Employee and Employer: A Bitter-Sweet Love Story

You are a job aspirant. Having come across a suitable opening, you apply for the job. Your C.V. is so impressive that you immediately get a call for an interview. You attend the interview and are appointed as well. You undergo an orientation training that cements your bonding with the company. After that, you start working for the company. In other words, you get cozy with the company.

You complete all the tasks entrusted to you perfectly. You give suggestions as well to improve the output of the company. So, your employer develops a liking for you. This is a sweet love story.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Very soon, people on your team and other employees find fault with you. This may be due to jealousy. Or you may be going overboard and in your enthusiasm to improve your reputation further, committing a few mistakes. In your eagerness and obsession to prove your mettle and to beat others in the race, you may commit the solecism of prioritizing wrongly or omitting a few vital aspects while carrying out your tasks. This may prove to be expensive for the company. Now, your employer may start disliking you or may even begin hating you. The love story, which was originally sweet, has now turned into a bitter one. 

Another scenario.

Noticing your efficiency, your employer may start dumping more work on your platter. You have all along been enjoying the appreciation showered upon you. Now when you have to do more work, you find that your work-life balance is in jeopardy. You start hating your employer. Thus begins the bitter chapter of the love story.

Should an employer-employee relationship always be a bitter-sweet love story?

To this question, the answer is: It need not be. The question now is: As an employee, what should you do to maintain a consistently cordial relationship with your employer? A few tips may help.

1. Never nurture an obsession to impress your employer. As an employee, you have to work to your optimum potential and there should not be any compromise on this. But while carrying out your tasks, you should have the company's good in your mind. Earning the employer's appreciation is secondary and you will get it automatically if you carry out your tasks sincerely and with the utmost focus.

2. Do not always be expecting appreciation. Some of the employers are stingy and they do not appreciate even those who perform well. According to them, employees get their remuneration and it compensates much more than their output. So, don't get addicted to appreciative remarks. This means that when you don't get an appreciation for your good work, you must not allow your buoyancy to diminish. Remember that the appreciative words of such stingy employers are just formal proclamations and are devoid of hearty effusiveness. 

At the same time, these employers will always take advantage of every opportunity to find faults. Expecting appreciation from these employers is akin to expecting inanimate things to show gratitude.

3. Don't try to monopolize appreciation. You want to climb the career ladder quickly. This does not mean that you and you alone should get appreciation. There may be a few other employees like you who may be nurturing similar aspirations. They may also be performing as good as you, if not better. They also deserve appreciation, so you should not be envious of them. The only advice experts give is that you should carry out your tasks with the utmost sincerity and focus without worrying about the appreciation of your employer. It is better if you continue to be companionable with those employees because their eagerness to perform well will help in keeping your motivation level high.

4. Keep your enthusiasm alive. Regardless of whether you get appreciation from your employer or not, you should not allow your enthusiasm to come down. Enthusiasm is like a nasty precipice. If you do not motivate yourself regularly, you may slip and it may result in troubles in your workplace. Of course, your relationship with your employer will get strained also. So, employ all your resources and keep your enthusiasm intact.

If you use the above tips, you will find that the relationship between you and your employer need not be a bitter-sweet love story. It will always be a sweet love story.

Do You Want a Few Winning Formulae?

Even casual research will reveal that some of your work-weeks are great while a few others obstinately hold you back and do not allow you to make the right efforts to achieve the targets you have set. The reasons for those bad workweeks may be several, the prominent being you may be succumbing to temptations or distractions. Distractions or temptations are so powerful that they may derail all your plans. If you are an employee, such bad workweeks may turn out to be unfortunate blots in your career. If you are an entrepreneur, such trends may result in the loss of sales of the products you offer or the services you render. In this context, you may wish to know how you can ensure quality workweeks consistently. Let us know.

1. Be honest to yourself.

You cannot just keep hoping for a resurrection of your focus without having the courage or honesty to accept the mistakes you commit. In fact, being courageous and honest to admit your lapses is the foremost step that can help you in regaining your focus. Remember that temptations or distractions are not snakes in the grass and hence, are never invisible. So, eliminating them from your journey need not be a complex process though it may not be easy. Most importantly, it is not necessary that you must feel like a pariah just because of these lapses. In fact, you have the company of several gullible people.

2. Create productivity routines.

For understanding this step, you should look at the methods of professional athletes. You will be surprised to see that they practice, practice, and keep practicing even when no competition is round the corner. Competitions are pressure situations. Thanks to their incessant and consistent practice even during non-pressure situations, these professional athletes do not feel the pressure when they take part in competitions, You have to emulate these athletes and make sure your productivity routines become your second nature.

3. Identify those hours when your productivity level is optimal.

Every human being is different. The productivity level of some people is at its peak during morning hours. A few people are nocturnal birds and their output will be excellent during nights. You must identify your "top-notch" hours and use them without getting distracted even a bit so that you can boost your productivity to its optimum level.  

4. Put in place these two routines.

Every evening, you should make it a point not only to revisit your goals but to think through the hurdles you are likely to face the next day. If you think that this end-of-day routine will just help you map your to-do tasks, you are wrong. It is much more than that. In fact, you are tuning your mind to "success." This will eliminate stress because you already have a blueprint to handle the hurdles that may come your way.

You may say that your days are chaotic and hence, you may not be able to incorporate this routine within your day's tasks. But you cannot afford to overlook the fact that if you do not take this step, you may very soon lose sight of your goals. You may even get frustrated owing to the hurdles you encounter along your journey. On the other hand, if you take this step, you will always remain focused on your goals. This means "weeds" such as distractions and temptations will not corrupt your mind and weaken your motivation.

The second routine you should put in place before you retire for bed is to prepare another list. This is not just another to-do list. "Excitement List" is the right name for this. This should consist of all those things that are likely to excite you while carrying out your tasks the following day. This will energize your mind so well that when you wake up the next morning, you will be enthusiasm-personified. You should not leave even trivial things that are likely to cause excitement and bring happiness to you. The best benefit of this step is that you will be able to complete your tasks quickly and efficiently thanks to your enthusiasm.

Follow these winning formulae to the hilt and very soon, you will see the results.

How the Attitude of Mediocrity Can Kill Your Growth

A study says that the number of people who are complacent with their mediocre skills and their learning aspirations is huge. On the other hand, there are people who firmly believe that any level of talent or skill is not enough in the highly competitive environment that is prevalent now. For these latter folks, even the sky is not the limit and they do not even consider age, qualifications, and other barriers as impediments. There are people who are in their eighties who keep studying and enhancing their knowledge levels. In this context, you should understand and realize that if you develop such an attitude, no one on this planet can stall your growth. Let us find out how the attitude of mediocrity can stunt your growth and how the attitude of not getting complacent can help in improving your growth trajectory.

1. It is true that mediocrity may make you comfortable. But it may take a toll on your growth regardless of whether you are running a business or in employment. If you believe that average or normal performance is enough for executing your tasks, you will be increasing the chances of your faltering along your way. This means that your output and performance will be below par. You may commit errors and mistakes as well. Therefore, you may have to repeat the tasks again and again. This may sap your energy as well as your enthusiasm. When your enthusiasm gets a beating, your output will again be much below satisfactory levels. In other words, this may become a vicious circle and so, getting out of this quagmire may become highly difficult for you.

2. If you continue nurturing your mediocrity mentality, it may negatively impact your health as well. Your stress level will increase. For example, if you are employed and if your output or performance is not to the satisfaction of your boss, he or she may ask you to repeat the tasks until he or she is satisfied. Unfortunately, you have always been in possession of the mediocrity mentality and hence, you yourself are not certain if you will be able to improve the quality of your output. This uncertainty coupled with the energy you spend for executing the tasks repeatedly will increase your stress level. It is a known fact that constant stress can lead to serious ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart-related health issues. 

3. Your attitude of mediocrity can rob your peace of mind at the home front. A home is a place where you can enjoy tranquility and peace of mind. But thanks to your mentality and mediocrity habits, you will adopt a cavalier and insouciant attitude towards your close relatives including your spouse and children. Remember that such a lack of concern for them will certainly annoy them and they are bound to get upset with your behaviors and habits. This may lead to avoidable arguments or tiffs within your family, the casualty being the tranquility at your home.

     

4. Another very important point to remember is that your mediocrity mentality will not allow you to utilize the opportunities available on the career front in an appropriate manner. Though every organization affords near-equal opportunities for its employees, it will not be a level-playing field for you because you have chosen a mediocre mentality. Those who believe in acquiring more and more skills and developing their knowledge will be able to move ahead of you and you will find yourself in an unenviable situation. 

The problem with your mediocre mentality is that if you are a team head, your attitude will deprive your team of great achievements also This is because you will either hesitate to make decisions or even if you dare to, you will perpetually make faulty ones. 

How to dispense with this mentality?

These are some of the disadvantages you are likely to encounter owing to your mediocrity mentality. You should, therefore, try and get rid of it. But you have to remember that you cannot achieve overnight success. By taking small and baby steps and achieving small successes, you can boost your confidence. 

You should remember another fact also. You cannot acquire skills in all the areas. Even if you try your best, there are bound to some areas in which you can never become an expert. In this context, it is better to recall a conversation between Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong-American martial arts instructor and philosopher, and another upcoming martial artist. This upcoming artist told Lee that however hard he tried, he could not lift his legs and use them as effectively as his peers did. To this, Lee replied that it was not necessary to acquire that skill, and instead, the artist could develop those skills in which he was strong.

You should apply the same analogy here and focus on your areas of strength and try to develop your expertise in them. You should not get complacent with average-level skills. You should learn to adroitly sidestep roadblocks along the way. You should work hard to become an expert in your strong areas. This will empower you to a great extent. You will be in a position to leverage your skills for achieving enormous success on the career front as well as in your life.  

  

Can You Get Rich Even If You Are An Employee?

There is a general notion among people that only those who do business can become rich. You may also believe in this notion. But in reality, even those who are employed can become rich. The only point is you have to choose the right industry and work for the right company. You can then take steps for becoming a valuable employee for the company. Once your company starts reposing faith in you as you are a valuable employee, you should look for ways to graduate to the next level which is becoming an invaluable employee. Of course, you should know the industry standards and ensure that you get the remuneration you deserve. Of course, these efforts need your commitment, focus, and time. Let us now find out how should go about the whole process. 

1. Choose the right industry.

In any field, there are big organizations. If you get a chance to work for such companies, you will have ample scope for career growth. But remember that in such organizations, the competition will be very strong. This means you will be competing with other employees who are equally smart and committed, if not more, as you are. You should, therefore, make all possible efforts to stand out. Only then, you can command the remuneration you think you deserve. 

Your field may consist of small entities as well. But you should carefully choose that company that has great potential to grow. Only then, you will have a scope for growth in your career. Of course, in such small companies, you may not enjoy the environment that may be available in big corporations. But there will be less competition in these companies. You can push yourself based on the situations and the resultant responsibilities and prove your worth. Once you earn the respect of the top management of these small companies, you can easily earn very well and accelerate your journey towards riches.

2. How to become an employee who is valued by employers.

Proving yourself as an employee who can be valuable to the company is the next step to get rich. But this is not easy. If your commitment and ambition are sporadic and are not strong, you cannot become such an employee which means you can never get rich. Your salary will increase slowly and maybe in single-digit percentages. If you want to have extraordinary increases in your salary package year after year, you should be an extraordinary employee. There are such employees working in the corporate world and the increases some of these employees get in their salaries go even up to 100%. But how to become such a valued employee is the question. The following tips may help.

a) Work smart and bring out the optimum output by adopting innovative ways.

You should be smart enough to bring out your optimum output for which you should adopt innovative ways. But once you complete your work, do not remain idle. Offer your help to other departments. By doing so, you will be expanding your knowledge. Remember that managers of companies will come to know your cooperative attitude very soon. Experts advise that you can even go out of the way to help the staff working in other departments.

b) Try to complete the most difficult tasks as soon as you begin your day's work.

When you begin your official work in the morning hours, your energy level will be at its peak. Hence, you should complete all the difficult and complex tasks during these hours. Prioritize your tasks based not only on urgency and importance but on difficulty level as well. 

Experts advise that it is better you reach your office about 1 hour earlier than other employees and even your boss. This will help complete your tasks more quickly, easily, and without distractions. In the book "How to Become CEO," the author, Jeffrey J. Fox, says, “Arriving to work late signals you don’t like your job very much. Even if you prefer to come in late and stay late, staying late sends the signal that you can’t keep up or your personal life is poor.” By arriving early to the office and by completing your tasks more quickly, you are signaling to your managers that you are different from your peers. This will pave the way for your quick growth in the company.

c) Adopt an enthusiastic attitude.

You should never be a sourpuss. You may be highly talented but if you are a sourpuss, no one will like or respect you. On the other hand, if you are enthusiastic, everyone will happily mingle with you. Your positive attitude will rub on everyone and so, they will also try to do their best for the company. When the company grows, everyone can grow.

d) It is not wrong to say “Yes."

Never say "no" to your boss. Only then, he or she will support you and laud you for your efforts. If you are in the habit of saying "no" or arguing with your boss, you are either irritating him or her or putting spokes in his or her efforts. How can you then expect his or her support? Even if your boss asks you to do an extra task, you should readily take it up.

3) Never hesitate to make your accomplishments known to everyone in the company.

Don't be timid and keep your accomplishments within your bosom. Let them be known to the whole world. This is not boasting but it is self-promotion. But at the same time, guard against bragging. 

3. Graduating from the level of a valuable employee to the level of an employee who is invaluable to the company.

Of course, as an employee whom the managers value highly, you may be getting good salaries. But if you graduate to the next level, the company will never like to lose you. But how can you graduate to that level?

a) If you help your company increase its profits manifold, you will become one of its invaluable employees. There may be only a few like you. So, there may not be much competition for you. You can demand the compensation you think you deserve. In fact, the management itself will readily offer you hefty remuneration. 

By helping in the company's efforts to bring out new products or to improve their existing products, you can increase their profits. You can also come out with viable ideas and suggestions for reducing the costs as well. Similarly, you can give suggestions for marketing the products more effectively. 

Once you become such an invaluable employee of the company, the managers will not want to lose you. They will be ready to offer the best remuneration package as well. This will ultimately help you become rich. 

The Head-Start You Do Not Know You Possess for Your Career Growth

Imagine a scenario. You and another colleague of yours are holding important positions in your company and the rank of both the positions is the same. Suddenly, there is a chance for a promotion for both of you because the person holding that position has resigned. The management has to make a choice now between you and your colleague. How will they decide? Let us find out.

You:

You have all the qualifications required for the position. You have experience as well. You have been winning accolades for the good work you have been able to do. 

Your colleague:

Your colleague is more qualified than you are. He has as much experience in the field as you have. Thanks to the inputs he has been giving the company, the management has been lavish in extending additional perks to him.

The question now is: Who will get the coveted promotion? Before answering this question, let us find out what Phyllis Schneider has to say. In an article entitled "Career Charisma," that he wrote in a magazine called "Working Woman," he said, "The real winners in business and in life, the women and men who are tapped for golden career opportunities, have something extra.

The people with charmed careers have a way of looking at the world that takes top management feel they can do almost any job superbly, that imbues everybody with whom they work with a kind of enthusiastic, winning spirit. Their success is as much a matter of attitude as of hard work and talent. They are optimists. That optimism is astonishingly powerful, and it can be cultivated.

...................The optimist almost invariably has an edge over less enthusiastic colleagues."

In short, if you have an optimistic mindset, you can certainly be confident that the management will choose you for the promotion. So, pause for a moment, and check if you are an optimist or not. If you are not, don't lose heart. You can cultivate this attitude, and once you master it, you can be confident of your career growth.

Engaging employees, the best way to grow your business

Organizations vie with each other for hiring the best minds and so, they invade top colleges, universities and institutions. But do these hires stay long in the organizations? The fact is a large number of these recruits stay in the organizations for a short duration and start hopping jobs. This means the job of the HR division does not stop with just hiring. They must take all possible steps for retaining thesetalents.

Employees nowadays focus on various other factors also in addition to getting hefty paychecks. Let us have a look.

1. Career path that is well defined

If employees know that there is ample room for growth and that the management will facilitate such a growth, they will be more loyal to the organization. They will genuinely engage in the steps taken by the company to grow. Therefore, the management should put in place a clear-cut development plan for the career growth of employees. When employees feel that their skills and work are valued, they will feel empowered. They will also work hard to deserve the careerdevelopment.

2. Keeping the employees motivated and engaged

Unless the management team takes steps to keep the employees motivated and engaged, they cannot achieve their business objectives. Engaged employees will be enthusiastic in doing their work and so, their productivity will be very good. They may not hesitate to travel the extra distance for helping the organization grow. This means organizations should put in place the best practices for engaging the employees. But unfortunately, most of the companies focus only on the measuring the performance of employees rather than adopting the best practices for engaging employees.

3. Work-life balance

Employers should help employees have a proper work-life balance. Of course, job demands are increasing and so are personal goals. Due to this, employees may tend to over-work. This is certain to lead to fatigue and therefore, instead of coming out with increased productivity, their performance will dip. Hence, employers should encourage employees to adopt suitable time management techniques. They should also encourage them to pursue activities or hobbies in which they are interested. But at the same time, these activities should not be allowed to hamper their working. 

Not only that, employees should be encouraged to do suitable cardio exercises so they can get a good supply of oxygen. This will help them overcome their fatigue. Employers should also encourage employees for setting what is known as "Me-Time" so they can spend quality time with their family or for following their passion.

4. Recognition

Bosses in general do not miss chances to find fault with employees or to point out when the performance of an employee dips. But many bosses fail to appreciate when an employee does a good job. If employees are appreciated for their performance, they will get motivated. This will give a boost to their confidence and they will willingly engage themselves in the efforts of the management in uplifting the company.

5. Collaboration and accessibility

In many organizations, the top management remains "invisible." In other words, employees may not be able to access them. If employees are allowed to collaborate with the top managers, their trust in the system will improve.  

6. Fair reviews

Reviews should be fair which means that they should be objective. Employers can think of having a committee for reviewing the performance of employees so subjectivity and bias are greatly reduced in the reviewing process. In fact, reviews should be key milestones in the career of an employee. The focus should be on the key achievements made by the employee, her strengths as well as development areas. A lot of scope should be made available for discussion at the time of reviewing.

In short, employees' loyalty goes beyond paychecks. Employers should therefore figure out how to engage employees so they will actively participate in the process of the growth of the company.