5 Unique Ways To Invest In Your Employees

Typical employee benefits no longer differentiate a company as much as they used to. Companies are realizing they must offer unique advantages that other businesses don’t to keep top talent. Investing in your employees is not a new strategy, but there are different ways of creating loyalty among your top performers.




Here are five uncommon ways to create loyal, top-performing employees within your company:

1.     Thought Leadership
I’ve learned that one of the biggest employee motivators is a sense of pride in their work. If your teammates feel they’re truly the best at what they do, that goes a long way. Encouraging and investing in your employees can be both a big motivator and a great boon to the company. In a recent article, a colleague and I talked about the benefits that thought leadership can bring a company’s marketing.
However, we left out the fact that one of the biggest benefits is to the employee. The more an employee leads her space, the more opportunity and credibility she brings to her company. Look at your VPs or directors, and put a plan in place to share their expertise with the public. Sure, you could worry about them leaving to start their own ventures or join another company, but if they’re the right people for your business, it should make them more loyal to your company.

2.     Personal Branding
This ties into thought leadership nicely because you can build your employees’ brands as they become thought leaders. Maximize the value of the content they release or the awards they receive. Make sure everybody updates their LinkedIn and other social media profiles. Educate them on Google’s Author Rank so they increase their Web presence. As you increase their brands, you will see your company’s credibility skyrocket. Investing in the branding of your employees is almost as important as the overall branding of your company. When your partners or customers deal with your company, they deal with the people who lead it. A good personal brand will mean fewer trust barriers to overcome. Your staff will have more credibility and, at the same time, create opportunity for the company.

3.     Unique Culture Benefits
Normal benefits like 401(k)s and insurance are important, but it’s also important to provide benefits that set you apart. In an earlier post, I wrote about a variety of different unique job benefits. Ken DeGilio, CEO of LaunchMob Media, has his team “volunteer for One Brick Orlando doing social media trainings — and they’re usually in a bar!” Invest in events and benefits your employees will brag about to their friends. You will instill a sense of pride in the company and probably obtain a few more applications from talent — without spending a dime on recruiting.

4.     Personal Time Investments
This is the hardest investment, but it’s also the most valuable. When my co-founder and I started Influence and Co., we invested a lot of time in each employee. We made it a point to take employees out to lunch, include them in business trips related to their areas, and spend time with them outside work. We were able to create a trusting environment while helping all our employees develop into the leaders they are today. As a result, we’ve had no employees leave and have been able to sustain growth because we have great employees who can lead day-to-day operations while we focus on the big picture. It was a big investment, but also well worth the time.

5.     Network Expansion
Many leaders are scared of the thought that their employees could develop massive networks. Job opportunities will eventually come their way, and they could easily be lost. However, if you invest in the above benefits, there should be a trust created that makes that less of a worry.
Make it a point to continuously introduce your employees to influential people you know. A spread effect will occur; they’ll develop the relationship and often turn it into an opportunity you might have missed. They’ll also gain the confidence that naturally comes with having a bigger network, and they will have more resources to learn from. Outside of the content I read, the best information comes from conversations I have with other leaders in my network. It’s worth it to invest in giving introductions or services that will help your employees become “connected.”

You want your company to stand out from the dozens you’re competing against — to do that, you have to help your employees stand out. Your team really is your most valuable asset, and your team will keep adding value once they feel your loyalty is as strong as theirs.

John Hall is the CEO of Influence & Co., a company that assists individuals and brands in growing their influence through thought leadership and content marketing programs. Influence & Co.

தேடிச்  சோறு நிதந் தின்று

பல சின்னஞ் சிறு கதைகள் பேசி 

மனம் வாடி துன்பம் மிக உழன்று

பிறர் வாட பல செயல்கள் செய்து

நரை கூடி கிழப் பருவம் எய்தி

கொடும் கூற்றுக்கிரையென பின் மாயும்

பல வேடிக்கை மனிதரைப் போலே

நான்வீழ்வேன் என்றே நினைத்தாயோ

                          

                        _  மஹா கவி சுப்ரமணிய பாரதி

9 Qualities Of Truly Confident People

1. They take a stand not because they think they are always right… but because they are not afraid to be wrong.
Cocky and conceited people tend to take a position and then proclaim, bluster, and totally disregard differing opinions or points of view. They know they’re right – and they want (actually they need) you to know it too.
Their behavior isn’t a sign of confidence, though; it’s the hallmark of an intellectual bully.
Truly confident people don’t mind being proven wrong. They feel finding out what is right is a lot more important than being right. And when they’re wrong, they’re secure enough to back down graciously.
Truly confident people often admit they’re wrong or don’t have all the answers; intellectual bullies never do.
2. They listen ten times more than they speak.
Bragging is a mask for insecurity. Truly confident people are quiet and unassuming. They already know what they think; they want to know what you think.
So they ask open-ended questions that give other people the freedom to be thoughtful and introspective: They ask what you do, how you do it, what you like about it, what you learned from it… and what they should do if they find themselves in a similar situation.
Truly confident people realize they know a lot, but they wish they knew more… and they know the only way to learn more is to listen more.
3. They duck the spotlight so it shines on others.
Perhaps it’s true they did the bulk of the work. Perhaps they really did overcome the major obstacles. Perhaps it’s true they turned a collection of disparate individuals into an incredibly high performance team.
Truly confident people don’t care – at least they don’t show it. (Inside they’re proud, as well they should be.) Truly confident people don’t need the glory; they know what they’ve achieved.
They don’t need the validation of others, because true validation comes from within.
So they stand back and celebrate their accomplishments through others. They stand back and let others shine – a confidence boost that helps those people become truly confident, too.
4. They freely ask for help.
Many people feel asking for help is a sign of weakness; implicit in the request is a lack of knowledge, skill, or experience.
Confident people are secure enough to admit a weakness. So they often ask others for help, not only because they are secure enough to admit they need help but also because they know that when they seek help they pay the person they ask a huge compliment.
Saying, “Can you help me?” shows tremendous respect for that individual’s expertise and judgment. Otherwise you wouldn't ask.
5. They think, “Why not me?”
Many people feel they have to wait: To be promoted, to be hired, to be selected, to be chosen... like the old Hollywood cliché, to somehow be discovered.
Truly confident people know that access is almost universal. They can connect with almost anyone through social media. (Everyone you know knows someone you should know.) They know they can attract their own funding, create their own products, build their own relationships and networks, choose their own path – they can choose to follow whatever course they wish.
And very quietly, without calling attention to themselves, they go out and do it.
6. They don't put down other people.
Generally speaking, the people who like to gossip, who like to speak badly of others, do so because they hope by comparison to make themselves look better.
The only comparison a truly confident person makes is to the person she was yesterday – and to the person she hopes to someday become.
7. They aren’t afraid to look silly…
Running around in your underwear is certainly taking it to extremes… but when you’re truly confident, you don’t mind occasionally being in a situation where you aren't at your best.
(And oddly enough, people tend to respect you more when you do – not less.)
8. … And they own their mistakes.
Insecurity tends to breed artificiality; confidence breeds sincerity and honesty.
That’s why truly confident people admit their mistakes. They dine out on their screw-ups. They don’t mind serving as a cautionary tale. They don’t mind being a source of laughter – for others and for themselves.
When you’re truly confident, you don’t mind occasionally “looking bad.” You realize that that when you’re genuine and unpretentious, people don’t laugh at you.
They laugh with you.
9. They only seek approval from the people who really matter.
You say you have 10k Twitter followers? Swell. 20k Facebook friends? Cool. A professional and social network of hundreds or even thousands? That’s great.
But that also pales in comparison to earning the trust and respect of the few people in your life that truly matter.

When we earn their trust and respect, no matter where we go or what we try, we do it with true confidence – because we know the people who truly matter the most are truly behind us.

FICO Score elements

The five main FICO score elements are payment history (35 percent), amount owed (30 percent), length of credit history (15 percent), type of credit used (10 percent), and new credit (10 percent). 

Constructive Disagreement

The following 8 tips will help you, as a leader and team member, create an even stronger environment where constructive disagreement, leading to better decisions, is a vibrant part of your culture. : courtesy : peterstark.com

1. Clarify the organization’s vision and goals. If you are going to disagree with someone, ensure that you are clear on the vision and goals for the project, prior to disagreeing with them on what they are saying or a solution they are proposing.
2. Listen for understanding. Everyone has different experiences and expectations. Let your counterpart speak first. Listen for both content, feeling and understanding for what the counterpart is communicating and from what is their point of reference.
3. Ask questions to ensure understanding. Before you state your beliefs, ask a question or two to ensure you do understand your counterpart’s point of view. Providing a recommendation to resolve the difference without true understanding is leadership malpractice. Last, when you feel your level of emotion rising, almost always, you will be better off asking a question versus telling someone why they are not right.
4. Change your goals from “being right” to finding a solution that will work. When disagreements occur, egos take over and both counterparts can develop a need to be right. The minute you think you are right, you are also indirectly saying that you are smarter than your counterpart or the team. If you are focused on the goal of resolving the disagreement versus “being right,” there may be multiple solutions that will work.
5. Let go of the past. When there is a disagreement, some people are prone to focus on what happened in the past relationship versus resolving the difference being discussed at the moment. Being willing to forgive or forget will help you to stay focused on the current disagreement.
6. Be motivated to learn. If two people think identically, there would be no need for the second person to be involved in making the decision. When two people think differently and/or have different experiences, there is an opportunity to learn from each other and make an even better decision.
7. Pick your battles wisely. There are some disagreements that are not worth the time to disagree or the fallout that may occur. In certain situations, it may be in your best interests to end the conversation with, “I am not sure I agree with your perspective but I feel that I now have a better understanding of why you feel the way you do. In this discussion, I think it is ok to agree to disagree. I know we will make it work. Thanks for talking to me.”
8. Thank the people who disagree with you. There is an opportunity to have an even stronger relationship and a more successful team with people who do not always think alike. If people have the guts to disagree with you, indirectly, they are helping you to become a better leader. Thank the people who are willing to speak up with an alternative opinion.

Don’t shy away from disagreement. When lead correctly, diversity of opinion can bring out valuable solutions to problems, which you otherwise may have not known existed.

How to Lower Blood Sugar Naturally

How to Lower Blood Sugar Naturally

By Laurie Sanchez, Lifescript Staff Writer

Published May 07, 2013

It’s the Holy Grail for people with diabetes – checking your blood sugar and seeing the numbers right in line. Can lifestyle changes help? Yes, says Jill Weisenberger, Lifescript’s nutrition expert, and other top diabetes doctors. Check out these 10 tips to learn how to lower your blood sugar naturally...

If you have diabetes, lowering blood sugar isn’t just a short-term goal: Doctors believe that it consistently helps prevent or delay diabetes complications, including kidney, eye and nerve diseases, such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Most of these diseases require 10 or more years to develop, but “it's still worth aggressively managing blood sugar levels to slow the onset of complications,” says Edward Geehr, M.D., Lifescript Chief Medical Officer.

Here are 10 tips to keep your readings on target:

1. Spread out your meals.
“I always tell my patients to spread their food out over the day, keeping carbohydrates consistent,” says Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E., and Lifescript’s nutrition expert. “Don’t eat small meals so you can save up for a big dinner.”Avoid fasting or skipping meals, even on weekends or other days when your schedule is hectic. It’ll give your body enough time to regulate blood sugar levels and keep them even.

How many carbs per meal are ideal?

“It’s tailored to each individual,” says Weisenberger, who factors in medication, hormones and other key information for each patient.

A typical starting point is 45 grams per meal for women and 60 grams for men (15 grams per snack). From there, make adjustments according to your blood glucose readings. 

2. Eat more food with resistant starch.
Resistant starch — found in some potatoes and some beans — bypasses the small intestine, gets metabolized by the good bacteria and then behaves as dietary fiber in the large intestine, Weisenberger says.“Even after your next meal, your blood sugar will be lower,” she says. “It’s called the ‘second-meal effect.’”

You’ll find it in a potato that has been baked and then cooled, but not in a warm potato. So a half-cup of potato salad will bring on better blood sugar readings than the same amount of warm mashed potatoes.

Black and kidney beans also have natural resistant starch.

3. Bring on the beans.
Can something as simple and inexpensive as beans really help with diabetes control?

Yes, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Beans digest slowly, resulting in only a small rise in blood glucose levels. Several studies have shown that eating 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 cups of cooked beans daily improves diabetes control.

Beans also are an excellent source of folate, which is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a common diabetes complication. Eating 1-3 cups of cooked beans a day will lower total cholesterol 5%-19%.Sneak beans in soups and salads, or eat them as a side dish.

But introduce them gradually into your diet, the ADA says. Chew thoroughly, drink plenty of liquids to aid digestion and take enzyme products such as “Beano” to avoid gastrointestinal distress.

For convenience, go for canned beans, which require less preparation time and are as healthy as dried.

4. Cook up cactus.
The paddle-shaped nopal cactus (also known as “prickly pear”) slows carbohydrate absorption and lowers post-meal blood glucose readings in people with type 2 diabetes, according to some studies. In Mexico, nopal is used for treating the disease.

According to a 2007 article in the journal Diabetes Care, the cactus is very high in soluable fiber, and, when eaten with other foods, slows the rate at which sugar from the meal enters the bloodstream.

Nopal, popular in central Mexico, is boiled, grilled, fried or mashed and added to soups and stews.It’s available in supplements, but be careful: Some people experience gastrointestinal distress, and it hasn’t been studied extensively in the U.S. as an oral extract. Always talk to your doctor before trying this or any other supplement.

5. Get more sleep.
Poor or limited sleep affects body chemistry and getting more shut-eye helps with blood sugar control, Weisenberger says.

People who get fewer than 6 hours a night consistently are 4.5 times more likely to get abnormal blood sugar readings than those who slept longer, according to a study by the University at Buffalo, N.Y. Adults typically need 7-9 hours a night.

Lack of sleep is also linked with other health conditions, including heart disease, stroke and cancer.

More than a third of people with type 2 diabetes have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), where a collapsed airway causes a person to repeatedly stop breathing during sleep, according to James Herdegen, M.D., director for Sleep and Ventilatory Disorders at the University of Illinois in Chicago.“Studies have demonstrated that type 2 diabetics who also suffer from OSA can dramatically reduce their glucose levels by getting treatment,” he says.

OSA can be treated with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a mask worn during sleep that sends air through the airway to keep it from collapsing.

Check out more sleep disorders here.

6. Lose a little weight.
Carrying around those extra pounds causes insulin resistance, keeping the blood sugar lowering hormone from working.

Your weight-loss goals don’t have to be enormous either, Weisenberger says. Some of her patients have seen improvements in blood glucose readings with only a 5-pound loss.

7. Manage stress.
When you’re stressed out, your body creates a lot of stored energy – glucose and fat – so cells can use it when called into action.

In diabetics, this extra energy doesn't make it to the cells, so glucose piles up in the blood and results in high readings, according to the ADA.

How can you burn off tension?Yoga and meditation have helped lower blood sugar levels in her patients, Weisenberger says.

The ADA also recommends creating your own stress-relieving routines: talking with a supportive friend, taking a warm bath or shower, watching an enjoyable movie, listening to music or taking a walk.

8. Get moving.
Exercise normalizes blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes (but not type 1).

“In type 2, exercise helps improve insulin resistance,” says James Beckerman, a Portland, Oregon cardiologist. “The end result is lower blood sugars.”

But exercise is important for both types because it helps prevent heart attack, stroke or diminished blood flow to the legs.

Because exercise can immediately reduce blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics, work with your health care team to determine the right amount of activity and timing for insulin.

A combination of resistance and aerobic exercise may be the most beneficial, Dr. Beckerman says.9. Fidget more.
That’s right. It’s OK if you can’t sit still.

Mayo Clinic researchers studied how thin people burn calories and found that they have more “spurts” of daily activity, such as fidgeting, than heavier people. Just how much? Up to 350 more calories per day.

Add these short bursts of activity to your daily routine: 

• Park your car at the back of the lot and walk to the store’s door. 
• Return your grocery shopping cart to the supermarket door. 
• Walk to your neighbor’s house instead of calling her.
• Walk your outgoing mail to a farther mailbox.
• Do some sit-ups or push-ups during TV commercials.

10. Eat breakfast.
We’ve all heard that breakfast is the day’s most important meal, and this is especially true for those who have diabetes. After fasting 8-12 hours, your body needs food to balance blood sugar levels and injected insulin from the previous night.

Besides, eating breakfast can help overweight people with type 2 diabetes shed extra pounds.Of the 4,000 participants In the National Weight Control Registry who maintained at least a 30-pound weight loss for about 5.5 years, almost all said they ate breakfast daily.

So what’s the best breakfast? One with carbohydrate, protein and fiber, according to the ADA.

Good options are cereal or an English muffin, low-fat milk or yogurt and fruit. (Save high-fat foods, such as bacon, sausage and eggs, for special occasions.)

And think beyond the breakfast box: Leftover chicken breast with fruit is just fine too, the ADA says.

What if you're not usually hungry for breakfast? Then make your previous night’s meal smaller, so you’ll wake up hungry, the ADA says. It will spread your carbohydrates more evenly throughout the day, leading to better blood-sugar control.

For more information, visit our Diabetes Health Center.

Henry Ford's Experiment to Build a Better Worker

Henry Ford's Experiment to Build a Better Worker
By RICHARD SNOW,  WSJ 05/09/13

Early in 1914 Henry Ford, spurred by a combination of wanting to cut down the high turnover in his workforce and what seems to have been genuine altruism, announced that henceforth the base wage in his factory would be five dollars a day. This at a stroke doubled the prevailing salary for industrial work, and it caused a sensation.


Henry Ford posed in an early model at his plant in Detroit, in 1900.

.But Ford company workers discovered that achieving their five-dollar day came with some rigid stipulations. To qualify for his doubled salary, the worker had to be thrifty and continent. He had to keep his home neat and his children healthy, and, if he were below the age of twenty-two, to be married.

Book Excerpt

From the forthcoming book "I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford" by Richard Snow.

.The job of ensuring such behavior went to John Lee. He was in charge of what today goes under the pallid name of "human resources," and was one of the very few of Ford's high executives who was universally liked.

Lee put out a booklet called Helpful Hints and Advice to Employees, which opened by declaring a "sole and simple" purpose that was far from simple. It was "to better the financial and moral standing of each employee and those of his household; to instill men with courage and a desire for health, happiness, and prosperity. To give father and mother sufficient for present and future; to provide for families in sickness, in health and in old age and to take away fear and worry. To make a well rounded life and not a mere struggle for existence to men and their families, and to implant in the heart of every individual the wholesome desire to Help the Other Fellow, whenever he comes across your path, to the extent of your ability."

This irreproachable aim was advanced by investigators for the newly formed Sociological Department who brought their questionnaires to the home of every Ford employee. The agents weren't mere busybodies. They'd been trained to offer useful advice on hygiene and on how to manage household finances. Behind them stood the Ford legal department, whose lawyers would help, free, with everything from buying a house to becoming an American citizen. Should an employee get sick or be injured, the company maintained a full-time staff of 10 doctors and 100 nurses.

The agents, initially recruited from among Ford's white-collar workers, soon grew to a force 200 strong. Its members had to assess some 13,000 people, and do it quickly. Naturally they met resistance, from newly arrived Russians, for instance, whose memories of the czar's secret police were all too fresh, and from the occasional descendant of an original settler whose family had been in Detroit for generations and who didn't care to have some company hireling tell him how to live like a decent American.

For the most part, though, the workers took the intrusion into their lives philosophically. A few nosy questions were a minor ordeal if they opened the door to the highest-paying job in the industry.

William Knudsen, Ford's immensely capable lieutenant, who by now was busy sowing branch assembly plants across the nation, opposed the plan. He told his biographer that "as he saw it, the men were entitled to the money and, having earned it, it was theirs to spend without answering the snooping questions of investigators."

Simon & Schuster

.Mr. Knudsen was greatly amused to learn about a boardinghouse close to the factory on Manchester Avenue where 11 young Ford workmen lived. None of them was married, but whenever an agent stopped by, the man he was visiting would borrow the generous-spirited landlady and present her as his wife. Fortunately, said Mr. Knudsen, the social workers never called on all 11 at the same time.

One stipulation of the new mandate was that a Ford worker needed permission from a Ford executive if he wanted to get his own automobile. Mr. Knudsen was in Mr. Lee's office when an employee came in and said, "Mr. Lee, I would like to buy a car."

"Got any money?"

"I have seven hundred dollars."

"Do you have a family?"

"Yes, a wife and four children."

"Is the furniture paid for?"

"Yes."

"Have you any insurance?"
"Yes."

"All right, you can buy a car."

"Thanks, Mr. Lee." On his way out the door the man turned and said, "Oh, by the way, Mr. Lee, my wife is going to have another baby. I'm going to buy a Buick."

The occasional worker was openly defiant. When asked if he had any savings, one man told the investigator that he had invested his earnings "in houses and lots." When the skeptical agent pressed him for details, the man explained he'd meant "whorehouses and lots of whiskey."

On the other hand, there was Joe, who had come from a peasant life in Russia with his wife and six children.

F.W. Andrews, one of the Ford investigators (they were later to be given the less provocative title of "advisors"), told his story. "Life was an uphill struggle for Joe since landing in America," Mr. Andrews wrote. But he was willing to work, and work hard, digging sewers and farming, making his way to Detroit where "for five long months he tramped in the 'Army of the Unemployed'—always handicapped by his meager knowledge of the English language, and unable to find anything to do." Joe's wife "worked with the washtub and the scrubbing brush when such work could be found."

Joe landed a job at Ford, and that is when Mr. Andrews entered his life, to find him living in "an old, tumbled down, one and a half story frame house." Joe and his family were in "one half of the attic consisting of three rooms, which were so low that a person of medium height could not stand erect—a filthy, foul-smelling home." It contained "two dirty beds…a ragged filthy rug, a rickety table, and two bottomless chairs (the children standing up at the table to eat)." The family owed money to their landlord, to the butcher, to the grocer. The eldest daughter had gone to a charity hospital the week before. Mr. Andrews said the remainder of the family "were half clad, pale, and hungry looking."

Mr. Andrews at once got the pay office to issue Joe's wages daily instead of every two weeks. He secured a $50 loan, and such was the Sociological Department's seriousness of purpose then that Mr. Andrews, not Joe, borrowed the money. Mr. Andrews paid the butcher and the landlord, rented a cottage, and filled it with cheap but sound new furniture, new clothes, and, he said, "a liberal supply of soap."

Then the messianic moment. Mr. Andrews "had their dirty, old, junk furniture loaded on a dray and under cover of night moved them to their new home. This load of rubbish was heaped on a pile in the backyard, and a torch was applied and it went up in smoke.

"There upon the ashes of what had been their earthly possessions, this Russian peasant and his wife, with tears streaming down their faces, expressed their gratitude to Henry Ford, the Ford Motor F -0.46%Company, and all those who had been instrumental in bringing about this marvelous change in their lives."

Were those tears only of gratitude as Joe watched this strange pyre of his family's old life?

Today the Sociological Department might seem the essence of suffocating paternalism, and many felt it so even at the time. Certainly no other big industrial operation had anything like it. But with its medical and legal services, and the English language school it ran for the company's thousands of immigrant workers, the department appears to have done more good than harm. In 1914 the average Ford worker had $207.10 in savings. For those who stuck with the company during the next five years, the average had risen to $2,171.14.

The reformer Ida Tarbell went to Highland Park planning to expose the oppressive Ford system. Instead she wrote, "I don't care what you call it—philanthropy, paternalism, autocracy—the results which are being obtained are worth all you can set against them, and the errors in the plan will provoke their own remedies."

Copyright © 2013 by Richard Snow. From the forthcoming book "I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford" by Richard Snow to be published by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc. Printed by permission.

A version of this article appeared May 10, 2013, on page B1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Henry Ford's Experiment To Build a Better Worker.

Great Quotes

Great quotes inspire us to change, to grow, and to become our best selves. I researched thousands of quotes from successful leaders for my last book, to capture one for each chapter, covering 11 simple concepts to become a better leader. My recent LinkedIn post explaining the 11 concepts became the 2nd most read article in LinkedIn history (at 1.3 million views!) So, I'm sharing my favorite quotes here- those which inspired me enough that I published them in the book, along with the runners up. Here are my 25 favorite likeable leadership quotes. I hope they inspire you as much as they have inspired me:

Listening

1) "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

2) "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." - Ralph Nichols

Storytelling

3) "Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McKee

4) "If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story." —Barbara Greene

Authenticity

5) "I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

6) "Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust." -Lance Secretan

Transparency

7) "As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

8) "There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life." -Joseph Berber Lightfoot 

Team Playing

9) "Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

10) "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

Responsiveness

11) "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

12) '"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates

Adaptability

13) "When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

14) "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." –Charles Darwin

Passion

15) "The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

16) "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." -Albert Einstein

Surprise and Delight

17) "A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

18) “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” - Boris Pasternak

Simplicity

19) "Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

20) “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Leonardo daVinci

Gratefulness

21) "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert K Chesterton

22) "The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." -Friedrich Nietzsche

Leadership

23) “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” — Peter F. Drucker

24) "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." —John Quincy Adams

25) "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." —John F. Kennedy

Happiness

Happiness--in your business life and your personal life--is often a matter of subtraction, not addition. - Jeff Haden


Consider, for example, what happens when you stop doing the following 10 things:

1. Blaming.
People make mistakes. Employees don't meet your expectations. Vendors don't deliver on time.
So you blame them for your problems.

But you're also to blame. Maybe you didn't provide enough training. Maybe you didn't build in enough of a buffer. Maybe you asked too much, too soon.

Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn't masochistic, it's empowering--because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time.
And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier.





2. Impressing.



No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all "things." People may like your things--but that doesn't mean they like you.



Sure, superficially they might seem to, but superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship that is not based on substance is not a real relationship.



Genuine relationships make you happier, and you'll only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.





3. Clinging.

When you're afraid or insecure, you hold on tightly to what you know, even if what you know isn't particularly good for you.

An absence of fear or insecurity isn't happiness: It's just an absence of fear or insecurity.

Holding on to what you think you need won't make you happier; letting go so you can reach for and try to earn what you want will.

Even if you don't succeed in earning what you want, the act of trying alone will make you feel better about yourself.



4. Interrupting.

Interrupting isn't just rude. When you interrupt someone, what you're really saying is, "I'm not listening to you so I can understand what you're saying; I'm listening to you so I can decide what I want to say."

Want people to like you? Listen to what they say. Focus on what they say. Ask questions to make sure you understand what they say.

They'll love you for it--and you'll love how that makes you feel.



5. Whining.

Your words have power, especially over you. Whining about your problems makes you feel worse, not better.



If something is wrong, don't waste time complaining. Put that effort into making the situation better. Unless you want to whine about it forever, eventually

you'll have to do that. So why waste time? Fix it now.



Don't talk about what's wrong. Talk about how you'll make things better, even if that conversation is only with yourself.



And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don't just be the shoulder they cry on.



Friends don't let friends whine--friends help friends make their lives better.





6. Controlling.



Yeah, you're the boss. Yeah, you're the titan of industry. Yeah, you're the small tail that wags a huge dog.

Still, the only thing you really control is you. If you find yourself trying hard to control other people, you've decided that you, your goals, your dreams, or even just your opinions are more important than theirs.



Plus, control is short term at best, because it often requires force, or fear, or authority, or some form of pressure--none of those let you feel good about yourself.



Find people who want to go where you're going. They'll work harder, have more fun, and create better business and personal relationships.



And all of you will be happier.





7. Criticizing.



Yeah, you're more educated. Yeah, you're more experienced. Yeah, you've been around more blocks and climbed more mountains and slayed more dragons.



That doesn't make you smarter, or better, or more insightful.



That just makes you you: unique, matchless, one of a kind, but in the end, just you.



Just like everyone else--including your employees.



Everyone is different: not better, not worse, just different. Appreciate the differences instead of the shortcomings and you'll see people--and yourself--in a better light.



8. Preaching.

Criticizing has a brother. His name is Preaching. They share the same father: Judging.

The higher you rise and the more you accomplish, the more likely you are to think you know everything--and to tell people everything you think you know.

When you speak with more finality than foundation, people may hear you but they don't listen. Few things are sadder and leave you feeling less happy.



9. Dwelling.

The past is valuable. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others.

Then let it go.



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How the SBA Can Help You Raise Money

Easier said than done? It depends on your focus. When something bad happens to you, see that as a chance to learn something you didn't know. When another person makes a mistake, see that as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.



The past is just training; it doesn't define you. Think about what went wrong, but only in terms of how you will make sure that, next time, you and the people around you will know how to make sure it goes right.



10. Fearing.



We're all afraid: of what might or might not happen, of what we can't change, or what we won't be able to do, or how other people might perceive us.

So it's easier to hesitate, to wait for the right moment, to decide we need to think a little longer or do some more research or explore a few more alternatives.

Meanwhile days, weeks, months, and even years pass us by.

And so do our dreams.



Don't let your fears hold you back. Whatever you've been planning, whatever you've imagined, whatever you've dreamed of, get started on it today.

If you want to start a business, take the first step. If you want to change careers, take the first step. If you want to expand or enter a new market or offer new products or services, take the first step.



Put your fears aside and get started. Do something. Do anything.

Otherwise, today is gone. Once tomorrow comes, today is lost forever.

Today is the most precious asset you own--and is the one thing you should truly fear wasting.

Karmanyevadhikaraste

That famous verse in the Gita (Karmanyevadhikaraste) really means — do your karma without distractions. If success doesn’t fill your head with pride and failure demoralise your heart, you are unstoppable!


- from author - Amish Tripathi

Innovator's DNA - Discovery Skills

The Innovator’s DNA - From INSEAD and Clayton Christensen -  

The five “discovery skills” that distinguished innovators from non-innovators.

1. Innovators ask provocative questions that challenge the status quo.
2. They observe the world like anthropologists to detect new ways of doing things.  
3. They network with people who don’t look or think like them to gain radically different perspectives.
4. They experiment to relentlessly test new ideas and try out new experiences.
5. Finally, these behaviours trigger new associations which allow them to connect the unconnected, thereby producing disruptive ideas.

Power of Indulgence

If Tomorrow Never Comes

If Tomorrow Never Comes lyrics  - Garth Brooks

Sometimes late at night
I lie awake and watch her sleeping
She's lost in peaceful dreams
So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark
And the thought crosses my mind
If I never wake up in the morning
Would she ever doubt the way I feel
About her in my heart

If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face the world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

'Cause I've lost loved ones in my life
Who never knew how much I loved them
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel

If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face the world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

So tell that someone that you love
Just what you're thinking of
If tomorrow never comes

Can U Read this ?

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh

uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr

the Itteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist

and Isat Itteres are at the rghit pcleas. The

rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll

raed it wouthit a porbelm.  Tihs is bcuseae

we do not raed ervey  Iteter by ilstef, but

the wrod as a wlohe.

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

1) Be Proactive

As human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. We have the independent will to make our own choices and decisions, and the responsibility ("the ability to respond") to make the right choices. You have the freedom to choose your own fate and path, so having the independent will, imagination and self-awareness to make the right move makes you a proactive, and not a reactive, person.

2) Begin With The End In Mind

Mental visualization is extremely important. Covey says that all things are created twice: first, the mental conceptualization and visualization and a second physical, actual creation. Becoming your own creator means to plan and visualize what you're going to do and what you're setting out to accomplish and then go out and creating it. Identifying your personal statement and your principles will help.

3) Put First Things First

With your power of independent will, you can create the ending you want to have. Part of that comes with effective time management, starting with matters of importance. Then tasks should be completed based on urgency after you deal with all the important matters. If you deal with crises, pressing problems and deadline-driven projects first, your life will be a lot easier.

4) Think Win/Win

If you believe in a better way to accomplish goals that's mutually beneficial to all sides, that's a win/win situation. "All parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan," Covey wrote. "One person's success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others." If you have integrity and maturity, there's no reason win/win situations can't happen all the time.

5) Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood

If you're a good listener and you take the time to understand a concept, it will help you convey your opinions, plans and goals to others. It starts with communication and strong listening skills, followed by diagnosing the situation and then communicating your solution to others.

6) Synergize

Synergistic communication, according to Covey, is "opening your mind and heart to new possibilities, new alternatives, new options." This applies to the classroom, the business world and wherever you could apply openness and communication. It's all about building cooperation and trust.

7) Sharpen The Saw

Sometimes you're working so hard on the other six habits that you forget about re-energizing and renewing yourself to sharpen yourself for the tasks in front of you. Some sharpening techniques include exercise and nutrition, reading, planning and writing, service and empathy and commitment, study and meditation.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-coveys-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-2012-7#ixzz216D5A3kw

Define-Collaborate-Measure-Improve

What is not planned cannot be defined
What is not defined cannot be controlled(Collaborate WITHOUT Authority)
What is not controlled cannot be measured
What is not measured cannot be improved

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Don't judge people before you truly know them

A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train's window shouted: "Dad, look the trees are going behind!" Dad smiled & a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old's childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed: "Dad, look the clouds are running with us!" The couple couldn't resist & said to the old man: "Why don't you take your son to a good doctor?" The old man smiled & said: "I did & we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today." Every single person on the planet has a story. Don't judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you!!

Seven Step Problem Solving

1. Definition
2. Data Collection
3. Cause Analysis
4. Solution Planning and Implementation
5. Evaluation of Effectiveness
6. Standardization
7. Evaluation of Process

A Good One : Empathy and Sympathy

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He found the boy’s father pacing anxiously, waiting for him.
Seeing him, the father yelled, “Why did you take so long to get here? Don’t you know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t you have the sense of responsibility?”

The doctor said calmly with a gentle smile, “I am sorry, I wasn’t in the hospital and I came the fastest I could, after receiving the call.
I know it is tough, but take a deep breath and calm down.”

“Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would you calm down? If you felt that you would lose your son, what would you do?”
said the father angrily.

The doctor smiled again and replied: “I believe that life and death are in the hands of God and we can only do so much.
Go and pray for your son, we will do our best by God’s grace.”

“Sympathy is so much easier than empathy. It is easy to dismiss someone else’s trials because they aren’t your own”, muttered the father.

After a long while, the doctor came out of the operating room. “I’ve got good news! Your son is saved! If you have any questions please ask the nurse.”
And without waiting for the father’s reply, he immediately rushed off.

“What a cold and unfeeling man!” exclaimed the man, “He couldn’t even wait a few minutes so that I could ask him about my son.”

Hearing him, the nurse replied, “The doctor’s son has been extremely ill for many weeks, but as soon as he received the call about your son,
he immediately rushed to the hospital. Now that he is confident that your son is safe, the doctor's hurrying back to be with his son.”

How many times do we make wrong assumptions, when we only look at things from our own point of view?
Just as we expect empathy from others, it would fare us even better if we can empathise with others as well.
Let’s make it a point to give others the benefit of doubt and…

14 quick strategies to get and keep yourself motivated

Here are 14 quick strategies to get and keep yourself motivated:

1. Condition your mind. Train yourself to think positive thoughts while avoiding negative thoughts.

2. Condition your body. It takes physical energy to take action. Get your food and exercise budget in place and follow it like a business plan.

Read More: Why You're Still Overweight
3. Avoid negative people. They drain your energy and waste your time, so hanging with them is like shooting yourself in the foot.

4. Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you and you can imitate their success strategies.

5. Have goals–but remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete, lest it become more important than achieving the goal.

6. Act with a higher purpose. Any activity or action that doesn’t serve your higher goal is wasted effort--and should be avoided.

7. Take responsibility for your own results. If you blame (or credit) luck, fate or divine intervention, you’ll always have an excuse.

8. Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. Walking the old, familiar paths is how you grow old. Stretching makes you grow and evolve.

9. Don't wait for perfection; do it now! Perfectionists are the losers in the game of life. Strive for excellence rather than the unachievable.

10. Celebrate your failures. Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don't achieve. Take time to understand where you fell short.

11. Don’t take success too seriously. Success can breed tomorrow's failure if you use it as an excuse to become complacent.

12. Avoid weak goals. Goals are the soul of achievement, so never begin them with "I'll try ..." Always start with "I will" or "I must."

13. Treat inaction as the only real failure. If you don’t take action, you fail by default and can't even learn from the experience.

14. Think before you speak. Keep silent rather than express something that doesn’t serve your purpose.

The above is based on a conversation with Omar Periu, one of the world’s best (and best known) motivational speakers.

Good Note

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply.
Love unconditionally.
Give generously.
Care deeply.
Share heartily.
Speak kindly.
Work sincerely, Play cheerfully.
Laugh openly and leave the rest to Almighty.

Good Quotes

Without Your love I can do nothing, with Your love there is nothing I cannot do.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
-Swami Sivananda


If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success
will be yours."
-Ray Kroc

"When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward
your coveted goal."
-Napoleon Hill

"We are what we think".
-Buddha

"Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve"
-Napoleon Hill, motivator

"No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent"
-Eleanor Roosavelt

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Thomas Edison, inventor

Google engineer Steve Yegge’s - On Platform

I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I’ve been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies — an impression that has been reinforced almost daily — is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right. Sure, it’s a sweeping generalization, but a surprisingly accurate one. It’s pretty crazy. There are probably a hundred or even two hundred different ways you can compare the two companies, and Google is superior in all but three of them, if I recall correctly. I actually did a spreadsheet at one point but Legal wouldn’t let me show it to anyone, even though recruiting loved it.

I mean, just to give you a very brief taste: Amazon’s recruiting process is fundamentally flawed by having teams hire for themselves, so their hiring bar is incredibly inconsistent across teams, despite various efforts they’ve made to level it out. And their operations are a mess; they don’t really have SREs and they make engineers pretty much do everything, which leaves almost no time for coding – though again this varies by group, so it’s luck of the draw. They don’t give a single shit about charity or helping the needy or community contributions or anything like that. Never comes up there, except maybe to laugh about it. Their facilities are dirt-smeared cube farms without a dime spent on decor or common meeting areas. Their pay and benefits suck, although much less so lately due to local competition from Google and Facebook. But they don’t have any of our perks or extras — they just try to match the offer-letter numbers, and that’s the end of it. Their code base is a disaster, with no engineering standards whatsoever except what individual teams choose to put in place.

To be fair, they do have a nice versioned-library system that we really ought to emulate, and a nice publish-subscribe system that we also have no equivalent for. But for the most part they just have a bunch of crappy tools that read and write state machine information into relational databases. We wouldn’t take most of it even if it were free.

I think the pubsub system and their library-shelf system were two out of the grand total of three things Amazon does better than google.

I guess you could make an argument that their bias for launching early and iterating like mad is also something they do well, but you can argue it either way. They prioritize launching early over everything else, including retention and engineering discipline and a bunch of other stuff that turns out to matter in the long run. So even though it’s given them some competitive advantages in the marketplace, it’s created enough other problems to make it something less than a slam-dunk.

But there’s one thing they do really really well that pretty much makes up for ALL of their political, philosophical and technical screw-ups.

Jeff Bezos is an infamous micro-manager. He micro-manages every single pixel of Amazon’s retail site. He hired Larry Tesler, Apple’s Chief Scientist and probably the very most famous and respected human-computer interaction expert in the entire world, and then ignored every goddamn thing Larry said for three years until Larry finally — wisely — left the company. Larry would do these big usability studies and demonstrate beyond any shred of doubt that nobody can understand that frigging website, but Bezos just couldn’t let go of those pixels, all those millions of semantics-packed pixels on the landing page. They were like millions of his own precious children. So they’re all still there, and Larry is not.

Micro-managing isn’t that third thing that Amazon does better than us, by the way. I mean, yeah, they micro-manage really well, but I wouldn’t list it as a strength or anything. I’m just trying to set the context here, to help you understand what happened. We’re talking about a guy who in all seriousness has said on many public occasions that people should be paying him to work at Amazon. He hands out little yellow stickies with his name on them, reminding people “who runs the company” when they disagree with him. The guy is a regular… well, Steve Jobs, I guess. Except without the fashion or design sense. Bezos is super smart; don’t get me wrong. He just makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies.

So one day Jeff Bezos issued a mandate. He’s doing that all the time, of course, and people scramble like ants being pounded with a rubber mallet whenever it happens. But on one occasion — back around 2002 I think, plus or minus a year — he issued a mandate that was so out there, so huge and eye-bulgingly ponderous, that it made all of his other mandates look like unsolicited peer bonuses.

His Big Mandate went something along these lines:

1) All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.

2) Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.

3) There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of another team’s data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The only communication allowed is via service interface calls over the network.

4) It doesn’t matter what technology they use. HTTP, Corba, Pubsub, custom protocols — doesn’t matter. Bezos doesn’t care.

5) All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the outside world. No exceptions.

6) Anyone who doesn’t do this will be fired.

7) Thank you; have a nice day!