Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact » by Nagesh Belludi

Traditional philanthropy, whether personal, institutional or corporate, takes three forms: cash capital, volunteer-time in programming support, and cause-related sponsorship. I believe a fourth avenue, corporate and non-profit collaboration, can make an important difference in the society.

Following last year’s Katrina hurricane, Wal-Mart [WMT], Home Depot [HD] and FedEx [FDX] reached out to vulnerable victims by providing hundreds of truckloads of vital supplies, thanks to their immense supply chain infrastructures. These companies highlighted one promising area of effective corporate outreach and community collaboration. Can the corporate sector transfer logistical knowledge to relief agencies and aid them to set-up an infrastructure to support nimble disaster planning in the future?

One of the most significant characteristics of successful corporate leaders is their ability to clearly recognize new social, political and economic influences and to adapt their enterprises to developing circumstances rapidly and economically. These corporate leaders possess the dynamism, the ability to innovate and the mechanisms for spurring efficiency and allocating resources in entirely new channels.

Non-profits have limited access to such visionary individuals and the expertise necessary for social investments to overcome barriers in resources and operational efficiencies. Therefore, there is a pressing need for corporate leaders from all levels to collaborate with the social sector. I expect innovative corporations to launch and expand their philanthropy programs to create partnerships for sustainable initiatives and transfer corporate practices, values, oversight and accountability measures to non-profits.

*Keyword(s): Philanthropy, outreach, non-profits, Katrina, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, FedEx

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if
we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
* Thomas Merton

Be such a person, and live such a life,
that if every one were such as you,
and every life such as yours,
this earth would be God’s paradise.
* Phillips Brooks
[Contributed by Patricia Wiyono]

We Forget
We ask for a piece of sand and he gives us a beach.
We ask for a drop of water and he gives us an ocean.
We ask for time and he gives us life eternal.
And it is so easy for us to fall in love with the gift
and forget the Giver!
* Edward Farrell

The toughest thing about success is
that you’ve got to keep on winning.
* Irving Berlin

People who want the most approval get the least and people who need
approval the least get the most.
* Wayne Dyer

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober,
not to make us sorry but wise.
* Henry Ward Beecher

The average estimate themselves by what they do,
the above average by what they are.
* Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Please all, and you will please none.
* Aesop

The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but
the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
until he created it. Now we could not live without it.
* Louis I. Kahn

Visit inspiration.rightattitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

If you are not happy at work, you may believe that your dissatisfaction is rooted in your position—in the relationships, the workflows and the demands of the role. You may feel that if you were in a different position or were associated with another organization, you would be more content.

However, there is a good chance that the problem is not with your position per se, but with your attitudes toward various elements of work-life: people you interact with, responsibilities, bureaucracy, office politics, etc. You may not have realized and/or capitalized on the various opportunities that the current position presents.

• If you feel your work is not challenging enough or if you do not sense career progression, you can request additional responsibilities at work. You can analyze colleagues who have succeeded in similar positions and learn from them. If you want to be promoted, you could assume some of the responsibilities of the position you desire.
• Even if you do not like your boss, colleagues, subordinates or customers, you still need to get along with them by being open-minded or by discovering common ground. In extreme cases, you need to accept that people will not change and just suck up, no matter how frustrating their actions are.
• If you want to change to another line of work, you need to realize that the grass on the other side of the fence always looks greener until you jump over. There is no guarantee that the new position or the new organization will be any better. There will be a considerable lead-time to reestablish yourself in the new workplace before you can be eligible to move up. Organizations realize that there is a significant penalty to losing an experienced person and are likely to accommodate your needs and aspirations.

Professional success is often not simply a matter of choosing the right career path or the right company, although these are important factors. The attitudes you bring to your work-life define your career development and contentment. Change your attitudes, adjust, discover opportunities available and thrive in the given circumstances.

*Keyword(s): dissatisfaction, job satisfaction, work atmosphere, attitudes

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A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the
blame and a little less than his share of the credit.
* John C. Maxwell

Why should we worry about what others
think of us? Do we have more confidence
in their opinions than we do in our own?
* Brigham Young

I like the dreams of the future better
than the history of the past.
* Thomas Jefferson

Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
Who never spent the darksome hours,
Weeping, and watching for the morrow,
He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers.
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can get anything you want if
you help enough people get what they want
* Zig Ziglar

Study as if you were going to live forever;
live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
* Maria Mitchell

Whatever you’re ready for is ready for you.
* Mark Victor Hansen

There is only one group of people who don’t have problems
and they’re all dead. Problems are a sign of life.
So the more problems you have, the more alive you are.
* Norman Vincent Peale

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
* Chinese Proverb

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, executive chairman of Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies, retired today on his sixtieth birthday. He was one of the six founders who started Infosys [INFY] with a small investment of Rs. 10,000 and nurtured the organization to a world-class company currently valued at Rs. 50,000 crores ($10.75 billion).

Caption: A shareholder describes Infosys’ achievements at a Shareholders’ Meeting in Bangalore (Dec ‘04)

Globally, Mr. Murthy is a widely-admired business leader. Much has been written about his background, discipline and his ’simple living, high thinking’ philosophy. His biggest legacy will be the dreams and confidence his company’s success has fostered in a whole generation of middle-class India. In creating a highly respected, world-class company that provides top quality services and adopts best management practices from around the world (a strong corporate brand, transparency in operations and financial reporting, sharing wealth, best training practices,) his team has offered a blue-print for entrepreneurial success in the new economy.

Mr. Murthy will transit into the role of a non-executive chairman at Infosys. His retirement will enable him to expand his endeavors with various institutions, viz., administrative (India, Thailand, United Nations Foundation), financial (RBI, DBS, SEBI), educational (IIM-A, IIIT, Cornell, Wharton, Singapore Management University) and corporate (NDTV, TiE). He is widely rumored to be nominated to the role of the President of India. He has himself expressed an interest in being designated the Ambassador of India to the United States. We should hope to continue hearing his ideas on various fronts. He may author a book or two on management practices in the global economy or the story of Infosys.

Congratulations on your retirement, Mr. Murthy.

*Keyword(s): Narayana Murthy, Infosys

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A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
* Chinese Proverb

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
* Henry Ford

Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence.
Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth.
* Gouthama Buddha

Nothing is at last sacred but
the integrity of your own mind.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson

The great thing about experience is that you can’t
borrow it, buy it or steal it, you must earn it.
* Len Scherder

Your task is not to seek for love, but
merely to seek and find all the barriers
within yourself that you have built against it.
* Rumi

True wealth can not be found in your bank account.
It can only be found in those you call friends.
Those with whom you share your deepest feelings.
And those who accept you for who you really are.
* Mary Vandergrift

Life is not lost by dying;
life is lost minute by minute,
day by dragging day,
in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
* Stephen Vincent Benét

To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.
* Oscar Wilde

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

The relationship with your boss is a critical aspect of a favorable work atmosphere and your job satisfaction. The boss forms a vital link between you and the upper management and thus represents the entire organization to you. Below are four key principles to build and sustain an excellent relationship with your boss.

1. The relationship between you and your boss is likely a circular relationship: if you like your boss, your boss likes you; if your boss likes you, you like your boss. Overlook actions of your boss that may disappoint you and be conscious of how you react to conflicts.
2. Suit his/her work style. Understand your boss’s thought processes, preferences and pet-peeves. If your boss is hands-on, favors raw data for making decisions, resists confrontations or avoids risk, you must be sensitive and suit his/her style. You may be able to sell your boss on the merits of changes to his/her style; however, realize that change takes time and is not guaranteed.
3. When your boss succeeds, you succeed. Understand your boss’s role, his/her strengths, weaknesses and goals. Ask how you can support his/her objectives and the organization’s goals. Do not assume his/her expectations of you. Communicate continually by detailing progress on your assignments and by giving prompt feedback on challenges you face and asking for support.
4. Realize that one hand cannot clap. Fundamentally, people are different; their perspectives and work-styles are different. You are very lucky if you have a boss who is competent and supportive—somebody who is genuinely interested in your assignments and career advancement. Recognize early if things are not going well; be open and straight-forward in communicating your thoughts and if changes you made have not improved the situation appreciably, be prepared to leave.

Success in building relationships does not come easily. Co-operating with your boss involves being proactive and tolerant, making mistakes and learning from them. The onus is on you to effectively manage this key relationship and achieve the best results for yourself, your boss and the organization.

*Keyword(s): boss, managing relationships, managing vertically, work atmosphere, job satisfaction

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Archives and a compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic are available at the supplementary website inspiration.rightattitudes.com.

Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
* Lin Yutang

The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been achieved.
* George Bernard Shaw

There is nothing permanent except change.
* Heraclitus

You may not have perfect teeth,
or a nose to ever match,
but if you’re smiling through your heart,
that smile will be nothing less than beautiful.
* Jackie Riedel

All the powers in the universe are already ours.
It is we who have put our hands before
our eyes & cry that it is dark.
* Swami Vivekananda

People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
* Abraham Lincoln

Next to doing a good job yourself, the greatest joy is
in having someone else do a first-class job under your direction.
* William Feather

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
* Vidal Sassoon

Your own resolution to success is
more important than any other one thing.
* Abraham Lincoln

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations