Productivity Level at the Workplace and a Modicum of Common Sense

Though you may wish that you should achieve quick growth in your career, there is another aspect that you cannot afford to ignore. That is you should see whether you are getting satisfaction from what you are doing. In fact, experts opine that if you are able to complete your tasks on time and without making any compromise on the quality of your output, that itself will provide you with unparalleled job satisfaction. But how to complete quality tasks on time? In management parlance, completing quality tasks on time is known as increasing your productivity level. There are a few steps that you can adopt for this. Though you may dread bombastic and high-sounding words such as productivity, output, efficiency, and so on, the steps to achieve these goals are quite simple.

Unfortunately, the top brass of several companies seems to be fond of fancy terms such as "productivity-linked bonus," "productivity-linked promotion," etc. But these terms have a tendency to become subjective because they can easily be tweaked to suit some of the managers of these companies and those employees who have the backing and patronage of those managers. A classic example is that a few years back, the CEO of a big company recommended a lower-level executive for promotion to a high position just because this executive made it a point to go to the airport every time the CEO visited his city. He even carried the luggage and other items of the CEO and saw to it that they were loaded properly in the car.

Now, what are the simple steps you can adopt for bringing about a huge difference to your productivity level? Let us find out.

1. Start with making lists of your daily tasks. 

If you are not in the habit of making the to-do lists of your daily tasks, you should begin this forthwith. This will help you in ensuring that you do not forget your tasks. Unfortunately, your mind is exposed to various types of distractions and hence, you may forget some of the important tasks. By applying your mind and preparing a to-do list, you can avoid such lapses. 

2. Review your to-do lists once every three weeks. 

Once every three weeks, take out all the to-do lists of those three weeks and review them thoroughly. This will help you in finding out the number of tasks you could not complete during the period. You should especially focus on two types of tasks. The first type is the high-priority tasks you could not take up at all. The second one is those tasks that you could not complete on time.

It is imperative that you take the above two steps so that you can identify your problem areas. Once you identify these weak areas, it will be easy for you to take corrective action and strengthen your productivity quotient. 

Now, what steps can you take if you find that the number of tasks you are not able to complete is alarmingly high?

1. You can work for more number of hours and complete the tasks.

2. You can try and learn more efficient ways of doing your tasks.

3. Thirdly, you can decide to take up fewer tasks.

Though most of the folks including you may choose the second option, you should explore the possibility of embracing the third option as well. This means that you should learn to delegate some of your tasks to your subordinates, peers, or colleagues. If you think that you and you alone should do every task, you will continue to struggle and your productivity will never improve.

Further, if you are falling behind the schedule while trying to complete important tasks, your reputation will get a beating. One of the best ideas is to accord top priority to such important tasks and complete them during the morning hours when your energy levels are at the peak. There will be fewer distractions during those hours. In fact, your confidence will get a boost also since you may have completed very important tasks before the drudgery of your routine tasks starts swallowing your day.

In fact, you should be ready with the list for the next day before you retire for bed every day. While preparing the list and the time schedule for each of the tasks, you should ensure that you allot a realistic duration for completing them. You should provide sufficient cushion for unexpected distractions, interruptions, and emergencies as well. Very importantly, if you take up similar tasks together, you will find it easy to complete them. 

To summarize, achieving good productivity level requires a little common sense. The only point is that you should apply your mind and keep innovating judicious ways of carrying out your tasks. 

Can You Consistently Come out with High Performance at Your Workplace?

As an employee, you may wish to be in the good books of your employer. Therefore, you may aim to consistently perform very well. But is it possible to consistently come out with high performance at your workplace? If you have such a doubt in your mind, you should know what experts advise. According to experts, the secret of coming out with high performance is to have fun while carrying out your official tasks. 

But how can you have fun while doing your official work? As every person is unique, the ways of having fun while doing official work will differ from one employee to another. This means that you have to learn the ways yourself. In fact, no institution or university including business schools of repute will teach you this secret. As Jim Rohn said, "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." 

One of the basic points that can make you happy at your work is when you complete your tasks on time. On the contrary, if you do not complete your work on time, it will make you unhappy. Of course, there may be different reasons that may have contributed to delays in the completion of the tasks. You may not like the tasks and therefore, you are finding some alibi or the other for procrastinating them. Or, there may be distractions that may be robbing your focus towards the tasks. There may be several factors that may cause a delay in the completion of the tasks. 

But how to eliminate such factors and complete your tasks on time?

Now that you have understood that it is the delays in the completion of your tasks that cause unhappiness to you, you may be wondering as to how to surmount this issue. The best way to eliminate this problem is to FIX DEADLINES. This means that you should fix a deadline for every task you take up. Remember that no one is imposing these deadlines. It is you that is imposing such deadlines and you are imposing them for yourself.

An expert has rightly named delays as "tyrannosaurs." Delays not only spoil your reputation but will cause anxiety as well. Therefore, you can not enjoy your work. This will ultimately derail your aim of coming out with high performance on a consistent basis. Of course, you should not compromise on the quality of your work just because you want to avoid delays. 

Since these deadlines are self-imposed, you will avoid distractions from over-powering you. 

Multi-tasking is a killer of high performance

A few years back, people used to laud multi-taskers. But science has proved beyond doubt that multi-tasking kills high performance because it is also a distractor. In fact, it has been proved that people need at least 20 to 30 minutes to get back the required focus after a phase of distraction, however short the duration of the distraction may be. Therefore, avoid multitasking at all costs.  

If you follow these steps, you can consistently come out with a high performance at your workplace.

Are You Not Happy in Your Job? No Worries. Here Is a Solution

A number of employees seem to feel that they are getting their salary for being unhappy. To put it in plain language, they are not happy with their job. They begin their day by 6 or 7 AM and get ready for the so-called 9 to 5 grind. But this 9 to 5 official day is certainly a false statement because the official day of many of these employees starts much before 9 AM and ends much later than 5 PM. This means there is every reason these employees hate their job. But what is the remedy to come out of this rut?

In this context, the findings of a study are worth considering. The study says that on average, a child laughs 300 times during a day. On the contrary, an adult laughs only five times daily. But these unhappy employees may not laugh at all. Some of them may have forgotten to laugh also.

But is quitting the job the solution? You may feel scared even to think of taking this step. But you may not know that it is blissful not to have any job. 

The case of these employees reminds us of an anecdote told by Anthony DeMello, who is considered a spiritual author and mystic.

There was a trader who was selling camels and he was walking across the Desert of Sahara along with his slaves. When there was night, the group decided to stay at a particular place. The slaves had just nineteen pegs but there were 20 camels with them. When they asked their master, he asked them to just act as if they were tying the 20th camel also and told that the camel would stay put.

The next morning, when it was time to move, the slaves untied the camels and all the animals except the 20th camel started moving. In fact, the 20th camel refused to move even an inch from its place. When the slaves asked the master, he reminded them that they had to act as if they were untying the camel. Only then, the animal would move. They carried out this instruction and the 20th camel also started walking.  

 

Most of the employees think that if they quit their job, the decision will ruin their life. They cannot pay their bills and run their families. It is true they need money. Without money, they cannot live. But how to beat the monotony and eliminate the unhappiness from their lives? Here is a suggestion.

The suggestion is: HAVE A PASSION PROJECT.

If you have such a passion project and make it a point to pursue it daily either before heading to your workplace or after coming back, it will provide you the much-needed happiness. By taking every step related to this project, you will feel as if you have achieved something. Most importantly, it will save you from the burn-out you may be experiencing due to doing official tasks you hate the most. 

Experts have found out that such passion projects will improve your productivity at the workplace as well. 

Some of the examples of such passion projects are reading, skiing, hiking, painting, learning dancing, or music, or playing poker or bridge, In fact,  it can be anything. The best thing about such a passion project is that you will not feel any pressure in it. You need not prove yourself also. But it can do a world of good to you by destressing you and by helping you remain happy.  

This Secret Can Get You Big Success in Your Career

There are a number of employees who lament that they are not getting the recognition they deserve at their workplace. This means that they are not getting the success they want to achieve. They feel that they have stagnated, that the management does not give them the promotions they think are due to them, and that they are not getting the salary increases they have anticipated. If you belong to this group, it is high time you learn the secret that can get you big success in your career. Let us find out what this secret is.

But before we discuss this secret, it is imperative that you must work on a very important suggestion. The suggestion is that you must honestly evaluate your skills. The following checklist will help you do the evaluation effectively.

1. Are your skills relevant to the field in which you are working?

2. With your existing skills, can you make at least one huge promise to your managers? If you can, can you ensure to fulfill the promise? Of course, the promise should pertain to the growth of the company.

3. Do you feel that your skills are so compelling that the managers will think twice before losing your services?

4. Do you really think that your skills will benefit the company?

5. With your current level of knowledge, are you able to grasp the vision of your company? If you can, how do you propose to help the company achieve the vision?

6. If you were the manager, will you hire a candidate with the same level of skills that you currently possess?

The above checklist will help you in assessing your skills honestly.

Once you complete the evaluation process, you should go to the next step of taking action to fill up the lacunae, if any, in your skills. In fact, you have to be very aggressive in your approach. There should be no compromise because there is strong competition in the job market. Unless you keep updating your skills on a constant basis, you can not be confident of achieving huge success in your career. 

Let us now assume that you adopt an aggressive approach and acquire all the required skills that can help your company achieve its vision. What is the next step or what is the secret that can get you huge success in your career?

Be a great communicator.

Now that you have acquired all the required skills and you are ready to keep updating them, you should communicate to the management that you possess the skills they expect you to have. But how should you communicate? Experts advise that you should "show" them your skills. Mere words will not suffice. Even if you shout from the rooftops, nobody is going to believe you. You should prove your skills and only then, they will believe that you possess them. 

It is not necessary that there should be special or crisis situations to show that you possess the skills the management expects you to have. Even day-to-day tasks are enough for proving the skills. Experts suggest that you should delve deep into every task you are entrusted with so that you can find out how more efficiently you can carry out the task. Remember that there can be more than one way to do a task. You should find out the best, smartest, and the most cost-effective way and carry it out. If you understand and follow this suggestion scrupulously, you can certainly achieve a big success in your career. 

What Should Employers Do to Retain Competent Employees

In the present-day context, employee attrition has become a major problem. Companies are finding it difficult to retain their employees. Especially, when employees, who belong to the creamy layer and who have demonstrated and proved their competence, quit a company, it may be a huge set-back for the company. They may find it difficult to recruit a suitable replacement. 

Companies should realize that this problem can worsen because the number of employees who are hopping jobs is on the increase. This also means that companies should take suitable measures for retaining competent employees. One of the vital measures they must take is to help these employees in their career growth efforts. Let us see how they can do this.

1. Increased monetary benefits may not help always 

As an employer, you must understand that increased remuneration alone will not prevent employees from quitting. Nowadays, many employees want to learn and grow. A study reveals that 75% of those employees who are enthusiastic about their career growth look for learning opportunities. The only caveat is they want to learn at their own pace.

If you do not make such opportunities available to them, they may be reluctant to engage themselves fully in your company's affairs. If this disenchantment is allowed to grow, they may decide to quit your company soon. So, you should constantly keep reviewing the learning opportunities available in your company so these employees will understand that you value their aspirations and are ready to help them in achieving their goals. 

2. Creating a two-way path

Many organizations commit the mistake of discussing the career goals of their employees only when the annual ritual of reviewing their performance is conducted. In fact, many employers do not discuss the career goals of their employees at all but they just assess their performance during these annual sessions. In other words, employers are oblivious of the fact that circumstances keep changing constantly and not just once a year. This means the goals of the employees may also undergo changes often. That is the reason you, as an employer, should create a two-way path so you can have ongoing discussions with your employees. Such an ongoing arrangement for communication will help you keep track of their career goals and also in checking their progress.

You must also guide your employees suitably so their career goals are in complete synergy with the goals of the company. This means when an employee achieves his career goal, your company will benefit also. 

3. Be ready to invest in inclusive and holistic development

This means you must not only help in the professional development of your employees but in their personal development as well. For example, some of your employees may be interested in reading and updating their knowledge. You can create a budget for setting up a library so you can fulfill the desire of such employees. Similarly, there may be employees who may be interested in fitness and so, you can put in place a well-equipped gym for fulfilling their desire. This approach may also help in retaining employees.

4. Recognize and motivate

Never fail to acknowledge and recognize the unique achievements of your employees. Remember that no achievement is trivial. Recognition at the workplace will go a long way in motivating them. Apart from appreciating them verbally, you must make it a point to offer perks they are interested in.

When employees realize that you are interested in helping them grow intheir career, they may willingly stay with your company for a long, long time.

Create a fun environment at the workplace to increase productivity

In the present-day context, we allow our official life to dominate our personal space and this takes a toll on our health. Especially, work-related drudgery can wreck a havoc. So, it has become imperative that we have to find out ways to increase our efficiency and productivity so we bestow enough attention on our personal life as well. Studies have clearly revealed that if we have a fun environment at our workplace, our productivity will go several notches up.


In other words, we should willingly go to our workplace. Only if the ambiance in the office is fun, we will be eager to go to office. Otherwise, we may try to find some reason or the other to escape from the workplace ambiance.


It is unfortunate that even some of the so-called great business leaders do not accept the fact that fun environment in the office will improve the productivity of the employees. These leaders have a notion that people will naturally and automatically enjoy the workplace.  Especially, most of the HR managers wrongly believe that by creating a fun environment in the office, companies will be draining their limited financial resources.


These HR managers also think that such an environment may make the employees lax and the employees may break the basic rules that govern etiquette or may cross the thin line that separates decency and vulgarity.


But HR people will do well if they realize that if employees are suitably trained to use the fun environment of the office wisely, they will certainly enjoy their work and will be more productive. HR folks can bring out a drill that defines what fun is. They should put in place clear rules stating that employees should not make fun of other employees or the managers, they should not indulge in sarcasm and make demeaning comments about others, etc. In short, HR managers should make it clear to employees that efficiency does not lie in tiring oneself while working.


The role of humor in creating a fun environment at the workplace


Humor can do a world of good by easing the stress at the workplace. But not everyone can speak wittily but almost everyone may be able to participate and enjoy humorous situations. Such situations at the workplace can create a bond among employees. This will go a long way in helping the employees in working together to achieve the goals of the company. But again, people should be careful not to be sarcastic and not to pass demeaning comments about others.


Some of the ideas to create a fun environment at the workplace are:


1. Conducting events periodically for helping employees to showcase their talents in various spheres.
2. In the United Kingdom, companies conduct what are known as the "mobile phone throwing" contests. The person who throws his or her mobile phone to the farthest point wins the first prize.
3. "Office-chair race" is quite popular in Singapore companies.
4. Similarly, Polish companies use the "suggestion box" for generating innovative ideas from employees. The employee who comes out with the best idea is rewarded
5. Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart, was ready to wear a hula skirt and go dancing down the street when the challenges he set were met by his employees.


In short, if employees work in a stress-free environment, it will certainly lead to greater productivity. As Joe Neulinger who authored "The Psychology of Leisure" puts it, "Those not interested in doing anything but work are not likely to be CEOs."

Road to Your Career Success

Many people find themselves at career crossroads and there may be a number of reasons for this. They may not be getting as much income as they used to get, they may not like the repetitive work they are doing and so on. So, they have reached a point in their career where they need to make changes. 

If you are one among this group, you should recall what you planned to become when you were young. Of course, things might not have happened as you wished but you should not have regrets because you may have learned many things in your career path. But since you need to make a change, you can use the following tips so you can be on the right road that may take you to success.

1. It was Jack Sparrow who said that whatever plans you had made about your career were sheer guidelines and were not rules. This means you need not bind yourself to a single path in your life. You can change it any time. If you had all along been a technical person, you can now plan to write fictions. Similarly, if you have been a teacher till now, you can now become an artist. Never forget that Winston Churchill, the shrewd politician, got his Nobel Prize for Literature.

2. Experts advise that mentors can be invaluable in putting you in the right career path. This suggestion holds good regardless of the age at which you decide to change your career. Mentors can help you with new ideas. They will help you look at things with a new perspective so you may decide to develop a few new skills. They may help you in overcoming your weaknesses and developing your strengths.

Mentors can be of great value even if you are doing your business. They can help you in the growth of your business by improving your leadership qualities. You can use such mentors for coaching your managers and improving the morale of your staff so they will love to work in your company.

3. When you change your career, you must first learn to like what you intend to do. You are not asked to LOVE your job but you should at least LIKE your job. Not everyone may get a job that they love. Even those who get the job they love may not like the environment in which they have to work and this may ultimately result in loss of interest in the job.

Be a realist because you will be spending long hours in your workplace. You can not spend such long hours by doing a thing you do not like. Of course, you may have bad days but that does not mean you should not make efforts for liking your job.

Here is a simple formula and this has been suggested by Dale Carnegie in his book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living." If you use this formula, you can make even a dull and boring job interesting. The formula goes like this: If you do the work and imagine that you like it, you will then start liking it at least to a certain extent. This "act-as-if" principle will tend to convert your imaginary liking into reality very soon. You can delve deep and find out the ways to make your work interesting also.

4. Take action for seeing the change. Change your attitude and approach because this is the first step to succeed. In her famous book entitled "Eat Pray Love", Elizabeth Gilbert elaborates this with a short Italian joke. "A poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging, 'Dear saint - please, please, please... give me the grace to win the lottery." This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust, "My son - please, please, please... buy a ticket."

So, take the required steps for making the change you want. Sometimes, you may need to put in extra efforts but you should not hesitate. This means if you want a change, you should change yourself.

Are You Popular In Your Workplace?

You may be wondering how some of your co-workers are highly popular and some are not. You may also wonder how you can become one among the former group because those who belong to this group may get better opportunities as well as more recognition. You may justifiably think that you can also get such opportunities if you make efforts and become popular in your workplace. But what are the steps you should take for achieving this aim?

Make an honest assessment of yourself

Spend some time and make an honest assessment of yourself. This is for finding if you are putting enough thought or making adequate efforts for developing a strong rapport with everyone in your company. If you develop a good relationship with those around you including the other members of your team, those in the other departments and even seniors, this will culminate into mutual liking, trust and mutual respect. So, those people will not hesitate to share information with you. If you develop the same type of relationship with the clients or customers of your company, they are more likely to place orders for the products you offer or the services you render. They may even do 'word-of-mouth' publicity for your company thus helping even in the brand-building efforts of the organization. 

Develop interpersonal skills

If you do not focus on this aspect, it may pull you down in the organization at both professional and personal levels. The most important step you must take for developing your interpersonal skills is to stop being mean. It is a known fact that people do not like mean folks because they consider them as nasty. 

Secondly, understand that everyone deserves respect, regardless of their position in the organization. So, show respect in whatever dealings you have with others. If you are courteous to your co-workers, subordinates, service providers and customers or clients, they will start liking your welcoming demeanour. This also means that you will remain approachable as well as beckoning. According to experts, this type of behavior will never go out of fashion.

Know where your territory ends

Being friendly with everyone doesn't mean that you will intrude into their privacy or allow them to use all your space. There is nothing wrong in being assertive about this aspect. Know where your territory ends and make sure that others understand where your boundaries begin. This will help in having a durable and sustainable relationship.

Humour and its efficacy

If you are able to make others laugh, you can win their hearts. But refrain from being offensive or sadistic. You can build strong relations only with light-hearted humour that can tickle the funny bones of people.

Allow people to talk about themselves

There are a number of people who have the habit of always talking about themselves, their accomplishments and achievements, the problems they face and so on. The only way to develop a good rapport with these people is to allow them to talk. But you should be sincere in listening to them lest should you be found soon.

Pay attention when people talk

If you do not pay attention when people talk, you can never succeed in developing good relations with them. You may have noticed that good listeners are more liked than chatty individuals. 

Smile, smile, smile

Flash your smile at every opportunity. Some people may think that they do not look good when they smile or laugh. But experts are of the strong opinion that you should smile or laugh whatever your looks may be or however ugly you think you are. After all, smiling and laughing belong to the heart whereas beauty and appearance are only skin deep. Remember, no one will like to keep company with negative, sulking and whiny folks. On the other hand, if you smile or laugh, you will transform the whole ambiance because the mood is contagious. 

Be sincere while giving compliments

People like to be complimented but when you do so, you should be sincere because they may soon find out that you are faking. 

Find out the commonalities between you and others and work on them

There may be commonalities like beliefs, interests or hobbies between you and others. You should find them out and work on them to develop relations with them.

Never succumb to the temptation of gossip-mongering

Speaking behind people is a dangerous habit and it will soon turn even friends into foes. Apart from showing you in negative light, this habit will never take you towards your aim of establishing a strong connect with people.

Accept people as they are

Everyone has both positive and negative traits. Some people may have eccentricities also. In fact, everyone of us exhibit our eccentric side some time or the other. You should accept people as they are. Never force your habits, thoughts or ideas on to others. If you stop judging people with the parameters you have defined or set on your own, you will find it comfortable to connect with everyone. In turn, they will also feel comfortable in your presence.

Military Concepts That Will Help Your Company

Your workplace is certainly not a war field and hence, you may wonder how military concepts will help your company. It is not  that you are advised to wear combat boots and military fatigue to fight enemies in your office. But some of the concepts that are being followed in training army-men may be highly useful for achieving success in your business endeavors. In fact, several corporates have started adopting these warfare concepts to derive great benefits.

A company resembles a war-zone in many ways. Uncertainties are a part of a business as they are in a war-zone. As soldiers are suitably trained to deal with uncertainties, you and your employees should also be equipped with plans for dealing with such situations. This concept is known as VUCA that is the acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

If your company is VUCA-hit, you must take the required lessons from the models of training that are designed for army units that face an imminent war. 

Another military concept that can help your organization is the OODA loop. This concept can provide you with an upper hand when you face extreme competition. This concept is the brain-child of John Boyd, the famous military strategist as well as fighter-pilot of the US. According to him, "every action flows in a loop" that consists of stages like "observation, orientation, decision and action (OODA)."

This means you should observe quickly, orient yourself also quickly, make a fast decision and act immediately. Almost all challenging situations may warrant that you take such urgent steps. When you act with such a swiftness, your opponents will be put on the back-foot and in a state of shock and confusion, they are likely to commit mistakes.

But there are experts who advise that you should be choosy while using military concepts for your organization which means you should choose the most appropriate ones that suit your company and business. Wrong choices may land you in trouble because you may be committing costly mistakes.