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Category: Learning (Page 13 of 25)
Ask anyone in the workplace if problem solving is part of their day and they’d certainly answer “Yes!”. But how many of us have had training in problem solving?
Because people are born problem solvers, the biggest challenge is to overcome the tendency to immediately came up with a solution. The most common mistake in problem solving is to put the solution at the beginning of the process, when what we need is a solution at the end of the process.
Here are seven-steps for an effective problem-solving process.
- Identify the issues
- Understand everyone’s interests
- List the possible solutions (options)
- Evaluate the options
- Select an option or options
- Document the agreements(s)
- Agree on contingencies, monitoring, and evaluation
Read the article written by Tim Hicks
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Nowadays, self-confidence is considered to be one of the key skills one should master to be successful, especially at work. However, it doesn’t mean that on your workplace you should be arrogant, or exceed your own limits, showing off more than you are demanded to. In fact, there is a difference between self-confidence and certainty, and every professional should be humble enough to know that.
Sanjay Sanghoee explains the importance of humility at work, considered both as a moral value and as a form of intellectual honesty. In order to improve your skills, and to create a better working environment, you should, first of all, learn how to be humble. Some advice could be useful:
- Think twice before acting;
- Ask plenty of questions;
- Admit your mistakes and avoid being defensive;
- Create your own professional goals.
Read the full article here.
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The question is not what you look at, but what you see – Henry David Thoreau
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Asking active questions it is very important in our daily life. Simple, active questions can change our behaviour because they reveal where we are succeeding and where we need further improvement. And in doing so, they rivet our attention on what we can actually change. In his book, Triggers: Sparking Positive Change and Making It Last, Marshall Goldsmith outlines six active questions that fully engage us in life and work.
The Daily Questions are immensely useful for three reasons because they help us identify what we really want, not what we think we want and they motivate us in areas where we need it.
There are six daily questions in total.
- Did I do my best to set clear goals today?
2. Did I do my best to make progress toward my goals today?
- Did I do my best to find meaning today?
- Did I Do my best to be happy today?
- Did I do my best to build positive relationships today?
- Did I do my best to be fully engaged today?
By asking The Daily Questions, we remind ourselves that if we want we can control our lives.
Read here the full article
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How many people have read Antoine de Saint Exupery’s masterpiece “The Little Prince”? Probably a correct guess would be several million. In fact it is rather surprising how few people know its business version “The little prince puts on his tie” by Borja Vilaseca.
Based on true events of the author himself, this tale is a story of a young Spanish maverick who, after having explored Madagascar, becomes the new human resources manager at a software company ruled by conflict and persisting poor economic results. Shortly after, the main character, Pablo Prince (Borja Vilaseca) realizes that the working environment is seriously damaging the company and its outcome, since it is based on the fear of the bosses, passive acceptance of the status quo and widespread distrust among colleagues.
Prince decides to challenge this instability by organizing a human development course asking people to follow it skeptically and not to take any idea for granted but, at the same time, to try to follow his methods with a correct attitude before evaluating them. His theory develops on innovative approaches based on self-knowledge and personal growth. He is convinced that people cannot change the external environment where they have little or no control at all but they should try to change what they really can, themselves. He wants his colleagues to proactively engage in their working situations and to not just accept them passively but to remove their personal constraints that obstruct their potential. How? According to Prince, emotions such as fear and happiness are based on how somebody decides to interpret external events and everybody should be conscious that those can be molded to his advantage and his personal development.
Despite being a new hire, Prince decides to confront his bosses about allowing more free time to his colleagues for a better work-life balance, specifying individual tasks clearly for better understanding of their role and giving them greater responsibility so they feel a more relevant part of the organization. His colleagues slowly realize they could be free from stress and deadlines thus releasing their creative energy and their full potential. Employees start to feel that the company is the place where they can learn, improve and fulfill their professional goals. Therefore, the old idea of the company as a “prison” becomes outdated. Prince understands that his colleagues were using their external problems and excuses to justify their working behaviours rather than learning from their mistakes and nurturing greater self-awareness and conscience.
The process of change and transformation of the company comes true developing the potential, talent and creativity of its employees. By changing mentality, leadership and business culture, eliminating conflict and dissatisfaction and managing emotional intelligence, Prince shifts the main objective from company’s results to its employees’ personal results.
If you are interested in reading this noteworthy book you chose wisely and you should probably stop reading right here.
In case you are curious to know how it finishes, I’ll fast forward to its end. The company started to be profitable after five years of losses reaching its highest ever turnover without investing any economic resources. It did not raise salaries, guarantee promotions, relocate its offices to new exotic locations nor distribute prizes. The miracle happened thanks to a young visionary human resources manager who was able to work on people’s happiness, talent and creativity. But if you want to know precisely how he did that and if you want to know and improve yourself, then you should probably read this book.
« The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going »
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
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Successful leaders continue to grow and learn on the job. In fact, an essential leadership attribute is the ability to remain open to new ways of thinking and to continuously learn new skills.
According to the research Learning About Learning Agility by the Center for Creative Leadership and Teachers College, Columbia University, the willingness and ability to learn throughout one’s career is increasingly important as changing technology, markets and methods require new skills and behaviors.
Over the long term, your ability to learn new knowledge, skills and behaviors will equip you to respond to future challenges more than your current skill-set.
Researchers found five tips that enable one’s learning agility:
- Innovate: Challenge the status quo
- Perform: Remain calm in the midst of adversity
- Reflect: Take time for reflection
- Risk: Purposely seek challenging situations
- Defend: Be open and avoid defensive thinking
Read more here
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Which are the nine most important things that it is possible to learn in our life? In an interesting article mixing numerology, wittiness and common sense, Maria Popova, the founder of “Brain pickings”, tried to create her own personal list.
Here’s the result:
- Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. In a world where everyone has an opinion, sometimes being incoherent and changing our minds could connect us with our hidden self.
- Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone. The best incentive is to do what makes you happy.
- Be generous with your time and your resources and especially, with your words.
- Build pockets of stillness into your life. Finding the time for a walk or for yoga allows you to stay centered, to generate ideas and to entice your creative thinking.
- When people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. The assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absolutely nothing about you.
- Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity for. Look for what makes life worth living.
- Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time. At odds with the culture of immediacy, let’s enjoy the period of blossoming “where all the real magic unfolds in the making of one’s character and destiny”.
- Seek out what magnifies your spirit. Who are the people, ideas, and books that magnify your spirit? Find them, hold on to them and visit them often.
- Don’t be afraid to be an idealist.
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Coaching is very close to leadership principles. Coaches are leaders who devote their life not simply to the victory at a championship. They help individuals grow and improve.
Thsi is why many companies ask famous coaches to talk to their employees about teamworking, goal-setting, identifying strenghts and weaknesses, learning form experience, fostering humilty and trust.
In this article, Robert Prior identifies 5 NFL coaches who have much to teach to every leader.
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Yesterday is dust, tomorrow a dream, our gift is now. Gabriel Byrne
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