Reading data

When you feel very deeply about a cause, a petition is one way in which you can show those in authority that you are not the only one that feels this way. Through the signatures on the petition, you can show that others do support you.

Starting a petition is not a difficult process, but it is one for which you do need to have a valid reason. You not only have to identify the issue of the petition, but you also need to know the best person to whom you can address the petition.

Depending on the issue you want to address, some of the recipients of your position could be:

• Government departments

• Government representatives

• Politicians – state, provincial, federal

• Political parties

• Educational institutions

• Media

• Sports organizations

• Local authorities, such as city or town councils

• Entertainment producers

Even though traditional petitions are the most widely accepted because they actually have the handwritten signature of those who support the cause, online petitions (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/human-rights) are also readily accepted.

If you intend to start an online petition, make sure you meet the requirements of the recipient for this form of petition. State governments in the US for example, have different requirements, which means you should make sure you do your homework to have all the bases covered,

Research is also essential before you start a petition. You must have your position statement outlined very clearly and include research that supports your claim. This opening statement should include all the relevant information needed by both those you ask to sign and for those to whom you are submitting the petition. A basic outline for starting a petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/create-online-petition) is:

• Describe the current situation

• Suggest changes

• Explain why these changes are needed and how the changes will make improvements

• Make sure your statements in the petition all relate to the situation

• Reread what you have written to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors

In some cases you do need to have a certain number of signatures in order for the petition to be deemed valid. You should check this before you start. You should also make a decision as to how you are going to collect the signatures you need.

You can use both a traditional petition and an online one for the same cause, in which case you will collect a larger number of signatures. It takes more time to use a traditional petition, especially if it involves a very large area. For a local petition, you may easily be able to go door to door and get the support you need.

You may need permission to circulate a petition, whether it is in the traditional petition format or online. This is true if you want to petition authorities about an injustice you feel strongly about. For example, if you feel an individual or group of people have been unfairly treated, then you do need the permission of those involved before you start the petition on their behalf.

Whatever type of petition you start, you must make sure that as many people know about it as possible. If you feel strongly about changes to a situation, you must have as many names as possible so that those in authority realize that you are not the only one in this situation.

Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in society, culture, and the proper way to start online petitions. To browse a particular petition format, please visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/.

We all desire recognition for a job well done, especially as members of a team. As a team, each person works together toward a common goal. Now instead of working together, imagine a team where each person was only interested in their own, separate, little interests….

Wow.

Would you–or anyone around you–really ever be able to get anything done?

Of course not! Yet isn’t this how so many workplace teams attempt to operate?

When we are working within a team we have to put personal interests aside and focus on the collective good. If we don’t, tempers flare and trouble naturally ensues. Teams composed of members who cannot put differences aside don’t win. Put simply: you won’t achieve the success you want if you aren’t focused on the common goal.

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. ~Hugh Downs

United We Stand - Teamwork Tips

The key strategy to boost office and workplace morale and team productivity is to stand strong behind your common goal. A unified front is only accomplished by working together.

• Appoint a team leader to oversee the progress and to keep everyone motivated to finish the project on time.

• Assign jobs according to the strengths of each team member. People naturally procrastinate when faced with a daunting task they’re uncomfortable with, so divide the work fairly and accordingly.

• Praise team members for a job well done! Validation is a huge motivator and generally very much overlooked in our workplaces. Acknowledge each person’s hard work and dedication and be sure to pass along any positive feedback from clients or upper level management.

• Set up a team reward upon successful completion of a project. Money doesn’t have to be the only motivating factor to spur your team. Maybe it’s time-off, a gift basket, or a trophy. With our card system you can include gifts along with the cards!

Grow an Attitude of Gratitude within Your Workplace

How can tension within the office be turned around? Gratitude. Yes, it really is that simple!

Each member needs to felt appreciated for his or her contributions and value added to the team.

…. Imagine a football team. If the quarterback isn’t grateful for the offensive line who blocks for him, the wide receivers who catch his passes, and the running backs who he can hand off the ball to, he will not have confidence in his teammates. This lack of confidence will show up as miscommunication, upsets, blown plays and lost games. The same things happen in the workplace!

In reality, an office or workplace setting is very much like being on a football team.

Show gratitude to the:

• Administrative assistants who keep things organized and flowing

• Salesmen who bring in new profits for the company

• Human resources representatives who bring in new talent for you to work with

• Marketers who make the company known

• Managers who coach, inspire, and lead

• Staff who tackle the finer details and makes things happen

Everyone plays an important part of the team, which is why we all need to appreciate one another in order to get things done. After all, without each other, where would we be? So, take a moment, as soon as you can and acknowledge those around you for their contribution. What you send out really does come back.

Gratitude Leads to Effective Teamwork

Once you’re grateful for the skills and talents of your team members, you’ll begin to appreciate how each part of the puzzle is important for the overall success of the team. You may even discover a renewed excitement about your job and all the projects your team can accomplish.

• Let others in the office know how you appreciate their time, talents, and hard work. Send out emails or mention specific names in the company newsletter. Let your team know you care about them as people and not just as workers.

• Encourage your workers to start up office clubs or activities that everyone can enjoy as a group. Doing so will help you get to know each other on a more casual basis.

Remember: it all starts with acknowledging how grateful you are for the talents of those around you. So take a moment today to say Thank You!

Hailed as a premiere Creativity and Wellness Instructor, Laura Garrison has been a business coach, consultant, artist and entrepreneur for many years. The focus of her core business is building referrals for businesses through networking. Please visit http://www.WorksofHearts.com for a free gift account and more information.

Becoming a Spirit-anointed leader demands the integration of knowledge, wisdom, and insight, along with other godly character traits and qualities. Coming to a broad-based knowledge and integration of the truth is no easy task, as is exemplified by the thousands of denominations as well as the many other philosophies which exist in the world.

Each institution embraces its own methodology for discovering truth. Most institutions do not state this methodology in their public literature. Currently embraced methodologies include rationalism, mysticism, humanism, empiricism, hedonism, and biblicism, among others.

The more sound your paradigm for discovering truth, the more truth you have the opportunity to discover. What is your system for discerning truth? Many have not thought theirs out. Many find theirs grows and changes as they grow and change. Personally, I teach and utilize the “Leader’s Paradigm for Discovering Truth”. It is composed of six pillars.

• Pillar One: Illumined Scriptures

• Pillar Two: Illumined Thoughts in One’s Mind

• Pillar Three: Illumined Witness in One’s Heart

• Pillar Four: Illumined Counsel of Others

• Pillar Five: Illumined Understanding of Life’s Experiences

• Pillar Six: Illumined Revelation from God Through Dreams, Visions, Prophecy, and Journaling

View a diagram of the 6 pillars of the Leaders Paradigm at: http://www.cluonline.com/section1.htm#leader

The wise leader looks for all six of the pillars to line up before he assumes a direction.

The wiser leader understands how his God-given giftings (e.g., intuition, analysis, etc.) influence the weight he places on each of the six pillars. For example, the more intuitive individual will lean slightly more heavily toward the intuitive aspects of the Leader’s Paradigm, and the more analytical individual toward the more analytical aspects. However, he will understand the need to integrate all six pillars.

The wisest leader has a strong foundation for these six pillars. He begins with an excellent working knowledge of the Bible. His motivation in all decisions is to glorify God. He has acquired this motivation because his heart and attitudes have been purified through a lifestyle of communing with God and abiding in Christ.

Then, of course, since the Bible says that we see through a glass darkly, one still may not have complete truth. However, he is as right as he knows to be at this particular point in his life. And that is all each of us can be. This is a wide-based, Spirit-enhanced paradigm for discovering truth, much stronger than any of the individual legs could be if they stood alone. In addition, each of the individual legs is enhanced by the fact that we have added the Holy Spirit as a factor.

To use the paradigm, one must know himself, be humble, teachable, flexible, open, and changeable. “Blessed are the meek” (Matt. 5:5). There is a need to be a constant learner, to examine many different streams of thought on issues from many different perspectives. To refuse to do so condemns us to walk in ignorance and pride. This is truly one of the great misfortunes in life. We invite you to share in this “Leader’s Paradigm for Discovering Truth”.

In my next article I’ll take a closer look at each pillar of the Leaders Paradigm

Joshua Virkler is with Christian Leadership University. CLU is an Online Bible College offering Christian Education that offers certificates, undergrad, Masters, and Doctorates in Theology, Christian counseling, more. www.cluonline.com

The secret to successful leadership development is often pondered by young would-be executives just beginning to climb the ladder of success. The climb up the corporate ladder is intimidating, lined with both ambition and peril.

What does it take to make it all the way to the C-Suite, and how do I get there?

What most of these individuals don’t realize until much later down the road is that the secret to successful leadership development is really no secret at all.

A child first learning how to swim doesn’t just jump off of a dock and hope for the best. He carefully, deliberately practices his strokes, ducking his head under water and emerging unscathed until he can do so with confidence. Only when he is able to swim in the shallow end without fear is he ready to attempt the wonders that wait for him at the end of that dock.

The secret to successful leadership development follows precisely the same model. In order to become a successful leader you must first practice your strokes and learn to swim in the shallow end. Mastering leadership development is a series of steps that involves:

1) Learning from the people who have gone before you. There are literally thousands of books, seminars, conferences and training camps dedicated to teaching leadership development, almost all centered around the knowledge and experience of executives and former executives that have climbed the corporate ladder and are now reaching down to pull up the next generation. Take advantage of these opportunities as often as possible.

2) Don’t be afraid to question your fundamental beliefs. Many leaders step into the role with the belief that because things “have always” been done a certain way, that is the way they should be done. Progressive leadership development encourages open minded thinking and a constant quest for improvement. Thinking outside the box is the key to setting your feet on the path to success.

3) Watch. Listen. Learn. Regardless of your business, unless you’re fortunate enough to own an island off the coast of Fiji you probably spend most of your day surrounded by people. This simple fact is an invaluable resource along the course of leadership development. The next time you’re in a crowd, take the opportunity to stop and listen.

You’ll notice that there are some people who seem able to slip seamlessly through life while others constantly run into walls of opposition, a distinction that marks the high and low points of leadership development. No school in the world can teach you precisely the right tone to use when calming an angry client or convincing a supplier to see things your way. The lessons you learn in personal interaction and subtle manipulation through simply keeping your eyes and ears open in your daily activities are priceless.

The secret to successful leadership development isn’t really a secret at all. An open mind, open ears and a carefully controlled tongue are all you need to take that first step toward your future at the top of the corporate ladder.

Ray Subs is a public relations consultant for N2Growth, a company that specializes in helping businesses and their leaders grow and develop to find success in a competitive corporate environment. More information can be found at N2Growth.com.

It’s easy to discount the importance of leadership development, assuming that corporate leaders either have what they take or they don’t and if they do they’ll learn as they go. If they don’t…well, if they didn’t have what it took they wouldn’t have been given a leadership role to begin with, right?

Not necessarily. Sometimes all that’s needed is a little leadership development.

There is no such thing as a natural born leader, which is why leadership development is so important. Anyone can have the fundamental requirements necessary for the leadership role. It’s how they develop them that matters.

Leadership development is defined as an effort to enhance a learner’s ability to lead, an endeavor focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of the individuals sitting at the top of the chain of command. Successful leadership development requires a lot more than the ability to give orders. It also requires diplomacy, top of the line people skills, a certain level of ruthlessness and an understanding of how much space there is and there isn’t between the executive suite and the mail room. A good leader doesn’t just lead. He or she leads by example.

Leadership development within a company should be addressed at both the individual and group level. Individual leadership development can be undertaken in both a hands-on and a classroom environment, and which method your organization chooses is entirely up to you. Through various exercises the individual learns to identify their strengths and weaknesses, using both to shape and mold their successful leadership style.

Individual leadership development is very important for individuals first entering the field and those who are having a difficult time taking up the reins of command. Additional leadership development offers them the opportunity to hone their skills, smooth over their weaknesses and learn to make the most of their current position rather than finding themselves stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder to success because of a lack of knowledge and personal resources.

Group leadership development is absolutely vital in any company, regardless of industry, because it teaches an executive team how to look, think and act like a team. For a business to run smoothly it’s essential that the executive team be able to operate like a well oiled wheel, cognizant of each other’s patterns, strengths, weaknesses and goals and able to work together to achieve success. Any leadership team that is rapidly “slapped” together and tossed into the ring is going to fail almost instantly. It takes time and practice, and leadership development offers the opportunity for both.

Leadership development through books, activities, conferences and classroom studies is a vital part of any company’s success, which is why there are hundreds of books, seminars, conferences, workshops, boot camps and personal coaches devoted to that very goal. Never underestimate the importance of the team of people holding the reins in an organization, and don’t discount the need to allow those individuals to develop their leadership skills both inside and out of the office.

Leadership matters.

Ray Subs is a public relations consultant for N2Growth, a company that specializes in helping businesses and their leaders grow and develop to find success in a competitive corporate environment. More information can be found at N2Growth.com.

Let’s face it … Business is a Team Sport … with the Entrepreneur as the Team Leader.

Consistently growing your Team’s capabilities is a high priority. Over time, a growing Team will become more productive and efficient … accelerating the growth of your business and producing clear changes in your bottom line.

As the Leader you also get asked a LOT of questions.

One sure way to slow the growth of your business is to develop the habit of answering them.

Clients tell us that their Teams sometimes drive them crazy by asking for decisions on even minor things. There is only one way they learned to do that - YOU TRAINED THEM TO. You trained them by answering their questions in the first place.

And that habit of answering questions and making all the decisions will slow the growth of your people and the growth of your business.

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Here’s are some examples:

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“Boss, Chuck and I just noticed the last bunch of widgets came off the line without flanges - there’s 200 in the box already - what should we do?”

“We posted that article on http://EZineArticles.com last week and it didn’t get any hits at all … what should we do?”

Now you probably have a real good idea what you would like them to do

AND

What happens if you tell them?

What happens if you “Fix” the “Problem”?

You feel great - a real problem solver… take charge kinda person… a decision maker … perhaps even a bit of a HERO.

AND at the same time …

- They learn to come to You for all problems in the future

- They are taught Not to think for themselves

- They take actions based on only one person’s ideas - Yours

- The possibility for professional growth and Team problem solving is eliminated

- If your solution does NOT work, you get blamed and morale suffers

- In many larger business, over time the employees become “Sheep”, just waiting passively to be told what to do

=================================

What else could you do? Try out this scenario.

=================================

“O.K. let’s have a Team Meeting ASAP”

- Ask the whole team for ideas on how to respond to the critical issue

- Listen to everyone’s ideas without evaluating or interrupting and, if you give your input at all, make sure to GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS LAST

- Help the TEAM decide the most appropriate response for the TEAM to take

** WHAT HAS HAPPENED? **

- The Team has learned to solve its own problem

- The entire Team’s talents and experience were applied to the challenge

- Since the Team participated in creating the action plan, they are automatically bought in to putting it in place

- The whole Team has grown

- You didn’t have to work so hard now and you will be able to count on the Team’s expanding problem solving capabilities in the future!!

You just accelerated the growth and profitability of your company by NOT answering that question.

NOW THAT’S LEADERSHIP !!!

Challenge:

For the next month, keep a tally of the number of questions you DIDN’T answer and problems you DIDN’T solve. It just might be a tally of how much your Team grew in that same time frame.

Learn the Secrets to your own Leadership Style and get more done - WITHOUT WORKING ANY HARDER - by leading a growing team in your business. CLICK THIS LINK NOW to tap into our Leadership Training and Tools at the www.LeadershipStylesBlog.com

Last week, one of my clients called me “Focahontas”, because our work together has provided him clarity and focus to his vision. However, what I find that I really do is provide simple ways for us to focus and operate in business and life.

Today’s article is one of my simple way methods that you can use to leverage your time with more effective ways to communicate as an inspirational leader.

How are YOU communicating effectively? Not just in marketing, branding and documentation, but in all ways that you use your words and the energy behind your words.

I often tell my two year old daughter how to “use her words”. I tell her to speak and express clearly. I’ll tell you the same.

As I see it, there are four levels of communication to create greater wealth in your business and life.

Level 1: Mental Chatter and Communication: When we speak negatively to ourselves or when we are randomly fretting about the future or the past. This is the worst kind of communication. The energy of the words causes negative creation. You are creating things that you don’t want and desire. You are also affecting others by not being present for them.

Level 2: Exchange Communication: When we exchange words we are speaking and sharing nonsense. Some people call it “complaining”, “chit chatting” others may call it “gossiping”. Whatever form it comes in for example in person, email or phone you will know it when you feel drained of energy.

Level 3: Value Communication: When we speak to add value we are truly connecting with others. We are presently and consciously hearing and responding to them. We are using body language and voice inflection that helps them connect with us. These people are great as team players.

Level 4: Motivational Communication: When we speak to motivate others, we become proactive with our lives and clear on how to lead others with our words. People that communicate on this level are positive, upbeat and offer positive vibrations that offer energy to others. This energy motivates others to make change. These are real leaders in our world.

Level 5: Inspired Communication: When we speak to inspire others, we become driven by the heart and passionate about how we can help others grow through inspiration. When we use inspired communication, we stop looking for ideas, thoughts and ways to be from the external world and they learn to listen within themselves. When you communicate on this level you are a leader of leaders. The words in this article are designed to inspire change from within you.

How are YOU communicating effectively? How can you communicate more effectively?

Homework:

As a success mentor, I want to leave you with a few thoughts.

1. How can you improve your level of communication?

2. How can you become more aware of your level of communication?

This is your life. How can you love the life you lead – every moment of every day?

Jen Blackert is an author, strategic business coach and master of mindset. She has spoken in front of thousands of individuals and helped them identify limits and barriers to their success. Receive wealth attraction gifts from Jen Blackert online at www.attractiondiva.com. Enjoy her Simple Law of Attraction Blog at: LOA Blog

You may have been selected by your executive to initiate and see through some change program in your organization. Or you may have decided that the time has come to make your mark by dusting off the cobwebs in your workplace. However your change role came about, you have a challenging task ahead of you.

Consider this sobering thought. In spite of the importance of successfully implementing workplace change for maintaining your business’s competitiveness, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organizational benefits. This failure occurs for a number of reasons:

• absence of a change champion or one who is too junior in the organization

• poor executive sponsorship or senior management support

• poor project management skills

• hope rested on a one-dimensional solution

• political infighting and turf wars

• poorly defined organizational objectives

• change team diverted to other projects

Do you recognize one or more of these in your organization from previous initiatives? You have probably experienced already one major cost of such failure. The cynical and burned out employees left behind only make the next change objective even more difficult to accomplish. It should come as no surprise that the fear of managing change and its impacts is a leading cause of anxiety in managers.

Your first step in becoming a successful change leader is fully understanding your organization and matching the initiative to your organization’s real needs. This means not just adopting the latest management fad. Recognize that bringing about useful and meaningful change is fundamentally about changing people’s behavior in certain desired ways. It is not primarily about installing a new system or rearranging the organizational structure. If people in the end do not behave and work differently, then the money and time spent in “doing stuff” is wasted.

You will see from the above list of reasons for failure that lack of technical expertise is not the main impediment to successful change. Leadership and management skills, such as visioning, prioritizing, planning, providing feedback and rewarding success, are key factors in any successful change initiative. Concentrate on these skills that will help you get people on board and to keep them on board for the life of the project and beyond. Get your mentor or a training consultant to perform an honest gap analysis on your skill set and then get the coaching or training that you need.

Whatever change program you are implementing, one key area in which you need to pay close attention is the identification and management of your change program stakeholders. A stakeholder is any person with an interest in the change process or the outcome of your proposed change. Be politically savvy. Your stakeholders will bring a mix of competing interests and will often act to further their own power, influence and survival. An added challenge for you as change leader is that such political maneuvering is often disguised as impartial and rational argument. Think about who are your major stakeholders. Think about what you will say to them to get each of them on side. When you have done that, write up a stakeholder communication plan and make sure you follow through.

Another essential activity you would do well to not neglect is setting clearly defined and measurable objectives. Goal setting done well engages stakeholders and commits them to the program. Other benefits include focusing effort to where it is important and providing a yardstick for measuring program success. Are your program’s goals fuzzy and hard to put a finger on, or are they specific and measurable? Do they link to the strategic objectives of your organization? Get all of the key stakeholders to work with you in devising the goals that will define the success of your program. Getting their input during the initial stages will give them a genuine “stake” in your program.

Fundamentally, it is people and not money or infrastructure that will make your organizational change happen. Change initiatives fail where roles and responsibilities are left unclear or not agreed. In organizations with a toxic performance culture, many employees and managers spend much of their time and effort in hiding from responsibility. What are the key roles and responsibilities for bringing about the needed change in your area? Have you identified the key tasks for each person belonging to each of the four key change role groups: Change Driver, Change Implementer, Change Enabler and Change Recipient? Selecting the right people for the right roles is also critically important. Find out all you can about selecting, leading and managing teams.

I mention teams here because no matter what your change program is about, most likely the people working in the various change roles will not be working in isolation. More and more, results can only be achieved through people working collaboratively – in teams. Are your teams of the optimal size of around five to eight members? Is each team being led by the right team leader? Do they have the necessary technical and interpersonal skills? One reason why teams are much more productive than individuals working in isolation is that team members leverage off each other’s strengths and compensate for each other’s weaknesses. So, do your teams have the right balance of natural working styles? There will be times when one or more of your teams get stuck. When they hit a brick wall, make sure that you have a strategy in place for moving them forward. As you have already guessed, a permanently stuck team leads to a permanently stuck change program.

All this talk about the value of teams highlights the importance of training in skilling up teams and bedding in change. Many organizations, however, fail to benefit from the resources spent on training. Soon after the training is completed, employees continue to cling on to the old way of doing things. Review how successfully your organization is using training to improve people capability. Ensure that your change program has a well-articulated training plan based on a thorough analysis of skill gaps. I said that successful change is about changing people’s behavior. So, make sure that your training programs focus on behavior change and are not simply about delivering the most content in the shortest possible time. To help bed in the new behaviors, budget and plan for lots of back in the workplace support. Change will not happen if your managers do not actively support the training. Make sure that they “walk the talk” and are not simply feigning approval in front of the executive.

Even if your training is well delivered and supported, a proportion of your employees, customers and suppliers will resist your change efforts. Unless you have a well thought out strategy for dealing with negative reactions, these resisters will wear your program down until it fizzles out or ends with a bang. Find out which of your resisters are actively fighting out in the open and which are working from the underground. Sometimes the reasons given for resisting change are a smokescreen. In these cases, you will need to do some digging to reveal the real reasons for the resistance. In some instances, resistance is a natural reaction to the proposed changes. Help these people work through the psychological process of denial, resistance and finally acceptance. Importantly, develop a strategy before implementation for identifying sources of resistance and for turning it around.

You have before you a huge task fraught with uncertainty, but filled with incredible opportunity. The above guide to being a triumphant change leader is not the last word on how to bring about successful organizational change. In fact, it is just the beginning for you. Read all you can about leading, coaching and influencing people through change. Your most important and rewarding lessons, though, will be learned as you apply your new found knowledge to your real-life change initiatives. I suspect that the most important lesson that you will learn is that to be successful your change program must not be your change program. I wish you well on your journey.

? Leslie Allan. All rights reserved.

Leslie Allan is Managing Director of Business Performance Pty Ltd, a company providing practical online information and resources in a range of business areas. Find out more about change management and download the free introductory chapter to his practical guide, Managing Change in the Workplace.

The art of clear thinking is a learnable technique that will help you to sharpen your mind and allow you to cut through rhetoric and evaluate the reasoning (if any) behind the words.

To initiate this process, I want to show you six common fallacies, which blur accurate analysis of ideas.

Learn them and apply them every day.

Democratic fallacy

Unreliable reasoning that stems from the idea that the “majority opinion” is a source of truth and a reliable guide for action.

This is a very dodgy way to discover “Truth”

For example;

Imagine a passenger aircraft is having engine trouble.

Would it be right for the pilot to hold a vote as to whether they should attempt an emergency landing?

If not, why not?

Is the majority opinion in the office a reliable guide to intelligent action?

Can a million people be wrong?

Be careful if you are tempted to reinforce your argument with the cry “everyone else thinks so, too.”

Correlation-cause confusion

Correlation-Cause confusion is a common trap that people fall into. Just because two things occur at the same time does not necessarily mean that one caused the other.

It is a mistake to treat a correlation as a causal connection

If I put on my lucky ring, and I go out and find a ten pound note, did the ring cause it to happen?

If a new boss comes to work and the sales next month go down, what does it mean?

Getting personal

Getting personal is the mistake of dismissing an idea because of the person suggesting it.

Imagine an overweight scientist has done research to prove that exercise reduces the risk of heart disease.

You could be tempted to say, “What does he know? Look at the state of him!”

Or you could say “He should practice what he preaches” and dismiss the valuable idea.

Halo effect

Halo effect is the reverse of the above. It means that you give extra credibly to an idea because of the person.

For example Elvis Presley was asked whether he thought the Americans were right to be at war in Vietnam.

He wisely answers ” I don’t want to get into that. I am an entertainer. Ask me about my music”

I remember a radio programme asking agony-aunt Claire Raynor what she thought about the state of the criminal justice system in England and Wales.

What specialised knowledge does her opinion carry?

Separate ideas from the person proposing them and evaluated an idea as a “thing” in its own right. Determine if the idea can act as a guide to intelligent action.

Arbitrary assertion

Is an unsubstantiated statement of belief with no principle, reasoning or sensory evidence to support it.

It is a mistake to grant plausibility to an assertion simply because it is forcefully delivered or repeated.

Frequency and volume should never take the place of logic in your decision to accept an idea as true.

Napoleon once quipped “Repetition is my strongest argument” (and then lost 250,000 in his disastrous Russian campaign)

Equally, it follows that you should avoid trying to convince someone else by simply becoming louder and more passionate. Instead strive to make your reasoning inescapable.

Gamblers fallacy

Is the mistaken belief that your chances of winning increases the longer you play.

This is a false idea.

If you are doing the wrong thing it makes no difference how long you do it. It still will not work.

If your current plan has not been yielding any meaningful results, it will not change fortunes tomorrow.

* Change your ideas.

* Change the plan.

* Change the actions.

* The results must and will change.

Critical reasoning to develop clarity of thought will cause you to do three things:

You will:

* Listen more intently

* Ask more questions

* Think more before you make your decision

All of these will help you get better results

Four step formula for constructing an argument

1. Make sure that the reasons/evidence you offer are relevant to the conclusion. (Ensure your reasoning has no fallacies).

2. Is your conclusion the best based on the reasons or evidence? Ask, Is this conclusion justified.

3. If your conclusion is for some new action or policy, can the policy be carried out practically?

4. Consider the counter arguments that could weaken your position. Make sure you have accessed all relevant information.

Chris Farmer is the leader of The Corporate Coach Group, and a publichsed author in Business Coaching. His training courses through the Corporate Coach Group have helped hundreds of managers become immediatly more effective.

When projects do not make it to deadlines, there are many things going on behind the scenes. As an accidental manager, you are tasked to keep the boat on an even keel with few resources and people. Project management training can help you man the ship effectively and take on more projects.

When Do You Need Project Management Training?

The boss has tossed you a small scale project, which turns out to be a titanic assignment for you because you do not have the skills to manage different capabilities and organize the whole show. Yet you take on the task hoping you pass muster and reap accolades for a job well done. You are one of the thousands of befuddled managers needing project management training.

Here is why you need project management training:

* You cannot produce a credible project plan

* Your project goes helter-skelter in different directions

* Your risk management techniques are outdated or implausible

* You cannot estimate work schedule confidently

* Your monitoring tools are inadequate or inapplicable

* You cannot run a motivated team

* You lack leadership skills

Can tell your boss no? Or do you take the project and hit the books because your boss expects you to effectively run a project with few people and resources, on a tight schedule, and get maximum results?

What Is Project Management Training?

The project management training educates project managers to foresee dangers that may derail project plans and activities. They should be able to minimize risks and solve problems head on to make sure that the project is completed successfully notwithstanding the risks. If you had the opportunity to have this training early on, no projects would be too big or difficult to handle.

The training also takes up management of IT skills when overseeing a project. This is a convenient and faster way to keep tabs of what is happening to all actors participating in the project. Instead of lugging journals, logbooks, and calendars, you log on to your PC and look at the worksheets of everybody to check how the work is going.

Knowing the IT part of project management training is just an aspect, but the bigger picture is effectively managing resources and meeting the project deadline because extended or delayed project activities incur more expenses, and the company loses revenues.

Why is the Project Management Training Important?

Projects, big or small, need a good manager to keep the project going on schedule. There is the competition to think about and the revenues to be earned from the project. During the course of the project, there will be slip ups or the project may go full steam ahead; a good manager will answer the following questions:

* What factors contributed to the success and failure of the project?

* What were the frequent problems that cropped up and why?

* How much resources were used and how were these used?

* Were resources available at the right time or not, and why?

* Were the skills required available and competent?

* What were the lessons learned?

* Were all aspects of project implementation documented accurately?

* Did management respond to issues quickly?

Project management training will help you see the big picture. The questions mentioned earlier are your guideposts to become an effective manager; hence, the training is important on two counts - career advancement and project success. Need you ask more?

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