Computer Information Update : November 2017

Monday, 6 November 2017

Effective Presentation Skills

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Introduction

Have you ever seen a keynote presentation done by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc? If you have, you know what it means to have 'effective presentation skills.' Steve Jobs is not the only one who has this ability, there are plenty more.
Problems are meant to exist in organizations. That's why there should be a strong process and supporting tools for identifying the causes of the problems before the problems damage the organization.
If you are to communicate an idea, concept or a product, you need to have good presentation skills in order to grab the attention of the audience and become the center of attention.
This way, it is easy for you to get the audience's support. The audience can range from your college classmates to an executive board of a multinational company.
There are many software packages you can use for presentation purposes. Of course, it is not mandatory to use software for your presentation, but the effect is much greater when you use such tools for your purpose. Many of these software tools are equipped with features and facilities to make your presentation experience easy and pleasant.
Having just an idea or a product to communicate and a software package to create your presentations do not make you an effective presenter. For this, you should prepare yourself in advance and also should develop some skills. Let's take a look at some of the pointers that will help you to become a top-class presenter.

Guidelines for Designing the Presentation

The design and the layout of the presentation have an impact on how the audience receives it. Therefore, you need to focus more on the clarity of your presentation and the content.
Following are some points you should consider when designing your presentation.

Derive the top three goals that you want to accomplish through your presentation. The entire presentation should focus on achieving these three goals. If you are not clear about what you want to achieve, your audience can easily miss the point of your presentation.
Understand what your audience is. Think why they are there to see your presentation and their expectations. Study the background of the audience in advance if possible. When you do the presentation, make sure that you communicate to them that they are 'selected' for this presentation.
Have a list of points that you want to communicate to your audience, prioritize them accordingly. See whether there is any point that is difficult to understand by the audience. If there are such points, chunk them further.
Decide on the tone you want to use in the presentation. It could be motivational, informational, celebration, etc.
Prepare an opening speech for the presentation. Do not spend much time on it though.
Point out all contents in brief and explain them as you've planned.
Have a Q&A (questions and answers) session at the end of the presentation.

Choosing the Presentation Materials

When your presentation is supported by additional material, you can make more impact on the audience. Reports, articles and flyers are just a few examples.
If your presentation is informative and a lot of data is presented, handing out a soft or hard copy of your presentation is a good idea.
Following are some guidelines on presentation materials:

Make sure that you check the computer, projector and network connectivity in advance to the presentation. I'm sure you do not want to spend the first half of your presentation fixing those in front of your audience.
Use a simple, but consistent layout. Do not overload the presentation with images and animations.
When it comes to time allocation, spend 3-5 minutes for each slide. Each slide should ideally have about 5-8 bullet lines. This way, the audience can stay focused and grab your points.
Do not distribute the supplementary material before the presentation. They may read the material during the presentation and miss what you say. Therefore, distribute the material after the presentation.

Presentation Delivery

Delivering the presentation is the most important step of the process. This is where you make the primary contact with your audience. Consider the following points in order to deliver an effective presentation.

Be prepared for your presentation. Complete the designing phase of the presentation and practice it a few times before you actually do it. This is the most important part of your presentation. Know the content of your presentation in and out. When you know your presentation, you can recover if something goes wrong.
Use true examples to explain your points. If these examples are common to you and the audience, it will have a great impact. Use your personal experiences to show them the practical point of view.
Relax! Stay relaxed and calm during the presentation. Your body language is quite important for the audience. If they see you tensed, they may not receive what you say. They may even judge you!
Use humour in the presentation. Use it naturally to make your point. Do not try to crack jokes when you are not supposed to do it.
Pay attention to details. Remember the old saying; devil is in details. Choose the place, people and materials wisely.

Conclusion

Presenting your idea to convince an audience is always a challenge.
Every presentation is a new experience for all of us. Therefore, you should plan your presentations way in advance.
Pay close attention to the points we discussed above and adhere to them in your next presentation.

Decision Making Process

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Introduction

Decision making is a daily activity for any human being. There is no exception about that. When it comes to business organizations, decision making is a habit and a process as well.
Effective and successful decisions make profit to the company and unsuccessful ones make losses. Therefore, corporate decision making process is the most critical process in any organization.
In the decision making process, we choose one course of action from a few possible alternatives. In the process of decision making, we may use many tools, techniques and perceptions.
In addition, we may make our own private decisions or may prefer a collective decision.
Usually, decision making is hard. Majority of corporate decisions involve some level of dissatisfaction or conflict with another party.
Let's have a look at the decision making process in detail.

Steps of Decision Making Process

Following are the important steps of the decision making process. Each step may be supported by different tools and techniques.

Step 1: Identification of the purpose of the decision

In this step, the problem is thoroughly analysed. There are a couple of questions one should ask when it comes to identifying the purpose of the decision.

What exactly is the problem?
Why the problem should be solved?
Who are the affected parties of the problem?
Does the problem have a deadline or a specific time-line?

Step 2: Information gathering

A problem of an organization will have many stakeholders. In addition, there can be dozens of factors involved and affected by the problem.
In the process of solving the problem, you will have to gather as much as information related to the factors and stakeholders involved in the problem. For the process of information gathering, tools such as 'Check Sheets' can be effectively used.

Step 3: Principles for judging the alternatives

In this step, the baseline criteria for judging the alternatives should be set up. When it comes to defining the criteria, organizational goals as well as the corporate culture should be taken into consideration.
As an example, profit is one of the main concerns in every decision making process. Companies usually do not make decisions that reduce profits, unless it is an exceptional case. Likewise, baseline principles should be identified related to the problem in hand.

Step 4: Brainstorm and analyse the different choices

For this step, brainstorming to list down all the ideas is the best option. Before the idea generation step, it is vital to understand the causes of the problem and prioritization of causes.
For this, you can make use of Cause-and-Effect diagrams and Pareto Chart tool. Cause-and-Effect diagram helps you to identify all possible causes of the problem and Pareto chart helps you to prioritize and identify the causes with highest effect.
Then, you can move on generating all possible solutions (alternatives) for the problem in hand.

Step 5: Evaluation of alternatives

Use your judgement principles and decision-making criteria to evaluate each alternative. In this step, experience and effectiveness of the judgement principles come into play. You need to compare each alternative for their positives and negatives.

Step 6: Select the best alternative

Once you go through from Step 1 to Step 5, this step is easy. In addition, the selection of the best alternative is an informed decision since you have already followed a methodology to derive and select the best alternative.

Step 7: Execute the decision

Convert your decision into a plan or a sequence of activities. Execute your plan by yourself or with the help of subordinates.

Step 8: Evaluate the results

Evaluate the outcome of your decision. See whether there is anything you should learn and then correct in future decision making. This is one of the best practices that will improve your decision-making skills.

Conclusion

When it comes to making decisions, one should always weigh the positive and negative business consequences and should favour the positive outcomes.
This avoids the possible losses to the organization and keeps the company running with a sustained growth. Sometimes, avoiding decision making seems easier; especially, when you get into a lot of confrontation after making the tough decision.
But, making the decisions and accepting its consequences is the only way to stay in control of your corporate life and time.

Crisis Management

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What is Crisis Management?

In any organization or business, it is always essential that you are prepared for any problems that may arise when it is least expected.
It is in the way that you deal with these issues that the success of your business will be based on. It is a well known fact that the biggest blow to an organization comes from the major unpredictable disasters that occur often leaving everyone, from the management to the public, involved in a state of confusion.
No organization however big or famous is immune from various crises. This may include situations such as your computer systems failing or even worse, infrastructure being completely destroyed.
Crisis management has entered the field of management only very recently but has since contributed a great deal to the prevention of major management disasters.

Understanding a Crisis

What crisis management typically requires is that you carry out forecasting of certain crises that you think could occur in the near future, putting your organization into jeopardy.
You then also come up with a solution as to how you would go about dealing with such a crisis. This would also require you to have a clear plan of all steps that would need to be taken should such a situation arise.
However, it may not always be the case that the organization has time to prepare for such a crisis. In such a situation, the management team would need to work on mitigating the amount of loss caused and recovering from the crisis at hand.

Types of Crises

It is important that you have a good understanding of the different types of crises that could take place at the very outset.
This is vital as all crises cannot be handled in the same manner and would require different approaches and various techniques to be applied. Although types of crises can be categorized into several kinds, the most common categories are as follows:

Financial crises - This would be a huge problem for any organization, but is fairly predictable to quite an extent when compared with other types of crises. Such a crisis would basically involve the organization heading in the direction of bankruptcy.
Natural disasters - This type of crisis is highly unpredictable and could come by at any time. Several examples of such situations could be given today, from example, earthquakes in countries such as China a few years ago and Haiti and other disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes, you should always be ready to face such a situation.
Technological crises - This is where a system collapses due to failure in the functioning of different equipment and machinery used. As mentioned previously, a computer system failure is one example of such a crisis. These crises could occur either because of human error or a fault in the system used which has multiple consequences. This may also include chemical spills and oil leaks. One famous case is that of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 which caused much damage.
Political & Social - With the current political climate the world over, you may also want to take into consideration any threats to security and any form of terrorist activity.

No organization is free from internal politics and disagreement between the various levels of the workforce.
It is therefore essential that you always keep in mind that high-ranking workers could always resign in the middle of an important project or the workers may plan a strike or protest to express their disgruntlement with the way certain aspects of the organization are run.
Knowing how to manage employee disgruntlement is therefore key to preventing any future fights from erupting, impeding the progress of work being carried out by the organization.

Planning for an Impending Crisis

Without a clear plan as to how to deal with the crises that could occur at the very outset, you would only drag the organization into greater problems.
It is very important that someone plays the role of a leader and chooses a dynamic team in order to carry out all aspects of planning.
It is this management team that would have to not only ascertain what types of crises may occur, but then carry on to study various strategies that could be applied to minimize or even prevent altogether any damage that could be caused.
The next step would then be to try out these strategies and see if it would work.
At times such as these, your organization would benefit greatly from other organizations that would be able to provide you with invaluable resources to help you mitigate the crises to the greatest extent possible.
Crisis Management

Dealing with Crises

It is essential to keep in mind that when a crisis occurs you would need to have a response team ready to deal with the media and the various stakeholders.
All these parties would need information on the given situation and what is being done to deal with it. This also requires you to have a clear crisis communication plan with the target audience in mind.
Remember that each group needs to be handled in a different manner; customers may not require the same information as the employees of the organization, and so on.

Conclusion

The only way to successfully control a crisis from going out of your hands is to always have a good plan and a good team ready to deal with various situations that may crop up.
With these strategies in place, you would always be able to reduce the damage caused to the organization to a great extent.

Conflict Management

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Introduction

Organizational conflict occurs when two or more parties, who have different objectives, values or attitudes compete for the same resources. Conflicts can arise due to disagreements between individuals or departments due to their dissimilar focus.
Contrary to popular belief, not all organizational conflicts are detrimental to the effective functioning of the business or project at hand.
Popular management theorists have recognized the fact that groups tend to storm before performing, and in one sense, this can be advantageous, as it brings problems out into the open, addresses the need to resolve such issues satisfactorily, motivates staff to seek acceptable solutions and each department or person embroiled in the conflict learns to respect and even benefit from the inherent differences of each other.
However, some conflicts spin out of control. This lower employee morale results in unacceptable behavioral patterns, reduces productivity and causes an escalation in differences that makes bridges harder to build.
Identifying actions that aggravate conflict, others that resolve differences and the different method of coping with conflict are all part of conflict management which are discussed in detail below.

Managerial Actions that Aggravate Conflicts

Ill-defined expectations, non-consultative changes and feelings of helplessness in the decision making process tend to aggravate conflict. Poor communication, an authoritative style of leadership and impromptu planning are at the very heart of these problems.
Ambiguous objectives, inadequate allocation of resources, be it time, money or personnel, and badly defined process structures heighten such issues even further. Egotistic behavior, battle between Alpha dogs for supremacy and poor management techniques also play a pivotal role in aggravating conflicts.
A lack of understanding, an excuse-ridden culture and avoidance of accountability too increase the detrimental effects of conflicts.

Managerial Actions that Minimize Conflicts

Formulating well-defined job descriptions in a consultative manner, ensuring that any overlaps are minimized and carrying out periodical reviews to ascertain that such documentation is accurate, give the employees a sense of control over their own destiny.
This participative approach goes a long way in minimizing conflicts and helps foster better work ethics.
Formulating cross-departmental teams to solve specific problems, conducting outbound training, which fosters team spirit, holding regular meeting where feedback on performance is given and where the challenges faced are addressed and the solutions are discussed are some of the other relationship building techniques used by progressive organizations.

Different Methods of Handling Conflicts

The four most popular methods of handling conflict can be summarized as fight, flight, fake or fold.
To elaborate further, fighting is where one party tends to dominate another by way of repetitive arguments, labeling and name-calling.
Flight is where people run away from problems instead of confronting them and turns to avoidance as a means of handling conflict. Faking, as its name implies, means agreeing to the solution presented, although in reality, the opposite holds true.
Folding is where an individual is made to agree to a solution by means of browbeating. However, none of the aforementioned method would yield satisfactory results in the long term.
Even today, compromise and collaboration go a long way in resolving conflicts in an optimal manner, as both are win-win situations for the most part, after which, interested parties can work together to reach a common goal.
Effective dialogue paves the way for conflict resolution. If the disagreements cannot be resolved by the two parties themselves, then a third party arbitrator or counselor might need to be consulted for best results.

Skills Required for Conflict Resolution

Communication skills, negotiation skills and the ability to see the whole picture are necessary skills in conflict management. Listening skills and the ability to find solutions that do not compromise any party's interest are also worth developing when handling conflict management.

Steps in Conflict Management

Identify the problem.
Identify the limiting resource or constraint that is generally at the root cause of the conflict.
Engage in participatory dialogue and find a range of solutions that will be acceptable to all the parties concerned.
See which solutions clash with the organizational objectives and are not in keeping with the company's culture.
Eliminate those that do not promote mutual understanding or acceptance.
Choose the best solution that satisfy most people most of the time and implement this.

Conclusion

Conflicts are inevitable in one's personal life in organizations or even between nations.
It does have some noteworthy advantages if handled correctly as it brings problems out into the open and compels interested parties to find solutions that are acceptable to all. However, conflicts that escalate out of control are detrimental to everybody in the equation, so conflict management becomes a necessity.
Some basic skills, some knowledge, and having the best interest of the organization at heart, together with respect for its people, will go a long way in handling conflict admirably.

Communications Management

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Introduction

Often you would come across organizations that stress the importance of good communication management. It's empirical for an organization to have a proper communication management.
Once this is achieved, the organization is one step closer to achieving its overall business objectives. Communication management refers to a systematic plan, which implements and monitors the channels and content of communication.
To become a good manager, one must have a contingency approach at hand when it comes to communicating with employees.
An effective communication management is considered to be a lifeline for many projects that an organization undertakes as well as any department of the organization.

The Five W's of Communication Management

The five W's in communication are crucial and need to be addressed for a project or organizational function to be successful by means of an effective communication management.
Following are the five W's of communications management:

What information is essential for the project?
Who requires information and what type of information is needed?
What is the duration of time required for the information?
What type or format of information is required?
Who are the person/s who will be responsible for transmitting the collated information?

The five W's in communication management are only the guidelines. Therefore, you do need to take other considerations into account, such as cost and access to information.

The Communication Process

The main objective of communication management is to ensure smooth flow of information from either between two people or a group.
Let us examine the communication process with the use of a diagram.

The communication process consists of three main divisions; sender transmits a message via a channel to the receiver. As per the above diagram, the sender first develops an idea, which then can be processed as a message.
This message is transmitted to the receiver. The receiver has to interpret the message to understand its meaning.
When it comes to the interpretation, the context of the message should be used for deriving the meaning. Furthermore, for this communication process model, you will also utilize encoding and decoding.
Encoding refers to developing a message and decoding refers to interpreting or understanding the message. You will also notice the feedback factor, which the sender and receiver both involve.
Feedback is crucial for any communication process to be successful. Feedback allows immediate managers or supervisors to analyze how well subordinates understand the information provided and to know the performance of work.

Methods of Communication

Understanding the communication process alone will not guarantee success for managers or an organization. Managers need to be aware of the methods used in the communication process.
The standard methods of communication that are widely used by managers and organizations across the world are either written or oral methods.
Apart from these two mechanisms, non-verbal communication is another prominent method used to assess communication within the organization.
Non-verbal communication refers to the use of body language as a method of communication. This method will include gestures, actions, physical appearance as well as facial appearance and attitude.
Although most of these methods are still in use for a larger part of the organization, the usage of e-mail and other electronic mediums as a method of communication has lessened the need for face-to-face communication.
This sometimes leads to situations where both parties involved do not trust or feel comfortable with each other and also the messages can be easily misinterpreted.

Oral Communication Skills

A large proportion of oral communication is directly involved in communications management. For example, if a manager does not converse or make it clear to a sales team, this may lead to differences in objectives and achievements.
There are two aspects of oral communication, active listening and constructive feedback.

Active Listening

This is where the person, who receives the message pays attention to the information, interprets and remembers.
As you would be aware, listening helps you to pay attention and following are some points, which illustrate active listening.

Making eye contact with the relevant party
Making sure to clarify questions if it's not clear
Avoiding using gestures, which are distracting or uncomfortable

Constructive Feedback

This is where managers fail most of the time. Feedback needs to be constructive and then it will help the employees to shape up their performance instead of mere criticism.

Conclusion

Communication management is vital for any organization irrespective of its size. It contributes to achieving the company's overall objectives as well as creates a positive and friendly environment.
An effective communication process within the organization will lead to an increase in profits, high employee satisfaction and brand recognition.

Basic Management Skills

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Introduction

Management is a topic that is as vast as the sky. When it comes to the skills that are required to become a good manager, the list may be endless.
In everyday life, we observe many people considering management as - whatever that needs to be done in order to keep a company afloat - but in reality, it is far more complicated than the common belief.
So let us get down to the most basic skills that need to be acquired, if one is to become a successful manager.

The ABC's of Management

You will understand that management involves managing people and thereby, managing the output garnered in favor of the company. According to Dr. Ken Blanchard, in his famous book "Putting the One minute Manager to Work", the ABC's of management world are as below:

Activators - The type of strategy followed by a manager before his workforce sets on with performance.
Behaviors - How the workforce performs or behaves within the activity or situation as a result of activators or consequences.
Consequences - How the manager handles the workforce after the performance.

Research shows that although we may be inclined to think that an activator's role brings about the most efficient behavior in a workforce, in effect; it is how managers handle the workforce after a particular behavior that influences future behavior or performance up to a great extent.
To quantify, activators' base behavior contribution is calculated to make up for 15 to 25 percent of behavior, while 75-85 percent of the behavior is known to be influenced by consequences.
Therefore, it is crucial that we understand and develop the basic management skills that will help bring out expected outcomes from a workforce.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

This is where most managers either get stamped in to good or bad books. However, the type of decisions you make should not ideally make you a good or bad manager; rather how you make such decisions is what need to be the deciding factor.
You will need to know the basic ethics of problem solving and this should be thoroughly practiced in every occasion, even if the problem concerns you personally.
Unless otherwise, a manager becomes impartial and entirely professional, he/she may find it difficult to build a working relationship with co-workers in an organization.

Planning and Time Management

The last thing you would want your co-workers to think is that you get by your working hours, cuddled up in an office chair, enjoying light music while doing nothing! Planning and Time management is essential for any manager; however, it is even more important for them to realize why these two aspects are important.
Although you may be entitled to certain privileges as a manager, that does not necessarily mean you could slay time as you please.
Assuming responsibility to manage the time is important so that you could become the first to roll the die which will soon become a chain reaction within the organization.
Having said that, when you conduct yourself with efficiency, you will also end up portraying yourself as a role model for co-workers which may add a lot of value as you move along with management duties in the company.
Planning ahead of time for events and activities that you foresee in your radar and taking the necessary initiatives as well as precautions as you move along are undoubtedly, some of the main expectations from managers.
If you could adapt a methodical style at your workplace and adapt effective techniques to carry out your duties with the least hindrance, you will soon build the sacred skills of planning and time management.

Delegation

Having planned everything that lies ahead and having come up with a plan for time management, you may feel that you have got more than you could chew on your plate. This is where delegation should come into play.
Becoming a good manager does not mean carrying out every task by him/herself. Rather, it is about being able to delegate work effectively in order to complete the task on time.
Many managers mishandle delegation either because they do not have enough confidence in their co-workers and subordinates or because they do not master the techniques of delegation.
Therefore, the key for delegation would be to identify the individuals that are capable of carrying out the task, delegating the work with accurate instructions and providing enough moral support. Once the task is complete, you will get an opportunity to evaluate their performance and provide constructive feedback.

Communication Skills

Nothing could be ever accomplished in the world of a manager without him or her being able to accurately, precisely and positively communicate their instructions, suggestions or feedback to others.
Therefore, you should be extremely careful in picking out your words. A 'Can-Do' attitude is something that can be easily portrayed through your words.
When your communication bears a positive note, it will run across your audience almost contagiously.

Managing Yourself & Leading Others

No matter how much charisma you may have in your personality or how good your positive communication skills may be, a manager never fails to be the one to communicate all things whether good or bad.
In your managerial position, you are exposed to both the executive layer and the working layer of an organization which makes you the ham in the sandwich.
Therefore, you may find yourself squashing and thrilling in between when it comes to many decisions.
The number one rule in managing yourself is to realize that you are a professional, who is being paid for the designation that you bear in the company. If you remember this fact, you will always remember never to take any issue personally.
Always draw a line between your managerial persona and your actual persona. It is good to bond with co-workers at a personal level while maintaining a distance in your profession. Therefore, you will also be required to draw a line somewhere.
And most importantly, you will become the sponge that absorbs heat from the higher strata of the company and delivers the minimum heat and pressure to the lower strata. Therefore, you will need to practice a fair share of diplomacy in your role.

Conclusion

Managing people and processes is a style in itself that requires dedication and experience-blended practice. The skills needed are as vast and deep as the ocean.
The basic management skills presented herein is only a doorway for you to get started on the management path that lies ahead.

Communication Methods

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Introduction

We all know the importance of communication in our daily lives. Nothing can take place without some method of communication being used to express ourselves for whatever purpose.
Communication is even more valuable in a business environment as there are several parties involved. Various stakeholders, whether they are customers, employees or the media, are always sending important information to each other at all times.
We are therefore constantly using some form of communication or another to send a message across. Without these different methods of communication available today, it would take eons for us to carry out business as efficiently as it is done today and with the same speed.
Let's try and understand what these methods of communication are.

Types of Communication

Numerous new instruments have emerged over the years to help people communicate effectively.
Communication Method

Oral Communication

Oral communication could be said to be the most used form of communication. Whether it is to present some important data to your colleagues or lead a boardroom meeting, these skills are vital.
We are constantly using words verbally to inform our subordinates of a decision, provide information, and so on. This is done either by phone or face-to-face.
The person on the receiving end would also need to exercise much caution to ensure that he/she clearly understands what is being said.
This shows therefore that you would need to cultivate both your listening and speaking skills, as you would have to carry out both roles in the workplace, with different people.

Written Communication

Writing is used when you have to provide detailed information such as figures and facts, even while giving a presentation.
It is also generally used to send documents and other important material to stakeholders which could then be stored for later use as it can be referred to easily as it is recorded. Other important documents such as contracts, memos and minutes of meetings are also in written form for this purpose.
It can be seen in recent years, however, that verbal communication has been replaced to a great extent by a faster form of written communication and that is email.
You could also use video conferencing and multiple way phone calls with several individuals simultaneously. Apart from a few glitches that could occur, these methods of communication have helped organizations come a long way.

Body Language

Although the most common methods of communication are carried out orally or in writing, when it comes to management techniques, the power of non-verbal communication must never be underestimated.
Your smile, your gestures and several other body movements send out a message to the people around you. You need to be mindful of this while dealing with your employees and customers.
Always remember to maintain eye contact. This would show that you are serious and confident about what is being said.

Why Do We Need Different Communication Methods?

You may ask why it is important that we use different methods of communication in one organization.
The answer is very simple. The reason for this is the pivotal role that communication plays in the effective functioning of a business.
Imagine an organization today without e-mail facilities. How would a customer then be able to send an important proposal quickly and directly to the employer in-charge? Similarly, an organization may have to stall their work if certain managers are not in the country and are thereby unable to give a presentation to the board.
But, of course, this can be done today with the help of video conferencing.
Therefore, it is crucial that different methods of communication are employed.

Choosing the Right Method

It is important that the most cost-effective methods of communication are chosen for any organization. Simply choosing a method of communication due to it being a famous instrument is not going to help.
You would need to understand the needs of your organization in particular. There are certain questions that you would need to ask:

What is our target audience?
How much are we willing to spend on such an instrument?
Will it increase employee productivity in the long run?
What kind of information do we send out most often?

You may have more questions to ask based on the type of work you carry out and the message that you need to send across. Remember that there is no 'right' method of communication. You would need different methods for different purposes and tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to always remember the importance of communication in an organization.
The methods of communication you choose could in a sense make or break the management structure of your organization and could also affect your relationship with customers, if not chosen carefully.
It is vital therefore that you spend some time choosing the right methods to aid you in your management tasks.

Managing Managers

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As a software developer i.e., programmer, one of the most challenging issues you face is related to managing your manager and his/her expectations. You may come across various complicated and confusing situations, which are unexpected and difficult to resolve and ultimately you become a victim of unnecessary stress we discussed in last chapter. Following examples may be few of them:

Your manager does not give you due respect and value.
One of your peers does not deliver still he is always in news and getting appreciation notes.
There has been some misunderstanding between you and your manager.
A cold war is running between you and your manager.
From last few years, your manager did not think about your promotion or salary revision.
You think your manager is not capable enough and it is difficult to convince him/her.
It does not matter what you deliver, still you have to get negative feedback.
Your manager does not like you because of XYZ reasons.

Just think what is going on between you and your manager, I am sure you will be able to add your issue in the above list. That's the first and most important task to identify why there is an issue. It could be X... Y... or Z....

Managers are always correct....

Yes, if you are disagreeing with me then its obvious why you are in trouble. Try to recall when you were a kid, and your parents always stopped you from doing X...Y...or ...Z activities and they used to emphasize on certain things, which you never liked in your childhood. But now will definitely say, Alas! it would have been so good for us if we would have done the way parents instructed. Now if you are inline with me then it means you found out half of the solution of your problems.

So, crux of the discussion is the given attention what your manager is asking for and do the way he suggested. Your ultimate goal should be to make your manager happy and few of the points can help you in achieving this:

Try to give fast deliveries, it does not matter if you put your effort during weekend.
Reduce your complaints about things around you.
Reduce your demands in terms of salary revisions or promotions.
Do not lose a chance to present your work to your manager, does not matter its small or big but your manager should be aware of what you do.
Be neutral as much as possible, do not criticize any other peer in front of the manager.
Take things positive done or presented by your manager, as I said they are always right.
You will have to observe why your manager likes any particular resource and try to inline with that resource.
Never try to think your manager is inferior to you, that may be the case but it's not allowed to think like that, otherwise by doing so you can create problem for yourself.

Managers always need great resources

Great, so you have adopted all the points mentioned above, now you will say I will give fast and clean deliveries by putting my honest efforts during weekends and holidays, still I should not demand for salary hikes or promotion, why????

My answer is yes, you do it and things will come automatically, just have patience. You will hardly need to demand for anything once you make your manager realize that you are one of the brightest resources and you are most important for the project. Once you achieve this, your manager would never like to lose you, and now it's your time to enjoy your work and working environment.

If still you find things are not moving as per expectation, then you have to initiate a healthy discussion with your manager and ask for the reasons why you are not getting hikes, and promotions. It could be some other HR-related issues or project budget, etc. You can ask for improvement areas if needed and set expectations accordingly, but again, your cycle will start from the above-mentioned activities.

If you have some misunderstandings with your manager then call for a meeting with the manager and accept the mistakes you have done if any and clarify the things which went wrong and give an assurance to take care of such incidents in future.

Many things depend on situation and you need to be smart enough to understand the situation and act accordingly. All the very best.

Computer Glossary V

UNIX

A very powerful operating system used as the basis of many high-end computer applications.

Upload

The process of transferring information from a computer to a web site (or other remote location on a network). To transfer information from a computer to a web site (or other remote location on a network).

URL

Uniform Resource Locator.

The protocol for identifying a document on the Web.
A Web address (e.g., www.tutorialspoint.com). A URL is unique to each user. See also domain.

UPS

Universal Power Supply or Uninterruptible Power Supply. An electrical power supply that includes a battery to provide enough power to a computer during an outage to back-up data and properly shut down.

USB

A multiple-socket USB connector that allows several USB-compatible devices to be connected to a computer.

USENET

A large unmoderated and unedited bulletin board on the Internet that offers thousands of forums, called newsgroups. These range from newsgroups exchanging information on scientific advances to celebrity fan clubs.

User friendly

A program or device whose use is intuitive to people with a non-technical background.

Video teleconferencing

A remote "face-to-face chat," when two or more people using a webcam and an Internet telephone connection chat online. The webcam enables both live voice and video.

Virtual reality (VR)

A technology that allows one to experience and interact with images in a simulated three-dimensional environment. For example, you could design a room in a house on your computer and actually feel that you are walking around in it even though it was never built. (The Holodeck in the science-fiction TV series Star Trek : Voyager would be the ultimate virtual reality.) Current technology requires the user to wear a special helmet, viewing goggles, gloves, and other equipment that transmits and receives information from the computer.

Virus

An unauthorized piece of computer code attached to a computer program or portions of a computer system that secretly copies itself from one computer to another by shared discs and over telephone and cable lines. It can destroy information stored on the computer, and in extreme cases, can destroy operability. Computers can be protected from viruses if the operator utilizes good virus prevention software and keeps the virus definitions up to date. Most viruses are not programmed to spread themselves. They have to be sent to another computer by e-mail, sharing, or applications.The worm is an exception, because it is programmed to replicate itself by sending copies to other computers listed in the e-mail address book in the computer. There are many kinds of viruses, for example:

Boot viruses place some of their code in the start-up disk sector to automatically execute when booting. Therefore, when an infected machine boots, the virus loads and runs.
File viruses attached to program files (files with the extension .exe). When you run the infected program, the virus code executes.
Macro viruses copy their macros to templates and/or other application document files.
Trojan Horse is a malicious, security-breaking program that is disguised as something being such as a screen saver or game.
Worm launches an application that destroys information on your hard drive. It also sends a copy of the virus to everyone in the computer's e-mail address book.

WAV

A sound format (pronounced wave) used to reproduce sounds on a computer.

Webcam

A video camera/computer setup that takes live images and sends them to a Web browser.

Window

A portion of a computer display used in a graphical interface that enables users to select commands by pointing to illustrations or symbols with a mouse. "Windows" is also the name Microsoft adopted for its popular operating system.

World Wide Web ("WWW" or "the Web")

A network of servers on the Internet that use hypertext-linked databases and files. It was developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, and is now the primary platform of the Internet. The feature that distinguishes the Web from other Internet applications is its ability to display graphics in addition to text.

Word processor

A computer system or program for setting, editing, revising, correcting, storing, and printing text.

Worm

See virus.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. When using most word processors, page layout programs (See desktop publishing), and web page design programs, words and images will be displayed on the monitor as they will look on the printed page or web page.

COMPUTER GLOSSARY IV

Petabyte

A measure of memory or storage capacity and is approximately a thousand terabytes.

Petaflop

A theoretical measure of a computer's speed and can be expressed as a thousand-trillion floating-point operations per second.

Platform

The operating system, such as UNIX, Macintosh, Windows, on which a computer is based.

Plug and play

Computer hardware or peripherals that come set up with necessary software so that when attached to a computer, they are recognized by the computer and are ready to use.

Pop-up menu

A menu window that opens vertically or horizontally on-screen to display context-related options. Also called drop-down menu or pull-down menu.

Power PC

A competitor of the Pentium chip. It is a new generation of powerful sophisticated microprocessors produced from an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance.

Printer

A mechanical device for printing a computer's output on paper. There are three major types of printer:

Dot matrix - creates individual letters, made up of a series of tiny ink dots, by punching a ribbon with the ends of tiny wires. (This type of printer is most often used in industrial settings, such as direct mail for labelling.)
Ink jet - sprays tiny droplets of ink particles onto paper.
Laser - uses a beam of light to reproduce the image of each page using a magnetic charge that attracts dry toner that is transferred to paper and sealed with heat.

Program

A precise series of instructions written in a computer language that tells the computer what to do and how to do it. Programs are also called software or applications.

Programming language

A series of instructions written by a programmer according to a given set of rules or conventions (syntax). High-level programming languages are independent of the device on which the application (or program) will eventually run; low-level languages are specific to each program or platform. Programming language instructions are converted into programs in language specific to a particular machine or operating system (machine language). So that the computer can interpret and carry out the instructions. Some common programming languages are BASIC, C, C++, dBASE, FORTRAN, and Perl.

Puck

An input device, like a mouse. It has a magnifying glass with crosshairs on the front of it that allows the operator to position it precisely when tracing a drawing for use with CAD-CAM software.

Pull-down menu

A menu window that opens vertically on-screen to display context-related options. Also called drop-down menu or pop-up menu.

Push technology

Internet tool that delivers specific information directly to a user's desktop, eliminating the need to surf for it. PointCast, which delivers news in user-defined categories, is a popular example of this technology.

QuickTime

Audio-visual software that allows movie-delivery via the Internet and e-mail. QuickTime images are viewed on a monitor.

RAID

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, a method of spreading information across several disks set up to act as a unit, using two different techniques:

Disk striping - storing a bit of information across several discs (instead of storing it all on one disc and hoping that the disc doesn't crash).
Disk mirroring - simultaneously storing a copy of information on another disc so that the information can be recovered if the main disc crashes.

RAM

Random Access Memory, one of two basic types of memory. Portions of programs are stored in RAM when the program is launched so that the program will run faster. Though a PC has a fixed amount of RAM, only portions of it will be accessed by the computer at any given time. Also called memory.

Right-click

Using the right mouse button to open context-sensitive drop-down menus.

ROM

Read-Only Memory, one of two basic types of memory. ROM contains only permanent information put there by the manufacturer. Information in ROM cannot be altered, nor can the memory be dynamically allocated by the computer or its operator.

Scanner

An electronic device that uses light-sensing equipment to scan paper images such as text, photos, and illustrations and translate the images into signals that the computer can then store, modify, or distribute.

Search engine

Software that makes it possible to look for and retrieve material on the Internet, particularly the Web. Some popular search engines are Alta Vista, Google, HotBot, Yahoo!, Web Crawler, and Lycos.

Server

A computer that shares its resources and information with other computers, called clients, on a network.

Shareware

Software created by people who are willing to sell it at low cost or no cost for the gratification of sharing. It may be freestanding software, or it may add functionality to existing software.

Software

Computer programs; also called applications.

Spider

A process search engines use to investigate new pages on a web site and collect the information that needs to be put in their indices.

Spreadsheet

Software that allows one to calculate numbers in a format that is similar to pages in a conventional ledger.

Storage

Devices used to store massive amounts of information so that it can be readily retrieved. Devices include RAIDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs.

Streaming

Taking packets of information (sound or visual) from the Internet and storing it in temporary files to allow it to play in continuous flow.

Stylus and tablet

An input device similar to a mouse. The stylus is pen shaped. It is used to draw on a tablet (like drawing on paper) and the tablet transfers the information to the computer. The tablet responds to pressure. The firmer the pressure used to draw, the thicker the line appears.

Surfing

Exploring the Internet.

Surge protector

A controller to protect the computer and make up for variances in voltage.

Telnet

A way to communicate with a remote computer over a network.

Trackball

Input device that controls the position of the cursor on the screen; the unit is mounted near the keyboard, and movement is controlled by moving a ball.

Terabytes (TB)

A thousand gigabytes.

Teraflop

A measure of a computer's speed. It can be expressed as a trillion floating-point operations per second.