LEADERSHIP

An ability of a person to lead a group of people or an organization is Leadership.

A Leader should be able to lead, influence, guide, manage, inspire, and organize his/her team effectively for their mutual growth.

Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behaviour and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation.

When one person harnesses their powers to lead, it strengthens the leadership opportunities of others.

A true leader creates more leader and not followers.

How to be an effective leader? 

• Setting example is most important– A leader should lead by example. He must engage his people to follow their vision not by his words but by his actions. 
• Be a true servant– By the word servant, it implies that a leader must take personal care of his employees. Look into the details of the team. A leader should define reality and say thank you to his members at the end. But in between he is a servant.
• Build positive relationship–   A true leader must be able to build or construct a positive and strong bond among his team members. 
• Become a good follower first– In order to lead, one must learn to follow. A leader must follow his team members which means that he should heed to individual’s opinions and interests.
• Let go of your ego– The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead in order to serve other people. 
• Give your power away– You will become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have. If you use your power to empower others, you are actually creating more leaders. 
• Team succeeds and not the leader– Take time to appreciate your team members and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.
• Vision for success– A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the team not as how it is, but as it should be. Passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive into the competition.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate– The art of communication is the language of leadership. You can have brilliant ideas. But if you can’t communicate them with your team, your ideas won’t get anywhere.

3 key ways to communicate with your team:

• Find out what’s happening.
• Try to know what’s new coming up
• Keep a track of how they’re doing.

• Set the stage for innovation– Allow and accept the ideas of each member of the team. Linus Pauling says, “The way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas”.  
• Commit to excellence– Excellence is not a skill. It’s an attitude. It is to do a common thing in an uncommon way! When you pay attention to details, excellence will definitely follow you. 
• Take full responsibility- A true leader should be ready to take complete responsibility for his team. His success is a reflection of his team’s success.
• Measure the results- Measure the efficiency of your own works as well as that of your team members. This enables you to enhance your leadership skills.
• Collect feedback- Feedback plays a vital role in our leadership ability. It’s better to always collect feedback from your team members so that you can work on your weak spots. Also, work more on your leadership skills. 

Benefits/ Importance of becoming a Leader: 

• Improved productivity of the work
• Improved ability to succeed under pressure
• High emotional intelligence
• Improved charisma and seriousness in work operations
• Growth in confidence in your team
• Improved listening and communication skills
• Increased awareness of diversity in the work place/ organisation
• Improved innovation and creativeness
• Dependable, reliable and competent

CREATIVE THINKING

Creative thinking is the ability to consider something in a new way. It might be a new approach to a problem, a resolution to a conflict between employees, or a new result from a data set. 

Creative thinking means thinking outside the box. Often, creativity involves lateral thinking, which is the ability to perceive patterns that are not obvious.

Creativity thinking isn’t limited to artistic types. Creative thinking is a skill that anyone can nurture and develop.

Creative thinkers are able to look at things in new, unorthodox ways and come up with solutions no one previously thought of.

Creative thinking is a skill that lets you consider things from a fresh perspective and different angles. It’s an inventive thought process which results in surprising conclusions and new ways of doing things. Creative thinking can be aided by brainstorming or lateral thinking to generate ideas.

How to think creatively?

• Ask compelling questions and find answers to silly or any doubts. 
• Find your area of interest and research the related topics.
• Explore your context of thinking. Work on changing your perspective on the subject.
• Seek wisdom.
• Use de Bono’s 6 thinking hats. 
• Apply your knowledge in every single idea that you discover.
• Try to expand your thinking horizon and Collaborate your ideas with that of recent discoveries and inventions.    

Some types/forms of Creative thinking:

Problem Solving

Tackling unexpected problems requires a lot of creativity. After all, employers want to hire creative thinkers not because of their creativity as such, but because they can use it to solve problems in an innovative way.

Creative Writing

One of the most typical yet in-demand is creative writing. If you are able to write in a compelling, creative way, it will help you a great deal in marketing, sales or any other profession. But it will also come in handy in all other positions that require writing—even if you’re just drafting emails, reports, and presentations.

Open-Mindedness

When you’re open-minded, you oppose stereotypes and look for new solutions and methods of doing things, instead of sticking to good-old ways which might be no good after all.

Analysis

If you can gather information and data, that’s great but without creative thinking skills, you won’t be able to analyse it properly. Creativity in analytical thinking helps you extract meaning from sets of raw data.

Communication

No matter how great your ideas are, if you’re unable to communicate in an engaging and creative way, you’ll never get to implement them.

Active Listening

How can listening be considered “creative?” Well—through active listening you process ideas better so that you can challenge and refine them later during a creative brainstorming session.

Difference between Creative thinking and Critical thinking –

Creative thinking means you can come up with new ways to think about the surrounding world in order to make something innovative.

Critical thinking can be described as “thinking about thinking”. It means you can understand the way your perception works in order to identify flaws in your reasoning and avoid biases.

Benefits of Creative thinking:

• You become a better Problem-solver
• Connect with your Community
• Save money
• Expanded sense of Time
• Self-awareness
• High Emotional Quotient
• Freedom
• Stress Relief
• Decision making
• Active listening

TEAMWORK

A team is a group of like-minded people who work towards achieving a common goal. The combined action of a team is called Team Work.

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.

Characteristics of a strong team: 

• Team cohesion– positive relationship among team members
• Communication– Members must be able to effectively communicate with each other to overcome obstacles, resolve conflict, and avoid confusion. Communication increases cohesion.
• Commitment– members should commit on achieving the team’s common goal.
• Accountability– To ensure goals are reached and that all members are participating. Holding members accountable increases commitment within team relations.

A high-performance team should possess the following important characteristics: 

• Servant Leadership– The leader should look into every matter of the team and should take responsibility for his actions. 

• Shared Vision– Team members should work towards a common goal and should be firm in their vision.

• Time oriented– Managing time is the important responsibility of any time in order to reach their goals.

• Proper planning– Team members should collaborate effectively and plan their measures efficiently.

Basic Team Dynamics: 

• Communication- To render proper information to each member and avoid conflicts.
• Coordination- To avoid confusion and overstepping of boundaries.
• Cooperation- To perform the tasks in a timely manner and produce the required results, especially in the form of workload sharing.
• Interdependence– To maintain high levels of trust, risk-taking, and performance.

How to Improve Teamwork?

Teamwork and performance can be enhanced through specific training that targets the individual team members and the team as a whole. 

Bruce Tuckman proposed a team developmental model that separates the stages of a team’s lifespan and the level of teamwork for each stage:

• Forming- A new team is formed. Acquaintance happens. Team members try to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Also, a Team leader is elected.
• Storming- Team members, now know the potential of their peers. They try to give individual opinions which results in conflicts. They tend to not respect their fellow mates’ decisions. The team leader barges in and tries to solve the conflicts. Coordination is built.
• Norming- Norms of the team are set. Individual members are aware of their goals. They start working on building bonds with their fellow members. The smooth running of team begins at this stage. 
• Performing- Individual performance along with combined ideas of team members results in synergy. Brainstorming, meetings, and teamwork occur.
• Adjourning- Finally, the team succeeds. They celebrate their success and encourage each other by providing valuable feedback. 

Importance of Teamwork/ Team Building:

• Builds trust among team members
• Regulates communication 
• Increases productivity of individual and of team
• Brings people together
• Fosters creativity and learning
• Healthy competition (competing with yourself)
• Makes people more accepting
• Resolves conflicts
• Improves the overall quality of organization

TIME MANAGEMENT 

“Time management” is the process of organizing and planning on how to divide your time between specific activities. 

Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high.

Time management helps you to prioritize your tasks so that you have enough time available to complete every project/task.

The quality of your work increases when you’re not rushing to complete it ahead of a fast-approaching deadline.

• Time Management Tips:

• Identify Time wasters and Timesavers– Find out the time-wasters and time savers in your routine. Work on managing the same.
• Set proper goals and a firm vision– Without a proper vision and aim, we cannot reach anywhere. Setting goals helps us manage our time wisely. Identify your goals and learn to manage your time suitably.  
• Plan well in advance and always create a to-do list – Always plan your schedule in advance. Creating a to-do list helps to prioritize your tasks.  
• Tackle small tasks to start with – Begin with small tasks. It gives you a certain amount of confidence that you’re doing fine. As they say, Well-began is half done!
• Do one task at a time– Do not multi-task. Complete your tasks one by one.
• Establish a proper timetable and follow it cent percent- Constructing a Timetable is a vital part of your time management. Once you know the time allocated for each task, you will alert yourself and start working with your time management skills. 
• Take small and suitable breaks often- Taking short breaks is important because refreshing your mind plays a crucial role in your working efficiency. Take breaks, take snacks, breathe fresh air, take a small walk, or perform simple yoga and start fresh!
• Learn to delegate- Learn to delegate small works that anybody else can do. Doing the extra unimportant works could consume your personal time and result in you lagging behind in your planner.
• Understand your biological clock and act accordingly- Some people can study in the morning whereas some can study in the late evening. Understand your biological clock and study accordingly. It works in a similar way for other kinds of tasks that require a different period of time of the day. 
• Organize and Prioritize- Learn to organize your tasks followed by prioritizing them!

• Time Wasters:

• Social media and Mobile: Too many social accounts and watching unwanted videos on your mobile phones. 
• Emails: Constantly checking emails consumes a lot of your time. 
• Unwanted items on the to-do list: Involving unwanted, irrelevant, non-priority items in your to-do list.
• Multitasking: Working on more than one task at a time affects your efficiency leading to wastage of time and reduces the quality of your work.
• Procrastination: Postponing your chores and being lethargic is also a time-waster.
• Monkey management: If you take responsibility for your subordinate’s works and do not manage to say NO you will end up wasting time and your own work gets pending.
• No time planner: Planning your daily schedule is very important. Without a proper planner, you don’t know to prioritize the tasks and that leads to time waste. 
• Saying YES to everyone: By agreeing to do others’ works you’re burdening yourself and indirectly wasting your time. Learn to say NO to people who don’t deserve your precious time.
• Unwanted long meetings: Unnecessary and unwanted hangouts or meetings with friends and family lead to the wastage of time. 

• Time Savers: 

• Fixed time for emails and messages: Fix a proper time at early in the morning or in the late evening to check your emails and messages. Try to block advertisement emails that happen to be a major distraction. 
• Maintain an interruptions log: Make a note of the items/ people that distract as well as interrupt your work. Try to avoid them the next time.
• Delegate: Learn to transfer the least important tasks to those who are capable. Learning to delegate your work is a meticulous task that could save an ample amount of your time. 
• Prepare and follow a daily planner: Writing a daily planner and following it accordingly saves your time. You know to prioritize your works in accordance with your daily planner. 
• Plan your meetings: Planning your meetings with colleagues, friends, and family accurately helps in saving some time. That little amount of saved time can be utilized to do small works of the day.
• Set time limits: Setting time limits for each task helps in achieving more in less time. It gives you the confidence to work efficiently and you’re competing with yourself while doing so!
• Studying when your thinking efficiency is high: Identify the time where you can pay maximum attention and focus to study. Studying at a high-efficiency period saves your time and also memory retaining power will be utilized wisely during this time.

Advantages of Time Management: 

• Low stress
• More productivity
• Lesser rework
• Less friction and issues
• More free time
• No wasting of time
• More opportunities
• Invest your time in other things
• Low effort
• Gain a reputation