Steps to building a positive attitude:

Step 1: change the focus, look for positive:
People find what they are looking for. So if you are looking for negative, you’ll find negative. If you are looking for positive, you’ll find positive. Keep in mind, looking for positive doesn’t mean overlooking faults.

Step 2: Make a habit of doing it now:
If you want to build and maintain a positive attitude, get into the habit of living in the present and doing it now.

Step 3: Develop and attitude of gratitude:
We are so focused on complaining about things we don’t have that we lose the sight of the things we have. There is a lot to be thankful for. One thing else, it doesn’t mean that you become complacent.

Step 4: Get into a continuous education program:
Besides school and college, we have to learn more and get more educated. Besides getting education for the purpose of increasing our information, we have to get moral and ethical literacy and build our traits such as; honesty, compassion, courage and responsibility.

Step 5: Build a positive self-esteem:
Self-esteem is the way we feel about ourselves. When we feel well within, our performance goes up, our relationships improve both at work and at home. Keep in mind, there is a direct correlation between feeling and behavior. If you want to build a positive self-esteem, do something for others who cannot repay you in cash or kind.

Step 6: Get away from negativity:
- Negative people: Don’t let negative people drag you down. Remember, a person’s character is not only judged by the company she/he keeps but also by company he/she avoids.
- Smoking, drugs and alcohol.
- Pornography
- Negative movies and television programs
- Profanity

Step 7: Learn to like the things that need to be done:
Some things need to be done whether we like them or not. For example; mother caring for their young children. They may not be fun and games and may even be painful. But if we learn to like the task, the impossible becomes possible. Start by doing what is necessary then what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Step 8: Start your day with positive:
Read or listen to something positive first thing in the morning. Practice having positive thoughts and behaviors daily until they become habit.

Building a positive attitude:

During childhood, we form attitudes that last a lifetime. When we become aware of our attitudes, we can change them but it will not be easy. For building and maintaining a positive attitude, we should:
- Become aware of principles that build a positive attitude.
- Cultivate the discipline and dedication to practice those principles.
We are responsible for our attitudes. People with negative attitude blame others for their failure. Thinking of positive things that are true, honest and good will put us in a positive state of mind.

When we become aware of our negative attitude, why don’t we change it?

Human generally resists change. Change is uncomfortable. Sometimes we get so comfortable with our negativity that even when the change is positive, we don’t accept it. We simply stay with negative.
There was a prisoner who had spent many years in prison. After a long time, he received his freedom. He was brought out of his cell. When he came out, after a few minutes, he was so uncomfortable with the change in his life that he requested to be sent back to his dark cell.

(From a book "YOU CAN WIN" by "SHIV KHERA:)

The consequences of a negative attitude:

Our life is an obstacle course and we become or own obstacle by having a negative attitude. People with a negative attitude have a hard time keeping friends, jobs, marriage and relationships. Negative attitude leads to:
- Bitterness
- Resentment
- A purposeless life
- Ill health
- High stress level of themselves and others.

(From a book "YOU CAN WIN" by "SHIV KHERA:)

How do you recognize people with positive attitude?

People with positive attitude have certain personality traits. They are caring, confident, patient and humble. A person with a positive attitude is like a fruit of all seasons. He/she is always welcomed.
The benefits of a positive attitude:
- Increases productivity
- Fosters team work
- Solves problems
- Improves quality
- Increases profit
- Fosters better relationships between employees, employers and customers.
- Reduces stress.

What your priorities should be at the scene of an accident?

From this activity you should have learned what your priorities should be at the scene of an accident.
First, you should assess the scene for danger. You can't help anyone if you're injured.
A quiet casualty may be an indication that the person is unconscious. Such casualties should always be the first priority.
A casualty who's bleeding heavily or is obviously in pain is upsetting, but a quiet casualty could be in the most serious condition and should always be attended to first.

Question 1:
What should your priority be?
Click on the correct option below.

A. Assess the casualties you want to start helping
B. Ring for emergency help - you need expert medical help
C. Assess the scene for danger - you don't want to get hurt

You chose A - Assess the casualties.
No. This isn't the first step. You should assess the scene for danger first. If you're injured, you can't help anyone else.

Question 2:
After checking for danger, what should you do next?
Click on the correct option below.

A. Assess the casualties you want to start helping
B. Ring for emergency help - you need expert medical help
C. Look for people who are losing blood

You chose C - Look for people who are losing blood.
No. This is the wrong answer. You need to assess all the casualties to decide who to help first.

Question 3:
There are three casualties on the ground. Having made sure the site is safe, which casualty should you help first?
Click on the correct option below.

A. The one with a bad leg injury, who's losing a lot of blood
B. The conscious casualty who's moaning and obviously in a lot of pain
C. The quiet casualty who's laying face up - you can't even tell if he's breathing

You chose C - The quiet casualty who is laying face up.
Yes. A quiet casualty may be an indication that the person is unconscious. Such casualties should always be the first priority.

A casualty who's bleeding heavily or is obviously in pain is upsetting, but a quiet casualty could be in the most serious condition and should always be attended to first.

What to do if someone has been scalded (burnt)?

From this activity you should have learned some of the most important things to do if someone has been scalded. If you are dealing with a burn rather than a scald use the same procedure as below:
Run cold water over the affected area.
Keep running water over the injured area for at least ten minutes to cool it down fully.
Remove anything, such as jewelry, that may become uncomfortable if the area swells.
Cover the wound loosely with cling film to prevent infection.

Question 1:
What can you do first to help the casualty?
Click on the correct option below.
A. Cool the burn with water.
B. Reduce any shock she may be experiencing.
C. Pull up her sleeve and let air get to the burn.
You chose C - Pull up her sleeve and let air get to the burn.
No. It's important to leave any clothing where it is. It may be sticking to the burn and tearing it away will make the wound worse.

Your priority is to stop the burning by running cold water over it.

Question 2:
How long should you apply water for?
Click on the correct option below.
A. 30 minutes
B. Ten minutes
C. Five minutes
You chose C - Five minutes
No, this isn't long enough to cool the site and halt the burning. Ten minutes is the recommended minimum time.

Question 3:
The burning has stopped and the site has cooled. What can you do next?
Click on the correct option below.
A. Remove jewellery such as watches and rings
B. Place the casualty in the recovery position.
C. Apply ointment.
You chose C - Apply ointment.
No. Don't apply lotions, ointment, fat or adhesive tape to the burned area. You should remove anything that may cause discomfort if the area swells.

Question 4:
While the wound is raw and open it's vulnerable to infection, so it needs a sterile dressing. Which of these dressings would you choose?
Click on the correct option below.
A. Clean toweling
B. Cling film
C. Adhesive plaster
You chose clean toweling.
No. If the toweling is fluffy it may get into the wound and introduce infection. You should use cling film.

Difference between Job Profile and Job Description

A job profile is brief summary of the job. Whereas Job Description would explain in detail reporting manager, key responsibilities, department and performance parameters.

Job Profile: Graphics Designer for Investment Banking Department

Job Description:
• Department: Investment Banking Mumbai
• Reporting to: SVP Investment Banking
• Designation: Manager - Graphics
• Key Responsibilities: Designing Corporate PowerPoint Presentations, coordinating with team members and training them storing presentations

You can find a job

• Create a CV
• Search for a course in your area
• Learn about different jobs and careers
• Look at careers information
• Improve your job search skills
• Find out how much Government funding could be available to support you
• Apply for different posts and vacancies in different companies

Remember: Every job interview is an experience that increases your skills and knowledge of interview methods and dos and donts.

National Punctuation Day

What's the point? Try reading this quickly know when to pause when to stop and what inflection should be used Its not so easy without punctuation to guide you and thats the point Show your comma some respect appreciate the semicolon applaud the dash and try not to abuse the exclamation mark

Let's try it again with punctuation. Try reading this quickly: know when to pause, when to stop and what inflection should be used. It's not so easy without punctuation to guide you — and that's the point. Show your comma some respect; appreciate the semicolon, applaud the dash and try not to abuse the exclamation mark. Happy National Punctuation Day!

Carl Rowan's Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Carl T. Rowan)

Carl Thomas Rowan (August 11, 1925 - September 23, 2000), was an American public servant, journalist and author. Rowan was a nationally-syndicated op-ed columnist for the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. He was one of the most prominent black journalists of the 20th century.

Background
Carl Rowan was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee, and was raised in McMinnville, in that state. Rowan was determined to get a good education. He graduated from Bernard High School in 1942 as class president and valedictorian. He studied at Tennessee State University (1942–43) and Washburn University (1943–44). He was one of the first African-Americans to serve as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy. He graduated from Oberlin College (1947) and earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota (1948). He began his career in journalism writing for the African American newspapers Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder (now the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder). He went on to be a copywriter for The Minneapolis Tribune (1948–50), and later became a staff writer (1950–61), reporting extensively on the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1961, Rowan was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State by President John F. Kennedy. The following year, he served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Rowan became the U.S. Ambassador to Finland in 1963. In 1964, Rowan was appointed director of the United States Information Agency by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In serving as director of the U.S.I.A., Rowan became the first African American to hold a seat on the National Security Council and the highest level African American in the United States government.
From 1966 to 1998, Rowan wrote a syndicated column for the Chicago Sun-Times and, from 1967 to 1996, was a panelist on Agronsky & Company, later titled Inside Washington. His name appeared on the master list of Nixon political opponents. Rowan was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his commentaries. He is the only journalist in history to win the Sigma Delta Chi medallion for journalistic excellence in three successive years.
Carl Rowan was a well known and highly decorated journalist. His columns were published in more than one hundred newspapers across the United States. In 1968 Rowan received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College.
Thurgood Marshall's only interview while serving on the Supreme Court of the United States was for Carl Rowan's 1988 documentary. The National Press Club gave Rowan its 1999 Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement. On January 9, 2001, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dedicated the press briefing room at the State Department as the Carl T. Rowan Briefing room.

Montgomery Bus Boycott
In the late 1950s, Rowan covered the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement in the South, including the historic Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in 1955, resulting from Rosa Parks's refusal to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger. As the only black reporter covering the story for a national newspaper, Rowan struck a special friendship with the boycott's leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. When news of an unlikely compromise settlement of the boycott came to Rowan's attention across the Associate Press wire, he notified King, who made quick steps to discredit the story which was about to appear in a Montgomery newspaper, thus ensuring the continuance of the boycott.

Project Excellence
Founded in 1987 by Rowan, Project Excellence was a college scholarship program for black high school seniors who displayed outstanding writing and speaking skills. Rowan founded Project Excellence to combat negative peer pressure felt by black students and to reward students who rose above stereotypes and negative peer influence and excelled academically. Chaired by Rowan, a committee of journalists, community leaders, and school officials oversaw the program. Participants were African-American students in their senior year of high school from public, private, and parochial schools in the metropolitan Washington area, including the Virginia and Maryland suburbs. By 2000 the program had given out $26 million dollars in scholarship money to over 1150 students.

Controversy
Rowan gained public notoriety on June 14, 1988, when he shot a teenage trespasser, Neil Smith, who was on his property illegally. He was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. Critics charged hypocrisy, since Rowan was a strict gun control advocate. In a 1981 column, he advocated "a law that says anyone found in possession of a handgun except a legitimate officer of the law goes to jail—period." In 1985, he called for "A complete and universal federal ban on the sale, manufacture, importation and possession of handguns (except for authorized police and military personnel)."
Rowan was tried but the jury was deadlocked, the judge declared a mistrial and he was never retried. In his autobiography, Rowan said he still favors gun control, but admits being vulnerable to a charge of hypocrisy.
Rowan died in Washington, D.C. His alma mater, Oberlin College, holds his papers.

Bibliography
South of Freedom (1952)
The Pitiful and the Proud (1956)
Go South to Sorrow (1957)
Wait till Next Year: The Life Story of Jackie Robinson (1960)
Just Between Us Blacks (1974)
Breaking Barriers: A Memoir (1991)
Growing up Black: From The Slave Days to the Present - 25 African-Americans Reveal the Trials and Triumphs of Their Childhoods (contributor, 1992)
Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall (1993)
The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call (1996)

Don't Change the World

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.
Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.
Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?”
The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make
a “shoe” for himself.

There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world.

Change Yourself

Once there was a king who told some of his workers to dig a pond. Once the pond was
dug, the king made an announcement to his people saying that one person from each
household has to bring a glass of milk during the night and pour it into the pond. So,the pond should be full of milk by the morning. After receiving the order, everyone went home.

One man prepared to take the milk during the night. He thought that since everyone
will bring milk, he could just hide a glass of water and pour inside the pond. Because it will be dark at night, no one will notice. So he quickly went and poured the water in the pond and came back. In the morning, the king came to visit the pond and to his surprise the pond was only filled with water! What has happened is that everyone was thinking like the other man that “I don't have to put the milk, someone else will do it.”

Dear friends, when it comes to help the Religion of Allah, do not think that others will take care of it. Rather, it starts from you, if you don’t do it, no one else will do it. So,change yourself to the way of Allah to serve Him and that will make the difference.

Creativity doesn’t usually occur while you’re screen-sucking.

To boost your number of creative ideas, you might consider getting away from your computer and introducing your brain to some new stimuli every now and then.

7 ways that work for me:-
- Enjoy coffee at a cafe (without iPhone, iPad, or laptop).
- Take a walk outside.
- Listen to music.
- Read fiction.
- Talk with another human about Stuff That Matters.
- Take a nap.

Those are some of my ways of boosting creativity. You will have your own. Just try to do something that doesn’t involve the Internet.

To quote John Cleese: “We don’t know where we get our ideas from. We do know that we do not get them from our laptops.”

(From RayEdwards.com)

With e-readers and the Internet, do people still go to the library?

They sure do. Check it out. Some two thirds of Americans have a library card. The American Library Association calls it "the most important school supply of all." September is National Library Card Sign-up Month. In most cases, borrowing privileges start as soon as you sign up for a card in your neighborhood library. And libraries aren't just about books: most also loan audio- and videotapes, computer software, DVDs, CDs, toys, games and puzzles. This year's library card campaign spokesperson is NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist Dwayne Wade.

Quote:
"The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history." — Carl T. Rowan

Factors which determine our attitude:

1- environment
2- experience
3- education

1- Environment: such as home, school, work, media, cultural background, religious background, tradition and beliefs, social environment, political environment.
2- Experience:
Our behavior changes according to our experiences with people and events in our life. If we have a positive experience with a person, our attitude towards him becomes positive. If we have a negative experience with a person, our attitude towards him becomes negative too.
3- Education:
Both formal and informal education affects our attitude. It is useless if we are drowned in information because we have to have knowledge and wisdom besides as well. Education ought to teach us not only to make a living but also how to live.

Seven Qualities of a Leader

To be truly successful in your life, your career, your community or in any area, you need to develop the qualities of a leader. First and foremost, you will need to be able lead yourself to success. Furthermore, true success often requires you to lead other people as well. Here are 7 personal development tips - the qualities of successful leaders.

There are 7 important qualities of a leader that you should know about, assimilate and practice every day in your life. You may already recognise some of them in your self - that's a good start. Be assured, we all have the makings of a leader in us. You just need to build on that base to incorporate more of the qualities of a leader a bit at a time.

As you get closer to the qualities of a true leader you will find that you begin to act like a leader and people behave as if you are leader. Leaders are the people who have the greatest rewards in all walks of life. Whether in business, or in society or in the community.

Seven qualities of a leader
1- Integrity. Integrity means that you are true to yourself and your ideas. You are someone you can trust and someone other people can trust. This is possibly the most important quality. You should always strive to do things that you are proud to explain to anyone.
2- Understand the area you want to be a leader in. You simply won't have a thorough grasp of the area you are trying to be a leader in. This applies to any walk of life - business, community, spiritual... All leaders have a good grasp of the basics and the key details.
This is not to say that you have to know everything there is to know - that is the job of the specialist, but you need to be able to talk to specialists and contribute some guidance to their work.
3- Consistency. When you are trying to lead people, you will rapidly loose the trust of your followers if you constantly change your mind and your direction. They will feel uncertain about their future and eventually you will loose them. This applies to yourself as well. If you are constantly changing direction, you will end up running round in circles and going nowhere.
4- Ability to admit your mistakes. One of the greatest cause of failure is not being willing to admit your mistakes. If you lie to yourself, you are fooling no one but yourself. You must be able to face up to your mistakes otherwise you will miss tremendous opportunities to learn from your mistakes and accelerate your success.
5- Willingness to listen. You can never know all the answers, you must be able to deal with contradictions and leverage the vast pool of knowledge that is around you.
6- Decisiveness. Great leaders make decisions and they make them quickly. Even if they are wrong, you'll learn more by taking action than by not taking the decision. You can always make another decision based on your learning.
7- Self Belief. If you don't believe in your self... no one will! You will face a lot of setbacks and obstacles. You need to believe in yourself and your ability to solve the problems and achieve your dreams. If you believe in yourself you will display an burning passion for your idea that will motivate others to follow you.

Some Thoughts

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.
What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
It's not the hours you put in your work that counts, it's the work you put in the hours.
Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Let us watch well our beginnings, and results will manage themselves.
I cannot expect to perform the task with equal ability and success.
What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us
Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.
History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often shaped by the many acts of the small.
Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing.
The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people.
We are born with a brain concealed in a skull that no matter how poor we are, we're still rich, for no one can steal what our brain contains.
We are born to have two ears, one on the left, and one on the right so we can hear both sides, collect both the compliments and criticisms, to understand which are right.
We are born with two eyes in front so that we must not always look behind, but see what lies ahead beyond ourselves.
People need to understand that children with special needs don't have an illness, so there is no cure & it's not contagious. They only want what we all want, to be accepted.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
We should not spend all our time asking why a particular person doesn't like us. Rather, should enjoy happiness that a thousand others do love us.
Don't be ashamed if you don't know something... what's embarrassing is that you cannot do anything... by all means knowledge can be obtained thru learning..
There is no such thing as destruction... you just changed something in a different form...
In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.
To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.
The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.
A human being must have an occupation, so he or she will not become a nuisance to the world.

(For any inquiries, please contact me at mukhtar_usmani@yahoo.com or add me in Facebook with the use name (Mukhtar Farhan))

What Are Your Major Weaknesses?

You must be prepared to answer this trick question. If you answer the question as it is asked, you could easily damage your chances of getting the job. By trying to throw you off guard, the employer can see how you might react in similar tough situations on the job. I have often asked this question to groups of job seekers, and I usually get one of two types of responses. The first response goes like this:
"I really don't have any major weaknesses." That response is untrue and evasive. The other type of response I usually get is an honest one like this:

"Well, I am really disorganized. I suppose I should do better at that, but my life has just been too hectic, what with the bankruptcy and embezzlement charges and all."

Although this type of response might get an A for honesty, it gets an F for interview technique.
What's needed here is an honest, undamaging response followed by a brief, positive presentation to counter the negative. The best approach is to present a weakness in a way that does not harm-and could help-your ability to do a good job. Here are some examples:

Sample Answer #1
"Well, I have been accused by coworkers of being too involved in my work. I usually come in a little early to organize my day and stay late to get a project done on time."

Sample Answer #2
"I need to learn to be more patient. I often do things myself just because I know I can do them faster and better than someone else. This trait has not let me be as good at delegating tasks as I want to be. But I am working on it. I'm now spending more time showing others how to do the things I want done and that has helped. They often do better than I expect because I am clear about explaining what I want and how I want it done."

These responses could both be expanded with the Prove-It Technique, but they successfully use the Three-Step Process in answering a problem question, as outlined in chapter 1. In both cases, the answers responded to the question as it was asked, but they did so in a way that presented the weakness as a positive.

"What Sort of Pay Do YouExpect to Receive?"
If you are unprepared for this question, any response you give is likely to damage your ability to get a job offer. The employer wants you to name a number that can be compared to a figure the company has in mind. Suppose that the employer is looking to pay someone $36,000 a year. If you say you were hoping for $40,000, you will probably be eliminated from consideration. The employer will be afraid that, if you took the job, you may not stay. If you say you would take $29,000, you will make it nearly impossible to negotiate for a higher salary if you are offered the job. Or the employer might decide that your skills are worth less than what the job requires.

This question is designed to help the employer either eliminate you from consideration or save money at your expense. You could get lucky and name the salary the employer had in mind, but the stakes are too high for me to recommend that approach.
Employers often use discussions of pay in an initial interview to screen people out. Because you aren't likely to get a firm job offer in a first interview, your objective should be to create a positive impression and not be rejected. If the topic of pay does come up, avoid getting nailed down. Here are some things you could say:

"Are you making me a job offer?" (A bit corny, yes, but you just might be surprised at the result.)
"What salary range do you pay for positions with similar requirements?"
"I'm very interested in the position, and my salary would be negotiable."
"Tell me what you have in mind for the salary range."
"I prefer to hear more about the position before I can come up with a solid number."
Put off discussion of pay until you are sure it's the real thing and not just part of a screening process. See chapter 8 for more information on how to talk money when the time is right.

How do you prioritize your work?

Prioritizing is not easy. You must determine what needs to be done and how much time you have to do it in. Normally you should not make your schedule so tight that you won't have time for setbacks or research. Make a list of things to do: you should start with the most important and time sensitive issues. On your list you should list the due date of your projects. Always give yourself at least 2 days before, if possible. If your projects are daily then give yourself at least 1 to 2 hours deadline before the due date or time. If you can color code your list such as (Red) urgent, must do right away, (Blue) projects with deadlines within a weeks time (Purple) daily jobs that can be done at any time. Cross off things as you finish them and add as needed. Keep this in your computer but also print a copy and keep it somewhere where you can see it.

How do you reduce manpower if there are 16000 employees in an organization?

Reducing Manpower
Three primary methods, layoffs, atrition or early retirement bonuses. Unfortunately, layoffs end up causing more problems than they are worth. People tend to start looking for jobs when they see their co-workers get laid-off. Attrition just allows people to leave without hiring someone else to fill the spot. Necessary positions are re-filled from within the company.

Attrition and early retirement take a little longer, but give the employees much more confidence in the company, and end up with valuable employees staying.

Increase management to staff ratios:

Increase employee to employer ratio:
In an organization of 16,000 employees, there will be many levels of management with in the organization. If the organization were to assign lower level employees to any one manager, they would then be able to reduce employee numbers. This is where middle management has its problems during recessions etc.

For e.g. (NB: unrealistic and oversimplifying):
If a company has 128 employees to manage and each manager in the organization has 2 people under them, the organization diagram will look like this: 1 > 2 > 4 > 8 > 16 > 32 > 64 > 128. This means that there is 8 tiers in the organization, and most importantly, 126 managers looking after 128 workers.

As opposed to having a structure where each manager looks after 4 people, again with 128 workers, the structure will look like so: 1 > 4 > 16 > 64 > 128. In this case, there is only 5 tiers, and only 84 managers looking after 128 workers.

This difference of 42 managers is a huge reduction in the workforce. As seen, to do this the organization must demand more from management, which could be done through a number of ways like training or higher wages. But in doing so, the manpower required in an organization will be greatly diminished, especially the larger an organization is, i.e. 16,000 employees.

How long does it take to earn a bachelor's degree in business?

It should take 4 years if it's from a reputable university. There are many other programs that are less but 4 is best.

How do you write an acknowledgment?

An acknowledgment is just a fancy term for thanking the people who helped you out. If you are writing a report or formal essay or any other type of scholastic paper, you would want to include teachers who helped, any person who did anything for you or gave you information, and any organization or company who assisted you in any way.
You just write down the name of the person or organization and what they did to help, such as "I would like to thank Wiki Answers for providing information on how to write an acknowledgment."

Why is management theory important?

Management Theory's Role and Importance Management theory is important because it is the study of how to make all the people in your organization more productive. If you are self employed and have other working for you, or you outsource certain jobs you are unable to do, then you know how hard it is to find qualified competent professionals to provide you a service or work for you. You want to maximize labor productivity and learning how to manage people is the key.

My View: by Kayors
The key to business management is to maximize productivity. However, while management theory does aim towards getting a group of entities to achieve a certain goal, it does not necessarily achieve in making people more productive towards this cause.
Times are shifting rapidly and the loss of key gurus, like Peter Drucker, in recent times, bears certain implications.
I believe the key contribution in having management theory lies in what has been achieved by the differing schools of thought within our history. This may serve as a guide but one must also bear in mind management is not just a science, but also an art.

There are many benefits to knowing management theory. First of all management theory doesn't just teach someone how inspire employees to be more productive, it also shows managers how to be good bosses. It is key for them to know how to deal with issues that may happen in the workplace, they have to efficiently deal with these issues and simultaneously maintain a stable or improving level of productivity. With management you have to balance a multitude of tasks daily and being familiar with management theory can help greatly.

How are Great Organizations Measured?

The writer of “YOU CAN WIN” book, “SHIV KHERA” writes:

Great organizations are not measured by wages and working conditions. They are measured by feelings, attitudes and relationships.

When employees say: “I can’t do it!” There are two possible meanings. They don’t know how to or they don’t want to. If they don’t know how to, it is the issue of training but if they are saying they don’t want to, it may be an attitude issue (they don’t care) or values issue (they believe they shouldn’t do it).

Opportunity

- Opportunity is always under our feet. We don’t have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.
- When people don’t know how to recognize the opportunity, they complain of noise when it knocks.
- The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one maybe better or worse but it is never the same one.

One day one of my friends complained about his job to me. He said: “I am fed up with my job. I have gotten too tired. I want another job because the current organization doesn’t value my works. Bla Bla Bla… I want to resign.”
Finally, he was asked for a job interview in a big organization where anything he needed was provided to him. He successfully received the job offer after several interviews with high salary. He didn’t agree with the period of contract which was 3 months. He didn’t accept the job offer and continued with his current job until he found a job with the same salary, different position and even worse than his current job. There he came to know that he lost the opportunity. He could have joined that job and the company may have continued the contract with him. He didn’t recognize the opportunity well.

- The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one maybe better or worse but it is never the same one.

If he was a positive thinker, this opportunity would bring success and progress in his career. He was a negative thinker and thought it would block his way to success.

Attitude in examples

Someone once came to Blaise Pascal, the famous French philosopher and said: “If I had your brains, I would be a better person.” Pascal replied: “Be a better person and you’ll have my brains.”

The Calgary tower stands at 190.8 meters. The total weight of the tower is 10,884 tons of which 6,349 tons are below ground (Approximately 60%).
This shows that some of the greatest buildings have the strongest foundations. Just like a great building stands on a strong foundation, so does the success. And the foundation of a success is attitude.

People are the most valuable assets of an organization

Experience has shown that human resources is the most valuable asset of any business. It is more valuable than capital or equipments. (Unfortunately, it is also the most wasted. People can be an organization’s biggest asset or biggest liability).
You might have noticed that some organizations or countries are more successful than others. That’s because the human resources of that organization thinks and acts more efficiently. Those successful organizations have invested in more valuable assets, the people working there. The success of an organization depends on the quality of the people working there.

Attitude

There was a man who made a living by selling balloons. He had all colors of balloons including red, yellow, blue and green. Whenever his business was slow, he would release a helium-filled balloon into the air and when the children saw it go up, they would come to this balloon seller and wanted to buy one. The children would come to him, buy balloons from him and his sales would go up again. One day, a small boy came to him and asked him: “If you release a black balloon, would it also fly?” The balloon seller replied: “Son, it isn’t the color of the balloon, it is what is inside that makes it go up.”

Conclusion:
The same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that makes us feel proud or be respected by others. The thing inside us that makes us go up is our attitude.
(For more information, check the book “YOU CAN WIN” written by “SHIV KHERA”)

When do you need ideas?

You have a problem that you can solve quite easily perhaps using a routine approach. So why do you need creativity and a new idea? Because the obvious solution may not be the best one.

The obvious solution makes it very difficult to look for solutions that might be quicker, simpler or cheaper. This is what I call 'being blocked by openness'.

Even when there is a routine solution to a problem or a routine way of achieving a task, there is a real need to spend some time in creative thinking to try to find a better solution. You are not forced to do this. But you should want to do it and to invest the creative effort that is required.

Improvements often need creativity. If there is no obvious problem or fault, you do not believe an improvement is needed. Yet a new creative idea can save money and time and provide new value.

Opportunities need creativity. You may need creativity to decide that an opportunity exists when this is not obvious and no one else has noticed.

Even when the opportunity is obvious, a creative approach may be more effective than the routine one. Such an approach would also have much less competition.

In the design of new products, new services and new values there is an obvious need for creativity, yet this is usually applied in a very superficial way.

The human brain is very good at adapting to its surroundings. The brain is excellent at setting up routine patterns. In any organization the most effective people have adapted very well to the culture, idioms and values of that organization.

But that is where the term 'out of the box thinking' comes from. I do not like this term because it implies that the other thinking is 'in the box'. This is very unfair on highly competent executives.

I prefer the term 'main track thinking' for the effective thinking that runs the organization. Creative thinking is then 'new track thinking', which is also needed.

Motorcars need reverse gears as well as forward gears. You choose which gear to use. It is not a combination of forward and reverse gears.

In the same way, main track and new track thinking are both needed. There is an obvious need for main track thinking. There is not always an obvious need for new track thinking.

Although new ideas are usually logical in hindsight, they cannot be obtained through the increased use of logic. This is the nature of asymmetric systems. Logicians and philosophers, who have only dealt with words rather than self-organizing systems, have never seen this point.

The sheer simplicity of some new ideas is impressive. So why have these ideas not been developed years earlier? Sometimes the route to them has been blocked by 'openness' as described earlier. Sometimes a very different approach to the issue only becomes obvious in hindsight.

There is a huge potential for creativity and new ideas. Yet our complacency with existing ideas makes them difficult to achieve.

(Thanks from thinking managers website)

Team

T= Together
E = Everyone
A = Achieves
M= More

A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths and minimize his or her weaknesses.
Thus teams of sports players can form (and re-form) to practice their craft. Transport logistics executives can select teams of horses, dogs or oxen for the purpose of conveying goods.

Theorists in business in the late 20th century popularized the concept of constructing teams. Differing opinions exist on the efficacy of this new management fad. Some see "team" as a four-letter word: overused and under-useful. Others see it as a panacea that finally realizes the human relations movement's desire to integrate what that movement perceives as best for workers and as best for managers. Still others believe in the effectiveness of teams, but also see them as dangerous because of the potential for exploiting workers — in that team effectiveness can rely on peer pressure and peer surveillance.

Compare the more structured/skilled concept of a crew, and the advantages of formal and informal partnerships.

Team size, composition, and formation
Team size and composition affect the team processes and outcomes. The optimal size (and composition) of teams is debated and will vary depending on the task at hand. At least one study of problem-solving in groups showed an optimal size of groups at four members. Other works estimate the optimal size between 5-12 members.[citation needed] Less than 5 members results in decreased perspectives and diminished creativity. Membership in excess of 12 results in increased conflict and greater potential of sub-groups forming.

David Cooperrider suggests that the larger the group, the better. This is because a larger group is able to address concerns of the whole system. So while a large team may be ineffective at performing a given task, Cooperider says that the relevance of that task should be considered, because determining whether the team is effective first requires identifying what needs to be accomplished.

Regarding composition, all teams will have an element of homogeneity and heterogeneity. The more homogeneous the group, the more cohesive it will be. The more heterogeneous the group, the greater the differences in perspective and increased potential for creativity, but also the greater potential for conflict.

Team members normally have different roles, like team leader and agents. Large teams can divide into sub-teams according to need.

Many teams go through a life-cycle of stages, identified by Bruce Tuckman as: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Types of teams
Independent and interdependent teams

Of particular importance is the concept of different types of teams. A distinction is usually drawn between "independent" and "interdependent" teams. To continue the sports team example, a rugby team is clearly an interdependent team:
No significant task can be accomplished without the help of any of the members
Within that team members typically specialize in different tasks (running the ball, goal kicking & scrum feeding), and
The success of every individual is inextricably bound to the success of the whole team. No Rugby player, no matter how talented, has ever won a game by playing alone.

On the other hand, a chess team is a classic example of an independent team:
Matches are played and won by individuals or partners,
Every person performs basically the same actions, and
Whether one player wins or loses has no direct effect on the performance of the next player. If all team members each perform the same basic tasks, such as students working problems in a math class, or outside sales employees making phone calls, then it is likely that this team is an independent team. They may be able to help each other — perhaps by offering advice or practice time, by providing moral support, or by helping in the background during a busy time — but each individual's success is primarily due to each individual's own efforts. Chess players do not win their own matches merely because the rest of their teammates did, and math students do not pass tests merely because their neighbors know how to solve the equations.

Coaching an "interdependent" team like a football team necessarily requires a different approach from coaching an "independent" team because the costs and benefits to individual team members — and therefore the intrinsic incentives for positive team behaviors — are very different. An interdependent team benefits from getting to know the other team members socially, from developing trust in each other, and from conquering artificial challenges (such as offered in outdoors ropes courses).

Independent teams typically view these activities as unimportant, emotion-driven time wasters. They benefit from more intellectual, job-related training. The best way to start improving the functioning of an independent team is often a single question, "What does everyone need to do a better job?"

Self-managed teams:
Normally, a manager acts as the team leader and is responsible for defining the goals, methods, and functioning of the team. However, interdependencies and conflicts between different parts of an organization may not be best addressed by hierarchical models of control. Self-managed teams use clear boundaries to create the freedom and responsibility to accomplish tasks in an efficient manner.

The main idea of the self-managed team is that the leader does not operate with positional authority. In a traditional management role, the manager is responsible for providing instruction, conducting communication, developing plans, giving orders, and disciplining and rewarding employees, and making decisions by virtue of his or her position. In this organizational model, the manager delegates specific responsibility and decision-making authority to the team itself, in the hope that the group will make better decisions than any individual. Neither a manager nor the team leader make independent decisions in the delegated responsibility area. Decisions are typically made by consensus in successful self-managed teams, by voting in very large or formal teams, and by hectoring and bullying in unsuccessful teams. The team as a whole is accountable for the outcome of its decisions and actions.

Self-managed teams operate in many organizations to manage complex projects involving research, design, process improvement, and even systemic issue resolution, particularly for cross-department projects involving people of similar seniority levels. While the internal leadership style in a self-managed team is distinct from traditional leadership and operates to neutralize the issues often associated with traditional leadership models, a self-managed team still needs support from senior management to operate well.

Self-managed teams may be interdependent or independent. Of course, merely calling a group of people a self-managed team does not make them either a team or self-managed.

As a self-managed team develops successfully, more and more areas of responsibility can be delegated, and the team members can come to rely on each other in a meaningful way.[1]

Project teams:
A team used only for a defined period of time and for a separate, concretely definable purpose, often becomes known as a project team. Managers commonly label groups of people as a "team" based on having a common function. Members of these teams might belong to different groups, but receive assignment to activities for the same project, thereby allowing outsiders to view them as a single unit. In this way, setting up a team allegedly facilitates the creation, tracking and assignment of a group of people based on the project in hand. The use of the "team" label in this instance often has no relationship to whether the employees are working as a team.

Sports teams:
A sports team is a group of people which play a sport together. Members include all players (even those who are waiting their turn to play) as well as support members such as a team manager or coach.

Virtual teams:
Developments in communications technologies have seen the emergence of the virtual work team. A virtual team is a group of people who work interdependently and with shared purpose across space, time, and organisation boundaries using technology to communicate and collaborate. Virtual team members can be located across a country or across the world, rarely meet face-to-face, and include members from different cultures. Many virtual teams are cross-functional and emphasise solving customer problems or generating new work processes. The United States Labour Department reported that in 2001, 19 million people worked from home online or from another location, and that by the end of 2002, over 100 million people world-wide would be working outside traditional offices (Pearlson & Sounders, 2001).

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams:
Teams, such as in medical fields, may be interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary.
Multidisciplinary teams involve several professionals who independently treat various issues a patient may have, focusing on the issues in which they specialize. The problems that are being treated may or may not relate to other issues being addressed by individual team members. Interdisciplinary team approach involves all members of the team working together towards the same goal. In an interdisciplinary team approach, there can often be role blending by members of the core team, who may take on tasks usually filled by other team members.

Not all groups are teams:
Some people also use the word "team" when they mean "employees." A "sales team" is a common example of this loose or perhaps euphemistic usage, though interdependencies exist in organisations, and a sales team can be let down by poor performance on other parts of the organisation upon which sales depend, like delivery, after-sales service, etc.. However "sales staff" is a more precise description of the typical arrangement.

Some Interview Questions (Good to know)

Below are the Interview Questions, which were asked in HR. Very impressive questions and answers.

Question 1:
You are driving along in your car on a stormy, wild night. It is raining heavily when suddenly you pass by a bust stop and you see three people waiting for a bus. An old lady who looks as if she is going to die, old friend who once saved your life and the perfect partner you have been dreaming about. Which one would you choose to offer a ride, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.

* You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first;

* or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.

* However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer.

Guess what was his answer?

He simply answered:

"I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations.

Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."

Question 2:
Interviewer: He ordered a cup of coffee for the candidate. Coffee arrived kept before the candidate, and then he asked what is before you?

Candidate: Instantly replied "Tea"

He got selected.

You know how and why did he say "TEA" when he knows very well that coffee was kept before.

(Answer: The question was "What is before you (U - alphabet) Reply was

"TEA" (T - alphabet)

Alphabet "T" was before Alphabet "U"

Question 3:
The interviewer asked to the candidate "This is your last question of the interview. Please tell me the exact position of the center of this table where you have kept your files."

Candidate confidently put one of his fingers at some point at the table and told that this was the central point at the table.

Interviewer asked how did u get to know that this being the central point of this table, then he answers quickly that "sir u r not likely to ask any more question, as it was the last question that u promised to ask....."

And hence, he was selected as because of his quick-wittedness. .......

This is What Interviewer expects from the Interviewee. ...

"THINK OUT OF BOX"

Making the Rules

 Every project is different. Different schedules, different products, and different people are involved.
 On any given project, the stakeholders may have differing ideas about what the project is about.
 Your job, as project manager, is to make sure that everyone involved understands the project and agrees on what success will look like.
 Skilled managers need to do clarify the rules of the game for a new project .
 There are four methods to ensure that everyone understands, and agrees to the project rules.
 The first, project charter, is an announcement that the project exists. The following three, the statement of work, the responsibility matrix, and the communication plan are developed concurrently and constitute the actual written documents containing the project rules.

Project Charter:
 A project charter announces that a new project has begun. The purpose of the charter is to demonstrate management support for the project and the project manager.
 It is a one-time announcement.
 As an announcement, it can take the form of an e-mail or a physical, signed document.
 It contains the name and purpose of the project, the project manager’s name, and a statement of support from the issuer.
 The charter is sent to everyone who may be associated with the project.
 The sponsor is the best person to sign the charter, because he or she is the one who will be actively supporting the charter.

Statement of Work:
 It lists the goals, constraints, and the success criteria – the rules of the game.
 The statement of work, once written, is then subject to negotiation and modification by the various stakeholders.
 Once they formally agree to its content, it becomes the rules for the project.

Statement of Work: Minimum Content:
1. Purpose Statement
2. Scope Statement
3. Deliverables
4. Cost ad Schedule Estimates
5. Objectives
6. Stakeholders
7. Chain of Command

Conflict Management

What is conflict?
 Conflict is the result of group problem solving.
 Where two or more people need to make decisions, there eventually is disagreement.
 Conflict is natural.
 Conflict is inevitable.
 Conflicts can, for example, easily develop out of a situation where members of a group have a misunderstanding of each other’s role and responsibilities.

Types of conflicts:
 Manpower resources
 Equipment and facilities
 Costs
 Technical opinions
 Priorities
 Administrative procedures
 Scheduling
 Responsibilities

Project Objectives:
 Each project must have at lest one objective.
 The objectives of the project must be made known to all project personnel and all managers, at every level of the organization.
 If this information is not communicated accurately, then it is entirely possible that upper-level manager, project managers, and functional managers may all have a different interpretation of the ultimate objective , a situation that invites conflicts.

Project objective must follow the SMART rule;
 S = specific
 M = measurable
 A = attainable
 R = realistic or relevant
 T = time bound

Approaches to Conflict Management:
1. Withdrawing (or avoiding) from the conflict.
 Avoid both the issues and the people associated
 Belief on avoiding conflict than working on it
 Avoiding should be used:
• When you can’t win
• To gain time
• To preserve neutrality or reputation
• When you think the problem will go away
• When you win by delay

2. Smoothing over the conflict.
 Attempt to reduce the level of emotions that exist in a conflict
 Focus on the positive relationships and de-emphasize the areas of conflict
 An example of smoothing would be to tell someone, “We have agreed on three of the five points and there is not reason why we cannot agree on the last two points.”

3. Forcing resolution to the conflict.
 One party tries to impose the solution on the other party.
 Forcing should be used when:
• When you are right
• When a quick decision must be made
• To gain power
• When it’s understood that a game is being played
• When a do-or-die situation exists
• When you are stronger (never start a battle you can’t win)

4. Compromising, accepting a no-win solution.
 Compromise should be used:
• When both parties need to be winners
• When you can’t win
• When others are as strong as you are
• When you are not sure you are right
• To avoid giving the impression of “fighting”
• When you don’t have time

5. Confronting or Collaborating
 The conflicting parties meet face-to-face and try to work through their disagreements.
 These approaches focus more on solving the problem and less on being combative.
 This method should be used:
• To attack a common enemy
• When there is enough time
• When there is trust
• When you have confidence in other party’s ability
• When you and the conflicting party can both get at least what you wanted

Project Stakeholders and their roles

 Stakeholders are individuals or organizations who participate in the project or are impacted by its result.
 Some stakeholders are “active” or “key”.
 Five Primary Stakeholders:
1- Project Manager
2- Project Team
3- Functional Management
4- Sponsor
5- Customer
 The heart of successful project management involves satisfying the expectations of these stakeholders.
 “Satisfy Stakeholders!”
 The first step in this process is gaining agreement of all the stakeholders on the goals of the project.

Stakeholder Roles: Project Manager:
 Project manager is involved in magic, or, more precisely, practical magic.
 The project manager must ask questions like this: “What is my authority?” “Who do I report to?” “What are my expectations?”
 If you are a project manager, you are an important stakeholder, too. Don’t forget to satisfy yourself!

Stakeholder Roles: Project Team:
 All groups and individuals who contribute time, skills, and efforts to the project are considered team members.
 In addition to the people from the company assigned to the project, these can be contractors, and even customers.

Stakeholder Roles: Functional Management:
 Management refers to functional management, also known as line management.
 These can be department managers, or first-level supervisors.
 Functional managers are responsible for an organizational unit, such as “engineering” or “marketing” rather than for a specific project.
 These are the people with long-term control over employees and other resources in the firm.
 Project managers describe help from functional managers in “getting the right people at the right time” and “timely decisions based on the facts presented by the project team.”

Stakeholder Roles: Sponsor:
 The sponsor is the person with formal authority who is ultimately responsible for the project.
 A sponsor may be a senior executive or a junior manager.
 The sponsor provides the authority that the project manager often lacks.
 Why are Sponsors Important?
 First, sponsors are ultimately responsible for the success of the project. The formal authority that comes from their title and position in the organization endows them with the responsibility.
 Why are Sponsors Important?
 Second, the sponsor’s primary task is to help the project team be successful. The best sponsors know they aren’t sponsoring a project; they are sponsoring the project manager and the project team.

Stakeholder Roles: Customer:
 Somebody will be paying for the project.
 Note: in public sector projects, customer group is composed of all the citizens who will use the road, or other service built by the project.

Stress and Burnout

 Project managers are subject to stress due to different facets of their jobs:
 Being Tired. Being tired is a result of being drained of strength and energy, perhaps through physical exertion, boredom, or impatience.
• Typical causes : meetings, report writing, and other forms of document preparation.
 Feeling depressed. Feeling depressed is an emotional condition due to discouragement or a feeling of inadequacy.
• It is usually the result of a situation that is beyond the control or capabilities of the project manager.
• Management or client considers your report unacceptable, you are unable to get timely resources, the technology is not available, or the constraints of the project are unrealistic and may not be met.
 Feeling rejected. Feeling rejected can be the result of a poor working relationship with executives, line managers, or clients.
• Rejection occurs when people with authority feel that their options or opinions are better than those of the project manager.
 Feeling worthless. Feeling worthless implies that one is without worth, that is valueless.
• This situation occurs when project mangers feel that they are managing project beneath their dignity.
 Feeling trapped. The most common situation where project manager feel trapped is when they have no control over the assigned resources on the project and feel as if they are at the mercy of line managers.
• Employees favor the manager with reward power, and that is usually line manger.
• Remedy is to provide project manager with reward power.
 Being physically and emotionally exhausted. Project mangers are both managers and doers. It is quite common for project managers to perform a great deal of the work themselves.
• The most common cause of emotional exhaustion is report writing.
 Burned out. Being burned out implies that one is totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and that rest, recuperation, or vacation time may not remedy the situation.
• The most common cause is prolonged overtime, or inability to work under continuous pressure and stress.
 Stress is not always negative, however. Without certain amounts of stress, reports would never get written, deadlines would never be met, and no one would even get to work on time.
 But stress can result in illness and even disease, and must be managed if it is to be controlled and utilized for constructive purposes.
 Stress become detrimental when it is prolonged beyond what an individual can comfortably handle.

Effective Time Management

 Use your time effectively by:
 Allocating work clearly to the team members
 Delegating some of your authority where and when appropriate
 Consulting as required, but taking decisions promptly and explaining them.
 Avoiding unnecessary memos
 Setting a fixed agenda for meetings
 Setting your own priorities and generally sticking to them.
 Refusing to do the unimportant
 Doing the difficult tasks first
 Not holding meetings for the sake of getting together – having a clear purpose.

Time Management Forms

 There are two basic forms that managers can use for practicing better time management:
 “To-do pad”
 “Daily Calendar Log”

 The manager or the secretary prepares the list of things to do.
 The manager then decides which activities he must perform himself and assigns the appropriate priorities.
 The activities with the highest priorities are then transformed to the “daily calendar log.”
 The manager assigns the activities to the appropriate time blocks based on his own energy cycle.
 Unfilled time blocks are then used for unexpected crises or for lower-priority activities.

Management of your time and Stress

It is often said that if the project manager cannot control his own time, then he will control nothing else on the project.

Time Robbers:
 The most challenging problem facing the project manager is his inability to say no.
 Poor communication
 Lack of information
 Too many meetings
 Unclear objectives and project scope
 Work overload
 Company politics
 Too many people involved in minor decision making
 Lack of authorization
 Shifting priorities
 Failure to delegate, or unwise delegation
 Changes without explanation
 Waiting for people
 Executive interference
 Excessive paperwork

The consequence of these robbers of time is a reduction in the working day for you and your team.

Consider the situation in which an employee comes into your office with a problem. The employee may be sincere when he says that he simply wants your advice but often the employee want to take the monkey off of his back and put it onto yours. The employee’s problem is now your problem.

To handle such situations:
 First, screen out the problems with which you do not wish to get involved.
 Second, if the situation does necessitate your involvement, then you must make sure that when the employee leaves your office, he realizes that the problem is still his, not yours.
 Third, if you find that the problem will require your continued attention, remind the employee that all future decisions will be joint decisions and the problem will still be on the employee’s shoulders. Once employees realize that they cannot put their problems on your shoulders, they learn how to make their own decisions.

Project Meetings

 Project review meetings are necessary to show that progress is being made on a project. There are three types of review meetings:
 Project team review meetings
 Executive management review meetings
 Customer project review meetings

Guidelines for Effective Meetings:
 The following are general guidelines for conducting more effective meetings:
 Start on time. If you wait for people, you reward tardy behavior.
 Develop agenda “objectives.” Generate a list and proceed. Avoid getting hung up on the order of topics.
 Conduct one piece of business at a time.
 Allow each member to contribute in his own way. Support, challenge, and counter. View differences as helpful. Dig for reasons or views.
 Silence does not always mean agreement. Seek opinions: “What is your opinion on this, Nasrat?”
 Test for readiness to make a decision.
 Make the decision.
 Assign roles and responsibilities (only after decision-making)
 Agree on follow-up or accountability dates
 Indicate the next step for this group
 Set the time and place for next meeting
 End on time
 Ask yourself if the meeting was necessary

Barriers to Project Team Development

 The understanding of barriers to project team building can help in developing an environment conducive to effective teamwork. The following barriers are typical for many project environments.
 Differing outlooks, priorities, and interests.
 Role conflicts.
 Project objectives/outcomes not clear.
 Dynamic project environment.
 Competition over team leadership.
 Lack of team definition and structure.
 Team personnel selection.
 Credibility of project leader.
 Lack of team member commitment.
 Communication problems.
 Poor communication exists on four major levels:
 Problem of communication between team members
 Between project leader and the team members
 Between the project team and top management
 Between the project leaders and the client
 Lack of senior management support.

Communications:
 Effective project communication is needed to ensure that we get the right information to the right person at the right time using the right media and the right format and in a cost-effective manner.

Screens or Barriers:
 The screens or barriers are from one’s perception, personality, attitudes, emotions, and prejudices.
 Perception barriers occur because individuals can view the same message in different ways. Factors influencing perception include the individual’s level of education and region of experience. Perception problems can be minimized by using words that have precise meaning.
 Personality and interests, such as the likes and dislikes of individuals, affect communications. People tend to listen carefully to topics of interest but turn deaf ear to unfamiliar or boring topics.
 Attitude, emotions, and prejudices warp our sense of interpretation. Individuals who are fearful or have strong love or hate emotions will tend to protect themselves by distorting the communication process. Strong emotions rob individuals of their ability to comprehend.

Determining the Number of Communications Channels:
 As the number of people involved increases, the complexity of communications increases because there are more communications channels or pathways through which people can communicate.
 Number of communications channels = n (n-1)
2
where n is the number of people involved.

Breakdown in Communication:
 When a breakdown in communication occurs, disaster follows.

A project manager may very well spend 90 percent or more of his time communicating.

Communication is also listening:
 Good project managers must be willing to listen to their employees. The advantages of listening properly are that:
 Subordinates know you are sincerely interested
 You obtain feedback
 Employee acceptance is fostered
 The successful manager must be willing to listen to an individual’s story from beginning to end, without interruptions, and to see problem through the eyes of the subordinate.
 Finally, before making a decision, that manager should ask the subordinate for his solutions to the problem.

Conclusions:
 Three important conclusions can be drawn about communications:
 Don’t assume that the message you sent will be received in the form you sent it.
 The swiftest and most effective communications take place among people with common points of view. The manager who fosters good relationships with his associates will have little difficulty in communicating with them.
 Communications must be established early in the project.

Management Functions

Controlling:
 Controlling is a three-step process of measuring, evaluating, and correcting.
 Measuring: determining through formal and informal reports the degree to which progress toward objectives is being made.
 Evaluating: determining cause of and possible ways to act on significant deviations from planned performance.
 Correcting: is taking necessary action to achieve or exceed the objectives.

Directing:
 Directing is the implementing and carrying out of those approved plans that are necessary to achieve or exceed objectives.
 Directing involves such steps:
 Staffing: seeing that a qualified person is selected for each position.
 Training: teaching individuals and groups how to fulfill their duties and responsibilities.
 Supervising: giving others day-to-day instruction, guidance, and discipline as required so that they can fulfill their duties and responsibilities.
 Delegating: assigning work, responsibility, and authority so others can make maximum utilization of their abilities.
 Motivating: encouraging others to perform by fulfilling or appealing to their needs.
 Counseling: holding private discussion with another about how he might do better work, solve a personal problem, or realize his ambitions.
 Coordinating: seeing that activities are carried out in relation to their importance and with a minimum of conflict.

Motivating:
 Project managers must understand human behavior in order to motivate people toward successful accomplishment of project objectives.
 Douglas McGregor recommends that most workers can be categorized according to two theories.
 Theory X
 Theory Y

 Theory X assumes that:
 The average worker is lazy and requires supervision
 The average worker dislikes work and avoids work whenever possible
 The supervisor must threaten punishment and exercise careful supervision
 The average worker avoids increased responsibility and seeks to be directed.
 The manager who accepts Theory X normally exercises authoritarian-type of control over workers and allows little participation during decision making. Theory X employees generally favor lack of responsibility, especially in decision making.

 Theory Y assumes that:
 Employees are willing to get the job done without constant supervision.
 The average worker wants to be active and finds the physical and mental effort on the job satisfying.
 Greatest results come from willing participation, which will tend to produce self-direction toward goals without coercion and control.
 The average worker seeks opportunity for personal improvement and self-respect.
 The manager who accepts Theory Y normally recommends participation and a management-employee relationship.

The guidelines for proper motivation are:
 Adopt a positive attitude
 Do not criticize management
 Do not make promises that cannot be kept
 Circulate customer reports
 Give each person the attention he requires
 Giving assignments that provide challenges
 Clearly defining performance expectations
 Giving proper criticism as well as credit
 Giving honest appraisals
 Providing a good working atmosphere
 Developing a team attitude
 Providing a proper direction (even if Theory Y)

LOL: Definition from Answers.com

LOL: Definition from Answers.com

Here, in this post, i want to point out and describe the definition of LOL which is always used in chatting on the internet and also for comments in facebook or other sites.

LOL means laughing out loud.

For more information, click on the link which will open a new browser and website by the name of answers.com for you.

ASL: Definition from Answers.com

ASL: Definition from Answers.com

Functional Structure/Matrix Structure

Functional Structure:
 Each major functional area is represented as a unit in the organization with a line manager and reporting staff.
 The unit’s scope of responsibility is limited to the functional area in which they work.
 Work is transmitted to the unit. They do their work and pass it along to the next functional unit.
 Team work exists within the unit but not across units.
 In the functional structure, projects frequently have no identity of their own. When the first functional manager finishes working on an activity in the project, the deliverable is thrown to the next functional manager, and so the process continues. There is no project manager. Thus, the risk of failure is high.
 The greatest advantage is skill development. Because the project work undertaken within a functional unit is typically repetitive and must be completed within the functional unit, the manager has to develop the required skills among his staff.
 Everybody understands his task. Jobs tend to be more repetitive.

Matrix Structure:
 It is probably the most common organizational form found in today’s organizations.
 In the matrix structure, there are two things to consider:
 The functional home of the individual
 The project home of the individual
 The functional home deals with development and deployment of individuals to projects. This is where the line manager of the individual is found.
 The project home is where the individual actually engages in work.
 Matrix structure is flexible and can adapt to changing environments. As projects start, end, or are cancelled staff can be easily reassigned.
 It has few communication problems. The project manager can focus on managing the work; the functional manager can focus on managing the staff. The individual understands the role of the two managers and is able to work more effectively.
 Project objectives are clear and visible. Team members are fully informed on the project objectives, deliverables, schedules, and so forth.
 The individual is assigned to a project and understands not only the project but his or her role and responsibility in it.
 Matrix structure has a few disadvantages:
 Success depends on manager interactions.
 Project management is difficult. The project manager does not have line authority over his team members. The line authority belongs with the functional managers. This means that the leadership skills of the project manager will be called into action.
 Each project has two bosses. This can place the team member in a difficult position. Whose wishes do the team members respond to?
 There are conflicting goals (project versus function).

Project Structure

 The project structure aligns its professional staff with projects. In these organizations, a person is assigned to only one project at a time. Project team possesses all of the skills needed to achieve their goal.
 In this organizational structure, the project team works full-time on the project until its completion. The project manager has the line responsibility for the team members.
 The major disadvantage of the project structure is its inefficient use of resources. If time to market is the dominant constraint, then resource efficiency suffers. On the other hand, if the efficient use of resources is the constraint, then time to market suffers. You can’t have it both ways!

Project Structure Advantages:
 Team members are assigned 100 percent to the project and do not have the diversions that other structures create.
 If offers better individual visibility. The project teams are self-contained, with every member accountable for deliverables. There is no place to hide.
 It has greater adaptability. The project manager has line authority over the team members. Schedules can be adjusted as needed without having to worry about creating scheduling conflicts due to other assignments.
 Personnel demonstrate loyalty to the project.
 It has better cost control. The project manager controls all of the resources and therefore has better visibility and control of those costs than in other organizational structures.
 Strong communication channels.

Project Structure Disadvantages:
 It has poor stability. Project can be cancelled due to changing market conditions, business priorities, and many other reasons. In those cases deployment of the team members to other projects may be problematic. The same situation exists when the project is completed.
 Because of the changing projects in the organization, more management attention is required than in the case of more stable structures.

Project Authority

 Authority is the power granted to individuals (possibly by their position) so that they can make final decisions.
 Authority can be delegated from one’s superior.

Power, on the other hand, is granted to an individual by his subordinates and is a measure of their respect for him.
 A manager’s authority is a combination of his power and influence such that subordinates and peers willingly accept his judgment.
 Project manager are generally known for having a lot of delegated authority but very little formal power. They must, therefore, get jobs done through the use of interpersonal influences.
 There are five such interpersonal influences:
 Legitimate Power: it represents the power a leader has as a result of his position in the organization. Legitimate power and authority are the same.
 Reward Power: it is based on the ability to control and provide valued rewards to others.
 Coercive Power: it is the ability to punish others if they do not display desired behaviors.
 Expert Power: it is the influence that is based on expertise, special skills, or knowledge.
 Referent Power: it comes from being admired, personally identified with, or liked by others. When we admire people, want to be like them, or feel friendship toward them, we follow their directions more willingly and exhibit loyalty toward them.

Organizational Structure/Terminologies

 Organizations can be defined as groups of people who must coordinate their activities in order to meet organizational objectives.
 The coordination function requires strong communication and a clear understanding of the relationships and interdependence among people.
 Organizational structures are dictated by such factors as technology and its rate of change, resource availability, product, and competition.
 You must keep in mind that there is no such thing as good or bad organizational structure; there are only appropriate or inappropriate ones.

Terminologies:
 The following definitions will be used in the discussions of organizational structures:
 Authority is the power granted to individuals (possibly by their position) so that they can make final decisions.
 In other words, authority is the right to take and implement management decisions.
 You can make decisions – it is just a process of generating options for a solution to a problem. You need authority to decide which to use and then implement the selected option.
 Responsibility is the obligation incurred by individuals in their roles in the formal organization to effectively perform assignments.
 Your role demands that you create a climate in your team where responsibility is clearly defined and accepted. Without acceptance there is no commitment and the work is not done or willingly.
 Responsibility is completely separate to an individual and cannot be shared. A shared or split responsibility is no responsibility and generates a blame culture!
 When you are given authority you are held to account for its effective use and abuse! No authority means no accountability.
 Accountability is being answerable for the satisfactory completion of a specific assignment. (Accountability = authority + responsibility.)
 You are only accountable for the use of management authority that is given by delegation.

Project Life Cycles

Phase 1: Conceptual
Phase 2: Planning
Phase 3: Testing
Phase 4: Implementation
Phase 5: Closure

Phase 1: Conceptual
 Includes the preliminary evaluation of an idea
 Most important is a preliminary analysis of risk and the impact on the time, cost, and performance requirements, and resources
 Feasibility study

Phase 2: Planning
 It is mainly a refinement of the elements in the conceptual phase and requires a firm identification of the resources and the establishment of realistic time, cost, and performance parameters

Phase 3: Testing
 Final standardization effort
 Almost all documentation must be completed in this phase

Phase 4: Implementation
 Execution of the project

Phase 5: Closure
 The final phase is closure and includes the reallocation of resources
 Consider a company that sells products to consumers. As one product begins the death phase of its life cycle, new products or projects must be established.
 Such a company would, therefore, require a continuous stream of projects to survive.
 As projects A and B begin their decline, new efforts (project C) must be developed for resource reallocation.