How are you doing?  Here I found very good article regarding managing finance during slowdown. I hope it this will help you in to manage future decade for your career and finances. Also, Let’s hope Indian economy will continue performing good and survive with global economy crisis.

We’ve learnt our lessons the hard way. But rather than wait for the next
recession blow, one can play it safe.   Sanjeev Sinha  ( The Economic Times)

10 points that can equip you to deal with similar situations

THE OVERALL impact of the financial meltdown, which is certainly huge, is
now evident across the world. Particularly, the pain of job losses and drop
in savings is being felt everywhere. This, in turn, has instilled a sense of
fear and cynicism in the minds of investors globally. Still, while we are
making vast efforts to extricate ourselves from the current crisis, little
effort is being made to prevent the next one. Rather than wait, however,
there are many things which can be done now to avoid another crisis, or at
least cushion the blow when it comes. Listed below are 10 personal finance
lessons we can and should learn from the meltdown:

CONTROL EXPENSES & STICK TO THE BUDGET

You are more likely to face financial problems, if you have been extravagant
in your expenses. However, in a bid to tide over the current crisis and also
avoid such crises in future, you need to adhere to some financial
disciplines, and making a budget and sticking to it is one of them. Sticking
to the discretionary budgets, in fact, can help you handle the uncertainty
in the non-discretionary expenses.

DON’T COUNT ON TOMORROW’S INCOME

Counting on tomorrow’s income to spend today is one of our greatest
mistakes, which has already been proved by the current crisis. In fact, up
until the financial meltdown hit us, the spending levels of individuals,
especially in the 25-35-year age group, have been almost equal to their
income, if not more. “With the easilyavailable loans and credit cards they
were tempted to indulge even without being able to afford the expense. Now
with pay cuts and job losses, they are facing the worse. However, even if
you keep your job now, the prevalence of pay cuts makes it clear that you
can’t count on an ever-expanding paycheck to make up for your spending,”
says Lovaii Navlakhi, managing director & chief financial planner of
International Money Matters.

MAINTAIN LOW DEBT

Prioritise your debts. Pay off your loans with the highest interest rate
first. Basic advice, right? “The problem is that people have been
reiterating this theory for years, but most do not put it into practice.
This step requires one to plan out one’s debts and then follow through by
reducing it regularly and systematically. True, paying off debt can be a
difficult task, but it can also be quite rewarding as it gives you peace of
mind,” says Navlakhi.

GO FOR STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION

Time and again we will hear from the so-called experts that there is a
paradigm shift in the market dynamics and that investors need to revise
asset allocations more aggressively to meet the impending demands of their
future lifestyles. “But one should strictly avoid falling for such traps.
Though temporarily the portfolio may appear underperforming, sticking to
fundamentals of strategic asset allocation would always help investors come
out of such temporary market mishaps,” says Ramesh Patibanda, director -
financial planning, Advice America, world’s leading provider of financial
advisor software solutions.

HAVE EMERGENCY FUND IN PORTFOLIO

Having an emergency fund in your portfolio is an ideal way to tide over a
family crisis or meet unexpected expenses. Therefore, the need for
maintaining emergency funds has always been emphasized by our forefathers.
“Even standard financial principles suggest that you should keep aside cash
to cover three to six months of living expenses, which would also be able to
cover most emergency expenses. Your emergency funds can also come handy in
case of a job loss,” says Ashish Kapur, CEO of Invest Shoppe.

ORGANISE YOUR FINANCES

To those who are not used to monitoring and managing their finances closely,
this may sound like a lot of work. But once you get a system in place, it
should only take a bi-monthly monitoring to stay on top of everything.
Ensure that you maintain sufficient liquid funds for emergencies. Also,
monitor your loans and ensure that you make credit card payments before the
due date.

LEARN TO PLAN AHEAD

It’s no secret that poor planning contributed to why so many people are
currently in weak financial situations. However, don’t panic. Figure out
where you are, where you want to be and put in place a realistic plan for
getting there. Unique circumstances will come up and cause you to stray from
your plans temporarily, but structure is necessary in order to monitor your
progress and stay focused.

INVEST SLOWLY & SYSTEMATICALLY

The problem for many people is that they live month to month and don’t
develop healthy saving habits until they are in their thirties or forties.
“Contributions to a savings plan should be recognised as the first of your
necessary monthly expenses, so that money saved will never be thought of as
money that can be spent. Even if you start saving in small amounts now, you
can always increase in the future,” says Navlakhi.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR INVESTMENTS

The worst thing you can do in a slow economy? Panic and pull all of your
money out of your investments! Therefore, resolve to protect your finances
as the market storm rages on. Take this time to build up your emergency
fund, and set reminders to regularly review your portfolio’s asset
allocation. “Try to align the same with your mid-term and long-term goals.
Do not get distracted by the usual city traffic jams when your final
destination is miles away,” advises Atul Surana, certified financial
planner, Catalyst Financial Planning.

HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

There’s nothing wrong with hoping for the ‘best’ from your investments, but
you could be heading for trouble if your financial goals are based on
unrealistic assumptions. Therefore, when Warren Buffett says that earning
more than 12% in stock is pure dumb luck and you laugh at it, you’re surely
in for trouble!

Source: Economic Times, Sunday, 28 June 2009

//

Focus Resolutions on Getting the Most out of Life, Now

© Tel Asiado

New Year’s tips to a fresh start for a healthier, calmer, and less stressful life.

The New Year means giving yourself another chance at life, a fresh start. Some might have prepared their resolutions, while others can’t be bothered but that doesn’t mean they haven’t mentally prepared themselves their own resolve. Always, it’s the time to plan carefully, set goals and prioritize. By doing them, simple things can be enjoyed with a calmer and less stressed living. Here are some tips or reminders to consider.

Reflect

You know you need to change, but can’ t quite put your finger on what exactly is making you anxious, unsettled or frustrated. Desires can be muddled by responsibilities or concern for others, fear of the consequences, uncertainties or being out of touch with your feelings. A few mental exercises can help pinpoint your goals. Write down your thoughts, worries and needs. It’s a powerful way to clarify thoughts, confront fears and help identify and secure commitments. Make your goals specific, measurable, attainable and time-specific.

Take a look at your life from a number of perspectives: work, home, health, relationships and money. How about your spiritual life? How do you feel about each of these areas? Be specific. What actions can you take to improve on them?

Resolve

Who hasn’t ever made a New Year’s resolution to keep a tidier house or lose weight? Keeping them is the hard part. Motivation and discipline are the keys. Resolutions should be realistic, practical and from the heart. If you’re looking for a job then network and be persistent with your job search. Beware of including resolutions that say “I should….” or “I ought to…” which are likely more to please others or expectations from others than your own.

Reduce Time-Wasters

Identify activities, task or chores that can be reduced or eliminated as they waste time or create more stress. If it’s a burden of home tasks, set household goals and share the load with other members of the family. Prioritize. Time-wasters can occur in any area of your life.

Relate

Communication is most important in any relationship. It’s a challenge to keep lines open in order to maintain a harmonious relationship. It is how feelings and experiences are shared to build and sustain a healthy togetherness. Be assertive and not aggressive, maintain a win-win situation or try hard to make it so by talking it over rather than harboring ill-feelings. Practice patience, tolerance and respect – easier said than done, but can be done.

Reassess

Financial difficulties can be a result of previous mistakes. Now is the time to reassess factors such as lack of planning that has proved costly; overspending; allocating for the lean times or unexpected events like illness or loss of a partner; credit balance, which could be an expensive debt carried over from month to month; untimely decisions made which you are not ready to do, as during a period of grief or after a divorce.

Reinvent

This pertains to key areas in your life that need changing for the better. Think and write down and act on those you believe need to change or to let go, plan a strategy. For example, your lifestyle, your spending, your career, your skills, and your relationships. Again, be specific and time-specific.

Relax and Revive

Remember to relax at your own pace, to revive. Cool it and take a rest. This will release muscle tensions, normalize breathing and pulse rates.

A New Year, New Beginning, New You.

In the simplest explanation, balance in life means ‘time for everything’. Work-life balance means you undertake and enjoy the responsibilities and workloads of both, your work and your family life. Balance doesn’t necessarily mean having more free time. But it does mean that you utilize every moment in a way that is as pleasant and productive for your own living.

Why a work-life balance is important?

Life is obviously more important than work. But without work, life wouldn’t be a complete one too. The first and foremost reason to have a job is to build a life that is most comfortable and hassle-free. The years that have been spent for so much of studies are for getting a job like this. But once you land up with your desired job, instead of a new exciting life, you loose the balance just like a newborn trying to fly a kite.

You have already come through the reasons. Now let’s see the problems when there is no work-life balance. The basic problems happen due to the absence of a proper balance in life are,

• Health and fitness problems
• Stress and tensions
• Relationship problems
• Financial Problems

But these basic problems will give rise to unimaginable consequences. Diseases, most rare and fatal, mental disorders, memory problems etc may just haunt you like anything. But where is the help? What are the ways to find a rhythm of life? What are the necessary elements in your life that need a proper alignment and balance? Just scroll down….

Tips for a work-family agreement

Knowing when to disconnect, shut it off, unplug, or walk away from work is one of the essential keys to balance work and family life.

When was the last time you completely left work behind? How frequently do you take work home, check e-mail or voice mail from home, or take your work with you on vacation? Do you feel you can’t afford to not do these things? What’s the real impact on your personal sense of balance when you are consistently making work your top priority?

However, more often than not, you let work seep into your personal lives even when there’s not a bonafide emergency or time-urgent crisis. You’ve become so accustomed to the ever-presence of your work that you’ve unconsciously allowed further intrusions that have, in many cases, become unreasonable.

1) Plan your life

Plan your works and the time for each of them. Avoid working late or taking assignments home out of habit. Do it only when you have an urgent project deadline. It will not be a wise career move to be a clock-watcher or an Out At 5 kind of guy, but it is a good idea to make plans after work a couple of days each week. It will get you out the door at a reasonable hour and refocus your attention.

2) Work at work and family with family

Protect each role from interference by the others. When you are at work do your work with dedication. At home be a total family man. Turn off your cell phone, laptop, beeper, or email when you are at home, so that you can be fully “present” during this time. Similarly, when you are at work, try to limit personal life intrusions – this will help you be more efficient and effective during your workday.

3) Achieve a psychological balance

Time is not necessarily the main conflict you experience between work and personal life. Most of the time it is your psyche that destroys your balance. The psychological disturbances have serious impact over the work-life ongoing. The psychological conflicts (guilt, difficulty “turning off” work behaviors at home, pressure, anxiety) create the most problems. To balance here, you have to withdraw your mind from some of those unhelpful emotional participations. This will help cut all the negative emotions you have.

4) Utilize office options

Take advantage of your workplace’s family-friendly policies and supports. If your workplace offers discretion over the methods, timing, or location of your work, use this flexibility to improve your situation. Check for the availability of workplace options such as flex-time, telecommuting, compressed work weeks, vacation purchase plans, etc. Many companies are recognizing the importance of satisfied employees and are helping them achieve worklife balance.

5) Share the Load

Don’t assume yourself doing all the family necessaries. Get your partner or other family members to help you with all your personal/family responsibilities. Taking care of the household, children, or parents should not be the responsibility of just one person.

6) Take it easy- the best policy

Except living, everything is of no value. This is a great philosophy to be understood. Don’t give something an importance more than what it deservers. Let things go smoothly and easily. Learn to recognize the things that don’t really have much impact in your life and allow yourself to let them go.

Tips to balance your WORK and LIFE

Life is more than a series of meetings- emails and presentations. But when you get a job in one of your dream companies, when you start working, when responsibilities haunt you from behind, you tend to miss life somewhere under a pile of tensions and deadlines.

Since no steps are taken to bring back that LIFE into your life, by the time small tensions grow up to big diseases and deadlines broaden to your lifetime.

Absence of a work-life balance is commonest in today’s professional lives. Responsibilities are the criminals here. When your work demands more responsibility from you, the other side of your life starts struggling. When life, importantly personal or family life, calls for more attention from your side, your professional focus sinks. This kind of an aimless, unbalanced life-flow offers you tensions and stress lavishly and you fall as an easy victim to the diseases every time. No wonder, very strange and rare diseases befall, as you struggle from all the spheres of your being, the physical, psychological as well as the spiritual being.

Life of a technology professional: What’s wrong?

Let’s get down to the world of technology professionals. If you are a professional, sure, you wouldn’t have time even to scroll down to the bottom of this mini-course. But don’t escape; stay on, as it is going to save a whole lifetime for you.

Technology is the forerunner of life today. In the last 80-100 years, the world of technology has seen a high-speed growth. Today, it’s the beginning, center and the horizon of life. In order to come up with competing and cutting edge technological outgrowths, countries and companies are on a lifetime marathon. But in the meanwhile, no one puts a break to find out the miseries of the players, the professionals who are behind all the success.

IT has always been a tension-generating field of work. The life of an IT professional is an all time push-pull between deadlines and tension generating exertions. There are specific reasons why IT delegates such enormous pressures on the laborers.

• The extreme competition between companies. To produce the most competent technology or software and to acquire a top seat in the long time run, the companies compete endlessly. This battle directly puts the employees under extra work pressures, as the companies always want more from them.
• Deadlines. Frequent deadlines for projects that are very complicated and time-consuming take the employee out of a balanced life.
• Unmatchable growth of technology. Cutting edge technological introductions puts pressure to the professional most of the time, as it may be difficult to comprehend and follow.
• Poor team works. Teamwork that is below satisfactory levels gives pressure to everyone included in the team. Least performing and uninterested team-mates chop the confidence of the hard workers and untie their self-assurance towards the work. Personal relationship inside the teams too counts to the stress level of the employee.
• Due to strict work schedules, when there is no enough time to concentrate on the way of healthy living, the professionals face enormous problems in life. Add to that when carelessness originates, the balance of life slips almost completely due to unavoidable diseases and health problems. Frequent food avoidance, sleeplessness, unproductive habits that are fatal to the health are some of the widely seen lifestyle elements among professionals.

While the job rewards you with commensurate financial packages, a good part of your life is gone under the tight schedules of working. Constant pressures get you with fatal diseases. Deadlines hang before your smooth flow of life and takeout the interest to a large extent. Projects have to be completed in time so that your personal requirements are sacrificed. Family, friends, funs and fantasies appear blurred before your office tensions and temperaments. And some of you may even take those bites of pressures handsomely to your homes, thus making the scene worse than ever.

At one side there are personal responsibilities and physical complaints. And at the other end there are official responsibilities and deadlines.

Family against career! Responsibilities against obligations!

What can you satisfy? What you would quit? You get totally confused. You need to balance. You want that extra hold that helps you balance between the pressures of work and commitments of home.

The importance of this article is at this point. It has got those mantras of work-life balance. It really means a lot when you are reasonably tired of tossing your work and life time to time. So give yourself to this article for the moment. By the time you relax your tensions, it will carry you to a world, where the secrets of balancing your life are hidden like an instant treasure. But before that you should know what is meant by balanced life?

Accountancy firms and other professional service firms have long been competing in what has become known as the ‘war for talent’.

The only alternative one hears (the ‘battle for talent’) also sounds as if it belongs in a bygone era and is more relevant to the armed forces than to those providing professional services to their clients.

The war and battle descriptions reflect the difficulties that firms have in recruiting the people they need to provide the service they have promised to their clients. These recruitment needs may be a consequence of growth plans for the firm or merely an effort to replace professional staff who have left for pastures new.

1 - Beforehand – specifying the talents, skills and experience required. This requires more thought then merely assuming that you need to find someone who can fill the shoes of the person who has left. Remember too that the key criteria will probably change if work is reallocated after someone leaves and before someone new joins.

2 – Attracting the right people – whether you run ads yourself or you engage an agent, you need to identify and highlight those features, benefits and advantages of working at your firm that will make your vacancy more attractive than those in other ’similar’ firms. What are the real differences? Do you know or are you going to make the same broad assumptions, promises and assertions that the other firms make re your firm’s atmosphere, approach, absence of long hours, work/life balance? What can you do to prove your assertions are based on fact?

After those two preparatory steps we can now move onto the interview stage and what follows on from that:

3 – Positive Interview experience. Obviously you need to clarify whether the candidate has the skills and talents you require. Effective interview technique is critical and other assessment tools may be helpful too. My focus here though is on what you say and do to ensure the candidate will accept your job offer if you decide to make one. In the final part of this short series I will outline an idea that can also be used during the interview process to evidence your commitment and that you’re not making empty promises.

Equally if you have a two stage interview process you want to endure that your chosen candidates will want to come back for part two. This all involves clarifying what matters to the candidate, ie: what are their aspirations, motivators and needs? Do not make the mistake of thinking it’s all about money.

4 – Immediate follow-up. You need to strike a careful balance between apparent desperation and genuine interest. I used to write to candidates directly as well as feeding back through the agent that I had enjoyed the interview and thought it was worth taking things further.

5 – Induction. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Over the last twenty years I have been a great advocate of induction packs for new recruits. These can be separate packs or supplemental to the statutory HR and payroll related material. The ones I have used are generally simple checklists with space for ticks and dates. Essentially they identify all the things, under various headings, that a new recruit (for the role in question) would need to know. Even in very small offices the amount of information that new recruits have to assimilate can be daunting. The checklist can become a prompt (reviewed as part of the induction process, over the first weeks and months) to help provide a balance between spoon-feeding and leaving the new recruit to use their initiative all the time.

The real value of such a checklist though is actually during the interview process. You can show it to the candidate to evidence your commitment to an effective induction process. Its mere existence can help evidence that you are not making empty promises about how you do things and how you care about your staff’s personal development and training.

Conclusion

So there we have it. Five simple steps that can help you win the war for talent. As a mentor to ambitious professionals I would be delighted to work with you to elaborate on each of these points.

Equally you may want to go one step beyond your competitors and evidence to potential recruits your genuine commitment to their future personal development. Imagine the impact of promising them that as part of their induction they will receive 12 months mentoring by an external expert who operates completely outside of the firm’s political processes and whose only task is to help with their ongoing personal and management development.

source : Five steps to winning the war for talent

Interpersonal conflicts occur from time to time in every organization. If left unresolved, they can result in lower productivity, employee turnover, morale problems and sometimes lawsuits. Early intervention and clear communication are two key factors in addressing interpersonal conflicts. It is also important to acknowledge emotional issues surrounding the conflict and to ensure that the way work duties are organized is not contributing to the problem.  

Any official city actions (e.g., discipline) must be based on the work-related behavior of the employees involved in the conflict, not on the thoughts, beliefs or feelings that they express. Generally, the best results are obtained when a solution is negotiated with all of the parties involved, rather than dictated from the top-down. Unfortunately, some conflicts cannot be resolved and in those cases, the goal may be to minimize the city’s liability and any other “fallout” from the conflict.

 Why get involved?

Interpersonal conflict is involved to one degree or another with almost every type of employment claim or grievance. Even if there is no formal complaint, it can result in lower productivity, employee turnover, and morale issues (gossip, backstabbing, e-mail wars, physical altercations, competing “camps” of employees). In some situations, interpersonal conflict has resulted in the loss of key employees. Interpersonal conflict is also sometimes associated with absenteeism, workers’ compensation claims, and group health insurance costs. Employees who are involved in an interpersonal conflict may take “mental health” days off, be more likely to get injured at work, become clinically depressed or develop stress-related medical issues.

Why are people unable to constructively resolve conflict between them?

There are many reasons why conflicts don’t get resolved immediately:

1. Incompatible interests (e.g. both parties want the same job assignment).

2. A fundamental difference in values or a fundamental disagreement about “how” to resolve the conflict (“I’m the boss; therefore, I win.”).

3. Different versions of the “truth” about the cause of the initial conflict (“You stole that job assignment from me” vs. “You dropped the ball on that assignment.”)

4. Both parties are too angry to speak constructively to each other.

5. One or both parties deny responsibility for the conflict and expect a higher authority to resolve it by telling the other party he or she was wrong.

6. Different views or desires about the nature of their relationship (e.g., “We’re basically ‘equals’.” vs. “I’m the boss.”)

Resolving Conflict/Solving the Problem

How to resolve the conflict depends to some extent on your role. If you are in a position of authority (City Administrator or elected official), it may be your responsibility to make sure conflicts are resolved so employees can get their work done. A co-worker who really isn’t involved in the conflict may have little or no role. Regardless of your role, there are some basic methods and ideas that are common to most conflicts:

1. Acknowledge the emotions of the parties involved and address their fears. If a conflict

occurs between the City Clerk and the Deputy Clerk over duties, there may be some

emotional baggage that needs to be addressed. The Clerk may fear the Council is thinking

about forcing him out and giving the job to the Deputy Clerk. In this case, the Council

may need to find a way to address the Clerk’s fear of losing his job before they can

resolve the conflict.

2. Communicate Clearly. Sometimes conflicts can be alleviated by clear communication.

Consider a situation where the City Council doesn’t feel that the Administrator is keeping

them informed and the Administrator feels the Council is micro-managing. Clear

communication about the expectations of both parties is crucial to resolving this type of

conflict. Holding annual performance evaluations and quarterly “check-in” sessions

provides scheduled opportunities for communication and may help resolve or avoid the

conflict.

3. Take Action Based on Behavior. In all conflicts, there is a great temptation to react to the

emotional component of the conflict. However, it is important that any official actions

taken by the city or its supervisors are based on behavior. An organization cannot control

what people think and feel; it can only control what they do. If one employee states that

he really dislikes a coworker, the city should probably not take action based on that

statement alone. On the other hand, if the employee refuses to talk to the co-worker even

when it is necessary to get job assignments completed, then the city can take action based

on the refusal to communicate on work-related matters.

4. Intervene Early. It is a very human tendency to want to minimize and ignore conflicts.

However, this sometimes allows a conflict to fester and grow until it becomes

unmanageable. As a guideline, it is better to address a small conflict directly and

immediately.

5. Organize the Workflow. While overlap of duties and cross-training is generally good for

the organization, it may not feel good or “comfortable” for the individual. Most of us feel

secure when we have job duties that are unique to our position; this makes us feel

“needed” by the organization. When others are given overlapping assignments or crosstrained in our jobs, we feel less secure and more expendable. Analyzing workflow and duties to determine ways to address “security needs” vs. the needs of the organization for back-up and cross-training may alleviate the source of some conflicts. Another related issue is unclear reporting structures. An employee who has to keep more than one boss happy is likely to run into conflicts when the bosses disagree with each other. This type of supervision is generally challenging and should probably be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

6. Negotiate Solutions. Basically there are three ways to resolve a conflict:

a. Compromise;

b. Win/Lose; or

c. Win/Win.

While it is sometimes necessary to use the first two methods, the third method is the only

one that meets the needs of both parties. There are several ways to employ the third

method (i.e., find a mutually acceptable solution):

• Expand the Pie. Find ways to create more of the resource that the parties are fighting over.

For example, if two employees are having a conflict because both want to use the same

funding to attend a conference, one way to resolve the conflict is to “expand the pie” by

finding additional funds so both can attend.

• Compensation. Find a way to compensate one of the parties for yielding on an issue. In the above conference-funding example, perhaps the employee who “yields” and lets the other employee attend the conference gets to attend their conference in the next fiscal year.

• Goodwill-Building. Each side concedes on issues of lesser importance to build goodwill, trust and agreement. In any conflict, there are usually a few issues of central importance and a few “kitchen sink” types of issues. If the two parties can find agreement on the smaller issues, it can build the foundation for agreement on the central issues. This can work well in negotiating a labor contract. For example, if health insurance contribution is a big source of disagreement, the two sides may be able to agree on smaller issues in order to build trust and goodwill. This may make it easier to tackle the health insurance contribution issue later.

• Bridging. Create new options that satisfy critical underlying interests/needs. Consider a

Councilmember who is at odds with the City Clerk. In this situation, the underlying issue

may be the Councilmember’s need for more information than the Clerk has been providing.

The conflict may be resolved by requiring the Clerk to provide weekly updates to the City Council on various aspects of the city’s management.

What if we’ve tried everything?

Some conflicts cannot be resolved or at least cannot be resolved given the amount of time, money or effort the city can afford to expend. In this case, the focus may switch from resolving the conflict to minimizing liability or other issues. If two employees cannot seem to work together despite the city’s best efforts, the city may decide to establish “ground rules” for the employees’ behavior towards each other and then closely supervise the interactions between the two employees to enforce those ground rules. Or, the city may rearrange work duties and assignments to minimize the interaction of the two employees. These “work-arounds” are not ideal and usually will not solve the problem in the long term, but at times may be the only realistic option available to the city. Sometimes, the only answer to an interpersonal conflict involves removing one party from the workplace. Determining how to do this and when it is appropriate probably should not be attempted without substantial legal advice and input.

source : www.lmcit.lmnc.org

We live today in the most hectic and feverish world. For the most of us each day seems to be a race; a daily race or “rat race”, an exhausting daily routine that leaves you no time for rest and relaxation. What is alarming is that the speed of this race increase from day to day, we become a sort of “speedaholics”. And as if this wouldn’t be enough we borrowed from the PC world the concept of multitasking (running two or more tasks at the same time) and try to implement it in our daily life. We want to do more because, in this era of consumerism, almost all of us are conditioned to want/have more. Rarely we take into account to be more, to think and feel better rather than do and have.

Slow down when all around you are speeding up! But why slow down when I have so many things to do? So many possible unborn projects and so many unfinished things! Why slow down when all around us hurry up for the big prize: the result. Answer: because not the result is the key but the process. It matter less what I get at the finish and more how I feel on the way there. Being always in a hurry doesn’t make any good to our body as well as to our mind. Our body needs to find its own pace to work at easy and our mind need time to taste all wonderful things around us.

Keep a state of calm, whatever the cost may be! Many of us have learned to live in a state of agitation and anxiety. They think this state help them to keep the pace with the rapid change of modern times. But this is a trap; it will lead you finally to exhaustion. In hurry times we need a calm mind to manage agitation around us. Nietzsche wonderfully described this kind of people: “they live as if they are missing something”.

So all we have to do in speedy times is to preserve a state of calm, even if the cost may seem very big. This is a trap too; the real cost come when you lose this state of calm.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly! There are so many things that ask for our attention, effort and energy, that we have to be very very selective with our projects. Before spending our time and energy on any project that come in our way, we need a drastic evaluation of its worthiness. If something isn’t essential for our life we must get rid of it immediately and if something can make a great difference in your life just take action. But don’t act in a hurry, because all things worth doing are worth doing slowly. Only doing things slowly we have the possibility to enjoy the process of doing in itself, and so to enjoy life.

Slow Manifesto

Do less, slowly. Multitasking is a moral weakness.

If you can slow down when all around you are speeding up, then you’re one of us. Be proud that you are one of us and not one of them. For they are fast, and we are slow. There are those that would urge us to speed. We resist!

We shall not flag or fail. We shall slow down in the office, and on the roads. We shall slow down with growing confidence when all those around us are in a shrill state of hyperactivity (signifying nothing). We shall defend our state of calm, whatever the cost may be. We shall slow down in the fields and in the streets, we shall slow down in the hills, we shall never surrender!

Why? Because if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly. Some are born to slowness – others have it thrust upon them. And still others know that lying in bed with a morning cup of tea is the supreme state for mankind.

Management and the Bhagavad Gita Viewpoint:

old resources, modern truths
by M. P. Bhattathiri

Editor’s note: The Bhagavad Gita is a guide for millions of people around
the world, particularly in India. Quality Digest is interested in anything
that can affect quality in business, and Bhattathiri’s use of the Bhagavad
Gita is unique in our experience.

One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is the Bhagavad
Gita, or Holy Gita an ancient epic poem in Sanskrit whose title translates
to The Song of the Divine One and is considered by many to be one of the
first revelations from God.

The story is about Arjuna, who became depressed when he realized he had to
fight his relatives on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. To help Arjuna in his
moral dilemma, lord Krishna preached the Bhagavad Gita, which can be a
powerful catalyst for transformation. The story has all the management
tactics necessary to achieve mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis
situation. In days of doubt, this divine poem will support all spiritual
searching. It will contribute to self-reflection and deepen one’s inner
process. With it, life can become dynamic, full and joyful, no matter the
circumstance. The Holy Gita is a practical psychology of transformation
because it offers people the tools to connect with their deepest, intangible
essence, teaching them to live with knowledge.

For all achievements, managements task is to make people capable of joint
performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, as management guru Peter
Drucker says. It creates harmony in working together equilibrium in thoughts
and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and
markets. It resolves situations of scarcity; be they in the physical,
technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum
available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder,
confusion, waste, delay, destruction and depression. Managing people, money
and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and
environment, is the most important and essential factor in an organizations
success.

Following are some thoughts inspired by some of the principles in the
Bhagavad Gita:

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in
managing. Effectiveness is doing the right things. Efficiency is doing
things right.

The general principles of effective management can be applied in every
field, the differences being more in application than in principle. A
manager’s functions can be summed up as:

Forming a vision
Planning the strategy to realize the vision
Cultivating the art of leadership
Establishing institutional excellence
Building an innovative organization
Developing human resources
Building teams and teamwork
Delegating, motivating and communicating
Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when necessary
Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed
to working for a common goal to the maximum social benefit. In other words,
its the search for excellence.

The critical question in many managers’ minds is how to be effective in
their job. The answer to this fundamental question is also found in the
Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that you must try to manage
yourself. Unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness,
he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

Old truths in a new context
Although it was written thousands of years ago, the Bhagavad Gita enlightens
people on all managerial techniques, leading them away from conflicts,
tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation, etc., and toward a
harmonious and blissful state.

The modern Western management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation,
excellence in work, goal achievement, meaningful work, decision making and
planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. However, while Western
management too often deals with problems at the material, external and
peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles the issues from the grass roots
level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of humans is improved, it
will automatically enhance the quality of their actions.

Western management philosophy is based on materialism and on a perennial
thirst for profit, irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to
achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in the abundant wealth of
the West and so management by materialism� has caught the fancy of all the
countries the world over. India has been in the forefront in importing these
ideas, mainly because of its centuries-old indoctrination by colonial
rulers, which has inculcated in its population a feeling that anything from
the Western world is good and anything Indian is inferior.

Utilization of available resources
The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and use scarce
resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War,
Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna’s large army for his help, while Arjuna
selected Sri Krishna’s wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue
as to the nature of the effective manager the former chose numbers, the
latter, wisdom.

Work commitment
A popular verse of the Gita advises detachment from the consequences or
results of actions performed in the course of one’s duty. Being dedicated to
work means working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own
sake. If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of
commission before putting in our efforts, we aren’t detached.We’re working
only for the extrinsic reward that may or may not result.

Working with an eye only to the anticipated benefits means that the quality
of performance of the current job or duty suffers (through mental agitation
or anxiety for the future). Events don’t always respond positively to our
calculations, hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming. The Gita
tells us not to mortgage present commitment to an uncertain future.

Some people might argue that not seeking the business result of work and
actions makes one unaccountable. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is full of
advice on the theory of cause and effect, saying that all people are
responsible for the consequences of their deeds. While advising detachment
from the avarice of selfish gains in discharging one’s accepted duty, the
Gita doesn’t absolve anybody of the consequences arising from discharge of
his or her responsibilities.

Thus, the best means of effective performance management is simply the work
itself. Attaining this state of mind, called nishkama karma, is the right
attitude for work because it prevents the ego from dissipating attention by
speculating on future gains or losses. The mind can be one�s friend or
enemy, the cause of both bondage and liberation.

Motivation and self-transcendence
It’s been presumed for many years that satisfying basic needs of
workers adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in
motivation. However, it’s a common experience that the dissatisfaction of
clerks and of directors is identical only the levels of dissatisfaction and
composition vary. It should be true that once the basic needs are more than
satisfied, directors should have little problem in optimizing their
contribution to the organization and society. But more often than not, it
doesn’t happen that way. On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher or a
self-employed artisan may demonstrate higher levels of self-actualization
despite poorer satisfaction of their basic needs.

This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded
in the Gita. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others
before oneself, and emphasizing teamwork, dignity, cooperation, harmony and
trust; potentially sacrificing basic needs for higher goals.

The ego spoils work and the egos the centerpiece of most theories of
motivation. People don’t need a theory of motivation, but a theory of
inspiration.

Work culture
An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit
of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work
culture�daivi sampat, or divine work culture, and asuri sampat, or demonic
work culture:

Daivi work culture involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice,
straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding,
absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, and absence of envy and pride.
Asuri work culture involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper
performance, and work not oriented towards service.
A mere work ethic isn�t enough. A hardened criminal may exhibit an excellent
work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.

Its in this light that the suggestion, yogah karmasu kausalam, should be
understood. Kausalam means skill or technique of work, which is an
indispensable component of a work ethic. Yogah is defined in the Gita as an
unchanging equipoise of mind detachment. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a leader of
the Indian Independence Movement and a social reformer, said that acting
with an equable mind is yoga.

Work results
The Gita further explains the theory of detachment from the extrinsic
rewards of work in saying:

If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit shouldn�t be
appropriated by the doer alone.
If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then the entire blame doesn�t
accrue to the doer.
The former attitude reduces arrogance and conceit, while the latter prevents
excessive despondency, demotivation and self-pity. Thus, both these
dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the
cause of the modern managers’ sicknesses such as diabetes, high blood
pressure and ulcers.

Assimilating the ideas of the Gita can lead people to the wider spectrum of
lokasamgraha (general welfare), but there�s also another dimension to the
work ethic: If the karmayoga (service) is blended with bhaktiyoga
(devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a sevayoga (service for
its own sake).

Along with bhakti yoga as a means of liberation, the Gita espouses the
doctrine of nishkamya karma (pure action) untainted by hankering after the
fruits resulting from that action. Modern scientists now understand the
intuitive wisdom of that action in a new light.

Scientists at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda,
Maryland, have found that laboratory monkeys that started out as
procrastinators became efficient workers after they received brain
injections that suppressed a gene linked to their ability to anticipate a
reward. The scientists reported that the work ethic of those monkeys wasn’t
all that different from that of many people: If the reward is not
immediate, you procrastinate, an investigator told The Los Angeles Times.

Manager’s mental health
Sound mental health is the goal of any human activity. Sound mental health
is that state of mind that can maintain a calm, positive poise�or regain it
when unsettled�in the midst of all the external vagaries of work life and
social existence. Internal constancy and peace are the prerequisites for a
healthy, stress-free mind.

Some of the impediments to sound mental health are:

Greed for power, position, prestige and money
Envyregarding others’ achievements, success and rewards
Egotism about one’s own accomplishments
Suspicion, anger and frustration
Anguish through comparisons
The driving forces in today’s businesses are speed and competition. Theres
a distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of moral fiber, that in
seeking a goal, people encourage immoral means (i.e., tax evasion,
illegitimate financial holdings, hiding the truth, deliberate oversight in
an audit, etc.) This unethical behavior is what I call the Yayati syndrome.

In the book The Mahabharata, theres a king by the name of Yayati who
exchanges his old age with the youth of his obliging youngest son for a
thousand years to revel in the endless enjoyment of flesh. However, he found
the pursuit of sensual enjoyments ultimately unsatisfying, and came back to
his son pleading him to take back his youth. This Yayati syndrome shows the
conflict between externally directed acquisitions (extrinsic motivation) and
inner value and conscience (intrinsic motivation).

Conclusion
The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is typically
human. Sri Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna’s
mind from a state of inertia to one of righteous action, from the state of
what the French philosophers call anomie (alienation), to a state of
self-confidence in the ultimate victory of dharma (ethical action).

When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna
reminded him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action, which
wasn’t for his own benefit, nor for satisfying his own greed and desire, but
for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over
unethical actions and of truth over untruth.

With regard to temporary failure, Sri Krishna says, No doer of good ever
ends in misery. Every action produces results. Good action produces good
results, and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, if you always act well
you’ll be rewarded.

My purpose isn’t to discard the Western model of efficiency, dynamism and
striving for excellence, but to tune these ideals to India’s holistic
attitude of lokasangraha for the welfare of many, for the good of many.
There is indeed a moral dimension to business life. What we do in business
is no different, in this regard, than what we do in our personal lives. The
means don’t justify the ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake is
ultimately self-defeating.

About the author
M.P. Bhattathiri is a retired chief technical examiner to the government of
the state of Kerala, India.

At the first sight the collocation “tough conditions” make us think to bad, pain and suffering. Usually we think the tough situations and events as something bad for us. But let’s take a close look and decide if they are bad.

Let’s take the situation when we want to achieve a goal but encounter a lot of obstacles on the way to the finish. Are obstacles bad things? Yes they are if they prevent you from achieving your goal. But once you solved them they become a good experiment for you. They enriched your experience and the next time you encounter them you’ll know how to tackle them. Also your will and character won something good.

There are two dimensions of our life which are influenced differently by though conditions: personal comfort and personal development. For our personal comfort the though situations are bad, because they pull you out of your comfort zone. For our personal development the though events and conditions are good ones. They are favorable conditions because they help us grow. The growth process isn’t possible without challenges and obstacles.

To live a meaningful and interesting life doesn’t mean not to encounter obstacles but to pass them successfully.

All recent research sustain that television and computer are having a negative influence on our mind’s developing and functioning. The time we spend in front of the TV or the computer affect us deeply. We do not analyze anymore the received information which means that we assimilate it as it is.

Children or adults … the new technology has an effect on us all. The most exposed to this influence are still the children because they don’t have the ability to resist to the hypnotic pressure TV and PC exert on them.

Among the negatives effects of these two technologies are the next ones:

• generate a passive mental attitude and behavior – it seems that we become less vigilant, less persevering, less involved in finding the solution to a problem and with a low level of will. We end up being bored, extremely dependent, without inventiveness or interest.
• reduce the left hemisphere’s developing – it is known that the right hemisphere is the center of the imagination and emotion and the left one is for thinking and language. Television means image and every information is transmitted by visual or audio channel. In this situation the left hemisphere is not stimulated at all. The thinking and speaking aren’t implicated in receiving the information and because of it it’s more and more used the expression “weak reasoners”.
• reduce the front head cortex developing – the information can’t be analyzed in time by the brain because of the image’s speed on the screen. So the front head cortex is out of function.
• decrease the intelligence level and intellectual performance – intelligent and capable people are the ones which have a good and quick communication between the two hemispheres and also separately. A normal development of the brain implies a simultaneous stimulation of the two hemispheres which doesn’t happen watching TV or playing to the computer.
• learning disabilities – this means the incapacity of learning something structured, the inability to make conscious effort to learn, the impossibility to listen to a simple speech or to pay attention to something.
• transmitting the information directly to the subconscious – TV has the “power” to send the messages straight to our subconscious. The viewer doesn’t have the time to control and to be aware of this “intrusion” and the connotation of information.
• attention problems – the most known and severe one is the ADHD syndrome (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder).

Children should never be left alone and uncontrolled in front the TV or the computer, especially when they are very young. As for adults, it is not a good strategy to try to relax in front the TV or the computer because the existent stress and irritability will increase. – Psychologist, Nicoleta Cramaruc