The Seven “Thank God….. It’s Monday!” Habits:

To transform your workplace into a Thank God It's Monday workplace, develop these seven habits and encourage those around you to do the same:  

1. Show up fully and commit with all your heart : Buddhists call it mindfulness—being present in the moment and attentive to the here and now. At work, we think of home. At home, we think of work. The first step toward a TGIM workplace is being present and accounted for at work. Thinking about being elsewhere leads to resenting where you are; and while you are at work, commit to work with all your heart. While at home, commit to home.    
2.  Communicate clearly :Use positive language about what you will do and the attitude you expect from others. Remember the last time you were given an assignment with confusing instructions? Vague policies and unclear expectations can make people feel demotivated. They click into survival mode instead of focusing on how to help the company succeed. So if a TGIM workplace is your goal, take the time to make your communications clear on every level.  
3.  Go beyond the job description : Going beyond the job description happens when you pitch in and help others at work, help accomplish a greater good without expecting it to be part of your evaluative performance. It means being a better team member and willingly sharing the load. You know what? You're going to find that instead of an extra burden, you actually feel more a part of things than ever, and that can be fun and exhilarating.
4.  Don't tolerate dysfunctional behaviors:If a happy and functional workplace is your goal, there are few more productive places to put your energy. Once you establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person's back, give each other permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. Create a trusting and open environment and watch the dysfunction vanish.
5.  Clean up your messes : Relationships are built on trust. Without that foundation, there is no basis for a relationship. We breach the trust each time we don't do what we said we would do. But here's the thing—that breach can be healed quickly IF you come back and clean up the mess.
6.  Live a life of profound service:You can't be depressed when you're being kind to others. Once you place yourself in the service of those around you—your family, your colleagues, your customers—every moment becomes imbued with purpose and significance, and you feel GOOD. Transform your interactions from simple business transactions to a profound exchange between two human beings. This is the essence of true service, and the key to a workplace that draws you happily back.
7.  Celebrate :Every project consists of little steps, little victories along the way. Recognize and celebrate them in ways large and small. Build a system of celebrations and rewards—quarterly, weekly, daily— and follow through like your company's life depends on it. Because it does. Train your managers to start meetings with each person sharing one success, followed by applause. Create rewards for meeting quarterly objectives. Recognize progress and thank people for the work they do.
   
   Acquire these seven habits and spread them through your workplace, then be sure to notice the first Monday that you smile.

“Are Leaders born or made?”

The answer is “Leaders are developed….”

What are some of the key attributes or success factors that can develop good corporate leaders?

Here, we do not refer to the ‘given’ areas of a successful leader such as skills, knowledge or competencies but intend to touch upon some of the unspoken, unwritten and perhaps, subtle but sublime areas of leadership behaviours.

Our prime focus should be to weave together a fabric acronymed LLQs - Leader like Qualities.

Let’s take a walk through this unfamiliar terrain. Unlike theories or conceptual frameworks, these are plain and simple truths which we would term as Leadership facts of corporate life!

An ideal “To be Leaders”(TBL) would be one who would demonstrate or emit the below mentioned qualities:   

1. Organisation Man : TBLs are fundamentally ‘organization’ men or women as they call it. Passionately in love with their organization, they have immense sense of belonging. They do not speak ill of the organization. Truly selfless team builders, they look at what they can give to their Company than what they can get.   
2.  Personal Integrity : Integrity is their first name. They do not curry personal favours nor play favourites. TBLs also display impeccable intellectual integrity.  
3.  Courage : TBLs wear the red badge of courage on their sleeves. They stand up for convictions; do not have fear of failure. When it comes to a crunch, TBLs are not afraid of losing their jobs and will not hesitate to surrender career ladders for the sake of integrity and values.
4.  Talk :(a) less - TBLs generally are the “talk less do more” types. No endless conversations and least of all no loose talk even when provoked. (b) Themselves – they do not talk about themselves or their past achievements. (c) Gossip – notably, TBLs do not gossip. No mongering, innuendos or office politics. They do not whine about their careers. However, if any view point has to be conveyed, they do it with finesse and dignity. (d) language – they maintain decency of language.
5.  Humility :TBLs are inherently humble especially about their achievements. They do not “show off” their positions, are polite conversationalists and always demonstrate respect for individuals. They wear successes on their sleeve easily.
6.  Humour : TBLs have a great sense of humour. Ready to laugh at themselves, they use humour in crisis situations too. They do not go around with gloomy expressions and most often win people with their winning smiles.
7.  Carriage : TBLs carry themselves in a special manner (a) body language – basically, they walk, talk and do things in an inimitable style. No sloppiness or laid-back signs especially in meetings. (b) Dress- TBLs dress well and proper, respecting the Company dress codes. (c) Composure - cool, calm and composed, TBLs do not betray emotions and have no temper tantrums. Unruffled in crisis, they would get on with the game and try to work out solutions.
8.  Fitness : TBLs generally take lot of care to be physically fit and trim. They are invariably into health drives such as walking, jogging swimming or gyming. Adherence to health discipline and indulgence in yoga, music and other stress-busters are the secrets to their mental alertness and high energy levels.
9.  Mystique :Distinctively different characteristic of TBLs is the “mystique” surrounding them. No, they are not aloof or unapproachable nor introverts. TBLs tend to be neither too close nor distanced from their people – they maintain a healthy distance and never fall into the typical “familiarity –contempt” trap. In fact, sometimes colleagues tend to be enchanted by this trait.
   
    The ultimate truth is that successful Leaders should have the ability to rediscover and reinvent themselves.
   
    To conclude we can say that adopting LLQs shall accelerate one’s growth as successful leaders.

DOES CONTROLLING OVERHEADS MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO YOUR BUSINESS?

Running a business today in the inflationary scenario requires very intense research and planning with respect to spending of each single rupee. Dealing with increasing overheads becomes a major challenge especially when they are unavoidable. At such time, one resorts to cutting of overheads to reduce cost.
Managing cost requires understanding of different types of overheads and their importance since blind reduction of overheads may tend to have negative impact on the business and increase cost in other areas of business.

Mentioned below are some of the costs and ways to manage them:  

1. Fixed and variable overheads : Fixed overheads are those expenses which are fixed in nature irrespective of the size of business like rent, salaries etc.
   Variable overheads are variable in nature depending on the operations of the business, eg: raw material cost.
   Fixed cost cannot be changed, once a decision to commit to such cost is made. Variable cost depends on the business needs.   
2.  Renting of an office :Renting an office space can eat into major chunk of your business. Hence this is an area where one has to decide what kind of an office is required. This depends upon the industry to which one is catering to, whether it is a manufacturing or service industry. If it is a service industry then one has to evaluate whether you want to run one man show or it will be a team effort. In deciding the location of office one may not station it at a business centre, it can be at any such location suitable to your pocket. 
3.  Paper less office :In today’s scenario all the communications are done over the internet and all confidential documents are stored in soft copy. Considering this one of a very effective way of controlling cost would be to go paperless.
4.  People management :People form a very important part of the office culture. Managing people is very important when one aims to control cost. Unnecessary hiring of people will only put strain on company’s economy. Therefore one has to hire people having the right knowledge and enthusiasm to work.
5.  Accountant :It is expensive today to spend on tax accountant and service tax professionals but we need an accountant to monitor our regular inflows and outflows.
6.  Understanding your needs :An entrepreneur needs to evaluate on the needs to find out what can be deleted from the list of conventional items required for an office.
7.  Use unconventional advertising methods :Why spend so much on conventional advertising when clients can act as brand ambassadors. It would be very economical to have a Face Book page or Twitter or website with the testimonials of the brand ambassadors for whom a diligent service was provided. This acts as a more better and effective advertisement than spending few lakhs of rupees convincing others.
   
   Therefore, at such times a financial controller is very important to understand his business needs and guide accordingly on various methods to effectively manage cost.