That’s the question you need to ask post each confrontation.

Sure, it’s a powerful tool in bringing your team members to the next level but pausing and measuring the progress is even more important.

Confrontation is more of a cost v/s benefits issue so measurement is required. And, the thing about progress is that the progress will be always positive if you let it.

Key here is to look dispassionately at the whole set of confrontation events and take corrective actions whatever those might be.

What’s the point of continuing an activity if there are no returns?

You started your own business few months ago to become your own boss. Your thoughts were similar to:

• Your pay will NOT reach top 1% if you continue doing your job;
• You will NOT able to hire and fire people based on your worldview of them;
• Working for someone else is NOT hip;
• You will NOT be an entrepreneur if you don’t start your own business;
• …and so on.

Your decision was based on many “NOTs”. But today, after a few months of starting your own business, you wonder perhaps you are still NOT an entrepreneur.

Perhaps you didn’t know: You were born as an entrepreneur and you’re already an entrepreneur regardless of anything, no matter whether you run your own business or not.

How come?

It’s simple (may not be easy).

Entrepreneurship is a mindset. It’s about making active choices and taking total ownership of the choices you have made.

Some people work in a job as if they were doing their own business.

They just ‘own’ things and make them happen. Let’s call them ‘Type I entrepreneurs’.

On the other hand, some people run their business as if they were just doing their job. Let’s call them ‘Type II entrepreneurs’.

While Type I entrepreneurs eliminate the distinction between their work and play, whatever they do, do with best of their abilities and depth, Type II entrepreneurs are constrained.

They work for five days, no more than seven or eight hours a day.

Even if some of the important matters are resting on their desk undone, they still choose to call the day off to do something else. Spending more time with their spouse, watching cricket matches, playing games, going places…whatever.

Type II can be easily classified as victimized beings, they do something because they ‘have to’ whereas Type I, easily recognized as leaders beyond their titles, make things happen because they ‘want to’.

Type II represents escapism whereas Type I represents ownership.

Now, here’s the good news: each one of us can become Type I entrepreneur. Because it’s simple; because it is a choice.

Yes, Being an entrepreneur is just a choice. Easy to preach, hard to practice. Not impossible for sure.

See Also:

1. Choose Your Delights!
2. Distinguish the Distinctions of Your Business
3. How Not to Kill Your Business in Bad Times
4. Your Business Is Thriving If…10
5. The problem with sharing your knowledge…

1. Choose Your Delights!
2. Distinguish the Distinctions of Your Business
3. How Not to Kill Your Business in Bad Times
4. Your Business Is Thriving If…10
5. The problem with sharing your knowledge…

Your crucifying client or your difficult programmer… probably are not dumb, probably just clueless. There’s a distinction between two.

Every person takes actions based on their climate of opinions and the information at hand. If two people have the same climate of opinions and the same information, they’ll take same action, every time, given they’re not dumb.

So, there are lot of times where a lack of information leads to a bad choice. Lot of times where an out of sync climate of opinions leads to an inferior action.

A lot of organizations embrace a melting software development methodology instead of embracing an agile way that leads to better results. It’s probably because each of them started with a climate of opinions about the way projects worked and were going to work. And to that little direct experience, and it’s no wonder they decided what they did. You would too if you were given the same imaginations to begin with.

Changing climate of opinion is extremely difficult and requires quite a bit of efforts. Changing information at hand is relatively easier, and that’s where right communication skills can help. If you, as a communicator, can package information in a way that people with certain climate of opinion can accept, you move the dialogue forward far more quicly than if you just conclude that your unreasonable customer or difficult boss are dumb.

I think, limiting climate of opinions (e.g. I can’t read Objective C code, I have never learned that language, ever.) is the most difficult hurdle to overcome. But a limiting climate of opinions doesn’t mean you’re dumb, it means that you’re playing yourself small.

The easiest way to arise is to inspire people who share a climate of opinion that endorses your point of view. The most effective way to arise even better than that is to inform those that disagree with your point of view-more information in a luscious form.

And, unluckily, it turns out that the best way to make the world less clueless is to extend the boundaries of the persons with limiting climate of opinions.

See Also:

1. What You Can Learn From a Difficult Boss
2. Spotted a Winner
3. I’m not a project manager. Why do I need to learn project management?
4. Prevent Your Project from Collapsing
5. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!

1. What You Can Learn From a Difficult Boss
2. Spotted a Winner
3. I’m not a project manager. Why do I need to learn project management?
4. Prevent Your Project from Collapsing
5. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!

Maybe the worst result of a failed project is rebeginning the same. Going back to the starting line.

Post failure, starting line seems like an infelicitous target. Very remote. Apparently.

Think: if you’ve failed, if you’ve traveled the wrong path, does it make sense to keep chasing something down the wrong path? Isn’t the logical step is to go back to the starting line and start running your race again?

Beginning is good. Rebeginning is wiser. At least, it has one less chance to fail.

Love the staring line. It’s fancier than you thought.

See Also:

1. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
2. 9 Rock Solid Thoughts You May Love To Revisit From #3Idiot (’s) Perspective
3. Walking matters, Direction matters more.
4. You Can Learn Even from a Funny SMS You Get
5. You Don’t Need Your Own Business to Become an Entrepreneur

1. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
2. 9 Rock Solid Thoughts You May Love To Revisit From #3Idiot (’s) Perspective
3. Walking matters, Direction matters more.
4. You Can Learn Even from a Funny SMS You Get
5. You Don’t Need Your Own Business to Become an Entrepreneur

“A successful professional life without fulfilling inner peace is fool’s gold.”

See Also:

1. When You Feel Good About Life 7

1. When You Feel Good About Life 7

You, only you, are in charge of your actions, not anyone else. Stop imprecating others, start taking actions that make you happy.

See Also:

1. Happiness – The Primary Trait Of Powerful Leaders
2. Effective listening leads to effective actions and thus, better execution!
3. The Problem With Not Getting Out of Safety Zone
4. To Make a Difference…
5. Want to be what you think you might have been?

1. Happiness – The Primary Trait Of Powerful Leaders
2. Effective listening leads to effective actions and thus, better execution!
3. The Problem With Not Getting Out of Safety Zone
4. To Make a Difference…
5. Want to be what you think you might have been?

“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing” ~ Lao Tzu

Still many of us do that – we have an Instant Messenger (or Twitter or Facebook or even an Email client for that matter) open most of the day on our computer screens while we work. Messenger becomes the strong witness of the work we do and keeps track of what’s happening around.

Worst, in some organizations some people are classified ‘not working’ if they’re not logged in into organization’s preferred IM client.

Unluckily, it’s not the most effective way to work and communicate.  Apart from popping up messages every now and then, some IM clients also notify you when your messenger contacts come online or go offline.

So you’re at the mercy of what others want you to do. A new message pops up and you must stop what you’re doing in order to read the message and possibly react.

Even if you choose to react later, whatever you were doing was disrupted.

In today’s social media needled world, perhaps you feel that not being in touch or not being updated about what’s happening around is not an option.

However in reality, here’s what happens:

• You’re perturbed by the instant messages;
• You’re inviting multiple thought channels who might do a great job to keep you away from your real work;
• You’re not focused.

Have you ever thought what happens to your priority when you’re in the ocean of such unhinging messages?

Every new message becomes new priority which leaves your real priorities behind.

Read the Russian proverb below which offers an interesting analogy for this matter:

“If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.”

Here are some tips about how to overcome that:

1. Get your actions out of your IM
An instant messenger is a bad task allocation tool, because the messages can’t be prioritized, the messages can’t be renamed to reflect the actual action items within them, and there are always new messages coming in. Instead, choose other allocation tools.  For instance, writing down something that you need to get done onto a piece of paper and handing it over works well.

2. Do IM only at predefined time slots
Having preferred time slots for IMs and informing respective contacts in advance is an option that works for me.  Some examples: Be online in Messenger for 10 minutes every 2 hours or just thrice a day (say, at 10:00 am, 01:00 pm and 04:00 pm) or even once per day for 30 minutes or so.

Remember that these are mere examples — you need to find out a schedule that works for you. However, idea is to keep the frequency of getting online in messenger to the less possible number.

3. Categorize your IM message types
Observe your IM patterns. What types of messages you’re communicating with IMs? Are the messages like: come to my desk or want to go for a coffee? Or you use IM to share your good morning and let’s go lunch kind of  messages? Observe the impact of each categories in your daily life. What if you eliminate such a communication category?

4. Do your work with IM signed out
When you’re actually working, keep your IM client closed and measure the quality of your produced work. IM is but a distraction while you’re producing something. Cultivate a habit of being available in IM only at a pre-agreed time. Being available all the time in IM simply conveys that your work is less important than IM. Now work without disturbance for at least a shorter period.

In closing, reflect on what American novelist Saul Bellow wrote:

“Happiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions.”

Can limited use of Instant Messenger contribute towards that?

See Also:

1. Stop Talking
2. Stop Being A Hero
3. Effective listening leads to effective actions and thus, better execution!

1. Stop Talking
2. Stop Being A Hero
3. Effective listening leads to effective actions and thus, better execution!