How to save money in Christmas

The other day, chatting with some friends, we were worried about the Christmas expenses, we all wanted to share something nice with our loved ones, with our coworkers, the collaborators or the people who give us some type of service. But when you start to make your own list, then you realize that it's over 50 people and then the economic problem starts.

Considering that we are close to the most expensive season of the year, I will  make some recommendations for your Christmas shopping:

1.- Make use of your additional gifts: Each time that you receive a buying deal, like 2x1, an additional gift of a product you buy, consider to think if that extra product could be given to someone else. The past year I buy a cellular phone and they included an extra set of speakers, one of my sons keep them as his Christmas present, and I save something for his gift.

2.- Haggle: In some different countries it is expected that you ask for discounts while buying a product, like China or Turkey. In Mexico we use to do it at the flea market or bazaar. But I suggest that you can get into a store and ask: What is your today's offer? You may find some products that you could get with a discount and buy a better present.

3.- Seize your job discounts: There are a lot of companies that have some agreements with other stores to benefit their employees. In some point you may find products at a very good price or you may get them at regular payments. If you have the luck to work for a medium or big size company, you can ask to your human resources personal and get the information from them.

4.- Use the rewards programs: Every time you can subscribe to some reward program, like airplane miles, hotel nights, programmed shopping, register your number so you get the points. At the end of the year you may give away a stay at a nice hotel, an airplane ticket or some other benefit without spending a lot of money.

5.- DIY or Do It Yourself: Some of my friends are really good at handcrafts, or at cooking, or they simply use their spare time on hobbies for making beautiful presents. If you are among this people, consider using your skills to make you save some money when giving presents.

6.- Organize an exchange: If your group of friends want to gather and celebrate the moment, without spending a lot of money, an exchange may be the best option. This way everyone gets a present and you may not be on chapter 11 at the end of the season.

7.- Give away some moments: Remember that the most important thing is the friendship, and not the gift by itself. Spending time with your love ones should be enough to keep your Christmas Spirit Joyful

Have you any suggestion to save money in this season? Share it with us.

Christmas and Motivation

Christmas time is coming and with all of this we have now time to thank our colleagues for the good job made during the year. Considering that it's a good time to share your feelings and also do some Networking, you may now prepare your next year's way to motivate your team and start working on your objectives.

For this time I want to share some of the different motivation theories that can be used to keep your team working with enthusiasm:

Maslow's Hierarchy Needs: Motivation is defined as the step where we are in the pyramid, this define our needs, that are five: physiological, security, social, esteem and auto realization.

Commonly the employees that are new at your team (6 months or less) is probably because they have been looking for a job during the year. Give your collaborators the assurance that you want to continue working with them the rest of the year, and also, keep the promise that if their outcomes are good, they may stay as long as they want. 

Adams Equity Theory: People compare their rewards and their job outcomes with the rest of the team. With that in mind, they evaluate if they are equal or not, if they think they aren't demotivation and the actions to achieve it will come.

When your team realizes almost the same activities, it's possible that they share information about their salaries, benefits, among other. In many cases the definition of this conditions is not in your hands, as it is my case. But what you could do is distribute in an even way the job responsibilities, the recognition prices, training, job upgrades. Speak with your employees and ask them, what they want to receive in order to feel an equal situation.

Vroom Expectancy Theory: All human effort is done with an expectation of some success. The people trust that if he achieves his full capacity, some other consequences will come. The expectancy that the achievement of the objectives come with some wished consequences is called instrumentality.

In some jobs, the achievement of the goals has a remunerated bonus associated, but in the place where I work this is not a benefit. You will have to innovate and make your team feel motivated to achieve again that goal. Have a breakfast, give them some pizza, make a public recognition is a process that will make you to commit and then to fulfill, giving your team the expectation of a small but significative reward.

McClellan Power, Affiliation, Achievement Approach: What every people search with their performance could be one of this three things. The Achievement, impulse to stand out with the well done job. The Power, control or influence to obtain recognition. And the Affiliation, need to belong to a group.

With the time, keep some good working teams becomes necessary. Since my first big working team at the Academic Direction, when we all agreed how to organize birthday parties, going through Innovation Direction, Global MBA, and now Admissions Direction, all my teams get to know that they could trust each other to the achievement of the objectives. Communication among them, friendship, sense of affiliation, solidarity and support have made my teams stick together.

Following my own personal recommendations, my team and me are preparing a virtual "Posada" to have some time to share a little bit of recreational time and also get to know each other a little bit more. I will share the outcome.

In the meantime, Do you have any suggestion to motivate your people?

How to deal with a special situation

Daily I take both of my kids to school, well they both drive me and I try to teach them how to drive. I have to leave Arturo at 6:10 am where the bus pick him up, and then with Mauricio I have to drive to the other campus.

To avoid setbacks, we usually arrive to this site about 10 minutes earlier, and park on the side of the ridge that is perpendicular to the pick up area. One day, when Mauricio started the car and turn on the lights, at 6:10am, an automobile parked in front of us, and it will not allow us to move on to our next destination.

In addition to the parking action, suddenly the trunk opens from inside and a lady steps outside. I seized the moment to open my window and ask her if she was going to take a lot of time. Notoriously thwarted about my question, she answered that it will take her a lot of time, because she was going to take out her son's wheel chair and then help him to get into the bus.

At that moment, I realized that her activity will take her a lot of time, and that probably Mauricio and me will be late to the next site. So I have to ask her, please, that if she could move her car, because we were about to leave and we probably be late if we wait her.

She seem extremely odd, and probably a little upset from my lack of empathy to her situation, but she decided to move her car and we could leave without any problems.

In our way to the school, Mauricio and me had the following conversation:

-- Mom, the boy had a wheel chair

-- So?

--You should not ask her to move.

--You think that we should arrive late because one person who has this wheel chair?

At the end of the day, I asked Arturo how long did this boy has been using his wheel chair, and he told me that it was his first day. Neither the boy or us arrive late to our destiny. I also asked Arturo to be aware if this boy arrive to that site, that he should help him to unload the wheel chair or help the boy.

In your personal point of view, what you should do? I leave you with a map of the positions both cars had so you may figure the situation:

Networking and Personal Relations

Today I'd like to write about some tips that could be helpful to improve your network or your personal relations. This advices may have been written by a lot of people, but I think you may remember some of them the next days and improve your projection:

1.- Don't forget your manners: Words like "Good Morning", "Good Evening", "Please" and "Thank you" are essential to start a good personal exchange.

2.- Remember the name of everybody: Maybe at some point it could be a little difficult, but you just have to remember that the name is the sweetest sound some people may heard. Take your time and learn the names of the people with whom you are going to meet.

3.- Say people how special they are: When someone hears that he or she is been appreciated, immediately their behavior looses up. Make your comment authentic.

4.- Show the people you are making your best effort: People realize when other people do things for obligation or in a bad mood. Make yourself aware and put all your enthusiasm in what you do, it will bring you a lot of benefits.

5.- Keep a honest smile: In almost every situation smiling will help. Try it, it's the best make up in the world.

Have you ever failed in this advises? Tell us about your experience and the way you solve it.

Sancocho Meal

This weekend, Thelma invited us to eat Sancocho, a typical meal from Dominican Republic and it looks that it has a lot of cultural traditions in this meal invitation.

First, this dish is considered one of Dominican national dishes, it consists of white rice, meats, tubercle, vegetables and spices. You can also add orange juice. They explain me that this soup is made on the rainy days because of the warmth that this cooking brings to the house and to the people. 

I think this is why this Sancocho is so popular among my friends, its perfect for Mexico City, here it rains every day and the weather is mostly cold. There will be people that say that it's not true, but I can't get used to it.

Else wise inviting some of our common friends, Thelma also invited her Dominican friends. So the moment I arrived to her house, I could listen that the conversations were a little different of mine. Almost all the people there where foreigners, the accent theme was interesting.

Before bringing the soup, they play some music and all of a sudden there were a lot of people dancing in the living room. Thelma explained me that in Dominican Republic they dance every time they gather around. There are not explanations to be done, when the music starts, the people stand up and dance. I thing that I should be born Dominican, because I love dancing.

One the people get tired of dancing, started the appetizers time, of course they where done in the Dominican way: Banana with Chorizo, Fried Yucca, Yucca's bread with Chicharron. The Sancocho was done in two types, first the traditional one and the second one with some beans. Because this soup has a lot of texture, I just eat the traditional one. I left the second one to the next invitation to Thelma's Sancocho.

When the party was getting to it's end, we had appetizers, soup and desserts. We have been dancing, singing and speaking about this delicious food. Once again, the interest of tasting some different types of food, learning about cultural traditions and making some networking lead me to have an excellent Saturday evening at Mexico City.

Have you tryied Sancocho? Let us know about your experience.