1. Knowing rights and duties

When you train a staff, the first thing you should teach is that leaders start by knowing their rights and duties within the organization. Teach them their rights, that will give them confidence in the organization and a sense of belonging. Besides, point out their duties, what the organization expects from them, their responsibilities. Take into account that leaders will utterly fail conducting an organization unless they perceive that their work will be rewarded. Your leaders must understand that leadership requires:

• commitment
• consistency
• monitoring several activities
• ensuring excellence
• solving problems
• making suggestions
• controlling programs
• following agendas
• promoting ideas
• defending organizational values

among other things requiring constant effort and dedication. This is why it is absolutely important to convey the leaders the value they have for the organization, the importance of their work, and the reward they can receive for their work. Leaders have to demonstrate passion and dedication. Motivation and perseverance are also at the core of leadership.

Knowing their duties will also allow them to know under what conditions they will be leading the organization, what are the expected results of their leadership, what is the proper way they should develop their leadership, and what are the milestones they are fully obligated to met for their leadership to be effective, and fully approved by the organization.

It is important that leaders know what are the rewards their leadership will bring along, because they are leaders committed to the organization, and they deserve wage benefits, admission to exclusive activities of the organization, and merit distinctions, promotions, delegated authority over certain matters of the organization. Of course, always in accordance with the results of their leadership.

When training a staff to lead, the future leaders must feel that the organization trust them, that they will be respected. Conversely, training must state that the organization expects dedication and concentration from their leaders. Teaching the leaders’ rights and duties within the organization is at the core of educating for leadership, of promoting a doctrine of respect between the organization and its leaders.

2. Train leaders for success

Leadership development means that you must train leaders to continually grow and mature. Leadership is not a static concept; leadership is a dynamic, mutable, adaptative process. More than training leaders, you should train successful leaders.

Some leaders fail distinguishing between successful leadership and being a leader and feeling successful because of such status. There is a great difference between being a leader who thinks he is successful because he has reached a leader status, and being a leader who has set out to achieve things, worked hard, and has achieved his success because he conquered his goals. The later one has the right attitude. Success is not a random thing, success is achieved when one is out to reach a goal, and has managed to reach it.

If you do not want to have mediocre leaders, teach them to differentiate between what a leader is and what it means to be successful leaders. You must train leaders so that they understand that having a leadership position is not everything: having a status, an office, an appointment, maybe a team, does not mean to be a successful leader. In order to qualify as successful, a leader has to:

• Have a clear goal she wants to reach.
• Such goal comprises general and specific objectives to be achieved.
• Arrange such objectives in estimated time intervals.
• Identify the required steps to achieve each objective.
• Know limitations and obstacles, and possible solutions for overcoming them.
• A leader does not to stop, a leader does not get discouraged by adverse outcomes: leaders are perseverant, they keep going on.
• Stand firm despite attacks and impediments.
• Do not stop until he reaches the end of the goal.
• A leader, no matter victories and defeats, is carefully enough to keep the right target. No deviations are allowed.

All these steps tells us that being a leader means more than just only a status. Trying to keep leadership according to these parameters will allow the leader to achieve success in everything she undertakes.

3. Leaders stand out for their excellence

Excellence is synonymous of perfection. Often as leaders we are pleased with our accomplishments, but… are such result true accomplishments, useful for our organization, or are they just a matter of personal satisfaction?

Sometimes we count small steps as huge accomplishments in our leadership, but they are just that: small steps that give us an approximation to the path of success that we want conquer, but which rarely deserve the big spotlights we point at them. A leader has to meditate on their achievements, to ask himself whether such results were the best that he could have been done.

When you train leaders, train them to do their tasks, of course, but also train them to excel at such tasks: a leader’s results must set them apart from the non-leaders.

Excellence in leadership also means that the things a leader does attain the best possible results, and processes are carried out in the best possible way. Leaders propose the best models and the best ideas. If when we evaluate what we do we realize that there was a better way to do it, or a better idea, or that we could have done it better, then, we must realize that it was a good performance, but maybe far from an excellent performance.

When training leaders, teach them to think, analyze, evaluate and consider what are the best tasks to achieve their goals, the best path. Leaders must find joy in a work of recognized excellence.

4. Challenge them to their full potential

All human beings have a potential within, probably unknown to us, because we don’t know how to hone our skills, or how to develop them. However, when circumstances are adverse or difficult in the extreme, that is the time when our struggle to survive and overcome the problems of life lead us to discover our talents, gifts, skills and abilities. Hard times help us to realize our qualities.

When training leaders, teach them to do their best, to keep trying even when they don’t feel enough confidence in themselves, perhaps because they feel they don’t have the skills or knowledge. Demand them to do the best they can do, no matter how difficult the task, no matter how weak their self-esteem as a leader, no matter the level of difficulty. Require them to always do their best.

Demanding their best means that they necessarily will have to discover how to achieve what lies ahead, no matter how much they have to sacrifice, or how much they have to fail on the road trying to succeed. Leaders do not surrender to the challenges of their work, because leaders know how to harness energy to overcome challenges.

When you demand these things, you are challenging them. A leader says to herself: I can, I’m able to achieve it, I have the potential to attain my goals, I have the abilities, I have everything I need to do it, I will succeed and my work will be a success.

5. Discover their achievements and talents

Sometimes, leaders tend to assess more the disappointments they’ve found during their work: they tend to minimize their achievements, their true talents.

Sometimes leaders know their accomplishments and their skills to perfection, but when the organization is not aware of the leader’s capabilities the leader may feel discouraged, lacking enough motivation, because after all no one is aware of what they do, or how well they perform. This way, organizational ignorance about their leaders might devalue their work.

As a trainer you also have to highlight the importance of an organization which recognizes its leaders, specially the favorable results of their work and their capabilities and skills. Further, teach leaders how to discover other people’s talents, how to set higher goals, how to develop new skills. That is, teach them to understand that success requires continuous personal and professional improvement.

Teach them to set goals which are intended to become defined achievements, and teach them to exercise specific actions to ensure such achievements.

6. Give them tools to work

Leading is not easy. Leading requires tools. There are many ways to give tools to a leader. Now, what is a tool? A tool is a useful device or technique for a job. There are several types of tools:

Physical tools or materials. Examples: a hammer, a computer, a blackboard, depending on the type of work to do.

Cognitive tools, knowledge and expertise. This is one of the most universal tools that exist, among the first things organizations must convey to their leaders: knowledge and education concerning the areas they should know, which are closely related to their work.

Conceptual tools. One thing is to have knowledge, and another thing is to have concepts and ideas developed in terms of knowledge. If the organization manages a vision or a way of doing things in a particular or different fashion from the rest, these approaches should be transmitted to the leaders. When a leader shares the concepts of his organization, he will perform a lot better.

Strategic tools. These are made up of all the techniques, steps, procedures, and forms of work that the organization has set as parameters and standards to ensure their achievements and successes.

A lot of organizations hire unqualified personnel, which is being evaluated for performance, but which has not been taught anything about leadership, lacking useful tools, only expected to try to learn fast. This is a serious error.

Most companies prefer to hire people with experience, but very few are committed to working towards empowering inexperienced ones. The same goes for the leadership: leadership prefers to delegate responsibilities to people which have been leaders in other organizations, and the only valid option for someone to fill these positions is that his resume says that he executed the same function in other organizations and has had experience in it, for a significant period of time. This situation has its very understandable reasons, because it saves investment in staff training, effort and time. However, organizations that invest in staff training and ongoing training, have remarkable successes that remain in time.

7. Diagnose possibilities

Diagnosing involves assessing scenaries that may occur, depending on the current reality. If  you want to know what things could happen in the future, do not sit to wait for the arrival of the future. Be active. Assess the present, and analyze any data the current reality provides.

Evaluate your staff, study their behavior, habits, strengths, weaknesses, talents, values, prejudices, self-esteem. All of these factors have to be taken into account: they can turn into an impediment to progress and achieving success.

When exploring possibilities, consider good and bad possibilities, likely and unlikely scenaries, spot business risks and dangers.

Based on this concept, we can conclude that if you do not make a diagnosis, you are exposing yourself to be defeated by harmful eventualities. Protect from catastrophes by means of planning. Train your leaders to diagnose scenaries, and also to evaluate what is necessary to evaluate, to change whatever is urgent to modify, and to improve everything that has to be improved.

For more information about leadership, take a look at The 7 Attributes of Leadership.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Replace conventional and old light bulbs: With this simple task we’re freeing our planet of 68 kilograms of CO2 per year. The option of saving bulbs or bulbs of low flow cares for the environment (and also cares for our pockets).
2. Use the car less: I recommend going more for cycling, public transport or walking to help protect the environment (and our health). By not using the car we avoid half kilogram of CO2 per mile of journey. The overuse of the automobile encouraged to make new roads and such decision caused a great impact on the territory and destroyed beautiful landscapes, and in addition to that there is more traffic noise, which causes more stress for those living near such noise.
3. Recycle more: By recycling we will save more than one ton of CO2 yearly. But recycling is not the answer, here the question is: how to avoid generating all that waste?, i.e., we should buy only what we really need and keep out of the levels of consumerism. Further, when choosing our goods we should prefer the ones with less packaging and pick reusable bags for our purchases. At the time of purchasing beverages is better to buy glass bottles because they are easier to recycle and they do not use the amounts of fuels as requiered for plastic and paper (besides, production of paper and plastic releases many chemicals into the air, rivers and seas).
4. Examine the tires of your car: In this issue we recommend keeping tires inflated to the corresponding pressure since taking into account this recommendation saves fuel combustion in a 3%. Each gallon of gasoline less implies 9 kilograms of CO2 less reaching the atmosphere. And it should be emphasized that it is recommended to use the car only when necessary.
5. Use less hot water: To warm the water uses too much energy, especially in the winter time because the environment is colder than normal. The same is recommended to wash clothes using cold water as it would save about 230 kilograms of CO2. It is also important to use water that is needed in such tasks as washing the car, washing dishes etc. And remember not to leave water valves open.
6. Avoid using too much packaged products: You can save 545 kilograms of CO2 if you avoid generation of 10% of garbage. This helps to a great extent because if we create a culture to choose products with less packaging producers make products with less packaging and thus avoid much of pollution.
7. Set the thermostat on the car properly: to set two degrees higher in winter and lower it 2 in summer, you can save 900 kilograms of CO2 with this simple adjustment in a year. You should not use the heater where it is not necessary because the car engine will make more effort and will burn more fuel.
8. Plant a tree: this recommendation is important because every tree in its lifetime absorbs about one ton of carbon dioxide. I recommend watering at night or when the sun is hidden because the tree would absorb more water since it is not evaporated by the sun.
9. Turn off electronic devices: Turning off the TV, DVD, stereo, and computers when not in use can save thousands of kilos of carbon dioxide a year. There is no need to have the TV on when nobody is watching it.

You can read the second part of this series here.

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The book’s structure is lovely simple. Fifteen chapters which focus on specific management issues:

Chapter 1 – Adopt a serving attitude: Be humble, serve and love your team (but don’t let your team members to walk all over you either… balance is the key).
Chapter 2 – Teach: Management is a teaching experience. Improving your staff skills, sharing your knowledge, will yield better results. I liked the book’s suggestion about hiring people with potential, rather than focusing solely on experience.
Chapter 3 – Provide Honest and Timely Feedback: This is related to the previous chapter. You have to provide feedback to your people, both positive and negative. However, feedback is a subtle issue (you don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, or to praise them excessively)… regarding this issue, the book provides a few guidelines about how to do it right.
Chapter 4 – Share Information: What’s the point of hoarding information? You have to share information with your team in order to complete projects! This chapter points out the way.
Chapter 5 – Listen: Dedicate your attention to your people. And be an educated listener. They will trust you more easily.
Chapter 6 – Treat People Like Human Beings: They’re not machines (they’re better than machines). Put yourself in other shoes, and you’ll have a better perspective about each of the members of your team.
Chapter 7 – Set Goals, Plan and Execute: You must set the example for your group. Be logical, realistic and organized, and they will follow your approach.
Chapter 8 – Learn: Life is about learning! Don’t ever let any learning opportunity to pass you by. Take your time to read books, articles, to learn from your uppers and from your team.
Chapter 9 – Do the Right Thing: Be good. Be human. You’re not an automaton. You’re a human being. Awareness of your human condition is a key requirement for being a successful manager.
Chapter 10 – Embrace the Uncomfortable: A good manager knows how to approach those boring, complex, uncomfortable tasks. This chapter provides rationale and motivation for doing that.
Chapter 11 – Clean Up your Own House First: You set the example, and teams tend to reflect their manager’s nature. Be positive. Again, be good.
Chapter 12 – Persist: Don’t ever give up! I love a phrase from this chapter: “Don’t succumb to the pressure of those who worship the status quo. You can do better -and so can your organization“.
Chapter 13 – Do What You Say You’ll Do: Good managers complete their task. Good managers set and achieve “realistic” goals (which sometimes means saying “no” to unrealistic requests).
Chapter 14 – Always Follow Up: This chapter discusses the (oftenly overlooked) issue of following up with clients, team members, bosses, etc. Learn here how to do it right.
Chapter 15 – Plan Your Week: Planning is at the core of management. Plan for your work, and plan for yourself.

Further, the book includes 7 appendices, which summarize some ideas of the book, provide some tools for assessing your progress, and offer a few expansions to the knowledge discussed in the book. Overall, the book promotes “balance”. The language is direct. After reading this book, one acquires a lot of rich notions about “practical” (and thereby useful) aspects of management. Reading this book is a first step toward becoming a better manager.

All in all, if you wish to improve your management skills, I totally recommend this book!

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Thus, since the VIII century, individualism constituted a topic of controversy. Several centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas says that the principle of individualization is, in sensible things, “matter”, while for Duns Scotus it’s only a philosophical form that he calls haecceitas, i.e., this, here, and that reduce to the ultimate essential reality of each individual, i.e., particularly distinguishable from one class, collection or series, indivisible, impossible to separate in parts without altering its character, without stopping being a mere being. Therefore, at least, the individual contains two principles: its nature and its individual entity, elements that exist only by a formal distinction, not by factual reality.

The individual is a real being, unlike its species, which is ideal. The problem that creates this concept derives from the relationship essence-existence, an understanding of the nature of the singular, and so further. With this value, the problem of individualism comprises the fields of sociology, psychology, and politics, invading existentialism.

Self-centered people creates a harmful environment, which typically leads to irreversible damage. Because society has been imbued with these people’s actions, it has been steadily adapting to such individualistic behavior, which in turn leads to societies being directed by monopolies and messianic pseudo-leaders. Often, development of such societies depends on unilateral theories, normally based on confrontation, created by the diversity of characters and conceptualizations.

Hence, divisions in society emanate:

1. Those who bid to maintain the positions they have achieved at the expense of imposing his theories regardless of whether such theories harm others.
2. Those living opposed to the previous individuals, which creates a constant anxiety within societies, causing them to take different directions and preventing, in most cases, the desired outcome: development. Moreover, false structures and platforms are created because of this tension.
3. Further, we have those who do not agree with the previous cases, and which are only waiting for a clear winner in order to go over to the winner’s group.
4. Finally, individuals living their daily lives without realizing all the wrappers that define society. From the moral standpoint, we may argue that people in this group are somewhat confused.

Particularly, I think that one way to help self-centered people is to indicate them all the possibilities for sharing that life offers. Sharing is necessary for their subsistence and growth. Don’t give them the bread or the fish, but teach them how to plough and how to fish. Teachers are the best for doing this. They will understand that we are all individuals and, although with different characters, we all have always a single and wonderful purpose: life.

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you have to research your potential employer beforehand

…that will give you a very important lead. Get as much information as you can about the business, and also about the potential interviewers (you should research their style and attitude… that’s very important). If you know someone who has previously taken an interview in that company, talk with them about their experiences in the interview. Try to extract pure information, i.e., don’t let them to influence you (specially about the job being impossible or, on the contrary, being too easy).

1. First Approach

Remember that you have to dress with a professional look, according to the nature of the job. You are a professional… thereby each and every aspect of you must communicate that fact. Now, during the interview, take into account that Interviewers will ask questions related to their company, for example, why would you like to work for us? They may ask you about your opinion on the company’s products or history. Typically, this information is available on the company’s website, and by knowing it you demonstrate a genuine interest for the job.

2. Virtues and Limitations

Talk about your virtues, but not excessively. In this regards apply balance and good sense. Answer this question presenting your virtues in the context of the requirements of the job you’re applying to, with a clear and concise language. However, other almost granted question they will do is about your defects, thereby you must also be prepared to answer that. Furthermore, the interviewer may ask about your abilities and limitations: prepare an answer beforehand in order to allow you to present your defects as a new opportunity for keep improving.

3. Expect the Unexpected

You have to be ready for anything… a group interview, a forum about some specific problem of the company, a written exam, and so on. Carry any material you think you may need: think of the interview as your first day of work.

When entering to the interview, greet to your interviewer with a smile. Visual contact must also be direct and firm (but not exceedingly). Remember that, no matter the circumstances, you have to act formally instead of dared or zany (refer to your interviewer using his title… Dr., Mr., Engineer, etc.), unless they demand you to treat them informally (but that’s relatively rare; read point 6. Be on the alert). Listen to your interviewer very carefully. Sometimes the applicants are so focused in the things they want to say that forget what they are really being asked about. No answer is good if it does not truly answer the matter asked about.

4. Language

Be careful about the expressions and style you use to communicate your ideas. Don’t use inadequate, informal or excessively colloquial phrases.

5. Gestures

Be careful with your corporal language too. A firm handshake transmit self-confidence. A good posture also reflects confidence. Don’t act disturbed or nervous. Lean sligthly towards your interviewer in order to show interest in his words.

6. Be on the alert

Expert interviewers know human nature very well. An expert interviewer will quickly create a relaxed and trusting atmosphere for you, in order to expose your real behavior and ideas. However, never forget that he is there evaluating you, so no matter the confidence and comradeship he shows, you must always act as a professional. Novice interviewers, on the contrary, often act very arrogantly… fight off their arrogance by showing yourself relaxed and breezy (never answer the interviewer’s arrogance with more arrogance!).

7. Keep your moral high

Regarding this point, I recommend reading the posts The Winner’s Mind and The 7 Attributes of Leadership.

8. Secrets of a Critical Thinking Interviewer

Finally, good interviewers know how to distinguish good prospects from bad ones. They know that two people with the same job title may differ in at least one of the following ways:

• ability to perform the work
• interest in the work
• experience with similar applications
• experience with similar tools
• experience with similar techniques
• experience with similar working environment
• training
• ability to communicate with others
• ability to share responsibility with others
• management skills

Each of these characteristics can affect an individual’s ability to perform productively. These variations help to explain why one employee can complete a particular chore in a day, whereas another requires a week. The differences can be critical, not only to schedule estimation, but also to the entire success of the company’s projects. An expert interviewer knows that.

I wish you good luck on your interview and hope that you get the job!

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Some serious studies demonstrate that people from developed countries are not necessarily the happiest ones. A lot of nationals and residents of such countries manifest to feel unhappier than those of some developing or poorer countries. In this sense, let’s recall the Easterlin paradox, based on a study by professor and economist Richard Easterlin: Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? published in 1974, while he was with the University of Pennsylvania. Basically, the paradox states that economic growth does not necessarily lead to more satisfaction. It’s obvious that people in poor countries become happier once they can afford basic necessities. But the important idea behind Easterlin paradox is that absolute income does not matter as much as relative income does. In other words, how much you make compared with others around you is what really matters. To put it in today’s terms, owning an iPod doesn’t make you happier, because you then want an iPod Touch

Nevertheless, a recent study by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers rebuffs Easterlin paradox. The study suggests that a better income contributes to a happier life. There is an obvious relation between higher incomes and happier people. Economic growth means investments in scientific research that lead to longer, healthier lives. It can also reduce your working hours, which in turn allows spending more time with family and friends, vacations, relax. Does this mean that money buys happiness after all? I doubt so.

Certainly, affluence helps to reach happiness. And we should want to be richer. But it’s your attitude what is really important. I personally know plenty of rich guys, which have enjoyed a top-notch education and access to quality healthcare systems, and which unfortunately are very sullen people. They don’t enjoy a good musical performance, they are not congenial or cheerful. Thereby, they are isolated from most of the world, and are restricted to a very limited (and sometimes envious) circle of friends, which slowly devours their self-confidence. Typically, they evidence worries about the state of their finances. They live in a hurry. Is that happiness? I doubt so.

Conversely, I also know people of regular or lower income, which are frequently smiling. They enjoy their works… they have nice families and plenty of friends. They are not that worried about money and its things. They easily chat with you. And albeit they know sadness, they are optimistic. And they have the mindset to be winners, and to fight for that dream. Are they unhappy? I doubt so.

Finally, I present three germane quotes by the Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer:

• Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
• I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
• Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

Bold letters are mine. Pretty clear. Let’s be happy.

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1- The first step in this direction is to sincerely point out the driving force or motivation. Let’s relax, and start listing the reasons that impel you to study some topic, as crude as they may be. It’s possible that your list is empty. Don’t worry, it only means that you have not identified any reason to study the chosen and very specific point (It’s for sure that you are an excellent learner in other areas of life.) If you don’t have any motivation to study, then give me the list of reasons why you don’t want to study, and please note that this list cannot be empty. Whether you found a huge list of driving forces or a list of reasons for not studying, the end product of this step comprises at least one item (a positive or negative driving force). Good.

2- Success is about achieving goals, and therefore is a relative notion. Highly successful students are those which set realistic goals, and attain them with the proper investment of resources. Thus, not necessarily the student with the best grades is the most successful learner. Now, we have stated what the successful student is like. Good.

3- If you have negative entries in your list of driving forces, it’s time to improve things quite a bit. First, identify other topics that you indeed like a lot, not necessarily related to studying. Perhaps you like pets, to cook or to play videogames. Now, try to establish associations or links between these favorite activities of yours and the subject of study that you dislike. For example, let’s assume that you dislike Literature (you perhaps think it’s an utterly boredom) but love your humongous pitbull “Casino Joe” Then you could start thinking how your dog would fit as a character into that novel you have to analyze: what its role would be and how he would interact with other characters in the novel. If you prefer to play videogames, then remember that making any game requires to prepare a detailed script including history, characters, goals and relations. Therefore, you could start writing down the script for your “dream” game. On the other side, you could imagine how the novel you are reading could be transformed into a videogame (start out by thinking which gaming genre fits the novel better: role-playing, adventure, action, and so on.) The basic idea is to find match points and links between our affections and our chores. And such links there always exist. Remember, to link ideas and concepts is the most important habit for successful students.

4- Successful students also exhibit other particular traits we should internalize:

• They are always trying to discover better approaches in order to accomplish their tasks (adequate studying place, availability of resources, etc.) You may find my post on Pristine Home with Feng Shui useful for improving your studying environment.
• They concentrate on the process of solving the task and understanding the involved ideas. Of course we are interested in getting good results, but the process is more important. A result is a very brief moment of life, while learning to develop processes is a skill that will last for the whole life.
• They interpret and analyze errors as a way of increasing their learning, i.e., they try to learn from their mistakes. This way, they see errors and failures as opportunities.
• They look for the required information in several channels (books, journals, newspapers, experts, Internet, and so on.)
• They consult experts and teachers frequently. This action provides a new perspective about the studied topics.
• They prefer tasks with some degree of difficulty and novelty, which stimulate their learning skills.
• They don’t apply the simple criteria of success-fail to their learning. Remember, they are focused into the learning process.
• They know how to handle groups.
• Finally, they work with passion.

5- Other chief habit is that of asking questions. We have to establish hypothesis and set concrete, realistic goals. After reading any text we have to ask several different questions related to its content, in order to verify if we have completely understood the text. It’s also important to try to relate such text and other areas of our knowledge. Again, linking ideas and concepts is a habit of highly successful students. So, link.

6- Whether studying or in general life, planning is an imperative skill. Here, we must strictly set the hours for studying, and should promote regularity in doing so. Don’t put off your studies to the last moment (just before the test), because in that moment you will be feeling stress and pressure, and both factors will prove disturbing for your learning; that’s the high price of procrastination. During the exam, it’s important to forget about panic and stress. And if you are planning for your thesis, you may find this post useful. Other planning tip I frequently give is that, when you are assigned a homework, try to solve it as quickly as possible, several days before the required date, but don’t try to complete it perfectly and don’t submit it immediately. I always recommend to do homework early, but deliver it at the last possible day. This way, you will let the homework and its concepts to soothe in, your pressure will decrease a bit, you will spot any error in the homework, and probably you will devise a few ways to improve your homework content and presentation before delivering it.

7- Review: Always keep revisiting the relation between your effort and your results., continuously trying to maximize it.

Finally, don’t worry if things do not always result the way you expected them to be. Time is your master, and there is more to life than studying specific topics. Your ability to understand this post is a solid proof that you have the required skills. And you have something more important: the aspiration of being better… that will lead you to achieve anything

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1. The Right Choice: If you are the leader, select the best people for the work. Not necessarily your friends or the nice people, but the best people for undertake all the work at hand. If you yield to the temptation of choosing members solely according to your personal preferences, you are lacking in abilities to be a leader. Try to follow this advice, and you will avoid a lot of headaches later. However, even if you are not the leader of the group, you will probably have some area of the project under your responsibility: therefore, you are also a leader, and you should behave as such.
2. Balance: As a leader, you must behest and grant. That’s the base for responsibility. Then, you should balance the ask/answer messages between members of the group under your care. Besides, you should control the interaction between your group and other groups. As a rule of thumb, do not hesitate to ask firmly for the right things, but remember you must also give your best effort.
3. Positive Competence: Individually, aim to preserve the positive competence of the group. The group must strive for achieving the best results. Nevertheless, if failure rises, do not blame others for your faults, nor destructively criticize the work of your teammates. Your work’s quality may be better than other people’s, but you do not have to brag: believe me, that’s hideous. We are humans, with faults and debilities: respecting your mates is the best way to ask for respect for yourself. In short, the key for positive competence is a mixture of humility, communication and passion for the work.
4. Communication: In respect to communication with your peers or bosses, be honest but not too honest. As a leader, you do not have all the answers, but you know how to find the answers, and how to help others find the answers. Remember, today’s leaders are wise listeners. Additionally, I have a very good tip for you: learn to remember names. Communicating with people remembering their names increases your aura of “I care for everybody in my group”. That’s very important. And finally, if conflict presents, concentrate in your respiration: this way, you will stay calm.
5. Enjoy accomplishments, learn from mistakes: When the group succeeds, recognize that and enjoy your triumphs. That’s a thing too many people forget. Come on, celebrate your milestones. But if the group somehow fails, identify the causes of such failure, and act quickly to cut the root of the problem.
6. Utmost care for detail: Most of projects’ troubles stem from little details. Often, such tiny matters lie underneath an apparently bigger problem. Learn to spot such knots, solve them, and you’ll see the group’s work to advance steadily forward.
7. The process is even more important than its results: As I commented previously, we must never forget that, in life, milestones or stages are not as important as the paths and transits between such stages. Live the path, accept results.
8. Avoid excess of meetings: Meetings are fine for agreeing to very specific points and for reviewing the group’s progress. Obviously, the first activity of the group will be a meeting in which goals are to be set. But restrict further meetings to reviewing and little corrections. If the group is having too much meetings, it means the goals are badly defined and you are wasting your time.
9. Toward the end of the project, everything tends to become rush and problems get harder: Accept it and cope with it. It’s a fact of life. This is were major milestones occur, and stress surges. Specially, remember and apply advices 4-6.
10. After the work is done, review what went fine and what could have been better: Arrive to your conclusions. Detect if you have some skills to master or hone. And continue to the next challenge. The cornerstone of mental health is the ability to “switch the trigger” and opening your thoughts to the new experiences. Past projects,with their good and bad aspects, are that: past.

Finally, help others and ask for help when you feel tired or overwhelmed. Remember that in groups, you’re never alone.

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The problem lies in the huge load of stress students have to endure, stemming from the academic and social environments: you have to deliver a work with superlative quality (and has to distinguish you from your peers), the haste to innovation, the won (or lost) prestige, the opportunities, the castles in the air, the afterward, failure poking its head out of the window, the defense, among other factors. But sometimes, to tell the truth, it’s simply that the student has acquired no significant skill in the career’s subjects (not so unlikely as it may seem), or suffers from a traditional chronic laziness. Nevertheless, for the time being we will focus on the essence of the document. Upcoming posts (perhaps) will touch on those surrounding topics.

1. Who do we go with?

Let’s try to unravel the document’s mistery. Best dissertations are done by those researchers very knowledgeable about their topic and about research techniques and methodologies. They know that every study should start by investigating the studied object. In our case, we must first establish what a thesis is, and what its purpose is. Here the average student answers, with praiseworthy self-confidence, that a thesis is a document whose exclusive purpose is to achieve, finally, the degree. Bravo, it’s impossible to be clearer, but we must never forget that, in life, milestones or stages are not as important as the paths and transits between such stages. Yet, something stands out in such answer:

You have to realize that your goal is to fulfill an academic requirement

However, this by no means allows you to take a lot of liberties, or to face up to your research half-heartedly. It’s but a reason to act with humility. There are three key words for thesis’ success:

Humility, Communication and Balance

Irrespective of the importance that you confer to your investigation, at no time you should work thinking of drawing international attention to you, or dreaming of that incredibly remunerated job you will obtain, or about the avalanche of trophies and medals. If you distract your mind with this, at some time you are going to lose your concentration, and the project will just slip out of your hands. Please, remember that the thesis represents, simultaneously, discipline and learning exercises, and you must assume it like so. The composure and integrity you show while walking your paths is more important than the path itself, and than the destination. Finally, realize that a thesis is an exercise of communication. And, never give too much, never ask for too much.

2. Preliminaries

The word thesis derives from Greek θέσις (position). The first meaning of the American Heritage Dictionary is, for our intentions, the best one:

“A proposition that is maintained by argument.”

Implicit in this definition is the logical linking of ideas (reasoning) to arrive to a valid conclusion. In other words, the thesis presents/explains a series of inferences, from premises or facts, to finalize with a conclusion or set of conclusions. As people overly concentrate their anxiety in the thesis, they forget something even more important: the hypothesis. Hypothesis, literally, is what it is located below the thesis, and it is not indeed the writing-desk of the tutor or the jury . The AHD provides three equally useful entries:

1. “A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.”
2. “Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption.”
3. “The antecedent of a conditional statement.”

Interpreting, what underlies every thesis is the hypothesis, your stem research idea, the guess you want to prove with your work.

3. Genesis
As said, the base of the investigation is the hypothesis:

Hypothesis is anticipation

We will choose a path that, we anticipate, will lead us to a predefined point. Here the student must show confidence. Students cannot let the poorly understood academic rigor to strangle them: at this time, imagination and intuition establish the success. Step forward, you can doubt the establishment, weave:

…My friend, I shall be pedagogic,
And say you ought to start with Logic…
…
The philosopher comes with analysis
and proves it had to be like this;
The first was so, the second so,
And hence the third and fourth was so,
And were not the first and second here,
Then the third and fourth could never appear.
That is what all the students believe,
But they have never learned to weave.

J.W.V. Goethe, Faust, Translation to English by Walter Kaufmann, 1962.

Basically, the hypothesis must contain your preconceived ideas on a subject. It means the point to begin with. It represents what you want to prove with your investigation. In a more personal tone, the formulation of the hypothesis should answer the following question: what is “that” I want to demonstrate with my work? Some caveats apply:

• The hypothesis should not lean in other hypotheses.
• Humility: All hypothesis must be verifiable (the thesis will verify or deny it) and in agreement with your resources. Be realistic. You have limited time and access to sources.
• Communication: Other researchers in your topic must understand your statements clearly.
• Balance: Neither very ambitious nor very simple.

4. The Topic, at last

Let’s be practical. A hypothesis is located within some subject or specific matter. To firmly discover and confirm the preference for a thesis subject may require a long time. It depends on the student. I know people who even before entering the university already had idea on their topic of investigation. Excellent. But some, regrettably, arrive to the last year of studies, to the last term, without a clear idea on what to research. If the cause of such ignorance is they have an abundant list of subjects that they would like to investigate, then the rest of this post does not apply. Select the subject you like the most, and start digging.

I’ll be brutally frank.

If you are finishing your courses and you are absolutely clueless about your thesis’ topic… besides being a bad student, you are a survivor. Period.

In any case, I do strongly recommend preparation of a document (physical or electronic), where you must write down those subjects that you find interesting. But don’t think of them as tentative subjects for thesis (yet). They only are interesting subjects, in which you would like to work, topics that you are at ease with, or in which you have identified some opportunity or deficiency in the established methods. The sooner you begin, the better. Ideally, you should not leave this for the last year. And please, write down the subjects. Don’t trust your memory so much. Don’t be like those students of Algebra who think that only reading proofs, without writing proofs, suffices to approve the final exam. It is necessary to write. Nevertheless, we have a bit of plastic surgery (mends) for those threatened by time:

• Saving Private Organization: Or public, it does not mind. Locate some company (it can be the company where you work, if you work, or look for an internship), and try to identify some deficient process which you can improve by applying the knowledge gained through your studies. This approach has been the salvation of thousands in the computer science/systems area: you look for a company where something is done following an outdated way (preferably some very specific activity of that type of company) and as thesis, you build a system that automates such process in distress. Done. It is very likely that many systems solving that problem already exist, but nevertheless universities keep accepting this kind of work. Why? Attention, please. First, it is a way for bringing closer the university and the industry. Second, although, as I said, it is likely that some system solves the problem, the trick is to highlight some peculiarities of the company as an obstacle to using the existing systems, and at the same time, as a justification to build a new one. Third, it is a great opportunity for companies to obtain a system that, in other way, could cost them a lot of money. And finally, you have a pretty good chance of getting into the industry, after graduated. Win-win.

• Salvation’s Lab: Universities offer programs allowing their students to go to laboratories in corporations or other universities. Normally, such are environments with a lot of things-to-do, which could become great opportunities for thesis. At heart, it constitutes a variant of the previous technique.

• Standing on the shoulders of giants: Alternatively, you could start by reading some specialized journals in your field. Restrict your attention to updated journals (issues not being older than 1 year). Not necessarily you have to access to printed versions. At this point, Internet may prove a valuable tool. For example, if you are interested in the Computational Intelligence field, you may check this journal. Most do not allow free access to all their articles, but it does not matter. Hardly you would read them all, anyway. Pay attention to the contents and to the titles, to the abstracts and keywords of the newer articles. That will be enough. Analyze and detect the current trends in your field. What are the topics being actively investigated?. Any research got your attention? Perfect. Write down a short note about the subject, and the link to the page. Did you find a very clear or complete article? Print or photocopy it. And continue your search. You will decide when to stop, but I suggest you should have at least 5 entries (tentative subjects for thesis) in your list. And please do not stop although you run into a subject that suddenly you are delirious about, because it is always a good idea to have “backup” subjects.

• In Direct: Attend to as many conferences as you can, and apply a scheme similar to the one of the specialized journals. The advantage of the conferences is that a greater possibility exists of detecting which are the current trends and hypes, what topics are lacking (this may mean research), and the possibility of contacting other (experienced) researchers in your field. Sometimes, your contacts establish an important difference, and can help you selecting a research subject.

• The more, the better: Modern departments and universities do not hide their predilection by interdisciplinary studies. If you have studied artificial or computational intelligence you surely met crowd of examples about this. Nevertheless, you have to be cautious with the amount of knowledge that you will have to handle during your research, because it stems from different fields. You must have sufficient skills in the involved subjects, or to be sure about the underlying knowledge not being out of reach for you. However, an advantage of this approach is that you can relate your work to a subject that indeed fascinates you (for example, you may link music with computing). The harder part is to strongly tie the topics with a good hypothesis. If you succeed, researching will be a joy, as your motivation will hardly tremble.

• The dog ate my homework: Finally, you can always follow the popular route: choose an advisor who can provide you with a thesis topic. It should not be that difficult to you to locate some teacher with several research topics. I have to say, I don’t like this approach, but a lot of people indeed prefer this style. Naturally, ask beforehand about the time that other students have required in order to complete their theses with that advisor, and if theses or projects supervised by that professor have suffered considerable revisions after defense. Don’t worry that much about the advisor’s resume. Instead, try to know about the style that the professor uses for advising. We do not want the advisor to become a bother rather than an aid. If possible, take a course with the potential advisor. Attention to what I said before:
  • how quickly will the professor review your drafts?
  • how experienced is the professor dealing with academic bureaucracy?

You shouldn’t choose advisors which are willing to let you to research as you wish. In the long run, they won’t guide you, and will forget about you when a new student arrives with a neater topic.

If now the problem is that you have a lot of topics, simply select the one in which you are more skilled and feel relaxed. But don’t forget about other potential topics. You may need to change your topic later, for any reason. Remember, choose the the topic you like the most. Life is the power to decide.

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