Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact
» by Nagesh Belludi

How simple it is to see that all the worry in the world cannot control the future.
How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now.
And that there will never be a time when it is not now.
* Gerald Jampolsky

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
* Bessie Anderson Stanley

Perhaps we are looking at this from a wrong perspective;
this search for the truth, the meaning of life, the reason of God.
We all have this mindset that the answers are so complex and
so vast that it is almost impossible to comprehend.
I think, on the contrary, that the answers are so simple;
so simple that it is staring us straight in the face,
screaming its lungs out, and yet we fail to notice it.
We’re looking through a telescope, searching the stars for the answer,
when the answer is actually a speck of dirt on the telescope lens.
* Jason Q

Life is only a combination of different
experiences. Demand to enjoy them all.
* Wayne Pocock

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you’ll never cease to grow.
* Anthony J. D’Angelo

Happiness is not perfected until it is shared.
* Anonymous

The battery in a car works only because
it has a positive and a negative.
As parents we also must have the same balance and
be kind and loving, but also tough when it is necessary.
* Unknown

Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.
* Anonymous

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.
* Huey Newton

To change family life -
Husbands love your wives,
Wives respect your husbands,
Children obey your parents.
* Unknown

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*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

An idea can turn to dust or magic,
depending on the talent that rubs against it.
* Anonymous

Wear a smile – one size fits all.
* Anonymous

It’s no longer enough to be a ‘change agent.’
You must be a change insurgent—provoking,
prodding, warning everyone in sight that complacency is death.
* Bob Reich

It’s only the view from where you sit that makes you fear defeat,
But life is full of many aisles, so why don’t you change your seat?
* Unknown

You never realize how much you love something till its gone.
* Unknown

Love is the crowning grace of humanity,
the holiest right of the soul,
the golden link which binds us to duty and truth,
the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles
the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.
* Francesco Petrarch

Don’t Re-Anything. Don’t re-do, re-peat, re-cover,
re-finance – do it right the first time.
* Unknown

Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability,
only offer a better cage. Truth is outside all patterns
* Bruce Lee

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s there are few.
* Shunryu Suzuki

A real friend is one who walks in when
the rest of the world walks out.
* Unknown

Visit www.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

Patrick McGovern, the founder and president of the International Data Group (IDG,) offers the following tips for business travellers in the April 2007 issue of the Inc. Magazine.

• Get Briefed: I prepare a briefing book with the latest economic and business information on countries I am about to visit. I cull most of the information from the Internet.
• Arrive Early: For first-time visits, I like to arrive in a country on Saturday and spend the weekend wandering around observing people’s behavior. I gain a sense of the pace and the culture: how fast people walk, how they gesture when they talk, what they wear, what they read. It puts me in sync for my Monday meetings.
• Bear Gifts: In Asia, Latin America, and Africa its good form to present your host with a gift. It needn’t be lavish: a book about the city you live in, an engraved paperweight, or a silver business card holder will do just fine.
• Practice Humility: In many cultures it’s considered impolite to boast about yourself or your company’s accomplishments. However, talking about your children and asking about those of your hosts is a great way to bond. Also, work in references to your philanthropic activities. It suggests you will share your success with local worthy causes.

Call for Action

To facilitate intelligent conversations with people you meet on travel, be more knowledgeable about the place and people you will visit. Ahead of your departure, collect more information about your destination: its history, the surrounding geography, the heritage, famous people, sports teams, etc. Upon arrival, try to walk around your hotel or in the downtown and get a feel for your destination. This initiative will enable you to cultivate your curiosity. People you will meet will then feel you are interested in them, thus facilitating your interactions.

Practice being an informed business traveller—being interested.

***See other articles related to conversations, people skills, travel, ideas for impact

It all depends on how we look at things,
and not on how they are themselves.
* Carl Gustav Jung

Only we can choose how great of an impact our actions have on others,
So choose something that does not discourage, but rather inspires.
* Aimee P. Guam

Faith will take us to the destination
God wants us to get to. We have a destiny.
* Unknown

The splendid discontent of God
With chaos, made the world…
And from the discontent of man
The world’s best progress springs.
* Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Don’t stand shivering upon the bank;
plunge in at once, and have it over.
* Sam Slick

Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted.
* Albert Einstein

We can’t live our life over again, but we can
really live up to our potential from this moment on.
* Unknown

Action may not always bring happiness;
but there is no happiness without action.
* Benjamin Disraeli

A closed mind is like a closed book, just a block of wood.
* Chinese Proverb

There is nothing that makes its way
more directly to the soul than beauty.
* Joseph Addison

Visit www.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

Case Study: Steve Delegates

Consider the following case.

A small company received a complaint from its key customer. The CEO assigned this problem to Steve, the engineering team leader, and asked him to resolve the problem in two days. Steve delegated the problem to Jessica, one of his engineers.

A week later, when the customer complained that the problem was not yet fixed, the CEO asked Steve to explain the delay. Steve responded: “I do not know how to fix the problem. I delegated the task to Jessica. Has she not fixed this problem? It is her responsibility.”

Yet, Steve was Answerable

The above episode reflects poorly on Steve’s managerial skills. Steve failed to recognize that, although Jessica was responsible for fixing the problem, he was accountable for the problem and its resolution. He was answerable to the CEO; his duty was to resolve the problem through Jessica.

The terms ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’ are near-synonyms; hence, managers tend to use them interchangeably. The distinction is subtle, nonetheless critical, as highlighted in the following table.

Effective Delegation

A primary shortcoming of many managers, especially new managers, is that they do not give clear assignments—they do not explain a problem adequately and/or fail to enumerate expectations on desired outcome and timeline. After delegating a task, they assume they no longer hold ownership over the task. They thus tend to fault their employees, the ones they delegated tasks to, when a problem arises.

One of the keys to effective delegation is to understand the differences between accountability and responsibility. Understand that you are still in charge of getting a delegated task completed and accomplishing the associated mission. Follow-up frequently and ensure completion.

***See other articles related to effective delegation, managerial skills, accountability, responsibility, managing people

A lie gets halfway around the world
before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
* Winston Churchill

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day,
begin it well and serenly and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
This day is all that is good and fair.
It is too dear with its hopes and
invitations to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
* Unknown

No one ever collapsed under the burdens of a single day.
It is when the burdens of tomorrow are added to it that it becomes unbearable.
Live one day at a time-it’s all that we have that is a certainty anyway.
* Unknown

Life is too short to waste time blaming someone
else for your failures. No one can make you fail.
Life is never too short to take time to thank someone
else for helping you succeed. Anyone can help you succeed.
* Tim Renfro

Summing up, it is clear the future holds great opportunities.
It also holds pitfalls. The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls,
seize the opportunities, and get back home by six o’clock.
* Woody Allen

Find the person who will love you because of your differences
and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.
* Leo Buscaglia

Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you
will never pay attention to their limitations again.
* James R. Cook

Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough.
* Unknown

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to
see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
* Martin Luther King, Jr.

In your heart must well that sympathy which
soothes away all pains from the hearts of others.
* Paramahansa Yogananda

Visit www.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

Jeffrey Immelt on Keys to Great Leadership

In an interview in the Fast Company Magazine, General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt reveals his checklist of leadership skills. Perhaps the most significant of these skills is the understanding perspective on one’s job.

“Understand breadth, depth, and context. The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.”

The Problem: A Narrow Outlook of our Work

As I elaborated in a previous blog article, we get busy doing and fail to devote time for deep thinking. We concentrate on the minutiae of our work. We forget that these tasks are a part of a larger canvas–an element of a large value-addition process. If you are a metallurgy scientist, your work may be a part of the large value-addition process of converting raw material into turbine blades for jet engines that power large aircrafts. If you are computer programmer working on a small software module, your work may be a small component of software that enables customers to trade stocks directly from their cell phones.

Call for Action: Understand the Big-Picture

The key to understanding the broader aspects of your work is to make a special effort to learn more than what is in front of your face. In addition to understanding the boss’s description of your task or a work-procedure, you need to ask why you need to do what you have been asked to do. Begin by asking the following questions.

• How does your organisation make money from what you do? How does your company make money to pay you?
• How do you fit into the value-addition chain? What are the steps involved? What is the flow of information, money and materials?
• Who is the end customer? Why does he/she need the product or service your organisation is building? What is the fundamental problem the customer is trying to solve? How does you work solve this problem?
• How will the customer use with the particular product or service your organisation is developing? What other features can your organisation add to your product or service to help the customer? What else can you do to help the customer?

Employees who understand the broader context of their jobs and embrace the big-picture perspective of the value-addition process are more inclined to grow quickly because, in addition to technical skills, their repertoire includes the wide-ranging commercial viewpoint of the fundamental problems at hand.

***See other articles related to ideas for impact, breadth, depth, context, perspective, big-picture, career success, promotions, career performance

[Note: Jeffrey Immelt's photo from the biography at the General Electric Company's website]