Smartly yours!

Should we work hard or smart? But, first, let us clear the conundrum. Smartly!

If you visit any military regiment or central armed police force battalion, you will see the words "Do I look smart?" on the mirrors in the hallway or at the Quarter Guard. There is a subtle message here on attitudinal transformation: If you look[dress] smart, you tend to work smart, too!

But how do we work smart? Isn’t working hard enough? Unfortunately, there is a rigid dichotomy between the two.

Browsing through copious books and more than a billion digital impressions make finding an answer to this question a traumatic experience for many. Do they? Probably, working in different scenarios and varied human personalities need a different perspective to handle a situation. 

They offer many tips, hacks & suggestions on time management, speed typing, not speed reading, avoiding procrastination, accessing emails & messages only at fixed intervals, setting reminders/calendars. It also tells you to deal with the difficult job first and ignore others. Endless, and it is everywhere. All of which seem trite, as you must have tried all of that. 

As businesses, technology, and human interactions transform quickly, fine-tuning time at work and personal health and family becomes paramount.

The main hindrance in our smart working is time utilisation; however, you try to allocate time to read emails, messages, telephone calls, meetings, or watch cat & TikTok videos.

So, let us solve the conundrum!

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER 

Better spend more time understanding the business & policies of the sector in which you are working, regulations & compliances, manufacturing & marketing, investment & funding, contracts & contractors, regulatory actions in the past and now. Aside from this, competency of your team, if you have any, or to build it.

The main culprit holding you back is none other than lack of clarity on issues, inadequate or no info & input either available at hand or forthcoming from other functions. Therefore, vis-a-vis the sector/function that you are working in, give yourself a fortnight or a month and -

• Do a KYC [Know Your Customer] kind of exercise to understand the Board, hierarchy, functional heads, power centres, applicable laws, business trends, registrations/licences & permissions, business processes & contracts, documentation history etc.,

• Find what Regulatory authorities & their guidelines/notifications are applicable, what business risks & mitigation strategies, FAQs for compliance & breaches, if any, leading to legal proceedings and status thereof;

• Is there any method in the madness - dashboards for updates, litigations & contract management, monitoring processes and knowledge quotient of operating persons etc.,

• Bookmark or create a collection of topic-wise websites/resources to know the latest. 

• Most importantly, please read and understand your team, run a SWOT, get them together, know how they do their work, assess the quality and quantity.

Once you understand the power of knowledge, move intelligently:

TIME MANAGEMENT- A MYTH

Indeed it is a myth. What we need is to manage ourselves with available time and those 'how to' tools. 

1. The mundane calendar creating, to-do lists, whichever manner it pleases you., is nothing but setting your daily agenda - a mix of small and essential tasks, prioritising and accomplishing them.  

2. Troopers have two roll calls a day - first in the morning, second when you disperse for the day. It is an offence to miss both. In your case, make morning meet compulsory. Have your morning office tea with your team, chat, know what was done the previous day, plan for the new day, allocate work. This saves a lot of time on follow-up. 

   A cake is best eaten in pieces!

3. Earmark one or half a day of the week to read & update or ideate. 

4. If your organisation has several branches or regions and you have to advise them and other functional heads, however silly you may think their queries are, do that. Prioritise that work. They are the profit or revenue centres, not you.

5. Many advise doing the arduous task first. If you have a couple of small jobs on hand, better finish them first to avoid email reminders, messages and calls. Kill all minor irritants first. Once done, you have all the time to tackle the arduous task competently.

6. The alternative word for procrastination is - time to research, ideate, strategising, pros & cons etc., Do innovative packaging but don't overdo.

EXECUTION

Once done with knowledge gathering and organising time, unleash your productivity smartly! Try these uncomplicated tools:

• Set achievable goals for you and your team. Just like in sports, unless the whole team wins, no one wins.

• Create a shared sense of purpose

• Empower your team with knowledge, tricks & tools

• Try 4D trick : 

(a) Do it yourself; or

(b) Delegate to other or a team; or

(c) Delay but with a timeline; or  

(d) Delete from your list/desk [Not my Monkey].

• Check if it requires multi-department consultation, pooling of competencies and someone else taking the lead.

• If work needs reading voluminous documents, case briefs, or judgments, master speed reading for a quick grasp before you apply the 4D trick.  

• For repetitive transactions, say contracts etc., create checklists for both information gathering & drafting, templates/frameworks.

• The costs of our failure are high if we do not take remedial steps.

• All actions must lead to the individual as well as the organisation's success.

• Not only have a morning meeting with your team, but an occasional power meet or a drink together!

• Never forget to give constructive feedback to your team members on their work performance. Giving feedback isn't easy. Master the process.

• Empower your team with knowledge, tips & tricks for doing brilliant work.  

• Would you please walk up to your colleague's desk & offer solutions they hesitate to approach you for?

• Remember, an enthusiastic & competent team pushes you up on the ladder of success!

• Never cease reading. Read about various businesses, how they work, market trends, the convergences taking place, writing reports & elements of style.

• Brush up your presentation skills. Reducing the number of slides, less content and not being loquacious is the key. Even adults have a short attention span so, reading what appears on the screen will fetch more yawns than applause!

Everybody works hard—some harder. Clocking more work hours & getting tired at the close of the day is not what we look forward to.

And yes, never stop wearing that Thinking Cap. Because "If you think well, you write well", once said Brahm Vasudeva, Chairman of Hawkins Cookers Ltd.

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