“Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” - – John Updike
Your wholehearted commitment to the organization, customer, boss, team members and project/task in hand will propel you to excel in your performance. This is also interlinked to ownership and integrity where you are self-motivated and can produce good results without any supervision. One needs to be consistent in performance to show reliability. Your dependability will go high within the team and to all those who value your involvement. You start feeling a sense of accomplishment and feel happy inputting extra bit to get the job well done. Build your capacity to work hard and smart to complete a given task on time and within the assigned budget. Be careful to handle any conflict within the team and mitigate it on priority. You need to stay calm and composed during the difficult situation to instil confidence among team members and peers At the same time be cautious of events taking place around you and have a positive approach for a timely and appropriate response. Being careful/alert is wisdom while careless attitude is being foolhardy. Some salient points for achieving success are given below:
• Calm and Composed. Be calm and composed during conference/ meeting and group discussions or presentation to the customer. Particularly, when things do not happen as planned, you should not panic and rather stay calm. Infect, team members get encouraged to see the firmness of their leader. When agitated or disturbed due to any situation, whether at the place of work or at home first step is to calm down or walk a little away from that location or look at something different. When in anger one tends to be less rational and may speak or act in a manner which may not be appropriate.
• Caring for Team. We are like someone to care for us and enable us to rise. As a manager/team leader you must assure the team and they can bank on you as you are caring for them. You should also care for your customer and the organization. Guiding juniors, directing and enhancing their performance are part of caring for them.
• Challenge to Face. Life is not a flat road for a leisure walk. Instead, there is a number of problems, bumps, and obstacles which you have to face with courage and skill. Such a situation should not be taken as a problem but faced as a challenge with full energy and focus on your goal. In today’s competitive world, follow the mantra “Survival of the Fittest.” When tired, keep going and do not exist.
• Champion’s Spirit. Whenever an opportunity arises you must jump to grab it and demonstrate your leadership. Be a champion to volunteer for any special assignment/task. It is a trait of a good professional to willingly accept extra responsibility. By so doing, you get appreciation from your seniors, peers and juniors. It shows your dependability and professional excellence. This enhances your visibility and propels you towards success.
• Change for Growth. Well, planned change of job, location or strategy helps faster growth in career. Remaining stuck in a job which causes stagnation is only fear of change. Life is a long journey with many ups and downs and you need to be dynamic in taking a fast decision and look for opportunity, where you have the potential for faster growth in career. This will keep you motivated, energized and achieve success.
• Communication Skills. The most sterling quality of a successful manager or leader is effective communication. During discussions, there should be clarity and no room for misinterpretation by the customer, vendors/suppliers, or team members. Irrespective of the medium and means of communication, you must be clear and effective to the audience. Good communication skills help during negotiation with customers, vendors or any regulator. Your teammates, seniors and customers will appreciate your clear and transparent communication. You must consider whom are you talking to and where are you talking. It is important to say what you mean but most important is how you say.
• Companionship Choice. It well said “You can run a race alone but you need a company to complete a journey.” You need the companionship of good friends, books, e-books, magazines and journals. You must be in the company of good and inspiring people as they will infuse spirit in you to achieve excellence. Do not look around for too junior or yes-men/women or mediocre people, because of your comfort zone. Instead, you must seek an association with upcoming people. Like friends, books also impact a person and you should have a good collection of books/e-books. Books give knowledge and you can showcase your personal library as a source of knowledge.
• Competence for Excellence. You must have good competency in your skillset and other areas related to your job. If there is any gap with respect to your job, that should be made up quickly by joining MOOC/ COURSERA like on-line courses. All IITs in India and leading universities and MIT in the USA, UK and Singapore have made their courseware free. It is good to join online courses and learn at their own pace and from any place. It is useful to pay certification fee and get officially certified for easy acceptability in the job market. This improves your CV for present and for future job.
• Conduct and Character. Your conduct should be a good example of moral values and morale. You must establish yourself a person of good character and dignified behaviour. As you rise to the level of team leader, manager and higher, your conduct is being watched by team members who would like to emulate you, if it is good and question if it is bad. It includes dress code, conversation and body language.
• Conflict and Co-existence. Conflict among team members mostly arises out of ego and misunderstanding and needs to be resolved for ensuring a healthy work environment. Whenever there is mistake/ omission, you should admit it openly and so should be done by your team members. Such retreat is not a failure but wisdom to pacify the other party and move on. We are living and working in a world which is chaotic and full of stress and uncertainty. Therefore you should learn to deal with conflict and resolve amicably.
• Confidence. Self-confidence and confidence in your team are essential for a manager to succeed. Norman Vincent Peale has said, “Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
• Contingency Plan. The good old saying that if you go for sailboat journey, do carry pair of ores. If the wind doesn’t serve your purpose, switch to ores but the journey must continue. While making plan “A,” do have plan “B” for and contingency which may arise any time.
• Co-operation and Collaboration. Cooperation within an organization, among team members, with the boss, guide/coach helps to achieve your objective faster. Being cooperative you make a very useful team member. As you demonstrate cooperation you will automatically get cooperation from your team, which will facilitate your march toward success.
• Courage to Take Risk. You should have the courage to step forward and grab the opportunity and not hesitate. Risk-taking is an adventure and secret of success lies in how you convert risk into an opportunity for the growth of your organization. A courageous person will jump into the river and swim across, while the lazy or unsure person will keep waiting, standing on the riverbank.
• Creativity for Innovation. In today’s global market of high competition, uncertainty and cut-throat marketing, you need to be creative and innovative to make a significant contribution to your organization/ business. Creativity is not limited to manufacturing, design and artwork but equally applicable to all services and designs. You need to develop faculty for lateral-thinking and evolve a cost-effective products and services. Your seniors and team members will appreciate your knowledge and ability to innovate.
• Credibility and Assurance. You must have good credibility in the business market to win new customers and retain old ones. You should be seen as a person of firm commitment. Whether you are a marketing executive or a software developer, you must say what you mean and you mean what you say. You will become trustworthy and person to work with.
• Culture and Customs. When working overseas or in the multinational team or in the multi-religious and multilingual organization, one should be respectful towards the culture and customs of team members. They all should be encouraged to celebrate their religious/National days. It makes them very happy if you and the whole team join on such occasions.
Dr. Sarbjit Singh, Former Exec Director, Apeejay College of Engineering & Hony Advisor School of Engineering and Technology, Apeejay Stya University, Sohna, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
For more information , you may read my book/ebook “ A2Z-26 Steps for Assured Success” available on www. amazon.in and www.amazon.com
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