LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK

• Reputation vs Character

  Reputation grows like a mushroom; character grows like an oak. Build a strong character and let people create your reputation.
  
  Reputation is important to many people and they do everything they can to build and/or protect it. People get involved in various public relation and social contact activities to ensure that they are being spoken about and seen in places of importance. They say or do things to look good in public, not necessarily because they really feel for it.

• Fear is a Killer

  Fear destroys your will and your spirit. Don’t succumb to it.
  
  Fear is a powerful force. It is the enemy of success. Fear of all kinds and sizes is a form of psychological infection. It is a pessimistic concern. It roots from the depth of despair, worry and stress in general. Fear is such that it breaks down and destroys your will, your spirit and your passion. More people suffer in life because of fear, rather than a disease or an inability. The ill effects of fear are many, let’s try to understand them.

• Asking right questions

  Effective questioning can earn you the reputation of a caring professional who demonstrates empathy and understanding.
  
  Questioning skill is an underdeveloped business skill that is at the root of many instances of poor communication and poor performance. When someone asks poor quality questions they often receive poor quality answers and therefore any action taken with the information thus received will prove dangerous both for individuals and the organization.

• Motivate when the Going gets Tough

  Give your hundred per cent in whatever you do and become a champion.
  
  The power of motivation is often either underestimated or brushed aside by some people. To pat someone on the back, to congratulate someone when the going gets great or to vouch for someone during his peak form is a mere reinforcement of your support to a person. However, the real use of motivation comes in when the chips are down; nothing seems to be working fine and when someone is under pressure to perform.

• Power Listening

  Listening — the easiest way to be a good communicator.
  
  Listening skill is perhaps the most important tool in interpersonal relations, yet so many of us remain poor listeners. Executive Coach, Marshall Goldsmith says, “When you fail to listen you are sending out an armada of negative messages. You are saying — ‘I don’t care about you’, ‘I don’t understand you’, ‘You are wrong’, ‘You are stupid’, ‘You are wasting your time’ and all of the above.

• Delegate & Do What You Have To Do

  Learn how to manage time and people, you will always be in control of a situation.
  
  These are common problems faced by growing executives of today’s corporate world. The inability to delegate creates a crunch in time and being a victim of procrastination kills the pace of work. Both can make a deadly combination to take one to the highest level of incompetence. Here are some useful tips to help you reorganize yourself and increase your productive.

• Why Winners Win

  Winners do not win miraculously. They follow a formula.
  
  Every time we come across a successful person we ask ourselves one question - What makes him/her a winner? If you dig deep to unearth some distinct qualities that make them special and different from the crowd, you would discover that most winners have a mentor; they work to earn a 'wow' and they stay positive under all circumstances. You can try the same.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & BUSINESS

• A Big Idea

  Seize the moment and make the most of it.
  
  Let me share with you a story about India’s most celebrated name in the field of Internet. In 1988, Sabeer, at the age of 19, arrived in America with mere $250 and went on to become a millionaire by 1998. Sabeer and his colleague, Jack Smith, while working for Apple Computers, were keen to start their own company. They had been bouncing off ideas with each other and wanted to communicate their ideas by email on the office network but were afraid their bosses would find out.

• Being the Best in Business

  Entrepreneurship has come of age in India. Here are some tips that could help you set up a successful business.
  
  The great Indian dream finally seems to have gathered momentum. In the last five years we have seen unbelievable growth in India. There are more job openings now than ever before. The corporate world is growing at a rapid pace and providing ample opportunities for new businesses to come up. Areas like transport, catering, corporate gifts, event management, public relations, advertising, graphics and training among others, are thriving.

• Build your Network - Part1

  Connect yourself with people, talk to them, invest time in meeting new people, seek their advice on matters and you are expanding your network.
  
  Networking means expanding your world by connecting with people to share information and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Building and maintaining good business and personal networks can help you to maximize the opportunities that come your way. Therefore, it is important to invest your time in learning how to develop and leverage your network.

• Build your Network - Part2

  Connect yourself with people, talk to them, invest time in meeting new people, seek their advice on matters and you are expanding your network.
  
  Networking means expanding your world by connecting with people to share information and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Building and maintaining good business and personal networks can help you to maximize the opportunities that come your way. Therefore, it is important to invest your time in learning how to develop and leverage your network.

• Build your Network - Part3

  Connect yourself with people, talk to them, invest time in meeting new people, seek their advice on matters and you are expanding your network.
  
  Networking means expanding your world by connecting with people to share information and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Building and maintaining good business and personal networks can help you to maximize the opportunities that come your way. Therefore, it is important to invest your time in learning how to develop and leverage your network.

• Excuse-free Culture

  “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else” — Benjamin Franklin.
  
  Statistics show that making up excuses to corroborate ones behaviour or lack of performance, amount to approximately 99 per cent of the recorded cases of failure in a work environment. People make excuses in order to gain time, justify their actions and sometimes because they cannot accept failure. However, excuses that compromise results are often more harmful than the actual cause of failure.

• Arrest Corporate Infancy Death

  Why do some employees leave within a few months of joining an organization? What can be done to stop this attrition?
  
  Hiring has become a key function in most companies today. Two reasons contribute to the emergence of this function in such a big way. They are:

  1. Hire to increase the bench strength to attract new business.
  2. Rehire for existing positions when someone leaves the company.

• The Perfect Meeting

  We encounter them at all stages of our working and non-working lives. Do you know how to make the most of them?
  
  A good meeting can make or break a deal. A meeting can help you achieve a lot in little time or it can be a waste of time and resources. Therefore, it is important to develop the skill of participating and conducting business meetings.

• Managing Customer Complaints

  Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.” -Anthony J. D'Angelo
  
  The customer's expectation keeps getting bigger. They no longer quietly accept faulty service or products. If there is noise in a new car, a concern with the billing process, a problem with a gadget or even an order at a restaurant which gets delayed, they do something about it - they complain. And, rightly so!

CAREER & SUCCESS

• The Road Less Travelled

  The world is changing at a rapid pace. Those who are unwilling or unable to take risks will become ineffective if not obsolete.
  
  Success involves taking risks. People who consistently perform at a higher level have certain things in common. They are committed to their success. They have a passion to achieve their goals. They are comfortable taking well-reasoned risks.

• Reform your Thoughts

  Control your mind, the most powerful weapon you own, in order to achieve your goals.
  
  The mind is not designed to get results. It is just neutral energy which works in the direction that you want it to. For example, if you channelize positive energy, your mind makes everything else work and when you lose control of your thoughts, it blocks your progress.

• Learn from Past Mistakes

  Mistakes can be a learning experience; learn how to deal with them.
  
  Human beings are designed to make mistakes, irrespective of age, qualification and past achievement, we are all prone to go wrong. However, it is fascinating to learn how people respond after making mistakes.

• Five Things to Avoid

  The five things you must stay away from in order to make it to the top.
  
  There is no one road to success, there are several. Likewise, there is no one formula to achieve success, there are several. Management gurus have put enough ink to paper chronicling their personal success formulas. After having read and reread their books several times over, I arrived at the conclusion that it might be easier to pen down some formulas to success based on the reverse osmosis theory.

• The Multitasking Bug

  “To do two things at once, is to do neither.” — Publilius Syrus.
  
  ‘Maximising on available time to get more results’ is one of the mantras of today’s generation. Living on the edge and performing 24/7 seems to be an exciting concept, but in reality, does multitasking really work? Does it bring in the desired outcome? Do people achieve extraordinary results?

• Be a Good Finisher

  In today’s world, a good finisher is more valued than a good beginner.
  
  Great teams always have great finishers who play their roles to perfection. The success of the Australian cricket team can be attributed to their ability to finish games. No matter what the circumstances, they rarely succumb to pressure and go on to win matches.

• Follow-up is Crucial

  Achieve results easily through effective follow-up.
  
  Fortune lies in follow-up — whether it is a job interview, networking with people, closing on business deals, getting the best out of a person or to achieve success in any other aspect of life, one has to master the art of follow-up.

• The Level 10 Game

  If you want to take your mission in life to the next level, don't look outside yourself. Look inside.
  
  This is a little story of a boy and a girl who were playing together. The boy had lot of marbles and the girl had sweets with her. The boy asked the girl if she would exchange her sweets for the marbles. The girl agreed and handed over all the sweets to the boy. However, the boy, sneaked out the biggest and the most colorful marble that he had and gave the rest to the girl. That night the girl slept well but the boy was…

WORK-LIFE BALANCE & RELATIONSHIP

• Life is Beautiful, Love it

  We live as if we will never die and at last we die as if we never lived. Learn how to live it up.
  
  In the blind race to earn money people seem to have forgotten how to live life; work pressure seems to have complicated relationships creating stress and affecting productivity. Suddenly, work-life balance has become a hot new topic of discussions.

• All Work, no Play

  “Too much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink.” - Rudyard Kipling
  
  The popular cliché ‘All work and no play will make Jack a dull boy’ is widely used in a plethora of interpretations. ‘Jack’ has become symbolic of the workaholic — the disparaging businessman who works too hard and leaves no window for enjoyment, making him tiresome, monotonous and racing towards complete burn-out.

• Life Rocks

  Don’t let life pull you down, ensure you have a fit body and soul and all will be fine.
  
  Sometimes life’s goings get tough. We reach a point when we begin to think that life is not really worth it, thus starting a downward spiral of thoughts. We think of all things that have gone wrong, the people who have hurt us and stop enjoying ourselves to such an extent, that finally our health gets affected.

• Find the Mahatma in You

  “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”
  
  Mahatma Gandhi was famous for his economy of thought and superior mode of understanding. While on one hand his compatriots in the freedom struggle hounded the enemy and threatened violence, Gandhi preached non-violence and his philosophy of ‘love thy enemy’.