Month: December 2010

Productivity and Work Outs

If you have experience going to the gym (I did – for 3 months! And somehow the post gym muscles are always thought to have been photoshopped.. haha), then the trainers typically insist on taking lots of time in between work outs.

For example, we were restricted to work out for an hour every day from Monday-Saturday and forbidden from entering the gym on Sunday as the muscles needed time to react to the exercise.
It is the same with productivity – our brain needs time. Chugging along and working 15 hours every day is not necessarily productive and is definitely not something to be proud of either, especially if you are having to do so consistently.
It’s not about the battle, but about the war after all.
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I can’t help re-emphasize this for myself. Learnt this the hard way during my start-up days.

The plunge

The night was cold.

I had been debating whether to take the plunge or not.
The pool was empty.
I had left my towel back at the villa on purpose.
Somewhere within, I did know that the fitness centre didn’t give towels.
It was a ready made excuse, after all.
I touched the water – and darn, it didn’t feel that cold. Could I sell the ‘no towel’ excuse to myself?
I trudged back and got my towel.
Touched the water again, and it hadn’t gotten colder.
I got changed.
The night was cold.
I had to take the plunge.
An image flashed by – a flabby unhealthy me.
I jumped..
The water was great, the swim was great and I felt great after an hour in the pool.
And I wondered how many such great experiences I had talked myself out of, without even trying.
And felt thankful for the many times I had actually taken the plunge.

On Empowerment

John Maxwell demonstrates the power of empowerment with a simple exercise –
Get a friend to stand in front of you and try pushing him down by pressing down on his shoulder. The lower you want to push, the lower you will have to bend.
Similarly, try pulling the same friend up and the higher you want to lift them, the more you will observe yourself standing on your toes to help your friend go higher.
Essentially, the more we try to empower people, the higher we go. This is best illustrated in Henry Ford II’s time at Ford.
Under Henry Ford II, the Ford motor company’s fortunes were full of ups and downs. The ups were when Henry relinquished his leadership to others who took the company to greater heights and the downs were when Henry systematically worked to throw them out of the company when he sensed they were getting too popular for his liking.
This was why successful executives like Ernie Breech, Lee Iacocca were shown the door at Ford from time to time. Henry Ford II was an insecure leader and Ford suffered as a result.
The difficulty in understanding empowerment is said to be apparent in that ‘to be indispensable, you have to be dispensable’ i.e. you should consistently be able to elevate others to do your job so you can go higher, and the minimum requirement for empowerment, as a result, is a secure leader. Let’s aim to empower our fellow team members this week..
Best wishes for a great week!

Managing our leaders

From an Article at HBR:

There are essentially 3 types of leaders –

1) Sun-like leaders. The quintessential sun-like leader is an entrepreneur, one who takes the lead in everything, just as the sun illuminates everything. Their subordinates get close supervision. These hands-on leaders sometimes feel like if they’re not involved, they’ve lost control — as their follower, you need to be aware of this sense of insecurity. When working with such a leader, be sympathetic. Include him in work where he can demonstrate his ability — he wants to be useful, so give him something to do! Invite him to get involved — he will do so anyway, and bringing him in increases the odds that he’ll support your work. Make your own job easier by leveraging his experience and his insights with customers and others.

2) Moon-like leaders. The moon reflects the light of the sun; a moon-like leader reflects the light of his employees. He is more open-minded and trusting of his people. Only when you lose your way — just like someone walking a dark road at night — would he step forward to shed light on what he thinks you should do. This kind of leadership gives employees room for development. However, trust between the follower and the leader does require timely maintenance; when the leader does step forward, be willing to answer questions and open your project up for inspection.

3) Star-like leaders. Leaders of this type will only indicate a direction, like the North Star. Their teams, however, still need a light source, so star-like leaders need followers who can step up and light the way for others. Only those leaders with great wisdom have the confidence to be star-like. Their empowerment shows high recognition for your capabilities. This kind of leadership only works when the leader has built a capable team that can function with minimal supervision. As a follower to this kind of leader, you’ve got a great platform, but you have to demonstrate that you deserve the trust you’ve been given.

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Now, are we behaving in accordance to our boss’ style? And what about us – what kind of leaders are we?

For myself, I know I’m the ‘Sun-like’ leader who likes getting involved in everything and definitely don’t have the wisdom (not yet atleast!) to be a ‘Star-like’ leader. Having said that, for the first time, I’m seeing a ‘Star-like’ leader in action and I do aspire to be the same, someday.

What about you? What’s your boss’ style? And yours, of course?

Alearningaday.com – Finally

After months of plotting this move, I am happy to announce that ‘A Learning a Day’ has taken the next step – to go live on it’s own domain.

My ‘IT Advisor’ friend (#ff :)) has been advising me to do this for ages to ensure better reach thanks to better Google indexing and what not. And I have only myself to blame for the delay.
But, we’re finally here. And thanks to inspiration from friends over at The Timecapture, A Learning a Day’s new facebook page is also up!
And finally, for all those bloggers contemplating a shift to their own domain, I must commend ‘Blogger/Blogspot’ for making it extremely simple to make the shift. While I was tempted to shift to WordPress, I stuck to Blogger for multiple reasons including ease of use and the fact that for simple blogging, I find Blogger more useful than WordPress. And Blogger further justified this praise with a 2 step process to transfer over to the new domain.
I realize now that this blog is now 942 days and 1688 posts old. That’s longer than I thought it would survive at any rate.

And that deserves a toast – to all of you who read, comment and encourage this blog as it is you who made this possible. Thank you!

10 tips for financial well being

1. Track your spending daily. You can use a program like Mint or simply design a spreadsheet. This will allow you to see where your money goes and discover ways to slash spending so that you can save more. I know that everyone gives this advice. There is a reason: it works.

2. Make the effort to pack your own lunch and prepare meals and snacks at home. This is not only thrifty, it’s also almost certainly healthier than buying food at restaurants and will help you stay fit and healthy long into your retirement.

3. Learn more about investing and the different options that you have. At a minimum you should understand all the basic terminology involved in investing and make it a point to know the fees involved in your retirement account.

4. Look for ways to increase your income. Even an extra $100 a month that you can throw into your retirement fund can have a big effect down the road, especially if you’re still in your 20s or early 30s.

5. Spend time visualizing your goals. This will make it easier for you to stick with your plans and stay committed to working towards your long term goals.

6. Be ruthless in removing clutter from your home. This might seem unrelated to saving for retirement, but clutter can weigh us down. When we are constantly seeking to remove clutter, it makes us less likely to spend money on objects that we don’t truly need or love. As a bonus, you can also make a little extra cash by selling items you no longer need or want.

7. Keep your home and vehicles well maintained. Maintenance is cheaper than repairs and will allow you to keep your car for many years before you replace it and could possibly help you sell your home for more money down the road.

8. Look for inexpensive forms of entertainment. My advice would be to be on the lookout for inexpensive or free activities in the community such as art exhibits and free concerts. Maintaining a rich network of social acquaintances can help you learn about new opportunities and feeling connected to your community will help increase your happiness. Happiness, in turn, makes it easier to find the motivation to work towards your goals.

9. Discuss your plans with your partner often. Make sure that you are both on the same page and are fully committed to working on things together. When one partner feels like their concerns aren’t being heard, they can become obstinate and sabotage the other’s efforts to save. Make sure that you both feel like you’re part of a team.

10. Don’t forget to have a little fun today. Constant deprivation is no way to live and the truth is none of us know what will happen in the future. Spend time every day focusing on working towards a good retirement, but don’t forget to spend most of the day living in the here and now. It might even make more sense to take a year off now to travel or work on a personal project and retire at the traditional age. Choose the timetable that makes the most sense for your own life.

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Source: ‘Pick the brain’ blog. Found these simple and useful!