Minggu, 27 Desember 2009

2009 Wind Down Of Enhance Life

Every year, during the last week of December, I have something similar to the Oscars on EnhanceLife, with one minor exception. You don't need to be a Hollywood celebrity or wear a glamorous outfit to attend!

Here goes..

Leave a comment and make your vote count!

And before you leave your seats...
I want to thank all of you who visit Enhance Life and have supported me throughout the year. I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with much happiness, good health and prosperity.

Related Posts

Jumat, 18 Desember 2009

Goals Begin Behaviors. Consequences Maintain Behaviors

Note: A colleague of mine shared with me via email. I thought that this would be useful to you, thus decided to make it a post on EnhanceLife

"Once there was a bright young man who was looking for an effective manger. He wanted to work for one. He wanted to become one. His search had taken him over many years to the far corners of the world." Finally he met the One minute Manager who shared the secrets of "one minute management". He was neither autocratic nor democratic; neither tough nor nurturing. He taught three secrets of the one minute management to the young person. We also going to learn them.

"People who feel good about themselves produce good results"

Secret #1 : One minute Goal Setting


The first secret of the three is "One minute Goal Setting". It is about making sure that we know what good performance is. One minute manager sets each goal and its performance standards with his subordinates in a paper with less than 250 words, something can be read in less than one minute. Once a while people can spend a minute and read the goal and see whether the behavior matches the goal. We certainly have this in our OPM process.

Goal setting is so important so that the people can feel that they are achieving. When you go for bowling and if there are no pins standing, would you ever roll the ball? When there are pins but if they are covered with a paper screen, you would try rolling and might hear some sounds which makes you happy. But you would not enjoy the game much. So the manager responsibility is to make the pins visible and then there is no doubt that the people will enjoy the work.

Secret #2 : One Minute Praising


"Help People to Reach Their Full Potential. Catch Them Doing Something Right"

Most often manages catch people when they do something wrong. They are watching behind the paper screen so that they can see the pins well. They would say that you missed eight pins instead of telling that you hit two. The second secret of one minute management is "One Minute Praising". People should told right from the start that you are going to let them know how they are doing. Once a good work done people should be praised immediately and it should be specifically about the particular work and not a general praise. Just spend only one minute for this. Tell them how good you feel and let them feel it and encourage them to do more of the same.

Secret #3 : One minute Reprimand


"We are not just our behavior. We are the person managing our behavior"

The third secret of the one minute manager is "One minute Reprimand". Sometimes really bad things happen and then, you need to go for one minute reprimand. As in the previous secret your should do this immediately. Divide your minute into two. In the first 30 second, tell what went wrong and tell how you feel about it and let them also feel it. During the second half you should remind them how valuable they are to you and to the organization. Reaffirm that you condemn the behavior but you value the person because the person is not just the behavior. Finally agree not to repeat the same.

"The best minute you spend is the one you invest in people"

"Everyone is a potential winner. Some People are disguised as losers, Don't let their appearances fool you"

The most important lesson we can learn from this book is,

"Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behaviors."

Finally our young guy became an effective manager by learning and practicing the above secrets and came up with a new principal.


Related Posts

Selasa, 01 Desember 2009

7 Reasons Why Things Don’t Get Done

Reasons Why Things Don’t Get Done
It’s been almost a month since I last wrote a post on Enhance Life. This is by far the longest period I have gone an post update! Truth be told, I had several unfinished drafts that needed a bit of tweaking before I could publish them. But for some reason, I just couldn’t focus or feel passionate about the topics I had previously written. This resulted in me having to write a post from scratch, which took more time than I imagined!

And that’s where the title of this post stems from. I’ve read a lot about “how to get things done” and improve productivity. But despite all that well meant advice, sometimes, you just don’t get things done! So today, I thought of exploring a couple of reasons, why we don’t see the results we want at the end of the day.

1. No clear goals

Without a specific sense of purpose, it’s impossible to effectively manage and organize your priorities. If you don’t have a clear idea of where you want to go, any road will take you there!

2. Lack of priorities

The best to do list ever written is useless if it hasn’t been prioritized. Most people naturally work on the easy or fun things first. They may cross off majority of their list, but miss the most important items.

3. No daily plan

Beginning your day without a plan of action is a formula for spending all day doing the wrong things. It invites anyone and everyone to interrupt your activities. You will passively allow unwelcome intrusions, because you’ll have no way to defend yourself.

4. Procrastination

It sometimes seems like a good idea to put things off for tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day. But it catches up with you!

5. Personal disorganization

No matter how organized your priorities are or how effective your daily plan is, you may be losing irretrievable time searching for things that are lost in the messes on your desk, in your files, closets and even your car!

6. Perfectionism

Are you unable to complete and release an… until its perfectly done?
Can you still see ways for something to be done better? Even if you can’t see anything, does it nag you that there must be something you overlooked?

7. Interruptions

Your day can be going according to schedule until a friend drops in or a game of warcraft commences. May of these occurrences can be eliminated, those that can’t, MUST be controlled.

Related Posts

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...