5 Great tips for Successful Managers

Young and passionate, eager to grow fast, finding ways to beat competition, most junior managers are amongst the most productive members of a team. However, due to their lack of experience, at times, they find achieving growth a big challenge.

Here are 5 great tips for Highly Successful Junior Manager:

1. Learn to write well:

In most working environments, effective written communication is an essential requirement. Learning to write well is utmost requirement. Writing well is an art, and it takes time to learn. Short, and precise writing is a great start. Clarity in your thoughts and expressing those thoughts in proper words will be the key!

2. Learn to capture verbal communication:

Understanding verbal instructions (and expectations) is also very important. Best way is to take notes and run those notes by the seniors to avoid any ambiguity. This will require improving your listening capability. Best way to do that is by focusing at the person who you are listening to.

3. Ask questions:

Asking question is a great way to improve communication with your seniors. Questions that will reduce chances for any failure in a process, or improve the rate of success are perhaps the most important ingredient for attaining career growth. I recommend reading this great article by Emma Johnson titled “How to Get Anything You Want By Asking Better Questions”.

4. Plan a Show-Time:

Every week or so, there has to be a show-time. This is a planned activity that requires careful execution. Show-time is a value added item. You can challenge a process, design a process, engage someone in improvement, celebrate a day (such as environment day), write a blog etc. Show-time provides an opportunity to your seniors to see you standing out from the crowd.

5. Create a Team:

Work cannot be done without an effective team. At the earliest, build a team that you can trust. Best teams have diversity of age, gender and experiences. Find people who want to grow with you. Bring them together by building a team culture, lead them to success.

I am sure these simple five tips will be a great start of your next career level!

11 Signs' You are working for a Bad Company

Seriously, one can ruin career while working for a bad company. I have seen people stressed and devastated, complaining about poor HR practices, lack of transparency and corruption.

Interesting thought came to my mind, “Work experience is like Ice Cream, it will be staled if you keep it in poor environment. Treat your work experience the way to you will treat Ice Cream. Work with companies that will value you and are interested in seeing your grow!”

Bad managers, micro-managers and those who do not have a family life (or troubled family life) are the most difficult people to work with. They are psychologically challenged and emotionally shattered, they work to kill themselves and pull the team along.

Bad working environment lead to bad organization culture. If you are in such a situation whole day long, it destroys efficacy and is unhealthy for career growth. Happy people and happy company is what I always desired in my career. I cannot work in depressed environment.

As a team leader, if my team is underperforming, one of the key question I ask myself is, “what is bothering them?” It is my job to figure out and make the working environment so conducive that they keep delivering. After all, my performance is dependent on how my team has been performing!

Here are 11 signs to find out if you are working for a bad company:

1. Seniors are always late in the morning, and sit late to complete their tasks.
2. You are expected to work over weekends and public holidays.
3. Taking sick leave is a crime.
4. You cannot trust even your own shadow.
5. Salaries are delayed on a regular basis.
6. Travel and medical claims are not settled promptly.
7. People CC too many people in their emails (lack of trust and fear of punishment).
8. Communication from senior management is impolite.
9. Courtesy and respect is non-existent.
10. Staff turnover is alarming.
11. Code of conduct is not applicable to Senior Management.
    Seriously, if even 50% of the above is true, you should consider quitting your job to save your career!

7 signals when to Quit your Job

Quitting job is good when you know exactly why are you quitting, and what will you do when you are out of job. Just getting stuck in a job for long makes you lazy. Your comfort zone takes over your enthusiasm to grow and adds to further laziness.

Ideally, you should try to find a new career, a new job a new opportunity while employed. In this case, you have better bargaining power; you are not desperate and can be firm on reasonable demands.

Quitting a job without any plan, without any opportunities in hand may hit you with hardships. But planned quitting and moving into a bigger and better position is a great idea.

Remember quitting is not bad, it helps in career growth!

Here is the list of 7 signals when to quit your job:

Signal #1: You are ready to start your entrepreneurial career; you have the idea, finance and are prepared to devote time and energy to build your own business.

Signal #2: You feel that you are stuck. Your career growth has slowed down.

Signal #3: You are not learning any new skills or adding value to your expertise.

The perceptions are over-shadowing your real potential. It’s a clear sign to move on. After all, it’s easier to create new perception rather than change old ones.

Signal #4: Your creativity is no longer appreciated. (This happens generally when you have a new boss who is a micromanager).

Signal #5: You see that your office is becoming a political battle ground and leadership is not paying attention in resolving this issue.

Signal #6: Your company is in financial mess. Recognize it at the right time before rightsizing policy throws you out of door.

Signal #7: Your dignity and honor are at great risk. Discouragement, disappointment, criticism rules the show at work.

Preempt these signals and analyze situation. Consider risks and list opportunities. This will help up you make appropriate decision.

Getting stuck in a non-productive job and staying unhappy is killing your career. Everyone has the right to look for better opportunities (salary, work, position, and career).

Find what you love to do and just do it!

:-)