Productivity

A platform with leverage…

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That’s something worth building.
 
Electricity is a platform with leverage. Once communities have access to a little electricity, a solar lantern, say, they quickly discover that they want/need more electricity. The productivity increases create more income which gives them more money to buy more electricity. The leverage that this productivity and income give them (combined with the actual power at their disposal) creates a one-way route toward the future.
 
The same thinking applies to a personal career.
 
The first speech you’ll give will be difficult. The tenth one will be easier. Each speech, well-delivered, creates more demand for more speeches. Each speech given gives you more leverage to give better speeches. Better speeches create more demand…
 
This is the opposite of shoplifting. Shoplifting isn’t a platform or leverage. The system actually pushes back harder and harder the more you do it. And it has no leverage.
 
Some businesses work at scale because they’re a platform (they cause motion in one direction) and they’re able to reinvest from that platform to create more leverage. Amazon is certainly the most shining example of this simple process.
 
But it can also work for the local university. A little learning creates a demand for more learning. Useful degrees as a label for effort offer leverage to those that receive them, and the demand for more learning and more leverage gives the university resources to expand and do it even more.
 
When in doubt, look for the platform and look for leverage.

Breaking down communication barriers to grow…

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Even if you think you have a great rapport with someone, you’ll always be receiving some form of filtered viewpoint designed with your authority in mind.
 
It’s hard enough talking to leaders and people in positions of authority. Don’t make it harder artificially.
 
Here are some things you can do to reduce the friction others may feel when communicating with you.
 

Institute an open-door policy

Publicly and privately state that you want people approaching you and giving you unsolicited feedback or dropping in for a chat.
 
Make sure you are approachable. Any barrier you put is just one more roadblock to communicating with you.
 

Recognize your open-door policy is ineffective

Already instituted an open-door policy? Great — it probably won’t work.
 
Many people won’t come up to you for various reasons — shyness, busyness, etc. Arrange a specific time yourself to hear people’s thoughts and opinions in addition to your open-door policy.
 
You can’t be passive about promoting communication — open-door policies are the least you can do.
 

Remove physical barriers

Your office desk is the second biggest barrier to effective communication next to a closed door.
 
The typical office layout involves a desk in the middle of the office, with a chair close to the doorway for guests and the office owner’s chair in a seat of power between the wall and the desk.
 
The problem with this layout is that it creates a very real physical barrier between you and the person you are communicating with. This physical barrier is enhanced by any other item on your desk — typically a monitor.
 
Break down the barrier — position your desk against the wall so that any guest that enters your office to talk is sitting in front of you with no barriers in-between.
 
Remove those headphones, move that coffee mug to the side.
 

Get out of the office

Another person’s office is viewed as hostile territory. Human beings have a psychological aversion to crossing that door frame — the threshold between the outside of the office and the inside — the safe area and the lion’s den.
 
In an office, the lines of authority are clearly defined and communication flows through that lens.
 
You’re unlikely to get effective communication within it.
 
The solution? Get out of your office. Talk to people in their office. Bring people to coffee shops. Grab lunch.
 

Reach out to people directly

If you want to hear from someone, ask them explicitly what their thoughts are.
 
Ask them regularly. Ask them through different mediums — in person, over chat, email, etc.
 
People have different comfort levels communicating through different mediums — find the one that works the best for the person you are communicating with.
 

Build rapport

You’re more likely to receive honest feedback and ensure solid communication if people feel comfortable and safe communicating with you. You can’t build that sense of safety or camaraderie with communication limited to work tasks.
 
Ask people about their day, how their work is going, or what they did that weekend. Build relationships with people, even if they aren’t even in your department.
 

Avoid silos

You can see these environments start to form — groups begin to silo themselves or cut off visibility and communication in the name of privacy, security, or some other reason.
 
Perhaps they begin to place certain information on a “need-to-know” basis, or suddenly make their meeting notes private. Maybe they stop inviting non-group members to lunch.
 
Many times there’s a valid reason to do so — especially in areas where a breach in privacy can be a massive issue (eg. HR, medical, defense, etc.) or a loss of focus can result in decreased productivity (eg. training, junior employees, highly complex endeavors, etc.).
 
However, many other times these silos are created with no other reason than to simply create an in-group, exercise authority, or develop miniature empires to stroke egos.
 
Over times, these silos were to operate independently, contributing to a dysfunctional communication environment that makes delivering accurate messages and operating effectively much more difficult.
 
Effective communication is hard, but not impossible. Leaders can make small changes in their behavior and the environment that lead to compound results down the road.

The True Cost Of A Bad Hire — It’s More Than You Think.

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While the financial impact is quantifiable, top CXOs actually rank a bad hire’s morale and productivity impacts ahead of monetary losses. 
 
Why? A bad apple spoils the bunch, so to speak. Disengagement is contagious, which may be why employers can’t seem to defeat it.
In many ways, a bad hire’s effect on company culture echoes beyond the employee’s tenure. Poor performers lower the bar for other employees, and bad habits spread like a virus. 
 
Unfortunately, bad hires aren’t always easy to spot, while this affects the startup’s ecosystem, culture, quality leaders and much more. 
 
Avoid Bad Hires at any costs!

Make Ur Job…

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You can try to make your job have more. More impact, more responsibility, more leverage.
 
Or you can be industrial about it and try to have your job involve less. Less risk, less effort, less to fear.
Is your ideal job one where you get paid but no one even knows you work there… or is it to bring your hopes and dreams and talents to a position where you can change things for the better?
 
You can make or break ur job..so make it.

Seven Deadly Productivity Mistakes…

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Let’s avoid these deadly mistakes to boosts our productivity:-
 
#Mistake No. 7: Working Too Hard
 
Don’t work too hard, work smart. Learn/study improve ur skills and work smart.
 
#Mistake No. 6: Consuming Too Much Content
 
Do you ever have a feeling like you’re at the mercy of your phone with constant pings, notifications, and calls?
 
TV, Social Media, News always connected with content, get away with these distractions.
 
#Mistake No. 5: Working In The Open
 
You’re working on something in a shared work environment like an open-plan office or library. You’re focusing really hard but there’s always noise. That printer whirring away, people chatting, doors opening and closing, someone’s phone beeping… There’s always something going on and if you’re not deeply into something, you’re going to lose that focus. And every time you do, that’s 25 minutes spent getting it back. That’s a huge waste of time, especially if you don’t have that kind of environment at home as an option, although you can build this space using glazed walls from www.glazed-partitioning.co.uk as this help a lot with privacy and silent.
 
#Mistake No. 4: Multitasking
 
A jack of all trades is a master of none, and that’s especially true when it comes to multitasking and productivity. When we repeatedly switch between tasks we lose up to 40% of their productivity. We also develop psychological problems with focusing and productivity, even when we are not multitasking. It’s tempting to switch to something when you have a brainwave about it but let’s not do it. It’s not worth it.
 
#Mistake No. 3: Forgetting About Quality Downtime
 
The first part is ‘Work hard’ but the second part is ‘Play hard’. And it’s important to add play-time to our schedules because without downtime, we get tired and our productivity suffers.
 
#Mistake No. 2: Copying Other People’s Routines
 
While there’s a lot we can learn from other people — especially successful people we admire — we’re all different. That’s why it’s important for us to have a unique routine that is bests for us.
 
#Mistake No 1: Not “Taking” Enough Help from Others
 
We live in times where we’ve made to think that taking help is unacceptable, but there’s also a lot of benefits that come from receiving support. If you’re offered help, take it. If you’re offered a shoulder to cry on when things get tough, take it. If you’re offered friendship, partnership, joy, camaraderie — take it.
 
Take as much as you give, especially if it’s taken from the people who want to see you succeed.

How to build company culture…

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Culture is one of the most critical pillars that keeps standing in the ups and downs of a company. It defines the success and growth of the team and the company. 
 
Also wherever there is a team, a culture (good or bad) is already set within the team. Defined by the leaders and top management etc.
 
So how to build or rebuild a culture? Here are a few pointers:
 
#Personal accountability
 
You must model the behaviors and basic underlying assumptions you want to be true. Greatest shortcoming of a leader is wanting others to do something that she doesn’t practice it herself. For instance, a leader wants to set up “ownership and trustworthy” culture but doesn’t own her own weaknesses and expects employees to be upfront and own things. See the disconnect?
Others in the team will emulate what you do, so exhibit those basic underlying actions yourself and the team will follow.
 
#Consistency
 
Whatever culture we want to set, it should be consistent over a period of days, months and years to build it. It cannot be that one day we want ownership & trust, other days we want hierarchy and formal structure.
 
Also whatever process we want to follow to inculcate the culture, All hands meetings, one on one etc should be consistent. Yes, there will be learnings but the core process has to keep hitting the cultural attributes.
 
#Use All Mediums or Communication Channels
 
When companies buy Instagram followers, it proves the importance of communication through social media. In today’s environment, with the support of some advertising like bus stop advertising. We have different ways of communicating with the individuals or team. It can be meetings, remote video calls, internal social media, WhatsApp groups, etc.
 
Use all these to communicate the same core attributes, for example, if All hands meetings are for openness and gathering ideas, displaying an open culture of ideas. One on Ones and any team meetings should have the same theme, openness towards any ideas. 
Now, this is no grand formula by any means for creating the culture that you want. Shaping a company’s culture and tapping into a team’s basic underlying assumptions is more art than it is science.
But consider these three elements — personal accountability, consistency, and richness — in how you’re upholding the basic underlying assumptions you want to make more real.
Pick one, commit to it, and see progress build over time. Slowly, but surely, you’ll see the difference.

Fear of Exams

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“Fear of Exams” is it good or bad for success? The same is true for a job interview, presentation to a team, performing in front of an audience or in sports.
 
We all have been into these high-pressure situations. “The Fear” is one of the critical factors, which pushes us to fail or succeed. Is it good or bad for us to be in fear and prepare ourselves? Let’s look at Pros and Cons:
 
Advantages of “The Fear”:
#”The Fear” boosts our mind and body allowing us to focus continuously hence increasing our chances to succeed.
 
#Sometimes with the adrenaline rush of “The Fear” we solve much harder problems in these difficult situations, which might not possible in normal situations.
 
#With Practice to tackle “The Fear” it becomes easier, we stop fearing Exams (Or Interviews, etc) and grow more confident in all areas of Life.
 
Disadvantages of “The Fear”:
#If failed, we get in a state of turmoil and depression. Self-doubting ourselves, never logical thinking that our preparation might not be enough. And because of so much pressure, it leads to negative(Suicidal) thoughts. Especially, in case of the younger generation.
 
#Even if we succeed the experience is traumatic and we start avoiding it. Think about it, a job Interview even if you succeed you still remember it as a fearful experience. Avoiding interviews in future if possible. It’s more because of “The Fear” mentality than the actual interview process.
 
#”The Fear” leads to short term thinking, more driven because of social and peer pressure. We completely miss the bigger picture of life. If we want to become a programmer how does failing in one job interview hinders our goal. There are a lot of other ways to become a programmer like to become a freelancer. But since we get into “The Fear” mode we look at it as do or die situation, which is not true!!!
 
My vote is to get rid of “The Fear of Exams”. Look at life more long term with a goal (Or set of goals) and keep working towards it. We may still fail but will be more persistent and determined to succeed and achieve it. Moreover will never fear to try it again and again and hence be more successful!

No points for busy

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There’s a common safe place: Being busy.

We’re supposed to give you a pass because you were full on, all day. Frantically moving from one thing to the other, never pausing to catch your breath, and now you’re exhausted.
 
No points for busy.
 
Points for successful prioritization. Points for efficiency and productivity. Points for doing work that matters.
 
No points for busy.

Sleepy head way to go – Sleep Benefits…

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I am updating this older article that I wrote 5th April, 2019. I have been leveraging the sleep benefits for so long, I want you to all use sleep as best medicine.
In nutshell sleep has these benefits:
  1. 8 Hours of good sleep daily ensure reduced chances of heart diseases, prostate cancer or any kind of cancer & diabetes.
  2. Sleep enhances better memory and brain function, it cleanses of bad thoughts, specficially a nap can be used to immediate boosts our memory and performance.
  3. Helps reduce weight by avoiding craving of fatty foods, better sleep patterns leads to much lesser craving for low fatty foods.
  4. If you are better sleeper, you chances of dementia or alzhmers are much lesser.
What more we need? If a doctor told us, that there is a pill which gives all the above benefits, we would have definitely bought it.
 
Whereas Sleep is free!!!
So go ahead be sleep head? A sleepy head person can take a quick nap anywhere in any circumstances and can take them a lot. It can be anywhere, while traveling, in college, in office or in home. It’s amazing how a sleepy head can nap in any condition.
 
I remember once while traveling on a train in the hottest summer and long 36 hours journey and I slept most of the time. Everyone around me got amazed how can I sleep in these conditions. There are numerous scenarios like these where I have taken naps.
 
I am one of the sleepyhead person, and all my life whenever I use to take a nap. People around gave a sense of guilt, why are you sleeping now? How can you sleep here? You are wasting time by sleeping etc..etc…
 
But what sleep does is energize from anything be it stress, negative emotions, anger and lot more. It’s like you have got a new morning to start again.
 
Moreover, after sleep, you will find solutions to your problems. Imagine a cluttered room or closet before you go to sleep, but as you wake up the clutter is completely sorted out 🙂. Sleep has so much power!
 
So don’t worry all the sleepy heads, its the best way to get toxic out of your mind. Use it as frequently as possible, let others envy you…
 
References have been added from Why We Sleep Book
 

Boost Your Team’s Productivity? Really?

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As Manager or Leader, one of the most critical problems is How to increase our Team’s Productivity. We constantly think about it and keep reading trying different things to achieve it.

Some of the main points (From different sources) are:

1. Set the best example for your team.
2. Set Goals and Clarify expectations.
3. Encourage open communication.
4. Give team members autonomy.
5. Give team decent breaks or holidays, so that they are not overworked.

There might be more…But does these work?

One of my friend who is based out of California(US), had set up an office in Delhi and did all of the above but the team was not productive. Moreover, the employees’ came late and had started taking things for granted. He wasted 6 months and couldn’t figure out the problem. In the end, he hired an experienced Ops manager. Who rolled out his stick, kept attendance registers, fixed timings, a penalty in coming late etc and Baam!!! –  It started improving. Last I discussed he was happy with the output and didn’t care much about the above rules.

Take away:– Some of these rules might work in a culture, probably US-based team, but may not work in other culture. All the books/literature we read are typically based on US environment and hence should be taken with pinch of salt. It might not work in a different country or culture. In the Indian context where we have been trained to obey the rules from childhood and even in school/colleges being driven by “Stick” more than “Carrot” these rules as it is might not work.

We need to have “Carrot” and “Stick” in right mixture…

What rules do you think applies to the Indian context? Please share your comments…