Monday, December 1, 2008

SUMMARY OF HABIT TWO BY JANET ASTIN!

Habit two gets you to ponder over the same question which might to some people seem to be asked too frequently and that is: ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ One should always ask the same question to themselves. One should be able to identify whether he has reached n achieved what he always desired for or not. Sometimes people end up with victories that are empty and successes which cost them the most valuable or desired things of their lives. A human should be able to analyze whether he is on the right path or not. If he is not, every step he takes would be taking him towards the wrong place or empty successes. So, it’s important to identify your desires and dreams.
Habit two is based on imagination--the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It's about connecting again with your own uniqueness and then defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill it. Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen. One of the best ways to incorporate Habit two in your life is to develop a Personal Mission Statement. It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. Your mission statement makes you the leader of your own life. You create your own destiny and secure the future you envision. It helps you get on the right track and gives you the right eyes to identify it. In short, it saves you from de tracking and deviating from what you really want.

SUMMARY OF HABIT ONE BY JANET AUSTIN!

Humans have accepted 3 deterministic explanations of human limitations: genetic determinism, psychic determinism and environmental determinism.
Giving a closer look at the statement above, we figure out that between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose. Things don’t happen on their own, in fact we make them happen.
Pro activity means every person is responsible for their own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.
Our most difficult experiences become the crucibles forging our character and developing our inner powers.
There are three central values in life: the experiential which are things that happen to us, the creative things which we bring into existence and the attitudinal which our response to difficult circumstances. What matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life.
Taking the initiative means recognizing our responsibility to make things happen. Use your Resourcefulness and Initiative.
Pro activity is actually relates to facing reality but it is also about understanding that we do possess the power to choose a positive response to our circumstances.
Organizations of every kind can be proactive by undertaking the perfect blend of creativity and resourcefulness of proactive individuals to create a proactive culture within the organization.
We need to understand how we focus our time and energy to be effective. The things we are concerned about could be described as our "Circle of Concern". There are things we can really do something about, that can be described as our "Circle of Influence". When we focus our time and energy in our Circle of Concern, but outside our Circle of Influence, we are not being effective. However, we find that being proactive helps us to expand our Circle of Influence i-e working on things which are under our control.
Reactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern, over things they can't control. Their negative energy causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.
Our problems fall in three areas: Direct Control include problems involving our own behavior, Indirect Control which relate to problems involving other people's behavior or No Control are the problems we can’t do nothing about. Direct Control problems are solved through being pro active, keeping the end in mind and giving priority to the things that are important to us. Indirect Control problems are solved through methods of influence. No Control problems are best dealt with through attitude.
The Circle of Concern is filled with the "have" statements. The Circle of Influence is indicated by "be" statements. Anytime we think the problem is "out there," that thought is the problem.
While we are free to choose our actions, the consequences of our actions are governed by natural law. Sometimes we make choices with negative consequences, called mistakes. We can't recall or undo past mistakes. The proactive approach to a mistake is to accept it instantly, correct and learn from it. Success is the far side of failure.
At the heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. Our integrity in keeping commitments and the ability to make commitments are the clearest manifestations of pro activity.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

SUMMARY ON DELEGATING BY JANET AUSTIN.

DELEGATING
Delegation is the transfer of power or authority of making decisions, to another person. Delegating should not be t any point be confused with participation as it is not sharing of authority but transfer of authority. There are two types of delegators: effective and ineffective. An effective delegator would always use the following five behaviors:
1) Clarify the assignment. He would identify what is to be delegated and to whom. The delegator should choose only that person to transfer the authority, who he thinks is capable of making the right decisions. He should have full confidence in that person. It is his job to clearly transfer all information about what is to be delegated. He should also delegate the expected results.
2) Specify the employee’s range of discretion. An effective delegator would always clarify the employee that he is only given authority on specific tasks. And he needs to practice the delegated authority within specified norms.
3) Allow the employee to participate. The best way to decide what amount of the authority should be given is to let the person, to whom the authority is to be delegated, have a say in the decision. But the delegator should see to it that the employee doesn’t voice his own interest at any point.
4) Inform others that delegation has occurred. All the individuals involved in that project should be ware and well informed that the delegation has taken place. They should also know that how much authority is delegated so that any chaos is avoided.
5) Establish feedback channels. All the goals, results, and deadlines should be well defined by the delegator. The delegator should always ask for feedback reports from his employee so that he is well aware of the progress report and knows everything is going in the right direction and the task is completed on time.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER ONE BY JANET AUSTIN!

A manager is an individual who is the coordinating body of n organization. He is the one who has the responsibility to supervise the work of his sub ordinates to make sure that everybody employed works in collaboration with each other for the best interest of the organization. There are three types of managers:
1) First –line managers are the ones that operate on the lowest level of management. These mangers usually supervise the laborers who work on the production plant. E.g. shift managers, foreperson etc.
2) Middle managers: they handle all the levels of hierarchy that exists between the top and the lowest level of the organization. These managers supervise the first-line managers. e.g. regional managers, divisional managers etc.
3) Top managers: this post is held by the top level of the hierarchy. These are the people who are responsible for the overall working of the organization. They establish plans and set goals for the organization to act upon.
Management is the process of coordinating and supervising the work of others so that the task assigned is carried out effectively and efficiently. It is also about making sure that the desired results are achieved. Efficiency is about getting the maximum output from minimum input. Effectiveness is giving priority to the right things which will prove fruitful for the organization and will play vital role in achieving its goals.
The work of the manager is divided into three sections:
1) Functions: A manager performs different functions. These include planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Planning involves identifying goals and defining it to the subordinates, establishing strategies for going about the project and developing plans to achieve the goals. Organizing is all about arranging structuring the tasks involved in the project. Leading means that the manager needs to work with his sub ordinates and make sure they are working to their full capacity. Controlling is the evaluation of people’s work and making sure that things are working out and everybody is working towards getting the job done as per plan.
2) Roles: A manager has to perform different roles such as interpersonal, information and decisional. Interpersonal roles involve people and duties that are symbolic. These include figurehead, leader and laison. The informational role involves the job of collecting, receiving and transferring information. These include the roles of monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. The decisional roles involve, making decisions in the process.
3) Skills: A manager needs specific skills to obtain the post of the manger. These include technical, human and conceptual. Technical skills are concerned with having complete knowledge of the job and techniques involved in performing that job. Human skills re the ability of working with other people. This actually means how well u get along with your peers. Conceptual re used by the managers to ponder and grab the concept of specific situation the organization is in and then make appropriate decisions. Whether these skills re important or not depends on the managerial levels.
The job of the managers is changing in today’s world. This is due to various reasons which are technological advancements, increase in security threats, ever increasing emphasis on ethics and increased competitiveness. The job of the manager depends a lot on the importance of customers. It is highly observed that customers’ satisfaction is highly influenced by the attitude of the employees. Managers should train his sub ordinates in such a way that they form a nice and loud impression of the customers. Innovation is of high importance in order to make a particular project successful as it means doing something unique. A manager’s job is to constantly motivate his sub ordinates to come up with new and innovative ideas.
Organization is an intentional arrangement of bringing people together under one platform and making them work hand-in-hand towards achieving some specific targets and goals. An organization always keeps changing and updating itself. This is mainly due to the dynamic environment we live in.
The need to study management is enlisted in the following points:
The universality of management: The need of management is widespread. Management is important to realize the reality of work. Every individual has two options, either to manage or be managed. Either ways one has to deal with management so it’s important to know all the ins and outs about it.
Being a manager is a challenging job and has its rewards. There is always something new in it and being manager your success is highly dependent on the work performance of others.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER SIX!

When making a decision managers first identify the problem nd then the decision criteriai-e whatever is relevant in the decision making process. After doing this managers put the criteri in terms on priority. The next step is to develop, analyse and select different alternatives. The manager ultimately picks out one of the alternatives and then puts it into action. Last but not the least the manager evaluates the effectiveness of the decision he made.Decisions are made under the basis of the following three:1)RATIONLITY: This is used when the problem is clear and the decision maker must have a specific goal in his mind. He should know all the possible alternatives and the decision taken through rationality is consistent and value-maximising.2)BOUNDED RATIONALITY: Here the decisions are made rationally too but the decision makers have limited ability to process information. Decisions made under this have the tendency to be strongly influenced by factors such as organization's culture, internal politics etc.3)INTUITION: It involves making decisions on the basis of experience, feelings and accumulated judgement.Managers face a lot of different types of problems and decisons.Structured problems are straightforward, fimiliar and are easily defined. Programmed decisions re repetitive and can be handled using a routine approach. Structured problems can be resolved using a procedure. It is a series of interrelated sequential steps used by the managers to come up with the solution for structured problems. Another way can be rules. These are defined lines stating clearly that what the manager can or cabnnot do. Policies are the organization set principles through which all the employees ought to work. Structured problems are usually fced by lower level managers.unstructured problems are vague and involve nonprogrammed decisions. These problems are new and do not provide the complete information. Nonprogrammed decisions are unique and non-repetitive. These problems are handled by the top-level managers.Managers make decision under the following circumstances:1)CERTAINITY: All the alternatives are known to the manager and they take decision with a sense of confidence.2)RISK: Under thsi the managers can only estimate the results of the decision that they have already made.3)UNCERTAINITY: This makes it tough for the managers as they can't be sure of the results and any estimates are diificult to make.HOW WILL DECISION MAKING STYLE AFFECT THE MANAGER' DECISION MAKING:1) Directive style will enable the manger to be less tolerant and he will develop rational way of thinking.2)Analytic style will give high tolernce for ambiguity and rational way of thinking.30Conceptul style will stimulate high tolerance for ambiguity and an intuitive way of thinking.4)Behavioural stlye will give low tolerancefor ambiguity and an intuitive way of thinking.ERRORS AFFECTING DECISION MAKING:overconfidence, anchoring effect, confirmation, sunk costs, representation, self-serving, immediate gratification, selective perception, framing, availability, randomness and hindsight.For makingany decision managers need to know understand the cultural dfferences. They should know when it's time for diversification. their decision making process should be efective and they shoudld develop highly reliable organizations

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER SEVEN!

Planning is concerned with lying down orgnizational goals, estblishing the overall strategy of the business and developing further plans. Planning cn prove to be very vitalfor a business due to a couple of resons. These include proviiung direction., reducing uncertainity, minimizing waste and redundancy nd giving positive financil outcomes.
To carry out planning managers need to stick to the two most important factors which are goals and plans.goals are the desired outcomes an organizations wants to achieve whereas plans are the path which will be tken for achieving those goals.there re two types of goals n orgnization might want to achieve: strategic or financial goals are concerned with maximised profits and stated or rel goals re prticing the true essence of the company's mission statement. Similarly, there are also different types of plans:BREADTH: these include strategic plans which are applicable to the entire organiztions and are more generalized. Operational plans specify the details of going about achieving the overall goals.TIME FRAME: These are the long-term plans and the short-term plans. Long-term plans are reffered to s those plans whith a time frame of more than three years. Where as short-term plans are the ones with teh life span of one year or less.SPECIFICITY: Specific plans are clearly defined and they cannot at any point be interpretated. Directional plans have the room of flexibility and work on more generalized guidelines.FREQUENCY OF USE: A single-use plan is specifically designed for a particular situation. Standing plans, on the other hand , are plans that are designed to provide guidance for frequently performed activities.Some managers set goals adopting the traditional approach i-e the top-down. If the hierachy of goals is not clearly defined the goals lose clarity and unity. There is another approach which can be adopted, Management By Objectives (MBO). MBO's help specify goals, encourge prticipative decision mking so that no one is aloofed. They provide definite time period and give performance feedback.When it comes to developing plans, Managers come under the influence of contingency factors and approaches. Contingency factors re the back-up plans. these are important because there might be environmental uncertanity. the commitment concept exclaims that plans should be extended fr enough to meet all the commitments that were made when the plan was first developed.Approaches include seeting up proper planning departments who know all the ins and outs and can plan near to perfection. It also has to do with involving more and more members of the organization in the planning process.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

here we goooo!!!

well never thot wud end up like this....!! first week n soooo much to do!! well actually enjoying it...expecting to do a lot!! veryyy enthusiastic about the presentation!!! yupeee!!!