Think like an Entrepreneur, Act like a CEO

December 18, 2024

Think like an Entrepreneur, Act like a CEO

BY BEVERLY E. JONES

Book Summary by Kavita Jhala

Education and Experience isn’t enough, you need more!

Key Points:

Professional expectations are rising; you too need to rise up.

Adaptation to the changes and the demands of the new ways of work is the new norm. Gone are the days when education and experience was enough to clinch the deal. It is imperative that small changes on how we work or view our work needs to be adapted to keep our mojo going. It is this shift in the internal thinking that shall help us navigate the current work scenario and ramp up chances for getting hired. It is this ‘entrepreneurial outlook’ that shall give us the confidence, anatomy, choice and also swagger to a better work life.

About the Author:

Beverly Jones has led university programs for women before plunging into a career as a Washington lawyer and Fortune 500 energy executive. Having secured MBA, JD and PCC, she has built a highly respected coaching and consulting practice for executives and has helped leaders and professionals survive and thrive in the milieu of change. Her 40 years of experience has led her to work with accomplished leaders in Congress, major federal agencies, large corporations, universities and NGOs. Apart from coaching she is also a popular blogger and her podcasts are well received by the public.

About the Book:

A non-fiction book that puts in the 50 practical steps of incorporating change perspective through internalization of thought processes that work like an entrepreneur and CEO traits in order to build personal leadership and branding.

Who is it for?

This book is ideal for readers who love books on leadership and business. Coaches and thought leaders find it an ideal companion. Those who are looking for a job change or are looking to be promoted can also benefit from this book. Managers and Team Leaders will be able to find it easier to work better and incorporate ideal ways of changing the way they interact with others. Students pursuing business and/or management courses will also find it an appealing read.

Summary:

There are more professional opportunities than a decade before but that entails that the change is rapid and also with unexpected circumstances, makes it quite unpredictable about where the career path shall take us. The idea however is that it is possible to prepare oneself for these kinds of situations by embracing certain thought processes and skills that are not only adaptable but also resilient. So we need to learn behaviors, attitudes and also work patterns in order to make things work for us. We need to build social, technical and managerial skills while also being adept at thinking of new ideas and being agile.

The following 50 practical steps shall help us not only handle big and small workplace challenges but also enable us to create a change process that works for us.

To launch something new, you need a Good Plan:

“The first day is always the worst day. The first week is always the worst week. The first month is the worst month. And the first year is the worst year.”

Though pessimistic in view, it is definitely prophetic in approach. The critical aspect to learn from this is that no one is in charge of making you successful except yourself. No leader will carry the responsibility of your success - you have to do it on your own! For that you will need to plan and to plan you need to start it right. Here’s how it can be made possible.

Learn what your boss wants in order to be successful and align your goals in a way that matches the organization’s mission and consider the big picture.
Get to know the people and try and connect to them so that you get correct information about your work
Listen to your colleagues and learn from them
Set realistic short term goals and ensure that they also meet your boss’s expectations
Deliver on what you commit, no matter how small
Punctuality is still looked upto. Be on time for meetings and appointments
Adjust your attitude according to the situation you face and commit to reaching your goals
Give yourself an intense devotion to your new job for initial 4 to 6 weeks until you get the grip of things and then slowly start adjusting your routine to what you used to do earlier.
Manage your stress by managing your anxiety first. Fitness focus like walking, jogging or anything that you like to do should be an important part of letting off steam.

Think like an entrepreneur, Wherever you are:

As opposed to the earlier view of entrepreneurship, the good thing is that it can be taught. So you need to start thinking like an entrepreneur to be successful and secure your career.

Entrepreneurial attitude brings in energy, vitality and helps connect with people in new ways. To start thinking in this format, one must act on the following:

Think of your goals, plan your activities and understand your objectives.
Focus on the customers. Your success depends on how you deal with products and services in relation to them.
Understanding the basics of business helps in being familiar with all the functions and getting comfortable with the commercial language.
Analyze failures and apply the lesson for the next opportunity
Choose and learn to be positive and optimistic and this influences your language too.
Build your brand based on your values, your personal characteristics and the work quality that you give.

Listening is Your sure fire, go-to career strategy:

By listening not only do we all shut our mouth but also shut down the voices in our head. Neuroscience and philosophers suggest that people have the need to express and be acknowledged and that’s why they speak more than listen. However, it is with ‘mindful listening’ that speakers can sense whether the audience is listening or waiting to respond. This can be achieved by becoming a strong listener and building the listening ‘muscle’. Great listening goes beyond just hearing and factors in the body language, facial expressions and emotions.

You can exercise your listening skills in different situations like -

When you’re starting something new; could be meeting a new set of people or a different team.
When you are made a leader and have to practice the discipline of letting others talk before you do.
When you are trying to prove a point or make a case that requires collaboration and needs minimal conflict.
When you are caught in the middle of taking sides and you have to present yourself as an open-minded listener and be fair in communication
When people are hard to get along with and you need to quieten the negative inner commentary
When you want to look confident and ensure that people listen to your opinions too.

Listening is a powerful strategy that helps you understand the scenario, show that you care and can contribute to the community.

Tweak your Brand to Send Clear Messages:

“Personal Branding” sometimes can mean pretending something that you are not. Your brand has to be distinct and different from what you are essentially and whether you like it or not, you ‘do’ have a brand and it is actually influencing the way people around you react to you. Bear in mind that your personal brand is not the same as real you, basically because it is what people ‘think’ about you and this brand image is based on their assessment of your work, ethics, expertise and character. So, even if for example you are a good person, this quality may not be reflected in your brand. If this is the case with you, there are ways to work on your brand image.

Manage your appearance. Dressing impacts a lot about how people perceive you
Build your skills and expertise and let it be seen with shining example for your colleagues
Visualize yourself as a leader and show up like a leader in meetings. Think of a leader you admire and visualize yourself. Keep a leadership journal to manage your image.

In order to harness these three steps you need to begin by managing your brand. How can this be done? Rebranding is the way forward.

Do a research on your current brand and check out where you stand.
Look into the mirror and see if you reflect an energetic, positive, powerful and polished look. If not, you need to address your professional style and the way you carry yourself.
Building your skills and expertise is not enough. You need to showcase your skills and promote your work.
Build your online strategy and shape it to create your online presence. Linkedin is a professional social media platform which can be a great starting point.

Start Now to build leadership into your brand:

There are small ways in which you are spotted as a leader. If you solve problems, create plans and execute them, it is natural that you act like a leader and accept responsibility to follow through your work commitments. To project a leadership brand, you need to do the following:

Compile a list of personal qualities that you want to develop ensuring that people notice you. This helps in creating your vision of leadership.
Expand your vision list of effective leaders and add qualities that strike you as important. Note that effective leaders are those who are always growing, are aware of self and building good relationships, have positive attitude, are engaged with people and activities around, are service oriented, well organized, collaborative in attitude and energetic.
Frequently study the vision list and change if needed.
Keep a reminder on how you want to act and be reliable in working on your list.

Power Up by Tweaking your Personal Style:

People evaluate your accomplishments and your potential based on how you present yourself. Your personal style therefore makes a difference on how you are going to be perceived. Losing interest in your appearance will put you down in your career graph. To get an upward swing and redo it in subtle ways, here are a few pointers:

Work with young people and modify your clothing choices to create a look that works for you
Work with older people who always emphasize on looking proper. It helps remove sloppiness from your appearance.
Interact with clients and customers constantly so as to keep up with your impression
Give a speech no matter how small the meeting might be and be dressed for the occasion
Eye that promotion and dress like you have got it. It keeps up the motivation.
While many people think that dressing conservative is safe, it doesn’t harm to add a personal style to your wardrobe
Avoid the stereotype dressing for it may not help you stand out from the crowd of employees.

Your personal image is part of your brand at work and you need to value it for it's appearance too. That adds to the expectations of how people look at you.

Talk back to the Voice in your head:

Each of us have that repetitive voice in our head, commenting, warning and judging. The problem is that this voice sometimes gets stuck into something that’s past and then it gets preoccupied in the wrong that could happen in future ie. worrying. Eastern philosophy suggests quieting the mind from the babble with meditation and prayer. Scientists recently have begun to recognize the role of this internal commentary and how it interacts with our physical health. It has been found that it has actually an evolutionary reason mainly to help us survive from ancient dangers and problems. If the babble of thoughts are negative then it has to be broken and this can be done by the following methods:

Just observing ‘what kind of thoughts’ are occurring and reoccurring can help break the pattern. Make a conscious effort to not to listen.
If a negative thought arises consciously draft a positive thought after it. Change the way you think negative by infusing the positive.
Give them names like Monday Morning Chatter or something similar to recognize the internal narration and slowly dismiss it.

Self-Discipline:

Self-discipline may look so easy on others that one may wonder how they do it. The truth is that some people are naturally good at it while others are not. The best part is that one can develop self-discipline if one wants to because it is a learned behavior. People who appear to be naturally self-disciplined have worked on it day by day. So how can one develop the discipline muscle? Here is the 10 point plan:

You need to focus on and start with a goal and commit to it
Identify the steps that would help you achieve your goal and this can be done by visualizing what self-discipline looks like on you
A detailed vision to act can inculcate discipline too actively
Keeping a log or diary helps in reinforcing the build up of self control and writing helps keep track of progress
Say no to excuses and try to practice discipline
Encourage yourself to make a list of excuses that act as barriers and keep a positive phrase to get past them.
Get the temptations out of sight and orient yourself
Understand the challenge and the difficulty of inculcating self discipline. Acknowledge the progress you make no matter how small
Create habits that help reduce the pain of the grand self-discipline goal. Since it is a new behavior it will take time and habitual practice to get used to it
Rewarding yourself with positive reinforcements help overcome the setbacks and help in the change process

Keep Smiling:

Human smile is contagious. It makes one feel happier and brings in a positive feeling.

If you want to know the how’s and why’s of smiling, here are they -

It feels good and is totally healthy. Smiling releases endorphins and other mood-enhancing hormones leading to improved good health
You will always look good, competent, likeable, memorable and attractive if you smile
It is contagious and people will always return the expression
It spreads like a contagion and improves the work environment and mood of the team
Believe it or not, even fake smiles work and are effective especially the social smiles
You can always get better at smiling and the good feeling from inside will alway be expressed

Smiling regularly thus becomes a new habit that can make the brain retain optimistic thoughts.

Networking:

Network is a complex pattern of interrelated relationships with other people. There are circles of network with the innermost circle consisting of your closest family members and best friends. In the outer circle of this are new friends you have made or people whom you don’t meet regularly though you know them for long. In the third circle you have a large group of people that includes dozens to thousands of acquaintances. In the fourth circle comes the people of the community. Each circle has a special role and it is hard to overestimate the value of various relationships in terms of their impact on your career and life.

There are two ways to keep your network on the go. One is to keep it growing by handing business cards or meeting strangers and the other one is to build on your existing connections. But remember that it doesn't happen suddenly, it is a gradual process.

To be an adept networker here are a few points to keep in mind:

Be helpful to people by supporting them, being a connector and matching needs, show up on an event or its planning process, cheer an acquaintance who is doing well, notice someone who has hit on hard times and extend help and volunteer to help people in their project.
Be in the moment and get the most of out casual conversation into something that puts more attention to the other person
Networking is not limited to events. You can network anywhere and anything can be an opportunity for you to network.
Every person adds to your networking experience and they help you learn in different ways
Approaching career rivals is okay. There could be an opportunity and all petty quarrels may be forgotten.
In networking you get points for just being there and then they become part of your regular crowd.
Plan before you attend an event and think of some questions you would ask around
Take a risk and learn to fight shyness. Look for people who are alone and and introduce yourself.
Be willing to help with the work associated with the event and this can give rise to tasks and membership options.
When you meet someone interesting, follow up and stay in touch.

Networking is not superficial but it means expanding your web of connection, thinking about other people and caring for human relationships with the potential to support you in every phase of your life.

What to say when your work is praised:

Deflecting a praise that is directed to oneself out of modesty is a thing of the past. It can rob you of an enjoyable moment. To your brain, receiving a compliment is like getting a prize. Here are a few ways in which you can master accepting compliments:

Say ‘thanks’. It is as simple as that
Acknowledge satisfaction in doing the work and getting the job done well
Share the credit with your colleague or a team if it is a collaborative effort
You can return the compliment if that person is also part of the success story
Keep it short and don’t prolong the compliment exchange

High achievers tend to find it difficult to hear praise and feel like an imposter. This feeling can be curbed by

…….setting specific goals and accepting that the praise is a fact

…….asking for details of the praise and its positive feedback can give you a better way of accepting it

…….calm yourself and have a good self talk

Give Positive Feedback in Smart Ways:

From a leadership perspective it is important to understand that there is a link between positivity and productivity. Constructive criticism should be on the work output itself and the negative assessments should be framed within a positive dialogue. Some research suggests that employees are most effective in a work environment where 80% of the feedback is positive.

Well crafted words of thanks and praise can serve as powerful positive reinforcement, guiding members of the team to achieve change and grow. To build this ‘thank you’ habit as a powerful leadership tool you need to remember that you need to be sincere, specific in your comment, fully engage in your focus when saying it, notice when someone takes it for granted and does not notice the efforts, elaborate the response in tone and style that is appropriate, write down a handwritten note, be surprising when routine assessment become humdrum and be quick in offering commendation. Research says that taking time to feel grateful can actually reduce your anxiety.

Get over your fear of looking like a suck-up:

Think that when you are voicing your admiration sincerely, people might think it to be a hidden agenda? It is possible that you might be overthinking this. There are ideally 7 situations in which you need not worry about this:

When you are in a workplace where most of the comments are affirmative and it is a positive environment.
When your boss needs to be appreciated and the whole team is reluctant to be honest in their positive feedback
As long as you are not being untruthful, it is okay to express gratitude to new friends
When you want to avoid a conflict despite the people being annoying or being bullies.
When you owe someone an apology and it was not given at that particular time
When it would be a kind gesture to calm the other person’s anxiety
When you feel shy, you need to stand up and speak up

Use games to create power and direction:

The thing with the games is that it involves goals, challenges, rules and interaction with other people. If you are confronted with a problem or situation in the office, approach it like a game.

Define the rules and ask yourself questions to remove confusion
Play more than one game at a time so that a visualization helps overcome and excel in the current job
Keep a ‘love me’ and brag file so that you are ready to demonstrate your accomplishments
Think about performance management and get really tuned into it by proposing meaningful goals
Count activities and results that are meaningful and impressive
Not the problems and solutions and keep a record of how you have successfully handled them. By recording activity you can also keep track of the positive feedback.

Create Presence:

If you worry that you don’t have enough ‘IT’ factor, then you are not alone. Lot of people think that. The point to remember is that - Presence is an elusive quality, like love or happiness; you can’t just pick some up. You can build your presence by changing the way you look and behave aided by the way you think and feel about yourself. Here’s a checklist of key factors that can help you develop executive presence.

Have a leadership vision by making a list of attributes of leadership and the characteristics that you admire
Organized work method is essential to ensure that your presence is not compromised with late and messy job
Physical appearance is an integral part of your presence and it helps to look well groomed and well dressed.
Make a presentation by way of a speech oro a useful remark and responding to questions and comments without being defensive
You will have more gravitas if you can speak directly without hesitation to a crowd or a one-to-one conversation. If you sound uncertain, people will not be convinced
Charge your energy level but being hyperactive too can produce stress.
People with executive presence seem cool and ready to handle any situation and this kind of confidence must be there within you too
Your nonverbal behavior can throw in more cues than your words. Check out on your microexpressions and body language

Start with One grain of Sugar:

Getting a change process that works for you needs the application of ‘the sugar grain principle’. This entails keeping neat smaller steps to gradually brining in the desired change; just like one grain at a time. If you are thinking of a career change and want to implement it through Sugar grain process, here’s what you need to do -

You need to develop a vision of the career you want. Start your list with the pros and cons of your current job. Jump 3 years ahead and then look back and see yourself professionally successful. Consider the good and the bad elements and what makes your life meaningful.
State your pressing goals and how you want to achieve them.
Identify some ‘sugar grains’ for your goals and it doesn’t matter where you start. There is no logical order. What matters is that you build the momentum of doing something different.
Grains may vary widely and it actually helps if they are imaginative and varied.
One thing inspires the other and one grain can lead to other grains
Commit to a specific pace of sugar grains. It is important to keep your commitment up with your pace when you feel that you are out of ideas or time
Maintain a record or tracking of your grains to ensure that you achieve success in the process. This will give you a view of your progress.

In the beginning it can be difficult to be part of the sugar grain process but once you build up the momentum, it generates its own energy.

How to take a career side step, one sugar grain at a time:

The sugar grain process can be incorporated while trying to have a career change too. It is most effective starting from the transition phase or earlier. To apply it start with the following plan:

Write a big wishlist that has everything you want for your next phase or shift.
Break this list into categories or steps so as to keep it clear and enable you to do it
Once you look into the categories and start working on them, start with tiny grains of change and try to ensure that they support each other
With job search, grains also are effective like for example emailing to meet a professional contact, spending around 20 minutes on the internet for search and working on your resume which may take about 30 minutes.
Start exercising like going for a walk for 20 minutes 3 times in a week
Take one step at a time towards socializing
Do your research and note the trends in the professional area
Network methodically without stressing out. Ensure that it ends up productively
Engage yourself online since now social media is also playing a role in job search not only for job seekers but also companies. Linkedin and Twitter are good platforms
Learn something new by taking classes and picking up new skills. This shall broaden your perspectives.
Look for new kinds of experience by volunteering at clubs or service organizations
Find a friend who is also engaged in the change process like you; it could not necessarily be a job change but it helps to support each other.

Speech Habits:

Innovation often flows from collaboration among people who have different views, backgrounds and skill sets. Managers are learning to have older expert professionals partner with young tech and social media savvy colleagues. However there could be a great learning or a serious conversational gap in such a setting. A game “Code Blue” was invented to avoid annoying “old people talk” in such situations.

Code Blue is a signal to end complaints related to the physical health condition. It is a reminder should you rant about the state of your body
Code Green is the differences in the past and the present like rise in cost today and this can hamper the business context
Code Golden Harvest is when the current day topic is interrupted by what was back in the past. To stop that reminiscence this code is used to encourage future thinking.

People of all ages however become unpopular when they have an annoying talk. It could be by either speaking of topics not of interest to the audience or muddling the messages or having confusing speech patterns. Poor communication, too much profanity or whiners come in this category irrespective of their age. Since we ourselves do not notice this, it helps to have someone hear us out and correct us or maybe we can record it and listen to ourselves. This helps improve speech.

Does your Calendar support your Success?

If you feel overwhelmed by having too much to do you are definitely thinking of accomplishing more without spending long hours on your desk or laptop. Best way is to keep a calendar of all the work that you need to get done and manage it. Ensure that your schedule has each week devoted to things that matter to you. The calendar is a powerful tool to keep you focused on your higher priorities and in this process good use of your energy too. To ensure optimal use of the calendar you need to -

Take time out to plan your schedule and prepare
Coordinate your to do list with the calendar and have action items listed out
Match your calendar with your body clock ie. rest, sleep, relaxation and break time
Have shorter meetings rather than long drawn ones that sap everyone’s energies
Avoid being distracted and stick to the schedule
Change your schedule if necessary but don’t leave it
Align your time and your priorities to meet your goals
Say ‘no’ to activities that are not really important or urgent

Prioritizing Priorities:

It is really tempting to react to whatever is most pressing as the day goes along but then you need to remember the bigger picture and set your priorities. One way is to prioritize according to work categories. Tier 1 is most important at work and goal oriented, Tier 2 is important goals and success driven, Tier 3 is related to routine management and responsibilities in terms of human resources and Tier X is the work that can be done by other people. Another practice is to have 3 important tasks listed out and to finish them by the end of the day. Schedule your time for high priority tasks especially in Tier 1 segments and low schedule value for lower value tasks. Get rid of clutter and mess as they sap off productivity. In this scheme of prioritizing some tasks may not be of priority but need to be done or else they might lead to a lot of trouble, time wastage and money if not done immediately.

Getting your boss to Listen:

Everyone has this problem - How do I get the boss to listen? Here are a few tips you need to keep in mind to communicate well with the boss:

Be succinct for your boss is busy and you wouldn’t want to waste time
Plan ahead before your conversation so you are clear on what you want to communicate
Be clear about the goal and frame your issues and focus on the positive
Understand their communication preferences and act accordingly ie. if they like to be approached via email, do so.
Listen actively to your what your boss says to you
If your boss doesn’t listen, become a better communicator or write in a journal to examine your negative reactions and let go of the frustrations.

Leading Upward: Managing the boss in a good way:

Although leadership styles vary, there are certain leader attributes that are common. Leaders step up and are willing to serve no matter how small the task and their influence exerts in all directions. Some strong leaders exercise a special skill; that of influencing upwards; their bosses and making better decisions. If you want to be better at leading up you need to keep these essentials in mind:

Set goals that are unselfish. This means you don’t feel that you are trying to manipulate on your way up
Understand what your bosses need and this works as a critical way to have good sense of goals and responsibilities
Maintain your areas of expertise by constantly monitoring it and upgrading yourself
While managing credit as well as blame, be gracious and take responsibility of your actions
Report without drama but with facts. Build credibility and develop a good network.
Be organized because it is important to understand that your boss’s time is limited. It helps to not waste but assist them

The Jimmy Fallon Approach to Good Manners:

Jimmy Fallon was chosen on the top of the “Best-Mannered List for 2014” . He is well known as a comedic host of ‘The Tonight Show’. Jimmy actually applies the golden rule: I’ll be nice to you and I have confidence that you’ll be nice to me.

A real gentleman or a true lady knows to be polite and be aware of people’s needs. These 7 strategies shall help you achieve the best enhancement of your brand with good manners:

Say hello to people around and acknowledge their presence
Shake hands with a firm grip but it should not be crushing one.
Speak with the basic courtesy of please, thank you, excuse me and sorry.
Be considerate of others’ time and be punctual
Treat colleagues with attention and build your reputation rather than leading to gossip
Be civil when you debate and express criticism in terms of the work and not the person. Avoid sarcasm
Table manners are important even in the digital age when you have to have power lunch or dinners with important clients or team.

Do’s and Don’ts of saying Sorry:

Tact is an important aspect while speaking and listening. Within this framework is the big impact word ‘sorry’. It includes regret, sadness and penitence but in a practical way it can have many shades of meaning.

Confess immediately if you realise that you have done something wrong.
Be sincere in your apologies and improve matters
Do say sorry even if you are not part of the blame, it is to express your compassion
If you don’t mean it, don’t say sorry. It can give wrong impression and you might regret it
If your remorse is genuine it is enough to be direct. You don’t need to say sorry to soften an insult
A lot of times due to stress or perhaps anxiety we tend to say sorry when there is nothing to apologize. It can lead to expression of uncertainty

Find the magic 20%:

The 80/20 rule that predicts about 80% of the achievements from 20% of the things you do isn’t absolute but it does account for the impact of small activities for what can be achieved. Known by different names like Pareto’s Law, Law of the Vital Few and similar such names, this rule has numerous applications:

In a large organization where few managers produce lion’s share of results
If you have multiple products, several will be instrumental in delivering profits
Out of many customers about 20% may voice 80% of the complaints.

This rule can also sharpen your career if you take up the guiding steps:

Focus on the big goal instead of pursuing every opportunity
You don’t need to be great in everything. Spend time on tasks that yield results for you
Make choices of how you will spend time with different people
Look at the data so that you can choose resources that can result into achievements
Get rid of clutter and distractions and simplify
Identify which 20% of your life gives you greatest satisfaction, enjoyment and well being and pursue them by scheduling accordingly.

Create Mentoring that works both ways:

Though the definition of a mentor varies widely, mentoring involves building a relationship between two people. It is a partnership in which both parties receive value. A mentor may be motivated by a desire to give back as a good citizen and although in the beginning of the relationship, the mentee does get the most benefit; it is the mentor that eventually receives value in the long run.

Choosing a mentor is a task that has to be taken up with care. After all, you want both parties to benefit. These points can help you:

Try to find someone from your casual connections and avoid complete strangers.
Start with asking for advice and then build your relationship along the way
Make a specific request if you want help. Mentors can’t read your mind.
Be honest in your approach and mentor’s constructive feedback should help even if it sounds unpleasant
When both the parties make efforts; they can enjoy the benefits and that’s how mentoring can work best.
Also look for opportunities to be a mentor. It can add to your perspective. For that you need to :

Listen to the questions and give genuine answers
Help mentees identify the action steps and goals by requesting plans
Make connections in ways that give you opportunities to tap in your network
Meet regularly even if the initial challenges are addressed

Reciprocal mentoring is a powerful tool whereby there is a potential exchange that leads to learning and focusing on strengths of each other. Here, you need to identify the needs and goals of your partner and yourself and consider the logistics that help the partnership work better.

Don’t be sabotaged by your own Frustration:

Professional life can have annoying jolts and tedious challenges. If these negative emotions are strong, it doesn’t mean you need to indulge in them. These tips can help you remove your preoccupation with the bad stuff.

Be present and operate on a high gear. Giving in to annoyance can lead to being less alert on opportunities and more mistakes
Be energetic and be in shape for launching the new plan
Be upbeat because not everyone will be willing to listen to your story all the time. To be productive and work better can lead to opportunities
Be aware of your frustrations and let them go. Keep a journal of your feelings.
Be grateful and that’s one of the ways to reduce anxiety.
By taking breaks you can shift your focus and dispel the pent-up antagonism
You might feel bogged down in your past and that’s when you need to stop being upset and learn to forgive.

Difficult Colleagues:

If you think your job on the whole is fun if the crowd were different then it is possible that you are surrounded by whiners and pessimists, backstabbers or difficult people. These suggestions can come handy.

Petty revenge, sulking or gossip can escalate the problem
Confide in a trusted friend or colleague and they might help you describe the situation. It can help identify or address the problem
Understand the different personality types of the people and this can help you suggest strategies for communicating with people who have different work approach than yours
Listen to the difficult people in a new way instead of becoming defensive
Manage your attitude by shifting the way you respond to them. This can be done by:

Recalling the emotions you experience
Taking a few deep breaths
Visualize each breath and then try to release the tension and relax
Come up with a simple phrase to deflect the emotional state into something positive
Practice these in safe situations and then move on to doing them in challenging situations

Find or Build Communities:

Successful entrepreneurs build communities who have some feeling of belonging as well as a sense of mattering to a group. Research links good health with one’s social connection and communities help manage stress and maintain healthy habits. To develop deeper community involvement:

List groups and identify communities related to your interests
Be active and raise your profile to build relationships
Care about the community issue
Be a mentor and connect
Give money if your name shows up in donor lists
If you are passionate about an activity or cause, launch a new group.

Make Meeting Time more productive:

Rethink your approach to meetings by doing the following:

Cut them short and limit them
Schedule quick standing meetings or walk around
Decline invitations and say no to long meetings
Create no-meeting day to encourage free time

To run effective meetings;

Know the purpose of the meeting and make it clear for all
Have an invitation processed for everyone to know the presence
Write down the discussion items and the agenda
Build the structure with an opening statement, the middle in which agenda is discussed and the closing by summing the conclusions
Have a warm up to get started
Set the tone by paying attention
Establish ground rules to ensure that all are on equal footing
Keep track and record of meeting
Ensure that there is something to follow up

How to Love your work again:

Kerry Hannon says “If you want to be happier, you have to do something, to take action.”. Kerry is the author of ‘Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness’. She gives 7 tips in her book can can be useful to you:

Job Remodeling Journal can be started which can have you writing 20 minutes everyday for a week to let yourself go and talk about your dream job
Feeling miserable and not hating your job? It could be a burnout and you might be too tired to realise it.
Do something and get over it. Stop complaining
See your personal financial challenges and get over them
Embrace opportunities and skills to enrich your current job
Be flexible so that you feel more sense of control than before
Learn new things that might spark your interest and these need not necessarily be professional.

Make Social Media Work for you:

Internet and social media networking can impact your professional brand. You need to remember that it is a basic skill to understand social media in the world of academia, business or government.

To fit your social media strategy with the world check out these:

Know who is using what and be aware of the messages from organizations that matter to you.
Set your profile on Linkedin or Twitter to build your professional persona
Get the hang of news from all around. Twitter gives you good opportunity to voice on them too
If you are starting out, don’t mock any social media platform. Get to understand the importance of all of them

Social media can help you keep abreast of developments and help you stay in touch with people or activities that matter.

Stress is Manageable:

Surveys emphasize that work is the leading cause of stress for adults and increasingly a large number of employees and workers are suffering from job related stress. Stress can become chronic and lead to numerous health problems like physical aches and pains, sleep problems, cognitive difficulties like lack of attention or creative barriers, depression as well weight gain. Modern professionals have the advantage of understanding how stress operates and then think of the survival mechanism for it. To manage stress, these methods can be of great help:

Regular walking or aerobic exercise. Even exercises like jogging, dancing or biking can be effective
Isolation hits overworked professionals in a hard way. It helps to talk to somebody and have meaningful conversations
Research says that being in nature can help reduce stress. Growing houseplants can also be productive
Try to stimulate the creative part of your brain.
Keep a journal and try to grapple with the tension
Think of problem solving by having a big picture perspective.
Simplify the stress by streamlining it effectively
Help other people who are stressed too. It helps connect and talk to each other
Meditation has proven to be a good stress buster. Don’t force yourself but get eased into a meditative time each day.

Coping with Rejection:

Career disappointments can be trying but keep in mind the following:

Pain is normal and all great leaders also face setbacks.
Write about your pain and develop some distance from it
Share your thoughts with people in your inner circle and get support
Think of this as an opportunity to understand what you lost and yet what you can gain from it
Keep gratitude journal to remind yourself of the good things and get rid of negative emotions
Be thankful to everyone in the hiring process and be gracious in your defeat.

How to foster great teams even if you are not a leader:

To foster collaboration and mentoring keep in mind how the team members connect with each other. Recent research suggests that in the new science of mapping communication patterns, ‘how’ team members talk with one another may be more important than what they say. In a team that flourishes, the communication is always constant. The leader also circulates actively, visiting and listening to everyone and ensuring that everyone has a chance to express their views. Even if communication is the key, teams need structure to adhere to. For that you need to be clear about the basics and the members should know who is on the team. You should be able to model with respect and positively treat everyone. If there is a designated leader ensure that responsibility and accountability are taken care of. Feel the desire to belong and make contributions that are appreciated. Celebrate small victories with the team and motivate them too on meaningful work. Create norms that help members in scheduling, attendance, promptness, participation in discussion, cell phone usage and interruptions as well as ways on tracking and following on the action items.

Celebrate the Wins:

Look for opportunities to celebrate and focus on the team's best efforts. Celebrations enhance a positive workplace culture and encourage teams to perform well. Acknowledgement of the achievements motivate the people to continue to excel. Here are the different ways to celebrate at work:

Kick off regular meetings with brief time to acknowledge the recent achievements and thanking the persons for their achievements
Find an opportunity for members to talk about their activity to senior management or audience
Create awards that honor colleagues in routine excellence
Acknowledge the group’s importance by planning a retreat or bonding time
Give off time as an appreciation for good efforts
Throw a surprise party and thank them for their success
Create a company newsletter or photomontage on bulletin to honor people
Notice milestones and progress towards a larger goal
People enjoy receiving t shirts, stuffed animals, paperweights or any such little gifts for their contribution in a stellar effort
Buy lunch in a nearby restaurant or have a pizza party in the conference room
Turn a meeting or a lunchtime break into a party with some entertainment
Write notes and appreciate them
Take mini-breaks to be your creative best regularly.

It’s not Okay to be Late:

Punctuality can be a surprisingly emotional issue and attitudes about timeliness vary widely. Some people are angered or insulted if they are kept waiting. While culture and expectations vary in this regard, punctuality and timeliness is good for your brand. The best way to work on the timeliness aspect is by knowing the rules of the organization and checking on their policies of punctuality. Being prompt means banking on the goodwill of the person. You must know what message your behavior will send to the other person. Lighten up if you feel upset about being kept waiting. As a team leader you have a special obligation to stay on time. If you are prompt and on time, your team members will follow suit. If you and your colleagues have different views about being punctual it is useful to talk it out.

Measuring Progress makes your goals powerful:

To build a resilient career and lead like a CEO, you need to stay focused on your goals. Whether it is long-term or for a productive week, the way you articulate your goals have an impact on your ability to reach them. Measurable goals help you gauge your progress and to define your goals in terms of measurability, these points can help:

When you count something, you tend to keep it in mind and hence when you come up with a metric it helps you keep on the path. This creates awareness of your progress.
Regularly counting is likely to work like a tracking device and it becomes more of a practice to get better at it. Hence quantity then leads to quality.
As Peter Drucker emphasized on, “If you can measure it, you can manage it” This kind of measurement makes self-control possible.
Micromanagement becomes possible with measurement since a good measurement system and reporting creates transparency and makes it easier to solve problems and recognize progress.

You need to choose your approach to track and ensure that larger goals are broken down into smaller pieces. This can be done by framing goals into numerical terms and charting achievements. A direct management approach in measuring can also motivate the team and give them a clear picture of where they stand thereby getting credit for their action. The way you evaluate progress through capacity building can shift focus on direct measures and the way the goals can be tangible thereby tracking becomes possible to check on progress.

Use those Amazing Checklists:

The extraordinary power of checklists attracted public attention in the year 2007. Checklist process has been used in the aviation industry for decades in a successful manager preventing busy or distracted crews from forgetting steps and promoting communication and teamwork. Checklists not only help promote safety in communication, assure accuracy and speed in organizing events or plan meetings but they also help build best practices at the workplace.

Overcome Big Project Letdown:

Long hours into a major project or event can lead to exhaustion. After the invigorating project, it can be exhausting and you might experience a sense of loss in the routine work. With tiredness and frustration, depression can be one of the major outcomes. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, one needs to look into ways of managing expectations from major projects to minor routine work. Taking breaks can help to minimize the effects of big project letdown. Planning ahead by thinking of breaks and the project goals can give a clear picture of where you are heading. Debriefing the team by carefully reviewing what went right and what could be improved upon can be an important motivator. Ensure that you celebrate the project success with a dinner out with family or festive lunch with the team. Remember that it is normal to feel emotional after a significant project or event is done with. The best way is to move forward.

Know when to forget about Status:

It is normal to want respect from our colleagues but it is also important that team members feel accepted and valued by the group. The desire to move up can lead you astray and then you are the leader, it is possible that you have worked with a manager who has trappings for the position. Strong leaders treat everyone with respect, focus on work and forget about ranks. Hierarchical ladder is old-fashioned and can be self-destructive since it is more about lateral shifts and new starts in the current scenario. If you feel anxious or obsessed about prestige and rank, it is important to note that you need to check out counseling to get it off your head.

Lead without authority:

In today’s workspace, most of the work is done by people who don’t share identical goals and that’s when fostering collaborative team work becomes important. Smooth organization of the first meeting of the new group with clearly defined discussion and structure gives a clear idea of the group’s mission. Allocation of tasks specific to the team member ensures that everyone works without being critical. Keep a track of action items and group decisions so as to follow them closely. If you need to decide upon a course of action, you need to explain the reasoning behind it. This step has to be followed by listening to everyone’s views first.

Collaborative effort requires a mix of strong organizational skills and softer skills. Keeping the tab on the mission and why the group exists, learning as much about the group members and the stakeholders as well as distribution of tasks and logistics to keep the group moving ahead need to be taken into consideration.

How Bigger Goals can take you Further:

Look for ways that help contribute to or create change for the whole group and not just you. Work on what you can control and accept the rest which you can’t. Find mentors who can help keep you going in tough times and ask for help from role models. Have self-discipline so that you are able to accomplish what you want. Keep your sense of humor intact especially when dealing with failures and mistakes. Build self confidence to be surer about yourself and achieve a series of small goals thereby gradually becoming ready for larger targets.

Dealing with Hesitation:

You might have to deal with unreasonable reluctance as the time nears to grab the opportunity that you worked hard to get. This behavior pattern can be changed. Managing the hesitancy in small goals can help you overcome them in bigger challenges and opportunities.

Cut self-deprecating speech and own your feeling of confidence
Look for opportunities to practice acting like you aren’t facing any concerns or pressures
Cut off the apologizing and no matter how tempting it is to blame oneself, move away from it
A hesitant feeling can leave you frozen and if you can’t make up your mind, instead of dithering, you can toss the coin and end the agony.

Ageism is real:

Facing subtle age bias can be taken up as an opportunity to understand the negative stereotypes and check on where it is based.

Try to be tech savvy. This doesn’t mean that you have to be on Instagram all day but it helps to keep your skills current.
Looking healthy and exuding energy can help remove the myth that older colleagues may have physical limitations
Talk healthy but not about health issues. Everyone has health issues all the time and how we manage it impacts the way we communicate about it at the workplace.
Looking shabby goes against you, age or not. Be stylish and aim to look current.
Don’t bring up your age. Alluding to the age difference can put you in the spotlight of aged
Build a varied network comprising of young and older age levels and learn to blend easily
Listen to your colleagues and be open to what they have to say. Listen genuinely

Staying steady when change is constant:

Organizational change isn’t about you but it is vital that for job survival you look at the bigger picture and focus on your future. Be aware of your industry and its environment and be well informed about the winds of innovation. Check out your boss’s goal and align with them so as to ensure that you make successful steps. Networking is always beneficial, however you need to be widely connected and get networking for a broad range of causes. If the job is uncertain, find stability at other places like in communities or people whom you can rely on. While change can be exhausting, it will seem less daunting if you are able to shift the energy into exercising and fitness. Set up a rainy day fund or lay groundwork or alternative sources of income and reduce the financial pressures that make the change unbearable.

Art can boost creativity at work:

A resilient and entrepreneurial professional must find ways to make work more valuable under changing circumstances. To do your best work you must stay in shape physically, emotionally and spiritually. Creativity shall promote your well-being and this can be possible through art. One way of engaging in this is by deeply looking into a single painting for a long period of time. Minute by minute you are able to draw conclusions and get ideas about art and creativity. This long, deep look can be transformative and though still under research, it shows a form of meditation. It fosters an ability to get out of rut and think differently.

To refresh creativity by engaging in art, you can do the following:

Do some team building exercises or activities like a visit to a local museum
Find a piece of art and study it for 20 to 30 minutes and indulge in slow looking
Try to join a book club
Take a course and upgrade your knowledge
Take postcards or posters at home from the art galleries and it is exciting to view them at home.

The Right way to Move On:

The right way to move on is also a chance to tie up the loose ends of the old job and turn it into a building block of the future. This can be done in various ways.

You can give a proper notice so that the word gets around.
Don’t point out the errors of the group for now is the opportunity to end on a good note
Complete your projects and leave them in a good shape so that the next person can know how to get started
Think about every person who has been helpful and say thanks
Make plans to stay in touch and make sure that everybody has your new contact information

Choose to be an optimist:

Optimism is a positive attitude and a growing body of research suggests that optimism sets you up for success and improves your social life too. It helps overcome stress and many kinds of difficulties and supports you in your efforts to stay healthy. Pessimism can undercut your confidence level and weaken your immune system. It can lead to depression. Generally, it is the optimists who enjoy more fruits of success. Dr. Seligman documented that optimissm can be built by modifying the internal dialogue. The trick is to recognize and dispute the pessimistic thoughts by catching the thought when it arises, arguing back and testing teh accuracy of disposing it and then finding other explanations that work towards an optimistic note. Optimism can be developed by making lists of negative phrases that come in your head. This can be changed by appreciating the good stuff. Goodwill deposits can be handy in turning the positive gesture into your attitude. Resist naysayers by remembering that they drain your energy and put you off track. Talk to people whose company you can enjoy. If you have a strong pessimistic streak, you might think of the worst. Turn it into a plan. Smile and act optimist and it is likely that you may feel emotionally lifted. Nature can soothe and spending time in nature helps. Get help when your anxiety gets the better of you. If you feel comfortable, pray and believe in good change.

Choosing optimism in different ways can change your life. You have to decide to face optimism daily.

Think like an Entrepreneur, Act like a CEO

Think like an Entrepreneur, Act like a CEO

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