Excellence Archives — NIMBLE FOUNDATION BLOG

Why remain in mediocrity when you can excel?

How to become efficient and effective in work? And in life, as well? These are two foremost questions.
In today’s competitive world, the word “Personal Effectiveness” has got an immense importance, and why not? Today’s work environment is very demanding and to be successful means grooming yourself and honing with the skill of being effective. Personal effectiveness is not restricted to the corporate environment. Productivity is important and can be applied well to all other walks of life. May be also the be kitchen work , gym work out or anything else carried out by you.
What is this technique and how to imbibe it?
Well, let us discuss in detail what is personal effectiveness after all?

Doing the right things and doing these right.
Peter Drucker said: “Efficiency is doing things right, Effectiveness is doing the right things”.
Self-explanatory as it is personal effectiveness of a person can be calculated by two parameters. It not only measures the result against time but also gauges the quality of work. Quality and quantity, both are important. Thus, effective people are those who can achieve more quality work in less time. While doing so they are not stressed, or confused as if they are working under pressure. Neither do they lose their physical health nor do they lose their mental or emotional one. These people are consistent and deliver results constantly.

Andre Maurois says “The effectiveness of work increases according to geometric Progression, if there are no interruptions”.
So let us take a look at how do you achieve personal effectiveness. Personal effectiveness is the art which helps in self-development. You need to observe and practice the seven important rules to achieve the same. Ask yourself these questions:

How to increase Personal Productivity?

How to increase Personal Productivity at work?

How to improve Personal Productivity?

How to increase my Personal Productivity?

And at night write down your assessment on all the above questions how you handled these during the day in your journal.

Before you start your work keep in mind the following questions:

a) How to start a good routine?

b) How to start a good day?

c) How to start your day with positive vibes?

Thoroughly understand what you want to do, and do it in a relaxed manner.
When you start doing a certain work do start in haste, it’s not so good. Well begun is half done. Isn’t it? And that is why it is required to thoroughly understand the task which you are supposed to begin. Read through or just mind walk through the process. You may encounter some grey areas which can be dealt with by exploring more from the umpteen books and also the internet. Information can be extracted from various sources if not available readily! Isn’t this process more sensible than starting the project in a hurry and then stumbling across something which you are clueless about? This is one of the principles to work your way straight to personal effectiveness. It reduces the time in which the work is done and also improves the quality of the work.

Focus on your work. In order or develop your focus, keep following in mind.

a) What should I do for increasing focus?

b) How to focus better at work?

c) How do I increase concentration during study?

It is easier said than done! But you need to starve all the distractions that come in your way and you need to feed your focus. The art lies in not digressing from the objective in any way. Focus means to continuously put your attention on something and forget the rest of the world. When handling something of critical importance, lock yourself in where no one can disturb you. Once you start on focusing on what you want to achieve, every other stuff should appear meaningless. Focus empowers and teaches you a lot. If you love your job, this love will add to your focus. One has to decide to be focused until it becomes a habit. And eventually the end result is qualitative work in less time.

Self-belief: It gives you immense power to work with a positive mind. Always keep in view the following:

a) Difference between confidence and belief?

b) How to motivate yourself to be confident?

c) Building self-belief is a continuous process.

d) What is the difference between confidence, over confidence and self-belief?

Undeterred faith in yourself is a sure way to personal effectiveness. Unless you believe in yourself how can you make the world believe you. Doubtful mindset spoils the results. You should have a constant strong belief in yourself and your capabilities. Best possible results often are delivered when you keep reinforcing that YOU CAN DO IT!

Expect the unexpected
Life is never a straight line. Everyone has their own ups and downs. All of us have roughs and crests. But the art to lead personally effective life is to be least disrupted due to unexpected events. You can have a plan. But rarely do plans get executed in the same way as planned. You should be proactive enough to foresee any interrupting event and should have an alternative plan which would work without any hassles. Personally effective people are prepared to handle any situation with great ease.

Application of mind is always necessary. Never keep on doing something as a matter of routine without thinking. Routine also will improve with application of mind. Check the following:

a) Habit of mind curriculum.

b) Habit of mind chart.

c) Why are habits of mind important?

d) How is mindfulness while thinking?

e) How do I make mindfulness habit?

Mind is the biggest weapon. Human beings are armed with it and must use it for improving on the battle of being competitive. Many great feats are best performed when mind is applied to those. Never take for granted even small objectives. Once you apply mind to a particular problem, you will definitely find a solution. The more you apply your mind to something that you love it becomes more effective.

Put your mind and soul into the work. Keep the following in mind and observe the difference.

a) When you put your heart and soul into your work?

b) What puts your mind at ease?

c) ‘Put your heart and soul into everything you do’: Bible verse.

When you dedicate totally and put your mind and soul into an objective, you start enjoying the work. When you do the same you leverage on opportunities .The lessons learnt through various experiences in life could also be put to use to be personally effective.

Stretch yourself to the extent, you can. Even physically stretch and find it is helpful. Keep in mind the following:

a) Stretch before work.

b) The importance of stretching when working.

C) Benefits of stretching at work.

Nothing worthwhile can be achieved by shortcuts. You should be eager to move an extra mile then only better things can happen.
It is often said that “if you wish to achieve something you haven’t you need to do something you have not!” That is where you can get different results by putting yourself to a task little more than yesterday. Your objective should not be competing with others, but improving your own self. Continuously improving the work that you do and following the other

Thanks for reading.

How to be a Great Leader?

6 Steps to pursue leadership excellence

The leader’s attitude is very important. Self awareness too is very significant. But more importantly, proper implementation of any idea in great detail is critical. Other 3 important aspects are- accepting responsibility, realizing that pursuing excellence is your own choice and determination, and finally the leader must be must ensure that the team members are in a position to live up to the leader’s expectations. Having said that, let us now deal with each of these 6 steps one by one.

Step 1. Planning & Implementation

Any idea or plan must be executed/implemented with great precision. In fact the quality of implementation of an idea is even more important than the idea itself. Leading management Gurus advocate that ‘A’ quality implementation of ‘B’ quality plan is more productive then ‘B’ quality implementation of ‘A’ quality plan. When we look through the finer details of any task, we are able to follow its original objectives. But it doesn’t happen if we overlook the details. Excellence is a continuous process. It is not just an event. It is not just an accident. But it is your choice which you follow step by step, always. This becomes easier if you love every moment of your life and therefore if you love everything that your do from moment to moment.

Step 2. Positive Attitude

Your attitude is extremely important. Excellence is not just a skill like those skills you require for doing anything correctly and nicely. Excellence is your attitude to do every job with at most care and while enjoy at the same time. Precision and enjoyment may appear to be incompatible but they are not. There is no doubt that you have to follow this practice of using eye for detail and getting satisfaction for following the finer details at the same time.

Step 3. Make excellence your Habit

The good news is that there is no preparation required to pursue excellence for the leader. It depends entirely on their choice- decision and determination to follow the decision. One may decide just now that henceforth from the next moment onwards he/she will do everything while pursuing excellence. Sometimes there may be time constraints and other such difficulties. But the pursuit of excellence teaches you make best use of the available resources. Some people talk of discipline. Excellence is not discipline. It does not ensure quality of work which can be classified in the required category. Discipline is defined as that you must do something at a time when it needs to be done even when you don’t like to do. In a way it cages you while the ‘excellence’ knows no such restrictions. It emerges from the application of your mind and the joy that your draw out of doing something that you like to do.

Step 4. Accountability & Responsibility

The 4^th important step that leader must take is to accept responsibility for excellence in a group life. The leader does not teach his follower to achieve perfection. Perfection is unattainable. But when you chase perfection you catch up with excellence. The leader ensures that his/her followers understand it very well. Such leaders have the ability to motivate the followers to such an extent that the commitment of the followers becomes as strong as that of their leader. This is particularly true in respect of the political leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King is one such example. But for him Barak Obama would not have become the President of USA.

Step 5. Self awareness is the key

Self awareness is something that the leader must practice. It trains him/her to observe their actions from moment to moment. They develop the ability to change their action as per the requirement of changed circumstances. Their decision making process does not suffer a jolt even if most unexpected event take place. In our sacred book, ‘The Bhagwat Gita’ such a person is known as ‘Stith Pragya Purush’. It depicts not only the alertness of the mind but also the coordination between the mind and the reaction which lead to necessary speech and or action.

Step 6. Leader Needs to be Realistic

Last but not the least the leader has to be realistic. They can pursue excellence only if their expectations are reasonable. Any unachievable task if set before the team is bound to de-motivate them. This does not mean that the team member can take things easy. Life is such that for achieving any significant result you have to stretch yourself. It’s the leaders job that he practices not only himself but also ensures that the team member follow suit.
When the leader undertakes their journey as per the steps enumerated above, it is then that the leadership excellence is pursued.

Thanks for reading.

6 Steps to pursue leadership excellence

What is leadership excellence? What are the important features? How is it supposed to be pursued? These are the questions that we will consider. There are 6 steps, which I think, that a leader needs to take in order to pursue excellence. These are:
The leader’s attitude is very important. Self awareness too is very significant. But more importantly, proper implementation of any idea in great detail is critical. Other 3 important aspects are- accepting responsibility, realizing that pursuing excellence is your own choice and determination, and finally the leader must be must ensure that the team members are in a position to live up to the leader’s expectations. Having said that, let us now deal with each of these 6 steps one by one.
Step 1. Any idea or plan must be executed/implemented with great precision. In fact the quality of implementation of an idea is even more important than the idea itself. Leading management Gurus advocate that ‘A’ quality implementation of ‘B’ quality plan is more productive then ‘B’ quality implementation of ‘A’ quality plan. When we look through the finer details of any task, we are able to follow its original objectives. But it doesn’t happen if we overlook the details. Excellence is a continuous process. It is not just an event. It is not just an accident. But it is your choice which you follow step by step, always. This becomes easier if you love every moment of your life and therefore if you love everything that your do from moment to moment.
Step 2. Your attitude is extremely important. Excellence is not just a skill like those skills you require for doing anything correctly and nicely. Excellence is your attitude to do every job with at most care and while enjoy at the same time. Precision and enjoyment may appear to be incompatible but they are not. There is no doubt that you have to follow this practice of using eye for detail and getting satisfaction for following the finer details at the same time.
Step 3. The good news is that there is no preparation required to pursue excellence for the leader. It depends entirely on their choice- decision and determination to follow the decision. One may decide just now that henceforth from the next moment onwards he/she will do everything while pursuing excellence. Sometimes there may be time constraints and other such difficulties. But the pursuit of excellence teaches you make best use of the available resources. Some people talk of discipline. Excellence is not discipline. It does not ensure quality of work which can be classified in the required category. Discipline is defined as that you must do something at a time when it needs to be done even when you don’t like to do. In a way it cages you while the ‘excellence’ knows no such restrictions. It emerges from the application of your mind and the joy that your draw out of doing something that you like to do.

Step 4. The 4^th important step that leader must take is to accept responsibility for excellence in a group life. The leader does not teach his follower to achieve perfection. Perfection is unattainable. But when you chase perfection you catch up with excellence. The leader ensures that his/her followers understand it very well. Such leaders have the ability to motivate the followers to such an extent that the commitment of the followers becomes as strong as that of their leader. This is particularly true in respect of the political leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King is one such example. But for him Barak Obama would not have become the President of USA.
Step 5. Self awareness is something that the leader must practice. It trains him/her to observe their actions from moment to moment. They develop the ability to change their action as per the requirement of changed circumstances. Their decision making process does not suffer a jolt even if most unexpected event take place. In our sacred book, ‘The Bhagwat Gita’ such a person is known as ‘Stith Pragya Purush’. It depicts not only the alertness of the mind but also the coordination between the mind and the reaction which lead to necessary speech and or action.
Step 6. Last but not the least the leader has to be realistic. They can pursue excellence only if their expectations are reasonable. Any unachievable task if set before the team is bound to de-motivate them. This does not mean that the team member can take things easy. Life is such that for achieving any significant result you have to stretch yourself. It’s the leaders job that he practices not only himself but also ensures that the team member follow suit.
When the leader undertakes their journey as per the steps enumerated above, it is then that the leadership excellence is pursued.

Thanks for reading.