Monday, April 16, 2012

The 50 New Rules of Work

The 50 New Rules of Work

This is really very interesting read.. Every point is worth giving a thought.. I liked the idea of discussing these things in teams... at work..


The 50 New Rules of Work
  1. You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
  2. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
  3. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
  4. To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
  5. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
  6. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
  7. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
  8. Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
  9. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
  10. Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
  11. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
  12. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
  13. Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
  14. Get fit like Madonna.
  15. Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
  16. Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
  17. Good enough just isn’t good enough.
  18. Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
  19. An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
  20. If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
  21. Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
  22. Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
  23. Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
  24. The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
  25. If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
  26. Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
  27. The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
  28. The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
  29. Smile. It makes a difference.
  30. Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
  31. Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
  32. Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
  33. Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
  34. The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
  35. In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
  36. In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
  37. Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
  38. You become your excuses.
  39. You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
  40. The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
  41. It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
  42. The client is always watching.
  43. The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
  44. To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
  45. People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
  46. Every visionary was initially called crazy.
  47. The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
  48. Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
  49. Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
  50. Lead Without a Title.
I encourage you to share + discuss + debate these with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results.
Keep Leading Without A Title.
Robin Sharma is the author of the #1 international bestseller The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable About Success in Business and in Life, a book that is causing transformation in many of the best businesses in the world.

Monday, April 9, 2012

NGO - Prerana (supported by Infosys foundation)

This is a noble deed - that needs to be shared so that the bright students in any part of the country can get right kind of help.


If you have come across any bright students coming from poor financial background who have finished their 10th standard this year and scored more than 80%, please ask them to contact the NGO - Prerana (supported by Infosys foundation). The NGO is conducting a written test and those who clear the test will be eligible for financial help for their further studies. Please ask the students to contact the people mentioned below to get the form: 580, Shubhakar, 44th cross, 1st A main Road, Jayanagar, 7th block, Bangalore .

*Contact numbers:*
* 1. Ms. Saraswati - 99009 06338*
* 2. Mr. Shivkumar - 99866 30301*
* 3. Ms. Bindu - 99645 34667*
 
Even if you don't know anyone, please pass on this info, someone might be in need of this help.....

Let's do our part of at least creating awareness of this good deed.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

This article was published on LinkedinHR Blog


Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?
It's not just the number of hours we're working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.
What we've lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It's like an itch we can't resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.
Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you're taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you're driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn't?
The biggest cost — assuming you don't crash — is to your productivity. In part, that's a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you're partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it's because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you're increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.
But most insidiously, it's because if you're always doing something, you're relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.
I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.
If you're a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:
1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what's been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.
2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it's urgent, you can call them — but that won't happen very often.
3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

It's also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:
1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you'll be. When you're done, take at least a few minutes to renew.
2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don't, you'll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that's relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.
3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you're off, you're truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you'll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.
A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you're engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you're renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.

Enhanced by Zemanta