Personnel management principles and practices

¶ … behavior is not seen the same way by everyone. In other words, my behavior may be acceptable to some while it may annoy someone else. This is because every person has different perceptions and beliefs. They do not have the same set of values, beliefs or opinions as us and sometimes this can clash to the extent that our behavior becomes irritating to them. However by the same token, we do meet people who have the same way of thinking as ours and hence they approve of our behavior. This is what happened to me during my college years where I came across two professors who treated me very different. One of the professors taught business communication and the other taught ethics. I was a very vocal student who loved to participated and share my knowledge. My business communication professor totally approved of this and even encouraged it. I had become her favorite student so much so that she would tell her other students about me and ask about me after I left college. I liked her a lot too because I could see that we had almost similar personalities. We both loved to talk, to share, to be overdramatic at times and simply loved having fun. She could probably sense the same thing and hence appreciated my personality. However the same was not true for my ethics teacher whom I disliked quite a bit. I must admit that I personally never liked this teacher and it was as if he could sense that too because he took an instant dislike to me as well. He wouldn't like me sharing my knowledge as he saw it bragging. He would misunderstand what I would say and always thought of me as a threat to his authority. This was one class I totally couldn't stand but I had to take it to complete my graduation. But this made me see that our behavior cannot possibly please everyone. While it would please some, it would definitely irritate someone else.

1. Positive self-talk statement should always be in the present tense.

They should always be assertive in nature.

They must always be spoken with a firm belief.

In other words when a person uses affirmations, he must remember to make them in present tense. This means instead of saying "I will be a confident person," the person needs to say "I am a confident person" as if he has already accomplished the goal that he wishes to achieve. It must also be assertive. This means there must be no weak words or phrases. For example instead of saying, "I do not like smoking but I still do it. I need to quit," the person should say, "I absolutely abhor smoking and cannot even think of inhaling smoke." These statements should be based on strong belief. Now this is a tricky condition. This is because most people using self-talk statements may lack belief in some areas and hence need to use affirmations. But by forcing themselves to believe that they actually have firm faith in what they are saying, they can train their minds to believe the same.

2. The five ways we can motivate ourselves is by a) choosing a role model

b) setting some ambitious goals

c) keeping our past achievements in mind

d) focusing on our strengths

e) reading about highly motivated people

When we have a role model in front of us, we are more likely to stay on track. This is because a rode model constantly reminds us that if he could do it, so can we. Many overweight people for example would attest to the fact that they have pictures of some skinny models in their rooms to motivate them to lose weight. Many would actually lose weight like that because it is a reminder of how they can look if they are able to lose weight. Setting ambitious goals is important because even if you are unable to go that far and really achieve those ambitious targets, you would still be far ahead of where you had started. It is like saying I will walk three miles in half an hour today. Then you start out and run like mad alternating with some fast walking only to realize that it is not entirely possible to walk three miles in half an hour but you will also notice that you reached very close to your goal and are far ahead of where you had started or where you would have been with a less ambitious goal.

3. factors that contribute to an effective apology include:

a) sincerity

b) genuine desire to correct the wrong

c) admission of fault

d) firm promise of not repeating the mistake

Someone who apologizes does so because he/she were at fault. It is thus important to recognize this and start by admitting your mistake. There should be complete sincerity in your tone because people are quick to mistrust any apology because they have seen so many fake ones. The person must also show that he/she is willing to do whatever it takes to correct the mistake.

4. Stephen Covey is right but there is a slight twist to this concept. While it is true that outward attitude needs to be backed by solid change of beliefs or principles, it is also true that some times changing outward attitude automatically produces change inside. In other words, many people would attest to the fact that when they act confident, they feel confident inside too. But what Covey is saying is from the viewpoint of ethics. He believes that a person should fake his attitude because sooner or later, his facade would crumble down and hence he/she must support outer change with strong inner change as well. This is evident in the case of many religious people. I have seen that some of them would act all religious outwardly but do not have such strong faith inside.