How to Do Daily Planning ?

A poet once said, “The most powerful time is when you are alone, thinking about what you are to do rather than the doing itself.” You’ve been reminded many times, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Daily Planning is the time you ought to set aside each evening to plan out and take control over the most precious resource at your command, the next twenty-four hours. Done correctly, Daily Planning is not an expense that will cost you time but an investment that will pay you back many times over the time invested.

Here are four important steps to follow each day during your Daily Planning time.

1. Create a To Do list of everything you “have to” do and everything you “want to” do during the next day. If you want to manage it, you have to measure it first. Add actions steps to take care of your commitments and responsibilities but also include other action items to help you to balance your life more effectively and achieve more of your goals in each of your Seven Vital Areas: health, family, financial, intellectual, social, professional, and spiritual.

2. Review every item on your To Do list and ask yourself three questions with regard to each item:
1. “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, plan to do it. If it isn’t, try to figure out a way to delegate it.
2. “Is there a better or more efficient way of handling or completing this item?” For example, combining telephone calls and making them all together.
3. “Is there anything I can do in advance to prepare for this task?” Do you need supplies or information from another to get it done?

Most of the time I cannot delegate my tasks, find a better way to do it, or do anything to better prepare for it, but I can always find a few ways to improve. Whatever those improvements are, add them to your To Do list as action items

3. Review any Appointments and Scheduled events you have planned for the next day and ask yourself the same three questions you asked in step #2 above. As you review each commitment, determine if it is the best use of your time. Maybe you are scheduled to attend a meeting that has little value to you. Try to get excused. See if there is a better way to handle each commitment. For example, instead of an actually meeting with someone, are you able to fax, email, or call that person instead?  Can you do anything to better prepare for it? If you have a doctor’s appointment, are there questions you can write down to ask the doctor. Whatever these improvements are, add them to your To Do list as actions items.

4. Prioritize your To Do list. Place the number “1” next to the most important item on your list.  Place the number “2” next to the second most important item. Continue prioritizing the entire list. You now have a To Do list of all the items you “have to” do, but, more importantly, all the items you “want to” do, including action items to help you achieve your goals and better life balance and make your appointments and scheduled events and To Do list items flow more smoothly. 

The process of Daily Planning will save you more time in the long run than what you spend to do it and will increase your daily productivity each day.

* This post is based on personal experiences

Unethical Behavior - It's Impact on Today's Workplace - REF: "MARUTI SUZUKI" DIRECT RECRUITMENTS OFFER.

It is a sad truth that the employees of just about every business, in every business, will occasionally encounter team members who are taking part in unethical behaviors. Such unethical behaviors include a wide variety of different activities. Among the most common unethical business behaviors of employees are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records. 



Though there is sometimes a difference between behaviors that are unethical and activities that are actually illegal, it is up to the business itself to decide how it deals with unethical behavior - legal or not.

Many employees find that discovering unethical behavior among co-workers actually tests their own values and ethical behaviors. After all, unethical behavior that is not illegal frequently falls in a grey area between right and wrong that make it difficult to decide what to do when it is encountered. Furthermore, different people have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. 

For example, some people feel that it is alright to tell a little "white lie", or to make one long distance call on the company's nickel, as long as they can justify it in their mind.

When employees discover other employees doing something that they know is wrong by the company's standards, their own sense of what is right and what is wrong instantly comes into question. That employee needs to consider how s/he feels about that particular activity, as well as informing about that activity, or turning a blind eye.

Even by deciding to do something about it, the employee who has discovered the unethical behavior is presented with a number of difficult choices. Should the employee speak to the individual directly, or should the employee head directly to a company supervisor?

To make this decision a bit easier, many companies have adopted several techniques that allow for the management of unethical activities. The first step is to create a company policy, in writing, that is read and signed by each employee. This erases most feelings of ambiguity when it comes to deciding what to do after witnessing an unethical behavior.

The second is to give a clear outline of what is expected of the person who has discovered the unethical behavior. It should include the person who should be contacted, and how to go about doing it. With clear instructions, there will be less hesitation in reporting unethical activities, and then they can be dealt with quickly and relatively easily, before they develop into overwhelming issues.

Furthermore, the repercussions of unethical behaviors should be clearly stated. This way, both the person doing the activity, and the witness to the activity will be well aware of the way that things will be dealt with, and there won't be any risk of someone not reporting unethical behavior because they're afraid that the culprit will be unfairly treated.

Communication is key in the proper management of unethical behavior in today 's workplace.

Example:

MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD (MSIL)

Head Office Maruti Suzuki, India Limited 

Nelson Mandela Road, 

Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070  

Board no.46781000 

Email: [hr@marutisuzukijobs.co.in] 

Tel: +91-1130164000 (10:00 AM TO 5:30 PM)

REF: "MARUTI SUZUKI" DIRECT RECRUITMENTS OFFER.

It is our good pleasure to inform you that your Resume has been selected from naukri.com for our new plant. The Company selected 62 candidates list for Senior Engineer, IT, Administration, Production, marketing and general service Departments, as well as Company offered you to join as an Executive/Manager post in respective department. You are selected according to your resume in which Project you have worked on according to that you have been selected in Company. The SUZUKI Company is the best Manufacturing Car Company in India; The Company is recruiting the candidates for our new plant in Pune,Bangalore, hyd and Mumbai.

Your Appointment Interview Process will be held at Company HR - office in Nelson Mandela Road,Vasant Kunj Delhi  –3rd of December 2012.

You will be pleased to know that Company has advise you in the selection panel that your Application can be progress to final stage. You will come to Company HR office in Delhi. Your offer letter with Air Ticket will be send to you by courier before date of interview. The Company can be offering you as salary with benefits for this post 50,000/- to 4, 00,000/- P.M. + (HRA + D.A + Conveyance and other Company benefits. The designation and Job Location will be fixing by Company HRD at time of final process. You have to come with photo-copies of all required documents.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS BY THE COMPANY HRD.

1) Photo-copies of Qualification Documents.

2) Photo-copies of Experience Certificates (If any)

3) Two Passport Size Photograph

You are to make a REFUNDABLE cash security deposit of Rs.16,700/-(sixteen Thousand seven Hundred Rupees) as an initial amount in favor of our company accountant name in charge of collecting payment. This payment covers Registration, Interview, insurance, Processing & Maintenance charges. The refundable interview security deposit of Rs. 16,700/- should by paid through any HDFC BANK Branch closer to you to our company HRD accounting officer in charge. HRD Account officer information will be provided to you upon your response to this mail.

REASONS FOR INTERVIEW SECURITY DEPOSIT: This is a measure we have taken to check bogus applications from unserious candidate who applies for job and we send them offer letter and air ticket and also make the above mentioned arrangements in other to give them a comfortable interview and they fail to appear for interview which is a huge loss to the company and the interview becomes shabby and hence we fail to recruit the needed manpower. But with your security deposit we will be assured that our expenses will not be wasted.

Please do comply with us as your refundable security deposit will be returned to you in cash immediately after the interview is over at the very premises of the interview.

NB: You are advised to reconfirm your mailing address and phone number in your reply and also reply email or call to collect account details to make deposit. This Company will be responsible for all other expenditure to you at the time of face-to-face meeting with you in the Company.

The Job profile, salary offer, and date -time of interview will be mentioned in your offer letter.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Last date for security deposit is 2^nd DECEMBER 2012. The earlier the deposit is made the earlier your position will be secured by the Company HRD -direct recruitment manager.

Regards,

Mr. Aiko Hiroko

Tel: +91-1130164000 Email: [hr@marutisuzukijobs.co.in] 

HRD -direct recruitment office

MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD (MSIL)

Source: e-mail received on Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 8:05 PM

HOW TO GET A JOB IN HALF THE TIME

When I received my degree in human resources in 2007, our graduation speaker told us we ought to plan on three or four jobs in our careers. When my friend graduated from college just a few years ago, his graduation speaker predicted that they ought to plan on three or four different careers in their work lives. Today, the average person changes jobs every three years. Job change is one of the less desirable tasks we must perform in life, right up there with a root canal, for many. Why? We don’t like rejection. We don’t like to be judged. And as if we only played golf once every three years or so we wouldn’t be too good at it, so if we go through the job seeking task every three years or so, we probably are not going to be comfortable with our skills.

There are lots of resources to help in networking, sending resumes, and interview preparation. Let’s discuss here how to do all that in half the time.

First, if you were out of work tomorrow, voluntarily or by choice, how long would you estimate it would take you to secure your next employment? We never know for sure, but it is important to form an educated guess so that we know what we are up against. To find out, talk with 5-10 people who have recently gone through the same type of job search you are about to do. Ask them how long it took to secure their new positions. You will quickly get a sense of an average length of time it is likely to take. Let’s assume that for your objective, in your industry, at your skill level, and desired geography, it takes about 90 days to successfully complete the new employment campaign. Certainly you may beat those averages or maybe take considerably longer, but it is useful to know a range of probability.

Next, analyze the three building blocks for getting a new job. It starts with resumes, targeted to specific recipients. This leads to interviews done well. Get enough good interviews completed and you will receive offers.

Let’s assume you would like to have three offers to consider. How many interviews does it take, in your area, to get one offer? Few really know. How do you find out? Talk with 5-10 people who have recently secured the type of job you want and ask how many interviews they conducted and how many offers resulted. Talk with hiring authorities for your type of position and ask how many interviews do they typically conduct to generate one offer. Let’s assume you have ascertained that it takes, on average, five interviews to get one job offer. If your goal is three job offers, you need to create fifteen interviews.

How many resumes does it take, on average, to generate one interview at your job objective level? Don’t know? Most don’t. How do you find out? Ask. Who? Talk with 5-10 people who have recently secured the type of job you want and ask how many resumes they had to send out to secure one interview. Talk with hiring authorities for your type of position and ask how many resumes do they typically generate for your type of job and how many interviews do they extend? Let’s assume you have ascertained that it requires ten resumes to generate one interview. If your goal in fifteen interviews, you need to send out 150 resumes during your campaign.

Why go through all this? Job-hunting is a sales operation. Like good sales people you need to know your “numbers.” If you don’t know your numbers, the temptation is to “work hard,” in the blind, not really knowing how far along you truly are on the path to that new position. And when you just don’t know, it builds in stress, fatigue and fosters discouragement.

Now having determined that it takes, on average, three months to complete the job search campaign, knowing that you need to circulate 150 well placed resumes, you now have a monthly goal of 50 resumes or approximately two per business day. So what’s your goal tomorrow? Get out two targeted resumes. Does that get the new job for you? No. But when you go to bed tomorrow night, you know you have taken the right first step on this journey. A week later, you have sent out ten resumes, received three rejection letters, and no interviews. Are you discouraged? No, you’re on target. You’re developing the quantity to get to the quality. You understand your numbers.

So, how do you get a job in half the time? Double the daily output of targeted resumes sent from two per day to four per day. You will “expose” yourself in the quantity necessary in half the time and increase the probability of getting the required quantity of interviews and resulting job offers in significantly less time.

It’s a victory for the country after spending Rs.100 Crore : Ajmal Kasab hanged

Ajmal Kasab lived and died a pawn—first of evil and crazed men like Hafeez Saeed, and finally of Indian political plotters (though their interest was only in the ‘when’ of his death).

So Ajmal Kasab is dead. Hanged by the neck till death at 7:30am on Wednesday at Yerwada jail, almost four years to the day that he burst into Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, guns blazing. By Indian standards, justice has been swift.

Tickers of spontaneous public reactions running at the bottom of the screen on TV news channels, one supposes, reflect the general reaction to the execution. A few of them would surely strike some people as macabre. “Hurrah!” read one. “At last!” “He should have been hanged the next day!” said another.

So were some of the responses from 26/11 survivors, when they were asked if they felt a sense of closure now.”This should have happened years ago,” said a doctor. “I had in fact offered to your channel that you bring Kasab to your studio and I’ll demonstrate how he can be killed instantly by lethal injection.” “Closure?” said a lady. “I am jumping up and down in joy! The fear that I went through that night has never left me. Especially since it was also my birthday. This year I can again celebrate my birthday with complete happiness!”

Others were more circumspect. “A foot-soldier has been hanged, but has justice been achieved? No,” said a gentleman. “We have executed merely a pawn in this terrorism game, while the chief planners and perpetrators of terrorism are roaming free and every day saying terrible things about India. There is no reason why we Indians should celebrate like the Americans did when they got Osama bin Laden. If the government wants us to believe that justice has been accomplished, that’s far from the truth.”

The government had obviously worked out the timing carefully. Hanging Kasab on the anniversary (if that is the right word) of the attack would have been stupid and barbaric. But getting it done five days before 26/11/12 is a clever communication attempt. Both the Union and Maharashtra governments can even hope that the usual discussions that take place around this time every year about the massive bungling by senior Mumbai police officials that could have saved some lives, and the entirely inadequate response of the then-Home Minister would be muted. Even the callous reference to the tragedy by the state home minister, that “accidents happen in big cities” may be forgotten. Though it was the same man who made the official announcement of the execution on behalf of the Maharashtra government.

Above all, the execution comes just as the winter session of Parliament is beginning, and this session promises to be tumultuous. Reminds one a bit about the case of Yakub Memon, co-conspirator in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, who was arrested by the CBI under mysterious circumstances just before Independence Day in 1994. Mysterious, because Yakub was most probably arrested by the Kathmandu police in July and then brought to India and produced by the CBI as their catch just before then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao addressed the nation from the Red Fort).

Thus, one can’t help get the feeling that Kasab, the deluded terrorist, has lived and died as a pawn—first of evil and crazed men like Hafeez Saeed, and finally of Indian political plotters (though their interest was only in the ‘when’ of his death). His body will, of course, remain unclaimed (India has sent the customary request to Pakistan to take the body back, but that request will be ignored), and he will be buried in an undisclosed location like his nine other companions on that night.

This does not in any way mean that I do not support Kasab’s death sentence. If anyone ever deserved it, it was Ajmal Kasab. But 11 years after the Mumbai blasts, four years after 26/11, we are no closer to striking a decisive blow to the medieval fanatics and criminals who mastermninded the deaths of hundreds of innocent Indians. I mean no disrespect at all to the men and women who died in these attacks, and their families and loved ones. But rejoicing over any hanging is morbid. And rejoicing over this particular one is also naivete, something that we can hardly afford in our fight against terrorism, which is not going to end very soon.

Information: Livemint

Bala Saheb Thackeray: The Proof of Leadership is found in the followers.

This was the situation I have observed yesterday on ABP News when people were giving their obituary to Shiv Sena President Late Shri Bala Saheb Thackeray.

Bala Saheb proved that the true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. If you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others. So how do you measure influence?

20 lakhs devotees during his funeral!

People have so many misconceptions about leadership. When they hear that someone has an impressive title or an assigned leadership position, they assume that he is a leader. Sometimes that’s true. But titles don’t have much value when it comes to leading. True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that can’t b e mandated. It must be earned and the same leadership has been showed by Bala Saheb Thackeray with entire India.

When the Real Leaders Speaks, People Listen

Bala Saheb Thackeray is remembered as an outspoken man of action and proponent of the vigorous life. He didn’t become a great leader overnight, either. His road to the Shiv Sena presidency was one of slow, continual growth. As he served he is various positions, he kept learning and growing. He proved himself, and in time he became a strong leader. That was further evidence that he lived by the Law of Process.

According to Bala Saheb, every past success and failure can be a source of information and wisdom – if you allow it to be. Successes teach you about yourself and what you’re capable of doing with your particular gifts and talents. He was a true navigate for Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray.

Bala Saheb was examined the conditions before making any public commitments. I think when you prepare well; you convey confidence and trust to the people. Lack of preparation has the opposite effect. You see, it’s not the size of the project that determines its acceptance, support, and success, It’s the size of the leader. That’s why I say that anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.

Why We Divorce?

Time Management only has to do with making up a good “to do” list and following through. Right? 

Not really. Time Management has a lot more to do with what we are NOT doing rather than what we ARE doing.

Good Time Management requires that we get what we “have to” get done but, more importantly, what we “want to” get done.

This requires balancing our lives in all of life’s Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional, and Spiritual. If we are out of balance on one (never mind two or three!) it is going to adversely impact on the other legs.

There will be about 2 million marriages in the country this year. Isn’t that nice? And there will be 1 million divorces. For the last thirty years, I have been a Professional Speaker and also an attorney and I have participated in over 200 divorces, representing an equal number of men and women in all age groups. (And out of the 200 divorces I have been involved in, I have never represented the party who was at fault!)

Why is marriage and divorce a Time Management issue? Well, let’s say you are 25 years old, you get married, and now, 20 years later, at age 45 you are going through a divorce, all so common in our culture. In one day in divorce court, you give up over 50% of everything you have ever worked for in your adult life through a property settlement. Now that’s good Time Management.

It is so much like the squirrel, hoarding the nuts in his tree while someone is drilling a hole in the bottom of the tree to steal his bounty, but the squirrel doesn’t pay attention to the drilling sound. He is so caught up in doing it the wrong way, he cannot find time to plan how to do it the right way.

And the cause of divorce? You typically hear reasons like money issues, “he has a girlfriend,” “she drinks too much,” etc, etc. But in my experience, 95% of all divorces are caused by one thing. A lack of communication.

The average working business professional spends, on average, just two minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t get out my story let alone hear what my wife Nancy did in her day in just two minutes. (Interesting to note also that the average working business professional spends less than 30 seconds per day in meaningful communication with their children. That’s just a bit more than, “Hi. How was school? Good. Do you have homework? Go do it. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Now, when we go back to the beginning the relationship that preceded the marriage, was the couple communicating? Sure. Why? Because they were spending time together. They were going places together, laughing together, crying together, doing this thing called “communication.” And then what happened? After the wedding, “something came along.” Lots of “something’s” came along. He was busy traveling and she was busy getting her degree, and the kids, yes the kids, and like two ships in the dark, we frequently pass each other daily with only slight notice.

I am not who I was five years ago, nor are you. I am not who I am going to be five years from now, nor are you. Don’t you think that this is true about that special person in your life? Of course and without substantive ongoing communication we tend to grow apart and then one morning at the breakfast table one asks, “who is that stranger sitting across from me and who is the young pool boy she’s with…we don’t have a pool.”

NEAT NETWORKING

So you want to significantly increase your personal productivity and success in all areas of your life? You can go it alone or enjoy the help of others.

Networking is a major Time Management tool helping us to learn from others, getting introductions more easily, and saving precious resources of time and money in the process. I have accumulated five “Neat Networking” suggestions that might help.

1.      Make the List. There is power in writing things down rather than trying to remember everyone you know. I use a software contacts program to help. Who do you include? Everyone. Everyone you know, everyone you have met. Don’t just copy the white pages from your local telephone directory. “Contact” means you have had “contact.” Add everyone to the database. Leave no one out. Include name, address, and contacting information. The average person can easily come up with an initial list of over 1,000 contacts. Sounds unlikely? Start with your family, then your neighbors, and co-workers. How about the co-workers from your last job(s)? Your high school and college graduating classes and the teachers you had. You belong to a professional association, a club, a church? The bank teller, your dentist, your bookie, they all go on the list.

2.      Categorize the List. This is when a contacts software program is really useful. Identify those who are friends, those who are acquaintances, customers, suppliers, politicians, professionals, or those who enjoy golf or tennis. The more categories you can place people in, the quicker you can access the right contacts. Through my database, there is not a problem I cannot get answered for myself and those whom I want to help.

3.      Feed the List. Once you create the list you have to continue to feed it. Update, correct, and add more and more people as you meet them. We probably meet dozens of new people every week. My database has grown to over 4,000 now. I spend about an hour every Friday to feed my list. It’s a chore. It’s not convenient but it’s worth it.

4.  To Have a Friend, Be a Friend. Here’s how you make all this data work for you. Networking is not a selfish technique. If you want this tool to work, you have to be like a good Congressman. You do things for people. You help them first. I’m always clipping articles I come across and sending them to people I know. I send a lot of birthday cards. I call the majority of the people in my database at least once a year to talk about them, how they are doing, what they may need that I can provide for them. Then when it comes around “election time,” when I need something, I feel no hesitation to ask for a return favor.

5.      Use it.  Whenever I start anything, a new marketing program, a career move, buying a house or a car, I think of my network first and talk to those in my database who may be able to give me some answers. I have saved tons of time and money and advanced my success in so many ways by tapping into my Network database first.