Bidding Good Bye to the year 2009!

“If it didn't bring you joy

just leave it behind
Let's ring in the new year
with good things in mind

Let every bad memory
that brought heartache and pain
And let's turn a new leaf
with the smell of new rain

Let's forget past mistakes
making amends for this year
Sending you these greetings
to bring you hope and cheer”

These are some of the wonderful lines from a beautiful poem that I found while I was searching the Internet. Yes, it is true that the year 2009 is about to end, and the countdown has just begun. We have just few days before the year 2009 will hand over the baton to the New Year, 2010. Everyone must have some very good and few bad memories in the year 2009. So, let’s just forget the bad ones but just let us just ensure that we won’t commit those again in the New Year. So, what is it that we can do to ensure that we as Technical Writers can do better in this industry, and be upbeat with others? Is there any mantra to succeed, and have a dream job? What is the kind of job that we should look forward to in the New Year? These are some of the questions that you must be wondering while you are bidding farewell to the year 2009, and that whether the New Year will be good for the Technical Writing market. There are few things that you can do in any situation to have a dream job. Let us discuss some of them in this article.

1. Go networking!
Network! Network! Network!
This is the new mantra now for getting hired as a technical writer. And, by network, I don’t meant to say LAN, WAN, and MAN.. ..What I mean to say is that you need to join a social networking group in Technical Writing. Though, there are so many such groups available in LinkedIn, TWI, TWIN, and so on. But, it is you who have to decide which to choose from. Of course, the best one up till now is STC because it gives you an opportunity to interact with technical writers around the globe. It might consume your time when you busy with your work pressure and meeting deadlines. But, lest ensured, it will reap you results sooner or later. By networking, you might not get hired in your dream job but it will definitely give you a chance to expand yourselves as you will come in contact with many people, which will help you in your career growth. And to add to it, these social networking groups also include many reputed employers.

So, Go Networking from the day ONE of the New Year. Join a Technical Writing social networking group.

2. Jack of all, and master of ONE
You must have heard of this phrase many times now. But what is really means is that you need to master in one tool that you have been using throughout your career, and become an expert. But, at the same time, you need to gain some knowledge and hands on experience on almost all the major tools that technical writers use. Of course, you might be wondering that how is it possible to learn each and every tool when there are so many tools available in the market. But, you can at least learn those tools that are the most demanding ones in the market.

So, Master one tool but become a Jack of all the tools.

3. Build your resume
In order to have your dream job, you must create your resume in a manner that it impresses the employers first hand. And, to do this, you must include some of your best projects that you have undertaken throughout your career. Do not forget to include the following things while including the project details:

• Project name
• Project description
• Client you worked on for the project
• Domain that you worked on
• Skills / tools you used in the project
• And most importantly, the role you played in the project and the team size.
  

4. Stay ahead of the rest, and be qualified
Though, you might be working as a technical writer; but, you also need to ensure that you always stay ahead of the others as the skills sets change continuously. For instance, today you might be working in Framemaker but tomorrow there might be some other tool in the market that may become a “Hot” requirement for employers. So, you need to just take time out to find out the latest tools and techniques used in technical writing. As I said earlier, you can do this if you have joined any social networking groups such as STC or TWIN. You need to subscribe to any industry magazines where you can find any specific specialty such as software, hardware, or engineering. You must learn on the latest tools, and get yourself equipped with latest technologies in technical writing otherwise you might just fade away.

5. Get yourself acclaimed
Start the New Year by getting acclaimed in whatever you do whether it is into writing an article for a newsletter or volunteering for a position in a social networking group. Getting acclaimed might not necessarily find you a dream job but it will definitely give you a sense of satisfaction. Rather, it will also put you in contact with professionals in your field who can recommend you, and give you advice about companies and the career paths that you can choose from. Volunteer for a position that you feel it’s appropriate for you. For example, you can choose to interview a renowned personality whom you feel has brought laurels to the field of Technical Writing, and get it published in a magazine. You can also become a design a layout of a newsletter or a magazine if you are really creative or join a coordinating committee in a social networking group to organize various meet-ups, workshops, seminars, and so on technical writing.

6. Master the Interview
Job Interviews are arduous and it’s hard to match with the requirements of the interviewer. But, we can at least try our best by remembering the basics and stay confident in what we do at the present. These days, most interviews happen over the telephone so we will not know the facial expression of the interviewer. So, here we are with a drawback while facing an interview. The key lies in to believe in one self, and do not ever lie or amplify your skills. You should stay positive about your abilities. Remember, if you stay honest then you may get your dream job as compared to when you are dishonest with the interviewer.

Conclusion

Let us just summarize whatever we have discussed so far

1. Go networking!

2. Jack of all, and master of ONE

3. Build your resume

4. Stay ahead of the rest, and be qualified

5. Get yourself acclaimed

6. Master the Interview

While, there is no sure shot way to get a dream job as a technical writer but the things we discussed will get you at least closer to your dream job. If you apply these methods in the year 2010, then it might increase your chances to succeed in the career of technical writing.

Domain knowledge: Is it essential for technical writers and content developers!

A lot is talked about how domain knowledge is essential for technical writers in today’s industry. Before even we go into detail into why is it important, let us first understand what you mean when you say “Domain Knowledge”.

A standard definition of Domain knowledge is that it is knowledge about the environment in which the target system operates. It is critical for a technical writer to acquire knowledge about a particular domain because a technical writer often acts as a bridge between the end-users and software developers. A Domain is generally defined as an area of interest or an area which you are communicating about. A domain is also defined as a particular environment that you are already working in or interested to work.

As a technical writer, you are required to understand the market specifics that vary from different geographies. You need to understand the overall trends in the market, as well as technology and economic trends that could impact product performance, who are the competitors, what are their strengths/weaknesses, and where are they heading. All this information and much more constitute to “Domain Knowledge”. But, you must be wondering in your mind, why at all it is essential to gain domain knowledge when you have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to do the job for you. As a technical writer, your job is to develop documentation for the software. The rest shall be left for the SMEs to validate it. Then, why has it become so essential today to gain domain knowledge?

Agrees Mohan Babu K. in his article that business domain knowledge is extremely important particularly in an offshore environment.

So, gone are the days when you were just writing just for software. Today, at one stage when you are writing for software and on the other, you would be also writing for a financial institution.

Why Domain knowledge?

Acquiring knowledge of a domain always helps you to add variety to your profile. It adds some spice to your resume. It is better when you acquire knowledge in more than just one domain. There are various business domains where you can acquire knowledge on such as:

• Finance
• Human Capital Management (HCM)
• Telecom
• Retail
• Industrial & Distribution
• Electronics / Semiconductors
• Medicine
• Biotechnology
• Banking
• Engineering
• Aviation
• Building & Public Utility
• Consulting/Professional Services
• Defense
• Educational Institutions
• Shipping
• Government
• Hardware and Software
• Healthcare

And, the above list is endless. However, it is utmost essential that you master in one particular domain and acquire knowledge on each of the other domains. This will help you to stay upbeat with the current market scenario. But, the question is that Is domain knowledge an essential requirement for a technical writer?

Knowledge of a particular domain (s) is considered as a secondary requirement for any job opportunity of technical writers. The first and foremost requirement is to write clearly, and an ability to grasp the new concept (s). So, if you have this ability to grasp any new topic or domain, you can do a wonderful job as a technical writer. Thus, I feel that Domain knowledge is not a primary requirement for technical writers. Knowledge of a domain helps you to interact with the SMEs in a better manner thereby fortifying your interpersonal relationship within the organization. It also gives a confidence among your client who feels a sense of satisfaction when you are able to understand what the client is trying to say. It happens sometimes, when a client speaks about a concept and you are not aware of. But, if you have knowledge of the subject being spoken about by the client, this gives a level of confidence to not only the client but to you even. In other words, remember the golden rule, “Domains stay but the technologies change thereafter.”

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, there was a Project Manager who used to work in a multinational software company. Or, should I start with “Once upon a time..”; but, since I am telling a story so I have to use it. Nevertheless, the Project Manager is still working there. It’s only that his life has been reformed now, and he is an improved person.

So, the Project Manager used to work 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and he was dedicated to his job. He had already been a recipient of many “Star Employee” awards in the company. Let me tell you about his personal life. He was married and had a good-looking wife. He also had a 6-year old son who went to a private school. But, since the Project Manager was always dedicated to his work…so he didn’t even had time to know about his child’s well being. Moreover, what class he has been into and he don’t even noticed his child’s first walk. Therefore, one day, when finally, he had nothing to do at office, he decided to go home a little early. That was a surprise for some of the people working in the company, and some even saw him in amusement. But, finally the day has come when he decided to go early. Therefore, he called his cab and asked the cab driver to drop him early today. When he reached home, a six-year old boy (who was his son) opened the door who failed to recognize his own dad and asked him, “Who are you?” The boy then went to his mother, and said, “There is someone on the door whom I don’t know”. His mother came running to the door, and first felt surprised, and then felt a little angry. Surprised because her husband has come before even his usual time, and angry because her son had failed to recognize his father. But, she didn’t express her anger to his son; instead, she looked at her husband and just gave an indication with her eye like it saying, “Look, your son don’t even recognize you”. That was the most embarrassing moment for the Project Manager because his own son didn’t even recognize him as his father. He didn’t say a word to his wife or to his son. He quietly stepped inside the house, and went to his room. Then, he closed the door and locked it from inside. He then took out his family album which he didn’t have time to take out all through these years.

At least, we have an advantage to watch our past through the photographs which makes us realize that what we have missed and what we have done.

The Project Manager quietly kept turning the pages of the album, and saw the moments that he had missed, the moments that he could cherished, the moments that were much better than those awards and trophies which he won in the company, the moments that he could have enjoyed while he was busy bringing profits for his company. He kept on turning pages of the album, and with each page turned; a drop fell from his eyes making him realize of the fact that he has missed so many cherishing moments. Then, finally, he came to picture where he saw his son with a trophy, which was not similar to one he had received in the company because it was much smaller. But, he was happy that his son too had won a trophy but sad that he wasn’t there to enjoy and celebrate the moment. Finally, the album ended, and he made up his mind; that was the end of the day. Because from there on, he will be a refined person and he vowed to himself that he will come early and spent time with his family, which includes his wife and his son and enjoy every moment. He wiped his tears, and opened the door with a smile like he had just been born or like a doctor opens a door when a child is born showing signs of happiness. He then sat down to have dinner with his wife and son…and listened to his son’s wildest things, and enjoyed them.

The moral of the story is that “Work but in between also do not forget to spent time with your loved ones..your family, your family may include anyone, such as wife, son, mother, father, or anyone else….because they need your time more than your money. Money can be earned but not TIME because it is time that’s precious and not MONEY…TIME is more precious than thousands of diamonds because once you lose it…you are left with only memories and nothing else.

Am I a “Good” Writer?

Many times, I ask myself a question that whether I am a “good” technical writer or a “bad” technical writer. I wonder what will be the definition of Good and bad technical writer. Being a technical writer, it is my job to put scientific and technical information into easily understandable language. I must empathize with my audience because it’s the audience who will appreciate my efforts, and not the client. Technical writing is a noble profession because it brings me closer to my audience, and allows me to convey only one meaning to the audiences. As a technical writer, I must not write in complex sentences filled with jargon and impressive words. When I started my first job as a technical writer, I had certain doubts in my mind such as whether this job will interest me or whether I will be able to earn enough money compared to my colleagues who earn a lot of money, or whether I would be able to communicate well with the programmers/developers. However, after having work for so long years as a technical writer, I have found an interest in this field. Now, I look back and realize what might have been the effective tips and techniques I got from my peers and managers to come at this level.

Tips and Techniques
Here are few technical writing tips/techniques to differentiate between good and bad writing.

• THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE: As a technical writer, it is essential that you must think before you start writing a document whether it is a user manual, a proposal, or any training manual. It is extremely important that you must analyze a product, process, and procedure that need to be documented. You must first understand yourself clearly what you are writing about. It is as good as saying that “Put yourselves in your audience’s shoes”. Think how your audience will react to the product or a system. As a technical writer, you must consider yourselves as an "advocate" for the user, which means that you explain a system clearly from the audience’s perspective, anticipating the questions and problems of an average user. In this way, you may even provide suggestions to the system or procedure while is in the design phase.

• KISS: The word "KISS" means, keep it simple and stupid. When I say simple and stupid, what am talking is to keep your document simple and you should not make use of drawn out and complex sentences in the document.

• “ALWAYS FOLLOW THE TASK-BASED METHODOLOGY”: I found this heading from a website, and found it interesting. Now, you must be wondering what this “task-based approach” is. Consider a scenario where you got a host of information from a team of developers / programmers, and now you begin your phase of writing. While you documenting (user manual, training manual, or any proposal document), you might confuse yourselves to put all these details and give a proper shape. Thus, you must follow a task-based approach which means that you should always break a particular concept into different tasks. This will affect in structuring your document properly. A task-based approach allows you to analyze what tasks will the audience of your document want to perform. This will help you to benefit in terms of organization, readability and usability of a document. For example, consider a scenario where you wish to write a user manual for MS Word. For this, you should first describe how to start MS Word, create a new document, print a document, and work with a document and save the document. However, some of the technical writer might not agree with me as they would feel that a structured-based approach will be definitely a good option to write a document. It is certainly not wrong to use a structured approach as it is also essential to include structural information if your document is to be complete. However, you must understand from the audience’s perspective that an audience always wants first of all to accomplish a task, and then find out about the unessential details.

• AVOID USAGE OF PHRASES IN TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS: As a technical writer, when you should keep a document simple and sweet, it also becomes essential to avoid any usage of phrases in your document. These phrases may complicate a sentence and may even prove to be dull and boring. For example, you mustn’t use phrases such as “afford an opportunity to”, “in view of the fact that”, “prior to”, “with reference to”, and “for the purpose of”. Instead, you should use simple words such as allow, because, before, and about which have the same meaning but have a soothing effect to the audience.

• ALYWAYS MAKE USE OF ACTIVE VOICE: While you are writing a document, always remember to use active voice instead of passive voice. This makes your document interesting to read and even helps you to avoid using any lengthy sentences. Active voice usually is shorter and more direct than a passive voice, which is more complicated and lengthy.

• AVOID VERBOSITY: This is the most common tip that you may find in most of web sites. Verbosity means long-windedness, which means that you must not tell the audience about how much you know about a product or a system. However, you should understand how your audience will understand your document. For this, always remember to keep your sentences in a document as concise as possible. Keep your sentences crisp and make it interesting to be read.

• ORGANIZE USING HEADINGS: It is always said that a “heading” often summarizes a particular section for what you want to say to the audience. A heading may allow your audience to browse your document, and even skip certain sections that might not of immediate interest to the audience. Thus, it becomes utmost essential to organize your document with proper headings such as “Creating a Document”, “Saving a Document”, or “Closing the Application”. In addition, it is also recommended to use a “gerund” form while writing your headings. A gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. The term verbal indicates that a gerund, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. A heading should not also mislead an audience. It should clearly depict the contents of that section.

In the end, I would like to quote that Technical Writing, though might look a boring profession to some people as it involve a lot of writing but it also at the same time helps the audience to understand a complex product or a system. So, take on the flight of technical writing but before that do always remember to fasten your seat belts which tighten you for your safe journey.

Mentoring Technical Writers!

In the recently concluded mentoring programme organized by STC India chapter, I was asked to rate the programme. Sometimes, we are put in such difficult situations where we have to do what we find the most difficult to do it. The programs like this really should happen once in a while because it not only benefits those who are in need but also those who are willing to spend their time for such unique cause. Apart from work, these activities also form an important part of an individual working in a corporate environment. In the recently published article "Maintaining Work-Life Balance) in the Indus newsletter (http://stc-india.org/indus/), I have clearly outlined the benefits of maintaining the Work-life balance and how essential it is for each one of us to spend as much time with our family as we do with our work. Continuing on the same topic, I believe that we can maintain a balance between work and personal life by being associated with the work itself, and that can be done by participating in such activities. It is all about to rejuvenate your energy levels. By mentoring another technical writer, we got to know our strengths and weaknesses as well. I feel proud that I have been a part of such a program, and would definitely like to participate in more such programs.

If anyone of you is willing to learn technical writing, do contact me at my email: anuj.anujkapoor@gmail.com.

Maintaining Work-Life Balance...

I just got my article published on "Maintaining Work-Life Balance" in the following link:

http://stc-india.org/indus/

(Please note that it is under Cool Tips section.)

Comma: Has it been underrated?

"The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.” -- Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart

Hello everyone, I am the Mr. Comma, which you use while writing any document such as magazines, journals, user manuals, and so on. I have been used differently by various authors, and not only this, different cultures use me in an entirely different fashion. That’s the irony of a poor little me that I have been used in various number of ways in so may people’s writings. Sometimes, I wonder that where did I originate from, and who was my godfather?

How did comma originate?

I am the most commonly used punctuation mark used by several writers around the globe, and I have a similar shape of my fellow-mate ‘apostrophe’ and ‘single closing quotation mark’. As per Oxford English dictionary, I came from a Greek word called komma (κόμμα), which means something that is cut off or a short clause. However, my origination can be dated back to 3^rd century BC when Aristophanes of Byzantium invented a system of single dots also called distinctiones that separated verses and indicated the amount of breath needed to complete each fragment of text when reading aloud. As I mentioned earlier and want to repeat it again that I can be used to solve various purposes while writing any form of document. I can be used in separating the list items or I can be used to separate the clauses. For example, generally, in English language people use me to separate a dependent clause with the independent clause if the dependent clause comes first. In addition to this, I may also be used while enclosing the parenthetical words and phrases within a sentence. Let us take an example to illustrate this. A simple example to this will be, Once upon a time, there existed a Shalom dynasty.

I may also be used while separating the different adjectives within a sentence or to separate parts of geographical references, such as city and state or city and country. Thus, I can be used in numerous ways and the sky is the limit. Yet, I am used differently in different cultures. Let us understand few such differences in the following section in the widely used English such as American as well British English.

Differences between American and British usage

Comma, though seems a simple punctuation mark, but is used differently in both the American as British English. For instance, comma is placed inside the quotes when using American English while it is placed outside the quotes in the British English.

Last but not the least

Finally, I am the most wisely-used character, and I can be found in all the bestsellers of well-known authors. But, still, I am not known to everyone.

References

• http://www.crosswaterfarm.com/commas/intro.html
• http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Use_of_Comma_in_English_Writing_Quick_Guide_and_Tips.html
• http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp

Stress Relievers for Technical Writers

We all are bound to have stress in this competitive environment that we live in, and if someone says that, “I do not have stress” then the person is either lying to himself or the person is really saying the truth. Well, if you do not have stress then you do not need to read this article but if you do feel that stress gets you along in your daily life then do go through this article and apply the techniques discussed in this article in your daily life.

When stress gets to be too much, it can harm your health and wellbeing. Earlier, the human being didn’t experience stress because there were not many expectations apart from food, shelter, and friendship. It is only in today’s world where there is so much of competition, you are bound to have expectations and all of the expectations are not met either. So, the result is wide occurrence of stress among us. Stress occurs whenever you the actual experiences fall below your expectations. For example, as a technical writer, you expect coordination from the subject matter experts but sometimes it may happen that they might shout at you or even treat you like a dumb terminal and might say that you know nothing. This might take a toll on you, and you may feel stressed out. Stress may also have an adverse effect upon your health such as tightening of the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and stomach and so on. It has become utmost critical to get relieved from stress before it could have a drastic effect in your whole life. There are various stress relievers that can help you feel less affected by stress in your life. Some of these stress relievers are as follows:

• Meditation
• Guided Imagery
• Exercise
• Music
• Yoga

Meditation

Meditation is one of the best methods to control your body while dealing with stress. This method is also considered as one of finest relaxation technique because it allows you to relax various cells in your human body. Mediation helps you to restore the body to a calm state, thus helping the body to repair itself and prevent any damage due to the physical effects of stress. When you practice meditation, it decreases your heart rate, normalizes your blood pressure, and allows you to use oxygen more efficiently. In addition, mediation also helps you to clear your mind with all the negative thoughts that might prove to be fatal and this increases your creativity. While meditating, it is almost essential that you sit with a relaxed position and clearing your thoughts. You might choose a place that is calm and peaceful such as nearby a river, or a park or any place in your house which is peaceful. When you meditate, you must focus on a particular sound such as “oomm” or you can concentrate on your own breathing. To start with, you can meditate for five minutes and then you can graduate to over 20 minutes of mediation. Mediation is a wonderful technique to get relaxation from stress and having a perfect health. It is advisable to meditate regularly to have wonderful effects on your human body.

Guided Imagery

Guided Imagery is another simple yet effective relaxation technique that allows you to reduce tension that has occurred in you human body. It is a list of directed thoughts and suggestions that points your imagination towards a relaxed and a focused state of mind. It is based on the concept that your body and mind are connected. Guided Imagery uses all the four senses of human body, and it allows your body to respond in a manner which may appear to be real. Guided Imagery helps you reduce blood pressure and other problems related to stress. It can even help you improve your public speaking and might even help you in losing weight. You must be wondering that whether it is at all difficult to practice this technique. So, the answer is that it is not all difficult to practice Guided Imagery. Guided imagery is something that you can become successful at on your own. In order to practice this technique, you must sit or lie down in a comfortable position, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Once you get into a relaxed state of mind, envision yourselves in an environment of your choice that you have always dreamt of or you can image any scene from a movie or a novel that you read recently. As you imagine the scene of your choice, try to get involve as much as possible using all the four senses and try to find answers to questions such as what does it look like, how does it feel, and what special scents are involved.

Exercise

It is a well known fact that exercise has always been a stress-relieving technique. It provides various physical as well as mental benefits to the human body. Exercise not only keeps you physically fit but it also improves your mental health. Exercise helps you to decrease the output of stress hormones, and relaxes muscles thus lowering the resting pulse rate. Most of the fitness experts believe that every bit of exercise do count in your daily life. When we exercise, the body releases various chemical substances also known as endorphins. There are various forms of exercise that you can choose from such as Aerobics, Stretching, and so on. You can choose to perform exercise in a closed environment or with natural surroundings. However, it is always preferable to exercise in a natural environment because this activates relaxation responses deep in the brain.

Music

Music is another form that allows you to relieve stress, which is the basis for a growing field known as music therapy. One major benefit is that you can relieve stress while listening to music while you are at work or any regular activity. It allows you to find an increased enjoyment from what you’re doing regularly. You can listen to music in various no of ways such as when getting ready to work, while traveling, while you are eating, or before you go to bed. However, it is always recommended to listen to music that would calm yourself, and induces deep breathing. This also helps you in increasing production of serotonin. Always choose the music that is soothing to ears having slow rhythm.

Yoga

This form of stress reliever is an oldest and one of the finest practices that can be dated back to more than 5000 years. It combines the practices of several other stress management techniques such as breathing, meditation, imagery and movement, giving you a lot of benefit for the amount of time and energy required. Slowly but steadily more and more people are getting benefits from the practice of Yoga. Yoga derives its name from the word, “yoke”, which means to bring together. It helps you to bring together the mind, body and spirit. Yoga has a numerous effects on the human body lowering heart rate and blood pressure, reducing stress, promoting increased strength and flexibility, reducing reduced cortical levels. While practicing yoga, it involves stretching the body and forming different poses, while keeping breathing slow and controlled. This allows you to keep your body relaxed and energized.

While you work to earn money, it is equally important to stay fit and healthy while reducing stress. You must spend time on yourself in order to do that! In the end I would quote famous lines from Catherine Pulsifer who said, "Stress: we all have some stress in our lives, some of us have more, and some of us have less stress. But if stress is allowed to overtake our lives then serious implications can result."

Further, as Mother Teresa rightly said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."

Stress Relievers for Technical Writers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at akapoor.blogspot.com.

STOP! Is your team de-motivated?

Are your team members demotivated? Most of the manager’s job has been to motivate and inspire the team when they are de-motivated. But why do people get de-motivated in an organization?

I have read a lot of articles on management that deals with how to motivate employees but it is not how you motivate them; rather, it’s how you prevent them from getting demotivated. It has been proved in a research that an employee gets demotivated after their first six months only, and the motivation continues to decline thereafter. This research is based on the survey conducted with about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies from 2001 through 2004. This decline in motivation or demotivation may be due to the poor management style adopted by the manager. In addition, it’s not only the manager who is solely responsible for demotivation of employees. There are other factors as well such as organization policies and management actions that contribute in demotivating the employees.

So it’s not about how you as a manager need to motivate the employees, but it’s rather how you stop demotivating them. It is very important for an employer to understand the following factors:

Are you engaging your employees in some of the organizational initiatives?,

Are you treating them fairly? and

Are they able to communicate comprehensively and openly?

If your answer is “No” to even one of the above questions, then your employees are demotivated, and this may lead to serious problems. So before we identify the tips on how to prevent demotivation among the employees; let us first identify the causes of demotivation, which include as follows:

• Most organizations dictate the employees on how to accomplish a particular task without telling them the need for doing that task. They feel that the employees are incompetent of making decisions. This may lead to demotivation among the employees.
• Sometimes, criticizing one employee before their team members may also encourage demotivation.
• Some managers set deadlines that seem to be impossible to be achieved thus demotivating the employees.
• When a manager asks a team member for his/her input but immediately dismisses it, which results in demotivation among the employees.
• Some managers give preferential treatment to a group of employees who are usually close to him/her. This sense of inequality among the team also leads to demotivation among the employees.
• It is generally said that, “Employees are an assets.” However if an organization tends to override the statement, and in order to reduce costs, reduces the costs on employees; then this may also result in demotivation among the employees. They may feel that the “Employees are labor costs, and not the assets.”
• Trust is most important factor, and if an organization feels that the employees are not trustworthy then this may also lead to demotiovation among the employees.
• Sometimes, when a manager uses phrases that are not complete such as Just do it or Failure is not an option, and so on, the team members have a negative feeling among themselves. They feel that manager themselves doesn’t know what needs to be done, and thus it results in demotivation.

So, as a manager what you should do to instill confidence among your team members and how should you help them avoid getting demotivated. Let us understand this using the following tips:

• Provide recognition to your team members
• Communicate well with your team
• Ensure proper coaching for employees
• Be a good listener
• Encourage teamwork
• Provide feedback in case of non-performance

Let us elaborate on each of these tips a little more.

Provide recognition to your team members

To help eradicate demotivation among the employees, it is very important for you as a manager to provide recognition among them. Ensure that all of the members of your team are recognized of their efforts no matter small of large. This gives them a sense of satisfaction and makes them realize that their efforts have been fruitful. It has been proved by the experts that receiving recognition for achievements is one of the most fundamental needs of a human being. It is always good to say thanks to the team members on accomplishing the job rather than criticizing them before the team. This helps in removing any distress levels among the team members. As a manager, you need to understand that any sort of appreciation whether through a word of mouth or in the form of an email will be a morale booster for the employee and help them to eradicate demotivation. Some manager may ask themselves, “Why shall I appreciate for the good work that the employees have done for which they have been paid to do.” But, you must understand one thing that there is no harm in recognizing the efforts of the employees.

Communicate well with your team

Communication is the most important skill for managers to eradicate demotivation. While communicating, you need to ensure that you distribute the information which is important for the employees to know. The employees feel frustrated upon lack of appropriate information.

Communicating well requires managers to be attuned to what employees want and need to know.

Ensure proper coaching for employees

Every employee or a team member needs coaching in order to improve their overall performance and do well in the organization. Even Sachin Tendulkar, who is considered as the best batsmen in the world, hasn’t been so if there was no coaching from Ramakant Achrekar. Most managers often tend to neglect proper coaching for the employees. However, a proper coaching makes employees feel that organization care for them and as a result allow them to do even better thus improving performance.

Be a good listener

Listening is an important quality that a manager must have. But, it is different from being “just a listener” and being a “good listener”. As a manager, you need to listen to not only the problems of the team members but also try to gather information on how they can do the job in a much better way. This makes the employees or team members feel involved, and prevent demotivation. While managers inviting ideas from the employees, the employees believe a sense of involvement in their work and they tend to love their work even more than before.

Encourage teamwork

In an organization, it is the team that matters the most rather than the individuals themselves. So, it is very important for a manager to team members to work in teams more often in order to accomplish a task rather than working in its own. This gives the employees gives themselves a boost in confidence. A manager needs to create an environment to promote teamwork by organizing self-managed teams and creating an opportunity to cross-train each other and using techniques such as brainstorming.

Provide feedback in case of non-performance

Feedback is an essential component that a manager can use in order to avoid demotivation among the team members. The employees who have an average level of performance need to be informed in order to improve. A manager must ensure to provide a feedback on a periodical basis. It must be remembered that there is a difference between a performance feedback and annual appraisal. The employees have the every right to know whether they are doing well or not. So, it’s up to the manager to provide feedback from time to time rather than waiting for the annual appraisal. The annual appraisal is meant for summarizing how the whole year has went by for the employee. It is the manager’s responsibility to create a healthy team environment.

So, to prevent the occurrence of demotivation among the employees, it is essential to keep them motivated. It is the employees who make the organization, and it has been proved that motivated employees are crucial for organization success. Employees just don’t work for money. In fact, they work for more than just money. The important thing to note here is to make provide an environment in which they feel that their job is secure and thus allow them to love their jobs.

Thus, as a manager, if you follow the above mentioned tips, you are surely able to support your employees' goals for achievement, impartiality, and camaraderie. This enables you to retain the enthusiasm among the employees when they joined the organization.

STOP! Is your team de-motivated? is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at akapoor.blogspot.com.