July, 2009

Advancement in technology may increase global travel

Video conferencing and remote collaboration are gradually reducing the need to travel in certain industries or for certain professions but at the same time this same technology is liberating many professionals from the boundaries of their offices and is giving them the freedom to take long vacations without affecting their work. Only with the recent technology people are able to work from homes, hotel rooms, airports and even the beach. This freedom of movement created some extra demands on global travel.

I know a business owner who was able to take a month vacation far away from his home town after working for almost 4 years without time off. He was able to stay in touch with his clients while traveling by using the latest in internet and communications technologies. Millions of people now can leave their offices for extended periods of time without losing productivity this in turn will give them the freedom to travel and move around

Please keep your degree at home

In my all years as manager, I was never impressed by degrees and certificates as much as I was impressed by talents. The best managers are not MBA graduates, the best managers are people with vision, skills, attitude and free mind that is able to manage without being restricted by theories.

I am not down playing the importance of formal and quality education, but in all the job interviews I made, I never asked any candidate to show me his/her degree, all I would demand that he or she show me what they claim they can do.

As most of the readers may already know, the best CEOs around us have very less to show when it comes to formal education and top rated degrees.

As one famous CEO told graduating MBA students, “it’s too late”, he was referring to the extensive class room training that they received made their minds setup in a way that will be very hard to change.

Never chit chats with your boss

Although we all like to have friendly and supportive bosses who are easy to reach, never get into the habit of freely chit chatting with your boss. Several times I have worked for close friends (they were my bosses) and as a friend I would freely discuss work issues with them or even openly criticize some management practices only to see them completely get offended. Other times I would freely discuss with my boss some tips to improve quality and generate more revenue for the company, and again, only to see my ideas get implemented and I would not be giving any credit for it.

Doesn’t matter how friendly your boss is, always keep boundaries and never let down your guards.

The opposite is also true, if you are the boss, don’t get into the habit of chit chatting with your employees, you can be supportive and approachable but don’t be too easy. In fact, I sometimes distance myself from my employees in order not to give them the chance to tell me things that may get them in trouble.

Friendly and supportive work place is a great place to work, but learn to always keep your distance.

The mindset for success

Success is not only planning and hard work but it requires a mind that is set to believe in it. You cannot achieve success if you cannot think like successful people. I have traveled to few places around the world and met and worked with people with very diverse cultural backgrounds and my conclusion is always the same: some people will make it and other wont although both groups seem to be putting in the same amount of efforts.

I went to places where I saw communities building massive infrastructures, but I didn’t see much success because the mind was still not set to think like successful people.

As a manager, I know I can’t achieve success by only working hard; my mind must be willing to live the success and believe in it. Growing up and in schools we would hear the phrase “set your mind to it”, it’s very true, you must set your mind to succeed in order to achieve success.

The hidden talents in your company

How many times you sat with your employees and had a real intimate conversation with them about their backgrounds, something that they don’t write in their resumes?

The majority of employees don’t write good resumes, they only talk about skills that fit the job requirements, many employees think that talking about some other skills they may have will distract management from hiring them, which maybe true at sometimes.

After you hire an employee, have another job interview with him/her and you may discover a wealth of other skills and experience this employee can provide the company.

I remember a janitor who used to work in my team, I didn’t have much interaction with him, but one day I sat with him only to find out that he was an artist and a graduate of an art school.

Skilled executive secretary, a must for successful business

As a business consultant working in many projects and ideas, I find it bit difficult to keep up with my paper works and communications, I even find it hard to keep my ideas and thoughts organized. I lose valuable time and opportunities when I spend time going through paper works or e-mails.

All kind of business productivity software are no match of a skilled executive secretary. If you are running your own business, half of your work load could be handled by a skillful secretary; the salary you invest in hiring a secretary will be paid off in form of more productive work environment.

A skillful secretary will:

1-Screen your e-mails and phone calls
2- Organize your papers
3-Take notes as you speak
4- Remind you of your appointments
5-Keep you updated of important events
6-Make your travel arrangements
7-Send greeting cards to your clients
8-Give your company the professional image

The ingredients of success for small business

Having worked with and managed small businesses for sometime now, I came to realize that most businesses fail not because lack of resources or great ideas, but they fail because the lack of right mix of human talent. With this in mind a come up with a wish list of human resources for small business mangers or owners.

1- Good planner with a vision: this person could be the owner, the CEO or the general manager of the company. Of course any business must already have a plan and a vision, but what I mean here is someone who can really translate the vision in an easy to understand format and consistently revise the plan without losing focus on the original vision statement.

2- A talented secretary or office manager: this job could be done by one or two people, depending on the size of the business. The main responsibility of this office is to keep the company glued together; this is the first place where the manager or the CEO goes to get a daily briefing. This office is also in charge of hiring, communications, contracts reviews, company’s image, establishing guidelines, following up with clients. The person(s) working in this office must have great communications, presentation and public relations skills.

3-A financial planner: this is not your average accountant, but this person must really have a passion to cut costs and use company’s recourses in the most efficient manner, he must not limit himself to the typical duties of accountant such as (account payable/receivable, invoicing, payroll, budgeting, etc), but he must have a deep understanding of the total company’s operations in such away that enables him to monitor costs and consistently renegotiate terms with suppliers without jeopardizing quality.

You can add to the wish list above to fit your own needs, but these essential skills I find them to be the most crucial.

You may think every company should already have this type of setup, but you would be surprised to find out how many companies don’t have this basic but effective setup.

When standards clashes with cultures

Working in international corporate environment creates many cultural challenges for managers; they have to maintain a fine balance between setting up standards and working with local cultures norms. Work ethics are not valued the same in every part of the world, western cultures value hard work over personal relations while in many eastern cultures we still see personal relations between employees play important role in carrying job duties.

As long as there are people living on this planet, there will be cultural differences. A successful manager needs to understand how to blend work standards with local cultural ethics to create a successful work environment.

1- When working with your staff keep in mind that they don’t have the same cultural upbringing that you had (employees’ relations, meeting deadlines, work quality, project management standards, etc) are viewed differently in different cultures.
2- Have a personal assessment of all your employees and look at the areas where your work values can be closely aligned with their values and take full advantage of that
3- There will be areas of dis-agreement, don’t try to over come that, you will face a stiff resistance, accept work values that are different from yours without let go of your own values
4- Remember, the world consists of people of various colors, races, religions and believes and it will remain that way

In a corporate environment, keep a close eye on your Intellectual property

Many of us would love to see our innovative ideas and business process improvements implemented in our work place; any honest and hard working manager would do his best to improve the business he manages. But this enthusiasm not always appreciated by corporate management.

I have faced many incidents where I saw my own ideas and improvements been claimed by the management, I was not giving credits for my own ideas. This may happen to you and it is a certainty in a corporate environment.

What to do? You have one of two options:

1- Keep your ideas to yourself unless you are 100% sure you will be credited for them or;
2- Share your ideas if your goal is to show improvements in your department rather then to be individually credited for them

If you think, sometimes down the road, you will be able to have your own business and use your intellectual property to benefit you, then wait for that moment, it may come faster then you may think.

How long an employer must keep your records?

Few days ago, I have contacted few previous employers for reference letters; I needed them as a record of my whereabouts for the last 10 years.

One employer said “they don’t have any records of my employment with them and wanted me to send them pay-stubs as to show my employment period with them and any benefits that I may have received.” I found that to be really odd and I felt strongly against sending them anything.

I was under the impression that companies must keep records of their employees for a period of 10 years or so.

I am not sure what the labor law in the US says about this, but any feedback on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks