The creative mind

Brainstorming could be quite time consuming. If we could use a method, we save a lot of time. The power of using morphological matrix to get combination for key words. Coming up with an acronym becomes so much easier.
The first step is to come up with as many positive words that relate to GOAL.
If we start off with the letter G, we could get the following words such as Grabbing your attention, giving your best, Go-getting, Good to greatness, going all the way, Glory, Getting there, grasping the subject. (8 possibilities)
Next if we look at the letter O, we could get the following words such as Opportunities, Outcome, Objective, Organizing your thought, Order, Optimism, on the right tracks, out to get the results. (8 possibilities)
Then if we look at A, we could get the following words such as Availability of resources, Accountability, Accuracy, Alliances, Amount of effort, Attitude, All out to win, Assign.(8 possibilities)
Finally if we look at L, we could get the following words such as Listen to your inner voice, Learning from others, looking for avenues, Lucky, Leading, Leverage, Letting your bad habits go, Likability. (8 possibilities)
We could possibly get 8 X 8 X 8 X 8 = 4,096 and if you just add one more possibilities to each you get 6,561 possible combinations that could be great solutions.
The following are just a few examples for G.O.A.L.
Grabbing your attention, objectives, accountability and leverage. Grasping the subject, objectives, accountability and leverage. Good to Greatness, objectives, accountability and leverage. Grabbing your attention, organize your thoughts, accountability and leverage. Go-Getting, objectives, accountability and learning from others.

Actively Engaging the Disengaged

Task and relationships are two major ingredients that take place in any form of interaction. The sooner organizations can realize that if they want to focus on getting things done according to importance and urgent, they would have to look into qualities of experience from the relations of the employees.

Organization do have an interest, to make their shareholders happy. The mission of most organizations would be to increase their sales turnovers, to reduce their overheads and make great profit.

What we focus on will expand. If we keep focusing on getting employees engaged in their task,have we overlooked some areas? Do we spend time in a relationship to better understand our employees? What makes them engaged at work? There is a greater driving force that allows more work to be done with greater efficiency and effectiveness by just connecting with them on a deeper level.

Some quick pointers to think about on the subject of employee engagement.

Are we investing time understanding our direct contacts such as supervisors, subordinates and any other internal customers?

Are we taking an active role understanding the talents, style and skills our employees posses?

What are the company values, our values and others values?

What engages them at work?

What disengages them?

When was the last time you invested in better understanding their values and expectations?

Do we focus more on the task and forget about the relationship?

Are we using technology such as text messages, emails and letters that we lack the human touch?

The key to a successful employee-employer relationship is not only be clear of the task and communicating it but taking the time to understand others.Why do I say this? Allow me to share with you an experience encountered by a friend. He engaged a few staff to work for him to complete a project. Initially they were very extremely committed and enthusiastic. However, in the heart of the project he faced so much of excuses raised by the employees and witness a reduction in productivity that resulted in the delay of the project. Fortunately my friend believes strongly in empathy. Being a people-oriented person, he invested the time understanding their concerns, values and aspirations. Just by that experience, working on those interactions and relationship, he was able to secure an extremely committed and happy team and many projects and contracts.

I would like to strongly urge you on to look into this matter. Are we spending enough time in better understanding our employee?

How to connect with anyone at all levels?

Man is a social animal bounded by relationships, both personal and formal. According to Barbara Colorose, "We control fifty percent of a relationship and influence hundred percent of it". Influence is the capacity to produce the required effect on the actions, behavior and opinions of others. The appropriate utilization of influence helps you produce excellent results, thereby making you the "Special Point of Contact", which in turn again makes your circle of influence larger and effective. And as the work burden increases, it necessitates the influence on all other levels of organization in order to deliver the task on time. Technically, this is called as the Law of Reciprocity and Exchange. According to the law, exchange and influence are an important part of interpersonal behavior; exchange being paid for what is done and influence is giving others what they need.

Influence needn't come from a higher level of authority. It comes from those who possess certain leadership qualities like intelligence, maturity, personality, etc. Such influential people can be called leaders in their respective fields. Leaders inspire others towards high performance leading to significant impact on the organization's performance. The attributes of inspiring leaders include being role models, goal setters, change champions, good communicators and most importantly making an emotional connection with the group. The competency of leaders lies not in fixing the weaknesses of the group but in rather building their key areas of strength.

A good leader has the ability to engage with the employees and build strong relationships. He renders full support to employees at all levels to utilize their full potential and achieve professional and personal success. A leader is who is always open to ideas from all levels of the organization, creates an exciting environment for the employees to work in. Sub ordinates tend be mutually supportive. This increases the productivity and ultimately the sub ordinates are rewarded for their extra effort taken. Therefore, we can say that motivating the employees to perform better is a psychological process linked to the stimulus which has to come from the leader.

Leadership is a means of motivating the subordinates. Among motivational factors like harmonizing, empathizing, appreciating, rewarding, being a role model and morally supporting the employees, its harmony in the work groups that arouse the team spirit. This is better known as "Espirit De' Corps". It inspires and influences the workers to work harder together. To inculcate the team spirit the subordinates should be infused with a sense of belongingness towards their job. A face to face mode of communication should be practiced for greater and better impact.

It is rightly said that only when people enjoy their job, they deliver their best. So, the work culture of an organization or the home, be it whatsoever, the enjoying spirit should be alive in them. There should be no place for any misunderstanding and efforts should be directed at creating enthusiasm. An enthusiasm filled heart influences the person to give his best shot.

Engaging Factors

1) Is there clarity in Job expectation?

2) Are there high levels of motivation?

3) Are there adequate tools to complete work responsibilities?

4) Is there a culture of respect where outstanding work is valued?

5) When was the last review of company rewards, recognitions and incentive systems? Is it Fair and appropriate?

6) Is Effective leadership available?

7) Are there opportunities for advancement and professional development?

8) Is regular constructive feedback and mentoring available?

Are We Making Sense?

How to appeal to the senses for a better speaking and listening experience
By Santhanaram Jayaram

As you walk into the room and look round, you see an ocean of unfamiliar faces, hearing their chatter. The time draws close and it’s your turn to the podium to deliver your message. You could smell the sweetness of being in the spot light and yet you taste anxiety as your stomach roars in discomfort and your knees feel weak. Relax and let us make sense of our presentation.

See
When we communicate with others, our intentions have to be clear and concise. In view of what we say, what do we want others to get a scope on? The speaker should not stare off into space but bring forth a mental image of the bigger picture to the audience. The speaker must be able to paint a picture through vivid description of the subject. There must not be a barrier between the audience and the speaker. The audience must be able to get a perspective on the subject the speech is about and some clear-cut, well defined key points that they can take away and apply. As much as the audience appreciates the speaker’s message, the speaker has to bear in mind a few questions,
• Is his speech pattern appropriate for the occasion?
• Does his style suit his personality?
• Does the presenter wear a conducive and more eye-appeasing color that appeals to the audience?
• Does the speaker show congruence of his body movements with his verbal cues?
• Does his gestures go with his message?
• Does he project confidence through his posture?

Hear
Being presenters, we should well inform the audience of our speech sequence. State our purpose clearly by the use of any style and build momentum in our speech. We can use past, present and the future through a time line or a compare and contrast approach. We can derive a solution from a problem or describe an effect from the cause. What ever we do, we have to sing it to the tune others would want to hear. The speaker should sound out some of these questions for a perfect pitch.
• Is tone of the presentation very monotonous?
• Does he or she have a high pitch or low pitch?
• Is there some melody or rhythm that is unique to the speaker?
• Is the presentation loud and clear?
• Does the speaker use proper enunciation and pronunciation of words?

Taste
When it comes to the taste, the audience may experience varied flavors. There are four common flavors of salty, sour, bitter and sweet.
Salty flavor - The audience sense annoyance and irritation. This could be a result of the speaker being disrespectful or grouchy when he or she is giving a presentation. The speaker might be unclear in what he or she is saying or might be repeating their points. The speaker may say words that might be mean and offensive.
Sweet flavor – Speakers have to use anecdotes and stories that add a minty flavor. Use flowery words and quotations that spice up the crowd such as “Lovely”, “Awesome”’ “Fantastic” and “I cannot hear your heartbeat, then you guys might be too far away, lets get closer and be connected”. Inject a variety of positive words in your presentation and the audience will love your recipe.
Bitter flavor – This experience is when the speaker is not congruent with his or her words. The speaker might be contradicting what they say when delivering their message. An example would be when he gives conflicting views during his presentation.
Sour flavor– The audience is not agreeable, with what the speakers preaches. There is a sense of uneasiness and unhappiness in the air. The topics raised might be unpleasant. The speaker might have crossed his boundaries and said sharp penetrating words that might emotional affect the audience. There might be culturally sensitive topics or strong opinions.

Smell
Being a great fan of the wrestling entertainment, I would observe how these wrestlers entertain us through their fancy attires and charismatic phrases. “If you smell, what the ROCK, is COOKING!” these were the expressions coined by an American actor, professional wrestler and philanthropist, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His words were electrifying. When it comes to speaking to an audience, we have to gain awareness of the aroma of a great speech. Let us sniff out some essential questions.
• How much time and effort do we allocate in structuring a quality speech?
• Would the audience be able to concentrate on the style, content and context?
• Are there too many flowery words?
• Does the message give a pungent experience?
• Is the speech pleasant or unpleasant?
• Is the intensity of the message too weak or too strong?
• Would the audience prefer fragrance and aroma versus stench and stink in their speech experience?

Just like the penetrating odor of the male musk deer, choosing the right words could present us a good aftershave experience. Use simple and easy to understand language. Avoid jargons and words that are not self-explanatory. If not they would create an unpleasant rotten egg experience.


Touch
The human touch would be the most crucial sense as it calls for action. As the speaker conveys his thoughts and ideas, he would want some warm acceptance of his ideas by at least a few members of the audience. One of the concerning and dreadful experiences a speaker has to face is when the audience gives the speaker a hard time by giving their cold shoulder. The speaker has to find some strings to pull and win over the audience. He or she has to find a way to turn on the heat. It boils down to how the speaker is able to read the signals and break their state. For this, the speaker has to be cool, calm and collected. Let us embrace some thoughts about feeling the audience.
• Is there warmth in the presentation or are the words cold?
• Is the presenter able to draw out pleasing moment in the mind of others?
• Does the speaker use sufficient pauses to generate anticipation?
• Does the speaker have stories that evoke emotions?

As we have just experience a journey with our senses, does this makes sense to you. What are you going to do about what you have just read? Are you going to ignore this or are you going to do something about it?

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