Personal Development Plans

When you have a clear understanding of what you bring to an organization, you become an empowered individual who uses today’s projects to build tomorrow’s skills. Using the influence model in career development will give you an extra, powerful tool to achieve your career objectives.
The Three Steps of Career Development
Having a written career development plan with specific goals is important. But first you must understand yourself and your options.
1. Understanding yourself. By developing an accurate picture of yourself, you are better able to educate others to what you can do. You can also demonstrate your potential for future learning. This step begins with the influence behavior of assertiveness. Identify clearly the key skills that you use now and have used in the past. How can you leverage them now?
2. Understanding your options. Today’s businesses are constantly changing, and the most successful professionals regularly seek to leverage those changes to achieve personal goals. It’s not enough just to do a great job at work. Developing multiple career goals will help you look into the future and be ready for the changes that will take place. Create opportunities for yourself by taking deliberate action. Network within your organization and the industry in which you work. Where will the industry be two and a half years from now? Whom can you talk with in your organization to find out more?
3. Understanding your next steps. Once you’ve identified your career goals, you are ready to develop your career development plan. Your plan must be written and measurable with a specific time frame for completion. Once this plan is outlined, speak with your boss or a mentor in the organization. Gathering feedback and support for your plan is a key link to achieving your goals.
Using Influence Strategies
Once you have written your career development plan, it is time to put it into action using influence skills.
Sharon feels that she has reached a plateau in her career and has decided that she wants some new experiences. She wants to influence her boss to allow her to attend a three-day professional conference and have the company pay for it.
1. Assert. State your objectives clearly and directly.
Sharon’s boss likes direct talk, so she approaches him with a plan of action. She states when, where, why and how her objective will be achieved.
“Joel, you know that I really want to attend the Technology Conference next month. We’re lucky to have it in town this year, and it will be a great benefit to my continued learning and my on-the-job performance. If I could have your signature on these forms, then the accounting department can send the $60 fee with my registration.”
2. Suggest. Many people develop concerns when new ideas are presented to them. This is a natural step in an influence situation. Your challenge is to suggest solutions that are relevant to the concerns.
Joel is worried that Sharon will fall behind in her work by missing three days of work while at the conference and questions how the rest of her group will benefit by her attendance. She has anticipated Joel’s concerns and presents her suggestions.
“First, I will make sure that my priorities are delegated to the other members of the group while I’m gone. Second, as soon as I return, I will have a brief meeting with my group to report what I’ve learned and how it can be applied to our present and future projects.”
3. Create a Vision. Paint a picture of the positive repercussions that will occur when the person you’re influencing agrees with you.
Sharon notices that Joel is impressed by her forethought but still may be wavering over the decision. She knows she’ll get his approval by demonstrating at least one of the important effects that his decision will have.
“It’s important that you support me in my continued learning. If you were to do so, I would definitely feel valued by you and the company, which really motivates me to do my best work.”
By creating a career development plan and actively involving influence strategies in that plan, you implement a powerful tool for your career advancement. Whether you are at a plateau or just beginning in your career, a strong, written plan accompanied by your practice of influence skills will help you reach your goals.

admin Uncategorized Career Development, Career Plan, Corporate Advancement, Influence, Negotiation, Persuasion

The development of an overall “strategy for success” can become one of the most potent weapons you can have in your career arsenal, as you attempt to become more successful than your competition. Having ideas, dreams, goals, and understanding concepts that can have an impact on your success are both good and important. Accomplishing a few goals and doing something new is great, but having a strategy – a plan with objectives – helps you get the biggest bang for your effort while keeping you on track. Developing a strategy is about determining your capabilities, documenting your basic life choices, and instituting a plan of how to achieve a higher level of success and purpose within a given time frame.

 

The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats framework is perhaps one of the best known approaches to defining strategy within a business environment. This type of analysis involves analyzing an organization’s internal capability – its strengths and weaknesses – relative to the opportunities and threats of its competitive environment. Using the information gained, the organization then puts in place strategic actions to preserve or sustain its strengths, offset its weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities and avert or mitigate threats. The strategic business plan, maps out key objectives over the long haul. It also helps establish the context in which daily decisions can be made to attain desired results. This same approach can be very effective in developing your own personal strategy for success.

 

An excellent approach to developing your personal strategy for success is to use the previously discussed business model. Start the process by making four extensive lists of your (1.) strengths, (2.) weaknesses, (3.) opportunities, and (4.) threats. Be brutally honest when making the lists. Write down as many things as possible for each category. I would suggest building your lists over several days. Show the list to a trusted friend and solicit their input. Once you have developed four long lists (quantity) then begin to refine the lists down to “three” things in each category (quality) that really resonate well with you -things you are truly willing to do something about.

 

The items you select should have the following four properties. They should demand specific action – what will be done, carry a high level of concern – this is very important to focus on, be clearly beneficial – when its accomplished success can be measured, and have an intended impact – this is what it will look like, feel like, be like, when you get there.

 

Once the three things in each category are identified, and the four properties satisfied, your next action is to develop a detailed game plan that supports the following questions. What can you do at every opportunity to capitalize on your three strengths? What can you do to overcome, mitigate, or turn into strengths, your three weaknesses? What can you do to use the three identified opportunities, to get closer to or attain your goals? What can you do to mitigate or avert your three weaknesses from preventing you from attaining your desired level of success?

 

The point of going to this level of detail is to formalize your actions, help paint a more complete picture of where you are, see clearly how all aspects are related and affect each other and help you develop an action driven plan for your personal success.

 

For your personal strategic plan to be most effective, it should be clear, simple, meaningful, and embedded in a process, which sets direction while remaining flexible. If you do not have a plan, you will not know where you are going. Your personal strategic plan positions you to move toward your goals. The plan should provide not only the destination but also the route.

 

admin Uncategorized Career Success, Personal Strategy, Personal Success

Why Back Office Administration?

In the international development sector, back office administration and social networks are fundamental to how practices are improved. The work of the administrator expert for the purpose of providing back office activities for development projects include such a diverse range of administrative tasks and routine services. These services carried out in support of a professional activity such as monitoring and organizing a national survey, providing overall administrative guidance and support to multi-donor programs for good governance and economic growth programs have played a central role in consultants’ work in various regions of the world. Such work has involved efforts to reach out to the relevant local partners, government officials, urban professionals, businessmen and women, and rural community heads.

Back office administration has played a particularly prominent role in managing international development projects. This reflects the enduring expertise of administrator experts in many international programs. Back office administration has been strategic to the work of international development projects. And the administrator expert engagement has been fundamental to efforts to manage development projects. Because of the growing importance of back office administration for international development projects strategy, its potential contribution to future phases of managing development projects, it is vitally important for administrator experts at all levels to understand what management and the decision sciences suggest, and what consultants who have worked in such capacity have learned, about how to engage and leverage local partners in projects and institutional networks.

 Administration 101 for Consultants: Lessons Learned

 Back office administration is a form of organizational management activity based on common claimed effort to improve projects implementation practices. (2) It is not necessarily technical, as projects terms of reference (ToRs) may specify technical aspects of projects. (3) Back office administration rather has the benefits of the administrator expert being involved in scientific and/or statistical research without actually having to do it. It gives the administrator expert the administrative and management jobs that the scientists or statisticians see as tedious and time-consuming. For the administrator expert, these jobs represent tasks with a definite beginning, middle, and end. Thus back office administration is a part of most development projects where tasks dedicated to running the implementation of the project itself take place (4).

There is no such thing as a “typical” technical and/or statistical development project. Technical projects may embody diverse project rules, structures, types of political authority, and terms of reference (ToRs) which may be influenced by social and institutional conditions and government policies. (5) Thus, for instance, the ‘microfinance sector capacity building in Sierra Leone’ survey project (2007/08) in the category of the ACP Business Climate Facility (BizClim), a joint initiative financed under the 9th European Development Fund (EDF), tended, at least traditionally, to be purely statistical but the interpersonal definitions of the project underscores the relevance of the administrator expert.  There are major organizational issues involved in all donor funded project that require the engagement of an administrator expert who deals with these issues in a timely and efficient manner. (6) The administrator expert’s inputs in the ACP-EU BizClim project include the overall organization and monitoring of the field survey which makes the expert more influential than the other experts in the project. The administrator expert is looked upon as the project coordinator who enables the right conditions under which all the experts of the project are able to work. (7)

Administrative Values, Processes, and Organization

Administrative values remain deeply ingrained in back office administration of international development projects and have had a profound influence on development projects’ social mores and political culture. (This observation holds for much of all development projects as well.)

These values include the high premium put on originating and leading organizational issues that provide high performance culture that emphasizes empowerment, quality, productivity and standards, and goal attainment. These values also foster ingroup solidarity, which finds expression in loyalty to the technical expert team, (8) coupled with a powerful desire to ensure proper inclusion of the project output (in the case of the BizClim project, the survey) into the strategic development plan for the overall program; ensuring proper operational coordination with the contractor’s terms of reference; which finds expression in having the necessary skills, personal qualities and levels of motivation to competently meet the objectives of providing back office support and working with institutions or corporations locally. (9)

Administrative processes include traditional forms of services tailored to effectively support the technical experts, to mitigate problems when possible and to preserve a dynamic and productive environment. (10) These processes are conducted in accordance with basic administrative principles, providing colleagues (who are the technical experts) with the resources (i.e. human resources, physical facilities, as well as computing infrastructure and systems) they require to carry out their project research or service mission. (11) Further, working in cooperation with the local partners is extremely important and other tasks of significance include research and review of existing materials, and recommendations for operational structure that produces. (12) The precise extent to which these basic administrative processes are applied determine how successful in meeting the mandate of the contractor by such service requirements by which the expert must:

· clearly understand the needs of all the stakeholders of the project; (13)

· develop a team approach based on strong collaboration and mutual support and trust between the expert team and the local stakeholders in the project; (14)

· motivate and continue to inspire a competent and skilled auxiliary local staff in the project; (15)

· ensure that roles and responsibilities for program objectives and resource management are clearly defined and well understood by all concerned. (16)

Organizationally, each international development project implemented in any region consists of nested beneficiary groups. In the case of the BizClim microfinance project in Sierra Leone (2007/08), the direct beneficiary of the activity is NaCSA’s microfinance program as well as the partner organizations (MITAF, BoSL and SLAMFI). There are also the indirect beneficiaries which include the six existing MFIs and the four community banks actively involved with MITAF as well as the sector as a whole. (17) The terms used to describe these stakeholder groups and the meanings ascribed to them may differ by project, however, basic administrative processes apply in every case. This simplifies efforts by the administrator expert who must be skilled to understand stakeholder relationships, dynamics, and politics in the implementation of projects. (18)

The enormity of tasks in a project and the political issues to be dealt with has caused development donors to fall back on inputs of the administrator expert for support in confronting the challenges of coordinating the implementation of projects. As a result, strategic administrative processes have assumed greater salience in back office administration in recent years. It is not a mistake to emphasize the significance of the role of the administrator expert in a project or to regard the administrator expert as the central organizing principle of any development project implemented.  Large parts of back office administrative processes are to ensure the specific objectives of a project are consistently pursued, in the case of a survey project, for instance, the survey tools are developed and tested; the field research is undertaken; data is reviewed before processing, and statistical analysis is undertaken and final report drafted. (19)

A detailed, up-to-date picture of the back office administrative system in international development projects is hard to see—at least in the open literature. Much of what is known about back office administration is based on profiles provided by project donors, and information gaps frequently have to be filled by what the administrator expert must do to ensure the successful implementation of a donor funded project. While there are a number of useful compendiums on the traditional responsibilities of administrative officers in organizations, these are largely catalogs of job description that are in much need of updating to meet the high expectation needs of international development projects. (20) Finally, there has been no systematic effort to assess the impact of the role of the administrator expert in project implementation and the state of relations between the administrator expert and all the stakeholder groups in a project. This article will hopefully constitute a modest first step in this direction. (21)

The Cultural Logic of Back Office Administration and Project Implementation

How do administrative values express themselves in the conduct of the administrator expert? Administrator experts are intensely jealous of the integrity of work outcomes—to the extent that integrity of work outcomes has been described as the “consulting center of gravity.” The culture of integrity of work outcomes and the implicit threat of forfeiting fees if project outcomes are compromised may be a vestige of the back office administrator’s oath of expert engagement—a commitment of ensuring individual and group survival when there are terms of reference to be strictly adhered to. As a result, social relations among stakeholders in a project are characterized by a high degree of concern over integrity of work outcomes, status, and timeframes. (22) A well-known Steven R. Covey proverb expresses this tendency: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.  Some see the extraordinary politeness and generosity of consultants that characterize their social relations towards stakeholders in a project as a means of curbing this propensity for anxiety and apprehension for the integrity of project outcomes. (23)

What accounts for this tendency? One explanation is that it is a consequence of what defines a consultant. A consultant’s career is built on maintaining the scrupulous ethics and honesty that are the hallmark of any successful consultant—and to pay even more attention to the perception of ethical behavior. (24) Another explanation is that it is a characteristic feature of being a consultant to be efficient and be conscious of project timeframes. The administrator consultant must have the right experience. Knowledge of industry procedures, project requirements, likely project costs, and likely project timeframes, are all examples of where inadequate organizational experience can result in cost and time blowouts. The administrator expert must keep in touch with the latest developments in projects administration to provide the right advice to project stakeholders. (25)

In back office administration, the expert team of consultants, direct and indirect project beneficiaries, and government affiliations define the administrator expert’s identity and status in a project. Consequently, all personal interactions in a project potentially have a collective dimension. Experts assembled for a project is not a personal choice, but a team affair, with implications for the status and standing of the entire expert team. (26) Conflicts between individual experts in a team always have the potential to become conflicts between groups that undermine the success of the entire project. (27)

Relationships are central to project life. In an environment marked by suspicion and potential conflict between the expert team and the local stakeholders, building and maintaining relationships is a way to reduce the circle of potential adversaries or enemies. (28)

Back office administration is systemic, it has to do with the organizational issues of the project, and the activities undertaken provide the basis for sustained systemic action. Interpersonal interaction is the fundamental unit of getting tasks done in a project. On every occasion, the administrator expert considers organization-wide cooperation as key to the successful execution of tasks; it is generally in response to a specific task, such as collating economic data that should be included in a report. (29)

Back office administration has an inter-organizational dimension as well. A project is often identified with the government of a country, its civil service structure, and the civil society. Thus, an administrator expert is obliged to deal with all of these structures at a professional level.  (30) For the administrator expert, the administrative domain of all international development projects thus usually consists of dealing with a number of relevant stakeholders exclusively specified by the terms of reference of the project.  Among the team experts, there is strong pressure not to alienate these stakeholders in a project. Because the group of experts (consultants) is usually involved in more than one institution’s culture, and in each case they are seen as outsiders at the beginning, experts need to be able to win the confidence of strangers who may be initially threatened by the presence of consultants. The administrator expert must be that person of personable character capable of projecting the expert team’s image to the other stakeholders. A big dose of humor is said to make wonders, especially when directed at one’s self. (31)

Some back office administration activities take the form of effectively making use of all sorts of networks. Civil service and civil society networks are sometimes reinforced by less professional social interactions or more personal relationships, and may be mobilized in the pursuit of shared interests. Administrator experts are particularly adept at mobilizing social networks and forging more personal alliances, which account in part for the success of international development sector projects. (32)

The Spider in the Web

Overall, donor agencies have dealt with administrator experts as projects power brokers to help administer or implement a project, and they have often attempted to co-opt the work of the administrator expert as part of a strategy of “get things done”. Other participating consultants in a project have likewise depended a great deal on the work of administrator experts to achieve quality project outcomes. It is therefore important to understand the sources—and limits—of administrator expert authority and organizational influence. (33)

Administrator expert authority. The administrator expert traditionally performs a number of functions related to the inner life of the project and its relations with the other stakeholders and the authorities. The role of the administrator expert for international development sector projects involves more like traditional administrative functions, and the administrator expert fulfill a number of important functions. The administrator expert’s job has been to be the spider in the web—collecting information from partners, everything from administrative data to their technical contributions, their expertise, and their expectations of the project, while making sure they meet the project’s deadlines. (34)

A very interesting task is to thoroughly understand all the specific terms of reference of a project and get all partners to understand them and agree to them as well. (35) In some cases the work seems to consist of calling other people’s bluff—not the participating consultants but the local stakeholders in the project. Almost without exception, often times the local stakeholders view with suspicion the work of the consultants, and the challenge is to what extent one has to be flexible on most things, and when to stand ground on the things that matter—like getting things done according to the terms of reference and maintaining one’s integrity. (36) One has to be willing to draw the attention of the contracting authority in such instances in order to defend one’s position in both of those cases without jeopardizing the project. (37)

The administrator expert must have an in-depth knowledge of how donor funding works, and should be skilled in developing good personal contacts with people in government and in civil society. (38) The very big plus side for the administrator expert is being right in the center of decision-making in the project implemented and the role of the administrator expert becomes more important when he or she is able to create the conditions for making the most out of people working in the project and their talents. (39) The administrator expert is more in control of his or her own work, to see output that is in some sort of relation to the time and effort put in, to work on projects that have a beginning an end. The administrator expert is responsible for the day-to-day running of the project. The work of the administrator expert is literally research project management. (40) The administrator expert has to be well organized to make sure deadlines are met and all partners are involved; diplomatic enough to deal with people of different backgrounds; and, perhaps most important of all, unflappable. (41)

Elements of traditional organizational management still apply in all international development sector projects. Management and organizational issues abound in delivering development sector projects. For example, if survey administration is the “line” activity within the project, the ultimate responsibility for delivery lies within the purview of the administrator expert. (42) And the more actors and organizational units that are required to deliver international development sector programs, the more complex that delivery may be. The need for coordination and cooperation in such complex systems is critical to success. (43)

Administrative influence. Administrative influence is reckoned in terms of the tasks completed. Details matter. Every task for the successful completion of projects matters. (44) Integrity also matters. The integrity of work outcomes is critical in international development projects. (45)

Today, as mentioned above, back office administration is generally the highest level at which sustained social action occurs; administrator experts are considered effective units of action. And the influence of an administrator expert is generally measured in terms of his or her work ethics, the ability to secure the interests of the project. (46)

The Donor Sector Today

The rules of donors and their influence and their specific terms of reference vary but have a common goal—effective delivery of project objectives. (47) There are a good number of well known donor agencies working for the good of humanity. Some of these donor agencies consultants should know about include:

· The ACP Business Climate Facility (BizClim), an ACP-EU joint initiative, is demand-driven and the requests for assistance introduced are implemented through contracts using the framework contracts of the commission (beneficiary) or through tenders. To this respect, the Contracting Authority is the European Commission but the daily management of each contract is ensured by BizClim. (48).

· USAID, the independent federal agency of the United States Government, often times cooperates with multilateral and regional institutions such as the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), IFAD, IMF, IOM, OECD, and the UNDP, to implement projects in various parts of the world. (49).

· The Department for International Development (DFID) is the part of the UK Government that manages Britain’s aid to poor countries and works to get rid of extreme poverty and often works with consultants in many respects.  It has two headquarters (in London and East Kilbride, near Glasgow) and 64 offices overseas. It also has over 2500 staff, almost half of whom work abroad (DFID). (50)

· The Australian Government, through AusAID, competitively contracts aid work to Australian and international companies. These companies use their expertise to deliver aid projects and often train local people to continue the projects long after the end of the contracts.  AusAID contributes to global and regional poverty reduction programs set up by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and works with (AusAid). (51)

· The OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to support sustainable economic growth, boost employment, raise living standards, maintain financial stability, assist other countries’ economic development, contribute to growth in world trade. The OECD also uses a lot of help from independent consultants and shares expertise and exchanges views with more than 100 other countries and economies, from Brazil, China, and Russia  to the least developed countries in Africa (OECD). (52)

· UNDP is working through its specialized agencies like IFAD, UNICEF, UNCTAD, and with a wide range of partners to help create coalitions for change to support the goals at global, regional and national levels, to benchmark progress towards them, and to help countries to build the institutional capacity, policies and programs needed to achieve the MDGs (UNDP). (53)

· The African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa’s premier development finance institution, dedicated to combating poverty and improving living conditions across the continent through loans, equity investments and technical assistance, also offers great opportunities for independent consultants. AfDB-financed contract procurements are carried out in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the Rules of Procedure for Procurement of Goods and Works and the Rules of Procedures for the Use of Consultants (AfDB). (54)

· The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) also uses consultants’ help to promote sustainable development through loans, guarantees, risk management products, and analytical and advisory services. Established in 1944 as the original institution of the World Bank Group, IBRD is structured like a cooperative that is owned and operated for the benefit of its 185 member countries. (55)

· The Asian Development Bank (ADB) often partners with governments and the private sector to help reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of member countries based on its Strategy 2020, a long-term strategic framework adopted in 2008, grounded on three complementary strategic agendas: inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. (56)

These donor agencies have their specific rules and terms of reference. (71) Within the field of EU-supported Research and Technological Development (RTD) projects, partners normally sign a consortium agreement to organise the work and to specify certain rights and obligations to carry out the Project. Separate and independent consulting firms are subcontracted by the EC or the consortium for projects in various parts of the world. (57) And experts who are engaged by the successful firms the consortium has subcontracted are strongly encouraged to always co-ordinate their activities with the activities of other EC funded projects or projects funded by other donors in the region of implementation. The work of the administrator is to establish such contacts. (58) And considering the fact that experts do have different experiences in project implementation, there are also certain issues experts must know about:

· Using proper documents, forms and terminology as required by EC Delegation and there are basic documents all consultants should use when communicating with their partners—the firms contracted by the EC or the consortium.

· The ToR as a basic and binding document must be strictly adhered to. If the expert thinks the requested deliverables or outputs are out of touch of reality, the expert must communicate his or reservations in the Inception Report or with the Delegation in a written form.

· Experts should be patient with the EC Delegations and Beneficiaries, if an expert does not agree with work processes or procedures as specified by the EC operations manual and terms of reference, the expert has the responsibility to try to convince the EC or the consortium by justifying other ways value can be added to deliverables or outputs.

· Experts must, however, understand the reality that the EC does not accept other rules and forms except theirs.

· Even when consultants are subcontracted by firms contracted by the EC or the consortium, consultants are expected to respect EC rules which prevail for all projects. (59)

Lessons Learned

Hands on experience with back office administration in international development sector projects concludes that the administrator expert performs a strategic role in helping the project accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of work processes, control, and management processes. (60) The administrator expert creates a capacity which safeguards and reinforces project’s reputation as a reliable steward of donor resources.  (61)

Other required functional competencies of administrative expert include the expert having excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to set out a coherent argument in presentations and group interactions. The expert should be adept in the use of information and communications technology. (62)

Donor organizations prefer experts that operate within their organizational competency frameworks. They expect experts to lead and manage change with integrity, trustworthiness and confidence, keeping the contractor’s vision and values at the forefront of actions.  The experts must maintain a strong, independent mental attitude and highest integrity and ability to inspire and nurture an organizational culture of ethos and fairness.  (63)

As an expert, it is professional to keep accurate and systematic accounts, files and records. The records must clearly identify, among other things, the basis upon which invoices have been calculated. The expert must be proficient in preparing and submitting regular reports on the project activities to the project team leader emphasizing among others their impact on the different areas of intervention. The expert should also seek to set benchmarks and targets for achieving both program and activity based goals inclusive of indicators for measuring the extent of achievement and to highlight these in all reporting. (64)

Experts must not attempt or commit any fraud, deception, financial or procedural wrongdoing in relation to the performance of their obligations under the Contract, and shall immediately notify the contractor of any circumstances giving rise to a suspicion that such wrongful activity may occur or has occurred. (65)

The expert should not engage in any personal, business or professional activity which conflicts or could conflict with any of their obligations in relation to the Contract.  (66)

The expert must be familiar with the provisions of race relations, sex discrimination and disability discrimination and the expert should not unlawfully discriminate within the meaning and scope of these provisions. (67)

All donor agencies respect the environment; they therefore expect all consultants to help protect the environment in relation to the performance of the services and should comply with all applicable international environmental laws, regulations, and donor practices. (68)

The condition of maintaining professional indemnity insurance is important for most donor agencies. Professional indemnity insurance provides financial indemnity to a professional man or firm against a legal liability to compensate a third party who has sustained injury, loss or damage through breach of duty. (69)

Again, experts must know about project equipment use and keeps inventory of equipment, its condition and location and make such inventory available to the project contractor. (70)

Expert must know that no expenditure may be incurred in excess of the financial limit and budget items of the project without the prior written authority of the donor contractor. (71)

For most donor contractors, fees payable are deemed to cover cost of salary, overseas inducements, leave allowances, bonuses, profit, taxes, insurances, superannuation, non-working days and expenses of whatsoever nature that may be incurred except those otherwise specifically provided for in the Contract. (72)

Donor specific forms and invoices often in the form of letterhead, the contract reference number and bear an original signature are used to recover payments from donors. (73) For, DFID, for example invoices are numbered sequentially, dated and marked—“For the attention of the Administration Officer”—stating the period the services are provided using “from” and “to” dates. The final invoice presented in connection with this Contract should be endorsed “Final Invoice”. Experts must know that any invoices not presented in accordance with donor specific format may cause unreasonable delay in payment. (74) For currency information, the London Financial Times “Guide to World Currencies” does provide the information needed on exchange rates. (75)

Experts must also familiarize themselves with procedures for negotiating claims or disputes arising out of or in connection to Contracts. The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in London (CEDR) can be very helpful.  CEDR is an independent non-profit organization with a public mission and supported by multinational business, law firms and public sector organizations. (76)

Overall, the administrator expert prioritizes work schedules. Relieves the technical experts of administrative detail, coordinates work flow, update and chase delegated tasks to ensure progress to deadlines, maintain terms of reference manual to ensure consistent performance of routines. (77) To maintain proper communication mechanisms, the expert composes daily reports, research relevant data the technical consultants can use to support final drafting of the project report. (78) For any meetings, the expert emphasizes on agenda meetings. The expert arranges meeting facilities, acts as recording secretary, and prepares action minutes. The expert performs to earn stakeholders’ confidence. Even arranges local transportation. Seeks greater role in projects within administrative and other areas of competence. At the advanced levels, back office administration is about methods for handling work; it requires a constant audit of the way a project does things, and willingness to rock the boat for meeting deadlines in getting work done. (79) Here are some typical tasks:

In other areas, the expert finds himself with networking with the various stakeholders in the project that are playing a significant role in the life of the project. There is a saying in OD consulting that says “it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves”. Interpersonal coordination of projects objectives is the cadence of back office administration. To navigate the chaos of dealing with organizational issues in a project, the administrator expert tries to draw on the pillars of being an effective manager, pillars built on work integrity, respect, and reciprocity. The expert relies on the intimacy of an expert team and the other key stakeholders in the project. (81)

Emphasis on Interpersonal Relations

Some analysts and practitioners have argued that interpersonal relations are key to the success of projects. While consultants are often viewed with suspicion by the local operators they meet, it is the responsibility of the administrator expert to allay those suspicions.  Clearly, the administrator expert has realistic expectations regarding the influence of project stakeholders. The experts are generally well connected and plugged into various stakeholder networks (essential if they are to ensure project tasks are adequately completed) they have generally proven useful as sources of information and advice and as vectors of influence among their teams and the local stakeholders. (82) Experts can assist too in the preparation of technical projects instruments and the training and motivation of enumerators and/or other project participants. (83)

Despite such acknowledgements of the importance of social networks and the fact that interpersonal activities in back office administration consume between 50 to 70 percent of the administrator’s time, it is remarkable how little attention has been devoted to this subject in the consulting professional literature. Hopefully, this article on back office administration will spur greater interest in what is probably the most important work process in international development sector. (84)

The following engagement lessons learned—with particular emphasis on the special challenges of the administrator expert engagement—are drawn from a review of the administrative literature, journalistic dispatches, individual and group interviews with other consultants who have served in various parts of the world, and the author’s own experiences. (85)

Institutional and cultural sensitivity, “hearts and minds,” and shared interests. Because of the complexity of the operational environment in international development consulting projects, particularly when local participants in the project view with suspicion the involvement of “highly paid” external consultants, organizational challenges are inevitable. (86) Winning “hearts and minds” is what the administrator expert does which is necessary for project success. What is important is for administrator expert to nurture that spirit of shared interest in working together with local consultants to achieve common goals. (87)

Building relationships. In projects, as is with, in all organizations, persons are more trusted than institutions. Personal relationships are the basis of effective professional partnerships, and a sine qua non for effective organizational activities. These relationships, however, can only be established and maintained by engaging the project stakeholders. (88)

Relationships take time to build and need constant tending. “Face time” with project stakeholders is critical, even if nothing tangible comes of some meetings, since time together is an investment in a relationship whose benefits may not be immediately evident. In addition, such meetings might discourage slack in project. (89)

Credibility is priceless; once destroyed, it is very hard to reestablish. Accordingly, it is vital to make good on promises and to avoid making commitments that cannot be kept. Broken promises undermine efforts to establish rapport and build the relationships that are essential to success. (90) For these reasons, administrator experts should, to the extent possible, avoid practices that disrupt relationships with the local partners, such as showing off and pretending to be more knowledgeable than anyone else in the project.  (91)

Management Implications of Donor Rules of Engagement

While a detailed discussion of how each donor rules of engagement with external consultants are enforced in projects is beyond the scope of this article, it is important to recognize the management value of such organizational knowledge.

Another feature of donor rules that may be managerially significant concerns the relationship between patterns of work ethics and social relations among project participants. Work cultures vary in parts of the world. This is a widespread phenomenon in the developing world. (92) Research of work cultures in developing countries and in Africa has shown that most work cultures in the developing world have a laid back easy going work habit. The expert has to be patient but firm in promoting the right habits that should be nurtured. The point is proper work habits deepen democratic values and reinforce the benefits of responsible management of projects. (93)

Engagement as a management activity. Engagement planning at the lower tactical echelons—which are the echelons that interact most intensively with the civilian population (for example, the enumerators as in the case of a national survey)—is often ad hoc, highly informal, and done “on the fly” by the administrator expert with little if any formal staff input. Engagement, however, is too important to be done in such a manner, and should be approached like any other essential management activity. (94)

There should be a formal engagement planning process, with input from all relevant staff elements, to identify engagement targets, assess their motivations and interests, determine engagement goals, schedule meetings, and set agendas. Administrator experts should hold after-action reviews to evaluate the outcomes of meetings and plan for and prepare follow-on activities. (95)

Engagement planning would probably benefit from jotting down any activity undertaken in a day in a diary which helps the organization and oversee of activities. (96)

Understanding excellence in consulting. Consulting is a knowledge-based occupation; therefore, it is responsible for administrator experts to continue to acquire new skills and knowledge on how to meet the changing requirements of assignments or for career development purposes. The expert must continue to invest in relevant training to obtain and maintain the mix of skills and knowledge needed to achieve the highest level of performance in accomplishing projects objectives. Adequate investment in training to maintain and improve knowledge capital is a key strategic action by any energetic administrator expert. (97)

Being the expert is what empowers the consultant. Local stakeholders in a project have sometimes had unrealistic expectations concerning the expertise of consultants. Being a learning individual is a must. (98)

Avoiding the pitfalls of institutional politics. Working with stakeholders in a project poses special challenges. Local stakeholders are intensely status conscious and competitive, and rivalry and intrigue often characterize institutional politics. Thus, expert engagement often requires a careful balancing act among local coordinators, supervisors and other population groups in the project, to avoid creating or aggravating rivalries or conflicts. (99)

A specific pitfall associated with institutional politics is errors of ignorance. It is easy to err due to a lack of knowledge of work cultures in institutions. It is therefore essential to become intimately familiar with the history and politics of the institutions and the relationships that govern such institutions in order to avoid any missteps. (100)

The challenge is to strike a balance among participating stakeholders in a project. Expert engagement should be part of a broader effort to engage multiple sectors of stakeholders in a project in order to promote a spirit of comingling to work toward common goals. (101)

Conclusions

Interpersonal engagement is probably the most important administrator expert line of operation in back office administration in the international development sector. If experts achieve any degree of success in project implementation, it is in large part because they succeeded in engaging the stakeholders and leveraging stakeholder networks.

Interpersonal engagement, however, poses unique challenges deriving from the special demands of interacting with stakeholder communities whose norms, values, and forms of social organization diverge, in many ways, from those of donor agencies.

Finally, while interpersonal engagement lessons learned in back office administration by administrator experts in an international development project may apply anywhere; this should not be assumed to be the case. Every project is unique in its scope, its internal dynamics and politics, and its relations with the donors. Independent expert consulting is the driving force for participation. Research needs and organization emerge from all consultancy work to produce added value to international development sector projects. Back office administration is research project management suitable especially for those who don’t have that passionate interest in a specific area of science. With back office administration one has the benefits of being involved in scientific research without actually having to do it. The job market for administrator experts in international development projects looks very good. The UK Research Office in Brussels, ‘Development Executive Group’, ‘Microfinance Gateway’, ‘devnetjobs’,  ‘Association of International Consultants’,  Devjobs, ‘Eldis’, ‘Expat List’, ‘Idealist’, MSI Worldwide, ‘Peace Corps’, and ‘Relief Web’ advertise vacancies in just about every week they update their websites. These are time-limited appointments, but so are many research posts and almost all jobs in the international development sector. For an expert to stay employed between short-term consultancies, the expert should continue to make intense effort to email résumés to as many international development consulting firms as possible. With an ongoing, intense marketing effort there are good chances that an energetic expert stays employed.

admin Uncategorized Administrator Expert, Ausaid Funded Projects, Back Office Administration, Capacity Building, Consultant, Development, Dfid, Expert, International Development Sector, Management, Management Practice, Organizational Management, Policy Development, Usaid

As a natural part of my empowerment consulting practice, I often find myself in discussions with my clients about their jobs and careers. Sometimes we talk about new jobs or job opportunities; sometimes we talk about promotions; sometimes we talk about careers over the long-term.

These are all very different types of conversations. Most of my clients who are in corporations are mid-level to senior-level managers, who are competent and have already proven their value to the company. I also work with clients who are outside the corporate structure or are consultants to corporations, with whom career development conversations are different.

It is common for people to want to have a career development plan. Many think that those successful individuals who have preceded them in the corporation had a plan to get where they got. Some did, but quite honestly, it is easier for them to claim that they had a plan with the benefit of hindsight and success than to produce the plan they wrote years before.

There is a whole field of professionals who offer career development resources and consulting. I think their services can be extremely valuable, especially when moving from one company to another. I am more familiar with helping people to advance and develop careers within the same company, as an integral part of my consultations. And so, that is my focus in this article.

In these client conversations about career development within the same company, I usually fairly quickly replace the concept of a “career development plan” with a “career networking plan” or a “career development networking plan.”

I’ve been working with a client who has been kicking and screaming about the idea of networking. She has been doing excellent work and feels she should be promoted based on her work. In one way, she’s absolutely correct. However, at her level in the organization, not only are there fewer openings, but a group of disparate persons with their own agendas usually decides about promotions and job changes.

When multiple persons with all different needs are involved in such a decision, there must be agreement that she is the one to promote or accept or move. Such a scenario usually requires more than doing the requisite job skills well. In most cases, the “more” comes down to ongoing activities she must be engaged in: networking and building authentic relationships.

I want to be clear, when I speak about career development networking, I do not mean to start networking to get a job that is now in the interview stage; my view is that this narrow type of networking is more appropriately called “lobbying.” Instead, I am speaking about networking over the years — building relationships that are two-way, developing collaborative partnerships, feeling appreciation about interactions, expressing sincere congratulations when others are promoted, and engaging in conversations about a variety of topics.

When many individuals are all well-qualified for a job, something “more” must stand out in the final candidate. This “more” may be related to job accomplishments, but likely, the “more” is related to relationships — perhaps the one who is best known, or the one who is most liked, or the one who has consistently good interactions with others.

The candidate who is well-networked is likely to increase the chances that all the decision-makers will agree, “this is the one.” There might sometimes be a thrill about a hotly contested position, but all things considered, the best transitions take place when there’s general agreement to select the final candidate.

Career Development Networking — a Starting Plan

First of all, it’s important that you think of networking as two-way! This is essential. The word “networking” has become rather polluted by the way some persons are using this word. Use the word however you want, but please understand that here I am using it to mean an exchange. Be pragmatic, of course, but understand that you are only “networked” if a two-way connection is happening. This is absolutely essential to understand, if you want to make this an empowering practice.

In my empowerment consulting sessions, I’m often coaching clients about the best persons to network with, the subjects to speak about, and how to speak about the subjects. Those who are a little shy or reticent about speaking with someone at much higher levels sometimes just need this added encouragement to take the step to network.

Many successful people already understand the need to network within their company. They probably don’t need a plan. Some jobs require that individuals know, interact, and partner with others in the company, and so they are usually well-networked naturally. If the company is large, though, there are many persons outside the scope of the current job who are potentials for expanding a network.

Here is a simple approach to getting started. Make two lists of persons in your company. The first is a list of the persons you already know and like. The second is a list of the persons you believe can, at some time, help you in your career — you may already know them or not. It is o.k. to have the same person on both lists; in fact, this strategy depends on that!

The intersecting subset of those two lists is the starting place. In other words, start your networking plan with the persons you like, whom you think can help you in your career. You will have more success by starting where it is easiest. Keep your lists updated over time, so that this is an organic process.

The next step is to decide, person by person, how and how often to network. Again, start where it is easiest. If you have regular meetings with someone on your target list, sit near the person, or suggest that you have lunch afterward, or take an interesting article to give to the person. If you consider you are already actively networking with this person, you may not need to adjust any actions. Just be certain to keep the person on your radar screen.

For best results, keep a journal of your networking. In your journal or on your calendar, make a notation for yourself for your next contact. By all means, do not over-commit yourself to starting to build too many new relationships at the same time. As a relationship is in the stage where either you and the other person are at ease to “call anytime,” you have built a relationship, so continuing it is easier.

Networking is as simple as such examples as I’ve just given; a networking plan is also simple. It just requires some, ummmm, planning and paying attention.

admin Uncategorized Career Development Networking, Career Networking, Career Planning, Corporate Career Development, Empowerment, Networking, Personal Growth, Professional Growth

INTRODUCTION

Rural development has always been an important issue in all discussions pertaining to economic development, especially of developing countries, throughout the world. In the developing countries and some formerly communist societies, rural mass comprise a substantial majority of the population. Over 3.5 billion people live in the Asia and Pacific region and some 63% of them in rural areas. Although millions of rural people have escaped poverty as a result of rural development in many Asian countries, a large majority of rural people continue to suffer from persistent poverty. The socio-economic disparities between rural and urban areas are widening and creating tremendous pressure on the social and economic fabric of many developing Asian economies. These factors, among many others, tend to highlight the importance of rural development. The policy makers in most developing economies recognize this importance and have been implementing a host of programs and measures to achieve rural development objectives. While some of these countries have achieved impressive results, others have failed to make a significant dent in the problem of persistent rural underdevelopment.

LITERATURE ON INDIAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Therefore, any development plan bringing not the betterment or uplift of rural sector in the developing countries would lose its significance. On account of this fact, an attempt went on being made throughout the world to generate the literature on rural development. Thereby, the literature on rural development has become so wide that to decide from where the deliberation should be started, is a difficult task. As regards to the literature pertaining to Indian rural development, we can see three separately different themes therein.

(1) The literature coming under the first theme is the literature comprised of the conceptual part and importance of rural development in the national economic development. The greatest part of this literature was generated by European economists or the Indian economists educated in Europe.

(2) The literature under the second theme presents a detail of programmes and projects related to the main issues pertaining to rural development which are:

(i) Literacy and Education: – The simple literacy (basic reading, writing and numeracy) and the functional literacy had been presented as panaceas in the 1950s and the 1970s, respectively, with a view that if everybody learned how to read and write or learned this would enhance development. The literacy, also including functional computer literacy, is still being presented as panacea by the governments of developing countries, UNESCO, World Bank, IMF and numerous aid organizations, with a view that this will solve development problems. On the other hand, education plays an important role in the progress of an individual’s mind and country. Ignorance and poverty, the two major speed-breakers in the swift developing country, can be overcome easily through education. (ii) Construction of Link-Roads: – Though unknown, a potentially important share of the benefits to the poor from rural roads cannot be measured in monetary terms. This is extremely important if the benefits of development have to move beyond the limited confines of cities to the vast hinterland so that the millions of toiling farmers can also become partners in progress. Urban-rural road links play a vital role for carrying urban prosperity into the heartland of a developing economy. (iii) Self-Employment Generation: – Employment generation, especially the self employment generation in rural sector attach great importance to poverty alleviation and mitigation specifically of the wide variations across States and the rural-urban division. A set of prudentially selected programmes of self employment in rural sector plays as the panacea to remove multi-dimensional nature of poverty through helping a lot the anti-poverty strategy’s three broad components – promotion of economic growth, promotion of human development and targeted programmes of poverty alleviation. (iv) Health Awareness: – The goal of health awareness programme of rural development is to create awareness, a stirring of both heart and mind, about health care conditions, challenges, and solutions among the rural people. (v) Giving awareness of opportunities availability for them:- Awareness of opportunities availability in rural sector means to provide relevant and usable information to the rural youth regarding (both the skilled and the unskilled) labour markets and access to relevant training to help them make decisions about the labour market options available to them. (vi) Family Planning: – Population growth is though a global problem but in heavily populated developing countries the problem is rather acute. An effective family planning programme is necessary there so as to curb high population growth that erodes the increase in employment opportunities and per capita income begot on account of the therein launched development programmes. (vii) Land Reforms: – Land reform means deliberate change in the way agricultural land is held or owned, the methods of its cultivation, or the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. The most common objective of land reform is to abolish feudal or colonial forms of landownership, often by taking land away from large landowners and redistributing it to landless peasants. (viii) Extension of rural or agricultural credit: – An Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) needs to identify the poor, give them credit and subsidy to purchase a productive asset to raise their earnings, recover loans, and recycle loans progressively to help poor villagers. There is a need to popularise banking facilities and make villagers account-holders. New type of accounts to suit their requirements should be considered. Moreover, the main problem in rural credit is not mere credit but the way in which it is spent. Therefore, the agencies providing rural credit should aim to promote sustainable and equitable prosperity of the villagers through effective credit support, related services, institution development and other innovative initiatives. (ix) Extension of canal irrigation: – Irrigation is an essential component of progressive agriculture. In fact, development of irrigation has become synonymous with agricultural development and rural prosperity. Canal irrigation system is much more challenging than the groundwater irrigation systems. It is the dominant water transfer technique in developing countries and is performing well in many parts of the world. (x) Rural Electrification: – Rural electrification means to facilitate availability of electricity for accelerated growth and for enrichment of quality of life of rural population. It is argued that rural electrification is essential in the longer term perspective of rural development since electricity is considered as a prerequisite for economic development and improvement of overall standard of living of the rural inhabitants. Electricity is also considered as a potent force capable of elevating and providing the much needed dynamism into the rural economy.

 In this literature some programmes and projects pertaining to the national economic development (such as extension of mobile telephone service, extension of highway network, heavy industrialization etc.) also have been referred to as rural development programmes.

(3) The literature under the third theme is most critical. This literature comprises of the deliberations of the writers perhaps over enthusiastic to get them-selves enlisted in the line of economists. They have written to prove even some phenomena like the rural-urban migration and the emergence of small and rare urban patches in the form of campus of one or more heavy industries, to be the signs of rural development. I think, rural-urban migration gains impetus when there becomes acute shortage of employment opportunities in rural sector. Similarly, the above mentioned urban patches too have relation not with the process of rural development but with the rural-urban transformation. Some writers put one more step further by using the terms rural development and urbanization as synonymous. I don’t understand why they differentiate not between the rural and the urban economies. The basic difference between the rural and the urban economies is that of their dependence and not of the amenities or facilities of life available for the people living there. A rural economy substantially depends on land and agriculture. On the other hand, an urban economy substantially depends on any one or a combination of industry, trade and commerce. If we want to develop a rural economy we should develop land and agriculture. The land and agriculture development would increase income of the rural people whereby they would tend to raise their living standard by letting urban amenities, facilities and traditions enter in their life. Whatever the high level of living standard is achieved there on the basis of increased income generated on account of land and agriculture development, the economy remains rural, all the same. It becomes developed but is not converted into an urban economy. The rural villages in United States of America look far better than Indian cities but those are still the part of U.S. rural sector because the economy of those villages is still land and agriculture based. This course of strengthening a rural economy is “Rural Development’. If the urban way of living is made available to the rural mass without raising their income through land and agriculture, their consumption, traditions and living become urban. This is urbanization and not rural development. Urbanization is enjoyed by rural people till it is free of cost for them. As soon as it starts costing to them, either they revert to their pre-urbanization living standard or, if they have become habitual, they indulge in illegal activities to earn more income to maintain the enjoyed living standard. That is why the urban youths in India are day by day advancing towards crime. Therefore, urbanization can pay nothing positive to rural mass in real sense. Nor, urbanization means rural development. Each of the rural development, the rural extension, the urbanization, the urban development, the urban extension and the rural urban transformation has its separate meaning.

 

Therefore, this third theme of the rural development literature is totally unacceptable. But, all the same, this theme seems to have crept into and exerted its pressing effect in India’s development plan formulation. This becomes amply clear if we reflect on net result of India’s long journey, worth more than 55 yrs, on the path of planned economic development.

PREINDEPENDENCE RURAL INDIA         

 Before independence the picture of India could have been seen in the wrinkled faces, flushed cheeks, concavo bellies, folded hands in praying posture and wet eyes of its rural mass residing in the wide spread rural sector and constituting more than 70 % of India’s total population. The real India resided in their privation, poverty, starvation, helplessness, wretchedness and mass unemployment. Some sentimental citizens, having realized this situation of their nation, stepped on the way of freedom movement since the foreign rule was taken as the sole causal factor of that pitiable state of India. The movement went on advancing and masses went on being involved in it. Ultimately in 1947 India became independent whereby we became free to decide our future.

PERFORMANCE OF INDIA”S PLANNED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

We started our planned economic development since 1951 having in our hands the experience, a wide literature of well proved strategies and variegated plans pertaining to, used by and created or formulated by the well developed western economies, apart from our available natural resources. We were over enthusiastic and over ambitious on account of having the ready and well proved weapons sought from the western world for combating the problem of development. Therefore, instead of starting from the very beginning and covering the whole path we, being enticed and allured by the surprisingly fascinating fruits of industrialization, started our efforts but having longed for being developed and grabbing fruits thereof in a haste. Thus we lost sequences in our development path. We ignored agriculture that was the spine of our economy. Thereby our agricultural development lagged far behind the level required for feeding our industrialization up to the mark. Agriculture based small and cottage industries became shattered and the villages became ruined. This raised a huge bulk of unemployed people in the widely spread rural sector. The unemployed persons started migrating to the urban areas in search of job. The urban development and industrialization there had not sufficient level to absorb the whole migrating mass and to provide them proper urban life facilities. As a result thereof a mushroom growth of slums came about fast which eventually turned into big slum spots in cities and towns within a no longer period of 20 or 25 years. This hampered urban growth and urban life. On the other hand, in rural areas there emerged acute shortage of energetic workforce, service centres, infrastructure, intellectuals etc. This hampered the rural development whereby agricultural development and rural life remained slang lower. That is why, even having travelled a long path of planned economic development, the state of affairs of rural India still remains almost the same as it was before planning. There is a big gulf between urban and rural people regarding wealth, wage, education and income. Moreover, the rural-urban migration, due to the pitiable state of affairs in rural areas, resulted to unchecked urban growth. Thus, instead of overall development, an unbalanced and unfair development of our economy became resulted therein. Consequently a wide spread general unemployment prevailed in both the rural and the urban areas (as per ECONOMIC APPRAISAL 2006-07, the estimated number of unemployed persons rose from 7.98 million in 1983 to 9.02 million in 1993-94, to 10.51 million in 1999-2000 and to 13.10 million in 2004-05. In addition to this a considerable number of politically, socially and economically sound and effective elites emerged in cities and urban towns. These elites interfered in the formulation and execution of development plans, on one hand, and in the fixation of priorities, on the other. Thereby our development plans became urban oriented and concentrating on rich minority. Thus the poor majority and the rural economy became ignored. The unemployment situation in both the rural and the urban sectors became almost uncontrollable. The government became politically weak. Therefore its priority became to please the rich minority so that it may run. To mitigate unemployment and poverty among the general mass it has to play pseudo role to remedy some times the rural and some times the urban mass alternately through various unsuccessful employment programmes and plans. Due to the general unemployment the condition of rural mass became more embarrassing than that of urban mass since the rural people had already been subsisting in privation. The fruits of the development programmes in rural sector were grabbed by the social elites in villages. Therefore, the general rural mass, instead of observing their economic uplift, rather found them-selves lagging behind in the run of economic development. The village industries had to be liquidated; rural artisans or handicraftsmen either became unemployed or had to migrate to urban cities or towns; the socio-cultural, cheap and some times free entertainment sources (like village dramas, swangs, street magicians, community chorus, community games, rural fairs, community festivals etc.) were snatched by costly media based means. Modern road and rail transport replaced the traditional transport. Rural weekly markets and village shopkeepers came to their end in the want of adequate demand. This resulted to a rapid increase in the cost of living of the rural people but their income remained far behind.

CAUSES OF THE REGRESSIVE EFFECTS ON THE RURAL LIFE

There have been three causes of this stinging situation. The first was our galloping along the development path instead of travelling along the true locus by creeping walking and running as and when needed. The second cause refers to the distortion in the concept of rural development which made the formulation of development plans and strategies incompatible to rural economy. The third cause was the rapid population growth which added a lot to make the unemployment situation a mammoth. The first cause relates to our over enthusiasm and the second cause relates to the hereinabove discussed third theme of rural development literature. The third cause relates to the increasing difference of birth rate over death rate and the insignificant performance of ‘Family Planning Programme’. On account of extended medical facilities, uplift of living standard due to increased national income, control over epidemics, check on famines, alleviation of starvation, extension of maternity services etc. during the development process in the plan period, the death rate considerably went down (from 27.4 per thousand per year during 1941-50 to 7.6 per thousand per year in 2005) but the birth rate remained slang high (it was 39.9 per thousand per year during 1941-50 and came down only to 23.8 per thousand per year in 2005). Therefore population growth attained an increasingly high rate that was however tried unsuccessfully to be lowered through the ‘Family Planning Programme’.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR CHILD BIRTH

If we go in full detail of why a child is born, we will come across the various factors making a child take birth. The factors making a child take birth can be grouped under four heads namely (i)Biological Factor, (ii)Socio-cultural Factors, (iii)Religious Factors and (iv)Economic Factors.

BIOLOGICAL FACTOR

The biological factor refers to the child bearing as a byproduct of sexual gratification. This is one of the most effective factors determining birth rate of the population. A person in the state of aggravated sexual agitation can forgo all social, cultural, religious (spiritual) and economic gains for sexual gratification.

SOCIO-CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS FACTORS

The socio-cultural and the religious factors refer to the social customs, cultural traditions and religious faiths which play dominant role in the life of people especially in poor and backward communities. The social factors induce a person to have more sons as the sons are believed to be the reliable means of social security and social status for a family. Moreover, they are deemed to care their old, physically wasted and worn-out parents, on one hand, and to provide safety to the family in case of conflicts and death of supportive member/s of the family.  The religious factors refer mainly to four beliefs. One states that peace is rendered to the soul after death only if the cremation is performed by a real son. The second speaks of higher spiritual gain or place in Elysium of heaven after death for a person having more sons. The third relates the production of more children to religious service and the fourth specifies child bearing as the pious duty of a woman because she is believed to be sent by God only for increasing progeny.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

Apart from the socio-cultural and the religious factors, the economic factors are very much effective like the biological factor. A person in acute economic privation leaves even deeply instilled socio-cultural, religious and some times biological allurements too for economic gains. The need of economic support in old age and the poverty are two main economic factors making people tend to produce more children. In old age, when a person becomes generally sick, pulled, worn-out, and non-earning, he becomes dependant to his heirs for food, clothing, medical treatment and other expenses. More the sons or heirs he has, lesser will be the share of burden of supporting him. As regards to poverty, it generates three causes of inducement to the high rate of child-birth.

(a) The prevailing media based fascinating means of entertainment are not only out of the reach of poor man but these have also snatches the old socio-cultural, cheap and some times free entertainment sources from him. Therefore a poverty stricken person has to search the way of entertainment in sex and that too being circumstantially unprotected whereby childbirth goes on taking place one after one successively.

(b) In poor families a child becomes earning hand at the age of seven or eight yrs. On account of the subsistence level of family’s living, the expenditure on child’s feeding is considerably lower than the wage he earns. Therefore, the surplus of his earning over his consumption adds to family income and thus contributes to the uplift of family’s standard of living. The sentiments and feelings regarding education or future welfare of the child droop before the agony of unsatisfied basic needs due to privation. Therefore, a child in a poor family is proved an asset rather than liability, in its stead.

(c) There are some types of family occupations where a number of faithful workmen are required. The required manpower from own family is most desirable there. If a person is owner of a series of units of small scale industries, cottage industries, small business units etc. the hired managing persons generally prove costlier, unfaithful and non-devoted. If a family member is deployed at each such unit the safety and profitability is increased. Similar is the position in a single cottage industry unit where margin of profit is low and hired labour makes the profit uncertain. If family manpower instead of hired one is used the profitability there becomes increased on account of devotedness, faithfulness and per need flexibility in working hours of the working force. Moreover, wage rate of a family labour is generally lower than that of a hired labour because the cost of living of one member of the family is lower than that of the whole family of hired man. Therefore the requirement of man power is tried to meet out by producing more children in the family.

PERFORMANCE OF FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMME

As regards to the check on high population growth the prevailing ‘Family Planning Programme’ has been proved insufficient and incomplete. Census figures reveal that the ‘Family Planning Programme’ in India has fallen short of the goals with which it was implemented. India’s family planning program was initiated in 1952 to curb population growth and in due course was given highest priority along with other developmental programs. All the same, India’s population that was below half billion in 1960 crossed the figure of one billion in 2000. It is well proved that the programme failed to instill among the general mass the spirit of ‘children by choice and not by chance’. Introduction of target free approach in 1996-97, reduced thrust on family planning, poor access to family planning services and inadequate attention on need based methods of sterilization have been the causal factors of the inadequacy and insufficiency of family planning programme in controlling population growth especially in rural areas where it should have been proved but successful.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

The whole length of the above discussion makes amply clear that incompatibility of the development process and inadequacy of family planning programme are the two factors responsible for slackness in rural development in India. Therefore, to accelerate rural development the   development process should be made compatible by rectifying the conceptual mistake in the development move and the high population growth should be checked by making the family planning programme strong and effective. As far as the question of rectification of mistake in development move is concerned, the time of making the mistake good by starting afresh has gone far back. Therefore, we should better take a drastic turn to re-fix our priorities, reformulate our strategies, re-select our programmes and reconstruct our plans so as to make our development move rural oriented, congenial to micro-level needs of the people, akin to the over all development and compatible to the extenuation of economic disparities. This will bring about fast agricultural development, uplift of village life and revival of village industries, artistry and handicraft to check the rural-urban migration. On the other hand, the ‘Family Planning Programme’ should be made strong and effective by reformulating it in a way that all the factors making a child take birth are extenuated as suggested below.

(1)To check unintended child-birth on account of purely the biological factor the contraceptives should be made so affluently available that in every case of coitus for mere gratification the use of a suitable contraceptive is made sure.

(2)The socio-cultural and the religious factors should be weakened by old age house facility, old age pension, dependent minors allowance scheme, unemployment allowance, community insurance, extension of education, literacy and poverty alleviation programmes etc.

(3)The population growth on account of economic factors should be checked by so designing the media based means of entertainment that these become under the easy reach of poor people, making the family occupations joint ventures, launching subsidy schemes and market protection schemes for rural cottage or small scale industries and accelerating agricultural development.

It is finally concluded that for achieving rural development the development plans and the family planning programme both should be reformed on the hereinabove suggested lines so that extra employment opportunities may be generated fast and population growth may be checked in a way that growth of employment opportunities considerably exceeds the population growth in rural sector.

 

 

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admin Uncategorized Development, Extention, Extenuation, Growth, Land, Transformation, Urbanization

Individual career planning development is centered on current skills, future personal growth and training. In these modern times, more and more individuals take it upon themselves to get the best possible education available and the work required for them to be successful in any given profession.
When employees put more emphasis on their career development and planning, they become better prepared to enter the workplace, climb higher up the professional ladder. Career development and planning is implemented in various stages. Some people purposefully shape theirs towards each given stage, while some simply are easily motivated and are prone to choose what’s currently required and maybe needed in the times ahead.
Career plans based on short term planning may force the individual to think objectively and realistically about the accomplishments for a period of five or more year’s timeframe. Location, skill, schooling and other costs come into focus during this period.
Long term based career development and planning usually keeps the individual inspired. It is a continuous process of reviewing current skills and the desire to enlarge and utilize them in advancement.
Counselors of career planning and development can be useful in helping individuals stop an on going behavior or the guilty conscient that comes with changing career course. For a person to be successful, he’s expected to ignore the subjective and objective forces that may try to (either deliberately or non-deliberately) to impede his progress. Pressures from the family can be a big barrier for that matter; this may include family members who expect you to join up the family business, or believe that your career is below them. Absence of motivation, mediocrity and postponement of major decisions is another big barrier. An individual may postpone a decision to drop that job he dislikes for a better one because of the security the current one provides, and the doubt involved in looking for and starting a new career. This especially holds true if the fulltime worker has a family to feed and cater for.
Many people feel immobilized by the thought of steering their careers in a new direction the fear factor plays a major role here, especially the fear of failure, of leading their families down a path and maybe loosing all that they have strived to achieve. Such fears, though mostly rational, can force a talented individual to change his mind. Career Development Planning Counselors come I handy at such moments, because they can offer valuable guidance to enable an individual decide on what’s best for them. This in turn removes worries and pressures associated with career change.
Sites dedicated to career development and also conferences offer interested persons information that deals with the various classes and types of courses they provide, tutors available, and the class environment requirements. Brochures and other related articles on career development and planning stages and worksheets are accessible in the internet at no price from many institutions. These worksheets incorporate checklists nd goals for specific carrer choices, or just broad questions for anyone’s use.

admin Uncategorized career, career development and planning, landing onto a new career

Personal skills development has become a huge market across the world. Becoming proficient and skilled in one’s profession often determines how far you get in business and it pays to stay ahead of the competition. Being smarter is not the mantra but being more rounded and educated in enough areas to get the job done.

Why even bother to develop your personal skills? What skills are more valuable and which should you seek out? How does personal development relate to one’s success? A lot depends on your particular area of expertise but let’s look from a perspective of online marketing. Here are some items to consider:

- To better the competition. In your particular niche, what are the leaders doing? Are your talents comparable? Look at measuring yourself against them and coming up with a plan to get where they are or better.- To communicate with customers and prospects. This often involves mind expansion on your part to come up with more unique and not so typical ways to get your message. At least 90% or better of communication is non-verbal so you need to make sure that you communicate well and more often than not. Courses on communication are available and this is one area of personal skills development you should definitely work on.- To become more technically proficient. Are you up to snuff on all the features and benefits of your product or service? If not, get out the brochures or manuals and start cracking. Think about your market demographic and study trends and demand. Develop a plan to be the best in your field and start working on it.- To increase your market penetration. This part involves a bit of focus. Leaders are not born, they are made. This means producing content or developing your performance so that you become recognized by your peers. Will you make mistakes? Yes, but you should look back at your blunders and resolve to learn from them.A habit I’ve been using to develop my own personal skills development is to increase my knowledge base. I often use audio learning techniques such as listening to motivational as well as  instructional material on a regular basis to increase my mind expansion. I also read books on a regular basis to increase my grasp of critical concepts I feel important to me. Leisure reading has it’s place also and an appreciation of the arts is good to have particularly as a subject of conversation with others. Occasionally, I will view a video to look at business presentations or events that I might find useful. Seminars and conferences are another useful tool in personal skills development. Many companies online often utilize online conferences to teach their affiliates or distributors on a regular basis. Face to face seminars are great but can be costly. I try to make it a point to get to at least 1 or 2 conferences a year in my field to stay current on topics and subjects of interest or to gain proficiency in knowledge in a subject I’m not up on.Some pointers for particular areas to consider when making your personal skills development plan:

- Communication. Learning to be a better communicator is critical to your success in any field. This is a must to master.- Marketing skills. I’ve often looked at this when using my own step by step marketing system. This means looking at ad pages, emails and any other media when you present it to the public. Does it look professional? Would you buy or sign up from your presentation? Things you can improve upon.- Organization. The more organized you are, the better you can execute. This usually involves refining your daily routine and sustaining it.- Technical savvy and creativity. This often involves taking classes in subjects that involve the more technical aspects of your field. An example might be learning HTML language, designing web pages, or researching niches on the search engines. Also involves practice in things such as article writing, business letters, video creation and more.Developing a personal skills development plans can do wonders for your business. When you pick up a new skill, be sure to use it on a regular basis to strengthen your knowledge of it. Just remember to master the fundamentals first, then look to become the best in your niche.

admin Uncategorized Audio Learning, Mind Expansion, Personal Skills Development, Step By Step Marketing System

As caterpillar changes into an attractive and productive butterfly so also you need to consistently experience growth in your personal life.But you must be willing to change. Every living thing on this earth is designed for growth. However not many people are willing to dedicate themselves to a deliberate program of growth. This is because growth requires change, and most of us are reluctant to change. But without change, growth is impossible. Life is designed for motion not stagnation. Those who put up with stagnation eventually end up in frustration. The average person may not mind change as long as it affects someone else. But we put up resistance when it affects us personally.Dear friend, if you’re not changing, you’re not growing. Growing means giving up familiar but limiting beliefs, values, and work, relationships or thought patterns. Change is inevitable. Everybody has to deal with it because if we are not growing we start dying. Life is designed for growth, for continuous improvement. To experience personal development you must make a choice for growth, because growth is a choice. It is impossible for you to try and maintain your current position and make progress at the same time. Don’t dig in, but keep moving. Settle this once and for all. The only way to improve the quality of your life is to improve yourself through consistent growth. To grow your business, grow yourself. To have a better wife, be a better husband. To have better children be a better parent. To have better friends, be a better friend. One of the greatest discoveries you’ll make in life is this: as you change and improve; things and people will change and improve around you. Since the only person you really have the ability to change anyway is yourself, begin by changing yourself. Make a choice to grow everyday. And start with what you have where you are. The things that you have done to be where you are today very basic. Because they are things you have done daily over a long period of time. Things like breathing, eating, sleeping and going to toilet. Take note they are things you must do for yourself. You see, growth is a non-transferable responsibility; start now. Feed your mind with the good stuff, buy books,attend seminar, volunteer for community services and any other ways you can think of to improve your self. And begin to apply the things you are learning. Change your attitude and your altitude level will change There is nothing that brings contentment in life like growth. Whatever or whoever is not growing becomes a source of concern. Growth has many advantages. When we grow we change. And when we change things happen around us. Life becomes more favourable. You see, there are many good opportunities available for us to enjoy. But we cannot gain access to them until we are matured enough to handle them. Growth today guarantees a better tomorrow. Life responds to values not titles. When you add to your personal value everyday, you will eventually attract what you are worth.Now to grow you must be teachable. The greatest obstacle to growth may not be ignorance. It may be knowledge. The point at which you feel that you know it all is the point is the point at which you stop growing. Really, the more you know, the more you should know that you don’t know. No wonder former basketball coach, John Wooden once said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” Always remember that there is a higher level than where you are. And when you remain teachable, your potential is almost limitless.Make a decision to grow now .

admin Uncategorized Business Leaders, Personal Growth, personal growth plan, Personal Growth Solutions, Personal Growth System, Personal Success, Success, Success Strategy

As part of the entire personal development formula, setting personal goals is beyond question central in supplying a clear insight of what you would like to achieve. Setting at least one or so personal goals seems to be a simple task. You determine a particular goal, one which is measurable and holds a specific time frame to be finished. You carry out with your plan, appraise your advancement towards accomplishing your personal goal and then measure the effect impartially to tweak your personal goal setting.

Apparently, it flows well while seeming simple enough to do. Regrettably, setting personal goals seldom turns out that way for many reasons; chieflt because we often fail to determine down-to-earth personal goals. In addition, we oftentimes haphazardly determine personal goals with merely a blurry view to how these goals will actually be accomplished.

However while we are usually driven at the start of the formula of setting personal goals, it’s not really much at all unusual to lose our motivation somewhere at some stage in the future. When setting your personal goals, it’s essential to first recognise that every goal you set needs to be realistic and easily achievable, devoted a suitable amount of resources and time. E.g., Setting personal goals to earn $35,000 per month inside of the next four months, when your present income are far less than $4,000, is probably surreal. Yet, establishing an ongoing realistic goal to increase your revenue by 4% to 10% per month is not merely down-to-earth, but also more likely to be achievable.

When you have settled on a personal goal you believe you can achieve, your next thing to do is to break it down into smaller, controllable parts and scheduling them in order (assuming each goal hinges on the conclusion of another). Ahead of assigning an target date the entire goal must be achieved, be sure that every little goal is devoted a valid measure of time for completion and have the sum of the chores specify the end date, rather than randomly choosing one. Based upon how long into the future your personal goals are imaged it may be really useful to schedule regular advancement reviews, even when you are the sole person participating. E.g., setting a spot each Friday morning to scrutinize your advancement plus implement any called for adjustments can maintain your goals up to date.

Try not be disappointed if something unexpected interferes with your advancement now and then. This is normal and you will simply have to find some means to compensate for it. Another artificial roadblock to genuinely meeting your personal goals is the task of setting personal goals itself. Make sure to stay away from practicing a goal management formula that uses up more resources and time than the very goal itself. Likewise, an simple spreadsheet can at times be adequate to meet your full personal goal setting wants.

For larger scale personal goal setting management, a variety of personal goal setting software exists, usually scalable for virtually all personal projects. Aside from actually executing the procedure towards finally finishing your personal goal, the utmost thing to do should be to set aside a little time to measure the full procedure and your performance when finished. This should be done impartially and adopted as a learning option, one that will help you to boost your efficiency the next time out.

With exact management, setting goals that are realistic can genuinely do good for you and your business in the long run, particularly when you simplify your goal administration procedure for yourself. Once you look on setting personal goals as a evolving procedure focused on continuous efficiency betterment, eventually you will see a considerable improvement in everything that you aspire to do!

admin Uncategorized Effective Personal Goal Setting, How To Set Personal Goals, Personal Development Goal Setting, Personal Goal Setting, Setting Personal Goals

Personal development is key if you want to be successful in anything in life or in anything you want to accomplish. The first step is to have that strong desire because everything starts with you thinking and having that burning desire to achieve whatever you like and want from life. Self-improvement is the first step by working on yourself then you will change to become whatever person you aspire to be. So first you need to identify the problem you are facing which can be lack of motivation for example and by doing so you are going through the first step of self-improvement. You need to analyze that and figure a way to overcome that by creating a definite plan which you will follow daily until you have achieve what you want which is to be a well motivated person that can attack anything he wants anytime and win!

Second is to build the desire you need to achieve you goals. To do so you must think of what you want in life and write it down on a piece of paper and read it every morning and night before you sleep. By doing so you are putting that thought into your mind to build that burning and strong desire in your mind and self to achieve it no matter what happens and that you will overcome every single obstacle that comes you way. There is a saying by Napoleon Hill that I want to quote which goes like this “A thought backed up by a burning desire has a tendency of transmuting itself into its physical equivalent.” That means whatever you think and program into your head and with that you have the strong desire to back it up you can make it a reality!

Those are the few main steps to success that you should follow if you are looking and wanting to change your life for the best. There are many more tips and secrets to come so stay in touch.

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admin Uncategorized achieve, Achievement, article, articles, burning desire, desire, elie nassour, Goal Setting, Goals, inspiration, jaykubassek, Motivation, Motivational, people, person, Personal Development, Personal Growth, steps to success, strong desire, Success, successful, Time Management