Presentation at Orange County Society of Women Engineers Dinner Meeting on Nov 17, 2010. This is Part One of a Six Part Series I am developing.
There are thousands of good books and training programs from which I draw my inspiration and content and I acknowledge them all. Nothing here is \'new\', for the wisdom has been there since the ancient times - we are just adapting the wisdom to our modern lifestyle. I encourage you all to use this content and apply it in your personal lives to enrich yourself.
2. Boutique Engineering Firm Providing Technical
and Management Solutions in the Water,
Wastewater, and Recycled Water Industry
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 2
Design Build
Sustainability
Frontiers
Regulatory
Compliance
Management
Consulting
Traditional
Engineering
3. Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 3
“There is nothing new under the sun but there are
lots of old things we don't know.” Ambrose Bierce
Wisdom
Devotional
IntellectualExperiential
4. What is Work?
Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the
production or accomplishment of something
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 4
When work
is a
pleasure,
life is a joy!
When work
is a duty,
life is
slavery.
“In order that people may be
happy in their work, these three
things are needed: They must be
fit for it. They must not do too
much of it. And they must have a
sense of success in it.”
John Ruskin
“Never continue in a job you don't
enjoy. If you're happy in what
you're doing, you'll like yourself,
you'll have inner peace. And if you
have that, along with physical
health, you will have had more
success than you could possibly
have imagined.”
Johnny Carson
“Three Rules of Work: Out of
clutter find simplicity; From
discord find harmony; In the
middle of difficulty lies
opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
5. The Ideal Work Life
Self
Control Enjoyable
Productive Rewarding
Manager
Engaged
staff
On-time
High
Quality
On-budget
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 5
6. The Pitfalls
Want results now!
Halfhearted effort, then abandon goals
Not knowing or deciding what you want out
of life
Poor time management
Weak self-image, fear of failure, guilt,
worry, anger
Procrastination
Inability to skillfully delegate
Deluge of paperwork, electronic
information
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 6
7. The Solutions
• Getting organized
• Making every day count
• New attitudes for effectiveness
Launching
Yourself
• Putting an end to putting it off
• Minimizing interruptions
• Winning the paper war
Conquering
Time Wasters
• Who else can do the job
• Keeping communications open
• Working with – not against
Working With
Your Team
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 7
8. “What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do
what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel
useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.” Julia Cameron
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 8
Goal
setting
Career
Personal
Relationship
Recreational
Personal
Growth
Material
Social
Business
• Challenging
• Attainable
• Specific
• Measurable
• Compatible
• Flexible
• Set Target Dates
Goals
It’s Your Life!
“How to”
plan
Use time
effectively
Manage
Mind and
Motivation
9. The Solutions
• Getting organized
• Making every day count
• New attitudes for effectiveness
Launching
Yourself
• Putting an end to putting it off
• Minimizing interruptions
• Winning the paper war
Conquering
Time Wasters
• Who else can do the job
• Keeping communications open
• Working with – not against
Working With
Your Team
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 9
10. “One sees great things from the valley; only small
things from the peak.” G. K. Chesterson
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 10
Self Image
• Put the Past in the Past
• Build on your strengths
• Accept yourself – unconditionally
• Don’t allow others to define your
worth
Put what YOU WANT first
• Help others help themselves
• Sacrifice / Deprivation does not
work
• Only you can control your
Thoughts and Feelings
Easing up the Pressure
• Approach your work relaxed
• Enjoy your work
• Paradox of Perfection
• Keep your perspective
Managing your Mind
11. Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste
of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.” Dale Carnegie
Guilt
• A bad case of ‘should haves’
• Most useless emotion of all
• Conditioned as children by parents,
teachers, and religion
• Perfect excuse for inaction
• Hold others responsible
• Winning approval or pity
Fix-it
• Recognize the past for that it is
• Practice feeling guilty – 15 minutes a day
• List all the things you are avoiding by
feeling guilty and resolve to do
something about them
• Accept past mistakes and misfortunes –
learn from them
• Put guilt wielders in their place
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 11
12. “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that
nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” Calvin Coolidge
Worry
• Future oriented fantasies
• Another excuse to be ineffective
• It’s Hard Work!
• Shows you care instead of enjoying the
present – fake!
• Easier than changing
• Get loads of sympathy
Fix-it
• List worry items from 5 -10 years back,
which one of those came to pass?
• List all the worst things that have
happened in your life – how many came
as total shock?
• List all the things could go wrong in the
next 24 hours
• Confront it
• Replace worrying by planning
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 12
13. “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft
might win, by fearing to attempt.” William Shakespeare
Fear of Failure
• Short-term pay-off – easy way out
• Excuse for not attempting anything new
• Provides you the luxury of becoming a
critic
• In life, it isn’t what you lose that counts,
it’s what you gain and what you have left
Fix-it
• Meet the problem head-on
• Set your own standards. It’s your choice.
• Evaluate by degrees of success, not 0-1
• Don’t have to achieve excellence in
everything
• Recognize failure as a learning experience
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 13
14. “If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that
not indicate something about your size?” Sydney J. Harris
Anger
•“The world and its people must live up to my
expectations”
•Has neurotic rewards, and excuse for incompetence
•It’s their fault, therefore you don’t have to change
•Gets you loads of sympathy, attention, and power
over people who will let you manipulate them
•License to behave badly, exonerating you from the
responsibility for unsatisfactory behavior
Fix-It
• Vent anger constructively
• Look at an opportunity to improve, thank it
• Take your work seriously, not yourself
• Develop a sense of humor
• Accept what the world is – a bit imperfect
• Practice tolerance and serenity
• Give yourself a rain-check
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 14
15. More Personal Effectiveness Strategies – Later…..
Goal Setting Setting Priorities
Organize your
Workspace
Improve Ability to
Concentrate
Improve Follow-
through
Improve Memory
Problem Solving
Strategies
Paradox of
Perfection
Time Inventory
Effective
Scheduling
Not-to-Do List
Procrastination,
Overcome it!
Minimizing
Interruptions
Effective Meetings
Winning the Paper
War
Write Less,
Communicate
more
Read Better and
Faster
Delegation
Communication
Strategies
Conflict Creating
Personalities and
How to Deal with
Them
How to Avoid
Conflicts
Planning for
Change
How to Find New
Opportunities
Power of Individual Power of Customer
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 15
16. Infuse ‘SOUL’
A Vision Beyond Self
• To do one’s best, a way of
life
• Spur that leads to
creativity, the urge to go
beyond the limits of the
possible
Helping People
• Relationships based on
honesty, being
reliable, and follow
through
• Aiding employees,
customers, suppliers,
and the community in
general to lead a
better life
• Inexhaustible source
of inspiration
Build a Better
World
• Devote psychic
energy to nourish
and develop the
world
• Global
responsibility is a
strategic goal of
the organization
17. Walk the Walk
Workforce
Motivated to Follow,
Invest, and Serve
Self Interest
Pay, Promotion,
Prestige
Common Interest
Earned by PM by
demonstrating respect
for the team member
Spend psychic energy
monitoring and enhancing the
well-being of the group
Develop self-discipline based on
self knowledge to prevent
acting capriciously and selfishly
Staff feels that PM is authentic,
they genuinely want to engage
There’s no way of compelling,
it’s an invitation
Self-organizing open system, a
community with organic
solidarity
18. The quickest way to get what you want is to help
others get what they want
• Self-knowledge, wisdom, ability to relate to
others
• Ignore the complexity = diminished returns
Concerned with
the personal
growth of
members
• Clear goals that can be adapted to meet
changing conditions
• Immediate feedback to one’s actions
• Matching of challenges of the job with the
worker’s skills
Provide
opportunities of
‘flow’ in the
workplace
19. “All journeys have a single purpose – to get to another place. There are
places everywhere and the differences are less than you might think. Some
places are no more than a state of mind”
Work Smarter,
Not Harder ~
Jack Collis
Ambition is Not
a Dirty Word ~
Debra Condren
Start with Why
~ Simon Sinek
Good Business ~
Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi
Going to the Top
~ Carol
Gallagher
The Confidence
Course ~ Walter
Anderson
Nov 17, 2010 PROTEUS Consulting 19
Soma Bhadra
www.consult-proteus.com
consultproteus@gmail.com
(858) 353 2805
What was the best
experience you ever
had while you were
working?
