Management lessons from America's Next Top Model

Sounds weird doesn't it? What do professional or management skills have to do with modelling and ANTM.

If you look really closely, you will find some valuable lessons under all that drama.


Passion
Motivation and drive are essential to achieve excellence. That kind of energy is almost tangible, but remember, if you claim to be driven toward your goal, you should be able to back it up with examples.

Commitment
Commit to it 100% and more. There should be no half-hearted attempts. Saying "I will try" is equal to setting up the possibility of failure and giving yourself permission to stop if the situation gets tough or makes you uncomfortable.

Self focus
Avoid distractions and drama that revolves around others. If you keep your vision clear, you are closer to your goal.

No excuses
Be accountable for your own behaviour. Blaming it on other people, environment or unfair treatment rarely wins you any points.

"When you choose the behaviour, you choose the consequences" . Dr. Phil McGraw

Respect
Respect for others and manage your time.

Be prepared
Study items yourself and then approach others for sounding off ideas and refinement of plans/thoughts. No one is interested or has the time to spoon-feed you.


Take action
While potential is a key factor, don't rely on it to get you out of tough predicaments. Learn to convert your potential to outcome. After all, actions do speak louder than words!


Do your research
Similar to 'being prepared' and 'passion'. You need to be aware of the industry, company, job, role, whatever it may be, to even get your foot in the door. Ever have an interview when your interviewer asks you "So what do you know about us?"

Reflections

I always pray that my path in life be shown to me. Why did I not realize that paths are made by walking?!

Children are the ultimate creatives

I've often thought about, and made this point to the class that I teach, that children are such amazing creatures. You can learn so much from them - their fearlessness, not afraid to take risks, ask questions, cry when they are upset.


Some time back, my (then) 3 year old niece came visiting. She walked into my room and noticed the Harry Potter book on my bed. Imagine my surprise when she asked me "Is that Harry Potter?"  A child who couldn't yet read the title; who made the connection from the artist's rendering on the cover to Daniel Radcliffe (whom she had watched on the movie version). How did she know or even guess?


My take-away 

• Sometimes we need to take fantastic leaps of faith to make things work.
• You don't have to know everything to have a good idea, take a chance, don't over-prepare.

Another time that sticks to my mind is when my niece and her sister wanted to ride on our reclining exercise bike. It was a fun adventure for them. The digital display had given up and it took me a while to realise that the batteries were dead. But where to find the battery compartment?


Once again, my niece to the rescue! The 3 year old calmly pointed out the compartment under the display, as if she had known forever what to do.


My take-away from this story

• We get so wrapped up in the complex, trying to show our intelligence and expertise that we become blind to the to the simple (and obvious) solutions.
• At times, it is a change in perspective that is needed, in my case literally a difference in height!

If you have a child story you'd like to share, I'd love to hear the 'a-ha' moments that came with it. Drop me a line or add a comment below.

The Soft Side of HR

In an extract from his book ‘Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking’, Malcolm Gladwell touches on the topic of malpractice suits with the mistakes a doctor makes. 


There are highly skilled doctors who get sued a lot; and doctors who make lots of mistakes and never get sued.  The truth is malpractice lawsuits have little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes. Patients don’t file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care. Patients file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care and something else happens to them.

What is that something else? It’s how they were treated, on a personal level, by their doctor. 


Consider this the same for people working in HR departments. HR personnel represent the doctors; while skilled sometimes have a tendency to overlook their clients. What happens is that even minor mistakes tend to become glaring errors and cause for dissatisfaction and a bad reputation.


Each human resource professional should have a presentable and approachable image, be able to draw his customers close to him and learn his needs. Without this, we are only people with knowledge but no place to practice it.

Mindsets - Will they Make you or Break you?

Mindsets

View more presentations from siddiqif.

Creating Rapport

Having a good working relationship is important for everyone, whether it be of a personal nature or for those involved in people management on a daily basis.

How can we build this connection and rapport? A few basic tips can take you a long way.

1. Active Listening. Be attentive and reflect back whatever the person in front of you is saying.
   
2. Match the tone of your audience. If they are speaking slowly and softly, a loud fast pitch may annoy them
   
3. Use similar language patterns. Some people talk in metaphors, others focus on future goals and yet others talk about how they feel.
   
4. Be careful about the choice of words, especially when disagreeing with others. Use of the word ‘BUT’ in a  sentence creates a negative vibe, making the other person WRONG and you RIGHT. Not a good way to make friends, correct? Instead, use words such as AND, ALSO etc
   
5. When trying to make a point, appeal to all the senses. Paint a vivid picture, use a harmonious tone / pitch, share the same energy levels and so on.
6. Look through the lens of your audience. If you are rigid in your beliefs, you will fail to understand what makes the other person tick.

Great Communicators Part 1

Communication is the most natural thing in the world, but good communication.....that's a goal to aspire to.


In my search for communication styles, I have stumbled across many great resources and wanted to share them with you.


The first of my tributes goes to Garr Reynolds .


Garr Reynolds is the author of Presentation Design and Presentation Design Zen. His designs are about mindfulness, a minimalistic approach and pack quite a punch. You can view his presentations on YouTube, check out his slides at Slideshare or read his Presentation Zen blog .

Scott Berkun's talk on Innovation

Scott Berkun, author of "Making things happen" and "The Myths of Innovation" gave an interesting talk on the process of innovation. You can check it out here .

Disconnect and Conquer

Many times we feel overwhelmed by what is going on around us; too many things to do and just not enough hours in the day!


How do we then create that separation & balance? Should we 'focus' on one activity first and then another? The answer is: 'No, we shouldn't FOCUS!'


Focus is perhaps the wrong word to use. Instead, we choose to disconnect from everything except the activity at hand. 


Focus reminds us there are distractions, which in turn leads us down the path of each distraction at inappropriate times. 


Disconnect implies that only one thing exists in front of you. Imagine if you will, a black hole enveloping everything else.The less complex the environment, the easier it is to think of nothing else.


According to Tony Robbins, the words we use to describe our experience become our experience. Hence, Focus on transforms to disconnect from.



You can disconnect yourself from people, emotions, electronic devices etc. You'll work better, achieve more even if it's only for a few minutes at a time.

Book Review

Made to Stick 

       Chip & Dan Heath            

Made to Stick, by the Heath brothers, Chip and Dan Heath, is a remarkable book that does exactly what the title says.

Characters of this story
Arch Enemy:                                       Curse of Knowledge
Enemy Sidekicks:                                Decision Paralysis, Burying the Lead
Hero:                                                 Sticky ideas


Setting

Present day; workplace, meetings, presentations, parties, friends & families, documents, stories, movies and so on.

Mission

Defeat the enemy and save the world

Plot

Reduce conflict between our hero and his arch enemy, by using the secret weapon; 

the SUCCESs principles.

S =  Simple

      Find the core of the message

      E.g., determine what is the single most important thing you would like your 
      audience to walk away with. For any additional points you add, ask yourself 
      'Does this really support my core idea?' If not, throw it out.

U = Unexpected
      Capture (and keep) the attention of your audience.E.g., Break patterns, do 
      something counterintuitive


C = Concrete
     Create meaning & tangibility for your message to be understood and
     remembered. E.g., Build your case around a metaphor or image. 'Sour Grapes'
     implies bitterness


C = Credible
      Provide a reliable source to ensure agreement and acceptance of what you 
      have to say. E.g., backed by Govt. statistics, famous shows, doctors


E = Emotional
      Make others care


S = Story
      Create a rich picture that provides source of inspiration and allows audience
      to act upon. E.g., Chicken Soup books provide personal accounts of tragedy 
      and love etc.


For further details on how to use these SUCCESs principles and live examples, I highly recommend you read this book.

The Art of Cartooning

Recently I have become fascinated with communication and presentation of information. I've always had a love for data; the more the better :). But while reading this interesting book called  Presentation Zen , I was introduced to the term Art of Cartooning.


One of my favorites: Dilbert





You might pick up your daily paper, take a glance at what Dilbert is up to today and chuckle silently. But have you ever realized that this 3 box communique is a work of art?


Here's why:
1.  You get ONLY 3 BOXES to get your point across. How many slides/pages did you use today?
2.  The message is clear, to the point and no ambiguity on what the author is trying to say.
3.  It is FUNNY!  A skewed, if not accurate, portrayal of society today.
4.  Inspiration comes from the most ordinary of things. It takes a great deal of awareness to notice the finer points in life

5.  Cartooning is a visual whole-brain activity. It requires an artistic side as well as a linguistic and processing ability.   

Hats off to you cartoonists. You make our days brighter and our hearts happier!

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Quote

"Inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within"


Michelangelo

Know Thyself!

Developing a Personal Brand

What is a Personal Brand and why do we need one? 

Branding is about identifying and distinguishing yourself from the crowd. It shows the world what is attractive about you and what you can do for them.

Most importantly, the branding exercise helps you understand yourself through a round of self- analysis and evaluation. Many people go through life not knowing what they are truly capable of, what they want to do or how to sell themselves.

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself:

1.)  What makes me tick?

What makes me happy? Why have I been successful in the past? What drives me, my passions and interests? What would be my ideal role and why did I choose the profession I’m in now?

2.)  What can I deliver?

What have I achieved; results, programs, changes to processes? What successes have I had?

3.)  How do I make my workplace better?

This represents the soft side of your impact on the environment. Are you a good communicator / manager / leader? What do people recall when they think of you? Are you flexible and open to change? What is your working style, your philosophy and contribution? Do people agree and would they be willing to back it up? Can you provide concrete examples of that expertise? What about you is special that no one else has? If you weren’t there, what would the organization be missing out on?

4.)  Why am I in demand?

You may wonder if you are, in fact, 'In demand'. Each and every person is in demand, because it's not about having the specific requirements that an employer may be looking for but rather the skill sets you have that are unique and the value it brings.

These skills could be academic (Ph. D in ...), technology related (experience in instructional design), softwares used, a technique you refined, a new type of methodology implemented and so on. In essence, it is the bits and pieces of your background that pop out and capture attention of others.

5.)  Why should you hire me?

With everything put together, this question should answer how you will add value and why. Exemplify your contribution and offering as an individual, as a team and as an integral part of the marketplace.

Give due effort to the exercise above and it will open your eyes to the choices you have made and direct the ones you make in the future.

(Adapted from Kristi Daeda   www.kristidaeda.com)