Tip Of the Week 5th May 2008

Trust and Honesty

"A true friend stabs you in the front." Oscar Wilde (1854-1900. Writer, Humorist)

A funny line that simply talks to the point about being honest with other people. It is hard to stand up to our enemies. It is harder still to stand up to friends. Yet that is how trust is built and the ability to stand up for what you believe is at the core of self esteem.

Tip Of the Week 31st March 2008

Commitment

"The power to make and keep commitments to ourselves is the essence of developing the basic habits of effectiveness." Stephen Covey

Experts in every field of endeavour – sport, music language, science, politics, business – did not get there by luck. It is this commitment to self, not to others, that makes success probable.

Tip Of the Week 24th March 2008

Planning

"The rich plan for generations, the poor plan for Saturday nights." Anonymous

We like our Saturday nights as much as the next person but there is wisdom in some longer term planning. Life will pass by whilst you are partying if you don't watch out.

Tip Of the Week 18th March 2008

Tolerance

"A man who cannot tolerate small misfortunes can never accomplish great things." Chinese Proverb

There are a whole series of books under the broad heading “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff” and this proverb nicely captures the point of all those books. Every day, it's likely something will go wrong, irritate you or wind you up. Many people face a rising tide of stress as misfortunes seemingly pile up. The trick is to keep things in perspective. Will it matter in a year; a month; a week? Probably not. Have a couple of strategies to let go of your irritation, whether that's walking round the block or having a laugh with a friend. Then move on. Life is better for your tolerance.

Tip Of the Week 8th January 2008

Recruiting the Right People

We all know that talent management is a key issue for almost every business. Getting hold of any quality candidates, let alone the “right” candidate is pretty hard. The temptation is to go with who you have in front of you, simply because the gap in your team causes problems with every passing week.

But taking the best of a poor bunch will probably end up being a bad decision and costing you more money and time in the long run. Better to wait for the right person to come along and not be rushed (often by your own thinking) into a hasty decision.

Best advice is to continually interview people throughout the year, even if you don’t have an immediate vacancy. Chances are one will be available and then you are already ahead of the game.

Tip Of the Week 22nd October 2007

Time Management:  “Overcoming a Bad Habit”

Each of us have areas of our personal life and work life in which we develop poor habits. Those areas that we would like to change but often don’t know how or lack the motivation to change.

Following are some simple action points that can help to make these changes:

• Have a goal which tells you where you want to be (use S.M.A.R.T.)
• Assess your current behaviour
• Work back from the goal, in steps, to where you are now
• Now set a first step that is painless and easy to achieve
• Increase the target after you achieve the first goal
• Review progress and revise the goals continually
• Keep some record of progress

Research has shown that it usually takes approximately 35 days to establish a new habit, good or bad

Tip Of the Week 15th October 2007

Communication:  Communicating Deadlines

Our clients, whether they are internal or external to the organization, want you to be responsive. The world revolves around them and they certainly don’t like to think another client is taking your time or getting preferential treatment. Yet despite the focus on responsiveness, it is perhaps even more important to be reliable.

Reliability builds trust. It relates to doing what you promise and delivering to agreed deadlines and commitments.  It is about being timely and consistent. 

Tip of the Week 3rd September 2007

Time Management:
Here’s a simple system that might just improve your daily life. Most of us do a “to do” list, which we keep on adding to as emails arrive, people phone or drop in. The list gets longer and the day goes by without our ever getting to grips with the important/not urgent tasks.

Why not split the “to do” list into reactive and proactive tasks (Q1 and Q2 if you’re familiar with that model). The ratio or time allocation can change to suit you but why not focus on at least 3 hours of proactive time each day. The rest is left to reactive. Unless you really are struck by a crisis, you should achieve something positive every day. Either that or you have serious problems! 

Useful Web site of the week: This one www.despair.com is for the cynics amongst you. A debunking of those motivational posters that were so familiar in offices.

Tip Of the Week 27 August 2007

Management:
We’re always told that people thrive on feedback and we should “catch people doing things right”. However, if we overdo the good feedback, we actually diminish its effectiveness. Everything can’t be brilliant or awesome. People may just stop listening or worse, think you are being insincere. Pick your feedback and make it count. 

Useful Web site of the week: www.findarticles.com  Great site to help you find articles across the world on particular subjects.