Make Your Boss Look Good

When in a managerial role you not only have to manage downward to your team, you also have to look out for your boss. Your job is to make your boss look good. When he looks good, you look good too. Your role is to support and aid him or her and make sure your boss is well taken care of. Never surprise your management with bad news if you can avoid it and always be prepared to articulate contingency plans with call to action when you need to. As I said, make your boss look good.

Commit Yourself To Lifelong Learning

Access to information has never been so readily available as it is today. No generation before us has had these opportunities at their fingertips. You can virtually download business literature and electronic handbooks to your laptop or your mobile so you can read up and increase your knowledge on any topic anytime, anywhere. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning and never stop studying.

Find Your Passion

You owe it to yourself to find out what you are passionate about. You know, you spend most of your conscious hours on your job. If you are not passionate about the things you are doing, what then is there to be passionate about? If you have trouble finding out what really turns you on, for clues think back to the things you enjoyed when you were a kid. Whatever you do get passionate about something and make it your life!

Leadership And Management Skills

A lot has been said about the difference between leadership and management. My two cents worth are: Leadership has more to do with motivation and management more to do with process. Some of the key management tasks include; planning, organizing, staffing, delegating, supervision, measuring and reporting. Your inborn talent, your acquired management skills and your leadership attitudes will equate your overall leadership effectiveness.

Eat For Energy

Everyone knows they should eat better. It does not matter what regimen you choose as long as you pick a balanced diet that works for you. For me, counting calories work. I try to eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts and wholegrain products and I avoid unnecessary fats and fast carbohydrates like white flour. I like to eat protein from lean meat such as fish or poultry for lunch, particularly when I have challenging tasks in the afternoon, like a difficult negotiation, for example.

Optimist Or Pessimist?

Consider this: both the positive and the negative outlook on any situation are equally realistic. It is solely a matter of perspective. Studies suggest that almost 90% of things people usually worry about are things they can not influence or things that never happen anyway. If both the optimist and the pessimist get what they expect, whose team would you want to be on?

Go See For Yourself

When attempting to solve a problem, never take other peoples word for it; instead go see for yourself. Your decision has to be based on facts, not hearsay. Get as close to the source as you can. You have to understand the issue and, if possible, see it with your own eyes before you come to your own conclusion. It is not sufficient just to take the general assumptions for granted or accept others opinion on the subject. First see, analyze, understand, decide, then act!