Management Types

I think there are 2 kinds of people in this world when it comes to decision making and sense of opportunities.

The one type analyses all available offers and then decides what is best.  As they make a very thorough and time-consuming analysis, afterwards it is difficult to change their opinion and also they don't search actively for alternatives as they think to have found the best solution. First other people have to convince them why to give attention to that topic again (if it is not obvious) and then new arguments why another solution is better. Still if that advantage is not big enough, it is difficult to convince them why to change when the first solution is working, stable and therefore less risky.

The other type analyses only a part of the offers and decides more quickly what is the best solution from that part. Afterwards they constantly search if there is a better offer and quickly change their opinion if they see the tiniest advantage.

Both ways have their benefits. The first type is more constant and resistant to temporary hypes and bubbles. The second type is reacting more quickly and therefore will use new business opportunities first. The best would be to have a team with both types in it. The quick type easily finds new chances for improvement while the slower partner is analysing them and slows down the pace of that process to a healthier level. So the most important thing is to first find out what type you are, because that allows you to know your strength and weaknesses and to find a partner to compensate that.

Visible Success

If you plan to do something (no matter what) and it will take you some time and effort I have discovered for myself that one can motivate oneself best if you make the whole thing measurable. This is the first step you have to take before even beginning with the real thing. It really helps you to feel and see the success every time you get depressed or want to give up.

Here are some examples how this could work, I normally do this stuff in excel:

Fitness Center

Make a training plan (normally at the gym they do it with you) and write down how many kilos you use with every exercise or how many minutes and in what difficulty you run. If you increase the weight note it, but don't delete the old weight. In that manner you can monitor your progress.

Finances

If you have financial problems and get depressed, because there is no money at the end of the month then the most important things is to get an overview of the situation that helps you manage your expenses. Make a list of all the regular expenses (monthly, quarterly, annually) and your regular income/salary. Then put in the balance of your bank account and deduct what's left for this month and then you have the balance at the end of the month and so on for the next month. If your balance is dropping each month then you have to change something. But, if it is rising then you now that your situation will change eventually and you don't have to feel depressed. But: You have to stick to your plan of course and you should cross check the budget with the real bank account statement and make changes if your plan isn't realistic.

Work

If I have a boring work to do that really sucks then I make a step-by-step plan, that means I split the whole work into sub-ordinate targets. Then I can reward myself with a "check"-sign for every little step and effort. I used this for example when I had to optimize the whole filing system at work by renaming hundreds of files. Every folder properly restructured was a step. And so even investing just a little time added to the progress plan and was made visible.

I really love this method, because I can feel the success just by looking at the figures and feel proud of what I have achieved. And that helps motivating even for the dumbest and most boring works! 

Career Paths

If you want to be successful on the job the most important job is to find out everything there is about you: what you want, what you can best and what makes you happy.

In general there are 2 main directions one could take. The one of a generalist and the one of a specialist.

The generalist is an all-rounder that has an overview of all the company's processes and knows a bit of everything. Normally these are the ones that later one take the leadership positions as they require strategic thinking that connects a lot of dots and making suggestions regarding the future course. Therefore also advisory services can be a possible working field. 

On the other the specialist is just perfecting on one field. They are trying to get all the details related to that and broadening their horizon with the newest techniques, software, legal changes, etc. Important is that they can channel this information into overviews or presentations for the generalists, so that they may base their decisions upon it. If specialists wants to get a leadership position they have to get rid of trying to get to many details or try to understand the day-to-day business.

But in real life unfortunately it is more difficult to find out as there are a lot of shades in between. For example: A controller needs to be a specialist of mathematical methods, data banks, etc. But they also need to have a general idea of all the other company's compartments as they analyse the whole companies and prepare strategic advise to them. But the emphasis is on the specialist knowledge and the other information has just supportive character. Well, that's the way I see it.

Most important is to start these thoughts, because lots of people start the other way around by asking: How can I get 100k salary, how can I get a leadership position, how can I get a job in company ABC, ...? 

You should ask yourself if you will be happy at your destination before starting the journey.

Jeff Fennell - "Silver Falls Trail"; Some rights reserved. Quelle: www.piqs.de