Jobs and CareersMapping the Second Half of Your Life - Seven Key Decisions
By Susan R Meyer
Midlife can be magnificent or mayhem. You can lead a full life or you can wonder what to do with your days. Many people who have difficult midlife transitions are not victims of circumstance but victims of poor planning. Which will you be? There's an old career planning book entitled, "If you don't know where you're going, you're liable to end up somewhere else." Avoid that end by doing some simple advance planning. Remember, no plan is written in stone, and circumstances may change your choices, but a good plan allows for that flexibility.
Here are seven key decisions that will help you have smooth sailing:
1. What will my legacy be?
If you know what you want to leave behind, you can make better decisions about how you will spend your time. Do you want to leave a circle of loving family and friends? A record of good works? Business or other achievements? Money?
2. What meaningful work do I want to do know?
You may want to continue earning a living - full time or part time. Volunteering might be appealing. Perhaps you never want to work another day.
3. How can I fulfill my need to nurture?
Do you have a need to nurture? Do you want child rearing as part of your life? Can you nurture through adoption, mentoring, volunteer work? Would you prefer to nurture animals - or plants?
4. How can I sustain meaningful relationships in my life?
Who represents your inner circle? How will distance, illness, or death affect this circle? How and where will you make new friends? How will you maintain long-distance relationships?
5. How can I express myself creatively?
Creativity keeps you young. You don't have to be a great writer or artist, though, to be creative. Perhaps you sew, quilt, knit, or crochet. Maybe you're a great gardener. Or have an eye for the right piece of clothing or gift for everyone. Maybe you're a great cook.
6. How can I meet my spiritual needs?
Formal religion is one way to be spiritual, but not the only way. You may wish to remain in - or return to - the religion of your childhood. You may wish to meditate or commune with nature. Spirituality is whatever way you find to connect with something bigger than yourself.
7. What surroundings do I want?
This question is last because, often, it is driven by your answers to the other questions. Other considerations will include your health needs, geographic preference, desire for access to specific activities and budget.
If you can answer these questions, you will more easily see who you want in your life, where you need to be, and what you most want to do.
Next steps?
Fantasize. Research. Visualize. Take notes.
Create a map for yourself.
Susan R. Meyer is an Executive and Life Coach and consultant specializing in helping people and organizations connect the dots and implement a plan. Visit http://www.mappingmidlife.com to sign up for Midlife Matters: Tools and Tips to Avoid Midlife Mayhem. It's free! Ready for your newest life adventure? Please visit http://www.susanrmeyer.com for more information and resources, including Mapping Midlife workbooks and courses. You can also contact her at dr.susan@life-workcoach.com
===================================
Getting Value From Planning
By Dot Struthers
Some of the biggest challenges people have today is paperwork, bureaucracy and workload issues and so the need for personal organization is essential.
Planning is often seen as a boring activity and yet it is essential to focusing your energy. Once you have created a plan it will almost certainly be out of date within a few days. The value is not necessarily in the plan itself but in the thinking that goes into creating it.
By forcing you to think, it is helping to you identify the key steps you need to take and what to anticipate when things don't go to plan.
Balancing thought and action
There are two types of people, the thinkers and the doers. The thinkers spend too much time thinking about what they need to do rather than doing it and may find themselves saying things like "I should, I must and I ought to". Then there are those who spend too much time doing and wonder if they are doing the right things and probably feel a bit like headless chickens, running around wondering if they are doing the right things.
If you spend too much time thinking, try adding the word therefore to your thoughts e.g. this training costs too much, therefore, I will negotiate. The word therefore is forcing you into a more action orientation mode.
And if you spend too much time doing, try adding the word why before doing something e.g. I will telephone all the parents, why, to keep them informed, or is it a waste of time. The word why forces you to think and question what you are doing.
Fire-fighting
Fire-fighting can be addictive because it gives you an adrenaline rush and sense of urgency which can lead to you achieving more than you anticipated. But it can also be stressful and you will not be a good role model for others to follow because it doesn't inspire confidence.
We find ourselves fire-fighting when we fail to act on warnings or maybe procrastinate over something until it's too late and then becomes urgent.
The way to avoid this is to trust your intuition and if something doesn't feel right to check it out. Intuition is a powerful tool we all have and yet somehow easily ignored. Another way is to set more than one deadline, i.e. instead of just the end one, sit down and plan out what's involved in the task you need to accomplish and break it into small chunks that can be slotted into a busy schedule.
Estimating
Although time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours and days not all of it feels the same length. You often hear people describing time as dragging, standing still or simply flying by.
Underestimating time can cause stress especially when you find yourself rushing to get to a meeting on time, or complete a report or running short of time to read and prepare for an event. When you are planning in things to do, build in some slack time, start with 30% until you find a happy medium for yourself.
Over-estimating creates apathy and it's how potential is lost. You often see the best in a person when they are under pressure and they are able to show the skills people don't realize they have. In this case I recommend taking more risks and pushing yourself harder by giving yourself little tests each day.
If you can get into the habit of planning every couple of weeks you will find it will make you much more efficient and take the stress out of your life.
Dot Struthers works with people wanting to develop their leadership and management skills. including personal coaching, HR consultancy and management skills training. To register for a free monthly CPD newsletter register at http://www.merechats.co.uk
=======================================
Are You Delegating For Success?
By Yvonne Bleakley
Have you ever noticed that great leaders are also excellent delegators? Delegation saves time, develops and motivates people, and makes an organization more productive. Therefore, it is fair to say that this is one of the most critical skills for any leader or manager to acquire. For this reason, I encourage every leader to become a master delegator.
On the surface this seems like an easy task. Give your work to someone else; sounds nice, doesn't it? So why are so many leaders so reluctant to delegate? And when they do, why do so many leaders delegate so poorly?
The problem is that many leaders have acquired the skill of delegation through on-the-job learning. There is no course in school and only minimal reference to delegation in textbooks at school. Delegation is not easy and is a process that has a sequence of steps. Like any process, if you miss a step, it does not work properly.
There are Seven Steps in the Delegation Process:
Defining What to Delegate - There are really three reasons to delegate work: to better control our use of time, to build our people, or to motivate our people. So the first question you will need to answer is: why are you delegating? When looking through these three lenses, we usually find a reason to assign most of the work on our desks to others. The higher you are in the organization, the more your role should be growing and developing the organization and less "doing." Delegation is the primary tool!
Selecting the Individual or Team - Too often leaders go to the same people over and over again. They get too comfortable with specific individuals or teams. This is usually a mistake as it de-motivates other team members in the organization and may even compromise the performance of your best team members. Your team usually depends on support from the rest of the organization to get things done. If you are not using other members, this may prevent the organization from coming together to its fullest potential. While I think we should always give our most important projects to our best players, we need to involve and delegate to the entire team at some point. With each person, consider why you are delegating (motivation, growth, or time management) a task, and match the appropriate tasks to that person's capabilities.
Assess Appropriate Level of Delegation - Typically, leaders delegate using the same style for every person on their team and this is a mistake. The level of delegation should be adjusted based on the task and the person being delegated to. Delegation is not just telling people what to do and expecting them to do it. There are many different degrees of supervision and involvement required of the person who is delegating the task. The more experienced and reliable the other person is, the more freedom you can give. The more critical the task, the more cautious you need to be about extending a lot of freedom, especially if the company's financial future or reputation is on the line.
Communicate Tasks In Specific Terms - This is where most delegation fails. Many leaders and managers do not do a good job of expressing what they want. People are not mind-readers. Many hours have been wasted doing re-work because leaders failed to explain what they wanted up front. If you want something done a specific way, tell them. If you are not clear about what you want, take the time to brainstorm with your colleague before they start working. Ask for feedback to ensure that your instructions have been understood.
State Measurable Results - Explain how a task fits into the overall organizational picture, describe the measurable results you are looking for, and let them know how you will rate their performance.
Agree on Deadlines - The deadline is the most underappreciated part of delegation. Too many leaders give people tasks without asking what else they have on their "to do" list. This is a motivation killer. Not only is it disrespectful to the recipient, it is disrespectful to anyone who is depending on the person you just delegated to. Most people are trained to never say "no." They have been wired to say "yes," even when they know they already have too much on their plate. Often, the delegator already knows this, but chooses to take the position of "not my problem," which in the long run destroys trust and respect for the delegator and decreases employee morale, organizational productivity, and profitability. When you delegate a task, you must sit with the person you are delegating to and make sure that realistic deadlines are being created. It is your job as the delegator to help your people be successful and not set them up for failure. If you are delegating to someone who has a history of over-committing, it is important to help reconcile commitments to make sure that the most important things get done first.
Follow-up and Feedback - It is essential that you have a feedback system in place so that you know that things are on track. Provide support should they need help in getting the task accomplished. It is essential to let the person know how they are doing and whether they did a good job. In the end, as the leader, you should take the blame for failure and pass on the credit for success.
Delegation is one of the most important tasks as a leader. When done correctly, it develops your succession, increases your personal productivity, and motivates your people. Many leaders develop excuses not to delegate that include: they can do things faster themselves; they like doing things themselves; their people are not ready. These excuses and others all have short-term benefits but long-term adverse consequences. However, the investment in delegation is usually worth the positive long-term benefits.
Actions
1. Start keeping a time log. Record everything you are doing every 15 minutes. Be completely honest with yourself. You will be surprised at how much time you are spending doing simple tasks.
At the end of each day look down your log and make a note of all the tasks that you could have got someone else to do.
2. If they are regular tasks, create a system or instruction sheet. This allows you to delegate the same task to different people at different times without too much effort. You may have to put in a little effort with this at first but it will save you heaps of time in the long run and means that you always have a contingency if your regular assistant is unable to complete the task, or indeed, leaves the company.
3. Delegate!
Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment. Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com
By Susan R Meyer
Midlife can be magnificent or mayhem. You can lead a full life or you can wonder what to do with your days. Many people who have difficult midlife transitions are not victims of circumstance but victims of poor planning. Which will you be? There's an old career planning book entitled, "If you don't know where you're going, you're liable to end up somewhere else." Avoid that end by doing some simple advance planning. Remember, no plan is written in stone, and circumstances may change your choices, but a good plan allows for that flexibility.
Here are seven key decisions that will help you have smooth sailing:
1. What will my legacy be?
If you know what you want to leave behind, you can make better decisions about how you will spend your time. Do you want to leave a circle of loving family and friends? A record of good works? Business or other achievements? Money?
2. What meaningful work do I want to do know?
You may want to continue earning a living - full time or part time. Volunteering might be appealing. Perhaps you never want to work another day.
3. How can I fulfill my need to nurture?
Do you have a need to nurture? Do you want child rearing as part of your life? Can you nurture through adoption, mentoring, volunteer work? Would you prefer to nurture animals - or plants?
4. How can I sustain meaningful relationships in my life?
Who represents your inner circle? How will distance, illness, or death affect this circle? How and where will you make new friends? How will you maintain long-distance relationships?
5. How can I express myself creatively?
Creativity keeps you young. You don't have to be a great writer or artist, though, to be creative. Perhaps you sew, quilt, knit, or crochet. Maybe you're a great gardener. Or have an eye for the right piece of clothing or gift for everyone. Maybe you're a great cook.
6. How can I meet my spiritual needs?
Formal religion is one way to be spiritual, but not the only way. You may wish to remain in - or return to - the religion of your childhood. You may wish to meditate or commune with nature. Spirituality is whatever way you find to connect with something bigger than yourself.
7. What surroundings do I want?
This question is last because, often, it is driven by your answers to the other questions. Other considerations will include your health needs, geographic preference, desire for access to specific activities and budget.
If you can answer these questions, you will more easily see who you want in your life, where you need to be, and what you most want to do.
Next steps?
Fantasize. Research. Visualize. Take notes.
Create a map for yourself.
Susan R. Meyer is an Executive and Life Coach and consultant specializing in helping people and organizations connect the dots and implement a plan. Visit http://www.mappingmidlife.com to sign up for Midlife Matters: Tools and Tips to Avoid Midlife Mayhem. It's free! Ready for your newest life adventure? Please visit http://www.susanrmeyer.com for more information and resources, including Mapping Midlife workbooks and courses. You can also contact her at dr.susan@life-workcoach.com
===================================
Getting Value From Planning
By Dot Struthers
Some of the biggest challenges people have today is paperwork, bureaucracy and workload issues and so the need for personal organization is essential.
Planning is often seen as a boring activity and yet it is essential to focusing your energy. Once you have created a plan it will almost certainly be out of date within a few days. The value is not necessarily in the plan itself but in the thinking that goes into creating it.
By forcing you to think, it is helping to you identify the key steps you need to take and what to anticipate when things don't go to plan.
Balancing thought and action
There are two types of people, the thinkers and the doers. The thinkers spend too much time thinking about what they need to do rather than doing it and may find themselves saying things like "I should, I must and I ought to". Then there are those who spend too much time doing and wonder if they are doing the right things and probably feel a bit like headless chickens, running around wondering if they are doing the right things.
If you spend too much time thinking, try adding the word therefore to your thoughts e.g. this training costs too much, therefore, I will negotiate. The word therefore is forcing you into a more action orientation mode.
And if you spend too much time doing, try adding the word why before doing something e.g. I will telephone all the parents, why, to keep them informed, or is it a waste of time. The word why forces you to think and question what you are doing.
Fire-fighting
Fire-fighting can be addictive because it gives you an adrenaline rush and sense of urgency which can lead to you achieving more than you anticipated. But it can also be stressful and you will not be a good role model for others to follow because it doesn't inspire confidence.
We find ourselves fire-fighting when we fail to act on warnings or maybe procrastinate over something until it's too late and then becomes urgent.
The way to avoid this is to trust your intuition and if something doesn't feel right to check it out. Intuition is a powerful tool we all have and yet somehow easily ignored. Another way is to set more than one deadline, i.e. instead of just the end one, sit down and plan out what's involved in the task you need to accomplish and break it into small chunks that can be slotted into a busy schedule.
Estimating
Although time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours and days not all of it feels the same length. You often hear people describing time as dragging, standing still or simply flying by.
Underestimating time can cause stress especially when you find yourself rushing to get to a meeting on time, or complete a report or running short of time to read and prepare for an event. When you are planning in things to do, build in some slack time, start with 30% until you find a happy medium for yourself.
Over-estimating creates apathy and it's how potential is lost. You often see the best in a person when they are under pressure and they are able to show the skills people don't realize they have. In this case I recommend taking more risks and pushing yourself harder by giving yourself little tests each day.
If you can get into the habit of planning every couple of weeks you will find it will make you much more efficient and take the stress out of your life.
Dot Struthers works with people wanting to develop their leadership and management skills. including personal coaching, HR consultancy and management skills training. To register for a free monthly CPD newsletter register at http://www.merechats.co.uk
=======================================
Are You Delegating For Success?
By Yvonne Bleakley
Have you ever noticed that great leaders are also excellent delegators? Delegation saves time, develops and motivates people, and makes an organization more productive. Therefore, it is fair to say that this is one of the most critical skills for any leader or manager to acquire. For this reason, I encourage every leader to become a master delegator.
On the surface this seems like an easy task. Give your work to someone else; sounds nice, doesn't it? So why are so many leaders so reluctant to delegate? And when they do, why do so many leaders delegate so poorly?
The problem is that many leaders have acquired the skill of delegation through on-the-job learning. There is no course in school and only minimal reference to delegation in textbooks at school. Delegation is not easy and is a process that has a sequence of steps. Like any process, if you miss a step, it does not work properly.
There are Seven Steps in the Delegation Process:
Defining What to Delegate - There are really three reasons to delegate work: to better control our use of time, to build our people, or to motivate our people. So the first question you will need to answer is: why are you delegating? When looking through these three lenses, we usually find a reason to assign most of the work on our desks to others. The higher you are in the organization, the more your role should be growing and developing the organization and less "doing." Delegation is the primary tool!
Selecting the Individual or Team - Too often leaders go to the same people over and over again. They get too comfortable with specific individuals or teams. This is usually a mistake as it de-motivates other team members in the organization and may even compromise the performance of your best team members. Your team usually depends on support from the rest of the organization to get things done. If you are not using other members, this may prevent the organization from coming together to its fullest potential. While I think we should always give our most important projects to our best players, we need to involve and delegate to the entire team at some point. With each person, consider why you are delegating (motivation, growth, or time management) a task, and match the appropriate tasks to that person's capabilities.
Assess Appropriate Level of Delegation - Typically, leaders delegate using the same style for every person on their team and this is a mistake. The level of delegation should be adjusted based on the task and the person being delegated to. Delegation is not just telling people what to do and expecting them to do it. There are many different degrees of supervision and involvement required of the person who is delegating the task. The more experienced and reliable the other person is, the more freedom you can give. The more critical the task, the more cautious you need to be about extending a lot of freedom, especially if the company's financial future or reputation is on the line.
Communicate Tasks In Specific Terms - This is where most delegation fails. Many leaders and managers do not do a good job of expressing what they want. People are not mind-readers. Many hours have been wasted doing re-work because leaders failed to explain what they wanted up front. If you want something done a specific way, tell them. If you are not clear about what you want, take the time to brainstorm with your colleague before they start working. Ask for feedback to ensure that your instructions have been understood.
State Measurable Results - Explain how a task fits into the overall organizational picture, describe the measurable results you are looking for, and let them know how you will rate their performance.
Agree on Deadlines - The deadline is the most underappreciated part of delegation. Too many leaders give people tasks without asking what else they have on their "to do" list. This is a motivation killer. Not only is it disrespectful to the recipient, it is disrespectful to anyone who is depending on the person you just delegated to. Most people are trained to never say "no." They have been wired to say "yes," even when they know they already have too much on their plate. Often, the delegator already knows this, but chooses to take the position of "not my problem," which in the long run destroys trust and respect for the delegator and decreases employee morale, organizational productivity, and profitability. When you delegate a task, you must sit with the person you are delegating to and make sure that realistic deadlines are being created. It is your job as the delegator to help your people be successful and not set them up for failure. If you are delegating to someone who has a history of over-committing, it is important to help reconcile commitments to make sure that the most important things get done first.
Follow-up and Feedback - It is essential that you have a feedback system in place so that you know that things are on track. Provide support should they need help in getting the task accomplished. It is essential to let the person know how they are doing and whether they did a good job. In the end, as the leader, you should take the blame for failure and pass on the credit for success.
Delegation is one of the most important tasks as a leader. When done correctly, it develops your succession, increases your personal productivity, and motivates your people. Many leaders develop excuses not to delegate that include: they can do things faster themselves; they like doing things themselves; their people are not ready. These excuses and others all have short-term benefits but long-term adverse consequences. However, the investment in delegation is usually worth the positive long-term benefits.
Actions
1. Start keeping a time log. Record everything you are doing every 15 minutes. Be completely honest with yourself. You will be surprised at how much time you are spending doing simple tasks.
At the end of each day look down your log and make a note of all the tasks that you could have got someone else to do.
2. If they are regular tasks, create a system or instruction sheet. This allows you to delegate the same task to different people at different times without too much effort. You may have to put in a little effort with this at first but it will save you heaps of time in the long run and means that you always have a contingency if your regular assistant is unable to complete the task, or indeed, leaves the company.
3. Delegate!
Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment. Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com
Jangan Lupa Share Artikel Ini Ya...?
Bagikan artikel ini ke temanmu melalui "SosMed" kamu di bawah ini:
Bagikan artikel ini ke temanmu melalui "SosMed" kamu di bawah ini:
Posts
