Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

Nagesh Belludi

Inspirational Quotations #145

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Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
—Richard Bach (American Novelist)

Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.
—Brian Tracy (American Author)

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
—Andre Gide (French Novelist)

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.
—Unknown

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it within himself.
—Galileo Galilei (Italian Astronomer)

We will not be measured by our aspirations, we will be measured by our actions.
—Lee Scott

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Black Friday and the Shopping Craze

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Today, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the first day of the holiday shopping season. The retailing industry terms this day ‘Black Friday’.

In theory, stores expect to switch from losses (accounted for in red color in financial statements) to profits (accounted for in black color.) Stores, big and small, offer hefty discounts and attractive promotions to lure shoppers. Consequently, Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

  • Stores open as early as 5:00am and publicize low-ticket items to attract shoppers. Often, stores carry limited quantities of deeply discounted items. Thus, shoppers scramble to enter the stores and fight to lay their hands on these items. See interesting news stories of shoppers fighting for bargains here, here and here.
  • Most stores offer discounts for only a few hours in the morning. For instance, today, Wal-Mart’s discounts were limited to 5a.m. to 11a.m. Shoppers transit from store to store and families split-up to reach various stores before discounts terminate.
  • Stores hope that once shoppers are tempted to start the day at their stores, they will buy less-discounted and regular merchandise. Clearly, they risk margins in an effort to boost sales numbers, one of the key metrics in the retailing industry.
  • In 2004, Wal-Mart decided to scale down on Black Friday offers in an effort to increase margins. Sales were poor; Wal-Mart stock dropped 4% the day it announced poor sales figures.
  • This year, major retailers including Wal-Mart [WMT] and Target [TGT] reported weaker-than-expected sales numbers for October. Wal-Mart announced just 0.5 percent increase in same-store sales for October; these numbers were short of the 2 to 4 percent increase that it had initially expected. Consequently, Wal-Mart announced aggressive discounts on a wide-range of goods including consumer electronics.

As I hopped from store to store hunting for bargains and gifts this morning, I ignored a few questions the investor in me had: Do Black Friday promotions pull sales from later in the shopping season? How many customers return goods they purchased on Black Friday? If a retailer fails to capitalize on the Black Friday craze, can it make up during the rest of the shopping season? Are sales numbers more important than margins?

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You don’t praise people? What are your excuses?

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“The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”
* William James

Offering praise and recognitionAll of us have an innate desire to be appreciated and valued for our contributions at work, home and elsewhere. However, we often fail to recognize the positive contributions of people around us. We neglect opportunities to talk about them in positive regard, appreciate their work and encourage them.

Why we don’t praise

Here are the typical excuses we offer for not praising people around us.

  • “They don’t need to be praised for just doing their jobs.”
  • “I have too much to do. I just don’t have time.”
  • “I don’t think people care about being praised that much.”
  • “I just don’t think about it.”
  • “I have high expectations and expect a lot from others.”
  • “Hey, it’s not my job.”
  • “My boss doesn’t praise me. Why should I praise others?”
  • “My (company or national) culture encourages modesty; so, people around me don’t expect praise.”
  • “Negative reinforcement is important. Only when my employees are criticized, will they improve.”
  • “If I praise people, they think they have made it. They will stop improving.”
  • “I find it difficult to express my feelings.” “I don’t like to praise”

Praise Matters

None of the above is a valid reason. Offering praise and recognizing people amounts to acknowledging and favorably noticing their efforts. Our recognition serves as a powerful positive motivator because it nourishes their self-esteem and makes them feel confident of their abilities. This increases the likelihood that they will continue to grow and will keep improving in their roles.

Praising and recognizing people around us are an essential skill that we need to develop to be effective around people. Look for opportunities to recognize your peers, team members, friends, family members, bosses and other people you interact with everyday. Offer sincere appreciation and make them feel valued. At the minimum, just smile and say “Thank you” more often.

Postscript Notes

  • Happy Thanksgiving to our readers in the United States. Make sure you offer praise to your hosts and / or the people who prepared for the festivities. Do not eat too much.
  • Readers not familiar with Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States can find more information here and here.
  • Thank you all for reading my thoughts on this blog; I appreciate your support.

Inspirational Quotations #144

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As a spider emits and draws in its thread, As plants arise on the earth, As the hairs of the head and body from a living person, So from The Eternal arises everything here.
—The Upanishads

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Irish-born British Playwright)

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person s a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a egetarian
—Dennis Wholey

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.—Not being able to enlarge the one, let us contract the other; for it is from their difference that all the evils arise which render us unhappy.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Swiss Philosopher)

The road to knowledge begins with the turn of the page.
—Anonymous

Doubt that the stars are fire;|Doubt that the sun doth move;|Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt love.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

If you think you can, you can.
And if you think you can’t, you’re right.
—Mary Kay Ash (American Entrepreneur)

I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn’t have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

You are Your Presentation, Your Slides Aren’t

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You, not Your Slides, are Your PresentationLast week, I attended a training seminar where the speaker stood by the side of a projection screen and behind a table where he had his laptop. He hardly moved from his position during the hour-long seminar. He was short and was barely visible from the back of the thirty-people room, as shown in the illustration. Despite his interesting content and compelling arguments, he was physically disconnected from his audience.

One of the common mistakes speakers make is that they regard their slides as the core of their presentation—they give their slides the center stage during their presentations. Sometimes they stand behind a podium or by the side of a projection screen and command very little attention from the audience.

Here are a few tips to help you engage your audience.

  • Get a handheld or a clip-on microphone and a remote control to advance your PowerPoint or Keynote slides. Walk around the room and establish a positive rapport with your audience.
  • Maintain a relaxed body language and tone, smile and engage the audience in discussions. A relaxed stance and engaging conversations quickly establish your authority over the subject matter and your credibility with the audience.
  • Maintain eye contact with all the members of your audience. Observe their body language for non-verbal feedback to your presentation content.
  • Have a friend or family member attend your presentation and request that he or she observe your non-verbal communication, viz., your appearance, enthusiasm, tone and volume, gestures, eye contact, audience engagement, pauses, and pace of delivery.

As you prepare for your next public speaking assignment or presentation, remember that your slides or handouts just augment your presentation and support your line of reasoning. You are the presentation; you should be the focus.

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Inspirational Quotations #143

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Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

It is what you do from now on that will either move our civilization forward a few tiny steps, or else… begin to march us steadily backward.
—Patrick Stewart

Write your life the way you want to. Life is a book. Each day is a day which you can’t rewrite.
—Unknown

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
—Henry Ford (American Businessperson)

Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined! As you simplify your life, the laws of the Universe will be simpler, solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
—Desiderius Erasmus (Dutch Catholic Humanist)

Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future.
—William Wordsworth (English Poet)

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done. If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
—Henry Ford (American Businessperson)

The Legacy of Peter Drucker, the Original Management Guru

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Yesterday was the first anniversary of the death of Peter Ferdinand Drucker, “the father of modern management.”

Drucker is arguably the most influential management philosopher of the modern era. He is the author of about forty books and innumerable essays on managerial skills, management concepts and social analyses. As a consultant, author and speaker for over sixty years, Drucker influenced the thinking of many executives in businesses, not-for-profits and faith-based organizations. Read his detailed biographies here, here and here.

Drucker wrote about many concepts and practices decades before the trends were discernable: knowledge workers, empowering employees, decentralization, management by objectives, focus on results instead of actions, the responsibility of the corporation in society, knowledge-based society, rise of multinational businesses, etc.

Drucker’s writings are devoid of buzzwords and management jargon and easily resonate with his readers. Today, we accept Drucker’s thoughts as conventional wisdom. Consequently, scores of business school courses require reading of his books.

My first exposure to Drucker’s thoughts was when I read his manual “The Effective Executive” during my undergraduate studies. Over the last few years, I have read and re-read many of his books and essays. Drucker’s unique style of expression and simple, clear language have left a deep impression on my pursuits, thoughts and actions. Below is one of my favorite Peter Drucker instructions. See my separate blog post on his inspirational quotations.

Successful leaders don’t start out asking, “What do I want to do?” They ask, “What needs to be done?” Then they ask, “Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?” They don’t tackle things they aren’t good at.

On a question about his legacy, Drucker once said that he has “helped a few good people be effective in doing the right things.” Just a few? Drucker’s farsighted insights and timeless thoughts will influence management thought for generations to come.

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Inspirational Quotations by Peter Drucker

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Yesterday was the first anniversary of the death of Peter Ferdinand Drucker, “the father of modern management.” Here is a selection of inspirational quotations from one of the most influential management philosophers of modern era. For more details, please see my article “The Legacy of Peter Drucker“.

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

The Twelve Most Persuasive Words in English

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“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.”
– A Rephrasing of Aristotle’s Rhetoric

The choice of words is one of the key components of persuasive communication. In marketing, advertising, grant- or project proposal writing, or in most other interactions, we attempt to influence someone’s mind about an idea or a product.

The Twelve Most Persuasive Words in EnglishBelow is a list (in order) of the twelve most persuasive words that have proven to be most influential on listeners’ or readers’ minds. Often, advertisements consist of crafty constructions of these words. Surprisingly, the word ‘free’ is absent. The Language Log website at the University of Pennsylvania has an interesting thread on the source of this list.

  1. You
  2. Money
  3. Save
  4. New
  5. Results
  6. Health
  7. Easy
  8. Safety
  9. Love
  10. Discovery
  11. Proven
  12. Guarantee

How will we use these words in our verbal and written communications? How will we incorporate these words into our everyday vocabulary?

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The Abuse of Exclamation Marks

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“My gosh!!! I was thinking about calling you the other night! It is exciting(!) to hear from you!!!!! How have you been!?!?!?! Congratulations on successfully defending your thesis!!!!!!”

The Abuse of Exclamation Marks in Written CommunicationExclamation marks are used at the end of sentences to express strong feelings of astonishment or emotion. Our generation has learned to use handfuls of emoticons, exclamation marks and question marks as substitutes for tone and body language in instant messaging and such. This communication style habitually creeps into our professional communications. Overuse of exclamation marks is a pet peeve of many professionals; some even consider exclamation marks minor annoyances.

In reality, exclamation marks are not necessary; they are usually inappropriate in professional written communication or in academic writing. Many professionals consider the excessive use of exclamation marks as signs of inexpressiveness and professional adolescence.

  • Use exclamation marks sparingly. Use only one exclamation mark, if necessary, for expressing very strong positive feelings. E.g., “Congratulations on finishing your first marathon!”
  • Do not use multiple exclamation marks to exaggerate your feelings. A single exclamation mark is sufficient.
  • Repeated use of exclamation marks is distracting to a reader. The reader cannot clearly differentiate the more exciting expressions.
  • Do not combine an exclamation mark with any other punctuation. Every sentence must end with a single punctuation—a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
  • If you are tempted to use an exclamation mark to attract a reader’s attention, try to reword the sentence. E.g., restructure “The C++ shell sort implementation had an error!” to “We found an error in the C++ shell sort implementation.” Alternately, reorganize your thoughts in an independent paragraph or bullet point.
  • Avoid inserting exclamation marks within parentheses to emphasize a specific word within a sentence. E.g., “Coastal South India is excessively(!) hot and humid during summer.”

In the absence of facial or verbal cues, written communication can easily be misinterpreted. Resist the urge to convey emotion and feelings in email or in written communications. Avoid exclamation marks.