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This might be an intermittent question for you, but if you’re considering going high profile on your career path some day, you should always be prepared to give opinions.

Usually young candidates and fresh graduates didn’t fare well when the interviewers ask for opinions, personal view or point of view regarding certain issues.

Personal opinion is important because it proves that you’re able to process whatever you’re reading (or watching, hearing) in order to give criticism to the subject matter. This is a basic hint for one’s analytical ability, a crucial skill in every management personnel.

Approaching questions

How about testing yourself with the following set of questions:

• (a) Describe about the global warming movement. (b) Is it a hype or do we really need it?

• (a) Name some wars that are currently ongoing. (b) Are they necessary? On Iraq? What about on North Korea?

• (a) What is the state of current economy. (b) Should we blame the capitalists? Why?

If you observe carefully, there are two different types of questions in each question. The first question (a) can be answered simply if you’re reading the newspapers or magazines.

But what separates the thinkers from the rest are the subsequent questions (b). These questions can only be answered if you have an opinion piece on the subject, because there’s no general consent about the corresponding answers. There’s no right or wrong answer.

How you can improve

So how can you form your opinion? And how to make your opinion carries some weight? Easy. You have to train yourself to give opinions, to take every issue on the critical side, to not accept everything you read directly. In every news that you come to, ask critical questions and find the answers, before coming out with your own take.

1. Read news. But read blogs too, look at what the bloggers have to say about certain news.
2. Read newspapers, but don’t skip the editorials and essays. It carries more analysis, often in the first-person perspective, which is great to discover how prominent writers think.
3. Read on-line forums. At any forum thread, look at how different people have different views on the single subject. Look how they’re defending their view too.
4. Follow interviews and talk show. Look at how each panel’s opinion differs (or collide) with each other.

The key to forming your opinion is knowing both side of the issue. You wouldn’t know that by reading/watching news per se. Start diversifying your source.

No, I don’t mean this in a negative tone. I’m asking you to be literally disruptive, adapting the usage from the technological lingo:

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is an innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect….

This means that every time a disruptive product is being introduced, it changes the game-plan of the industry forever. Like how budget airlines changes the air travel. Like how MP3 players relegated portable sterio.

Be an explosive figure. Change your peers.

Every time a disruptive product is being introduced, it disturbs every other producers dramatically that they have to shift all their resources to follow suit.

Likewise, you can positively be disruptive to your peers in the office. You can change the way people work and how they interact. You can spice up the office live in your department. You can start a revolution. A change. You can initiate a refreshing culture. Move them out of the box.

For example:

• Share nifty computer tricks that can save time with your peers. MS Powerpoint shortcuts. Excel formulas. Learn and pass them around.

• Change the way you handle presentations so that it’s more entertaining. Make it out of this world. Break them out of the boring norm.

• Organize a weekly get-together for your peers. Bowling, karaoke, movies, anything. Let it be your department’s routine ritual.

• Paste interesting facts and articles on your department’s bulletin board. Make it relevant and useful. Don’t forget to add in some fun too.

• Bring some quirky decorations for your cubicle. Let it un-office your workspace, transfer your peers to another world when they drop by your desk.

These things are not that hard to initiate. It’s up to you to lead and be a trend-setter. You can leave a deep impact to your peers (and bosses), or rot in the obscurity. If you want to be a successful executive, don’t wait for others to change.

Start disrupting them now.

By now you’ve probably realized that being young doesn’t mean being healthy. With endless task to complete, meetings to participate, errands to run, all while staying back at the office late after your official working hours- being a young executive will take a toll on your health- both mentally and physically. At least for some of us.

How to keep you going..

Therefore, exercise is a definite must. But with the squeeze you get from your daily routine, how to keep you going with your weekly exercise? How to keep the determination burning?

Set a benchmark system.

Benchmarking is a standard that you could compare your performance. Having a benchmark- or a target- will give a general idea about:

1. How far you are from your target.
2. How consistent you must be to achieve the target.
3. How hard you must exercise this week to achieve the target later.
4. Why you can’t miss your next exercise session.

An odometer for cyclist like this can measure speed, distance and the average speed for every ride session- a great way to measure your improvement.

Depending on your type of activities: work out in the gym, jogging, cycling, swimming- you must set a long term goal, like how well would you like to do in 2 months time.

Then break those target into weekly objectives, and strive to achieve those weekly targets every time you’re out there.

Having a measurement tool (calorie burn counter, trip meter, timer, GPS route system, heartbeat sensor) would be a definite boost for your morale- you can instantly measure how well you did. Invest some of your hard-earned money to buy these tool- they’re worth it. Having a precision feedback and target would be a great motivation to keep you going.

It is a normal occurrence for executives to have multiple assignments, reports, tasks or errands with different deadlines and priorities.  And in most cases, these workloads are requested by different people- your manager, your immediate supervisor, your co-worker, people from other departments and even the customers.

Manage with clear and precise information, all readily available

There will come to a point where you can’t cope up with any new request anymore- you will not be able to complete your current tasks if you accept a new one. This is pretty straightforward, but it will become trickier if it involves the following line:

“This is urgent!”

…and if it came from someone in a higher position. And unfortunately, almost all of your current tasks can be urgent as well. But being pushy, they’ll insist you to prioritize their request- which will turn your work topsy-turvy. So should you stay back at the office until midnight and strive to complete all those tasks within the schedule?

Well, you can manage your work to minimize the possibility all by managing those requests. So how do you tell the people who seek your help that enough is enough?

Have a work schedule on display

A work schedule will be very handy in this situation. Have a big, clear and precise schedule hung up near your desk, with the following information:

• List of tasks, with,
• Date of submission
• Duration
• Priority
• Requested by

Show the schedule every time you’re given a new task

Now, every time someone comes to you and hands you a new task, kindly ask them to discuss the priority with you. Point them to your schedule, and tell them that in order to complete their request (if they insisted), you have to stall some other task- clearly state who requested those tasks and what is the priority.

If the person still insist on completing their request first- tell them that they’re authorizing you to stall other task, and if the people who requested those other tasks are unsatisfied with your late delivery, he/she will be partly accountable.

Negotiate-negotiate-negotiate

This way, by having a clear schedule to support you, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate your way to a better work quality. Remember, this is not about blackmailing or arguing your way out, this is about negotiation. Have a positive attitude in entertaining every request, and co-plan your work with them. It might not always work, but it will not always fail as well…

It’s worth the shot.

Who's the king?

Are you an obedient person? Are you good in obeying your superiors? Do you obey the rules around you?

If your responses are positive in general, don’t be too sure just yet. Because you might still be a disobedient person.

• How often have you set a new year resolution, only to find it being unfulfilled or broken?
• How often do you feel unease because you’re not doing something you think you want to do?
• How often, when waking up in the morning, you’ve snoozed your alarm clock, knowing that you’ll risk being late for work by doing so?

If the above situations seem natural to you, than it’s proven that you’re being disobedient to yourself.

As my favorite dictionary dictates, obedient is defined as:

Dutifully complying with the commands, orders, or instructions of one in authority.

When you’re not complying to what your conscious mind instructed you to do, then you fail in obeying yourself. Failing to obey yourself is the biggest sin there is, because it shows that YOU DON’T HAVE THE AUTHORITY ON YOURSELF.

Maybe because of laziness, maybe because you’re shy..whatever the reason, you relinquish the control of yourself..and with no control you can kiss all your principles and your planning goodbye.

You can plan, but remember, obeying yourself to follow all your plans is just as important. So let’s try a little exercise- try listing down things to do for the day clearly, and treat every accomplished item as your small victory. Those victories, no matter how small they are- will prove you’re still in control of yourself.

Sounds trivial, but try it yourself and you’ll see my point.