Tag: motivation

To get better results, change your Approach!

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Project Management, Technology1 Comment on To get better results, change your Approach!

“If you’re not getting results, change your approach.  The best way to get unstuck is to change your approach.  You learn the most from trying something different.  Sometimes this is uncomfotable, but that’s what growth feels like.” (MSDN Patterns & Practices Blog)

Above quote is from J.D. Meier’s blog and I totally agree with this. I have seen people with different approaches. Some people stick to their habits and don’t want to change the way they are working. Even I have seen people arguing against changing approach and even don’t want to listen that their approach is wrong or there is a need of change in their approach. This is the worst thing that I have seen people doing. People even have to pay off sooner or later but they don’t want change, even after failure. They find different reasons, blaming others or subordinates, or the situation. But they don’t realize that this situation is due to their approach.

Approach is the thing that can lead you to either success or failure. If by adopting one approach you get succeeded, it is not necessary that you will always be succeeded by that approach. With the passage of time and changing situation, you have to change your approach as well. One approach won’t always take you to the top. You have to take different routes, with different approaches, if you want to go up the ladder, otherwise your direction will be downwards.

Why job satisfaction is important for growth?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Project Management, TechnologyLeave a Comment on Why job satisfaction is important for growth?

There is a very good article on Rozee.pk about job satisfaction. I thought I should share it on my blog too. I am pasting the article here for convenience. The article link is http://blog.rozee.pk/2010/05/20/job-satisfaction/

Here is the article.

How many times have you thought about leaving your job in the last month? Losing interest in your job and thinking of quitting repeatedly is a sign of low job satisfaction. As the level of job satisfaction in an employee decreases, the quality of his work deteriorates and sooner or later the company decides that it is time to let him go. Job satisfaction can be achieved to some level by putting in  effort to redress the factors that are causing job dissatisfaction. The more satisfied a person is with the job the better he will perform and his stress level will be lower as well. However, in order to increase job satisfaction it is pertinent to identify the factors that make employees feel discontent at their job.

Factors that negatively affect job satisfaction:

Some of the most common factors that are responsible for a decline in job satisfaction level of the employees are:

Fear of losing the job:

When a person feels that his job is not secure, he fails to put maximum effort in work. Most employees who are hired on contract basis face this situation as they have the Damocles sword hanging over their head. These employees are so concerned about their job security that they find it hard to concentrate on their work.

Mundane routine:

When a worker has to undergo the same routine over and over again, he loses the will to perform well at the job. Doing the same tasks repeatedly curbs the creativity of an employee and when the employee feels like he is capable of doing nothing other than following the routine, he gets frustrated with his job.

Feeling undervalued:

When an employee is feeling undervalued at work, it soon leads to lessening the level of job satisfaction. If the supervisors and managers do not value your hard work and criticize your every move, you are bound to lose all interest in your work and lose jobs satisfaction as a consequence.

Lack of opportunities:

Feeling trapped in a job where there are no growth opportunities makes an employee lose job satisfaction. Unless we feel challenged regularly, most of us fail to perform well on the job and soon start looking for another job that might be a little more exciting than the last one.

Rifts with supervisor:

Problems with the coworkers or a manager can lead to high level of job dissatisfaction as one finds it difficult to deal with such problems on daily basis and work in such a negative environment.

Feeling like a failure:

When an employee fails to achieve a target or goals set by the superior repeatedly, he starts feeling like a failure. What people fail to realize is that failure is part of life and should be taken as a learning experience. If you learn from each failure you are bound to improve your skills and capabilities rather than taking every failure to heart and stop trying at all.

Low pay scale:

Most of the times a low pay scale is the basic reason for employee discontent and leads to most of them looking for a new job. Such employees feel that they are not being paid in accordance with the degree of expertise that they command and do not work well.

Improve your job satisfaction level:

Here are a few tips on how you can improve your job satisfaction level and work better to enhance your productivity.

Think positive:

The first step to improving your job satisfaction is curbing negativity of thoughts and being positive. Whenever you feel like your job is worthless or you are a looser, stop yourself immediately and start thinking about the good things that are associated with your job.

Break the routine:

If you feel bored or overworked when at work, try to take small breaks in between and find something refreshing to do. Even taking a small break to chat with your coworker might provide the much needed relief and help you in getting rejuvenated.

Improve your job skills:

While working somewhere, you can easily take on courses that will help you enhance your skills and will help in keeping you updated. This way you do not feel like you are wasting time at a job that has nothing to offer. Personal grooming and honing your skills will pay off sooner or later and will increase your job satisfaction level.

Volunteer work:

If your daily routine is boring and monotonous, then try volunteering for work that interests you and makes you feel like you are learning something new every day. You can also ask to be reassigned to another department that requires the same job skills that you posses but has new challenges to offer.

Be grateful:

You have to keep in mind that everyone encounters good days and bad days on the job but it does not mean that you should lose all interest in work and start looking for something else. Getting a job in today’s recession hit job market is not easy and the fact that you have a job while millions have been fired bodes well for your future.

Maintain balance:

If you wish to achieve higher level of job satisfaction, you have to maintain a balanced approach towards work and life. If work takes place of all the other things in your life, sooner or later you will start resenting it and then fell discontent at work.

What employers can do to boost the job satisfaction level of employees?

When it comes to job satisfaction, the people most affected are the employers and the managers. If the employees are not happy with their jobs, they start losing interest in work and the company has to suffer. If the employers want the workers to deliver the very best they have to make sure that their job satisfaction level is good.

In order to improve the job satisfaction level of the employees, the managers should follow some simple but very effective steps. These include:

  • Improving the work environment and creating a friendly workplace for the employees so that their stress level stays in control.
  • Providing incentives and rewards to keep the employees motivated.
  • Paying the employees what they deserve as being underpaid is the most common reason for employee dissatisfaction from job.
  • Keep challenging the employees and keep setting goals for them to achieve.
  • Encourage communication between the employees and the managers so that they know who to talk to when they have a work related problems.

Overqualified employee is an Asset, don’t lose them

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Project Management, TechnologyLeave a Comment on Overqualified employee is an Asset, don’t lose them

There is a very nice article Overqualified Employee: A Liability Or An Asset? on Rozee. One point I totally agree with and thought I should post it on my blog. Here is its excerpt…

How To Deal With An Overqualified Employee?

…

Utilize His Expertise

If you have an overqualified employee on the team be sure to utilize his experience rather than feeling threatened by it. His expertise is a valuable asset for you and you can utilize it for the progress of your company.

If you don’t utilize his expertise then he will not be motivated. As author of the article has mentioned here…

Downside Of Hiring An Overqualified Employee:

…

Lack Of Motivation

… the work will not be challenging enough for him and he will get bored quickly, loosing focus and motivation. When an employee loses focus he instantly starts looking for another job and thus becomes a flight risk.

How change can bring motivation?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Project Management, TechnologyLeave a Comment on How change can bring motivation?

I always believed that bringing change is one of the key factors which develops people’s interest and keep them motivated. But I was surprised to see that how promoting another person in team can motivate others, specially where situation is worse and people are fed up. Bringing change can charge people up, but we have to see that what type of change is necessary. Sometimes a change can demoralize people, specially when people are already happy with something.

Another factor to keep your team motivated is to communicate with them and ask their problems, and try to solve it. Again, solving problem will bring change and your team will become more responsible, honest, and motivated.

How to kill your time by hardcoding?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin C/C++, C#, PHP, Project Management, Technology, Web DevelopmentLeave a Comment on How to kill your time by hardcoding?

My colleague asked me to help him solve an issue he was facing. I sat with him and after spending more than half an hour I realized that someone has hardcoded the server name :@ while we were assuming that we have already moved to another server.

The main thing to realize here is that if we have spent few more minutes in making the server name configurable at first place then we could have saved hours that we spent later just to find out that server name was hard-coded. Not doing this results in frustration, waste of time, de-motivation, brings down the moral of the team, and finally kills productivity and you lose credibility.