Make a difference

 

Courtesy: www.mattwardman.com

As part of a project I was doing on Work-Life Balance, I asked this question in LinkedIn on what some of the members thought of Work Life balance and what one thing they (or their organization) did to build the Work Life Balance.

I got some very good responses. Many came back with specific items that they were doing to achieve this goal. During the last week, having read some books & thought through this, I have changed my perspective on WLB a bit as well 🙂

In my opinion- Work Life Balance is not the responsibility of the Organization only. For this to be successful, it needs every employee’s involvement (and commitment) as much as the Organizations direction.

I got the feedback from a host of people across the world from various spectrums of life. Click here for LinkedIn Answers. However, one of the elements that was highlighted was what the company should do … not many mentioned that the responsibility is as important from an employee’s point of view as it is from the company.

The employee needs to-

a) Have a VERY Clear and defined GOAL to create the balance in his life. It should be written down, clearly defined, and followed through very closely. If for example, the goal is to ensure that I attend all my daughter’s school functions, it should be defined clearly upfront, and shared with the manager well in advance. This way the employee also demonstrates his planning plus ensures that the company’s interests are not compromised in any way.

b) Aware of the policies of the company so that he can make a clear and education decision on the next steps.

c) Be sure that he will use the right schemes to ensure that he gets the right benefit.

d) Commit to ensure that he/she will NOT misuse the scheme (this I think is one of the main reasons many companies are averse to thinking of more such schemes).

From an Organization point of view- it is important to note that many of them already have policies. In many cases, these are well-kept secrets and neither the employee nor the managers know or offer them. HR & the Top Management play a key role to share this information on a regular basis + this message then percolate to the Field Managers who need to execute.

– Another element for an Organization is to constantly lookout for potential areas of improvement- and share it with the customers. This should include gathering feedback from employees & looking at new models to adopt every year.

Here are some of the great tips I saw…

– Ask Roger Federer, Robbie Williams or a farmer or a painter. Are they living or working or doing both or doing nothing? While they are doing nothing they do 99.9999999 percent of their work. Concentration, focus, waiting, reading the situation, looking for that magic instant. Living the moment. Catching the wave. Alex Rotenberg

– Going home. :). Seriously, I agree that Work-Life balance only arises when the work we’re doing is out of alignment with our expectations of life. A best-practice work-life balance would then be one that re-contextualize my work as an outpouring of my life.

– Quote from Donald Trump – "Do not worry about work – life balance, just make your work more pleasurable.

– No surprise that few Corporations are including Gyms at premises as well as day care centers to try to phantom the creation of balance for their employees – Sahar Andrade

– Getting up, walking thru my kitchen to my office – now that is work-life balance. It’s about loving what you do and not forgetting your priorities. For me, it was about getting out of corporate, and doing something more meaningful to me – something that I could control. For others, it could mean something else. Ideally, though, I agree with Trump’s quote – don’t worry about the balance – just make your work more enjoyable! – Emily Kuhl

– The availability of a wellness centre, onsite masseurs, yoga classes, a concierge service, the assignment of points to be used to hire people to run errands, $500 toward elder or childcare, plus three ‘balance’ days to be taken at any time. – Judy B Margolis

– Insisting that employees take a lunch break. Creating excuses for the office to celebrate. Encouraging at least a leisurely walk during a lunch break. Discouraging long work hours. Providing gifts for client’s and their families (i.e., gift certificates at family restaurants) – Juan Garcia Ph.D

– Flexible working hour policy and the option of occasionally work from home facility. – Nipsy Jhamb

– We permit parents to bring children in for brief parental transfers. – Jane Plank

I recently came across an article called: "Seven Secrets of Networking"
Basically, the author talks about lessons he has learnt over the years-

1. Have an honest intent to help others. If you have a genuine desire to help others, this will be immediately picked up by your contacts. What are you doing to demonstrate that you have their interests at heart?
2. It’s a process, not a transaction. Relationships develop over a period of time. It’s better to have the relationship already developed than trying to build it at the same time as you need to influence the other person.
3. Give to get. It is far easier to get others to spend time with you if, in the past, you have helped or provided value for them.
4. Be provocative. Don’t be a yes man or woman. People are attracted to those who have a new angle, new ideas and a different point of view. The top executives in one of my clients constantly seek out a particular senior manager, as he is always able and willing to offer interesting, innovative and inspirational ideas.
5. Connect others together. I recently organized a meeting between a client of mine who leads a team with a wide variety of backgrounds, with a US expert on managing diversity. The meeting was successful and both thanked me for bringing them together, even though I wasn’t there.
6. Keep in regular contact. Little and often is the best way.
7. Don’t watch the clock.

With the advent of tools like LinkedIn and other online Social Websites, networking has taken a new meaning- and I am beginning to realize that one should go beyond their standard network and reach out to people beyond their  zone.  Whilst one can get a lot of insights & inputs from the people within their network, one should consciously approach the broader world and build a bigger connection- one never knows what one misses otherwise.

 

 

This is an article I read many years ago. Earlier today, I got a mail from a friend where this article again surfaced.  As I read it, I started thinking how much these kind of messages are required on a daily basis by many of us…  This is not a original mail- but still a wonderful read- just for us to reflect & change the attitude – which, at times, does degenerate to become negative 🙂 (at least it does for me).

Enjoy…

No one can make you serve customers well. That’s because great service is a choice.

Years ago, my friend, Harvey Mackay, told me a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine.

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said: "I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement." Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally’s Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."

My friend said jokingly, "No, I’d prefer a soft drink."

Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I’ll take a Diet Coke."

Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio."

And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.

Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day.

He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?" Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years.

My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself.

He said, `Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition.Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’"

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.

The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.

I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it.

Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting. Johnny the Bagger and Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice.

They decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

 

email is the preferred mode of communication today and most of us get more to-do’s (or Go-do’s, if from the boss or bosses boss) by email than by any other mode.  With many such delegations coming our way, and with our own sets of goals, it becomes a task by itself to manage all these activities effectively –without dropping the ball. 

Getting Things Done is one pioneering effort in helping folks come to terms with how to work the email system to get a control of your life! Actually, his book is more to do with life in general, but the software version is designed for working with Outlook- which makes it a super effective way of keeping track of your actionable mails.  My good friend Ganesan gave me the first peek into a mailbox which was well and truly empty- which meant that he had taken care of all his emails – either responded or put it in a way by which he could get back to it later.  I was super impressed, and tried various ways to get to that position- but was not very successful. 

Browsing the net got me to David Allen’s book and the software (from Netcentrics), which has helped me immensely.  Reading the book first will give a lot more clarity on the working principles, that applies to one’s time management skills in general.

Here is a brief write-up of the methodology – and the links are further down (in case you decide to pick it up).

A basic premise for David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology is to define the next action that must be taken with any item (stuff) that arrives in your inbox. The action should drive whatever you are trying to accomplish to successful completion. Once you have defined the next action, you put the item into a trusted system—a system that keeps the item off your mind and allows/prompts you to access the item when you need it. At the appropriate time, you can take action on the item and get it done.

Courtesy: David Allen: Getting Things Done

So, when an item arrives in your inbox (be it physical or electronic), you must first decide if it is actionable.

If you cannot take action, you have three choices:

1. Delete it
2. Incubate it, saving it to act on at someday in the future (e.g., take that landscaping class) or 
3. File it for reference in a system where you know you can easily access it whenever it may be useful

If you can take action on the item, then

-  Are there multiple steps that must be taken to achieve a successful outcome?

• If so, define a project—the result of several individual next actions that need to happen to achieve a successful outcome—or put the item within a current project. When you go to work on that project, break the item into individual next actions that you can take. Process them as indicated for single step items below.
• If not, process as indicated below.

–Do it, if it takes less than 2 minutes. If it takes more than 2 minutes,

–Delegate it. Hand it off to someone else and Create a Waiting For task that lets you know you are waiting for someone else to accomplish the task and allows you to track progress.

–Defer it

• To a specific day and time (e.g., Friday at 1 PM).
• To a specific day (e.g., sometime on Thursday)
• To as soon as I can get to it—add it to your next actions so when you have available time, energy, and are in the proper place, you see it as an option of something you need to work on.

For the book – and completely worth the money!

 

For the Software version – the Outlook add-in here is the link-

https://gtdsupport.netcentrics.com/buy/?type=full

Try the trial version… you have nothing to lose.