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Six Helpful Tips for Young Leaders

Six Helpful Tips for Young Leaders
Helpful Tips for Young leaders Here’s a random list of practical advice for young leaders. If you can learn and practice these early in your career, it will help you avoid having to learn them by experience. Delegate, Trust People down the line and Take Advice: While a young business leader may have a flair for leading from the front, one should realize that limited experience is a limiting factor. People are far more likely to take a manager seriously only if he or she listens to and heeds advice. When you act as the sole proprietor of making decisions in your company, people working for you start losing faith in you. It creates what is called “NEGATIVE VIBES” which is not at all good for the overall development of an organization. It is a good practice to communicate and consult with your immediate sub-ordinates before going for big decisions. Learn to let go of control. It is but appropriate to include employees in decision making and you shall be definitely rewarded with more workable strategies. Set an Example: At the same time, one of the most effectual ways to display ability is to lead by example and work hard. A leader must be prepared to shoulder a fair share of the work-load and the #involvement and #commitment he exhibits is undoubtedly infectious and projects him a great team player. The most effective way to earn respect is to lead from the front and help others succeed. Be wary about your conduct, behavior and actions and deeply aware of how it may influence others. Show #conviction: A leader has to have conviction in his/her decisions. If the young manager has done proper ground work and research, then the decision may well be the right one and he/she might be able to stand by and justify the decisions made even when challenged by experienced people. I thoroughly go with this viewpoint “A ‘No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” Mahatma Gandhi A leader should learn to say ‘NO’ at the right time as indecisiveness is one of history’s greatest leadership killers. Top 25 Leadership Quotes Keep Your Cool in Crisis: Part of being a successful leader is how you handle pressure. In the dynamic business environment you may have to face more challenging and stressful situations and your employees’ judge you based on how you treat such pressure. If you are a man who can see things from the right perspective embracing rationale, your team members will feel reassured by your cool composure, which will in turn develop their trust and confidence in the leader. Manage expectations: Have you ever given a thought about what employees’ expect in you? Communication is a natural gift for leaders and you may very well notice that great leaders are excellent communicators. Here, communication isn’t just talking but a one-on-one, heart-to-heart talk as you would with your close family members. By opening the lines of communication and being accessible, a leader can build a team with people who understand the ##goals and #objectives with ultimate clarity. Present Yourself with Dignity: In Tamil language, there is an age old proverb, “Aal Paadhi Aadai Paadhi”, meaning “#Good Looks Make the Work Easy”. In this modern world, a professional look is mandatory to signify your culture and #personality. A professional, well-dressed businessperson, gives the impression that he thinks that the workplace and the people there are important.” Marilyn Monroe once rightly said “I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like...
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What is Your Greatest Weakness?

What is Your Greatest Weakness?
How do you answer “What is Your Greatest Weakness?” Job Interview Question or JIQ #2 “Our greatest weakness is that, We are unwilling to accept our weaknesses.” If you are subjected to this question in a job interview – “What is your greatest weakness?” what will be your response or reaction? You would have been bowled over by the time your brain scans for some reply (way-out) that would be appropriate. This kind of a question can potentially damage or salvage your job prospects – Yes! It solely depends on how honest you are in dealing with your own weaknesses or short comings and also how wisely you are able to turn it to your advantage. Your response tells the interviewer a lot about your uprightness, so it unquestionably holds a lot of weight.”     “To err is human But to forgive is not in an interviewer’s agenda.”   Never choose a weakness that indicates your inappropriateness for the job: “A salesman has to be good at communication” “An accountant needs to be good at calculations” “A teacher has to have a patient attitude to manage the students” Will you hire a person with quick temper for a customer relationship position? Will you hire somebody who lacks charisma to be a team-leader?   Here, we are just not talking about the technical skills alone, but also about attitude and emotional traits of a person that define his/her personality.   Remember that a weakness isn’t necessarily bad: So, the main idea of throwing this question in an interview is not to pull your legs down (though sometimes the interviewee falls a prey by his own naivety), but to gauge how well you can handle or had handled a pressure-situation in previous jobs. Try not to expose your personal weakness- If you say you can’t get up early in the morning, do you think your hiring manager will appreciate the idea? Try to rationalize how you transformed a weakness into strength by perception and perseverance in a purely job-related context.   Don’t blurt stereo-type answers: Be direct in your approach and avoid stereo-type answers which will irritate the interviewers; I’m a perfectionist, I pay attention to detail, I never relax, I’m a workaholic- all these responses will sure-fire you from the prospective list. These are neither strengths nor weaknesses but only hypocritical projections of your “self.” These kind of compliments should come from people around you and sometimes it is funny how the greatest strength becomes the greatest weakness too.   Do Your Homework Properly: Think about this, if you are a workaholic who spends 15 hours a day adding prosperity to the company, your boss might be happy, but will your wife and children be happy? I’m able to feel the heat from the women folk – the same applies to you too. Though the subject deviates to work-life balance, the undercurrent of the discussion is not to mention your weakness that is directly related to the job you are applying for. Do your homework properly by analyzing the job specification and description thoroughly and decide if you will fit the bill. Mention the areas you are trying to improve upon; you can very well say, “I’m trying to improve my prioritization skills which would help me to line up tasks and complete projects well within the time limit.” You can highlight how you were an introvert and how you have transformed yourself as a “people-person” by realizing that it is the order of the day to be successful in a professional environment. Avoid Rehearsed answers: “If you don’t know your weakness, take a personality type quiz and the results...
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Organizational Climate

Organizational Climate
Organizational Climate – An Analogy Organizational climate is a measure of the feel of the internal environment of an organization which is perceived by an outsider and/or an employee according to their business with the organization. Organizational climate has a great effect on employees’ behavior. If the climate of an organization is open and friendly, employees feel relaxed and if it is very formal, then such a comfort level may not be felt. Climate for an organization is somewhat like personality for a person. “Just as every individual has a personality that makes him/her unique, an organization has a climate that clearly distinguishes its personality from other organizations. Human religionists introduced the concept of organizational climate in the late 1940’s. Now this has become a very useful metaphor for thinking about and describing the social aspects of a firm. Some definitions: “A set of characteristics that describe an organization and that i. Distinguish one organization from another ii. Are relatively enduring over a period of time and iii. Influence the behavior of people in the organization.” – Forehand and Gilmber “A mutually agreed internal (or molar) environmental description of an organization’s practices and procedures.” – Benjamin Schneider (1975) “A relatively ending quality of the internal environment that is experienced by the members, which influences their behavior and can describe in terms of values of a particular set of characteristics of the organization.” – Renato Tagiuri (1968) Features: It is an abstract and intangible concept. But it exercises a significant impact on the behavior and performance of organization members. It is the perceived aspect of organization’s internal environment. It refers to the relatively enduring characteristics which remain stable over a period of time. It gives a distinct identity to organization and differentiates it from others. It is a total expression of what the organization is. It is the summary perception which people have about organizations. It is a multi-dimensional concept. It consists of all organizational factors – authority pattern, leadership pattern, communication pattern, control etc.  Elements of Organizational Climate: Individual Autonomy: The extent to which employees are entrusted with to make decisions, the degree to which they are free to manage themselves and have the freedom to exercise their responsibility come under the purview of individual autonomy. Position Structure: It means the extent of direct supervision, formalization and centralization in an organization. Reward Orientation: The degree to which an organization rewards individuals for hard work or achievement. It will be high when an organization orients people to perform better and rewards them for doing so. Task Orientation: If the outlook of the top management is task oriented, the employees will have to speed up the pace of work to please their bosses. Relations Orientation or Consideration: Here the climate is conducive and supportive where the managers are relations-oriented while dealing with their sub-ordinates. The needs and aspirations of the workers will be given due importance resulting in enhanced team spirit. Job Satisfaction: The workers feel happy if the jobs are designed to allow the worker to use their innovative skills. Morale: Morale represents a composite of feelings, attitude and sentiments of organizational members towards the organization, superiors and fellow workers. If it is high, there will be an atmosphere of co-operation and if it is low, there will be conflicts and poor co-operation among the workers. They will also feel dis-oriented in their work. Control: The control systems may be either rigid or flexible. An impersonal or bureaucratic atmosphere is seen in the former situation where the scope of self-regulation will be minimum. DOWNLOAD THE PDF...
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Attitude

Attitude
Attitude and Job Satisfaction What is attitude? Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events –Stephen Robbin. They also represent an ‘affective orientation towards an object.’ It simply means what one feels and thinks about something. Elements of attitude: Cognitive components – opinion or belief Affective components – emotion or feeling Behavioral components – intention to behave The interaction of these three components determines the way in which an individual develops an attitude towards something. Sources: Society Friends Teachers Family Members It also forms on the basis of the level of admiration we have over an object or persons. People also try to imitate others and attitudes are gradually formed on that basis also. In some attitudes formed are less stable, in some they even dominate the whole life. Types: Organizational behavior uses the concept of attitudes in relation to nature of the job and its influence on the performance of the persons. Accordingly, Job Satisfaction Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment, are the three kinds of attitude a person could have with respect his / her job or organization. Job Satisfaction: In “Job Satisfaction “, Stephen P. Robbins writes about five factors which make a person satisfied with his or her job. These factors are Mentally challenging work Equitable rewards Supportive working conditions Supportive colleagues and Personality-job fit. Cranny, Smith and Stone define job satisfaction as employees’ emotional state concerning the job, considering what they anticipated and what they actually got out of it. In fact, an employee with low expectations can be more satisfied with a certain job than someone who has high expectations. If one’s expectations are met or surpassed by the job, then one is happy and satisfied with the job. Job Involvement: Job involvement has been defined as an individual’s psychological identification or commitment to his / her job. As such individuals who display high involvement in their jobs consider their work to be a very important part of their lives- In other words for highly involved individuals performing well on the job is important for their self esteem. Organizational Commitment: Three important elements of a committed individual would be Identification with the organization’s goals and/or mission Long-term membership in the organization and intention to remain with the organization, often termed loyalty High levels of extra role behavior- behavior beyond required performance- Often denoted to as citizenship behavior or pro-social behavior. Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Leon Festinger developed this theory which explains the relationship between attitude and behavior. It refers to”any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more of his or her attitudes, or between his or her behavior and attitudes.” Attitude Surveys: This is a tool that helps to collect information about the levels of attitude among the people. In most companies these kinds of surveys are conducted with the help of different rating scales like Likert scale offering five or seven alternative choices for each of the statement developed for attitude measurement. Summary: Research conducted on attitude and job satisfaction in Indian workers has made clear certain points as given below: Attitude is positively correlated with efficiency Absenteeism will bring down satisfaction levels Unions, negatively affect the employee attitude and job satisfaction Attitude researches and surveys will improve...
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Successful Training Plan

Successful Training Plan
Crucial Aspects of a Successful Training Plan Training should be aimed at improving the individual’s skill set as well mind set to gain knowledge about the work environment he will be exposed to, as well as to exhibit the right kind of attitude and behavior towards his peers and superiors. What is the need to train people? It is like molding raw clay into the desired shape and structure to suit our needs. An untrained individual, how well qualified he may be cannot fill the bill. Pros and Cons of Training: Corporate training methods include cognitive as well as behavioral type of training. But the crux of the whole thing is that the trainer must keep in mind the trainee’s present skill set or background and to train him in areas where he lacks verve. Also the pros and cons of each and every method should be analysed before training is imparted. Cognitive training is to theoretically teach trainees the concept of work and how to go about it. This is equally important as learning induces changes in behavior of individuals. Virtual Reality Training: Virtual reality training method is gaining momentum in areas of medicine, engineering and aeronautics where the trainee is exposed to situations artificially recreated for the purpose of simulation. Introduction to QuickBooks 2017 The trainee is benefited by the near perfect exposure he gets through these types of training methods. Simulations in the field of medicine are a real boon to students doing their internship and also to the surgeons performing complicated surgeries. On the job training: On the job training makes the trainees incorporate conceptual learning to be put into effective use. The experience adds value to their career and it is a good way to grow. The trainee also has to understand the significance of being trained that gives him an edge over others. Business games are popular in corporate setup where the members of a team are asked to don different roles or positions of the firm and solve a particular problem situation. This develops sound reasoning skills and instills confidence to handle crisis situations. Concept of training: The very concept of training is to make the individual tailor made for the job he is about to perform; not only the physical aspects but also psychological and social aspects have to be included in the package that will etch a comprehensive pattern in the process of management development techniques. Training improves the effectiveness and efficiency of performance, oriented towards goal setting, develops inter personal relationship and helps in the exercise of knowledge building providing room for improvement. Soft skill training: Soft skill training is a must as communication is the most important aspect that binds any organization for the purpose of delegation, clarification and development. Trainers have to be suitably trained and the common objective for both trainers and trainees would be to satisfy the objectives of the organization and work towards it. Evaluation of training gives you an idea whether your training design has been successful and the implementation satisfactory. Employee Feedback: Feedback from the employees and the ratio of performance standard achieved against the established standards sets the benchmark for the next mile of achievement to be covered. Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners Workshops, seminars, lectures, discussions aid not only the trainees but also the employers of the company to periodically refresh themselves with the ongoing changes and developments in the industry. The bottom line is, training has to bring in not only transitions but also transformations in individuals in terms of improved personality, attitude, behavior and adaptability to better their future...
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