Creating the Best Work Culture:

The work culture is the key to high performance.

More important, influencing the work culture is a manager's best opportunity for creating high performance. "Culture" is a 24-hours-a-day training program that exists inside any organization. It's teaching and influencing all the time. Sometimes it's teaching what we like it to teach, and sometimes it's not. It's very difficult to "swim upstream" against the culture.



For example, you can teach value added and long-term relationships all you want, but if the work culture is really about short-term, adversarial relationships with clients, that's what you're going to get--that plus a lot of confusion.



The best of all possible worlds is a consistent, positive, reinforcing culture--and good sales managers are discovering that the best way to leverage their efforts is to manage the culture. After more than 10 years of research, we've come up with five factors that are critical to creating and maintaining a high-performance work culture. Listed in order of importance, they are:



1. A Shared Sense Of Mission Or Purpose. It's the culture equivalent to purpose. It answers the questions "What's expected around here, what do we do, and why do we do it?" If the only answer that you have is "making money," be prepared for your people to ask for as much as they can get for doing as little as they can. On the other hand, if you've taken the time to establish a mission--and especially if you've taken the time to involve your people in the process--that larger sense of mission will help people focus on achieving their part of the mission.



2. Clear And Attainable Goals. People perform best when they have specific goals. Goals that are reachable yet that stretch them. Don't tell people what to do, or how to do it, but give them the map, the destination, and sometimes the general direction in which to start.



3. Frequent Objective Feedback. People learn quickly and work well when they are told how they're doing. Debrief and summarize every joint call you make. Don't assume that people know how they're doing or know what you think. Lead with positive information first, but always be honest, objective, and specific. Help your people learn from every selling experience.



4. Positive Rewards For Appropriate Or Approximate Performance. Selling is like playing tennis: Very few people get it right the first time. Sincere, positive reinforcement ("You did that really well." "You really understand this." "You're doing a great job.") helps people learn. Catch people doing something right, and tell them about it.



5. Timely Support And Help When Requested Or Needed. This is an issue of priorities for most sales managers. It's deciding what your job is. Are you there to track numbers and quotas, or are you there to support your people? Clearly, both jobs have to be done, but the job of coach is the critical job in creating a high-performance team.

What an Employee Wants?

1.“I want... A job that gives me the chance to be creative

2.“I want... A career and not just a job”

3. “I want... The opportunity to enhance my career”

4. “I want... A company that makes me feel an important part of the team”

5. “I want... A company that invests in people”

6. “I want... A job that gives me the chance to be creative”

7. “I want... A career and not just a job”

8. “I want... To work for a company that recognizes my achievements”

9. “I want... A job that gives me the right work-life balance”

10. “I want... A Company that really listens to its people

Nine Qualities all HR Professionals:

Nine Qualities all HR Professionals:
1. Clarity of Thoughts

2. Efficiency in Time Management

3. Compare Performances / Compare Situations & Circumstances but do not compare individuals / People

4. Knowledge about the Business and Industry

5.Vision and Goal for the Department

6. Team and Organization

7. Love for Number / Data / Figures / Calculations / Analysis / Projections

8. Enthusiasm to Share / Develop / Coach and Mentor, Self Discipline

9. Trust Worthy

Grooming at Workplace

Grooming at Workplace:

Proper grooming and professional appearance are important to gain not just positive impression but also respect in the workplace. Here I address some of the most common grooming challenges faced in today’s workplace.

·      Be cautious with bright colors. Clothes that are too flashy can be distracting. Darker colors usually convey a stronger impression than lighter ones. If you're giving a presentation, make sure the color you're wearing doesn't blend in with the background behind you. Whether you’re wearing traditional business dress or business casual, wrinkled, dirty, or smelly clothing is a sure image-killer.

·      Facial hair needs to be kept trim and tidy to maintain a professional look. Any hair that's under your lower lip that isn't a beard is not a good idea, No matter how much you want to grow a full beard, it just might not look right on you, just like a haircut - not every cut is going to look good on every person,

·      Three accessories that get noticed most on both men and women, are the Shoes, watch and the pen. Make sure your shoes are polished and in good condition. Carry a decent looking pen. Preferably a fountain pen with non smudge ink. Avoid pens with transparent and cheap plastic bodies. Watches for both men and women should be the highest quality one can afford. Thin styles are preferred over heavier styles, sport watches, or novelty watches. No matter what watch you wear, you’re making a statement about who you are and what’s important to you.

·      Accessories are meant to complement your outfit, not overpower it. Keep it to the minimal and avoid very large pieces. Ladies must make sure that their jewelry shouldn't make noise. Multiple rings, bracelets, and necklaces can get in the way of your work and project an image of being extreme. Tie pins with shining rhine stones are not for work.  keep neckties secure by tucking the narrow end through the label on the underside of the wide end.  Plain metallic Cuff links are always in style. women with multiple ear piercings should limit earrings to one per ear and men should remove all earrings. If one has tattoos or non-ear piercings, keep them out of sight while at work.

·      Avoid Fingernails that are too long or are unkempt. Never be seen with chipped nail polish . If you're going to show your toes, make sure your hands and  toes are well-groomed

·      Avoid bathing yourself in strong perfumes. A perfume that one may find delightful can be downright offensive to someone else. And for those who like to remove his or her shoes during the workday, foot odor can be quite offensive to fellow workers. Be conscious. If you must wear fragrance, do so lightly. Consider a scented skin lotion instead of perfume or cologne.

·      Overdone makeup is unattractive at any age. Makeup application is an art and, unfortunately, most women fall victim to products and styles not suitable for their coloring, age. Choose your makeup carefully and keep it light.

·      There’s little worse than having a conversation with someone who has foul-smelling breath. Keep a toothbrush and toothpaste in your desk in order to brush after eating. Use mouth fresheners if you smoke.

From bad breath to plunging necklines, slurping soup to presentation paralysis….a lot can go wrong at work. I will handle these issues in the coming articles.

Have a great day ahead!!

Reflection

REFLECTION......
Where have our values gone??? And this question has always been bugging me since couple of years. Why are modern kids the way they are? Is it the modern life with modern gadgets?? Is it too much stress?? Lack of time?? Working parents? Competition?? What could be the reason for these kids to be walking around as mini Devils with foul language, selfish natures, disrespect and me first attitude??

I would like to share an incident I witnessed recently. At an underground parking lot in one of the malls, I was waiting to take the space of a car which was about to pull out and leave. My car blinkers were clearly indicating that I was waiting for that slot …but to my surprise, the moment the space was empty, and I was about to accelerate to take that space, another high end car with loud blaring music drove past me and quickly grabbed that space. I rolled down my window and told them politely that I had been waiting for that space patiently and could they please find another spot?? Out came a teenage couple , and the boy showed me the middle finger saying _ _ yours!! Gosh, I was stunned… They appeared to be from a good family. Why were they behaving so disrespectfully?? Where did they pick up that horrible abuse from?? I held myself back from yelling. Who would want to be bombarded with choicest of abuses? To treat a person with respect is to acknowledge and preserve their human dignity. To treat a person with disrespect is to attack their human dignity.

Got me thinking, what’s happening to our modern generation?? Why do they disrespect people?? What in the world have we done to our kids? It appears that they are unprepared to deal with the real world. They are undisciplined, disrespectful, and disobedient to their parents, selfish, self-centered, and completely addicted to the gadget world.

A beautiful saying goes: "Before you go and criticize the younger generation, just remember who raised them." - Kids have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They are like mirrors and reflect back to us everything we say and do. Human brain is like a tape recorder. Every experience is permanently recorded in our subconscious.. What we speak and how we behave is what we teach.

Children record every behavior and word we ever say in front of them. The language children grow up hearing is the language they will speak, the gestures we use become their gestures. Children imitate what we do. If we expect children to have manners, to be honest, kind, respectful, we must do and be those things in front of them so they will have that model to imitate.

When children live with disrespect, they learn disrespect. We can teach respect only by treating each other with respect and by giving children the same respect we expect. Even if we do not display the disrespectful behavior, there are many things we do and say to children, of which we aren't even aware that they are disrespectful.

When a child behaves in a way that we don't like, we must ask ourselves, "Am I displaying that behavior?" If your answer is, "No," then something else is causing the behavior and you need to find help. Learn to train yourselves to think before you speak in front of children, by remembering that everything we say will be recorded and imitated. Avoid abusive language, gestures, yelling, shouting and putting people down. Law of karma- “what goes around, comes around” and here, its coming right back to u from your own kids.

How we treat them and how we treat others in front of them is what we teach them. Once your little mini-me starts interacting with the public, you become an open book. You might want to start changing how it reads…..

Give and Take

Give and Take

Barter system has been in place since ages. We buy things and we pay in return.  If you are good at something, sometimes you barter services to balance it out. Give and take has been the motto…..but don’t you think, we humans have carried it too far….we have started the barter system in relationships too. If you love me, I will love you, if you buy this for me, I will do that….blah blah….the list goes on and on… Remember friends…we are humans…we have different emotions. It’s not necessary that if you love someone, that person returns it with the same intensity. Sometimes, it may be much more than your expectations and on other times if may be very disappointing. It is very difficult to turn others toward us whom we love more than anything in this world. We crave for their attention & love, but they can't reciprocate as we do.

The love always must be unconditional and without expectations. When we love others we love with the feeling of possessiveness. We expect them to behave according to our wishes. We want them to be answerable for everything…their time, their money, their friends… And there starts the trouble of all misgivings and misunderstandings!!  Every person has a right to live. Do not try to choke people by getting into their space. Let them breathe... The unconditional love we show or share should give freedom to that person. Only then there will be a beautiful harmony between the two who are in love.

Have you ever tried to hold the sand in a tight fist?? What happens?? The sand slips out from the space between your fingers…but if you keep the palm open, the sand stays. Relationships are just like this…the tighter you hold with possessiveness, the faster you lose out on them, but if you keep the palm open.... let the person breathe….love without conditions, the faster they grow.

  But, do understand the difference between “unconditional love” and Co-dependent love.   Codependent love implies that one attempts to meet all of the needs of the other, read their minds, to accept and overlook all of the partner’s behaviors and actions no matter how selfish or demanding. However, unconditional love does not mean putting your self esteem at stake or becoming a doormat. You can be together with someone and still remain fully yourself — as a person you like and respect. Unconditional love in a relationship begins with oneself. To set the foundation you must first have a strong sense of self-esteem and self-confidence. View yourself as lovable and worthy

The first step toward loving your partner unconditionally is learning to love yourself unconditionally. It requires understanding and communicating your own boundaries and limits, yet being flexible enough to adapt and compromise when possible. And most of all, it requires a daily mutual commitment to maintaining the health of the relationship and nurturing the bonds of love

When we love someone without expecting anything in return, that is when your love is unconditional, that brought you together in the first place. There is also a quote by Paulo Coelho in his novel The Alchemist that "One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving." Think about it!!

Smile or Sorry

Smile or Sorry?

With everything that happens to you, you get the two “S” or two “O’’s to choose from.   You can either feel SORRY for yourself or just SMILE it away. You can either look at it as an OPPORTUNITY to grow or an OBSTACLE to keep you from growing. Every situation has a positive and a negative attached to it. We tend to flow with our feelings at that moment…and look at just the dark side of the situation. Well, I am not telling you not to feel sad…but after you’ve cried your eyes out…sit in calmness… and think. Tears have washed away the foggy visions now…look at the situation differently…with clear eyes…and Voila…I promise you….things will appear different.

Here’s a story I read on the net sometime back which is so relevant to what I am trying to say:-

A famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:

    **Last year, I had a surgery and my gallbladder was removed. I had to stay stuck to the bed due to this surgery for a long time.
    **The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favorite job. I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.
    **The same year I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father.
    **And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in bed at hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of car was another loss.

AT THE END HE WROTE: ALAS! IT WAS SUCH BAD YEAR!!

When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it on the side of her husband's writing.

When the writer saw this paper, he found this written on it:

    **Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.
    **I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to write something better with more focus and peace.
    **The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical condition met his Creator.
    **The same year, God blessed my son with a new life. My car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability.

AT THE END SHE WROTE: THIS YEAR WAS AN IMMENSE BLESSING OF GOD AND IT PASSED WELL!

See! The same incidents but different viewpoints. If we ponder with this viewpoint that what could have happened more, we would truly become thankful to the Almighty.

Moral: In our daily lives we must see that it's not happiness that makes us grateful but gratefulness that makes us happy.

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for!! Stay Blessed! Next time, when negativity clutches you in its claws, try to control your response- Take a deep breath, leave the place and the people who disturbed you immediately... Once away, calm yourself down. If you respond out of emotion you will only make it worse. Remember Thumper’s rule. “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.”

Divert your attention: Albert Einstein said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Don’t channel your energy into a negative reaction, but into something positive. Maybe listen to some calm soothing music, go for a run, swim, dance...or go for a drive. I personally prefer to meditate on it.

 Accept your mistake and learn from it. Do not let anyone’s opinion become your reality. Be your own judge. Look at the situation from your own eyes.

I know it’s easy said than done. It’s hard for a person who is going through bad times. But believe me, I am not preaching here. I practice these little things. Make it a habit to look at the other side of the situation always, and I am sure you will feel better and get the strength to cope. I have been saying this again and again…..situations don’t last forever…one day they will change! Have patience. Remember-“This Too Shall Pass”.