Three steps for mid-term time management

October 29th, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

As discussed earlier, goal setting becomes easier once you break them down into subgoals. Then, you should think of appropriate actions and measures that supports you achieving your goal. Breaking down the goal into subgoals gives you a good overview and allows you to monitor the implementation more effectively.

To illustrate how you can effectively set goal, I will take our pyramide that you already know from my last article.

In practice, it is common that you have different contexts where you assign your goals to. Contexts are subject areas that are seperated from each other, for example acquisition, marketing, projects, sport, and further education. With the help of contexts, you are able to structure your goals, tasks, and projects more effectively and hence, keep an overview of your current and future activities.

Once you have allocated your goals to contexts, you can start breaking them down into subgoals or milestones, as we call it. Knowing what actions it takes to achieve your goal, you should roughly plan your work capacity by setting time budgets. Those time budgets tell you how much time you are planning to spend for which project. Now, you have to schedule your activities, meaning that you have to allocate the time budgets of your context to each single workday. Now, you know exactly how much time you are planning to spend for each context. The tartget-performance comparison shows you how exactly your rough planning through time budgets matches with the more detailed planning (scheduling).

Monitoring the process and of course, the results of your goal achievement is hereby essential in all three stages. That’s the approach we have also implemented in our software.

--> Posted at October 29th, 2007

With Milestones to the Top

October 26th, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

To be successful in goal achievement, you have to set SMART goals that are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic as well as Time and Resource constraint. The challenge hereby lays in the process and the actions involved to reach the goal. Setting goals usually involves long-term planning. To reach this goal, you also have to think of the mid-term planning as well as daily business activities. Those are three stages that you have to pass through on your way to the goal achievement.

Once you have understood this approach (and you act according to it), you will see that setting and achieving goals become easier. Let me explain with the help of the graphic below how this works.

First of all, you should keep in mind those three different stages when setting goals. Each stage is different and therefore, requires another approach. If you want to achieve your goals successfully, you have to break them down into several subgoals. Those subgoals can be seen as milestones in project management. The “project” hereby is to achieve the goal. Just an example to illustrate this. If your goal is to become a freelancer and start up your own business, you have to take different actions in order to put this goal into action. Office established and setting an IT infrastructure up and running are two milestones in this example in order to come closer to the goal.

Similar to a project, you define a starting point and a deadline for your subgoal and you assign specific tasks and actions to it. Hereby, it is also important to set priorities for each goal. This simplifies your goal achievement.

In the next step, you have to think of appropriate tasks and activities in your daily business that helps you accomplish your goal. During this approach, monitoring the results and process of goal achievement is important.

You can do it on paper. But with the proper tool it is more convenient. In the next article, I will demonstrate how to integrate this approach into your daily business using DAISHO.

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Challenges for professionals in the 21st century

October 24th, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

The changes in the work environment has significant impacts on each individual. International competition, globalization and modern technology have prompted organizations to consider downsizing, restructuring, and outsourcing as business strategies and hence, making the work environment more competitive then ever before. In today’s society, and especially in business, it is important to prevail among others and stand out in order to be successful.

Working on parallel projects, tight schedules and deadlines, high workload, demanding customers and clients, increasing global competition, high degree of flexibility and availability – those are important key factors that characterize and coin the dynamic work environment of the 21st century. Working under these “conditions” will lead to higher pressure that is burden on professionals; no matter if the individual is employed or self-employed.

To bear the pressure and face the challenges, professionals need to be flexible and able to adjust to the changing conditions. But how to manage and coordinate all these business activities, especially in such complex and dynamic environment? The answer is rather simple: you need appropriate tools, for example a management software, and the right methodology. Then, you are prepared to face the challenges of the modern work environment.

If you want to keep a competitive advantage in the long-run, you should think about different ways and options on how to manage your business activities.

To sum up, it can be said, that the work environment of the 21st century has changed – it has become more complex and more dynamic. With increasing complexity, the pressure on individuals increases too. To bear the pressure, appropriate tools and methods are needed, otherwise you run the risk of excessive demand, stress, overextended deadlines, and unsatisfied customers.

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How to achieve the “pole position” in your daily business?

October 23rd, 2007 by Michael Gottschalk

In my opinion, there are two key factors that are decisive for long-term success of consultants. No matter if they are employed or self-employed:

Relationships with clients and a qualified business network

Throughout my whole professional live, I only have had long-term success with clients when I was actively involved in projects from the early stage (before the project even started). I was less successful when I was involved at the end of the delivery chain or from enquiries from purchase based on know-how and required skills. For me, the most promising indicator for success is if your customers see you as an expert in a certain field or trusted advisor to consultate. Then, you have achieved the top of the pyramide.

The pyramid shows four different stages that you can pass through. First, on the bottom of the pyramid, there is the supplier. He is the one who is enquired from the purchase department. Preferred suppliers, on the next level, are suppliers who listed on a special data sheet and will be enquired preferred by the purchase department. Having achieved this position in the market, the step to become a partner is not far away. Partners are specialists in a certain field who enjoy a special status due to good experiences when it comes to assigning projects. On the top of the pyramid, there is the trusted advisor who gives advice and support. He is often involved in the decision-making process and the planning right from the beginning.

How does this impact your daily work? In my opinion, the aim for long-term success is to build up a strong relationship with your client and hence, move from the position of a supplier to the one of a trusted advisor. As a trusted advisor, you are involved in the whole process – from the (early) planning to the implementation. Your expertise is asked for and therefore, your opinion (and of course, your approach) is highly valued.

You should ask yourself where on the pyramid you are and where do you want to go? Having identified your position, you should think about appropriate actions on how to work your way up to the top.

From my experience, I can say that this process is based on projects with an excellent track record and the circumstance, that your client has build up trust in you as a reliable person. But this will take time. At the end of the day, this will reduce your overall efforts to be billable with that you become a key player in your clients’s projects.

--> Posted at October 23rd, 2007

The DAISHOconomy – why working in the 21st century is different

October 17th, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

Demographical changes are next to globalization one of the greatest challenges for economy, politics, and society. More frequently decision-makers advise of the problems and challenges that will result from population development. Both, employees and companies have to make arrangements for changing basic conditions. Looking around, the work environment of the 21st century has dramatically changed – speed, volume, and complexity of work has increased. People do not longer work for only one company throughout their lives – it is rather common today to change the employer every three to five years.

Furthermore, the classical “9-to-5” job does not exist anymore. Life is moving faster – and hence, growing more complex. Flexible work hours and different workplaces have therefore become common. Setting work hours according to the individual’s requirements and giving them the “freedom” to work from home presents how the work environemt has changed. Flexibility is hereby the “magic” word. To be flexible (and successful) in such a dynamic work environment, basic tools and methods are needed to coordinate your daily business activities. More …

--> Posted at October 17th, 2007