http://mentoredge.com/

Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher

A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could. The mentor does just that, they believe that their mentees can do it. This, in itself, is usually encouragement enough for the mentee to do their best.

Mentor Edge is a unique initiative by Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad) in collaboration with leading entrepreneurs, business professionals and academicians to provide hand-holding, mentoring and networking support to innovative start-ups across India.

10 Behaviors You Can apply NOW to Make You a More Inspiring Leader

1. Use emotions more frequently.  For example, express heartfelt appreciation, get excited about organizational success. Show energy and enthusiasm.

2. Reach out to people. Find more ways to interact with your subordinates. Practice management by walking around. Initiate conversations and be constructive.

3. Set an aggressive target. With the involvement of your team members, set a target that will stretch the group.

4. Practice lavish communication. Take the time to be inclusive by being diligent in passing on information that you collect to your colleagues. Controlling information is not inspiring.

5. Delegate tasks with the development of the other person in mind. Delegation can be elevated to an important discussion and can be wrapped with important messages that inspire and that generate positive motivation. “I see this project as a real opportunity to help you develop your skills in….”

6. Make having a personal development plan a priority and review it at least twice a year. Create positive consequences for having a personal development plan in place and for pursuing it.

7. Schedule regular coaching sessions with each subordinate. Make yourself available. Also, leaders who are strong in self-development are very frequently rated higher on their ability to coach and develop others.

8. Involve more people in decision making on every important issue. Seeking the opinion of others communicates that what they are doing is important and it conveys respect and appreciation and strengthens the bond with the leader.

9. Shower positive attention on new ideas. If you have a “no” approach to new ideas, you will unwittingly close down creativity and innovation. If you don’t know, ask those who work for you, they’ll know.

10. Be the example. Demonstrate to your colleagues with your actions what is valued by the organization. You may also need to selectively model behaviors that need to be emphasized in the organization. A “do as I do” approach.

Who Am i ?

There is no such thing as a self made person. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.

Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

Shukla Bose: Teaching one child at a time

John Wooden on true success

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

According to THOMAS J PETERS, excellence in business depends on eight ingredients.

Activism, with people who 'do it, fix it (and) try it'

Excellent companies 'learn from the people they serve'.

They promote entrepreneurship and autonomy

Management learns from a 'hands-on' approach

Workers are valued as the key to achieve productivity

Excellent companies stick to their knitting, exploiting their core competencies and not pursuing wild goose chases

They keep their form simple and their staff lean;

They know how to be simultaneously tight-fitting and expansive.

Decide on how to start empowering those who reports to you

First, you will need to understand the values, goals & motivations of the people who are key to your success. Once you have identified their passions & what drives them, you can align this knowledge with what you feel needs to be done in the business, if you unsure, ask your colleagues to share their aims & objectives, & to explain both what & how they wish to contribute in order to achieve this personal vision.

One of the best ways to empower your colleagues is by creating a coaching culture within your team, you could try using the GROW model as a framework for your coaching conversations:

G:  What is the Goal?

R:  What is reality? What point are you standing from?

O:  What are your opinions? What ideas have you got to get you from R to G?

W:  Which way will you go? Which options will you choose and what is your plan to get you there?

Remember that effective delegations is another proven way to start opening up to empowerment, as it gives team members a chance to take responsibility and own a goal or objective for themselves.

A good manager has at least 10 good qualities, By Bill Gates

There isn't a magic formula for good management, of course, but if you're a manager, perhaps these tips will help you be more effective:

1.         Choose a field thoughtfully. Make it one you enjoy. It's hard to be productive without enthusiasm. This is true whether you're a manager or employee;

2.         Hire carefully and be willing to fire. You need a strong team, because a mediocre team gives mediocre results, no matter how well managed it is. One mistake is holding on to somebody who doesn't measure up. It's easy to keep this person on the job because he's not terrible at what he does. But a good manager will replace him or move him to where he can succeed unambiguously;

3.         Create a productive environment. This is a particular challenge because it requires different approaches depending on the context. Sometimes you maximise productivity by giving everybody his or her own office. Sometimes you achieve it by moving everybody into open space. Sometimes you use financial incentives to stimulate productivity. A combination of approaches is usually required. One element that almost always increases productivity is providing an information system that empowers employees. When I was building Microsoft, I set out to create an environment where software developers could thrive. I wanted a company where engineers liked to work. I wanted to create a culture that encouraged them to work together, share ideas and remain motivated. If I hadn't been a software engineer myself, there's no way I could have achieved my goal;

4.         Define success. Make it clear to your employees what constitutes success and how they should measure their achievements. Goals must be realistic. Project schedules, for example, must be set by the people who do the work. People will accept a "bottoms-up" deadline they helped set, but they'll be cynical about a schedule imposed from the top that doesn't map to reality. Unachievable goals undermine an organisation. At my company, in addition to regular team meetings and one-on-one sessions between managers and employees, we use mass gatherings periodically and E-mail routinely to communicate what we expect from employees. If a reviewer or customer chooses another company's product , we analyse the situation. We say to our people, "The next time around we've got to win. What's needed?" The answers to these questions help us define success;

5.         To be a good manager, you have to like people and be good at communicating. This is hard to fake. If you don't enjoy interacting with people, it'll be hard to manage them well. You must have a wide range of personal contacts within your organisation. You need relationships - not necessarily personal friendships - with a fair number of people, including your own employees. You must encourage these people to tell you what's going on and give you feedback about what people are thinking about the company and your role in it;

6.         Develop your people to do their jobs better than you can. Transfer your skills to them. This is an exciting goal, but it can be threatening to a manager who worries that he's training his replacement. If you're concerned, ask your boss: "If I develop somebody who can do my job super well, does the company have some other challenge for me or not?" Many smart managers like to see their employees increase their responsibilities because it frees the managers to tackle new or undone tasks. There's no shortage of jobs for good managers. The world has an infinite amount of work to be done;

7.         Build morale. Make it clear there's plenty of goodwill to go around and that it's not just you or some hotshot manager who's going to look good if things go well. Give people a sense of the importance of what they're working on - its importance to the company, its importance to customers;

8.         Take on projects yourself. You need to do more than communicate. The last thing people want is a boss who just doles out stuff. From time to time, prove you can be hands-on by taking on one of the less attractive tasks and using it as an example of how your employees should meet challenges;

9.         Don't make the same decision twice. Spend the time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don't revisit the issue unnecessarily. If you're too willing to reopen issues, it interferes not only with your execution but also with your motivation to make a decision in the first place. People hate indecisive leadership; However, that doesn't mean you have to decide everything the moment it comes to your attention. Nor that you can't ever reconsider a decision.

10.      Let people know whom to please. Maybe it's you, maybe it's your boss, and maybe it's somebody who works for you. You're in trouble and risking paralysis in your organisation when employees start saying to themselves: "Am I supposed to be making this person happy or this other person happy? They seem to have different priorities.

" I don't pretend that these are the only 10 approaches a manager should keep in mind. There are lots of others. Just a month ago I encouraged leaders to demand bad news before good news from their employees. But these 10 ideas may help you manage well, and I hope they do.
By Bill Gates

Developing your leadership skills - Steps To Success

 Try to be your own person. By all means observe good leaders in action and learn what you can from them, but don’t mimic them. Be yourself, but get the training you need to take your skills to the next level.

 Remember the importance of context.there is many different management style to suit a variety of occasion. Be flexible and be prepared to change your style depending on what you need to do and who you are working with at the time.

 Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. We don’t wake up in the morning instinctively knowing how to deal with every tricky situation we might come across at work, so do ask for help if you need it .your manager, mentor, or a trusted colleague are good ports of call and their advice copied with your own thoughts about how best to approach a situation will help you as you build your own brand of leadership.

 Give yourself a chance. if you are new to a job or company, your first few months  in a new role, especially one with management responsibilities ,can be challenging. Don’t get too downhearted if things don’t go to plan: everyone makes mistakes. Reflect on what has happened; think about lessons to be learned. act on them as appropriate, and move on.

 Don’t over promise. Its tempting to get people on side by telling them exactly what they want to hear, but you will end up backing yourself into a corner.

 Tread carefully at the first if you are introducing change. Peoples knee-jerk reaction to change tends to be negative, but if you bring it in gradually, you will get a less panicky response.

 Lead by example. you cant expect others to behave professionally if you don’t.

 Be very careful about what you say- and to whom- about your colleagues at work even if they are driving you mad .Use your common sense and be discreet, however angry or upset you are.