Dealing with a boss who's controlling, pushy or bullying can turn a pleasant working environment into a minefield. It can be hard to determine how to stand up for yourself without putting your job in danger. Don't let a bad manager take over your life; use these strategies to diffuse the situation and gain a little mutual understanding.
1# React to difficult situations in a professional manner, without getting emotional. If you get angry when criticized, you're giving your boss a chance to further target you. A manager on an ego trip will see a forceful employee as an opportunity to wield her power and influence. Just acknowledge the criticism and walk away; it will give you both a chance to calm down so you can bring up the incident later and rationally explain your feelings.
2# Evaluate your own performance. Make sure that you're doing your duties to the best of your capabilities. That way, you'll have a leg to stand on during confrontations. There may be warrants to your manager's criticisms that you haven't thought of.
3# Consider that your manager may not know he's behaving badly. A boss who seems to be abusing his power may just be insecure about his managerial capabilities. He may feel that he needs to bully his employees to get things done. If that's the case, realizing it might help you calm down a bit when dealing with him.
4# Look for good behaviors from your boss like clear communication or praise for a job well done and give her positive feedback. You don't have to stroke your boss' ego to make your working environment more pleasant, but complimenting her for positive actions may give her an incentive to do it more in the future.
5# Keep records of all communications between you and your manager. This will help protect you in case things get out of hand, and his ego trip turns into abuse.
6# Sit down with your manager to discuss your needs. Make it clear that you're doing the best you can, but his reactions give you the feeling he's not happy with your performance.
7# Ask him what he expects of you, and then tell him what you need in terms of support, direction and feedback. Don't be aggressive; it will just aggravate a control-freak supervisor. Approach him from an angle of willingness to improve your own performance and hopes for better communication between the two of you.
8# There is no one who is genuine, every one have negative point in his/her role, make use of that as your positive strength.
9# Look for another job if none of the above steps seem to produce a change. Some people are just incapable of realizing how their behavior affects others. Don't stay in a toxic environment where your self-esteem and work quality suffer.
Intuitive Learning
Some things we know, but we don’t know how we know them. Consider your absorption of language. If you are an average secondary school graduate you know some 80,000 words (likely an underestimate given that you’re reading this book). That averages (from age 1 to 18) nearly 5,000 words learned each year, or 13 each day! How you did it— how the 5,000 words a year you learned could outnumber by so much the roughly 200 words a year that your schoolteachers consciously taught you—is one of the great human wonders. Before you could add 2 + 2 you were creating your own original and grammatically appropriate sentences. Your parents probably would have had trouble stating the rules of syntax. Yet while barely more than a toddler you intuitively comprehended and spoke with a facility that would shame a college student struggling to learn a foreign language or a scientist struggling to simulate natural language on a computer.
Even infants—well before they have begun thinking in words—possess striking intuitive capacities. We are born preferring sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness. As newborns, we turned our heads in the direction of human voices. We gazed longer at a drawing of a face-like image than at a bull’s-eye pattern, and longer at a bull’s-eye pattern (which has contrasts much like those of the human eye) than at a solid disk. We preferred to look at objects eight to twelve inches away, which, wonder of wonders, just happens to be the approximate distance between a nursing infant’s eyes and its mother’s.
Our perceptual abilities develop continuously during the first months of life. Within days of birth, our brain’s neural networks were stamped with the smell of our mother’s body. Thus, a week-old nursing baby, placed between a gauze pad from its mother’s bra and one from another nursing mother, will usually turn toward its own mother’s pad. A three-week-old infant, if given a pacifier that turns on recordings of either its mother’s voice or a female stranger’s, will suck more vigorously when it hears its now-familiar mother.
Babies also have an intuitive grasp of simple laws of physics. Like adults staring in disbelief at a magic trick, infants look longer at a scene of a ball stopping in midair, a car seeming to pass through a solid object, or an object that seems to disappear. Babies even have a head for numbers. Researcher Karen Wynn showed five-month-old infants one or two objects. Then she hid the objects behind a screen, sometimes removing or adding one through a trap door. When she lifted the screen, the infants often did a double take, staring longer when shown a wrong number of objects. Like animals’ native fear of heights, this is intuitive knowledge—unmediated by words or rational analysis.
First Scientist
Who Was the First Scientist?
We live in a scientific age. Millions of young people study science, thousands of universities teach it, and hundreds of publications chronicle it. We even have a cable channel devoted exclusively to its wonders. We are immersed in technology rooted in its discoveries. But what is science, and who was its first practitioner?
Science is the study of the physical world, but it is not just a topic, a subject, a field of interest. It is a discipline—a system of inquiry that adheres to a specific methodology—the scientific method. In its basic form, the scientific method consists of seven steps:
1) observation
2) statement of a problem or question
3) formulation of a hypothesis, or a possible answer to the problem or question
4) testing of the hypothesis with an experiment
5) analysis of the experiment’s results
6) interpretation of the data and formulation of a conclusion
7) publication of the findings.
One can study phenomena without adhering to the scientific method, of course. The result, however, is not science. It is pseudoscience or junk science.
Throughout history, many people in many parts of the world have studied nature without using the scientific method. Some of the earliest people to do so were the ancient Greeks. Scholars such as Aristotle made many observations about natural phenomena, but they did not test their ideas with experiments. Instead they relied on logic to support their findings. As a result, they often arrived at erroneous conclusions. Centuries later the errors of the Greeks were exposed by scholars using the scientific method.
Perhaps the most famous debunking of Greek beliefs occurred in 1589 when Galileo Galilei challenged Aristotle’s notions about falling bodies. Aristotle had asserted that heavy bodies fall at a faster rate than light bodies do. His contention was logical but unproven. Galileo decided to test Aristotle’s hypothesis, legend says, by dropping cannon balls of different weights from a balcony of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He released the balls simultaneously and found that neither ball raced ahead of the other. Rather, they sped earthward together and hit the ground at the same time. Galileo also conducted experiments in which he rolled balls of different weights down inclines in an attempt to discover the truth about falling bodies. For these and other experiments, Galileo is considered by many to be the first scientist.
Galileo was not the first person to conduct experiments or to follow the scientific method, however. European scholars had been conducting experiments for three hundred years, ever since a British-born Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon advocated experimentation in the thirteenth century. One of Bacon’s books, Perspecti va (Optics) challenges ancient Greek ideas about vision and includes several experiments with light that include all seven steps of the scientific method. Bacon’sPerspecti va is not an original work, however. It is a summary of a much longer work entitled De aspectibus (The Optics).Perspecti va follows the organization of De aspectibus and repeats its experiments step by step, sometimes even word for word. But De aspectibus is not an original work, either. It is the translation of a book written in Arabic entitled Kitāb al-Manāzir (Book of Optics). Written around 1021, Kitāb al-Manāzir predates Roger Bacon’s summary of it by 250 years. The author of this groundbreaking book was a Muslim scholar named al-Hasan ibnal-Haytham.
Born in Basra (located in what is now Iraq) in 965, Ibn al-Haytham—known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen—wrote more than 200 books and treatises on a wide range of subjects. He was the first person to apply algebra to geometry, founding the branch mathematics known as analytic geometry.
Ibn al-Haytham’s use of experimentation was an outgrowth of his skeptical nature and his Muslim faith. He believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, he reasoned, one had to allow the universe to speak for itself. “The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,” Ibn al-Haitham wrote in Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, “but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration.”
To test his hypothesis that “lights and colors do not blend in the air,” for example, Ibn al-Haytham devised the world's first camera obscure, observed what happened when light rays intersected at its aperture, and recorded the results. This is just one of dozens of “true demonstrations,” or experiments, contained in Kitāb al-Manāzir.
By insisting on the use of verifiable experiments to test hypotheses, Ibn al-Haytham established a new system of inquiry—the scientific method—and earned a place in history as the first scientist.
We live in a scientific age. Millions of young people study science, thousands of universities teach it, and hundreds of publications chronicle it. We even have a cable channel devoted exclusively to its wonders. We are immersed in technology rooted in its discoveries. But what is science, and who was its first practitioner?
Science is the study of the physical world, but it is not just a topic, a subject, a field of interest. It is a discipline—a system of inquiry that adheres to a specific methodology—the scientific method. In its basic form, the scientific method consists of seven steps:
1) observation
2) statement of a problem or question
3) formulation of a hypothesis, or a possible answer to the problem or question
4) testing of the hypothesis with an experiment
5) analysis of the experiment’s results
6) interpretation of the data and formulation of a conclusion
7) publication of the findings.
One can study phenomena without adhering to the scientific method, of course. The result, however, is not science. It is pseudoscience or junk science.
Throughout history, many people in many parts of the world have studied nature without using the scientific method. Some of the earliest people to do so were the ancient Greeks. Scholars such as Aristotle made many observations about natural phenomena, but they did not test their ideas with experiments. Instead they relied on logic to support their findings. As a result, they often arrived at erroneous conclusions. Centuries later the errors of the Greeks were exposed by scholars using the scientific method.
Perhaps the most famous debunking of Greek beliefs occurred in 1589 when Galileo Galilei challenged Aristotle’s notions about falling bodies. Aristotle had asserted that heavy bodies fall at a faster rate than light bodies do. His contention was logical but unproven. Galileo decided to test Aristotle’s hypothesis, legend says, by dropping cannon balls of different weights from a balcony of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He released the balls simultaneously and found that neither ball raced ahead of the other. Rather, they sped earthward together and hit the ground at the same time. Galileo also conducted experiments in which he rolled balls of different weights down inclines in an attempt to discover the truth about falling bodies. For these and other experiments, Galileo is considered by many to be the first scientist.
Galileo was not the first person to conduct experiments or to follow the scientific method, however. European scholars had been conducting experiments for three hundred years, ever since a British-born Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon advocated experimentation in the thirteenth century. One of Bacon’s books, Perspecti va (Optics) challenges ancient Greek ideas about vision and includes several experiments with light that include all seven steps of the scientific method. Bacon’sPerspecti va is not an original work, however. It is a summary of a much longer work entitled De aspectibus (The Optics).Perspecti va follows the organization of De aspectibus and repeats its experiments step by step, sometimes even word for word. But De aspectibus is not an original work, either. It is the translation of a book written in Arabic entitled Kitāb al-Manāzir (Book of Optics). Written around 1021, Kitāb al-Manāzir predates Roger Bacon’s summary of it by 250 years. The author of this groundbreaking book was a Muslim scholar named al-Hasan ibnal-Haytham.
Born in Basra (located in what is now Iraq) in 965, Ibn al-Haytham—known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen—wrote more than 200 books and treatises on a wide range of subjects. He was the first person to apply algebra to geometry, founding the branch mathematics known as analytic geometry.
Ibn al-Haytham’s use of experimentation was an outgrowth of his skeptical nature and his Muslim faith. He believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, he reasoned, one had to allow the universe to speak for itself. “The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,” Ibn al-Haitham wrote in Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, “but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration.”
To test his hypothesis that “lights and colors do not blend in the air,” for example, Ibn al-Haytham devised the world's first camera obscure, observed what happened when light rays intersected at its aperture, and recorded the results. This is just one of dozens of “true demonstrations,” or experiments, contained in Kitāb al-Manāzir.
By insisting on the use of verifiable experiments to test hypotheses, Ibn al-Haytham established a new system of inquiry—the scientific method—and earned a place in history as the first scientist.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH)
How to Naturally Increase HGH (Human Growth Hormone)
HGH is hot supplement, many athletes and celebrities have been busted for illegally purchasing HGH injections. What’s so special about HGH (human growth hormone)? It’s a hormone that burns fat and preserves muscle mass. What person wouldn’t want that? The amazing thing is that you don’t need supplements to increase production of this hormone. There are a few simple tricks to naturally increase your HGH levels without illegally buying drugs.
HGH Primer
I’d like to start by providing a brief background on HGH. HGH stands for human growth hormone. It is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that helps to break down body fat without reducing muscle mass. Over time, HGH production declines making it harder for people to burn fat or retain muscle mass as they age.
How to Naturally Increase HGH
1. High intensity exercise: short bursts of maximum effort lead to significant increases in HGH production. HIIT (high intensity interval training) is great for this. You should actually wait to consume calories for 1-2 hours following a workout to maximize the HGH release as a spike in insulin from eating will cease its production.
2. Fasting: if you keep insulin levels low by not eating often, your body will compensate by increasing HGH levels. This in turn will accelerate the fat burning process while allowing you to preserve muscle mass. However, this only really works with intermittent fasting as long-term fasting will cause your body to go into starvation mode.
3. Sleep: the pituitary gland works overtime while you are in a deep sleep to produce HGH. Getting a good night’s rest of 7-8 hours can help HGH production.
Supplements that Stimulate the Pituitary Gland
While the tips above should be good enough to naturally increase your HGH levels, there are legal supplements available that stimulate the pituitary gland to produce more HGH. These don’t necessarily work. Most are recommended only after the age of 35 as well since that’s when HGH levels begin to rapidly decline.
Increase HGH Naturally
Take the simple and easy steps to promote HGH production. It will help you preserve muscle mass and burn fat. Simply exercise intensely, perform intermittent fasting, and make sure to get plenty of sleep.
HGH is hot supplement, many athletes and celebrities have been busted for illegally purchasing HGH injections. What’s so special about HGH (human growth hormone)? It’s a hormone that burns fat and preserves muscle mass. What person wouldn’t want that? The amazing thing is that you don’t need supplements to increase production of this hormone. There are a few simple tricks to naturally increase your HGH levels without illegally buying drugs.
HGH Primer
I’d like to start by providing a brief background on HGH. HGH stands for human growth hormone. It is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that helps to break down body fat without reducing muscle mass. Over time, HGH production declines making it harder for people to burn fat or retain muscle mass as they age.
How to Naturally Increase HGH
1. High intensity exercise: short bursts of maximum effort lead to significant increases in HGH production. HIIT (high intensity interval training) is great for this. You should actually wait to consume calories for 1-2 hours following a workout to maximize the HGH release as a spike in insulin from eating will cease its production.
2. Fasting: if you keep insulin levels low by not eating often, your body will compensate by increasing HGH levels. This in turn will accelerate the fat burning process while allowing you to preserve muscle mass. However, this only really works with intermittent fasting as long-term fasting will cause your body to go into starvation mode.
3. Sleep: the pituitary gland works overtime while you are in a deep sleep to produce HGH. Getting a good night’s rest of 7-8 hours can help HGH production.
Supplements that Stimulate the Pituitary Gland
While the tips above should be good enough to naturally increase your HGH levels, there are legal supplements available that stimulate the pituitary gland to produce more HGH. These don’t necessarily work. Most are recommended only after the age of 35 as well since that’s when HGH levels begin to rapidly decline.
Increase HGH Naturally
Take the simple and easy steps to promote HGH production. It will help you preserve muscle mass and burn fat. Simply exercise intensely, perform intermittent fasting, and make sure to get plenty of sleep.
How Hybrid Car Works
A hybrid car has an engine that runs off gasoline and a rechargeable battery. These cars are smaller than regular cars and aerodynamic because they assume the driver spends most of the time on a fairly straight road. By removing the extra weight, the car gains more gas mileage. When acceleration is needed, the battery is drawn on to supply the extra power. Hybrids are preferred because all-electric cars rarely get above speeds of 50-60 miles per hour (mph). They also need to be recharged between 50 and 100 miles.
The battery system in hybrid cars is recharged from the car itself. One way is through the braking system. Electric hybrid motors can take the kinetic energy that comes from applying the brakes and charge the battery. This system is called a regenerative braking system. Working with inertia and torque, magnets on the motor shaft move past the electric coils on the stator eventually producing electricity. This electricity becomes electrical energy that recharges the battery pack.
Another difference about hybrid cars is the tires. The tires are inflated higher to make them stiffer. This reduces drag. After the car stops, the gasoline motor can shut off to save fuel, leaving the electric motor and battery running the car.
Hybrid cars also have two batteries. They have a conventional car battery and a rechargeable battery. Both batteries are rechargeable but they are designed to perform different tasks. A conventional battery is designed to contain enough energy to generate torque to turn over an engine, around 300 RPMs. The colder the temperature is, the more current that is required from the battery to start the engine. There are some minor requirements for the battery when the car is not running like the security system. When the alternator is running, it recharges the conventional battery. If this type of battery is repeatedly drained to empty, its ability to store energy is ruined.
The second battery that a hybrid car has is called a deep cycle battery. It too is rechargeable but is constructed for a very different use. The Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries are really an array of smaller batteries hooked together. These batteries are designed to be fully drained and recharged repeatedly without damage to the storage capability. Today's NiMH batteries are lighter in weight and deliver more energy than the batteries from previous generations of electric cars. Warranties on these batteries tend to run from eight to ten years or up to 200,000 miles before needing to be replaced.
Currently there are tax breaks for persons purchasing a hybrid vehicle
. There are federal tax breaks but they are being reduced and phased out by 2007. U.S. energy policy can always change though. Several states such as California have deductions and exemptions for hybrid owners. They vary by state so you will have to look them up. In addition, some states, a hybrid car can be driven in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, even if there is just one person. Hybrid cars are as safe as any other vehicle in their class. They are given the same crash tests and scored the same.
The battery system in hybrid cars is recharged from the car itself. One way is through the braking system. Electric hybrid motors can take the kinetic energy that comes from applying the brakes and charge the battery. This system is called a regenerative braking system. Working with inertia and torque, magnets on the motor shaft move past the electric coils on the stator eventually producing electricity. This electricity becomes electrical energy that recharges the battery pack.
Another difference about hybrid cars is the tires. The tires are inflated higher to make them stiffer. This reduces drag. After the car stops, the gasoline motor can shut off to save fuel, leaving the electric motor and battery running the car.
Hybrid cars also have two batteries. They have a conventional car battery and a rechargeable battery. Both batteries are rechargeable but they are designed to perform different tasks. A conventional battery is designed to contain enough energy to generate torque to turn over an engine, around 300 RPMs. The colder the temperature is, the more current that is required from the battery to start the engine. There are some minor requirements for the battery when the car is not running like the security system. When the alternator is running, it recharges the conventional battery. If this type of battery is repeatedly drained to empty, its ability to store energy is ruined.
The second battery that a hybrid car has is called a deep cycle battery. It too is rechargeable but is constructed for a very different use. The Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries are really an array of smaller batteries hooked together. These batteries are designed to be fully drained and recharged repeatedly without damage to the storage capability. Today's NiMH batteries are lighter in weight and deliver more energy than the batteries from previous generations of electric cars. Warranties on these batteries tend to run from eight to ten years or up to 200,000 miles before needing to be replaced.
Currently there are tax breaks for persons purchasing a hybrid vehicle
. There are federal tax breaks but they are being reduced and phased out by 2007. U.S. energy policy can always change though. Several states such as California have deductions and exemptions for hybrid owners. They vary by state so you will have to look them up. In addition, some states, a hybrid car can be driven in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, even if there is just one person. Hybrid cars are as safe as any other vehicle in their class. They are given the same crash tests and scored the same.
Positive attitude vs Negative attitude
2. A positive attitude, on the other hand, connects you with the world and yourself regardless of the feelings and experiences that you have.
3. A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. People tend to shy away from those who carry a negative attitude.
4. We define attitude as our unique way of looking at the world. If you choose to focus on the negative things in the world, you have a negative attitude brewing up. However, if you choose to focus on the positive things, you are more likely carry a positive attitude.
5. You have much to gain from a very positive attitude. For one, studies have shown that a positive attitude promotes better health. Those with this kind of attitude also have more friends. Projecting a positive attitude also helps you handle stress and problems better than those who have a negative attitude.
6. A positive attitude begins with a healthy self-image. If you choose to love the way you are and are satisfied, confident, and self-assured, you also make others around you feel the same way. A negative attitude has, of course, the opposite effect. So, carrying a negative attitude has a twofold drawback. You feel bad about yourself, and you make others feel the same way.
7. Negative thinking defines pessimists whereas Positive attitute defines optimists.
Ruler Vs Emperor
When a ruler rules a country, it is known as his kingdom. But when an emperor rules, he will be ruling a group of countries, and these are collectively known as the Empire. The Roman Empire is such an example. Another example to differentiate between the empire and kingdoms is the rule of the British Empire in India. The people from the British Empire were ruling the kingdoms in India while there were many small kings in the country.
Therefore:
1.Emperor is higher in rank and honor than the King.
2.Ruler rules a country, while emperor rules a group of countries.
3.An emperor rules an empire, while a ruler rules a kingdom.
Steps of self motivation
Your motivation will be high if you get sufficient sleep, take the required vitamins, and get regular exercise. It is easier to perform your tasks if you are feeling vibrant and healthy.
2. Make your plan of action.
Spend some time writing down things that you'd like to do. Set your course of action. Identify which is most important.
3. Practice the 15-minute time rule.
Give yourself a fifteen-minute time limit with a timer. You have the option to stop when the timer sets off. Slowly, you'll realize that you are beginning to develop an interest in the task when time expires.
4. Discover your “peak hours.”
Ask yourself: Am I a morning or afternoon person? Find out the time of day where you are most energetic. Do you have more energy in the morning? Then it is advisable for you to take jobs that require more energy in the morning. Late afternoon hours should be reserved for jobs that require less thinking. If you have more energy in the evening, you can seek profitable work that will match your enthusiasm.
5. Stop being a perfectionist.
Aim for work accomplishment and not perfection. Striving for perfection may lead to procrastination. There is a tendency for you not to do the job because you have the feeling that you will not do a perfect job. Accept the fact that no person is perfect and this will motivate you.
6. Break down the task into smaller components.
You will be motivated if you do your task one step at a time.
7. At all times, see to it that you always pump yourself up. Give yourself enough time to motivate yourself. Cheer yourself up and be confident that you can accomplish your goal. It is always important to think positively about yourself.
How to build successful professional life
1. Set yourself apart from the crowd. Differentiate yourself by determining what you are passionate about, what you can do better than others around you and what brings you the highest rewards in life--be it fame, fortune or a brighter future.
2. Become a lifelong learner. Embrace learning for the sheer pleasure of learning new skills, enhancing your abilities and raising the level of personal and professional knowledge. Having more knowledge used to equate to power, and knowing how to use that knowledge, is where the real power builds.
3. Dream and envision big. For example wheere do you want to be in five, ten or twenty-five years from now, as a CEO of a major corporation or the owner of a small business. Dreaming small will garner small. To get to where you want to be, you have to dream it, believe it and then live it.See yourself as taking advantage of every opportunity available to you.
4. Find the meaning in all professional activities and opportunities. When you are faced with big decisions, stop and take the time to find what moving up the corporate ladder means to you on a personal level, to your family and friends, and to your co-workers.
5. Read books, articles and research written by other professionals in your field and related fields. Keeping up with all of the newest business books will give you a new perspective and spark ways to approach or solve problems.
6.Surround yourself with creative people who like to think out of the box and like to experience different perspectives. Creativity has a place in every profession. Creativity is also a great motivator.
7. Help others develop their professional lives. When you have achieved the advances and the goals you have set along your professional life, the next step to your progression is to pass on your ability to persevere.
8. Get involved with your community. Helping your community by volunteering with senior centers, youth programs, community events, the human society or other non-profit organizations will help you give back and again help build a better society.
9.Stay focused on your dreams, visions and goals. Ignore the nay-sayers and negative thinkers you will encounter along the way.
10. Above all else, believe. Make believing a part of your fabric so that you always feel that you can and will accomplish the professional life you want and you deserve.
Organizations Pyramid Must Change
How can people organize for the most effective accomplishment of goals? For centuries, the answer to this question was obvious around the world: The command and control approach was best, with a leader commanding and controlling the people who directly reported to the leader, and then, the rest of the people being organized in a pyramid structure, with those with the least power being at the bottom of the pyramid.
When corporations were developed, it was natural for the leaders to follow the pyramid organization structure, which was a standard of the social systems of the governments, church and military. To this day, the pyramid is pervasive as a paradigm. Even our supposedly modern computer software is set up to describe an organization's structure only in the form of a pyramid.
Our language has also evolved to reflect the pyramid paradigm: "Climbing up the ladder" only makes sense in the context of a pyramid structure. "Hitting the glass ceiling" presupposes a pyramid structure is in place.
We submit that this organizational approach is so well understood and pervasive in all types of organizations, that it is taken for granted in the broad majority of organizations. Bureaucracy, often extremely inefficient bureaucracy, is the result in the attempt to make sure the command and control concept is preserved.
In the 21st century, we need new thinking and new organizational concepts, and they are starting to be used by innovative organizations: Connect and Collaborate.
The concept of Connect and Collaborate will be the growing concept in the 21st century. It is based on the basic premises:
1. All humans have a desire to be part of a successful organization and to do their part to make it successful in achieving its goals.
2. Command and Control implies that the leader(s) can best prescribe the best organizational approaches and the rest of the organization should just follow orders precisely.
3. Connect and Collaborate implies that intelligence and creativity are dispersed broadly throughout an organization, and in many cases the best decisions are made by the associates who are closest to the situation to be resolved. Bureaucracy needs to be avoided in order to attract and keep clients. The "Client Empowerment Mindset" occurs when the Chief Empowerment Officer (new name for CEO), empowers the associates, who in turn empower the clients. The clients have the ultimate power.
4. Rather than a pyramid, a series of interlocking circles is a better paradigm for effective organizations, with the central circle being the Empowered Client. In the Pyramid Paradigm, the client is not in the organization structure. That is a big mistake in the thinking that is needed for the extremely competitive worldwide economy in which we are now involved. The Internet is controlled by no one. Think of it: Communications are going on between computers without constant human involvement and control. The CEO doesn't usually know how to program the computers. Knowledge workers have a huge amount of power compared to what might seem the case by looking at their position in a pyramid organization chart.
5. "Connect" is an essential concept, to connect associates to clients and to anyone else in the organization without going through layers of management and huge bureaucracies. "Collaborate" means to solve problems with the rapidly available help of people who associates know can be of help to attract and keep clients, in the business model.
Organizations that will be most successful in the 21st century will be those that make the switch from Command and Control thinking and the pyramid paradigm to Connect and Collaborate thinking and "The client empowerment mindset."
That is the best way to use the fantastic skills of human beings.
When corporations were developed, it was natural for the leaders to follow the pyramid organization structure, which was a standard of the social systems of the governments, church and military. To this day, the pyramid is pervasive as a paradigm. Even our supposedly modern computer software is set up to describe an organization's structure only in the form of a pyramid.
Our language has also evolved to reflect the pyramid paradigm: "Climbing up the ladder" only makes sense in the context of a pyramid structure. "Hitting the glass ceiling" presupposes a pyramid structure is in place.
We submit that this organizational approach is so well understood and pervasive in all types of organizations, that it is taken for granted in the broad majority of organizations. Bureaucracy, often extremely inefficient bureaucracy, is the result in the attempt to make sure the command and control concept is preserved.
In the 21st century, we need new thinking and new organizational concepts, and they are starting to be used by innovative organizations: Connect and Collaborate.
The concept of Connect and Collaborate will be the growing concept in the 21st century. It is based on the basic premises:
1. All humans have a desire to be part of a successful organization and to do their part to make it successful in achieving its goals.
2. Command and Control implies that the leader(s) can best prescribe the best organizational approaches and the rest of the organization should just follow orders precisely.
3. Connect and Collaborate implies that intelligence and creativity are dispersed broadly throughout an organization, and in many cases the best decisions are made by the associates who are closest to the situation to be resolved. Bureaucracy needs to be avoided in order to attract and keep clients. The "Client Empowerment Mindset" occurs when the Chief Empowerment Officer (new name for CEO), empowers the associates, who in turn empower the clients. The clients have the ultimate power.
4. Rather than a pyramid, a series of interlocking circles is a better paradigm for effective organizations, with the central circle being the Empowered Client. In the Pyramid Paradigm, the client is not in the organization structure. That is a big mistake in the thinking that is needed for the extremely competitive worldwide economy in which we are now involved. The Internet is controlled by no one. Think of it: Communications are going on between computers without constant human involvement and control. The CEO doesn't usually know how to program the computers. Knowledge workers have a huge amount of power compared to what might seem the case by looking at their position in a pyramid organization chart.5. "Connect" is an essential concept, to connect associates to clients and to anyone else in the organization without going through layers of management and huge bureaucracies. "Collaborate" means to solve problems with the rapidly available help of people who associates know can be of help to attract and keep clients, in the business model.
Organizations that will be most successful in the 21st century will be those that make the switch from Command and Control thinking and the pyramid paradigm to Connect and Collaborate thinking and "The client empowerment mindset."
That is the best way to use the fantastic skills of human beings.
Deal With Conflict Effectively
Conflict is a way of life and it can surface anytime during the project cycle. Conflict can arise over sharing people, equipment, supplies, or money; over goals and specifications; between personalities; over differences of opinion; and even over power.
The potential for conflict is highest, however, at the beginning, when a project manager competes for resources or when difficulties arise over contractual requirements. And conflict at the beginning can lead to even more difficulties later if it is not addressed properly. The potential for conflict is high, too, at the end of the cycle, when participants face schedule pressures. Conflict in and of itself is not bad. It can alert project managers to problems that must be addressed. The challenge is to manage the conflict in a manner that leads to project success rather than failure.
Project managers, like all people, deal with conflict differently. Some project managers avoid it, letting it smolder. Some project managers give up every time a conflict surfaces. Other project managers deny that conflict exists at all. And some masterfully blame others. These are all defense mechanisms. Nevertheless, they do not deal with the conflict. All these mechanisms manage to do is avoid conflict or push it into the background.
The question, then, is how to deal with conflict constructively.
1. He should diffuse the charged emotion within himself. If he has to, he will do something as simple as count to ten before doing anything.
2. He should diffuse the charged emotions in other people. He will calm down people by calling for a cooling-off period, especially when emotions run high.
3. He should identify the facts of the situation to determine the cause of the conflict. He avoids comments that can be viewed as taking sides or being accusational.
4. He should apply active listening. He listens for the facts to acquire an objective assessment of the situation. Active listening helps to avoid being “pulled into” the conflict.
5. He should acknowledge any anger that may be present, while focusing on the merits of the conflict. If anger is justified, he acknowledges it.
6. He should keep everyone focused on the cause of the conflict. He avoids the tendency to blame someone or to rationalize it away.
7. He should keep the big picture in focus. He asks himself what the best way is to resolve the conflict so as to achieve the project goal.
8. He should set a plan for resolving the conflict. He also remains objective.
9. He should seek participation in the resolution. Unless an impasse occurs, he lets the people decide on a mutually agreeable solution. That builds bridges and commitment to the solution.
10. He should encourage a win-win solution, not a win-lose or lose-lose. With a win-win solution, emotions will subside and there will be little or no room for bitterness.
The potential for conflict is highest, however, at the beginning, when a project manager competes for resources or when difficulties arise over contractual requirements. And conflict at the beginning can lead to even more difficulties later if it is not addressed properly. The potential for conflict is high, too, at the end of the cycle, when participants face schedule pressures. Conflict in and of itself is not bad. It can alert project managers to problems that must be addressed. The challenge is to manage the conflict in a manner that leads to project success rather than failure.
Project managers, like all people, deal with conflict differently. Some project managers avoid it, letting it smolder. Some project managers give up every time a conflict surfaces. Other project managers deny that conflict exists at all. And some masterfully blame others. These are all defense mechanisms. Nevertheless, they do not deal with the conflict. All these mechanisms manage to do is avoid conflict or push it into the background.
The question, then, is how to deal with conflict constructively.
1. He should diffuse the charged emotion within himself. If he has to, he will do something as simple as count to ten before doing anything.
2. He should diffuse the charged emotions in other people. He will calm down people by calling for a cooling-off period, especially when emotions run high.
3. He should identify the facts of the situation to determine the cause of the conflict. He avoids comments that can be viewed as taking sides or being accusational.
4. He should apply active listening. He listens for the facts to acquire an objective assessment of the situation. Active listening helps to avoid being “pulled into” the conflict.
5. He should acknowledge any anger that may be present, while focusing on the merits of the conflict. If anger is justified, he acknowledges it.
6. He should keep everyone focused on the cause of the conflict. He avoids the tendency to blame someone or to rationalize it away.
7. He should keep the big picture in focus. He asks himself what the best way is to resolve the conflict so as to achieve the project goal.
8. He should set a plan for resolving the conflict. He also remains objective.
9. He should seek participation in the resolution. Unless an impasse occurs, he lets the people decide on a mutually agreeable solution. That builds bridges and commitment to the solution.
10. He should encourage a win-win solution, not a win-lose or lose-lose. With a win-win solution, emotions will subside and there will be little or no room for bitterness.
Manager Attitude
First of all a words attitude is not something negative, a correct definition of a words attitude is "a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways"
Managers often concerning discipline problems they are having with their employees. I believe that the problem in question is not so much a matter of something wrong with the discipline process, but rather with the manager's attitude about what it means to discipline.
It is an evident without proof that a manager who does not understand what discipline is all about will not discipline effectively. Proper attitude must precede proper execution. When asked how they discipline, managers will often talk about a set of rules and the procedures to enforce them. But, there is something critical missing in this definition.
To be fair, one cannot discipline without rules, and a rule that is not consistently enforced is not a rule, but merely a wish; but enforcing rules alone will not make for good discipline.
Discipline is the process by which a manager turns an employee into a loyal disciple, someone who follows the manager's lead. Discipline is all about leadership, not legalism; teaching, not policing; proper communication, not just proper use of procedures.
It's important to understand that just because someone occupies a leadership position does not mean he or she is a leader. Leadership is not a matter of IQ, socio-economic status, the schools one attended, academic achievements, or the books one has read. It's a matter of a certain attitude, one that conveys a calm, self-confident natural authority.
Beyond that, a manager must possess a certain "attitude" about the discipline process. The manager must believe that he/she is doing an employee a disservice by not correcting the employee's poor performance. Put another way, the manager must believe that he/she has an obligation to correct poor performance. To not correct poor performance is to not give an employee an opportunity to improve. Granted, it is not enough to merely tell employees about their poor performance. They must be told immediately, and in a caring, positive, constructive way how they need to improve.
There needs to be an expectation of and an emphasis on the positive, on what needs to be done, rather than on the negative, what is not to be done. Good discipline is not a matter of techniques and methods, but a matter of attitude. This attitude was conveyed in the manager's posture, tone of voice and facial expression. It is conveyed not only in the way that the manager points out the poor performance, but how the manager gives constructive suggestions for improving that performance.
Proper discipline and leadership is compelling, not persuasive. Persuasion is the tool of the politician, someone who is sensitive to public opinion and therefore attempts to avoid making unpopular decisions. As such, politicians are often equivocal. Leaders, on the other hand, compel people to their point of view. They have no problem making unpopular decisions. Leaders are unequivocal; what they say, they mean. They have no problem correcting performance, because they have the right "attitude" about it.
Managers often concerning discipline problems they are having with their employees. I believe that the problem in question is not so much a matter of something wrong with the discipline process, but rather with the manager's attitude about what it means to discipline.
It is an evident without proof that a manager who does not understand what discipline is all about will not discipline effectively. Proper attitude must precede proper execution. When asked how they discipline, managers will often talk about a set of rules and the procedures to enforce them. But, there is something critical missing in this definition.
To be fair, one cannot discipline without rules, and a rule that is not consistently enforced is not a rule, but merely a wish; but enforcing rules alone will not make for good discipline.
Discipline is the process by which a manager turns an employee into a loyal disciple, someone who follows the manager's lead. Discipline is all about leadership, not legalism; teaching, not policing; proper communication, not just proper use of procedures.
It's important to understand that just because someone occupies a leadership position does not mean he or she is a leader. Leadership is not a matter of IQ, socio-economic status, the schools one attended, academic achievements, or the books one has read. It's a matter of a certain attitude, one that conveys a calm, self-confident natural authority.
Beyond that, a manager must possess a certain "attitude" about the discipline process. The manager must believe that he/she is doing an employee a disservice by not correcting the employee's poor performance. Put another way, the manager must believe that he/she has an obligation to correct poor performance. To not correct poor performance is to not give an employee an opportunity to improve. Granted, it is not enough to merely tell employees about their poor performance. They must be told immediately, and in a caring, positive, constructive way how they need to improve.
There needs to be an expectation of and an emphasis on the positive, on what needs to be done, rather than on the negative, what is not to be done. Good discipline is not a matter of techniques and methods, but a matter of attitude. This attitude was conveyed in the manager's posture, tone of voice and facial expression. It is conveyed not only in the way that the manager points out the poor performance, but how the manager gives constructive suggestions for improving that performance.
Proper discipline and leadership is compelling, not persuasive. Persuasion is the tool of the politician, someone who is sensitive to public opinion and therefore attempts to avoid making unpopular decisions. As such, politicians are often equivocal. Leaders, on the other hand, compel people to their point of view. They have no problem making unpopular decisions. Leaders are unequivocal; what they say, they mean. They have no problem correcting performance, because they have the right "attitude" about it.
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