Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

Sharpening Your Skills

Overcoming the Temptation to Please

By Leave a Comment

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
– Dale Carnegie

We desire that people around us like us; we yearn for their respect and affection. We depend on the choices these people make: be it in a job interview with a corporate recruiter, a performance review with a boss or a project delegation meeting with a team member. Clearly, the more likeable we are, the more people are ‘on our side,’ and therefore, the more likely they will make decisions in our favor.

Doing what others want to gain their approval regardless of the merit of their wants is, therefore, a temptation. Companies are tempted to pursue short-term profit-enhancing strategies to satisfy stock market expectations. Politicians are tempted to devise welfare schemes to help garner votes in an upcoming election. A professional is tempted to please the boss by agreeing to everything the boss asks.

We need to be tough-minded—we need to base our decisions and actions on facts, not personal inclinations. It takes courage and discipline to resist the lure of pleasing others. Making an objective decision that is unfavorable for a requester may disappoint him/her; however, a candid explanation of the rationale behind the choice often appeases the requestor. Being tough-minded does not mean being inflexible or insensitive. Being tough-minded involves doing what is just and right after careful consideration of procedures and people.

I encourage you to reflect on your actions and decisions by asking yourselves if you make these choices to please other people or if you make these choices based on the virtue of facts. Improving your likability should be a wish and not a goal.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. The Likeability Factor: Whose “Do Not Pair” List Includes You?
  2. A Trick to Help you Praise At Least Three People Every Day
  3. How Small Talk in Italy Changed My Perspective on Talking to Strangers
  4. “But, Excuse Me, I’m Type A”: The Ultimate Humblebrag?
  5. Let Go of Toxic Friendships

Everyday Reflections for Effective Time Management

By 1 Comment

Our everyday-time stresses are usually caused by having too much work to do in a given amount of time, or by using available time ineffectively. One critical aspect of effective time management is the discipline of analyzing how we utilize our time.

Below are a few practical questions to help reflect on how we spent our days.

  • Did I start my day with a clear plan on how I would use my time during the day? Did I prepare a to-do list and assign priorities to tasks on the list? Did this plan give me a sense of control over my time?
  • Did I work on the most important tasks at times when I tend to be most focused and productive?
  • Did I concentrate on my priorities? Did I feel rushed? How much unplanned time did I spend on pressing problems that demanded my immediate attention or added little value in the context of my goals?
  • Did I examine my schedule and priorities before committing to new assignments?
  • Was I effective with the use of my time or was I just efficient in the tasks I completed? Did I do the right things to meet my organization’s, team’s and personal goals?
  • How will my accomplishments help me progress towards my short-term and long-term goals?
  • Did I delegate responsibilities and tasks well? Did I use my associates (administrative assistants, subordinates, subject experts, and other resources) effectively?
  • How well did I use my buffer-times: time when waiting for the dentist, time during the train-commute to work, etc.?
  • What interruptions and time-wasters did I encounter? Did I attend unimportant meetings or get non-critical telephone calls and email? How could I have avoided these time-intrusions?
  • Did I spend too much time deliberating over minor decisions?
  • Did I spend enough time with family and friends? Did I spend enough time on my fitness, leisure and spiritual activities?
  • Did I accomplish everything I had hoped to accomplish? How many tasks do I carry forward to tomorrow’s to-do list?
  • Did I complete a list of things to do for tomorrow and assign priorities to them? Did I leave my workplace, desk and other personal spaces organized?

Ask these questions at the end of each day. Seek what you can learn from the experience of the day and what you can do to make every next day better than the previous day.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Don’t Ruminate Endlessly
  2. This Question Can Change Your Life
  3. Don’t Keep Running Hard If You’re Not Making Progress
  4. To Become Time-Conscious, Always Ask, “Is It a Priority?”
  5. Ask This One Question Every Morning to Find Your Focus

Mindfulness Meditation for Busy People: Stress-Beating Strategies

By 1 Comment

Recently, while poking around the internet, I stumbled upon Lorraine Hahn’s interview of Swami Veda Bharati. In this CNN Talk Asia interview from 2002, Swamiji talks about the practice of yoga and meditation and their benefits.

A simple exercise in meditation

During the interview, Swamiji leads viewers into a few moments of meditation. The following simple steps are worth a try.

  1. Wherever you are, right now make no formal effort of any kind. Simply bring your awareness to the place where you are sitting.
  2. Be aware of yourself from head to toe. If your eyes close, let them close by themselves, lightly and simply relax your forehead.
  3. Just relax your forehead, be still and bring your awareness to your breathing. Only bring the awareness to your breathing. Do nothing with your breath, only follow how the breath is flowing.
  4. Pick a name of God or a name of the Buddha or Yahweh or the name of Jesus, in your language, according to your tradition. Exhaling, think in your mind that name without a break. Inhaling, think that name.
  5. Observe how the breaths, the mind and the name are flowing together as a single stream. Continue to feel the flow.
  6. Maintaining the awareness of the flow, gently open your eyes but continue to feel the flow even with your eyes open. Do you feel any change in the state of your mind? A little calmness?

Why meditate?

After several years of being “busy at college”, I recently restarted my practice of yoga and meditation. For me, meditation is a practice of discovering the existential truth and disciplining my thought and action. Meditation helps me deliberate on the fundamental questions of life: the purpose and meaning of life and my role in the complex web of relationships around me.

What does meditation mean to you? Given your traditions and beliefs, do you see a difference between meditation and prayer? Do you consider meditation as a means for inward reflection and spiritual development? Is it deliberation and deep thought in search for the ultimate truth? Or is it mere stress management work-out to help attain calmness and composure? What are your thoughts?

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Mindfulness Can Disengage You from Others
  2. Affection Is No Defense: Good Intentions Make Excellent Alibis
  3. The Deceptive Power of False Authority: A Case Study of Linus Pauling’s Vitamin C Promotion
  4. The More You Can Manage Your Emotions, the More Effective You’ll Be
  5. Do Your Team a Favor: Take a Vacation

Philanthropy: Collaborative Initiatives to Transfer Corporate Values to the Social Sector

By Leave a Comment

Traditional philanthropy, whether personal, institutional or corporate, takes three forms: cash capital, volunteer-time in programming support, and cause-related sponsorship. I believe a fourth avenue, corporate and non-profit collaboration, can make an important difference in the society.

Following last year’s Katrina hurricane, Wal-Mart [WMT], Home Depot [HD] and FedEx [FDX] reached out to vulnerable victims by providing hundreds of truckloads of vital supplies, thanks to their immense supply chain infrastructures. These companies highlighted one promising area of effective corporate outreach and community collaboration. Can the corporate sector transfer logistical knowledge to relief agencies and aid them to set-up an infrastructure to support nimble disaster planning in the future?

One of the most significant characteristics of successful corporate leaders is their ability to clearly recognize new social, political and economic influences and to adapt their enterprises to developing circumstances rapidly and economically. These corporate leaders possess the dynamism, the ability to innovate and the mechanisms for spurring efficiency and allocating resources in entirely new channels.

Non-profits have limited access to such visionary individuals and the expertise necessary for social investments to overcome barriers in resources and operational efficiencies. Therefore, there is a pressing need for corporate leaders from all levels to collaborate with the social sector. I expect innovative corporations to launch and expand their philanthropy programs to create partnerships for sustainable initiatives and transfer corporate practices, values, oversight and accountability measures to non-profits.

*Keyword(s): Philanthropy, outreach, non-profits, Katrina, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, FedEx

Dissatisfied at Work? Are You Really a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

By Leave a Comment

If you are not happy at work, you may believe that your dissatisfaction is rooted in your position—in the relationships, the workflows and the demands of the role. You may feel that if you were in a different position or were associated with another organization, you would be more content.

However, there is a good chance that the problem is not with your position per se, but with your attitudes toward various elements of work-life: people you interact with, responsibilities, bureaucracy, office politics, etc. You may not have realized and/or capitalized on the various opportunities that the current position presents.

  • If you feel your work is not challenging enough or if you do not sense career progression, you can request additional responsibilities at work. You can analyze colleagues who have succeeded in similar positions and learn from them. If you want to be promoted, you could assume some of the responsibilities of the position you desire.
  • Even if you do not like your boss, colleagues, subordinates or customers, you still need to get along with them by being open-minded or by discovering common ground. In extreme cases, you need to accept that people will not change and just suck up, no matter how frustrating their actions are.
  • If you want to change to another line of work, you need to realize that the grass on the other side of the fence always looks greener until you jump over. There is no guarantee that the new position or the new organization will be any better. There will be a considerable lead-time to reestablish yourself in the new workplace before you can be eligible to move up. Organizations realize that there is a significant penalty to losing an experienced person and are likely to accommodate your needs and aspirations.

Professional success is often not simply a matter of choosing the right career path or the right company, although these are important factors. The attitudes you bring to your work-life define your career development and contentment. Change your attitudes, adjust, discover opportunities available and thrive in the given circumstances.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. There Isn’t a Shortcut to the Top
  2. Unpaid Gigs for ‘Exposure’—Is It Ever Worth It?
  3. What’s Next When You Get Snubbed for a Promotion
  4. Get Started, Passion Comes Later: A Case Study of Chipotle’s Founder, Steve Ells
  5. A Little Known, but Powerful Technique to Fast Track Your Career: Theo Epstein’s 20 Percent Rule

Four Keys to an Excellent Relationship with Your Boss

By 2 Comments

The relationship with your boss is a critical aspect of a favorable work atmosphere and your job satisfaction. The boss forms a vital link between you and the upper management and thus represents the entire organization to you. Below are four key principles to build and sustain an excellent relationship with your boss.

  1. The relationship between you and your boss is likely a circular relationship: if you like your boss, your boss likes you; if your boss likes you, you like your boss. Overlook actions of your boss that may disappoint you and be conscious of how you react to conflicts.
  2. Suit his/her work style. Understand your boss’s thought processes, preferences and pet-peeves. If your boss is hands-on, favors raw data for making decisions, resists confrontations or avoids risk, you must be sensitive and suit his/her style. You may be able to sell your boss on the merits of changes to his/her style; however, realize that change takes time and is not guaranteed.
  3. When your boss succeeds, you succeed. Understand your boss’s role, his/her strengths, weaknesses and goals. Ask how you can support his/her objectives and the organization’s goals. Do not assume his/her expectations of you. Communicate continually by detailing progress on your assignments and by giving prompt feedback on challenges you face and asking for support.
  4. Realize that one hand cannot clap. Fundamentally, people are different; their perspectives and work-styles are different. You are very lucky if you have a boss who is competent and supportive—somebody who is genuinely interested in your assignments and career advancement. Recognize early if things are not going well; be open and straight-forward in communicating your thoughts and if changes you made have not improved the situation appreciably, be prepared to leave.

Success in building relationships does not come easily. Co-operating with your boss involves being proactive and tolerant, making mistakes and learning from them. The onus is on you to effectively manage this key relationship and achieve the best results for yourself, your boss and the organization.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. How Not to Handle a Bad Boss
  2. Don’t Be Friends with Your Boss
  3. Tips for Working for a Type-A Boss
  4. Time to Speak Up, Not Suck Up, to an Overbearing Boss
  5. What to Do When Your Boss Steals Your Best Ideas

Wednesday Afternoon Time-off: Recharge Mid-week

By 5 Comments

Most of us feel our weekends are insufficient to accomplish everything that we want to; we tend to over-plan and underachieve. On Sunday evening, we wish we had relaxed more, completed more errands and spent more time with family and friends. If a weekend involves long-distance travel, we tend to leave from work on Friday afternoon and return home exhausted on Sunday evening.

When we return to work on Monday, we are hung-over from the out-of-work rhythm of the weekend and gain momentum during the day. We are at peak energy levels during Tuesday and Wednesday. Once we pass ‘hump day’, we long for a break. By Thursday afternoon, we feel drained and begin to look forward to the weekend. Our energy levels and thus our productivities tend to be lower on Friday as we wrap up our workweek.Wednesday Afternoon Time-off: Recharge Mid-week

Every week, we crave a mid-week break—an opportunity to reenergize during the middle of the week. In response, I present the concept of Wednesday Afternoon Time-off. In essence, this concept involves leaving work early, say at around 3:00pm, and taking a break from routine life.

We can use this time-off from the routine to catch-up with errands, devote time for family and friends, eat out, read a book, visit the beach, relax or to just to arrive at home early. This brief time-off will render us energized and recharged for higher productivity during the last two days of the workweek. Additionally, this break gives us something to look forward to at the middle of the week.

I have practiced this idea of mid-week time-offs during the past few weeks and find the experience amazing. My workplace appreciates the higher energy levels on Thursday and Friday. The two hours of work I miss on Wednesdays are easily compensated for by the extra time I devote to work on other weekdays.

I encourage you to try this practice by blocking off time on your calendar, planning work around leaving work early on Wednesday afternoon and getting a break. I would love to hear about your experience.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. The Problem with Self-Help
  2. Do You Really Need More Willpower?
  3. Seek Discipline, Not Motivation: Focus on the WHY
  4. Why Doing a Terrible Job First Actually Works
  5. Small Steps, Big Revolutions: The Kaizen Way // Summary of Robert Maurer’s ‘One Small Step Can Change Your Life’

The Skills-Attitudes Competence Model

By Leave a Comment

While poking around the internet, I recently bumped into a few articles that refer to a study by either Harvard or Stanford or both that concluded that 85% of one’s success at work is due to his/her attitudes and just 15% is due to technical skills [1, 2]. While most of us agree with this statement in principle, we could question how a survey could quantify attitudes and technical skills and the contributions of these traits to professional success.

The simple skills-attitudes competence model shown below will help quantify one’s talents and understand the relative contributions of skills and attitudes to professional success. This model is a graphical indication of one’s positioning with respect to technical skills (x-axis) and attitudes and behaviors (y-axis). Every job carries a certain level of expectation for both of these disciplines. A threshold line divides this landscape into the proficient and vulnerable zones. The position of the threshold line vis-à-vis the lines of expectation signifies a lower tolerance for poor attitudes in comparison to insufficient technical skills.

Consider six people, A to F, in the landscape. ‘A’ possesses lower than expected skills, but possesses the right attitudes to learn, grow and get things done. ‘B’ and ‘C’ possess the same level of skills as ‘A’, but possess worse attitudes and risk being labeled incompetent. ‘B’ could move into the secure zone by developing skills (transitioning along the x-axis) or by developing positive attitudes (transitioning along the y-axis) or by developing on both (transitioning along an inclined line). ‘D’ and ‘E’ may be extremely skilled; their skills may be critical to the success of the organization. However, if ‘D’ fails to fails to conform to the core values of the company or exhibits behavior that is difficult to tolerate, the organization may eliminate him from his position. ‘F’ possesses the best attitudes and skills and thrives in the organization. The farther away ‘F’ is from the threshold line, the more secure he or she is.

Use this skills-attitudes competence model to define tangible attributes of skills and attitudes expected of you in the context of your current position or your desired future position. Identify your position on this chart. Under the guidance of your supervisor and mentors, identify what skills and/or attitudes you can develop towards a successful and satisfying career.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. General Electric’s Jack Welch Identifies Four Types of Managers
  2. Ten Rules of Management Success from Sam Walton
  3. Seven Real Reasons Employees Disengage and Leave
  4. How to Manage Overqualified Employees
  5. Fire Fast—It’s Heartless to Hang on to Bad Employees

Whom do we work for? What do we work for?

By Leave a Comment

One of my pet peeves is the expression ‘I work for somebody’ or being asked ‘Whom do you work for?’ These are fairly common expressions in the United States; some cultures find these expressions mildly derogatory.

Fundamentally, every person works for himself or herself and for personal gratification from a cause that he or she associates himself or herself with. The cause may be either personal or organizational, e.g. for a better future for children, to help rebuild efforts following an earthquake, to build a productive household utility, to develop an algorithm for efficient logistics, to save for a family vacation, etc.

The quest for meaning is one of life’s imperatives. Have you identified a mission, a purpose that you can work towards or go to school for? Have you then translated your objectives into a roadmap of actions towards the cause? Have you setup milestones that can help you measure your achievements? Answering these questions will help you look forward to toil towards a mission that you connect with and realize contentment in work-life.

P.S.: The next time somebody asks you whom or what you work for, tell him or her you work with your boss, you work for a mission, and you work at your organization. Watch the prepositions.

*Keyword(s): Purpose, Mission, Goals, Achievements