Category: action

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action mastery

Meeting notes and why it is important.

by Rajesh Soundararajan https://in.linkedin.com/in/rajeshsound

Meetings are a reality – physical or virtual. We may hide but cannot run from it. If that is the truth, how can we make these meetings productive? I believe it has to do a lot with meeting notes, and follow-ups in clear action items. So here goes!

Question: What are key things to keep in mind for taking meeting notes and circulating them to all attendees for action and next steps?

Here are some key things to keep in mind for taking meeting notes and circulating them to all attendees for action and next steps:

  1. Start by clearly stating the purpose and agenda of the meeting, as well as the names and roles of all attendees. This will help everyone understand the context and focus of the meeting and ensure that all participants are on the same page.
  2. Take detailed and accurate notes of the discussion and decisions made during the meeting. This may include key points, action items, and deadlines. Make sure to include the names of the individuals responsible for each action item and any relevant references or attachments.
  3. Use a clear and concise writing style to organize and present the information in the notes. Avoid jargon or abbreviations that may not be understood by all attendees, and use bullet points or numbered lists to highlight key points and action items.
  4. Review and proofread the notes carefully before sending them to all attendees. This will help ensure that the information is accurate and easy to understand.
  5. Use a professional and standardized format for the notes, such as a table or template. This will help to ensure consistency and make it easier for attendees to quickly find and access the information they need.
  6. Follow up with attendees after the meeting to ensure that they have received the notes and understand their action items. This will help to clarify any questions or concerns and ensure that everyone is on track to meet their deadlines.

Overall, the key is to be organized, detailed, and professional in your approach to taking and circulating meeting notes. By doing so, you can help ensure that everyone is on the same page and able to take the necessary action to move forward.

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The Upside of Situational Leadership That Everyone Is Talking About

Leadership differs from management in a very fundamental way. Management doesn’t have to involve inspiring or motivating others. Situational leadership is a specific style of leadership, where your leadership style is dependent on the situation. You could be leading b either delegating, supporting, coaching o directing depending on the team and complexity of the task.  Which essentially makes you practice one or more of the 4 popular leadership styles. The image here is self-explanatory.

Situational Leadership
Situational Leadership

What You Can Do About Situational Leadership Starting in the Next 11 Minutes

Leadership programs are appropriate for supervisors, managers, entrepreneurs and company executives. A leadership development program can help the company leaders in receiving new capabilities. This is a good 10-minute video on Hershey Blanchard situational leadership that you must watch

Now that you’ve understood, it’s vital that you take one of the critical projects that you are heading and see what amongst these leadership team would require at this point in the current situation.

The Number One Question You Must Ask for Situational Leadership

Leadership is more than only a word, it’s the action of leading. It can also cause a company’s demise. Situational leadership or the one size doesn’t fit all method is all about adapting your style to the particular circumstance.

“Knowing all that I know about this team and this project, what is the leadership that is required to help the project move to the next level, project right now?

Leaders help ordinary folks achieve extraordinary outcomes. They should be sent to various countries and allowed to learn that way. Superior leaders identify great talent, give them direction, then escape the manner.

The Hidden Truth About Situational Leadership

Leaders will need to function as a catalyst for change. Thus, a situational leader should have the needed aptitude in order to adjust their actions in order that they may fit with the present situation as a way to assist and meet the requirements of the faculty. Today, the leader with one principal leadership style can’t survive.

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Aspire to be a CEO: Learn the Four Rules of Time

Four Rules of Time
There are four rules of time.
1.     The first is that time is perishable.
This means that it cannot be saved. In fact, time can only be spent. Because time is perishable, the only thing you can do with it is to spend it differently, to reallocate your time away from activities of low value and toward activities of higher value. But once it is gone, it is gone forever.
2.     Time Is Indispensable
The second rule of time is that time is indispensable. All work requires time. No matter what it is you want to do in life, even looking out a window or sleeping in for a few extra minutes, it requires a certain amount of time. And according to the 10/90 Rule, the 10% of time that you take to plan your activities carefully in advance will save you 90% of the effort involved in achieving your goals later. The very act of thinking through and planning your work in advance will dramatically reduce the amount of time that it takes you to do the actual job.
3.     The Currency of the Future
The third rule of time is that time is irreplaceable. Nothing else will do, especially in relationships. Time is the only currency that means anything in your relationships with the members of your family, your friends, colleagues, customers and co-workers. Truly effective people give a lot of thought to creating blocks of time that they can then spend, without interruption, with the important people in their lives.
4.     The Key to Goal-Achievement
The fourth rule is that time is essential for accomplishment.
Every goal you want to achieve, everything you want to accomplish, requires time. In fact, one of the smartest things you ever do, when you set a goal, is to sit down and allocate the exact amount of time that you are going to have to invest to achieve that goal. The failure to do this almost always leaves the goal unaccomplished.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:
First, decide today to redirect and reallocate your time away from low-value tasks and toward high-value activities.
Second, make a plan to spend more time face-to-face with the most important people in your life. The more you think about the use of your time, the better you will become.
By: Brian Tracy
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action aspire career CEO change differentiate Leadership Lesson manage

Aspire to be a CEO: Learn differentiated decision making.

One of those big myths about business decision making is about the inherent admiration of a aggressive, super-sure, quick decision maker. This strategy may be great in certain situations – not so good in others.

Some decisions in haste can be reversed, altered or has little impact. These haste decisions are necessary if there is a fire in a factory. Decisions made for the sake of speed is a little different from decisions that require swiftness. Understanding the difference is critical.
There are two kinds of decisions – revocable and irrevocable.
Revocable decisions are changeable decisions that can be made relatively fast and if it is wrong or needs to be altered, can be changed again relatively fast wit comparatively minimal impact. Examples would be – Office layouts, Advertising schedules, Not making a decision, Pricing, Phone service provider, Choosing an insurance company, even hiring a contract staff or a tier 2 reseller.
Irrevocable decisions such as brand name, acquisitions, executive hires, buildings, IT architecture are usually not easily irrevocable. Exercise caution while taking irrevocable decisions. Even if you need to take these decisions under time pressure, then you need to read fast, assimilate information fast, analyse fast, think fast and then decide. The decision may seem fast – but as a manager – you know you have done your due diligence.
Sounds easy! The essence of understanding the difference is the situations under which you operate in a particular mode that will make you successful.
Tim to decide! Merry Christmas!

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Aspire to be a CEO: Push ideas not paper.

As modern corporations grow to become global businesses, there is an increasing need for ‘replicable models’ and ‘standardized processes’. This need slowly takes the form of “Bureaucratic Creep”.
While, practically every organization and every job description demands the need for qualities like entrepreneurship, innovative and risk taking – that precise quality that is being killed every day in most organizations. Pangs of growth, they would say!
Corporations are afraid of internal entrepreneurs. They cannot handle personalities that build businesses. Most managers cannot deal with informal, anti-policy, anti-procedure style ,idea people and business builders. They want monthly reports, detailed expense accounts, personal reviews on paper, quarterly reports, year-end reports, stock reports, one hundred page business plans and many more. Do not get paper-strapped. Papers are means to an end.
Do not get paper trapped. Do not accept those handcuffs. The zillion reports, if they do not help in decision making – do not prepare them. If some report has to be done and you know no one  looks at it, avoid it at all costs. If it is unavoidable, delegate it to the junior-most level staff. Just do not do anything  that does not improve your company’s performance.
PS: At the same time please do document the statutory things that are important for your company existence.

“Bureaucratic Creep” is a term you will hear used a lot around leadership and management conferences.  It refers to the inexorable progress of developing bureaucracy to deal with the issues that arise when a company grows past a certain point.  Bureaucratic creep is really just a function of laziness, taking the easiest path to a desired end.  Rather than deal with individuals, we find it easier and more efficient (at least in the short term) to set up policies and “class actions,” which say, “anyone who falls into . . . category will be dealt with by  . . .  means”  In small companies, we see much less of this “efficient” behaviour.

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action aspire Boss career CEO Leadership Lesson

Aspire to be a CEO? Make your Boss look a Star and your Boss’s Boss a super Star!

Q: How do you rise up in the organization?
A: Take your Boss’s job faster than others.

 Having said that, your Boss cannot vacate his job, unless he has a better job! So essentially it means two things
1. Make your Boss look good so that he is promotable.
2. Make yourself promotable by making your Boss’s Boss look better.
Why am I talking of your super Boss here – because you must look good to your  Boss’s Boss as well. Because in many cases, Boss’s Boss still is influential and is a key player in your growth. He may not proactively push your case. But if he does not see worthy of the job, he will stall your case.
How does one make these happen. I am not talk of sucking up or sycophancy here!
You make people look good by these eight steps. Simple…

  1. Anticipating their needs
  2. Do that extra work to solve their problems
  3. KEEP THEM INFORMED (by far, this is where most people fail – no boss likes surprises or for that matter even good surprises – and most people fail in keeping the bosses informed on the possible risks and seek their help proactively. Remember, you may be confident that the issue may be small and you will be able to handle it. Well then state the issue and say it so. The worst thing is that at 11th hour you reach out to your boss and tell that you just screwed it up and he is helpless.
  4. Always finish work ahead of schedule.
  5. Do a little bit more
  6. See your job and actions through their eyes.
  7. See their job through their eyes
  8. DON’T let them make a mistake.

Hmm… get cracking today!

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action aspire career CEO Leadership Lesson manage rules time

Four Rules of Time

There are four rules of time.
1. The first is that time is perishable.
This means that it cannot be saved. In fact, time can only be spent. Because time is perishable, the only thing you can do with it is to spend it differently, to reallocate your time away from activities of low value and toward activities of higher value. But once it is gone, it is gone forever.
2. Time Is Indispensable
The second rule of time is that time is indispensable. All work requires time. No matter what it is you want to do in life, even looking out a window or sleeping in for a few extra minutes, it requires a certain amount of time. And according to the 10/90 Rule, the 10% of time t hat you take to plan your activities carefully in advance will save you 90% of the effort involved in achieving your goals later. The very act of thinking through and planning your work in advance will dramatically reduce the amount of time that it takes you to do the actual job.
3. The Currency of the Future
The third rule of time is that time is irreplaceable. Nothing else will do, especially in relationships. Time is the only currency that means anything in your relationships with the members of your family, your friends, colleagues, customers and co-workers. Truly effective people give a lot of thought to creating blocks of time that they can then spend, without interruption, with the important people in their lives.
4. The Key to Goal-Achievement
The fourth rule is that time is essential for accomplishment.
Every goal you want to achieve, everything you want to accomplish, requires time. In fact, one of the smartest things you ever do, when you set a goal, is to sit down and allocate the exact amount of time that you are going to have to invest to achieve that goal. The failure to do this almost always leaves the goal unaccomplished.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:
First, decide today to redirect and reallocate your time away from low-value tasks and toward high-value activities.
Second, make a plan to spend more time face-to-face with the most important people in your life. The more you think about the use of your time, the better you will become.
By: Brian Tracy
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action aspire career CEO Leadership Lesson mission success

Make Your Life a Masterpiece

This is the age of achievement. You have all the tools required to succeed in life. To create a masterpiece, that other can look up to.  It is for you to use these tools and make the most of what you have and achieve your true potential.
This is an article by Brian Tracy.
The Seven Ingredients of Success
Peace of Mind
The first of these seven ingredients of success, and easily the most important, is peace of mind. It is the highest human good. Without it, nothing else has much value. In corporations, peace of mind can be measured in terms of the amount of harmony that exists among coworkers. The wonderful truth about peace of mind is that it is your normal natural condition. It is the basic precondition for enjoying everything else.

Health and Energy
The second ingredient of success is health and energy. Just as peace of mind is your normal and natural mental state, health and energy is your normal and natural physical state. If you achieve all kinds of things in the material world, but lose your health then you will get little or no pleasure from your other accomplishments. So imagine yourself enjoying perfect health, and think of how you would be if you were your ideal image of physical fitness. Then strive for your mental goal of fitness and health. 
Loving Relationships
The third ingredient of success is loving relationships. These are relationships with the people you love and care about, and the people who love and care about you. They are the real measure of how well you are doing as a human being. At almost any time, you can measure how well you are doing in your relationship by one simple test: laughter. This is true for companies as well. High-performance, high profit organizations are those in which people laugh and joke together. Examine your relationships, one by one, and develop a plan to make each of them enjoyable and satisfying.

Financial Freedom
The fourth ingredient of success is financial freedom. Achieving your financial freedom is one of the most important goals and responsibilities of your life. A feeling of freedom is essential to the achievement of any other important goal, and you cannot be free until and unless you have enough money so that you are no longer preoccupied with it. When you decide exactly what you want your financial picture to look like, you will be able to use this system to achieve your goals faster than you might have imagined possible.

Worthy Goals and Ideals
The fifth ingredient of success is worthy goals and ideals. To be truly happy, you need a clear sense of direction. You need to feel that your life stands for something, that you are somehow making a valuable contribution to your world.

Self Knowledge and Self-Awareness
The sixth ingredient of success is self-knowledge and self-awareness. To perform at your best you need to know who you are and why you think and feel the way you do. It is only when you understand and accept yourself that you can begin moving forward in other areas of your life.

Personal Fulfillment
The seventh ingredient of success is personal fulfillment. This is the feeling that you are becoming everything that you are capable of becoming. It is the sure knowledge that you are moving toward the realization of your full potential as a human being.

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Mission Statement

You must have a mission statement in life. Everyone must have one. Imagine a company, an organization or an institution without one.
This is simply a set of guiding principles which clearly state where you are going and where you want to be at the end of your life.

A mission statement embodies your values. It is your personal lighthouse keeping you steadily on the course of your dreams. Over a period of one month, set a few hours aside to write down five or ten principles which will govern your life and which will keep you focused at all times.

Examples might be to consistently serve others, to be a considerate citizen, to become highly wealthy or to serve as a powerful leader. Whatever the mission statement of your life, refine it and review it regularly. Then when something adverse happens or someone tries to pull you off course, you quickly and precisely return to your chosen path with the full knowledge that you are moving in the direction that you have selected.
Related Suggested Reading: Goals by Brian Tracy (Link to Amazon.com)

Personal Example: Many years back in 1996, I attended a seminar where the speaker quoted this example.
[Paraphrased] Mission Statement is like a flight path. As most of you would realise the flight path looks like a smooth curve. In reality however, this is just a guiding line. A whopping 90% of the time the pilot is trying to get the plane aligned to the flight path -must be before the auto-pilot days- thanks to the tail winds, head winds, side winds. He constantly adjusts his direction subtly but surely to stick to the path.
Imagine pilot flying out a plane JFK – Heathrow without a plan. Your life is similar. You need a mission and a plan. You may not always get it, but you would be the first to know if you have missed it and make course corrections.

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Aspire 2 Be: A preamble!

Aspire 2 Be: A preamble!
Why did we choose this topic?
All of us aspire to be someone or do something. During our lifetime we either we surrender our aspirations or get annoyed that we are reaching nowhere. Life gets frustrating and we end up blaming the world, the surroundings, and the people.
Aspire2Be is designed to give you back control of your life and career – I repeat – help YOU take control of YOUR life and career.
There are zillion self-help books and that will sure continue to sell. They all fairly good fix-it solutions and they too may work. The authors here will share their thoughts and experiences of over dozens of years of experience in their professional careers – to help you dream, ponder and act – in a way and method that you will be best suited to you.

Aspiration –
You either have it or you don’t. If you want to do something or become something life.Just do these three things – dream-ponder-act – The success is yours for keeps.