect” on our actions rationally and pragmatically, is the GOLDENkey to living the life you have always dreamt of and reach abundance of success.

Reacting instinctively and “spontaneously” to challenges could be more pleasurable ... but the pleasure is very short lived.

Not showing one’s emotion while planning next move to success, leave the strategist with the last laugh and success.

Strategy is counter intuitive.

When people learn it they say that it make sense. They are wrong, strategy only make sense once we learn it and use it instead of following our instinct to saying “what we think” so to speak without any "conscious" thinking or introspection.

The 5 Elements of Strategic Planning

Sun Tzu overall strategic system consists of two major parts:-

• What is strategic position (strategic planning)
• How to advance that position (strategy)

One word of caution: -

• Strategy in itself is not Planning
• Planning is usually done in a controlled environment
• Strategy comes later and it deals only with the changes in the field of operation.

In this article, we will only deal with strategic planning, or positioning, not the strategy itself. This is quite another matter.

The five elements or steps must be considered and analysed in any strategic planning process. The analysis is relative to your opponent situation. It is a fact that a position on its own is not strong or weak, it is only so in relation to your opponent (competitor) position.

The five elements therefore must be considered for both, you and each opponent in the game you are playing, in other words, the market you are in.

One major fault of the current strategic analysis prevailing in the market place, called, "SWOT"; (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats), is the fact that it deals with these four elements in isolation of the competitor situation.

What may be perceived as weakness in an organisation may not be so in comparison to all the competitors in this market.

Therefore, it is fruitless to do a "SWOT" analysis without taking your opponent situation or position into account.

Let’s look at the Sun Tzu five elements in details:

1. The Mission
2. The Climate
3. The Ground
4. The Leadership
5. The Methods

Getting these five strategic elements right before any execution or venturing into business, is the best way to ensure success in any endeavour you choose to undertake in life. 

The 6 Principles of Sticky Ideas

Principle 1: Simplicity

Keeping it simple is achievable for all of us, we just need to keep reminding ourselves that not everyone knows what you do.

Principle 2: Unexpectedness

The best way to get people’s attention is to break their existing thought patterns directly.

Principle 3: Concreteness

Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images—ice-filled bathtubs, apples with razors—because our brains are wired to remember concrete data. In proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language: “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.”

Principle 4: Credibility

“Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves—a “try before you buy” philosophy for the world of ideas“.

 Principle 5: Emotions

to do  people to care about our ideas let them feel something.

Principle 6: Stories

The power of stories is two dimensional. Firstly it  provides simulation (knowledge how to act) and secondly it empowers people through inspiration (motivation to act). This generates action.

by : Jeff bullas

6 Ways to Drive Employee Performance and Motivation

1. Make Expectations Clear

Employees without goals will be naturally aimless. Provide them with clear achievable goals and make sure there are measurable standards in place to evaluate their performance. Victor Vroom’s work on expectancy theory supports the concept that employees must know what action they are expected to take and that it will yield the desired performance. Your employees should understand what they are expected to do, how they are expected to do it, and how they will be judged on it.

2. Provide Continuous Feedback

Always be specific in your feedback. For example, instead of telling an employee he, “did a great job,” compliment him on the way he organized his presentation, the citations he used, or his public speaking style. He’ll be more likely to apply these strengths to his next project if you point them out specifically.

3. Correct Privately

Don’t think of correcting an employee’s performance or behavior as punitive. Instead, consider it a learning opportunity for the employee. Keep an open mind, remember Deming’s 85/15 rule, which suggests that a majority of performance problems are actually outside of an employees control. If it is something the employee can change, it’s up to you to present the issue in such a way that the he feels he can correct the mistake.

4. Believe in Your Employees

Whether you tell him so during an employee performance review, or in the breakroom, an employee whose boss constantly calls him worthless, or a screw-up will feel a lot of emotions. He will not, however, feel particularly motivated to improve his performance.

Encourage your leadership team to take this same approach when you’re trying to motivate your employees for a major event, “This is the most talented, hardest working group I’ve ever had, and that’s why I know you can win this sales competition.”

5. Praise Publicly

Feeling under-appreciated encourages complacency – there’s a reason so many companies celebrate an Employee of the Month. People love praise; they thrive on it. Some research even suggested we’re willing to sacrifice incentive bonuses for public recognition. Make it a standard practice in your office to recognize positive people and trends within the business.

6. Make Rewards Achievable

Everyone is familiar with the annual bonus trip awarded to the top-performing employee. The problem is, such rewards usually go to one or two employees. This leaves the rest of your staff feeling like there’s not much point in working hard because the same few people always reap the rewards. Remember the other end of Vroom’s expectancy equation, which offers that individuals must also see the desired performance and linked reward as possible.

by David Burkus 

7 Ways To Build An Effective Corporate Culture

• Leaders led by example on a consistent basis and were willing to roll up their sleeves, particularly during tight deadlines or challenging times.

• Employees clearly understood how what they did made a difference and how their contributions made the organization either more profitable or more effective.

• The workforce included a blend of long-term employees with a rich company, product/service and customer history, employees who had been at the company for five to seven years, and then new hires with a fresh perspective and keen sense of new technologies and techniques. That blend worked best when the mix included virtually all A-players.

• Top managers had a clear, realistic and strategic vision for how the company would grow and compete in the marketplace.

• Employees were challenged and rewarded through growth opportunities, education and training and pay increases.

• Leaders provided opportunities for the company and its employees to give back to the community. Sometimes it was through company organized volunteer projects. Other times it was by encouraging (and rewarding) employees to volunteer on their own.

• A group of employees served on an activities committee with as little top management influence as possible, to plan at least monthly team-building, networking, education and charitable activities. This grass-roots approach helped ensure that the culture was shaped and influenced by employees and not only by top management. In this way, employees owned the culture as much as the management did.

7 Ways to Earn Trust from Client

Here are my top 7 recommended ways to develop a reputation for being trustworthy.

1. Be on time: Consider that being consistently late sends a very loud message, not just about your reliability, but about your lack of respect for and commitment to the other people who have to wait for you. If there is a pattern of people showing up late, you do not get a free pass from this one. Showing up consistently on time in an organization that has this costly habit is an opportunity to lead. Why not take advantage of the opportunity?

2. Prepare. We use the excuse of having to go to so many meetings or back to back meetings not only as a reason for being late, but for not preparing adequately. As one of my coaches, Gordon Star, used to say: failing to prepare is preparing to fail. It also wastes peoples’ time, including yours. If you waste my time, how likely am I to trust you with something else that matters to me?

3. Do not gossip: If you have an issue with someone, work it out with them. From what I have seen there is way too much gossip occurring under the guise of venting. What’s the difference? When you vent you actually have a commitment to working things out with the person with whom you have an issue. Venting is one thing you do to prepare to have what could be a difficult conversation. Gossiping is venting without commitment. Besides, what message are you sending to the person you are gossiping to? They may be left wondering if they will be next.

4. Keep confidential conversations confidential: Knowing something others are not supposed to know is a big responsibility. It can also be a bit intoxicating. If you have to mention to someone else that you shouldn’t be telling them this, do you really think that qualifies as keeping a confidence? You may experience a moment of power, but consider whether it is worth the risk to your reputation or to others.

5. Honor your promises. I use the word “honor” instead of “keep” your promises deliberately because no one keeps all of their promises. Stuff happens and we are, after all, human. So this means EITHER do what you said you would do OR tell someone in advance of the due date that you can’t deliver. When you can’t deliver and you tell someone in advance, you can figure out together how to deal with the potential breakdown. That doesn’t count as keeping your promise, but it does honor your commitment and your relationship.

6. Admit when you don’t know something. It is an illusion to think that if we hide what we don’t know we will protect the perception that we are competent. Reality is that the more competent we are the more aware we are of what we don’t know and the more confident we will be that we can find out. Admitting you don’t know something is a sign of strength, not weakness. Also consider that, as a manager, if I know you will admit when you don’t know, I am actually more likely to entrust you with something that may be a stretch for you.

7. Own your mistakes. Admitting your mistakes is a good start because it demonstrates honesty. Want to demonstrate reliability, too? Take full responsibility by dealing with the consequences of your mistakes and taking full advantage of the opportunity to learn.

by SUSAN MAZZA 

12 Ideas to Strengthen Your Performance as a Team Participant:

1. Be enthusiastic. It’s contagious.

2. Willingly and openly share your expertise. Teach and contribute.

3. Embrace the expertise of your team members. Learn.

4. Support the development of clarity for purpose, performance and roles. These are the foundation of performance.

5. If you are not the leader, follow with determination and enthusiasm.

6. If you are the leader, recognize that the project isn’t about you. Focus on creating those factors…clarity, trust, accountability that give rise to high performance.

7. Strive to leave your agenda behind and make the team’s goals your agenda when involved in team business.

8. Be accountable for the timeliness and quality of your contributions.

9. Expect accountability from your team leader and fellow participants.

10. Reinforce trust development across the team by readily offering yours.

11. Keep team business to yourself.

12. Find ways to enhance the contributions of your team members.

Just for now, consider your own performance as a team participant and strive to improve. High performance is a short distance away when everyone on the team is focused on what and how they can perform their roles more effectively in support of the team. 

How To Take Advantage Of The 80/20 Rule

If you are like most knowledge workers, you might be familiar with the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle which states that the 80% of the effects come from the 20% of causes. This means that 80% of your output is produced by 20% of your input. If you apply the same principle to  why you are lagging from your productivity goals, 80% of your woes can be attributed to the 20% of your activities. The key is to find which 20% is this.

80% of your output is produced by 20% of your input

80% of Your Output Comes From 20% of Your Input

The average number of hours we spend at the office is 8 hours. 80% of our output on any single day is produced by 20% of our effort in that whole 8 hours. If the Pareto Principle holds true, then majority of our daily output basically comes from less than 2 hours of our whole effort in that 8-hour period. They key to productivity, then, is to identify the 2 hours window you are producing the most. If you solidly focus on working on those 2 hours, chances are you can produce 80% of your required daily output.

Set Your No-Fly Zone

If you are working from 9AM to 5PM, set aside those 2 hours in which no other activities  can intervene in your work. You need to arrange everything in advance. If you think most office collaborations not related to your tasks are scheduled in the morning until about noon, then that is not probably the best time to set your no-fly zone.

Appoint Your Off-Limit Hours

Some surveys say that the most effective time to call (marketing call, that is) is 10AM. Most emails come around this time. This is also the best time to have a coffee break. If you think that you are most effective at around this time, then you have to find a way to adjust. The key here is to make your officemates respect your off-limits hours.

Learn When To Say Yes and When To Say No

Your ability to say yes or no on certain things can really make a difference in the context of the 80/20 rule. You can only accommodate so much. Once you set your no-fly zone or appointed your off-limits hours, people will have the idea when they can approach you. Saying ‘no’ is a virtue when it comes to Pareto Principle.

What do you think is the best way to leverage the 80/20 rule to achieve your productivity goals? Do you have any examples that can prove the principle? Have you taken advantage of it yet? Read the The 80/20 Individual: How to Build on the 20% of What You do Best to have a solid idea about the 80/20 rule.

 by Marlon Ribunal.

المبادئ الأساسية للقيادة الإدارية

المبادئ الأساسية للقيادة الإدارية

أولاً : التزم بمبدأ الاستقامة التامة في كل ما تعمل:
 ويشمل ذلك القواعد التالية : لا تخلف وعداً أو عهداً ، أفعل ما هو الصواب حتى لو كنت أنت الشخص الوحيد الذي يعلم أنك تفعله . دائماً أختار الأمر الصعب الصحيح ، بدلاً من السهل الخاطئ .
ثانيا : كافح في أن تكون خبيراً في مجال عملك :

 لأن الخبرة مصدر هام من مصادر السلطة لدى القائد . ان الناس عادة ما يشعرون بالطمأنينة مع قادة يتمتعون بخبرة ومعرفة جيدة في مجال اختصاصهم.
ثالثا : قل للآخرين ما تتوقعه واستعمل لغة قوية للتأثير في نفوس المستمعين: 

وفي توضيح أهداف ورؤى وقيم المؤسسة وأعد خطة لما تنوى الوصول إليه ثم ابدأ في تنفيذها ، وراقب رد الفعل على الخطة ، وقرر هل هناك حاجة لتعديل في الاستراتيجية  ام لا.
 رابعا :كن ملتزماً وصادقاً في التزامك:

  حيث سيزيد ذلك حماس من تقودهم إذا شعروا بأنك تتقبل المخاطر في سبيل الإصرار والالتزام بمواقفك . وهذا يتم بتمسكك بهذا النهج حتى في أوقات العسرة ، وحل المشاكل التي تبدو مستحيلة للآخرين .
خامسا : توقع الأفضل: تعود على أن تكون لديك رؤية مبنية على الثقة بالنفس لما تود أن تحققه وهو(النجاح) ، وليس على نظرة سلبية لما لا ترغب في تحقيقه (الفشل) .حيث  أن التفكير الإيجابي له قوة دافعة ، ولكن بشرط أن يتزود بوقود من الحماس.
سادسا : أهتم بشؤون من تقود :

 ضع حاجة من هم تحت ادرتك في أعلى قائمة اولوياتك . إذا أختلت الأمور ، فتحمل المسؤولية والملامة .
سابعا : ضع الآخرين في المقام الأول :
فكر في من هم تحت ادارتك  قبل أن تفكر في نفسك احتفل معهم بالنجاح بالأطراء عليهم أكثر ما يمكن . قاسمهم الآلام حتى لو يسبب لك ذلك بعض المضايقات ، أو تجد في ذلك صعوبة ، أو يكون مكلفاً من حيث الوقت أو المال أو غير ذلك من الموارد .
ثامنا :  افعل ما تعنيه كلمة القيادة: أي كن في المقدمة إذا كنت لا ترغب في أداء عمل تطلب من غيرك تنفيذه ، فلا تطلب منهم القيام بذلك العمل . أن القائد الناجح يتألق نجمه في ميدان العمل، أما القائد العاجز فيختبئ في مكتبه ويصدر الأوامر .