Gain the competitive edge at work

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Mistakes are good, too!

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Wading through testing times

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Understanding the importance of Ethics

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Do what you love to do

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To change or not to change

While most of us are able to recognize the right time to quit our jobs and move on to a new job, there are many questions that disturb us and keep haunting even after we start working in the new job. People often wish there was a checklist that will help them or a quitto-meter that tells that time is ripe to make the next move. While we leave these new gadgets to be developed by psychological experts, here are some pointers that will help you find out if you made the right decision.

Identify your state of mind. You think that it is clear in your mind that you are not happy with your current job or that you are too happy with your current job. But, there is something more that you need to do to know your state of mind. Indeed, there are some subtractions that you need to make to your inference.

First, subtract the industry trend from your state of mind. Even if there is recession and your industry is likely to collapse, you might survive if you are happy with your job and you do well as an expert. Or, things might pick up. Understand that it would be more difficult to establish yourself in a new industry.

Second, remove inferences and others' opinions. An uncle from England might suddenly criticize your choice of job or the company. Or, a friend might brag about his company and extra perks it offers. While some of them do it with a very good intention, it might not always be to your advantage if you base your decision on their expertise. Take into consideration all the factors that make up your current job - your comfort zone, your skill set, and your personal and financial status and requirements. Assess your happiness with respect to all these factors and estimate the impact of change on all these factors. Thus, you will be able to appreciate your current situation and the opportunities available to you in a fair manner.

Then, remove other people's feelings. Now that most of your colleagues want to quit the job should not necessarily motivate you also to do so. Analyze the various factors at your current job such as performance, pay, team dynamics, and growth prospects for your role to identify if it is time fo you to explore other opportunities.

Finally, never lose an opportunity because of just people. If you have a wonderful team at your present company, while all other factors are not promising, you might as well decide to move on. Remember that you can remain friends with the people despite the changes. Likewise, you can always come across good people and build new relationships. Hence, you need to focus on your needs and wants while taking the decision.

Work Out of the Box

Manage. Prioritize. Strategize. Plan. Execute. If you find these words troublesome, it is time to rethink the way you look at work. It is not just enough to think out of the box. You need to work out of the box. You need to realign your view of work and life. Here are some interesting ideas that help you do this. Well, you can manage your work on the basis of time, urgency, or magnitude of work. However, this article focuses on other ideas that help you in managing and does not describe any of the above methods of time and work management.

Break your work into sub-tasks. You must have heard it umpteen times already to break your tasks into sub-tasks. However, the catch here is that you must also classify the sub-tasks into two categories - tasks that you like to do immediately, and tasks that you prefer to delay.

Do what you like, first. This might not always be feasible to do. If you begin doing things that you like, you tend to get into the working and accomplishment mode and start completing things. Hence, it is always better to start your day or your session with tasks that you like to do.

Like whatever you do, next. The idea stated before does not necessarily mean that you should keep delaying the other tasks that you dislike. You must, instead, develop a knack for liking all tasks that yield good results for you. There are different reasons for disliking tasks - they might be tedious, boring, or associated with uninteresting people. Sometimes, you might not be in the right frame of mind to do certain tasks. You need to identify the reason as to why you dislike each task and work upon it individually. Avoid mixing tasks and your impressions regarding the tasks. This is similar to the way in which people mix different events and start blaming their lives and get into depression cycles. Hence, it is always better to single out tasks that you do not like and deal with each one individually.

Focus on the results. If there are tasks that do not yield favorable results, identify the reasons for the failure. Either you are not well-equipped to handle them or you not inclined to handle such tasks. You have to train yourself well for the former situation. In the case of latter situation, you must find better ways to execute the task or find ways to delegate it to others. You might also need to work with better associations in some cases. More often, we dislike tasks when we need to interact with unpleasant people. The significant reason behind such a dislike is the ignorance towards developing better relations with people. If you master that art, there is no looking back in the execution of people-dependant tasks.

Do things differently. Break the regular pattern. Experiment. It is easier to change the steps in a process when you have the time. Thus, you might come up with better ideas. Discuss with team mates. Brainstorm. Share new ideas. Conduct further research. Dig deeper into the process cycles. Spend some amount of time everyday to identify ways to do things differently. You will be surprised at the outcome. Well, it is not just about top management and leaders to come up with ideas. Most ideas come from the frontline staff who work day in and day out.

Do different things. Break the monotony. If you have been doing the same job for a long time, take a break. Do something else that interests you. Do some new tasks. Meet new people. Develop new ideas. It does not mean that you start singing loud at work. It means that you do something very different from your regular routine. It gives you the necessary respite. If your job is to write code for software every day, try painting or photography for a day. Today, make a list of all interesting things that you have not done in your life. Start doing these things once in a while and remove items from the list. Such a list will also broaden your perspective. You will also appreciate the importance of taking vacation frequently to rejuvenate your spirits and keep your creative juices flowing.

Big picture or finer aspects

Managers often confuse us by asking us to look at the bigger picture when we want to focus on the finer aspects of a task. At other times, when we try to look at the bigger picture, these managers focus on some trivial task. How to identify the situation and have the right perspective of your work?

Look at the bigger picture and work on the finer aspects. Learn to master the art of having a helicopter view of your work before you begin it and then break it into tasks and work upon each task seamlessly. The real trick lies in having the right perspective of your work at the right time. Too many tasks left unfinished might indicate that nothing is going as planned. However, a little bit of analysis will let you realize that all the tasks are going ahead in full swing and you need the right time to complete them effectively. In fact, you will also appreciate the importance of dependencies and other constraints and work toward handling them effectively. Here are some situations in which you need to carefully choose between the two approaches.

• Executing the project - Get an overall view of all the activities, regardless of your role. Find out about the sequence of activities and the different people assigned to the different tasks. Collect their contact information and keep it handy as it may help during the course of execution. While gathering all these details, focus on the nitty-gritty of all relevant information and not on the depth of the individual tasks.
• Executing the tasks - If you are assigned a single task, you should be able to know everything about your task and its relationship to the total project. Learn to identify similar tasks in your projects and keenly observe the progress even if it is beyond your responsibilities. This gives you a chance to collaborate with your team members and leverage on their experience when you encounter a new problem. As noted earlier, understand the interdependence between the various elements and realign your tasks accordingly.
• Dealing with issues - Identify if the issue is for an isolated event or related to other events and evaluate the impact of the issue on the various events. If there is considerable effect on a good number of events, you might seek the help of your manager to take a look at the bigger picture of the problem and take steps, as necessary.
• Tracking the status - You must know and track the status of the entire project if you are leading the project. However, you are required to know the status of other tasks and get regular updates even if you are responsible for a few tasks. As you do not work in isolation and realize the fact that your work is dependent on others' tasks, tracking plays a significant role. Here again, depending on your role, you need to be continuously updated about the progress.
• Assessing project efficiency - You can determine the efficiency of a project by considering the time and efforts you saved from being wasted. When you track the progress on a timeline, it is considered efficient if all the tasks are completed in time. More often than not, projects get delayed and deadlines get postponed. Break down the tasks into sub-tasks and track the progress. Thus, digging deeper for the finer aspects will help identify the root causes and mend them in the right time.

Mark your digital presence

Did you ever Google your own name? Did you get any results that directly relate to you? Did you ever try to search for your name in any of the search engines? If your answer is no, mark your presence on the Internet even before others do it for you. Use the Internet as a platform to showcase your expertise and skills and learn more from other experts at the same time. It is not only programmers, designers and journalists who can place their portfolio online. There are many ways in which you can comfortably showcase your expertise and mark your presence online.

Blogs - This can be a good place to begin. You can write anything about everything that you want to share with others. A new mother in California became famous overnight after she began sharing her experiences about bringing up a naughty child from the day one. Use your blog as a personal diary to let the world know more about you. Or try to include some tips about how to perform effectively in your job as a technical writer. Try blogger.com or wordpress.com to begin with a page of your own thoughts and experiences. You can later enhance it to build your own website. Try podcasting. A podcast is an audio file publicly available on the Internet. You can either use the existing podcasts to broaden your knowledge on a particular topic or make a podcast of your own if you have the skills and expertise. Yet, you need not rock your brains on how to make your own podcast. The search engines have many solutions here also. It is just the content that you should own.

Forums and communities – There are innumerable forums and communities relating to almost all job areas – programming, software testing, designing, writing, recruiting, Human Resource management, and even sports communities. Join these forums and you will be surprised at the help that you can get and benefit. People benefit in many ways by sharing their knowledge – they get exposure primarily and get to learn more by listening to the varied doubts of others. Information hoarding is a thing of the past. The netizens are more than willing to cooperate and collaborate. Wikipedia defines a Netizen as a person who actively involves in online communities. You can also enroll into a mailing list that is dedicated to your sphere of work. Search for your particular group on any of the hosting sites and join the group.

Online bookstores – You read enormous literature related to your area of business or operation. Spare a few minutes to comment on a popular book to help others choose the book. You gain advantage by being listed in the search engines thus automatically.

Articles and Contributions - Highly experienced employees can also contribute articles and advice to some websites. There are a host of websites that solicit your articles and advice on various issues. It all depends on your perseverance to find the sites that require your advice. Indeed, there are many sites that have enormous requirement for mentors in many fields. Grab the opportunity to make the best use of your experience.

Advice – There are many places on the Internet where you can give advice to people who have specific doubts in your area of work. Browse through the articles that appear on blogs of reputed people in your area and add your own comments. Share your experiences in your comments and try to solicit responses to your comments. Thus, you get a chance to enlarge your network. Finally, refrain from commenting without any knowledge.

The other side of the coin

There are many people out there waiting for an opportunity to play foul. The danger may come from anywhere - your colleague who is your competitor or a complete stranger playing with your words just for the heck of it. Here are some precautions that you need to take while blogging or writing anywhere on the Internet.

• Refer to your company policies before you actively participate online.
• Refrain from speaking negatively about your company or working atmosphere at your company while you are a part of forums and communities.
• Do not use offensive language while speaking about others. Even though you have the right to criticize others, refrain from blatant criticism.
• Avoid using derogatory language against any group of people. Little statements have the chances to trigger crises.
• Never copy content from another blog or website without specifying the source. Beware of copyrights before you try the copy-paste routine.

To communicate assertively or aggressively

Certain people rule the roost at work with their assertive communication. The submissive ones are contented with every little chance they get to speak. If you are submissive and often feel helpless and cannot represent yourself strongly while communicating, it is necessary for you to re-evaluate your communication style. Your communication style will certainly belong to one of the four common types. You are aggressive where you win and make everyone else lose. You are passive when everyone else wins. The assertive attitude represents a win-win situation. Your communication style automatically becomes effective when other's needs are also met. Most people who are passive blame it on their lack of confidence to confront people. You need to understand that it is like the story of "chicken and egg." Your confidence levels will be boosted only when you become more assertive; yet you need to be confident to try to be assertive in the first place. Here are some steps through which you can make it happen.

1. Make the right move at the right time. Depending on the situation, you should choose between being passive, aggressive, or assertive. If you lack the confidence to deal with a coworker or manager for the first time, you can simulate these situations in a comfortable place and practice regularly until you master the right style.

2. Take charge of the situation by retrieving your positive image. Imagine that things are well under your control and project a positive image about yourself. Recollect the moments in your life when you have excelled and recapture the moments to gain control of yourself and obtain a positive image. Recall the powerful image of the successful you when you are disheartened. This technique keeps you back on track and boosts your confidence level to a great extent.

3. Project the retrieved positive impression. Take responsibility for your communication while creating a positive impression. Put across your views in a polite manner and let others take note of you. Non-verbal communication signals also play a significant role in creating better impressions. Make the best use of the words "I" and “we” while addressing people. With a right mix of non-verbal communication cues, you can easily create a positive impression.

4. Interlace your message with facts. You cannot drive home any point through mere positive interaction. Prepare well and gather all the required facts and present them politely. If you don’t have the sufficient time or if all the facts are not readily available, try to recollect and list out similar situations. Thus, you get an edge in the true sense.

5. Apt body language is a must. Look straight into the eyes when you speak to someone and expect positive interaction. Listen attentively, actively and put yourself in the shoes and seek a solution that benefits both. Try to get detailed answers from others rather than single words such as "yes" and "no." This will facilitate an easy solution within a short period of time. Prepare open questions even before you are ready for the interaction.

Assertive people can interact effectively with people of different styles of communication. Even though aggressive communicators need confronting, take some time to gather thoughts that allows even the other person to calm down. In most of the situations, choose to respond, not react. However, remember the fact that you have the right to speak up and be heard.

Don the Right Thinking Hat

It’s time to think right. Yes, while everyone is good at thinking, there are some people who think in the right way at the right moment and outdo others in various ways – job, management, work-life balance, and maintaining relationships. Unlike other aspects related to human psychology, right thinking is applicable to every human being at any age. It is more significant in the heavily competitive corporate world where each decision of yours is instrumental in carving your career. Good decisions are the result of effective thinking. A good thinker is original, resourceful, perceptive, practical, and logical. Here are some normal thinking hats that form the basis behind all our actions and reactions and can help become a good thinker.

Objective thinking is appropriate when things look confusing and you need facts to arrive at a conclusion. A neutral attitude develops with the help of this thinking. Managers often handle interpersonal relationships between subordinates with the help of this thinking. People skills are mastered easily by people who have an objective outlook towards solving problems and understanding people.

Emotional thinking is necessary when things are going out of your control. It is not good waiting for the events to unfold when you are sure of disastrous consequences. Listen to your emotions and trust your intuition and you might also want to show anger if nothing else can help solve the matters. Remember the importance of gut instinct and deal harshly wherever necessary.

Negative thinking is essential when you are geared to move ahead with a highly risky proposition. You need to spend time to understand why things might fail and plan fool proof measures to prevent blunders. While most of us are against the gloomy and negative attitude, we need to understand that it saves from many dangers. Remember the adage that a stitch in time saves nine.

Positive thinking helps when you are filled with hopes and you must go ahead with an optimistic outlook. You cannot always fear that something wrong is about to happen. Likewise, you cannot restrict growth by refraining from experimenting and trying out new things. A positive thinking attitude will be of great help under such situations. Mostly, when you have taken all the necessary steps and things are beyond your reach, thinking positively prevents pressure and tension from building up in your mind.

Creative thinking comes to your aid when you discover that contemporary and traditional practices impede your growth and things seem to be dragging. Cultivate new ideas that help solve problems. Make use of techniques such as brainstorming and mind-mapping to enhance your creativity. It is not always necessary that existing practices need to fail to let your creative juices flow. Some people employ creative thinking to stay ahead in the race and have an edge over others. Increasingly, the focus is shifting towards innovation everywhere across the globe.

Finally, thinking from a wider perspective is the most important type of thinking. Look at the broader picture and try to understand the problem at hand in relation to other systems in your organization. Project managers in charge of cross-functional teams often don this hat to build and manage such teams without any hassles.

These thinking types don’t often go alone. They mostly go in pairs depending upon the situation. You can be objective and critical at the same time when you have to reprimand a subordinate for being irresponsible. Likewise, creative thinking syncs well with looking at things from the broader perspective. Many other factors, such as risk, consequences, and the people involved play an important role in determining the apt thinking hat for you at any moment. Hence, focus on the outcomes while donning the right thinking hat. Balance your criteria and consider the effects of external pressures. Begin with testing the different types of thinking in different situations to arrive at the best combinations that suit your personality, goals and aspirations.

Ways to think out of the box

Whether you are predominantly left-brained or right-brained, there is some basic creativity innate in every human being. You need to enhance your creativity for various reasons – to improve your performance and withstand competition among peers; to break free from the monotony of daily work; to come up with interesting solutions to existing problems; to improve standards using your experience and insight; and manage work-life balance effectively. Here are some basic ways in which you can work hard to add to the flow of creative juices in your mind that are necessary for everyone.

Step out of your comfort zone. The first thing that you need to do is to take risk and do things differently. Only when you are ready to take risks and mistakes, you can learn from your experiences. If you stick to your regular mode of operation, you might end up with monotony. Begin making small changes to your daily routine and including things that you are not so comfortable doing. You might sometimes be alarmed at your own capabilities by indulging in activities that you always ignored. Then, calculate your risks and tread cautiously to experiment and gain from your experiments. Thus, you sharpen your judgment skills thereby adding to your existing set of decision making abilities.

Practice the art of thinking from different viewpoints. How often have you been asked to get into the shoes of the customer? Yes, you need to get into the shoes of not just the customer, but all the stakeholders who are involved. Interact with the different stakeholders to understand their own perceptions about the existing process and note down any improvements that they can suggest to make things better or to come up with something anew. Combine the assumptions and suggestions that you draw from the various quarters and there will be a new source of knowledge that you can apply while carrying your work.

Learn more from the varied sources that you can get in touch. It is not just enough if you learn from all your stakeholders about their perceptions and expectations. You must have a keen sense of the industry trends. Keep a tab on all the technological advancements that are related to your field. Adopt the new technological advances in your regular chores. Likewise, stay updated on any papers and reports that experts publish in your field of operation. The Internet acts as a great source of information and you can certainly gain more by reading all the literature available.

Break the traditions and pine for change. Question the traditional practices if you want to really begin change from your direction. You can achieve this by identifying the least important activities that contribute very less to reaching your personal goals. Once you get into the habit of breaking traditional habits in your personal life, apply the same techniques at work to learn more and benefit more. To do so, first break your tasks into sub-tasks and assign priorities to them on the basis of their usefulness to your overall goals. Thus you arrive at activities that are more important and assign more priority to them. It is quite obvious that you have been very good at prioritizing things at work. The problem lies in the fact that you have never tried to prioritize your activities that are not related to work. You get to learn more and apply these rules to your work related activities also.

Try to analyze, infer, and assume. To conclude is to make a mistake. Analyze and benefit from learning the logic behind how things happen. Infer and understand the significance of orderliness of processes. Assume and learn the key role played by different people. Be wary before coming to any conclusion. You are likely to slip into a habit of illogical conclusions that serve no purpose. If you realize that you have just made and assumption, there are many great chances that you can change it as soon as you get new information that might be contradictory. However, you tend to hurt your judgmental abilities if you try to question your own conclusions. Hence, identify the thin line of difference between inferring, analyzing, assuming, and concluding regarding situations, people, and things. You can always conclude when there are enough facts to support your information. Yet, you should be ready to face any exceptions as you go along.

Challenge your beliefs before you set to change other’s beliefs. Highly creative people have the great task of altering others’ beliefs and changing the way they understand things. Even before you set to change others, you must change your belief system to accept newness. Flexibility plays a key role in such a situation. Look at things with a very open mind and refrain from having preconceived notions about any person or issue. Get into the habit of looking every problem on a fresh canvas to come up with your masterpiece solution.

Ways to avoid procrastination

To procrastinate is to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. We hurry up in the last minute to deliver a half-baked task. Procrastination can negatively impact both work life and personal life. Here are some simple tips to prevent these problems.

First, understand that you are not compelled to do things. Recollect all the situations in life when you do not procrastinate. Reading your favorite novel, watching the scam report on the television and playing tennis in the weekend are some examples. You never miss these activities because you want to do them. Your mind is not under the impression that you are compelled to do them. So, replace your compulsion of "have-to" with willingness of "want-to". Do not compel yourself to do a task; just build the interest to do the task.

Never get troubled by the magnitude of the task. The bigger it is, there are more chances for a task to get postponed. You plan to finish a task even before you begin it. If you do not know how to complete the task, the pressure mounts. Hence, break the task into pieces and start with a small piece instead of trying to finish the entire thing. Focus on what you can do immediately. By doing so a good number of times, you will reach the final piece of the task and finish it with ease. Remember the fact that you tend to get perfect through practice. Likewise, stress gets associated with the task and you will start avoiding the task if you do not practice it with concentration. It is always better to complete a job than to delay it for want of perfection in the first instance. As a writer, you can begin with a rough draft. You can always revise it later to attain the desired state of perfection.

Avoid the habit of sacrificing pleasure for work. To undertake a project, you need not forego pleasure. People tend to work long hours with no time for fun. It might become demoralizing sometimes. To avoid these problems, you must mix fun with your work and begin enjoying your work. Ensure that all your leisure activities are well placed in your routine. Exceptional performers tend to take vacation quite often and work shorter hours than others. You will be more focused and attentive if you have a limited work time. Program your brain in such a way that it should pine for work.

Reward yourself for your achievements. Divide your task into sub-tasks that can be completed in a short frame of time. Choose a reward for yourself after completing each sub-task. Most often, you will work for more than the specified time limit and sub-task. The presence of a reward lures you into working more effectively. You attention is drifted from the difficulty of completion of the work to finishing the task for the reward. Enjoy your rewards and repeat the same exercise until you reach your destination. Procrastination is the result of stress or pain associated with a task. Reduce pain and associate pleasure with the task to move forward with a positive attitude.

Are you a positive crusader?

How positive are you? Try to answer this question with regard to your work, life, and everything that you do. In fact, if you are honestly able to grade your positive quotient, you will realize immediately that your positive energy has a lot to do with your growth, success, failure, and opportunities. Have you ever noticed that the most successful people are very positive in whatever they do? They are sure of their success because they focus on positive energy. It is very simple to get into their shoes and start becoming a positive crusader. Here is a small process that helps you get into the positive crusade group.

Become a positive person. Count the number of times you crib, complain, or get irritated over things. Likewise, count the number of times you appreciate the people and things around you. Work to increase the latter count a lot more than the former count. Most of the times, if you notice, you fail to appreciate the importance of situations. There are many situations that play a significant role in determining future consequences. Hence, it would be great if you can stop for a moment and learn to appreciate your current situation. Thus, you attain the first step to become a positive crusader.

Once you become a positive crusader, start vibrating positive energy to others. Minimize negative interactions with people. You must get used to this as you have already dealt with negative interactions with yourself. You should be able to vibrate positive energy to all the people around you. Very soon, you will realize that the more you radiate positive energy, the more you receive it. In fact, most of the times you receive more positive energy than you radiate. This is because of the fact that most people are waiting to receive positive energy. How often have you read that a simple Thank You makes a lot of difference in someone’s day? Why not begin it today?

Next, you need to reinforce positive energy to the same people repeatedly. This helps strengthen the positivity spiral. This helps in getting rid of any negative energy around the people who live with you. You will recognize that such reinforcement will change the atmosphere of the place and attitude of various people towards you. It is always better to say Thanks a good number of times rather than presume that the other person has received your thanks.

Finally, you need to be recognized by one and all that you are a very positive person. How can you do that? You can achieve this by reinforcing positive energy with every individual that you come across everyday. Thus, friends and acquaintances should interact about your positive energy. This will be an invisible positive force that increases your positive quotient. Thus, your name becomes synonymous with positive energy and you will be famous for all your good deeds and people forgive you even if you stumble with some mistakes. Well, it is left for you to understand the importance of positive energy later and the miracles it endows upon you.

Begin today and start your journey of positive crusading and try to stray away from negativity spirals that are cause of misunderstanding, miscalculating, misinterpreting, and finally all mishaps. This is your chance to understand and appreciate the importance of positive energy and bring it upon everyone.

How to motivate from within?

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You can find this and many more articles related to workplace issues and personal development by Chakravarthy Tenneti and other writers on the website - techitive.com.

Hurdles are very helpful

Yes, hurdles help you in many ways than you think. It is not about the challenging freaks who are bent on taking risks and cannot bear a life of any less adventure. It is also not about the high adrenaline levels that movies and television soaps feature. It is more about the common story of life. The only common thing about the lives of the billions of people is that they are all filled with hurdles. It might be difficult to think of a person who led life without any hurdle. Indeed, birth and death are the biggest hurdles and we take our time to get used to these things. You might be wondering how hurdles can be helpful to a common man in the workplace. Here are some interesting observations.

Hurdles make you more competitive. Yes, competition is the biggest hurdle that anyone can face in the corporate life and it is this hurdle that makes you more competitive. It is not as confusing as it appears. It is just that hurdles and competition are synonymous and if you take them in the right spirit, you grow by leaps and bounds. However, if you are bogged down by every little hurdle and every inane competitor, you might never end up becoming the entreprenuer the way you always dreamed.

Hurdles keep you up and running. Imagine a life without hurdles. You will never step out and venture doing anything. You might be so content in your life that you ultimately become sedentary. Hurdles remind you of the fact that you must strive towards improving things and your life. It is not a suggestion to lead a restless life. Indeed, they are an indication that you deserve a lot more and you need to work in that direction.

Hurdles bring out the best in you. Many great people have known their hidden talents only when they had to face some hurdles. Here is a small example: (Source: Wikipedia.org)

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. This action of civil disobedience started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which is one of the largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, this launched Martin Luther King, Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the civil rights movement. She has had a lasting legacy worldwide.

She also detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story
“ People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. ”

When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response as she remembered it was, "I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest." She later said, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind."

Visit this link for further information about Rosa Parks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

You cannot but appreciate the fact that this hurdle added fuel to the fire and triggered a series of events that changed course of American history. So, never underestimate the significance of hurdles in your life.

Hurdles add to your experience and keep you prepared for everything. Thomas Alva Edison strived for one and a half year experimenting different elements to come up with an incandescent lamp. Finally, he found one with a filament of carbonized thread that burned for thirteen and half hours. The rest is history. You must therefore accept the fact that successful people are unfazed by hurdles. They indeed take advantage of the hurdles and strive to reach their goals.

So, begin today by looking at the positive side of hurdles.

Combating Job Monotony Blues

Is monotony tampering your efficiency? Are you bored of the daily rigmarole of work? There are different ways in which you break free from the monotony blues and move ahead in your career. Yes, monotony at work indicates the chances of progress in your career. It depends on your interpretation of monotony. There are people who find their jobs monotonous due to the lack of passion towards their work. If you are good at your work and respect your company, and yet feel that your job is monotonous, here are different ways in which you can solve your problem. However, if you are not interested in your job, it is time for you to switch careers.

Excel in whatever you do. Begin by mastering the nuances of your job. Learn all the tricks of the trade and come up with interesting ways to excel in your work. Experienced people often discover tricks and tips to do things faster with increased efficiency. Focus on the quality of your work while you experiment with your work. Beware of the quantity trap that might trouble you later.

Help others and learn more. It is not just through work that you gain. There are many other aspects that you hardly notice. You need to help others while they are working. Thus, you can come across the mistakes that they commit and find ways to solve such problems. You tend to learn more by sharing your knowledge and experience with others.

Build in the competitive spirit. Compete with your peers and put your best foot forward to excel in the competition. Vie with your peers to outperform them. Learn the rules of competition and help your peers also move ahead by sharing your secrets of success. You will prove to be a leader as your peers are inspired by your approach and this gives you an edge over your colleagues.

Think out of the box. Let your creative juices flow. Brainstorm frequently with your colleagues to invent creative ways to increase the efficiency of your work. Think creatively to come up with better ideas that can increase customer satisfaction. Learn the goals of the team and the organization. Harness your creativity in this direction and your career will automatically progress.

Develop cycles of work and rest. Remember the human mind also need some rest. Plan your routine well in advance to include cycles of work and rest. Straining your senses might also pose a problem in the near future. Schedule your work effectively with adequate focus on stress relief. An increase in stress might lead to burn-out.

Focus on priorities and prepare to advance. Most experienced people fail to reach their goals just because they are poor when it comes to basics such as prioritizing things. If you are unable to focus on priorities, you are at a loss. Look at the consequences of various activities that you need to perform. Activities that have a long-term influence and activities that can save your day should come first in your list of priorities.

Seek additional responsibility. Volunteer to train any new colleagues or seek the permission of your team leader to conduct interviews for college graduates aspiring to join your organization. Likewise, you can help your team leader in preparing the weekly and monthly reports. Schedule your work and your peers work so that there is little pressure on your team leader. You can also interact with customers frequently to find ways that can improve your efficiency.

Master the allied fields. Each field has its own allied fields. If you are a programmer, it always helps to learn the various testing procedures and quality methods followed by your company. You can learn more about project management from you superior or other experts. If you are a content writer, you can learn the basics of allied fields such as technical writing and instructional design.

Link to my original article at Associated Content
Combating Job Monotony Blues

Listening is a virtue

Listening is an art; listening is a craft; listening is a virtue in itself. It has become a rare commodity these days. People with good listening skills are revered everywhere. Gone are the days when experts suggest us to concentrate on oratorical abilities. It is high time most of us realize the importance of silence and communicate more than through just words. Ignore the body language part of communication. Young executives are trained extensively to develop a business oriented and professional body language, that it seems everything is programmed. Silence is the only natural language that conveys more. The significance of silence lies more in absorbing the required information than conveying. To be successful in any business or excel in any workplace, you need to be a good listener. We have enormous literature explaining the traits of a good listener. It is not worth our while to discuss the same here. Indeed, it would be of no use to even list the advantages of being a good listener. We are here to just understand the difference in life that can be achieved by mastering these listening skills.

Yes, listening skills have become an important skill set that cannot be taught anywhere. Patience and perseverance are very necessary to become a good listener. Imagine an angry manager shouting at you. Most of us tend to prepare our statements even before he completes his discourse. We tend to close our ears to what he says as soon as we sense an imminent danger in his demeanor. It is a grave mistake that can rob many chances to prove ourselves. All we need to do through listening is understand and appreciate the concerns of the other person. The moment we get into the shoes of the other person, we tend to get a clear picture of the situation. Instead, if we also set out to losing our temper, there is very little that we can achieve. We can never reach the neutral point of view. The day we reach this point of view with regard to problems and situations, we will become excellent problem solvers.

Yes, problem solving is achieved only when there is an unbiased outlook towards a problem. Perhaps, such an outlook concentrates more on the solution than the problem. If we are busy delving into the intricacies of the problem and its consequences, we get little time to consider the various opportunities and threats that lie ahead for us. There is a hazy picture of the problem. Instead of arriving at conclusions while the other person is speaking, listen to him until he completes delivering his statement. Most interpersonal and relationship problems get solved the moment we allow the other person to vent his anger to the maximum. With a balanced approach, we need to ensure that none of us ends up losing. We can never create a win-win situation if we become defensive in our approach.

Understand that you need not completely accept with what the other person speaks. All you need is to give a hearing to the speaker and understand his point of view. You need to later get into third party view and analyze the problem from three different angles to arrive at unbiased perception of the problem. This helps reach healthy conclusions for one and all. You can later put across the points effectively and even the other party would be more than willing to listen to you as you have done. The healthier chemistry solves interpersonal problems immediately and paves the way to solve other existing problems.

Remember actions speak better than words. You can convey a lot with your actions than mere words that add to the confrontation. Learn to solve problems with consultation rather than confrontation. People will say that you are more amicable and approachable if you just listen to their woes. Managers who fail to understand this basic virtue find it very difficult to communicate to their subordinates. As you move up the corporate ladder, the significance of listening increases because you need to address the issues of a good number of stakeholders.

Clarity and chaos in communication

Are you worried about your communication style? Efficient and effective communicators heed to one single aspect of communication – Clarity. Even though some people suggest putting across your point in a complex fashion for the sophisticated audience, it is always advised to avoid chaos and prefer to present your message in a clear way. You should initially have the clarity about the message that you wish to communicate. Here are some ways in which you can communicate with clarity.

Clarity saves time and money.
Try the approach of clarity. As you try to complicate things in your communication, you often spend time explaining concepts that are no way related to the intended message. It is always better to be clear and thereby save your time and money.

Choose chaos only in few situations.
Experts suggest choosing chaos over clarity only in some situations. The best example of such a situation would be when you would like to advertise your product, where you can first complicate and then simplify things. Even this strategy does not approve to most of the products. It applies only to products that are sophisticated and that are aimed at niche customers.

Keep it short and simple.
You need to realize the fact that the human mind is able to register anything that is short and simple. Perhaps, this can be owed to the short-term memory, which can store only 7 plus or minus two things at a single moment. Psychological experts also insist on keeping things simple.

Focus on the message, not on the style.
It is the message that is the lifeline and you need not focus more on the style. Such a focus would often lead to confusion because you are completely diverted and sometimes the receiver of the message misunderstands the intended message. Hence, you have to focus on the message and slowly a style gets established on its own.

Even little messages require planning.
We often take it for granted that little messages require little attention and planning and go about without any planning. You need to understand the importance of planning as you try to communicate something to someone. Such a planning saves you from any last minute exigencies that might trouble you.

Presentation differs with audience.
Likewise, you need to present the same message in different ways to different receivers. There are many factors that you need to take into consideration here. It is the knowledge level of the listeners that also plays an important role here. Understand the perceptions of the audience if you can and it is a sure shot victory for you.

Seek adequate feedback.
You need to learn from your presentation and communication. Insist on getting feedback from the listeners and try to improve your communication each time you communicate with the audience. There are many aspects such as body language that we hardly get to notice and others can help us identify our faults and come up with interesting solutions. Each interaction is an experience. Let your experiences teach.

Establish your own communication style. Very soon, you will be able to establish your own communication style and there is so much that you gain by having a unique communication style. You might wonder how clarity is helpful for sophisticated audience. You need to observe the presentations of very successful people. You will notice the fact that most of the successful orators focus on simplicity. Begin today to establish your own communication style with clarity.

Patience at the workplace

Losing patience at the workplace is not advisable for new employees. Indeed, it is not the sole property of managers either. You need to appreciate the fact that new employees are expected to be energetic and enthusiastic. Losing patience stands in your way of going ahead in any race. Yet, there are some places where you need to express even negative feelings. Learning to say ‘No’ is also an art. Hence, it is a balancing act that needs some time and experience to master. Here are some ways in which you can handle such situations.

Learn the culture of the organization.
If your company presents a composed and comfortable disposition even during testing times, you need to reflect the same. You should fit into the style of the company. A single person cannot alter the culture of the company. You can learn a lot from the way your company responds to customers and employees. Likewise, your interaction with managers and other administrative staff gives you a clue of the common culture and demeanor.

Identify key people and observe their behaviors.
Apart from mere interaction with managers and bosses, you need to study their behaviors and reaction patterns to get a clear picture. Identify the key people. There are some people who might not occupy managerial positions but demand significant respect and attention from all the quarters. You need to get into the good books of all the key people to benefit in the long run. The way the key people react to testing situations also gives you a clue on whether to remain calm or react immediately. However, an aggressive disposure is unwelcome in any organization with any kind of culture.

Appreciate the gravity of the situation.
If you seem to lose patience, try to understand if the outcome is significant or not. You need to understand the nuances of various situations to judge the outcomes. Even though it takes some time to come to terms with such situations, you can gain and learn a lot through other's experiences. Keep asking questions to managers and senior employees. Ask intelligently and refrain from pestering people to gain knowledge.

Formulate an appropriate reaction pattern.
As you identify the culture and the behaviors of the key people of the organization, you can easily frame your own reaction pattern. Do not try to be what you are not. With a little amount of flexibility, try to alter your existing style to suit with the various organizational factors. Focus on the various circles of influence and try to make the best use of situation and work effectively to move up the corporate ladder.

Test your reaction patterns and behaviors with peers.
Experiment with your peers and ask for feedback. Learn from the various outcomes and link your behavior with the right attitudes. Foster better relations with all the employees and try to remain patient most of the times. This adds more friends to your existing list of friends. Look ahead into the future and alter your personality style accordingly. There are many lessons that each employee learns in each job in every company. Employees who switch careers also get to learn while challenging themselves to the change in cultures and working styles of different companies.

Even though it is not advised to lose your calm in most of the situations, it is better to learn about situations where you need to be assertive to get the work done. Understand the difference between being assertive and aggressive. If you are being too submissive most of the time, you will lose control of the things that you need to perform.