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.

How to Be a Good Manager ?

1. Motivate people. Why are the employees there? What keeps them with your organization and stops them from going somewhere else? What makes the good days good? What makes them stick with the organization after a bad day or a bad week? Don't assume it's money--most people aren't that one-dimensional. Ask the employees how they're liking their job on a regular basis. Encourage them to be honest with you. Be a good listener. Then take action based upon what they tell you. If health is important to them, give them time to go to the gym and work out. If their family is important, respect the time they may need to send their kids off to school in the morning or pick them up in the afternoon. Remember, our values are what makes us "tick". If you manage by respecting your team's values, they will give you 110% of their effort.

2.  Delegate. You're a manager because you're good at what you do, but that doesn't mean you're supposed to do it ALL. Your job as a manager is to teach other people how to do a good job. If you're uncomfortable with delegating, however, this can be a huge leap of faith for you. One way to overcome this is to start small. Give people tasks that, if performed incorrectly, can be fixed. Take the opportunity to teach and empower your employees. Then gradually give them tasks with greater responsibility as you come to understand their strengths and weaknesses and learn how to anticipate any problems they might have so you can coach them properly before they begin.

3. Keep the door open. Always remind people that if they have any questions or concerns, you're ready and willing to listen. Don't be one of those managers who inadvertently makes an employee feel like they're "bothering" you when they bring up a question or concern. Instead of seeing it as another crisis to manage, look at it as an opportunity to show your employee how much you want this organization to be a fulfilling place to work. Never minimize or dismiss their concerns, and always make sure that you've answered their questions completely.

4. Let people make mistakes. As a manager, you take responsibility for other people's actions, so the last thing you want to do is be responsible for someone else's mistakes. In an attempt to be proactive and prevent mistakes, you might give careful instructions and create clear, strict standards. But are you making people afraid of mistakes? Do they always check with you about every little thing, reluctant to make their own decisions because they might not do it correctly? That ends up making the employees more dependent on you, which makes them less effective and unnecessarily drains a significant portion of your time. In order for people to think for themselves, they need to learn, and in order to learn, sometimes we need to make mistakes. Trustthem, and give them a fair margin of error.

5. Learn from your own mistakes. When things don't turn out the way you expected, recognize what you could've done differently and verbalize this realization to your employees. This shows them that you make mistakes, too, and it also shows them how they should handle their own mistakes. Whenever you're doing something correctly after having done it incorrectly in the past, let whoever is watching know. E.g. "The reason I know to press this button is because this happened to me when I first started out, and I made the mistake of pressing the blue button, thinking 'This will shut down the system, which should resolve the issue' and I found out--the hard way--that it makes the issue even worse!"

6. Treat everyone equally. Most of us aren't as egalitarian as we'd like to be. Many times, favoritism happens on a subconscious level. The tendency is to give more positive recognition to the people who remind us of ourselves somehow and who actually like us, rather than to the people who make the biggest contributions to the organization.[1] In the long run, it's people in the latter group who will make the most progress in achieving the organization's goals, so monitor your own behavior carefully and make sure you're not accidentally short-changing them, even if they give you the impression that your positive regard doesn't affect them. Some people shy away from positive feedback but appreciate it nonetheless.

Tips

• Celebrate success with your team, whether it's by giving them a pat on the back, taking them to lunch, or giving them the afternoon off.

• Avoid making them stay back after normal working hours. Respect their time and personal commitments and they will reciprocate by producing exceptional results for their manager and the organization.

• Forget about your credentials. Education didn't make you a better manager. But experience can contribute to becoming a good manager.

• As manager try to communicate with your employees in proper way and avoid making them feel down.

Warnings

• Being a good manager doesn't mean being a people pleaser. If an employee keeps crossing the line or failing to meet expectations, use a feedback sandwich or nonviolent communication to correct the situation.

• If that fails, consider firing them.

Source:WikiHow

5 Mantras of Great Thinker Prof. C. K. Prahalad

C.K. Prahalad has spent most of his life thinking about how companies run. He has consulted to the likes of AT&T, Philips Electronics, and Sony. Now he's in the hot seat as chairman of Praia Inc. Here's what he has learned so far.

# When the going is roughest, leadership matters.
# Successful managers embrace discomfort.
# Great leaders stay on message.
# It's not one person. It's not the team. It's both.
# Think? Act? Balance the two.


When the going is roughest, leadership matters. In times of trouble, Prahalad says, "leaders must behave like emotional and intellectual anchors. There are no external cues now. The critical issue is about faith, passion, and, most importantly, authenticity -- so that people know you are not pretending. People can see a sham."

Successful managers embrace discomfort. "If you do precisely what you're supposed to do," Prahalad says, "and you're boxed in, then you're going to do that very well." But if pressed to do things that aren't in your normal job description, he says, the challenge can push you to a new level of achievement.

Great leaders stay on message. For Prahalad, nothing is more important than reminding people what the company stands for. "I spend a lot of time talking about what we're doing in terms of strategy," he says. "You have to give the same message over and over again."

It's not one person. It's not the team. It's both. A painting of a pack of wolves in Prahalad's office symbolizes the combination of leadership and teamwork that pervades successful organizations. "With wolves, solidarity is first," says Prahalad. "But when they hunt, they change roles. The implicit hierarchy depends on who does what." In an organization, he adds, "one unique person makes a difference, but you need teamwork to make it happen."

Think? Act? Balance the two. Says Prahalad: "In a company like ours, if we want to do something, we can just call a meeting. But in a small company, you have to exercise caution and build your own personal dampers so that you don't act on everything. Sometimes not acting may be smart. But if I get the feeling that everybody's becoming so thoughtful that nobody's doing anything, I want to go and light some fires somewhere."

Business-plan contents from beginning to end

Business plans come in all shapes, sizes, formats — even colors — but they all share a similar framework. The following components, presented in the order they generally appear, are common elements in most business plans:

Table of contents: This element is a guide to the key sections in your business plan and is especially useful if your plan exceeds ten pages. Executive summary: This section is a summary of the key points in your
business plan. You should incorporate it if your plan runs more than ten pages and you want to convey important information upfront. Because many readers dig no deeper than your executive summary, you want to keep it clear, captivating, and brief — in fact, try to keep it to two pages or less.

Company overview: This section describes your company and the nature of your business. It may include your company’s mission and vision statements as well as descriptions of your values, your products or services, ways your company is unique, and what business opportunities you plan to seize.

Business environment: This section includes an analysis of your industry and the forces at work in your market; an in-depth description of your direct and potential competitors; and a close look at your customers,
including who they are, what they want, and how they buy products or services. Think of this section this way: It describes everything that affects your business that’s beyond your control.

Company description: In this section, include information about your management team, your organization, your new or proprietary technology, your products and services, your company operations, and your
marketing potential. Focus on areas where you have real advantages over your competition.

Company strategy: Here’s where you detail your road map to the future. This section brings together the information about your business environment and your company’s resources and then lays out a strategy for
going forward. Included in this section is your analysis of the opportunities, threats, and uncertainties that your business faces along with the ways you plan to avoid pitfalls and take advantage of opportunities.

Marketing plan: This section is where you describe how you plan to reach prospects, make sales, and develop a loyal clientele. Because customers and sales are essential to your company’s success, this
section is a major component of your business plan.

Financial review: This section includes a detailed review of dollars and cents, including the state of your current finances and what you expect your financial picture to look like in the future. It typically contains financial statements, including an income statement, your balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement. (If any of these terms seem foreign to you, or if you want step-by-step financial planning advice.

Action plan: In this section, you detail the steps involved in implementing your business plan, including the sequence of actions and how they align with your goals and objectives.

Appendixes: This section includes detailed information that supports your business plan. It may include analyses, reports, surveys, legal documents, product specifications, and spreadsheets that deliver a rounded understanding of your business plan but which are of interest to only a small number of your readers.

Theory ‘ i ’ Management” by Arindam Chaudhuri

The need to have an Indian Style of Management 

How often has one heard of an American organization adopting the Japanese management style to surge ahead? How often has one heard of the reverse? Probably never. However, I do remember reading somewhere that when IBM-USA was making losses while IBM-Japan was making profits, IBM-USA tried to adopt the Japanese management style to turn around. The result was increased losses.

Predictable? Should be. It is most likely that a style that is successful in Japan would not be as successful in the US and vice versa. People are different, the cultures are different and so is the life-style. That is the reason why Japan has developed its own management style and the US its own. If we take a deep look into the American management style, we realise that it is absolutely fine tuned to the American culture and way of living. The people in the west grow up, mostly, with very less emotional security due to factors like high divorce rates, single parent families etc. As they grow up they do tend to find a sense of stability in this seemingly unstable and insecure atmosphere. Thus, when they enter into their job lives and see a management culture prevalent, which is contractual in nature with hire and fire style of management, they don't get disturbed. In fact, this motivates them to work harder and a typical American would say, "we are tough guys and as long as we are good the company keeps us, else we go out". The bottom line is that the fine-tuning between the cultures at home and at job works wonders and enhances productivity and motivation.

Looking at the Japanese companies one finds concepts of lifetime employment working wonders out there. A Japanese finds a bonded culture in his organisation, unlike the American contract culture. If we look into the Japanese life style and culture we would find the importance of bonds being very high. The Japanese have strong family ties and a strong sense of community. From such an upbringing, they feel at home when they see a bonded style of management on the job. The typical Japanese would say, "I am a Honda man (and not that I work for Honda)" displaying the bond that he shares with his company. The point that gets highlighted again is that a management style, which flows out of your own culture and roots would any day, motivates your people much more than one, which is adopted from somewhere else.

The basics of "Theory 'i' Management"

Like Theory 'X' which tried to define a worker in its own manner as a mindless lazy rascal who loves shirking responsibilities and the Theory "Y" which tried to define the worker as an ambitious responsible citizen looking for the right environment to contribute constructively, Theory 'I' is an attempt to understand and define the Indian worker just like the Japanese had tried to do with their Theory "Z".

In spite of India having some of the best management schools of the world and the best reservoir of skilled human talent, our organizations have not been able to do well. Amongst other reasons one of the most important reasons for the failure of Indian management has been our failure to develop an indigenous management style, which revolves around our cultural roots and upbringing. An Indian grows up in a system, where family ties and a sense of belongingness get an absolute top priority. Coming from this environment, he gets a shock, when he sees the job environment practicing American philosophies of contractual style of management. He is not able to adjust productively to this cultural mismatch and thus, very often, fails to be as productive as his Japanese or American counterpart.

An Indian worker is perhaps looking at a system without ruthless management practices and inhuman work pressure even if the job security is a little less. Instead of the system (specially in PSU's) giving them near 100% job security, it could give them some fear of job security, since Indians culturally like to take life easy and tend to become complacent in such situations. While, the job security aspect could be reduced the human touch in managing them could be increased. They should be made to feel that the company cares for them through regular training programmes, family welfare schemes etc. They should be made to feel that they matter in the organization through programmes, which involve them directly or indirectly into various decision-making processes. This would increase their level of commitment for the organizations and perhaps tomorrow we would also see people telling, "I am a Bajaj man" instead of "I am working for Bajaj scooters". In one of my workshops Sr. Manager - Corporate Planning of NTPC, P. Purukayastha could not agree more and cited two beautiful examples. The first related to NTPC spending up to Rs. 5 crore on the medical expenses in US for one of its drivers and his wife who were affected by incurable diseases. This incident of humanity has been a motivating factor for all employees for years. The second related to his own experience where he made flexi timing for one of his workers whose wife was ill. This not only removed the troubled look from his face but also made him one of the most motivated workers who was always ready to give more than 100% to his job once his wife became alright. These two incidents can explain how human touch can do wonders on an average Indian psyche. I would even go up to the extent of suggesting that professional studies could be made a part of on the job training like in Japan and not that people first get trained and then wander around for jobs like in the US. It has to be kept in mind that the Japanese without a single business school of repute have produced some of the most successful corporations in the last 50 years, while with so many reputed management schools the US has not been able to stop the entry of one after another of the Japanese organisations into the Fortune 500 list. Again out here I might add that Mr. Purakayastha himself went through a training program after which the company, based upon the results of the test, decided to shift him from industrial relations to corporate planning which has been one of the most motivating aspects of his job.

The idea that I want to suggest is that it is high time Indian companies thought sincerely about their people and developed "Indian - people friendly management" practices. They might have some American touch or some Japanese touch but the thought essentially has to be given on what will suit the Indians. The sad part is that successful Indian managers who have developed indigenous styles of management don't end up theoreotising their styles and propagating them through books or articles. In the US almost every semi-successful manager ends up writing a book and thus, today one does know how IBM is managed, but one doesn't know about how an Indian corporation like, may be, the Reliance Group is managed. So, when it comes to learning management the only option is to refer to foreign books and learn foreign management styles.

The Principles of "Theory 'i' Management"

Most Indians value bonds emotions and long-term relationships.

Most Indians value growth opportunities and commitment.

Our cultural roots (of tolerance etc.) often make us complacent.

Lack of patriotism at a macro level leaves us aimless.

What do these principles prove?

These principles have been arrived at after a thorough research that we conducted on more than 3000 managers across the country. The managers were asked to talk about their colleagues across functions and levels. The most important revelation from this survey is about the uniqueness of today's Indian psyche. On one hand as expected, the first two points go on to prove our cultural values and a lot of similarities can be drawn with the Japanese value systems. On the other hand when faced with the fact that everything Indian is so cool outside India, Bhangra and Indipop find place in the US pop charts, the global IT revolution has been fuelled by homegrown geeks, in Ohio the Wright State University College of Business and Administration gets renamed after an NRI businessman, our B-school graduates are becoming global leaders, NASA has top Indian scientists, yet Indians have time and again failed to perform in India ; Indian's like to blame it on complacency, a characteristic that they like attributing to our culture ! It seems Indian's look for the first opportunity to become complacent; something that they are unable to become in the western world of competition and hire and fire system. Not only this, when faced with the question about the lack of patriotic instincts and decaying values; they love to blame it on their leaders. Somebody says if our Prime Minister can be bribed Rs 1 crore by a stock broker, what's wrong in taking bribes; somebody else says if my general manager can take a bribe from the company's travel agent what's wrong if I get some account through corrupt practices? One might argue that even in Japan there is corruption. The reality however is that in Japan corruption doesn't touch everyday human existence the way it does in India and moreover they have a more effective judicial system, which even their presidents can't escape. The other day I read that in Uttar Pradesh fire brigade people have started to ask for bribes before starting to put off the fire! Criminalization of daily life is to such an extent that every individual is actually being turned into a criminal.

The socio - cultural and geo-political environment in India has today resulted into a mixed breed of Indians who on one hand retain family values and a longing for emotional touch and on the other hand are complacent (given the first opportunity to be) and unashamed of being morally bankrupt

9 lessons from Google, Jim Lecinski, managing director for Google

Jim Lecinski, managing director for Google. broke down his company’s innovation strategy into nine notions. Each notion contains an important lesson that all professionals can learn from.

1. Innovation, not instant perfection. Google believes in launching new products and ideas early and often, rather than trying to perfect those ideas behind closed doors before releasing them to the public. Then, customer feedback and popularity prove which projects are most successful.

2. Share everything you can. Small teams that communicate openly have proved the best results for Google. They believe in transparency in the workplace so that everyone knows what everyone else is working on. (Scary, right?) They have a computer program where employees can look up names and see what others are working on, so if they have an idea to contribute they know who to talk to.

3. You’re brilliant, we’re hiring. When Google interviews employees, Lecinski said they set the bar very high. They focus more on hiring generalists rather than specialists, as they have found generalists are more valuable and can contribute ideas to different parts of the company.

4. Allow employees to pursue their dreams. Lecinski said Google allows its employees’ time in a 70/20/10 model. Seventy percent of the time they work on Google’s search and ad flagships; they develop new programs like Images, Desktop and Finance 20 percent of the time; and 10 percent of the time employees are allowed to pursue their own high risk/high reward projects. Lecinski said Google Earth is a result of one of those projects.

5. Ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes Google turns to the public for new ideas. The Google mastheads, which are customized for holidays and events, are taken from non-employee submissions. One of the mastheads was designed by a 12-year-old girl.

6. Don’t politic – use data. With all the ideas floating around Google, the best way to determine which may work is to use supportive data. As Lecinski said, “Data beats opinion.”

7. Creativity loves restraint. Again, Google has to have some way to keep all of the employee-generated ideas streamlined towards the company’s goals. “Let people explore, but set clear boundaries for that exploration,” Lecinski said.

8. Get users and usage – the money will follow. This goes back to one of Lecinski’s larger points, “respect for end users,” but is a principle to follow in any form of business. He says to focus on creating things that are innovative and useful for people, not something you can sell.

9. Don’t kill projects, morph them. Google doesn’t waste ideas. Instead, they try to change and transform them into something the company finds useful.

10 most important reasons why happiness at work is the #1 productivity booster by Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer

Here are the 10 most important reasons why happiness at work is the #1 productivity booster.

1: Happy people work better with others
Happy people are a lot more fun to be around and consequently have better relations at work. This translates into:

• Better teamwork with your colleagues
• Better employee relations if you’re a manager
• More satisfied customers if you’re in a service job
• Improved sales if you’re a sales person

2: Happy people are more creative
If your productivity depends on being able to come up with new ideas, you need to be happy at work. Check out the research of Teresa Amabile for proof. She says:

If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day.

There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.

3: Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them
When you don’t like your job, every molehill looks like a mountain. It becomes difficult to fix any problem without agonizing over it or complaining about it first. When you’re happy at work and you run into a snafu – you just fix it.

4: Happy people have more energy
Happy people have more energy and are therefore more efficient at everything they do.

5: Happy people are more optimistic
Happy people have a more positive, optimistic outlook, and as research shows (particularly Martin Seligman’s work in positive psychology), optimists are way more successful and productive. It’s the old saying “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re probably right” all over again.

6: Happy people are way more motivated
Low motivation means low productivity, and the only sustainable, reliable way to be motivated at work is to be happy and like what you do. I wrote about this in a previous post called Why “motivation by pizza” doesn’t work.

7: Happy people get sick less often
Getting sick is a productivity killer and if you don’t like your job you’re more prone to contract a long list of diseases including ulcers, cancer and diabetes. You’re also more prone to workplace stress and burnout.

One study assessed the impact of job strain on the health of 21,290 female nurses in the US and found that the women most at risk of ill health were those who didn’t like their jobs. The impact on their health was a great as that associated with smoking and sedentary lifestyles (source).

8: Happy people learn faster
When you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things at work and thereby increasing your productivity.

9: Happy people worry less about making mistakes – and consequently make fewer mistakes
When you’re happy at work the occasional mistake doesn’t bother you much. You pick yourself up, learn from it and move on. You also don’t mind admitting to others that you screwed up – you simply take responsibility, apologize and fix it. This relaxed attitude means that less mistakes are made, and that you’re more likely to learn from them.

10: Happy people make better decisions
Unhappy people operate in permanent crisis mode. Their focus narrows, they lose sight of the big picture, their survival instincts kick in and they’re more likely to make short-term, here-and-now choices. Conversely, happy people make better, more informed decisions and are better able to prioritize their work.

So how do you get to be happy at work? There are two ways, really:

1. Get happy in the job you have. There are about a million things you can do to improve your work situation – provided you choose to do something, rather than wait for someone else to come along and do it for you.

2. Find a new job where you can be happy. If your current job is not fixable, don’t wait – move on now!

Are You A Great Worker? by Paul T. P. Wong

Here is a set of 21 questions to measure whether you are a great worker, who provides added values to your organization. Reflect on your answers and decide on how to improve yourself:

1. Do you consistently make the extra effort to find better ways to improve your performance at work?

2. Do you dedicate some time to self improvement and self education?

3. Do you always do your best regardless of the circumstances?

4. In the last week, did you ever encourage someone at work, whether it is your co-worker, supervisor or subordinate?

5. Do you often go beyond the call of duty to help someone in your organization?

6. Have you ever used your power or position to make things difficult for other workers?

7. Has anyone ever commented that you are such a positive person or have a very positive influence at work?

8. Have you intentionally done something to make the work place more pleasant and positive place to work?

9. Have you intentionally said something good about your co-worker or boss?

10. Have you take credits for the great ideas from others?

11. Have you ever used bureaucratic control to assert your power?

12. Do you accentuate the positive in every situation?

13. Are you generous in sharing information and other resources with others?

14. Do you celebrate co-workers’ success?

15. Have you ever sabotaged co-workers to make sure that they do not outshine you?

16. Do you love your work in spite of the negative sides?

17. Do you speak up with honesty and respect if senior management plan to do something that may have a negative effect on morale and productivity?

18. Have you ever blamed others for your mistakes or poor performance?

19. Do you frequently provide suggestions to your superior on how to improve the process and increase productivity?

20. Have you ever bad-mouthed your co-workers in order to make yourself look good.

21. Do you do everything within your power to contribute to corporate success, even when your efforts are not recognized or rewarded?

A.R. Rehman & You

A.R. Rehman has practically become a living legend in the music industry. With success following him with every passing year, the 43 year old soft spoken maestro still prayers before every composition and chooses to love in all he is and all he does. With a humble beginning to worldwide recognition at the Oscars, his journey has been the path less trodden. Here is following A.R. Rehman to his stardom and leading you to yours.

1.Train well: A.R. Rehman started playing the piano at age of 4. And ever since he has trained under almost every great musician the industry has had to offer. Be aware that learning takes time, money and above all humility. You cannot expect to earn before you learn. And when you do get to learn, take it to the point of mastery like Rehman did. 

2.Go the extra mile when you start: At the age of 19, Rehman used to play the keyboard for Zakir Hussain’s troupe and even after his work, he would stay back in the studio, sitting through other musicians pieces, eyes and ears tuned in, constantly imbibing. How far you want to go in your life is determined by how far you will go in your quest to learn and get better.

3.There is no substitute for experience: Before Rehman composed his first song for films, he had the experience of 300 jingles behind him. And before he composed his first jingle, he had 10 years experience of playing music in concerts, big and small. And before Rehman got his first Oscar, he had 39 years of active music experience behind him. Success is a series of experiences, the more the experience, the closer you are to success.

4.Work comes first, money follows: Even though Rehman’s advertising career was flourishing he accepted to compose music for Mani Ratnam at Rs.25,000. It was a sum that he could make in three days composing ad jingles. But he did the project for the sake of expressing his talent and not for the money. If you want to make a new start, focus on your work, the money will follow.

5.Work your options well: Rehman was a well trained musician but before starting something new he worked his options out well in advance. Before he quit advertising to take up music composition for films he learnt driving so that he could at least temporarily survive as a driver in case the film world ended for him. 

6.Have a work philosophy: Rehman has a very strict work philosophy, "Rather than making money, I believe in making people happy; all other things are secondary.” If your work makes people happy, you are in business and on the path of progress.

7.Treat others with dignity and importance: It is every singer’s dream to work with A R Rehman because he makes you feel like God. His singers even go to the extent of saying that he makes you feel as if you are AR Rehman and he is just an ordinary fellow. When you treat people with importance you put them in a state of peak performance. And when your team, department and colleagues perform well, overall you stand to win too.

8.Get the best out of your team: Rehman tries to extract something extra from every one of his musicians as well as his playback singers. He believes in their additional input. And with that he makes a point to improvise, every single time. Getting the opinions of those involved in your project is the smarted thing one can do to in order to project a master piece to the world.

9.Work with people: According to Rehman his best music comes when there's an exchange of ideas, when there are stories that inspire him. Connecting with people and his team and picking their brains keeps his creativity to the highest.

10.Learn to say no: Rehman’s philosophy is simple, "To achieve something you have to take the risk of offending someone by saying no.” He can only do so many films and can compose only so many songs and has to turn down others because he just can’t do it all. Saying no is important to remain in the business of quality.

11.There is no burnout in work: Rehman believes that a burnout occurs when one is not happy with what he is doing. If you are doing work out of family pressures or financial hassles, keep your eye rested on your passion, and follow it with the first opportunity. Because if you enjoy what you do, you will never want to take a break.

12.Success is a start, not an end: On winning the Oscar’s, which is a lifetime achievement for many, Rehman was humble enough to say "It's a starting point in my career”. When you succeed, you have only started. The true journey of responsibility and creativity begins here on.

by - Priya Kumar, THE ONE MINUTE COACH