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BuddyViews
ezine 4 self development & managerial development |
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January, 2012. |
Chief Editor:
Khawaja Aamir Majeed |
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Quote
of the Month |
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It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
Muhammad Ali |
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Joke
of the Month |
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A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, ''Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I
don't know where I am.
The woman below replied, ''You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.''
''You must be an engineer,'' said the balloonist. ''Iam,'' replied the woman,
''How did you know?''
''Well,'' answered the balloonist, ''everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything,you've delayed my trip.''
The woman below responded, ''You must be in Management.'' ''I am,'' replied the balloonist, ''but how did you know?''
''Well,'' said the woman, ''you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.
You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same
position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault.'' |
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Story of the stone cutter.
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There was once a stone cutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.
One day he passed a wealthy merchant`s house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors. ``How powerful that merchant must be!`` thought the stone cutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.
To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined, but envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. Soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the procession. ``How powerful that official is!`` he thought. ``I wish that I could be a high official!``
Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around. It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence. ``How powerful the sun is!`` he thought. ``I wish that I could be the sun!``
Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on everyone, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and laborers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. ``How powerful that storm cloud is!`` he thought. ``I wish that I could be a cloud!``
Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. ``How powerful it is!`` he thought. ``I wish that I could be the wind!``
Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, feared and hated by all below him. But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it - a huge, towering rock. ``How powerful that rock is!`` he thought. ``I wish that I could be a rock!``
Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. ``What could be more powerful than I, the rock?`` he thought.
He looked down and to his great surprise saw far below him a stone cutter cutting the rock. |
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Building Successful Teams: 5 Ways to Generate Opportunities for Success
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By Tyrone Holmes
As a leader, it is your job to create the most favorable conditions for team success. This includes removing barriers to achievement, helping staff deal with work problems, and acquiring the resources needed to be successful. Here are 5 ways to enhance performance and generate opportunities for success:
1. Obtain the resources the team needs to achieve success. To function effectively, your team will need human, financial, information and physical resources. As the leader, you must procure these assets. While this is often a challenging task, you can make the process easier by answering the following questions:
• What are our primary goals for the next year?
• What steps will we take to achieve each goal?
• What resources are needed to carry out each step?
• What barriers will we encounter during the resource acquisition process?
• How can we overcome these barriers?
2. Recruit members that can help the team achieve success. Another important leadership duty is the recruitment and retention of high quality team members. A team cannot perform at a high level without the right combination of skills, personalities and experience. Answer the following questions to ensure the success of your recruiting efforts:
• What positions do we need to fill?
• What can we offer potential candidates (e.g., salary, benefits, educational opportunities, job flexibility)?
• Can we differentiate ourselves from the competition to gain a competitive advantage?
• Who are we trying to hire and where can we find these candidates?
• How will we let potential candidates know about our job openings and encourage them to apply?
3. Retain members that can help the team achieve success. Once you have a productive team in place, you want to keep your high performing team members. To reduce turnover, it is important to understand how employees make decisions about joining and leaving an organization. Specifically, there are seven factors that people consider when they are deciding whether to accept a particular job offer or stay within a particular organization. These include job location, salary and benefits, organizational prestige, professional development and advancement opportunities, flexibility, organizational support and the work itself. Organizations that do a good job of managing these factors are more likely to keep top performers.
4. Remove organizational barriers that can impede the success of your team. Even when you have a highly productive team, unexpected roadblocks will occasionally hinder your progress. This will not be a major issue if you do a good job of identifying the barrier and dealing with it in a timely fashion. You can do this by determining the specific cause of the problem, and working with team members to identify potential solutions. Make sure you include people who have the power to remove the barrier.
5. Identify and address the most difficult issues you face as a team. All teams face problems that must be addressed in a timely fashion. You can improve the problem-solving process through brainstorming, which is a relatively unstructured small group discussion technique that helps team members identify issues in a proactive manner. You can facilitate team brainstorming sessions by selecting an open-ended question such as, ``What is the most significant problem we will have in the next 6 months?`` Have team members offer as many ideas as possible and record each response on a flip chart. Participants should continue to build on each other`s ideas and identify areas of consensus. By using brainstorming in this fashion, you can identify issues before they become a significant problem.
Dr. Holmes provides Business Coaching for speakers, coaches, consultants, trainers, facilitators and other entrepreneurs. Visit http://www.holmesfitness.com/business_coaching.htm to sign-up for a FREE coaching session, and to access resources that will help you achieve your goals.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tyrone_Holmes |
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People are always blaming their circumstances.
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George Bernard Shaw said, ``People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don`t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can`t find them, they make them.``
Well, it`s pretty apparent, isn`t it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.
Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn`t know where he`s going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I`ll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some land, and it`s good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn`t care. It`s up to the farmer to make the decision.
We`re comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn`t care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn`t care what you plant.
Now, let`s say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.
``As ye sow, so shall ye reap.``
Remember the land doesn`t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn`t care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.
You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.
An Excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale
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| The Secrets of Star Performers |
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| The Magic of Teamwork |
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| HNW Selling Skills |
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Contents. |
- Quote of the month.
- Joke of the month.
- Story of the stone cutter.
- Building successful teams.
- People are always blaming their circumstances.
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