Nagesh Belludi

Inspirational Quotations #207

February 11, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

There is nothing so powerful as the truth.
—Anonymous

When one is out of touch with oneself, one cannot touch others.
—Anonymous

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Man is never helped in his suffering by what he thinks for himself, but only by revelation of a wisdom greater than his own. It is this which lifts him out of his distress.
—Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
—English Proverb

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway (American Author)

Never let a day go by without giving at least three people a compliment.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway (American Author)

The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Men should be judged, not by their tint of skin,
the Gods they serve, the Vintage they drink,
nor by the way they fight, or love, or sin,
But by the quality of the thought they think
—Adela Florence Nicolson (English Poet)

To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education– literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.
—Alan Greenspan (American Economist)

Remembering Names at a Meeting

February 9, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Ever wonder how a waiter/waitress serving an eight-seat table at a restaurant remembers each guest’s food orders? At many restaurants, the order-sheets contain a layout of the table and a letter or number associated with every seat. As each guest orders food, the waiter/waitress writes down the order along with the letter or number associated with that guest’s seat.

At Southwest Airlines, flight attendants go to every seat, ask customers for their choice of beverage, and record the passenger’s choice on a seat-map.

Remembering Names around a Table at a Meeting

Blogger Adam Gurno presents an extension of the two practices listed above for remembering names around a table at a meeting.

Draw a quick map of the table/layout of the meeting. Place yourself on it, to give yourself a reference point.

As people introduce themselves around the table, fill them in. If you feel last names are necessary add those too, but don’t do it at the expense of writing down someone else’s name. You can guess at the last names later. If you miss one, leave it blank and fill it in as soon as you can – if someone else refers to them, etc, etc.

If everyone introduces themselves, try and jot down as much information as possible. If you think that you will run across them later, include information that will help you recognize them down the road.

Refer back to the map during the meeting when you are going to need to speak. This way you will be prepared with a person’s name.

Positive impressions are invaluable. As we discussed in a previous blog article, remembering names is an important social skill—mastering this skill can offer a distinct advantage in networking and building relationships.

General Electric’s Jack Welch Identifies Four Types of Managers

February 6, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi 5 Comments

Jack Welch's Four Types of Managers

Four Types of Managers

Jack Welch, Chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, described four categories of managers in General Electric’s year 2000 annual report.

Type 1: shares our values; makes the numbers—sky’s the limit!

Type 2: shares the values; misses the numbers—typically, another chance, or two.

Type 3: doesn’t share the values; doesn’t make the numbers—gone.

Type 4 is the toughest call of all: the manager who doesn’t share the values, but delivers the numbers. This type is the toughest to part with because organizations always want to deliver and to let someone go who gets the job done is yet another unnatural act. But we have to remove these Type 4s because they have the power, by themselves, to destroy the open, informal, trust-based culture we need to win today and tomorrow.

We made our leap forward when we began removing our Type 4 managers and making it clear to the entire company why they were asked to leave—not for the usual “personal reasons” or “to pursue other opportunities,” but for not sharing our values. Until an organization develops the courage to do this, people will never have full confidence that these soft values are truly real.

Live by Corporate Values

Organizations face the challenge of developing and sustaining a culture that is both values-centered and performance-driven. They begin by developing mission and value statements that, in due course, become little more than wall decorations because the organization’s leaders and managers fail to uphold these values.

Nothing hurts morale more than when leaders tolerate employees who deliver results, but exhibit behaviors that are incongruent to values of the company. For instance, an organization that thrives on teamwork will suffer, over the long term, if a manager habitually claims all credit for his team’s accomplishments.

Idea for Impact: Core Values Matter!

As a manager, drive accountability. Hold employees responsible for their behaviors. Reward employees for proper behaviors and publicly discourage behaviors that do not uphold values. Do not make exceptions—exceptions signify your own indifference to the upholding of values.

As an employee, understand that an essential requirement for your success in your organization is your fit. Your behaviors must be congruent with the character and needs of your organization. Even if you are talented, you will not fare well if your behaviors are inconsistent with the values of your organization. Reflect on your behavior. On a regular basis, collect feedback from your managers, peers and employees. Seek change.

Keep the company values front and center in people’s mind.

Inspirational Quotations #206

February 5, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

She didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so she went ahead and did it.
—Unknown

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
—Chinese Proverb

Kindness is a language which the blind can see and the deaf can hear.
—Anonymous

A person is only as big as the dream they dare to live.
—Unknown

The basic thing about a man is not his specific but his fundamentum.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

To enhance the quality of the day… that is the highest of the arts.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the dumb can understand.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

But though I am an old man, I am but a young gardener.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

Take Time
Take time to work … it is the price of success.
Take time to think … it is the source of power.
Take time to play, … it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, … it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, … it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, … it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love & be loved, … it is the privilege of the Gods.
Take time to look around … it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh … it is the music of the soul.
—English Prayer

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
—Harry S. Truman (American Head of State)

It is our experience that, 90% of the time, what passes for commitment is compliance.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

For every mountain, there is a miracle.
—Robert H. Schuller

Resumé Tips #4: The Hurry-Burry Résumé

February 3, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Hurriedly-Prepared Résumés are Often Inadequate

Recently, I participated in a career fair at a large university. I staffed my company’s booth and collected résumés for interviews my colleagues would conduct later this month.

In collecting résumés, I observed that a fair number of students’ résumés had lots of errors: spelling mistakes, clutter, poor organization, and so on—overall, incoherent portrayals of their credentials and achievements.

Disappointedly, I asked a few students when they had prepared their résumés for the career fair. Not surprisingly, most students responded with a “over the weekend” or “earlier this morning” answer. “Last night, I looked at the résumé I had prepared for last year’s career fair and updated it,” one student revealed.

Overcome Procrastination: Keep Your Résumé Ready

For many of us, preparing a comprehensive résumé is an overwhelming—if not the most difficult—element of the job-search process. We feel intimidated by the challenge of discussing our credentials and achievements, presenting them in a manner that will impress hiring managers—and do all this in just one page.

The result is that we often procrastinate on preparing or updating our résumés. When we need to prepare a résumé ahead of a career fair or when we discover a lead, we tend to put something together in haste and expect it to work efficiently. We do not realize that our résumés may compete with hundreds of other résumés for every job offer out there.

Update your Résumé Frequently

If you are in college, revise your résumé at the beginning of each semester. Add relevant details from the past semester: particulars of your part-time work or course projects and update details such as your GPA or aggregate scores.
If you work, update your résumé after each quarterly-performance review with your supervisor. Add relevant details from your projects and assignments from the recent past. Every year, after your annual-performance review, update your résumé thoroughly.
Review each section of your résumé critically and question yourself, “Is this section relevant? Is there anything more worthwhile that I could replace this section with?”
Review the details in each section and ask yourself, “What else could I add to this section? How could I better present this detail?”
Get your résumé critiqued. If you are at college, consult a career counselor at your college’s career centre. If you are employed, show your résumé to colleagues, mentors, or others who may represent the intended audience for your résumé. Request them to critique every detail and make sure they understand details of your achievements.

Concluding Thoughts

By updating your résumé frequently, you can reduce the anxiety of preparing an impressive résumé at short notice. With reduced stress, you can focus on preparing for the other aspects of your job-search process—researching specific companies represented at the career fair or preparing to sell yourself to interesting companies.

Source of Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Quote, ‘You Must be the Change’

January 30, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Mahatma Gandhi on Change

Today, (30-Jan-08,) is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. A few months after India secured her independence from Britain, an extremist shot Gandhi point-blank after a prayer meeting at the Birla House in Delhi. Richard Attenborough’s much-admired motion picture ‘Gandhi’ narrates this event twice: once at the start of the movie illustrating the assassin walking towards Gandhi and a second time at the end of the movie depicting Gandhi walking out from the prayer meeting and facing the assassin.

A Quote, a Fable

One of Mahatma Gandhi’s most popular quotations is, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Here is a widely believed—although unverified—story of the origin of this quotation.

During the 1930s, a young boy had become obsessed with eating sugar. His mother failed to convince him to kick the habit. She decided to take him to Gandhi. The Mahatma (Great Soul) was highly revered across the country—perhaps his instruction could convince her son to cut back on sugar.

At Gandhi’s ashram (hermitage,) the mother recounted her difficulty and requested Gandhi to direct her son. Gandhi deliberated for a minute and replied, “Please come back after a week. I will talk to your son.”

The mother and her son revisited Gandhi the following week. Gandhi smiled at the boy and directed him, “You must stop eating sugar.” The boy admitted, “Forgive me, bapu (father.) I will follow your advice.”

The mother was puzzled. She enquired, “Bapu, you could have asked my son to stop eating sugar when we visited you last week. Why did you ask us to come back this week?” Gandhi answered, “Ben (Sister,) last week, I, too, was eating a lot of sugar. … You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Effective Leaders ‘Walk the Talk’

Consider the following case. Ian joined a financial services company and assumed leadership of a group of analysts. In his first staff meeting, he declared, “Our people are our greatest asset.” He asserted that his primary objective as the manager of the organization was to keep them engaged, motivated and happy.

When one of Ian’s employees returned to work after a three-month maternity leave (she had had her first child,) Ian never enquired her about her child or her experiences. Becoming a mother was the most significant event of her life to date. The day she returned to work, Ian assigned her critical projects and demanded her full attention to these projects. Clearly, Ian’s behavior was incongruent with his stated mission of appreciating his people.

As the above example illustrates, frequently, leaders announce personal and organizational values and goals but fail to act on their words—their behaviors do not match their stated missions. Defining values and goals is often rather easy—conforming and getting others to conform to these initiatives is challenging. Leaders quickly lose their credibility by failing to ‘walk the talk.’

Call for Action

Audit yourself. At home or work, write down your objectives. Reflect on your actions. Analyze your behaviors. Do your actions uphold your objectives? Gather feedback from your people. Ask what you can do to achieve your objectives. Ask how you can walk your talk.

Inspirational Quotations #205

January 28, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative, And don’t mess with mister-in-between.
—Unknown

It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside.
—Unknown

It is Good to know; it is better to do; it is best to be. To be pure and strong, to be honest and earnest, to be kindly and thoughtful, and in all to be true, to be manly and womanly and Christly—this is the greatest ambition in life. It is not in knowing or having or doing, but through knowing and having and doing the best, it is in being, in what a man is in himself. He can do more for others who has done most with himself. Mastery of circumstances comes only through mastery of self.
—Samuel Dickey Gordon

Failure accepts no alibis. Success requires no explanation.
—Unknown

Two stonecutters were asked what they were doing.|The first said, I’m cutting this stone into blocks”.|The second replied, “I’m on a team that’s building a catherdral”.”
—Anonymous

There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy.—He that rises late must trot all day, and hall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Political leader)

There are no unimportant jobs, no unimportant people, no unimportant acts of kindness.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

I have come one step away from everything. And here I stay, far from everything, one step away.
—Antonio Porchia (Italian Poet)

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
—Buddhist Teaching

Inspirational Quotations #204

January 22, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

In some measure all that comes after you is going to be influenced and determined by the kind of life you make in your business of living. When viewed from such a height of vision, even the seemingly least important life gathers round it a glory which truly passes understanding.
—Unknown

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American First Lady)

A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man.
—Sinclair Lewis

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Silence is ever-speaking; it is a perennial flow of language; it is interrupted by (human) speaking. These words obstruct that mute language.
—Ramana Maharshi (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.
—W. Edwards Deming

Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best.
—Robert Browning (English Poet)

If your dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.
—Don Ward

If you’re not using your smile, you’re like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.
—Les Giblin

All you’ll get from strangers is surface pleasantry or indifference. Only someone who loves you will criticize you.
—Judith Crist

Use Active Voice for Persuasive Communication

January 21, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

Passive Voice Tends to be Indirect and Difficult

Consider the following messages.

In an email to a supplier, my engineer declared, “It was determined to use cast-iron instead of aluminum for this component.”
In a thank-you card, my colleague acknowledged, “Your thoughtfulness and assistance are greatly appreciated.”
In a facsimile cover letter, my attorney confirmed, “A copy of this letter will be sent to you by post.”

These sentences are in passive voice. Each sentence, although grammatically correct, seems impersonal and is rather obscure about responsibility of the respective actions or feelings conveyed.

In general, sentences in passive voice tend to be long-winded and indirect in expression.

Structures of Active and Passive Sentences

Sentences in active voice have the owner-verb-recipient structure. Here is an example: “Our assistant lost your project report.”

Sentences in the passive voice have the recipient-verb-owner structure. Sometimes, the owner is absent, leading to recipient-verb structures. Here are examples: “Your project report was lost by our assistant,” or just, “your project report was lost.”

‘Grammar Girl’ Promotes Active Voice

Grammar Girl, a popular blog for better written-communication skills, advocates active voice over passive voice.

Passive sentences aren’t incorrect; it’s just that they often aren’t the best way to phrase your thoughts. Sometimes passive voice is awkward and other times it’s vague.

When you put sentences in passive voice, it’s easy to leave out the agent doing the action. For example, “Amy is loved” is passive. The problem with that sentence is that you don’t know who loves Amy. In fact, politicians often use passive voice to intentionally obscure the idea of who is taking the action.

So, these are some of the reasons to avoid passive voice: the form can lead to awkward sentences and obscured meaning. Also, passive voice is wordy. You can tighten up your writing a lot if you use active voice more often than passive.

Active Voice is Ideal

Active voice is direct, simple and shorter in structure. Therefore, communications in active voice convey clarity of thought and hence are easier to understand.

Here are enhancements to the three examples in the first section of this article.

In his email to a supplier, the engineer could declare, “We determined to use cast iron instead of aluminum for this component.”
In her thank-you card, the colleague could acknowledge, “I appreciate your thoughtfulness and assistance.”
In her facsimile cover sheet, the attorney could confirm, “I will send you a copy of this letter by post.”

Concluding Thoughts

In our professional and personal lives, how we convey a message is just as important as the message itself. Communication is effective only when a speaker or writer and his/her audience can connect and understand the message alike. Consequently, clarity and ease-of-comprehension are two of the most important requisites to effective communication. Active voice can facilitate effective communication.

Inspirational Quotations #203

January 14, 2008 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
—Frank Tibolt

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (Roman Poet)

The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austrian Philosopher)

When you can’t change the direction of the wind—adjust your sails.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

Our noisy years seem moments in the being of the eternal silence.
—William Wordsworth (English Poet)

Skills are not copyright – they are transferable.
—Unknown

Better Management. Don’t manage stress or nuisances—get rid of them.
—Unknown

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Nagesh Belludi

Wondering what to read next?

Four Types of Managers

Live by Corporate Values

Idea for Impact: Core Values Matter!

Wondering what to read next?

Hurriedly-Prepared Résumés are Often Inadequate

Overcome Procrastination: Keep Your Résumé Ready

Update your Résumé Frequently

Concluding Thoughts

Wondering what to read next?

A Quote, a Fable

Effective Leaders ‘Walk the Talk’

Call for Action

Wondering what to read next?

Passive Voice Tends to be Indirect and Difficult

Structures of Active and Passive Sentences

‘Grammar Girl’ Promotes Active Voice

Active Voice is Ideal

Concluding Thoughts

Wondering what to read next?