Management tips in turbulent times

Lead people with self-confidence and enthusiasm

Dr. K KUHATHASAN CEO CENLEAD

Self-confidence is one of the essential attributes for success. It is the cornerstone for a dominant and colourful personality.

Self-confidence grows from success and in turn contributes to more successes. If you can succeed in one venture, you can expect to succeed in the next venture too. Thus, with experience, your confidence grows.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is the mainspring of perseverance. It can move men and mountains. An enthusiastic manager can easily infuse his enthusiasm in others. Enthusiasm inspires confidence, raises morale, builds loyalty and is priceless.

Enthusiasm is the mainspring of perseverance. It can move men and mountains. Unless sustained by enthusiasm, many people would be apt to give in at the first sign of setback.

An enthusiastic manager can easily infuse his enthusiasm to others. He not only generates power for himself, but also for his team. He is a human dynamo who electrifies his whole organisation. He not only wins others but also radiates strength, hope and confidence. He keeps up their morale and creates in them an inner urge to give their zealous cooperation and support in the accomplishment of the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the organisation.

Enthusiasm unlocks stores of energy in the form ‘drive’. It is indispensable for all of us. A manager must himself be enthusiastic if he wants others to be enthusiastic.

A successful manager, who is anxious to infuse enthusiasm to his team, will be eager to display his enthusiasm in all aspects of his work. Enthusiasm should be kept alive all throughout the day, all throughout the year and all throughout your career.

It is the distinguishing feature of managers, and if you can keep it up, you will retain your mental faculties in a youthful condition. It is the duty of every manager to nourish his enthusiasm for life and work, especially in turbulent times.

Enthusiasm is the mightiest power on earth. Take advantage of your opportunity. Aim at the mark-dare-work-push those obstacles aside, and let the world have all of your enthusiasm.

Greatest asset

Enthusiasm and success go hand in hand, but enthusiasm comes first. Enthusiasm inspires confidence, raises morale, builds loyalty and is priceless. Enthusiasm is contagious. You can feel the pulse of enthusiasm by the way a person talks, walks or shakes hands. Enthusiasm is a habit that one can acquire and practise.

According to Charles Schwab, “We are selling our ideas, our plans, our energies and our enthusiasm to those with whom we come into contact”. Thus a manager with a lot of enthusiasm is bound to accomplish more than the man without it. Your success in work will greatly depend on your ability to sell your enthusiasm and self - confidence to others.

Dr. Albert said, “The biggest thing in all human life, is not selling things but selling your confidence and enthusiasm to others.

If you want to amplify your success rate double your failure rate”, were the famous words uttered by Thomas Watson, founder of IBM.

As you try to leave an impressing mark at work, a failure can bring unexpected twists and turns. How you deal with failure is what will ultimately help you succeed. The question is: Are you smart enough to learn from your mistakes?

Workplace failure is a part of life but, if dealt with well, can turn out to be a life changing event.

Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. You have plenty of enthusiasm. The world pays the highest price for this powerful force. It performs miracles. It is the greatest miracles - worker in you. Give to your people all your enthusiasm, and you will be crowned with success. You will be rewarded with triumph.

Courage and confidence

True courage, the ability to forge ahead in the face of known or imagined obstacles, demands will-power, purpose and sincerity.

No one who is insincere can be courageous and to be honest with oneself is as important as being honest with others.

Believe in yourself. Believe in the purpose that inspires you. Believe in the promise of the future. Attune your mind to a constructive and positive view. You will develop courage.

And as courage develops, so will fear vanish.

Bouncing back

There will be setbacks large and small in your working life:

* You encounter an unexpected problem in an assignment.

* A proposal for additional funding is turned down.

* You lose an important contract.

We equate setbacks with failure, and the experience of failure causes us to give free rein to negative thoughts. We fear to face similar challenges in the future for fear of failure. We imagine that others are observing our ineptitude, judging and condemning us. And it’s a sad fact that failure tends to weight more heavily with us than success. One perceived flop may give rise to self-doubts that will wipe out any number of successes.

But what constitutes failure? Viewed positively, the first two examples above might be seen not as failures, but simply setbacks on the road to achievement.

Achievements

Achievements represent solid ground on which you can build confidence. They provide you with a foothold on those occasions when self-doubt starts to creep over you.

Producing an achievement list is a good way to do this. Putting your achievements down on paper is a lot more meaningful than just thinking about them.

If you are customarily self-depreciating or not brimful of confidence, you are unlikely at first to find this. The list seems so thin to start with. Many people struggle to find more than a handful of things they consider achievements. Part of this is down to natural reluctance to blow your own trumpet, but it’s also about the way we characterise achievements. We tend to think only of those that have been marked by some form of public recognition. But the achievements that should matter are those that may be known only to ourselves.

It is an achievement:

* Every time you face up to fear;

* Every time you confront a problem;

* Every time you handle a difficult situation;

* Every time you bounce back from a disappointment.

Compile a record of success

Go back to your earliest memory of success. Get a scrap book and write in and record that success experience.

It may be at school, winning a race or getting a very good report. From that beginning, add every success you have ever had up to the present and then continually record in your personal success book every new success story.

This alone is a great confidence builder as we all have some successes in life but we so often forget them and only remember the failures.

In years to come, when you might be suffering a lack of confidence, take out your personal success story and think of your past achievements and project your future targets and achievements. This exercise will give you greater courage confidence and enthusiasm to overcome all problems, challenges and obstacles.

“Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life.” - Samuel Goldwyn.