Emails!!! In this century, people, office and organizations are connected through mails. This is the century where mails are preferred much more than a verbal conversation. Why? Because these mails can later be used as a proof of the conversation.

The days of the office memo are gone. You do not sign on those circulars that the office boys circulate in departments seeking the signature of everybody reading it. Today it is the electronic signature that is important and it is a valid enough evidence that you have read a circular.

This is a series that I am starting today on professional email etiquettes. This series would cover everything that is important when you write a professional email – the what, how and when of email writing.

In the first article here, we will be discussing about the importance of addressing the right person in the “To” field.

If you peep into your inbox right now, you will find quite a few mails which were actually ones that were to be actioned by you, yet you were nowhere in the “To” field of the email. There would also be certain other emails where you were one of the many who were addressed in the “To” field, but you had nothing to do with it and it was just for your information.

The Importance of the “To” field -

The “To” address field has a lot of importance. It is indeed the electronic signature that we discussed a while ago in one of the paragraphs above. When you mark a mail to a person, he is supposed to be the intended recipient of the mail. He is the one who is to action on the email, if the email had an actionable item in it. He is the one who virtually electronically signs the email, accepting that he has received the mail and that he will action on it, unless he explicitly writes back saying that he disagrees to the actions.

This importance of the “To” box is often forgotten. Emails that you receive are blindly forwarded to others without even checking on who is the person to act on the email.

The person who you think has to definitely and compulsorily read the email has to be marked in the “To” box. It is only he or, they if there is a group of people who should be there in the “To” box. The rest of the people who, you think should be kept in the loop  and who should also know about such a mail being sent by you are the ones who should be marked in the “Cc” or, “Bcc” boxes.

Always bear in mind that the person receiving the mail will only give as much importance to it as is required and he will decide this on the basis of the field that his name is appearing on.

A lot of extremely important activities and updates miss the actual intended recipients just because the email sender did not bother to focus on the “To” field.

It would be extremely unprofessional on your part if, you miss the name of the intended recipient from the “To” box. Hence the first lesson in professional emailing is to carefully identify the people who should be marked on the mail in the “To” field and the ones who the mail is to be marked as a carbon copy.

Are your spending more than 12 hours in your office and still unable to complete your work?

Is your team feeling demotivated and unimportant?

If you are wondering, why I asked these two different questions that has no relation with each other, then think again!! These two questions are related to each other.

I have still not forgotten that day, when my boss walked into my room once late in the evening just as he was passing by the office and found me still in the office. He looked at me and asked me, “What are you doing in office so late”? I had a sarcastic look in my eyes and replied, “Boss, I am trying to complete my work”. My boss responded with an even more sarcastic look and said, “If you cannot complete your work in 8 hours of office time, you cannot do it in 16 hours”. I felt insulted and disappointed. After a few minutes when I tried to decipher what was the inherent meaning of this statement, I learnt the biggest lesson of my life.

If you cannot complete your work in 8 hours of office time, you will not be able to complete it in 16 hours.

In my further discussion with my manager he told me how to work effectively in order to complete things in time. A lot of these discussions were around effectively delegating work.

What is Effective Delegation?

Are you someone who delegates all of your work to your team members and prefer being an audience? Or, do you delegate very little or, no work?

Effective delegation involves carefully assessing each of team members’ skills and competencies. Your team members will have specific areas of interests. There would be certain other areas on which they need to work some more and some others in which they are masters.

The key to effective delegation involves the following -

1. Delegating activities which are of utmost priority to team members who are masters in it.
2. Delegating critical activities to people who have an interest in those areas.
3. Delegating less critical activities that have some time to completion to people who are not experts in these areas and who require some grooming.

Though these could act as guidelines to deciding on how to delegate work, these might not be necessary rules to delegating. Effective delegation could involve a combination of all of these aspects. At times your decision could also be based on the composition of your team. Whatever the basis of decision, you need to bear in mind that your delegation should not in any way hamper the deliver-ability of the activities being assigned.

A few other aspects that you should need to keep in mind while deciding on how to delegate -

• Keep in mind, not to put somebody in charge of someone which whom they have a negative relationship.
• While delegating you should keep the “favoritism” aspect out of the decision making process. Delegate unbiased.
• You would not want to loose control of the situation and become vulnerable. Do not delegate everything that is important and put the burden on the shoulders of somebody else. Keep somethings that are important with you and stay in control. Keep on eye on everything that is happening around you.

It is often found that a lot of bosses delegate everything and finally find themselves at the edge of the cliff with no way to go. Don’t loose control of the situation ever.

Delegation and Motivation -

Every employee wants to be identified and wants some extra responsibility so that he can show his worth. He starts to develop a monotony with the activities that he has been doing everyday. There starts to develop a lack of sense of belongingness. They begin to distance themselves from the team and the team leader.

The gradual shift of the team member from the team and the feeling of not being important is the core of demotivation and loss of production. Delegation can take care of this to a great extent.

Additional responsibilities will make them feel important. They will learn and acquire new skills thus making their work even more exciting and interesting. They will identify themselves with the team and the leader.

I still remember once of the employee in a team of mine who had a huge problem in outage. His leaves exceeded much more that then entire team taken together and he has a reason every time he went on an unapproved leave. He was given the responsibility of outage management for the team. He had to approve leaves for the team. Gradually over a period of time, I observed that he became very efficient and kept his outage within control because he had to answer every other team member if he disapproved their application. Also he had the responsibility to ensure that the team’s outage is within control.

Delegation can do a world of good for your team members in motivating them and upskilling them in their career aspirations.

Do you really have to rely on your networking skills in order to grow in your organization?

This era is of networking. Business have taken to networking in order to connect with their customers because they know that it is the network that they create with their customers that will get them more and more customers. Stats have proven that networking has indeed helped businesses multiply their sales and their profits.

So when businesses have taken to networking, why shouldn’t networking play a role in your growth in an organization. And it is true that networking indeed plays a big role in your career growth in your organization.

If that is the last thing you wanted to hear then, career development is not for you.

When I as a manager, sees a vacant position in my department or, line of business as they call it these days, my worries are about the process that I will have to follow to pick the best person. Interviews, written tests etc. are the normal parts of the process and even after exercising restraints and judicious decision making, I still happen to get the wrong guy into my department. This only marks the beginning of a long and tiring journey in motivating, counseling, reprimanding etc. etc.

Interviews and discussions have more or, less become staged role-plays. The interviewee knows what will be asked and also knows what is the expected response to the question. Impressing an interviewer is not difficult if you are even slightly focused. Though there are extremely talented interviewers who are able to count the pulse of a person just by looking at the way he is responding to a question, most interviewers are not that talented and have to depend on the 1-2-3s of recruitment and interviewing techniques that they have learnt in trainings. A lot of negative aspects of the candidates, hence go un-identified and you end up picking the wrong person. The end-result – CHAOS and TROUBLE.

Why would I want to take that risk, when I have an alternate way of picking the best of the lot?

I would prefer talking to my colleagues and peers in various departments and organizations and ask them to refer candidates they think are the best fit for the role that I have in mind. Professionals, if they are and friends that they are, they would refer people they know and who have a proven track record. Though I am ruling out the possibility of a mis-fit being referred, still I would prefer this channel to the other.

This is where networking comes into the picture. If you have a strong network with your co-workers and superiors and with people in the department that you wish to get into as per your career plan, the likely hood of a referral for you by one of these is much higher and the chances of you getting the role is also much higher.

So wouldn’t you like to network better now?

In a later post we can discuss about what all are the things to bear in mind if you are to successfully network.

Social Networking…Does that term sound familiar? No question of an unfamiliarity, right?

If you are still not aware of what a social networking site is, then let me tell you that everything starting from Facebook, LinkedIn to Twitter can be called a social networking site. These are basically sites that help you network with other people and build a network.

How often have you been using a social networking site at your workplace?

Social Networking sites have become a menace to any workplace. But if you are an employee, I am sure that this statement would have created a frown on your face. My intention is not to do that, rather it is just to initiate a discussion around the topic.

Is Social Networking impacting work?

Social Networking is no more just a medium of interacting with your friends or, family members. It has gone far beyond that. Take for instance, LinkedIn. It has become a medium of connecting with people professionally. Over the past year or, so I have been able to connect to quite a few HR personnel and Talent Acquisition team members and I have received a few private message from some of these connections for job openings that they were responsible for filling up.

LinkedIn has a lot of features that help recruitment personnel make decisions. Because of the fact that this is a professional social networking website, people are more inclined to showing off their professional qualification and experience. Add to this the fact that there are a lot of people who vet the profiles and recommend them on the basis of their previous experiences. All of this gives the option of carefully scrutinizing these profiles before recruiters approach the prospective candidates.

But, does this license such social networking websites to be used at workplaces?

Social networking websites are not usually included in the list of prohibited websites in most organizations, which gives me an impression that such organizations do not have a problem with their employees accessing such websites. Whatever the approach of the organizations, the impact of using such websites on the routine work at job, is huge and undeniable.

It has been observed that employees spent a lot of time, at the cost of their work on networking. This not only impacts productivity to a great extent but also impacts the service that an employee provides in the course of his work at office. Efficiency and quality of work is all impacted.

Facebook and such other websites have a lot of positives and is a way of life these days. But should it be done at the cost of work? My opinion might be different from that of yours. Whatever your opinion is, it is always welcome. Let them come in the form of comments to this post.

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Was there really a recession? Were you able to see it? Did you experience it?

I still remember a post that I had written about an year back on the job change confusion. The US economy was hit by one of the worst recessions and the Indian economy felt the ripples. Almost all the industries felt it and took some very harsh decisions including laying off a lot of employees and putting a freeze on hiring. There were not too many organizations that were interested in appraising salaries or, paying bonuses even. They wanted to remain conservative in spending and hence decided against doing any of these.

The Million Dollar Question

But the million dollar question was – Was it actually due to the ailing economy or, was it a deliberate attempt on the part of the organizations to save on the funds disguising recession?

Whatever the situation was, there was no or, very less job options available in the market and there was all-round firing happening. So the advice from any job counselor would be to stick to your current job and not look for a change.

For those of you who opted to stay with your current employer, even though pay-hikes were negligible, there is good news finally. The economy is opening up and organizations have started hiring.

The Situation Now!

The recession is finally over. Almost all economies have started recovering, including the US economy. Organizations that were in a strict cost-efficiency mode have finally decided to shed their inhibitions and re-open. Although the fact remains that recession is over and the economies are opening up, the recovery is yet not complete.

An ambiguous explanation to the entire situation. Right?

I would not want to question your thoughts because it is true. The explanation is indeed ambiguous. As a matter of fact, nobody can say it with conviction that the recession is finally over. Just as it went into a spiraling downward movement about an year back taking everybody by surprise, it could come up or, even go further down.

If that be the case how will you take a call, right now. What should be your plan of action?

The Plan of Action

Don’t take any hasty decision. Take a planned and calculated course of action. It is true that organizations like Infosys, TCS etc. have announced their ambitious hiring plans. Other organizations like American Express and Barclays are also hiring. So there is no doubt that there are a lot of opportunities. But it is advisable that your choose your career options very carefully.

If you think that your current organization is not doing too well or, that your appraisal is not satisfactory, you should look for a change. If you current status is not too good, then you can pick the next best opportunity that is coming your way. But if your current organization is stable and your role is kind of satisfying, then you should wait for a comparatively better opportunity. Till then you should stick to your current role and stay tight.

Economic situations like the one that is prevailing calls for a well-thought about career move. The volatility in the economy still remains. Think and decide.

What is the secret to a happy day?

The other day I was reading an article from Stephen Covey. In this article he had explained a principle called as the 90/10 principle. This is what he had to say about the principle -

10% of life is made up of what happens to you, ……90% of life is decided by how you react……

What exactly does this mean?

It simple means that you do not have control over 10% of what happens to you. The remaining 90% is different and this is very much in our control.

There is no rocket science to happiness. It is a simple decision on your part – to be happy or, not. We are always given 2 choices of reacting to a particular situation. Whether we will be happy or, not is decided by the choice that we pick. This principle was a beautiful explanation to this concept.

Did you ever have control over a cup of coffee spilling onto your shirt, a pedestrian jumping across you vehicle or, the printer cartridge printing unclear all of a sudden? Not really, isn’t it? But how you react to this situation is something that you have complete control over.

The key to getting this 90% right is to maintain your composure, be calm, smile and just move on. In doing that you give a pleasant approach to the others and they too tend to forget the frustration and dissatisfaction that they are surrounded with and in turn makes a happy day for them too.

The first thing to in all such situations where you would have shouted at or, yelled at, is to remain calm and composed. Stephen Covey explains this with a beautiful example -

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just what happened. What happens when the next will be determined by how you react.You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over.

She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work.

You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day?

1. Did the coffee cause it?
2. Did your daughter cause it?
3. Did the policeman cause it?
4. Did you cause it?

The answer is “4″.

You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, “It’s ok honey, you just need, to be more careful next time”. Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

The application of this 90/10 principle at work is also very effective. More often that not, the stress and tension that you feel at work is because of the choice of the wrong way of reacting to a situation. At such otherwise stressful situations like a loss of job, application of the 90/10 principle to put your energy into constructive things could help you handle the situation much better.

Photograph courtesy Crystal Leigh Shearin

The first step in perception management will be to ensure that the little time that you spend with the ones who you wish to influence is positive in all sense. Let me take the example of the regular employee. What is it that is influencing the superiors to form a negative perception about the good employee? It is the lack of interaction of this employee with his superiors, during the days that he is in office. The superiors don’t see much of him on such days and add to it the few days that he is on leave and a perception is made that the employee is never available.

How will you change the perception here? Just start interacting with your superiors a bit more on the days you are in office. Let them see a bit more of you. They will start to see a lot of you and would not miss you when you are on leave. Another thing you could do is to make people realize that you are never on leave. Before you go on a leave, make it a point to go to your bosses and engage in a chat during which you let them know that you will be on leave the next day after a long time – a much needed break.

To sum it up, the single most important and easiest way to perception management is to project a positive behavior to your superiors in the little time that you interact with them or, increase the interaction time, whichever is feasible to you.

There is nothing wrong in “Perception management”, though a few people profess that it is the wrong practice. You have been a very sincere employee but the sincerity needs to be appreciated by your superiors if you are to grow in your career. So a bit of dressing-up is not unethical.

What is the single most important thing that distinguishes a good leader from a bad one?

You will find numerous leaders around you – in your organization, in your country and even in your family. Leaders influence you and your actions and in some way becomes responsible for your goals in life. They pave the way to your career and show you the ways to achieving them.

It is the same in case of a bad leader too. He too would influence you to a great extent. But it is unlikely that you would look upto him. Perhaps because of his behavior. Is there something else as well that makes him different from a good leader?

Empathy!!!

It is empathy that distinguishes a good leader from a bad. That’s right.

Leadership houses on the foundation of empathy. I have quite often come across leaders, rather worked with leaders who are more focused towards getting things done or, achieving their individual goals in life. In doing so they would not be bothered about how their followers are feeling or, what they are going through. They would profess things that they would not have done in the wildest of their dreams.

A lot of leaders, after they become leaders forget the path that they have treaded en-route to their position. They forget the difficulties that they had faced. They start thinking as if they were never in the position that their followers were in. This brings in an “I am not bothered” approach in their behavior. People follow such leaders for some time, but gradually when they start feeling that their leader is not empathetic towards them, they start to move away from such leaders.

What is Empathy?

A bookish definition is not what I would want to present here as an answer to this question. What is real is empathy?

My manager walks up to me and says that he wants to spend some time with me. He sits with me and listens to what I have to say. He is transparent with me and understands and acknowledges everything that I am going through and speaks to me about all the changes, its impacts and the like. I start to feel that he is with me and is like me and that he understands me.

This is a situation, when I as an employee look up to my Manager as a leader – a leader who is empathetic towards me. We can quote a thousand different definitions for “empathy”, but what empathy actually means can only be explained by someone who has actually been touched with it.

For a manager to develop empathy, he has to come out of his shell. A manager has to get outside and spend time with his direct reports to understand his situation and develop a sense of empathy towards him. Spending time with your direct reports at his workstation is not what it means. Rather, you need to spend time with him at places where he is his actual self, where he behaves naturally. It is only then that you will be able to understand him in detail. Such interactions help you know what the real world and real environment is like. You need to be genuinely interested in your people.

At this juncture it is also important to understand the fact that merely spending time with them will not bring in empathy. You need to ensure that you bring back the evidence of this real world to your office.

It is not unnatural for all of us to get entangled in data, given the kind of tough environment that we work in. But what we need to take care off is that we are not forgetting how to empathize with our direct reports. You might have all other traits in you, but without empathy these traits are of no use and you would still be much far away from being a good leader.