635. OVER COMING FEAR MBA I - II

OVER   COMING   FEAR

How to Overcome Fear

Edited by Karen W., Ben Rubenstein, Jack Herrick, Flickety and 65 others

Four Methods:

Analyze Your Fear

Take Control of Your Fear

Change the Way You Think About Fear

Give Fear a Place in Your Life

Even the most courageous people have fears to overcome. Are you afraid of something tangible, like spiders or heights? Maybe you fear failure, change or something else that's more difficult to pin down. No matter what it is that scares you, learn how to acknowledge, confront and take ownership of your fear to keep it from holding you back in life.

Steps

Method 1 of 4: Analyze Your Fear

1   Start by acknowledging it. It's easy to ignore or deny our fears, even to ourselves, in a society that stresses the importance of being strong and brave. But courage can't come into play unless you have a fear to face down. By owning your feelings you've taken the first step toward gaining control over the situation.

·         Name your fear. Sometimes fear makes itself known immediately, clearly, and other times its more difficult to name the cause of those anxious feelings lurking in the back of your mind. Let your fear rise to the surface and give it a name.

·         Write it down. Writing down your fear is a way to officially admit that you have a problem you want to overcome. Keeping a journal is a good way to track your progress as you work toward conquering your fear. It can serve as a guide for the next time you've got a problem that needs to be solved. You can overcome fear by facing it every time it comes your way, and, once you decide to make up your mind, your fears will dissolve away.

2   Define its contours. Approaching your fear as something with a beginning and an end can help you see that you have the power to contain it. If you can clearly see the shape of your fear, you'll be able to recognize when its affecting you and handle it more effectively. Answer the following questions to better understand your fear.

·         What is the history of your fear? Did it begin with a negative experience? Is it related to factors that affected your childhood environment? For how long have you been affected by this fear?

·         What triggers your fear? Is it something obvious, like the sight of a snake on a trail? Maybe passing your career counselor's office door sends your mind into a downward spiral when you walk down the corridor in your high school. Figure out everything that triggers your fear so you can determine how far it stretches.

·         How does your fear affect you? Does it cause you to stay in bed instead of getting up and going to a class you're afraid of failing? Do you avoid visiting your family in another state because you don't want to get on a plane? Figure out exactly what power your fear has over your mind and behavior.

·         Is the source of your fear actually dangerous? Fear can be a healthy emotion that protects us from harm by causing us to avoid things that are dangerous. Determine whether you have a good reason to be afraid or if your fear is misplaced and inhibiting. For example, when you are afraid to ride that totally extreme roller coaster in the theme park even though all your friends are doing it, your fear may be inhibiting you. If you are healthy and in the correct age range, you can freely ride a coaster without worrying about getting hurt.

3   Imagine the outcome you desire. Now that you completely understand your fear, think about what exactly you want to change. You already have your big goal set - you want to overcome your fear - but it's important to set smaller concrete goals to help you get there. For example:

·         If your fear is commitment, your first concrete goal may be to date someone for longer than a month.

·         If your fear is heights, you may want to be able to go on a hiking trip with the outdoor club at your school.

·         If your fear is going away to college, you could start by setting a goal to apply to three schools.

·         If your fear is spiders, you might want to be able to handle seeing a spider in your bathroom next time that situation arises.

Method 2 of 4: Take Control of Your Fear

1   Let yourself be afraid sometimes. There's no way to completely eliminate fear from your life. It's as valid an emotion as joy or sadness. Fear builds character and teaches us how to act with courage.

·         Don't be hard on yourself if you have a lot of fears. Fear is a natural response to situations that are out of our control, and feeling it just means you're human.

·         Don't push yourself too far. If you are extremely afraid of something that you can avoid frequently encountering, like tarantulas, you may not need to force yourself to overcome that fear. It's important to work on overcome fears that limit your life, but don't stress yourself out about those that have no real effect on you.

2   Celebrate your victories. Don't wait until your fear has been completely overcome to give yourself a pat on the back for your effort. Celebrate each milestone, whether you told a story to a group of people at a party, saw a spider and realized you didn't want to run away, or took a trip to a different city by yourself for the first time. When you see how good it feels to gain an edge on your fear, you'll be ready to face the next one head-on.

·         Consider seeing a counselor if your fears seem to be taking over. A trained specialist can help you figure out the source of your fears and create new ways of coping.

Warnings

·         Never do anything too dangerous, like touching a venomous rattlesnake without proper training. Be sure to exercise safety as you confront your fears.

1. 1  Learn how to enroll and engage your audience. If you haven't yet taken a professional development course on public speaking, consider finding a public speaking training course appropriate for your needs. Learning the art of public speaking can enhance your results in a boardroom, in a sales presentation, and even accelerate your climb up the corporate ladder. It is a must-skill for any executive and/or business owner.

2.     

2   Recognize that people can't see your nervousness. When you're walking out onto the stage toward the podium, no one knows you're nervous. Your stomach could be in knots and you feel like you're going to be sick, but you really aren't showing nervous behavior. Sometimes, with public speaking, you think that people may notice you're nervous. This makes you even more nervous. There are only a few subtle cues that show a person is nervous and they're so small, that the ordinary person wouldn't put more than 1 second into them. Don't worry so much. People don't see that extreme nervous beast inside you.

·         Bluff. Stand tall, with shoulders back and chest out. Smile. Even though you don’t feel happy or confident, do it anyway. You will look confident and your body will fool your brain into thinking it is confident.

  3   Do not overthink the audience's reactions. When you are on stage or speaking in public, calm your mind. Remember that even if you see people looking at you like they think you are weird, ignore it. What they think doesn't matter. If there really is something that you know you are doing wrong, fix it as quick as possible.

·         Yawning, bored expressions and similar negative facial expressions will always appear in an audience. Chances are some of those people will be bored whatever the occasion; some of those people are difficult to please; some of those people are tired; some of those people are distracted. None of these reasons reflect on you.

Tips

·         Remember, you don't look as nervous as you feel.

·         If you think the people you're talking to will judge you too much, think that they're not themselves. Think that they're your siblings or friends. People who respect you and won't judge you if you make a mistake.

·         Remember, even the top professionals learn something new every single time they go out!

·         Only you know what you are supposed to say or do so it's okay to change things during the presentation. (It's okay not to be word-for-word as your wrote it.)

·         Remember that when you are asked to speak, if you are coming from a place of service, you can't go wrong. Remember, it's not about you. It's about them - your audience. You are not the star, they are.

·         Tell yourself, "One is admired when looked upon by others."

·         If you go to school, volunteer to read the text when the class is reading textbooks.

·         Try low lighting. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Display it on the projector, and turn off the lights in the room. By doing this, you will have an enormous advantage because nobody will be looking at you and the projector will draw all of the attention from you. This will give you a sense of relief like you wouldn't believe, making your presentation completely stress free. This method does not cure the fear of public speaking but it does help you avoid the anxiety throughout the speech.

·         Smile and try to make some jokes to cover your nervousness. The audience will laugh (but in a good way, of course!) and think that you're really funny. Don't try to be humorous in serious situations such a funeral or an important meeting though, or you might get into big trouble!

Warnings

·         Don't give a wrong or uninformed answer. Defer to a later time and ask "is it okay if I get back to you on that on the break. I want to make sure I cover the subject well, and get you the right answer".

·         If you don't know the answer to a question, ask the audience if anyone knows the answer to the question (you don't have to admit you don't know it...you just ask the audience).

·         Avoid death by PowerPoint; overuse of slides during a talk will put your audience to sleep.

·         Avoid standing behind podiums, tables or any physical barrier between you and your audience.

·         Don't take anything personally.

Some more hints

1. Take time out

2. What's the worst that can happen?

3. Expose yourself to the fear

4. Welcome the worst

5. Get real

6. Don't expect perfection

7. Visualise

8. Talk about it

9. Go back to basics

10. Reward yourself

What Do You Think?

* End the speech as soon as possible
* Avoid any pauses or interruptions during the speech
* Avoid contact with the audience
* Hide the fact that they are afraid

Don't Be the Unspeaker!

Hurrying

Ignoring the Audience

Fighting to Hide Your Fear

 

Fear of Public Speaking:

Fear of public speaking is the most common of all phobias. It's a form of performance anxiety in which a person becomes very concerned that he or she will look visibly anxious, maybe even have a panic attack while speaking.
Over time, people try to protect themselves by either avoiding public speaking or by struggling against speech anxiety.
In this way, people get Tricked into making the fear of public speaking more chronic and disruptive.
Some people do this with avoidance. They choose college coursework in such a way as to avoid public speaking, rather than taking the classes they want.

How to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

Five Parts:

Speaking   

HelpFacing your fears  

Being prepared  

RelaxingWorking with the audience

634. Vocabulary Skills MBA I - II

Vocabulary  Skills

MBA  I – II

Reading vocabulary

A person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three. It needs a lot of practice to read. This we should learn from a teacher. Otherwise certain words we should refer dictionary for pronunciation.

Listening vocabulary

A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice. While listening the pronunciation differs from native to native.

American accent is called yankee style which is very different and difficult to understand.

We follow the British style. Especially ours is called Indian style. Why it is called because we follow our own mother tongue style.

This is very less in day to day conversation. If we listen to experts, scientists, writers etc.  it changes or we cannot follow unless we know about that subject. Because the jargon differs from subject to subject.

Writing vocabulary

A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user.

Writing is an art. It depends upon the subject the writer is writing. Whether is an expert or ordinary person.

Speaking vocabulary

A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures.

American accent is called yankee style which is very different and difficult to understand. Others cannot follow it as usual. Those who are born and brought up can only speak that style.

We follow the British style. Especially ours is called Indian style. Why it is called because while speaking we follow our own mother tongue style.

This is very less in day to day conversation. If we speak to experts, scientists, writers etc.  it changes or we cannot follow unless we know about that subject. Because the jargon differs from subject to subject.

Focal vocabulary

"Focal vocabulary" is a specialized set of terms and distinctions that is particularly important to a certain group; those with particular focuses of experience or activity.

For example, the Nuer of Sudan have an elaborate vocabulary to describe cattle. The Nuer have dozens of names for cattle because of the cattle's particular histories, economies, and environments.

This kind of comparison has elicited some linguistic controversy, as with the number of "Eskimo words for snow".

English speakers can also elaborate their snow and cattle vocabularies when the need arises.

That is why English is full of synonyms. Every year atleast 1000 new words join English. If the speaker uses the native words where they to that area, he can be understood well.

Eg. British  call police and Americans call police as cop.

 Vocabulary growth

Initially, in the infancy phase, vocabulary growth requires no effort. Infants hear words and mimic them, eventually associating them with objects and actions. This is the listening vocabulary.

The speaking vocabulary follows, as a child's thoughts become more reliant on its ability to express itself without gestures and mere sounds.

Once the reading and writing vocabularies are attained – through questions and education – the anomalies and irregularities of language can be discovered.

In first grade, an advantaged student (i.e. a literate student) knows about twice as many words as a disadvantaged student. Generally, this gap does not tighten. This translates into a wide range of vocabulary size by age five or six, at which time an English-speaking child will know about 2,500–5,000 words. An average student learns some 3,000 words per year, or approximately eight words per day.

After leaving school, vocabulary growth plateaus. People may then expand their vocabularies by reading, playing word games, participating in vocabulary programs, etc.

Passive vs. active vocabulary

Even if we learn a word, it takes a lot of practice and context connections for us to learn it well. A rough grouping of words we understand when we hear them encompasses our "passive" vocabulary, whereas our "active" vocabulary is made up of words that come to our mind immediately when we have to use them in a sentence, as we speak. In this case, we often have to come up with a word in the timeframe of milliseconds, so one has to know it well, often in combinations with other words in phrases, where it is commonly used.

The importance of a vocabulary

• An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication
• Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.
• Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary
• A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary
• Every day new new words are created, or borrowed, we need more vocabulary.

Native- and foreign-language vocabulary

Native-language vocabulary

Native speakers' vocabularies vary widely within a language, and are especially dependent on the level of the speaker's education. A 1995 study estimated the vocabulary size of college-educated speakers at about 17,000 word families, and that of first-year college students (high-school educated) at about 12,000.

Foreign-language vocabulary

The effects of vocabulary size on language comprehension

Francis and Kucera^[10] studied texts totaling one million words and found that if one knows the words with the highest frequency, they will quickly know most of the words in a text:

By knowing the 2000 words with the highest frequency, one would know 80% of the words in those texts. The numbers look even better than this if we want to cover the words we come across in an informally spoken context. Then the 2000 most common words would cover 96% of the vocabulary.^[11] These numbers should be encouraging to beginning language learners, especially because the numbers in the table are for word lemmas and knowing that many word families would give even higher coverage. But before you start thinking you would learn a language in no time, think how well you would understand a book in your own language where every fifth word was blacked-out! We cannot usually guess meanings from context when that many words are missing.^[12] We need to understand about 95% of a text^[13] in order to gain close to full understanding and it looks like one needs to know more than 10,000 words for that.

Basic English vocabulary

For English language learners. Knowing 2000 English words, one could understand quite a lot of English, and even read a lot of simple material without problems.

633. TIME MANAGEMENT MBA I - II

TIME  MANAGEMENT

MBA   I – II

 

10 Time Wasters To Be Alert To As A Leader Or Manager

You can buy additional memory for your computer to speed it up and make it work better. On the other hand, the amount of time you have in a day is fixed. What that means is we need to invest it wisely. So what are 10 time wasters to be alert to as a leader or manager?

1. Incomplete information which means you cannot take a decision.
2. Employees coming in with problems that are important to them but not urgent.
3. Telephone calls, including mobile phone calls, coming in on a totally random basis.
4. Routine tasks that should be taken care of by someone on your team being delegated upwards.
5. Poorly organised or poorly run meetings.
6. Attempting to do, or offering to do, too much in the time available.
7. Being overly optimistic in your estimates of how long things will take.
8. Procrastinating; either putting things off or leaving things partly completed.
9. Not listening and going off on the wrong track.
10. Not being willing to say ‘no’ when you are already fully utilised.

Boost Your Productivity And Results

Ask just about any leader or manager what their biggest challenges are and you are almost guaranteed that a lack of time will be on their list. We all at the end of the day have the same allocation of time yet some seem to get vastly different results from others. So how can you boost productivity and results?

start with a big enough ‘Why?’. By that he means being clear about why saving time matters to you. The chances are that you are missing out on, or not getting enough of, something that really matters to you. What is it and why does it matter anyway?

A time tracker is another great tool for getting insights into where your time is going. I remember having to account for every 15 minutes of the day when I worked in one of the Big 4 accountancy firms. Sometimes it felt like a chore but it sure helped with focus.

Another great strategy is to organise things so that you can easily put your hands on them when you need them. If you are one of the many professional people who like to hold on to things just in case they are needed, you might want to invest in a couple of sacks and get rid of stuff.

Cut down the delaying and procrastinating and start taking decisions and actions to get things done. The reality is things will never be easier when you put them off, they will just be later.

Distinguish between the ‘must do’ and ‘to do’ list. ‘Must do’ activities are those areas that are critical to achieving your results. What are those for your role? If you don’t know, make it a priority to find out.

Delegate more rather than holding on to stuff out of habit or because you wrongly believe that you are the only one who could do it so well.

Hold meetings only when you really need to. They can easily swallow up a bunch of time. When you hold a meeting, make sure there is a defined outcome and time limit.

The Bottom Line: Mastering time management is an important area in being a successful leader or manager and will require review from time to time. At the same time, it is often small changes that can yield big results.

7 Secrets Of Achieving Work / Life Balance

One of the things I have noticed is that, despite all of the advances in technology and gadgets, achieving some reasonable work / life balance seems to be a bigger challenge than ever.

So what are the secrets of achieving work / life balance?

Secret 1: Decide that it matters to you

It seems obvious but you need to decide that getting some sort of sensible balance matters to you.

Secret 2: Set boundaries

We all need money to live. At the same time, it is of little benefit if you are so burned out that you cannot enjoy the non-work time. Set boundaries on how much time you want to spend at work and stick to them.

Secret 3: Let others know your boundaries

If you are happy for people to contact you any time they like by ‘phone or on your Blackberry, that’s fine. On the other hand, if you are not, make it clear to others what is okay and what is not.

Secret 4: Turn off gadgets

If you are a doctor or on-call in your job, you need your ‘phone and email on. If not, you can probably turn off your gadgets.

Secret 5: Ask yourself what you would say on your death bed

I remember a fairly new trainee saying to me when I worked at one of the Big 4 Accounting Firms, Do you want to be lying on your death bed saying, ‘I wish I had spent more time at work’? Essentially, she was saying, Decide on your priorities.

Secret 6: Focus

It is not about working harder; it is about working smarter.

Secret 7: Track your time investment

Once you start tracking where you are investing your time, you start to get insights on where you need to change.

Are You First To Arrive And Last To Leave?

In the modern business world, people seem to be working longer and longer. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of being the first to arrive and last to leave. How do I know this? Well simply because it was an area that I found a challenge when working in the accountancy profession.

So if you are first to arrive and last to leave, what can you do to address this?

Get clear on your priorities

You have lots of things you could do. The question is what should you be doing? Getting clear on your priorities is essential.

Focus on your priorities

It is all well and good being clear on your priorities. At the same time, you need to make sure that you are focussing on them. That means continually checking what you are doing to make sure you are focussing on what matters.

Discover what can only be done by you

In my experience, most tasks can be grouped into 3 brackets:

1. Things that need doing and can only be done by you.
2. Things that need doing but not necessarily by you.
3. Things that might not need doing at all.

Learn to delegate

Delegation is not just about getting stuff off your desk. It also provides a great development opportunity. So learn how to and start delegating.

The reality is that if we allow it, work will expand to fill the time we have available. Remember, few things are so critical in management that they need attention right away.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Sometimes delivering better results is not always about work harder but about working smarter. Discover my

Secrets Of Managing Your Time

Time is the ultimate limiting factor. It does not matter who you are; you have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, 744 hours in a month.

As a result, how you manage your time is vital to the results that you get.

So what are some of the secrets?

1. Be clear on what your priorities are and what you are expected to deliver.
2. Plan how you are going to invest your time.
3. Keep a track of where you are spending your time.
4. Do what you do best.
5. Delegate and empower others.
6. Set boundaries.
7. Focus on results.
8. Keep a sense of balance so that your productivity does not dip.

The truth is, how you manage your time makes a big difference to your productivity and results. So what have you found makes a big difference to managing your time?

 

7 Simple Tips To Improve Your Work / Life Balance

The more senior you become in the organisation, the tougher it can be to maintain some form of work / life balance.

So what simple tips do I suggest for improving work / life balance?

Tip 1: Set deadlines

• Have you ever noticed that when you set a deadline for getting something done or a timescale to do something, you somehow do it? Setting a deadline is a bit like setting an intention which sends a signal to your mind.

Tip 2: Prioritise well

• Whether you believe it or not, some things are more important than others. Make the point of identifying and prioritising how you will use your time.

Tip 3: Be well organised

• Being able to find things when you need them, whether in a computer or filing cabinet, can pay big dividends.

Tip 4: Plan things out of work

• If you don’t, you will just end up staying that extra half hour, which will in reality end up being two hours.

Tip 5: Ask for help

• Don’t suffer in silence. Ask for help if you are struggling.

Tip 6: Focus on what matters

• Rather than stuff that keeps you busy.

Tip 7: Learn to switch off

• Tough as it might be, you need to be able to switch off.

The truth is, maintaining a healthy work / life balance can actually enhance your performance. So what’s your first step?

5 Fast Actions To Boost Your Personal Effectiveness

1. Know what your priorities are.
2. Plan your time utilisation to focus on your priorities.
3. Periodically record where you are spending your time so that you can be sure that you are spending it appropriately.
4. Do what you do best and delegate or dump the other things.
5. Get the team you lead or manage taking on the things that they do best.

 

5 Tips To Boost Your Personal Effectiveness

Tip 1

• Get clear on what’s priority and what’s not.

Tip 2

• Invest your time in the priority activities.

Tip 3

• If you have something that you have to do, make sure that you have the skills to do it.

Tip 4

• Keep track of where you are spending your time so that you can be sure that you are investing it wisely.

Tip 5

• Reflect periodically and make changes where necessary to take your personal effectiveness to the next level.

6 Tips For Achieving Better Results

 “Too much to do, too little time”, is an all too familiar cry these days. So what can you do to get more done and achieve better results?

1. Know what’s important and priority and what is just a time filler.
2. Set yourself challenging but realistic targets for each day, week and month.
3. Set start and finish times for every task.
4. Don’t leave things half completed otherwise you end up with a whole lot of work in progress.
5. Get organised so that you can find things.
6. Automate whenever you can to boost productivity.

What additional tips would you add?