Shyam Bhatawdekar | Building Leadership and Management

Life Management: Self-awareness

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Shyam Bhatawdekar

Self-concept: Self-awareness

My Introduction to Me

Do you really know yourself? Have you ever introspected to know the real you? Do you know for sure your capabilities and if you do not, how are you ever going to use them for your and others’ benefits, then? Determining your self concept is the starter step to work out your next steps to achieve effectiveness, efficiency, success, self esteem, growth and happiness in your personal, professional, family and social life.

First, Do This Exercise

Do this simple exercise. Take a blank page and a pencil. Start writing randomly everything that you have observed from the start of your day till now. Like you might have noticed that you woke up forty five minutes late this morning as compared to the other days. Put that down on the paper and label it as observation number 1. Now, jot down your next observation and label it as 2. This second observation might relate to say, aroma of something yummy being cooked in the kitchen by one of you family. You get curious and walk into the kitchen to find a cake being baked in the oven. Your getting curious could be your observation number 3 and baking of the cake seems to be your fourth observation.

They deserve to be called your observations only if you really did observe them and can recall them now. Do not write anything as observation if you have not observed it, i.e. do not write your imaginations. So, in this way, keep on recalling all that you observed and keep jotting it down.

The moment you start feeling some kind of strain on your mind to recall any further, stop writing. That’s an indication that what all you observed, you have been able to pour it down on the paper and now you are finding it tough to write any more. In a sense, you have exhausted all your observations.

What are total number of observations you noted on the paper? Write it.

Also, out of total observations you made, how many pertain to human beings and how many pertain to inanimate things or other than human beings. For example, your observation on your getting curious as to what was cooking in the kitchen belongs to observation on human beings (animate observation) and baking of cake belongs to observation on other than human beings category (inanimate observation). Work out a rough percentages of each one of them.

Take a pause here and complete the above-mentioned exercise before you proceed to read further.

Now, Little Bit of Analysis

OK, you completed the exercise. You counted the total number of observations made by you. You also worked out the percentage for observations on human beings and the percentage for observations on things other than human beings.

First, check up how many observations you made: is it nil observation, is it just about 1 or 2, is it below 3 observations, is it 5, or is it 7 or 10 and something else? I bet, a large majority of you might not have even reached a figure of 10 observations. Come to think of it- that’s really not an impressive figure. And I am sure that many of you found the exercise a bit tough, you just could not scribble your observations just like that; it wasn’t a cakewalk. It took some toll on you mind because you had not really observed enough and also had not observed that well.

Now get on with the percentages. Our general research on thousands of people who undertook this exercise tells us that your percentage of observations on things other than human beings is much higher than the your percentage of observations on human beings. In few exceptional cases, it could be other way round.

So two things become somewhat clear. First, majority of people do not make many observations on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour or minute-to-minute basis. They are not keen observers. Second, people observe the inanimate things more than the human beings.

Now, do one more little analysis. Of the observations made on human beings by you, how many observations you made relate to yourself and how many relate to others? Again, our general research on thousands of people tells us that with the exception of few, majority would have fewer observations on self and more observation on others.

Now this will be a general pattern for most people on most of the days, most of the times.

The inference from all this is: majority of people do not observe enough and do not observe well, majority of people observe the human beings with less keenness and within that, observations on the self is the minimum or negligible.

But, Observations Are Important for Improvements

Say, you are walking in an art gallery and all the paintings on the walls are placed meticulously. Then, suddenly, you observe that one beautiful painting is not looking all that impressive. This observation triggers a question why? And you start looking out for an answer, a reason. You observe more, study the painting and also the display of painting with keen eyes. It takes perhaps a few seconds to realize that the painting is tilted on one side. It is not hung symmetrically on the wall. Now, you may like to bring it to the attention of the administrative staff of the art gallery who will fix it up properly. The same painting looks better now, It is more impressive. An overall improvement in the display of paintings was brought about by your observations.

The same thing happens to you when you tend to observe yourself. For example, while clipping your nails on your fingers, you notice that the color of the nails is not the usual pink but it has turned rather on the white side. You mull over it and suspect depletion of hemoglobin in your body and then you recall another of your observation that lately you had not been feeling all that smart; you get tired pretty fast. These two observations, then, lead you to consult your physician who orders a blood test on you and confirms that the iron content in your blood has gone below the count required for a healthy person. Your doctor administers an appropriate treatment on you to make you a healthy person again. Here again, the observations were responsible for bringing about the desired improvement.

Now, experiencing such benefits of observations, you learn to observe more and your observation skill becomes sharper. You are able to find out many aspects of your behavior which you had never bothered to look at earlier. For instance, you figure out that your short tempered behavior often upsets the rest of family members and the environment at home often becomes hostile. You wish to change it, you wish to bring about an improvement and make the atmosphere at home more friendly. Due to your introspection (observation) of yourself, you now know the reason. So, you decide to work on your short-temperedness and soon get over it. Home environment starts flourishing.

Often Time, Self Improvement Is More Important

Most often, self improvement is more important rather than expecting other persons or other things to change or improve. Also, the fact of life is that you really cannot change others if others do not wish to change themselves. You very well know the saying,”You can take horse to water but can not make it drink water unless the horse wants to drink.” So, do not take the burden of changing others. It is waste of your time and energy. Things will work out better for you if you bring about improvements within you. So, concentrate in that department. Often times, it is seen that if you behave better and keep doing so on every occasion in dealing with others (though, at times, it needs lots of patience), you are likely to get a better and desired reciprocation from others over a period of time.

And as we established earlier, the improvements cannot be effected without observations. So, the improvements within you too can be brought about only if you start observing yourself more and more and also with more keenness. By self observations, you start understanding your own self- your physical profile, your intellectual profile, you emotional profile, your spiritual profile, your competency and skill profile, your thinking patterns etc.

You start knowing how good and how bad you are on these elements. You start getting introduced to yourself more and more in many ways. You also start seeing the potential of improvement in certain aspects within you.

You realize that if you can bring about these improvements within you, you can become more effective and efficient. Effectiveness and efficiency in turn will help bring better results through your actions leading to enhanced success, self esteem, growth and happiness in your personal, professional, family and social life.

So, the first step you took was to observe and to know your self more completely and more deeply. Getting introduced to your own self is known as creating the “self-concept” of one self. You have started answering the typical question, “Who am I?” You have your “self-concept” with you, now.

Formal Definitions of Self-concept

There are several connotations to the word or phrase “self-concept” that we just introduced in the earlier paragraph. Many of these definitions are given below:

It is perceived personality or an aspect of the personality of the self.
It indicates the complete personality of the self.
It is one’s own identity. So, self-concept can be called also as self identity.
It can be defined as conscious understanding of the self.
If the typical question “who am I” can be correctly and completely answered, the answer in itself is self concept.
Self-concept is the search of the truth about the self.
Without going into in-depth technical debate or technical dissection, self-concept also can be termed as self image.
Again, without going into in-depth technical debate or technical dissection, self-concept also can be termed as self-schema. Self-schema is the storage of information about the self, the way one thinks and behaves.
Self-concept is normally an outcome of the self-assessments or introspection or observations.

Factors that May Constitute Self-concept

Description of any entity or any system completely can be done by describing many constituent elements of it in a number of different ways.

For example, imagine describing a car to someone. You will try to describe the car by describing many elements or factors of it in different ways. You will describe its physical appearance- its shape, size, style, color, seating capacity, number of doors etc. You may then go to describe its component systems or aggregates- engine, transmission, chassis, electrical/electronic system, safety devices etc. You may also describe the car by the type of its use and function- sedan, station wagon, sports etc. Thus, the more elements and more relevant elements of car you describe, the clearer becomes the concept of that car.

Human being is far more complex. To describe a human being more completely, the characteristics of a person, at least on the following factors must be found out and assessed. Determining self-concept of a person thus is not a very simple task because as you may see that the factors given below are quite loaded.

Physical attributes (height, weight, hair color, color of eyes, gender etc)
Values (fundamental beliefs).
Knowledge (intelligence quotient IQ, emotional quotient EQ and spiritual quotient SQ).
Paradigms (mindsets or thinking patterns on day-to-day’s numerous things).
Skills and competencies.
Internal motivation, will power and action orientation.
Social behavior with people from various spheres.
Habits.
Interests and hobbies.

(You may like to read author Shyam Bhatawdekar’s book titled “HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s effectiveness Model)”. The book can be obtained from http://www.amazon.com/HSoftware-Shyam-Bhatawdekars-Effectiveness-ebook/dp/B0051OS2TQ/ref=sr_1_1

Self-concept Is Three Dimensional

You can work out your self-concept mainly in two ways: first, by introspecting within your self. Peep into your own psyche and try to answer many questions about yourself. Like, who are you? What is it that is good in you? What is it that is not so good or bad in you?

Where do you shine and where you are dull? etc. You may also introspect the events that took place in which you were a predominant player. Analyze as to how well or how bad the event took place. What did you do right for the success of the event or what did you not do that resulted in failure of the event. You can also take recourse to a number of psychological or similar questionnaires that are designed to explore such aspects of yours (a partial list of such more popular questionnaires is given later in this article). These questionnaires are called instruments. However, answers to only one instrument can not measure all the dimensions of your personality. For example, as you need a foot scale to measure length and thermometer to measure the temperature, similarly, you may need many different instruments or questionnaires to measure different characteristics of yours.

Second way of knowing yourself or creating self awareness is to seek the feedback of others about you on different aspects of your personality and behavior. Again, this can also be done in unstructured as well as structured manner or in explicit way or in implicit way. You can design a questionnaire and give it to many people who know you and get their feedback on it or you can interview them face to face. Or you can collect the data about yourself by observing the way people deal with you, their reactions and responses towards you, their body language and gestures when they relate to you etc.

Having created your own self-concept by introspecting and by collecting the feedback of others, your knowledge about yourself becomes better and better. At this juncture, then, you are ready to decide your further course of action as to what you will like to become really, ideally? You have to decide upon your new image of yourself, your ideal personality.
Therefore, self-concept is three dimensional in nature. These three dimensions are:

1. Self part: How I think I am based on my judgment and experience. In this exploration, in addition to the self introspection on many aspects, also I get the answers for those certain things that I alone know about myself and no one else knows about them. In Johari window model, it is known as hidden self or hidden arena or hidden area of a person.

2. Social part: How I think I am based on others’ thinking or perceptions about me. This comes by way of implicit or explicit feedback from others about me. In this kind of feedback, in addition to the feedback on many aspects, also I get the answers for those certain things that the others alone know about me and I am just not aware of them. In Johari window model, it is known as blind self or blind arena or blind area of a person.

3. Ideal part: How I wish to become (and so, wish to be seen) and also, what I don’t want to become. This is done by understanding the other two parts, the self part and the social part and then working out the future plan of actions. It is a serious exercise and also needs good amount of my time and attention. It envelops opportunities and threats, hopes and fears, goals and time lines etc.

Time Dimension of Self-concept

There is yet another dimension to self-concept- the time dimension. Is self concept permanent, is it transitory?

Self-concept shows relatively more permanent self-assessments on various factors that constitute self-concept. These factors have been mentioned earlier. Example: if a person is laid back type, it is his more permanent trait and so, it is a part of his self-concept. But the same person may not feel well on one odd day and therefore, he acts a bit laid back on that particular day, it does not represent his self-concept.

However, self-concept may change with time if one tries to change oneself on any one or more or all of these factors or the change occurs due to factors beyond one’s control.
If one wishes to be more effective and efficient to achieve success and growth, one will have to improve one’s self concept from the present (self part and social part, mentioned earlier) to the ideal self concept profile (the ideal part mentioned earlier). This is an important journey- saying that I am here right now and I wish to reach there over a defined time line.

Creating self-concept Is Not an Easy Exercise- It’s Not a Cakewalk

We give below one of easiest of the hundreds of more difficult to answer questionnaires that are used to uncover some specific aspects (factors described earlier) of the self-concept. Answer the questionnaire and get the flavor:

On Myself (Fill in the blanks against each point below with understanding and honesty):

· What I like best about myself is__________________________
· I am best at__________________________________________
· My biggest success was/is ______________________________
· In my job I enjoy______________________________________
· My biggest weakness is________________________________
· My biggest mischief is_________________________________
· I feel unhappy when___________________________________
· I feel most happy when_________________________________
· I value myself for_____________________________________
· I feel powerful when I__________________________________
· I am special because___________________________________
· I want to become the kind of person who___________________
____________________________________________________
· One of my dreams is___________________________________
____________________________________________________
· I am________________________________________________

Titles of Some of Well Known Questionnaires/Instruments That Are Used to Determine the Self-concept on Various Factors

Earlier in this article, we mentioned that one could use the standard or customized questionnaires or instruments to explore the different aspects of one’s self-concept. We give below a partial list of titles of some of the more popular types:

Winners and losers (Self image check list. Refer: (Winners and Losers) http://winners-losers.blogspot.com/
How do you see yourself? (Personal preference index).
Johari window.
Firo-B (Interpersonal profile). Refer: (Interpersonal Relations) http://interpersonal-relations.blogspot.com/
Know your ego states (Ego-gram).
Self perception questionnaire: life positions (OKness).
Overall interpersonal/operating effectiveness.
Conflict management mode.
Leadership profile (Managerial grid).
Work patterns (Type A and type B personalities). Refer: (Stress Management) http://management-of-stress.blogspot.com/
Three sixty degrees feedback.
IQ questionnaires.
EQ questionnaires.
SQ questionnaires.
etc.

Self-concept: Must for Effectiveness, Efficiency, Success, Self Esteem, Growth and Happiness

Only after you know what or who you are, you will be able to take the next step of what you wish to become. With exploration of self-concept, you get introduced to yourself in a much better way, for the first time. You start knowing your current strengths and weaknesses. Also, now, you can define your new destinations. Then, your journey of improvement starts to shape up the new you- your stepped up self concept. Now, you know where you stand, in which direction and how much to travel, what is your destination and you can decide how to reach the mile stones on the way along what time lines.

The distance between where you are now and where you target to arrive defines the degree of self esteem and happiness at any given point of time. More the distance, less is the self esteem and happiness. Less the distance, more is the self esteem and happiness. Arriving there gives maximum self esteem and happiness.

For More of the Author’s Work

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar: http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

For various other management topics, refer: (Home Pages for All the Management Topics) http://management-universe.blogspot.com/, http://management-universe-enotes.blogspot.com/ and (Alphabetic List of All Management Topics) http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training on all the topics related to management and leadership is provided by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations. Implementation of various HR system is also facilitated by the team of Prodcons Group.

Also refer: http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/ and http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com

Our Book Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Other Topics of Interest

All Management Topics (General Management, Marketing and Sales, Service, Operations/Manufacturing, Quality, Maintenance, Human Resources, Finance and Accounts, Information Technology, Life Management)

The topics are listed in alphabetic order:

Home Management Tips (Home Tips)
(Home Page for All Home Tips) http://home-tips-tricks.blogspot.com/
(Do This Today) http://do-this-today.blogspot.com/
(Entertainment: Movies) http://popular-movies.blogspot.com/
(Oscar Award Movies) http://oscar-award-movies.blogspot.com/
(Entertainment: Recommended Hindi Movies) http://unforgettable-hindi-movies.blogspot.com/
(Entertainment- Hindi Movies of Your Choice) http://hindi-movies-choice.blogspot.com/
(Plagiarized, Copied or Inspired Hindi Movies) http://copied-hindi-movies.blogspot.com/
(Health: Homeopathy) http://homeopathy-medicines.blogspot.com/
(Housekeeping at Home) http://5s-housekeeping-home.blogspot.com/
(How to Save Money) http://save-money-ideas.blogspot.com/or
http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/how-to-save-money/6txz9nck6g3/11#
(Jewelry Design) http://thejewellerydesigner.blogspot.com/
(Recipes: Easy to Cook) http://easytocook-recipes.blogspot.com/
(Recipes: Exotic) http://tastetherecipes.blogspot.com/
(Stories for Children) http://stories-children.blogspot.com/
(Travel and Sightseeing- India) http://india-tours-sightseeing.blogspot.com/
(Travel and Sightseeing- World) http://sightseeing-guide.blogspot.com/
(World Heritage Sites) http://world-heritage-spots.blogspot.com/

General Knowledge and Out of Box Ideas
(General Knowledge- GK) http://general-knowledge-gk.blogspot.com/
(General Knowledge- Top 5 of Everything) http://top-five-everything.blogspot.com/
(General Knowledge- Top 10 of Everything) http://top-ten-anything.blogspot.com/
(Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/
(Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Knols) http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/shyam-bhatawdekar/6txz9nck6g3/1#
(Running Commentary on the Run) http://running-comments.blogspot.com/

Posted in Boundaryless Management, Change Management, Creativity, Family Counseling, General Counseling, General Management, Global Management, Home Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership, Life Management, Life Skills, Parental Counseling, Personal Effectiveness, Personality Development, Principles of Management, Professional Counseling, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Quality Management, Soft Skills | Tagged Effectiveness, Introspection, Knowing the Self, Life Management, Life Skills, My Introduction to Me, Self Awareness, Self Improvement, Self-concept | Leave a comment

The Genuine Professional

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Shyam Bhatawdekar

The Genuine Professional: Great Professional With Zero Ulterior Motives

Almost all the authors and thinkers stop at “greatness” as the highest rung in the ladder of effectiveness and success of a professional or a human being. There is yet one more rung above “greatness” and that is “genuineness” i.e. being seen as great but with zero ulterior motives for anyone (including for self). The person who climbs up to that rung is great and yet, genuine to the core.

(Everywhere in this article, where ever there is mention of “he”, “him”, “man” and “men”, that also implies “she”, “her”, “woman” and “women”)

This article talks about a concept that I choose to call “genuine professional” (as different from an “employee- a mere job holder” or an “ordinary professional” or even a “great professional” as made out by media and people but who is not “genuine”). The conventionally known “greatness” is not necessarily “genuineness”. It is a step above. Large number of times this conventional greatness equates unprecedented popularity, lots of money, highest hierarchical positions, highly publicized success and effectiveness in narrower isolated fields, tremendous power to help or harm and all of this measured over a short range of time span, achieved some how by hook or crook by not necessarily being a genuine person.

As we all know, the white-collar revolution or the knowledge worker revolution is on. We are living in a global village and the life is becoming global. Therefore, the professional competition is also global. Knowledge worker jobs (and even the other jobs) are continuously getting reconfigured beyond imagination and at a very fast pace. People are under constant fear of becoming obsolete, losing their jobs, being fired, being underpaid and suffer from an uneasy feeling of not contributing. They have to fake it, pretend about it all the time. And if one has to steer through these situations in a dignified, significant and meaningful ways, then one has to try to become a “genuine professional”.

“The genuine professional” is not an ordinary person, he is not an ordinary employee and he is not an ordinary professional. He is a Genuine Professional: genuine to the core, effective and efficient. More than a mere great professional. He is his own genuine brand.

He does not want to go in the same door to work Monday through weekend for 45 or 50 odd years, like the typical “employee (at any level or power position)” in a 9 to 5 job. He thinks and acts like an independent contractor, an independent professional, a genuine professional. He is autonomous in a way.

A genuine professional feels, thinks and acts like an independent contractor when working independently as his own boss or even when working for an organization as an employee irrespective of his hierarchical position in the organization- whether junior, middle, senior or top level worker or official. A genuine professional is self-reliant, dependent on his skills and on constant upgrading of skills and pursuing his work without any ulterior motives towards any one. He has, in the end, only his “track record” i.e. his “projects” and “project deliveries” (and not the “jobs” or “tasks”). Thus, he is an independent-minded “entity” with highest value structure.

Let us quickly contrast the genuine professional with the typical 9 to 5 employee (irrespective of levels).

Genuine professional	Typical employee (at any level)
Genuine professional creates and works on genuine projects: may be even small but meaningful, full of impact, beneficial to all, ethical, fun filled, beautiful.	Typical employee does what is assigned. He does “jobs”, “activities” or “tasks” and not the “projects”. Can pursue “non-genuine” or “un-ethical” or “fake” tasks for several reasons.
Genuine professional is committed to his skills (or craft) and excels there.	For typical employee, it’s OK if he can sail through with his skills.
While genuine professional is independent, he understands and uses interdependency genuinely (win-win way) to the hilt to obtain highest synergies for his projects. So he networks with other persons and professionals genuinely.	Typical employee does not necessarily aim for synergies, can use win-lose or lose-win or even lose-lose approaches many times to perform his “activities (different from “project”) and even to save his skin.
Genuine professional anxiously looks forward to another morning of another day.	Typical employee’s normal exclamation: Oh no, another day!
Genuine professional is effective and efficient.	Typical employee is not necessarily effective or efficient.
Genuine professional is genuine. Never cheats others and self.	Typical employee may be doing great things or being seen as doing great things by others but a large number of times “genuineness” is missing. There is an element of cheating somewhere.
Genuine professional is aware of politics and street-smartness, but he does not practice politics and street smartness. He is professional and genuinely professional to the core. However, he is not naive.	Typical employee does not mind practicing politics and street smartness if that suits him.
Genuine professional is action oriented (aware of constraints).	Typical employee is bureaucratic. Bothered by constraints.
Genuine professional is client oriented. Committed.	Typical employee does his activities, his job without necessarily being client oriented.

Genuine professionals do not need to take permission or approval from others to perform the right things. No one can stop them from doing the right things- the genuine things. They also do not do the things for seeking applaud or approval or praise from others who matter. They are not approval addict.

How does one become an effective, efficient and genuine professional? One has to start by developing a belief: “doing right things in a right manner is my birth right”. You may be still on the payroll of a big company but try seeking “psychological independence”- the freedom mentality. If you are a boss in a big firm, motivate your direct reports to convert themselves in to genuine professionals.

Start by asking yourself questions like:

Who am I? (And who am I not?)
What do I want to be?
What do I want to stand for? What do I believe in? What is my work?
Am I making a contribution, a positive difference?

And answer these questions in writing- write 15 to 20 sentences and phrases. Also, answer another vital question all the time, every now and then: Is what I am doing now consistent with the answers I have supplied to the earlier questions? Your answers should enable you to draft a wonderful “yellow page” for yourself and your own organization or design a wonderful web site or develop a wonderful advertising plan.

You have to make your work “something special” genuinely. You will then get visibility. Your work will speak for you and you will be in demand to contribute still more. You would also get paid more. That does no harm and yet surely facilitates and helps improve your contribution towards the genuine work.

We often underestimate the speed and magnitude of change and the often-felt dizziness in us, the dizziness that arises out of premature arrival of the future. Jobs are getting reconfigured at a very fast rate because of these fast paced changes. You will be obsolete in no time if you do not keep pace with required knowledge and skills for the newly reinvented or conceived jobs.

There is no short cut to keep alive professionally. And you must do it famously- you must be sought after. For this to happen on an on-going basis:

You should have the right skills.
You should be master of those skills (9 or 10 out of 10, on a scale of 1 to 10) (You should be able to work out the solutions even when woken out of a deep slumber: genuine surgeons do it, genuine fire fighters do it, genuine maintenance engineers do it, genuine software engineers do it).
You should be able to market them through a network (word of mouth publicity is guaranteed because you are so good, great and genuine).
That enhances your value in the market. You are in demand at higher value- that is your personal market capitalization. However, you alone are “in-charge” to achieve this. You are the CEO of your professional and therefore, your personal and family life. You’re the “architect” of your overall life.

To check whether you are proceeding in the right direction (as guided by the answers to the above-mentioned questions), assess yourself on the following factors:

What am I known for as of today? What will I be known for additionally in the next year and next few more years? And this is not for publicity but because this way more people will get confidence in me and ask me to work more and more and I can use myself more for greater contribution.
Is my current project challenging me? In which 2 or 3 ways?
Have I enhanced my knowledge and skills in the past 3 to 6 months?
Have I added at least 5 new addresses to my communication portfolio or my network list in last 3 to 6 months?
In which 2 or 3 ways am I improving my “visibility” (marketing) program and am I doing it genuinely without fooling or exploiting others or without any ulterior motives?
Have I added at least one more item on my resume in last 3 to 6 months to give it the required boost? Is my resume decidedly different from what I wrote one year back?

Other ingredients (some of them are repeated for effect) of the genuine professional are:

He is fully excited by his work, his projects.
He is committed to his skills (or craft) and improving them further on an ongoing basis.
He is an entrepreneur. He is his own boss. No one else can boss over him. He is the CEO. However, he can definitely associate with any related person or professional in a mature way- at par, on equal terms.
He is architect of his professional, personal and family life. He does not complain. He does not blame.
He does not see or feel failures as emotionally disturbing- they are natural part of life. He is ready to learn from mistakes as well as successes.
He is content in a mature way, laughs normally and has fun doing things.
He is genuine, not a fake. He is original, not a second hander. He does not pretend. He is straightforward and assertive (neither inferior nor superior) but well mannered. But he is not there to pretend pleasing or pleasing everyone. Neither is he there to hurt or exploit or humiliate others.
He is not necessarily the “great man” about whom the media raves and talks about (for their; i.e. media’s commercial success) but he is genuine all the way. (Many of these so-called “great men” and “great organizations” turned out to be “villains” later on, though initially, media painted them as “great”. Then, later on, when exposed, you often hear people say, “After all he or it wasn’t really so good as the media made him out to be”).
He is determined to make a difference in the most positive ways and genuine ways.
He does work most proficiently and genuinely to provide benefits to all the concerned and the focus is not on seeking publicity or for becoming famous or celebrity or getting rich or being talked about. All of these things or some of these things may happen to genuine professionals as a fall out from the genuine work they do.

And finally, here is the action plan (or the “to do” things) of a genuine professional:

He takes up “projects” (and not the jobs or activities) and is really serious about them- small or big is immaterial. But his projects will make a difference to those for whom they are meant. They are genuinely beneficial to all the concerned. “Projects” are his “products”. He must develop these products very well. He will have to work out “portfolio of projects” and it is dynamic work. Then, he remains focused on them.

He sharpens his existing skills and adds more skills as necessary. He then masters those. He should renew himself from time to time. He needs to develop his curiosity about all kinds of things.

In order that he can cover a larger ground and contribute more, he has to attract more people and more organizations; he should market his projects effectively. He should develop a clear understanding of what he wants to contribute and communicate to all prospective users. He must dream big, must dream lots.

Even if he is single handedly working, he is an “organization” and should position and project himself that way to all others effectively. Excellent “packaging” (or design) helps a lot. Make your own “logo”, your “mission” statement, your “differentiating/unique” factors- “identity”, your “brand”, your “trademark”. His business card and web site must speak for him. They are his public relations agents.

He should keep on enlarging the list of his prospective clients and keep on communicating to them about what he can do for them. His “communication portfolio” has to be rich and large.

Since he has to genuinely and immensely contribute towards his existing clients by providing them the highest value, they often become his support system for “word of mouth” publicity.

Even if he is working single handedly he has to carry out the functions of planning, marketing, selling, product design and development, operations, logistics, customer service and customer relations, communication and information management, time management. He must develop flair for all these.

He must have a good handle on how to make money (in genuine ways). Therefore, he must be good at the financial management, pricing and negotiations. Money is important means to carry out genuine work and contribute really well.

He should be fully and genuinely committed to his clients. They are his most important people. They should trust him. They should trust him for every thing- genuineness, quality, fairness, transparency, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, service and relations.

Genuine professional is a great “time manager”. “Time” is the most wonderful resource he has got.

Genuine professional has to finally implement and not just talk. So he has to be an out and out “doer”. He has to be internally motivated and enthusiastic to the core to “perform” and can’t afford to be lazy or to procrastinate.

As he goes ahead delivering the projects he need not pity himself for any thing- failures, losses, hurt feelings, pains etc. He must not give any “excuses”. He does not have to compare with others and feel miserable or elated. He should develop optimism.

“Project deliveries” have to be genuine and faultless- mark of excellence. Ultimately what matters is “processes”, “performance” and “results”- all of them truly genuine.

For more of the author’s work:

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar: http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

You may also like to read true “inside” stories from corporate sector and management arena at:(Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

For various other management topics, refer: (Home Pages for All the Management Topics)http://management-universe.blogspot.com/, http://management-universe-enotes.blogspot.com/ and (Alphabetic List of All Management Topics) http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training on all the modules of “Human Resource Management” is provided by ProdconsGroup’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations. Implementation of various HR system is also facilitated by the team of Prodcons Group.

Also refer: http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/ and http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
4. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
5. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
6. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)
7. Stories Children Will Love

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies onAmazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Other Topics of Interest

Posted in Boundaryless Management, Change Management, Creativity, Ethical Management, Family Counseling, General Counseling, General Management, Global Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership, Life Management, Life Skills, Parental Counseling, Personal Effectiveness, Personality Development, Principles of Management, Professional Counseling, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Soft Skills, Stress Management | Tagged Genuine Man, Genuine Professional, Genuineness, Great Professional, Great Professional With Zero Ulterior Motives, Great-man, Greatness, Professional, The Genuine Professional | 2 Comments

Life Management: Our Latest Book: The Romance of Intimacy

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Shyam Bhatawdekar

You Can Buy Free eCopy of this Book till March 30, 2012

You can buy the book “The Romance of Intimacy” as an eBook and/or in printed format by referring the following Amazon.com links:

USA and rest of the world http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007NGBBOI

UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007NGBBOI

Germany https://www.amazon.de/dp/B007NGBBOI

France https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B007NGBBOI

Italy https://www.amazon.it/dp/B007NGBBOI

Spain https://www.amazon.es/dp/B007NGBBOI

What the Book is All about? And about the Authors

The authors Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar are multifaceted personalities. First and foremost, they are great human beings and a happily married couple of nearly 40 years standing. Besides they are rationally, emotionally and spiritually intelligent as is evident from their personal and professional profile- they are top notch business executives, highly sought after business consultants, eminent management gurus, prolific authors, authentic human behavior experts, humane psychologists, presenters par excellence.

Therefore, they are quite competent to tell you a thing or two about life in general and the married life in particular. They believe that if you are married and wish to remain married, you must try to seek the “bliss” of the married life.

And as per them it is achieved by designing and experiencing intimacy in marriage. The partners in a relationship can romance in intimacy provided they wish to do it and provided they develop the skills and competencies that are needed to develop and enhance such an intimacy. It does not happen automatically. One has to take steps to do it.

In this book, the authors suggest a six point program to achieve this. Each point of the six point program is one important lesson that needs to be understood and then implemented very well.

So, without any further wait, now read the book and begin your romance.

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Posted in Boundaryless Management, Change Management, Communication, Creativity, Family Counseling, General Counseling, Global Management, Health Management, Home Management, Human Resource Management, Human Rights, Leadership, Life Management, Life Skills, Personal Effectiveness, Personality Development, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Soft Skills, Stress Management, Team Working | Tagged Building Intimacy in Marriage, Building up Relationship, Enhancing Intimacy, Family Counseling, Family Management, Intimacy in Marriage, Intimacy in Relationship, Life competencies, Life Management, Marriage Counseling, Marriage Management, The Romance of Intimacy | Leave a comment