I love quotes because they inspire and ignite a thought process. Today, I read this brilliant quote from Steve Jobs: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” ~ Steve Jobs Loved the first part. Be a yardstick of quality. As professionals, we can only differentiate ourselves […]
Most organizational/team improvement initiatives we undertake involve change – from current state of affairs to desired state. Change is hard and painful and necessary for growth/survival. Process improvement is all about managing change – and in my view, change (and its respective benefits) does not happen when you: Keep thinking big without starting small: It […]
I wrote earlier about “11 Things Project Managers & Leaders Should Never Do” and then continued the chain of thoughts with another post titled “7 (More) Things Project Managers & Leaders Should Never Do. This is the final part of this series which is compiled to form a handy and portable summary “25 Things Managers […]
Yesterday, over a cup of coffee, my friend asked me about my first book and what was my approach towards writing it. I said that I took “project approach”. This lead to an immediate realization that everything we do is a project, be it loosing your weight, writing a book, painting your home, getting a […]
June 2010 – a brilliant month as far as blogging is concerned. I wrote on a wide variety of topics and a lot of my writing was recognized by the blogosphere. That was satisfying. Recognitions raise the bar and help us to do better. June was also a month of anticipating some respite in heat […]
We live in a hyper-competitive world. Students are anxious about their annual results. Professionals are anxious about their next appraisal. Business owners are anxious about their bottom lines and so on. You get the point. This anxiousness does not allow us to enjoy the process. Sure, goals are important and attaining them is even more […]
As a leader, you can lead others with a belief that “people are good” – or with a fear that people will default. Your belief is reflected in the way you structure up your leadership team, set up governance processes and treat people. You can choose to provide space and freedom for people to perform […]
Leaders embrace difference because they know the power of differential thinking to build a great team. For smart professionals, one of the most important skills is to accept differences (and learn from them) without taking it personally. Enjoy the story: Mark joined this new company only a few months back, but he felt frustrated. He […]
Consider the following tale of two sales leaders who wanted to be successful: – – – In his quest to achieve his sales targets, Peter was overly focused on "closing the sale". When in front of a customer, he often focused on what the "next steps" would be. He sold from the mindset of "What […]