Series1- Communicate to Save time

So one of my close friends asked how can he improve their communication skills, is there a school for it or some classes? I told him that there is nothing like a right way to communicate its basically your personality in words, however there are some ground rules for effective communication.

So I decided to write a series blogs on Effective Communication in the real world for my readers.  

FYI (Disclaimer)-I am no means an expert in communication skills, however I am writing based on my experience and what has worked and what hasn't.

 The first series is how we can communicate effectively and save time. 

Are you aware that how you communicate can have a direct impact on your time? Clear communication is often the first step in ensuring that activities are finished correctly and on time. Additionally, communication can drain you of time or energy, or it can move you forward toward mutual goals.


State is Clearly - Recently I had sent an email to my colleague in Germany requesting some information on a project. His reply was on a completely different tangent. The first thing that came to my mind was that I didn't clearly state the scope of the request. I had assumed that during my very brief phone conversation with him he understood the scope. In our hurry to move to the next topic I didn't take the necessary time to listen if he understood the information.

* So I would definitely advice readers that it is worth taking the time upfront to ensure that the messages you convey are understood, and that messages you receive are understood. 

* When providing information, ask the other party to repeat key information back to you. If any confusion arises, it can be dealt with immediately, rather than after a project or task has been started or completed incorrectly.

Communication skills are at test when you are very busy (under tight deadlines) and you have constant interruptions.  If you do not have an action plan for dealing with these interruptions, you run the risk of communicating negatively and perhaps damaging relationships.

* Inform those who may interrupt beforehand so that others understand you're busy. This can reduce the numbers of interruptions. 

* When you are interrupted, politely ask how long the conversation will take, and if necessary, ask to schedule for later that day or at your earliest convenience. 

* Let the other person know you're interested in what they need to say, but that you're temporarily unavailable (this technique was used by one of my co-workers). This validates the other party while allowing you to continue your work.

* In addition, turn off your computer's email alert system, so you won't be tempted to check new messages. If needed turn off your phone, and respond to them as soon as you can. 

Much of business and time management comes down to simple communication. When you communicate clearly, without showing disregard for others, you will be able to save time and cultivate positive working relationships.

Rendezvous with Industry Giants

Today my blog is a little different than regular, I wanted to share with the readers my experience from last night after I met few of the big dogs in the finance and corporate industry.

I was every fortunate to be invited to one of these events and all thanks to my husband that I got this opportunity. The event was hosted on Park Avenue in the big apple, I am sure most of you have your eyes all wide open and wondering who are these people that I met last night.

The host & hostess house was full of luxury and warmth. They were extremely courteous inspite one being the managing partner of a huge private equity firm and the other co-founder of a big investment firm. In addition to them there were CEO a huge insurance company, Senior Leader at Wall street, successful entrepreneurs, bankers and the list goes on. In short they are extremely successful, very humble, hard workers and personable people.

All of them told a key element to success  "To be focused" and "work hard for whatever you want in life". One of the seasoned banker said ethics and verbal commitment goes a long way and that is what keeps you in the business. The other leader said that life is all about choices that works for you and not based on how people perceive them.

4 hrs last night just flew in 4 minutes, I enjoyed it so much. As the rendezvous started winding down one thing that stuck with me was always be humble no matter how successful you are !!!!
 

Investing in your career "in thing?"

A regular reader of the blog, emailed and asked me to write a blog on "Is investing in your career an in thing now"? I thought about this on the way back home and tried to answer this from my perspective and actions that I have taken. However I wanted to be fair with the blog, so I decided to do a little research.

My opinion as most of you may know is 'Education' (investing in your career) is the best gift one can get and give themselves. It's something that will always stay with you and become more precious as you grow older. It is the Greatest Return on Investment.

Investing in your career is a long-term commitment which will make you the creme de la creme of your field and among your coworkers. Life Is Too Short for Mediocrity.

Investing in your career is like having the control and power to mold your future, who does not like that

I can't stress it enough; not investing in yourself is like floating down a fast river without a paddle, map or knowledge of what's around the next bend. Things may go fine for a while, but at some point, you're going to realize you made a giant mistake.

Success Secret of Global Icons

Some leaders are born, while some possess special skills that they groom it over period of time and build companies like Microsoft, Google, Dell, Time Warner, Virgin Atlantic and many more not really famous companies that have demonstrated MAGIC FORMULA (read below to know more...).


I have been a big fan of understanding what takes to be one of them. Do they have some magical powers, or special talent. I read over zillion articles and books, and i was proven wrong, these leaders are just like you and me. So what talent sets them different?


I want to share the most inspiring "magic formula", it form of bullets and personal stories to make it and inspiring reading.


MAGIC FORMULA

Master them and you will see the difference in your approach and outlook:


* Have faith in yourself

People will always try to talk you out of ideas and say: ’it can’t be done,’ but if you have faith in yourself you’ll find you can achieve almost anything. People told my father a service man will always stay one, and can never start his own businees and this was almost 30 years back. He had faith in self and in god, and started working at 15 years and today he is a successful business man with a wonderful family. One needs courage and "I Can Do" attitude to take you places.

* Never give up

Richard Branson said in one of his article "A journey of a thousand miles starts with that first step. If you look ahead to the end, and all the weary miles between, with all the dangers you might face, you might never take that first step. And whatever it is you want to achieve in life, if you don't make the effort. You won’t reach your goal. So take the first step. There will be many challenges. You might get knockedback - but in the end, you will make it."

NASA has an awesome quote that i have lived most of my life by "FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION"

If you don't have the right experience to achieve your goals then learn from basic and make your way up. Being a service mans son didn't stop my father to start his own business. He started delivering mails at successful business, saw their working and key pointers, worked as a cloth agent and finally in next 5 years he was manufacturing cloth and selling it to traders. Dad learned many lessons: not just if you want to do something, just do it, but also to prepare well, have faith in yourself, help each other, and never give up

* Believe that anything can be done

Dont day dream and have goals in life to achieve impossible. I started my first charity work when i was 14 years, nothing was impossible all i believed in the cause and did everything in my power to make it successful. The best lesson i learnt was just do it; Once Plato, said,’ The beginning is the most important part of any work.’ Your goals can be small, all you need to do is believe in them, so you are ready for the big leap.

* Live life to the full

Work hard and play hard. Fun is needed to recharge your brain cells to give you 300% to achieve impossible. One can be as successful one wants to, but whats the value of this success when you don't have a family to share with. I don't deny that money is not important. Do things and projects that you enjoy and money will flow because you have put your heart to achieve it.


Woow that is basic, and we all have it then why dont we use it?


One does not need to be another Bill gates or Richard Branson to be a successful leader, be one in your own perspective, follow tour dream and goals, love your self and family (all work and no play will make Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl)


Readers its for you to answer, what is one thing that you will do to apply this MAGIC FORMULA

Social Corporate Responsibility

Few weeks back I attended an event that talked about the top 3 qualities that candidates are looking in last 5 years candidates in a company. One of the quality that stood out was a strong commitment for social corporate responsibility, which followed salary and career development.

So I did a little more research and found Initiatives such as philanthropy, support for community-building initiatives and environmental awareness can add significant value to the company, and if the program is well designed the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Benefits

1) It makes the employee more enthusiastic and opportunity to develop their leadership and project management skills through a well-designed corporate social responsibility program.

2) Socially responsible companies report increased employee commitment, performance and job satisfaction

3) An easy way for your company to build its brand, reputation and public profile- Currently I am part of a program for Boys and Girls Club where I am promoting my company's non-profit initiatives (first in this club) and that has enhanced my companies positive image and broaden their influence.

4) Branding the business as ‘socially responsible’ differentiates you from your competitors- One of the living example of this is Walmart-with their multiple social initiatives they have connected with people at a very personal level.

So what should you do next?

It is a highly competitive world out there. If you want people to buy from you, work for you and invest in you – look seriously at corporate social responsibility.

If your company does not have one then start one yourself at a smaller scale and be the person to influence the culture of the company

Lie and Fake to get in!! Is it worth it?

Last night I was just surfacing the net when I came across a website careerexcuse.com that helps people to get fake a reference or even a company just to get a job.

The founder said that all he is doing is trying to give someone a second chance so that he/she can provide for their families. Well if you see from his perspective it is a blessing and a good-will for people stuck in this situation and a chance to improve themselves.

While if you see this situation from a spectators perspective (almost 80% of the readers) it is unethical (because you are lying on your application) and it will put legitimate references at an unfair disadvantage.

This website made me think why does someone need to lie and use this route. The answer is simple we all make mistakes big or small but we are never forgiven for it. Our mistakes are like bad credit scores it always haunts us and follows us everywhere.

Even if someone wants to genuinely improve our society is not structured to give them a second chance. However I won't blame the society completely for it because there are examples that we all know personally that has burnt us in past by giving people a second chance. I remember 5-6 years back we had a house help that had stolen some money first from my brothers room and few months later from my parents room. He had been at our place for a over 10 years so initially my parents gave him a second chance but he did it again and next time they fired him. His brother and he came back and said he did this only to get some extra money for his wedding , he was extremely sorry and it wont happen again. I asked my parents why didn't you forgive him, he probably learned his lesson. My father said that the trust was broken, today he stole money for one reason tomorrow he may kill us for another.

So what drives people to behave in this fashion; DESPERATION. This could be result of bad economy, pressure to be exclusive, no job, financial needs, family pressure..and the list goes on.

Now the question arises, is it worth it? I personally feel NO. I have met people in my walk of life who have lied and faked their resume or admission application just to get a competitive edge or admission or job. I have seen that these people may have got their foot in the door easily but haven't climbed the ladder successfully. Liars are always going to use lies to try and put themselves at an advantage over honest people. Although they may not get caught but they will forever worry about getting caught.

I personally feel honesty can set you free, however the people or the society needs to be more acceptable and stop dreaming that the world is perfect because they themselves are not.

Should one lie or fake to get a second chance or should our society be more accommodating to ignore mistakes?

Social and Moral Calling be part of it!!!!

After a hectic 7 hrs of travel and flight cancellation, I finally reached my destination. Wasn't all this enough for my day that I had to read this extremely disturbing news in USA today. This made me feel that today instead of my usual blog I would write about social and moral responsibility.

I think most of you have been reading this news since last friday on the Olympic Luge's death. It was extremely heartbreaking news for me. This talented athlete died just under the pressure to prove everyone that he is the fastest Luger. The investigation agencies said that it was luger's fault as he was not well verse and didn't have sufficient runs on Whistler. I mean are you serious; just so that the governing bodies come out clean with this incident we blame everything on the person who died. Do we have any moral responsibility?

I agree that atheltes need to be responsible for their safety, however its the society/coaches that create the pressure to be swifter, higher and stronger. This reminded me of one of the shows that I was watching with my husband while his car was getting fixed; "World's strongest man." It literally shocked me of how we are pushing the laws of human body just to win a title; pulling 22000 ton truck with your body; man this babbles me.

More and more of such titles have emerged these days, "most number of hot-dog eater", "fastest eater" and many more..In this we are not only messing up with our bodies but also fast-tracking our death.

Please don't get me wrong I really admire and commend the athletes (that take part in such competitions) and their dedication. BUT I think we are going beyond the laws of nature and physics.

As I was writing this blog, my brain took this incident a step ahead, which I guess most readers can relate to; "Pushing their children/students beyond their limits to be the best in everything." One of my college mate committed suicide after he could not handle the constant pressure from his parents and professor to be the top in his class. I was completely shattered and his parents have still not forgiven themselves for their act.

As a human its our responsibility to step up and draw a line for these activities, or else one day we will find our own loved ones succumbed to death in-process of achieving such fancy titles. Do you think all this is worth it? If your answer is no then all you need is to influence one person and rest will be history....

Be yourself is the new success mantra!!!!

Today has been a very crazy day for me, however I wanted to make sure I am writing out to my readers everyday as I have promised my self.

As I was heading out to work today, I came across a very interesting article by John Maxwell "Be impressed, not impressive. The article was very interesting, and it talked about how in the process of impressing others we push them further away, we develop pride and become a complete different individual. One should not work on impressing others but be impressed by others acts.

I pondered on this article for a while and concluded that the reason this article is so true because lie and know-it-all attitude does not last for long. One day or the other as my grandfather said "the pot of lies and the hoax that your are perfect will break and who will have no place to hide." The people that are true to themselves and as John Maxwell said charismatic personality are always focused on being honest and helping/listening to others

Networking is the name of the game

This week I attended a networking event which was full of wine and cheese, can you go wrong with it? Never, and to top that there were chocolates too...

All evening I was sipping on my favorite wine Moscato d'asti and enjoying Brie with crackers. The amazing part of this event was that the team that was hosting the wine part of the event met few years back at a similar event and came up with this idea.

Brilliant isn't it? I mean could you imagine, meeting a like minded person in these casual networking events and that leads to your own million dollar business. I got a chance to rendezvous with these entrepreneurs and learned how crucial networking is. They said they were discussing how one can make networking event more fun and then one thing led to another. One of the entrepreneur was a Sommelier and the other was a Oenophilist. They started pairing up with chocolate and cheese connoisseurs to host more networking events.

This helped them to grow their business and today they are one of the top wine party host in fairfield county. Isn't this amazing!!!!

Do you have any life changing experience through networking that you want to share with other readers?

Moments that Mattered...................

In today's busy cut throat life, how many times do we sit-back and enjoy the moments that matters to us.

Recently I met a very successful women, she is a CEO of one of the consumer products division in America. She has one of the highest number of fan followers in my opinion, because she is so inspirational and human. I use the word human because in this rat race of life we all have become robotic clones.

She shared a presentation with us that talked about the moments that mattered to her most. She said that though she is a CEO she is an individual first and she has never forgotten to enjoy the moments that mattered to her. She said one can not have it all but they can have what matters to them the most. This truly inspired me, because as a working individual I would always think how can these successful people be happy and HAVE it all. The truth is they don't have it all, they just enjoy what matters to them and work it around.

That 30 mins of presentation inspired me and the concept got so deep rooted that I right away became her true fan. I think she now has a million and one fan follower :). This made me think the moments that mattered to me most and have I enjoyed them. The truth is I have been trying to get it all. So for last 3 days I have made sure that I do things and be the moment that matters to me the most; such as spending time with family, giving back to the community, my work and hanging with friends. These have now become myfour virtual babes that are most important to me.

She inspired me to the think the moments that mattered to me. Hope you can do the same :)

Individualism vs Fitting In

How many of us face this fitting in culture issue?, can we be ourselves at work? how much of expressing individual characteristic is ok before we can get fired? Well all of us face these questions every day, and many more specially these days because we have such a diverse work force, in terms of age, gender, culture and region.

Recently I attended the Women conference at HBS, and trust me readers this blog is not about bashing up men at all. However this blog is about; should we be someone else at work (as someone said to me once a different compartment) or just be who we are as a person. I was very impressed with the facts that were presented during the conference, though they were more focused on gender difference at the work world. But one of the CEO that I met in the conference made me start thinking in a little different direction.

She was dressed not in a conventional suit or outfit that corporate environment wants us to wear. She was dressed in the style that she was comfortable in- prada shoes, short purple skirt and hair extensions. She has been a very successful women, she run 75 companies and has an asset over $7billion. Her thoughts were very unconventional and she had no BS, she was a straight shooter which no one wants to hear or be these days.

What moved me most was that she was not afraid to be herself wherever she goes or works. She worked for one of the biggest financial firm before she started her own business.

Can we all be like her or we are scared to be outcast by the team? If we are like her who is not afraid to be herself/himself can we be successful in the corporate world.

I know someone who is very dear to me is changing himself just to fit in to the banking and finance world? Is this right are we creating clones? where is the true diversity that we all talk about? Can we become successful without being clones? These are the answers I am still trying to figure out, let me know your thoughts