Saturday 30 December 2017

Focus on one change at a time


One of the lingering question most of us have in mind is “how to manage my time or how to improve my personal productivity?

To find the solution, we may get into googling for finding tips on time management techniques and even in getting into Apps downloading. Even though those help in initial stages, but managing those itself become time-consuming! The real change starts from WITHIN.

From your lifestyle, just figure out which one thing is the biggest time killer or obstacles to your productivity or find out what is one thing would save your time if it were removed from your daily practices. It could be Facebook, WhatsApp, desk management, repeated browsing of mail check etc.

Find it and work only on this improvement idea consistently rather than taking too much at a time and not completing anything at the end.

Start with one change and work on it. Your productivity will improve! Time management is not about managing time, it is managing our mind and priorities!


Monday 11 December 2017

How to become a best boss ever ?


Irrespective of any profession, each one will always admire someone as his best boss or inspiring mentor in his/ her life.As you recollect all the people under whom you have worked, finally, you conclude one or two people as your best bosses or inspiring role model.

What could be the significant factors to admire someone as best boss or role model?

You may list down a lot of attributes of role model or inspiring boss like charisma, functional competency, managerial competency and so on.However, research shows that among so many attributes, only a  few attributes  contribute to conclude someone as inspiring boss or role model 

Those attributes could be the person who had given you a lot of opportunities to learn more or the person who brought out your hidden potential or who made you believe or make you do something extraordinary which you ever thought as impossible.

Since now you are managing a team of people under you, answer yourself for how many people you are the best boss by demonstrating those attributes.

It is a moral responsibility of every manager and leaders to bring out the potential of others!!

Future is not same as past


Both personal and professional life, we tend to look at the past, its experience and based on it, try to drive the current and future strategies. In this process, we tend to believe and give overweight on the experience and success or failure factors.
If the past is quite successful, we tend to give overweight on the experience and rely on the same strategy and tactics to drive the business 
If the past is quite a failure, we tend to give overweight on the experience and give up trying new ideas.

However, future is not same as past as most of the parameters are changed like assumptions, environment, people, timing and of course you also evolved. What worked out past earlier may not be necessarily relevant now.

For example, what strategies you used to build an organization of size 10  crores may not be workable for building an organization of size 20 crores.Mainly the business environment, customers, people are changed.
Likewise, what worked out for you at a managerial position may not workable when you are at a senior leadership level.

Similarly, what not worked out earlier, may work now for the same reason.

The point is that experience or legacy alone will not drive your future.Too much dependence on the past or legacy may not work forever.You need to continually drive new initiatives or effort to be successful in personal and professional life as everything is changing!















Thursday 7 December 2017

Who packs your parachute?



Charles Plumb was a USA navy jet pilot. On his seventy-sixth combat missions, he was shot down and parachuted into enemy territory. He was captured, spent six years in prison and he survived.Now he became a motivational speaker on managing adversity in life.

In most of his seminars, he used to ask his audience “who packs your parachute?  Meaning that who helps you through your life?

His realization was that the person who packed his parachutes held his lives from falling from the jet and he remembered that unknown person with gratitude.His message is in everyone‘s life, some unknown people are helping selflessly either physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. Are we recognizing those unknown people and expressing our gratitude? 

This is a powerful metaphor for us to acknowledge the people who come across in our lives and help us in a different way.

If they are known people like your parents, teachers, siblings, spouse, children, colleagues, business partners, clients, then be grateful to them for your actions! 

If they are unknown, at least recognize and express your feeling of gratitude. That feeling, vibration makes a difference to you and to the unknown.

Friday 17 November 2017

Let us understand and challenge



There was a spiritual teacher who used to conduct a Satsang (group meeting) every evening with his disciples in his ashram.In the same premises, there was a cat who lived and made noises during Satsang times and the teacher ordered the team that during Satsang times cat can be tied up. This “tying up the cat “event became a practice in the ashram.

Some years later, the teacher died, but new teacher came, but cat continued to be tied up.Eventually, the cat also died, but the team brought another cat and tied.

The year later learned followers of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly essays, the thesis about the religious significance of tying up a cat for Satsang and its effectiveness!!

We can relate this story in our personal and professional life as we continue to do something either without understanding the science behind it or never question the status quo as if everything is fixed as customary practices!

Relook at your habits, business practices as it may uncover some of the Satsang tied up cats!! 



Wednesday 8 November 2017

When your inherent strength turns out weakness?


Inherently, each one of us gifted with positive qualities or strength to manage the personal or professional challenges.For example, the strength could be honesty, focusing on result, straightforwardness, decisiveness, confidence, etc .Those strengths will be boon for you during normal circumstances only. During a stressful time, when you use the same strength in overdose, it would become negative. During those time your inherent strength + some more positive strength to be used with consciousness.

Let me explain further 

For example, you may have strength “Confidence of getting things done from your colleagues.” During crisis time or when things are not going well as you expect, your tendency will be using your inherent strength. Further, you apply the “ confidence ”in overdose, it turns out as“arrogance," and the situation would become worst.

Highly effective people are aware of this paradox, and they always use further good qualities during crisis time and make the situation better. As in above example, along with confidence they use additional qualities such as being reflective + humility, then the result would be better.

To put it simply, during illness, when 100  mg antibiotics are not effective, we tend to go for 250 mg, ended up with more complication since the actual system needs  100 mg antibiotics + some other vitamin to overcome the illness, not just overdosage of same antibiotics.

The point is just to be aware of your inherent strength and use it appropriately. When you overuse the same strength during setbacks, it turnout weakness. Alternatively, in conjunction n with your inherent strength, apply other positive qualities as well.




Monday 6 November 2017

Being busy is not being effective

       
Most of us have the tendency of “being busy always” either in professional or managing a business. Being busy in chasing money, success after success or even managing the challenges with the same approach.In this process, over a period of time, either we become addicted to the same methodology without evaluating its effectiveness or become so rigid in thinking process leads to ignoring other aspects of the relationship, quality of execution, next level growth, etc.

       Most of the highly effective people have one common pattern in their daily management process. That is they take a timeout from their regular work for reflection.Frequently, they use to take time for themselves and evaluate what is going on in their life, what is important, what needs to be changed, etc. This will give them clarity on the behavior to be dropped or adopted, the strategy to be modified or tuned, etc. for improving the quality of life and even manage the challenges in a different approach.

       Take time out frequently from being busy and get clarity on what is right and good for you and your surroundings. Finally what counts is your impact and quality of life!!

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Why consistency is important in workplace ?


In most of the organizations, we can hear one common phrase “we have implemented it, but not continued and this will not work here”
Why do people come to conclusion as “no initiative will work in their workplace?". The reason is lack of consistency in implementation. 

In today’s internet world, there is not much ignorance of knowledge and know-how; it is only lack of consistency in implementation.

How this inconsistency will affect individual & Team?

When you implement some initiatives, not consistently follow it and eventually drop it, you are giving a subconscious message to yourself and team that you are not sensitive to results or incapable of execution. This inconsistency will impact the confidence of the leader at an individual level and encourage mediocre performance at the team level. The next time when you think of new initiative, old memory reinforces you about failure or low confidence pulls you down from taking action. The root cause for all consequence is inconsistency in implementation.

 So, in personal and professional level, if you take any initiative, be sure that you are consistent in your implementation even though you are relatively slow in taking a decision. Ultimately your consistent actions push up your confidence and your consistent actions inspire others to follow. This is one of the traits of leadership, i.e. consistency in thinking; talking and doing.You are meant to be a leader for others!!!!

Friday 20 October 2017

Who is with you , past or future reminder?


We are always surrounded by two types of people and they influence the progress in personal and professional life. They are either past oriented or future oriented.

They display certain characterizes with us during any interactions 

Past-oriented:

They are more oriented towards past.Whenever  we  propose or suggest something, they immediately respond as follows 

"I had already tried this.it won’t work or I had done those days itself, nothing new".

Either way, like legacy or past wound memories, affect our progress on the proposal.

Future-oriented:

They are more oriented towards future, possibilities, and opportunities and always look for new. They are too optimistic or positive about new possibilities, but they may be encouraging you to progress.

In one of the interview, Google CEO Mr.Sundar Pitchai was asked about his selection as CEO and the reason for it. He replied with guessing that one of the reasons could be his practice of thinking and be interacting with his management team about the future possibilities of Google products and services. That may be one of the reasons he was chosen for this role.

The point is that legacy or past worries may not help today as the environment is keeping on change. The world is looking for futurist and who can think of new possibilities and opportunities.

Just be aware of your style of the thinking process and whom you are surrounded most of the time, past or future reminders?

Peace in the midst of the challenges



There was a king offered a prize to the artists who would paint the best picture to represent “PEACE”. Many artists tried and only two artists came for the final round.The king looked at both artists’ picture.

One picture was of a calm lake surrounded by peaceful mountains with green trees. Overhead there was a blue sky with white clouds.The picture looked cool and everyone felt this picture would win the prize.

The other picture also had mountains, but with rough surface and plain. The overhead was the sky with dark clouds, from which rain fell and lightning was also shown. This did not represent peaceful at all. But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall, a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush, a  bird had built the nest.The bird was sitting in perfect peace in midst of the lightning and raining.

The king chose the second picture and surprised all. He explained that peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise and trouble. Real peace means to be in the midst of all those troubles and still be calm in the heart. 

Moral of the story is that how we maintain our coolness and peace at heart amidst all the troubles and challenges in life.Some times we are disturbed due to external factors.Real maturity is being calm despite external challenges and this is what we need to learn.

Sunday 8 October 2017

Words mould your personality



There is no doubt that quality of thinking determines our quality of life. Equally the WORDS we use daily or frequently in personal & professional life determines our personality and quality of life. The type of words we use frequently either makes or hurts.

If we observe highly effective people, we may notice that they are very careful in choosing the words while speaking/writing  and they use mostly energizing words as much as possible. By that way, they are influencing others positively.

Some of the words frequently used by them

Thanks / Please / Help / challenge /well/ gifted/ blessing / appreciate/ excellence/ excellent/healthy/ wealthy / effort / goodwill / good / nice/ faith full / extraordinary/ grace/ possibilities / Responsibility / vision / inspiring / winning spirit  / happy/ opportunities, challenges /growth/ Success /grateful / learning

Those words are not cliché. They represent the person’s attitude towards life.
Just be aware of your words as they silently making an impact in your inner world which manifest as your personality externally.

Some people, they are gifted with right usage of words due to their upbringing and environment. But others, the good news is that it can be learned and inculcated with effort.

Pl SHARE to me some of the ENERGISING WORDS you come across as you use or from others!!!

Thursday 28 September 2017

Empathy –explained easily

Most of the communication and interpersonal relationship issues in the organization or in family arise when we are not understanding others from their perspective, from their thinking and feeling. This result in arguments, blaming, abusing and finally results in straining the quality of the relationship.

Everyone has their own stories and hardships. If we understand others, their thinking, their feeling, then our way of looking at them would be different as everyone is undergoing different emotions at any point in time and to deal with them, empathy is required.

I came across a below video which explains the empathy in a beautiful way and I understand that this is being used for educating medical professionals to treat others in an empathetic way …
Pl watch it when you have time …thanks to Cleveland clinics on education series

https://goo.gl/YqsP2H

Wednesday 20 September 2017

Why are we reluctant to appreciate others?

One of the common complaints or phrases, I use to hear in an unorganized or small organization from employees is “I am not getting appreciation from my colleagues or manager”. In fact, it is not heard in a family environment, but it would be the hidden cause of all the domestic arguments and fights.It is particularly from spouse!

Why we are reluctant to appreciate others when they do even small good work?

The psychological reasons for this reluctance to appreciate others could be
Fear of losing control 
More of self-centered and thinking as if no time for anything else
Taking granted others as they are part of us 
Poor self-esteem or low confidence
Not being in awareness or always busy in something 

This needs self-introspection within us.

One of the studies said that the person needs to be in a positive frame of mind. If one is not in a positive state, he/she cannot able to appreciate others. Hence, appreciation is not for only motivating others, it is a measure of our wellness of mental strength. 

Relook your habit of appreciation of others and frequency, especially the people in your family and the people are working for you. It reflects your mental health. 

How to work with non likeminded people?

We enjoy what we do only when the colleagues, partners, teammates are in almost same wavelength, that is a similar thought process, acceptance, understandings about the intentions etc .However in reality, we may work with the people who may not be similar thought level. Practically you may not have an immediate solution to move away from them, the only option left out is to cope with them.

How to deal with those people?

Accept their qualities as such. The moment you accept them, you mentally prepare yourself to work with them

As you think more about them, you are developing negativity about others and reinforce your non-acceptance.

Think & distant yourself  beyond them as  life provides a lot of opportunities to enjoy and  then you  realize how small they are in your life

Least, you relate with nature.Nothing lasts forever like cyclic of day and night.Everything will change 

The point is you can not change all the things as you like, but you need to adapt to reality as ultimately you need to do a lot in a short span and your peace of mind is important!

Monday 18 September 2017

No effort or experience is waste

In personal and business environments, sometimes we may feel upset when our work is not recognized as it supposed to be or when the effort does not produce right results. If you observe some highly effective people, they continue to be persistent in their efforts and moved on. It is more perspective on how they look at the at the efforts and result.

You may be aware of the incident that happened to Thomas Alva Edison as he had done thousands of experiments to find an alternative for lead in storage batteries, but could not succeed.. When one of his associate friends asked about his  guilt  about his effort vs. result, Thomas replied, “ I have got a lot of results from effort’s.Now i  know several thousand things that won’t work.This learning experience will help me to find the right alternative”. Rest of the history we know. 

Key learning’s from highly effective people's perspective

1. Result is not in our hand, but effort
2. Each effort is not a waste, it gives experience to us
3. Life is all about experience 
4. One experience leads to another experience, by the way, we mature 
5. Eventually, your effort  & experience produces results.

The point is how we look at each experience, effort, moments in life and move on! 


Is it ok?

As you may be aware of Oprah Winfrey, a famous American lady and known for a talk show. She conducted “The Oprah Winfrey Show"  for 25 years, by interviewing the celebrities and successful people in all fields. It is one of the long runs, the highest rated television program in the history. In one of the interviews, she said that in almost all the episodes, after the shooting, all the celebrities used to ask one question to her. That commonly asked question is “Is it ok?”

In my opinion, this question from celebrities and highly successful people convey the fundamental human traits. Irrespective of  background, level of achievement, status, every human being is craving for two things 

1.Continuous desire for improvement 
2.Looking for confirmation from others either feedback or pat on the back 

I feel this is something we need to realize to improve our relationships and help others to grow.

How can we apply this in our personal and professional life?

In all the dealings with others, we shall give appreciation to others to endorse their positive actions, or we can give feedback to help others to improve.This is what expected in all relationships implicitly!

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Surviving in the corporate jungle(New Book on management)



Recently happened to read this book and is written by my friend/mentor Mr.Ashok Bhatia who lives in Pondicherry. Since he had worked in big corporate like in TATA, HCL, Hidesign in senior leadership levels, he has brought his rich corporate experience and wisdom in this book to manage the workplace dynamics.While most of the authors are serious writing style to discuss the corporate practices with tons of do' and don't kind of pieces of advice, he presents the message with a sense of humor and conveys the point rightly. He covered almost all functions of management with simple messages to survive in corporate jungle

A good book to read for all working professionals to get a new perspective or wisdom from experienced person like Ashok Bhatia. Recommend this book to get a new perspective on leadership and management.

Link is given below to get in Amazon as Kindle version or paperback version


Tuesday 8 August 2017

Why is patience required for development ?

      
One of the most challenging tasks for self at a personal level or leaders in a business environment is to reach next level growth by changing self or inspiring others to change. The strange nature of the change management process is that it requires continuous effort on nurturing and the result may not be visible immediately. Without knowing the change management process and with impatience mentality, most of us, either give up the effort or getting into inferiority feeling or spoiling the relationship or environment.

        As you might have aware of a bamboo tree, it is different from other trees as it does not grow in the usual fashion. While most of the trees start growing steadily from the beginning, this Chinese bamboo tree does not even break the ground for the first four years. Then on the fifth year, this tree starts to grow at an amazing growth rate. It is said that within four to five weeks time, it even grows to 90 feet height. Actually, during the first four years, growth is not visible externally, but the tree has internally grown and made the roots strong. This nature reveals a lesson on our growth efforts on self-development or on other people development.

        Whatever efforts we put on self-development or people development, it works internally and needs time to be visible externally. Here the key point is your patience to go through the process makes you realize the result, especially on self development or people development.
       

Sunday 6 August 2017

Giving is noble



A young man traveled to Himalaya as pilgrim trip.He found a stone on the riverbed and he picked it as he knew the value of it. After returning home, he was showing the stones to his relatives and friends.One of the relatives also aware of the value of the stone and requested the young man to give it to him. 
Without any second thought, the young man gave the stone to the relative.

Some days later, the relative came back to the young man and returned back the stone. Surprised with the fact that he liked the stone very much, the young man asked him, “I know you are fond of stone, that is the reason, I have given it you. Why are you returning back now?”

The old man replied, “I know the materialistic value of this stone, but more than that there is something precious WITHIN you that enables you to give this stone to me. I wanted to possess that. That is more valuable than anything else!!

Moral:

It is not how big we are in terms of materialistic, it matters how generous we are in giving to others, either it could be knowledge, money, time etc. That attitude makes a difference between ordinary and extraordinary!

Monday 31 July 2017

Imposing change on self



There was a saint believed to have tremendous power to solve all kinds of life problems. One day, a middle aged man approached the saint to solve his personal problem. He narrated the saint with the list of complaints against his wife.It was quite apparent that his every effort to reform or change his wife’s behavior had proved a failure. He requested saint to help him.

Patiently listening to the man, the saint said, “I can assure you excellent married life, provided you become a better husband”.

Confused with the reply, the man curiously asked him, “What should I do for that”.

The saint replied “First give up all your efforts to change her as a better wife”

Moral of the story:

Not only in family relationship, in all relationships, no one will change their basic attitude and behavior easily for others, unless there is compelling need is felt.Hence, accept the people as such as it requires a major mindset change within us. That is relatively easier than any effort to change others.In a relationship, any form of imposing change only results in frustration and hurt in long run.



Moving from managing to coaching

One of the lesson or habit we need to learn when we grow either in personal or professional life is listening to others and allowing others to take a decision on their own.

Since we have grown up in an environment where obeying to senior’s instruction as perceived as discipline, the same mentality we are bringing in when we become an adult. We expect ourselves to give a bunch of advice to others and expect them to own. 

The real maturity of growth lies in when we move from managing to coaching. Everyone has to go through the path from managing to coaching.
For example, as a parent, we need to manage child as long as they are in childhood by giving advice on do’s and don’ts, getting into nitty gritty of all activities and decisions. That is fine as they are in childhood.When  they become an adult, the best way to manage them is to give the perspectives of pro’s and con’s of any decision and let them own the decision and consequence.

Similarly, when you are managing the people at a functional level, it is ok by giving advice and owning the result. When you move up the ladder into senior level, it is expected to make the people own the decision and your role is just to guide with possible approaches and their likely consequences.

When we continue to manage, stress crops in a relationship, ownership missing on the results from others. Just be aware of your level and role as manager or coach.


Friday 14 July 2017

Redefining your life success with right metrics

In today’s world, everyone is madly rushing behind money and positional status and in this process, we are too much stressed out.This causes disruption in physical and relationship.One of the reason could be unconsciously we had defined the life success as money and power. That is the only metrics by which we are measuring our success.Some study suggests that if we change or add one more metrics in our definition of life success, it will change our perception of life and our actions. That metric is "THRIVING".

Thriving can be defined as prosperous or flourishing or growing in all aspects of well-being.This metric is beyond survival and 360 degrees winning in all aspects of life.

The overall of well-being (Thriving) can be attained by 

1.Nurturing yourself physically and mentally
2.Keep learning
3.Spending time yourself to listen to your inner voice
4.Giving to others
5.Distance yourself from digital noises
6.Exploring new location and people 
7.curiosity like child
8.Get enough sleeping as it improves health

In reality, coming out of survival to thriving mode requires a lot of internal perspective change about life and real growth!


Friday 7 July 2017

How successful people look at failure ?

Jeff bezos, Founder, and CEO of Amazon has said in one of the interviews that if his people have a one in 10 chance of making a 100 x return on an investment, he wants them to experiment every time. This message has a profound on the way he looks at failures. His message implicit that he is willing to tolerate failing nine of out 10 times because his chance of making one big success is high.

This is a very hard concept for us to believe as we had come from an environment where we measure individual or organizational worthiness only with materialistic values. We think that failing is something as a personal failure and with that mindset, we achieve or lead a life what we can do in the safe environment.

The point is when we take the failure as normal in business or in a personal endeavor and then there is a high possibility to make the breakthrough result as we are open to much experimentation. This is purely mindset issues and needs to be challenged with awareness. This is how highly successful people look at failure and moves on!!





Friday 23 June 2017

Am I leading my life the way I want ?


One of the lingering questions a few of us will have at some point in time is “Am I leading my life the way I want?" .Particularly, this question come to those who had fulfilled the basic need of the survival. This question comes when there is a conflict of interest in what we are doing now and what we like to do.Some people label it as passion.

As I witnessed that  some people answered the question, led a path rightly and some people struggle to find the right answer themselves.

This calls for structured process as follows

1.First, accept this disturbance as such.You are disturbed by this question because you are destined for something else, that is good. 

2.Allow some time  for settling down as  any quick emotional decision  may  affect  the quality of life

3.Spend time privately for reflection  both on logical and emotional  outcome  of  any decision you take 

4.Seek  the help from genuine coaches who can work with you without bias  on your values/beliefs and guide you  to choose the right decision  by yourselves  

5.Experiment your passion without giving up your current path as reality will give a clarity whether your passion is sustainable or not. Based on the experience, you can decide your path.

Finally, you are the master of your life, own any decision what may come and enjoy the process!!


Thursday 15 June 2017

Being happy to be successful

  
 One day a successful businessman was called to address the gathering on the topic being happy in life.The speaker also was happily sharing his experience. On completion upon his speech, one person from the audience approached the speaker and said, “You are successful in your business that is why you are happy. You do not know how much effort I am putting to be successful, how can I be happy “

The speaker stopped him and said, “I am happy not because I am successful, it is another way round, and I am successful because I am always happy”.

This statement is profound.Being happy is a state of mind irrespective of environment or status. When the mind is happy, it can think through the ways to be successful in any Endeavour.

In reality, most of the time, we tend to be happy only and if some favorable conditions are met. There should not be any reason to be happy.It just requires awareness.

Be happy and makes other happy with your presence!

Wednesday 7 June 2017

Why do we trust some people as leader?


In a professional environment, we come across a lot of people either as colleagues, subordinates, boss.Only a few people, we admire as a leader and have trust.With this belief, we sometimes even adopt them as our role model, mentor, guide, coach, and well-wisher.

What makes difference between others and leaders? Only two factors make us believe that they are our leader. One is CHARACTER and second is COMPETENCY.

The character could be boldness, firmness, approachable, attitude towards helping others and so on as we see as the positive soft factors.
Competency could be their functional and managerial skills like technical mastery, problem-solving skill, decision making, thought process and communication capabilities as we see as positive hard factors.

When either character or competence lacks with reference to their position, we start to disregard them as leaders and lose trust. Now, relate this to any personalities from your professional, media, politics or in sports background and you find that those who trusted as leader once upon a time lost their shine when they missed character or competency in line with their positional status!!!

The point is, in professional or business environment, if you like to scale up your career from individual performer to leader/role model, you need to continuously enhance your character and competency.This character and competency building is a lifelong effort as any professional growth demands.

Friday 2 June 2017

How to change bad impression in workplace ?


In the workplace, others form a perception about us and the interactions are all based on the perception. If the perception about us is good, then it is ok, what if the impression is bad? Is it easy to change? 

Our mind does not want to spend energy frequently to change the stored information. For instance, we register some brands are trusted for quality and will never change the perception even a small disturbance happened to the brands like in the case of  Cadbury, TATA , and Nestle etc.

If this way our mind works, how do we change the bad impression of others about us? For example, as an individual, others formed the perception that you are a latecomer to the office. How would you change that perception? Only by showing repeated evidence of coming to office on time, then only others change their perception about you. 

Similarly, as an organization, if your customer has the impression that you are not sensitive to quality service, it is difficult to change unless you repeatedly show evidence with your improved customer service. 

The point is 

1. We are allowing others to form perception about us through our behavior and action
2. Once it is formed, it is difficult to change 
3. To change the perception, consistent, repetitive evidence to be shown to others to change 

It is better to take responsibility to give the positive impression at first instance and in worst case take responsibility to change with repeated efforts.In reality, perception plays a major role in professional and business success!!!

Wednesday 24 May 2017

What should do when you feel low ?

        

 Sometimes we are skeptical about the future and feel low about business growth or financial status or even professional improvements or quality of life.During those moments,“Possibilities thinking” may be useful to get confidence or overcoming the skeptic mindset.
        For example, observe any successful people from business, sports, media, politics, etc., You may realize that their background was ordinary or much worse than yours. How they became successful is that due to their self-belief.But before they believe themselves, they thought the possibilities of becoming successful or achieving something great.They believed in the possibilities of better tomorrow than today.That possibility thinking only made them successful.
        Similarly, look at the developments in all the fields like connectivity of the world through the internet, mobile communication, affordability of transportation modes, education, healthcare inventions, etc which was not imaginable a few decades ago. Today it has become reality as someone was thinking about the possibilities of changing from better to best.
         In essence, what was not possible yesterday becomes reality today and it is the result of possibilities thinking of humanity. Hence, when you feel low, think about new possibilities in your life either business turnaround, personal transformation or improving the quality of life, it will become reality with right actions!  

Thursday 11 May 2017

Corporate Chanakya


Recently happened to read this book and one of the best management books from Indian origin. Even though there are many books available on management, most of the books are western orientation. In this book, the author simplified the Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which was written by Chanakya, who lived in 4th century in then India. He was then considered as leadership guru and he documented his ideas of leadership and management to govern the country in the form of 6000 sutras. To put simply, this land had a genius with great wisdom on management.

This book brings back ancient Indian management wisdom in modern, contemporary format.

Must read book for business heads or the people aspiring for leading others. Recommend this book to get a new perspective about leadership and management.


link is given below


goo.gl/P0uLsQ




Saturday 6 May 2017

Embrace the sharks

    

 Many years ago, Japanese fishers had a business challenge with the fishes they were delivering to their customers. After capturing the fish in the sea and by the time they reach the land shore, the fish died and lost their taste. The fishermen tried different processes to keep the fishes fresh till entering the land, but could not succeed. Finally, they came with the idea to put the captured fishes in a small tank along with a small shark.

     During the travel from deep sea to land, shark used to eat a few fishes. The rest of the fishes who fought with the shark to save the life looked fresh, energetic once they reach the land shore. What made the fishes energetic and fresh? The challenges those faced through shark made them fresh and dynamic.

     In our life also, either in business or personal life, we need more challenges like going beyond comfort, trying something new which we have not done earlier, surpassing our own limitations etc.The challenges make us more engaged and active.If we get challenges only from the survival perspective, life would be miserable. If the challenges are bringing more out of us, then it would be positive pressure.

The problems and challenges are meant to bring a new personality of you. Let us embrace the real challenges or shark in our life

Friday 28 April 2017

What one trait differentiates achievers and non achievers?


                                                   

When Bill Gates and Warren Buffets were asked individually to write one trait that made them success in business, they responded with one answer, that is FOCUS.

In our profession, either working as employee or business owner, we are fairly knowledgeable about our work, we are skilled enough to plan and execute, but why do we find struggle to achieve our targets? It is mainly in the mindset towards our attention or FOCUS.

The process of being more focused:

1. Decide what we want and what is important for professional success
2. Priorities the action regarding DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY, QUARTERLY, ANNUALLY 
3. Execute what may come 

In fact, nowadays there are more distracters like WhatsApp, Facebook, mails, and calls from anyone, but in my opinion, they are all manageable if we are clear on what we want to focus. Since there is no clarity on what is our priority and we succumb to external distracters. 

Personally, I know one of my entrepreneur's friend with many successful ventures, has a habit of checking mails only once in a day, that too in specific time period.This habit increases his personal productivity and enables to focus on what the priority.The point is all distractions are external, the question must be are we clear on our priority and what we want..That differentiate achievers and nonachievers 

Saturday 22 April 2017

Why should we celebrate even small success?

    
One way of motivating ourselves is to celebrate even the small success on our own way .when we celebrate the success, the happiness feeling associated with celebration reinforces positive motivation, in turn, pushes us to achieve more.This is the psychological effect of celebration.

    At a personal level, the definition of success could be anything.For example, if you set the goal of reducing weight by 3 kg and even if achieve 1 kg reduction, that is the success and needs to be celebrated.Celebrate it on your way. It could be anything, even expressing your happiness to your dear ones. This happiness feeling will give you the motivation to reduce further weight.

    Similarly, in organizational setup, even small achievement of success towards big target must be celebrated with the team in the form communication, appreciation, gifting, etc.This will bring more positiveness inside the organization, and eventually, that becomes the culture of winning mindset.

   The point is irrespective of the size of the success; you need to celebrate and feel happy about your achievement that will give internal motivation to move up further. Your state of mind and happiness is important to achieve anything and celebration is one way of keeping you in a positive state.

Hence, strive for success and celebrate and achieve more success!!!

Sunday 16 April 2017

Why some people grows fast ?

     As you might have observed that some people are progressing fast in their career path and some people are not progressing enough despite their potential.Even though there may be many external factors contribute to the growth, the choice of mindset and personal qualities exhibited by the individual contributes significantly. The individual either possesses  a growth mindset or survival mindset and accordingly  demonstrates the behavior in a professional environment.

Let us understand the two categories of people  and qualities

Growth Mindset  and qualities:

•    They  always  eager to learn something new  
•    They accept the challenges and  do the mental risk calculation 
•    Always look for the opportunity  to contribute during interaction, crisis moment and do their best 
•    They do not bother much about  their defined target set by  others and go beyond 
•    Their  thinking and solution approach is  always one step ahead of current titles  

Survival  Mindset and qualities:

•    They do what is given or asked to do 
•    When opportunities were given, they have always found the reason why can not be done
•    Being in the same environment, they are always complaining  others
•    They always depend on  someone or forum to take a decision 
•    They refer to the rules and processes frequently
   
Being in survival mindset is not a big issue if it is a conscious choice of the individual.However,  the awareness of the above mindset will help you to change yourself into a growth mindset and enhance the career growth.

Tuesday 11 April 2017

What to do when others hurt you?

You might have come across a situation someone had hurt you by their words or action  either by family members or by your colleagues or business partners .As a chain reaction, you would be thinking of the person or event for a longer duration say days, weeks ,even for years !!.Internally you would be feeling of resentment or bitterness about the person or event.

How this feeling of resentment affects you?

It affects your physical health and also your mental strength, in turn affects your quality of your work.

How to handle this feeling of resentment?

Only by way of forgiving. We had learnt the different definition of forgiveness from our education, ancestors, spiritual masters and some of us  think that forgiving mindset is beyond human capacity. Actually, forgiveness is not about forgetting the event or person which is practically difficult, but it is the ability to look at the person or event in a different perspective 

What are the different perspectives?

oThe other person hurt us with his words or action; because the person comes from different background and experience.He behaves with others too. Hence it is not your issue. This will calm you down to some extent
oHow do you behave in such a situation? This will help you to understand others
oLook at event’s or person‘s behavior with reference to a time frame, say after a year or 5 years from now. You may feel not to worth to worry too much.
o Life is too short and it is not worth to trade your peace of mind with that incident and move forward.

The above perspective will give strength to forgive the person or event. Ultimately your quality of life is important and how you choose the response makes a difference!!!!

Saturday 1 April 2017

Mind your intention while giving feedback



One of the routine activities we are doing every day either at home or in a professional environment is to give feedback to others for their behavior or performance.Have you wondered how many times the “pointing out “ or feedback ends up with disagreement, argument, resentment or silence vengeance from others?

One of the reasons could be the tone we use in our feedback conversation. The quality of tone comes from our intentions.If our intention is to find fault with others and if we use the feedback as an opportunity, our tone will be more of commanding, sound .dictating and harsh.This results only in reaction from others and leads to poor consequence only.Alternatively, if our intention is to correct or help the other person to improve his or her behavior or action next time, then our tone obviously would be with more empathy, kindness and gentle.

Your tone results into the consequence of either arguments or accepting your views in a positive perspective.Hence mind your intentions, which will take care of your tone which will, in turn, take care of the quality of relationship with others.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

“What should I do when I cannot get?”



A young businessman was struggling to make his life, and he could not find the right path to overcome his troubles. One day he met a Buddhist saint and approached him for an answer. He asked Saint, “I am trying so many things in life, but I am not getting what I want. So my question is what should I do when I cannot find what I am looking for?”

The saint listened patiently and asked the young man to come and meet him the next day morning. The Youngman disappointed, but still, he wanted the answer and hence visited the saint next day. The saint took him to the open field which was littered with small and big rocks. The saint said, “If you want the answer to your question you have to fulfill a task by today evening. There are a hundred rocks, and I have hidden ten gold coins under some rocks. Your task is to find the gold coin and return to me by evening”.

The young man got irritated with this tasks, and yet he wanted the answer from the saint, he labored all the day to remove all rocks to find the gold coin, by the end of the day, he could find ten coins. He returned to the Saint and offered the coins for the exchange of answer.

The saint looked at the young man and said “you might have got the answer from the task. When you are looking for something (coin) that you could not found under all rocks, you did not give up. You believed my words and kept on searching under all rocks and finally got it. Life is also like that. When you are destined for something by God, have faith, keep on doing your work, one day you will get what you suppose to get “.

The moral is never to give up your work; one day you will get rewarded.Have faith in him.

Friday 17 March 2017

Do we need tough time to appreciate value ?

           Most of the time, we use to approach the aspects of life as granted. The reason could be we get  everything easily and we do not see much value in it. While everything goes right, our tendency to assume that it happens due to our brilliance or effort and hesitate to appreciate the giftedness which we have got through this life.

        To balance this mindset only, nature always plays with balance and equanimity principle. To appreciate the value of life and its blessings, challenges or difficulties are given

For example, 

When we get sick, we appreciate the value of fitness and respect the physical body
When we lose materialistically, we appreciate the value of hard earned money
When we are alone, we appreciate the value of relationships 
When we are undergoing the tough times, we appreciate the value of mental strength and self-development
We appreciate the value of light when we are in darkness

         It does not mean just to appreciate the value of life, one need to undergo all the troubles in life. With a little bit of awareness, gratitude and balanced approach, we can appreciate everything that happens in our life.

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Autobiography of a yogi



Autobiography of a Yogi is a journey of about a boy in search of God, the saints he meets in his life and his experience with them and path of self-realization, etc.

This book will give some perspective about the spiritual process of self-realization, ideas about some of the yogis’ lived in India and their contribution for spiritual awakening to the world.It is nothing to do with religions and rituals.

Since this classic book is available in all Indian languages and flow is simple and easy to read, recommend to read this book for enhancing the perspectives about life and spiritual process.