Faith , Focus, Fast and Facts lead to success
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”– Winston Churchill
We all need success at our workplace, at home and in business alliances. With technologies advancing so rapidly, most professionals find difficult to keep their business practices in pace with emerging technologies. Today’s customers are a lot more informed about the product/service, they wish to acquire. It is therefore important to keep the focus on the task at hand and complete it as per scheduled time, acceptable quality standards and cost. For this, one should follow a disciplined approach of doing “first thing first” and not start too many activities in parallel. However, in real life, one has to respond to the emerging situation and adjust priorities. As a manager or team leader you should be judicious in delegating tasks as per their capabilities and facilitate team members to perform to their fullest. In response to your support, they will willingly support your plan and bring success to you. You should be impartial and fair in judgment while making a decision. Do not believe in hearsay but take a decision only on facts. Your judgement should not be emotional but fair to all. Being fair brings loyalty and trust among teammates and assures success. Some of the salient points to be followed for achieving success are given below :
Face it. In workplace or even at home, there can be a difficult situation which you must face fearlessly and with full force. One should not shirk responsibility and walk away.
Facilitator. As a senior member or team leader or manager you should act as a facilitator to enhance the performance of your team.
Factual. Always collect sufficient facts to make a sound decision. Don’t rely on hearsay or on any emotion or any prejudice.
Failure Teaches More. The old saying is ever true “Failure inspires winners but failure defeats the losers” Do read the famous book of World War II– “Defeat into Victory.” It is only those who ride the horse may fall and they only get up, recoup and ride again to glory. A failure is just a pause of your career and you must recoup fast and bounce back to resume your mission/ journey. Your motto should be – “Try, Try and Try Again.”
Fair Deal. You should be fair while dealing with customers, vendors and team members. Likewise, as a teacher, as a doctor or as a project leader/manager you should be unbiased and very fair. This strengthens trust and your reputation within and outside the team.
Faith. Good old saying is ever true- “Faith can move mountains” and lack of faith can create mountains/obstacles. You must have faith in own capabilities, family support and faith in fiends as they all will standby you during your difficult days. Above all, faith in God really proves wonders. It allows you off-load all difficulties to God and proceed with a calm and cool mind to complete job at hand.
Faithful. Being faithful to an organization, seniors, peers and juniors is a good trait of a successful leader/manager. One should also be faithful to parents and spouse. A faithful person has a lot of dependability which leads to happiness and success in relationships.
Family Management. In your exuberance for the job, you should not neglect family – parents, spouse and children, as they need you and miss you when you are away. Equally important is not to mix office life with personal/private life. You may be required to stay late for a meeting/ discussions while there could be social or domestic function at home. Both organization and family are important and have their own time and requirement. To be successful in the workplace you need peace at home else your office productivity will drop. Do have time for fun and lighter moments with your family. A judicious balance is important.
Famous. You as a manager/team leader should be famous for your performance, integrity, determination and supporting attitude. A person with a positive attitude and required skill set is well respected and invited to join many project teams.
Fast and Faster. You should be fast in thinking, decision making and action taking, else others will take the lead and reach their target ahead of you. In today’s business world, it is not big that eats the smaller one; it is the faster which will swallow the slower ones.
Favour. Don’t seek favour from others when you can do it yourself. You must thank profusely when someone does a favour to you. If you favour to the needy do not remind them ever of that situation,
Feedback. Timely feedback is the best way to know what is happening in the team, the project, among vendors, subcontractors and suppliers. It helps to review your process/method and improve future actions and keep events under control.
First Thing First. Although one is required to do multi-tasking to cope up with workload yet you must manage your priorities. In principle, always do First Thing First but in order to satisfy/ delight customer, periodically review the progress and adjust priorities and available resources.
Firm. After you take a well deliberated and considered decision, be firm on it . Remember, as a junior or senior manager/ leader ownership of decision lies on you.
Fitness. You need to have good physical fitness as well as professional competence to excel in the job. They say the healthy body has a healthy mind and together they lead to success. The shortcoming if any, has to be made up quickly and showcase your ability to fit well in the team and the organization.
Forecast. Remember the famous proverb - “ coming events cast their shadow before”. Therefore you must anticipate and be proactive. It is safer to lookahead and prepare for any contingency rather than waiting for the event to occur and then react to an unexpected situation.
Forceful. You need to apply full force to pierce through the obstacle, if any. Any half-hearted effort will not yield a good result. Always aim to be the first time right and with full force.
Focus. You must maintain a focus of all energies to achieve your goal. Any diversion will dissipate energy and delay your success. Remember if you do not focus your camera properly, your picture will be blurred and not sharp. Likewise, look at the focus of kingfisher when it preparing to dive and catch a fish.
Forge Good Relationship. It is important to forge enduring relationship within the team, with business partners and in family circle. Strong relationship helps building trust for win-win deal and expansion of business.
Forget and Forgive. Be accommodating and do not worry about minor issues. To be happy and make others happy, forget and forgive is the best policy. This will create a better work environment both at home and in the workplace. Those who do not forgive others for their mistakes remain tensed up with bad feelings and anger. Forgiveness is being magnanimous and kind. It reinforces trust within the team as you become easily accessible.
Fraud. Neither you should do any fraud with anyone nor accept and fraudulent activity by anyone. With experience and alertness you should be able to read people’s mind and protect yourself against any fraud.
Friends. Select good friends who have a positive attitude and forward-looking. As they say “people are known by the friends they keep”. The good old saying – “Friend in need is a friend indeed.” Be equally reciprocal and support your friends. Use a friend as a sounding board to trust and discuss issues which bother you most.
Frugal. You should make it a habit of being frugal in eating and spending. To control your shopping expenses, do not try to match or try to outshine others around you to showcase your false status. Instead, while preparing your shopping list, follow simple rule of Must, Should and could ( MSC). Do remember a good old saying- “ Cut your coat according to your cloth”.
Fragile. Your relationship at home, at the workplace as well as with business partners should by enduring and nor fragile to crumble under small pressure. You should tactfully manage various issues keeping bigger aim insight and ignore trivial issues or those can be managed.
Furious. When there is a mishap or someone makes a mistake, do not be furious and lose temper. Instead, calm down and be generous to control the situation.
Fuss. Do not make a fuss on smaller issues and become rigid in your viewpoint. It is much better to let those issues go and you need not be a winner all the times. Let others have their say and are happy when others rejoice.
For more details, refer to my book/ebook A2Z – 26 Steps for Assured Success” available on www.amazon.com or www.notionpress.com
Brig(Retd) Dr Sarbjit Singh, former Exec Director Apeejay College of Engineering & former, Hony Advisor , School of Engineering and Technology , Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon , Haryana 122103, India
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