Taking Responsibility for your Life 4 – Getting into details

Getting into Details

This is one of the most important activity that a few do, however most do not do. Normally whenever we encounter any situation in life where we needed to do certain things we generally skim the surface and come up with a solution. This is seen happening everywhere in our work place, at home.  

A classic workplace example happened which explains the caption above – Details the difference between good and great stuff.

my work needed me to open a channel – Super Stockiest ( SS) in AP & Karnataka which would help me expand distribution and increase my product presence in smaller than 0.50 lac POP towns.

We identified 12 SS in AP and 12 SS in Telangana whom we wanted to appoint – the strategy was in place and infra was also put in place my team just needed to go meet the SS and get him to buy my products which in turn would go to different Sub Stockiest ( SUB ) in the district.

The first month 3 parties were activated in Telangana none in AP.

the second month 1 party in Telangana and one in AP. then came the question why was this not a success – the answer to the question are multi fold

•  parties are not interested
•  let us wait and watch
• will begin operations from next month onwards
• let ISRO first launch its satellites then we would see.

but when getting into the details I found out that in one case where the party was activated my team just visited 7 SUB instead of 18 that were available  and he conveniently termed this as a failure.

goods never moved from SS to SUB and no point was made to address this hence this flopped, there was no conviction from the team that this would help in overall increase in business. this was a activity that need be done so for the sake of doing this it happened.

this is just one example of getting into details how it could transform you and your thinking if this could be incorporated in daily life – life would be much better and easier.

Taking Responsibility of Your Life 3 – CARING

                                 Caring

Caring for others – one of the  most inspiring leadership quality if you care for others with sincerity you need not do anything else  this speaks of itself,

Nothing says more when we care either with words or with action this is one of the most self satisfying things that we do  – self satisfying for you as well as for the one you care about.

Caring is about building connections and bring people together to achieve a common goal.

When a person knows that you care about them, they in turn will care for you and will listen to you and do anything possible for you.

  

Taking responsibility for your Life 2 – Making and Keeping Commitments

One important activity in taking responsibility for your life is – Making and Keeping Commitments

Making and Keeping Commitments to oneself and to others is a very important value one must have

When we make and keep commitments to ourselves we grow and evolve and become more effective.

Life gives you enough opportunities to make and keep commitments to ourselves.

When we make and keep commitments to others we demonstrate our intent and bu

Taking Full Responsibility for your Life

Taking Full Responsibility for your Life and removing Excuses from your Mind.

If you look at an average person’s day to day life you will realize that his life is full of excuses and the mind justifies every action one has performed.

If you delegate a task to anyone and if you see that it has not happened to your expectation, and if you ask the person why the outcome of the task was not as per expectation, immediately you would find the person giving excuses as to why the outcome was such. I hear this almost every day of my life. And the most surprising fact is that your mind justifies and tells you why the outcome was such.

If you don’t like the outcome that has happened the first thing that you should do is to stop blaming someone or something for the outcome. Change the response to the situation and keep changing the response till the time you get the desired outcome.

The most important formula in life which we need to remember is

SITUATION + RESPONSE = OUTCOME

We need to change our response to the situation till the time we get the desired outcome and once we master this formula and understand this and apply this in our lives the more effective we become in life and we stop blaming / creating excuses and move on in life effectively.

Goal setting

Goal Setting in Life is something you learn by yourselves, nobody ever tells you about this part in life the irony is that even if you are told in life about this you just do not take this seriously and float around in life.

The quote by Earl Nightingale says it all – people with goals succeed in life because they know where they are going.

Why ?

Because Goal Setting gives focus and direction in life and you take control of life and go and be where you want to be in Life.

Many don’t set goals as they do not know how to set a goal my dictum for this is very simple – Set goals that motivate you be it in any area of Life – Career, Financial, Education, Family, Artistic, Attitude ( Mindset, Behaviors ) Physical etc.

Break down the goal that you have set into smaller goals – If you have a goal that needs to be achieved in 5 years, break it down into 1 year, then into 6 months, further break it down into 1 month and then into a weeks goal and lastly break it into a day’s goal.

Next .review the goals and see the outcome for yourself and once you make this your habit see how effective in life you become.

one should always bear in mind that while setting a goal you need to follow some rules.

your goal needs to be SMART

S– Specific, the more specific your goal is you would be able to judge and analyse your progress.

M – Measurable, do not set vague goals your goals/outcome should be measurable.

A – Achievable, your goals should be attainable otherwise you would get demotivated and stop.

R – Realistic, if you set goals that are not realistic they would only exist in paper and you would never get to achieving them.

T – Time bound, your goals should have an element of time frames build into it where by you could monitor your progress and take course corrections .

Also note that your goals should be positive statements, precise, and write them down in a book/dairy and always set goals that you have control on. 

Happy Goal Setting

Strategy & Execution

Was extremely busy last month as there were a lot of things happening simultaneously all personal milestones, my son cleared 12th and got admitted for higher studies for a B Tech course. My daughter went off to UK for an exchange program and we had a wedding in my family. My nephew who is in US got married and we all had a great time attending and catching up with family and friends.

This occasion also served as a life learning event for example taking the marriage.

I would split this into 2 parts the arrangement for the marriage and the ceremony the earlier part I would call  strategy and the later would term as execution.Being involved and observing how the function was planned and finally culminated served as a big learning

The Learning has been immense  and this is exactly what happens in personal life and also in professional life. We all have strategies and we implement them and sometimes they work the execution is perfect and sometimes they fail and the execution also fall apart.

Summarizing

A) strategy—-implementation/execution———-desired response

B) strategy—Implementation/execution—-undesired response

case A where the strategy worked implementation worked and outcome desired. – learning understand what went right and replicate the process.

case B where either the strategy was faulty, implementation was an issue or both has issues where the outcome was undesired. – learning understand what went wrong and correct it

1) strategy – needed course correction as situation changed which did not happen.

2) understanding the strategy was an issue hence implementation was not proper leading to the undesired outcome.

3) understanding was right implementation was the issue  hence the outcome.

• We need to understand scenarios change, dynamics change we need o understand them realize their importance and course correct.
• Communication and feedback is very important otherwise the cycle is broken and hence leading to an undesired outcome
• We need to be flexible and not rigid and course correct which again impacts the outcome.
• Choosing the correct person and delegating also has a big impact on the outcome.
•  The leader needs to be proactive and coordinate with all and ensure the execution is on the right track which again has a big bearing on the outcome.
• All the people associated has to play their role in full so as to get the desired outcome.
• Last but not the least we need to have a plan B in case plan A fails.         

     STRATEGY——->  

                EXECUTION ——->

                                =SUCCESS

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Patience and Tolerance – Most needed Virtues today

 

                      

Definition

Tolerant : ability to  tolerate  the belief, action, behavior, opinion of others.

Patience: the capacity to accept tolerate delays, problems or sufferings without being annoyed or anxious and without complaint  or being irritated.

This  is one quality or virtue which one definitely needs to inculcate in today’s world .

The world of today is of instant gratification and everything happening  at a fast pace and everybody wants everything in an instant without having to wait too long for anything . The result of which is people are being more and more intolerant and patience is found only in dictionaries, which is a sad state of affairs.

You can observe this almost everywhere in todays world – professionally bosses are intolerant of their  subordinates ,  always desiring for more, as a result having performances  not up to the mark, similarly employees wanting more and not tolerant towards to their superiors or employers and often neglecting their duties .

Parents are intolerant towards their children and vice versa. Out in the streets at an intersection without a signal, you often see vehicles pushing forward to get ahead of each other rarely would you see someone waiting and allowing another vehicle to pass.

Benefits of Tolerance / Patience

• Makes you Stress free -when you practice this you are in control of your emotions and you accept the situation and see the greater picture making you happier.

• More fulfilling relationship with people – when you are tolerant and develop your patience muscles,  you have a deeper understanding of people  with whom you are associated with hence making the relationship  better.

• You evolve to being a better person and thereby grow in life.

 

How to develop the habit of  Patience  and Tolerance

• Select a day in your life and decide that whatever happens on that day you will develop patience for the events that have happened, make an effort to take your time and think about everything you do on that day. At the end of the day sit down and analyze how your day went . You will see that you would have understood issues better, made smarter choices, and got along well with others. – repeat this frequently and soon you would be doing this every day and you would see your capacity of tolerance and patience improving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perseverance

Many a times we come across a lot of people who do things in life , who do not get the desired outcome in life and stop doing the required actions and wonder why these things happen to us.

If we inculcate the habit of perseverance in life a lot of our failures would  be a success. We need to aware of this habit and practice it repeatedly in our life.

Perseverance – means not giving up / the effort required to do something repeatedly till we get the desired response.

I am sure during our journey in life many a times we would have got an opportunity to practice this habit. Sometimes we would have succeeded however sometimes we would have failed and given up.

if you look at successful people in life this is one habit they would have amply demonstrated.

however we need to be careful if we keep doing the same thing again and again we would be getting the same result, hence we need to take learning from our failures and keep doing things till we get the desired response.

GEM ( Going the Extra Mile )

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Going the Extra Mile

A small principle which has immensely benefited me is what I like to share today – this is something which I practice both at my work place and in my personal life. – Going the Extra Mile (GEM). What this means is –  Doing more than what is expected from you in a given situation without aspiring for a gain or reward, either professionally and personally. This is one thing that will definitely take you ahead in life if you master the technique. The soundness of this principle can be proved if put in ones practice in daily life activities. Benefits of going the extra mile are enormous

•  Making you invaluable
• Your credibility will increase
• You would find lot more opportunities coming your way
• You would find lot of people looking up to you.
• You will feel good with yourself.
• You will be a person of influence.

Examples of Going the extra mile . There are a lot of examples I could give about going the extra mile …

• I had a friend in Blore who was working as a medical representative for a company, his job was to meet doctors and get business form them , what he used to do was to doctors with good practice he collected their birthdays and made it a point to wish them on their birthday and give a small token a flower , a card etc. to the doctor. Needless to say the doctors always remembered him and gave his better treatment than the other visiting representatives.This was an initiative which he himself used to do and was not told to do by his company as a result of which there was an emotional bonding with the doctor and himself and you would have guessed the outcome in his professional sphere… he was one of the best, consistent  sales performers in the company.
•  Once my colleague asked for help and told my his sister was coming for an interview in my town and to arrange a PG accommodation for her. Which I deputed to my junior who went out of the way and checked several accommodation and zeroed down on the best one as per convenience and budget and proximity to workplace.She came attended the interview and wanted to get back to the railway station to catch a train back home . I booked a cab took  time off from work and accompanied her to the station and put her safely in the train .

This is a classic case of going the extra mile. I am sure all of you would also have examples of  going the extra mile and for those who haven’t had the experience yet  this is the right time to go the extra mile and see the benefits of going the extra mile …. in this year.

Meet up – Getting out of Comfort Zone

As part of Personal Development had organised a small meet up activity where like minded people got together and had a talk/ training on getting out of comfort zone. This was attended by 17 people and just goes to show that there are lot of people interested  in self development .

This was a learning for me also as we discussed what comfort zone meant to each of us. Our feelings and emotions being in the comfort zone. Do we need to progress or not?. How do we move out of comfort zone.

The learning here is we more out of a comfort zone to be comfortable in another, for some it takes months for others it takes maybe a week. One thing is for sure this certainly is a journey and definitely not a destination and your experience in this journey evolves you to a stronger, more confident and better YOU…. which is what we wanted in the first place isn’t it ?