How does decision-making improve self-confidence?

 How does decision-making improve self-confidence? 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we are discussing the myths about decision making, one of the myths is that self-confident people are capable of making decisions as they are sure in their thinking process to select the right choices. It may be partially true as naturally, the decision-making is obvious for them.

In reality, not all people are confident in all circumstances. One finding says that 85 % of people suffer from low self-esteem, affecting communication and decision-making capability in the professional environment. How to improve the confidence of those people to make better decisions?

In my personal experience, whenever i  struggle with low confidence in any aspect, i use to make decisions and then act on them in a small way; eventually, it improves my confidence. 

The process goes like this. When we decide to work on any issues, there is always a 50 % probability of success. That probability of success will give positive reinforcement to take slightly higher-level decisions and actions. Inturn that likelihood of success leads to making even more higher-level decisions and actions. In that way, an individual can increase confidence.

For example,

Most of us have fear in public speaking or stage fear to communicate the idea or present. When you decide to crack and plunge into action by addressing a few of your known colleagues or friends, you positively reinforce speaking in a small gathering.

Next time, when you decide to do it in a larger audience of known people, your subconscious mind pushes positively, as you already demonstrated in a small group. So, you can make it relatively easy.

Next time, when you decide to do it in a larger audience of unknown people, your previous decision and success positively push you to do it well.

 By doing so many times, your confidence in public speaking improves as you primarily decide to do it.


Hence, when you make a small series of decisions and actions in any professional challenges or workplace issues, the probability of success makes you a more confident person rather than being a confident person makes you a good decision-maker.
 
As a professional, the more you motivate yourself to take a series of minor decisions and actions, eventually, that will make you more confident in your professional life.
 
Have a great week ahead.

"i need to be efficient in decision making."

 "i need to be efficient in decision making."

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Last week, we discussed a misconception and reasoning behind  " indecisiveness," there is one more misconception, which is quite opposite of indecision. That is urge on "i need to be more efficient on decision making."
 
According to this mindset, we measure our efficiency as the speed of making decisions and the quantum of decisions we take every day. Compared to inactiveness, efficiency is relatively better, however, what matters for managers and leaders is effectiveness—the impact of the decisions on others and the business.
 
For example, consider this situation.
 
In one of the organizations, the business head is engaged and busy in instructing the team on many trivial issues like approving the leave application, fixing the connectivity issues by calling the relevant agency, and so on. Despite having an excellent team to do all mundane decisions and actions, he seemed fulfilled when he engaged himself in many trivial decisions.

Eventually, he is getting decision fatigue. Most of the critical business decisions like streamlining delivery, productivity, and supply chain decisions are not being taken by him, which he only can take decisions in the organization. The urge and practice of involving and jumping into all decisions eventually affect the organization's prospects.
 
When you are growing, it is expected to make impactful decisions than the speed of the decisions, even in trivial issues.

I have witnessed one of my ex-colleague who was considered a bright candidate at a young age due to his speed in making decisions and making things happen. When he was promoted to senior management level, he eventually lost his creditability due to his impulsive decision-making style in many initiatives, which backfired against him and the organization.
 
Except in emergencies, quick  / speed decisions are not required to solve chronic issues or any strategic future-related challenges. 
 
Having the idea of being efficient by making fast, more decision-making is just a misconception. It just needs awareness!

As professionals, we need to be aware of our effectiveness by making impactful decisions that we can only take.

Have a great week ahead.
 

i need to make the right decision always !!!

  I need to make the right decision always !!!

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

One of the myths most of us have in the workplace on making decisions is "i need to make the right decision."
 

The mindset of always making the right decision leads to either perfectionism or looking for more data/ facts and too much analysis, eventually ending up with not making any decisions or delaying the decisions.

Obviously, we come to know whether the decision is right or wrong only when taken and not while finalizing the choice.

The effect of this mindset makes the people either too passive in not making decisions or being rude to prove to the world that their decision is right at any cost. Both behaviors are not good for the individual and the organization.

For example, as a manager, you need to decide to recruit a person after an interview. Instead of focusing too much on the right or wrong recruit, you have a choice to focus on the process of shortlisting, interview methodology, and make a deliberate choice. You will come to know whether the decision is right or wrong only after the person joins the organization and performs.

The capability is expected from the manager or leader is the ability to choose with the given facts than looking for too much perfectionism or worrying too much about the consequence.

Another example, as we are aware of the decision taken by the TATA group some years ago, to launch a low-cost, affordable car (NANO). During that time, it was applauded as bold, correct decisions. Today, they stopped manufacturing the model itself due to various reasons. Would we say it was the wrong decision? No…When they decided with the good intentions of providing affordable cars, the assumptions were different. Today they decided to stop manufacturing with the market reality as it was different from the earlier hypotheses. They demonstrated leadership by making decisions with the right motive and available data points.

In professional life, depending upon the role and the situations, we need to make decisions with good intentions and available information; time only will decide whether the decision is right or wrong. We need not worry too much about the consequence.

Also, we need to understand that decision-making is not an event; it is a process. That means it is continuous and ongoing.

Hence, as a manager/ leader, we need to decide with available facts and the right motive than worrying too much about the consequences of always being RIGHT.

It is better to be active by making decisions than to be passive by not making timely decisions.

We need to be aware of our mindsets towards labeling the decisions as right or wrong.

Let us discuss some more myths next week.

Developing Decision Making Skill @ workplace

 Developing Decision Making Skill @ workplace 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

One of the competencies a professional should develop is making decisions in personal and professional life.

Generally, some of the decisions we take quickly without much thinking and effort like which dress to wear, what to eat, etc. Because those decisions are routine and no risk. Some decisions are difficult to make as it calls for more thought-process and effort. For example, should i switch careers from one industry to another?  should i diversify my business now or later? Should we buy petrol or an electric vehicle?

We are stuck in making decisions when there is ambiguity in the facts/assumptions and unsure about the future consequences. Most of the decisions in a professional environment are complex and uncertain; how to develop decision-making competency as a leader?

Why do we need to develop decision-making competency?

From a personal perspective, we are getting confidence only through our actions. When we decide and take actions, that will boost our confidence to take higher decisions and actions. we are growing only through our choices and actions

From a professional perspective, when we are growing up, we are being paid to make the right decisions based on the set of data or assumptions. Managers and Leaders are meant for making decisions, either right or wrong.

"decisions followed by action leads to results either good or bad."

Whatever we are today due to the combination of various decisions we took in life in many instances.

 
For example,

i decided to attend one training programme in 2008 despite time and high cost, which transformed my career.
i took an impulsive decision in one of the investments, which affected me heavily on the financial front
i took a decision to reject a career change opportunity from manufacturing to IT consulting, which helped me in the long term with high returns 

Whether the outcome is right or wrong, we make some decisions, which shape us into what we are today.
 
You may relate your life and the decisions you have taken in many instances that positively or negatively impact your quality of life.
 
 In a professional setup, given any circumstances, how we develop decision-making skills depends on how we process the information and counter the consequences. It needs some awareness of ourselves and the decision-making process.
 
 Let us discuss some of the insights in the following weeks to get more awareness of the decision-making process.
 

• Misconceptions on decision making
• Why do we have decision dilemmas or hesitate to take decisions in a professional environment?
• How to overcome the decision dilemma or hesitation?
• Skills to develop on solving problems
• Tools and Techniques that help you to make decisions easily
• How to inculcate the culture of decision-making in the organization?

Have a great week ahead!

Being aware of your time spending pattern

 Being aware of your time spending pattern 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

We discussed the first important step to effective time management is knowing our priorities with reference to our position. The second step is being aware of current priorities or time management.

How to find your current level of time management effectiveness?

Some people are gifted with an inherent, sharp awareness of self, and they manage their time well. For others, a conscious attempt is required to be aware of the self-time spending pattern.

For those, the following methodology will help. This simple methodology worked me very well when i did in my current role, and some insights enabled me to change some of my behaviors in spending time in some low-level activities, and i could find some alternatives for the activities which i cannot delegate.

Hope this  method may be helpful to you as well
 
1. For a week, track your activities for every 15 min ~30 min time slot and note down the activities. For example, Travelling to work from 8 am to 8.45 am; spending time in meeting from 2 pm to 3 pm; Preparing a presentation for customers from 10 am to 11.30 am and spending time in the mobile app from 6 pm to 7 pm and so on.
2. Once you consciously track the activities for a week, you can group the activities under major categories like meeting time, traveling time, complaint resolution, spending time with colleagues, etc.


3. when you analyze your time with reference to various activities, you will find a pattern of useful, relevant activities to your prime priorities. You will find some irrelevant, not much useful, or useless activities that you can avoid or delegate to someone. You will get insights into your spending pattern and some of your behaviors that lead to spending in activities.

Once you know your pattern and its relevance to your current role, you may change your habits and delegation style.
 
To summarise,

Time management is priority management. We need to be clear about what is required for our role, and we need to be aware of the gap in our time spending pattern with reference to our core priorities.

Awareness is the first step for subsequent actions like avoiding, delegating, combining with other activities.

Have a great week ahead!

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!