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Feature
The essentials of working smart
Sudipta Dev on how to work smart, particularly in
this current business environment
 In
today’s business scenario, where competition is always ready to overtake
you at the next corner, it is not enough to work hard for achieving one’s
goals, but be smart enough to outpace and out maneuver them. It is all about
planning the right strategies and enhancing effectiveness—the essentials
of working smart.
“It is easy to think that working hard increases productivity. But, it
is working smarter, not harder, that increases the efficiency and effectiveness
of how we work,” pointed out Benny Augustine, Director, Human Resources,
Unisys India. He added that as an outsourced services company, clients expect
Unisys to improve and streamline business processes and procedures.
The current scenario might heighten the need for working smart because organizations
are constantly assessing their human capital and are asking hard questions of
those that do not produce results. “Building efficiency and predictability
into human performance is a challenge, now, more than before. In an environment
where there are multiple stakeholders and myriad interpretations, working smart
is a sure shot way to succeed,” stated Narayan Krishnaswamy, Co-Founder
& CEO, Talking Heads. This apart, sometimes it is necessary not to only
do the right thing but to also be seen doing the right thing. This is particularly
true of organizations that are global in their presence and matrixed in their
structure.
The differentiator
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 "It
is easy to think that working hard increases productivity. But, it is
working smarter, not harder, that increases the efficiency and effectiveness
of how we work"
- Benny Augustine
Director, Human Resources, Unisys India
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 "In
an environment where there are multiple stakeholders and
myriad interpretations, working smart is a sure shot way to
succeed"
- Narayan Krishnaswamy
Co-Founder & CEO, Talking Heads
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 "With
so many different things
to do, it becomes important that people focus on the high value items
and plan their work lives efficiently"
- Sameer Deans
Delivery Manager, ThoughtWorks
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While many thought leaders suggest that it is not enough to
work hard, but to work smart, the fact cannot be denied that the latter entails
a lot of hard work—moreover so as this has to be focused to ensure that
the targets are met. It is important to understand that working smart does not
mean evading hard work.
“Confusing smart for taking the easy way out or for
doing a shoddy job can come back to hurt those that indulge in it. Every success
has it’s roots in hard work. Hard work is the price that everyone pays
to get anywhere meaningful. Hard work is what you do, smart is where you have
managed to get it’s impact across to a defined audience, be that your co-workers,
your boss or your counterparts in another country,” asserted Krishnaswamy.
Working hard is the proverbial unpolished diamond, working smart is its cut
and finished version. One precedes the other.
Competitive advantage
If you work hard and work smart, success is likely to come
a lot faster than doing just one of those things. Augustine reminds that working
smarter puts you in control of your work day and helps build better job satisfaction,
improved communication, greater trust and respect for colleagues, increased
learning and self-development, better service delivery to the organization’s
clients, and a better work/life balance. The organization benefits from improved
quality and efficiency, and increased retention of its best talent.
Competitive advantage comes from institutionalizing ways
of working that are fundamentally better than that of your competition. “The
fact that some companies are able to think better, and execute better than others
proves that there is a direct linkage between being smart about outcomes and
sustaining competitive advantage,” averred Krishnaswamy. Conversely, since
ideating is not anyone’s exclusive prerogative, working hard and being
smart provides a level playing field for organizations of varying sizes, hues
and types to compete on an equal footing in a free market, in a bid to establish
competitive advantage.
“In this era of so much competition, you have people
playing many roles. With so many different things to do, it becomes important
that people focus on the high value items and plan their work lives efficiently,”
maintained Sameer Deans, Delivery Manager, ThoughtWorks. When you only work
hard, your effort may not be channelized in the right direction and you may
not be tackling the most critical pieces. Its like throwing more people at a
problem rather than figuring out where the root cause of the problem is and
then directing your effort there.
Working smart is all about increasing efficiency and productivity. It positively
impacts the work culture and motivates people to further excel themselves.
- Plan. Plan. Plan.
Taking time up front to plan helps maximize what you can get done in
the least amount of time. Sit down as a team and look at the activity
and deliverables you have for the coming day, week or month. Identify
peak workloads and whether tasks need to be reallocated across the team
to spread the load. Prioritize tasks based on deadline, importance and
whether someone else is impacted by you completing them. Take into account
how different people work and empower individuals to evaluate their
own system to see if there is room for more efficiency.
- Get organized
With the constant influx of information, it is critical to filter and
organize. PDAs, desktop organizers, repositories of information are
your friends. Technology has made it possible for us to respond anytime
anywhere to critical messages without being bound to traditional office
spaces. However, to work smarter don’t react to every incoming
email or call – not all require you to drop what you are doing
for an immediate response. Instead, allocate time in your diary to regularly
check and respond to email and return calls.
- Focus
It is a common misconception that multi-tasking lets you get more
work done. But, the truth of the matter is that people are less productive
when multitasking and numerous studies over the years are testament
to that. Changing the speed of work, increasing focus, concentrating
on the task at hand, and working in parallel instead of multi- tasking
will definitely bring about results.
- Collaboration
Invest in collaboration tools that offer shared digital workspaces,
Web conferencing and project management
software, to share current information and increase productivity. Virtual
technology allows teams to easily meet and helps avoid unproductive
travel time. For international teams it is important to be aware of
time zones – it’s hard to be productive in a 3 a.m. meeting!
- Delegate
Good delegation enhances effective work. No job requires a person
to do it all on their own. The easiest way to delegate is to know your
co-workers/team and recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and accordingly
assign them tasks. The simplest task assigned to them could give them
a great sense of ownership or help them learn a new skill while allowing
you to focus on a more important task at hand. Be fair to your colleagues
and delegate early, rather than at the last minute.
Source: Unisys India
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sudipta.dev@expressindia.com
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