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The Parable of The Great Supper: EXCUSES

CONVENIENCE vs CREATIVITY

CONVENIENCE vs CREATIVITY by 'Wemen Ojo
" I regret any inconveniences this might cause you." Have you heard those words before? Inconvenience stretches our capacity to bear the status quo, and the usual. Living life in its opposite -which is the convenience- cuts short and curtails our creativity. There is a little more distance we must last in this journey of finding solutions to life's issues, career challenges, to mention a few. Sit back again, look deeper beneath the periphery; see through the stained glass from another angle. You might just perceive a glimpse of clarity of the whole issue now. Get dirty! Wipe them clean, therein lies your solution staring at you all along.
I don't regret the inconvenience this short note might have caused you because you are waking up the next time ready to stretch your creativity. A tremendous Tuesday to you.

Without A Plan, You Are Growing Nowhere | by John Maxwell Company

Triple A edition of PyramiDZone is Another Author's Angle where a guest's article is posted. And now:
 
WITHOUT A PLAN, YOU'RE GROWING NOWHERE
by: The John Maxwell Company

Personal growth doesn't happen by accident. It's not an automatic process. If you want to guarantee growth, then you need a plan—something strategic, specific, and scheduled. Motivational speaker Earl Nightingale said, "If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject." Isn't that incredible? It shows how far we are able to go when we have the discipline to make growth a daily practice.

A plan for growth requires you to…

1) Set aside time to grow.

For 13 to 20 years, depending on how long we stay in school, the educational system challenges us to learn. Yet upon graduation, many people almost never pick up a book. Going to the next level in your career demands that you take responsibility for continuing your personal growth.

To read more, click below:
http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=8365%7c64402%7c622706%7c626779&digest=cHPac%2b2Rukh%2bKCLvbPGbCA&sysid=1

Without A Plan, You Are Growing Nowhere | by John Maxwell Company

Triple A edition of PyramiDZone is Another Author's Angle where a guest's article is posted. And now:
 
WITHOUT A PLAN, YOU'RE GROWING NOWHERE
by: The John Maxwell Company

Personal growth doesn't happen by accident. It's not an automatic process. If you want to guarantee growth, then you need a plan—something strategic, specific, and scheduled. Motivational speaker Earl Nightingale said, "If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject." Isn't that incredible? It shows how far we are able to go when we have the discipline to make growth a daily practice.

A plan for growth requires you to…

1) Set aside time to grow.

For 13 to 20 years, depending on how long we stay in school, the educational system challenges us to learn. Yet upon graduation, many people almost never pick up a book. Going to the next level in your career demands that you take responsibility for continuing your personal growth.

To read more, click below:
http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=8365%7c64402%7c622706%7c626779&digest=cHPac%2b2Rukh%2bKCLvbPGbCA&sysid=1

4 WAYS OF ENHANCING TEAM'S PERFORMANCE ( ETP )

It's a new financial year, performance appraisals must have been done previous year Q4. Productivity bonus came with a cutback; it's obvious for poor performance. The song on the lips of management team is 'We need to improve productivity' Improving productivity whether employee, managerial or technological borders on the people that drive the business or operational systems. These systems are the configuration of activities and resources allocated to individuals, groups or teams, or departments. And more than often the common grid or closed loop  mandates individuals to work as a team.

What is a Team?

Perhaps it is needful I define what a team is for those who have not seen a football team or music orchestra before. I pretty doubt that! Together Everyone Achieves More acronymed as TEAM doesn't define the word.That only emphasizes the resultant of unity of behavioural preferences, diverse personalities, common purpose and connected passion. Unity doesn't come cheap. The product of it is wholesomely attractive. I am yet to see a successful business with just an individual. Someone said it  better: High-performing companies increasingly believe that teams, rather than business units or individuals, are the basic building blocks of a successful organization. Pardon my digress. A team is a group of people organized to work cooperatively for a purpose and a goal within a frame in time. This goal  or the objectives must be well defined and understood, and broken into do-able chunks of tasks- either operational or strategic functions. These tasks become the integral or wholesome parts of the metric for evaluating or appraising individuals or the team's performance. Appraisal is one thing as a precondition to enhancing team's performance. I also often consider building an effective team as a strategy for high-performance of a team.

Effective Team Building

 

picture credit: dadstreet.com

Building a team can be cumbersome for reason of divergent personality compatibility. This can be a damper or danger to team performance and consequentially productivity. You know why? Incessant conflict and friction. Hence, doing the personality assessment of members or employees before joining any team or the company is contributory to the success of the team.You need to know the role you can play in a group. If your company hasn't done that for you, go online and do it yourself. I did mine in 2004. Permit me to recommend Meredith Belbin's team role for behavioural preferences of your team members. This can guide the kind of projects you take up and the role you'd play in a project team.  To know the role each member of your team can play download the Belbin Team Report. 

Recruitment Process,Training and Reorientation

picture credit: t2achieve.com

The professional competency level of the HR team mirrors the crop of staff the company hires. It is simple! That's the Law of Reproduction- everyone reproduces after its kind. HR must choose and develop the team leadership wisely.Certain leadership competencies must be in place for every team leader. This determines or defines the type of relationship the leader has with other members of the group or department, and invariably the team's performance. Some departmental heads have lost high- performing team because they just aren't trained in communication and occupational conflict management. Henri Fayol said," dividing enemy forces to weaken them is clever, but dividing one's own team is a grave sin against the business." Asides other technical training, such reorientations help to complete the competence. To read for 60 seconds on completing your competence, click here. It is also the duty of HR to collaborate with the departments and their respective teams to identify areas of training needs of the subordinates in such teams and train them.However for the reason of cost, the company cannot afford the specialized training outside the company, it is brilliant for the company to institutionalize a learning system within the organization maybe in the form of an academy( train the trainers), knowledge sharing or an online training portal on your intranet or the internet. You can't imagine the magic this will do- enhancing team's performance across board in terms of service delivery. Invest in your human capital yourself if your employer is not a learning company. Eventually it adds up to competence.

Reward System

picture credit: standardcharteredbank.com

Aside Human Capital Development, the organization culture along the direction of reward system( how they reward good performance) must be considered. Individuals in a team can cultivate this culture, too - especially team leaders. I got a lesson on the shop floor from a British septuagenarian boss some years back: touch a person's heart, you'd move the hands to work for you. It has always worked for me. Don't let ego get in the way of getting a better result from your team. If you are quick to find faults in your team members, you also should be generous with praise when they have really performed excellently. Even if they are yet to hit the peak performance, enhance their efforts with ' well done', 'thank you' , 'keep it up' or a pat on the back. Do it sincerely and you will see how better they'd get on the job. Even President Obama ' chops knuckle' on the street. I mean he engages in fist bump. These are a part of non- monetary incentives to reward performance.
As much as the organization appreciates,applauds and rewards individual brilliant efforts which could motivate employee to being innovative or intrapreuneurial, it is cautionary to encourage cooperation or collaboration in order to prevent unhealthy competition,rivalries and unproductive point-scoring among employees or departments. In short, reward excellent group. Publicly in your end-of-the-year party give each member of the group, team or department a Peak Performance plaque. Please don't give one plaque to a team of seven  employees. The question is: Who keeps it?

Tools & Technology Supplies

picture credit: nonprofitanswerguide.org

If you have worked in the factory before, you'd hear "we're downing tools" or you querried the  double-digit waste rate from a particular machine, and the operator says, " the machine broke down three times today, Sir." Right, functional tools and updated technologies cannot be compromised if you intend upping productivity. They are performance enablers. Or you have given your marketing team a target of getting 50 new customers this quarter. So they are tossed into the hot, scorching sun everyday with no result in the first month. How about ehancing their performance with some marketing automation software with the capabilities of attracting strangers, converting them into visitors to your website and generate more leads and customers for your business. Supply your team with the right tools, appropriate and needed equipments, software  and technologies to enhance their performance. High performance amounts to higher profit and revenue for the business.

Final Word
Effective team building, recruitment process, on-boarding, trainings and reorientation, tools and technology supplies, and many more add up to increase team's morale because they empower the team for better decision making on the job. Their skill sets are broadened invariably, and they also contribute to creating a better working ecosystem.

Your contributions are welcome. If you like this article, be free to share it on your social media networks.
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GOOD PARENTING Series: Responsibility And Responsiveness

Parenting comes with a huge price; it is not for folks with the fear of commitment. Commitment is always laden with responsibility or more of it. This is one of the privileges I honestly appreciate from God, to be called a dad or a father. Responsibility that lacks a higher authority often times adversely affects the socio-economic development of the environment. A few successes made with such scenario must have been out of a reason of self development prior the responsibility.

The products of such gross irresponsibility are hanging on our streets in the appearances of street urchins, miscreants, hoodlums and area boys. We have them in our businesses and our national politics, too. We must remind ourselves that responsibilities as parents is Transferred Ownership or a celestial child custody transfer – from God to us of which there is an authority figure to appraise our performance. It is a heavy job because He puts destinies of nations in our hands in the form of these children. We must tend them appropriately and uniquely like a garden with various flowers. This requires some special knowledge.

You probably as a parent are discouraged by what your first child turned out to be after all undivided attention nurturing the child. Don’t be weary with doing good. Discharge your duties with the capacity you have been given. God is taking notes and you will finish well because your children has glorious futures.

The pursuit of the glorious future always equips responsible parents with the ability to passionately respond to the pressing demands of the children.  The Bible says, “Spare the rod, and spoil the child.” Knowing when to spare the rod is very important for the child’s development. Children will always have needs and wants.

When a child cries, respond with a shoulder to comfort

When a child falls, respond with a hand to lift up

When a child excels in school, respond with a gift to appreciate it.

When my child misbehaves in class, her teacher takes her to the naughty corner filled with images of dogs, cats, and all those animals to scare her. I think I like that. So, we tried it at home; we created a naughty end in the hallway to treat her misbehaviors. If she starts being naughty and difficult, we remind her of the naughty corner, and she immediately behaves right. Ho! Ho!

We are getting better.

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