How to Train Your Brain for Flow, Creativity & Productivity on the Job

Have you experienced flow yet, well if you are lucky then you may have experienced it, the great thing is, with practice you can hopefully get there many times a day. What is flow then, well it is a state where you are able to focus completely, everything seemingly disappears in the background and you are able to perform at your very best.

Perform at the Peak

The work in itself feels quite effortless. People describe flow as a time when they perform at their peak, and this is regardless of their vocations and professions, irrespective of the job or jobs a person is holding, ranging from surgery to chess and other sports, it is not just experts who experience this mindset, the phenomenon applies in equal measure to other folks as well, everybody works best, when they are in the zone. This is true when HR professionals are conducting a recruitment drive to shore up employment by filling in a vacancy.

State of Mind

And who knows better than the smart leaders, that by helping people get into the flow, and staying there, they would be able to work at their peak abilities. This is especially true of people whose work requires a hefty dose of creativity. What happens when your brain is on flow, well in this state of mind, the brain is infact primed for optimal and peak performance and creativity.

Link Ideas Together

One must note that this is a transient condition, it is interesting to know the science behind the phenomenon, neuroscientists term it as transient hypofrontality, in layman terms it is the deactivation of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain dealing with thinking as well as cognitive functions. This condition is temporary, another notable thing is the sense of self drops, as it resides in the prefrontal cortex. In this state the brain is flooded with performance enhancing chemicals, like dopamine and endorphins, and these chemicals enhance our ability to focus, and link ideas together in still newer ways.

Stretch Your Skills

What leads to the flow. There are several conditions which lead to the flow state, one of the component happens to be, the level of difficulty of the task in hand, too simple a task would invariably lead to boredom, whereas too challenging one would result in lots of stress and frustration as well. Whereas when you are engaging in something, which just stretches your skills, it is much more likely to cultivate the flow state as you know it.

Fully Absorbed Focus

If your work really matters to you, and if you certainly care about what you are doing than you are much more likely to reach the flow state. It helps to have fully absorbed focus, as it eases you into the flow, it is a known fact, the more we happen to concentrate on a task, the sooner we start working on it. Compared to the right level of challenge, and caring about your work, focus is indeed something that one can control. It calls for increased skills when it comes to paying attention, to what one chooses, and this in turn leads to much stronger concentration, this concentration may lead to the prized flow state.

Mental Gym

It is interesting to note, one can develop the ability to focus, much like working out at the gym for increasing our muscle strength, we may use a mental gym, harnessing mindfulness to bring back the attention that has strayed, thereby strengthening our ability to concentrate, a basic mental workout like focusing on your breath is indeed quite helpful. It strengthens the pathways that determine your ability to focus.

Final Words

Additionally stronger concentration  skills, help you to step down the path to the flow or zone state, no matter where you happen to be and what you happen to be doing. Wise are those leaders who enable their employees to reach the flow and stay put for longer because employees work at their peak capabilities when they are in the zone, which is great for productivity as well as the bottom line too.

Adopt These Smart Strategies When it Is Time for Job Change

You may switch jobs out of necessity or choice, maybe, soon your position is not likely to exist as you know it, or it is going to be obliterated and done away with completely. Again it is quite possible that you have become bored enough to contemplate a career pivot.

A Serious Stressor

Switching of job paths by any stretch of imagination is indeed a serious stressor. Now that you have firmly resolved to make the move, it would be worth your while, to check out some smart strategies in order to set yourself up for sure shot success. It always makes sense to learn from your last gig, valuable lessons abound, however do not obsess unduly about what possibly went wrong, and focus on the opportunity that lies ahead of you.

Newer Possibilities

Never hesitate to ask yourself questions like where and how are you able to do your best work. Plan your search phase by dividing it under these heads, people, followed by skills and opportunities. Stretching your brain with newer possibilities does you a world of good. Always remember that your career is always in a state of play. It is normal for people to be blaming themselves if an employment situation does not work out.

The New Norm

The reality though is, our working world has undergone a sea change and the employment scene has evolved. Your present job is not the be all and end all as far as employment is concerned. Changing jobs infact is the new norm. The idea that a career move involving a job shift is going to be some sort of blotch on your resume is infact a very wrong notion that you harbour, fussing and stressing over it is of no use.

Focus on the Strengths

You must focus on the strengths as well as the skills that you bring along when you walk out of the current engagement. It Helps to examine the things that that you like about the role and the ones that you don’t like about the role, jotting down some constructive notes is the best take away for you before moving ahead and easing into the new role. In the interim ask yourself certain simple questions, what are the attributes that set you poles apart from others. Are there certain tasks that really make time fly for you. And of course how do you prefer spending your free time.

Dip Into the Past

Try to figure out the office environments that you thrive in well and the one that really stress you out. It helps to dip into the past and revisit the activities that you enjoy as a kid. The reason for these exercises is to go ahead and solidify your experiences in order to be able to evaluate the options that arise from time to time. Try and grow some professional muscles in terms of skills and expertise, that will hold you in good stead.

Final Words

Once you have been able to pivot successfully, stick to this new way of thinking, do not be short sighted to block out the job market yet. We ought to be continuously examining the things that is working best in our career and then explore the options of how we can do more of it. As things stand change happens to be the only constant, if that be the case, let’s try and get better at it. In your quest for a better recruitment experience, pay heed to each and every vacancy that comes your way.

Type A vs Type B: Does Personality Type Matter at Job?

Which of these describes you better than the other, ambitious to the core, organized, a little bit impatient at times, highly competitive, creative, collaborative, somewhat messy at times. Most of us associate ourselves with either type A or type B personality.

Manic Fervor

Again it is entirely possible that you do not associate with one to the complete exclusion of other, and depending on context you make associations with both. Many people amongst us like to schedule our time and go about writing lists with manic fervor, type A personality attribute, on the other hand we have never ever tried making our beds, let alone make it in reality. Now that I have piqued your interest, you would certainly like to delve deeper into the whole thing.

Biting More Than One Can Chew

Let us try and see how the two types tend to break down. The type A come across as go getters, being time oriented, organized, impatient, ambitious, they are more predisposed to stressing themselves out by taking in more than they can probably handle, the proverbial biting more than one can chew. Now contrast it with the type B’s, these are much more relaxed, have low stress. They come across as patient, steady, highly creative, thoroughly enjoy their achievement, and never get all worked out and wrapped up in insignificant nitty gritties and unnecessary details.

 

Happy Go Lucky

Again you dress up whenever possible is indicative that you fall under the A camp, whereas dressing down indicates you are are inclined to adopt the mindset of type B personalities. Small things like a proper lunch box put you in the a bracket, and if you happen to be the grab & go types you probably fall in the carefree, happy go lucky B category, this essentially is an exercise in sampling the subjects at any given workplace, if you happen to be observing closely. Many of you would in fact be identifying with a little bit of both.

Flawless System

Do you pride yourself as a person who hits inbox zero, all the time, no new mails, no matter what the cost, or are you the one who says, who has the time for clearing the inbox. Well there are people who do have an almost flawless system for the to do list or you prefer a system that is somewhat impromptu. Are you a compulsive browser tab purger or do you have a bad habit of drowning in tabs. When you go out for your cuppa, opting for a whipped cream frappe with caramel tells a lot about your choices, if you settle for a refreshing piping cup of black coffee, it says a lot about your outlook and your personality type.

Scratching the Surface

So much so for scratching the surface, when we delve a little deeper we acutely become aware of the prevailing dichotomy. The story dates back to 1950, when the original A/B Personality test was devised to screen out people who were more prone to developing coronary heart disease, in simple words weed out a person who is more likely to develop the same as compared to others, a clear indicator that the mental states of people can and do have a significant and substantial effect on their physiological health.

Final Words

They are highly significant in the workplace as different personality types have different working as well as collaboration styles. At the end of the day, what really matters more than the segregation and categorization is how effectively you go about your work in day to day scenarios, and of course how organized you stay at work. Labelling is secondary, call yourself whatever you want, as long as you are effective and things are working for you with your chosen systems.

How to Ensure Top Talent Chooses to Find You for a Job

They do know much more about you, than you know about them, can you face this fact, are you able to digest it. Well this is most certainly true of consumers, and unless you have been living under a rock for a very long time, you must be very well aware of peer to peer consumer reviews, in fact they have become a way of life.

Top of the Game

For this very reason, people do not even touch products with one star rating on amazon, they don’t want to be the object of ridicule in their immediate neighbourhood, in the event the product goes kaput in full public view. It is a given that nobody even cares a bit or trusts you with what you say about yourself. Gone are the days when individuals and organisations rode on the high wave of promotion alone, billboards with persuasive messages are still around but the focus has shifted from self promotion to maintaining a robust and honest presence, on the social media and thus be on the top of the game.

Sellers Market

You may still be a legend, but confined in your mind only and that place is going to get lonelier. God forbid, If you are still looking for customers in all the wrong places, the reality is they are on one online platform or the other, still contemplating, deliberating and deciding whether to find you or not. And by the way, the same holds good for prospective job aspirants. Now let us be very clear about the fact that for the top talent it is an out and out sellers market.

Heart of Your Company Culture

It has always been like that only, around this time they have acquired special ability and become superpowers. Be very clear about the fact that they have a sharp penetrating gaze, and see right through the very walls of your corporate headquarters, right into the heart of your company culture.

No Place to Hide

Current as well as former employees are a plenty, not to forget your customers, then there are fly by the night, run of the mill but highly focused organisational voyeurs, who do not hesitate in spilling the beans on what is not so good about you. And that is precisely the reason why you don’t go about finding top talent, rather the top talent chooses to find you. The stark reality of the present time is you cannot run and you have no place to hide.

Loud and Clear Message

The ability to be able to attract and of course retain top talent has never been more important than in the present time. The reason for this this is we are living in a very different world, than than the one which was inhabited by our predecessors. The upward rise of instagram. Facebook, airbnb, uber, their quick arrival on the scene, threatened the status quo of conventional business models, the message was loud and clear, either you innovate constantly as an entity or stand to lose the battle even before it is fought.

Talent Magnet

In order to be able to win in the present day arena of top talent, you would need to master the essential elements of  being a top notch talent magnet. First and foremost, you need to have an authentic, as well as compelling employment value proposition. Secondly you must maintain complete transparency and be accessible to the public, thirdly you must have a steady as well as robust pipeline of concrete proof points, which in essence translates into taking impactful actions, rather than following the prevalent fads.

Final Words

Ensure that the top talent is able to see a clear path to their promising future. So immediately stop looking for top notch talent in all the wrong places, that too using time worn techniques. Give talent the reasons as well as the mechanisms to be able to find you. After all best talent invariably gravitates towards the best employers.

What Are the Things That Make a Good Workplace Great?

When you envision what really goes into a great workplace, do you restrict your thoughts to just the location, the facilities available and the technology employed. What according to you, is an ideal workplace built around.

Can Do Attitude

Essentially speaking, it is built on the can do attitude, and there is still more to it, as it is further strengthened by the professional relationships that we actively forge both inside and outside of our organizations.

Better Work Environment

In order to ensure the same, certain things need to be taken care of. A great workplace is committed to providing safe premises for its employees as well as its customers. People working there are really excited about their work, they are quite proud of their organization, and are always eager to make the work environment better.

Repose Complete Trust

They most certainly feel valued for the meaningful work they do, and while doing so they repose complete trust in their leaders and the leaders in turn have complete faith in their employees and empower them in the process.

Truly Diverse

Another important trait of a great workplace is the diversity you get to witness all along, they are characterized by a team that is truly diverse, as well as inclusive while being reflective of all the customers it serves.

Diversity of Thoughts and Experience

No matter what dimensions you measure diversity in, in its truest manifestation, it surely goes on to make the workplace stronger. And most important of all is the diversity of thoughts and experience it brings about.

Enablement Is the Key

At the same time, enablement plays a big role in making a regular workplace into a great one, here each and every employee is encouraged and empowered to make maximum contribution based on their full potential.

The Core Values

When something needs to be fixed or improved, employees are encouraged to speak up as necessary and make the required contribution as well. Employees need to be aligned as well as committed to the core values for which the organization stands, and the behavior must be directed in such a manner, so as to work together and win as a cohesive single unit– the outstanding team.

Suitably Rewarded

People working at such places are a driven lot, they are invariably committed to excellence, and make it a point to lead by example, with the implicit knowledge that, accountability, integrity, as well as great results are not just expected but they are suitably rewarded too.

Art of the Possible

In a nutshell, a great workplace does not just create a fabulous environment, its employees have the freedom to wholeheartedly pursue– art of the possible. The secret in creating a great workplace lies in showing to people that you care about them.

Keep Channels of Communication Open

Keep your channels of communication open, educate your employees, acknowledge they have personal lives as well. Make good use of every opportunity to socialize with the people you work for long hours, but hardly know them beyond work. Only then would you be able to meet the actual people, once in awhile take them to nearby place where they can let their hair down and have some fun.

Final Words

It is indeed a great way of knowing your folks better, that would curb the menace of attrition even before it rears its ugly head, ensuring peace harmony and stability in the workplace and a smooth functional workflow that benefits all the stakeholders.

Don’t Be Afraid to Roll a Little Dice With Your Career

Everything that you do in life carries with it a certain margin of risk, infact life is a series of calculated risks, nothing more than that, and you can never be one hundred percent sure of the outcomes.

Create Good Fortune

In a nutshell any attempt at anything has a complete chance of failure. Having said that do not lean too heavily on luck as it can play truant at times, rather try and create good fortune for yourself and others.

Create Conducive Conditions

One does not have any amount of control on random luck, while you can attract good fortune for yourself by creating conducive conditions. If you want to travel the world and have the option of choosing between an internet career or that in video production, it goes without saying, choosing a career in the internet industry, would take you across countries and continents, acting in this manner you do not just rely on plain luck, but render yourself fortunate enough to accomplish what you aspire.

A Byproduct of Choices

The fact remains– we risk all we have, in fact everything, everyday of our lives, without even knowing it. Life is indeed all about risks, you take some of them while you avoid certain others. The life you have lived so far is infact a byproduct of the choices you have made this far and how lucky or unlucky you have gotten as a result.

The Recipe for Happiness

It goes without saying, you would avoid taking certain risks, say walking down a busy street, that too blind folded. While taking certain other risks is highly recommended as they constitute the necessary ingredients that goes into the recipe for happiness.

The Road Less Traveled

Do take the road less traveled, although it may seem to be scary, and the fact that the road has not been mapped, so you can only rely on your grit, determination, logic and intelligence, and of course a bit of luck to see you through as the road less traveled has richer plunders, you avoid getting there, however, when you do, it is well worth all the trouble.

Reap Bigger Rewards

Same is true with your career, you take no risks, you get no rewards, you take big risks, you reap bigger rewards. Sitting at your desk, feeling frustrated, stuck and bored, you are pondering over some ideas, about what likely you are going to be doing next in your career, somehow they all feel to be very risky.

What Is Your Passion

You may be contemplating making a big investment in your career development or starting all over in another industry. Thinking about changing roles but staying in the same place, or quitting and starting your own business, or even maybe trying to figure out what your passion is.

Rolling the Dice on Your Career

Rolling the dice on your career is kinda hard and it surely feels awful, as you are wired to make things hard, biologically speaking, your paycheck covers all the basic necessities like paying for your rent, food and sundry other things you need to survive.

Final Words

To be truly happy you need to move forward, there is no point in spending considerable time over – thinking on this issue. Ask your self couple of questions to arrive upon the right decision, whether or not the next career move is going to work for you. Find out whether you are just thinking with your head or you are using your gut as well. Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that might happen, the worst thing perhaps could bring you back to the same place with more life experience and what possibly could you gain, well the gain would be in the right perspective and taking the best possible decisions.

Think Like a Champion and Emerge a Winner on the Career Front

What do you think, champions are born or they are made, well both of them happen to be true. So the encouraging thing is, if you are not a born champion you can still become one. Well who is a champion, the term does not just refer to sports persons only, as is commonly perceived.

True Champion

It is the perception that differentiates an average person from a true champion. The later treads with due caution while forming perceptions as such persons take their time to keenly observe things before arriving at any judgement. They never ever jump to hasty conclusions, however they take their time understanding and analyzing things, observing first, forming perceptions later on.

Natural Ability

The number one performers do much more than just winning, and you too can aspire to join their league, how is that even possible, the answer is quite simple though, just by adopting a winner’s mindset. In part it is attitude, partly hard work and part natural ability.

Perform Exceptionally Well

The interesting thing is living your life, emulating a champion, is quite possible in every walk of life, be it athletics, academics, aviation or any other field. Essentially a champion is a person who performs exceptionally well in his or her chosen field.

Draw Parallels

One can easily draw parallels between champions, say an athletic star to that of a star performer. In order to do so, we need to identify the myriad traits that go into the making of a champion.

Rule of Thumb

A rule of thumb is you need to identify with someone as your inspiration. It could well be a sports person, a politician, or even an actorr. Now that you have picked up a role model, find out the various aspects you like about them, and what all things about them separate them from the crowd.

Communicate Overtly

List down all the things you observe, try and incorporate them into your life. Don’t limit your observation to your role model, consciously observe people around you. When you carry on this observation for a significant time you would be able to observe things that people never communicate overtly.

Star Performer

Reading these signs, you get better and better at communication. This way you say the right things to the right people, and this trait may come in handy making you the star performer of your team.

 

Glass is Half Empty or Half Full

The  saying very well sums up, it is only the perception that decides whether or not a glass is half empty or half full. People in general tend to be judgmental, there is nothing wrong with it though, in fact it is really good to have a judgement, that said, it is entirely wrong to have baseless judgments, that too completely based on superficial assumptions.

Think Before You Act

On the other hand champions go about observing, perceiving, understanding and they still exercise due diligence before forming judgments, this later on goes to determine the outcomes by the appropriate actions taken. Someone rightly said, think well, before you act, as only fools rush in.

Final Words

Star performers are wise enough to think and analyze beforehand, lest they are faced with nasty repercussions for the actions they have taken at a much later time. Champions are rare to find and they do not go with the flow like dead fishes. Just follow these simple steps, and it is quite possible that you become a great champion and a star performer in your field of work, and you never know you might as well end up becoming a role model for countless others.

Research for Job Search Success

Looking for a job well then you will see for yourself, research is indeed useful at all stages of your job search be it jobs in Chennai or jobs in Hyderabad.  First you need to identify what your targets are; with the right degree of research you would be able to actually confirm that your targets do fit your career progression. Next you need to be able to create a compelling campaign to market yourself, wherein bit of exploration helps you tailor your personalized marketing to fit desired individual target’s requirements. Explore and network for establishing your credibility as someone worth meeting. With a bit of groundwork, scrutiny and exploration you can position yourself as the best candidate for the job at the interview.

Define & Refine

Primarily research helps you to define and refine your job search. The process leaves you with invaluable knowledge and it does let people know you are really committed to your job search and your career per se. It helps in driving your job search forward into job related interviewing and networking opportunities. It is your single minded approach that lets you examine and gives you legitimate reasons for the interest you evince in a given job, again it lets you talk intelligently about how your skills and experience relate, so that you effortlessly land interior design jobs in India or design engineer jobs in India.

Negotiate and Close

When you investigate seriously, pore over pertinent reading materials, study and identify gaps, which might lead to search issues, you may feel the need to find additional targets as required. Again research is going to immensely help you stay motivated and organized and troubleshoot the search as and when required. Carrying out proper investigation helps you to determine the customary compensation levels. You have an edge in knowing what the right figure is to negotiate for and close the offer successfully for medical jobs in India or industrial jobs in India.

Finding the Right Mentors

If you are lucky to get the right guidance in life you are going to go places in all likelihood, say get jobs in Chandigarh, be it part time jobs in Chandigarh or government jobs in Delhi. Now when it comes to taking care of your career growth, look for a more experienced hand as that person can most certainly take off many a years out of the learning curve.

Read our previous blog => Develop Your Personal Leadership Style

Read our previous blog =>  Surviving the Corporate World as an Introvert

The success of many a professional is rightly attributed in part to their mentors, who invest a lot of personal time and energy grooming their proteges passing on valuable lessons and enabling doors to open besides inspiring and pushing those mentored to touch new levels of performance. It goes without saying you need to sharpen your career tools for job openings in Mumbai, like go about improving your interviewing skills, networking skills as well as soft skills. Never ever forget to devote some of your valuable time and energy in going about finding as well as nurturing fruitful mentoring relationships.

Reverse Monitor

To begin with you need to carefully identify your mentoring needs. The easiest thing for you to attract mentors is to be really good at what you do and they will invariably find you. At the same time you need to keep your definition of mentors quite flexible. Again refrain from picking up people who are just like you, although it may seem tempting to do so, having said that you need to be able to seek out prospects for potential mentors just about anywhere like government jobs in Mumbai.

Now as you progress with your career and apply for job openings in Chennai you need to be searching for new mentors, be on a constant look out for them. And when you have benefited substantially in terms of development look and find ways to reverse monitor. It is quite likely you are younger in age, you could apprise the older mentor about your views and ideas regarding the workplace say it is your favorite job in Hyderabad from your viewpoint. Make it a point to learn from your peers as well. Last but not the least try and spend time on the other side by assuming the role of a mentor and experience the satisfaction that comes with it.

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How to Grow Confidence in the Workplace?

Do you truly believe that confidence happens to be a crucial element in helping you reach your real potential. Well without confidence can you even dream of realizing the things you aspire to achieve. This comes in the shape of a little something that you cannot afford to hold back if success is what you are after.

The Good News

The good news though is for every instance of lack of confidence, there are various things you can concentrate upon and surely grow your confidence. Even better, relatively small things, done cumulatively over a period of time surely have a big impact. No doubt confidence is the best vehicle to fuel success. If you do not feel as confident as you had really like to be, do not expect the situation to change overnight. In the event you rush yourself by setting unrealistic goals you are bound to fail. This would frustrate you no bounds and result in serious discouragement.

Visualize Your Way to Success

The best thing to do instead is to start really small, set manageable goals that tend to be incremental, and help you slowly build your way where you intend to be. Visualization is indeed a great tool you may make good use of, talking of successful sports persons especially golfers, they use it a lot, they visualize in particular where they want the ball to land precisely, taking a leaf from this approach, one must visualize the result one wishes to see. You got to picture a new and more confident you, the more you embody that particular idea the better the outcome.

Boost Your Confidence

It is said that if you dress for the part with confidence than what you visualize is achieved sooner than expected. It is said that at times you need to fake it till you make it and stay honest till you are at it. Now you have good excuse to treat yourself to a new wardrobe and boost your confidence in the process. To some it may sound counter intuitive but it helps to get out of your comfort zone. Again when you try out new things and shoulder new responsibilities you would be boosting your confidence big time.

Ask Questions

It would bring to fore the qualities that you were never even aware of. Scary and impossible things suddenly turned out to be completely manageable. You must never be afraid of asking questions, and your confidence must never be predicated on knowing just about everything, as a matter of fact no one knows everything. Accept this fact and be OK with asking questions, by not asking questions you are getting more prone to making mistakes, this is not ideal for augmenting your confidence levels. This is not an ideal situation for effectively growing your confidence, go ahead and ask, and you would be in a better position to do a fabulous job.

Final Words

Always remember nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistakes. Continue educating yourself and keep adding to your skill set. Always Surround yourself with the right people. You don’t need to wallow in your past glories or rest on your laurels, but it pays to think more of the successes than you do about your failures. Remind what you are capable of, boost your morale by remembering your wins.