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Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Seven ways to manage to your boss

08 fév

Does the idea of managing your boss seem like a paradoxical concept? If it does, then think again. It is said that « if you do not manage your boss, the boss cannot manage you« .

Research shows that the main reason behind many employees quitting is because of the unhealthy relation that they share with their bosses. It is also said that people do not quit jobs, rather they quit their bosses. Sometimes the responsibilities bogging the managers down may make them forget that the people working under them are humans too. So, if you need to work in tandem, you have to get your relation with your boss straight. Still wondering how? Read on.

giant-boss-manage-your-boss

The kind of roles that the bosses play today is completely different from the kinds that they played in the days of yore. Responsibilities as well as priorities have undergone a sea-change. If you feel that your boss is a monster who refuses to listen to you and is hell-bent on making your life as difficult as it comes, you are not alone. Everyday, thousands of employees seek the services of counselors both inside the office as well as outside it. The most frequent complaints are extremely high stress levels due to bad relationships with bosses. People spend considerable amount of time in their offices. In fact, the better half of the day is spent there. If you do not share a rapport with your seniors and colleagues, you are making life difficult for everyone. Is there a way out of the catch-22 situation? Can you be productive yet share a healthy bonding with your senior? The answer, fortunately, is yes! All we need to do is follow some easy steps and keep in mind that when one thing goes out of hand, another is waiting for your approval. It does not mean that you indulge in job-hopping. It just means that with a little effort, things could be made better and peace can prevail. Managing your boss well so that he can manage you better is what is needed.

The following 7 tips will help you to manage your boss better:

1.    Never gossip with anybody about your boss.

Although gossiping about how cruel your boss is to your co-workers might seem to be best way to vent your frustration, trust me, it is not. Gossip has a tendency to leak. It gives away a very negative impression. Your boss will surely lose faith in you forever in case he gets to hear about this. You may end up jeopardising your future prospects in the company if you get labeled as a motor-mouth.

2.    Talk to him straight.

Rather than grumbling how much pressure you have on your shoulders, it is best to talk to him straight. Tell him what kind of work you would prefer. It might seem like a futile idea to begin with but this is the stepping stone to a mature and understanding relationship with your boss. Learn to respect the fact that your boss will never come to know what you want until you make it a point to tell him directly. However, do not be disheartened if the strategy does not work out from the beginning. Be patient.

3. Remain committed to your boss.

No matter how irritating a piece of work might seem, if you follow through as you are supposed to, you will win your boss’s vote for sure. Remaining nonchalant and shrugging work are surefire signs of getting into your boss’s mental « non-working workers » chart. It is in the best interests of every body if people start co-operating and working towards the company’s goals rather than harboring petty rivalries.

3.    Provide solutions and not problems.

Instead of constantly hounding your boss with umpteen problems, try providing solutions sometimes. This will help bolster faith in you. No one likes to be served with a platter of problems everyday. A work well done is definitely your credit so try and solve as much as you possibly can on your very own.

4.    Be attentive.

Remember that your boss has more experience and does actually know more than you do. Learn to listen to his advice and act out accordingly. Never start office with a notion that the boss’s job is to make your life hell. He is just doing his job by being harsh on you. Meeting the company’s goals is his responsibility and not doing so lends him a bad name. Respect him as well as his advice.

5.    Find out what your boss prefers.

While some may like written reports, some may favor to talk it out straight. Find out what he likes and value his preferences. Contrary to popular belief, constantly rubbing him the wrong way is not how you should go about it. Every work place has a culture that must be respected and adhered to. Presenting reports in a manner he prefers helps you in the long run.

7. Remember that your boss is human.

A job at the top end of the spectrum is lonely and wrought with responsibilities. Forgive your boss for being cranky at times. He too, after all, is human.

 
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Posted in Business, Management

 

4 Psychological Needs Help Deal With Conflict

20 oct

Internal conflimagesict, conflict within yourself, reflects the difference between what you really feel and what you are able or choose to do about it. Interpersonal conflict occurs between you and another person when what they do or say is different to what you feel and vice-versa.

Everyone has four basic psychological needs. These are the need to be valued, to be in control, the need for self esteem or self worth, and lastly the need for consistency or stability.

1. The need to be valued or appreciated by others is a basic psychological requirement

You want others to recognize your worth and appreciate your contributions. You are more motivated when your contributions are recognized. When you feel unappreciated, taken advantage of, or taken for granted your need to be appreciated and valued has been violated and this can trigger a response of fear, anger or frequently both.

2. The need to be in control

Being in control is important for everyone, but more for some than others. The more insecure you feel about yourself, the more controlling you may become. On the other hand, if you feel secure and confident about yourself, then your need to control others will reduce.

Whenever you have to deal with an over controlling person remember their need to control comes from their insecurity. Make them feel secure and their need to control will normally reduce.

3. The need for self esteem and self worth

By this I mean you should appreciate yourself and look to your strengths rather than any weakness (we all have both). A strong self esteem gives you a powerful, solid base for dealing with all types of problems and situations.

With a strong self esteem, you have the ability to positively respond or react to any type of situation, rather than reacting negatively by panicking of avoiding the potential conflict.

4. The need to be consistent

You need to know what is likely to happen in any given situation. You need consistency from family, partners, friends, everyone in your life otherwise you are always anxious about the unexpected.

This is not to say that no-one can change their minds but someone who changes opinions or reacts differently to the same situation brings a level of insecurity in to your life and you never know how to react.

The reason some people feel the need to change comes from their insecurity. They are insecure in themselves so they try to fit in with others all the time and will agree with whoever they feel is the most dominant personality.

Whenever any of these needs are not met conflicts, internal, external or both, are produced and people usually react in one of four ways.

They can retaliate, dominate, isolate, or cooperate.

Retaliation and domination can result in extreme violence. Isolation separates the parties but does not resolve the conflict whereas with cooperation one party allows their feelings to be ignored and accepts the opinion of another over their own.

If you are aware of these basic needs and reactions you will begin to understand how and why you and others react the way you do. Considering these needs, understanding them and acting upon them will make you a more complete and therefore a more confident person and will give you strength at times of conflict.

 
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Posted in Business

 

Business Process Re-engineering

29 sept

Business process re-engineering (BPR) sounds esoteric at best, and maybe a little pretentious. Wouldn’t it be simpler to say business process change?

Most people understand what a business process is but when you combine it with re-engineering, it suddenly sounds vague.

The ProSci-sponsored BPR Online Learning Center calls a business process “a set of activities that transform a set of inputs into a set of outputs (goods or services) for another person or process using people and tools.”

It is simple. The way we interpret that is:

  • there are many ways of doing business,
  • when one of those ways does not work or is considered to be ineffective it has to be improved,
  • certain elements are introduced to make it better (“inputs”),
  • those elements translate into a better product or service,
  • that product or service is supposed to serve another person (a customer, a supplier, a partner)

    • Business process flow chart

    That’s elementary enough, but why do business processes have to be re-engineered?

    It’s All About the Customer (and Competition)

    The philosophy behind business process re-engineering is to please the customer. By delighting him, we get to keep him, turning him into a loyal disciple.

    Rivals have a sneaky way of snatching customers away from us. It’s not because this world is full of sly and evil people, it’s because we tend to sit on our bottoms and think that we’ve finally got it made. We’ve become lax.

    Business process improvement, according to ProSci, is not be confused with business process re-engineering. Instead of improving on current processes, the re-engineering concept says that because the technique is no longer viable, it has to be replaced, abandoned. There’s a need to establish a clean slate, as the BPR Online Learning Center teaches us.

    Business process re-engineering, just like the DMAIC in Six Sigma, presupposes a series of stages: stage 1 involves a definition of the project – its rationale, objectives and scope. Stage 2 covers the entire learning process wherein we obtain as much information as we can about our employees, customers, suppliers and competitors – including non-competitors and align that new information with technology.

    Armed with this knowledge, the next stage – stage 3 – is to set up our mission. Others call it a vision of the future. This requires a new set of business processes. Once we’ve determined the desired outcome of this transition, we move on to the next stage which calls for a plan of action that allows us to measure the gap between our company’s present state and where we want it to go.

    When we get to this stage, solutions logically follow.

    If you’re still wondering what distinguishes business process improvement from business process re-engineering, think of the starting point: are you starting from an existing process and want to improve on it, or do you want to start from scratch?

    Thanks to Information Technology

    Jump to globalization. We’re ushering in new technologies and they’re coming faster than we can learn them. There’s also this whole new talk about customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. We’re huffing and puffing and bursting at the seams. Businesses that have not adapted to global trends or introduced newer technologies into their operations will be clobbered by the competition. Today’s companies cannot afford to sit back and watch while others struggle with changes in the industry.

    Thanks to information technology and the creation of new business models, the world of e-commerce has given new meaning to the way we do business.

    As Hui-Liang Tsai puts it, “e-commerce is no longer a way to gain competitive advantage, it is a competitive imperative.” (Information Technology and Business Process Re-engineering: New Perspectives and Strategies, Praeger Publishers, Connecticut, 2003).

    While companies are trying to keep up with technologies, customers are also changing. They are more demanding and are never satisfied. They fall out of love, and don’t necessarily have to explain why.

    Picture the speed with which information is transmitted with just a click of the mouse. It used to be that urgent documents had to be couriered by special messenger or faxed immediately; today, documents are electronically portable. Mr. Tsai says that this phenomenon alone is producing a new crop of workers – he calls them knowledge workers. We are looking at the transformation of industrial society into an information society.

    Progress in information technology is only one of the many reasons why companies have embraced business process re-engineering. If organizations desperately want to succeed, first they need information – truckloads of it. Second, they need to know how to turn that information to their advantage. The practice of business process re-engineering can refine a lot of that information into digestible parts.

     
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    Posted in Business, Management, Project Management

     
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