Golden Rules for Career Success -- Richard Moran

WORKING as a business consultant all over the world, I have discovered some basic career-related rules that everyone should know—but many don’t.

• Business is made up of ambiguous victories and nebulous defeats. Claim them all as victories.
• Keep track of what you do; someone is sure to ask.
• Be comfortable around senior managers, or learn to fake it.
• Never bring your boss a problem without some solution. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.
• Long hours don’t mean anything; results count, not effort.
• Write down ideas; they get lost, like good pens.
• Always arrive at work 30 minutes before your boss.
• Help other people network for jobs. You never know when your turn will come.
• Don’t take days off sick—unless you are.
• Assume no one can/will keep a secret.
• Know when you do your best—morning, night, under pressure, relaxed; schedule and prioritize your work accordingly.
• Treat everyone who works in the organization with respect and dignity, whether it be the cleaner or the managing director. Don’t ever be patronizing.
• Never appear stressed in front of a client, a customer or your boss. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: In the course of human events, how important is this?
• If you get the entrepreneurial urge, visit someone who has his own business. It may cure you.
• Acknowledging someone else’s contribution will repay you doubly.
• Career planning is an oxymoron. The most exciting opportunities tend to be unplanned.
• Always choose to do what you’ll remember ten years from now.
• The size of your office is not as important as the size of your pay cheque.
• Understand what finished work looks like and deliver your work only when it is finished.
• The person who spends all of his or her time is not hard-working; he or she is boring.
• Know how to write business letters—including thank-you notes as well as proposals.
• Never confuse a memo with reality. Most memos from the top are political fantasy.
• Eliminate guilt. Don’t fiddle expenses, taxes or benefits, and don’t cheat colleagues.
• Reorganizations mean that someone will lose his or her job. Get on the committee that will make the recommendations.
• Job security does not exist.
• Always have an answer to the question, “What would I do if I lost my job tomorrow?”
• Go to the company Christmas party.
• Don’t get drunk at the company Christmas party.
• Avoid working at weekends. Work longer during the week if you have to.
• The most successful people in business are interesting.
• Sometimes you’ll be on a winning streak and everything will click; take maximum advantage. Whenthe opposite is true, hold steady and wait it out.
• Never in your life say, “It’s not my job.”
• Be loyal to your career, your interests and yourself.
• Understand the skills and abilities that set you apart. Use them whenever you have an opportunity.
• People remember the end of the project. As they say in boxing, “Always finish stronger than you start.”

10 rules to improve your financial future!

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The best way to start is to design an investment plan to suit your individual circumstances and regularly monitor the same. As you begin and travel on your financial expressway, these ten lessons should ensure that you remain on track and keep achieving your financial goals on the way.

1. Risk is inevitable -- Manage it

Once you decide to put your money to build long-term wealth, you have to decide, not whether to take risk, but what kind of risk you wish to take. Determining your risk appetite involves measuring the impact of a loss on your financial health - and mental well being too.

Money in a savings account is safe. But inflation will erode its' value, a risk that would almost ensure your failure to reach your goal of long-term wealth.

On the other hand, investment in stock market may be risky over the short-term, but should provide consistent and remarkable growth over the long term.

2. Start early -- Benefit from compounding

There is no truth to statements like: 'I am too young to start saving.'

For example, if you want to be crorepati (millionaire) by 45, you would need to invest only Rs 160,000 per year if you start at the age of 25 (assuming 10% returns p.a.). But if you start at the age of 35 you will need to invest Rs 570,000 per year to achieve your 'crorepati at 45' objective.

If you start saving and investing early, it will set the stage for significant financial growth later in your life.

3. Have realistic expectations -- Greed is bad

Most people invest in stocks and expect them to double in quick time. If you want to double your money, either buy a lottery or go to a casino (but be prepared to lose everything). Stock market is not gambling.

The market is ultimately a reflection of economic growth. As such one needs to align one's expectation of returns in line with the expected GDP growth. Compare the performance of your portfolio with relevant benchmark indices and develop realistic expectations.

Expecting unreasonable returns will surely cause disappointment, leading to excessive risk-taking.

4. Invest regularly -- Use time not timing

Market timing is impossible. You may be lucky once or twice but history has not produced a single investor who has made money regularly by timing the market.

Don't panic when the market is dropping and don't become greedy when prices are rising. Emotions can be the greatest enemy to your long-term investment plan. History has shown that when most investors are selling, you may have been better off buying.

5. Stay Invested -- Be a marathon runner

The markets have seen lots of ups and downs, but history shows that over time the value of a well-diversified portfolio will increase. That's because prices don't rise every day -- they spurt only during a few short intervals of time.

Stay invested for longer periods. It will keep you from making common mistakes such as timing the market, picking bad stocks, speculating on stocks that are worthless, investing on borrowed money, trying to make a killing in some fad-of-the-day stock, etc.

The reason most people don't get rich with stocks is that they don't stay in long enough.

6. Don't churn your investments -- It only increases costs

Don't buy stocks. Buy businesses and that too after due research. And since businesses generally don't change fortunes overnight, there is no need to get in/out frequently as and when some short-term events play out in the market.

Too-frequent trading cuts into the investment returns more than anything else. Remember that the only person who makes money in regular churning is your broker.

7. Asset allocation -- Each investment class is important

Build a portfolio that is diversified among different types of investments. Because different sectors of the market move at different times in different patterns, asset allocation tends to reduce the risk of huge losses and improves the chances of stable returns. Lack of a well-diversified portfolio, would leave you vulnerable to fluctuations of a particular investment.

However, remember not to over-diversify and own too many investment products -- more so if the corpus is small -- resulting in higher fees relative to the corpus size. Always seek to maintain a balance between the two.

8. Sell your losers -- Hold the winners

Historically it is seen that investors book profits by selling the stocks, which have appreciated, but continue to hold onto stocks that have declined, in hopes of a bounce back. This one single fact has been the reason why most investors don't get the true benefit of the markets.

While it's important not to underestimate good stocks, it's equally important to be realistic about investments that are performing badly. Recognising your losers is hard because it's also an acknowledgment of your mistake. But it's important that one should be honest and book a loss, else future losses may even be greater.

In both cases, judge the companies on their merits according to your own research. You will never have a tenbagger if you simply sell everything that has say doubled or tripled.

9. Hot tips usually burn your investments -- Stay away from them

Relying on so-called hot-tips from someone, be it your friend, broker, neighbor or anyone else, is akin to gambling. Sure, you may sometimes be lucky with tips, but they will never make you an informed investor, which is what you need to be to be successful in the long run.

Focus on the future of the company whose stocks you plan to acquire and not on the share price or some hot news. If you've got some information, chances are that so have many others and so the information is already factored into the market price.

10. Taxes are important - But not that important

The primary goal of investing is long-term growth of your money through sound investment decisions. Tax implications are important, and you should always try to minimise taxes thereby maximising your after-tax returns. But putting taxes above all else can often lead to poor decisions.

For instance, people invest in insurance because it gives tax sops. But in the process they forgo opportunities of earning good returns and end-up compromising on the achievement of their financial objective.

Keep the above rules in mind and chances are that you will more often than not turn your dreams into reality.

How to be the Perfect Project Manager ?

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Here are some tips for mastering the art of project management:

• Everything can be represented in an ordered list. Most of the work of project management is correctly prioritising things and leading the team in carrying them out.
• The three most basic ordered lists are: project goals (vision), list of features, and list of work items.
• They should always be in sync with each other. Each work item contributes to a feature, and each feature contributes to a goal.
• There is a bright yellow line between priority 1 work and everything else.
• Things happen when you say no. If you can't say no, you effectively have no priorities.
• The PM has to keep the team honest and keep them close to reality.
• Knowing the critical path in engineering and team processes enables efficiency.
• You must be both relentless and savvy to make things happen.

A good project manager's primary role is to ensure that people at all levels within and around the project environment are doing their best to enable the project to be successful.

How to Win Friends and Influence People! - Dale Carnegie

• Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.
• Give honest,sincere appreciation.
• Arouse in the other person an eager want.
• Become genuinely interested in other people.
• Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerly.
• Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say "you are wrong".
• Begin in a friendly way.
• Get the other person saying "yes yes" immediately.
• Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
• Appeal to the nobler motives.
• Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticising the other person.
• Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
• Let the other person save face.
  

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living! - Dale Carnegie

• Do not imitate others.
• Apply these four good working habits:
• Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at the hand.
• Do things in the order of their importance.
• When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision.
• Learn to organize, deputise, and supervize.

• Learn to relax at your work.
• Put enthusiasm into your work.
• Count your blessings - not your troubles.
• Rememeber that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.
• Do the very best you can.
  

Key to controlling attrition!

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The war of talent in corporate India has shed a lot of blood in the form of rampant flow of intellectual capital from one business entity to another. The attrition levels have been very high in the past few years compounded by an acute dearth of skilled talent.

The managers need to quickly realise that they need to evolve their roles from controlling and managing talent to leading talent.

In such a scenario, talent management (TM) programmes have become a buzzword across corporate India, though unfortunately, very few organisations can boast of its success. In order to find reasons for its low success rate, we need to first understand the fundamental philosophy of such programmes.

One of the premises the TM process is based on is that it is the employee’s responsibility to manage his or her own career. This challenges the traditional outlook that has put the manager in charge of the careers of his/her subordinates. This one basic principle creates a semblance of an apparent loss of formal authority that can be traumatic for the line manager, resulting in developing a fundamental disconnect with the TM process.

This is the result of the prevalent command and control structures, the degree of which may vary from corporate to corporate.

The managers need to quickly realise that they need to evolve their roles from controlling and managing talent to leading talent. Instead of creating career paths for their employees, they need to help them discover various career options, provide resources and create opportunities for them. out a future

The manager’s role is to coach and counsel their employees and create an open and caring environment. Critical for developing and retaining talent is for managers to share information, knowledge, market trends and help the subordinate chart out a future direction. The employees are then empowered to execute strategy and take on implementation challenges through which they derive maximum learning.

. Critical for developing and retaining talent is for managers to share information, knowledge, market trends and help the subordinate chart out a future direction.

Steep learning is one of the biggest factors in retaining talent. Linked with learning is constant assessments/ feedbacks to such employees by their managers in order to help them create benchmarks to further their development.

Another major objective which the above mentioned style achieves is inducing creativity and innovation. Constant knowledge sharing, generation and dissemination of ideas and motivation to take on steeper challenges lead the company to greater heights through innovation of processes, services, products, etc., which is critical for any company’s success.

The other thing the TM process strongly advocates is the free flow of talent across the organisation from one function to the other. This goes against the tenet of turfism, which is still ingrained, in varying degrees, across the corporate world. Having said that, cross-functional moves sometimes do temporarily expose the donor function but we also need to recognise the fact that, anyway, the organisation will lose the person, if it were not to cross rotate the person to meet his/her career aspirations. The other point in favour of such moves is that the donor function of today will become the receiver tomorrow, from some other function !

Managers need to understand that these cross-functional moves are required for developing a systemic understanding which is so critical for handling future senior management roles in the organisation, in addition to developing a strategic outlook. Such moves help the organisation to build a strong bench-strength for the future, helping to plug gaps immediately, with minimum or no set-backs, as and when a senior person leaves. For the talented employees, this again fast-forwards learning and career growth thereby keeping him/her glued to the organisation.

In addition to the above, to achieve the systemic understanding objective, some progressive organisations encourage one-on-one meetings of their top talent with various members of the senior management team, including the CEO, which also helps broaden their perspectives in addition to helping them further align their objectives with those of the organisation.

In order to remove the fundamental hurdles, companies have adopted measures, and to good effect, like talent management as one of the main KRAs (key result areas) for line managers, CEO’s office directly driving TM process for top talent, incentivising sharing knowledge, etc.

But there is a prerequisite to all this, for the success of such an important process and in order to develop an organisational ability on attracting and retaining talent is that the organisation must possess the “passion” to do it — a similar “passion” with which the organisations drive for top line growth. You will know the passion exists in your organisation when, in an unfortunate event of an exit of a talented employee, it saddens the hearts of the top management team and most of all the CEO’s !

/** It's an unfortunate coincidence to see this article and the last few lines on the day of sudden demise of our colleague and friend at Juno online services, Hyderabad - Mrs. Sirisha Srivatsan - May 04, 2006 - Thursday Night **/

From: C.S.Murali - Our Senior VP!
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 10:21 AM
Subject: Sad demise of Sirisha
Importance: High

Folks,

It deeply saddens me to inform you all of
Sirisha's untimely demise last night.

She was a well respected and extraordinarily
committed member of our United Online family.

She'll remain forever in our hearts.

-Murali

Manage your anger!

Rule-1:
Don't get judgment about your anger, but do acknowledge that you are angry.
Rule-2:
Create a gap between your anger and your response. We often get angry because we are burdened with preset notions. It is important to interrupt the angry-thought pattern with more pleasant imagery. Don't react instantly. Wait for a few minutes, you won't regret it
Rule-3:
Stop justifying your anger or blaming the other person. This does not drive away anger, it keeps it alive. Instead of focusing on anger, concentrate on what you can do next. Your motto should be: What next, now?
Rule-4:
Interrupt anger with humour. When you come back home and find your kids fighting, don't start scolding them. Instead, use expression like "Wah, kya baat hai!" and "How fascinating." It invariably works.
Rule-5:
When you are angry, you instantly lose your right to choose. Anger makes those choices for you, not you. Control your anger and get back your right to choose.
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