How to know our priorities?

 How to know our priorities? 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

In continuation of last week discussion on Time Management, the key action points  that we have discussed were

1. Knowing our core priorities
2. Knowing our current status w.r.t core priorities.  

Now, let us understand how to know our core priorities in a professional context.

How to know our core priorities?

When we are growing up on a career ladder, our core priorities will also change with reference to our position or title.

for example,

when you are a junior executive in finance functions, your priority might be "bills accounting." When you become a finance head in the organization, your priority might be "ensuring the positive cash flow."

So, your position determines your core priorities. Your position demands specific accountability or result or deliverables from you, which determines your priority.

Hence, we must have clarity about our accountability with reference to our position.

For example, if you are the business head of the organization, you are accountable for profit, growth, and ensuring sustaining the business. If you articulate your key accountability, the expected result of your position, you can list down the activities which are priorities to meet your result expectation.

Many of us are mixing up with activities and accountability part together. Eventually, we are happy with the list of activities and being busy. When we are busy with activities, and at the end of the day, when we are not delivering the results as expected, we feel guilt or think that we are not good at time management.

The most critical part in knowing the priorities is defining your accountability or expected deliverables regarding your position. That step will give you clarity on what should be your core priorities.

The second part is knowing where we are with reference to core priorities.

How to find our gap on the current level of time management (Priority management)?

Let me share my personal experience on understanding the gap next week.

Have a great week ahead!

Are we managing time or priorities?

 Are we managing time or priorities? 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

One of the frequently asked questions in most of my management sessions is "How to manage time?".

The intention behind the question is to learn some proven techniques that can help us manage time. There are many books and resources to guide us with numerous techniques for managing time well. In fact,i had tested the checklist, formats, alarm system to prompt to keep my timing alert. But those efforts are not sustained because managing time is driven by internal motivation than external. We cannot manage the time to go slow or move fast or take a pause.

We need to understand the inner concern or dilemma we are going through when we worry about our time management. Even after doing many activities in a day, we feel guilt that we have not done what we suppose to do. When we do not spend our time on our own priorities, we feel guilty about our way of working. That is a conflict issue of what we want to do and what we do.

When we know our prime priorities, accordingly, we direct our energy and time towards them. In case if the work environment is not conducive for focusing on our priorities, we will make an effort to create an environment.

One of the busiest CEO of the conglomerate mentioned that amidst his busy professional and personal commitments, he ensured that he read a book on avg one per week. How does he find time for that activity? Since he believes that reading books is one of his priorities, he finds time to make it happen. He may probably not claim that he does not have time to watch movies or go to parties as those may not be his priorities. The key is he is thoroughly aware of his prime requirements.

If we know our priorities and spend time on those activities, we need not concern about time management techniques.

The action area would be

First, we need to be aware of our pattern of activities and the time consumption in a day.
Second, we need to know our priorities which will give more happiness or satisfaction at the end of the day.

Once we are aware of it, we can avoid some of the activities, improve our skills, or delegate to others to get our core priorities done and feel satisfied at the end of the day.

Have a productive week ahead!

Atomic Habits -Book Review

 Atomic Habits -Book Review 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Recently read the book "Atomic Habits"  as suggested by one of my client's business head.

An atom, even though a small fraction of a larger system, the energy for the large system is derived from atoms. In the same way, in professional or personal life, any big success is achievable only through adopting some of the habits daily.

The author explains the compounding effects of 1% improvements daily, leading to 37 times better in a year.

The author puts that the difference between winner and loser is in efforts or in polishing the process than the setting the goal. Everyone sets the goal either in business or sports, and only a few people succeed. The reason lies in the consistency of practice.

Also the book helps the reader to practice the new habit formation and giving up some bad habits through four step-by-step processes and the explanation of the science behind each approach.

Unlike research books, the author explains the concepts from personal, sports and business which is easily relatable and easy to read.

If you would like to get more perspective on habit formation practices, recommend this book to read.

Given below the link.
 

https://amzn.to/3AbiCSY

Resilience and quality of network

 Resilience and quality of network 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

Recently read an interesting research article, and the insight may be helpful to you. Some people easily overcome any setbacks in life, and some struggle to overcome them, reflecting their resilience power. Resilience is nothing but the ability to bounce back from challenging situations emotionally and physically.

Most of us may be thinking that resilience is something inherent quality within us. However, the research article indicates that people with high resilience power have a good network of people or forums to develop their resilience.

For example, if you have a network of good friends or like-minded people in your professions and whenever you face challenging situations, you may interact with them and get different ideas/views to overcome the problem. That kind of association enables one to look at the situations from a different perspective than those who do not build that network.

The key learning is how we develop our network with worthy or reliable people, which may help us develop the capability to overcome any challenging situations.

When i was reflecting on this key insight,i realized that some of my friends, when they had a challenging situation in their career, they used to approach many people and sought their views (not seeking employment help) on solving the problems and successfully managed the crisis.

Developing a vast network is relatively easy for some people, and it may be difficult for some. However, we can create a quality relationship with a few reliable people who can guide us during a tough time. They could be your spouse, friends, mentors, colleagues, senior people, or any professional forums that can guide you without any bias.

We need to ask ourselves is "Do we have trustworthy, reliable sources or relationships in our life whom we can approach when we have challenges in life?"

If yes, then we are leading a healthful life;

If not, then we need to develop a quality relationship or network now…!

Have a great week ahead.

Key learnings on developing conflict management competency

 Key learnings on developing conflict management competency 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we have discussed the various aspects of developing conflict management competency in a professional environment for the last 12 weeks, let us summarize the key learnings before moving to a new topic.
 

• When you are growing up on a career ladder, one of the key competencies you need to develop is conflict management competency. Competency is all about how you are getting things done from a diverse group of people and at the same time maintaining a cordial relationship.
• The diverse group would be your boss, your customer, your colleagues, or your direct reportees.
• The conflict or difference arises on thought process, values, looking at the problems and solutions methodologies. Sometimes due to misinterpretation of communication and the tone itself.
• The difference arises in the workplace since others come from different backgrounds, look at the problems from different perspectives, have different priorities, and inherent issues like fear of facing challenges, failures, and personal securities. Once you understand the causes of differences, you tend to accept them as part of your professional activities rather than personal differences.
•  We have discussed the three dynamics of conflicts—Power, Goal, and Relationship. The effective way we manage the power, goal, and relationship, we become better in managing the conflicts. Awareness of that combination and its effect determine the right approach to deal with the difference. 
• When you are growing up, your power also goes up. Power means the ability to get things done. Effective people look at power as an opportunity to guide, help, facilitate others when they encounter conflicts.
• When you have a conflict with juniors, you can use a compassionate approach in which you educate, guide, and convince them to get things done and earn respect from others. Alternatively, you can choose a constructive dominant approach when you feel others cannot learn or go against organizational objectives.
• When you have a conflict with equal power, say with your colleagues, you can think of a higher purpose that makes you more powerful than others.
• Generally, effective people listen to others to understand other’s perspectives, give the third dimension to the problem, and try to settle third angle solution, flexible to change the views if it serves the higher or organizational purpose. They take Parent-child, Teacher-student relationship patterns to solve the conflict with anyone.

When we look at our life journey as success or failure, that will have a strong relationship with how we deal with the conflict WITHIN ourselves or WITH OTHERS at some point in time.

That awareness and striving to learn the conflict management competency will help manage any conflict.

The key focus for any manager or leader is to get things done and maintain the emotional balance with self and others.

Let us discuss a new topic next week, and have a great week ahead till then!