2pure , Business __ Thursday, May 16, 2013 10:32 AM - Samer Zaarour

As a team leader sometimes you speak loudly saying: “The team is dedicated, they are staying late and working on weekends yet the target is not met. Is there any solution?”

Let me tell you a story that can help you understand more the situation you are facing.

When I was at school we were divided into 3 groups, the first group hated the sport session, the second one was sportive and the third one was athletic. Personally, I was from the second group. One day the sport teacher informed us that will have a run competition, I was very excited about it and I told myself I will make today an unbeatable score.

I was keeping an eye on the athletic guys; I wanted to make sure to be on the same line with them during the run. Go!!! , the teacher said. The first 3 tours everything was under control, the athletics were running beside me, and I was so happy and proud, suddenly in the forth tour they accelerated, the thing that obliged me to make a big effort to follow them, in the final tour they accelerated more, I tried my best to catch up with them but failed. When we finished, one of the athletic guys put his hand on my shoulder and said to me “you made remarkable results today”.


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2pure , Entrepreneurship __ Monday, May 6, 2013 1:33 AM - Samer Zaarour

Sometimes meetings are disorganized and could result in unclear decisions and confusion. Below are tips that help you to lead a successful meeting:

• Know when to set a meeting and when to use e-mail When topics are complex don’t create a never-ending email thread, do not spent time composing long e-mail while in 10 minutes meetings you summarize the whole situation. In the other hand when topics are easy it better to deal with them by e-mails or quick phone call.

• Involve the right people Make sure who need to be invited to the meeting; some people may complain that it is waste of time for him because the subject of the meeting is outside the scope of his work, other may just come and throw negative thoughts.

• Create an agenda Keeping everything in head is a very hard mission, you will forget important notes. Make an agenda where you write all topics, ideas, and questions and tell the people you invited about this agenda, so they think about it, make their researches and prepare answers.


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2pure , Leadership __ Thursday, February 28, 2013 4:46 PM - Samer Zaarour

Let us take the example “they will fire me if they don’t like me”.

Think about it; is it really a personal matter? The answer is no. You already have been hired because you have qualifications that differentiate you from the other candidates that applied to the job. So if you are maintaining those qualifications or improving them, there is no reason for you are fired. Furthermore, what are the weak points in your personality that make you assume that you will be fired?

Are those points real, or you are just imagining things?
Did you skip those point but you are not realizing that till now?

In all cases, the only solution is you face those weak points in you. Let us assume you have communication problem with your colleagues, do an effort to ameliorate you communication style, look for directions in blogs, books, person you trust…
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2pure , Leadership __ Tuesday, February 12, 2013 10:25 AM - Samer Zaarour

Your job as a manager is to lead your organization. In order to lead effectively, the first thing you have to know is the goal.

Many companies have set goal for their companies. You need to find out if your company has one and, if so, what it is. You need to find out how your part of the organization is supposed to help accomplish that goal.

Let's say your company's goal includes a corporate goal of increasing the sales 40%. You are responsible for product development. What does your group have to do to implement that overall goal? Will you train you team on new development techniques? Would it be better to hire new employee? You are the expert. Your company depends on you to analyze all the options and make (or recommend) the correct decisions.

Challenge all your assumed constraints. Forget about company culture, previous failed attempts at expansion, what your last company did, etc. Instead, look at what is best for your company. Look at all the options. Then, when all the options are on the table, you can consider issues such as culture, finances, competition, etc.
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