Where do managers spend time?

One of the scarce resources which managers get is time. No matter how brilliant or foolish you are, you will only get 24 hrs a day. Not a single second is given as stock by God.
“Time management is a self-discipline in action”- Brian Tracy, motivational speaker.If we can manage our time effectively then we can go ahead from anyone.

Question arises is that where does an average, effective and successful manager spends time?  

In the year 1988, Fred Luthans and his team came up with a path breaking research which tremendously affected the management thinking.  They studied 450 managers to identify what these managers do in managing their organisations. What they found was these managers were broadly engaged in the four managerial activities:

1. Traditional Management- Which means planning, controlling and decision making.

2. Communication- They spent their time in exchanging the routine information and processing some kind of paperwork.

3. Human Resource Management- They used to spend their time in motivating, disciplining, training, managing conflict, team building, recruitment and selection.

4. Networking- They used to spend time in interacting with outsiders like competitors, suppliers, government officials, customers etc. and they were also engaged in organisational politics held among different units.

When I read these functions I realized that being an executive I myself spend most of the time in these activities only.

Time spent by managers in above activities

Managerial Activity	Time Spent (%)
	Average Managers	Successful Managers	Effective Managers
Traditional Management	32	13	19
Communication	29	28	44
Human Resource Management	20	11	26
Networking	19	48	11

After going through the research I realized that I was spending very few hours in paperwork and networking.  Slowly, when I started managing my time for Communication and Networking it improved my personal performance. Due to this small change, I have evidence of every work which I have done and this has given me amazing confidence for future actions.

What we can learn from an IAS officer?

I have met three IAS officers till date for different purposes. I observed their work style closely and figured out few things which make them different.

1. Important come, Important in- Being a management graduate I was taught that first come, first in practice is good, which means that the person who has come first should meet you first. But, IAS officers don’t follow this method. They follow important come, important in. This means that the person who has more important work will come first and rest people can follow. 

2. Data-Driven Decisions- IAS officers are more interested in written evidences than anything else. Oral oaths have no place in their work system. They understand the complexity of law and they know that they are accountable for every decision. Hence, written communication is best for their work. They believe less on experts’ advices and more on scientific research papers. 

3.Work in a cool environment- Once I read in a magazine that working in a cool environment makes you more productive than the hot environment but I never took that thing seriously. After, working with 3 IAS officers I realized that findings in that magazine article were right because all IAS officers prefer to work in A.C. rooms. Their rooms are chilled and will give you a pleasant feeling.

4. Sharp Memory- An IAS officer will either remember you by your name or face but they will remember you. They have their own styles of remembering people.  

5. Delegation- IAS officers are very busy. Every day they get at least 500 letters each carrying some complain. It is impossible for one man to know and do everything. Therefore, they allocate the work to the expert of that field and after that they differentiate the outcomes with the desired expectations. Their work is to make others work.

6. Sense of Urgency- IAS officers work fast. If someone comes with a problem they act quickly, they make him or her comfortable and give attention to them. They don’t procrastinate and delay in taking action. Sometimes they will surprise you with their speed. They teach you that a person should not only work hard but also fast.

7. Direct Conversation- In a management college, lots of focus is being made on indirect conversation but when you will meet an IAS he will talk directly. He will ask what's the issue? He will act upon it and game over. He has no place for small talks. He will not even waste time on Hi and Hello!. He talks about work and that's it. He will not twist his words. He's very direct in his approach.

The First Step of Leadership

Whenever, we read management books we find a detail list of leadership traits. But, they don't talk about the first step of leadership. May be authors don't research properly or purposely ignore this first step.

History has seen leaders who had more than one spouse and leaders who followed chastity throughout their life. We have seen leaders who were rich and who were poor. We have seen leaders who drink alcohol and leaders who were teetotaler. We have seen leaders who were great communicator and leaders who were average speakers. But, one thing common between all the leaders was the first step which changed their life. .

If you want to be a leader then the first step is that you forget what your parents, teachers, friends or anyone has taught you. And, then believe only on those things in which you believe to be true.

If you believe something because someone told you it to be true then soon your faith on that thing will vanquish. Leaders have firm believe on their thoughts because they believe on them deeply. Leaders give new things to the society because they refuse to learn the old concepts of the society e.g. If Gandhi would have thought that India is a slave country from years then he would not have fought for the freedom ever. If Lincoln would have thought that slavery is a part of American society then he would not have fought for the freedom of slaves. If Florence Nightingale would have thought that nursing was a poor profession of that time then world would not have remembered her as a ‘Lady with the Lamp’. If Galileo would have thought that the Earth was flat then we would not have known its real oval shape.  

They rebel against the odd of the society because they never let society to impose something on them. They did what they felt was right. They questioned the existing system. They had guts to argue.

Many people do what others are doing. They want to play safe. Fighting with something needs energy, mental fitness and time that is why, we see only few leaders in the society because every leader is a fighter from inside who refuses to give up. 

Every Leader has given some original idea because it has ability to think differently which comes from this step only.

 

In 21^st century organisations don’t need managers, they need Leaders with management skills because lots of change is going around in the society and Leader is the catalyst of every change.

We all can become leaders if we collect the courage to take the first step of leadership.

What we can learn from an NGO?

I am working in NGO named CARE India. After working for so many days, I asked myself what I have learned till now? It was important to ask this question because I am in the starting phase of my career, therefore, I am more interested in getting deep rooted experience than anything else. Here is the list of things which I believe an NGO can teach to anyone-

1.       Effective use of government resources- Even though NGO stands for non-government organisation but let me make one thing very clear maximum things NGO do with the support of government only. They don’t have much resources and esp. authority to execute anything independently. Government system is considered to be disorganised and slow. But, as you will have to work in government system slowly you will learn to use its resources effectively. You will know about government policies, plans and methods more or equivalent to any government employee.

2.       Work for a cause- I have met many people in my life who claim that they don’t work for money but I consider all of them as liars because everybody in this world ultimately works to earn its livelihood. In an NGO you get a higher aim, you will learn that if you want money you will have to work for a cause. Unless you give results, you will not earn anything.  NGO proves that you can work for money and social welfare both at same point of time.

3.       Negotiation- Many times you will find that things are not going the way you had planned because someone in the government wants to work as per his choice. Those who really want to make their career in an NGO, it is my advice that they should work on their negotiation skills diligently. Remember, every argument has three sides- your side, my side and the right side. Good negotiators always focus on the right side of the argument. You will learn to convince people without annoying them.

4.       Control on your personal ego- When you are working for something ahead of your personal agenda your ego starts vanishing. If any government employee will show you tantrums you will learn to control yourself because you will realise that getting medicine for a sick person is more important than anything else.  Every government of every nation is full of ‘ego-maniacs’ and in managing their ego you will forget your own ego.

5.       Leading without authority- There is an old saying- Any man can handle adversity but if you want to judge his character give him power. I want to add something into this- if you want to judge the character of a man give him ‘responsibility’ and take away the ‘power’ and then see how he acts. In an NGO you don’t have any direct authority in the system. You have to do everything with the cooperation of others. Then you meet your real self. Then you realize how competent are you? We all can fight with weapons but we all can’t fight with the help of our own thoughts and opinions.

5 common mistakes which New Managers make

There are 5 mistakes which generally New Managers make-
1^st Mistake:- They want to be a Hero
Remember, company pays you money to think and work. They don’t pay you to become a Hero and increase your fan following. The problem with the new managers is that they want to show themselves as a heroic person, rebellious and revolutionary in nature whether people around them require that kind of behaviour or not. Before, giving proof of your ‘Great Heroism’ it is important that you prove your honesty towards your employees and commitment for work.

2^nd Mistake:- They criticize, criticize and criticize
It is easy to criticize someone and new managers do it very well. They act like a fault-finder who only makes people realize how inferior they are and they need to improve their standards. Remember, if you don’t praise people then you don’t have any right to criticize them. Your job is to find strengths of your employees and make him or her work for the organisational success. You can make your employee overcome its weaknesses only when it has mastered its strengths and not before that. Even when you need to criticize someone do it in a very casual way. Never do criticism fiercely as it will make your employee defensive and he or she can attack you back.

3^rd Mistake:- They use Nice and Tough approach
Some new managers behave nicely in the beginning and then after sometime they try to be tough with their employees. They believe that this Nice and then Tough approach will help in gaining employee loyalty. No!! Never do this mistake. This is the poorest of all mistakes.
 On other hand, use Tough and Nice approach- This approach means that share your values and make your rules clear in the beginning. Live your values from the first day of your job. Encourage your employees to follow the standards you have made. All the fun can be done later when your employees start understanding you.

4^th Mistake:- They want to change everything
This mistake politicians of India make again and again. They destroy the old system completely and then try to do build a new one. I am not against any change but my point is that every old system carries some good points and we should not overlook them. If you want to bring a new system then at least some part of your road should go through the old system. This will help in preparing people for the ‘Big Change’. Never try to bring change directly in people. The golden rule of changing people is- To change the people, change the Environment e.g. a person will do hand-washing only when you will make water and soap available to him. You cannot directly push him to do something without taking any action from your side.

5^th Mistake:- They do Lots of Talking
New Managers waste lots of time in talking this puts their employees in doubt that whether they have capacity to do something or not. Once an employee of government hospital told me, “Every new hospital administrator talks more than he does. Before talking about honesty they should prove they are honest, before talking about hard work they should do hard work.”
I believe his point was- Do some action and then talk. Action speaks louder than words.

Four rare qualities of Human Beings

In school I had a separate subject of Moral Science where my class teacher and sometimes 

Principal used to give a short lecture on Good Habits, Ideal Living etc.

I think from school I got habit of observing people and finding the Moral Principles they follow. As per my observation there are four qualities which are rare in human beings.
Only exceptional men and women carry them-

1. Humble Confidence- I am purposely using two words here- “humble” and “confidence” because many times people think that confident person is always extrovert, bold or 

first-in-the-row and humble person is always shy and introvert. Humble Confidence simply means being a mix of professional expertise and personal sobriety. These people take their work seriously but not themselves. At the time of crisis they will appear like a great warrior else they will remain in their shell and enjoy their own small tasks.

2. Personal Discipline- Discipline itself is a rare trait but one thing which I never liked about disciplined people is that they unnecessarily want to make everyone disciplined. They always enforce their rules on others by presenting themselves as a great example. But, people with personal discipline are different. They themselves lead a disciplined life but never interfere in others life. They add discipline in their lives because they want to and not to show others that how great they are.

3. Respond Boldly- Every action has a reaction but if we carefully think, plan and analyze our reaction then it becomes respond. Reaction is spontaneous and immediate but respond is not immediate we take a pause, quietly examine the situation and then give it. Once respond is decided successful people convey it boldly, without any fear or hesitation in their tone. Many people react but only few respond with boldness.

4. Limited Networking- In 21^st century people determine your net-worth by the network you have. Interestingly, in school we are taught that we should be friend with everyone but I never met any successful man having a large burden of network. Never network with people with whom you cannot connect. Nothing in your life will damage you more than your useless connections. These people connect with few and continue their friendship with them diligently. 

In school no one teaches us about these four rare qualities. I found these qualities in all exceptional men and women. I hope people follow them sincerely.

4 Stages of Learning Process

I have seen in my life that people who are cheerful and persisting in their life attract more success than people who only depend on their qualifications and job title. I like children not because they are cute and sweet but because every child has tremendous desire to learn new things. I don’t know why, but when we grow up why we slowly crush our learning desire, we feel as if we have learned everything and anything new would only be a burden on brain and nothing else.

Once Socrates said- “King’s should be philosophers and philosophers should be King.” It is because it was his belief that philosophers have learning desire and that learning desire kills all other desires especially physical desires. According to Socrates the major trait of a King was his control on his physical desires which was possible only through immense amount of learning desire. Therefore, we can conclude that other name of a Leader is-Learner.

In a Learning Process a person goes from 4 stages-

1.      Enthusiastic Beginner- At this stage, a person is excited about the topic but has no knowledge.

2.      Confused Learner- This is the path-breaking stage because when we are excited about something and then when we try to learn about it two things happen- either we get encouraged or we get discouraged. The moment someone discourages us or we get a minor failure we slowly lose interest and go back to our past level. Learning is toughest at this stage.

3.      Capable but Nervous Learner- At this stage a person knows How to Work but is nervous about doing it on his or her own. A person does not have confidence and doubts his or her abilities continuously.

4.      Confident Achiever- A person learns the required skill and has practiced it many times. He tends to make fewer mistakes and delivers high-quality results.

Every one of us goes from these stages at one point of time. But only few cross the 4^th stage and become special in life. These people don’t only gain respect for themselves but become inspiration for the society.