THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Smile

“If you're not using your smile, you're like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.” – Les Giblin

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Top 10 Reasons to Smile

Smiling is a great way to make yourself stand out while helping your body to function better. Smile to improve your health, your stress level, and your attractiveness. Smiling is just one fun way to live longer read about the others and try as many as you can.

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LATEST ARRIVALS

Harvard Business Review: On Managing Through a Downturn by Harvard Business School Publishing

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Projects

“If you undertake projects in mind, never leave for tomorrow.” – Miguel Ángel Sáez Gutiérrez

TOPIC OF THE DAY

New Project? Don't Analyze—Act

We all know how new projects happen in a predictable world: A team is assembled, a market analyzed, a forecast created, and a business plan written. Resources are then gathered, and the plan is set in motion.

But how do you launch new projects in an unpredictable environment? What’s the best way to do it in an age when the proliferation of data and opinion makes truly decisive analysis impossible; when faraway events have immediate, unexpected impact; and when economic malaise has made companies reluctant to take big bets on unproven ideas?

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Harvard Business Review on Profiting from Green Business by Harvard Business Press

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Preparation

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

TOPIC OF THE DAY

To Reduce Stage Fright, Prepare

Good preparation reduces performance anxiety. Next time you need to present to an audience, follow these three steps:

• Be confident in your topic. Your audience already believes that you're the expert, so don't try to bluff. If the people you're presenting to feel you're unsure of your material, they'll lose trust in you.
• Imagine questions people might ask. Construct answers before you give your speech. Either incorporate the answers into your presentation or be ready to provide them during Q&A.
• Memorize the first minute of your presentation. You experience your greatest anxiety at the beginning of a speech. Knowing the opening of your presentation will give you a good start.

Acknowledgement:
Cited in HBR Management Tip on March 8, 2012

LATEST ARRIVALS

How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor / Eric S. Reinert

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Communication

"Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow." - Rowan D. Williams

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Say Less and Convey More

When you're giving a presentation and nervousness kicks in, it's tough to be brief. But, your audience expects you to state your conclusion and stand behind it, not ramble on aimlessly. You can only do that if you zero in on the purpose. When you prepare for your talk, work backwards. Before you put anything down on paper, know the key message you want your audience to remember. Ask yourself: If my presentation were 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes, what would I say? Force yourself to summarize your key point. Once you've done that, think through what other information you'll need to support that point.

Click here to read the complete article

Acknowledgement: Adopted from the Posting dated March 26, 2012 at HBR Management Tip Blog

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Time

“Time is neither friend nor enemy it's just a measurement.” – Mike Dolan

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Managing Your Time

Many students discover the need to develop or hone their time management skills when they arrive at college. Unlike high school where teachers frequently structured your assignments and classes filled your day, in college, you will have less in-class time, more outside of class work, and a great deal of freedom and flexibility. These pages provide you with tips for managing your time well so you can get the most out of your Dartmouth experience. Keys to successful time management include:

* Self knowledge and goals
* Developing and maintaining a personal, flexible schedule

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor / Eric S. Reinert

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Education

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Desktop Manager

Desktop Manager is my own pet project to implement a (hopefully) easy to use virtual desktop manager for OS X. I've put it up here in the hope that it will be useful to others. Simply run the app and a pager should appear in the status bar and on the desktop.

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LATEST ARRIVALS

How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor / Eric S. Reinert

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Meetings

“A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted.” – James T. Kirk

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Make Time for Meeting Prep

With so many meetings, busy managers don't always have time to think about the goals of those meetings. But showing up unprepared only makes a meeting longer and less effective. Try blocking out time on your calendar for prep work and to think about what you want to accomplish. If a meeting is an hour, you may need 30 minutes to prepare. For critical meetings you may need much more time. If you plan accordingly, you'll arrive ready to accomplish what you've set out to do, not catching up.

Acknowledgement: Adopted from HBR's 'Management Tip' as cited on 23/03/2012

Click here to read the complete article

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Graduation

“A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success.” – Robert Purvis

TOPIC OF THE DAY

The One Exclusive Secret to Managerial Success

Denny Strigl, former president and CEO of Verizon Wireless explains the secret to managerial success when he says, “Managers have one priority and only one; deliver results.” His book, Managers, Can You Hear Me Now: Hard-Hitting Lessons on How to Get Real Results, explains how.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor / Eric S. Reinert

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Life

“Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.” – Stephen Covey

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Make Your Cubicle a Better Place to Work

Is the space in which you work working for you? When you're there do you feel energized and ready to excel? Is it a comfortable and pleasant place to be? If not, you can use research from a little known branch of psychology to improve it.

Environmental psychologists study how people live in the physical world. We investigate the psychological implications of sensory experiences: how colors influence lives, what sorts of furniture arrangements are best in various situations, our relationship with the natural world, and so on. What we've learned can help you create a workspace that makes you feel secure, calm, and capable — a place where you can accomplish your best work.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Infinite vision : how Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion / Pavithra K. Mehta, Suchitra Shenoy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Money

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. ” - Will Rogers

TOPIC OF THE DAY

New Project? Don't Analyze—Act

We all know how new projects happen in a predictable world: A team is assembled, a market analyzed, a forecast created, and a business plan written. Resources are then gathered, and the plan is set in motion.

But how do you launch new projects in an unpredictable environment? What’s the best way to do it in an age when the proliferation of data and opinion makes truly decisive analysis impossible; when faraway events have immediate, unexpected impact; and when economic malaise has made companies reluctant to take big bets on unproven ideas?

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Infinite vision : how Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion / Pavithra K. Mehta, Suchitra Shenoy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Strength

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold” – Zelda Fitzgerald

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Make Time to Prioritize

Do you truly understand how you spend your time? Most people assume they dedicate more hours to strategic work than they actually do. Look back on the past month in your calendar. Add up the time you spent on your strategic priorities. Was it enough? It's likely less than you thought. That's because most people tend to do the most urgent things instead of the most meaningful things. Identify your top five priorities for the coming year, and each month make sure you spend enough time on those priorities. If you don't, it's time to cancel some meetings and build in time for the things that matter.

Acknowledgement:

The thought was adopted from 'Management Tip' of Harvard Business Review Blog of March 15, 2012, of Mr. Anthony K. Tjan

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Exam

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result” – Mahatma Gandhi

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Fedora 15 vs Ubuntu Natty Narwhal – the Battle for Your Next Desktop

With the changes coming to the desktops of some major Linux distributions, it looks like we’re beginning to see some welcome differentiation between how each distro presents itself to users. Fedora and Ubuntu are of course well known as some of the most popular and user-friendly Linux systems, and while they have many similarities, their next major releases are both taking a new approach to the desktop. Ubuntu has decided to drop their Netbook spin and run their homegrown Unity desktop across the board. Fedora however has jumped on board with Gnome 3, confident that it will have all the form and function their users want. While we’ve already discussed both desktops before, Fedora and Ubuntu are both offering more than a makeover, and it’s time to dig deeper.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Infinite vision : how Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion / Pavithra K. Mehta, Suchitra Shenoy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Management

“Eliminate numerical quotas, including Management by Objectives. ” - W. Edwards Deming

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Are You Stuck in a Girls' Club?

"There's a woman you have to meet," said a male CEO during a recent meeting.

"She sounds terrific. I love meeting interesting people. ...Any men you'd like me to meet?"

"Aren't you married?"

"Sure am... Happily."

We both chuckled.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Infinite vision : how Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion / Pavithra K. Mehta, Suchitra Shenoy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Time

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” - Carl Sandburg

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Make Time for Time

"Donner du temps au temps," the late French President François Mitterrand used to say. "Give time for time." The notion being that you need to make time in order to appreciate the ultimate gift we have been given: time on this earth. Every day, we make conscious and less conscious choices on time allocation. Some uses of our time are routine — dropping off kids, eating meals, or going for a daily run. In between those routines, we look to our agendas to see what we are meant to be doing, whom to meet, when and where to go next.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Infinite vision : how Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion / Pavithra K. Mehta, Suchitra Shenoy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Success

“Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're companions - the hero and the sidekick.” - Laurence Shames

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Four words for success

We all want to become successful. But how do you define success? To most of us success means becoming rich and famous. But wealth and fame are just few of the symbols of success. Whether you become rich and/or famous is not in your hands. This is not under your control. What is under your control is being able to do the best that you can or the best that you are capable of doing. To me success means that you have fully exploited your potential by tapping all your God given talent and capabilities including the hidden ones. In other words, you have achieved the best that you are capable of achieving.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Last lecture / Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Shadow

“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set” - Lyn Yutang

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Be More Productive by Making Better Daily Choices

The quest for efficiency and productivity improvement that permeates the corporate world trickles down from entire organizations, to teams, to projects and, finally, to individuals. At the most personal level, we make many choices that affect our productivity. Choices as simple as whether we use on-line banking, have a face-to-face meeting or set up a WebEx or Telepresence conference, send a written thank you note or an e-mail. Most of the time, the same technology that enables each and every one of us to multi-task and be always "on call" and consider trade-offs that didn't exist in the past.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

One more time : how do you motivate employees? / Frederick Herzberg

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Living

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde

TOPIC OF THE DAY

What is Getting Things Done?

Getting Things Done succeeds because it first addresses a critical barrier to completing the tasks that we want to accomplish in a given day. That's 'stuff.' David Allen, creator of Getting Things Done says:

Here's how I define 'stuff:' anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn't belong where it is, but for which you haven't yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Winning way : learnings from sport for managers / Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Career

“It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career.” - Carlton Fisk

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Boost Your Career with Social Media

You've heard the horror stories: a job applicant gets turned down because his potential employer discovered his objectionable tweets, or saw pictures of his keg party on Facebook. There is a lot of advice out there about keeping your online activity from hurting your career. But there's a flip side. When handled correctly, social media can help you professionally. You can use it to enhance your personal brand, establish yourself as an expert in a field, or demonstrate fluency with all things digital. The key is to be proactive about managing your activity and image.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

One more time : how do you motivate employees? / Frederick Herzberg

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Truth

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Why Social Marketing Is So Hard

Brands are spending a great deal of time and energy investing in platforms to get likes or pluses, and not really being social at all.

It's been well over 15 years since the social era started. So many brilliant people have been writing, speaking, and sharing case studies over that length of time, that if I only listed a few, I'd miss some really important thinkers. And if I tried to list them all, I'd hit the word limit on this post. But despite this outpouring of expertise, many organizations still find marketing in the social era ridiculously hard to do well, if at all.

Some problems are technical problems, where the solution is finding the best expert in that field and then working to execute her strategy. But other problems require more than an answer to a known question, and demand that you spend some energy figuring out if you're asking the right question in the first place.

Perhaps marketing in the social era is that kind of problem. I'd like to use this post to ask a series of questions about marketing in the social era, in the hopes that we get smarter about the challenge it poses.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Penguin Dictionary of Economics (Eighth Edition) by Graham Bannock and R. E. Baxter

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Social Media

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” – Brain Solis

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Know the Basics of Putting Your Professional Self Online

Social media is not just for socializing. When handled correctly, you can use it to enhance your personal brand, establish your expertise, or demonstrate your digital fluency. Commit to using social media for professional reasons and be proactive about managing your activity and image. Consider what potential employers or colleagues will see—you don't want them to discover only pictures of you and your dog, or worse. Make sure at a minimum you have a LinkedIn account with a completed profile. Try tweeting or blogging about your area of expertise, thereby creating content that others can forward, retweet, or repost. This can help you establish yourself as an expert.

Acknowledgment:Adopted from “Boost Your Career with Social Media: Tips for the Uninitiated” by Amy Gallo as cited at Management Tip of HBR on March 9, 2012

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Success

"Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself." ~ Robert Collier

TOPIC OF THE DAY

A Personal Success Secret

What do we even mean by personal success? Hopefully you don't think it is all about appearing successful to others in order to feel good about yourself. So what if you have the things they all desire and you gain enough money and power to impress the world. It may be true that it will cause some good feelings in you, and satisfy some lower nature that we all have. But this is a fragile and temporary success at best.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Penguin Dictionary of Economics (Eighth Edition) by Graham Bannock and R. E. Baxter

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Communication

"Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger." - Chinese Proverb

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Replace Meaningless Words with Meaningful Ones

In response to a prior blog post about meaningless words, commenter Brett wrote, "It would be interesting to see those words and phrases that do inspire confidence and trust. That would be a great follow up." Here you go, Brett (and Aggressive Reader, who seconded Brett's suggestion). This discussion of meaningful words is primarily about replacements for weak, meaningless ones, while the prior discussion was about the complete elimination of condescending, insulting or self-deprecating ones.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Penguin Dictionary of Economics (Eighth Edition) by Graham Bannock and R. E. Baxter

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Innovation

"Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation." - Milan Kundera

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Innovation is everyone's Job

To what extent are you responsible for innovation in your company? The reality is that unless they're in research or product development, most people in organizations don't think of themselves as innovators. In fact, many managers discourage their people from inventing new ways of doing things — pushing them instead to follow procedures and stay within established guidelines.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Harry Levinson on the Psychology of Leadership by Hal Levinson

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Jealousy

"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity." - Lazarus Long

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Dealing With Professional Jealousy

Have you been a victim of professional jealousy in the midst of your booming career? Does it irritate you and cause you to give up? Being a neophyte, how would you handle this matter?

Professional jealousy can lead you to success or downfall. It depends upon on how you handle the situation. What is important, in spite of the odds, good relationship must always be intact. Here are a few but effective tips to survive from it:

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Harvard Business Review On Fixing Healthcare from Inside & Out (Paperback) By Harvard Business Review

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Executives

"Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today." - John C. Maxwell

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Developing Executive Presence

"Make her two inches taller!" This command came from Bruce, an executive who wanted me to work with his most talented direct report. Amy was a brilliant high potential who Bruce hoped would succeed him, but she had one serious flaw — she lacked presence.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Becoming A New Manager: Expert Solutions To Everyday Challenges share by Harvard Business School

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

ACTION

"Positive Attitude, Faith, Vision, Desire, Goals, all this is extremely important, but nothing happens without ACTION" - Joseph Arazashvili

TOPIC OF THE DAY

The Five Stages of Strategic Grief

Silicon Valley's been cracking with activity in the last few years — along with Melbourne, Australia and Santiago, Chile. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there's been a sharp uptick in in entrepreneurship around the planet, with the number of hungry entrepreneurs now topping 400 million across more than 50 countries.

This is good news for the global economy, potentially bad news for you. Or at least the kind of news that should give you strategic pause.

One or more of those 400 million may be targeting your less satisfied customers, with a plan to build a business around their specific needs. This is the "focused entry" strategy, a well-worn path in the history of successful startups (see Southwest Airlines). A focused entrant sees an opening in companies that are trying to serve everyone, but making no one truly happy.

Consider Dartitup's response to Pinterest's high-profile success in the social marketing space. Pinterest built a great model for the ladies, who largely drive its activity and content. Men are being dragged along, but they've revealed a comparative lack of engagement. Enter Dartitup with plans for a decidedly manly offering: think dartboards instead of pinboards.

If you're the Pinterest in this story, how do you respond? In our experience, the story typically plays out in stages that mirror the famous Five Stages of Grief:

Stage 1: Denial
Stage 2: Anger
Stage 3: Rationalization
Stage 4: Despair
Stage 5: Acceptance

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing stress = Pocket Mentor : expert solutions to everyday challenges By (author) Harvard Business School Press

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Executive Leadership

"I want people to say they work with me and not for me." - Lisa Petrilli

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Command Attention like an Executive

Executive presence is not an innate quality; it is a set of behaviors that you can learn over time. Whether you are a natural wallflower or a social butterfly, you can enhance your presence by doing the following:

• Focus and relax. Calm is the foundation of presence. Use your breathing as an anchor that you return to when you get stressed or start to lose focus.
• Gain awareness. To change your behavior, you need to know how you are perceived. Pay attention to how people react to you and ask for candid feedback from those you trust.
• Practice with support. Telling a colleague or mentor you're working on presence can boost your skills and confidence. The feedback you receive can also reinforce momentum.

BY:

Josh Ehrlich is the founder of the Global Leadership Council, an international network of experts in leadership and organizational transformation. He advises CEOs and coaches senior executives on succeeding in demanding environments.

Today's Thought is adopted from "Developing Executive Presence" by Joshua Ehrlich as cited in HBR’s ‘Management Tip’

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Collaboration

"As always in a musical collaboration: One has to like each other. As simple as that." - Klaus Schulze

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Get Comfortable with Collaboration

We praise collaboration for improving problem solving, increasing creativity, and spurring innovation. Done correctly, it does yield all these benefits. But it can also be scary. Here are three facts you have to accept, and embrace, about collaboration before it can work:

• You won't know the answer. There's no point in collaborating on a complex problem if you know how to solve it. Be comfortable with ambiguity and accept that you aren't necessarily the expert.
• Roles will be unclear. Responsibilities are often fluid. Be ready for the role you play to change with each phase of the work.
• You will fight. If you avoid conflict, nothing will happen. Knowing how to debate tradeoffs between options means knowing how to productively argue.
  

Today's Thought is adopted from 'Management Tip' from "Eight Dangers of Collaboration" by Nilofer Merchant as cited on February 29, 2012.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Collaboration

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."- Phil Jackson

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Eight Dangers of Collaboration

Most of what is written about collaboration is positive. Even hip. Collaboration is championed enthusiastically by the Enterprise 2.0 experts, as well as leading thinkers like Don Tapscott, as the crucial approach for the 21st century. Collaboration creates once-elusive "buy-in or "empowerment," improves problem solving, increases creativity, is key to innovation at companies like Lego, Pixar, and Intuit. It slashes costs and improves productivity.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing stress = Pocket Mentor : expert solutions to everyday challenges By (author) Harvard Business School Press