http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr3/
Category: bookmarks
Managing your Boss: 4 Rules to Live by and 4 Steps to Take
By Bob Selden
John was a former boss of mine. Before I started working for him, I had heard from others that he had a very good reputation and so I was really looking forward to working with him. The office was a very busy one with lots of customer interaction and a very heavy processing workload. After the first couple of months, I got the feeling that there was no real harmony in our relationship and I found it difficult to work out why. John was good with the customers and well liked by other staff, but we just didn’t seem to hit it off. It was not until my formal performance appraisal some months later that I finally found out what the problem was. The job I’d taken over was in a real mess and required a great deal of management skill to get it back on track, which I believed I had done well. During my performance appraisal discussion, John acknowledged my good work in this area, but (and it was a big “but” for him) he didn’t see me doing enough marketing with potential customers.
You see, John’s pet interest was marketing and he expected all of his people to make this their number one priority.
Do you know what your manager’s number one or key priorities are?
Although we often have performance discussions with our manager, how clear are we on the order of priority they have for each area of our performance? How clear are they themselves about their “expectations” of us? These “expectations” are often unwritten and in fact may be somewhat different to the formal performance requirements of the role.
So, what’s the best way to manage the relationship with your boss? There are two aspects of this; firstly four clear action steps that you can plan for and take at the start of your working partnership and secondly, four “rules” that you should follow in all your dealings with your boss to ensure a productive working relationship is maintained.
Step One: Agree your manager’s expectations of you
A simple way of doing this, is to have a discussion with him or her (preferably soon after you start in the role). Ask your manager;
• “What are the top three priorities in the role that you would like me to focus on?”
• Or, if you have a formal performance discussion, ask your manager to assign a percentage figure of “importance” against each one of your key responsibility areas (each area should be given a percentage out of a total for all areas of 100%) so that you can assess his or her priorities. You should also ask “Why this is so important?” as the answer will give you a lot of good clues for developing the relationship.
Should this discussion merely be a repeat of the formal performance requirements of your role, then you will need to gather some of the “unwritten” ways your boss will assess both you and your performance. Sometimes, the boss may not even be consciously aware of these expectations, but none the less they will be there. One good way of doing this is to ask him or her to explain their ideal employee. You can do this with a question such as: “You’ve probably had many good people working for you previously. What is it about these people that you particularly liked?” If you want some more information, you can always ask your manager to describe some of the characteristics and behaviours of their most disappointing employees.
Step Two: Assess yourself
What is it about you that impedes or facilitates working with your boss? Draw up a (short) list of “Things that I like about working with my boss” and “Things that I don’t like about working with my boss”. Work out some ways to overcome, or at least manage, the things that you don’t like, for these are probably the areas that your boss is least happy with. If necessary, ask some of your peers for assistance, particularly those who seem to have a good relationship with him or her.
You should also review the information about your manager’s ideal employee and most disappointing employee that you obtained in step one. What will you need to do to ensure that you take account of your manager’s likes and dislikes in his or her employees?
Applying this step doesn’t mean that you have to change your style or personality. However, it does mean that you need to be careful that your behaviour does not clash with your manager’s expectations.
Step Three: Understand your boss
You don’t have to become lifelong friends with your boss, but you do have to understand him or her. For example, try to develop strategies for the following:
- How does he/she like to receive information? When? What form? Does he/she like lots of detail or big picture? Give it that way.
- What is his/her number one strength? Capitalize on it.
- What is his/her number one weakness? How can you help?
- What’s the boss’ central goal? How can you assist?
- What are his/her main pressures? How can you help minimize these?
- How does your boss handle conflict? How can you help (or avoid)?
Step Four: Recognize that there are differences in style and adapt
For example, you may have different personality styles; you may be an introvert, your boss may be an extrovert, or vice versa. This doesn’t mean that you suddenly have to change, but please do think about his or her style and learn to manage it. For instance, extroverts like to work out problems by talking them through. So, if your boss is more extroverted, then it can be quite useful to talk through issues with him or her to reach a decision. Introverts on the other hand, like plenty of time to think about a problem and then discuss their ideas and possible solutions. If your boss is more introverted, then you will need to go to him or her with very well thought out proposals and recommendations – trying to reach a conclusion by talking the issues through with this style of manager will definitely not work. Make sure that you have a good understanding of both yours and your boss’ style so that you can learn to manage the differences.
Implementing the above four steps with your boss will go a long way to building a solid foundation for the relationship.
In addition to these four steps, there are also four rules that I believe you should always follow in your ongoing relationship with him or her if you want it to be truly productive.
Rule One: There should be no surprises for your boss!
Keep your boss informed of what’s happening in your area on a regular basis, particularly potential problems. If you are in doubt as to what to tell or not tell your boss, always ask yourself: “Would this information have an impact on my boss’ position?” It’s generally better to communicate too much than too little.
Rule Two: Never hide a problem
No matter how much you try, hidden problems will always come back to bite you (they are like lies – they will always find you out). Far better to be proactive. Keep in mind that you will help your situation if you present the information in a style that suits your boss; try to get the words “right” by communicating in a style that suits your boss’ communication style.
Rule Three: Always do your homework
Before approaching your boss with a question or to ask for help, always do as much research as possible so that you have the complete facts. If he or she constantly has to send you away for more information, then you have not prepared properly. Try to bring your solutions or suggested solutions with you when presenting a problem on which you want some help. This will demonstrate to your boss that you are taking initiative although you may not have all the answers.
Rule Four: Do not underrate or undercut your boss
Present a united front – support your boss with others. Disagree with him/her in private, never in public.
Finally, remember the person who has most control over your immediate future (other than yourself) is your boss. Treat him or her with that respect. From my experience, following these four rules and implementing the four steps mentioned earlier, will ensure that your relationship with your boss is a very positive one. By following these boss management strategies with my manager John, I was able to turn around what had started out as a poor relationship. So much so, that when I decided to resign some time later to take up a better job offer, John tried hard to keep me as I had become one of his “ideal employees”.
Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/leadership-articles/managing-your-boss-4-rules-to-live-by-and-4-steps-to-take-103309.html”
Bob Selden
Bob Selden has had some very difficult bosses and some great ones. This article summarizes the strategies he believes are important in managing your boss. Bob is always interested in hearing about boss relationships – good or bad – so please contact him at http://www.nationallearning.com.au with your experiences or current boss management challenges to get some free advice
The deadly Swine Flu has reached the Indian shores following the global outbreak and now, claimed one life. However, Swine Flu is certainly one of those diseased where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Here are ten tips for you to keep away from the pandemic.
1. Wash your hands frequently
Use the antibacterial soaps to cleanse your hands. Wash them often, at least 15 seconds and rinse with running water.
2. Get enough sleep
Try to get 8 hours of good sleep every night to keep your immune system in top flu-fighting shape.
3. Drink sufficient water
Drink 8 to10 glasses of water each day to flush toxins from your system and maintain good moisture and mucous production in your sinuses.
4. Boost your immune system
Keeping your body strong, nourished, and ready to fight infection is important in flu prevention. So stick with whole grains, colorful vegetables, and vitamin-rich fruits.
5. Keep informed
The government is taking necessary steps to prevent the pandemic and periodically release guidelines to keep the pandemic away. Please make sure to keep up to date on the information and act in a calm manner.
6. Avoid alcohol
Apart from being a mood depressant, alcohol is an immune suppressant that can actually decrease your resistance to viral infections like swine flu. So stay away from alcoholic drinks so that your immune system may be strong.
7. Be physically active
Moderate exercise can support the immune system by increasing circulation and oxygenating the body. For example brisk walking for 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week will significantly perk up your immunity.
8. Keep away from sick people
Flu virus spreads when particles dispersed into the air through a cough or sneeze reach someone else’s nose. So if you have to be around someone who is sick, try to stay a few feet away from them and especially, avoid physical contact.
9. Know when to get help
Consult your doctor if you have a cough and fever and follow their instructions, including taking medicine as prescribed.
10. Avoid crowded areas
Try to avoid unnecessary trips outside.
I was searching for formula to calculate Zoom ‘x’ for DSLRs, While searching I found this nice and detailed answer regarding this by some person named ‘Jim_T’
Answer was ->
Zoom and magnification have little to do with each other.. They’re two different things.
Zoom only describes how much you can change the focal length of a lens. For instance, if you have a 28-135 lens that’s set to 135mm, and you’re too close to get your whole subject in the viewfinder, you can ZOOM OUT to a smaller focal length to make things fit.. It’s common to think zoom is designed to bring things closer.. but you have to consider you can zoom ‘away’ or ‘out’ as well.
When you twist a zoom lens in and out, your subject appears to rush towars you, or away from you… Or in other words, zoom close or zoom far.. Or zoom in and zoom out.. Zoom is a verb that’s used to describe this apparent motion caused by varying the focal length.
The amount a lens can zoom in (or out) is determined by dividing the maximum focal length by the minimum focal length.. 135/28 = 4.82 X (135mm is 4.82 times greater than 28mm)
A fixed lens (ie EF 1200 f/5.6L USM) has NO zoom. That’s right.. 1200mm and you have NO zoom. You have a fixed focal length, you can’t zoom in or out.. (You have to use your feet 
) You’ll never find a fixed focal length lens described as a zoom lens.
If you go to the Canon lens site.. You’ll see they do not call *any* of their prime lenses ‘zoom’ lenses.. http://www.usa.canon.com/eflenses/lineup/index.html
The magnification of a lens gets complicated. It depends on what format they’re designed for.. A 100mm lens for a medium format camera will have less magnification than a 100mm lens designed for a 35mm camera.
Generally, it’s accepted that for the 35mm film format, a 50mm lens approximates the human eye.. (Not exactly, but close). You’ll notice that the 50mm prime lens is described as a ‘Normal’ lens or a ‘Standard’ lens. As focal lengths decrease, you move towards wide angle and as focal lengths increase, you move towards telephoto.
Since 50mm is roughly what we see.. You can get an approximate of lens magnification by dividing by 50. So a 100mm lens would magnify like a 2X telescope. A 300mm lens would be like a 6X telescope.
The 10D/300D have a 1.6 crop factor, so you have to take that into account. 300mm nets the same field of view as a 480mm lens.. So a fixed 300mm lens on a 10D/300D will give you no zoom and 9.6X magnification..
If you have a 15-30mm lens, you have 24-48mm.. Despite the fact the lens has a 2X zoom rating, at the maximum of 48mm, it has no magnification at all..
Zoom and magnification are two different things.
I upgraded my WP installation with latest WP release (2.8). After auto upgrading this I was getting error when Admin area is accessed, Error was looking something like Call to a member function read() on a non-object in html/wp-includes/theme.php on line 387. I tried installing it manually with overwriting all files in installation folder, but that didnt helped me.
Anyone has solution ??
|
Mandar drupal is good CMS.
|
I daily visit some sites as my daily dosage, to peep into the word and see what is happening outside my world. the site includes news from India, USA, some sport news, and some site which keep updating with loads of information daily.
One site I would like to emphasize is Smashing Magazine they cover topics from web to graphics, and code to css. The site also showcases many freebies in their articles regularly. They have lot of material/links for insiration and lot of tutorials to take it in reality.
I read regularly updated articles on my reader using their RSS feed.
Hope this site will be useful to you….
I was trying find good option to integrate picasaweb albums in my Blog post.
I found Postcasa, this plugin lets you integrate Picasaweb Slideshow in you blog post just by entering short code and album url. I have installed it on my blog and it works well.
‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.