Excellence Never is Enough

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Conflict resolution at work.

The fact of the matter is conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. The ability to recognize conflict, understand the nature of conflict, and to be able to bring swift and just resolution to conflict will serve you well as a leader , the inability to do so may well be your downfall. Here are some ways to manage conflicts at a work place.

Define Acceptable Behavior: Just having a definition for what constitutes acceptable behavior is a positive step in avoiding conflict. Having clearly defined job descriptions so that people know what’s expected of them, and a well-articulated chain of command to allow for effective communication will also help avoid conflicts.

Hit Conflict Head-on: By actually seeking out areas of potential conflict and proactively intervening in a just and decisive fashion you will likely prevent certain conflicts from ever arising. If a conflict does flair up, you will likely minimize its severity by dealing with it quickly. Time spent identifying and understanding natural tensions will help to avoid unnecessary conflict.

The Importance Factor: Pick your battles and avoid conflict for the sake of conflict. However if the issue is important enough to create a conflict then it is surely important enough to resolve. If the issue, circumstance, or situation is important enough, and there is enough at stake, people will do what is necessary to open lines of communication and close positional and/or philosophical gaps.

View Conflict as Opportunity: Hidden within virtually every conflict is the potential for a tremendous teaching/learning opportunity. Where there is disagreement there is an inherent potential for growth and development. Divergent positions addressed properly can stimulate innovation and learning in ways like minds can’t even imagine.

Laboratory block at Mater Ecclesiae Nursing and Midwifery School Luweero.

Bottom line is I believe resolution can normally be found with conflicts where there is a sincere desire to do so. Turning the other cheek, compromise, forgiveness, and compassion, empathy, finding common ground, being an active listener, service above self, and other approaches will always allow one to be successful in building rapport if the underlying desire is strong enough.

Self evaluation at a work place.

As the year comes to an end, employees needs to have a self evaluation in order to better in the different tasks in which they perform. Periodic evaluation is a chance for employees to review the recent past and discuss future expectations. An evaluation also serves as an opportunity to set goals as individuals and a team. we’ve created a sample self-assessment to guide you as you create your own.

Strengths: Clearly point out your strength that you feel is your strong point at work. Their is need to also get better ways to use your strength in order to meet your work goals.

Weaknesses: Every one has weaknesses and their is need to clearly list them especially when it affects your work. Every employee has to find away to work on their weaknesses since it always sabotages work.

Core values: Have a list of your values, beliefs and check if all you did through out the evaluation time period is in line with them, if not their is still a chance to align your self with them again.

Accomplishments: Their is need to look at your accomplishments and be proud of them, this is a source of motivation to strive better. No matter how the evaluation period was their was a point where you strived this means you can even strive the more.

Goals: During self evaluation at work their is still need to look at the goals set during that period and check if you aligned with them, their is also need to set more goals/targets higher than the ones set hence hard work.

Feed back: Feed back from superiors at work is also an important element during self evaluation, it gives you a genuine report about your performance and areas of Improvement.

Note: Keeping things simple and using short, declarative bullet points are key to writing an effective self-assessment. While the exact nature of your self-assessment might depend on your position and job description, this basic model can help guide you in writing a self-evaluation.

PHASES THAT SHOULD BE USED TO MAKE COLLEAGUES COMFORTABLE AT WORK.

What you say to your colleagues at work speaks volumes about you and the values you stand for. The phases you say will either make them feel comfortable or uncomfortable when working with you. Here are some captivating phrases that can help you stir your team members towards the organization’s cardinal objectives.

Many thanks: The importance of making your team members feel appreciated are highly powerful motivators. A great sense of belonging can even have a greater impact on your colleagues’ morale and engagement than financial incentives. You should make it a point of call to say “Thank you” to your team mates regularly.

Feel free to come to my office anytime: If your colleagues know they have unfettered access to their team member, they’ll have a greater sense of belonging, they will feel more confident taking on challenges and demonstrating initiative, since they have guaranteed guidance from their workmates.

I’ll look into that and give you an update :Rather than shut them down when they ask you for something at an important moment, you can use this phase to buy yourself more time to resolve their query. Also, it’s important to mean it and follow through with it when you say it.

You can ask me any question yet another statement that throws open your doors and a sense of belonging among colleagues. This motivates your colleagues to commit to work, knowing they have all the resources and support they need to succeed.

Can you give me your opinion on this?  In many instances, you can gain valuable insights from your colleague’s inputs. It’s crucial for you to show your appreciation for their inputs, even though it might make you appear less-knowledgeable. With this statement, you can widen your intellect while also boosting your team mates’ sense of belonging.

There’s good news and also bad news there always comes a time when you have to deliver unpleasant news to your colleagues, and it’s always good to soften the blow by pointing to the brighter side of things. With this phrase, you don’t need to fear telling the truth to your employees but can phrase it like “Here is the situation on ground and what it means for you”

Things You Can Do to Avoid Getting Bored at Work

Performing the same tasks over a long period of time can cause boredom at work, this literally doesn’t mean that one is tired of work but according to research boredom creeps into almost every workplace, even when employees enjoy flexible work. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help your team members stay excited about their jobs, whether they’re in the office or working from home.

Laboratory block at Mater Ecclesie Nurses and Midwifery School Luweero.

Share the load. Make sure you’re spreading the boring tasks evenly across your team – so it’s fair and remember, just because someone doesn’t moan about a task, doesn’t mean they enjoy it some employees will prefer to grin and bear the boredom, than look negative.

Give them more responsibility. In many cases, boredom essentially comes down to lack of a challenge; if your employee is bored then you’re probably not getting the most out of them. Set more difficult challenges, increase their target, offer them different tasks, jobs and even new projects. Note keep employees in the loop to make sure you’re not overdoing it and putting too much on their shoulders.

Hand over of A classroom block at Tuto Junior School Busesa.

Talk.You need to tackle this, head on, if you suspect that someone in your team is bored, just ask them straight Are you bored? Are we not challenging you enough? What can we do to help you? Remember if you don’t ask, you’ll never know!

Involve your team.Get your team involved in some of the bigger-picture decisions for your business. Communicate what’s happening and welcome their ideas and comments; this will give them something bigger to focus on and help them to feel valued and respected.

Complete classroom block at Tuto Junior School during handover.

Give them a break. Let your employees take regular breaks! Even if it’s just 5 minutes to go and grab themselves a glass of water or have a chat, it’ll give them a chance to refresh and get that second wind.

EXCELLENT NEVER IS ENOUGH

A female porter/helper at a construction site .

Adoch Salama during the interview at Luwero site.

As she enters the interview room looking shy and not sure of what to expect. Her clothes looks a little dirty full of concrete and cement, she is calm and soft spoken, Adoch Salama is the only female porter/helper (unskilled builder), born in 1986 a mother of 4 children but also takes care of 2 nieces and 1 nephew. Wakes up at 6:00am does home chores like fetching water since the water source is far from home, cleans up home and showers before reporting at work/site.

Pictorial moment of the interviewer and Adoch Salama at the Luwero site.

Arrival time at site is always between 07:00hours to 07:15hours, at the gate she takes the COVID 19 SOPs seriously before registering in the attendance book. After registering then she changes to work clothes (which includes the safety wears).Between 07:15hours-07:30hours is site meeting which includes allocation of work to different people for the day. As a helper/porter she is allocated to masons (skilled builders) who expect her to mix the right ratio of materials to make concrete the quantity is mixed according to the speed of the masons and supplied to the people she was allocated to.

Breakfast is at 10:00hours for 30 minutes this comprises of porridge (she takes 1 and half cup of porridge) and lunch at 13:00hours to 14:00hours this comprises of beans and posho(she takes a plate of food).Work ends at 18:00hours, she cleans up tools, equipment used and remaining materials to the stores, then signs attendance to close the day before freshening up(includes getting off work clothes) then heads home at 18:30hours to meet the family after a long day.

Adoch Salama during work at the Luwero site.

When asked how she got to Know the vacancy, “it was through friends who told me about the vacancy and they were not sure of me taking it seriously” says Adoch.at work since she is the only female casual worker she faces challenges, “am always teased by the male workers and they joke a lot about me but I push on because I need the money to feed my family” says Adoch. Her future plan is to save money and buy a machine that processes ground nuts and simsim to peanut butter.

EXCELLENT NEVER IS ENOUGH

Mastering time management at work.

Staffs having a pictorial moment after an in-house training in August 2021 at head office.

We’ve all experienced the woes of time management at work. You wake up hopeful and optimistic not only will you meet all your deadlines. Then life happens. You leave late, you hit traffic, and you arrive at your desk already frustrated with the world. The good news is that there are ways to reclaim those seemingly elusive lost hours of the day. It’s all about personal time management manage your time instead of letting it manage you. Worry less Check out some tips to help manage time.

Figure out how you’re currently spending your time. If you’re going to optimize your personal time management, you first need to figure out where the time is going. Try diligently logging your time for a week by tracking your daily activities. This audit will help you: Determine how much you can feasibly accomplish in a day, identify time consuming activities and focus on what provides the greatest returns. 

Prioritize wisely. As you organize your to-do list, prioritization is key for successful time management at work. Start by eliminating tasks that you shouldn’t be performing in the first place. Then identify the three or four most important tasks and do those first—that way, you make sure you finish the essentials. Evaluate your to-do list and make sure you organized it based on the importance of a task rather than its urgency.

Get organized. For effective time management, this tip needs to actually go on your to-do list. If you have piles of papers scattered all over your desk, finding the one you actually need will be like finding a needle. Little things make a big difference. Create a filing system for documents you only have to do it once, but you get the benefits forever.

Create a daily schedule—and stick with it. This step is absolutely crucial for learning how to manage time at work. Don’t even attempt to start your day without an organized to-do list. Before you leave work for the day, create a list of the most pressing tasks for the next day. This step allows you to get going as soon as you get to the office.

Avoid the urge to multitask. This is one of the simplest time management tips for work, yet it can be one of the hardest to follow. Focus on the task at hand and block out all distractions. It can be tempting to multitask, but you’re just shooting yourself in the foot when you attempt to do so. You lose time and decrease productivity when switching from one task to another.

Eliminate distractions. Social media, web browsing, co-workers, text messages, instant messaging the distractions at work can be limitless. A key to personal time management is being proactive about getting rid of them. Take baby steps. Identify your top two distractions and focus on conquering those for two weeks.

EXCELLENT NEVER IS ENOUGH

Multiple project management at work.

It can be even more difficult for a project manager to manage multiple projects at the same time. The manager might need to focus on one task while others are focusing on another. This can make it hard for people who are trying to work together because they’ll need to split up their attention. Here are some few tips to manage multiple projects at work:

Prioritize tasks Prioritize the higher priority work first and de-prioritize less urgent work at the same time. Do what you can to schedule tasks that need to be done as soon as possible in your calendar early so it doesn’t get taken over by less urgent work. The project manager must know which tasks will have a greater impact on the organization and prioritize effectively. This will help keep your project schedule on track and reduce missed deadlines. It’s a good practice to re prioritize work in light of a new project or other project schedules.

Adjust your plan through regular reviews It does not make sense to stick with the original plan no matter what. Being flexible is an extremely important attribute that an effective leader must-have. When you manage multiple projects, there are several unknown variables that can sometimes change your entire outlook. The smart thing to do is to hold regular review sessions where you update the original plan in order to successfully complete all your projects

Stay focused While you balance multiple projects at once, you are bound to give less attention to the task you are currently occupied with. In order to become an effective project manager, you must stay focused on the task at hand. One way of achieving this is to assign a specific time to each project according to their priority. Through this way, you can ensure that your attention remains undivided.

Assign tasks to a single owner If you’re the only person who should be working on one task, assign it to yourself. This helps you stay on the same page with the rest of your team and helps clarify priorities and workload. If there is work that needs to be completed by different people on your team, make sure you have a project management system in place so there isn’t any confusion.

Know when to delegate A good leader knows when to take charge and when to trust her team members. You must have a relationship of trust with your team and delegate tasks and assign them when you have too much on your plate.

Keep it simple and easy enough for your entire team to make sure that everyone is clear about the status of a task as it moves through your team’s workflow, consider defining and broadcasting your custom workflow with each step mapped out for the team to understand. This will keep everything organized and help ensure that all tasks are completed in a timely manner! Prioritize, assign and update status to get work done.

EXCELLENT NEVER IS ENOUGH

Rostwa day.

Rostwa Engineers Limited was founded 12 years ago on 27.04.2019, its been a long journey but still long way to go. For this year it was celebrated on 01.05.2021(Labour day) in order to celebrate the new head office blessing(grand opening) and 12th year anniversary.

It was a function graced with Prayers and few speeches from Directors,Administrators and lastly guest of Honor(Hon. Makmot Edward Otto) we still continue to thank all our guests who honored the invitation.

We still continue to thank our Partners,Clients and staff for all the efforts in making Rostwa Engineers Limited a better company.we will continue to follow our values and fulfill the needs of our Clients as our motto goes EXCELLENT NEVER IS ENOUGH.

Tips on financial management.

Have you ever wondered why you have no financial growth no matter how you try? There are some simple things you can do right now to improve your money situation.  If you stick to these five tips, your financial problems may start to diminish, and you can start reaping the rewards of lower debt, and saving for the future.

Flesh out Your Plan Your budget is key to success. It is the tool that will give you the most control of your financial future. Your budget is the key to achieving the rest of your plan. A financial plan is essential in helping you reach your financial goals. The plan should have multiple steps or milestones. A sample plan might include creating a monthly budget and spending plan, then getting out of debt.

Rostwa Engineers staff having A corporate social responsibility at St.Moses in Jinja(2018)

Make and Stick to a Budget A budget will also help you decide how to spend your money over the coming months and years. Without the plan, you might spend cash on things that seem important now, but don’t offer much in terms of enhancing your future. Many people get caught in this situation and get down on themselves for not reaching the financial milestones they want for their family and their own life.

Detail Your Financial Goals Take some time to write specific, long-term financial goals. All of these goals will affect how you plan your finances. For example, your goal to retire early is dependent on how well you save your money now Once you have written down your financial goals, prioritize them. This organizational process ensures that you are paying the most attention to the ones that are of the highest importance to you.

Pay off Debt Debt is a huge obstacle for many when it comes to reaching financial goals. That’s why you should make eliminating it a priority. Set up a plan to eliminate debts to help you pay it off more quickly. For example, while making minimum payments on all of your debt accounts, pay any extra money towards one debt at a time. After paying off one debt account, move all the money you were paying on the first debt to the next debt and continue from there, creating a debt-pay down .

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Advice Once you have grown your savings and need to begin investing to increase your wealth, speak to a financial planner/advisor to help make wise investment decisions. A good adviser will share the risks involved in each investment and help you find products that match your comfort level and investing return needs while helping you work toward your goals as quickly as possible. A financial planner can also help you with your budget.

REMEMBER EXCELLENCE NEVER IS ENOUGH

A staff at Lyantonde site in western Uganda(2019)

Team players and their qualities.

If you have chosen team members for a project in your organization,but still one feels their is need to make check list on the qualities of a good team player ,below are some of the few qualities of a good team player;

Communicates constructively Teams need people who speak up and express their thoughts and ideas clearly, directly, honestly, and with respect for others and for the work of the team. That’s what it means to communicate constructively. Such a team member does not shy away from making a point but makes it in the best way possible in a positive, confident, and respectful manner.

Works as a problem-solver Teams, of course, deal with problems. Sometimes, it appears, that’s the whole reason why a team is created to address problems. Good team players are willing to deal with all kinds of problems in a solutions-oriented manner. They’re problem-solvers, not problem-dwellers, problem-blamers, or problem-avoiders.

Functions as an active participant Good team player are active participants. They come prepared for team meetings, listen and speak up in discussions. They’re fully engaged in the work of the team. Team members who function as active participants take the initiative to help make things happen, and they volunteer for assignments

Shares openly and willingly Good team players shares information, knowledge, and experience. They take the initiative to keep other team members informed. Much of the communication within teams takes place informally. Beyond discussion at organized meetings, team members need to feel comfortable talking with one another and passing along important news and information day-to-day.

Exhibits flexibility Teams often deal with changing conditions and often create changes themselves. Good team players roll with the punches; they adapt to ever-changing situations. They don’t complain or get stressed out because something new is being tried or some new direction is being set. In addition, a flexible team member can consider different points of views and compromise when needed to offer.

Shows commitment to the team Strong team players care about their work, the team, and the team’s work. They show up every day with this care and commitment up front. They want to give a good effort, and they want other team members to do the same.