Personal Improvement Blog
Archive for February, 2009
6 quick tips to keep your career on track
Feb 27th
The recession is taking a heavy toll on us, with massive job cuts and reduced pay being reported across the world. Everyone still holding a job is feeling tense – who knows when the axe will fall on them!
It is better not to give into negative thinking, but plan and prepare for such an eventuality. Here are some quick tips to help you. These are not new, but they are exactly what I did to find a different role in my organization.
1. Network like crazy
Network with all your contacts in your entire career. Yes, your entire career.
Dig out those old emails and make a list of people with whom you have more than a passing acquaintance. Send them a “hi, how are you doing?” email. No pitching for any jobs at this point. With those who respond, have a more detailed conversation and renew old ties. Please remember, there has to be a genuine connection, otherwise you risk being labelled as a person who remembers them only in times of distress.
2. Face time with people who matter
“Out of sight is out of mind” is probably a cliche, but true nevertheless. Know who the movers and shakers in your department are and initiate closer interaction with them. Go out for lunch with them or at least the coffee machine. It is easier to recommend someone whom you see every day than someone who may be more talented, but is not seen!
3. Establish your expertise
Nothing establishes your reputation like published papers. Write a few whitepapers and send them for external publication in conferences and workshops. Become a panel discussion member or a speaker at such conferences. They can add a lot to your credentials (and your credibility in the eyes of your cutomers!)
4. Keep looking for jobs
A job in hand is better than two in the bush – to paraphrase the old saying. Don’t let this stop you from constantly looking out for another one. It may be an internal role or outside the company, but never assume your job is permanent.
5. Work like crazy
Although there is no guarantee that workalohics will not be laid off, it may make a difference when you are competing against others for jobs. A workalohic will appear passionate about giving his all to the company when it is in a tough situation. This is also the moment to forget about Work-Life Balance. Indeed, in my blog series on Work-Life Balance, I had referred to situations where you may have peak and down periods of effort. This is one of those times!
6. Reduce your Cost to Company
If you are considered costlier to the company vis a vis the benefit the company gets from you, you are in danger. This is all the more true if you are a senior person in the company. Get a feel (or an actual quote from your manager, if you can!) on what is the cost/benefit ratio for you in the company. Take steps if possible to minimize that. For example, you can reduce telephone, fuel, electricity and other “perk” costs. Proactively forego raises or the company car till the company is back to normal.
Do you have any such tips that you have used? Share it with us in the comments.
Make working from home work – tips to telecommute and save money (Part 2)
Feb 17th
In Part 1 of this series, there were 5 tips on how to prepare for telecommuting. Here are more tips on telecommuting once you have permission from your organization.
Before I start, let me briefly summarize the tips from Part 1:
- Identify the activities that can be done from home – Most jobs have some part that does not need you to be in office. Identify them clearly
- Allocate time at home – Set apart a few hours every weekend for work at home. This is only for the preparation phase where you are checking for feasibility
- Plan and set up a work environment at home – A separate place to work can give you the concentration you need. All infrastructure and tools you need must be setup in this place to simulate your office
- Log all activities done from home – This gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to continue the process. As a side benefit, it may give you evidence when you initiate a discussion with your manager
- Discuss with your manager – Propose your telecommuting strategy to your boss and present a “win-win” argument. Depending on your company’s culture, you may want to start with specifying why you need to work from home before describing the benefits for the company. Be up-front about any challenges or additional costs you expect
Once your managers are comfortable and give you the go-ahead, you can start the pilot phase. You have done this as part of preparation, but this is the “formal” pilot to give the organization the confidence that you can pull it off.
1. Agree on outcome-based work
A primary cause of resistance to telecommuting is that it leads to lack of accountability. This may not always be true, but after generations of working in an office, it is hard for people to accept that work can be done at home by responsible people with the same quality and on time. I stress “responsible”, since if you don’t feel the same amount of accountability when you work from home, then you might not be able to sustain it for long.
I need not tell you that if one person in a department fails to work effectively while telecommuting, he/she screws the pitch for everyone else!
One way to avoid ambiguity on responsibility/accountability is to agree on outcomes (also called “deliverables”). I say outcomes, since not all work results in a concrete product. “Draft presentation ready for review by Thursday” is an outcome, while “Interact with relevant people and create draft for departmental presentation” can be an activity.
[Those who are familiar with Work-Breakdown structures vs Product Break-down structures will know what I am talking about!]
When negotiating on outcome based work, don’t forget to discuss acceptable standards on quality, format, layouts, and maybe even content
2. Attend office 2-3 times a week
The best telecommuting strategy is one where you are not missed on the days you are not in at the office! Face time has been important always and will become even more important today when “teamwork” is the new mantra. Make sure you attend all meetings – be seen and be listened to. Volunteer for additional work, if you must.
Schedule meetings on the days when you are at office, but if you have a meeting on of your off-days, do agree. After all, getting work done is more important, so don’t bicker. If the organization has been flexible, you also need to show some flexibility.
3. Keep lines of communication open
Related to the point about being in office is the fact that you must be available at all times for contact from your office. Of course, this is not to say that you work 24×7, but at least within normal office hours. There is nothing more frustrating that not being able to reach someone for a critical piece of information (when you know the person is supposed to be working from home!)
Another aspect of keeping the lines open is to constantly communicate with your boss, your peers and your subordinates. You may have to follow-up a little more than usual, but if you do it politely, it should work.
4. Provide frequent progress updates
Keeping your manager updated on progress is very important. You can call him to report briefly on what you have accomplished, followed by an email that may be a little more detailed. This is especially significant in the early days of telecommuting, so that your manager doesn’t feel you have disappeared from the face of the earth!
5. Avoid interruptions at home
One of the most common (and annoying!) challenges is interruptions from family – of the “can you switch off the microwave and look after the baby while I run to the corner shop for a minute” variety! Granted, this may be the reason why you are telecommuting, but those minutes can easily become hours. Sometimes, a programme on the telly might distract you or the neighbours may drop in for a chat.
You SHOULD avoid these distractions. Firmly tell your family that office time is inviolate – close the door shut if need be and any phone calls from them will be rejected, unless it is an emergency. They have to treat it as if you were really at office.
If you have a situation where you are telecommuting to help out at home, then mark those hours strictly. Remember, once you lose your credibility at office for not delivering, it is almost impossible to get second chances!
6. Get feedback
Once you have successfully worked for sometime from home, its time to ask your boss (and co-workers, if need be) for feedback. Has your performance been to the same level? Is there anything you are doing that might affect your credibility, raises, promotions etc? Does the managers above think positively about me?
If you get a negative feedback, especially from a manager that was supportive of your idea to telecommute, revisit your plans and drop the work from home part immediately, unless being at home is critical to you. In that case, you must take additional steps to resolve the danger signals like spending more time office, clarifying issues with colleagues etc.
A final word of caution - while telecommuting may save costs, in some organizations, you may be at risk if you ask for this option. Even though the company talks about flexitime in its brochures, they may remain primarily a recruitment tool and frowned upon. So be careful about this option and do it only when you are absolutely sure the organization has no problem with it.
Are you working from home? Do you have any tips on telecommuting that you would like to share? Do so in the comments.
[For other ways to balance Work and life, you can see the 3-part series starting here - Part 1 ]
Make working from home work – tips to telecommute and save money (Part 1)
Feb 16th
As another cycle of recession is upon us, everyone, from mega-corporations to individuals have to find ways to save and have cash on hand. Telecommuting is a good way to save time and money, while also providing a host of benefits.
However, the % of people telecommuting is not very significant, except in a few countries. While technology may be part of the reason, a major barrier for organizations is that managers feel that “office-time” is important. The common complaints against telecommuting are around “productivity is lowered, people don’t have the same sense of urgency, people are not disciplined to work at home” etc.
Before I start, however, I must emphasize that working from home is not for everybody. The nature of work dictates whether your job can be done from home effectively or not.
Photo: Courtesy Lynac
1. Identify activities that can be done from home
[I am going to assume that at least some part of your job can be done outside the office]
Before you can even talk to your manager about it, you must convince yourself that:
- Work can be done at home
- You can do that work from home
- You can do that work as you would have done at office
To take this test, identify the activities that can be done without being in office. Paperwork (like reading or writing contracts, software requirements), Planning, Design, and even software coding can be done outside the office.
2. Allocate time at home
Initially, you can start working on afternoon in the weekends, when things are a little quiet. Once you can concentrate and finish work, you can bring more work home. Remember, the weekends are a bonus and not a substitute for regular office hours at this stage.
Set aside the time you have planned and tell family members not to disturb you unless there is an emergency. You may have to be firm when starting, as folks at home need to realize that your work place is off-limits for them when you are “working”
3. Plan and setup work environment at home
Setting up a home office may seem a daunting and expensive proposition, but it need not be so. Eschew any notions of a grand desk – that old computer desk will do for now. There are a few things, however, that you need to keep in mind.
- The environment must insulate you as much as possible from distractions, such as the telly, neighbours and even the kitchen. This might be difficult for those of us, who live in cramped apartments, but if you have a spare bedroom, that should do
- While home equals comfort, the home office must not offer you any comfort – it is there as an alternative to your work place, so no sofa to nap. A comfortable chair, good lighting, filing system, stationery and a book case may be sufficient to get started. You may also want to invest in a Thermos flask for coffee and some jars for some snacks, so that you are not tempted to go to the kitchen
- Set up needed infrastructure such as an exclusive telephone line, Internet, Webcams for video-conferencing etc. You may want to get some redundancy in your network, like an additional Internet connection in case your job needs you to be connected at all times
The idea is to simulate the office environment as much as possible – lounging by the fireplace and listening to music while working might seem attractive, but it only lowers productivity and may even send you off to sleep.
4. Log all such activities
A very important point that people who telecommute forget to do – maintain a list of deliverables/activities that you completed away from office. This is the evidence that you can present to your boss and show him/her that you can still deliver when working from home. This is especially true, when you have not told your boss about working from home.
Saying “Boss, I can definitely work from home without loss of quality/time. For example, I finished this report at home, without staying late” is a good way to demonstrate your capacity to work effectively. Be warned though – your manager may see this in a negative way – that you are showing off or worse, ready to work from home too!
In any case, having a list of things you have accomplished gives you the satisfaction of being disciplined enough to work from anywhere.
5. Discuss with your manager
Once you have a few weeks of experience working from home, you might want to broach this topic of telecommuting with your manager. It is better to be honest and explain why you want to telecommute. You can then lay out what is the benefit for him in this – by allowing you to work from home twice a week, the company is saving on running costs while making you more productive (since there is no travel involved). You also must demonstrate that you have the resources to make this work.
The best way to convince the organization is to propose a pilot (officially, that is). For 3 months, you will telecommute twice a week and be in office the rest of the time. Meetings can be scheduled during those days and you will definitely be available for emergencies.
If you have made the preparation and proposition correctly, you should gain approval at least for the pilot. After all, the organization would like you to succeed when it can also win!
What do you do when you have permission to telecommute? The basic strategies above work, but there are a few things you need to sort out, which I will discuss in the next post. Before bidding you adieu, a couple of important things – firstly, this will work only if you have some credibility in the organization and a genuine reason why both you and the organization will win and secondly, you need to balance your home life with your work. Your family definitely does not need your home to become an extension of your office.
The point about working on weekends is for the initial period only – when you have official sanction, you don’t work weekends!
(For more tips on Work-Life Balance, see my 3-part series here – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)