Personal Development

If you are an avid reader you have certainly come across books that have not only made an impression on you, but have taken you to a new plane of existence.  Let me share some of my favorites. 
“Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley takes you on a journey that shows you the positive and negative effects of living a conditioned life.  The state creates you for a particular purpose and programmes you to think and feel the way it wants you to.  Then scientists come across a savage tribe living in Mexico and bring back a specimen to study.  The book is witty and prescient and presents you with a moral choice at the end. 

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull y Richard Bach is a story of a seagull bored with the daily grind of looking for food with a flock of other seagulls.  He starts to fly in a manner quite different to what is expected of him and soon finds himself expelled for not being one of them.  Jonathan meets up with a spiritual guide who proceeds to show him a higher purpose to his life.  This book will encourage you to soar. 
The Seat of the Soul by Gary Sukav is a must read if you are trying to discover the meaning of your existence.  A bit heavy but it makes you want to read on.

Awaken the Giant within by Anthony Robins is one of the world’s bestsellers on personal development.  It gives you a step by step approach to improving your life.  Read it to make a difference. 

Sharing Some Key Learnings At Workpalce

I remember embracing the 9 to 5 work life with soaring ambitions and an iron-clad resolve to prove myself as a committed professional.  While commitment was an inherent quality thqat did not require much effort so genuinely believed, efficient  time management was an art that came with time.  Six years after successfully earning the certified seal of approval from my employers in timemanagement, I would like to share some key learnings with all newbies hoping to start the year 2011 with a leap into the corporate world.

Priorities:
Learn to differentiate between work that is priority and work that can wait.  Focus first on work that is pressing and tackle it head-on.  For work that is not urgently required but is pending nonetheless, give yourself deadlines and stick to them. 
Do not procrastinate:
The more tiem you have, the more time you will waste.  As clichéd as it may sound, do not put off work that you can do today for tomorrow.  You never know what new tasks will come your way the next day so make your life easier by doing the maximum you can do each day. 

Get a head start:
Learn to respect time.  It is one thing to stroll in late for a meting one day, but make a practice out of it and you will lose all respect no matter how good you are at what you do. So try to get a head start each day.  Remember, staying ahead of time is the onloy way you can stay ahead of the game.

Get rid of the clutter:
Sometimes the smallest tasks can take the most time.  Unclutter your mind by using the early hours of lthe day to get rid of the small things that are pending to allow yourself to focus on the bigger picture.
Ensure clarityof vision:
Before you step in for work, have a clear  vision for each day.  Remember time is money so work out what you need to achieve each day.  The clearer you are, the more you will achieve. 

How to Fail Successfully...How to succeed

Most people are successful in life.  Some plan for success; take regimented and disciplined actions and achieve it.  Others plan for success but don’t do anything else beyond planning and successfully failing.  Failing is much easier to achieve. 
Guess what? You don’t have to do anything to fail.  Most authors of self-help books preach and attempt to teach us things that we do not do very well. They tell us what to do and become very rich in the process.
As opposed to telling you how to succeed, here are a few things that will help you fail amazingly well.

People, who are destined to successfully fail, never write things down.  After all, if you can remember, why write it down. Think of all the time that will be wasted just writing things down on a piece of paper.  Rely on memory.  Calendars are for winners only.  If you keep a diary, you will be left with no excuses. 

Spend most of your time on the pettiest of things.  Do not bother prioritising.  Micromanage and be involved in everything.  Believe that you need to know and control everything.  The added benefit is that it will accelerate your rate of failure because people will also hate you. 

If you do not leave office on time why bother reaching there on time; get to work just in time.  Settle down, have a cup of tea, socialize (teambuilding), warm up and start work after 45 minutes.

Reading can e harmful to your eyes.  Management books don’t tell you things you don’t already know.  It is all common sense.  At most, they change the title of concepts.  Come to think of it, why are you even reading this?  

Exemplary Behaviour of The Line Mangers

Inspiring and motivating those around us is a difficult task involves much more than just thinking about and believing in good management principles.

The fact is that corporate culture can only be improved through the exemplary behavior of the line mangers displaying true adherence to good management practices.  Examples of the desired behavior have to be constantly portrayed in an effort to establish belief in employees about the possibility of these actions i.e. setting examples of putting words into action with sincerity.  This will foster an environment of mutual trust, transparency and confidence in the organisation and employees will follow their instructions in their entirety. 

Some behavior indicators for making this happen are:

Observe company discipline in terms of time management by being punctual to work and on time for official meetings.

Cascade the corporate culture and values to al staff while explaining their importance and necessity.

Be humble and cooperative to all, even your subordinates and the support staff of the company. 

Own your job responsibilities and perform better than desired.

Always maintain a humanistic attitude towards everyone and constantly coach the staff to help them overcome their performance problems.

Be resource conscious and show co9ncern for company property.

Unless line mangers show that they practice what they preach, staff will keep on ignoring their message and will consider them nothing more than just lip service.

A Bit more about Fish Philosophy

Optimizing operational results while at the same time developing high employee morale are at the heart of the Fish! Philosophy, which is based on four principles, here is a closer look at the last two principles:

To be there for another person has a very powerful effect.  Think about how good it feels when someone gives you his or her undivided attention, focusing on your needs and feelings as opposed to someone who is otherwise distracted during their interaction with you.
Even though listening is a big part of being there, it goes beyond that.  All too often, when we are engaged in a conversation, our minds are focused on thinking of an adequate response to what the person is saying instead of giving them our complete attention.  Another common thing is selective listening where we only hear what we want to hear.  Being truly present means suspending judgment while you are listening.  In order to have meaningful exchanges, it is critical to e there and be fully present, physically as well as with all your emotional and mental faculties. 
Of the many things that determine the levels of success and happiness that a person is able to achieve in life, the foremost is attitude.  Is is also the one factor that is most within your control. 
We may have inherited a predisposition to a certain general attitude towards life from our parents or our past experiences; and we can either be subservient to external events, few of which we have any control over, or we can take charge of our own response.  By using your mind, your ability to think, you become a creature of circumstances.
Choosing your attitude is about being aware of what your attitude is, and that it does affect you and others.  Once you accept that you are the only one who is choosing your attitude at his moment, you can control it and respond to situations instead of reacting.