Acknowledge your shyness

I was a very shy child something that made me very different compared with the society that I lived in.

I have still some shyness in me, but I managed to accept it and to prove to myself that I can dare to do everything I wish to and to take challenges if I only decide to. 

If you are shy and would like to take steps towards your development in spite of your fear or nervousness I suggest that you watch the following episode of Marie TV:   

Have you ever been too shy to take upon a challenge? What do you do in order to overcome your shyness?

Have a great week a head,

Always yours!

Moran. 

Dare to say YES

People often think that it is difficult to say No when needed and I agree, it is something that we need to practice on in order to master. However, it is not always easy to accept challenges either – especially when it’s requiring taking responsibility and new tasks in addition to you daily workload. 

Actually, people are often afraid of success – we often dream of the day we would be able to take huge steps in our careers but when the moment comes many people don’t dare to take the challenge.

When it comes to a promotion or new responsibilities it is very important to remember that if you were asked to take the challenge it means that someone believes in your ability to perform and normally the people who take a chance on you have enough experience to see that you are the right person to deliver.

So even though I’m a cautious person I always accept a challenge of a promotion or new responsibilities – I know that if other people could see me succeeding in their vision I should also be able to believe in myself and to deliver.

I know that it is not always easy to make changes or to dare coming closer to your dreams but it is a sign that you are on they right path. And even if you feel that you managed to achieve your goals “too quickly” you could always plan for new visions and goals after mastering the challenge you accepted. 

So, let’s all dare to take bigger steps and to achieve our dreams, I believe in your ability to master and to deliver – so you should do that too!

Did you ever feel like you were afraid to accept a promotion or a new opportunity?

Have a great and successful week a head,

Believing in you!

Moran.

Two Years Anniversary

Two years ago this week, I started this blog.

Due to a thirst for inspiration, I decided to start a blog that would inspire many people (including me) to dare to succeed.

Since then, I met many amazing people both online and in Real Life who share my passion for career development, blogging, coaching and Leadership.   

I’m very thankful for all of my followers and anyone who reads my blog and I hope that I could reach out to many more people while motivating them to advance in their careers. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any question, suggestion or request.

I would be grateful if you could share my blog with your friends and if you’re not already a follower – please become one or register your e-mail to get updates every time I post a new article.

You could also like my Facebook page together with more than 100 others, 

I’m looking forward for further interaction with each and every one of you! 

Let’s all inspire and motivate each other to aim for Success!

P.S. I would be grateful if you write in a comment about what you would you like me to discuss in future posts.

Saying Goodbye to 2012

Now, when we stand upon the beginning of a new year let’s take this opportunity to evaluate how we did under 2012 and to set the goals we would like to achieve at 2013.

For my part, 2012 was a great year. Although it started with a small set-back it ended up to be one of the best years I have ever had.

At the beginning of the year, many of my colleagues including myself were laid off due to a bad economic situation. I actually took the news quite well and saw it as the right kick that I needed in order to climb up another step on my career ladder. 

I got lots of energy and motivation by writing this blog and by helping my colleagues with their job-search.

A week before I was to leave my former work-place I signed a contract with a bigger company and got a position at a more senior level. Looking back, the set-backs that I had at the beginning of the year opened the door for me and took me to new exciting challenges.

More things that I’m thankful for and that happened during 2012:

I had my 10^th weeding anniversary with my husband; I am so happy that we are still so much in love after so many years.

All the support that I got from my family and friends.

Getting to know many amazing people both online and in real-life.

Getting so much love and appreciation from my readers and see that I can help others to get motivated and to succeed.

Now, let’s make 2013 to a positive and developing year!

Wishing you a Happy and successful New Year,

Yours as always,

Moran.

Be a good manager - learn to trust and motivate

Before I became a manager I didn’t understand the real meaning of what a good manager is. I thought that managers should be rough, demanding and even rude.

I couldn’t imagine myself being such a person and decided to achieve goals by being nice, polite and motivating – taking the opposite way than the image of the manager that I had in my head.

Many years after I got leadership experience and met many managers on my way, I realized that the common image that I had in my head is for a bad manager who gets attention and power by using management by fear. Unfortunately, this image is the typical stereotype of a corporate leader and it gives bad name for this position.

Reading leadership literature and getting on-site experience; I can now say that being a good manager should not be about ego, using power and fear. On the contrary, a good manager sees its employees, cares, motivates and trusts others.

The key is not to enforce your ideas, rather than by using the knowledge and qualities of your employees in the best and most effective way and by motivating them to be even better.

Sadly, during my career, I met many managers who think that they should decide and do everything by themselves, looking into every small question and enforcing their ideas.

The real challenge should be to be able to delegate and to ask for advice from employees who are experts in their field and to trust others to be able to deliver without you controlling every small detail.

Rather than deciding and controlling, a good manager should focus on the big picture, should be clear about the goals, tasks and the deadlines while trusting others to be able to deliver and be there for them if they have questions or need guidance.

Wishing you happy holidays,

Take care, 

Moran.

Aim for improvement

Life should be a journey of us becoming better and better, achieving goals and finding our destination.

It is very important that we don’t compare ourselves to others nor compete with them on our road to success – on the other hand, we should continue comparing ourselves with who we were in the past in order to see improvements.

It is common to think that when we get our formal education and experience in our work field that would be enough for our development. But if we don’t learn anything new or take actions to make our performance better there is a good chance that we get stuck in the middle of the road and get frustrated.

This is why I never stop studying; I always take a chance to learn something new and to make improvements in the way I work.

The book that I’m reading at the moment is a great book that I got from my mom, it’s called Leadership Wisdom and was written by Robin Sharma and I really can recommend it to anyone who would like to improve his leadership skills.

So let’s make this autumn a learning and improvement period, getting ready for the next step in our career ladder!

I wish you a developing week ahead,

Yours as always,

Moran.

P.S. Thank you so much mom for the great book that you bought for me.

How to survive periods with many deadlines

We've all been there… periods when we need to deliver projects and tasks with short deadlines. Times when we have too much to do and it’s seems as time is just running out (or that the weeks are somehow shorter than always).

The first thought that comes up is – how can I manage to deliver good quality on time? And how would I survive.

Well, I've been down this road a few times and I learned quite a lot by surviving such situations. So here are my tips:

·    First of all, don’t panic. If you got the responsibility for a project, this means that your managers trust you and your capability to deliver – so you should also believe in yourself.

·    Make a realistic plan – break that task into small sub-tasks and make a time-line for them.

·    Start with the project as soon as possible – don’t wait for the last moment.

·    Prioritize – focus on the project and other important and urgent tasks, the rest could be dealt with later. If you have a problem with your priorities or just too many urgent matters, discuss the situation with you boss. He or she could give you guidelines or delegate some of the tasks to your colleagues.

·    If you have employees that you are responsible for – delegate more of the daily tasks to them, be there for them if they have questions but trust that they could handle the job.

·    Rest as much as possible in the evenings and weekends. It is very important that you recharge you batteries as much as possible when it is quite stressful at work.

·    Eat healthy and go for a walk, when you have a few extra minutes, in order to make your body strong.

·    If you see that the deadline is unrealistic or if you see that you are not going to be able to deliver quality on time – make sure to update your manager as soon as possible. Maybe a week of delaying a deadline could make all the difference so you wouldn't need to redo the job. 

I wish you a nice week ahead,

Faithfully yours,

Moran.