| #160 |
#160-1. Too many of us are like wheelbarrows -- useful only when pushed and easily upset.
-Anon
#160-2. Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty.
-John Finley
#160-3. Curious people are always the most interesting people. Why is that?
-Bill Maher
____
As brought out by the famous story of the Buddha, we have to grow strong enough to choose whether to accept abuse or criticism. Insecure persons, unsure of their displayed ability, tend to get easily hurt.
Management trainers talk of a desired quality called "tolerance for ambiguity". Alvin Toffler foresaw in the sixties that we all need to develop the capacity to cope with accelerating change. Change brings uncertainty and ambiguity, at least for a period.
Some old proverbs need to be retired. One of them is, "Curiosity killed the cat."
| #159: Thank You |
The greatest gift you can give someone is your time because when you are giving someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you will never get back.
-Rick Warren, in The Purpose-Driven Life
If you have something to do that is worthwhile doing, don't talk about it, but do it. After you have done it, your friends and enemies will talk about it.
-George W. Blount
Our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction.
-Francis Picabia, painter and poet (1879-1953)
We can't see eye to eye, but at least we can feel heart to heart.
-Anon
We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.
-Olin Miller
| #158 |
#158-1. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
-Lao-Tzu
#158-2. There is no such thing as an insignificant improvement.
-Tom Peters
#158-3. A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.
-Zig Ziglar
_____
The first two are clear prescriptions for change, any change.
The cynic might interpret the third as, "one needs someone else to take you ahead" but the more useful takeaways for us are:
a. One's belief in oneself might be a limiting factor and could be revised
b. Taking someone else's higher expectations from us as a challenge could sometimes open us up to previously unknown capabilities
c. We are responsible for stretching our team's achievements to levels beyond their own beliefs through expectation setting and trust.
| #157: Say Yes to Gen Y Yearnings |
Don't Let the Economy Alter Your Gen Y Strategy
by Leah Reynolds
Excerpted from http://www.talentmgt.com/newsletters/talent_management_perspectives/2009/February/876/index.php
Generation Y, whose members are 14 to 27 years old, often is portrayed as being self-entitled and spoiled by the baby boomers. In the workplace, they have a reputation as being overly ambitious dreamers who want higher salaries and more time off without paying their dues.
Deloitte's latest snapshot on Gen Yers already in the workforce presents a different picture. Gen Yers are a hidden powerhouse of employee potential: They are future-oriented, ready to contribute now and opportunity-driven. And they may just be a key asset for your business in tough times.
Gen Yers are driven less by rewards and more by opportunity. Career enhancement is more important than salary or a more secure job. When ranking factors in their decision to join their current employers, 63.5 percent cited development opportunities, while 49.8 percent mentioned salary and benefits.
They are adept at collaboration and teamwork. The chance to partner with older, more experienced workers is welcomed, and they are full of fresh insight on how to reach their peers in the consumer market. When asked what encourages them to initiate new ideas or participate in innovative efforts, their top two responses were opportunities to work with senior staff and executives (53.5 percent) and a culture that embraces contributions from all levels (52.9 percent).
They take on tough challenges and work toward ambitious goals.
...managers can tap this hidden powerhouse of employee potential, especially in this time of tight budgets and economic uncertainty. It can be a difficult challenge, but these ideas can help:
-Cut with a scalpel, not an axe: The current economic situation may require staff cuts, a process stacked against Gen Yers, who lack seniority and may not be top performers in traditional ways. Stick to a longer-term Gen Y strategy by expanding elimination-decision criteria to include competencies such as innovative prowess, technical savvy and willingness to take risks.
-Don't be afraid to ruffle feathers: Older workers may not be happy that young upstarts are getting great opportunities, but do what's right for the business. Try assigning older workers as mentors for younger staff, and change traditional reward structures to encourage participation. Older workers will feel valued and respected, while younger workers' desire to rocket up the learning curve will be satisfied.
-Acknowledge the challenge: Today's young workers have different expectations, and this isn't likely to change. Find ways to meet their needs by adjusting the strategic workforce plan, organization models, rewards, recognition and development programs - or another company will.
Gen Y is the future. Companies won't survive without them, so figuring out how to harness their capabilities is good business. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll see the benefits, and a bigger lead you'll have over your competition.
____
To my Gen Y readers: more and more of the management gurus are saying good things about you. I believe them and I believe in you. Feel good and do good. Make the world better.
To my non-Gen Y readers: We have no choice but to accept the inevitable but when we do it willingly and with understanding we become a part of the change, and we are able to influence it subtly. Don’t overvalue age or experience or knowledge, this century is all about the fresh use of knowledge, new perspectives and innovation. We not only don’t have any advantage over the upcoming generation, our so-called wisdom can be a barrier. True wisdom is constantly working to keep ourselves adaptable in all aspects of our lives.
I remember more than a few occasions during my childhood when I was irritated to hear elders lament along the lines of, “These days kids don’t know this,” or “This generation does not appreciate that.” One thing I swore to myself on one such occasion was I would not fall in this particular trap; when I am older, I will not deride the inexperience of youngsters. It’s not been easy but I have stuck to this promise made decades ago. All it takes is spending more time with younger folk and keeping the child in all of us alive – perhaps by being a little naughtier, a tad humbler, and above all, willing to laugh at oneself.
| #156 |
#156-1. We build (software) systems like the Wright brothers built airplanes—build the whole thing, push it off the cliff, let it crash, and start all over again.
-R. M. Graham
#156-2. Act as if everything you think, say and do determines your entire life - because in reality, it does!
-Laurelle Adrian
#156-3. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo DaVinci
____
A counterquestion to the first one is: the Wright brothers succeeded, didn't they? That too in a big way where many failed for centuries earlier.
The second one seems obvious but do we really remember or even accept it? Whenever we behave in a particular way knowing that it is not exactly the best course of action nor the best attitude to adopt, if we remind ourselves that ultimately there are consequences to everything good or bad, maybe we will change.
Only someone as sophisticated as DaVinci could come up with the profound third statement. I believe one has to progress in stages: from
-simplistic (simple due to lack of awareness and limitation)
to
-complex (sophisticated if polished, complicated if not)
before cycling back to
-simple (by choice).| #155 |
#155-1. Change is not only likely, it's inevitable.
-Barbara Sher
#155-2. Change can either challenge or threaten us... Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.
-Marsha Sinetar
#155-3. People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.
-Stephen Covey
_____
"Change is the only constant" is a cliché today but I find it fascinating that Alvin Toffler predicted with his first landmark book in 1970 -- "Future Shock" -- that the pace of change will accelerate, and that individuals and societies will succeed based on their ability to cope with rapid and continuous change.
When confronting a change we often respond with, "Let this settle down, let things get back to a normal state, then it will be comfortable." This can sometimes lead to serious problems -- wherever "first-mover advantage" applies. We have to learn to be comfortable with not just a changed environment, but a changing environment. For those who like his style, Tom Peters's "Thriving on Chaos" offers tips.
| #154: Choices and Decisions |
by David Allen
Choices are more productive than decisions.
"Decide" embodies the same Latin root as "homicide," "suicide," and "genocide," and in a subtle way carries the same kind of finality and heaviness. There's a sense that decision is a point of no return – no turning back, no recourse, no freedom.
"Choosing" leaves us room to breathe, the openness to live and learn, to course-correct, to change our minds. Whereas deciding tends to frame our thinking as right and wrong, choices allow us to express a preference. Every choice is a decision, and every decision a choice, of course. But one of the greatest obstacles to effectiveness and success is the fear of making a wrong one.
So we can use all the ammunition we can get to support our willingness to make a mistake. Words have great power, and it's a good idea to choose the best ones.
____
Amazing how simple words can contain seeds of powerful perspectives. I can choose to decide in the face of unknown factors, or choose to postpone deciding.
| #153 |
-Jim Collins, author of "Built to Last" and "Good to Great"
#153-2. When organizations say, "Our people are our greatest asset" what they actually mean is, "Our people's STRENGTHS are our greatest asset."
-Marcus Buckingham, author of "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" and other books
#153-3. The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system's weaknesses irrelevant.
-Peter Drucker, pioneer management guru, prolific author of management books
_____
The Strengths-based Approach, which I have been evangelizing in my organization for almost two years, is really gaining ground around the world with companies like Microsoft, Accenture and Toyota aligning their corporate people practices with this approach. Managers in these companies are trained to identify their own strengths and the strengths of their subordinates.
The first quote could sound a bit negative to some. They might ask, "So there are some WRONG people and they are unimportant, is it?" Actually there is a positive way to look at it (as usual). The people most likely to contribute to the success of any organization and thereby achieve personal career success are those whose values and attitudes are aligned with the culture of the organization. Maybe some people are more likely to achieve success by being the RIGHT people in some other culture? No recruitment process can perfectly assess this aspect of "fit".
| #152 |
Time for one of those "slightly different tone of thought-provokers"...
#152-1. If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.
-Anon
#152-2. The more time you spend in reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to do anything. Stability is achieved when you spend all of your time reporting on the nothing you are doing.
-Cohn’s Law
#152-3. It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
-Upton Sinclair
____
One reason that Scott Adams’s Dilbert is so popular is that the kind of things mentioned above are fairly commonly seen in the corporate world.
I often see cynical views propagated as useful, practical tips. To take a non-corporate example, it seems that some driving school instructors in Mumbai actually suggest to learners that they must drive in the rightmost lane (thus preventing the progress of others in this fastest lane) because then they (the learners) only have to worry about taking care of vehicles on their left side!
Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, to mean "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation", where he also described how ideas or songs, especially mistaken ones, spread amongst people. The concept of computer virus was not known at the time but meme is similar to an idea virus. We need to spread good concepts (a virus-killing virus?) in a similar, self-replicating manner.
| #151 |
#151-1. We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.
-Miguel de Unamuno, writer and philosopher (1864-1936)
#151-2. It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
-Baltasar Gracian, philosopher and writer (1601-1658)
#151-3. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays.
-Professor Harold Hill (The Music Man)
____
The first two constitute good advice on planning for a new future without always being constrained by the past, and on pausing to consider all angles before plunging into action.
The third cautions against overdoing the above.
| #150: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things - 6 Principles of Maturity |
From Guy Kawasaki's Blog:
I read a book (at the suggestion of my buddy Bill Meade) called Why Smart People Do Dumb Things by Dr. Mortimer Feinberg and John J. Tarrant, and it answered this question.
The authors list four reasons why smart, famous, powerful, and rich people who should obviously know better end up crashing and burning:
Hubris. Pride to the point that you no longer feel shame, no longer believe that you are subject to public opinion, and no longer need to fear "the gods." Examples: Gary Hart's involvement with Donna Rice that ended his run for the presidency and the Dennis Kozlowski's (Tyco) $2 million toga party.
Arrogance. From the Latin word arrogare: "to claim for oneself." Arrogant people believe they have claim to anything and everything they want--they are "entitled" to it. King David, for example, felt entitled to the wife (Bathsheba) of one of his soldiers. Modern day King Davids feel entitled to corporate jets and an entourage to tell them that their keynote speech rocked.
Narcissism. Self absorption to the point that you are blind to reality. The world only exists to provide you gratification. Examples: Richard Nixon and Watergate; the Clintons and Whitewater—really just about every politician and CEO who falls from grace.
Unconscious need to fail. If you think failing is hard, try winning. The questions that go through people’s minds when they they are on the doorstep of success are: Do I really deserve to win? Do I want the pressure of constantly having to win in the future? Can I really handle success? Perhaps this explains why professional athletes still take performance enhancement drugs even after watching their colleagues get busted.
The authors go on to discuss maturity (the "capacity to make constructive use of our inmost feelings") and what they call the "Six Basic Principles of Maturity."
Accept yourself. "You’re on the road to maturity if you can begin to appreciate yourself without trying to be what you cannot possibly be." The CEOs who failed at Apple did so because they wanted to be another "Steve Jobs." They couldn't accept themselves and their own, different capabilities and shortcomings.
Accept others. "Your relations with other people are a basic test of your maturity. If you don't get along well with others, it's not because you're not smart enough, or because you're smart and they're dumb. It's because you still need to grow up in some vital centers of your being." For example, there are companies in Silicon Valley that maintain a "tyranny of PhDs" where only the advanced degreed are held in high esteem and marketing, operations, and others are fodder.
Keep your sense of humor. "Your humor reflects your attitudes toward people. The mature person uses humor not as a bludgeoning hammer but rather as a plane to shave off rough edges."
Accept simple pleasures. "The capacity to get excited over things even when they seem ordinary to others—this is a sign of a healthy personality." For example, some tech entrepreneurs have yachts that can barely pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. (I'd just be happy if I could skate backwards.)
Enjoy the present. "Emotional grown-ups don't live on an expectancy basis. They plan for the future, but they know they must also live in the present. The mature person realizes that the best insurance for tomorrow is the effective use of today."
Welcome work. "Appreciation of work is a hallmark of mature people... Immature people are constantly fighting certain aspects of their work. They resent routine reports, or meetings, or correspondence. They allow these annoyances to grate on their nerves continually. Satisfaction in doing a good job is blocked out by the dust speck in the eye of resentment over trivia."
_____
I thought I know what is maturity but this is such a clear listing of qualities, isn't it? I was happy to know about the importance of "simple pleasures" because in the recent few years where my age is inching towards the "better hide it" range, I have started enjoying many things with renewed gusto. It's a very long and growing list but here are some: a strong half-cup of dark and bitter coffee, solving a medium-to-difficult Sudoku puzzle in one sitting, singing a sad song along with Rafi, averting a major escalation by engineering the right sequence of phone and mails...
I like the way two types of humour have been identified: one that you might use as a weapon (the bad kind) and one that helps you smoothen your rough edges (the good kind). I often see a third kind: humour used as a shield (neutral).
| #149 |
#149-1. Access to power must be confined to men who are not in love with it.
-Plato
#149-2. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
-Oscar Wilde
#149-3. The ego problem is a result of a society that promotes exploitation. Being better than, prettier and smarter than, or richer than, at the expense of someone else, is an ego barrier. Only when a person confronts this problem, recognizes and admits where they are, will there be a possibility for constructive change.
-Thomas D. Willhite
____
Most of the political leaders who have faded away in disgrace, and the recent phenomenon of CEOs misusing their authority to save on insignificant expenditure, are examples of people who loved power and were unwilling to relinquish it.
Being oneself means being authentic, which leads to building credibility and trust. Books such as Authentic Leadership by Bill George highlight the emphasis for leaders to create a culture of trust. This, of course, presumes that one's true self does not have too many personality kinks that need to be fixed first.
Truly accepting oneself and one's current state is not easy. If it was, entire industries such as cosmetics and luxury fashion goods would vanish!
| #148: Is Your Personal Corporation Growing? |
Is Your Personal Corporation Growing?
By Earl Nightingale (highlights mine)
Every person is, in reality, in business for himself or herself in that each is building his or her own life regardless of who happens to write his or her paycheck. So for the purpose of this message, think of yourself as a corporation. You hold the office of president of this corporation, and you're responsible for its success or failure. You and the members of your family are stockholders in your corporation, and it's your responsibility to see that the value of the stock increases in the years ahead.
If your company is growing, it will have a tendency to continue to grow. In other words, you're doing things right. Conversely, a company that is going backwards or shrinking has a tendency to continue to go backwards or shrink until acted upon by an outside force. All responsible company officers know that unless the company is growing, it's developing the first signs of death. As the head of your personal corporation, you must realize that this same law applies to you as well.
However, a person has a tremendous advantage over even the largest corporation. Think of any large multinational corporation. Can it double its production in a single day? Of course not. Can it double its sales in a single day? Of course not. It would like to, but its growth must be gradual and steady because of the interconnecting complexities of operating such a large organization. Yet a person can double, triple, quadruple his or her effectiveness in a month or less. It's like comparing the movement of a single scout to the movement of a great army.
Can you grow and improve as a person at least 10% a year? Of course you can. In fact, experts estimate a person can increase his or her effectiveness anywhere from 50% to 100% and more within 30 days.
History is filled with people who exceeded their previous performance to an almost unbelievable extent. People in management and in production who multiplied their effectiveness many times. Students who moved from failing grades to straight A's and the Dean's List. People in sales who found they could, through the proper management of their abilities, minds, and time, sell as much of their company's products in a single month as they had previously sold in an entire year. Think about what that means.
If you waste even an hour of productive time every work day, it adds up to 250 hours a year. That time wasted could shut your corporation down! You can earn nothing with the doors closed. What is your time worth an hour? Multiply this by 250 and you can see what you're throwing away. Now whether your employer pays for this wasted hour or not is unimportant. Life will not pay for it.
How much are you worth right now, today, as a corporation? What's your value today, to yourself, your family, your company? If you were an outside investor, a stranger, would you invest in this corporation? A company growing at the rate of 10% a year will double in size in about eight years. What attention are you giving to the growth of your personal corporation?
_____
Simple but hard-hitting message, especially to those who do not make it a point to attend at least one training programme every year, to those who do not have the time or interest in reading books.
Just like a company cannot be exclusively topline-focused or bottomline-obsessed but has to think about the environment, corporate social responsibility, employee engagement and so on, we as individuals also need to balance our attention across our professional, family, health and spiritual needs.
| #147 |
#147-1. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
-Hugh Macleod
#147-2. You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
-Pearl S. Buck
#147-3. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
-Hugh Macleod
_____
Enough literature and research studies are now available on creativity and innovation (applied creativity) based on work done in the last few decades in companies such as 3M. There is such a thing as a culture that allows and nurtures innovation. Leaders (the definition in this context is influencers, not persons in managerial positions) today need to be conscious of the first quote above.
Like many i-TFTDs the second one puts a big responsibility on ourselves. One might say, "I do not like this" or "This does not fit with my view" but does that automatically have to mean one would not do what is necessary?
The third reminds us many things that we often ignore: (i) our self-image guides our thoughts and feelings but it is usually different from how others perceive us (ii) our judgement of others is based on our perception of their external behaviour, it could be wrong or incomplete (iii) Changing our inside (a longer and harder process in my view) and changing our outside (quicker and relatively easier, not necessarily easy) could be looked at as two different things. This is related to the second quote above.
| #146 |
#146-1. Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.
-Lou Holtz
#146-2. Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
-James Joyce
#146-3. Why is it $10 looks so small at the grocery store, but so big at church?
-Anon
_____
The first one could be looked at as the three components of achieving success. Perhaps deficiency in one component could be compensated with surplus of another?
The last one is a funny phenomenon. A similar one says, "The length of a minute depends on which side of the bathroom door you are." It helps to remember that perspectives are relative to one's context and our own views could change over time. $ 10 = $ 10 isn't it obviously true? Yes if we look at the currency denomination and the arithmetic. Maybe it helps to qualify the context and make explicit our assumptions when we have a strong view to communicate.
| #145 |
#145-1. Everybody has difficult years, but a lot of times the difficult years end up being the greatest years of your whole entire life, if you survive them.
-Brittany Murphy
#145-2. Year by year we are becoming better equipped to accomplish the things we are striving for. But what are we actually striving for?
-Bertrand De Jouvenal
#145-3. We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.
-Jimmy Carter
____
In general, difficult situations offer more learning value than easy ones yet we do not seek them out.
Many unpleasant things seem trivial when I relate them with my important, long-term goals. How often do I focus on those goals?
The last one might seem too simple or a bit confusing. How do we do it? By being clear about core and non-core. Being flexible and adaptable could be my rigid motto for all time.
| #144 |
#144-1. If you are having trouble keeping your head above water, you probably aren't on your toes.
-Liguorian
#144-2. Half of the harm that is done in the world is due to people who want to feel important.
-T.S. Eliot
#144-3. Every exit is an entry somewhere.
-Tom Stoppard
____
Put another way, one has to be able either to stand on one's toes or to stay underwater.
Everyone likes to feel important but those who make that an objective by itself end up doing ineffective or even dangerous things.
Every child grows learning about the cyclical and rhythmic nature of many practical things in life but one should also detect the waves in a broader sense to handle the vicissitudes of life.
#142 |
#142-1. Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
-Shari R. Barr
#142-2. People who deliberately *fully* before they take a step will spend their lives on one leg.
-Anthony De Mello, author of One Minute Wisdom
#142-3. Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
-Jawaharal Nehru
____
The quote is humorous but presents a harsh truth. It hurts to accept it because we, perhaps subconsciously, adopt good moral behaviour with an expectation of direct benefit from Life/God/Society. Somerset Maugham rubbed it in for many of us in our eighth grade English class with his The Ant and the Grasshopper. Logical resolution for this can only come from a higher level of consciousness, what some popular authors call universal principles or laws. A longer term perspective is useful. Another perspective was touched upon in #16: The Law of Giving.
Seeking perfect information of all decision parameters leads to analysis paralysis. Most of us would benefit by increased risk taking and action orientation. Incidentally, Tony De Mello's books are the lightest reads with the deepest spiritual and practical lessons, subtly conveyed through funny anecdotes. Some of his other books that are perennial favourites with me are: The Prayer of the Frog, Song of the Bird and One Minute Nonsense.
We do not choose our parents. In most cases we do not get to choose our bosses. What we do under given circumstances determines a lot of how our future will be and how happy we feel with our achievements. That should exclusively occupy our attention. In this context, what we do includes how we approach a situation.
| #141: Christmas Special |
#141-1. Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.
-Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (1911-2004)
#141-2. The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
-Wilhelm Stekel, physician and psychologist (1868-1940)
#141-3. There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience had brought it home.
-John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, economist, moral and political theorist (1806-1873)
____
Christmas reminds us of an unusual hero. Many such heroes who influence humanity as a whole, for generations to come, make the supreme sacrifice of their lives. Often, their significance is understood much later.
For most of us, living for a cause is a better choice than giving up life for one. This is especially important in today’s world where so many misguided youth are induced to kill themselves for illegal, immoral and destructive causes.
Growing without hurting others–what a noble cause to live for!
We cannot afford to wait for personal experience to understand every important advice and practise it so we need to garner useful nuggets repeatedly from multiple sources. Keep reading inspiring quotes and stories, gentle i-TFTD subscribers.
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