Recommended Reading
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Inspirational Quotations #222
It’s not as hard to die for a friend
as it is to find a friend to die for.
* Unknown
He who makes room in his heart for others,
will himself find accommodation everywhere.
* Unknown
Love means the unconditional desire
for the eternal well-being of a soul.
* Unknown
I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
* Marie Curie
Heroes don’t ask us to believe in them,
They teach us to believe in ourselves.
* Unknown
You have a choice. It may not be a choice
you like, but it is still a choice.
* Michelle Pfieffer
The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
* Martina Navratilova
The satisfied, the happy, do not live;
they fall asleep in habit, near neighbor to annihilation.
* Miguel de Unamuno
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that
no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson
Before you talk about what you want,
really appreciate what you have before it’s gone.
* Ethan Daniel
Only the weak are cruel.
Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
* Leo Buscaglia
Truth is not only violated by falsehood;
it may be outraged by silence.
* Henri-Frédéric Amiel
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
Posted in Inspirational Quotations
Leave a comment
Ideas for Impact #32: ‘Pre-Wiring’ Presentations to Key Audience for Buy-In
In “The McKinsey Way,” author Ethan M. Rasiel presents numerous insights to problem solving, analytical reasoning and effective communication practiced at McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s foremost management-consulting firms.
Pre-Wiring a Presentation
Pre-wiring a presentation involves discussing your findings and recommendations with key decision-makers independently ahead of a group presentation. By getting various participants’ buy-in to the contents of your presentation, you ensure their support to your conclusions and avoid surprise reactions and disagreements.
There should be no surprises on the day of the presentation. All the major players should be taken through the solution in private. This way, necessary negotiation, compromise, and new facts that are integral to the acceptance of the proposal will be integrated by the time of the presentation. Pre-wiring removes much of the good to what risk from the presentation and allows the team to shine.
Following the practice of pre-wiring at McKinsey, organizations such as Wipro Technologies have started promoting pre-wiring. See article from Fast Company magazine.
Possible Reactions to a Pre-wired Presentation
If your research is thorough and conclusions are logical, each decision-maker you meet ahead of a presentation may accept the contents of your presentation and agree to support your presentation.- During the course of your conversations, you may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions. Quite possibly, you may have to negotiate and make compromises in your conclusions.
- If a key decision-maker raises objections to your conclusions, you may rethink through your entire analysis and develop an alternate solution to the problem at hand.
Benefits of Pre-wiring a Presentation
Prevents Blindsiding: Clearly, the biggest advantage of discussing a presentation with key decision-makers ahead of a group presentation is that it keeps you “from getting blindsided by major objections to your solution.” By avoiding surprises, you ensure each participant’s backing to your conclusions.- Helps Get Buy-In: Presentations are usually time-constrained. There may not be sufficient time to describe finer aspects of your research, your deductions and recommended actions. Meeting with individual participants can help you supply all the relevant details to each participant, help him/her appreciate how your recommendations may affect him/her and get a buy-in.
- Develops Perspective: Presenting your findings to individuals allows you to gather additional inputs that help you develop a broader perspective. You may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions.
- Helps prepare for the final presentation and tailor your message to suit the audience.
Concluding Thoughts
Pre-wiring a presentation improves the likelihood that your audience will identify with your approach and consent to your recommendations.
Related Articles
- Establishing Credibility for Persuasion: How to research and deduce concrete inferences in support of your positions
***See other articles related to persuasive communication, persuasion, selling ideas, effective presentations, McKinsey
Inspirational Quotations #221
Love all,
Trust a few,
Do wrong to no one
* Anonymous
That you may retain your self-respect,
it is better to displease the people by
doing what you know is right, than to temporarily
please them by doing what you know is wrong.
* William J. H. Boetcker
O hidden life, vibrant in every atom;
O hidden light, shining in every creature;
O hidden love, embracing all in Oneness;
May each, who feels himself as one with Thee,
Know he is also one with every other.
* Annie Besant
Your work is to discover your world and
then with all your heart give yourself to it.
* Gouthama Buddha
If your life is free of failures, you’re not taking enough risks.
* H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is
one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless
ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of
things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
* W. H. Murray
Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are.
Treat people as they could be and they will become as they could be.
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is no blade that can cut as deep as the words from one’s mouth.
* Randy Gray
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
Posted in Inspirational Quotations
Leave a comment
The Risks of Qualifying Our Apologies
In our personal and professional lives, our reactions and follow-ups to errors and missteps reflect greatly on our character. Previous blog articles [1] and [2] have discussed the importance of recognizing our slip-ups, expressing regret and saying ‘Sorry.’
Quite often, when we apologize, we tend to add details to our apologies: we may provide an explanation, or try to account for the circumstances that led to our errors or missteps. In other words, we sometimes tend to qualify our apologies.
Trying to qualifying apologies can dilute the sincerity of our apologies.
Risk: Trying to offer excuses or justify behavior
Take the example of yelling at your spouse when she was late to pick you up at the airport. The next day, you like to apologize for yelling at her. All you need is a simple, “I am sorry I yelled at you yesterday. I shouldn’t have.”
You may attempt to qualify the apology by adding, “You know, I had been traveling for five hours. I was hungry and tired.” Though your reasons for being upset were probably justifiable, your spouse may sense excuses or justification for your yelling. Including reasons with the apology statement may make your spouse question the sincerity of your apology.
Risk: Trying to transfer blame
Suppose that you promised to watch a movie with your spouse on Valentine’s Day. However, your boss asked you to attend a late-evening teleconference with an important international client. You could not go home in good time for the movie. Your spouse is upset. All you need to say is, “I realize I am late for the movie. I regret I did not excuse myself from the meeting early. I am sorry. Shall we watch the movie on Friday evening?”
If you try to qualify the apology by stating, “It was my boss who asked me to attend the meeting. He is unreasonable. I wish he had asked me earlier. We could have planned accordingly.” Clearly, this is an attempt to blame the boss for not being able to say ‘no’ to the late-request from the boss. You spouse sees it as an attempt to draw attention to your helplessness at work and deflect the blame.
Concluding Thoughts
The secret to sincere apologies is to keep your apology-statements straightforward and short. Do not attempt to explain or rationalize your behavior–these just dilute the sincerity of your apology.
Related Articles
- How to express regret and apologize
- Expressing regret or apologizing: A critical component of leadership
***See other articles related to Expressing regret, apologizing, saying sorry, handling mistakes, leadership skills, people skills
Overcoming Procrastination: The “10-Minute Dash” Technique to Get a Task Going
“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.”
- Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
“Why do now what I can do later“
Simply, procrastination is a choice to delay an action with the intent to act later.
Most of us are prone to procrastination on tasks big and small. Some of our postponement-problems are instigated by fears of incompletion and failure, or, from assuming that the tasks we face are tedious. Often, our procrastination is nothing more than resentment to working on tasks assigned by others.
The “10-Minute Dash” Technique
The next time you face a ‘job’ that appears overwhelming or unpleasant, beat the temptation to postpone action by committing to work on the job for just ten minutes. Follow these four simple steps.
Consider the ‘job‘ at hand and break it down. Pick two or three simple component-’tasks‘. For instance, if you want to clean your study room, your component tasks could be to clean the bookshelf, organize the study-desk, etc.- Commit to focus on your chosen tasks for just ten minutes. Use a timer, if necessary. For ten minutes, do nothing but your chosen tasks.
- Avoid distractions or interruptions. For instance, if you unearth Aunt Stella’s letter while cleaning a bookshelf, continue to clean–you can read her letter later.
- Do not give up. Two minutes into the ten-minute dash, if you find your chosen task tedious, do not stop. After all, you have just eight more minutes to go.
Beginning a Task Builds Momentum
There are two distinct outcomes of the ten-minute dash.
Often, at the end of ten minutes of uninterrupted work, you feel good about working towards your goal. It is likely that beginning to work on the job built a momentum; you got absorbed in the tasks. In contrast to your presumption, the job may turn out to be rather easy and pleasant. Continue to work—schedule ten, twenty or thirty more minutes of work.- The less likely outcome is that the ten minutes of work reinforced some of your displeasures about the job. Still, your achievement was that, at the very least, you got ten minutes of work done. If you do not wish to continue working on the task, commit to resume your work later. Ask yourself, “When can I start again?”
Concluding Thoughts
One of the easiest techniques to overcoming procrastination is to begin. Quite often, seemingly difficult tasks get easier once you get working on them. In short time, you get into the ‘flow’ and work towards completion.
***See other articles related to overcoming procrastination, getting things done, execution, time management, being organized
Posted in Self Development
1 Comment
Inspirational Quotations #220
Who, being loved, is poor?
* Oscar Wilde
Don’t tell me I’m burning the candle at both ends,
tell me where to get more wax.
* Unknown
The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.
* Thomas Morell
Love always creates, it never destroys.
In this lie’s man’s only promise.
* Leo Buscaglia
The secret of my vigor and activity is
that I have managed to have a lot of fun.
* Lowell Thomas
Some pursue happiness – others create it.
* Anonymous
To me business isn’t about wearing suits or
pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself,
your ideas and focusing on the essentials.
* Richard Branson
The truth will set you free,
but first it will make you miserable.
* Jim Davis
When you go forward, you will occasionally stumble.
And when you choose to positively recover from those
stumbles, you’ll move more quickly ahead.
* Ralph Marston
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
Posted in Inspirational Quotations
Leave a comment
Inspirational Quotations #219
Anybody who can still do at 60 what he was
doing at 20, wasn’t doing much at 20.
* Jimmy Townsend
Meditation is in truth higher than thought. The earth seems
to rest in silent meditation; and the waters and the
mountains and the sky and the heavens seem all to be in
meditation. Whenever a man attains greatness on this earth,
he has his reward according to his meditation.
* Upanishads
I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something
than educate people and hope they were entertained.
* Walt Disney
If you don’t have solid beliefs you cannot build a stable life.
Beliefs are like the foundation of a building,
and they are the foundation to build your life upon.
* Alfred A. Montapert
Often what we choose for our lives is
the choice for the next generation too.
* Unknown
The display of status symbols is usually a result of low self-esteem.
The self-confident person can afford to project a modest image.
* H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Yes, Love indeed is light from heaven;
A spark of that immortal fire
With angels shared, by Allah given
To lift from earth our low desire.
* George Gordon N Byron
We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;
Amid these earthly damps
What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers
May be heaven’s distant lamps.
* Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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
Posted in Inspirational Quotations
Leave a comment
When You Forget a Person’s Name
Remembering names is an important social skill — mastering this skill can offer a distinct advantage in your professional and personal lives. Previous blog articles discussed a 5R (Resolve, Review, Relate, Repeat, Record) technique to help remember names and a technique to remember names around tables in meetings.
Apologize and Ask
Despite your best efforts, on occasion you may not be able recollect the name of another person, even if you were introduced minutes earlier. In such cases, simply ask, “I am sorry, I forgot your name.” Do not elaborate or try to qualify. Alternately, ask for the person’s business card if appropriate
Another familiar situation is when you run into someone you know–you can remember several details of the person and your prior interactions,–but cannot recall the person’s name. This person may assume that you know his/her name and hence may not self-introduce. You may go through an entire conversation trying to call to mind this person’s name. Simply say, “Forgive me. I remember we met at last year’s sales conference. I can remember everything about you, but, I can’t recall your name. Could you please repeat it for me?”
Introduce a Third Person
Yet another technique is to introduce a third person. Say, at an office holiday party, you fail to remember the name of a colleague. Turn to your colleague and say, “I don’t think you have met my husband, Frank.” Frank and your colleague exchange greetings: “Hi, I am Frank. Nice to meet you.” Your colleague reveals her name: “Hi, I am Isabella David.”
At any rate, avoid embarrassing yourself by using an assumed or a wrong name. Apologize and ask the person to state or confirm his/names.
***See other articles related to remembering names, personality development, networking, building relationships, people skills, interpersonal skills
Posted in Managing People, Self Development
Leave a comment
Inspirational Quotations #218
Marriage is an empty box.
It remains empty unless you put in more than you take out.
* H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
I had the ambition to not only go farther than man
had gone before, but to go as far as it was possible to go.
* James Cook
This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples;
no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;
the philosophy is kindness.
* The Dalai Lama
Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on
the condition of life in which chance has placed us,
but is always the result of good conscience, good health,
occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
* Thomas Jefferson
We can choose what we do but we cannot
choose the consequences of what we do.
* Richard G. Scott
Laughter has no foreign accent.
* Paul Lowney
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now and make a new ending.
* Carl Bard
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
* Voltaire
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
Posted in Inspirational Quotations
Leave a comment
